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Anderson, 



MOSES— Michel Angelo 



THE TEMPLE 
DICTIONARY of the BIBLE 

WRITTEN fcf EDITED BY 

REV. W. EWING, M.A. 

FORMERLY OF TIBERIAS, PALESTINE, AND 

REV. J. E. H.THOMSON, D.D. 

FORMERLY OF SAFED, PALESTINE, AND 
OTHER SCHOLARS & DIVINES 




WITH FIVE HUNDRED 
ILLUSTRATIONS 



I9IO 

LONDON: J. M. DENT &P SONS, LTD, 
NEW YORK : E. P. DUTTON & CO. 



k: 






Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. 
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh. 



To 

THE REVEREND 

PRINCIPAL THOMAS M. LINDSAY, D.D., LL.D. 

UNITED FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW 
AND 

JAMES DUNCAN MACLAREN, ESQ., M.D. 

DUNREGGAN, ELIE, FIFE 



J-57? 



l¥ 



PREFACE 



Recent years have witnessed great activity in various fields of research, the results of which are 
of high importance for students of the Bible. The records of antiquity discovered in Egypt and 
the Euphrates valley, with which Palestine stood in such close relations, have been carefully examined 
by expert scholars. Much light has thus been cast upon the history of these far-off days, and upon the 
condition of the world in patriarchal times. The Palestine Exploration Fund and kindred societies 
have carried forward the work of exploration and excavation in Palestine itself. Adventurous scholars 
have risked the perils of travel and research in Arabia. Sir W. M. Ramsay has earned the grati- 
tude of Christendom by, practically single-handed, lifting the veil which for centuries had obscured 
the Asia Minor of apostolic days. A great mass of information has thus become available for the use 
of Bible Students, bearing upon the Peoples, the social and religious Life, &c, in Palestine and the 
neighbouring countries, from pre- Israelite times to the days of the apostles. 

At the same time the attention of scholars has been concentrated upon the Literature of Scripture, 
with a view to determine such questions as the Date, Authorship, and Mode of Composition of the 
various books. Vital interest has been revived in many of the writings, especially in the Old Testa- 
ment, by a fuller knowledge of their relations to and significance for the age in which their authors 
lived. The Editors of this Dictionary acknowledge the value of the service rendered to the cause 
of Sacred Learning all the more willingly because they are unable to accept many of the so-called 
" results " of Higher Criticism. This applies particularly to the detailed and minute analysis of the 
different books. Here, indeed, the Critics are hopelessly at variance among themselves. This is not 
surprising when it is remembered that the " results " so often rest on no more stable ground than 
questionable assumption and conjecture : these, again, being conditioned by the mental idiosyncrasies 
of individual Critics. The wise words of the late Mr. W. E. H. Lecky may be quoted as expressing 
the judgment of an enlightened and impartial mind : — 

" Connected with this subject [credibility of statements] is also the question how far it is possible, 
by merely internal evidence, to decompose an ancient document, resolving it into its separate 
elements, distinguishing its different dates and different degrees of credibility. The reader is no 
doubt aware with what rare skill this method of inquiry has been pursued in the present [nine- 
teenth] century, chiefly by great German and Dutch scholars, in dealing with the early Jewish 
writings. At the same time, without disputing the value of their work, or the importance of many of 
the results at which they have arrived, I may be pardoned for expressing my belief that this kind of 
investigation is often pursued with an exaggerated confidence. Plausible conjecture is too frequently 
mistaken for positive proof. Undue significance is attached to what may be mere casual coincidences, 
and a minuteness of accuracy is professed in discriminating between different elements in a nar- 
rative which cannot be attained by mere internal evidence. In all writings, but especially in the 
writings of an age when criticism was unknown, there will be repetitions, contradictions, incon- 
sistencies and diversities of style, which do not necessarily indicate different authorship or dates " 
{Historical and Political Essays, Thoughts on History, p. 8). 

Excellent work has been done in the larger Dictionaries of the Bible recently published, in the 
way of focussing the information now available. These are written, however, from a more advanced 
Critical point of view than the Editors of this Dictionary are able to adopt. Their size and 
price, also, put them beyond the reach of many who are keenly alive to the necessity for competent 
ind trustworthy guidance in their study of the Scriptures. The Editors therefore believe that 
iere is a place for a Dictionary of the Bible which, leaving aside all that is merely theoretical 
and speculative, shall present simply and clearly the state of ascertained knowledge on the subjects 
dealt with, at a price which shall bring the latest results of scholarly investigation within the reach 
of every earnest student of the Bible. 

The Editors have kept steadily in view the needs of the Working Clergyman, the Local Preacher, 
the Class -Leader, and the Sunday School Teacher; while not forgetting the ordinary Reader of the 

vii 



PREFACE 



Bible. They have drawn, wherever possible, on their own personal acquaintance with the Lands of 
the Bible, the Peoples, their Manners and Customs, and the Conditions of their Life. Many articles of 
special importance have been entrusted to scholars whose distinction in their own subjects commands 
universal respect. The writers are responsible for the views which they express. 

The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Truro had undertaken to write the article on the English 
Bible. Unfortunately he was prevented by illness from doing this ; and at very short notice Mr. 
Maclean Watt of Alloa kindly wrote the article. 

The Dictionary deals with Biblical Antiquities, Biography, History, Literature, Manners and 
Customs, Natural History, Geography, and Topography. 

Repetition has been avoided by a careful arrangement of cross-references. Space has also been 
saved by a system of easily understood contractions, thus making possible a fuller treatment of the more 
important subjects. 

The numerous Illustrations, it is hoped, will prove not only attractive but highly useful. Some, 
e.g., show at a glance objects of interest, ancient methods of work, &c. ; others enable the reader to 
realise more vividly the Background and Atmosphere of the Bible History. 

The Editors and Publishers are deeply indebted to Dr. Mackinnon of Damascus, Dr. Paterson 
of Hebron, Dr. R. J. Drummond of Edinburgh, Mrs. Gibson, D.D., LL.D., of Cambridge, and 
Arthur W. Sutton, Esq., J.P., Bucklebury Place, Woolhampton, Berks, for many photographs used as 
illustrations ; to Oliphant Smeaton, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Edinburgh, for valued counsel and assistance, 
especially in the reading of proofs ; and to John Hutchison, Esq., LL.D., Glasgow, for help with 
articles in the Apocrypha. They have to thank Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. for permission to 
use the following illustrations from Wood's Bible Animals, in addition to those acknowledged in the 
text, viz. : Fallow deer, p. 198 ; Gerizim, p. 221 ; Glede, p. 226 ; Goat, p. 227 ; Hawk, p. 251 ; Heron, 
p. 262. 

They have also to thank the Palestine Exploration Fund for the following illustrations, besides 
those acknowledged in the text, viz. : Carmel in Judaea, p. 81 ; Kerak, p. 370; Lydda, Church of 
St. George, p. 403; Michmash, p. 464. 



Edinburgh, December 1909. 



N.B. — The initial appearing in the body of an article stands for the subject at the head. 

In Scripture references the figures on the line denote the chapters, the small superior figures 

the verses : thus Jn. 3. 16 stands for John, chap. 3, verse 16. 
In the titles of books, the small superior figure indicates the edition. 



vm 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface vii 

Table of Contractions and Transliteration ......... xi 

Writers of Articles xiii 

The Study of the Bible, by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ripon .... xv 
Special Articles — 

The English Bible, and its Influence on English Literature .... xx 

Apocrypha of the New Testament xxviii 

Apocalyptic Literature xxix 

The Targums ..... ........ . xxxviii 

Versions of the Scriptures - xli 

Philo JudjEus .......... xlv 

Josephus, Flavius ............... xlviii 

The Language of Palestine during the Time of Our Lord . li 

Dictionary, Canonical Section ............ I 

Apocrypha of the Old Testament, Introductory Article ...... 937 

Dictionary of the Apocrypha 942 

Corrigenda et Addenda 1012 

MAPS 

1. The Distribution of the Nations according to Genesis . .... 1014 

2. Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula 1016 

3. Canaan, Showing Approximately the Portions Allotted to the Twelve Tribes . 1018 

4. The Babylonian and Assyrian Empires .......... 1020 

5. Palestine in the Time of Christ ........... 1021 

6. Jerusalem, Ancient and Modern ........... 1023 

7. The Travels of St. Paul ............ 1025 

8. Physical Map of Modern Palestine 1027 



ix a 2 




The Mosque of Omar: Jerusalem 



CONTRACTIONS 



accdg. 


=according, -ly. 


h. 


= husband. 


P. 


= Priestly Narrative. 


act. 


= account. 


HA. 


= Benzinger's Hebrdische 


Pal. 


= Palestine. 


AE. 


= Wilkinson's Ancient Egyp- 




Archdologie. 


PEFM. = Palestine Exploration Fund, 




tians. 


HDB. 


— Hastings' Dictionary of 




Memoirs. 


agst. 


= against. 




the Bible. 


PEFQ 


. = Palestine Exploration Fund, 


Alx. 


= Alexandrian. 


Heb. 


= Hebrew. 




Quarterly Statement. 


anct. 


= ancient. 


hist. 


= history. 


Phil. 


=Philistine, -s. 


Ant. 


= Josephus, Antiquities of the 


HGHL. 


= Smith's Hist. Geog. of the 


Pnt. 


= Pentateuch. 




Jews. 




Holy Land. 


poss. 


= possible, possibly. 


Ape. 


=■ Apocalypse. 


HJP. 


= Schurer's Hist, of the 


prob. 


= probable, probably. 


A per. 


= Apocrypha. 




Jewish People in the 


prop. 


= proper, -ly. 


Aq. 


= Aquila. 




Time of Christ. 


Psh. 


= Peshitta. 


AV. 


= Authorised Version. 


Hx. 


= Hexateuch. 


R. 


= Redactor. 


AVm. 


= ,, >. margin. 


IBD. 


= Murray's Illustrated Bible 


rdg. 


= reading. 


Aram. 


= Aramaic. 




Dictionary. 


refce. 


= reference. 


Arb. 


=Arab, Arabic. 


ident. 


^identify, identified. 


relg. 


= religion. 


Asyr. 


= Assyria, Assyrian. 


inscr. 


inscription. 


Rm. 


= Rome, Roman. 


Bab. 


= Babylon, Babylonia. 


Isr. 


= Israel, Israelite. 


PS. 


= Robertson Smith's Religion 


BJ. 


= Josephus' Wars of the Jews. 


J- 


= Jehovist. 




of the Semites. 


bldg. 


= building. 


J". 


= Jehovah. 


RV. 


= Revised Version. 


bk. 


=book. 


Jos. 


=Jcsephus. 


RVm. 


= >, ,, margin. 


br. 


= brother. 


Jrs. 


—Jerusalem. 


S. 


= South. 


BRP. 


= Robinson's Biblical Re- 


Jw. En. 


= Jewish Encyclopaedia. 


Sam. 


= Samaritan. 




searches in Palestine. 


k. 


= king. 


SDB. 


= Smith's Dictionary of the 


cd. 


= could. 


KB. 


=Guthe's Kurzes Bibel- 




Bible. 


c. 


—circa. 




worterbuch. 


shd. 


^should. 


Can. 


= Canaan, Canaanites. 


kdm. 


=kingdom. 


s. 


=son. 


cert. 


= certain, -ly. 


kge. 


=knowledge. 


spt. 


=spirit, spiritual, -ly. 


char. 


= character, -istic. 


KIB. 


= Keilinschriftliche Biblio- 


sr. 


= sister. 


corrsp 


^correspond, -ing, -ly. 




thek. 


SSG. 


= Sanday's Sacred Sites of the 


Com. 


= Commentary. 


lang. 


slanguage. 




Gospels, 


Comir 


. = Commentaries. 


Lat. 


= Latin. 


subj. 


^subject. 


COT. 


= Shrader's Cuneiform In- 


LB. 


= Thomson's Land and the 


sugg. 


= suggest, -ion. 




scrips. and OT. 




Book. 


Sym. 


= Symmachus. 


cp. 


= compare. 


lit. 


= literal, -ly. 


Svr. 


= Syria, Syriac, Syrian. 


D. 


= Deuteronomist. 


Lit. 


= Literature. 


Tg. 


= Tar gum. 


DCG. 


= Hastings' Dictionary of 


LOT. 


= Driver's Introduction to 


Tg. Cc 


.=Tg. Caecus. 




Christ and the Gospels. 




the Lit. of the OT. 


Tg.Jn. 


= Tg. Jonathan. 


desc. 


^descendant. 


LTJ. 


-— Edersheim's Life and 


Tg.Jrs 


= Tg. Jerusalem. 


difft. 


= different. 




Times of Jesus the 


Tg.O. 


— Tg. Onkelos. 


diffc. 


= difference. 




Messiah, 1900. 


Tg.PJ 


= Tg. pseudo-Jonathan. 


dr. 


= daughter. 


LXX 


=Septuagint. 


Thd. 


=Theodotion. 


dyn. 


= dynasty. 


mod. 


= modern. 


Tim. 


= Talmud. 


E. 


= East (direction). 


mr. 


= mother. 


TR. 


=Textus Receptus. 


E. 


= Elohist. 


MS., MSS. = Manuscript, -s. 


tr. 


= translate, translation. 


EB. 


= Encyclop. Biblica. 


mt. 


= might. 


trlt. 


= transliterate. 


Egp. 


= Egypt. 


MT. 


= Massoretic Text. 


usl. 


= usual, -ly. 


Epp. 


= Epistles. 


N. 


=:Ncrth. 


vill. 


= village. 


esp. 


^especially. 


n. 


= note. 


Vlg. 


— Vulgate. 


Eth. 


= Ethiopic. 


nar. 


= narrative. 


vv 


= Versions 


EV. 


=AV. and RV. 


nat. 


= nature, natural, -ly. 


w. 


= West. 


f. 


= following. 


NHA. 


= Nowack's Hebrdische 


w. 


= wife. 


fig- 


= figure, figurative, -ly. 




Archdologie. 


wd. 


— would. 


fr. 


= father. 


NT. 


= New Testament. 


wh. 


= which. 


gen. 


= general, -ly. 


obj. 


= object, -ion. 


WH. 


= Westcott and Hort's Greek 


Ges. 


= Gesenius. 


OEJ. 


— Onomasticon of Eusebius 




Text of NT. 


Gr. 


= Greek. 




and Jerome. 


Yr. 


=year. 


H. 


— Law of Holiness. 


OT, 


=01d Testament. 







CANONICAL BOOKS 



Gn, = Genesis. 

Ex. = Exodus. 

Lv. = Leviticus. 

Nu. = Numbers. 

Dt. = Deuteronomy. 

Jo. = Joshua. 

Jg. = Judges. 

Ru. =Ruth. 

i S., 2 S. =ist and 2nd Samuel. 

1 K., 2 K. = 1st and 2nd Kings. 

1 ' > =ist and 2nd Chronicles. 

2 Ch. ) 

Ez. =Ezra. 

Ne. = Nehemiah. 

Est. = Esther. 

Jb. =Job. 

Ps. = Psalms. 

Pr. = Proverbs. 

Ec. =Ecclesiastes. 

SS. =Song of Solomon, 

Is. = Isaiah. 



Jr. =Jeremiah„ 

L. = Lamentations. 

Ek. = Ezekiel. 

Dn. = Daniel. 

Ho. =Hosea. 

Jl. =Joel. 

Am. =Amos. 

O. =Obadiah. 

Jh. = Jonah. 

Mi. =Micah. 

Na. =Nahum. 

Hb. =Habakkuk. 

Zp. =Zephaniah. 

Hg. = Haggai. 

Zc. = Zechariah. 

Ml. =Malachi. 

Mw. = Matthew. 

Mk. =Mark. 

Lk. = Luke. 

Jn. =John. 

Ac. =Acts of the Apostles. 



Rm. 

1 Cor. ) 

2 Cor. ) 
Gal. 
Eph. 
Php. 
Col. 

1 Th. ) 

2Th. J 

1 Tm. ) 

2 Tm. ) 
Tt. 
Phm. 
He. 

Js- 

1 P., 2 

I, 2, & 

3 Jn. 
Ju. 

Rv. 



Romans. 

1st and 2nd Corinthians. 

:Galatians. 
= Ephesians. 
= Philippians. 
= Colossians. 

= 1 st and 2nd Thessalonians 

= ist and 2nd Timothy. 

= Titus. 

= Philemon. 

= Hebrews. 

= James. ' 

= ist and 2nd Peter. 

= ist, 2nd, and 3rd John. 

= Jude. 

= Revelation. 



APOCRYPHA 



1 & 2 Es. 


= ist and 2nd Esdras. 


Sr. 


= Ecclesiasticus, or Sirach. 


Bel. 




Est. Ad. 


= Additions to Esther. 


Ba. 


= Baruch. 


Mn. 




Jih. 


= Judith. 


ST. 


= Song of the three Children. 


iM. 


,2M 


Ws. 


= Wisdom. 


Su. 


= Susanna. 


3 M. 


, 4 M 


To. 


='Tobit. 











:Bel and the Dragon. 
= Prayer of Manasses. 
:ist, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 
Maccabees. 



APOCALYPTIC 



En. = Enoch. 

Ape. Bar. = Apocalypse of Baruch. 

Ps. Sol. = Psalter of Solomon. 



Assn. M. =Assumption of Moses. 
Bk. Ju. = Book of Jubilees. 
Asc. Is. = Ascension of Isaiah. 



XII. P. = Testaments of the Twelve 

Patriarchs. 
Sib. Or. = Sibylline Oracles. 



TRANSLITERATION 





HEBREW 








ARABIC 




K = ' 


B = t 


B = p 


\ =.' 


=a 


u*-* 


iJ = k 


3 = b 


* = i )7 


V = tz 


<_> = b 


j =dh 


t =t 


J- 1 


3 = g 
n = d 


!> = 1 


P = q 

"l = r 


^ = th 


J = r 


U =z 

£ 




1 = u, w 


: = n 


&J> = sh 


c =i 


L^ = S 


^=g h 


a =H 


t = z 

n-h 


D = s 


n = t 


=h 




l_j = f 


, = u, w 



Xll 



WRITERS OF ARTICLES 

The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ripon. 

Rev. P. Henderson Aitken, D.Litt., Bridge of Weir. 

Rev. S. Angus, M.A., Ph.D., Lecturer on Hellenistic Greek in Hartford Theological Seminary, U.S.A. 

Rev. G. H. Box, M.A., late Hebrew Master at Merchant Taylor's School, London, Sutton Rectory, 

Sandy, Beds. 
Rev. W. F. Boyd, B.D., D.Phil., Methlick. 
Rev. Wm. M. Christie, Aleppo, Syria. 
Miss J. M. M. Cunningham, London. 
Rev. Professor G. H. Dalman, Ph.D., of Leipzig University, Director of the German Archaeological 

Institute, Jerusalem. 
Rev. John Davidson, M.A., Dunipace. 
Rev. Wm. Fairweather, D.D., Kirkcaldy. 
Rev. A. F. Findlay, M.A., Arbroath. 
Mrs. Margaret D. Gibson, D.D., LL.D., Cambridge. 
John Hutchison, Esq., LL.D., Glasgow. 
Rev. Principal Iverach, D.D., Aberdeen. 

Robert A. Lundie, Esq., M.A., B.Sc, M.B., CM., F.R.C.S., Edinburgh. 
Rev. Professor H. R. Mackintosh, D.Phil., D.D., Edinburgh. 
Rev. D. S. Margoliouth, M.A., D.Litt., Fellow of New College, Laudian Professor of Arabic in 

the University of Oxford. 
Rev. N. R. Mitchell, B.A., Whitsome. 
Rev. W. Morgan, M.A., Tarbolton. 
Rev. John M'Gilchrist, B.D., Skelmorlie. 

Rev. Thomas Nicol, D.D., Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of Aberdeen. 
Rev. Professor James Orr, D.D., Glasgow. 
Rev. Professor J. A. Paterson, D.D., Edinburgh. 
Rev. R. G. Philip, M.A., Glencairn. 
Rev. S. M. Riddick, M.A., Grangemouth. 
Rev. James Robertson, D.D., LL.D., Emeritus Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of 

Glasgow. 
Rev. Donald Ross, London. 
Rev. A. H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D., D.Litt., Fellow of Queen's College, Professor of Assyriology in 

the University of Oxford. 
Rev. Professor C. Anderson Scott, M.A., Cambridge. 
Rev. Professor Ernest F. Scott, B.A., D.D., Kingston University, Canada. 
Rev. John W. Slater, B.D., Scone. 
Oliphant Smeaton, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Edinburgh. 
Rev. Professor James Stalker, D.D., Aberdeen. 

Rev. G. W. Thatcher, M.A., B.D., Warden of Camden College, Sydney. 
Marcus Tod, Esq., M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 
Rev. George P. Wallace, B.D., Roberton. 
Rev. L. Maclean Watt, B.D., Alloa. 
Professor R. M. Wenley, D.Sc, the University of Michigan, U.S.A. 

xiii 



THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE 



BY 



THE RIGHT REVEREND THE LORD BISHOP OF RIPON 



The Bible is the book which for generations has 
inspired the religious life of the English-speaking 
people. It has exercised a wide and deep influence 
upon national thought, life, and character. This in 
itself is a historical fact all the more remarkable now 
that we have begun to understand better the nature 
of the Bible. It is no unfair reflection upon our 
forefathers, who drew mental and moral vigour as 
well as spiritual consolation from the Bible, to say 
that their understanding of the Bible was often 
crude and inexact : happily the ethical power of the 
Bible is not lost, even when certain passages and 
portions are not wholly understood. Indeed the 
very misunderstandings serve to throw into clearer 
light the wonderful influence of the Bible upon our 
country's history. For here is one striking aspect of 
this influence : the Bible is a collection of writings 
which represent the literature of the Hebrew 
people. The literature of the Jews — a small 
people, whose historical importance was never 
very great when compared with the world-ruling 
monarchies, and whose political history closed two 
thousand years ago — has become the moral guide of 
a great people of the West, and has become to them 
a very real message of God, inspiring their courage 
and largely shaping their destiny. 

There must be some special qualities in this 
literature to produce so remarkable a result ; for 
be it remembered that it is not as literature that 
the Bible was read by our forefathers. It was read 
much more for its ethical force and spiritual outlook 
than for its literary qualities. It would perhaps be 
true to say that two or three generations ago the 
idea of the Bible as literature would have been re- 
garded as almost irreverent. Some scholars might 
have tolerated such a description, but popularly it 
would have been resented, if not condemned. And 
yet, as a simple fact, the Bible is a collection of the 
literature of the Hebrew people, and in this fact 
there lies deep and real significance. 

For let us for a moment consider the growth of 
what we call modern civilisation : this growth has 
been largely aided by the influence of the great 
peoples of the past. Greece and Rome have con- 
tributed their share to those thoughts and ideas 
which, having found acceptance in the experience 



of the past, have passed into the great treasure- 
house of Western civilisation. In one sense the 
sceptre has never departed from Greece or from 
Rome. In the realm of thought and art Greece 
still rules, and the sovereignty of Rome still finds 
expression in the laws of European nations. But 
Greece and Rome exercised their influence to a 
great extent by reason of their power of conquest. 
Their genius was allied with military power : their 
literature gained opportunities of circulation as the 
power of the sword brought new territories beneath 
their sway. But Jewish literature owed nothing 
to the sword : Israel never had an Alexander or a 
Caesar, and yet the literature of the Hebrew has 
spread far beyond that of Greece or Rome, and has 
entered into the life of Western peoples after a 
fashion which Greek and Roman literature have 
never done. Further, Greek and Roman literatures 
have made their way, if I may use the expression, 
piecemeal into Western life : Europe has known the 
poems of Homer and Virgil and Horace, the plays of 
Sophocles and iEschylus and Terence separately ; 
but Europe has accepted in the Bible a complete 
collection of Hebrew literature — it has not known 
Job and Isaiah, Daniel and the Apocalypse, Ruth 
and the Gospels separately, but just the Bible, from 
Genesis to Revelation, as one book. There must 
have been some singular and appropriate quality 
in this Hebrew literature to bring about so remark- 
able a result. This quality I believe to be its very 
clear and distinctive religious quality. The Bible 
is religious in a way in which the greatest works of 
Greece and Rome cannot be said to be religious ; 
the Bible is literature, but it is literature impreg- 
nated with a religious spirit which can find no 
counterpart in the literature of any other race. 

To say this is not to undervalue what other races 
have done for the advancement of the world. We 
owe philosophical insight to Greece ; law and prac- 
tical statesmanship to Rome ; but in the Bible we 
have the literature of a people who surpassed all 
other people in religious sensibility and insight. 
Religious consciousness is to be found among all 
races, but if we want to find the high-water-mark of 
the religious consciousness of mankind, we must find 
it in this literature of the Hebrew people. Here 



xv 



THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE 



the spiritual nature of man speaks in its clearest transports us into that happy atmosphere which 
and most harmonious tones. We may make a com- prevailed before heated disputes about matters of 
parison to illustrate our meaning. Let a man dwell formal belief and external organisation had trans- 
among the best creations of Greek art, let him drink formed personal trust into mere unethical cor- 
in its spirit, and he will find that by degrees he has rectness of opinion. In reading the books of the 
created in himself such a standard of taste that New Testament we are raised to higher levels ; 
he can no longer admire, still less take pleasure in, many of the popular and bitter disputes lose their 
the products of a barbarian art. In the same way meaning and value. On the Mount of Trans- 
those who have been nourished in the religious figuration the great leaders vanish, we see no man 
writings of the Jewish people realise how far they save Jesus only, and we know that if any man have 
transcend in spiritual and moral elevation the re- not the spirit of Christ he is none of His. 
ligious conceptions of other races. Naturally here To return — the Bible is a literature : it would 
we are thinking of the loftiest heights which Jewish not be true to say that the understanding of the 
religious literature has reached : there are levels spiritual value of the Bible depends upon our ap- 
higher and lower in this literature as in all others, preciation of its literature, but it certainly is true 
but when we walk with Hebrew prophets and that the spiritually-minded man who can under- 
teachers on ^heir own mountain ranges, we know stand its literary form will enter more completely 
that we breathe with them an atmosphere of into its spiritual teaching. The opportunity of 
heaven which, except in Christian literature, is clearly understanding the literary form of the 
never found. various books of the Bible is within the reach of 

In writing thus we are for the moment leaving all Bible students ; the critical study of the Bible 
aside some of the difficulties which meet the Bible carried on in such a destructive spirit has given 
student. There are difficulties — historical, literary, place to a rigorous and reverent study, free alike 
and ethical — which such a student must be pre- from crass credulity and from eager scepticism : the 
pared to encounter, but even as these are recognised desire to understand what the books of the Bible 
and met, it ought never to be forgotten that it is really stand for has superseded all irreligious and 
to the Jewish literature embodied in the Bible that superstitious passions. Consequently the wish to 
the advancing world has owed a religious quickening exhibit the books of the Bible in their true literary 
and invigoration which has profoundly influenced form has become more general ; in other words, it 
its history and development. is recognised that the Bible contains a literature, 

Hitherto we have dealt with the Bible as a whole ; and that it is part of the duty of the commen- 
but we must remember that the Bible consists of tator to make clear what is the literary character 
two great divisions — the Old and the New Tes- of any special book or passage, 
tament. To the simple and devout student of The first obvious distinction which needs to be 
past generations this division between the Old and made clear is the distinction between prose and 
New Testament was of little importance : the two poetry. The utterances of the Bible writer or 
helped one another ; one showed prediction, the speaker need to be classed : is it poetry or prose 
other fulfilment. Many problems and questions, that we are reading ? Professor Moulton, in his 
however, have arisen in more recent times, and most useful work, The Modern Reader's Bible, has 
in their discussion old views of the relationship endeavoured to exhibit the books of the Bible in 
between the various parts of the Bible have been such a way that the reader may at once understand 
modified, but the devout reader of olden days was the literary form of what he is reading. He shows 
not wholly wrong : the New Testament is fulfil- that often, for instance, in the prophets, the sacred 
ment in a great and noble sense of the anticipa- seer will fall into lyric or dramatic utterance : 
tions, hopes, yearnings, prophecies, which breathe suddenly the speaker changes — it is no longer the 
through the books of the Old Testament. This prophet speaking in his own character, it is the 
we may frankly recognise ; but we must also prophet making himself the mouthpiece of others — 
remember that there is a sense in which the sometimes, perhaps, of Israel, sometimes of God 
New Testament forms a special collection of Himself. These changes in the character of the 
literature : it is the literature of the dawn of speaker need to be noticed, or the reader will fail 
Christianity ; it gives us the story of the origins to grasp some of the most beautiful and pathetic 
of the greatest religious movement which the turns of speech. Let the reader take the last 
world has ever seen. Herein lies its value in the chapter of Hosea, let him read it as Professor 
discussion of questions which have for so long held a Moulton has printed it, and he will hear the 
position of exaggerated importance in the minds of pleadings of Divine love and the penitent responses 
those who look upon religion from without ; for the of the restored and reconciled Israel : we are not 
New Testament gives us the history and judgment listening to a passage which baulks our under- 
of the Christian Church of Apostolic times, and standing by an unintelligible change in form of 

xvi 






THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE 



utterance, but we are present at a scene in a 
wonderful spiritual drama. This would be lost 
sight of to one who had no appreciation of the 
literary form adopted by the prophet. 

The moment we begin to realise the presence of 
a true literary form we adjust our minds to its ap- 
preciation ; we measure the passage according to a 
true standard. It is not too much to say that many 
of the crassly erroneous views which have obtained 
currency among Christian people are due to the 
ignorance of literary form — or rather, perhaps, to 
the inability to measure the significance of the pas- 
sage in consequence of such ignorance. Poetry 
and poetical forms of speech are common among 
Oriental people ; truth was uttered in various 
forms, of which the allegorical and poetical were 
frequent ; indeed it belonged to the spirit of 
emphasis to use imagery in stating truth ; the 
imagery would seize the mind of the hearer, would 
be remembered, and the wide application of the 
truth would be discerned through experience. 
The Jewish writers loved allegorical forms of this 
kind. Witness the way in which the dreams of 
the chief butler and chief baker are interpreted by 
Joseph : as we read the story we are in the pre- 
sence of the Easterns ; parables are told and their 
meaning is unfolded. Had this allegorical and 
poetical spirit been better understood we should 
have avoided many of those fierce controversies 
which have troubled Christendom, and which so 
frequently arose because Western minds took literally 
what was spoken poetically. The Western com- 
mentator turned poetry into prose, and so developed 
a heresy. 

But, besides realising the literary form, we need 
to remember that the Bible is a growth : that is, 
the books of the Bible belong to different and far- 
sundered epochs ; they reflect, therefore, the ideas 
and customs of varying periods. The political 
conceptions of the reign of Solomon were very 
different from those of the Captivity, and those 
of the Captivity differed much from those of our 
Lord's day. In this fact the Bible differs from 
other so-called sacred books. The Koran and the 
Book of Mormon claim to be ready-made revela- 
tions given at one period of time to some specially 
appointed prophet. There is no historical per- 
spective in such books ; they are fixed in a change- 
less form. The Bible, on the other hand, grew 
from age to age, and attained its supremacy not by 
any loudly-announced claim but by its own slowly 
manifested fitness. 

We may illustrate this by reference to the forma- 
tion of what has been called the Canon. Theo- 
logians speak about the Canonical Books of the 
Bible. Certain books have been included in this 
Canon : others have been excluded. Christian 
Churches have sometimes differed respecting the 



books which ought or ought not to be reckoned 
Canonical. The best test of the value of any book 
is time : time applies its testing rod to all men's 
works, and the books of the Bible found their way 
into the Canon by the verdict of time : their value 
was felt and known before any authority gave them 
formal recognition. Certain ecclesiastical assemblies 
or councils have given this formal recognition, but 
behind their formal acknowledgment there is the 
endorsement of time. The verdict then formally 
pronounced was anticipated by the acclamation of 
souls. 

The value of the books of the Bible does not de- 
pend, then, upon any formal or official declaration, 
however worthy and reverend such declaration 
may be, but upon approved worth. We must 
dismiss from our minds all idea that .he books of 
the Bible are bound together by the tie of a common 
epoch ; nor must we imagine that there was one 
time and one only when the writer of any and every 
book of the Bible was formally attested. The books 
belong to different times, and their admission into 
the Canon was various and gradual. 

There is no trustworthy historical account of the 
formation of the Canon of the Old Testament. 
The legend that it was due to the influence of 
Ezra or the judgments of " The Great Synagogue " 
is not to be relied upon. It is more likely that the 
Canon of the Old Testament was gradually formed, 
and the very structure of the books renders this 
more than probable. There were, as Bishop Ryle 
has pointed out, stages through which the books 
themselves appear to have passed — an elemental 
stage, in which the various parts of the book were 
formed ; a second stage, in which the book was re- 
duced to literary form ; and lastly, a stage in which 
they were selected as worthy a place in the national 
Canon. 

A little reflection will show us how naturally 
these books may have passed through these stages. 
In every nation there are certain old songs and 
legends which have been transmitted from age to 
age. The deeds of heroes, the achievements of 
sages, the striking story of some impending calamity 
happily averted : these have been incorporated in 
popular songs and tales. These are not valueless : 
they tend to form national life and character ; and 
when some one arises with literary gifts or the 
instincts of authorship, these songs and stories find 
a place in his chronicle. In this way we may find 
embedded in the Old Testament certain songs or 
poems, e.g. the Song of the Sword (Gn. 4_. 23, 24 ) ; 
the Song of Moses (Ex. 15. 1 ) ; the Song of Deborah 
(J&- 5-)- Such poems possess the warm idealism of 
the writer ; they are not history, but they shed a 
radiance upon history, as all contemporary verses 
may do. To read them as history is to miss their 
meaning and power. Similarly, there are stories 



xvn 



THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE 



which can only be described as half prose and half 
poetry. The mistake of later ages has been in 
reference to these — first to read them as prose and 
to receive them as literally true, and next to read 
them as poetry and to disbelieve them altogether. 
Neither of these methods is wise : both show a lack 
of literary judgment. These splendid stories are like 
the gorgeous garment with which the hero is clad 
after his victory ; everything is done to make the 
hero look dazzling — much of his apparel is not his 
ordinary clothing. The hero did not always look 
thus radiant, but underneath the splendour of the 
apparel is the real hero ; and underneath these tales, 
told in high poetical style, there is, more often than 
not, truth of fact. These stories take their place in 
later times : they become the common stock, so to 
speak, from which prophet and teacher may draw to 
illustrate or to enforce their teaching. 

But growth in the books of the Bible shows itself 
another way. The laws of the nation grow out of 
their customs and their experiences. The laws, 
social and religious, given in the Old Testament are 
the records of laws or customs which grew up at 
different epochs, and which were often intended to 
confirm or to modify previous ancient customs. 
Severe laws needful in a rude state of society are 
softened as society becomes regularised. Lynch 
law is superseded as civilisation grows. The 
severity needful at first is not needed afterwards. 
The explanation of many edicts is to be found in 
the fact that they relax some severe ancient custom. 
It is with this in mind that we must read some of 
the Jewish laws. The humane tendency becomes 
clear when we understand the severity of an earlier 
stage of civilisation. When so read, the Jewish law 
is found to be touched with mercy and gentleness 
compared with the laws of other peoples. 

Again, not all ceremonial laws are matters merely 
of worship. Some are health laws enforced by 
religious sanction. The ceremonial laws in the 
Pentateuch must not be regarded as a complete and 
uniform code : they are rather the accumulations 
of generations ; they express successive experiences ; 
they may become interesting studies of national 
psychological growth. 

All through the Bible, then, we find this element 
of growth, and its value lies in the fact that we can 
trace the development, moral and spiritual, of a 
people who, more than any other, have ministered 
to the religious consciousness of mankind. 

The Bible becomes in this way a record of God's 
dealings with men. It is, in a sense which no 
other book can claim, a revelation ; for it discloses 
not only the experiences of men, but it unfolds in 
fitting degree and order the character of Divine 
action towards them. If life be education — as we 
must, I think, believe it to be — the Bible is a rich 
and varied chronicle of the methods of such educa- 



tion. Whatever difficulties may attach to certain 
Bible stories, whatever critical questions may be 
involved in the study of different parts or books 
of the Bible, the simplest and least educated reader 
has not been deprived of any really valuable teach- 
ing. " The religious value is for all : the histori- 
cal or quasi-historical for students only," writes 
Professor Cheyne. 

But more than this — our enlarged knowledge de- 
rived from the critical study of the Bible enables us 
to estimate more truly the moral importance of the 
Divine messages which it records. If we read, for 
example, Professor Barnes' book on Isaiah, we rise 
from its study with a heightened admiration of the 
prophet's character, and a truer and loftier concep- 
tion of his work. If we read (and we can hardly do 
better) Principal G. A. Smith's works on Isaiah or 
the Minor Prophets, we realise the great and pro- 
gressive work which these prophets wrought in 
Israel and for all mankind. 

But while the intelligent appreciation of what a 
healthy criticism has done for us is helpful to a clear 
understanding of many Bible details, and a worthy 
estimate of Bible characters, the supreme spiritual 
truth is open to every honest and devout heart, 
whether learned in criticism or not. For the 
supreme truth is to know the relationship between 
God and man : he who knows this and lives by this 
has all that he needs to know ; for he knows that 
the soul of man can find its home in the heart 
of God. He knows also that by slow degrees this 
supreme truth is unfolded in the Bible. As we follow 
its leading we follow the unfolding of this relation- 
ship ; the stages of the spiritual life are seen to 
move to higher and higher planes, till we realise 
that " God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love 
dwelleth in God, and God in him." The joy of a 
Divine companionship becomes a changeless truth. 
" If a man love Me, he will keep My word : and 
My Father will love him, and we will come and 
make our abode with him " (Jn. 14. 23 ). 

The student will realise that in this revelation 
of relationship a great Divine purpose is fulfilled. 
The Bible is a literature but not an incoherent 
literature. As through the changing ages one 
changeless purpose runs, so in this collection of 
Jewish literature we may discover a great spiritual 
goal — the bringing of men to God. They are 
brought to God through various experiences : the 
forces of nature play their part — the words of pro- 
phets — the vicissitudes of national and individual 
life ; till in the person of Jesus Christ a revelation 
tender, complete, intelligible, is reached ; the re- 
lationship of sonship is made plain to all and for 
all time, and the conviction of this relationship is 
bestowed upon the hearts of men. " God hath sent 
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, whereby 
we cry, Abba, Father." 



THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE 



Of joy in this relationship no criticism can rob 
the soul. God is over all nature and over all life : 
He hath ever been mindful of His covenant : His 
tender mercies are over all His works : He is loving 
unto every man : His infinite pity marks our fail- 
ings and our fall. His forgiveness never fails : no 
criticism has silenced the voice of Him who said, 
" Her sins which are many are forgiven." The 
ample riches of spiritual help are open to all ; for no 
adverse criticism can deprive us of the conviction : 
" If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that 
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up 
for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely 
give us all things ? " (Rm. 8. 31 - 32 ). 

The spiritual inheritance bequeathed to us in 
the Bible can never grow less : the spiritual truths 
unfolded are above all things which criticism, in- 
vention, discovery, progress may occasion ; and it 
is to these changeless spiritual truths that we need 
to direct our thoughts and our souls. There are 
many inducements to materialism among us — to 
materialism of conception and materialism of life. 
Luxury breeds materialism of life : superstitious 
fear of truth breeds materialism of theological con- 
ception. In such times we may find deliverance 
from both in the words of our Lord : " God is a 
spirit : and they that worship Him must worship 
Hirn in spirit and in truth " (Jn. 4- 24 ). 

The Bible student then will certainly go astray 
who reads all parts of the Bible as though they be- 
longed to one class of writing. To read poetry as 
though it were prose is to miss much of the beauty 
and of the teaching which is given : to read all 
narrative as though it were a prosaic chronicle is 
nearly as disastrous. Many of the most useful and 
beautiful stories are charged with a poetical spirit. 
How many have stumbled over the story of Jonah, 
or the story of Balaam, and in doing so have missed 
the message which poetically-minded writers strove 
to convey. In these cases, if we can seize the 
moral significance of the stories, we shall be helped 
to understand what we must call the psychological 



conditions which moulded the form of the stories. 
The prophet Jonah, who refuses to carry the 
message of Divine love, finds that the forces of 
nature are against him. Balaam, endeavouring for 
the sake of gain to silence the voice of his own con- 
science, hears the voice of protest in everything 
that befalls him : dumb beings grow eloquent 
against him. This power of transferring the emo- 
tions of the soul to surrounding nature is of common 
experience : the walls cry out against the thief or 
the murderer. Poets have used this fact, and some 
of the most impressive passages owe their strength 
to this transference of emotion from the actor to 
the inanimate or animate objects around. When 
Godiva goes forth upon her heroic ride, Tennyson 
tells — 

" The deep air listened round her as she rode, 
And all the low wind hardly breathed for fear." 

When Dante meets the lion he transfers his terror 
to the atmosphere : " The air trembled " {Inf. i. 
48). It is not wonderful to meet the same trans- 
ference of emotion to external objects in Hebrew 
literature. Men deeply alive, as these Jewish 
writers were, to the close contact of the Divine with 
human life, must not be blamed if they sometimes 
write as men who are more concerned to make it 
clear that the voice of God speaks to men than 
careful to explain how it speaks. Minds full of the 
consciousness of Divine realities express themselves 
naturally in a large poetical style which is the 
despair or the snare of prosaic minds. As Principal 
G. A. Smith has said, the religious teaching is often 
independent of the historical incident. History 
may teach religion ; but religion can be taught in 
sermon, in poem, in parable, or even in fable as well 
as in history. It is therefore important that the 
Bible reader should consider, as he reads, the lite- 
rary form of the passage he studies ; for in this 
way he will be surest of the meaning, and he will 
not lose the spiritual message in whatever form it 
comes. 



XIX 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



BY 



LAUCHLAN MACLEAN WATT, M.A., B.D., F.S.A.S. 



When Christianity penetrated to Britain it came 
with Latin upon its tongue. There are many con- 
jectures as to how it struck our shores ; either, ac- 
cording to tradition, with St. Paul himself, or with 
Phoenician merchants in search of tin in Cornwall, 
or in the knapsack or heart of some Roman soldier of 
the Spanish Legion ; and the name of the Nazarene 
would be spoken by the camp-fires, and whispered 
through the forests in Britain, before the shaven 
monks proclaimed the Cross. When the ritual of 
the Western Church landed in 596 with Augustine, 
it was probably the Latin Vulgate of Jerome that 
came with them as their artillery against paganism. 
Yet for thirty-three years before that momentous 
arrival, a Celtic brotherhood had been tending the 
lamp of revelation through gusty persecution ; and 
Gildas tells how, in the time of Diocletian, many 
copies of the native Scriptures perished in the 
British towns and villages. The Church of Co- 
lumba, however, used Latin copies of the Bible ; 
and you can trace the scattered brotherhood of Iona 
across Europe by the manuscripts they left behind 
them, with here and there a marginal note in Gaelic, 
as you find a footprint on the rock, or a dagger in a 
ford, recalling forgotten history. The story of the 
mission of St. Augustine is like a poet's dream. 
Every one knows how, one day, passing through the 
streets of Rome, Gregory the monk, a man of great 
mental power and force, which he had already 
displayed in public life ere he had renounced his 
worldly career for the anonymity of the cloister, had 
his attention arrested by a cluster of fair-headed, 
blue-eyed slaves. " Who are these ? " he asked. 
" They are Angles," was the reply. " Nay, surely," 
answered he, " not Angles but angels." For a 
vision swept across his spirit as he spoke, and he saw 
the barbarous folk, in the island remote beyond 
Spain, civilised and humanised by the power of 
Christ. The vision lingered with him ; and, long 
afterwards, he sent Augustine with a band of 
preachers to the misty land across the flood, to 
realise his dream. 

Of course, the Latin Scriptures were as a sealed 
treasure to all except the priests and learned men. 



The first attempt which was made in putting a part 
of them into English form is that which is called 

The Paraphrase of Csedmon. 

Tradition makes Caedmon a rude herd at Whitby 
monastery, founded through the influence of Aidan, 
who had come from Iona on the invitation of 
Oswald of Northumbria. Hilda the abbess en- 
couraged the cultivation of the knowledge of Holy 
Scripture throughout the sphere of her influence. 
The story has a strong pathos of its own, and should 
be known to every one. It was the custom, in the 
evening, when the feast was over, that the harp 
should pass around, and each man sing a song, some 
rough lay of grappling battle on lone shores and by 
the verge of misty cliffs, songs of the pride of con- 
flict and the griefs of war. But, as the harp came 
to Caedmon, silent near the table-end, he had always 
to thrust it from him, saying, " I cannot make a 
song, and I know no song for singing ! " till they 
laughed at him as a dumb companion of the dumb 
cattle he tended. So he would rise and leave them, 
and go to the cattle-shed. But one night came 
visions and voices ; and, as he slept in the straw, 
with the grief of his silence at his heart, a voice 
pierced his slumber, saying, " Awake and sing ! " 
" Thou knowest I cannot sing," his dreaming heart 
made answer, " else should I have been shouting my 
chorus with the rest, instead of being here dumb and 
songless." " Nevertheless," continued the speaker, 
" to Me thou shalt sing the song of the beginning of 
things and of the love of God." And in his dream 
he felt himself singing verses he had never heard 
before ; but which remained with him when he 
awoke. The story of the gift spread, and he was led 
to narrate to the Abbess Hilda, in the presence of 
the principal monks, the story of his dream, and the 
verses that had been spoken to him, till his masters 
became the devout hearers of his holy song. He 
was taken into the monastery in order that this 
heaven-given faculty might be cherished as an 
instrument for Christ, till he died in 680, having 
added to the English gleeman's instrument a new 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



chord, turning men's hearts away from the songs of 
brute strength and bloodshed to the story of the 
grace of God in Christ. He was a rude early Milton, 
and his work was the germ of an English Bible. 
The second influence in this great movement was 

Aldhelm of Malmesbury. 

He resolved that he would bring the Christian faith 
into contact with the people. He was a musician 
and a poet, with skill on the popular musical instru- 
ments of his time ; so on the Sundays, when the 
people crowded into market, he stood as a gleeman 
on the bridge, till, having caught the ear of the 
crowd, he would sing to them God's redeeming love. 
King Alfred mentions that some of Aldhelm's songs 
lived till his day on the lips of the people. 

In 673, when Caedmon was singing his creation- 
song in Whitby, and Aldhelm had begun his work at 
Malmesbury, was born 

The Venerable Bede, 

who settled in the monastery of jarrow, now a land 
of furnaces and smoke, filled with the clang of iron- 
works and the building of ships. Those before him 
had only told the purport of Bible narratives in their 
own way, but he devoted his leisure to the transla- 
tion into English of the Gospel according to St. 
John. He had written, in Latin, for scholars the 
history of the Church, but this latter was for the 
hearts of English folk. Death came knocking 
at the door, upon a day in May 735, ere he 
was finished. His favourite pupil, Cuthbert, was 
writing to his dictation. " Dear master, there 
is but one sentence still left undone." " Write 
quickly," replied the failing voice. Then, later, 
" Master, it is finished." The venerable saint 
replied, " Thou hast said well, * It is finished.' 
Now, take my head in your hands, that I may sit 
facing the holy place where I was wont to pray." 
And so he breathed his last, leaving his parting gift 
to his people. 

Everything in the matter of religion and scholar- 
ship got a strong set-back with the advent of the 
Danes, who tore down beams and rafters of churches 
for ships' timbers, and gave most notable cloisters to 
the flames. 

Alfred the Great 

managed in 878 to arrange a victorious peace with 
these, and then tried to create a national literature. 
He prefixed to his body of laws a version of the 
Ten Commandments, with a curious reading in the 
Fourth Commandment : " For in six days Christ 
made the heavens and the earth." The tradition 
that Alfred translated the whole of the New and a 
portion of the Old Testament is an exaggeration. 



He left an unfinished version of the Psalms when he 
died, and he bequeathed to the ages to come after 
him the patriotic wish that the youth of his kingdom 
should aspire to be able to read the Scriptures in 
their own language. 

The next stage is seen in the 

" Glosses." 

These were interlinear English renderings of some 
manuscript Latin Scriptures. One of these, in the 
British Museum, was said to belong to St. Cuthbert; 
another has the name of one of the Celtic monks 
written on it. 

-ffilfric, 

who flourished in 1005 as abbot of Eynsham, next 
translated the Pentateuch, with Joshua, Judges, and 
Kings. His purpose in this was pure patriotism 
threaded on the intention to teach the duty of 
battle on behalf of one's country, from the example 
of the wars of Joshua, which he considered worthy 
of the study of a prince in times of stress and 
turbulence. 

Out of the Norman period English emerged as 
the literary language of the kingdom, henceforward 
modified and at the same time enriched through the 
new elements which had become incorporated in it. 
It became thus the instrument of 

John Wyclif, 

who devoted himself to the translation of Holy 
Scripture, and who, through the persecution which 
tried to hamper him in his work, became notable 
for his freedom of faith and fearlessness of char- 
acter, till he lives in history as " the Morning Star 
of the Reformation." The Latin translation from 
which Wyclif worked was the Vulgate of Jerome ; 
but, as it depended entirely upon manuscript re- 
duplication, the text was liable to great corruption, 
which of course vitiated Wyclif's version. Europe 
was trembling under the footsteps of great move- 
ments when, in 1324, Wyclif first saw the light. 
Dante had only been dead three years, Boccaccio was 
thirty years old, and Petrarch only twenty. It was 
an important period for England ; Wyclif, Chaucer, 
Langland, and Gower being contemporary. Lang- 
land in his " Vision of Piers Plowman " brought 
into touch with the mind of the English people, 
through a popular dialect, the Bible-based life of 
simple truth. He represented the Protestantism of 
the people, while Wyclif, a Fellow of Merton and 
Warden of Canterbury Hall, was the type and leader 
of University Protestantism. He escaped serious 
attack until 1381, when his teaching on transub- 
stantiation awoke persecution for himself and his 
disciples, who now were busy apostles, penetrating 
to distant places. He died in 1384 as rector of 



xxi 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



Lutterworth, beside the river Swift, into which, 
forty years later, his bones were cast by the edict 
of Rome ; but, before he died, the fruit of his 
labour was being carried up and down through 
England, for he had, through many a patient hour, 
been toiling at the task of his life, namely, the giving 
of an English voice to the Latin Bible. It was re- 
markable how this work was looked upon. Walsing- 
ham described him as " an enemy of the Church, 
and a nourisher of schism " ; while Arundel calls 
him " a pestilent wretch, who had completed his 
iniquity by inventing a new translation of the 
Scriptures," and Knighton complains that his work 
was casting the Gospel pearl abroad to be trodden 
under the feet of the commonalty, till the jewel of 
the Church was made by it the common sport. 
Nevertheless, John Wyclif, by laying down his 
English Bible on the threshold, kept open God's 
door of entrance to the English people. His work 
was, of course, circulated only in manuscript ; and 
it was not until 1848 that it was printed. Its 
language is quaint and remarkable ; yet, some years 
ago, portions which were read in Yorkshire required 
no explanation, and you may find in it many words 
which are even to-day very good north-country 
speech ; as for example, " sowens " for pottage ; 
" birr " for force, as when " the swine rushed with 
great birr into the sea " ; " sour doug " for whey 
or leaven, the parable of the Leaven being, with 
Wyclif, " the parable of Sour Doug " ; " toun " 
for a farm and farm-buildings ; " wod " for mad ; 
" yowl " for howl ; " tak tent " for take heed. 

Wyclif's Bible has the glory of the pioneer, but it 
suffered from the fact that it was a translation from 
the Latin, which was itself a version from the Greek, 
which was also, in the matter of the Old Testament, 
a translation from the Hebrew. It suffered, there- 
fore, from the uncertainty which always must 
result from the passing from pitcher to pitcher, so 
much of the truth of the original getting spilt, and 
so much getting the tang of the vessel upon it. It 
was not, of course, until a later period that Greek 
scholarship came into our land, after Constanti- 
nople fell into the hands of the Turk in 1453, 
when the scholars, who made that city their head- 
quarters, were scattered with their precious manu- 
scripts and learning all over Europe. In 1388 

John Purvey, 

a disciple of Wyclif, issued a revision, with a pro- 
logue, commentary, and notes, which superseded 
the earlier version. A hundred and fifty copies 
of this survive, and were examined by Forshall 
and Madden in the preparation of their work on 
Wyclif's Bible. The cost of a manuscript copy of 
Wyclif's translation was £40. Money was scarce 
and food dear, and the nation ground between the 



feudal and ecclesiastical millstones. The truth of 
the Bible was, therefore, disseminated either through 
the industry of Wyclif's poor priests, called Lollards, 
who, as they preached, carried with them copies, 
and sold them to those who could buy, a few leaves 
of Peter and Paul costing as much as a load of hay ; 
but, where people could not purchase the precious 
Book, a Bible club was formed, from whose com- 
bined purse a copy was secured, which was read 
together in quiet places, the exercise frequently 
meaning punishment and death. By an Act of 
Parliament at Hampton Court, in 141 4, it was 
declared that " all who read the Scriptures in 
the mother- tongue shall forfeit land and money." 
Thus, between the boards of the English Bible, men 
carried their lives. 

Of course, so long as the work depended on the 
multiplication and dissemination of manuscripts it 
dragged itself along with a slow and uncertain pro- 
gress ; but time was on the side of the triumph of 
the English Bible, by bringing about (1) the spread 
of the study of Greek ; (2) the invention of printing, 
which enabled copies to be more quickly multiplied 
at a cheaper rate and in smaller bulk than manu- 
script ; and (3) the making of paper out of rags. 
Gutenberg had been experimenting with movable 
types before 1439 ; while Fust of Mentz produced 
his books so rapidly and so cheaply that he was 
actually imprisoned as being in league with the 
devil, who was certainly a strange partner in the 
cause of light! In 1455 was printed the first 
Latin Bible, called the Mazarin, from being found 
in Cardinal Mazarin's library. The printing-press 
reached England in 1474, and Scotland in 1507; 
and soon the printed page was to be in the poorest 
cottage, and its truth in the simplest heart. 

Erasmus, the friend of Luther, had lectured on 
Greek at Oxford, and was Professor in Cambridge 
from 1509 to 15 14. His fame attracted thither the 
youth of the country from far and near. Amongst 
those who had drunk at the well of knowledge was 

William Tyndal. 

Of his origin little is known. He was born about 
1484, and used the name of Hitchens, both names 
appearing on the title-page of his first acknowledged 
publication. He was a hard student, especially 
of Holy Scripture, Erasmus' edition of the Greek 
New Testament in 15 16 affecting him deeply. He 
left the university in 1 521 to be tutor to Sir John 
Walsh in his native county of Gloucestershire, 
where he was frequently drawn into disputes and 
discussions with the priests, who loved to haunt 
a good table. Later on he revealed how these 
arguments, and the petty persecutions which they 
brought upon him, had made the resolve grow up 
within him to lay the Scriptures before the people of 



xxn 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



England in their own mother tongue, " that they 
might see the process, order, and meaning of the 
text." On one of these occasions Tyndal declared, 
" If God spares my life I shall make the ploughboy 
know more about the Scripture than the priest does 
to-day." He went to London in 1523, and found 
shelter in the house of Humphrey Monmouth, a 
cloth merchant, having sought vainly the patronage 
of Bishop Tunstall. He came to the conclusion that 
there was no place in England to translate the Word 
of God, so he went abroad in 1524 ; and, though 
the fruits of his labour came back across the sea, he 
never again beheld his native land. The first cer- 
tain date is 1525, at Cologne, where he busied him- 
self with Roye, his assistant, in printing a complete 
Testament in English. But, through the malign 
influence of Cochlaeus, a priest and spy, they had 
to flee to Worms with the sheets which had been 
already printed, where he completed the work, after 
altering the size from quarto to octavo, though later 
the quarto sheets also were issued. The Bibles 
were imported into England packed up in bales of 
cloth as ordinary merchandise. There is no record 
of their distribution ; but pedlars, merchants, and 
preachers went everywhere with them ; they got 
into monasteries and prisons, and men and books 
went to the flames on their account. Campeggio 
wrote to Wolsey : "We lately heard, to his Majesty's 
praise, that he had most justly caused to be burned 
a copy of the Holy Bible, which had been translated 
into the common tongue. No burnt-offering could 
be more blessed to the Almighty God." It was 
' evidently a pertinacious burning, for only one 
complete copy of the octavo remains, while of the 
quarto but twenty-two chapters of St. Matthew in 
one fragment abide. But the task of the perse- 
cutors was heavier now, for it was no longer the 
mere hunting out of a few manuscripts. The silent, 
never-sleeping foe of ignorance was the unknown 
printer, hid in some secret place abroad, multiplying 
the Word of Truth. The campaign was not un- 
accompanied by humour, as in the case of Bishop 
Tunstall, who, in his eagerness, was induced by 
Tyndal's friend Packington to buy up and burn 
the whole edition, the proceeds, however, enabling 
Tyndal to reprint a more accurate translation, while 
at the same time the very flames that burnt the 
Book became its best advertisement. The Pen- 
tateuch appeared at Marburg in 1530 ; the Book of 
Jonah next year ; Genesis, revised and amended, in 
Antwerp in 1534, in Roman type; and that year 
came forth a small octavo New Testament with 
some translations of " The Epistles taken out of the 

kOld Testament." In 1534 a ^ so appeared a New 
Testament by George Joye, of which only one copy 
exists, in the British Museum, a work of no note, 
and looked upon by Tyndal as an impertinence. 
Tyndal's industry never wearied. In 1534, 



however, an Englishman named Philips, having won 
his confidence and borrowed money from him, be- 
trayed him as a heretic. He was thrown into the 
prison of Vilvorde, where he lay in miserable dis- 
comfort, while England was trembling through his 
work Godwards. It is pitiable to read a letter which 
he wrote to the governor of the prison, in which he 
complains that he suffers from the cold, and that it 
is wearisome to sit alone in the dark ; and he begs 
for his Hebrew Bible, Grammar, and Dictionary. 
On Friday, the 6th of October 1536, he was 
strangled at the stake and then burned. His work 
still lives in the Authorised Version, his nervous, 
simple English making his Bible truly a handbook 
for the people in the things of God. It is mar- 
vellous to remember that in the very year of this 
scholar's terrible death the first New Testament 
was printed in England " by authority." It was 
as if the flower of all his life had suddenly sprung 
into fulness from his ashes. The revision of 1535, 
known as the " G. H. Testament," became the 
standard for later reprints. In 1536 no less than 
seven editions appeared, one a beautiful folio. The 
importance of his work was that it was a scholar's 
independent translation direct from the original 
tongues, while at the same time using all the light 
to be had from Luther and others, so careful and so 
masterly that its influence is felt, in bulk of vocabu- 
lary and phrase, throughout even the last revision 
made in our own day ; while all translations subse- 
quent to his were for the most part revisions of 
his work. 

Next in the roll comes 

Miles Coverdale, 

who is said to have assisted Tyndal with the Pen- 
tateuch. He became a priest in 15 14, but after the 
arrest of Prior Barnes he left his convent to preach 
in Essex. He had to flee and hide himself in some of 
the German cities. From 1528 to 1535 he leaves 
no trace. Two years after his flight a council was 
held at Westminster, and the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury issued a bill to be read by all preachers, in which 
it was stated that the Holy Scriptures in English 
would rather be to further confusion than edifi- 
cation. This stirred up Latimer, who wrote a 
letter to the king, notable indeed for its boldness 
and daring. But, in 153 1, the cleavage between 
Henry VIII. and the Pope was taken as an open 
door through which a popular translation of the 
Scripture might creep into the life of England. 
Three years later, Convocation asked the king to 
authorise a translation to be made by certain 
learned men who would be named. The arch- 
bishop, notwithstanding opposition, set to work at 
once, and sent round portions to all the bishops 
for translation. The Bishop of London, however, 



xxin 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



refused to translate his part. Where Coverdale was 
all this time no man knew, but suddenly, out of the 
cloud that enveloped him, came, in 1535, the first 
complete English Bible, with no name of either 
translator or printer upon it. The press and place 
from which this book emerged have never been 
identified. Coverdale's Bible was not a translation 
directly from the Greek and Hebrew, but from the 
German and Latin Versions, though this fact was 
dropped by the English printer from the title-page. 
He used Tyndal's translation for the New Testa- 
ment, and also for the books of Moses and Jonah, 
-along with Luther, the Zurich Bible, the Vulgate, 
and Pagninus' versions. His is the " Treacle 
Bible," from the rendering of Jr. 8. 22 . It is full 
of pithy old words and proverbial renderings ; but 
it is also a brimming well of musical English, and 
much of the mellifluous charm of our modern ver- 
sion arises from the masterly collocations of Miles 
Coverdale's English. It was issued, with various 
readings, in two editions, in 1537, by authority of 
the king, and revised by Rogers, who was afterwards 
martyred. This embodied all the work of Tyndal 
and Coverdale, and became the fons of all later 
revisions. Richard Taverner, imprisoned twice, 
though he died in his bed, in 1539 also brought out 
a version, once reprinted in 1549. The work of 
Tyndal was now bearing fruit in English fields ; the 
dead hand had conquered. A third Bible under 
the editorship of Coverdale, for national circula- 
tion, was appointed in 1538 to be done in Paris, 
because of the superior paper and printing there. 
But the Inquisition chased the workers and their 
work home to England. The printed sheets, which 
were left behind, were condemned to be burned ; 
but the officer of the Inquisition into whose care 
for this purpose they were committed, wishing to 
make money, sold them to a haberdasher, and, being 
discovered, they were brought, with presses and 
type, across the Channel. The result was the 

Great Bible, 

issued in 1539, mainly by Coverdale, using Mun- 
ster's Hebrew, Latin for the Old Testament, and the 
Vulgate and Erasmus for the New. This was set up 
in the parish churches, chained to a pillar, where 
the people might freely resort, in their own tongue, 
to the wonder of the love of God, a privilege which 
takes its place among the strange things of the reign 
of Henry VIII. The new edition in 1540, with 
Cranmer's preface, bore the title of " Cranmer's 
Bible." Henry died in 1547 ; and, under the gentle 
reign of Edward VI., the Acts which restricted the 
freedom of the people in regard to Holy Scriptures 
were cancelled. But Mary, called " Bloody Mary," 
succeeded him in his short reign of four years, and 
the old work of Bible-burning and believer-burning 



was resumed, while the very texts of Scripture were 
obliterated from the church walls. Coverdale, 
consecrated Bishop of Exeter by Edward VI., was 
now made a prisoner at large — that is to say, he 
moved about under sureties. While abroad, he had 
married a Scotswoman, sister-in-law of Dr. John 
MacAlpine, Chaplain to Christian II. of Denmark, 
and Professor of Theology in Copenhagen, who got 
this king to write imperatively that Coverdale be 
allowed to appear in his presence ; and Mary had 
to agree. So, in February 1555, safe, though with 
the smell of fire upon him, Coverdale passed across 
the sea, the panther's teeth having just missed him. 
After the death of Mary he returned, but spent his 
latter days in obscurity and poverty, till he died in 
1569 at the age of eighty-one. 

A band of Protestant refugees, who had taken 
advantage of the shelter afforded them at Geneva, 
interested themselves during their exile in transla- 
tion of the Scriptures, which they looked upon as 
the arsenal of their faith; and in 1557 a version 
of the New Testament, " for simple lambs," was 
accomplished by one of their number, 

William Whittingham, 

who married a sister of Calvin. This book was 
the first English translation of the New Testa- 
ment divided into verses, following the example 
of Stephen's Greek Testament ; and it had many 
" annotations of all hard places." But it was 
superseded by the publication in 1560 of the whole 
Scriptures, in what is known as 

The Genevan Bible, 

which was the people's Bible, the handbook of the 
English Puritan, and of the Scottish Covenanter. 
It is known to collectors as " the Breeches Bible," 
from the translation of Gn. 3. 7 , although the same 
rendering appeared in Wyclif's manuscript. This 
was the first Bible issued from a Scottish press, and 
was known as the " Bassandyne Bible," from the 
name of its printer, and held its own in Scotland till 
the close of the eighteenth century, when it was 
still the pulpit Bible of Crail, in Fife. It passed 
through 160 editions, Laurence Tomson's revision 
of the New Testament in 1576 gradually taking 
the place of the earlier version. It had an ad- 
dress to Elizabeth, and an address to the reader. 
The example of the previous translation in regard 
to the New Testament was followed in this by 
breaking up the Old Testament into verses and 
printing in Roman type. So popular was it that 
an edition of the Authorised Version was issued in 
1649 with the Genevan notes. 

In 1563 Archbishop Parker initiated a scheme of 
Scripture revision, probably suggested by the tradi- 
tion of the origin of the Septuagint, namely, by a 



xxiv 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



number of scholars working independently. On his tutor, truly expressed his feeling that he had 
the basis of Cranmer's Bible, Miinster, and Pagni- done his best when he had made him " a learned 
nus it appeared five years later, and was known as ass," he could not keep him from braying. A 

chance remark and the flatteries of the time, how- 
The Bishops' Bible. ever, secured the blessing of a Standard Bible, 



And between 1568 and 1606 it went through nine- 
teen editions. The result of the method was of 
course a mosaic of attainments, though the influ- 
ence of the Great Bible and the Genevan was felt 
throughout. It was enacted that each bishop and 
archbishop should have in his dining-room or large 
hall a copy convenient for the benefit of servants 
and strangers. Coverdale's Psalter had, in the 
thirty-three years of use, endeared itself to the ear 
and heart of the English people, and could not be 
displaced by the bishops' version. The two ap- 
peared side by side in the folio Bible of 1572, but 
Coverdale held the field, and still maintains it in the 
Book of Common Prayer, while the Genevan Bible 
remained the book of the household, notwithstand- 
ing that the bishops' had the sanction and authority 
alike of Church and Parliament. 

The Roman Catholics, turning, in their exile 
during Elizabeth's reign, to the thought of God's 
revelation, published in 1582, from the College of 
Rheims, an English version out of the Vulgate, on 
the ground that the Hebrew and Greek texts had 
been corrupted by the Jews and heretics. The 
Old Testament appeared at Douay in 1609. The 
translators, Allen, Martin, and Bristow, warn their 
readers against the Protestants, who had cast " the 
holy to dogges, and pearles to hogges," but the 

Douay Bible 

had all the defects of a translation from secondary 
sources, the Vulgate being an imperfect rendering 
of the Septuagint, while the English style carried 
with it a stiff Latin form, though to it we owe such 
enriching words as allegory, advent, victim, &c. 
The prefaces are surcharged with high Romish 
doctrine, and the notes are full of ridiculous fables 
of the saints and fathers. It was an attempt to win 
England to Rome ; but it was, after all, a book 
gathered by deliberate choice from side tracks in 
preference to the highway. 

In 1 601, at Burntisland, the General Assembly of 
the Church of Scotland expressed dissatisfaction 
with the existing versions of the Bible in use, and 
the king made a characteristic exhibition-speech. 
But in 1603, late on Saturday, 26th of March, he 
was awakened out of sleep, to be hailed as " King 
of England, France, and Ireland" by Sir Robert 
Carey, an English knight who had ridden from 
London in sixty hours in order to be the first to 
carry the momentous news that Elizabeth was dead. 
James had an itch for the repute of scholarship, and 
though George Buchanan the humanist, who was 



The Authorised Version, 

one of the most remarkable by-products of any 
epoch. To settle the divisions and difficulties of 
the Church the king had called the Hampton Court 
Conference in January 1604, and Dr. Reynolds, of 
Corpus Christi College, the leader of the Puritan 
party, suggested a new translation of the Bible. 
This at once set on fire the fancy of the king, who 
had already been working at the Psalms in verse, 
with Sir William Alexander of Menstrie, Earl of 
Stirling. The work was not commenced till 1607, 
by two companies at Westminster, and two at the 
University seats of Oxford and Cambridge. Its 
inner history is practically unknown, but in 161 1 
the result came out to the world, printed by Robert 
Barker, with that dedication to the king which reeks 
of flattery but which must have been balm to his 
soul ; and the most able preface by Dr. Smith, 
afterwards Bishop of Gloucester. No marginal 
notes, except for philological purposes, were per- 
mitted, as the book was not to be a controversial 
publication ; but an opportunity of a fling at the 
Puritans was not to be missed, as in the heading of 
ML 6. regarding dancing, afterwards altered. The 
chapter headings were all new, and still remain, 
with the exception of twelve. The dates, based 
on Ussher's chronology, did not, however, find a 
place till the edition of 1701 by Bishop Lloyd. The 
" Authorised Version " was never sanctioned by 
Parliament, nor formally " Appointed to be read in 
churches." It was really " authorised " from the 
final approval of the English-speaking people as a 
whole. The genealogy of it, through the Bishops' 
Bible, from the Great Bible, Matthew's, and then 
Coverdale's, which was in the main Tyndal's, made 
the work in reality the crowning monument of the 
labour of the martyrs. It also has had its nickname 
editions, the first two issues being known as the 
" He Bible " and the " She Bible " from the ren- 
dering of Ru. I. 15 ; while another is known as the 
" Judas Bible," owing to a misprint in Mw. 26. 36 , 
the name of the apostate apostle appearing instead 
of " Jesus." A quiet process of revision, steadily 
proceeding up till modern days, made many emen- 
dations on this version ; but, though Lightfoot in 
1645 suggested a new translation, and the Long 
Parliament in 1653 ordained that it be proceeded 
with, the Authorised Version lived on unmoved, in 
the life and love of the people. It is truly an 
English book. Its words are in bulk Saxon, the 
Lord's Prayer in Matthew having fifty-nine of its 
words pure English, and only six of Latin origin ; 



XXV 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



indeed the first thirty-five words are Saxon un- 
dented. 

In 1870, on the report of a Committee appointed 
by Convocation, in consideration of the great ad- 
vances made by Textual Criticism, through the 
work of Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and 
Tregelles, two companies were appointed to revise 
the version of 161 1. The revisers included scholars 
of all churches, and worked in co-operation with 
two representative American companies. Begin- 
ning in 1872, the result of their labours was pub- 
lished in 1 881 as 

The Revised Version. 

The alterations due to an improved Greek text 
affect readings only, not doctrines, though some 
omissions are striking, as e.g. the doxology of the 
Lord's Prayer, the three heavenly witnesses, the 
eunuch's confession at his baptism ; but many of the 
new renderings, on the other hand, clarify at one 
glimpse what before was obscure, or even incompre- 
hensible. This is especially seen in the Old Testa- 
ment, where the effect of the results of Oriental 
travel and discovery, with the modern advance of 
Oriental scholarship, often gripped the true sense 
with the power of a fresh revelation. Still, with all 
that it has to recommend it, the affection of the 
people clings to the old phrases of the Authorised 
Version, endeared by association in history and in 
life ; and it will probably take as long for the Re- 
vised Version to displace the Authorised as it did for 
Jerome's revision to displace the old Latin text. 

The Influence of the English Bible on English 
Literature has been stupendous and immeasurable. 
In fact, as English Literature itself must always feel 
within it the beat of the heart of the Elizabethan 
Age, and be enveloped almost for all time in the 
intellectual and moral atmosphere of that creative 
period when light broke into chaos, and liberty 
walked through the land singing of God and the 
soul, so still, to-day, the great influence which 
threads true literature is that of the English Bible, 
whereon, as upon an irresistible tide, floated the im- 
mense conceptions of the terribleness of sin, the 
balefulness of godless self-seeking, and the shatter- 
ing compasslessness of the soul that drifts, blinded, 
away from the guiding star of God. The growth 
of the English Bible meant the growth, develop- 
ment, and enrichment of the vocabulary which was 
the vehicle of literary expression, the thread of the 
tapestry on which the master-artists wove God's 
revelation to their period. In its progress one sees 
the advance from the day of a stammering tongue to 
a crisp, rich utterance, carrying with it the essence 
of unnoted and forgotten tributary forces. Of 
course, in itself, the struggle towards embodiment 



of thought and feeling helped to mould and tune 
the language through which the whole Scripture 
was to be borne into the hearts that waited for it ; 
and a reciprocal influence must be wisely acknow- 
ledged. Proverbial wisdom, ebbing and flowing 
through lives of effort, failure, or success, gets worn 
into concise and epigrammatic phrase, and one 
can see the influence of this securing a footing on 
Tyndal's printed page. But once there as the hand- 
maiden of the great thoughts of God, she became 
marshal of the prophetic and poetic speech which 
characterises great literature. The Drama which 
grew up alongside of the groping after divine truth 
that found issue in Bible translation, was intensely, 
from the beginning, affected by Scriptural teach- 
ing, having its source in the Church, and its agents 
Churchmen. But, when the Miracle, Morality, 
and Mystery left the churchyard and invaded the 
streets and common lives of men, it developed into 
that unexcelled phenomenon of English tragedy, 
finding its culmination in Shakespeare ; and the 
great lessons of the soul's triumph and cataclysm 
were spoken often in the very word and form of the 
English Bible. Bishop Wordsworth has shown in 
his book, Shakespeare and the Bible, how the voca- 
bulary of Shakespeare is saturated and impregnated 
with Biblical influences. It would have been won- 
derful had it been otherwise, for the very salt of 
the sea that he had waded in, and the sand of the 
shore that he traversed, would be found upon him. 
His age had the Bible close before its eyes. It was 
natural, therefore, that he should refer, when his 
creations were in similar circumstances, to Pilate's 
vain attempt to wash his hands white, to Herod, 
Lazarus, the sword of Deborah, and the outstanding 
figures of Holy Scripture. It was natural also that, 
even without being a deep student of the Bible, 
through much of his writings should be heard the 
echo of the tune of the English Scriptures, and that 
Biblical references should come in casually amongst 
his fancies. 

In Spenser, Biblical morality, embodied in 
knights and virgins, moves through the world 
conquering and putting to shame evil, sin, and 
oppression. 

Even such careless and irreligious poets as Mar- 
lowe and the imaginative school which surrounded 
him, when applying the ethical and spiritual les- 
sons of their plays, clinch these by a reference to 
the Word of Truth. 

Sir Walter Scott, perhaps the most moral teacher 
and writer of any age, was deeply influenced by 
Holy Scripture, perhaps none more so except 
Shakespeare. His allusions are so numerous and 
so devout that the mere excerpting of them from 
his works would make a volume itself. They re- 
flect life-companionship and close communion with 
holiest things, and confirm the spirit, which, when 



xxvi 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



he lay, a dying man, and asked Lockhart to read to 
him, made him reply to Lockhart's inquiry as to 
what book he should read, " Can you ask ? There 
is only one Book now." 

Wordsworth and Browning are, of course, purely 
Christian poets, the unexcelled teaching of the 
latter being deep draughts from the fountain of the 
soul's best life. Under the grip of Wordsworth's 
English you feel the flexible fibre and edge of that 
strong English weapon which was forged out of the 
brave heart of Tyndal long ago. Johnson, Tenny- 
son, and Ruskin are steeped in word, image, and 
form in the Holy Book which has so much moulded 
the thought and action of the English-speaking 
race. 

Nothing could have been more pregnant with 
suggestion for a mind like Carlyle's than the book of 
Proverbs, and the soul-probing, mystery-searching 
of Job. The Gospel of Work which he adopted 
as his own peculiar message, with his sense of the 
universal spaces and influences invisible which give 
depth and meaning to human joys and sorrows, the 
faith in the goodness of God and the blindness and 
littleness of men, had their source undoubtedly in 
that old Book which built up the independent char- 
acter of the sturdy race from whose loins he sprang. 
Arising probably from his innate dislike of Jews, he 
truncated his faith by cutting it free from the meta- 
physic of Revelation, and adopting only the ethic of 
Christianity ; yet in his style were reflected, almost 
without knowing it, the rhapsody and thought of 



the prophets, which he had heard so often by the 
fireside of his father, the stonemason of Ecclefechan. 

In the same way, in the Scottish peasant Burns, 
it was the general teaching of the indestructibleness 
of honour, and the humanness of the Divine Father- 
hood drawing the divine in humanity towards it, 
that made his verse throb with the power of tears. 
His teaching maintained the bias it had received 
from that familiar converse with the Genevan 
Bible, and the outlook and inlook through the 
soul-windows of the exiles under the shadow of 
the Alps. 

Especially striking has been the influence of the 
Psalms in both utterance and thought, on the life, 
actions, and politics of men, the field of philo- 
sophical and poetic literature having been sprinkled 
throughout with shining gems from the Psalter. 

The subject is inexhaustible, and affords a sphere 
of reading with a purpose, through all that English- 
men have ever written. 

Lit. : Lechler's John Wy cliff e and his English Pre- 
cursors, by Lorimer ; William Tyndale, a Biography, 
by Demaus, edited by Lovett ; Eadie's The Eng- 
lish Bible ; Westcott's and Moulton's Histories ; 
Dore's Old Bibles; Scrivener's The Authorised 
Edition of the English Bible ; Milligan's The English 
Bible, a Sketch of its History ; Hoare's The Evolu- 
tion of the English Bible ; Bible Truths with Shake- 
spearian Parallels, by J. B. Selkirk ; Dickson's The 
Bible in Waverley ; Wordsworth's Shakespeare and 
the Bible ; Stubbs' The Christ of English Poetry. 




Ruin of Synagogue at Meiron 



XXV11 



APOCRYPHA OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 



These are not of the same value as those of the 
Old Testament, as their influence was not so great. 
The main benefit of their study, as it seems to us, 
over and above the revelation of the progress of 
Christian thought, is the indirect evidence of the 
inspiration of the writings of the NT. afforded by 
their weak, jejune, childish character as compared 
with the genuine works of the apostles. The most 
of these writings never were in any danger of being 
received into the Canon. Certain of them were 
treated in some churches as if canonical. The 
most important of these are the Epistle of Clement, 
and the Homily, which is generally called the 2nd 
Epistle. There seems no reasonable doubt that the 
epistle attributed to Clement is his genuine work. 
It is largely founded on the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
The occasion of its being sent was disorders in the 
Church of Corinth, not unlike those that occasioned 
the Pauline epistles to that Church. It is especi- 
ally valuable for the light it throws on the doctrines 
and institutions of the early Christian Church. 
Very noteworthy is the evidence of loyalty to the 
emperors in chap. 61., written as it is immediately 
after a season of persecution. The Anonymous 
Homily, generally called the 2ndEpistle of Clement, 
is worthy of study because of the frequent quota- 
tions it makes fm? the Synoptic Gospels, and ap- 
parently also fm. other lost sources. A striking note 
is that the books of the New Testament are deno- 
minated " The Apostles," in contradistinction fm. 
the " Biblia," the Old Testament. It is the earliest 
example of a Christian Homily. The Epistle of 
Barnabas is appended to the Codex Sinaiticus, as 
we have already said : in a Latin version it had 
appeared appended to the Vaticanus. It is quoted 
frequently, and treated with the respect due to 
Scripture, as if it had come fm. the pen of the com- 
panion of St. Paul. Eusebius, however,has no doubt 
about its spuriousness. Its object is to show that 
Judaism is utterly abolished. It is weak and prolix. 
The " Shepherd of Hermas " was supposed in early 
days to have been written by the Hermas saluted by 
Paul (Rm. 16. 14 ). It is a series of allegories some- 
what operose and confused. It opens with five 
visions, in wh. he is shown the upbuilding of the 
Church. The fifth vision is that in wh. an old man 
appears to Hermas and gives him certain instruc- 



tions ; this introduces " the Twelve Command- 
ments," wh. form the second portion of the 
" Shepherd," and the " Similitudes," wh. form the 
third. The main interest in this work, as in others 
of its class, is the insight it gives into the views and 
practices of the early Roman Church. Eusebius 
{HE. iii. 3) seems to have been loth to exclude the 
" Shepherd " fm. the homologoumena. In the same 
section Eusebius refers to the Gospel of Peter. 
This work has been recovered comparatively re- 
cently in Egypt by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt ; it 
is obviously ancient, but as obviously unauthentic ; 
one noticeable thing is the favourable view given 
of Pilate. Less valuable is the work also referred 
to by Eusebius and found at the same time, the 
Revelation of Peter. In Egypt also were found 
by the same explorers several fragments containing 
" Sayings of our Lord." At first it was hoped we 
had found the Aoyia referred to by Papias ; this 
hope proved fallacious. They are, however, very 
interesting, some possibly authentic. The Didacbe, 
or " Teaching of the Apostles," ought also to be 
mentioned — a small treatise giving exhortations as 
to personal conduct, and directions as to the per- 
formance of the various acts of worship. As to 
baptism, it may be administered by pouring water 
on the head thrice in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Directions 
are also given as to the right observance of the 
Eucharist. One striking thing is that all first-fruits 
are to be given to the prophets, " for they are your 
High Priests." It is evidently a document of the 
first century. There are besides many Pseudo- 
nymous Gospels, some of them dating fm. the 
second cent. : the principal of these are, the Prote- 
vangelium of James, narrating the marvels wh. 
accompanied the birth of Mary on to the birth of 
our Lord ; the Gospel of Thomas, wh. surrounds 
with marvels the infancy of Christ ; and the Gospel 
of Nicodemus, elsewhere treated. The others are 
all founded on these to wh. we have here referred : 
with the exception of the last, childishness is the 
most marked characteristic. There are also Apoc- 
ryphal Acts as of Peter and Paul, and of Paul 
and Thekla, wh. are ancient and interesting, tho' 
valuable only as explaining the notions of the later 
Middle Ages, wh. find expression in their pictures. 



xxvni 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



A number of writings pseudonymous as to claim of 
authorship, and imitations of the book of Daniel 
as to content, wh. appeared mainly between. the 
Testaments, are called Apocalyptic because they 
profess to be Revelations or Apocalypses of the 
future. Most frequently they bore the names of 
prophets and seers already venerated as having en- 
joyed a specially intimate association with Deity. 
The majority of these writings are of Jewish origin. 
A singular fate befell the vast mass of them ; much 
read in the first ages of the Christian Church, 
between the sixth and seventh centuries they dis- 
appeared utterly, and were rediscovered mainly in 
the course of the nineteenth century ; sometimes 
resurrected from where they had been buried under 
false names in some ancient library ; sometimes re- 
leased from imprisonment in the literary dungeon 
connected with an Abyssinian church. Though 
Jewish in origin, only traces of any of them are to be 
found in the Talmud, and in no case is any of them 
quoted as Scripture. In the Christian community, 
on the other hand, they had great influence, and 
are not seldom quoted as authoritative. Notwith- 
standing, only one of them, 2nd (4th) Esdras, was 
received at all, even among the deutero-canonical 
Scriptures of the Apocrypha. Its position there 
was sufficiently precarious ; though received in the 
English Apocrypha, in the Vulgate since the Council 
of Trent it was relegated to a position outside the 
Canon, after Revelation, and not even assigned that 
by the Lutheran Church. In the case of this book, 
not only was there no Hebrew original forthcoming, 
but, unlike the other books of the Apocrypha, there 
was not even a Greek translation. However, these 
writings are yet of great interest and of no little 
value. As the writers were Palestinian Jews, these 
books reveal the trend of thought and hope in the 
Holy Land before our Lord came. As the preva- 
lence of certain kinds of plants and animals reveals 
the character of the soil and climate in wh. they 
have flourished, so it is with literature ; the pre- 
valence of certain forms of literature enables us to 
determine the nature of the spiritual atmosphere, 
the mental soil from wh. they have sprung. These 
Apocalyptic writings enable us to understand the 
nature of that field in wh. the Great Sower of the 
seed scattered the good seed of the kingdom of 
heaven. We purpose to restrict our study to those 
Jewish Apocalypses which originated before the 
Advent, and to those that saw the light within a 



century and a quarter after it. To study this 
subject intelligently certain points have to be con- 
sidered: the Nature of Apocalyptic; the Occasion of 
Apocalyptic ; the Authors of these Writings ; the 
Books wh. make up Apocalyptic Literature ; and 
the Doctrinal Significance of Apocalyptic. 

(1) The Nature of A-pocaly-ptic. — Apocalypse is 
related to prophecy; indeed in some respects it 
more fully represented what many even in compara- 
tively recent times regarded as the very essence of 
prophecy. To many the prophet was one who cd. 
tell what was to take place and that only ; pre- 
diction was the essence of prophecy. It is more 
generally recognised now that the essence of Hebrew 
prophecy lay in the revelation of the will of God as 
the great source of righteousness. The moral needs 
of their contemporaries, their immediate audience, 
bulked most largely with them : prediction was at 
times a sign demonstrating the reality of their com- 
mission ; or it was the unveiling the hidden moral 
consequences of a course of conduct. On one 
subject the prophets were predictive ; they were 
sure that the Divine purpose involved the coming 
of a Messianic King who shd. " restore the kingdom 
to Israel," when the " people wd. be all righteous." 
What, however, was subsidiary to prophecy was 
essential to Apocalypse ; it always professed to un- 
veil the future.* The attitude of the prophet and 
of the Apocalyptist to his predictions was different ; 
while the first had to " search what or what manner 
of time the Spirit of Christ wh. was in them did 
signify," the second had, if we lay aside the canonical 
Apocalypses, no doubts as to the purport of his 
vision. In literary method there was a difference. 
While the Apocalyptist had visions in wh. the future 
was revealed to him in symbol, and he described 
what he saw in prose, the prophet, even when he 
did not use the forms of verse, was always hovering 
on the brink of it, and his utterances were always 
lyric in their essence. While the prophets most 
generally denounced nations that had sinned by 
name, the Apocalyptist usually veiled the nations 
under symbols ; in Ezekiel and Zechariah, the con- 
temporaries with the rise of Apocalypse, we find 
this literary device resorted to. The vision of the 

* The case of the book of Jubilees is apparently an 
exception, as it narrates only what had taken place in the 
past Jubilees ; yet this is only apparent, for the times 
the accounts of wh. are given were beyond the sphere of 
actual, indeed much of it beyond the sphere of possible, 
records, and therefore only to be known by revelation. 



XXIX 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



Apocalyptist was wider than that of the prophet ; 
while the latter was occupied with the fate of 
Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir, the Apocalyptist 
surveyed the whole world and looked forward to 
the end of time and the final judgment. 

(2) The Occasion of Apocalyptic. — When those of 
the Jews who returned fm. the Babylonian captivity 
endeavoured to set up again their national worship, 
while they were in a measure successful in that, they 
found that the nation in its political aspect cd. not 
be restored. They were not even permitted to 
retain such shadowy independence as the possession 
■ of kingship implied ; a thing allowed by Persia to so 
many of her tributaries. Fm. the date of Nehe- 
miah's final return to the court of Artaxerxes to the 
conquest of South- Western Asia by Alexander the 
Great, a cloud settled on the history of Judaea, 'so 
dense that Josephus appears to have thought that 
Darius Codomannus, who was conquered by Alex- 
ander, immediately succeeded Artaxerxes Longi- 
manus. Not only had kings disappeared fm. the 
commonwealth of Israel, but after Malachi, who 
probably was a later contemporary of Nehemiah, 
prophets also had ceased. The rule of the Per- 
sians was always tempered in regard to the Jews 
by the acknowledgment of a certain religious 
kinship between themselves and the Jews. With 
the advent of the Greek empire Judaism became 
even more a church and less a nation than it had 
been under the Persians. Not only was there the 
intrusion of different political ideals, but their re- 
ligion was exposed to a severer ordeal than before. 
The idolatry wh. the Jewish people had learned to 
hate and despise in Babylon appeared under new and 
seductive forms. All the aesthetic elements in their 
nature were played upon by the artistic beauty of 
" the gods of Greece." To this was added the 
glamour of military glory wh., alien to the whole 
prophetic ideal as it was, appeared in new splendour 
in the achievements of Alexander, the founder of 
the Greek empire. Deeper and deeper became the 
degradation. Youths gave themselves over to the 
games of the Palaestra and became ashamed of their 
religion and its most sacred rites. While on the one 
hand the zeal of many of the sons of Israel waxed 
cold, the spirit of many of the more religious among 
the Jews began to burn within them, and they in 
consequence were prone to look into the future filled 
with direful imaginings as to whereunto this wd. 
grow. In earlier days such a state of things wd. 
have awakened the voice of a prophet who, speaking 
in the name of the Lord, wd. have denounced all 
this tampering with idolatry. But there was no 
longer any " prophet among them, or any that knew 
the time." Indeed it wd. seem as if those who were 
the last to claim the title of prophet had degraded 
their office and had worn the prophet's hairy 
mantle to deceive. In the book of Daniel those 



who were zealous for God found a model for ?, 
different kind of composition, wh. formed a more 
fitting vehicle for the message they wished to convey 
to their fellows ; further, it did not, in appearance 
at least, make so direct a claim to personal inspira- 
tion. In another way also it suited the changed 
circumstances of the time. When the prophet 
spoke it was still a time when small kingdoms had a 
place in the plan of things ; empires had only begun 
to be recognised as the means by wh. God wd. carry 
further His preparation for the coming of His Son 
into the world. With the setting up of the empire 
of Alexander the day of small kingdoms wh. had 
occupied little more space than a small English 
county had definitely passed away. This imperial 
stage in the evolution of history was recognised by 
the Jew, imbued as he was with the belief in a coming 
Messianic prince, as only a step in the preparation 
for the setting up of God's everlasting kingdom. 
Further, the deeper the degradation into wh. as a 
nation they sank, the more were they inclined in 
thought to indemnify themselves by glorifying the 
coming kingdom of Messiah the Prince, when the 
Jews shd. have all nations as their servants. With 
the advent of the Greek empire, and still more with 
the advent of that of the Romans, the world became 
vastly larger to the Jew than it had been before. 
Fm. a world that so far as effective knowledge was 
concerned was bounded on the south by the first 
cataract of the Nile, on the north by Mount Ararat, 
on the east by the Euphrates, and on the west by 
the Great Sea and the Grecian Archipelago, " the 
islands of the sea," they arrived at one wh. extended 
southward to Meroe, northward to the Elbe and the 
Tauric Chersonese, and fm. Spain and Britain on 
the west to the banks of the Ganges on the east. 
This burden of knowledge killed the poetic in 
them ; fm. the lyric ecstasy of the prophet those 
who saw visions sank to the prose, sometimes prosy, 
narrative of the Apocalyptist. Connected with 
this is the further characteristic ; the Apocalyp- 
tist is less intensely moral than the prophet ; the 
former appealed to the intellect but the latter to 
the conscience. 

(3) The Authors of these Apocalypses. — In study- 
ing these books no one can fail to be struck with the 
sameness of ruling ideas wh. characterises them. 
They are clearly the product of one school, and that 
a school of dreamers. None of these books bear 
ev 1 ' 3 ence of being the productions of men whose 
'jelings have been stirred and strained by conflict in 
the struggle of life. They seem rather to be spec- 
tators of life than actors in it. One class of men is 
known to have flourished at the time when, fm. 
other reasons, we are to conclude that these writings 
originated — the Essenes — who suit this description. 
They were not, like the Sadducees, taken up with 
politics and using religion as a cloak of covetousness ; 



xxx 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



n^r, like the Pharisees, fanatics for the mere letter 
of- the law ; they sought the life of contemplation, 
away fm. all political conflicts or legal quibbling. 
Of them Josephus tells us that they had sacred books 
of their own. He tells us also that they were cele- 
brated as interpreters of dreams, a statement wh. 
implies that they recognised in dreams a special 
means of conveying to men a knowledge of the 
future. Of the many sub-sections into wh. the 
Essenes were divided, that wh. most represented 
their special characteristics, and was the best known, 
was ccenobitic — living in a community of celibates 
much as did the mediaeval monks. This secluded 
life tends to promote visions and visionaries. The 
place where they dwelt, the valley of En-gedi, the 
fertile glen that runs down fm. the wilderness of 
Judaea, which was occupied sparsely rather than 
peopled by shepherds who pastured their flocks, 
and the Dead Sea, the sea of salt, that spread death 
around its shores, tended yet more to make men see 
visions and dream dreams. When they wrote down 
these visions they did not assume the credit of these 
to themselves — they affixed the name of some 
ancient worthy, prophet or seer. When they did 
so we are not to regard them as vulgar forgers, like 
those of the second and third Christian centuries, 
who wished the views they favoured to get a credit 
fm. the name they affixed to their writings wh. they 
wd. not receive on their own merits. In their 
dreams the Essenes imagined themselves laid hold 
of by the spirits of these just men made perfect, 
and they wrote as they fancied themselves moved. 
They did not as a rule occupy themselves with the 
sins of a society of wh. they saw nothing, not even 
with the covetousness of the rich and the oppression 
of the poor, nor with the hideous immoralities in 
wh. the nobles indulged; they had been swept up by 
the Spirit into a loftier sphere, all petty moralities 
fell away fm. their sight, the kingdoms of this world 
appeared only to disappear in the great kingdom 
of God. To them the Last Judgment was always 
near, in wh. all wrongs wd. be righted. Fm. this 
community came not only many of the Apocalyptic 
writings, but further, the impetus to the writing 
of the rest. The members of the community at 
En-gedi were not the only Essenes ; there were 
those who dwelt in the numerous cities and vil- 
lages that were scattered over Palestine ; indeed 
if Bishop Lightfoot is right they extended their 
influence and spread their doctrines even in . t Asia 
Minor. Of the books contained in the class we are 
considering, some ar^ more visionary and some less 
so. We may presume that the less visionary pro- 
ceeded fm. those Essenes who lived a less restricted 
life, mingled with their fellows, and did not eschew 
family life. 

(4) The Books wh. make up Apocalyptic. — Here, 
as we have already said, we shall restrict our con- 



sideration mainly to those which were published 
before our Lord's earthly ministry began ; of post- 
Christian Apocalypses we wd. consider only those 
that were published not later than the second de- 
cade of the second century. (For the two Canoni- 
cal Apocalypses already treated in the Canonical 
Section, see Daniel, Revelation.) 

(a) The most prominent and important of the 
Apocalypses that fall within the limits thus laid 
down is the book, or rather the collection of books, 
of Enoch. To some extent the book (or books) 
of Enoch has been considered under the heading 
Enoch in the Canonical portion of this Dictionary, 
as Jude has quoted fm. it by name. The impress 
left by Enoch on the Jewish mind was a strong one. 
The mystery that surrounded him was fitted to 
deepen this ; like Elijah, and before him, he had 
been removed into God's presence without tasting 
of death ; even while on earth he had walked with 
God, enjoying familiar intercourse with Him. By 
Talmudic Judaism he was identified with the great 
angel who was all but God and was named Metatron 
{meta thronou, " beside the throne ") — the Judaic 
escape fm. acknowledging a second person in God- 
head and admitting that Jesus was that Person. 
The lofty ideas the Jews afterwards associated with 
Enoch must have been present, though in a less 
developed form, much earlier. We can imagine 
how the thought of what such a one as this must 
have seen in his communings with God wd. fill the 
imaginations of those visionaries by the Dead Sea. 
Some one, his thoughts going back to Enoch and 
forward to the Messiah, his visions carrying him 
now down to the depths of Gehenna, now up to 
the very presence of God, was moved to write. He 
felt that though his hand held the pen it was the 
antediluvian saint, who had never died, that really 
supplied the thoughts. He was carried up into 
heaven and saw the ten thousands of the saints and 
heard the voices of the archangels praising God. 
He sees, standing in the presence of God, the Son 
of Man, who is to be the Messiah in God's time. 
Unveiled before him stand the mysteries of the 
Last Judgment, and he sees the wicked carried away 
to punishment ; he sees also the final victory of the 
saints. The course of the heavens occupies a por- 
tion of one vision. A subject wh. possessed great 
interest for the Apocalyptists, the angels that kept 
not their first estate, these occupied his visions also. 
Later, another of the brotherhood, remembering 
that of Enoch's great-grandson it was said, as of 
himself, that " he walked with God," had his mind 
filled with similar subjects, but regarded Noah as his 
guide : he too takes up astronomical speculations. 
Whether he wrote only the fragments wh. are pre- 
served in " Enoch," or compiled a book fm. wh. a 
copyist made the extracts wh. appear, none can tell. 
A later brother still felt himself impelled to write, 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



but he, like the first writer, claimed to be the assumed the name of Daniel, must have foreseen 
spokesman of Enoch. He wrote, and his writings all this warlike turmoil ; the marching and counter- 
were placed before and after those previously pub- marching of the armies that fought for the posses- 
sed m the name of Enoch. He devotes a great sion of Palestine and Cceie-Syria, coming now fm 
deal of time to the condition of the angels who had the north, fm. Antioch, and now fm. Egypt in the 
sinned; he visits them in their captivity and cata- south; and so dreaming, he wrote. It may be 
logues their names ; he also gives an account of the as some have thought, that a vision of Daniel has 
people of God fm. the beginning to the time of the been lost, and that what we have in the eleventh 
Maccabaean struggle He too is occupied with chapter is a visionary's interpretation of the lost 
astronomy, and tells the tale of the heavenly bodies vision wh. it has replaced. It may be noted that 
in a way yet more elaborate than those wh. pre- unlike other Apocalypses, it does not end in the 
ceded. There are still later additions. Although Last Judgment, but adopts the first verse of 



in this we are compelled to maintain our opinion in 
the face of the formidable authority of Dr. Charles, 
we regard the centre portion of the book of Enoch as 



verse 
Probably this chap. 



Dn. 12. as its conclusion 
never existed apart. 

(c) Later is the Apocalypse of Baruch, which 



v r — ----- — ^«»«^ UU vu« w j^ctLci k> me ^pocaiypse or .Darucn, wnich, 

the oldest and wd. date it before the Maccabaean like so many of this class of writings, had disap- 
time. The first and third portions we wd. date peared, but was found in a Syriac version of a Greek 
about the time when the Maccabaean struggle was translation of a Hebrew original. The conflict with 
neanng its first triumphant period, before the Syria had ended in the independence of Judaea under 
Assidaeans were offended and deserted Judas. Be- John Hyrcanus ; peace settled down on the com- 
tween these we wd. place the Noachian portions, munity at En-gedi. But when the conflicts with 
U± the later additions some appear to have origi- heathenism without ceased, strife began within A 
nated as late as the times of Herod the Great. We gross insult offered by a Pharisee to the memory of 
ought to observe that Dr. Charles has decided that his mother threw John Hyrcanus into antagonism 
the writer was a Pharisee : we are not aware of the to the whole party. This antagonism was em- 
grounds of this decision. To our view a comparison bittered under Alexander Jannaeus, leading up to 
of the Mishna, a production of the Pharisaic school, a bloody persecution of the Pharisees. Alexandra 
with Enoch wd.be sufficient to disprove this identi- his widow and successor, took the Pharisees into 
fication. Moreover, there is no word in Josephus favour. At her death began the terrible fratri- 
or elsewhere of the Pharisees being in secret pos- cidal struggle between her two sons, and the yet 
session of sacred books, as we know the Essenes more ominous intervention of the Romans under 
were Further, the practical absorption of the Pompey. This roused the feelings of the recluses 
whole Essene sect in Christianity explains the vastly of En-gedi. The desecration of the Temple by 
greater influence this book exercised in the Church Pompey led their thoughts to the time when 
than over Judaism if the author were, as we regard Nebuchadnezzar overthrew the Jewish State and 
him, an Essene. As is well known, the book of burned the Temple. One of the visionaries feels 
Enoch had totally disappeared fm. the knowledge the spirit of Baruch, the amanuensis of Jeremiah, 
of European Christendom for nearly a millennium laying hold of him ; he sees Jerusalem falling before 
until some copies of an Ethiopic translation were the assault of the Babylonian army, and all the woe 
found by Bruce the traveller, in Abyssinia. Later, and horror of the sack. But behind the Chaldaean 
portions of the Greek fm. wh. the Ethiopic had been soldiery he sees four angels of God with torches in 
Lated have been found ; it too was a transla- their hands ; when they have caused the earth to 



swallow up the Holy Place and its furniture they 
open a way for the Chaldaeans to enter the Holy 
City. Baruch fasts, and another vision is given him ; 
he is told to exhort Jeremiah to go to Babylon with 



tion fm. a Heb. original, but no portion of this has 
been recovered. 

^ (b) Daniel was assumed as prompter by a later 
visionary, and his vision has had a greater success „ , , s i S1 ,,., 

than those either of his predecessors or successors ; the captives to strengthen them. This is in singular 
it was received into the Canon of Scripture as part contradiction to Scripture, wh. relates that Jeremiah 
of the book of Daniel. Our view is that the elected to remain in Judaea, and that then, after 
eleventh chapter of Daniel is of much later origin the murder of Gedaliah, he was carried down into 
than the rest of the book. Any one who reads the Egypt. In answer to a prolonged prayer of Baruch 
prophecy of Daniel m the original must observe, God Himself appears to the saint to comfort him, 
when he commences the eleventh chapter, a total and tells him of the times to come. There are 
change of atmosphere. The style of the Hebrew is twelve successive times, symbolised as floods of 
different ; the animal and angelic symbolism wh. water alternately dark and bright ; these, however, 
characterises the rest of Daniel has disappeared ; take the Apocalyptist merely to the time of Cyrus, 
instead we are introduced to actual kings of the Later are other black waters, the times of persecu- 
south and the north. This visionary, who had tion under Epiphanes; then another flood of waters, 

xxxii 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



wh. are partly dark and partly bright. This re- originated in the century preceding the birth of 

presents the times of the later Maccabees, when Christ; all these difficulties find an easy explanation, 

brother strove with brother, when hired assassins It is to be noted that Papias attributes to our Lord 

carried out the behests of envy, and when " blood a description of the millennial plenty wh. is found 

touched blood." The bright waters may be pre- in Baruch 29. Dr. Charles thinks it was an old 

sumed to be the conquests of Alexander Jannasus traditional .imagination, and therefore not at all 

and the prosperous rule of Alexandra. The darker impossible for our Lord to have used the words 

flood of Roman interference comes on, but behind it in question. However, they suit the place in wh. 

is seen the glorious light of the Messianic kingdom they occur in Baruch so well that they seem to be 

and its splendour. After this Baruch writes an original. If so, we must date this Apocalypse in 

epistle to the nine tribes and a half dwelling in pre-Christian times. We thus see no reason to 

Babylon, and binds it on the neck of an eagle to change our view, that the nucleus, at any rate, of this 

convey to them. This epistle does not seem to be book was written at the time of the overthrow of 

by the same hand as the earlier portion of the work. Crassus by the Parthians ; when the Roman empire 

As to the date of this Apocalypse, we venture to was divided against itself. 

differ fm. Dr. Charles, and retain the opinion we (d) The next writer took for his model not the 

have elsewhere expressed. Dr. Charles says it was visions of Daniel but the book of Psalms. Tho' the 

" written in the latter half of the first century of collection of Psalms to wh. we refer is called the 

the Christian era." The description of the Roman Psalter of Solomon, there is no evidence that the 

power, that had overthrown the kingdom of Israel, writer made any claim to being the instrument of 

as a " forest " with a multitudeof trees, while it suits the spirit of Solomon. A plea has been advanced 

Republican Rome does not suit the time when all with great confidence (by Drs. Ryle and James) 

the powersof the Roman State, no longerdistributed that these Psalms are the work of a Pharisee. There 

among consuls, praetors, tribunes, and senators, was is certainly much to make this view plausible, but 

absorbed by the emperor. Then the description of the fact that these Psalms have been so much more 

the leader, who was to be the last to survive among influential among the Christians than among the 

the trees when the destroying flood carried them Jews decidedly militates against it. The writer 

away, suits Pompey much more than any of the may have been brought up a Pharisee and later 

emperors ; he is a great tree, but only a tree like joined himself to one of the freer sub-sections of 

the rest, not raised, as was the emperor, above all the Essenes. The author of the Psalter, like the 

comparison. The name given to him suits this writer of Baruch, was deeply impressed with the 

also ; he is " leader," madboro. After Tiberius the disaster that befell Judaism when Pompey seized 

emperor, alike in Greek and Aramaic, was desig- Jerusalem and took the Temple. He, however, 

nated " king." There have been several hands at lived to see the body of the proud conqueror cast 

work on this Apocalypse, as Dr. Charles has pointed away on the shore of Egypt, slain by the Egyptian 

out, and consequently the features do not always monarch whom formerly he had befriended. Un- 

harmonise, but the results he reaches seem difficult like so many of his friends, the writer of the 

to reconcile with any interpretation of its genesis. Psalter of Solomon appears at one time of his life 

The late date he assigns to it fails to explain a to have taken an active share in public business, 

feature in the literary history of this book wh. and scathingly assails certain members of the San- 

Dr. Charles recognises as singular. Written, as he hedrin whose moral conduct deserved reprobation, 

regards it, by a Pharisee in defence of Judaism, it is The present Psalter of Solomon contains eighteen 

accepted by the Christians, but is not acknowledged Psalms ; but as there are quotations fm. this work 

by the Jews. Dr. Charles seems to us to have in the Pistis Sophia, none of wh. is to be found in 

failed to recognise the historic conditions of the the Psalms we have, and as when the reference is 

problem. By the time he thinks Baruch was given with the quotation to a special Psalm the 

written Jews and Christians were in antagonism to number is higher, probably the original Psalter 

each other ; a Jewish book wd. not have been re- was twice as large as that we have. Of the present 

ceived fm. the hands of the Pharisees unless it had Psalms the 18th is the longest and most interesting, 

a considerable known antiquity. Again, though It is a long description of the Messianic king and 

Judaism became wholly Pharisaic, yet this Apoca- His times. There are several phrases in it, wh. find 

lypse was not acknowledged by the Jews. It must echoes in the New Testament ; thus it is said of the 

also be observed that there is no indication of the Messiah (v. 42), " On account of His God He shall 

presence in the Jewish community of any sect that, not be weak, because God shall make Him mighty 

like the Christians, separated themselves fm. their in His Holy Spirit " ; this has an echo in Jn. 3. 34 , 

countrymen to associate with the Gentiles. If this " God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him." 

was, as we think it, the product of the Essene school, A further resemblance may be seen in v. 45, " He 

wh. merged so soon in Christianity ; if, further, it shall feed the flock of the Lord," wh. is echoed in 

xxxiii b 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



Jn. io. 11 , " I am the Good Shepherd." Another 
striking passage is to be noted, where the resemblance 
is not so much of words as of spirit (v. 36) : " There 
shall be no injustice in those days of His, because 
they shall be all holy, and their King is Christ the 
Lord." There is a dubiety about the reading of 
the last clause, not, however, because of any dif- 
ference in MS. authority, but fm. its apparently 
Christian character, especially as Kvpios was the 
received rendering of the sacred name YHWH. 
The elevated rank attributed to the " Son of Man " 
in the book of Enoch makes this calling the Messiah 
" Lord " not so extraordinary if the writer was an 
Essene. A manuscript professing to contain por- 
tions of some of the missing Psalms has recently 
been found, but the auestion of its authenticity 
may be regarded as yet sub judice. 

(e) The book of Jubilees has characteristics wholly 
different fm. any of the writings hitherto con- 
sidered. While the writer of Enoch was saturated 
with the thoughts and symbolism of Daniel, the 
writer of Baruch had before his mind the prophecies 
of Jeremiah, and the writer whose works we have 
just been considering had been a close student of 
the Psalms of David, the author of the book of 
Jubilees had devoted most of his attention to the 
historical books. There is throughout an apolo- 
getic colour given to the narrative, as if the writer 
were always considering how the Greeks or rational- 
istic Hellenised Jews wd. regard the transactions 
related. He finds the framework of his scheme of 
history in the Jubilee, the week of weeks + one, 
i.e. half a century. The source of this history is the 
" tablets of the heavens," or as they are called in 
Daniel, " the Scripture of truth." Moses in the 
first year of the Exodus, the third month and the 
1 6th day of the month, went up into Mount 
Sinai, and there had the " tablets of the heavens " 
opened to him, and in them he was able to read all 
the past history of the world up to his own time. 
Every event is set down in its own Jubilee and week 
of years in that Jubilee, and special year of that 
week. While in the Biblical account the only 
women named as living before the flood are Eve, 
the wives of Lamech, and his daughter Naamah, 
the writer has no difficulty in assigning wives to all 
the antediluvian patriarchs. When the morality 
of an incident seems doubtful in the light of more 
advanced ideas, the difficulty is got over by judicious 
omissions or suggested additions. Thus, in the story 
of the slaughter of the Shechemites by Levi and 
Simeon, while it is said that they beguiled them, 
the nature of the snare is omitted ; and there 
is added a " statute in Israel " forbidding the 
Israelites to give their daughters to a Gentile ; yet 
further, the age of Dinah was declared to be only 
" twelve years." In ch. 37. we have an account of a 
conflict between Jacob and his sons against Esau and 



his sons' mercenaries in the most approved style of 
the Hebrew Hagada. The writer is so enamoured 
of the "week" that he maintains that the year 
has only 364 days, that is exactly 52 weeks, and 
denounces those who wd. make the year a purely 
lunar one of 354 days. Dr. Charles, whose opinions 
always merit the highest consideration, wd. date 
this book somewhere between B.C. 250 and IOO, 
with the added note that it was nearer the former 
date than the latter. Personally we think the com- 
position of this book coincided with the beginning 
of the Herodian rule : the special animus against 
Edom seems to point to this. We agree with Dr. 
Charles in regarding the writer as a priest : the im- 
portance he gives to ritual, and the prominent place 
he assigns to Levi, all point to this. Dr. Charles 
thinks the original language of Jubilees to have been 
Hebrew ; the use of Mastema for " Satan " seems 
to us to point to Aramaic being the language, a 
possibility wh. Dr. Charles does not even consider. 
(/) Also connected with the great lawgiver is 
the Assumption of Moses, a book referred to in the 
Epistle of Jude. The condition in wh. we have 
this book is somewhat peculiar. It has come down 
to us only in a fragment of a Latin translation made 
fm. a Greek version of a Hebrew original. The 
translator seems to have had but a slight acquaint- 
ance with Greek, and no great mastery of Latin. 
Although it is only a fragment, there is much in it of 
the highest interest. The picture of Moses ascend- 
ing Mount Nebo accompanied by his faithful ser- 
vant Joshua points out its place of origin. Across 
the Dead Sea fm. the settlement at En-gedi rise 
the mountains of Moab, and one of them is Nebo, 
the mount on wh. Moses had died and been buried. 
The coenobites wd. naturally be led to think of 
him as morning by morning they saw the sun 
rise in splendour fm. behind those peaks. As the 
writer of the book of Jubilees wrote of Moses, and 
read of the events of the past in the " tablets of the 
heavens," so here we find him revealing the future. 
The difficulties wh. attend the interpretation of this 
book are great from the number of lacunae in the 
sole MS. in wh. it is preserved, fm. the presence of 
blunders in translation that can be recognised, and 
the probability of there being yet more wh. we 
cannot fix, and fm. the possibility that there may 
have been blunders in the Greek as a version fm. 
the Hebrew ; added to these are the possible mis- 
takes of copyists in all three languages, and one can 
recognise how far the modern reader is fm. being on 
certain ground. It seems, however, fairly certain 
that some date about a.d. 6 is the time of composi- 
tion. Archelaus has been deposed, and it is thought 
certain that ere long Philip and Antipas will be de- 
posed also, a hope that events did not fulfil. There 
is something to be said for Dr. Charles' view of the 
composite character of this work, but the fragmen- 



XXXIV 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



tary state of the remains forbids dogmatism. The 
great crux of the book is the person referred to as 
" Taxo," a Levite who, overwhelmed with the state 
of Judah, retires with his seven sons into a cave. 
The probability is that, had we the Hebrew, we 
might by one or two methods of Gematria make at 
least a plausible guess as to the person intended. 
We cannot say that any of the numerous solutions 
proffered can even be said to be plausible. 

We shall only glance at one or two Apocalypses 
that seem to be post-Christian. Of Jewish origin, 
they yet appear to have been written by Christians 
after the promulgation of Christianity. 

(a) The first of these is " Fourth " Esdras, wh. 
we have already mentioned as hanging on the fringe 
of semi-canonicity. Although by liberal excisions, 
on plea of removing interpolations, a nucleus wd. 
be left wh. mt. be maintained to be pre-Christian 
without it being possible to prove the contrary ; 
yet this remainder wd. be so colourless that it wd. 
be difficult to explain its existence and preservation. 
We are therefore inclined to regard it as post- 
Christian. Certainly the vision of the eagle with 
its twelve wings and three heads points at the 
earliest to the reign of the Flavian emperors. It is 
the work of a Jewish Christian working in a circle 
of predominantly Jewish ideas. Its Essenian origin 
is betrayed by the explanation suggested of the 
number of pseudepigraphic books used by the 
Essenes, in the tale of Esdras writing with the help 
of five associates the sacred books, ninety-four in 
number, twenty-four to be published but seventy to 
be retained. Besides the Latin version fm. wh. our 
Authorised is trd. there are Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, 
and Armenian versions wh. have been used in the 
preparation of the RV. 

(b) The Ascension of Isaiah. This as we have it 
is a composite work made up of three elements : the 
Testament of Hezekiah, the Martyrdom of Isaiah, 
and the Vision of Isaiah. The Martyrdom and the 
Testament of Hezekiah seem to have been in the 
hands of the writer of the Hebrews (Hb. II. 37 ; 
cp. Asc. Is. 2. 16 , 5. 11 ). The most interesting is 
the Vision, wh. gives a semi-docetic account of the 
birth of our Lord. The date of the first two por- 
tions must be fixed to the period of the death of 
Nero ; both portions were in the possession of the 
writer of the Hebrev/s ; while Nero the matricide 
king has died, the fact is fresh in the mind, and the 
Last Judgment is expected immediately. There is 
more difficulty as to the date of the Vision, but from 
the fact that it was not only known to Ignatius but 
assumed by him to be known to those to whom he 
was writing, it cannot be assigned to a later date than 
the last decade of the first cent. ; it may be earlier 
by another decade. Probably the combination of 
these into our present book was the work of a Jewish 
Christian of the first decade of the second cent. 



(c) The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs has 
hitherto generally been reckoned among the latest 
of the pseudepigrapha, but the weighty authority 
of Dr. Charles has been thrown into the scale 
against this view ; he declares for a very early 
date. He regards this book as written during the 
reign of John Hyrcanus by " a Pharisee who com- 
bined loyalty to the best traditions of his party 
with the most unbounded admiration of Hyrcanus." 
Whereas formerly it was held that these Testaments 
had been written in Jewish Greek, he maintains, and 
seems to us nearly to prove, that Hebrew was its 
original tongue. We do not know how he gets over 
Levi 6. 1 , " I found a brazen shield, wherefore the 
name of the mountain is called Asfiis " (Gr. "a 
shield "). It may be a play on Shirion, a name 
of Hermon, wh. also means a " coat of mail," only 
the locality assigned to Aspis does not suit Hermon. 
At the same time, we do not feel equally impressed 
with the evidences he adduces for the early date. 
The insult offered to the memory of the mother of 
Hyrcanus by Eleazar cd. not be an isolated pheno- 
menon ; it was but the culmination of a long pro- 
cess of alienation fm. the Hasmonseans on the part 
of the Hasidim. They had deserted Judas Macca- 
baeus at the battle of Eleasa when Judas began to 
seek foreign alliances ; no Pharisee cd. be loyal to 
his sect and have an unbounded admiration for 
John Hyrcanus. Still less cd. an Essene have had 
such an admiration for him. The description of 
the High Priest (Levi I8. 2 ' 14 ), wh. Dr. Charles as- 
signs to John Hyrcanus, is to us an echo of the Ep. 
to the Hebrews. It is to be observed that Levi 
distinctly states that " the priesthood shall fail," 
and adds, " Then shall the Lord raise up a new 
priest." The passages in wh. Dr. Charles sees a 
dependence of our Lord and the apostles on the 
Testaments of the Twelve show truly a depend- 
ence but in the other direction. In one of the cases 
our Lord distinctly claims originality : " Ye have 
heard that it has been said by them of old time, 
' Thou shalt not commit adultery ' : but I say unto 
you, ' That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust 
after her hath committed adultery with her already 
in his heart ' " (Mw. $. 27 > 28 ) ; cp. Benjamin 8. 2 , 
" He that hath a pure mind in love looketh not on a 
woman to fornication." Yet closer is the resem- 
blance between Mw. 18. 15 , " If thy brother trespass 
against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee 
and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast 
gained thy brother " ; and Gad 6. 3 , " If one sin 
against thee, speak to him peaceably ; and if he re- 
pent, forgive him " : even greater is the likeness to 
Lk. 17. 3 . For our part the dependence is clearly of 
the Testaments of the Twelve on the New Testa- 
ment, not the reverse. We do not refer to what 
Dr. Charles regards as Christian interpolations ; 
he does not show what are his criteria for interpola- 



XXXV 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



tions. We feel ourselves still necessitated to main- 
tain the post-Christian origin of these writings. 

The Sibylline Oracles. — Closely connected with 
the Jewish Apocalyptic writings are the so-called 
Sibylline Oracles ; although at the same time they 
differ in many points fm. them. They originated, 
not in Palestine as did the Apocalypses, but in 
Egypt. Greek, not Hebrew, was the language in 
wh. they were written, and their models of compo- 
sition were found not in Daniel and the Hebrew 
prophets, but in the Delphic and other oracles of 
Hellenism and their responses ; hence they were 
written in the epic dialect and in hexameter verse. 
These Oracles did not assume the names of saints of 
ancient Israel, but professed to be spoken by the 
Sibyls. Those ancient prophetesses, residing in 
different countries and believed to have lived at 
different ages, were supposed to have seen into the 
future, and in symbolic language to have foretold 
what was coming on the earth. The story is well 
known of the Sibyl who came to Tarquin and 
offered him nine volumes of sacred oracles ; on his 
demurring at the price she burned three of them, 
demanding the same sum for the diminished number 
as she had asked for the whole ; when he again 
hesitated she burned another three and once more 
presented herself, still demanding the same sum of 
money ; now the king bought the books, and they 
were placed in the Capitol : all this, we say, is well 
known. In Livy there are frequent references to 
these books being consulted ; whatever their origin, 
it is beyond doubt that there were sacred docu- 
ments kept carefully in the Capitol, to be read in 
times of disquieting omens. If we may judge fm. 
the occasions on wh. the Senate ordered that these 
books be consulted, it wd. seem that they resembled 
in contents those magical treatises found in Nineveh 
and Babylon, arranged, like them, under possible 
events, under each of wh. was told what was por- 
tended by it, and what sacrifices and ceremonies 
were due in consequence. When the Capitol was 
burned during the Civil War between Marius and 
Sulla in the year b.c 83 these precious volumes were 
consumed, and on his securing the supreme power 
Sulla endeavoured to replace what had thus been 
lost by means of oracles drawn fm. every quarter ; 
this new collection was placed under guardians like 
the former, to be used, like it, for consultation in 
emergencies. This search for oracles stimulated 
production, as was natural ; and the Alexandrian 
Jews, who had previously invented not a few 
" oracles " and Delphic verses, were specially active 
in this industry. Students of Herodotus will re- 
member the number of floating prophecies of wh. 
he chronicles the fulfilment. These couplets (for 
generally they are little more) afforded a model for 
the inventors ; hence the dialect and the verse 
adopted. The object of the Jews was to glorify 



their national faith in the eyes of the supercilious 
Greeks. Possibly the earliest attempt at a collec- 
tion was made in the first Christian century, when 
not only were previous Jewish forgeries included 
but also some versicles that had already adorned the 
pages of Herodotus. New editors took the collec- 
tion in hand, to the increase of its size. The final 
redaction may have been as late as the reign of 
Justinian. It sometimes seems to the reader as 
if the framework of our extant Or acuta Sibyllina 
had been a poem of Judaeo-Christian origin, wh. 
narrated the history of the world fm. the beginning 
to the end of time, in wh. elements drawn fm. Greek 
mythology were introduced into the Bible story, 
the leaves of wh. had got scattered and mingled with 
leaves fm. other sources, and were roughly collected 
into books at a later time. The first book, wh. re- 
lates the history of the world fm. the Creation to the 
capture of Jerusalem by Titus, is fairly consecutive. 
The story of the Flood and the account of the death 
of our Lord are given in it at a length out of propor- 
tion to the space. The second book appears to be 
an amplification of the Apocalyptic portion of our 
Lord's discourses (Mw. 24.), in terms that suggest 
that the period of disorder wh. began with' the 
death of Caracalla gave vividness to the picture. 
After that confusion supervenes. In the third 
book there are passages wh. suggest that they are 
leaves missing fm. the first, as the account of the 
building of the Tower of Babel, wh. is associated 
with the War of theTitans; and the call of Abraham. 
Mingled with this are accounts of the Ptolemies, 
the War of Troy, and the Persian invasion of Greece. 
Not infrequently a book begins in a way that pre- 
supposes a plan already formed ; thus the fifth 
begins with an account of each successive Roman 
emperor fm. Julius down to Hadrian, designating 
each obliquely, mostly by the numerical value 
of their initial in the Greek alphabet. Having 
reached Hadrian, a dive is taken into the indefinite. 
The eighth book has an acrostic of the name Christ, 
and the third has a distinct reference to Dn. II. 
There are a great number of references to the 
Gospel history and to the life and death of our 
Lord, so that it is evident that the Or acuta Sibyllina 
were finally edited by a Christian. In all there are 
nominally fourteen books of varying lengths, made 
up of fragments of widely differing dates. Doubt- 
less some of the fragments wd. throw light on the 
beliefs and expectations of the Jews in Egypt during 
the century wh. immediately preceded our Lord's 
Advent and that wh. succeeded, but it is impossible 
to date them with any certainty. 

(5) The Doctrinal Significance of Apocalyptic. — 
While one wd. not claim for the Apocalyptists in- 
spiration, yet Providence, wh. was passing the nation 
through a number of educative experiences to prepare 
them for receiving Christianity, had fitted these men 



APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 



specially to give voice to the thoughts and feelings 
of their fellows. Therefore we may learn fm. them 
the extent to wh. the process of preparation had 
gone. We cannot, in the short space open to us, 
do more than indicate the lines of advance. In 
theology proper, the doctrine concerning God, 
there is advance towards a more worthy idea. 
Though the prophets had proclaimed the univer- 
sality of God's rule, yet at times there are phrases 
used that render it a matter of doubt how far they 
apprehended the meaning of their own words. 
Thus in Isaiah (63 . 19 ) we have the prophet's ex- 
postulation : " We are become as they over whom 
Thou never barest rule" (RV.), i.e. "the Gentiles." 
To the Apocalyptist all the world was under the 
government of YHWH. To the prophets Provi- 
dence was a narrow affair, embracing only the races 
— the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Assyrians, the 
Babylonians — that came into immediate contact 
with Israel. Their intrusion into the affairs of 
Israel is regarded as due to the moral condition 
of the chosen people : the accident, so to speak, 
of their declining fm. the worship of God is the 
cause of the Assyrian or Egyptian invasion. To the 
Apocalyptist these empires, as they successively rise 
and fall, are part of a Divine plan wh. wd. be com- 
plete in the coming of the Messiah. The whole 
world was involved in this Messianic kingdom, not 
merely Israel, though the special dignity of the 
chosen people is recognised. This leads us to one 
of the most important sides of Apocalyptic doctrine : 
their doctrine of the Messiah, their Christology. 
This is brought into close relationship to the Logos 
doctrine. In Enoch we see a being super-angelic, 
all but Divine, who is called " Son of Man," and 
who is to be the Messiah ; the assertion of His 
absolute Divinity seems trembling on the lips of 
the writer. It seems impossible to deny that our 
Lord's use of this title " Son of Man " was de- 
rived fm. the book of Enoch, and with the term 
the thought of His being the representative and 
gd'el of humanity are connected. With this is 
involved the Trinity: though only faintly per- 
ceived, there is what seems to be an idea of a 
spiritual influence proceeding fm. God yet not 



God, as in the passage already quoted fm. Ps. Sol. 
17. 42 . Although the anthropological side of theo- 
logy is less to be noted in these writings, yet on the 
border-line between this and theology proper, the 
relation between God and man, the writers are 
sure of the most absolute fore-ordination — that 
everything is written in the " tablets of the 
heavens." The doctrine of sin is not prominent ; 
in fact, one of the characteristic differences between 
prophecy and Apocalyptic is the want in the latter 
of the denunciation of wrong so frequent in the 
former. On two subjects the Apocalyptist directed 
special attention : angelology with its correlate 
demonology, and eschatology. We know that ac- 
cording to Jewish tradition the men of the Captivity 
brought the names of the angels back with them fm. 
Babylon ; and rather more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago Dr. Kohut endeavoured, tho' with less 
success than his learning deserved, to identify 
the archangels with the Zoroastrian Amhaspands. 
Whatever the source, the angelic hierarchyin Enoch 
is great and complex. According to this book there 
were archangels, generally numbered as four, though 
sometimes the number is larger ; there are many 
classes and divisions, wh.wd. occupy more space than 
we have at disposal to discuss. The angelology of 
St. Paul seems to embrace a hierarchy equally com- 
plex, and classes equally numerous, but the nomen- 
clature is different. Over against the angels are an 
equally numerous hierarchy of demons, the angels 
that kept not their first estate. The name assigned 
to the leader of these fallen spirits differs in diffe- 
rent Apocalypses. Closely connected with this is 
eschatology ; the punishment of the fallen angels 
occupying a great deal of attention in the opening 
chapters of Enoch. The establishment of the 
Messianic kdm. is followed at no long interval 
by the Last Judgment, and the punishment of the 
wicked. Alike in Enoch and in 4th Esdras elaborate 
descriptions are to be found of the place of punish- 
ment. To a large extent, though somewhat modi- 
fied, the views thus expressed have found their way 
into the eschatology of the Church. Thus in many 
different lines these Apocalyptists prepared for the 
reception of Christian doctrine. 




Coin of Rhegium 
With Heads of Castor and Pollux 



THE TARGUMS 



During the period of the Exile the land previously 
occupied by the Jews had largely been taken pos- 
session of by inhabitants of other parts of the 
Babylonian empire to whom Hebrew was unknown, 
or at all events little known. Aramaic had become 
the lingua franca of all South-western Asia, so 
whencesoever the peoples came, and whatsoever 
their native language, they spoke Aramaic : in it 
political and commercial business was transacted. 
Further, the Jews who had been left in the land, 
few and poor, wd. necessarily learn the language 
of the immigrants, with whom they wd. come per- 
petually into business relations, if only in matters 
of buying and selling. At the same time, since 
on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris the 
ancient tongue of Babylon embalmed in the cunei- 
form had been replaced in ordinary matters by 
Aramaic, the exiles were compelled to use it in 
their intercourse with their neighbours in Baby- 
lonia. The returning exiles, therefore, if they had 
any knowledge of Hebrew, knew Aramaic more 
thoroughly. Hebrew in consequence dropped out 
of use when the returned exiles who remembered 
their childhood passed away. Although Heb. and 
Aramaic are cognate tongues, yet to the Jews in the 
days of Ezra and Nehemiah the law had to be inter- 
preted before they cd. understand it. Dante has to 
be translated before a French audience can appre- 
ciate La Divina Commedia, yet French and Italian 
are cognate tongues. When the habit introduced 
by Ezra of having the law read regularly in the 
synagogue was established, a class of officials arose 
whose function it was to interpret in Aramaic what 
was read, as the law always was, in Hebrew. This 
was called a " Targum," fm. targem (Aram.), " to 
translate," a root which appears in " dragoman," 
connected with regam, " to throw " ; the sense was 
regarded as thrown fm. one language into another. 
For approximately six centuries the Meturgemanim 
or interpreters spoke their versions : when a verse of 
the law was read in Heb. the Meturgeman repeated 
the Targum or version ; of the Prophets three 
verses were to be read, followed by the interpreta- 
tion. The Meturgeman was under very specific 
rules. He was forbidden to read his version lest the 
hearers might imagine it was the original Scripture 
that they were hearing. The reader was required 
to keep his eyes close on the roll of the law lest the 
hearers shd. think he was merely giving the human 



interpretation of the Divine law. The regular 
reading of the law through, in the course of a year 
or set number of years, gave a fixity to the Targum 
of the Pentateuch long before writing came in to 
assist memory and to crystallise the traditional 
rendering. 

The earliest committed to writing was the 
Targum of Onkelos, sometimes called the Targum 
Babli ; its origin must have been in Palestine, but 
received by the Babylonian schools, and ratified 
by their imprimatur, it became the received or 
official " Targum " of the law. There is a diffi- 
culty as to who this Onkelos was, and a confusion 
between him and Aquila, the reviser of the LXX 
Greek version. Each is said to have made his ver- 
sion under the direction of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi 
Joshua ; both, we are told, were proselytes — the 
names are the same, the n being inserted to make 
pronunciation easier. It has been suggested that, 
as Aquila's translation of the law into Greek was 
regarded as a model of accuracy, Onkelosi was an 
adjective fm. that name, and meant " with extreme 
accuracy." The history of both becomes what in 
any other than Talmudic literature wd. be too 
wildly improbable to be called legendary. Onkelos 
is declared to be a nephew of the emperor Titus ; his 
father's name was Kalonikus (Callinicus). When he 
became a Jew the emperor sent a cohort to take him 
prisoner, but he repeated certain texts to them and 
converted them to Judaism, and this happened not 
once, but three times. He called his uncle fm. the 
grave to consult him as to the advisability of be- 
coming a Jew, &c. The law was regarded as the 
most precious possession of Israel : the duty of cor- 
rect interpretation was therefore the more incum- 
bent on the interpreter. The version wd. be most 
carefully made, and when received as correct wd. be 
handed on with the most scrupulous accuracy from 
Meturgeman to Meturgeman. The rendering wd. 
thus get a certain fixity by tradition, if not also 
something of sanctity. By the middle of the second 
century, when the last hope of an independent 
Jewish State had been quenched in the blood of the 
followers of Bar-Cochba, Aramaic had nearly passed 
away. The knowledge of the Targum of the law 
was in as much danger of being forgotten as the 
vowels of its Hebrew, hence it had to be com- 
mitted to writing. All the scrupulous fidelity of the 
traditional rendering of the Palestinian Meturge- 



XXXVlll 



THE TARGUMS 



manin was preserved. Hence it deserved to be 
called Onkilosi, " Aquila like." Only in poetic 
passages as in the blessing of Jacob — especially in 
the parts regarding Judah and Joseph — or in the 
song and blessing of Moses, is expansive paraphrase 
resorted to. 

We subjoin the blessing of Judah (Gn. 49. 8 - 12 ) as a 
specimen of the poetic expansion sometimes found in 
Onkelos. We quote fm. Etheridge's translation. " Jehuda, 
thou art praise and not shame : thy brethren shall praise 
thee; thy hand shall prevail against thine adversaries, 
thine enemies shall be displeased ; they will be turned 
backward before thee, and the sons of thy father will come 
before thee with salutations. The dominion shall be thine 
in the beginning, and in the end the kingdom shall be in- 
creased from the house of Jehuda, because from the judg- 
ment of death, my son, hast thou been withdrawn. He 
shall repose and abide in strength as a lion, and as a 
lioness there shall be no king that may cut him cff. He 
who exerciseth dominion shall not pass away fm. the house 
of Jehuda nor the Saphea (the book of the law) frcm his 
children's children for ever until the Meshiha come, whose 
is the kingdom and unto whom shall be the obedience of 
the nations. Israel shall pass round about in his cities ; 
the people shall build his temple, they will be righteous 
round about "him, and be doers of the law through his 
doctrine (teaching). Of goodly purple will be his raiment 
and his vesture of crimson wool with colours. His mountains 
shall be red with his vineyards, and his hills be dropping 
with wine ; his valleys shall be white with corn and with 
flecks of sheep." 

At times, to avoid the appearance of anthro- 
pomorphism, a paraphrase is introduced. As an 
example of this we may take Gn. II. 5 MT., "The 
Lord came down to see the city and the tower wh. 
the children of men builded " (EV.) . Tg.O., " And 
the Lord was revealed to punish the work of the 
city and the tower wh. the sons of men had built " 
(Etheridge). In some cases, in the desire for ex- 
treme accuracy of rendering, violence is done to 
the genius of the Aramaic. In Hebrew AK, the 
sign of the accusative, frequently occurs, especially 
in the earlier books, and with as great frequency 
do we find N in the Targum — a form rare in 
ancient Aramaic and unused in more recent forms 
of the language, as in the Peshitta of the New 
Testament. In Biblical Aramaic it appears once 
in Daniel to support the oblique case of a pronoun. 
In the Sinjirli inscription the cognate T)) is used in 
the same way. The probable date of the Targum 
Onkelos is late in the second century. 

The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel is a 
rendering of the " prophets " in the Jewish sense of 
the term into Aramaic. To the Jews, Joshua, Judges, 
Samuel, and Kings are the Nebiim resbonim, " the 
former prophets." When the Jews were forbidden 
by Epiphanes to read the law in the synagogue, 
they began to read portions of the prophets. Like 
the law the prophets required an interpreter, and 
in due course the interpretation was committed 
to writing. This Targum is attributed to Jonathan 
ben Uzziel, who is said to have been a pupil of Hillel. 
It is said that when he began to write his Targum, 
Pal. was shaken by a voice from heaven wh. de- 



manded : " Who is this that reveals My secrets to 
the sons of men ? " This Targum is slightly less 
exact than that of Onkelos, slightly more given to 
paraphrase. 

As a specimen of his style Jonah i.s may be taken. The 
verse is rendered in AV. : " Then the mariners were afraid 
and cried every man to his god, and cast forth the wares 
that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them." 
In Jonathan it appears thus: "And the shipmen were 
afraid and prayed a man to (from) his fear (his god), and 
when they saw that there was not in them help, they cast 
the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of 
them." 

It appears to have been committed to writing 
shortly after that of Onkelos — a statement that 
implies that it is pseudonymous, wh. undoubtedly 
it is. Jonathan was said also to have translated Job, 
but that Targum was withdrawn ; it is said, how- 
ever, to have been republished, so that it is supposed 
to be his Targum of that book we have in the 
rabbinic Bibles now. The style, however, is not 
the same. He is said to have intended to write 
a Targum of all the Kethubim, but to have been 
forbidden fm. heaven. In the neighbourhood of 
Safed a cave in the limestone rock is shown as his 
tomb. 

There is a very paraphrastic Targum of the 
Pentateuch called by his name, usually cited as the 
Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan. Closely con- 
nected with this is the Targum Jerushalmi, wh. 
reads like a recension of that of Pseudo- Jonathan. 

The extent to which the paraphrase is carried 
may be seen in Targum Pseudo- Jonathan and Tar- 
gum Jerushalmi as compared with Onkelos. 

Onkelos (Gn. 3. 18 ) : "Thorns also and thistles 
shall bring forth for thee, and thou shalt eat the 
grass of the field." 

Pseudo- Jonathan : " ' Thorns also and thistles 
shall grow and multiply for thy sake, and thou shalt 
eat the grass that is on the face of the field.' Adam 
answered and said, ' I pray Thee by the mercy that 
is before Thee, oh Yeya [YHWH], that we may not 
be deemed like unto the beasts, that we shd. eat 
grass that is on the face of the field. May we arise 
and toil with the toiling of our hands, and eat food 
from the food of the earth, and thus that there may 
be a distinction before Thee between the sons of 
men and the offspring of cattle." 

Jerushalmi : " ' And thorns and thistles shall it 
multiply for thee, and thou shalt eat the grass that is 
on the face of the earth.' Then began Adam and 
said, ' I pray, through the mercy that is before Thee, 
Yeya (YHWH), let us not be accounted before Thee 
as the beasts that eat of the grass of the field. May 
we be permitted to toil with the toil of our hands 
and eat food from the fruits of the earth, and thus 
may there be a difference before Thee between the 
sons of men and the offspring of cattle.' " 

The Targum to the Hagiographa is very para- 



xxxix 



THE TARGUMS 



phrastic ; sometimes several versions coalesce, and 
increase the appearance of paraphrase. It is ascribed 
to Joseph Csecus — but this was merely a name. The 
various portions of the Hagiographa seem to have 
been Targumised at different dates and by authors 
with different ideas. Job, wh., as mentioned above, 
was wrongly ascribed to Jonathan ben Uzziel, is 
very diffuse, and seems to contain elements of 
very different ages. There are in it frequent cases 
where different Targumic renderings have coalesced. 
Psalms is rather better. An example may be taken 
fm. Ps. no. 3 , "Thy people shall be willing in the 
day of Thy power," wh. is thus rendered, "Thy 
people of the house of Israel shall be obedient to 
the law in the day of battle." * 

Proverbs is very close to the original. Its likeness 
to the Peshitta version has been remarked. The 
five Megilloth are of varying merit, on the whole 
abounding in Midrash. There are two Targums of 
Esther wh. the reader may find in Cassel's Commen- 
tary. There probably was, in most of these cases, 
an earlier Targum wh. was used as the basis for an 
embroidery of Midrash. There is no official Tar- 
gum of Daniel or Ezra, Nehemiah or Chronicles. 
There is a late Targum of Chronicles wh. was pub- 
lished separately ; it shows signs in the beginning 
of the influence of the Jerushalmi. A Targum of 
Daniel has been found, but it is in Persian. The 
reason why there is no Targum of Daniel or of 
Ezra-Nehemiah is supposed to be that Aramaic 
portions occur in both. 

The usefulness of the Targums of Onkelos and 
Jonathan is very considerable. The Targum may 
at times reveal a text slightly differing fm. the 
Massoretic, but it always reveals the sense wh. the 
rabbins, Babylonian and Palestinian, put upon given 

* The example of the rendering of Ps. no. 1 given 
in M'Lintock's Theological Dictionary is not that in the 
Warsaw edition of the rabbinic Bible. It is unfortunate 
that the writer of the article does not give the edition of 
the rabbinic Bible fm. wh. he made his translation. 



texts at the actual date at which they were executed. 
A striking peculiarity is the frequent introduction of 
memra (word) de Yeya (JHWH) where the text has 
" God " or Jehovah : thus Gn. 3. 8 , " They heard the 
voice of the ' word ' of the Lord God walking in the 
garden " ; Jg. 6. 12 , " The ' word of the Lord ' is 
thy help, thou mighty man." This usage suggests 
the Logos of Philo and of the fourth Gospel. 
Although neither " Onkelos " nor " ben Uzziel " 
had been committed to writing, both Philo and the 
writer of the fourth Gospel wd. have been accus- 
tomed to hear in the synagogue the phrase memra 
de Yeya occupying the place of YHWH ; and logos, 
with its double meaning of " reason " and " speech," 
being the natural translation of the term with this 
connotation, would readily lead to the Philonian 
speculation and the Johannine statement of doctrine 
in the prologue of the fourth Gospel. We have 
mentioned only the official Targums, the others are 
full of Haggadic elements. 

There is also a Targum on the Samaritan Pen- 
tateuch, wh. is valuable as preserving the dialect 
of Aramaic spoken in Samaria. In codices of the 
Sam. Pnt. in parallel columns with the text or 
on the page opposite to it, there is usually found 
a Targum or version of it either, as in more 
recent MSS., in Arabic, or in Samaritan Ara- 
maic. This latter keeps very close to the original, 
even in poetic passages. As a specimen Jacob's 
blessing of Judah (Gn. 49. 8 " 12 ) may be taken : 
" Judah (praised) art thou : thy brethren shall love 
thee ; thy hands shall be on the neck of thine 
enemies. The whelp of a lion is Judah : fm. the 
slaughtered, my son, thou hast withdrawn thyself, 
treading down: when thou couchest as a lion, and as 
a lioness, who shall rouse thee ? The sceptre shall 
not depart from Judah, nor the ruler from among 
his ranks, until Shilo shall come : to Him shall the 
nations be subject." It is of use in fixing the text 
of the Sam. Pnt. See Samaritan Pentateuch. 




PEF. Drawing 



Mount Tabor 
Xl 



VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES 



I. OLD TESTAMENT 

I. Greek Versions. — Until the rise of Chris- joins it to the accusative instead of the dative case, 

tianity the Jewish people were satisfied with the Hebrew idoms he rendered by the mechanical pro- 

Septuagint as adequately presenting in Greek the cess of word-for-word translation. Further, in 

meaning of their sacred law. They even invented choosing a Greek equivalent for a Hebrew word, 

miraculous adjuncts to the process of translation he endeavoured to find one with a parallel etymo- 

in a way that invested it with a quasi-inspired logy. If we had Aquila's version in its entirety 

authority. When Christianity appeared, and soon we should be able with absolute certainty to 

became predominantly Greek, the Jews assumed reconstruct the Hebrew text from which it was 

another attitude towards the Alexandrian transla- made. 

tion. Christian controversialists drew their argu- (2) Symmachus, who made a version somewhat 

ments exclusively from the LXX. At times they later than Aquila, is said by Eusebius to have been 

used passages where the Greek disagreed with the an Ebionite, with what truth it is impossible to 

Palestinian text, which was gradually consolidating decide. Epiphanius declares that he was a Sama- 

into the Massoretic. The Jews sought an effective ritan ; but there is no evidence in the fragment of 

means of answering their assailants, and so desired his version that is preserved that he followed the 

a translation which would more exactly represent Samaritan recension in preference to the Masso- 

the Hebrew. retic. He had greater mastery of Greek than Aquila, 

(1) The earliest Greek Version, and in many re- and also aimed at greater elegance of style. He 

spects the most important after the LXX, is that of inclined to resort to paraphrase when it suited his 

Aquila (AkvXcls). Epiphanius (Pond, et Mens.), the dogmatic proclivities. He appears to have written 

value of whose evidence on any subject is on a par early in the second century. 

with that of the Talmud, asserts that Aquila was (3) Of the versions used by Origen in his Hexapla, 
the stepson (pentherideus) of Hadrian, and that he the third named is that of Theodotion. Of this 
was sent by the emperor to superintend the building translator even less is known than of the former two. 
of the Temple at Jerusalem. While there, having Irenaeus quotes from his version, coupling it with 
been led to study the Scriptures, he became a that of Aquila as having neanis, " young man," in 
Christian and was baptized. He was, however, Is. 7. 14 instead of farthenos, " a virgin." He de- 
addicted to astrology, and despite the exhortations clares that both were Jewish proselytes ; but that, 
of the Church authorities, he persisted in casting while Aquila was from Pontus, Theodotion was an 
horoscopes. In consequence he was expelled from Ephesian. The whole of the book of Daniel, as it 
the Christian community which he had so recently appears in the LXX, is in the version of Theodotion. 
joined. Thereupon he became a Jew ; and in We are therefore in a better position to form an 
order to avenge himself upon those who had re- opinion of this version. In the main Theodotion 
jected him, he resolved to translate anew the He- appears to have been an emendator of the LXX 
brew Scriptures into Greek, in such a way as to rather than an independent translator. In the 
deprive the Christians of many of their proof-texts, case of Daniel, however, he seems to have translated 
It seems certain that he was a proselyte from for himself. Dr. Gwynn (Smith's Diet, of Christian 
heathenism. The Talmud (see Targums, Onkelos) Biog., s.v. " Theodotion") thinks that even in regard 
agrees with Epiphanius in asserting this. The to Daniel he was merely a reviser. Evidence of this 
version of Aquila renders the Hebrew into Greek is sought in Justin Martyr's quotation of Dn. y. 9 ' 28 . 
with such slavish literal fidelity that at times it is While in general it agrees closely with the original 
unintelligible, and frequently violates the laws of LXX as seen in the Chisian, in a few cases it agrees 
Greek grammar: e.g. bereshith, " in the beginning," with Theodotion against the Chisian. Dr. Gwynn 
is derived from rosh, and kef hale in Greek means thinks that the source of these divergences must be 
" head " : he therefore renders bereshith, iv kcc/xx- a pre-Theodotion LXX version of Daniel. The 
Acuw, which really means " in sum." In the same variations, however, are just such as might be made 
verse 'eth, the sign of the accusative, he translates by copyists to whom the version of Theodotion was 
" with " (sun), and in defiance of Greek grammar he naturally familiar. They would be liable, perhaps 

xli b 2 



VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES 



unconsciously, to substitute what was customary 
for what was strange. 

In the Hexapla Origen makes occasional use of 
other three versions ; but the surviving frag- 
ments are not sufficient to enable us to form any 
definite judgment as to their respective general 
characteristics. 

II. Syriac Versions. — (i) Of the Syriac versions 
the most important is the Peshitta (" simple "). 
Ephrem Syrus regarded it as already ancient in 
his day (a.d. 308-373), and repeatedly found in it 
words the meaning of which had been lost. That 
being so, we can hardly date it later than the first 
half of the second century of our era. One Syrian 
tradition claimed for it a far greater antiquity, 
declaring that the Law was translated by the direc- 
tion of Solomon. Another, slightly more moderate, 
attributes it to the priest sent by the king of Assyria 
to teach the colonists of the Northern Kingdom 
" the manner of the God of the land." 

Laying aside the products of Eastern imagination, 
the probability is that the Peshitta is the work of a 
Judaso-Christian. Only a Jew was likely to be so 
thoroughly acquainted with Hebrew ; and only a 
Christian would desire in this way to make public 
the contents of the Law and the Prophets. More 
than one may have been engaged in the task ; but 
the similarity in style throughout is much greater 
than is found in the various books of the LXX. 
While as a translation it follows very closely, in some 
cases it diverges from the Massoretic text : e.g. in 
Gn. 2. 2 , instead of " seventh day " it reads " sixth 
day " with LXX and Sam. In 4. 8 it inserts " Let 
us go into the field," also agreeing with LXX and 
Sam. In Gn. 6. 3 Psh. makes Adam 130 years old at 
the birth of Seth, agreeing with MT. and Sam., 
while LXX makes him 230. With MT. it makes 
Methuselah 187 years old at the birth of Lamech : 
LXX makes him 167, and the Sam. 6j. Note also 
the remarkable rendering in Gn. 4. 1 . According to 
MT. Eve says, " I have gotten a man, the Lord 
(eth-JHWH) " : so Luther. The Targum renders 
" from (min) the Lord," and is followed by AV. 
LXX translates, " I have gotten a man through 
(did) the Lord " : hence RV., " with the help of 
the Lord." The Psh. translates, " I have gotten a 
man for (le) the Lord." 

Unlike most translations, the Psh. tries to get rid 
of redundancies : e.g. in Ru. I. 1 MT., LXX, and 
EV. all read, "in the days when the judges judged," 
but the Psh. has " in the days of the judges." In 
Jh. I. 5 MT. reads, " Jonah had gone down to the 
sides of the ship, and he lay and was asleep " : LXX, 
more graphic, says, " he slept and snored " : Psh. 
says simply, "went down to the sides of the ship and 
slept." The relation of the Peshitta to the MT. 
shows that, while the Massoretic text was in process 
of formation, it had not yet become fixed. The 



Psalter is evidently by a hand different from that 
which wrote the rest of the version. In the method 
of formation the titles of the various Psalms differ 
from those in MT. and LXX. It is not as close to 
the Massoretic text as the rest of the version is. 

(2) As Greek became predominantly the language 
of Christianity, the Church depended more and 
more upon the LXX for its knowledge of the Old 
Testament. The Syrian Christians therefore felt 
the necessity for some acquaintance with the render- 
ings of the LXX. A translation of the Septuagint 
into Syriac was made by Paul of Telia. It is 
founded on the Hexaplaric text of Origen. It gives 
not only all the omissions and insertions of the LXX, 
but also all the marks made by Origen to indicate 
the relation in which the text stood to the Hebrew. 
A large portion of this version has been published 
at various times, and from different sources. The 
most important was the book of Daniel, published 
by Bugati in 1788, which confirmed the then re- 
cently published Chisian codex. This version is 
chiefly valuable for the help it gives in criticism of 
the text of the LXX, and for the means it furnishes 
of estimating the changes introduced by Origen in 
order to conform the LXX to the Palestinian text 
of the Hebrew. The Coptic and Ethiopic versions 
of the OT. were also dependent on the Greek, 

III. Latin Versions. — Greek, the sacred lan- 
guage of Christianity, was generally known in Italy 
and Gaul. The early Roman Fathers, Clement, 
Hermas, and Hyppolytus, as well as Irenaeus, bishop 
of Lyons, all wrote in Greek. In the Roman pro- 
vince of Africa, however, and in Spain, Greek was 
not universally known. 

(1) Old Latin. — The earliest version seems to 
have been made in Africa. It was a translation 
from the Greek. This is evident when we compare 
with the LXX the quotations of Tertullian and 
Cyprian from the Old Testament. A revision of 
this version seems to have been current in Italy, 
which was free from the roughness characteristic of 
North African Latin. 

(2) The Vulgate. — Christian scholars with some 
knowledge of Hebrew became aware of the great 
differences between the text of the Hebrew and that 
of the LXX, from which the version in common use 
had been made. The need was felt for a version 
which would more closely represent the original 
Hebrew. This need Jerome set himself to supply. 

This scholar was specially fitted for the task by his 
acquaintance with Hebrew : although it was not 
until late in middle life that, in his retirement at 
Bethlehem, he began the study of the sacred tongue. 
He first revised the Old Latin, making changes only 
where errors had quite destroyed the sense. He 
then settled down to a translation -direct from the 
original Hebrew, and at this he toiled from his 
sixtieth to his seventy-sixth year. He completed 



xhi 



VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES 



the translation of the Old Testament, and also of 
the Apocryphal books of Judith and Tobit and the 
Additions to Daniel. These last, being in Greek, 
were hastily thrown off. The rest of the Apoc- 
rypha, as unauthorised by the Massoretic Canon, 
he did not translate. They were allowed to stand 
as in the Old Latin version. 

The translation is of unequal value, the historical 
books being most carefully rendered. In his work 
Jerome employed every available assistance. He 
not only used the LXX, but also secured, with great 
difficulty, a copy of Aquila from a synagogue. His 
first assistant was a Jewish convert ; later he pur- 
chased the help of Jewish rabbins. This latter 
fact lends the Vulgate a certain value as indicating 
in some degree how far the Palestinian text of 
Jerome's time coincided with our ordinary Mas- 



soretic. Differences do appear in many places : 
e.g. in Dn. 8. 20 the MT. reads, " the kings of the 
Medes and the Persians " ; but Jerome reads, " the 
king of the Medes and the Persians." The MT. 
makes a difference between the name of the Baby- 
lonian king Belshazzar and that given to Daniel as 
a member of Nebuchadnezzar's court, while Jerome 
makes them identical. In both cases all the other 
versions have the same rendering. Opposition was 
offered to the introduction of the version of the 
Psalms made by Jerome direct from the Hebrew : 
he therefore substituted a more carefully revised 
version, made from the Hexapla text of the 
LXX. 

Other versions of the Old Testament, such as the 
Arabic, Coptic, Armenian, and Gothic, arc all 
late and secondary. 



II. NEW TESTAMENT 



(i) The Peshitta. — For long the Peshitta was 
believed to be the oldest translation of the New 
Testament. Recent discoveries have shown this 
position to be untenable. In the present state of 
the evidence it is impossible to decide with certainty, 
but there is reason to think that it cannot be dated 
earlier than the end of the fourth century, or the 
beginning of the fifth : the omission, however, of 
i and 2 John and Revelation seems to point to a 
much earlier date. 

The existence of a Syriac Version early in the 
second century is proved by Eusebius, who says 
(HE. iv. 22) that it was used by Hegesippus : this 
refers to the latter half of the second century. At 
the same time Tatian, the contemporary of Hege- 
sippus, composed his Diatessaron, or combination of 
the four Gospels into one narrative. It is evident, 
at all events, that the four Gospels were extant in 
Syriac before this, since Hegesippus in Jerusalem 
would quote from documents with which he was 
familiar, not from the recent work of a con- 
temporary. For more than a century the com- 
mon form in which the Gospels were used was 
the Diatessaron of Tatian. It was employed by 
Ephrem Syrus in his prelections on the Gospel 
history. 

The relation between the Curetonian and the 
closely kindred Sinaitic recensions is still sub judice. 
The Sinaitic has this peculiarity, that it is written 
in Western, not Eastern, Aramaic, which until re- 
cently was called Chaldee. In the genealogy of our 
Lord it is said that " Joseph begat Jesus," a state- 
ment that seems to negative our Lord's miraculous 
birth. We must remember, however, that only in 
this form could His birth be duly registered. In 
the Peshitta the Acts of the Apostles and the 
Epistles closely resemble the Gospels in style. 

xli 



1 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation are all 
omitted, as are also the first eleven verses of Jn. 8. 
and 1 Jn. 5. 7 . The relation of our present Peshitta 
to the Greek is not slavish. Not infrequently, when 
the Greek repeats words in a verse or in adjacent 
verses, the Peshitta varies them, possibly in the in- 
terest of style. The value of this version, already 
high, will be greatly increased by the publication 
of a critically accurate text. A recension of the 
Peshitta was published at the instance of Philoxenus 
in 508, afterwards revised by Thomas Heraklensis. 
Even in the present condition of the text, the 
Peshitta repays careful study. 

(2) The Vulgate. — We have seen that there was 
a Latin version of the Old Testament, at least in 
Africa, early in the second century. The like is 
true of the New Testament. This is proved by the 
citations of Tertullian. This version was somewhat 
rough in style, and often, instead of translating, it 
simply transferred Greek words into the Latin : 
e.g. machcera for ixa^aipa in Jn. 18. 10 . This version 
survives only in fragments, of which there are over 
forty, and in quotations found in the writings of the 
Fathers. These furnish proof that it underwent 
much revision and alteration. The MSS. in use 
during the third and fourth cents, differed widely 
from one another. That circulating in Italy was 
marked by greater refinement in style and vocabu- 
lary, the rough Latinity of Northern Africa being 
modified to suit Italian taste. Under these cir- 
cumstances any attempt to restore the Old Latin 
version is doomed to failure. 

Amid the existing confusion the necessity for an 
authoritative version became obvious. At the in- 
stance of Pope Damasus (366-384) Jerome under- 
took to revise the Gospels. This he did in such 
thorough fashion as to produce practically a new 



VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES 



translation. He then proceeded also to revise the 
Acts and the Epistles, including the Revelation. 

In making his translation Jerome kept so closely 
to the Greek, even in the order of the words, that 
Bentley proposed to edit an edition of the New 
Testament founded directly on the Vulgate. The 
Vulgate has special interest for English-speaking 
peoples, as from it Wycliffe made his version. From 
it also was made the Douay version, in use among 
English Roman Catholics. 

The name Vulgate was not originally applied to 
Jerome's version ; he himself uses the term in his 
Epistles and Commentaries, now for the LXX, and 
again apparently for the version in common use, 
which was a simple rendering of the LXX into 
Latin — a habit of his which has led distinguished 
people into blunders. 

The Coptic versions of the NT., Memphitic and 
Thebaic, cannot be traced to any very early date, 



but the probability is that both were executed 
about the beginning of the third century. It 
may be doubted how far a Coptic translation 
was due to necessity, and how far to the associa- 
tion of special sanctity with the Coptic. It has 
a value too slight for the criticism of the text of 
the NT. 

The Ethiopic version appears to have been made 
at a date slightly subsequent to the Coptic versions. 
Like them, it has been made directly fm. the Greek. 
While the ancient Ethiopic version is published, a 
translation into the more recent dialect is often 
interleaved with it. 

The Gothic of Ulphilas dates fm. the fourth 
century, and is interesting as exhibiting the ear- 
liest endeavour to translate the Scripture into the 
Teutonic tongue. 

No versions of the New Testament of more recent 
date are of any value for Criticism. 




House of Rushes in el-Huleh 



xliv 



PHILO JUD^US 



The period subsequent to the envelopment of Old Testament and the formulation of Christian 

Palestine by Alexander the Great (b.c. 331) theology. He must be reckoned with, that is, as 

witnessed a profound transformation in the much for his epoch as for his peculiar teaching ; 

spiritual and intellectual outlook of the peoples what he represents is at least as impressive as what 

who dwelt round the Mediterranean basin. In he tells. 

the course of their development all unitary civili- Unfortunately, very little is known of Philo's life, 

sations erect barriers to intimate admixture with The place and date of birth are irrecoverable. It 

foreign elements— this is an inevitable accompani- may be said, with relative certainty, that he was 

ment of their existence as distinctive cultures ; one born at Alexandria, Egypt, of a most influential and 

need only cite contemporary Europe. Alexander's wealthy, possibly priestly, Jewish family. The pro- 

" world-empire," and, even more, its Roman sue- bability is that his birth did not fall before B.C. 25 

cessor, not only tended naturally, but attempted or after b.c. 10. Several relatives occupied the fore- 

consciously, to destroy these lines of demarcation, most official positions at Alexandria and, later, in 

The rulers, like good statesmen, desired to create a the Roman empire. It is unquestionable that he 

common spirit wherein their motley subjects might enjoyed every advantage in education — money was 

partake, and thus to weld a stable unity from many no object — and that he possessed riches which 

races. As with similar movements, this one grew enabled him to dedicate his life to thought and 

slowly. For it involved the fusion of elements dis- scholarship. We are aware that he made a visit — 

similar, if not hopelessly antagonistic, originally, almost in the nature of a pilgrimage — to Jerusalem, 

The clear-cut intellect of Greece, enamoured of perhaps in youth, there to offer prayer and sacrifice 

moderation, was required to combine with the ex- in the Temple of the God of his fathers ; that he 

elusive religious nationalism of the Hebrews, whose acquired knowledge of the Holy Land, and, to some 

extreme monotheistic moralism repelled Hellenic degree, of the Hebrew tongue. The single event in 

genius ; while both had to accommodate them- his career that can be dated accurately was his visit 

selves to heathen occultism, alien from the Greek to Rome in the winter of a.d. 39-40. He repaired 

because of its intellectual, from the Jew because of thither as a member of the triumvirate charged to 

its religious, confusion ; and to the superstitious place the grievances of the Alexandrian Jews before 

nature-worship vestigial irremediably in the Orient, Caligula, and to protest, in particular, against the 

represented familiarly alike to Jews and to hellenised order that they worship the emperor. Philo was 

Romans by the variegated cults of the great pro- spokesman, most likely chief, of the deputation, 

vince, Egypt. So immense were the difficulties of whose failure proved a foregone conclusion in this 

fusion that it is little wonder the process did not reign. He tells us himself that political activities 

reach maturity for three centuries. The spread of and worldly affairs had no attraction for him ; and, 

Greek as the language of the educated, its use as a as the external life of the scholar is uneventful, we 

commercial medium, and the translation into it of must reconcile ourselves to the scanty references 

the Hebrew Scriptures (the Septuagint) forwarded that can be gleaned incidentally from his own works, 

the assimilation much. At length it found clas- as from those of Josephus, Eusebius, Jerome, Suidas, 

sical expression in the works of Philo Judseus, the Photius, and Isidorus of Pelusium, who are not 

chief ornament of the so-called Jewish-Alexan- always paragons of accuracy. A simple way for the 

drian school of philosophy ; not philosophy, strictly Bible reader to fix the relative date of Philo is to say 

speaking, however, but a wonderful mixture of that, from first to last, he lived contemporary with 

philosophical, philological, theological, and mytho- St. Paul. 

logical factors, all dominated by a theosophical Viewed as a whole, Philo's system (and he was 

intent. Accordingly Philo must be regarded as anything but a systematist) is an eclectic scheme 

one of the most important, because one of the most conceived and executed on an elaborate, even 

pivotal, figures in the general thought of " New chaotic, scale. And one may allege, not unfairly, 

Testament times." Moreover his extant writings that the dominant purpose tends to obscure the 

serve to illuminate the intricate, and still obscure, systematic features, on the surface at least, if not 

age that intervenes between the latest books of the fundamentally. Philo is an eclectic, because he 

xlv b 3 



PHILO JUD^EUS 



combines Jewish religious principles, as he con- Being a theosophy, Philo's thought is based 
ceives them, with certain developments from Greek primarily upon the doctrine of God. This, in turn, 
philosophy regnant in his time ; he incorporates was influenced powerfully by the strong tendency of 
with both some elements, chiefly of a mystic the age to separate between God and the world, 
character, derived from current Orientalism, and with an attendant elevation of the former and de- 
remains unconscious, probably, of the logical con- preciation of the latter. Hence, too, that vague 
elusions involved in his procedure. It is clear, craving for a new revelation wherein Philo's Jewish 
however, that he addressed himself to a double outlook found its opportunity. On disengagement 
audience : first, to the educated classes of the from the imaginative, often irrelevant, accompani- 
Graeco-Roman world — to expound and defend ments with which he surrounds it, his idea of Deity 
Hebrew religion, also to point out its merits as the is found to contain a curious admixture of Jewish 
universal religion of which all vaguely felt the need ; and Platonic factors ; these, again, lead to certain 
second, to his co-religionists — to persuade them that, consequences, derived mainly from Stoicism as to 
after all, Greek philosophy bore a message for them, matter, and from Pythagoreanism as to form ; 
because its principles were not only in ultimate Oriental elements also affect the last. According to 
agreement with the traditional tenets of their faith, Philo, then, man may apprehend the existence of 
but served to enforce, if not to formulate, them. As God by inspection of the universe, and by revela- 
a result, his purpose could be achieved by a line of tion ; on the contrary, he can never know how God 
thought in which Jewish Scriptural beliefs were exists. The real being of Deity must remain hidden 
blended with Platonic, Stoic, and Pythagorean from him in the nature of the case, because it pos- 
ideas. It may be noted that this process was no sesses no qualities. So, like the classical Greeks, 
new thing ; it dates back at least as far as the Philo holds that God is the eternal, immutable 
Septuagint (beginning B.C. 280). Reason ; and with pre-Stoic thought he empha- 
The means adopted by Philo to fulfil his pro- sises, even accentuates, the great gulf fixed between 
gramme hinge upon the famous allegorical method. God and the world. As a result, there can be no 
It is assumed that the Scriptures possess a double living God in the Hebrew sense, because God is 
sense. The one appears on the surface in the unchangeable, as Plato, and, even more emphati- 
literal statements ; it is the " lower " meaning, hence cally, Aristotle, taught. On the other hand, as in 
Philo's attacks upon " the sophists of literalism." Hebrew religion, God lives for Philo, possesses a 
The other, hidden and spiritual, is manifest only to personality, can reveal Himself. His adoption of 
the trained thinker, the " initiate." The deside- Platonic dualism enables him to maintain this over 
rated identity of Jewish and Greek conceptions was against Stoic monism. In a word, the pressure of 
to be proven by showing that the latter constitute Hebrew faith upon Greek speculative conceptions 
the esoteric teaching of the former. Philo de- makes it necessary to arrange a medium of revela- 
veloped this view, current in rabbinism ere his tion. Philo accomplishes this in his second great 
time, to an unprecedented degree. Thus Moses doctrine — of the Logos. 

becomes, in the language of Oriental occultism, Man's world is a lower sphere too imperfect 
the hierophant of the mysteries concealed in the for the real presence of the Deity, who would 
Scriptures, Adam is pure reason, Eve the senses, be smirched by the contact. Nevertheless, it is a 
the serpent desire, Noah the type of righteousness, cosmos, testifying everywhere to rational meaning ; 
Abraham virtue gained by higher wisdom, Jacob therefore, it must be pervaded by an indwelling 
virtue acquired by practical experience, Rebecca reason. Thus the Stoics thought, and developed a 
patience, Rachel physical beauty, the ark of the species of pantheism. No Jew could adopt this 
covenant the intellectual world, the cherubim the view and continue to maintain his national mono- 
chief Logoi who proceed from the Logos, who, again, theism. But the conception of some kind of Divine 
proceeds from the ineffable Deity, and so on. Ac- effluence seemed indispensable to Philo. Conse- 
cordingly the system, such as it is, supplies the full quently he speaks of the Logos as a " second " Deity, 
exposition of these latent, allegorical implications — having an existence of its own over against the 
it is the theory of the history, the essence of the world, because it embodies the activity of the 
veiling prose recital. The same method had been true God. God creates all things indirectly by 
applied by the Stoics to the Greek poetical myths, His Logos, and this manifestation always retains an 
so that Philo stood upon doubly familiar ground, operative, or dynamic, character. Quite clear as 
Obviously enough, of course, such exegesis implies concerns its independence of the physical universe, 
that the thinker knows how to reach the object of his the status of this " proceeding " is by no means 
search — he has a key ; thus a group of dynamic con- clear as concerns God. Inevitably, Philo fails to be 
ceptions is presupposed. In this we find Philo's decisive here. His Judaism inhibits him from deal- 
philosophy properly so styled — a species of theo- ing with the Logos outright as a " second person," 
sophy. while his Hellenism draws him towards an identifica- 

xlvi 



PHILO JUDJEUS 



tion of it with God, as an issue of Divine potency. 
Faith compels him to monotheism, reason would in- 
volve him in a pantheistic or emanational theory. As 
a matter of fact, he intends the Logos both to mediate 
between God and the world (thus giving it the im- 
print of personality), and to be the presence of God's 
creative power in the world (thus reducing it to the 
level of a " Word " or active quality, like " Wisdom " 
— no more). Apparently he was content to let the 
apposition rest unhealed. Nor did this subterfuge 
oppress him, because his main interest was in re- 
ligion rather than in metaphysics. The inevitable 
vagueness of theosophy, as compared with the 
scientific precision of philosophy, saves him here. 
It satisfies him that the Logos effects certain results 
in and for man ; especially it is " the power of God 
unto salvation." This is enough — the metaphysical 
problem lapses. As man enters into communion 
with the Logos he becomes, as Philo says it is, " the 
Son of God." Accordingly the diremption of 
human life is surmounted, and the most difficult, 
distressing questions fall away. It is impossible to 
enter here upon the intricate question of the rela- 
tion between the Philonian conception and that of 
the fourth Gospel. The balance of present evi- 
dence is that the author of the Gospel obtained the 
Logos atmosphere from Philo, although his treat- 
ment of the details, especially as respects incar- 
nation, was subordinated to different ends, and 
developed amid other associations. Briefly, the 
phrase " Son of God," as applied to the Logos in the 
Gospel, has no more than a verbal identity with 
Philo's expression ; nevertheless both men are im- 
pelled to this fundamental position by the same 
problem. Philo presupposes also a multiplicity of 
Divine forces inferior to the Logos. Among these 
are the Platonic Ideas, now ranked as efficient 
causes, thanks to Stoic influence ; the angels of 
Judaism and the demons (gods) of heathenism. 
Ultimately, then, God remains the reasonable 
" form " of the world, while matter, a " second 
principle," at first an indistinguishable mass, ap- 
pears to us in the definite objects of daily experi- 
ence through the constant operation of the inter- 
mediate forces, of which the human soul is one. 
Escape from the " prison house " of flesh is thus a 
necessary end, and Philo's ethics contain a distinct 
ascetic infusion. 

Philo's writings serve to show how completely he 
applied Hellenistic ideas within a Jewish matrix. 
The principal remains belong most probably to 
three works, all commentaries on the Pentateuch 



and the Mosaic law. Of these the popular presen- 
tation, written for the information of the Hellen- 
istic world in general, rather than for the scholarly 
" initiate," has come down most complete. There 
are at least seven other treatises, of which the most 
attractive is that descriptive of the causes that led 
to the Roman embassy, and of the repulse encoun- 
tered. Some eight works attributed to Philo are 
in dispute. The most important of these is, pro- 
bably, Concerning the Contemplative Life, where 
moral asceticism and monastic communities are 
extolled. 

For the English reader the most succinct account 
of Philo, particularly of his works, is to be found in 
E. Schurer, A History of the Jewish People in the 
Time of Jesus Christ, division ii. vol. iii. pp. 32 if. 
(Edinburgh, 1886) ; compare the same writer's 
article in the Encyclopedia Britannic'a. An excel- 
lent account is also to be found in The Jewish 
Encyclopedia. The most elaborate English work is 
James Drummond, Philo Judceus ; or the Jewish- 
Alexandrian Philosophy in its Development and Com- 
pletion (2 vols., London, 1888). A general account 
may be found in Heinrich Ewald, The History of 
Israel, vol. vii. pp. 1941. (London, 1885) ; and in 
A. Hausrath, A History of New Testament Times, 
vol. i. second division, chaps. 4-6 (London, 1885) ; 
the treatment of Philo, and especially of his writings, 
is one of the disappointing portions of this history, 
which gives a picturesque review of the general 
situation in culture. H. Graetz, History of the Jews 
from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (London, 
1 891), gives an account of the causes and results of 
Philo's embassy to Rome (vol. ii. pp. 183^), and a 
strongly pro-Jewish presentation of the manner in 
which Philo exalted Judaism at the expense of 
heathenism (ib. pp. 2o6f.). The best English dis- 
cussion of the relation between Philo and the fourth 
Gospel is Ernest F. Scott, The Fourth Gospel, its 
Purpose and Theology, pp. 54^, 145^ (2nd ed., 
Edinburgh, 1908). In F. C. Conybeare, Philo 
about the Contemplative Life (Oxford, 1895), a dis- 
cussion of the authenticity of this treatise is to be 
found, and one may gather from it some of the 
influences which moulded Philonian ethics. An 
English translation of Philo's writings has been made 
by C. D. Yonge (Bohn's Library) ; the Greek text 
of T. Mangey is the one cited usually. Full refer- 
ences to Philo literature are given in Schurer as 
above, whom it is well to consult in the last (4th) 
German edition for the latest information. 

R. M. Wen ley. 



xlvii 



JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS 



Is a most important figure in the group of 
authorities for the period of the origin and 
early spread of Christianity. We are dependent 
upon him for our knowledge of conditions in 
Palestine, and, to a lesser extent, of the rela- 
tions between the Jewish world and the religions, 
society, and government of the Roman empire. 
He was born at Jerusalem a.d. 37-38, and died at 
Rome in the early years of the second century, when 
we do not know exactly. On both parental sides 
he sprang from the highest rank of the priestly aris- 
tocracy, and enjoyed the advantages conferred by 
wealth and position. He received a thorough edu- 
cation, becoming intimate with the culture of the 
Pharisees and Sadducees, while a knowledge of Greek 
familiarised him with Hellenistic ideas. By his own 
account, he was already expert in the traditions of 
the elders at the age of fourteen. At sixteen he 
forsook learned circles at Jerusalem, being moved 
probably by current apocalyptic revivals, and with- 
drew to the desert of Engedi, in order " to slake his 
thirst for knowledge." He spent some three years 
here, placing himself under the tutelage of Banus, 
an Essene hermit, and practising severe asceticism. 
Belief in the occult, and in magic, shared by him 
with his contemporaries, was confirmed by this ex- 
perience, as was his devotion to the law and to cere- 
monial purity. Accordingly, when he returned to 
Jerusalem, he did not join the Sadducees, as might 
have been anticipated from his social position, but 
became a Pharisee. He explains for the benefit of 
his Hellenistic readers that the Pharisees are like the 
Stoics ; a most significant intimation, for it throws 
a flood of light upon his cosmopolitan point of view. 
From a.d. 52-66 the misgovernment of the Roman 
procurators, Felix, Albinus, and Florus, and the 
anarchy at Jerusalem under Annas, the High Priest 
(62), inflamed the people,the patriots first, and then 
the plundered aristocrats, against Roman rule. The 
brief respite under Festus seems to have abated the 
zeal of the upper classes, among whom Josephus 
moved. Thanks to this friction, many malcontents 
were sent to Rome, and thither Josephus repaired, 
probably in 64, to intercede for some priests whom 
he knew well. Like Paul, he was wrecked on the 
voyage, rescued with a remnant of his fellow-pas- 
sengers, and landed at Puteoli. There he met 
Alityrus, a Jewish mime (actor) popular in Nero- 
nian circles, who gained him access to the empress 



Poppsea, at Rome. Poppaea, herself a Jewish prose- 
lyte, espoused his cause. He concluded his mis- 
sion successfully, and returned to Jerusalem shortly 
before the revolt of 66, bearing valuable presents 
from her. More important was the object-lesson 
he had learned in Roman wealth and power. This 
served to confirm him in the idea, incipient possibly 
under Festus, of a modus vivendi between the Jewish 
leaders and the Roman government. In common 
with his rank, he held aloof from the war of libera- 
tion, but, with the directing classes generally, was 
swept into it by irresistible popular demand. The 
second period of his life coincides with the terrific 
struggle that ensued. 

After the disastrous evacuation of Jerusalem by 
Cestius Gallus, the aristocracy joined the revolu- 
tion and filled the chief offices, Josephus being sent 
to Galilee as civil and military governor. This was 
the point of greatest strategic importance. The 
appointment of a student by nature and nurture to 
a position of such military responsibility is remark- 
able, and must be traced to social influence and 
political exigency. Josephus' conduct of the pre- 
parations for defence embittered the patriots, who 
suspected him of collusion with the Romans, and, 
led by John of Gischala, a Zealot extremist, ap- 
pealed for his removal, without success ; his friends 
were too powerful, himself too adroit. Whatever 
may be said of his later literary life, Josephus was a 
man of the world in practical matters. His half- 
hearted policy, with its greatness in small things and 
smallness in great things, has been the subject of 
denunciation. More than likely he was convinced 
that resistance would be useless in the long run, and 
had an eye upon his own fate in what he regarded as 
the inevitable issue. At any rate his measures were 
not calculated to check Vespasian with opposition 
such as might have been forthcoming from a com- 
mander animated otherwise. After many danger- 
ous incidents and hairbreadth escapes, concerned 
not least with his own people, Josephus, himself a 
fugitive before the Roman army, was shut up with 
his troops in Jotapata, a stronghold on the north of 
the lake of Gennesaret, in May 6j. The place was 
defended with desperate valour for forty-seven days, 
when Titus surprised the weary garrison, scaled the 
walls under cover of a fog, and put the inhabitants 
to the sword. Josephus fled for refuge to a cave, 
where he preserved his life from his associates by the 



xlviii 



JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS 



aplomb that never forsook him. Discovered at 
length, he was taken to Vespasian's camp, where he 
plied the superstitious soldier with the arts of the 
mystagogue, predicting his elevation to the purple 
— an event that actually occurred two years later. 
Vespasian treated him well, extracting useful in- 
formation in return. The infatuation of Titus for 
Berenice, which began now, gave the Jewish aristo- 
crats a new source of influence with the Roman 
generals, to Josephus' benefit doubtless. At all 
events, when Vespasian was proclaimed emperor, 
he liberated his captive, who was taken by him to 
Alexandria forthwith. According to Roman cus- 
tom, Josephus assumed the family name of his bene- 
factor, and was known thenceforward as Flavius. 
He returned to Palestine with Titus, and from the 
Roman camp witnessed the appalling events that 
preceded and accompanied the siege and sack of 
Jerusalem. Here he was in frequent peril, not only 
from the Roman soldiery, who attributed their re- 
pulses to his machinations with the Jews, but also 
from his countrymen, who regarded him as a base 
traitor, and tried to kill him, when he went out 
as Titus' representative to negotiate capitulation. 
But, thanks to his adroitness as a courtier, he re- 
tained the favour of the Flavians through good 
report and evil. After the siege he accompanied 
Titus to Rome for the triumph, and the imperial 
city was to be his future home. With this extra- 
ordinary series of adventures the second period of 
his life closed. So well did he stand with the im- 
perial family that he was relieved of anxiety for life. 
A royal house lodged him, a pension was bestowed 
upon him, he received a fertile estate in Palestine, 
was exempted from tribute, and admitted to Roman 
citizenship. In a word, the Jewish Pharisee gave 
place to the Hellenistic literary man, who became an 
invaluable intermediary between the empire and his 
own folk, at least from the Roman imperial point of 
view. Apart altogether from personal questions, 
his position at Rome is of profound significance as an 
indication of the influence wielded by Jews through- 
out the empire at the time, and as an illustration of 
Roman policy towards distinguished men of other 
races and faiths, provided they were willing to sup- 
port the Latin overlordship. 

The works that constitute Josephus so invaluable 
an authority are as follows : — 

I. Concerning the Jewish War, completed before 
the death of Vespasian (a.d. 79). Written origi- 
nally in Aramaic (not extant now), the author's 
mother tongue, it was translated into Greek by 
Josephus himself, who prepared for the task by 
taking lessons in Greek composition, and learned to 
use this language fluently. The author's division 
into seven books is as follows : i., the history from 
Antiochus Epiphanes (b.c 175) to Herod the Great 
(b.c 4) ; ii., from b.c 4 to a.d. 66, including the 

xl 



first phases of the war ; iii., events in Galilee in 6j ; 
iv., subsequent events till the investment of Jeru- 
salem ; v. and vi., the siege and capture of the 
Holy City ; vii., the course of the insurrection after 
the fall of Jerusalem. With all its defects, common 
to it with other histories at that time, the work is 
most important, because the production of an actor 
in the drama and an eye-witness of its tremendous 
close, and because Josephus had access to Roman 
State documents. Naturally, he glorifies his own 
people, so far as compatible with his position at 
Rome, and his history is " romantic " in this respect. 
The portions most open to question concern the 
part played by himself. Here his manifold defects 
of character must occasion grave doubt. But, 
on the whole, as history then went, the War is a 
careful performance. Its general credibility must 
be granted, even allowing for the lack of accuracy 
permitted to historical writers in that age. Our 
defensible suspicion of, even contempt for, the 
character of the writer should not be permitted to 
exert bias in this regard. 

II. The Antiquities of the Jews, finished about 
a.d. 94. Josephus divided this work into twenty 
books, and dealt with the entire history of his people 
till the war of 66. The books fall into five groups : 
(1) bks. i.-x., from earliest times to the close of the 
Babylonian Captivity, that is, parallel substantially 
with the OT. ; (2) bk. xi., the Persian period of 
Cyrus ; (3) bks. xii.-xiv., the Hellenistic period, 
from Alexander the Great, including the Hasmo- 
naean dynasty, and events till the reign of Herod the 
Great ; (4) bks. xv.-xvii., Herod's reign (b.c. 37-4) ; 
(5)bks.xviii.-xx., from the death of Herod to a.d. 66. 
The work is dominated by a distinct tendency. 
The Jews were suspected, when not hated, in the 
Roman world, thanks largely to themselves. Jose- 
phus attempts to place them in a better light, and to 
explain the Scriptures to the Gentiles. In short, he 
addresses himself, not to his own folk, but to the 
educated classes in Graeco-Roman society. For 
this reason he often softens Scriptural history and 
omits offensive incidents. The early Hellenistic 
period is treated sketchily (a most unfortunate 
gap), while Hasmonsean times are covered largely 
at second-hand from authorities like Strabo ; the 
same may be said of Herod's reign, where Nicolas 
of Damascus is the chief source. The concluding 
books are constructed loosely. On the other hand, 
the preservation of excerpts from lost writers, the 
lists of High Priests, the full consideration of Roman 
affairs from Caligula, and the incorporation of im- 
perial State papers, afford material of great moment 
to modern investigators. Perhaps the most striking 
feature of the work is its total failure to appreciate 
the spiritual elevation of Jewish religion at its 
moments of deepest inspiration. The Pharisee in 
Josephus, and his Hellenistic cultural associations, 



JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS 



caused this obliquity, which, negatively, offers 
many hints regarding religious conditions at the 
time. 

III. The most impressive of the writings was 
composed probably just after the Antiquities. 
Since Jerome's time it has been known as Against 
Apion, but is better described by an older title, 
Concerning the High Antiquity of the Jews. It is 
essentially an apology for Jewish religion against 
heathen misrepresentation and traduction, in two 
books. Evidently Josephus wrote it con amore, 
hence its peculiar value. The exposition and de- 
fence of Moses and his legislation are warm, even 
eloquent ; the attacks on Greek polytheism, as well 
as the references to authorities not extant now, are 
of special interest to the student. The acrid reply 
to Apion, descending to the level of vituperation, 
occupies a subordinate place. The whole work 
shows that its author could forego on occasion his 
customary attitude of worldly wisdom and calcu- 
lating self-regard. 

IV. Aside from its introductory and concluding 
chapters, the so-called Autobiography (Vita), written 
in the first years of the second century, is a mis- 
nomer. Stung by the attacks of Justus of Tiberias, 
an associate of Galilean days, who, in his History of 
the Jewish War, accused Josephus of heading the 
anti-Roman rebellion, our author dedicates his 
Autobiography to a reply. Little reliance can be 
placed upon its account of his career in Galilee. 
Indeed, he may be said to invert the facts. But 



Josephus' position at the Roman court rendered re- 
pudiation necessary, while his familiar connection 
with the Caesars was calculated to give his explana- 
tion a colour that it cannot bear for us. 

English readers who desire to obtain a fuller grasp 
upon the significance of Josephus may consult the 
following works with advantage. For a conspectus 
of the entire period, W. D. Morrison, The Jews 
under Roman Rule (" Story of the Nations " series, 
London) ; for a full analysis of the sources, and all 
co-operant circumstances, Emil Schurer, A History 
of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 
division i., vol. i. (Edinburgh, 1890) ; for an ac- 
count (somewhat critical) of Josephus' transactions 
in Galilee, A. Hausrath, A History of New Testa- 
ment Times, vol. iv. seventh division, chap. 2 
(London, 1895). A very unfavourable presenta- 
tion, from a Jewish source, is to be found in H. 
Graetz, History of the Jews from the Earliest Times to 
the Present Day, vol. ii. chap. 10 (London, 1891); 
against this may be set the objective article in The 
Jewish Encyclopaedia. The most available transla- 
tion in English is that of Whiston, of which there 
are many editions ; the best English translation 
of The War of the Jews is that of Traill, edited 
by Taylor (1862). The best Greek text is that 
of Niese. Full references to Josephus literature, 
covering all possible points, may be found in 
Schurer, whom it is advisable to consult, for the 
latest information, in the last (fourth) German 
edition. R. M. Wenley. 






Sennacherib before Lachish 



Babylonian Priest 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE DURING THE 

TIME OF OUR LORD 

Up to the end of the eighteenth century it was accompanied by a Greek translation — a thing that 
assumed that the language of Palestine during our wd. have been needless had it not been that the 
Lord's life on earth, and by consequence that in wh. majority of the inhabitants had ceased to under- 
His discourses were delivered, was ancient Hebrew, stand easily the ancient tongue of the country, 
the language of Moses, of David, of Isaiah. This This is confirmed by the fact that the great mass of 
view seemed to be confirmed by the references to the papyri found recently dating fm. the reigns of 
Hebrew in John, Acts, and Revelation ; as in Jn. the later Ptolemies are in Greek. These are not 
19. 13 , " the place that is called the Pavement, but in merely literary remains, copies of the works of Greek 
the Hebrew Gabbatha," so in v. 17, " the place of a and classic writers, but private letters — letters even 
skull, wh. is called in the Hebrew Golgotha." We of schoolboys. Egypt had adopted Greek as its 
find, however, on consideration, that these words familiar language, tho' the sacred services of worship 
are not Hebrew in the strict sense of the term, but were carried on in Coptic. This practice of heathen 
Aramaic. Till within the last quarter of the past Egypt of associating their ancient language with 
century it was practically assumed that Aramaic was worship was carried over into the Christian Church, 
merely a later debased form of Hebrew. That idea but the medium of business and social intercourse 
was finally disposed of by the discovery of the Ara- was Greek. In Cilicia we have fewer remains, yet 
maic inscriptions of Sinjirli, wh. dated fm. the time the balance of evidence is decidedly to the same 
of Tiglath-pileser. Certainly most of the pseudony- effect. Formerly, in the days of the Assyrian as- 
mic Jewish Apocalypses were written not in Ara- cendency, whatever may have been the primitive 
maic but in Hebrew. As these, however, claimed to language of Cilicia, Aramaic had become that of 
be the work of ancient patriarchs, and hence to be common use, as we learn from the Sinjirli inscrip- 
of great antiquity, it was needful, to give any veri- tions. This, however, had been totally dispos- 
similitude to the claim, that they shd. appear in the sessed by Greek centuries before the days of our 
ancient sacred tongue. It may be regarded as cer- Lord's earthly life. In the third pre-Christian 
tain that at all events Hebrew in the stricter sense century the great lights of the Stoic schools were fm. 
of the term was not the ordinary language of Pales- Cilicia, and they all wrote in Greek, and a Greek 
tine at the period in question. For more than a cen- university was set up in Tarsus. In the neighbour- 
tury now there has been no question on this point. ing island of Cyprus all the inscriptions except 
In more recent times it has been assumed very the very earliest are in Greek. Again, inland in 
generally that the language of the inhabitants of Lycaonia, Greek was the language in common use ; 
Palestine at the period of our Lord's ministry was in this the apostles addressed the inhabitants, and in 
Aramaic. Most, however, have admitted that the Greek they professed their faith in Christ. It is 
country was essentially bi-lingual, using both Greek produced as a mark of special excitement, and per- 
and Aramaic. Hence the question becomes nar- haps religious fervour, that it was in the speech of 
rowed down, and, as it is admitted that Greek was Lycaonia they declared that " the gods had come 
known by practically all the inhabitants, it really down in the likeness of men," and recognised 
resolves itself into the question of the relative pre- Hermes in Paul and Zeus in Barnabas, or whatever 
dominance of the two tongues — wh. was the most were the Lycaonian equivalents of these Hellenic 
generally used. One method of approaching this divinities. The cripple whose cure caused the ex- 
question is to endeavour to discover what was the citement understood Greek, for Paul saw that he 
condition of things in neighbouring countries. The had faith to be healed ; he had listened understand- 
country in the nearer East of whose history and ingly fm. the first, and at last did so believingly. 
habits we know most at this period is Egypt. In Altho' the evidence is yet scantier of countries to 
that country Coptic had been almost entirely dis- the east of Palestine, yet even here, where Aramaic 
possessed by Greek. It is true sacred proclamations had a much stronger hold, there is evidence of 
were engraved in ancient Egyptian, both in hiero- the prevalence of Greek. From the banks of the 
glyphic and cursive characters, but these in the Euphrates philosophers came to teach in Athens, 
days of the Ptolemies and the Caesars were always More of evidence than avowed and serious philo- 

li 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



sophers is Lucian, the Voltaire, the most marked and 
influential writer of Greek, yet a native of Samosata 
in the centre of the Aramaic-speaking district. 
Earlier, in the end of the first Christian century, 
is the Assyrian sophist Isacus, whose eloquence in 
Greek is commended in the highest terms by Pliny. 
Juvenal refers to him : he must have early been in 
the habit of speaking Greek to have become so 
copious and accurate in its use. In Palmyra, 
altho' laws were proclaimed and engraved in 
Aramaic, as we know fm. inscriptions, even in 
regard to municipal dues on carts and carriages a 
Greek translation had to be appended, as if the 
ancient tongue was not " understanded of the 
common people." Nearer to the land of Israel was 
Phoenicia, and we find the Syrophcenician woman 
called a " Greek." These things being so, the a 
priori probability is very great that it was in Pales- 
tine as in the neighbouring nations. Indeed, had 
this not been the case, classic authorities wd. have 
adduced this peculiarity as one of the many in wh. 
the Jews were " contrary to all men." 

Further, circumstances within Palestine tended 
to the same conclusion. All over Palestine were 
Greek cities, cities that prided themselves on their 
Hellenic culture and Hellenic civic rights. There 
was the Decapolis, the league of the " ten Hellenic 
cities " : the number was really more, but that was 
the name assumed. Of these the majority were 
either in Palestine proper or on its immediate 
borders. Besides these there were cities in the 
Shephelah that claimed also to be Greek, as 
Raphia, Anthedon, Jamnia, Joppa, Apollonia, 
Csesarea Stratonis, Dora, and Ptolemais. There 
were other cities, such as Samaria, Gaba, and 
Sepphoris, that were Hellenised. Justin Martyr 
belonged to the first of these, and he was essentially 
Greek ; he seems to have known neither Hebrew 
nor Aramaic. All of these had mints, and were 
allowed to coin copper and silver money. On these 
coins the inscriptions, even far on in the Roman 
period, are in Greek. As to the cities of the De- 
capolis, the present writer, in the course of a couple 
of days' stay in one of them, Gerasa (Jerash), turned 
up scores of Greek inscriptions but never saw one 
in Aramaic. This was the case, altho' not a few of 
the names occurring had Semitic elements. The 
inhabitants of these cities spoke Greek and prided 
themselves on this. These cities were the markets 
of the surrounding country. This wd. constrain 
even the country people to master Greek, also. The 
territory formerly Philistine, as also the territory of 
Tyre and Sidon, and that of the Syrian kingdoms or 
governments, all predominantly spoke Greek, and 
with these there was a constant unrestricted inter- 
course on the part of the Jews. This wd. necessi- 
tate and imply a very general knowledge of Greek 
among the Jews. 



A slight contributary evidence of the preva- 
lence of Greek may be found in the number of 
Greek words in the Mishna, and the nature of 
them. Matters connected with war and civil 
government are designated by Greek terms ; 
thus the provincial governor was called hege- 
mon and his province hegemonia. An army was 
estratia (err par ia), war polemos (7roAejU,os), pay 
'opsoriia (6\pu>vtov), &c. The rulers of a town were 
called 'arche (p*pyj\) collectively. Even the most 
essentially Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, derived 
its name from avveSptov, the prosecutors qupqor 
(Karrjyopos), an advocate pareqlet (TrapaK\r)Tos). 
Even the reserved right to recall a loan without 
reference to the Sabbath — even this specially Jewish 
arrangement — was known by the Greek name 
prozebul (7rpocrf3oXy]). Trade and commerce showed 
the effects of this Hellenisation : a pen was qalamos, 
an account book pinaqs (yrtvaQ. So with dress, etzto- 
lith (cTToXa); sandal (cravSdXtov), sudarin (crovSdptov). 
Furniture also, seefsal (subsellium) ; a seat, qathedra 
(KaOeSpa) ; a bowl, phili (<f>td\r]) ; a wine barrel, 
phitos (irtOos). These examples — a selection fm. a 
multitude — are drawn, of course, from the Mishna, 
wh. was not committed to writing for nearly a 
century and a half after our Lord's crucifixion, yet 
the number of them occurring in a work devoted 
to purely Jewish questions, written by those who 
boasted themselves on their Hebrew purism, ex- 
hibits the extent to wh. in the last quarter of the 
second century, Hellenism had permeated Jewish 
conversational language. This implies that the 
process was not recent ; the writers of the Mishna 
wd. have avoided everything recent that related 
them to the Greeks. It really meant that these 
rabbins were obliged to use these words if they 
wd. be understood. 

Connected with this is the number of purely 
Greek names we find in Josephus. Altho' the sons 
of Mattathias and his grandsons all bear Hebrew or 
Aramaic names, his great-grandsons, the sons of 
John Hyrcanus I., all bear Greek names — Aris- 
tobulus, Antigonus, Alexander. With the excep- 
tion of John Hyrcanus II. and his grand-daughter all 
the later Asmonaeans bore Greek names. Altho' the 
Herodians were anxious to commend themselves to 
the Jews, their subjects, they all bore Greek names 
except Phasael, the brother of Herod the Great. 

Further, we know that the process of Hellenisa- 
tion had not only begun but had been carried a 
considerable way before the time of the Maccabees. 
The younger Jews, to the horror of their fathers, 
became addicted to the games of the Palaestra : and 
the drama too was introduced; for this Philo is 
our evidence. In their eagerness for the games the 
younger Jews were even ready to obliterate the 
covenant sign of their Judaism. Of course there 
was a reaction when Epiphanes attempted to hasten 

lii 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



the process and Hellenise their religion — then the 
Jews resisted. Still in everything else the process of 
Hellenisation may be supposed to have gone on, as 
proved by the general use of Greek names and the 
eagerness with wh. Judas Maccabaeus strove to find 
allies among the Greek republics even while fighting 
with the Grecian forces of Epiphanes. 

We would finally refer to the rarity of any refer- 
ence in Josephusto an interpreter being used: in two 
of the cases where it is mentioned the reason is 
assigned for it wh. wd. imply that had the reason 
not existed an interpreter wd. not have been em- 
ployed. In the first case (Jos. BJ. V. ix. 2) Titus 
sent Josephus to speak to the Jews in their own 
language, " for he thought they might yield to 
the persuasion of a fellow-countryman." In the 
second instance (Jos. BJ. VI. vi. 2) Titus ap- 
pointed an interpreter as a sign that he, the 
" conqueror," wd. not talk directly with them. 
That in other instances Josephus was employed to 
speak to the Jews, besieged as they were, in their 
own tongue, was simply that he imagined that they 
wd. be more easily influenced by a fellow-country- 
man speaking in their own tongue. He names 
many of the localities as if they had Greek names, 
whereas others he calls by Aramaic names — an 
evidence that these places had Greek names among 
the people. When trials are carried on, as that of 
Herod's son Antipater, as Varus was present, and 
different Greek-speaking persons intervened, the 
trial must have been in Greek (Jos. Ant. XVII. 
v. 2-7). 

We have in the preceding portion of this article 
drawn our evidence from sources external to the 
NT. The book of Acts gives what transpired after 
our Lord had left the earth ; what the apostles did 
may be an index to what our Lord had done. Two 
instances are mentioned in wh. Aramaic was used. 
The first is when Paul addressed the multitude 
from the stairs of the Fort Antonia (Ac. 21. 40 ) ; we 
are told he spake to them in the " Hebrew tongue." 
The result of this was that " they made the more 
silence" (jxa.XX.ov irapecryov r}<rvy^iov) : theywd.have 
listened, but the language of the home charmed 
them to the greater silence — they wd. have under- 
stood him had he spoken to them in Greek. The 
next case is Paul's account of his conversion before 
Agrippa (Ac. 26. 14 ) : he says he was addressed in 
" the Hebr w tongue " — a statement that implies 
that he might have been addressed in Greek. 
Further, we know there were Greek — or at all events 
Grecian — synagogues in Jerusalem: synagogues, that 
is, of those whose language was Greek, who pre- 
sumably knew no other tongue, or at all events were 
so much more familiar with it than with Aramaic 
that they worshipped with greater comfort in that 
tongue. It must be noted also that the deacons 
appointed by the apostles, while presumably Jews, 



with the single exception of Nicolaus of Antioch, 
yet all bear Greek names. Prof. Roberts has dwelt 
on the phenomena of Pentecost. While they all 
heard in their own tongue " in wh. they were born " 
the wonderful works of God, they must have had a 
common tongue to express their wonder, and this 
must have been Greek. One point he does not 
note, that Greece is the one country the language 
of wh. is not represented. No Greek says that he 
hears in his own tongue the wonderful works of 
God — because he was being addressed in Greek, as 
every one expected to be : that was not regarded as 
a marvel. Peter, then a fisherman, declared un- 
lettered, yet spoke Greek. When Paul is tried 
before the Sanhedrin, the Roman chiliarch is 
able to understand the questions in regard to wh. 
Paul is put on trial, wh. he cd. do were the pro- 
ceedings carried on in Greek, but not if Aramaic 
was the language of the court. This, however, we 
wd. not press, as, however unlikely in the circum- 
stances, interpreters mt. be employed to inform 
Lysias of what was done. 

But from the Gospels our principal proofs must 
be drawn. We find only three instances in wh. our 
Lord used Aramaic. When He addressed Jairus' 
daughter and recalled her to life He said Talitba 
qumi (Mk. 5. 41 ). Why is that instance singled out ? 
If our Lord was in the custom of speaking Aramaic 
there was no reason in mentioning this fact. If, 
however, He was not so accustomed to do, then we 
have a revelation of tender consideration : the little 
girl is awakened fm. the sleep of death in the very 
same words in wh. she had been often awaked by 
her mother or her nurse. The next is Mk. y. M — 
Efhf hatha, " Be opened." Here there was a suita- 
bility in causing the man who had been till now deaf 
to hear first in the home language of Palestine. The 
last instance is the most sacred instance of all, the 
cry upon the cross, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. 
This is natural ; many instances there are of men 
returning to the language of childhood in the 
article of death. Moreover, He may have learned 
the 22nd Psalm not in Hebrew but in Aramaic, 
when a child at His mother's knee. It is to be 
noted that the mob around the cross seem not to 
have thought that He wd. repeat a portion of a 
psalm in Aramaic, but that, being a claimant to the 
title of Messiah, He naturally wd. be calling on Elias. 
Here there is a point to be noted. Eliyahu does 
not naturally lend itself to this misconception, but if 
theyhadexpectedHim to call out in Greek then Elia 
wd. be quite naturally and easily misheard for Eli. 
There are besides individual terms as Raca, in con- 
trast to More, the one Aram, and the other Greek — 
a use that seems to point to the idea that descending 
to the vernacular gave an additional insult — involved 
profounder contempt. We find the same among 
ourselves : the use of a provincial term of contempt 



liii 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



implies deeper contempt than if the term used is 
one that has classic usage in its favour. This wd. 
imply that our Lord spoke the Sermon on the Mount 
in Greek. Another case is the use of Qorban, the 
technical word for a consecrated offering : this rather 
implies that our Lord spoke Greek and inserted this 
one technical word, tho' we admit that this is not 
to be pressed. The use of Abba by our Lord in 
Gethsemane also really points to the rest of it being 
in Greek, and not, as Zahn wd. claim, that it was 
in Aramaic. 

We have mentioned the numerous Greek names 
to be found in Josephus, and that the seven deacons 
had all Greek names. We find further that two of 
the apostles had Greek names, Andrew and Philip. 
Another has a name that is at all events half Greek — 
Bartholomew — Bar Tolmai, the son of Ptolemy. 
Thomas, we are told, was also called Didymus. He 
was known as commonly by the Greek translation of 
his nickname as by the Aramaic original. Of those 
with whom our Lord came in contact was the blind 
beggar at Jericho, Bar Timaeus : that too is a Greek 
name. Simon of Cyrene, whom the soldiers com- 
pelled to bear the cross, certainly has a Jewish name, 
but his two sons have foreign names, the one Greek 
and the other Latin, " Alexander and Rufus." The 
Syrophcenician woman, who, we are informed (as 
noticed above), was a Greek, speaks to Him and is 
addressed by Him in a language she understands : 
she understands the language in wh. He speaks to the 
disciples, and takes advantage of the turn He gives to 
His objection to formulate a new plea. When the 
Greeks desire to be introduced to Him He continues 
His discourse about their coming — there is no evi- 
dence that there was any change. "The ruler of the 
Jews," the second vice-president of the Sanhedrin — 
if we may rigidly render the title our Lord gives 
him, " the Master of Israel " — had the Greek name 
of Nicodemus. We see that all classes, rulers in the 
Sanhedrin, beggars by the wayside, ordinary trades- 
people, had Greek names ; this proves the great 
prevalence of them. In regard to this, a point has 
to be noted: while between- all European nations 
the commonest names are really present in all of 
them in slightly different forms, as John, Juan, Jean, 
Giovanni, Johan, the relationship between Jewish 
and Gentile names was more remote. Many of the 
Jewish names involved the sacred name YHWH,and 
many of the Greek names involved the names of 
heathen deities. If the Jews had such names as 
Zechariah and Jehohannan (Joannes), the Greeks had 
Diotrephes and Apollonius (Apollos) : names cd. not 
therefore be translated out of Aramaic into Greek — 
a new Greek name had to be adopted. The fact, 
then, that while they had, so many of them, two 
names, some of them were so generally referred to 
by the Greek name alone, wd. seem to prove that 
Greek, not Aramaic, was the language generally 



used. Altho' occasionally (twice, in fact) the Ara- 
maic Cephas is used, the Greek Peter is immensely 
in the preponderance ; the cases are, where our 
Lord gives him the name and in Paul's reference to 
him in the Epistle to the Galatians. A parallel case 
may be found in the Spanish gipsies, who, as we 
know fm. Borrow, have a name in the family and a 
name for their Spanish neighbours. They all know 
Spanish and speak it in public, altho' in the family 
they speak Gitana. Were any one to address a crowd 
of them in Spanish they wd. perfectly understand 
what was said, but they wd. be more moved if they 
were addressed in the tongue of their tents. 

Quotations from the OT. in the NT.— That 
in recording quotations made or in making them 
the evangelists shd. in general quote fm. the Sep- 
tuagint does not prove anything. In translating a 
theological work fm. German into English the trans- 
lators will generally take the AV. of passages quoted 
in the original prob. in Luther's version, unless some 
point is made clearer by retaining Luther's words. 
In regard to these quotations we must bear two 
things in mind: first, that there was then no habit, as 
there is now, of verbally accurate quotation fm. prose 
writers ; further, the possession of the Scriptures, 
while probably general enough, did not make them 
easy of quotation. The bulky papyrus rolls wd. not 
be convenient to handle, so accurate quotation is 
not to be expected. Further, we cannot deduce 
anything as to usage in Palestine from Paul's custom 
in his epistles, wh. were directed to churches com- 
posed largely of converts fm. heathenism, whose 
native language was Greek, and whose acquaintance 
with the books of the OT. was made through the 
medium of the LXX. In the case of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews and the Epp. of James and Peter the 
case is different ; they were avowedly written to 
Jews. Only in one case in Hebrews (13. 5 ) is the 
quotation nearer the Hebrew than the Greek. 
There are four quotations in James ; one of these 
(2. 11 ) differs fm. both the LXX and the Massoretic ; 
all follow the Greek against the Hebrew. Of the 
more numerous quotations in 1st Peter only one is 
nearer the Hebrew than the Greek ; in most of the 
other cases the quotations are all but verbally accu- 
rate, the variations being such as follow fm. memoriter 
quotation — a method of quotation wh. implies that 
the apostle used Greek commonly even in his study 
of the Scripture. 

When we come to the Gospel a new phenomenon 
meets us. Generally stated, it is this : As a rule, 
when the evangelist quotes our Lord's words the 
agreement with the LXX is close. In the case of 
Matthew and John, and to some extent Mark, when 
the evangelist himself quotes he is in closer agree- 
ment with the Hebrew. We naturally do not see 
this distinction in Luke, who, being a Greek, used 
the Greek received version. Such a statement 



liv 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



must be confirmed by examples. There are ten 
quotations in the first four chaps, of Matthew's 
Gospel ; six of these are quotations in the narrative, 
three are made by our Lord Himself, and one by 
Satan to our Lord. The first (Mw. I P f m. Is. 7. 14 ), 
" Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and 
they shall call His name Emmanuel." The Heb. in 
this passage has " she shall call," the LXX " thou," 
wh. are liker in the square character ; but the tau 
and vau of the angular script are very like, and if 
vau is written instead of the tau we have the third 
pi. instead of the third sing. fern, or second sing. 
masc. The Greek phrase for "conceive" is different 
in the evangelist fm. the LXX. In Mw. 2. 6 the 
evangelist diverges fm. both Heb. and LXX, especi- 
ally by inserting a negative ; the rest of it is evi- 
dently translated directly fm. the Hebrew. Translat- 
ing *]?&$ as "prince" was possible to one reading the 
Heb., but impossible to one with only the Greek 
before him. So too Mw. 2. 15 agrees with the Heb. 
against the Greek. The phenomena presented by 
Mw. 2. 18 (Jr. 3 1. 15 ) indicate that the evangelist quot- 
ing fm. the Heb. was influenced by acquaintance 
with the LXX, so as to choose KXavOfibs and oSz>/)/xos 
for "lamentation and bitter weeping," but adds 
ttoXvs to represent tamrurim, " bitter " ; the rest is 
f m. the Heb. In the case of Mw. 3 . 3 the LXX is very 
close to the Heb., and in what difference there is 
the evangelist leans to the LXX. The next chap, 
records the temptation of our Lord. Our Lord 
(Mw. 4*) quotes Dt. 8. 3 verbatim fm. the LXX. 
In the second temptation the devil quotes fm. Ps. 
91. 11 ' 12 in agreement with LXX, so our Lord's 
answer is also verbatim fm. the LXX. At first sight 
there seems a variation in v. 10 as compared with 
Dt. 6. 13 ; in the LXX there is foftrjOrjcrr], while in 
Mw., as also in Luke, it is 7rpocrKvvr)o-€Ls. But the 
Codex Alexandrinus here differs fm. the Vaticanus, 
wh. supplies the standard text by reading Trpo<TKvvr)- 
cr£69. The Sermon on the Mount may be omitted, as 
there are in it no real quotations. In Mw. 8. 17 
comp. with Is. 53.*, a quotation that occurs in the 
narrative. The Heb. as translated by AV. reads, "He 
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." 
The LXX renders, " This Man bears our sins and is 
grieved on account of us," whereas Mw. according 
to AV. is, " Himself took our infirmities and bare 
our sicknesses." This again is a case where the 
evangelist has translated direct fm. the Hebrew, 
but has been influenced by a reminiscence of the 
LXX, with wh. he was well acquainted. The next 
case is fm. our Lord's lips (Mw. 9. 13 , also 12. 7 , fm. 
Ho. 6. 6 ) : here the LXX. has been strengthened fm. 
the Heb. The LXX reads, " I will (OeXco) mercy 
rather than sacrifice." The Heb. AV.has, "I desired 
mercy and not sacrifice." The Gospel version is, 
" I will have (OeXu) e'Aeos) mercy and not sacrifice 
(dvcriov)." The fact that the words chosen are 



those used by the LXX impels one to believe that 
here our Lord quotes fm. the LXX but strengthens 
it by bringing it into closer accord with the Heb. 
The next case is one in wh. there is no close agree- 
ment either with the Heb. or the LXX. In Mw. 
II. 10 it is, "Behold, I send (dirovTeXXio) My mes- 
senger (ayyeAos) before Thyface(7rpocra)7rov),and he 
shallprepareThywaybeforeThee." TheLXXreads 
(Ml. 3. 1 ), " Behold, I send out (egawoo-reXXu)) My 
messenger (ayyeAos), and he shall survey the way 
before My face (Trpoo-uTrov)." The Heb. as ren- 
dered by AV. is, "Behold, I will send My messenger, 
and he shall prepare the way before Me." The 
words chosen suggest an acquaintance with the 
Septuagint. The long passage in Mw. 1 2. 18 " 21 quoted 
by the evangelist has no connection with LXX : very 
few of the leading words are the same. In the second 
clause there is an instance that proves Matthew's 
independent use of the Heb. The Heb. is nathatti 
ruhi 'alaye, in the LXX we have eSco/ca, taking 
nathan in its more common sense, whereas the 
evangelist has drjcro). In the parabolic discourse of 
our Lord in Mw. 13. there are two quotations, one 
of them, in our Lord's words (vv. 14, 15), from Is. 
6. 9> 10 , wh. is verbatim fm. the LXX. It is to be 
observed that this quotation occurs four times in the 
NT. The other is introduced by Mw. himself 
fm. Ps. 77. 2 ; in it, while the first clause is verbatim 
fm. the Septuagint, the second is a translation fm. 
the Hebrew. It ought to be observed that the 
first clause here is close to the Heb., only the number 
is different, sing, in the Heb. but pi. in Mw. and 
the LXX — a difference that may indicate a differ- 
ence of reading in MSS. of a.d. 30 fm. that of the 
Massoretes. We have two quotations by our Lord 
Himself in chap. 15. : in both cases the LXX is 
followed even when its rendering is incorrect. The 
quotation by our Lord of Gn. 2. 24 in Mw. 19. 5 in 
the question of divorce is interesting ; it agrees with 
the LXX except in two particulars — it omits the 
pronoun after " father," and the proposition wh. is 
combined with koXXolo) — just the variations that a 
person familiar with the LXX mt. make when quot- 
ing fm. memory. It is to be noted that as Heb. and 
Aram, tend to repeat the possessive pronoun after 
each noun, the total omission of the pronoun indi- 
cates that neither Hebrew nor Aramaic was domi- 
nant in His mind. The next two quotations in this 
chapter are also made by our Lord, and agree ver- 
bally with the LXX. When, however, Matthew 
(2 1. 5 ) quotes fm. Zechariah (9. 9 ), it is very freely — 
nearer to the Hebrew than to the Greek. There are 
three other quotations in this chapter. These are 
all in the words of the Lord Himself, and all in 
close agreement with the LXX. In the following 
chapter there are five quotations, one made very 
freely by the Sadducees to Christ (Mw. 22. 24 ) : 
indeed this may be regarded as a statement of the 



lv 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



Mosaic Levirate law without any special attempt 
at quotation. The other four are quoted by our 
Lord, and are close to the LXX. The only excep- 
tion to what we have found to be our Lord's habit is 
the quotation fm. Zc. 13. 7 in Mw. 26. 31 , wh. is close 
to the Hebrew tho' not identical with it. The next 
quotation (Mw. 27. 9 > 10 ) is fm. Zech., named by 
the evangelist " Jeremiah " : this is taken fm. the 
Hebrew with transposition of clauses. We need 
not proceed further ; we seem to ourselves to have 
proved our case ; our Lord's practice was to quote 
fm. the LXX, and Matthew's to quote fm. the 
Hebrew. That Matthew shd. do so is natural 
when we bear in mind that according to an un- 
broken tradition he wrote his Gospel originally in 
Aramaic — a tongue as cognate to Hebrew as Dutch 
to German. It may have been that it was not 
directly fm. Hebrew that Matthew translated his 
quotations, but fm. a traditional Aramaic Targum 
wh., altho' unwritten, was handed down nearly un- 
changed. There is, however, no such close resem- 
blance to be observed between the quotations of 
Matthew and the Targum of Jonathan as might be 
expected were this true : thus in Mi. 5. 2 , quoted in 
Mw. 2. 6 , Jonathan does not insert the negative. 
When Matthew translated his Aramaic Gospel into 
Greek, as Josephus did his history, he may have re- 
tained the resemblance to the Heb. in his quotation. 
The point, however, to be explained is the regularity 
with wh. our Lord's quotations agree with the LXX 
as against the Heb. If our Lord was in the habit of 
quoting the OT. fm. the LXX that wd. explain this. 
But this wd. imply that our Lord spoke Greek. 
When Matthew translated his Gospel from the 
Aram, in wh. he had composed it into Greek, while 
he appears to have translated his own quotations 
directly, in regard to his Master's he has conformed 
with more or less accuracy to the LXX. The only 
motive for this difference of treatment must have 
been that this more accurately represented the facts 
of the case. In Mark there are two cases where the 
quotation does not seem to be in accordance with 
the LXX, one fm. the lips of our Lord and the other 
fm. the evangelist. The first of these (Mk. 14. 27 
quoted fm. Zc. 13. 7 ) exactly coincides with Mw. 
26. 31 . The difference is not great ; in our Lord's 
quotation the main differences are the difference of 
tense in the verb for " smite," and the difference of 
number — "shepherd" instead of "shepherds," as it 
is in LXX, and a different word for " scattered" : 
indeed eKcnrdo) can scarcely be said to be an adequate 
translation of pS. The sentence looks a remini- 
scence of the LXX corrected fm. the Heb. The 
other (Mk. 15. 28 ) in the narrative is nearer the Heb. 
than the Greek. In one case in Luke there is a 
manifest difference between the text of the quota- 
tion in the Gospel and in the LXX, i.e. in 2. 23, 24 , 
but in neither is the resemblance close to the Heb. 



In the case of the fourth Gospel it is difficult to 
come to a decision. John seems to act more inde- 
pendently of his sources than do the other evan- 
gelists. 

Altho' Acts as written by Luke might be supposed 
to be completely Hellenised, as having been written 
by a Greek, yet in the opening chapters, where he 
must have used written authorities or got in con- 
versation the evidence of persons who had been 
witnesses of the events narrated, in all cases the 
source shines through. The speeches, while Luke 
epitomises, and they therefore show traces of his 
style, yet exhibit the original beneath, as one may 
see by comparing the speeches of Peter and James at 
the Council in Jerusalem (Ac. 15.). If there was any 
one who wd. have stood firmly by the Hebrew, or 
in default of it by the Palestinian Targum, it was 
James, yet in his speech the quotation wh. he makes 
(and it is a long one) rests on the LXX mainly. So in 
Peter's speeches ; when, as in Ac. 2., he is addressing 
Jews, he quotes fm. the LXX. Although Stephen 
was a Hellenist, yet as his trial was before the 
Sanhedrin, and he had been a resident in Jerusalem, 
if Aramaic was the language commonly used then 
he certainly wd. have spoken in Aramaic, but 
judging by the evidence of quotations he did 
nothing of the kind. 

So far, then, as we can sum up the evidence fm. 
quotations, it is all but conclusive in favour of Greek 
being the most commonly used language. In no 
matters are men so conservative as in those relating 
to religion ; no race is so conservative naturally as 
are the Jews. Yet it is fm. the Septuagint these 
Jews are represented as quoting, and it is fm. the 
Septuagint that our Lord quotes Scripture to them. 
Only two things prevent us from claiming the proof 
as being absolutely conclusive. In the first place, 
the uncertainty of the Heb. text. Our present 
Massoretic text, behind wh. it is impossible to go in 
the meantime, appears to have been founded on 
two texts, one wh. supplies the Qri, the other fm. 
wh. is drawn the K'thib. The MSS. fm. wh. these 
have been taken do not seem to have been chosen 
fm. any specially critical accuracy in them — if we 
may judge by the numerous blunders that have 
been perpetuated — but more probably as having 
belonged to some rabbi of great reputation for 
sanctity and knowledge of the Law. The Heb. 
text in Palestine at the time of our Lord may have 
differed fm. the present MT. in not a few features. 
In the second place the Greek text is also uncertain. 
Our ordinary LXX is a reprint of the Vatican text ; 
this in not a few cases is in opposition to the 
Alexandrian and the Sinaitic, not to speak of the 
Lucianic recension. Still, after every allowance is 
made, it is hardly possible to resist the conclusion 
that Greek, not Aramaic, was the prevalent tongue. 

We would not pretend that there are no argu- 



Ivi 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



merits in favour of the view wh. we oppose when so 
many distinguished scholars hold it. Not a few 
have regarded those Aramaic words and sentences 
we have referred to above not as exceptional, but as 
specimens of our Lord's ordinary mode of discourse. 
An answer to the difficulty of finding a reason for 
these being singled out is to assert that Mark, 
knowing that the instances in question were times 
of high excitement, chronicled the ipsissima verba 
then. While this might apply to the explanation 
on the cross, it wd. apply not only to the quotation 
from the 22nd Psalm, but also to all the other words 
then uttered ; why was this alone given in the very 
words ? One would have thought that if our Lord 
was in the habit of speaking Aramaic, certainly He 
must have said, when " He bowed His head and gave 
up the ghost," not rereXecrTat but meshalam, and 
then, if ever, was an occasion when the very word 
spoken should have been recorded. Though less 
striking, yet a case where one wd. have expected the 
evangelist to have given the Aramaic words used, 
if our Lord did use them, was when He commended 
His mother to the care of the beloved disciple. In 
fact all our Lord's sayings on the cross, even the 
simple cry of nature, " I thirst," wd. naturally be 
regarded as sacred, and given exactly as they were 
spoken. Only the quotation from Ps. 22. is given. 
The plea that the evangelist Mark desired to record 
times of emotion does not apply to the other cases. 
When Jesus unstopped the ears of the deaf mute with 
the word Ephphatha, there are neither symptoms 
of emotion nor occasion for it. While in His word 
to the little maid whom He raised fm. the dead 
there is tenderness, wh. is shown in using the 
Aramaic of the nursery to a child, and so worthy of 
being emphasised by the very words being recorded, 
there is no emotion shown or implied that moved the 
evangelist to single out this occasion had our Lord's 
custom been always to use Aramaic. But there are 
cases of emotion in wh. the evangelists do not give 
the Aramaic, as when He addresses the Pharisees as 
" Ye fools and blind " (Mw. 23. 17 ). If they were in 
the habit of recording the very words in seasons of 
emotion, why did they not give the words here ? 
As, however, it is Mark who alone gives these 
xA.ramaic phrases, it might be answered that while 
he had this habit the other evangelists had not. 
He, however, relates one oc asion in wh. our Lord 
was filled with emotion (Mk. 3. 5 ) : " He looked 
round about with anger " ; yet the evangelist does 
not give the command addressed to the man with 
the withered hand in Aramaic. The most natural 
explanation is that Mark gave the Aramaic words 
where they were used because they threw light on the 
character of Jesus. One fails utterly to see the 
cogency of Zahn's assertion that because of these 
instances Jesus must have addressed the multitudes 
in Aramaic. 



Zahn's discussion of the question in the Intro- 
ductory Remarks to his Introduction to the New 
Testament is complicated by his superabundantly 
elaborate demonstration that it was not Hebrew 
our Lord spo 1 e. It ought to be noted that he 
refers to a various reading of our Lord's quotation 
of the 22nd Psalm found in the V aticanus and the 
Latin of the Codex Bezas, wh. if representing the 
original text wd. imply that not in Aramaic but in 
Hebrew did our Lord quote the psalm in question. 
This view is to some extent confirmed by the EAwt 
wh. in WH. is found both in Mw. and Mk., a form 
that suggests Elohim rather than Elaha. That our 
Lord should give His disciples occasionally Aramaic 
surnames, wh. had the nature of " pet names " such 
as we find every day in families, does not prove that 
He used the language in wh. they were formed in 
ordinary conversation. It is admitted that Pales- 
tine was bi-lingual, and that the language within the 
home was most generally Aramaic. This is the 
state of matters in Wales and the Highlands of 
Scotland. Should one travel by railway in either 
of these places he will hear conversations between 
natives carried on not in Welsh or Gaelic but in 
English. The same thing may be noticed in 
Belgium. In such circumstances a kindly nick- 
name wd. naturally be formed in the home- tongue, 
altho' for every other purpose English or French 
was employed. So too his arguments from cer- 
tain place-names being in Aramaic (Gabbatha and 
Bethesda) : these names might be, and prob. were, 
old, dating it might be before the Greek occupa- 
tion. Aceldama is on a different footing. Assuming 
that the place was named from the purchase of the 
ground by the " price of blood," and from Judas' 
suicide on it, it was not an ancient name but given 
freshly. But it was connected with religious ideas, 
with horror against money tainted by treachery as 
was Judas' reward, and in regard to a place denied 
by his suicide, so naturally the name wd. be in 
Aramaic. The shout of Hosanna, wh. — Aramaic as it 
is — proves that Hebrew was not the language of the 
multitude, does not prove that Aramaic was. It 
rather proves the contrary, for naturally the evan- 
gelist wd. have added le bar eh d'Daweed (Mw. 21. 9 ), 
as these last words would be united in one act 
of hearing. The truth must be recognised that 
Hosanna had changed its meaning, and no longer 
meant " Save now," but had become merely an 
exclamation of congratulation, and so conveyed as 
little of the original meaning of the word as does 
Hallelujah when it occurs in a modern English 
hymn. The arguments from the fact that the 
Targum in Aramaic was still pronounced along with 
the Hebrew in reading the Law and the Prophets, 
merely proves the conservatism that exists in all 
nations, and most of all among the Jews, in regard to 
religion. A parallel is to be seen in Roman Catholic 



lvii 



*3 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



countries. The Bible was translated into Latin that 
it might be. understood by those who cd. under- 
stand Latin but did not understand Greek, but it is 
continued to be read in Latin, after people have 
ceased to understand Latin, simply fm. conser- 
vatism. A singular side-evidence of this is to be 
found in the name " Onkelos," given to the Targum 
of the Law. The name is really " Aquila," the 
name of the translator of the slavishly accurate ver- 
sion of the Old Testament into Greek. This Targum 
of the Law was Onkelosi, as accurate as Aquila's 
Greek version — a proof that the Greek version was 
familiarly known. That this was the case a fact nar- 
rated by Jerome proves. He was anxious to get a 
copy of Aquila, but found great difficulty ; at length 
he got one as a great favour fm. a synagogue in Galilee. 
Dr. Zahn's quotation fm. Eusebius showing that he 
declared Aramaic to be the mother tongue of the 
Syrians does not mean any more, as to the linguistic 
habits of the people, than the statement, equally true, 
as to the late Dr. Norman Macleod, that Gaelic was 
his mother tongue, which would not prove that he 
usually spoke in that tongue. Talmudic evidence 
is worthless, as the Talmud was not committed to 
writing till half a millennium after the events. The 
story of Gamaliel ordering the Targum of Job to be 
buried wd., if true, prove merely his objection to 
the Targum being committed to writing instead of 
being handed down orally. The Targum was 
committed to writing because the Aramaic ver- 
sion was liable to be forgotten, as the language 
had by the second century so nearly disappeared 
that it cd. no longer be left dependent on oral 
tradition. 

We wd. not be held as maintaining that there are 
no arguments that can be advanced in favour of 
Aramaic being the most commonly used language. 
The principal are those that can be drawn fm. 
Josephus, some of wh. we have already con- 
sidered. 

There are, however, other arguments : the most 
important is the fact that tho' Josephus wrote his 
history first in Aramaic he translated it into Greek, 
and when he did so he got the assistance of friends. 
From this it has been argued that his knowledge of 
Greek was rudimentary. But a little thought will 
remove that idea. In regard to our own language 
there is a very considerable difference between 
literary English and the colloquial English wh. 
we speak and which we use in our ordinary 
correspondence. Still greater was the difference 
between the Greek wh. was spoken and familiarly 
written in Egypt and probably in Palestine, and 
the literary style of those who made Thucydides 
and Xenophon their models. When Dr. Living- 
stone returned from his first discoveries in Africa 
he got a literary friend to put his journals into 
literary form. 



One incident that tells most strongly against the 
view I am inclined to adopt is the interview of 
Claudius Lysias with Paul (Ac. 2I. 37 * 38 ), especially 
its opening sentence, " Canst thou speak Greek ? " 
This is advanced by Pfannkuche. If it stood alone 
it wd. have great weight ; it, however, is part of 
a considerable narrative. Immediately before he 
put his question to Paul, Lysias had demanded of 
the multitude who he was and what he had done, 
" and some cried one thing and some another 
among the multitude ; and when he cd. not know 
the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to 
be carried into the castle." Here it is clear the 
multitude understood the chiliarch's question and 
he understood the language of their answers, but the 
tumult hindered him fm. uniting all the conflicting 
statements into a comprehensible whole. Every- 
thing proves the captain of the garrison spoke 
Greek. It follows thus that his question applied 
merely to the individual in question — the Egyptian 
— who was known to be ignorant of Greek. It 
proves nothing as to the spread of the knowledge of 
Greek among the Jews. 

Dr. Zahn admits the general prevalence of Greek 
among the inhabitants of cities, but thinks that the 
peasant class — those corresponding to the fellahln of 
the present time — only knew Aramaic. But while 
we mt. admit the plausibility of this view, the ques- 
tion of the existence of a class, in any large numbers, 
in those days corresponding to the fellahin may 
require more proof than is available. The huge 
number of cities wh. Josephus asserts to have 
been in Galilee proves that a very large propor- 
tion of the cultivators of the soil were resident 
in cities. It was not unnatural that they shd. live 
in cities walled and fortified, as Palestine had been 
so often invaded in Greek times, and raided by 
robber tribes at other times, that the protection of 
cities wd. be sought. Simon the Cyrenian, when 
the soldiers compelled him to bear the cross, was 
coming in from (Mk. 15. 21 ; Lk. 23. 16 ) " the field " 
(a7r' dypov). Many like him, while resident in cities, 
laboured in the fields. Thus it might seem likely 
that the fellahln class was so small as to be negligible. 
Even they wd. have to master Greek to some extent, 
if only for the purposes of buying and selling. It is 
not unlikely that the prevalence of Greek wd. be 
greater in some portions of Palestine than in others. 
Galilee, as the region in wh. the Gentile element 
was prominent, wd. likely have a larger proportion 
of those who spoke Greek. Judea, where the most 
celebrated rabbins resided in our Lord's days, 
might be supposed to be more conservative of 
Jewish customs and language. It is to be noted 
that all examples wh. seem to imply the prevalence 
of Aramaic drawn fm. Josephus apply to Judea and 
Jerusalem. As our Lord's ministry was mainly in 
Galilee, this has little application to the present 



lviii 



THE LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE 



question ; while the prevalence of Greek in Galilee 
wd. imply that He spoke in Greek when He ad- 
dressed the multitudes. 

Fm. the number of Aramaic inscriptions found 
in Egypt it wd. seem not unlikely that Aramaic, 
like the modern Yiddish, was understood by Jews 
all over the world, hence Paul's introduction of 
Maranatha into an epistle directed to a Gentile 
church (i Cor. 16. 22 ) with the expectation that the 
force of the phrase wd. be understood. 

We think it may be claimed that the balance of 
probability is decidedly in favour of Greek being the 
general medium of co versation between the people 
of the Holy Land while our Lord was in the world. 
While Aramaic was the language of the nursery and 
the home, in the street and the market-place that 
used was Greek. It is to be admitted that Prof. 
Marshall's interesting investigation as to the origin 
of the identities and differences between the Synop- 
tists, and the probability of this being found in an 
Aramaic primitive document, has a certain weight in 
favour of the prevalence of Aramaic. It is certain 
that the explanations he suggests are at the least 



highly plausible : while against these explanations 
being correct is the fact that Luke as a Greek wd. 
be unlikely to understand Aramaic. Yet even if we 
granted Professor Marshall's hypothesis, this primi- 
tive Aramaic Gospel might exhibit the conservatism 
of the Jews, while, as the subject of the Gospel was 
of the highest religious value, it naturally wd. be, 
as not impossibly also was the Apocalypse, com- 
posed in Aramaic, if not in Hebrew. All this 
might be true and yet Greek be the generally 
spoken language. The question of the origin of 
the Gospels is now in another phase, wh. is else- 
where discussed. Irrespective of these questions, 
the common element might be handed fm. apostle 
to apostle, and evangelist to evangelist, as were the 
Aramaic Targums, although Greek might be the 
language in wh. it was composed, and the changes 
fm. the original deposit might be due to defective 
memory. 

The Literature open to the English reader is 
Pfannkuche, Clarke's Biblical Cabinet ; Roberts' 
Discussions on the Gospels ; Young, article in 
Hastings' Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels. 




Miletus 



lix 






THE TEMPLE 
DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



AARON (Heb. 'Aharon), br. of Moses (Ex. 6. 20 , 
P. ; Nu. 26. 59 ), three yrs. older (Ex. J?, P.). A. seems 
to have acquired influence in his tribe ; by Divine 
suggn. he came to meet Moses, and assembled the 
Elders of Isr. to confer with him (Ex. 4. 29 , JE.). 
He became the associate and spokesman of his br. in 
their interviews with Pharaoh (Ex. 4. 14 , JE. ; 7. 1 , P.). 
The Priesthood was fixed in his line (Ex. 28. 1 , P.). 
While Moses was absent on the mountain, A. was 
intimidated into making the Golden Calf (Ex. 32., 
JE.). Notwithstanding this, A. was not deprived of 



The first two, offering strange fire on the altar, died before 
the Lord; consequently the P'hood descended in the lines 
of Eleazar and Ithamar. The High P'hood was in the line 
of Eleazar during the rule of the Judges : poss. in the 
person of Eli it passed into that of Ithamar : it returned to 
the line of Eleazar when Abiathar was dispossessed. Critical 
opinion is that Zadok was not an Aaronite. For this no 
proof is adduced. But see Ahitub. 

ABADDON, the name given to the k. of the mys- 
tical army of locusts (Rv. 9. 11 ), " the angel of the 
bottomless pit." The Gr. equivalent is Apollyon. 
The Heb. term occurs thrice in Job, twice in Pr., and 
once in Ps., rendered by EV. " destruction." It 




Damasc 



The Abana approaching the City from the Mountains 



the P'hood. He was consecrated High Priest (Lv. 
8. lff -). A. united with Miriam agst. Moses (Nu. 12., 
JE.), when Moses was vindicated. The Reubenites, 
led by Dathan and Abiram, claimed the P'hood,prob. 
on the plea of primogeniture (Nu. 16., P.); Korah also 
objected to the lead among the Levites assumed by 
the sons of Amram. This rebellion was punished by 
the earth opening her mouth, and swallowingDathan 
and Abiram and their followers. Korah and his 
company, when offering incense, were burnt up by 
the fire of God. The High P'hood of A. was ratified 
by the budding of his rod, while the rods represent- 
ing the other tribes remained unchanged (Nu.i7.,P.). 
This rod was preserved in the Holy of Holies before 
the Ark : later tradition asserted that it was placed, 
with the pot of manna, within the Ark. 

A. married Elisheba, dr. of Amminadab, and had four 
sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar (Ex. 6. 2 -°>, P.). 



is thrice associated with " Sheol," and once with 
" Death." 

ABANA or AMANA, one of "the rivers of Damas- 
cus" (2 K. 5. 12 ), now el-Barada, the Gr. Chrisorrhoas. 
It is fed by the melting snows and springs of Anti- 
Lebanon. Draining the hollow S. of Zebeddny, it 
breaks E'ward through a charming gorge, Wady 
Barada, on the S. bank of wh. tradition places the 
tomb of Abel. About five miles further down, the 
volume of water is more than doubled by the stream 
from t Ain Fijeh (Gr. pege), one of the most copious 
fountains in Syria. Then, turning to the SE., it 
follows the line of a deep, richly wooded vale, until, 
issuing from the mountains, it is tapped by many 
channels to irrigate the plain. 

About half the ordinary volume of water is caught by an 
aqueduct higher up the valley, and led to the city along the 
face of the hill, the residue flowing citywards along the bed 



Aba 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Abi 



of the river. The A. forms the main water supply, and in- 
deed makes poss. the life of Damascus. It gives fertility to 
the fields, fruitfulness to the orchards, and is lost at last in 
the marshy lakes E'ward. 

ABARIM ( l Abartm),]it. "the parts beyond," i.e. 
beyond Jordan. Only once (Jr. 22. 20 , AV. " pas- 
senger," RV. " Abarim ") it appears without the 
article. It is usually connected with har or hare, 
" the mountain " or " mountains of Abarim " (Nu. 
27. 12 , &c). In Nu. 21. 11 , 33. 44 , we have " Ije- 
Abarim " for Heb. 'Iyye Ha' abarim, lit. " the 
heaps " or " ruins of Abarim." But 'Iyye may be 
the name of a city. 

In Ek. 39. 11, perhaps we shd. read "in the valley of 
Abarim." A. seems to have been applied to the whole range 
E. of Jordan, as seen fm. the W. 

ABBA, trltn. of stat. emph. of (Aram.) ab, " father." 
It was used by our Lord in his prayer in the Garden 
(Mk. 14.36). Paul employs it (Rm. 8. 15 ; Gal. 46). 
It is always joined with ho pater. It is addressed by 
children to their fr., never by servants to their mas- 
ter (cp. Gn. 22. 7 , Psh. and Tg. O, with 2 K. 5. 13 , 
Psh. and Tg. J.). 

ABDON. (1) S. of Hillel, Ephraimite of Pirathon 
(Jg. 12. 13 ). He had 40 sons, and 30 grandsons, who 
poss. were subordinate judges. He judged Isr. 8 
yrs. (2) A Levite city in Asher (Jo. 21. 30 ) = Abdah, 
E. of Achzib. 

ABED-NEGO, the Bab. name of Azariah, Daniel's 
companion. It is put for Abed-nebo, to avoid 
using the name of a heathen deity (Dn. I. 7 ). See 
Daniel. 

ABEL, " breath " or " vapour " (but cp. Asyr. 
aplu, "son"), second s. of Adam (Gn. \? f '). He 
was a shepherd, and because he offered to God a 
more acceptable sacrifice than that of his br. Cain, 
the latter slew him in a fit of jealousy. 

A. ranks as the first martyr (Mw. 23. 35 ), who, " death not- 
withstanding," speaketh still (He. 11' 4 ): but " the blood of 
sprinkling" "appeals more mightily to God than did the blood 
of his martyred saint " (He. 12. 24 ; see Davidson in loc). 

ABEL, "meadow." In 1 S. 6. 18 , prob. =*£«*, 
" stone." (1) A. Beth-Maacha (2 S. 20. 14 , &c), 
usly. identd. with Abil el-Oamh, " A. of Wheat," S. 
of Merj A'yun, and c. 6 miles W. of Banias, in the 
midst of fertile and well-watered land. It was cap- 
tured by Benhadad (1 K. 15. 20 ), and again by Tig- 
lath-pileser (2 K. 15. 29 ). The vill. is perched on the 
mound covering the ancient fortress. (2) A-Cera- 
mim, " A. of the vineyards," near Minnith in Moab 
(Jg. 1 1 , 33 ) . (3) A-Maim = No. 1 . (4) A-Meholah, 
" A. of the dance " (Jg. J. 22 ), the home of Elisha 
(1 K. 19. 16 ), prob. the ruin near 'Ain Helzveh, c. 16 
miles S. of Beisan. (5) A-Mizraim, "A. of the 
Egps.," or, if we read tbel, " mourning of the 
Egps." (Gn. 50. 11 ): not identd. (6) A-Shittim, 
" A. of acacias," in the plains of Moab. Over 
against Jericho, E. of Jordan, is the " Valley of 
Acacias," but no cert, identn. is yet poss. 



ABI, ABIA, ABIAH. See Abijah. 

ABIASAPH, " Father of Gathering " (Ex. 6. 2 * ; 
1 Ch. 6. 23 , Ebiasaph), head of one of the families of 
the Korhites. 

ABIATHAR, " Father of Abundance," the only 
one of the sons of Ahimelech, the High Priest, who 
escaped the massacre at Nob. Escaping to Adullam 
with the sacred Ephod, he became David's priest. 
By firm friendship to A., David acknowledged the 
kindness of Ahimelech, which cost him his life. For 
his part A. continued faithful to David all his days. 
When Adonijah desired to secure the reversion of 
the kdm. A. followed him, and was dispossessed of 
the High P'hood by Solomon. A. was the last High 
Priest of the race of Ithamar (Ant. VIII. i. 3). 

ABIEL, " my father is God," grandfr. of Saul 
and Abner (i S. 9. 1 , 14. 51 ). 

ABIEZER, " my father is help," eldest s. of 
Gilead (Nu. 26. 30 , Jo. 17. 2 , &c). He, or the clan 
descended fm. him, appears to have migrated to the 
W. of Jordan and settled in Ophra. Gideon was 
his desct. The name was transferred to the district 
occupied by the clan (Jg. 8. 2 ). 

ABIGAIL (2 S. 3. 3 , &c. ; Heb. " Abigal "). 

(1) W. of Nabal, who, by her beauty and discretion, 
won the heart of David, the guerilla leader (1 S. 25.), 
and after Nabal's death became his w. She was his 
companion in adventure and peril (1 S. 27. 3 , 30. 5 " 18 ). 
When settled in Hebron, she bare him Chileab 
(2 S. 3. 3 , LXX, Dalouia; 1 Ch. 3. 1 , "Daniel"). 

(2) Dr. of Jesse (2 Ch. 2. 13 - 16 ), or of Nahash (2 S. 
17. 25 ), sr. of Zeruiah, and also of David, if, as many 
critics suppose, " Nahash," in 2 S. 17., is a scribal 
error for " Jesse." She married Ithra the Ishmaelite, 
and became the mr. of Amasa. 

ABIHAIL, " my father is might," w. of Reho- 
boam, dr. of Eliab, br. of David (2 Ch. II. 18 ). It is 
imposs. that A. cd. be the lit. dr. of Eliab, David's 
eldest br. ; she prob. was a desct. in the third or 
fourth degree of descent. 

ABIJAH, ABIJAM, " my fr. is Jah." (1) Dr. 
of Zechariah, mr. of Hezekiah (2 Ch. 29. 1 ), " Abi " 
in 2 K. 18. 2 . (2) S. of Rehoboam and Maacah the 
dr. of Absalom (2 Ch. 1 1 . 20t ). He reigned over two 
yrs. in Jrs., doing evil, but was preserved in the kdm. 
for David's sake (1 K. 14. 31 , I5. lff -, " Abijam "). He 
waged war with Jeroboam, wh., accdg. to the Chron- 
icler, culminated in the overwhelming defeat of the 
latter, A. taking cities fm. him (2 Ch. 13.). 

There is no necessary discrepancy between this and the 
act. in K. A bad man posing as good is not very unusual. 
Jeroboam's defeat may only show that God can work with 
indifferent instruments. Baasha seems soon to have re- 
gained the captured towns (2 Ch. 13. 19 , 16. 1 ). Ephron is 
perhaps = Ephraim (Jn. n. 54 ; cp. 2 S. 13. 23 ). What is 
further recorded of A. is not greatly to his credit. The rest 
has perished with the lost commentary of Iddo. (3) Second 
s. of Samuel (1 S. 8.2; 1 Ch. 6.29, Abiah ; RV. "Abijah"). 
(4) S. of Jeroboam I. who died in childhood, that he nit. be 
taken away "from the evil to come " (1 K. 14. 1 . l3 ). (5) A 
desct. of Eleazar, to whom the lot assigned the eighth course 






Abi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Abi 



of the priests, of wh. Zechariah, the Baptist's fr. , was a mem- 
ber (i Ch. 24.W ; Lk. i.5). (6) Abiah, RV. " Abijah," s. of 
BecherjiCh. 7. 8 ). (7) Abiah, RV. " Abijah," w. of Hezron, 
and mr. of the posthumous Asher (1 Ch. 2. 24 ). 

ABILENE, a tetrarchy lying between Chalcis and 
Damascus, with its capital at Abila (Lk. 3. 1 ; Ant. 
XVIII. vi. 10, XIX. v. 1, XX. vii. 1 ; BJ. II. xi. 5). 
It prob. included the Anti-Lebanon and Mt. 
Hermon. Abila stood on the Chrisorrhoas — the 
Barada — c. 16 miles fm. Damascus. This corrspds. 
with anct. ruins at Suq Wady Barada, a vill. on the 
bank of the stream where the rich plain opens below 
the gorge. 



His reign was in some respects salutary. He is re- 
cognised as a defender of Isr. (Jg. io. 1 ). During the 
absence of A. the Shechemites rebelled and called in 
Gaal, a partisan warrior. A. returned', and having 
captured the city, wreaked his vengeance on the in- 
habitants. Thebez, a neighbouring town wh. had 
joined in the rebellion, was besieged by him. 
Having taken the town he was pressing the siege of 
the citadel when, on his approaching too near the 
door, a woman threw a piece of a millstone, wh. so 
injured him that he entreated his armour-bearer to 
thrust him through, that he mt. escape the igno- 
miny of being slain by a woman. Thus died, assail- 




PJtoto, Bonfils 



Site of Abilene — Soo Wady Barada 



The name Neby Habil, applied to the tomb on the S. 
height, is cert, derived fm. that of the city. The tetrarchy 
was prob. founded c. B.C. 4, when the inheritance of Herod 
the Gt. was divided. Agrippa I. was confirmed in posses- 
sion of it when Caligula came to the throne in A. D. 37. After 
Agrippa' s death in A.D. 44 it was administered by the Rms., 
until in A.D. 53 it was granted by Claudius to Agrippa II. 
It was finally merged in the province of Syria. 

For Lit., see Schiirer, HJP. I. ii. 335 n. 

ABIMELECH, " my fr. is k." (1) S. of Gideon 
by a Shechemite concubine. Assisted by his She- 
chemite kinsfolk he declared himself k., and pat to 
death all his brs.save JoTHAM,who escaped (Jg. 9. lf> ). 
While the men of Shechem were engaged in the 
festivities of the coronation, Jotham appeared on 
the slope of Gerizim and addressed to the assembled 
people the parable of the trees choosing a k. We 
cannot tell the size of the kdm. of A., but it must 
have extended over a considerable portion of Pal. 



ing an obscure town, the first aspirant to the throne 
of Isr. (2) K. of Gerar, contemporary with Abra- 
ham. (3) K. of Gerar, contemporary with Isaac. 
A. may have been a title implying hereditary k'ship. 
This prob. explains the title of Ps. 34.., where A. 
stands in place of Achish. 

ABINADAB, "the fr. of liberality." (1) A Levite 
of Kiriath-Jearim, in whose house the Ark abode 20 
yrs. (1 S. 7. 2 ). He was fr. of Uzzah and Ahio. 
(2) Second s. of Jesse (1 S. 16. 8 ). (3) S. of Saul, 
slain on Mt. Gilboa (1 S. 31. 2 ). 

ABIRAM, " my fr. is high." See Dathan. 

ABISHAG, a very fair damsel fm. Shunem, 
brought to cherish k. David in the feebleness of old 
age (1 K. I .) . Later she was the object of an in trigue 
between Adonijah and Bathsheba, wh. proved fatal 
to that aspiring prince (1 K. 2. 13f -). See Bathsheba. 



Abi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Abr 



ABISHAI, David's nephew, s. of Zeruiah (i Ch. 
2. 16 ). He appears as a man of great personal intre- 
pidity, skill, and prowess in battle. He was ready 
for any perilous enterprise, going e.g. with David by 
night into the camp of Saul, to the very side of the 
sleeping k. (i S. 26. 6f -). He shared in the victory 
over Edom in the Valley of Salt (1 Ch. 18. 12 ). He 
held high command in the campaign agst. the 
Ammonites (2 S. io. 10,14 ). He succoured David 
fm. Ishbi-Benob, siaying the giant (2 S. 2i. 16f -). He 
was chief of the mighty three who brake through the 
host of the Phil., and drew water fm. the well of 
Bethlehem for David (2 S. 23. 16ff: ). His slaughter of 
300 men confirmed his claim to high rank among 
the heroes of David. 

Withal he appears as something of the swashbuckler, with 
little in him of chivalry or generosity. He wd. have slain 
the sleeping Saul. He bears with Joab the guilt of Abner's 
murder (2 S. 3. 30 ). He wished instantly to slay Shimei (2 S. 
i6. 9f -), and later thought only of vengeance (2 S. 19. 21 ). He 
seems to have been privy to the murder of Amasa (2 S. 20 10 , 
Ant. VII. xi. 7). Prob. he died before David : otherwise a 
person of his consequence wd. have been heard of in connec- 
tion with Adonijah's revolt. 

ABISHALOM = ABSALOM. 

ABNER is said to be the cousin of Saul(i S. I4. 50f -, 
where v. 51 shd. evidently read " Kish the fr. of Saul, 
and Ner. the fr. of A., were sons of Abiel "). This 
is more likely than the act., given in 1 Ch. 8. 29 ' 33 , 
9. 35 * 39 , wh. makes him Saul's uncle (cp. Ant. VI. iv. 
3, vi. 6). Accdg. to Jewish tradition the witch of 
Endor was his mr. Saul made him captain of the 
host (1 S. 14. 50 , 17. 55 ), and after Saul's death he 
was the main support of Ishbosheth. A. seems 
to have had little pleasure in bloodshed, and to 
have slain unwillingly (2 S.2. 14,22 - 26 ). Ishbosheth 
deeply offended him by a suggn. of disloyalty. He 
went to Hebron, and undertook negotiations for 
uniting Isr. under the sceptre of David. He de- 
parted on his errand, but to the great sorrow and in- 
dignation of David he was treacherously recalled and 
murdered by Joab and Abishai, for the blood of 
Asahel whom A. had slain in battle (2 S. 3. 26, 27, 30 ). 

A.'s death broke the spt. of Isr.'s resistance. Ishbosheth 
was murdered, and his head buried in A.'s tomb (2 S. 4. 12 ). 
It may be evidence of A.'s piety that "out of the spoil won 
in battles" he dedicated " to repair the house of the Lord" 
(1 Ch. 26. 27 ). A.'s s. Jaasiel is mentioned later, as over the 
tribe of Benjamin (1 Ch. 27. 21 ). 

ABOMINATION. (1) To'abah, "an abhor- 
rence." It was an A. to the Egps. to eat with the 
Hebs. (Gn. 43. 32 ) : Shepherds they held an A., as 
also sacrifice of animals sacred to them (Gn. ^6. M ; 
Ex. 8. 26 ) ; evil practices were the " A. to the Lord " 
(Dt. 12. 31 ). (2) Piggul, " fetid," sacrifices left till 
the third day (Lv. 7. 18 ). (3) Sbeqetz, " unclean," 
the flesh of animals forbidden by the law to be eaten 
(Lv. II. 10 ). (4) Sbaqqutz, "detestable," usly. of 
idols ; e.g. of Milcom (1 K. II. 5 ). 

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION. This 
phrase occurs twice in the Gospels (Mw. 24. 15 ; Mk. 



13. 14 ) ; three times in Daniel (o,. 27 , ii. 31 , 12. 11 ). 
TheGr. is bdelugma ton eremoseon j theHeb. shiqqutz 
meshomem and shomem. The refce. of the phrase in 
our Lord's mouth was to the presence of the Roman 
standards in the Temple. A. of D. occurs in 1 M. 
I. 54 , and there applies to the placing by order of 
Antiochus of the altar of Zeus on the Brazen Altar 
in the Court of the Temple. In Dn. the A. of D. is 
somewhat more difficult. RV. renders c;. 27 , " upon 
the wing of abominations shall be one that maketh 
desolate " ; MT. is corrupt, as neither in LXX, nor 
Thd. of Gr. VV. ; nor in the Vlg., nor Vetus of Lat., 
is there any trace of kanaph, " wing." The text 
behind the words of our Lord cd. not have con- 
tained it, else the suitability of "wing" to Rm. 
"Eagles " wd. have necessitated a refce. to the word. 
Psh. has it, but makes it pi. The true rdg. is evi- 
dently qodesh, answering to hieron of the two Gr. W., 
the en topo hagio of Mw., the hopou ou del of Mk., 
sancto of the Vetus, and templo of the Vlg. The A. 
of D. in Dn. II. 31 and in 12. 11 are echoes of c;. 27 ; in 
Dn. ii. 31 the refce. as in 1 M. I. 54 , is to the action 
of Epiphanes placing the altar of Zeus in the 
Temple : of the other passage no tenable inter- 
pretation has been suggd. 

ABRAHAM is the most important fig. of anti- 
quity. With him as the great ancestor of the Heb. 
race, the hist, of Isr. begins. Born in Ur of the 
Chaldees, the s. of Terah, an idolater (Jo. 24. 2 ), he 
set out with his fr., his w. Sarai, who was also his half 
sr. (Gn. 20. 12 ), and Lot his nephew, and settled for a 
time in Haran, where Terah died (Gn. n. 31ff ). 
Thence, at the call of God, he went into Canaan, 
taking his w. and nephew, with his household and 
property (Gn. I2. lff -). At Shechem A. first received 
the promise of the land. There he built an altar to 
the Lord : a second he built at Bethel, as he jour- 
neyed S. (Gn. 12. 7 " 9 ). Dearth in Can. drove A. to 
Egp., where, calling Sarai his sr., he brought her into 
grave danger. God protected her, and A. returned 
to Can. with the reproach of Pharaoh, whom he had 
deceived (Gn. iz. 10 -^. 1 ). 

Overcrowding of the pasturage by the greatly increased 
flocks of A. and Lot, led to continual bickerings between 
their respective herdsmen. At Bethel therefore, in the in- 
terest of peace, A. separated from Lot, generously permitting 
the latter to claim and occupy the rich lands in the Jordan 
Valley; and God's favour was marked by a repetition of the 
promise to him and to his seed. A. then moved to Hebron 
(Gn. 13.). 

The cities in the Jordan Valley having rebelled against 
Chedorlaomer, he marched upon them with his subject 
princes, and, having overwhelmed their armies in the Vale 
of Siddim, sacked the cities, carrying off much plunder, and 
many prisoners, among whom was Lot. With a small force, 
augmented by his confederates, Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, A. 
pursued the victors, surprised them in a night attack, utterly 
routed them, and rescued both booty and captives. On his 
return he was met by Melchizedek, k. of Salem, who blessed 
him, to whom as " priest of God Most High" he gave "a 
tenth of all." Fm. the k. of Sodom he wd. take nothing but 
the portion of his allies (Gn. 14.). 

A., now an old man and childless, doubted the 



Abr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Abs 



promise to his seed. God therefore renewed the 
promise, with foreshadowings of a vast posterity and 
a great hist., and confirmed it by a weird and im- 
pressive ceremonial (Gn. 15-)* 

Sarai, her hope crushed by multitude of years, 
adopted an expedient common in the country she 
had left {Laws of Hammurabi, Johns, 146), soon 
bitterly repented of, by wh. Hagar the Egyptian 
maid became the mr. of Ishmael (Gn. l6. lff -). A 
great future was promised to Ishmael, but only a s. 
of Sarai could inherit A.'s blessing. In his hundredth 
yr., God changed the name of Abram, " exalted 
father," to Abraham, wh. is explained to signify that 
he wd. be the fr. of many nations (Gn. 17. 5 ), and the 
rite of circumcision was prescribed "as a token of the 
covenant." When she was ninety years old Sarai's 
name was changed to Sarah, and she was assured of a 
s., whereat A., incredulous, laughed. This suggd. 
the s's. name, Isaac, fm. the Heb. verb " to laugh." 

A. entertained " unawares " the angels who were 
going to the cities of the plain, and One greater than 
the angels, who reiterated the promise of a s. by 
Sarah, despite her unbelieving laughter. The angels 
set out for Sodom, and the Lord told A. of its im- 
pending destruction. Then followed A.'s memor- 
able, tho' ineffectual intercession. Next morning, 
going up to the scene of the intercession, A. saw the 
smoke of the burning cities ascending like that of a 
mighty furnace (Gn. ig. 27f -). 

At Gerar Sarah was delivered fm. a danger similar to 
that wh. had threatened her in Egp. (Gn. 20.), and at the 
appointed time her s. Isaac was born (Gn. 2i. ] ff.). At her 
instance Ishmael and his mr. were driven away (Gn. 2i. s ff). 
Abimelech, the Phil, k., desired an alliance with A., now a 
wealthy and powerful chief, and terms were arranged and 
sealed at Beersheba (Gn. 21. 22ff.). 

While sojourning in the Phil, country, A.'s faith 
endured its sternest test by the command to slay in 
sacrifice his s. Isaac. The trial was borne trium- 
phantly, and the occasion was used to discourage 
human sacrifice, showing that the spt. of loyal obedi- 
ence and submission was alone acceptable to God 
(Gn. 22.). 

When Sarah died, A. bought the Cave of Mach- 
pelah as a burying-place. His first possession in the 
land of promise was a grave (Gn. 23.). 

Realising his approaching end, A. sent his servant 
to Haran, who brought Rebekah thence, fm. among 
his own people, as a w. for Isaac (Gn. 24.). 

A second w. of A. was Keturah, by whom he had 

six sons (Gn. 25. lff ) : to the sons of his concubines he 

gave gifts, and sent them E'wards away fm. Isaac, 

who shd. be his sole heir. At the age of 175 A. died. 

and was buried by Isaac and Ishmael in the Cave of 

Machpelah (Gn. 25.). 

The familiar intercourse of God with A. gained him the 
name of " Friend of God," by wh. he is known in the E. to 
this day— Khalil Ullah, or simply el-Khalil, " The Friend " 
(2 Ch. 20. 7 ; Is. 41. 8 ; Js. 2.2 s ). His faith, wh. was " counted 
to him for righteousness" (Gn. 15. 6 ; Rm. 4.8), by wh. he 
secured the blessing, became a perpetual theme of admiration 



(He. n. 8ff -). Mere nat. descent from A. was popularly sup- 
posed to serve men heirs to his sptl. inheritance — an error 
wh. the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and His followers earnestly 
controverted (Mw. 3- 9 ; Lk. 3.8; Jn. 8.^f. ; R m . 9 .7). By 
faith the Gentiles are brought within range of the promise, 
and are blessed with faithful A. (Gal. 3. 9 ). 

A. ranks not only as the great ancestor of many peoples, 
but as the " prophet " (Gn. 20. 7 ), through whom the revela- 
tion was begun ; as the founder of that relg. wh. is to gather 
all nations within its scope. So closely is the revelation as- 
sociated with A., that the Supreme Deity is never spoken of 
in Scrip, as the God of Adam, Enoch, or Noah, but only 
as the God of A. and his descts. 

No success has attended the effort to assign the fig. 
of A. to the realm of mythology ; while the theory 
wh. explains the incidents in his hist, as reflections 
of the movements and intercourse of peoples and 
tribes, although ingenious, is not convincing. 

For the critical analysis of the relevant passages 
in Gn., supported by the majority of critics, see 
Driver, LOT. 

For later Jewish traditions see Tg. J., on Gn. 1 1 , 28 ; 






.<,>.:.■;.,■:•■■■:■.: -r-.-.-.v 




Traditional Site of Abraham's House : Hebron 

Ant. I. vii., viii. ; Baring Gould, O. T. Characters in 

Jewish Life ; Taylor, Sayings of the "Jewish Fathers, 

p. 94 ; Polano, The Talmud, {Selections from). 

ABRAHAM'S BOSOM (Lk. i6. 22f -), in wh. to lie 

marks the bliss of Paradise, in contrast with the 

misery of Hades. 

This fig. is taken fm. the custom of reclining at meals, 
where, if one leans back, his head will rest in the bosom of 
the one next him. Thus at the supper, the beloved disciple 
leans " on Jesus' breast." The most highly honoured guest 
was placed in this position next the host, the most intimate 
and friendly relation being thus indicated. The position of 
the Son relatively to the Father is so described. He is "in 
the bosom of the Father" (Jn. i. 18 ). To the pious Isr. the 
reward of fidelity on earth was entrance into the society of 
A. , Isaac, and Jacob (4 M. 13. I5 ; Mw. 8. 12 ). 

For later developments and Lit., see Salmond, 
Christian Doctrine of Immortality , 342.tr. 

ABRECH, trltn. of a Heb. word : EV. translates 
" bow the knee " (Gn. 41. 43 ). No quite satisfactory 
explanation has been suggd. EV. is perhaps as good 
as any (LXX, " herald," Psh. " father and ruler," 
Aq. " kneel"). 

ABSALOM, third s. of David, was of royal de- 
scent on both sides, his mr. being Maacah, dr. of the 
k. of Geshur (2 S. 3- 3 ). To avenge the outrage on his 



Aby 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ace 



st. Tamar, he compassed the death of his br. Amnon, 
and took refuge fm. David's wrath with Talmai, his 
maternal grandfr. (2 S. I3. 20ff -). But "the king's 
heart was toward A." This Joab observed, and by 
means of a wise woman of Tekoa, secured his recall, 
after three yrs. of exile (2 S. i4-. lff -)- Two yrs., how- 
ever, passed ere A. cd. bring about complete recon- 
ciliation with his fr. A. was truly a princely fig. : 
" in all Isr. there was none to be so much praised 
for his beauty" (1 S. I4. 25ffl ). His ambitions were 
equal to his appearance, and his abilities were not 
far short. He provided a bodyguard for himself 
. (cp. Pisistratus, Herodotus i. 59) ; and prepared 
the way for a revolt by cunningly cultivating the 
goodwill of the people (1 S. I5. lff, )« After four yrs. 
he raised his standard at Hebron, the old capital 
of the kdm. At first his revolt was extraordinarily 
successful. Even David of the lion-heart, struck 
with fear, fled with such troops as he cd. muster to 
Mahanaim beyond Jordan. The adhesion of Ahi- 
thophel promised well for A. By his advice, on com- 
ing to Jrs., A. took possession of the royal harim, 
thus making the breach with his fr. absolute. Ahi- 
thophel further counselled a swift descent upon the 
fugitive k. in his weariness and weakness ; but 
Hushai, David's friend, who had joined A. in order 
to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, drew such a pic- 
ture of the old warrior k. at bay, that his plan of cau- 
tion was adopted, and A.'s opportunity was lost. 
Tidings were sent to David, and Ahithophel, seeing 
his counsel ignored, and knowing doubtless that this 
meant the failure of A.'s enterprise, and ruin to all 
who favoured him, went home and hanged himself 
(2 S. 16., 17.). 

A rally to David at Mahanaim enabled him to 
send a formidable force to meet A., whose army was 
routed in the Forest of Ephraim. A. himself, caught 
by the head in the branches of a terebinth, was slain 
by Joab, in spite of the k.'s order to " deal gently " 
with him. David's lament for his s. is one of the 
most pathetic in all hist. The body of A. was 
treated as that of a criminal (2 S. 18.). 

A.'s sons evidently died before him, and so to keep his 
name in remembrance, he erected a pillar in the k.'s dale 
(2 S. 18. 18 ), of wh. there is now no trace. The monument 
in the Kidron Valley is obviously of much more recent date, 
prob. of the Herodian period. 

ABYSS = AV. DEEP, wh. see. 

ACACIA, RV. See Shittah Tree. 

ACCAD ^Akkad),2L city in N. Babylonia, prob. = 
Agada, near Sepharvaim (Sipparu), and absorbed by 
it. It is grouped with Babel, Erech, and Calneh 
(Gn. 10. 10 ). Here reigned Sargon I., the first ruler 
of all Bab. A. united with Sumir in the titles of 
Asyr. and Bab. ks., is supposed to mean N. with S. 
Bab. The lang. in wh. the sacred texts of Asyr. and 
Bab. were originally written is called Accadian, the 
lang. of Accad. It is agglutinative. 

ACCHO, RV. ACCO, a strong city on the sea- 



board of Asher (Jg. I. 33 ; B J. II. x. 2), never con- 
quered by Isr., the Ptolemais of 1 M. and NT. ; St. 
Jean d'Acre, Accaron, and Aeon of later days ; poss. 
Ocina of Jth. 2. 28 ; the mod. 'Akka. It stands 
on the N. point of the Bay of Acre, facing the pro- 
montory of Carmel in the S., under wh. lies the 
mod. town of Haifa. A rich and fertile plain, 
watered by the Belus and the Kishon, stretches in- 
land to the foot of the mountains of Galilee. 

A. is a city of 10,000 to 12.000 inhabitants, mainly 
Moslems. The Governor controls the districts of Haifa, 
Tiberias, and Safed. Recently that of Nazareth was de- 
tached, and placed under Jrs. The town is entered by a 
strong gateway in the S. The sea-wall is much broken, and 
the inner harbour has disappeared. The landward defence 
is a double rampart. The railway connecting the Hauran 
with Haifa and Damascus will diminish its grain trade ; but 
oil fm. the olive groves of Galilee will still be a valuable 
export. 

Fm. the days of its alliance with Tyre and Sidon 
until it fell into the hands of Rm., few cities have 
had a stormier career, or have passed through greater 




Accho 

vicissitudes. Under the name of Ptolemais it ap- 
pears for the last time in Scrip, as a place visited by 
the apostle Paul (Ac. 21. 7 ). 

Lit. : Jos., passim ; Reland, pp. 534ft. ; Gibbon, 
by index ; Robinson, BRP. iii. Soil. ; PEFM. i. 
pp. l6off. ; Guerin, Galilee, i. 502ft". 

ACELDAMA (RV. Akeld am a) . With the price 

of blood a field was bought by the traitor Judas for 

himself (Ac. i. 18f> ), or by the chief priests, " to bury 

strangers in " (Mw. 27. 61 ). In allusion to Zc. II. 13 , 

it is called ".the potter's field " (Mw. 2jJ> ]0 ) ; and 

fm. that time Akeldama, " the field of blood." 

The translation is exact : the Aram, haqel dema 

cannot be otherwise rendered.* From the fourth 

cent, tradition has located this field S. of the 

lower part of the Vale of Hinnom. In the time of 

the Latin kdm. a large charnel-house was erected by 

the Hospitallers on the brim of the valley. This is 

still called sharmen — " charnel," or (by Christians) 

Hakeldama, Arb. Haqq ed-Dam, " blood price." 

But the name shama, wh. is the old French chande- 

mar = champ dema, is attached to the sloping ground 

above the charnel-house, where, in fact, a field wd. 

* Cp. Dalman, Grammatik des jud. paldst. Aramdisch, 2 
pp. 137, 202. 



Ach 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ach 



be located, rather than on the steep edge of the 
valley. If strangers were buried there it wd. hardly 
be in the luxurious rock-hewn sepulchres in the face 
of the declivity, among wh. was the tomb of the 
high priest Ananos (BJ. V. xii. 2), but in simple pit 
graves, like those of the lower class of the people. 

G. H. Dalman. 

ACHAIA in the NT. signifies the Rm. province of 
that name. The anct. A. on the S. shore of the Gulf 
of Corinth was merged in Macedonia at its conquest 
in B.C. 146. The separate province was constituted 
in B.C. 27, including Peloponnesus, Thessaly, iEtolia, 
Acarnania, perhaps Epirus, with Eubcea, and certain 
islands, excepting the free cities. At first it was a 
senatorial province : under Tiberius it was again 
joined to Macedonia as an Imperial province. From 
the time of Claudius it was senatorial, under a pro- 
consul, whose seat was in Corinth. Prob. c. a.d. 
44. Thessaly was added to Macedonia, Epirus and 
Acarnania becoming a separate province. While 
" Greece " in Ac. 20. 2 clearly means A., genly. the 
whole of Greece must be taken as comprehended in 
" Macedonia and A.," so frequently mentioned to- 
gether (Ac. 19. 21 ; Rm. 15. 26 ; 2 Cor. 9 . 2 ; 1 Th. I. 8 ). 

As in most cities of importance, there were trad- 
ing communities of Jews in Athens and Corinth 
(Ac. 17. 17 , 18.^). 

ACHAICUS, a Corinthian believer who, with 
Fortunatus and Stephanas, visited Paul in Ephesus 
(1 Cor. 16. 17 ), prob. a freedman of the Mummii. 

ACHAN, s. of Carmi, of the tribe of Judah (1 Ch. 
2. 7 , Achar). Although everything in Jericho had 




PEF. Photo 



Wedge, or Tongue, of Gold 



been devoted, A. took 100 shekels of silver, a wedge 
of gold, and a Babylonish garment (see Macalister, 
Bible Side-lights, 12 iff.). The repulse of Isr. before 
Ai led to investigation. By the lot A.'s guilt was 
discovered, and, with his family, he was stoned in 
the Valley of Achor (Jo. 6. 17f -, y. lf -). The fate of A.'s 
children seems opposed to Dt. 24. 16 ; but that refers 
to crimes against society : this is a sin against God. 
The punishment of children was only an intensifi- 
cation of the shame we attribute to relatives of 
criminals. 

ACHISH, k. of Gath, to whom David twice fled 



fm. Saul. His first stay ended with his feigning 
madness, in consequence of learning that the ser- 
vants of A. recognised him as slayer of Goliath (1 S. 
2l. llfl -). When the pursuit of Saul manifested itself 
as relentless, David again betook himself to A. (1 S. 
27. 1 ). Before the battle of Gilboa A. made David 
and his men his bodyguard ; the Lords of the Phil, 
wd. not allow him to go into the battle (1 S. 29. 6f -). 
It is unlikely that the A. to whom the servants of 
Shimei fled was the above ; prob. his grandson 
(1 K. 2. 39 ). 

ACHMETHA (mod. Hamad an), the capital of 
the province of Media, where the records of the 
reign of Cyrus were kept. In A. was found the re- 
cord of the decree of Cyrus in regard to the return of 
the Jews to their own land and the rebuilding of the 
Temple (Ez. 6. 2 )„ The Agbatane (Ecbatane), de- 
scribed by Herodotus, and ascribed to Deioces, is a 
different place. 

ACHOR, l emeq 'Rkhdr, " Vale of Trouble " (Jo. 
15. 7 ; Is. 65. 10 ; Ho. 2. 15 ), on the boundary between 
Judah and Benj., the scene of Achan's execution (Jo. 
7. 24ff -). It is prob. Wady Qelt, wh. opens on the 
plain to the W. of mod. Jericho. 

ACHSAH, dr. of Caleb, w. of Othniel, who won 
her as the reward of taking Debir. At her request 
springs were added to her dowry, the drv Negeb 
(Jo. I5. 16fl -; Jg. I. 12ff -; I Ch. 2. 49 ). 

ACHSHAPH, a royal city of the Can. (Jo. II. 1 , 
12. 20 ), on the border of Asher (Jo. 19. 25 ). Khirbet 
el-Kesaf prob. represents the anct. town. It lies S. 
of Nahr el-Qasimiyeh, with ruins dating fm. the 5th 
cent. a.d. The difficulties in the way of ident. with 
any site further S. seem to be insuperable. 

ACHZIB. (1) A city in Judah named between 
Keilah and Mareshah (Jo. 15. 44 ). It was near Adul- 
lam (Gn. 38. 5 = Chezib), and is mentioned in Mi. 
i.i4_Achzib = " a lie "—and in 1 Ch. 4J 22 . It is 
prob. i Ain el-Kezbab, in Wady es-Sunt. (2) A town 




on the boundary of Asher by the sea, of wh. the tribe 
did not dispossess the Can. (Jo. 19. 29 ; Jg. I. 31 ). 
OEJ. places it 9 Rm. miles fm. Ptolemais, on the 



Act 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Act 



way to Tyre. This points definitely to ez-X'ib, a 
wretched hamlet overlooking the sea. 

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, THE. This is the 
fifth bk. of the NT. Canon. It is an act. of the 
labours of St. Paul, to wh. chaps. I -12., recording 
the founding of the Church under the leadership of 
Peter, the breaking down of the separation between 
Jew and Gentile, and the preparation of St. Paul for 
his Mission, form the Introduction. These chaps, 
fall into two sections. The first, ending with chap. 5., 
recounts the Ascension, the election of Matthias, 
and the events of the day of Pentecost ; the descent 
of the Holy Ghost, and Peter's sermon, when 3000 
were converted. The healing of the lame man by 
Peter and John led to the Apostles' trial before the 
Sanhedrin, and so to a further opportunity of pro- 
claiming the Gospel, when 5000 were converted. 
The whole section ends with Gamaliel's decision 
that the matter may be of God. The next section 
narrates the appointment of Deacons, the zeal of 
Stephen, his trial and execution, wh. Paul is intro- 
duced as superintending. The persecution thus 
begun scattered the brethren, some of whom 
preached the Gospel in Samaria. While journeying 
to Damascus to carry on the inquisition he had pur- 
sued in Jrs., Saul was met by Jesus, and being con- 
verted, he began to preach the faith he had sought 
to destroy. On his return to Jrs. the brethren re- 
ceived him with suspicion ; and, to escape a conspi- 
racy, he was hurried off to Tarsus. The division 
between Jew and Gentile was still further narrowed 
by the visit of Peter to Cornelius, and the Council at 
Jrs. wh. followed. 

While God was leading Peter into wider views, 
and through him the disciples in Jrs., the matter 
came up in Antioch in another way. There men of 
Cyprus and Cyrene spoke to the Greeks, preaching 
the Lord Jesus. Their success led to the mission of 
Barnabas, who sympathised with the movement. 
He recognised in the new field thus opening, a sphere 
for wh. his friend was specially fitted, and went to 
Tarsus to seek Saul. The two friends were sent 
shortly after to bear a gift for the relief of the poor 
saints in Jrs. : a tribute of love to the mother 
Church. That Church was then suffering persecu- 
tion : James had been slain ; Peter was arrested, but 
was delivered by an angel. With the return of 
Barnabas and Saul to Antioch, taking with them 
John Mark, the Introduction ends. For the nar. 
that follows, see Paul. Parts of Paul's life are 
treated in great detail : others are passed over in 
silence. The writer wd. naturally give ampler space 
to the things of wh. he claimed to be an eye-wit- 
ness : want of information may explain the blanks. 
The nar. ends without recording Paul's death. Per- 
haps the writer designed a third treatise : if written, 
it has not been preserved. 

The Text of A. has come to us in five great Un- 



cials, tfABCD, and the Codex Laudianus (E), 
and several Cursives : of VV., Vlg., and Psh., be- 
sides Heraclean Syr. and Old Lat., Codex Bezae 
presents many peculiar rdgs., of wh. no quite 
satisfactory solution has been offered. 

A. was not early, or much quoted, but Papias 
knew it ; he refers to Philip the Deacon and his drs. 
(Ac. 21. 9 ), and to Justus Barsabas (Ac. I. 23 ). Euse- 
bius does not report him as quoting A. Irenaeus, 
Tertullian, Hyppolytus, and Clement of Alexandria 
quote frequently. There are echoes of A. to be 
found in Ignatius, Polycarp, and others. 

The author of the third Gospel is universally ad- 
mitted to be the writer of A. The style is identical. 
Some half cent, ago Zeller hinted a doubt, but no 
critic has yet followed his suggn. Unwavering tradi- 
tion identifies the author with Luke, the companion 
of St. Paul. Acceptance of this wd. practically 
settle the questions of date and historicity. 

The unity of A. has been impugned : it is alleged 
that a writer of the 1st or 2nd decade of the 
2nd cent, found an itinerary of St. Paul's Mis- 
sionary Journeys, and added to these various legen- 
dary incidents. Agst. this we must set the unity of 
style and of plan ; and consider the relation of the 
speeches, the " we " passages, and the itineraries to 
the whole. Classical authors habitually composed 
speeches, expressing not what was actually said, but 
what they thought might suitably have been said. 
In these cases the authors' own style prevails 
throughout the speeches. In A. this is not so. 
Tertullus does not speak like James, nor either of 
them like Paul. The speeches are poss. condensed in 
some instances fm. notes taken at the time, and in 
others, fm. oral reports of those who had been pre- 
sent. But while the speeches differ in style fm. each 
other and fm. the author, the " we " passages, the 
itineraries, and the rest of the book are identical in 
style. The writer prob. used authorities, written or 
oral, as he did in the Gospel. Alford (NT. vol. ii.) 
points out that in chaps. I7. 16 -i8. 5 , where Paul is 
left alone, there are phrases foreign to Luke's style, 
consonant with that of Paul. The incident in 
chap. 8. may have been supplied by Philip ; the gen. 
hist, of the foundation of the Church by Peter, 
James, or John Mark ; and so with the rest. There 
is no good reason to doubt the unity of A. 

The questions of date and authorship are closely 
related. If, as tradition asserts, Luke was the 
author, A. cannot be later than the last quarter of 
the 1st cent. Some who regard A. as written, in 
part at least, by a companion of St. Paul, have suggd. 
other names, e.g. Silas and Timothy ; but there are 
conclusive reasons why none of these cd. have 
written the "we" passages : cp. i6. 16 ' 18 , 20. 5 ' 6 . Har- 
nack has recently shown the high probability that 
the writer was a physician, as we know Luke was 
(Col. 4. 14 ). Accdg. to A., he accompanies Paul to 



8 



Act 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ada 



Rm., and there we find him in Col. 4. 14 , 2 Tm. 4. 11 , 
and Phm. 23 . The accuracy in details points to the 
hand of a contemporary. The writer knows, e.g., 
the varying titles borne by the magistrates in differ- 
ent cities : strategi in Philippi, and politarchce in 
Thessalonica : in Roman Asia there are function- 
aries called Asiarchs : the city of Ephesus glories in 
the title of neokoros to Artemis : Gallio is proconsul 
in Corinth when Paul is there. This exact kge. is in 
striking contrast with the wild confusion of the Cle- 
mentines. Mistakes in such matters are easily made. 
Sir G. O. Trevelyan, writing in Macmillan, spoke 
of " Aldermen " in Scottish towns, where " Bailies " 
were intended. Sir William M. Ramsay has also 
shown the author's accurate kge. of geographical 
details. 

The alleged diffcs. between A. and the Pauline 
Epp. is made an objn. to the Lucan authorship. The 
autobiographic notes in Gal. and I and 2 Cor. do 
not fit easily into the scheme of the Apostle's life 
shown in A. But the diffc. of purpose explains why 
Luke did not include the events alluded to by Paul 
in his Epp. The Pauline Epp. were early collected, 
and a jalsarius, whatever he left out, wd. cert, have 
noted the events vouched for by the Apostle himself. 

Again, it is objected that the teaching of Paul in 
A. differs fm. that in the Epp. But the discourses in 
A. are addressed to unbelievers, the Epp. to be- 
lievers ; natly. the teaching differs. A jalsarius, 
with the Pauline Epp. before him, wd. have been 
tempted to make the discourses centos fm. the Epp., 
as was done by the author of the Epistle to the 
Laodicseans. 

As to the purpose of A., Baur maintained that it 
was intended to be an eirenicon between the school 
of Paul and that of the older Apostles ; thus, he 
says, Peter is made to speak the lang. of Paul, and 
Paul's attitude to the Judaisers appears much more 
conciliatory than it really was. Regarding the first 
point, it is necessary to note that the resemblance 
between I P. and the Pauline Epp. is very great. As 
to the second, Paul's attitude towards the Judaisers 
who traduced himself and tried to sap his work, is 
natly. difft. fm. that towards the Apostles, who were 
willing, he tells us in Gal., to acknowledge his Mis- 
sion to the Gentiles. 

Further, there is said to be an artificial symmetry 
between the miracles attributed to Paul and those 
ascribed to Peter. But, if the writer had wished to 
institute a parallel between these two apostles, he 
wd. surely have made it more obvious. It wd. 
not have been left to a professor in the 19th cent. 
to make the discovery. It is much more natl. to 
take A. as an act. of the work of Christ among the 
Gentiles, carried on by Paul, introduced by a nar. of 
the foundation of the Church, and the preparation 
for its spread beyond the limits of Judaism. 

The alleged resemblances between Jos. and A. 



have been taken to prove that the author of A. 
must have read Jos. The resemblances are slight, 
and are more than counterbalanced by diffcs. Of 
course some critics, as Overbeck, reject the miracu- 
lous as incredible. But miracles are incredible only 
on the assumption that the miraculous is proved to 
be impossible. 

ADADAH, 'ad'adah (Jo. 15. 22 ). Prob. we should 
read 'ar'arah, answering to Aroer (1 S. 30. 28 ), now 
'Ar'ara, S.E. of Beersheba. 

ADAM, a city in the Jordan Valley (Jo. 3. 16 ), 
prob. situated at Tell ed-Damieh, near the mouth of 
the Jabbok. Moore (Judges, p. 212) suggests that in 
I K. 7. 46 we should read HDIS (n) m^lNOn instead 
of the meaningless PQyJOD, and render " at the 
crossing (ford) of Adamah " = A. of Jo. 3. 16 . The 
bridge built by Sultan Bibars is a ruin ; the ford is 
still in constant use. 

ADAM, the name of the first man (Gn. 5. 1 , P. 
'adam). The word also denotes "mankind " (2. 1 ). 
The name is connected with 'adamah, " ground," 
of the dust of wh. man is formed. He is placed in a 
garden prepared for him, to dress it. He names all 
creatures as they pass before him. He is companion- 
less until God forms Eve to be his w. At the suggn. 
of the serpent, the two disobey the command : they 
eat of " the tree of the kge. of good and evil," and 
are expelled fm. Eden, under sentence of death. 
Subsequently Cain, Abel, and Seth are born to 
them. Having begot " sons and drs.," A. dies at the 
age of 930 yrs. 

Accdg. to LXX, A. was 230 yrs. of age when Seth was 
born. There are several myths of the origin of man : see 
Creation. There are also traces of a story of the Fall in 
cert, mythologies, most clearly in the Zenda- Vesta. In 
singular illustration of the Bible story, Darwin asserted on 
scientific grounds that man must have been originally uni- 
sexual. None the less wd. he be created by God fm. the dust 
of the ground, that a million generations of inferior creatures 
intervened between the dust and the man. 

ADAM, BOOKS OF. (1) A Christian Apoca- 
lypse found in four recensions — Ethiopic, Syr., Gr., 
and Lat. (2) Testament of A. in Syr. (3) The 
sacred bk. of the Mandaeans, wh., however, has little 
resemblance to the preceding. The " Apoc. of A." 
and the " Test, of A." seem to have been founded 
on a Jewish Midrash of wh. there are traces in the 
Tim. In the Qabbala, many of the elements of wh. 
are pre-Christian, although its present form is medi- 
aeval, Adam Qadmon is an important factor. The 
Apostle Paul may have a reference to this (1 Cor. 
I5. 45f -). But the analogue to A. Qadmon is Paul's 
" second A." 

ADAMAH (Jo. 19. 36 ) is located with some cert, 
at 'Admah, c. 10 miles N. of Beisan, on the high land 
W. of the Jordan Valley. 

ADAMANT, Heb. shdmir. In eight of the 
eleven cases where this word occurs it is trd. 
" brier " ; in the three remaining cases it evidently 
means a mineral of extreme hardness. In two in- 



Ada 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Adr 



stances, Ek. 3. 9 and Zc. 7. 12 , it is trd. A. In Jr. 17. 1 
it is trd. " diamond," but as the Jews did not know 
the diamond the substance intended is likely some 
form of corundum. 

ADAMI-NEKEB (Jo. 19. 33 ), on the N.W. boun- 
dary of Naphtali. Accdg. to LXX, two places are 
intended. Adami may be identd. with ed-Damieh 
on the heights S.W. of Tiberias. See Nekeb. 

ADAR, the last month of the Heb. yr. See Year. 

ADDAR (Jo/15. 3 , AV. " Adar "), a place on the 
S. border of Judah : unidentd. 

ADDER. This word trs. four Heb. words — 
pethen (Asp), izepha (Cockatrice), 'acbsbub and 
shephi-thon. Of these latter two the former occurs 




Adder— Cerastes 

only in Ps. 140. 3 , " adders' poison is under their 
lips," prob. the dark brown viper is meant ; the 
second is prob. the cerastes ; the word only occurs 
in " Jacob's Blessing," Gn. 49. 17 . 

ADINO. See Jashobeam. 

ADMAH, one of the cities involved in the de- 
struction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn. io. 19 , 
I4> 8 ; Dt. 29. 23 ; Ho. II. 8 ). 

ADONIBEZEK, " Lord of Bezek," a Can. chief 
conquered by Judah (Jg. I. 4 " 7 ). Having captured 
him, they cut off his thumbs and great toes. He 
confessed having treated seventy kings in like man- 
ner. This is a round number, meaning " many " ; 
the Oriental has no idea of numerical accuracy. 

ADONIJAH, fourth s. of David, born at Hebron, 
his mr. being Haggith (2 S. 3- 4 ; I Ch. 3. 2 ). As 
David's oldest surviving s., when that monarch's life 
was nearing its close, he sought to secure for himself 
succession to the throne. Assisted by Joab and Abi- 
athar, and accompanied by a numerous retinue, 
among whom were royal princes, he made a great 
feast at En Rogel, preparing to assume forthwith the 
regal office. Nathan and Bathsheba, to whose s. 
Solomon the succession had been promised, in- 
formed the k. David at once commanded that 
Solomon shd. be anointed and proclaimed, and shd. 



take his seat upon the throne. The royal guard re- 
mained by the k., and saw his orders executed 
amid such popular acclamations of joy that " the 
earth rent with the sound of them." A.'s company 
scattered in terror when the news reached them, and 
he fled for refuge to the altar. His life was spared 
for the time (1 K. 1.). An intrigue in wh. he sought, 
with the help of Bathsheba, to obtain the hand of 
Abishag, natly., owing to her relations with the old 
k., roused suspicion that he was trying to revive his 
claim to the throne ; and, at the command of Solo- 
mon, Benaiah put him to death (1 K. 2. 12ff -). 

ADONIRAM = ADORAM, was over the tribute 
under David (2 S. 20. 24 ), and Solomon (1 K. 4. 6 ). 
He was stoned by the Isrs. at Shechem (1 K. 12. 18 ). 

ADONIZEDEK, " Lord of Righteousness," k. of 
Jrs. He headed a confederacy agst. Joshua. De- 
feated at the battle of Bethhoron, he fled with his 
confederates to a cave at Makkedah, whence he was 
brought out and killed (Jo. io. 1 " 26 ). If, as seems 
prob. fm. the Tell Amarna tablets (vi. 32.), Tzedeq 
was a Phoenician deity, A. wd. mean " Tezdeq is my 
Lord." 

ADOPTION. The word vioOeo-ia is used by Paul 
alone (Rm. 8. 15 > 23 , 9* ; Gal. 4« 5 ; Eph. I. 5 ), to indi- 
cate the relation into wh. God's people are brought 
to Him. Among the Rms., to whose practice Paul 
seems to refer, there were two forms of A. (1) If he 
were his own master (sui juris), a man cd. pass into 
the family of another only with consent of the 
people assembled in Comitia Curiata, by whom he 
was relieved of the obligation to perform the rites of 
his former Gens, or Familia, and bound to observe 
those of the new. (2) If he were still In potestate 
Patris, under the authority of his fr., since in Rm. 
law the fr. was regarded as strictly the owner of his 
s., the transfer was effected by a formal sale and pur- 
chase, to wh. the term mancipatio was applied. 

A s. legally adopted stood, in the eye of the law, in the 
same relation, in every respect, to the fr. by whom he was 
adopted, as a s. begotten in lawful marriage. 

There was nothing corrspdg. to this in Isr. , although such 
informal A. as that of Esther by Mordecai may have been 
usual. The levirate law was intended to prevent a man being 
left without heirs. 

ADORAIM, a fortress built by Rehoboam in 
Judah (1 Ch. 11. 9 ). Trypho came to A. " in Idu- 
masa " (1 M. 13. 20 ; Ant. XIII. vi. 5). It was re- 
duced by Hyrcanus, and restored by Gabinius {Ant. 
XIII. ix. I ; BJ. I. viii. 4). It is now represented 
by the vill. of Dura, W. of Hebron. 

ADORATION, the expression of the emotions 
caused by the contemplation of Deity. In words 
A. became Hymns and Prayers ; many examples of 
both are found in the Psalms. A. is expressed in 
attitude, standing (2 Ch. 20. 5 ) ; sitting (2 S. 7. 18 ) ; 
spreading out the hands (1 K. 8. 22 ; Ez. 9. 5 ) ; kneel- 
ing (Dn. 6. 10 ) ; falling on the face (Lev. 9- 24 ). 

ADRAMMELECH. (1) A god worshipped with 



10 



Adr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Age 



Anammelech by the colonists fm. Sepharvaim (2 K. 
17. 31 ). They seem to be identl. with the Bab. deities 
Adar and Ami. The former of these is identd. with 
Hadad. In Shalmaneser's inscrip. Benhadad be- 
comes Benidri. (2) A s. of Sennacherib, and one of 
his murderers (2 K. 19. 37 ). See Anammelech. 

ADRAMYTTIUM is of Biblical interest only 
because of the ship in wh. Paul made his memorable 
journey to Rome (Ac. 2j. m ). The town lay at the 
head of the gulf of that name, on the shore of Mysia, 
over agst. Lesbos. In Rm. days it was a great com- 
mercial centre, and also for a time an assize town. 
The mod. vill., Edremid, is further inland. 

ADRIA (Ac. 27. . 27 ). This sea took its name from 
Adria (or Atria), a town near the mouth of the river 
Po. The name at first applied only to the adjacent 
waters, but gradually its significance extended until 
its boundaries were marked by the shores of Italy, 
Sicily, and Malta on the W., and the shores of 
Greece on the E. (Strabo, by index, Bohn). Fm. 
Crete to Malta, therefore, the course of St. Paul's 
vessel lay entirely within " the sea of A." 

ADULLAM, a royal city of the Can. (Jo. 12. 15 ), 
in the low land occupied by Judah, near to Jarmuth, 




Photo, PEE. 



Adullam 



Socoh, and Mareshah (Gn. 38. lff - ; Jo. 15. 35 ; Mi. 
I. 15 ). A. was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 7 ), 
and occupied by the returning exiles (Ne. 1 1 . 30 ) . A. 
is identd. with l Id el-Ma, " Feast of Water," or 'Id 
el-Miyeh, " Feast of the Hundred," a ruin c. 8 miles 
N.W. of Beit Jibrin. 

The Cave of Adullam (1 S. 22. 1 , &c), doubtless 
applied par excellence to that cave among those 
in the neighbouring valley in which David took 
shelter. 

ADULTERY, breach of the marriage vow. To 
the Heb., with his ideas of the importance of de- 
scent, A. was only committed when the woman was a 
w. The ordeal of " bitter water" (Nu. 5. 14ffl ) served 
to mitigate the fierceness of jealousy. The penalty 
of A. was death by stoning. No infliction of the 
penalty is recorded ; this does not prove that it 
never was inflicted ; the hist, of any mod. nation, 



condensed as severely as that of Isr. in the Bible, wd. 
have no room to tell of the execution of criminals. 
It had, however, sunk into disuse before the coming 
of Christ (Jn. 8. lf ). Isr. was regarded as married to 
the Lord (Jr. 31. 32 ) : any following after other gods 
was treated as A. (Jr. 3. 8 ). 

ADUMMIM,The Ascent of (RV.), on the boun- 
dary between Judah and Benj. (Jo. 15. 7 , 18. 17 ), 
" over agst." Gilgal, and on the S. side of " the 
torrent." This points clearly to Tafat ed-Dum, 
" the ascent of blood," on the road fm. Jericho to 
Jrs. on the S. side of the ravine of Wady Qelt. The 
name doubtless comes from the ruddy-coloured 
marl showing on the slope. 

ADVOCATE. See Comforter. 

AENEAS, a man in Lydda, bed-rid from palsy for 
8 yrs., healed by Peter (Ac. a 33f> ). 

AENON, a place " where there was much water," 
" near to Salim," W. of Jordan (Jn. 3. 23 > 26 ). OEJ. 
places it 8 Rm. miles S. of Beisan, near Salim and the 
Jordan. A group of seven springs close to Umm el- 
'Amddn, ed-Deir, and Tell er-Ridgha, on the last of 
wh. is the tomb of Sheikh Salim, seems to meet all 
the requirements of the nar. The difficulties in the 
way of identn. with the springs in Wady, Far'ah 
seem insuperable. 

Lit., Sanday, SSG. 33S. ; Conder, Tent Workf 
p. 49 ; SDB. s.v. 

AGABUS, a Judaean Christian, a prophet ; he 
foretold a drought (Ac. n. 28 ) and Paul's imprison- 
ment (Ac. 2 1. 10 ). In the latter case the prophecy was 
acted, like that of Isaiah (20. 2 ), and Jeremiah (27^) . 

AGAG, poss. the title of Amalekite ks. (Nu. 24. 7 ). 
A., defeated, and spared by Saul contrary to divine 
direction, was hewn in pieces by Samuel (1 S. 15.). 

AGAGITE, applied to Haman, whom the Jews 
believed to be descended fm. Agag (Est. 3. 1 , &c. ; 
Ant. XI. vi. 5). 

AGATE, in AV. trs. two Heb. terms, shebo and 
kadkod. It is doubtful whether either is really the 
stone we mean by the agate. The second of the 
Heb. terms RV. trs. " rubies." Delitzsch idents. 
shebo with the Asyr. subu, wh. seems to have re- 
sembled our diamond. 

AGE. Scrip, represents human life as gradually 
shortening. Fm. Adam to Noah men's ages range 
fm. 969 to yyj yrs., Enoch at his translation being 
365 yrs. old. Fm. Shem to Terah, 600 to 205. The 
Patriarchs lived over 100 yrs., Isaac reaching 180. 
At a later period 70 is regarded as the normal length 
of life. 

In OT. old age is represented as the token of 
God's favour, and as the reward of virtue (Gn. 25. 8 ; 
Ex. 20. 12 ), while an early death marks God's dis- 
pleasure (Ps. 102. 23 ; Is. 65 . 20 ). This may act. for 
the respect wh. to this day is paid to the man of 
many yrs. in the E. (Lv. 19. 32 ; Jb. 15. 10 ). " The 
hoary head is a crown of glory " (Pr. 16. 31 ). 



1 1 



Agr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Agr 



Mere seniority carries with it many rights and privileges, 
the elder br. , e.g. , exercising no little authority over his juniors. 
The " elders " were powerful in Isr., and were regarded as 
repositories of wisdom (i K. 12. 6 > 8 ). The name "elder," 
applied to the holder of a particular office in the Christian 
Church, leaves no room for doubt as to the class fm. whom 
officials were originally chosen. The same is true of the 
Sheikh ( ' ' elder ") of an Arab tribe to-day. As strife and war 
lead to the cutting off of men in their prime, the continuance 
of old men in a community is a token of prevailing peace. 

AGRICULTURE. Scrip, represents cultivation 
of the soil as the first of human occupations (Gn. 




Ploughing on the Plain of Sharon 

2. 15 , 4. 2 ). In the Nile Valley A. flourished at a very 
early period ; and in Pal., before Isr.'s time, it ap- 
pears to have been largely pursued. The lowlands 
at least were tilled in anct. times, and the system of 
terraces is very old. Isaac is the first of the Patri- 
archs identd. with A. (Gn. 26. 12 ). The change fm. 
nomadic to settled life compelled Isr. to become 
tillers of the earth when they took possession of Pal. 
This assumption underlies their law. The land be- 
longed to J". (Lv. 25. 23 ). Isr„ held and cultivated it 
on His terms. A. was thus closely associated with 
relg. 

Pal. differed fm. Egp. with its fertilising river, in 
that it depended almost entirely on the rainfall. 



It was recognised that the land must lie fallow at 
stated intervals (Ex. 23. 10 ), and later, this was se- 
cured by the Sabbath law (Lv. 25.). Dung was used 
as manure (2 K. cj. 37 , &c). The unit of measure- 
ment was the amount ploughed by a yoke of oxen in 
a day (1 S. 14. 14 ; cp. Arb. faddan). Boundaries 
were marked by stones or stone heaps. Shifting 
these was a serious crime (Dt. 19. 14 ; Ho. 5. 10 ). 

A. was most prosperous in Rm. times, owing to 
the security enjoyed, and the excellent provision 
made for watering. 

As an occupationtaught by God Himself (Is. 28. 26 ), 
A. was followed by all, even by men of good family 
(1 S. II. 5 ), and much of the land on both sides of the 
Jordan bears evidences of anct. cultivation, although 
now reduced to simple pasture land. 

When the first rains softened the ground, hard 
baked by the summer heat, ploughing began. The 
plough made but a shallow furrow (see Plough). 
Sowing followed shortly if weather were favourable. 
Occasionally to-day barley is sown as early as Nov., 
but it may be delayed till the end of Jan. Wheat is 
sown immediately afterwards. The seed mt. be 
scattered thinly broadcast, or dropped carefully 
into the furrows (Is. 28. 25 ). Sometimes it was sown 
first, and then ploughed or trampled down. The 
ploughed land was levelled with an implement not 
described (Is. 28. 24 ; Ho. IO. 11 ), made perhaps of a 
stout board, or cylinder of stone. To-day a bush 
often serves as harrow. 

Two kinds of seed mt. not be sown together (Lv. 
19. 19 ; Dt. 22. 9 ). This is part of the gen. restriction 
agst. mingling of diverse kinds. Ingenious plans 
were devised for laying out the fields, so that space 
mt. be saved, and yet a margin left between the 
difft. crops. 

Barley harvest begins in the Jordan Valley about 




Treading out and Winnowing Grain (Egyptian) 

The great streams and springs lie too low to be avail- the end of March, and is gen. in April. Wheat har- 

able for irrigation beyond a very limited range, vest comes some three or four weeks later. The 

Artificial means were thus necessary to preserve the main dangers to be feared during the intervening 

water, and to utilise it for field and garden. months are mildew, if the weather be dull and 

The main crops were wheat and barley, but spelt, damp ; the destructive power of the E. wind ; 

beans, lentils, millet, and flax were also grown. locusts and robbers (Dt. 28. 22 ; 2 Ch. 6. 28 ; Am. 4. 9 ). 



Agr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Aha 



In the mountains crops are genly. light, but in the 
valleys and plains, especially in the Hauran, the 
yield is splendid, at times from 60 to 100-fold. 

Harvest, wh. lasted about seven weeks, is pictured 
as a time of great joy (Is. o,. 3 ; Ps. \P). The grain is 
cut with shearing hooks, and carried on the backs 
of animals — anctly. also in carts (Am. 2. 13 ) — to the 
threshing-floor, in a position as exposed as poss., 
near the vill. There it is trampled by unmuzzled 



Under her influence he built a temple in Samaria for 
Phcenician Baal, and set up the Ashera, with full 
establishment of idolatrous priests, temple-atten- 
dants, &c. (1 K. i6. 31ff -). A. must have acquiesced in 
Jezebel's attempt to stamp out the worship of J"., 
by the destruction of His prophets. Yet he seems to 
have connived at the concealment of 100 of them by 
Obadiah (1 K. l8. 3f -). He approved of the trial pro- 
posed by Elijah, poss. in the hope that J", wd. vin- 




Ploughing and Sowing (Egyptian) 



animals (Dt. 25. 4 , &c), or crushed under the thresh- 
ing board, wh. is made of stout planks, about 5 ft. by 
4 ft., with rough stones set in its under surface. In 
anct. times — as still in Egp. — the threshing waggon 
was also used. It was a strong oblong frame, into 
wh. were fitted parallel rollers ; round these were 
fixed sharp circular blades of iron. This was drawn 
over the grain in the same way as the " board." 
Both were used for the torture of prisoners (2 S. 
12. 31 ; 1 Ch. 20. 3 ; cp. Is. 41. 15 ) ; but see Harrow. 

The grain having been separated and the straw 
crushed into small pieces (tibn), the whole was cast 
into the air by means of a wooden fork and shovel 
(fan), when the wind carried away the chaff, and the 
grain fell at the worker's feet (Ps. I. 4 ). The best of 
the chaff is now preserved for fodder, the refuse 
being burned. Fire on a threshing-floor, where 
everything is tinder-drv, burns with a fierce flame 
(Mw. 3. 12 ). 

Small quantities are threshed with a stick or flail 
(Ru. 2. 17 ; Jg. 6. 11 ). Threshing lasts roughly till the 
beginning of the vintage. The grain remaining 
when the tax — paid in kind — has been taken, and any 
sales effected, is usly. stored in great cistern-like re- 
ceptacles. See Barn. 

AGRIPPA. See Herodian Family. 

AGUR, s. of Jakeh, a sage otherwise unknown, to 
whom Pr. 30. is attributed. The word massa, wh. 
AV. renders " prophecy," RV. takes as a place name. 
The place is not known. Poss. A. is not a proper 
name, but descriptive. It mt. mean " collector." 

AHAB. (1) S. and successor of Omri, reigned in 
Samaria 22 yrs. (1 K. 16. 29 ). Despite the hard 
judgment passed upon him as " one that did evil 
in the sight of the Lord, above all that were be- 
fore him," the nars. indicate much good as well as 
evil in the char, and life of A. 

A. married Jezebel, dr. of Ethbaal, k. of Tyre, 
who may be truly described as his evil genius. 



dicate Himself, and cause Jezebel to renounce her 
purpose (1 K. 18. 17 ). The hope was vain (1 K. 19. 1 ). 
See Elijah. 

The Syrians under Benhadad, or Hadadezer, are 
suddenly introduced as besieging Samaria, poss. at 
the end of a campaign of wh. we have no record. 
A. was ready to surrender, but intolerable terms 
were proposed, and, cheered by the word of a pro- 
phet, the besieged attacked, and utterly routed the 
enemy (1 K. 20. lff -). Next year the Syrians returned 
with a strong force, confident of victory if only they 
cd. meet Isr. in the plains, thinking J", to be a " God 
of the Hills." A. met them as they desired and in- 
flicted upon them overwhelming defeat, on the flat 
land E. of ArHEK. He took Benhadad prisoner, and 
was denounced by a prophet for sparing him alive. 
By a treaty then arranged Benhadad was to restore 
the cities taken fm. Isr. by his fr., and to grant cert, 
privileges to Isr. in Damascus. 

The dastardly legal murder of Naboth, prompted 
by Jezebel, was sincerely repented of (1 K. 21.). 
From the inscrs. it appears that A. fought along with 
Benhadad — Hadadezer — and others agst. Assyria at 
Qarqar, contributing 2000 chariots and 10,000 men, 
when the Asyr. claim that the allies were defeated 
{COT? i. l83ff.). Moab was held in subjection 
during his reign (2 K. I. 1 ), and he met his death in 
a campaign agst. Syria for the recovery of Ramoth 
Gilead (1 K. 22.). 

A brave and capable soldier, and a patriotic k., he 
was too much under the influence of his tigerish w. ; 
yet was he not wholly given over to the worship of 
Baal (2 K. io. 18 ). The later Jews place him among 
those who have no share in the world to come. 

(2) A false prophet denounced by Jeremiah 
(2C;. 21f -), burned by the k. of Bab. 

AHASUERUS. (1) K. of Persia (Ez. 4. 6 ), sup- 
posed by some to be Cambyses, but there is no evi- 
dence that he ever bore this name : Xerxes may be 



13 



Aha 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ahi 



the k. intended. (2) The husband of Esther. Al- 
though in Est. Ad. he is called Artaxerxes, it seems 
almost cert, that the k. intended is Xerxes. The 
notes of time correspond : the feast in his third yr. 
coincides with his return fm. the Egpn. expedition, 
and his seventh yr. wd. just give sufficient time to 
carry out the arrangements wh. resulted in the ele- 
vation of Esther, after his return fm. the disastrous 
invasion of Greece. In char, also he agrees with the 
Xerxes of Herodotus. (3) The fr. of Darius the 
Mede (Dn. 9. 1 ). 

AHAVA, a stream or canal beside wh. Ezra as- 
sembled the Jews willing to return to Palestine (Ez. 
8. 15 ) ; there appears to have been a town of the 
same name on its banks. No cert, identn. has been 
reached. 

AHAZ, s. and successor of Jotham, k. of Judah. 
The name is shortened from Jehoahaz. Asyr. inscrs. 
give it as Jahuchazi (COT. 2 257m). A. began to 
reign in his 20th yr. (2 K. 16. 2 ). This shd. prob. 
be corrected with LXX et al. in 2 Ch. 28. 1 , to 25th 
yr. Otherwise his s. Hezekiah wd. seem to have 
been born in his nth yr. He reigned 16 yrs. 
But the chronology of this reign presents diffi- 
culties wh. cannot at present be cleared up. 

A. was a weak and capricious prince (Is.3. 12 , 7. 2ff -). He 
favoured heathen idolatries, and made his own s. "pass 
through fire" (2 K. 16. 3 ). The "chariots of the sun" 
and the " altars on the roof of the chamber of A." were 
prob. introduced by this monarch (2 K. 23. n f-). Re- 
jecting the counsel of Isaiah (Is. j.i, ), with part of the temple 
treasures A. purchased the aid of Tiglath-pileser of Asyr., 
who subdued Damascus and took possession of the E. terri- 
tory of Isr. But when his enemies were rendered powerless, 
A. himself had to render homage to the conqueror in Damas- 
cus (2 K. 16. 10 ). The hist, is written in Ch. fm. another 
point of view, with many diffcs. in detail. 

AHAZIAH. (1) S. of Ahab and Jezebel, k. of 
Isr. Under him Moab rebelled against Isr. Suffer- 
ing fm. a severe accident, he sent to Ekron to in- 
quire of Baalzebub as to his fate. His messengers 
were intercepted by Elijah, who rebuked the idola- 
trous mission, and announced the near death of the 
k. For A.'s relations with the prophet, see Elijah. 
He reigned for over a year (1 K. 22. 51ff - ; 2 K. I.). 
(2) S. of Jehoram and Athaliah, k. of Judah (2 K. 
8. 24ff ). He is called Jehoahaz in 2 Ch. 21. 17 , &c, 
where the elements of the name are simply trans- 
posed, and Azariah in 2 Ch. 22. 6 , wh. is prob. an 
error for Ahaziah. A. went with his uncle, Joram of 
Isr., to war with Hazael of Syria, at Ramoth Gilead. 
Joram being wounded, they returned, Joram to 
Jezreel and apparently A. to Jrs. A. went down to 
Jezreel to visit Joram. Having seen his uncle slain 
by Jehu, he fled, but was wounded, and died at 
Megiddo. He was carried to Jrs., and " buried with 
his frs." (2 K. 9 . lff ). 

The Chronicler's act. is in many respects irrecon- 
cilable with the foregoing (2 Ch. 21. 17 , 22. lff ). 

AHIAH, RV. AHIJAH, s. of Ahitub, grandson of 
Eli (1 S. 14. 3 ), " priest of the Lord in Shiloh." He 



went with Saul agst. the Phil., clad in priestly attire 
(1 S. 14. 3 ' 18 ). He was prob. identl. with Ahimelech, 
who succoured David at Nob (1 S. 2i. lff -). Doeg the 
Edomite saw and reported to Saul what A. had done. 
This brought destruction upon the priests and upon 
the whole community at Nob, Abiathar alone of the 
house of A. making good his escape (1 S. 22. 9ff -). 

AHIJAH, the Shilonite prophet who, by the fig. 
of the torn garment, foretells to Jeroboam the dis- 
ruption of the kdm., and the falling away of the ten 
tribes to him (1 K. 1 1. 29 ). Long afterwards, answer- 
ing the appeal of Jeroboam's w., he announced the 
approaching death of his s. Abijah, and the destruc- 
tion of his house (1 K. i4-. lff -). The record of " the 
acts of Solomon," " in the prophecy of A. the Shilo- 
nite " (2 Ch. 9- 29 ), unhappily has perished. 

Men of the same name are mentioned in I K. 4« 3 , 
15.27._the f r- f Baasha, k. of Isr.— 1 Ch. 2. 25 , 8. 7 , 
ii. 36 , 26. 20 ; Ne. io. 26 . 

AHIKAM, s. of Shaphan and fr. of Gedaliah, was 
sent with other three to inquire at Huldah the 
prophetess regarding the " bk. of the law " found 
in the Temple (2 K. 22. 12 ). He succoured the 
prophet Jeremiah when threatened with death at 
the hands of the people (Jr. 26. 24 ). 

AHIMAAZ, "my br. is wrath." (1) S. of 
Zadok, a notable runner in his day, who acted as 
Hushai's messenger, along with Abiathar, informing 
David of Absalom's plans, and once at least en- 
countered grave peril. He outran the Cushite in 
carrying to David news of Absalom's defeat (2 S. 
15., 17., 18.). (2) Fr. of Saul's w. Ahinoam (1 S. 
14. 50 ). (3) One of Solomon's 12 officers, whose 
station was in Naphtali, who provided victual for 
the k., &c. His rank may be inferred fm. the fact 
that he married the k.'s dr. (1 K. 4. 15 ). 

AHIMELECH. (1) = AHIAH. (2) A Hittite 
follower of David (1 S. 26. 6 ). 

AHINOAM, " my br. is pleasantness." (1) W. of 
Saul, dr. of Ahimaaz. (2) A. of Jezreel, w. of 
David, who accompanied him in his wanderings, and 
was mr. of Amnon, his firstborn (1 S. 25. 43 , 27. 3ff - ; 
2 S. 3 - 2 ). 

AHIO, s. of Abinadab and br. of Uzzah, who 
perished for touching the Ark (2 S. 6. 3 ). Two Ben- 
jamites also bear this name, sons of Beriah and of 
Jehiel respectively (1 Ch. 8. 14 - 31 ). LXX takes all 
these as common nouns, translating " brother " and 
" brothers." As the words are consonantally the 
same, poss. A. shd. not be taken as a proper name. 

AHITHOPHEL, " my br. is folly," an extremely 
able but unprincipled counsellor of David, who 
took the part of Absalom in his rebellion (2 S. 
i5- 



12, 31ff. T 6.15ff. ? I7 )_ 

Absalom followed his advice in the matter of the royal 
harim, making absolute the breach with David. But his 
further counsel of instant and strenuous pursuit was discarded 
in favour of Hushai's. A., seeing the one chance of success 
thrown away, went home to Giloh and hanged himself. 

4 



Ahi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ale 



A. would appear to have been the grandfr. of 
Bathsheba. It has been suggd. that displeasure with 
David's conduct in relation to her may have caused 
his alienation. 

AHITUB, " br. is goodness." (i) S. of Phine- 
has, grandson of Eli, and fr. of Ahiah, or Ahimelech 
(i S. 14. 3 ). (2) Fr. (2 S. 8. 17 ; 1 Ch. 18. 16 ) or grandfr. 
(I Ch. 9. 11 ; Ne. II. 11 ) of Zadok the priest. Poss. 
2 S. 8. 17 shd. read " Zadok and Abiathar, the s. of 
Ahimelech, the s. of A." The name also occurs in 
I Ch. 6. 11£ ; 1 Es. 8. 2 ; 2 Es. I. 1 ; Jth. 8. 1 . 

AHLAB, a city of Asher (]g. I. 31 ), poss. on the 
site of Gush Halab, the Gischala of Jos., Fit. 10. ; 
BJ. IV. ii. iff., the mod. el-Jish, cp. Relandi Falces- 
tina, p. 812'f. 

AHOLAH, AHOLIBAH. See Oholah, Oholi- 

BAH. 

AHOLIBAMAH, RV. OHOLIBAMAH, dr. of 
Anah, of Hivite descent, w. of Esau (Gn. 36. 2 ). 

AI, " a heap " or " ruin " (Gn. 12. 8 , 13. 3 , AV. 
Hai; Jo. J?> 5 , &c. ; Ne. II. 31 , Aija ; Is. io. 28 , 
Aiath ; in Jr. 4c;. 3 read " Ar "), was taken by Isr. 
and reduced to a heap. It appears as inhabited 
after the exile (Ez. 2. 28 ; Ne. J. 32 ). A. lay beside 
Beth Aven, on the E. side of Bethel (Jo. J. 2 ). 
Valleys on the N. and W. made it easy of defence. 
The site prob. corrspds. with that of Khirbet 
Haiyan, near et-Tell, fully 2 miles E. of Bethel, 
on the road to Jericho. 

AIJALON, AJALON, "place of deer" (Jo. 
io. 12 , &c). (1) A town assigned to Dan, but not 
possessed by them (Jo. 19. 42 ; Jg. I. 35 ). It was forti- 
fied by Rehoboam, and later was taken by the Phil. 
(2 Ch. II. 10 , 28. 18 ). The name Aialuna occurs in 
the Tell el Amarna letters. It is identd. with Yah, 
on the Jrs. road, about 2 Rm. miles fm. Emmaus 
Nicopolis (OEJ.) and 14 miles fm. Jrs. (2) A. 
in Zebulun (Jg. 12. 12 ) is not identd. 

AIN, " eye " or " spring," is the first part of 
many place names in Scrip. (1) Near the E. border 
of Isr., W. of Riblah (Nu. 34. 11 ), poss. el- Jin, near 
( Ain el-Asy, the source of the Orontes. (2) A 
town assigned to Judah (Jo. 15. 32 ), and again to 
Simeon (Jo. 19. 7 ), where, instead of Ain and 
Rimmon, we shd. prob. read " En Rimmon." This 
may be identd. with Umm er-Ramamln, N. of Beer- 
sheba, near wh. is Bir Khuelfa, a copious spring 
with considerable ruins. 

AIR. The atmosphere was supposed to be the 
abode of evil spirits ; hence Satan is called " the 
prince of the power of the air " (Eph. 2. 2 ). Poss. 
this is connected with the fact that in Heb., ruah, 
" spirit," also meant " wind," a connection present 
also in Gr. The Zoroastrian idea was that tempests 
came fm. Angro-Mangyas — Ahriman, the personi- 
fied principle of evil. 

AKRABBIM, Ascent of, " ascent of scorpions," 
or " mountain path " (Guthe), mentioned on the 



S. border of Isr. (Nu. 34* ; Jo. 15. 3 ), and on the 
border of the Amorites (Jg. I. 36 ), is prob. the ascent 
by Wady el-Fiqra, whence the passes Naqb es-Sufa, 
Naqb el-Yemen, and Naqb el-Gbarb, open towards 
Pal. to the S W. of the Dead Sea. 

ALABASTER, a translucent limestone, of fine 
texture, used for making 
vases in wh. unguents were 
kept (Mw. 26. 7 ; Mk. 14. 3 ; 
Lk. ;. 37 ). 

ALAMMELECH, RV. A 
ALLAMMELECH, a place 
in Asher (Jo. 1 9. 26 ). Perhaps 
the name lingers in Wady el- |^ 
Melek, a tributary of the I 
Kishon, near Haifa. 

ALEXANDER. (1) The 
Great, s. and successor of 
Philip, k. of Macedon ; born 
B.C. 356. When he was 20 "^ 
he mounted the throne on 

the assassination of his fr. ; Alabaster Vase (Assyrian) 

within a yr. he had conquered Illyria and Greece, 
and was elected to the leadership in the war agst. 
Persia. In the following yr., b.c 334, he crossed 
the Hellespont with an army of 34,000 men, and, 
winning the battle of the Granicus, placed all 
Asia Minor under his feet. After a time spent in 
gathering the fruits of his victory, in b.c 333, he 
encountered, at Issus, Darius, who had placed him- 
self at the head of an army of something like half a 
million. Darius and his force were scattered like 
chaff. A. did not pursue Darius but turned S. to 
the conquest of Egp. and Syria. These conquests 
accomplished, he now marched agst. Darius, who 
had assembled a yet huger army than that wh. had 
been overthrown at Issus. The armies met at 
Arbela, when again the Persian host fled. From 
this A. carried his arms to Samarkand in Central 
Asia and to the banks of the Sutlej in India. As his 
troops wd. follow no further he returned to Bab. 
and was endeavouring to organise his huge empire 
when he was struck with fever, and died at the early 
age of 33, after a reign of 13 yrs. No military 
conqueror ever left so deep an impress on the 
hist, of the world as did A. The whole of S.W. 
Asia was Hellenised ; philosophers fm. beyond the 
Euphrates taught in the schools of Athens. See 
Daniel. (2) S. of Simon of Cyrene (Mk. 15. 21 ). 

(3) Poss. the Alabarch of the Alexandrian Jews, br. 
of Philo, associated with the high priest (Ac. 4. 6 ). 

(4) A prominent Jew in Ephesus, put forward by 
the Jews as their apologist (Ac. 19. 33 ). (5) Prob. a 
Jewish Christian who, with Hymenaeus, had fallen 
into error (1 Tm. I. 20 ). (6) A coppersmith (metal- 
worker) who opposed Paul, to the deep resentment 
of the latter (2 Tm. 4. 14 ' 15 ). It is poss., but hardly 
prob., thai the last three refes. are to the same man. 



Ale 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



All 



ALEXANDRIA, the largest Hellenic city in the 
Roman Empire. It was founded by Alexander the 
Great, 332 B.C., on the strip of land wh. separates 
the lake Mareotis fm. the Mediterranean. It had a 
large population of various nationalities. Diod. 
Siculus (XVII. 52) declares that it " excels all other 
cities in population, having thirty myriads of free 
citizens." The Jewish colony was very large and in- 
fluential ; it had its own magistrates, an Alabarch, 
and a Senate. Josephus claims that this Jewish 
colony was founded by Alex, himself ; it was certly. 
greatly increased by Ptolemy Soter. A. was the 



to unite it with the Nile. Its population now is 
nearly 400,000. 

Alexandrians. One of the classes that disputed with 
Stephen (Ac. 6.9). "Synagogue" in this passage prob. 
means '' community," as the number of A. resident in Jrs. 
was prob. too great to be accommodated in one Synagogue, 
In Safed in Galilee the Jewish community is divided into 
several "congregations," each having its own officials, and 
possessing more or fewer Synagogues accdg. to their numbers. 
These are named after the nationalities fm. wh. they have 
come. A similar arrangement prob. held in Jrs. in the days 
of the Apostles. 

ALGUM (2Ch.2. 8 ,Q. 10 )or ALMUG (1 K. io. 11 ), 
trees. The terms clearly indicate the same tree. 




Alexandria 



centre of Hellenic thought and learning, and the 
Jewish colony became thoroughly Hellenised. It 
was for their benefit that the Septuagint translation 
was made. Fm. the works of Philo we learn the 
extent to wh. the Jews of A. were influenced by the 
" wisdom of the Greeks." It was fm. his Alex- 
andrian culture that Apollos gained such influence 
over the Corinthian believers. A. was the chief 
business city in the Roman Empire. Ships of 
Alexandria were constantly engaged conveying 
grain to Rome ; so the ship in wh. Paul suffered 
shipwreck was a ship of A., as also that by wh. he was 
conveyed fm. Malta to Italy. 

A. was reduced to insignificance during the 
middle ages, but was restored to importance by 
Mehemet Aly, who made the Mahmoudiyeh canal. 



It was brought fm. Ophir, and also fm. Lebanon. 
Dr. Post (HDB. s.v.) points out that the same name 
in different districts mt. signify difft. trees. But, 
lacking definite kge. of where Ophir was, and what 
tree is meant, we have no reason to think it cd. not 
grow in both districts. Many idents. have been 
suggd., the most genly. favoured being with red 
sandal wood. No cert, decision is poss. 

ALLEGORY, a prolonged parable. A parable is 
an incident, whereas an A. is a hist. Bunyan's 
" Pilgrim's Progress " is a classic example of an A. 
St. Paul regards patriarchal hist, as an A. (Gal. 4~ 24 ). 

ALLEMETH, AV. ALEMETH (1 Ch. 6. 60 ; 
Jo. 2 1. 18 , Almon). A city assigned to the sons of 
Aaron in Benjamin. It is identd. with i Almit i N. of 
Anathoth. 



Aim 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Alt 



ALMODAD,s.of Joktan (Gn. io. 26 ;_ I Ch. I. 20 ). 
Prob. an Arb. tribe, district, or town is intended, 
but no identn. is poss. at present. 

ALMOND, sbdqedb, " waker," " so called because 
of all trees it is the first to awake fm. the sleep of 
winter " (Ges., Lex.). The tree is mentioned in 
Ec. 12. 5 ; Jr. I. 11 ; and Gn. 30. 37 ; in the last case 
the name is luz (AV. wrongly " hazel "), the name 
(lauz) used in Arb. for tree and fruit. The fruit is 
referred to in Gn. 43 . u , &c. 

The A. blossoms early in Jan. The flowers are almost 
pure white, slightly tinged with pink. It is a most beautiful 
feature in the landscape, heralding the coming spring. The 
fruit begins to form in Feb. , and in March the foliage is 
complete. "The almond tree shall flourish," compares the 
white hair of age to the blossoms on the yet leafless A. tree 
(Ec. 12. 5 ). The delicate tint of pink is not apparent on a 
gen. view, so the objn. of Ges. (Heb. Lex. s.v.) falls to the 
ground. 

The A., Amygdalus communis, order Rosacea, sub-order 
Amygdalece, is indigenous in Pal. The trees range fm. 
12 to 15 ft. in height, with irregular branches. The leaves 
are long, ovate, serrate, acute. The flowers, wh. come 
before the leaves, are set in pairs, the blossom being over an 
inch wide. In April and May the fruit, a firm green pod, 
fm. 2 to 3 in. long, and about f in. thick, is largely eaten. 
Soon, however, the shell hardens, the succulent covering dries 
round it, and the kernel matures. The A. is esteemed a great 
dainty in the E., and is used in preparing many popular 
dishes. 

Four varieties of A. are found wild on the mountains, both 
E. and W. of Jordan. They do not attain the size of the culti- 
vated A., and their fruit is small and bitter. 

The A. does not seem to have been found in anct. Egp. 
(Gn. 43. 11 ). The beauty of its blossoms was early appreci- 
ated by emancipated Isr., and the cups for the golden candle- 
stick were modelled on its flowers (Ex. 25. 32 ). 

ALMSGIVING. To sympathise with the un- 
fortunate, to relieve poverty and distress, was re- 
garded as a duty in Isr. (Dt. I5. 7ff- ), and A. was a 
distinguishing mark of the righteous man (Ps. 1 12. 9 ; 
Lk. 19. 8 ). So closely were A. and righteousness as- 
sociated in the people's mind, that the one word 
tzeddqa came to be used for both. It is just poss. 
that the sense of A. is present in Pr. io. 2 , as in Dn. 
4. 27 . Certainly in To. 4. 7ff -, where A. " delivers fm. 
death," and Sr. 3. 30 , where A. " makes atonement 
for sins," A. and righteousness are identd. 

Jesus Christ takes it for granted that a righteous 
man, or one who desires to be thought so, will do 
alms (Mw. 6. lff ). All He does is to warn agst. im- 
proper motives. He expects His followers to be mind- 
ful of the poor (Lk. n. 41 , 12. 33 ). Peter and John 
acknowledged the claim of the unfortunate man at 
the temple gate for help (Ac. 3. 6 ) ; one of the first 
acts of the infant Church was to arrange for the 
assistance of the needy (Ac. 4- 32ff -, 6. lff ) ; the A. of 
Cornelius attests his high char. (Ac. c). 36 , &c.) ; and 
throughout NT., A. is regarded as evidence of the 
right Christian disposition (Mw. io. 8 ; Lk. 6. 30 ; 
Ac. 24. 17 ; Js. 2. 6 , &c). " It is more blessed to give 
than to receive," said Jesus ; and His own deeds 
(Mw. I4. 15ff - ; Mk. 8. lff -, &c.) may be taken as illus- 
trating the spt., at least, wh. shd. characterise His 
followers. 



The usage in the E. to this day tends to ident. A. with 
righteousness. The word Sadaqah means "alms given to 
trie poor for the sake of God." Beggars whcse ranks are 
perpetually recruited by the victims of disease and misfortune, 
appeal for help ever in the name of God. No one ever re- 
fuses directly. If a man have nothing to bestow, or have 
not the will, he will piously respond, " God will give to you." 
The gen. recognition of the duty to relieve the needy is em- 
bodied in the Arb. proverb, " He who has a loaf is debtor to 
him who has none." Among the religious a reputation for 
liberality in A. is greatly coveted. But ' ' Oriental benevo- 
lence has no thought of attacking the cause of poverty. . . . 
A. is a current act. with Gcd " (Mackie, Bible Manners and 
Customs, p. I45f.). 

ALOES. The A. of Scrip, must be distinguished 
fm. the A. of mod. medicine, to wh. they are in no 
way related. In four places where they are men- 
tioned ('abdlim, Pr. 7. 17 ; 'ahdldtb, Ps. 45.8, SS. 4. 14 ; 
d\6rj, Jn. 19. 39 ), a fragrant substance is intended, 
employed to give a pleasant perfume to the clothes, 
the bed, &c, and mingled with the spices in wh. the 
dead were wrapped. There is no certy. as to whence 
it was derived. Abdullah ibn Sina — Avicenna — an 
Arb. physician, born a.d. 986, says it was obtained 
fm. the tree known to the Arabs as W, wh. is identd. 
with Aquilaria Agallocbia, a native of N. India, wh. 
supplies the wood-A. of commerce. The aromatic 
qualities of the wood, it appears, are set free only in 
the process of decay ; therefore to secure the per- 
fume it is often buried for a time. 

There is no evidence that this tree, wh. in its native 
conditions attains splendid dimensions, ever grew in Pal. ; 
although it is poss. that it once flourished in the Jordan 
Valley. The context in Nu. 24.6 makes it imposs. to read 
'OMlim, "tents " (as LXX), but what trees Balaam alludes 
to we cannot be sure. The same name does not always mean 
the same tree in difft. countries. He may have intended some 
tree of luxuriant growth, familiar to him in Mesopotamia. 
But even this was not necessary, as he refers to trie cedar, 
wh., although well known, had prob. never been seen either 
by Balaam or these whom he addressed. 

ALPHA and OMEGA, the first and last letters of 
the Greek alphabet, taken to signify " the first and 
the last" (Rv. I. 8 , 21. 6 , 22. 13 ), the idea also ex- 
pressed in Is. 44A The Heb. equivalent is "Aleph 
and Tau." 

ALPHAEUS. (1) Fr. of Matthew (Levi). 
(2) Fr. of James the Less, the apostle. Whether he 
is to be identd. with Cleopas or Clopas has been 
much debated. See Cleopas, Clopas. 

ALTAR, mostly Heb. mizbeab, " place of sacri- 
fice," Gr. thusiasterion (madbab, Ez. 7. 17 , Aram. ; 
bar' el, RV. " upper altar," Ek. 43 , 15 ; 9 ar?el 9 Qri 
9 ar?el, RV. " altar hearth." Shidhdn is = mizbedh in 
Ek. 41. 22 , Ml. I. 7 , and obviously also in Ek. 44. 16 . 
Bdmah in Jr. 7. 31 (lit. " high place," LXX bomos) is 
prob. = A. Leberiim in Is. 65 . 3 shd. be rendered 
with RV. " upon bricks." Mizbeab (Gn. 33. 20 ) 
shd. prob. read matztzebab. Bomos (Ac. 17. 25 ) is 
an A. to a heathen deity : cp. 1 M. I. 59 ). 

The polytheism of the anct. Semites associated a 
deity with every obj. and place of importance, and 
offerings were made to the god where he dwelt, in 
stream or well, on hill top or tree. Then it came to 



17 



Alt 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ama 



be believed that the deity wd. enter a structure or 
stone set up for him, and this was regarded as the 
residence of the god — Beth-el (Gn. 28. 18 ). At first 
the Pillar must have served as A., the blood of the 
victim or oil of offering being poured or smeared 
over it (see Sacrifice). The A., as distinguished 
fm.the pillar — matztzebab — arose,perhaps,to meet 
the necessity for a hearth, when men felt that not 
the blood only, but also the flesh of the victim, shd. 
be offered to the deity in sacrifice. 

The JE. nars. record the building of many A.s in 
many places, and the offering of sacrifices thereon, 
by the first frs. of the race and other distinguished 
servants of }". : e.g. Gn. 8. 20 , 12. 7 , 22. 9 , 26. 25 , 
35. 7 , Ex. 17. 15 . This seems expressly authorised 
by Ex. 20. 24 : " In every place where I record My 
name, I will come unto thee and bless thee." It 
was a common practice up to the reign of Josiah 
(Jo. 8. 30 ; Dt. 27. 6 ; Jg. 6. 24 ; I S. 7. 17 , &c). P., on 
the other hand, recognises only one A., the place of 
wh. is in the nation's central sanctuary. Other 
existing A.s are regarded as merely commemorative 
monuments (Jo. 22. 10ffi ). 

The A. mt. be a single sacrificial stone (Jg. 6. 20 , 
cj. 5 , &c). Genly. it was an erection of unhewn 
stones (Ex. 20. 25 ; Dt. 27. 5 ; I K. l8. 30f -), or a 
mound of earth (Ex. 20. 24 ). It shd. not be so high 
as to prevent one standing on the ground from 
handling the offerings. In later times importance 
was attached to more artistic bldg. of the A. (2 K. 
16. 10 ). The prescription of unhewn stones (Dt. 
27. 5 ; Jo. 8. 31 ) may be due to the influence of the 
primitive idea, that the deity dwelt in the stone, 




Assyrian Altar 

and that his wrath mt. be incurred by breaking it. 
The action of Judas regarding the polluted A. 
(1 M. 4. 46 , cp. Tim. Middotb, I, 6) illustrates the 
reverence in wh. the A. was held. 

The flight of a fugitive to a temple meant an ap- 



peal to the deity there worshipped for hospitality 
and protection. He natly. went to the A., as the 
spot par excellence where the god and his wor- 
shippers met.* God's A. was an asylum for one who 
slew another by accident, but not for the deliberate 




Altar with Steps : Baalbe 



murderer (Ex. 2i. 13f -). The horns of the A., evi- 
dently reckoned peculiarly holy (Lv. 4. 7 ' 18 ), to wh. 
Adonijah and Joab clung, were projections, at the 
corners, the origin and use of wh. are now unknown. 
Stade suggests that they are a reminiscence of the 
time when ]". was worshipped under the form of a 
young bull. This, however, is a mere guess. 

For A. of burnt-offering and A. of incense, see 
Tabernacle and Temple. Lit. : Robertson Smith, 
RS. 2 by index ; Benzinger, HA. index ; Kennedy, 
HDB. s.v. 

AMALEK, AMALEKITES. A nation of pre- 
datory nomads occupying the territory — the Negeb 
— extending fm. the S. of Pal. to Mt. Sinai, the 
triangle between the two arms of the Red Sea. The 
earliest notice of them we have is in Gn. 14. 7 , where 
we are told that Chedorlaomer inflicted on them a 
disastrous defeat. When Isr. came out of Egypt 
they encountered A. at Rephidim, and, led by 
Joshua, defeated them. The report of the spies 
(Nu. 13. 29 ) implies that when they traversed the 
land A. possessed the S. of what was afterwards the 
territory of Judah. The Song of Deborah (Jg. 5. 14 ) 
seems to indicate that A. were allies of Sisera, and 
took advantage of his oppression of Galilee to carry 
their raids as far N. as the territory of Ephraim. 
The Mt. of the A. in wh. Abdon was buried prob. 
commemorated that raid and the destruction of A. 
there. On act. of their treacherous attack on Isr. 
near Sinai, by Divine command perpetual war was 
proclaimed against A. They seem to have lived by 
robbery, so the continued national existence of A. 
was a menace to civilisation. As anointed k. of Isr. 

* So the suppliant went to the hearth of the human 
benefactor whose aid he sought (C. Nepos, Vitce, II. 8). 



18 



Ama 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Amn 



Saul was commissioned to destroy A. and made a 
campaign agst. them (I S. I5. 2ffi ). Despite the 
harrowing they had endured fm. Saul, while he was 
engaged with the Phil, they made a raid and cap- 
tured Ziklag, carrying away the wives and families 
of David and his troop (i S. 30. lffi ). He pursued 
them and annihilated the band. An A. came to 
David after the battle of Gilboa claiming to have 
killed Saul. After this A. disappears from hist. 

Prof. Cheynesays [EB. s.v. Jerahmeei,) : " Amalek, the 
name is unintelligible ; the centre of the Amalekites must 
have been near to the Jerahmeelites. To admit the identn. 
of Amalek and Jerahmeei is in accordance with similar idents. , 
and throws bright light on many passages." This is hardly 
an argument. 

AMARIAH. (i) Fr. of Ahitub (i Ch. 6. 7 ). 
(2) A High Priest in the time of Solomon (1 Ch. 
6. 11 ), poss. the same as the foregoing. (3) A Le- 
vite, desct. of Kohath (1 Ch. 23. 19 , &c). (4) A 
High Priest in the time of Jehoshaphat (2 Ch. 19. 11 ). 
(5) A Levite who, in the time of Hezekiah, received 
and distributed among his brethren the free-will 
offerings (2 Ch. 3 1. 15 ). (6) One of those who mar- 
ried strange wives (Ez. io. 42 ). (7) A priest who 
signed the covenant with Nehemiah (Ne. ic. 3 , &c). 
(8) One of the descts. of Perez, s. of Judah, who 
dwelt in Jrs. after the exile (Ne. n. 4 ). (9) An an- 
cestor of the prophet Zephaniah (Zp. I. 1 ). 

AMASA," burden." (i)S.of the Ishmaelite Ithra 
and Abigail, sr. of David. He commanded Absa- 
lom's army (2 S. 17. 25 ). After his defeat by Joab he 
submitted to David and was appointed commander- 
in-chief, displacing Joab (2 S. 19. 13 ). Joab treacher- 
ously slew him at " the great stone of Gideon " 
(2 S. 2o. 9ff -). (2) An Ephraimite (2 Ch. 28. 12 ). 

AMAZIAH, s. and successor of Jehoash, k. of 
Judah, in the beginning of the 8th cent. B.C. He 
avenged his fr.'s murder (2 K. 14. 5 ; 2 Ch. 25. 3 ). 
He marched agst. the Edomites, exciting the anger 
of Ephraim, accdg. to the Chronicler, by rejecting 
their offer of help, and gained a great victory in the 
Valley of Salt. He captured Sela, or Petra (?), and 
took away much spoil. Puffed up by his success, he 
challenged Jehoahaz, k. of Isr., to battle. Despite 
that monarch's desire to put him off, enraged poss. 
by the contemptuous parable of the thistle and the 
cedar, A. persisted, met Jehoahaz at Bethshemesh, 
and was overwhelmingly defeated. The conqueror 
took Jrs., broke down part of the wall, and carried 
away much plunder. A conspiracy was formed agst. 
A. and he was slain at Lachish, whither he had fled, 
having reigned perhaps 29 years. 

AMBER, a fossil resin (Ek. i. 4 - 27 , 8. 2 ). RVm. 
gives " electrum " (gold alloyed with silver), prob. 
correctly, for Heb. hashmal. LXX renders " elec- 
tron," a word wh. may mean either the resin or the 
metal. 

AMETHYST, the ninth gem on the High 
Priest's breast-plate (Ex. 28. 19 ), the twelfth founda- 



tion of the New Jrs. (Rv. 21. 20 ). It is a purple- 
coloured quartz crystal, and was believed to possess 
the power of preventing drunkenness — hence the 
name in Gr. 

AMMON, AMMONITES, bene 'Ammon, " sons 
of A.," a people whose land lay between the Jabbok 
and the Arnon, E. of Jordan. The Amorites under 
Sihon had driven the A. back fm. the Jordan, fm. 
20 to 30 miles, and made Heshbon the capital 
of the conquered territory (Jg. u. 12ff -). Informer 
times the whole Ammonite land had been held by 
the giant Zamzummim, to wh. race prob. Og 
belonged (Dt. 2. 20 , 3. 11 ). 

Whether the act. given of their origin (Gn. 19. 38 ) 
be taken as literal hist., or as a myth wrought under 
the influence of the hostility of later days, their 
descent with Isr. fm. one parent stock is ackged. ; 
and this is confirmed by the forms of their personal 
and place names wh. are preserved to us. 

The strong positions behind wh. they retired 
secured the A. agst. further encroachment by the 
Amorites ; and when Isr. came, by divine direction, 
they left the A. untouched (Nu. 21. 24 ; Dt. 2. 19 - 37 ). 

The A. appear as enemies of Isr. in Jg, 3. 13ff- , io. 7ff -, 
and are overthrown by Jephthah (n. 33 ). Saul de- 
feated Nahash, the A. k., and frustrated his attempt 
to take Jabesh Gilead (1 S. II.). Nahash became a 
friend of David ; but his s. Hanun shamefully en- 
treated the messengers sent by David to condole 
with him on his fr.'s death. David and Joab de- 
feated the A. ; after a long siege their capital, 
Rabbath A., was taken, and on its inhabitants 
terrible vengeance was inflicted (2 S. io. lff -, II. 1 , 
I2. 26ff -). Solomon built a high place for Milcom, 
the god of the A. (1 K. 11. 5s 35 ). 2 Ch. 20. gives an 
act. of an uprising of A. and other foes agst. Judah 
in the days of Jehoshaphat, when, excited by mutual 
suspicions, the enemy turned agst. each other, to 
their utter destruction, Judah being a mere spec- 
tator of the battle. Tribute was paid by A. to 
Uzziah (2 Ch. 26. 8 ) and also to Jotham (2 Ch. 
27- 5 )- 

For their unspeakable cruelty, and their malicious joy in 
Isr.'s misfortunes, the prophets heap reproach and threaten- 
ing upon them (Jr. 9.26, 25.21, 27.8; Ek. 21.28ft"., 25.2ft- ; Am. 
i. 13 ; Zp. 2. 8 ). Along with the Chaldeans and others, the A. 
oppressed Judah in the time of Jehoiakim (2 K. 24.2). In 
later days Baalis, k. of A., envious prob. of the prosperity 
of Judah under Gedaliah, sent Ishmael, a scion of Judah's 
royal house, to assassinate that unsuspicious governor (2 K. 
2 S- 22ff - ; J r - 4°- 14 , 4i. lff -). The A. furnished fresh evidence 
of their enmity to Judah in the days of Nehsmiah (Ne. 4. 7ff -). 
They had not changed in the days of Judas Maccabasus, 
who subjected them to humiliating defeat (1 M. 5. lff ). Fm. 
B.C. 64 until A.D. 150 the A. rank as considerable in number ; 
but fm. the 3rd cent, they are heard cf no more. 

For the relg. of the A., see Molech, Milcom. 

AMNON. (1) Eldest s. of David and Ahinoam 
(2 S. 3. 2 ). In revenge of his outrage upon his half 
sr., Tamar, he was slain by her br. Absalom (2 S. 13.). 
Absalom calls him Aminon (2 S. 13. 20 , Heb.), poss. 



T 9 



Amo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Amo 



a diminutive used in contempt ; or it may be a 
scribal error. (2) S. of Shimon (1 Ch. 4. 20 ). 

AMON. (1) S. of Manasseh and Meshullemeth 
(2 K. 21. 19 ; 2 Ch. 33. 21 ), k. of Judah c. 643-642. 
All that is known with certy. of him is that he fol- 
lowed the idolatries of his fr., and even exceeded 
them. He was slain by conspirators among his own 
servants, and buried in his tomb in the garden of 
Uzza. His murder, however, was avenged by the 
people of the land, wh. seems to show that, in spite 
of his religious declension, he had won the regard of 
the common people. The succession was secured 
for his s. Josiah. (2) A governor of Samaria (1 K. 
22. 26 ; 2 Ch. 18. 25 ). (3) One of the " children of 
Solomon's servants " (Ne. 7. 59 = Ami, Ez. 2. 57 ). 

AMORITES. The name mt. poss. mean " the 
people of the summits," or " highlanders," but this 
is not cert. It is not applied to any single people in 
Scrip. In 2 S. 2 1. 2 A. stands for Cans, genly. The 
Hivites are A. (Gn. 34. 2 , cp. 48. 22 , &c.) ; so are the 
Jebusites (Jo. 15. 63 , &c, cp. lo. 5f ), and the Hittites 
(Gn. 23., cp. 14. 13 ). Again, these peoples seem to 
be distinct (Nu. 13. 29 ), "the Jebusites, and the 
Hittites, and the A. dwell in the mountains." Og 
and Sihon are both A. ks. (Dt. 31. 4 ). Og ruled in 
Bashan, while the A. under Sihon thrust the Ammo- 
nites E'ward fm. the Jordan, and held a breadth of 
fm. 20 to 30 miles of the land between the three 
rivers, Arnon, Jordan, and Jabbok. In early times 
the A. possessed territory S.W. of the Dead Sea 
(Gn. 14. 7 ; Dt. I. 7 ' 44 ). 

The A. are mentioned in Bab., Asyr., and Egpn. 
inscrs. As early as b.c. 3800 Pal. and Syria were 
called " the land of the A." by the Bab., and on the 
Egpn. monuments of the 15th cent, this name is 
applied to N. Pal. There are several refcs. to the 
A. in the Tell el Amarna tablets ; but the informa- 
tion we at present possess leaves us greatly in the 
dark regarding both the people and their hist. 

Lit. : Sayce, The White Race of Ancient Pal., in 
Expositor, July 1888 ; Races of the OT. (1891) ; 
Tomkins, Journal of the Anthropological Inst., xviii. 
3, p. 224. 

AMOS, the third of the Minor Prophets in the 
Heb., the second in LXX, was a herdsman of Tekoa. 
Fm. the word used for " herdsman " it is inferred 
that he tended a special breed of sheep. He seems 
to have had an orchard of sycamores, a kind of 
coarse fig. As Tekoa was on a height, the orchard 
was prob. in one of the wadies leading down to the 
Dead Sea. He is summoned to his office without 
any preliminary training in the prophetic schools, 
and sent to prophesy agst. the N. Kdm., esp. agst. 
Bethel. He is one of the earliest of the literary 
prophets. A.'s activity was during the reign of 
Jeroboam II. (790-759). 

The bk. may be divided into three sections : 
(1) A series of denunciations (chaps. 1. and 2.) of 



difft. countries for specific crimes, ending with 
Judah and Isr. The symmetrical arrangement of 
these denunciations gives the section something of 
the solemnity of a sentence of doom. (2) An address 
to Isr., rebuking their idolatry at Bethel and Gilgal, 
denouncing their hypocrisy, luxury, and oppression 
of their brethren (3.-6.). This section is full of 
striking passages, e.g. 6. 4 " 13 , in wh. there is a delicate 
refrain. (3) A succession of visions wh. formed 
parabolic occasions for prophetic discourse. 

The text of A. is fairly correct ; the diffcs. be- 
tween LXX and MT. are unimportant, and are all 
due to similarities of letters in sound or appearance, 
e.g. Raiphan (Remphan, Ac. J. i2 ) and Chiun. The 
confusion may be at once explained by refc. to the 
plate of Alphabets in Jw. Enc. i. 449. Some critics 
— Cheyne, Marti — assert that there are interpola- 
tions ; but their conclusions are deduced solely fm. 
their ideas of the scope and limitations of the pro- 
phet, and are therefore valueless. 

The style of A. is accurate and rhythmic : the 
illustrations are drawn mainly fm. pastoral and 
agricultural life. 

The authenticity of A. has rarely been denied. 
Havet's arguments practically amount to this : the 
state of society revealed by the prophecy wd. suit 
the days of John Hyrcanus, therefore it was 
written then. It may be enough to say it wd. also 
suit France in the days of Napoleon III. 

A.'s refcs. to the Pentateuch are of importance. 
Their reality is admitted to some extent by Dr. 
Driver (SDB. s.v.). He restricts them, however, 
(1) to the Law of Holiness, so far as ceremonial is 
concerned, arid hints (2) that the histl. refcs. may be 
due to tradition. As to (1) the directions for the 
offering of the " sacrifice of thanksgiving," toddh, 
are found in Lv. 7. 12 " 15 , part of P. The denuncia- 
tions of the falsity of the worship at Bethel (4- 4 ), 
imply a kge. of the Deuteronomic Law on the part, 
not only of the prophet, but also of his audience. 
The word hoq, rendered " commandment " (2. 4 ), is 
a favourite term with the Deuteronomist, esp. con- 
nected with shdmar, " to keep." As regards (2) the 
word hapak, used in refc. to the destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, it has the sense " to over- 
throw " very rarely, except in relation to these 
cities. A. uses it here, although in all other cases he 
takes it in its more usual significance, " to turn." 
This implies a written source. We have only given 
a selection of instances wh., in their cumulative 
effect, make it morally cert, that A. had the Penta- 
teuch nearly complete. Of course, as Dr. Driver 
says, the evidence is not demonstrative ; but histl. 
evidence never can be. 

The relation of A. to Joel is interesting. Two 
striking phrases they have in common : " The Lord 
shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jrs." 
(Am. i. 2 ; Jl. 3. 16 ) ; "The mountains shall drop 



Amp 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Amu 



with new wine " (Am. 9. 13 ; Jl. 3. 18 ). In each case 
the phrase is peculiar. Both prophets refer to the 
" day of the Lord," but to diift. aspects. Wh. is 
the earlier we shall discuss under Joel. 

Messrs. Day andChapin, in the Amer. Jour. ofSem. Laiig. , 
Jan. 1902, maintain that the prophecy of A. is post-Exilic, (1) 
Because it is a unity, and many passages are regarded as 
late by Cheyne, Taylor, and G. A. Smith. If the correctness 
of these critical decisions is denied, this argument falls to the 
ground. It is for these critics to show how they escape D. 
and C. 's argument from homogeneity of style, and unity cf 
structure. (2) Because it is too sublime to be pre-Exilic. 
But in many Lits. the earliest writings are the most sublime. 
Homer is not denied sublimity, nor Dante. If it is denied 
that Job and Jcel are post-Exilic, this argument also falls to 
the ground. (3) Because the lang. is late. As the writers 
deny that the Song of Deborah is early, and point out nobk. 
or portion of a bk. wh. they consider early, one suspects that 
they regard all Heb. Lit. as post- Exilic. But perhaps their 
argument is intended to be a reductio ad absurdum. 

AMPHIPOLIS, a city of Macedonia, on the E. 
side of the Strymon. A loop of the river almost sur- 
rounds the city ; hence the name, Amphi-polis. 
Founded as a colony by the Athenians in b.c. 436, it 
was captured by Brasidas, b.c. 424. In an attack 
led by Cleon for its recovery, both Cleon and 
Brasidas perished. Here, after the battle of Pydna, 




Coin of Amphipolis 

Paulus yEmilius declared the Macedonians free. 
Paul visited A. on his second Missionary Journey 
(Ac. 17. 1 ), another Paulus, declaring a nobler free- 
dom. The mod. vill. Neochori occupies the anct. 
site. 

AMPLIAS (AV.), AMPLIATUS (RV.), is saluted 
by Paul as " my beloved in the Lord " (Rm. 16. 8 ). 
The name occurs in the Catacomb of Domitilla ; 
poss. this A. is buried there. 

AMRAM. (1) S. (descendant) of Kohath, s. of 
Levi (Ex. 6. 18 " 20 ), married his fr.'s sr. (kinswoman) 
Jochebed. He was fr. of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses, 
and poss. headman of his tribe. (2) S. of Dishan 
(1 Ch. I. 41 , RV. "Hamran"; Gn. 36. 26 , "Hem- 
dan "). Amramites, a branch of the Levite family 
of Kohath, who traced their descent from Amram. 

AMRAPHEL (Gn. 14."-), k. of Shinar, confede- 
rate with Chedarlaomer, Arioch, and Tidal. A. 
has been identd. with Hammurabi, the sixth mon- 
arch of a dyn. reigning in Bab. A series of tablets 
deciphered by Dr. Pinches appears to prove these 
ks. to have been contemporaries. A. had been sub- 
ject to Arioch (Eri-aku, otherwise Rim-Sin), who 
was an Elamite vassal k. of Ellasar (Larsa), but estab- 
lished his own dominion by the overthrow of the 
Elamite power and proclaimed himself " k. of the 



four regions, k. of Shumir and Accad." His revolt 
agst. the Elamites was prob. synchronous with the 
overthrow of Chedarlaomer 
by Abraham at Damascus. 

Interest in A. has been in- 
creased by the discovery at Per- 
sepolis of "a block of black 
diorite about 2.25 metres high, 
tapering from 1.90 to 1.65 in 
circumference" (Johns, Bab. and 
Asyr. Cont., p. 14), inscribed 
with the Code of Hammurabi. 
A portion of the writing has 
been obliterated, but nine-tenths 
of it havebeen preserved amount- 
ing to 3600 lines. A collection of 
letters to and from A. have also 
been found. All these things 
unite to make A. the best known 
potentate in that Millennium. 



(Is- 3 



20 



AMULETS 
RV.) are objs. carried or 
worn about the person to 
protect the bearer fm. evil. 
Thus, among the Arabs a 
blue bead strung on the 
hair of a boy, or knotted in Kp 
the mane or tail of a horse, 
is thought a sure protection 
agst. the malign influence 
of the "evil eye" (Mw. 
20. 15 ). A bone fm. the 
vertebras of a wolf, worn 
on a string round the neck, 
is a cert, safeguard agst. 
consumption. 

The word lehashim (Is. 
3. 20 ) is derived fm. lahash 
wh. means "enchantments,' 
and also " the objs. by wh. enchantments are 
averted." Jahn {Bib. Arch., par. 131) thinks these 
were figs, of serpents carried in the hand by Heb. 
women, as Arab women, before Mohammad, wore 
golden serpents between their breasts. 




Diorite Block containing 
the Laws of Hammurabi 
(Amraphel) 

From A. Jeremias' Das A.T. 

' im Lichte des Alien Orients' 2 ' 




Amulet 
From A. Jeremias' Das A.T. im Lichte des Alten Orients 2 

Benzinger {HA., p. 436) thinks that jewelry had, 
in the earliest times, a religious significance as amu- 
lets (Ex. ii. 2£ ; Ho. 2. 13 ; cp. Gn. 2^' ', 35. 4 ). 
Poss. on this act. Gideon asked for the golden rings 



Ana 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



And 



taken as spoil fm. the Midianites (Jg. 8. 24 ). There bseus, president of the Sanhedrin at the trial of 

also we find crescents with chains upon the camels' Paul (Ac. 2$. 2& ). When Paul had only begun his 

necks, as well as crescents and pendants worn by defence, A. commanded to smite him on the mouth, 

the ks. (RV.). He was one of Paul's accusers before Felix. 



Phylacteries may have been sanctioned to take the place 
and discourage the use of A. (Dt. 6. 8 , n. 18 ), while the orna- 
mentation on the High Priest's robe, pomegranates and bells 
(Ex. 28. 3S , &c), may have been originally in the nat. of 
amulets (Benzinger, HA., p. 428). With these we may com- 
pare the mod. Arb. tilasm and hijdb, words fm. the Qot'clji, 
or mystical sentences written on paper, sewn up in cloth or 
leather, and worn on the person. Of the same nat. seem to 
have been the famous Ephesian Spells (Ac. 19. 19 ), "small 
slips of parchment in silk bags, on wh. were written strange 
cabalistic words, of little or lost meaning . . . prob. a sur- 
vival of the old Phrygian cultus of the powers of Nature." 

The Jews were strong believers in A., and the Rabbis 
though'", it worth while to give directions for their use, for 
both animals and men (Shabbath, f. 53. 1, 61. 1, 2 ; Gittin, f. 
67. 2). Their use among the heathen was widespread. Even 
the Christians at times used the Gospels in this way (Jerome 
on Mw. 4.^). The council of Laodicea forbade their use. 

To this day protection is sought by means of A. in the E. , 
for cattle and other property, e.g. a house. A rough repre- 
sentation of a hand, in white or in red, is a frequent sight on 
the walls, esp. of new houses. 

ANAB, a city of the Anakim taken by Joshua 
(11. 21 ) in the Judean hill country (15. 20 ). It is the 
mod. 'Anab, S.W. of Hebron. 

ANAHARATH, a city in Issachar (Jo. 19. 19 ), 
prob. the mod. En-Na'urah, S.E. of Jebel ed-Duhy, 
the so-called Little Hermon. 

ANAK, the ancestor of the Anakim (Dt. 2. 10 ). 
Prob. really a common noun, " necklace " (SS. 4. 9 ), 
or even " neck " (cp. Arb. c unq, " neck," l anaqa, " to 
embrace "). If this is so the name bene Q Anaq really 
meant " sons of the Neck," i.e. " giants." They 
are also called descendants of Arba (Jo. 15. 13 , 21. 11 ). 
The term A. in Nu. 13. 33 is merely explanatory of 
" Nephilim." They inhabited Hebron, wh. was 
called Kiriath-arba. Three leaders of the Bene 
'Anaq, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, were driven 
out by Caleb (Jo. 15. 14 ). After this they disappear 
from hist. 

ANAMMELECH, " Anu is prince " (Schrader, 
COT. 2 i. 276), a god of the Sepharvaim (2 K. 17. 31 ). 
The rites of worship are the same as those of 
Molech, with whom perhaps the writer of K. meant 
to ident. the Bab. Anu, god of the sky (Barnes, 
HDB. s.v.y. See Adrammelech. 

ANANIAH. (1) Fr. of Maaseiah, grandfr. of 
Azariah (Ne. 3- 23 ). (2) A town occupied by Ben- 
jamites after the exile, identd. with Beit Hanina, 
c. 4 miles N. of Jrs. 

ANANIAS (Hananiah, " J", is gracious."). (1) A 
member of the primitive Church in Jrs., who, having 
sold a piece of land, conspired with his w. Sapphira 
to gain repute for generosity (see Almsgiving) by 
deceiving the brethren. On being exposed he fell 
down dead ; a like fate overtaking his w. (Ac. 5. 1 " 11 ). 
(2) The Damascene Christian who baptized Saul 
(Ac. 9. 10 " 17 ) ; while a Christian, apparently yet a 
devout Jew (22. 12 ). (3) High Priest, s. of Nede- 



His elevation to the High P'hood was due to the influence 
of Herod of Chalcis. He consistently supported the Herodian 
policy of submission to Rome. His s. Eleazar belonged to 
the fanatical party, and refusing, as governor of the Temple, 
to offer the customary sacrifice for the emperor, he precipi- 
tated the conflict. When the uproar began, A. hid him- 
self, but the fanatical mob found and put him to death. In 
the Tim. A. is called Johanan (John), and is charged with 
gluttony and extortion. 

ANATHOTH. (i) A Levite town in Benjamin 
(Jo. 21. 18 ), now c Anata, 2J miles N.E. of Jrs., a small 
hamlet with remains of anct. bldgs. It was the 
home of Abiathar (1 K. 2. 26 ) and other men of note, 
but it owes its fame to Jeremiah, its greatest s. 
(Jr. I. 1 ). It commands an extensive view over the 
uplands to the N., and across the wilderness towards 
the Dead Sea. It is exposed to the full blast of the 
burning E. wind. (2) A s. of the Benjamite 
Becher (1 Ch. J. 8 ). 

ANDREW, Gr. Andreas, br. of Simon Peter, s. of 
Jonas, born in Bethsaida of Galilee, resided with 
Peter in Capernaum (Jn. I. 40f -, I2. 20ff - ; Mk. I. 21 > 29 ). 
He was a disciple of John the Baptist, and along 
with another was the first to follow Jesus (Jn. I. 35ff -), 
to whom also he brought his br. Simon. Jesus called 
him with Peter to discipleship, fm. his work as a 
fisherman on the Sea of Galilee (Mw. 4. 18ff - ; Mk. 
i. 16ff- ), and his name appears in the lists of the 
Twelve. What is related of him in Jn. 6., where he 
tells of the lad with the fishes, and in Jn. 1 2., where 
he brings the Greeks to Jesus, may betoken the prac- 
tical char, of the man. Nothing further is recorded 
of A. in Scrip. Origen (Euseb. HE. iii. 1) says that 
he laboured in Scythia. Hence he is the patron 
saint of Russia. Accdg. to the Acta, A. et Matthice 
(Tischendorf, Acta Apocrypha), he was sent to the 
Anthropophagi. He is said to have preached also in 
Amasea, Sinope, Nicaea, Nicomedia, Bysantium, 
Thrace, Macedonia and Achaia, and to have been 
martyred in this last province at Patrae (Miracula 
Andre ce). An alleged statue of him was long shown 
at Sinope, and the marble seat in wh. he taught. 

The tradition that A. died by crucifixion is best supported, 
altho' the Egpn. Acts of A. add stoning. The X-shapecl 
cross, called by his name, is associated with him only by very 
late tradition. 

It is said that Artemius took the relics of A. from Patree 
to Constantinople in 357 or 358. From Constantinople they 
were conveyed to Amalfi in 1210. Part of his cross is enclosed 
in one of the piers supporting the dome- of St. Peter's in Rm. 

St. Rule, an Eastern monk, is said to have brought the 
arm of A. to Scotland c. a.d. 369, and buried it at St. 
Andrews, where he founded a church, the tower of wh. still 
stands, bearing his name, St. Rule, or Regulus. 

For traditions, see Acta Sanctorum for Oct. 17. 
For Lit. see Lipsius, Apokryphen Apostelge- 
schichten, i. 543ff. 

ANDRONICUS, saluted along with Junias by 



Ane 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ang 



Paul (Rm. l6. 7 ) as his " kinsmen," " fellow- 
prisoners " ; they are declared to be " of note 
among the Apostles " ; the interesting biographical 
fact is added that they were Christians before the 
Apostle himself. 

As the word used for " fellow- prisoner " is not Paul's 
usual word, it has been suggd. that it ought to be taken in a 
metaphorical sense ; there seems, however, no valid ground 
for this. What Lightfoot suggs. in regard to Aristakchus 
may apply to A. 

ANEM, a town in Issacher (i Ch. 6. 73 ), prob. 
identl. with En-Gannim (Jo. 21. 29 ), the mod. Jenln. 

ANER. (1) Br. of Mamre and Eschol, Amorite 
chiefs in alliance with Abraham, at Hebron (Gn. 
14. 13 ' 24 ). (2) A town in Manasseh W. of the Jordan 
(1 Ch. 6. 70 ), wh. Guthe suggs. may be an error for 
Ta'fidk, Taanach (Jo. 21. 25 ). 

ANGELS. In OT. and NT. alike, the existence 
of beings between God and man is assumed. The 
term designating these is, in both Heb. and Gr., 
a word that denotes a " messenger " (Gn. 32. 3 ; 
Js. 2. 25 , &c). Appearances of A. are frequent in the 
Pentateuch, but restricted to J. and E. In most in- 
stances " the A. of God," or " of the Lord," is 
named, but in cert, cases several are mentioned, 
e.g. Gn. 19. 1 , 32. 1 . The word does not occur in Jo., 
but the " Captain of the Host of the Lord " may be 
taken as = " the A. of the Lord " in Gn., Ex., and 
Nu. In Jg. A. appear in the call of Gideon, and the 
promise of Samson's birth to Manoah. In the histl. 
bks. A. are referred to in connection with the ap- 
pearance at the threshing-floor of Araunah, the 
deeds of Elijah, and the destruction of Sennacherib. 
To these may be added the " horses and chariots of 
fire," protecting Elisha (2 K. 6. 17 ). In Jb. A. appear 
in the prologue as " Sons of God " (i. 6 ), identd. by 
parallelism with the " Morning Stars," who sing 
together at the Creation (38. 7 ). Altho' wiser 
than men, God charges them with " folly." There 
are many refcs. to A. in the Psalms not only under 
that name, but also as " the Mighty " (Elim, 29. 1 ), 
and " Sons of the Mighty " (8c;. 6 ). A. are not pro- 
minent in the prophetic writings till we come to Zc. 

The doctrine of A. is considerably developed in 
the NT. An A. announces the conception of Jesus 
to Mary (Lk. I. 26 ) and Joseph (Mw. I. 20 ). At His 
birth a band of A. appeared to the shepherds 
(Lk. 2. 9f -). After His temptation A. ministered to 
Him ; an A. strengthened Him in Gethsemane. At 
His resurrection A. greeted the women who came to 
embalm His body (Jn. 20. 12 ). An A. rolled away the 
stone fm. the door of the Sepulchre (Mw. 28. 2 ). At 
His ascension " two men in white apparel," pre- 
sumably A., sent the apostles back to Jrs. (Ac. I. 10f -). 
An A. released the apostles fm. prison (Ac. 5. 19 ). 
An A. appeared to Cornelius (Ac. io. 3 , &c), loosed 
the chains of Peter (Ac. I2. 7£ ), and announced to 
Paul the safety of his fellow-passengers (Ac. 27. 23 ). 
In several cases Paul mentions A. in his epistles. 



The " Principalities and Powers in Heavenly 

places " (Eph. 3. 10 ) are A., and the terms imply that 

there is in some sense a hierarchy. This idea has 

been elaborated by Dionysius the Areopagite. 

There are notices of A. in the epistles of Peter and 

Jude. The latter is esp. interesting, because it 

takes for granted the fall of cert, of the A. The bk. 

of Rv. is necessarily the principal source of our kge. 

about the A. The word A. appears in Rv. nearly as 

often as it does in all the rest of the NT. 

A. are also called " gods " (Ps. 138. 1 ), "holy ones" (Dn. 
4. 17 ), and " watchers " (Dn. 4. 13 ). Related to A., altho' dis- 
tinct from them, are Cherubim and Seraphim. In then- 
intercourse with men, A. assume a human form, usly. that 
of white-robed young men of dazzling beauty. We may 
note the weakness of con temporary art, wh. can attain angelic 
beauty only by making A. women. 

Their name indicates their function : A. are 
primarily God's messengers. He sends A. to sup- 
port His people (Ps. 91. 11 ) ; to guard them (Ps. 34. 7 ; 
Dn. 6. 22 ); to call them to duty, as Gideon (Jg. 6. 12f ') ; 
to convey a promise, e.g. the birth of Samson (Jg. 
l3. 3 ),of John(Lk. i. llf -),andofourLord(Lk. i. 26f -); 
to warn (Mw. 2. 13 ) ; to rebuke (Jg. 2 1 ). To the 
enemies of God's people their function is punitive : 
A. chase them (Ps. 35. 5 ), destroy them, as Senna- 
cherib (Is. 37- 36 ). A. have charge over individuals 
(Mw. 18. 10 ), as princes they have authority over the 
nations (Dn. io. 20f -), they have charge over churches 
(Rv. I. 20 ), and they have the care of the objs. of 
Nat., e.g. of the waters (Rv. 16. 5 ). In our Lord's 
parables A. fulfil important functions in the pro- 
gress of the divine kdm. ; they watch over that pro- 
gress (Mw. 13. 27 ) ; at the end they separate the 



wicked fm. the righteous (M~\ 



41. 49' 



). They 



attend the Divine Majesty (Ps. 68. 17 , a dint, word 
here), they praise God (Ps. 103. 20 ). 

Two names of A. have come down to us ; Michael (Dn. 
io. 1 **; Ju. 9 ; Rv. 12. 7 ) and Gabriel (Dn. 8. 1(i ; Lk. i. 19 ,26). 
In the apocryphal bk. of Tobit, Raphael is added. The 
Enoch bks. have many more names cf A., including the three 
just mentioned. It is to be presumed that the Archangel 
of 1 Th. 4. 16 is Michael. The Tim. also presents us with an 
elaborate Angelology. It has been suggd. that there is a 
connection between the Zoroastrian Amhaspands and Jewish 
Angelology, and that " the Seven Spirits of God " go back 
to the same source. If this be so, it is singular that the 
Priestly Document, alleged by Critics to have originated in 
the Persian period, shd. have no mention of A. 

Notwithstanding their prominence in Scrip, it can hardly 
be denied that men have ceased to believe in A. Perhaps 
the abounding materialism is the nemesis of our want of faith. 
That there should be an crder of beings between God and 
men is inherently prob. That God, who carries cut His pro- 
vidential designs to a great extent by means cf finite, intelli- 
gent agents, wearing material bodies, i.e. human beings, shd. 
use other intelligences to carry cut the plan cf the Universe, 
is in accordance with analogy. What w r e know phenomenally 
as the Laws cf Nature may be the outcome cf the steady 
will of some lofty angelic Intelligence. 

ANGELS OF THE CHURCHES (Rv. 2., 3.). (1) It has 
been maintained, e.g. by Trench, that the A. were bishcps. 
It is true that in less than half a cent, after R v. was written, 
the monarchical constitution evolved made the bishops so 
powerful in their respective churches that they were respon- 
sible for everything done. But (a) there is no instance of 
a bishop being called an A. of a Church ; (&) the episcopate 

3 



Ani 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ano 



was prob. not then instituted ; (c) elsewhere in Rv. A. are 
always sptl. beings. (2) Some, e.g. Ebrard, hold that the A. 
were messengers sent by the Churches to receive the Apostle's 
counsels. The epistles were doubtless conveyed by mes- 
sengers ; but in each case they are addressed " to the A." 
The dative, to aggelo, dees not natly. mean "for the A.," 
i.e. for him to carry to the Church that had sent him. The 
usage of Rv. is also agst. this view. (3) Some, e.g. Milligan, 
prefer to regard A. as a personification of the Church ad- 
dressed. This mt. suit in some respects, but again the usage 
of the bk. is agst. it. In Rv. a church is personified, not as 
an A., but as a woman {cp. chap. 12.). (4) Others, e.g. 
Alford, give A. the meaning it commonly bears in Scrip. 
This is favoured by the analogy of the rest of Rv., and by 
the identn. of the Stars with the A. (Rv. i. 20 ), found also 
elsewhere (Jb. 38. 7 , cp. 4. 1 «, 15. 15 , Rv. 9. 1 ). It agrees with 
the angelic functions noted above (Rv. 16. 5 ; Dn. xoM\ Mw. 
18. M ; Ac. 12.15). It is nat. that there shd. be A. of the 
Churches. It is no objn. to say that the A. are blamed : 
this accords with Jb. 4. is. As finite beings, A. are limited 
in kge., wisdom, and power. Whatever the relationship 
between a guardian A. and the obj. of his guardianship, 
blame may be quite legitimate. A teacher is blamed for 
backward scholars. 

On the whole the last-mentioned view seems best to meet 
all the requirements. 

ANIM (Jo. 15. 50 ), a town in the Judean high- 
lands, mentioned with Eshtemoh, prob. corrspds. to 
the double ruin of Ghuzvein, W. of Eshtemoh, c. 12 
miles S. of Hebron ; cp. OEJ. s.v. Anab and Este- 
moe. 

ANISE (Mw. 23. 23 ), RVm. "dill," Gr. Anethon = 
Anethum Graveolens. It is the common Dill, Tim. 
Sbabatb, Arb. Shibitb, of wh. (Maaseroth, c. iv. 5) 
the fruit, leaves, and stem are " subject to tithe." 
It is found both wild and under cultivation in Pal. 
It is much appreciated as a condiment, and in many 
forms of illness it is valued as a medicine. 

ANKLE CHAINS (Is. 3. 20 , RV.), light chains 
attached to the ankles, to produce a measured and 
graceful step. 

ANKLETS (Is. 3. 18 ) were wrought frequently of 
the precious metals, in the form of bracelets, and 
worn on the ankles. In walking they made a pleas- 
ing, tinkling sound. 

ANNA, a prophetess, dr. of Phanuel, of the tribe 
of Asher, in Jrs., at the time of our Lord's birth 
(Lk. 2. 36 ), poss. an Essene, age 84, talked of Jesus 
to other Essenes, i.e. " them that were looking 
for the redemption of Isr." (Thomson, Books that 
Influenced our Lord and His Apostles, pp. 75—122)0 

ANNAS, ANANUS (Jos.), s. of Seth, was High 
Priest from a.d. 6 to a.d. 15, and had afterwards the 
unique privilege of seeing his five sons and his s. -in- 
law raised to that office (Ant. XVIII. ii. 1-2 ; XX. 
ix. 1 ; Jn. 18. 13 ). It was held also by a grandson. 
A. was a man of enormous wealth, and enjoyed 
great influence with the Rms. His house derived 
large revenues from what the rabbinical writers 
called " the booths of the sons of Hanan." These 
Edersheim idents. with the temple market, and the 
four shops on the Mt. of Olives, where money mt. 
be changed into money of the sanctuary, where 
pigeons and other requisites for sacrificial purposes 
cd. be obtained (LI J. i. pp. 376fi\ ; ii. 547). Great 



profits were made off these sales; and in exchanging, 
the unsophisticated countrymen were shamefully 
defrauded. We can understand A.'s animus agst. 
Jesus, if it was his money-making traffic that was 
pointed at in the description of the temple as " a 
den of robbers " (Mw. 21. 13 ). 

A. is called High Priest, when Caiaphas held the 
office (Jn. 18. 19 ), and again as H. Pt. he is mentioned 
in Ac. 4A From Jos., however, we learn that one 
who had attained that dignity ever afterwards re- 
tained the title. The leading men in the high 
priestly families seem also to have borne the name. 
The nearest parallel to Lk. 3. 2 , where A. and 
Caiaphas are conjoined in the H. P'hood, is in Jos. 
BJ. II. xii. 6, where he speaks of " Jonathan and 
Ananias the H. Pts." (tovs dpxiepeis 'I. kcu 'A.), 
Ananias being in office, but Jonathan being named 
first, perhaps as the older man. 

Considering his position and influence, there is nothing 
extraordinary in Jesus being informally examined by A. 
before being sent to the H. P. (Jn. i8. 13ff -). Lk. leaves room 
for this examination (22. 54ff -), while Mw. and Mk. omit it 
altogether, apparently transferring to the morning events of 
the night. 

Lit. : Edersheim, op. cit. ; Schiirer, HJP., index. 

ANOINTING. Among the Hebs., as among 
the Grs. and Rms., the limbs were rubbed with oil 
after washing, to preserve the skin soft, esp. in the 
hot dry air of summer. In S. 
Arabia the Arabs rub oil over the 
whole body, believing that it 
strengthens the body and protects 
them agst. the heat of the sun 
(Niebuhr, Beschreibung von Ara- 
bien, p . 131). On festive occasions 
the Hebs. anointed themselves Anointing a Guest 
(Am. 6. 6 ; 2 Ch. 28. 15 ; Ps. 23. 5 ; cf. Lk. y.^). Its 
omission was a sign of mourning (2 S. 14. 2 , 12. 20 ). 
It was applied to the hair of the head, to the beard 
(Ps. 133. 2 ), and the whole frame (Ek. 16. 9 , &c). 
To anoint a man's feet was a mark of special honour 
(Lk. 7. 46 ; Jn. 12. 3 ). Pure olive oil was commonly 
used (Ps. 92.^ ; Dt. 28. 40 ; Mi. 6. 15 , &c). Very 
early the oil was mingled with various fragrant per- 
fumes. The mingling was done by female slaves 
(1 S. 8. 13 ) or perfumers (Ex. 30. 35 ; Ne. 3. 8 , 
RVm., &c). Oil of spikenard came to be regarded 
as the most precious ointment (SS. I. 12 ; Mk. I4. 3ff -). 

Ks. were designated by anointing (1 S. io. 1 , 16. 13 ; 
1 K. 19. 15 ), and A. also marked their assumption of 
office (2 S. 2. 4 , 5. 3 ; 2 K. II. 12 , 23. 30 , &c), altho' 
this is not recorded of all. It has been suggd. that 
A. meant consecration to the P'hood, wh. in anct. 
times was combined with the kship. (Benzinger, 
HA., p. 307). The custom of A. ks. on their ascend- 
ing the throne was widespread in anct. times, and 
persists to this day as part of coronation ritual. 

All the priests seem to have shared in the priestly 
A. (Ex. 28. 41 , 30. 22ff - ; Lv. 7. 35 , io. 7 ; Nu. 3. 3 ), but 




24 



Ant 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ant 



the H. P. alone is called " the anointed priest " (Lv. 
4. 3, 5 16 , &c.). The reason for this may be found in 
the fact that the H. P. was anointed after being 
robed, and again sprinkled with oil after the sacri- 
fice ; while the other priests participated only in the 
sprinkling (Lv. 8. 12, 30 ). A specially mingled oil was 
reseryed for this purpose alone (Ex. 30. 33 ). 

The consecration of stone pillar or Matztzebah, 
prevalent among other peoples, we find also in Scrip. 
(Gn. 28. 18 , 35. 14 ). The Tabernacle and its furniture, 
and the altar after the sin-offering, were conse- 
crated with oil (Ex. 30. 26 , 40. 10 ; Lv. 8. 11 ; Ex. 2c;. 36 ). 

In relation to the prophets A. seems to have had 
only a metaphorical significance (1 K. 19. 16 ' 19 ; cp. 
I Ch. 16. 22 ; Ps. 105 , 15 ). Any one selected by God 
for special work is spoken of as " anointed." So 
Cyrus (Is. 45. 1 ), the nation of Isr. (Ps. 84. 9 , &c), and 
the Servant of the Lord (Is. 61. 1 ; cp. Lk. 4. 18 ). 
" The Anointed " or " The Messiah " came to be 
the title of the promised and expected Deliverer 
(Jn. I. 41 , &c). So the chosen of God in the NT. 
are His anointed (1 Cor. I. 21 ; 1 Jn. 2. 20 ' 27 ). 

The practice of oiling the shield before battle is 
alluded to in 2 S. I. 21 , RV., and Is. 21A 

Oil was used as a healing agent (Mk. 6. 13 ; Js. 
5. 14 ), also mingled with wine (Lk. io. 34 ), and so it 
becomes a fig. of the pardoning and cleansing grace 
of God (Is. I. 6 ; Ek. 16. 9 ; Rv. 3. 18 ). 

Ointments were applied to the dead in prepara- 
tion for burial (Mk. 16. 1 ; Lk. 23. 56 ; Jn. 19. 40 ; 
cp. Jn. 12. 7 ). 

ANT, a gregarious family of hymenopterous 
insects, of wh. several species are found in Pal. The 
industry (Pr. 6. 6 ) and foresight (Pr. 30. 25 ) of the A. 
are proverbial. Sir John Lubbock — now Lord Ave- 
bury — in his bk. on " Ants, Bees, and Wasps," gives 
many striking illustrations of the A.'s wisdom and 
industry. It used to be thought a mistake to speak 
of the A. as gathering grain : that it does so is now 
beyond doubt. 

ANTICHRIST. As the shadow follows the sun- 
light, so the idea of A. accompanies that of the 
Christ. When it appears in the NT. it is clear that 
the writers refer to an idea familiar to those whom 
they address ; A. is part of the heritage Christianity 
took over fm. Judaism. Even among the Jews we 
cannot trace the origin of the idea ; it certainly 
appears in Apocalyptic Lit., but not early ; and in 
the Targums, but still later. In Tg. J. to Is. 1 1 . 4 the 
last clause is rendered, " by the breath of his lips he 
shall destroy 'Armllos the wicked." Here Armilos 
= Romulus, i.e. Rome. The idea seems to be drawn 
on the one side fm. the nth horn of Dn. 7., 
and the little branch horn of Dn. 8. ; and on the 
other fm. Belial, as in the frequent phrase " s. of 
Belial." 

In the LXX this is never given as a proper name, it is 
always interpreted as " sin," " lawlessness," phrases that 
agree in thought with these of St. Paul in 2 Th. z.'-'. 



In Rv. the influence of Dn. is much more obvious. 
In his Epp. the apostle John applies the term to 
false teachers. If we take in connection with 2 Th. 
2. 3 ; Eph. 2. 2 , " the spirit that now worketh in the 
children of disobedience," we see that Paul and 
John are really at one. A. was a spiritual potence 
who expressed himself in wicked persons : he was 
a person, but a spirit. The two apostles differ in 
this : while Paul regards the Imperial Power of 
Rome as that wh. kept the spiritual potence of evil 
in restraint, John in Rv. treats the Roman Imperial 
system as the appearance in history of the power 
of A. It may be that in the evolution of the idea 
of A. the educative influence of Persian Mazdeism 
may be traced, but the germ is to be found in 
Belial. In Apocalyptic we find Beliar is the name 
given to the spirit that opposes God, as in the Ascen- 
sion of Isaiah; so St. Paul asks, " What agreement 
hath Christ with Beliar ? " (WH) . 

During the Middle Ages the imagination of Jew 
and Gentile commentators was exercised on the 
subject of A. ; the latter endeavoured to twist the 
name of Mohammed so that the letters when 
reckoned as numbers wd. amount to 666 ; the 
former dwelt on the marvels " Armillus " wd. do. 
With the Reformation the question assumed a new 
aspect ; Protestant divines saw A. in Papal Rome, 
and Papists declared Luther to be the " Man of 
Sin." In more recent times some have held the 
Napoleons, 1st and 3rd, to be A. The solution is 
to be sought in a more spiritual region ; the Spirit 
of Evil, whose influence is manifested in political 
ambition, in lawlessness, in evil generally, all is A. 
All evil, moral, physical, and political, is to be 
destroyed by "the breath of the lips " of the return- 
ing Son of Man, as the " stone cut out of the moun- 
tain without hands " smote on the feet the image of 
worldly empires, and not only destroyed, but took 
its place and filled the earth. It may be that the 
process is going on already ; all spread of Chris- 
tian principles, all removal of evils in the physical 
frame or the body politic, is the " Lord destroying " 
A. with the brightness of His coming. Although in 
the Ascension of Isaiah Beliar is identified with Nero, 
and though the trend of Critical opinion is to follow 
this identification with regard to the " Man of Sin," 
holding the restraining force to be Claudius, we feel 
it is making prophecy of too private an interpreta- 
tion. The resolution of 666 into Neron Qesar 
involves several difficulties that cannot easily be 
removed, e.g. it wd. be meaningless to give Nero 
seven heads and ten horns. 

Lit. : Bousset, The Antichrist Legend ; Eadie, 
Thessalonians, dissertation on " Man of Sin " ; 
Milligan and Liicke, Revelation, Elliot. 

ANTIOCH. (1) A city on the Orontes— the 
modern el- l Asi — in the wide and fertile plain be- 
tween Mt. Casius and Mt. Amanus, c. 120 stadia fm. 



25 



Ant 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Apo 



the river's mouth. It was founded in B.C. 300 by 
Seleucus Nikator, and called Antiocheia fm. his fr. 
Antiochus. The city prospered and was enlarged by 
Antiochus the Gt., and by A. Epiphanes. The 
population was formed of Greeks, Syrians, and Jews. 
These last had a governor of their own. In one of 
their synagogueswere placed the spoils taken fm. the 
Temple by Epiphanes, his successor having restored 
them to the Jews. The community numbered many 
proselytes, of whom was Nicolas (Ac. 6. 5 ). A. was 
the centre of Hellenism in Syria, although its 
mingled population, fickle and fanatical, could not 
properly be called Gr. An uprising of its people 
agst. Demetrius II., in favour of Trypho, was put 
down by the assistance of Jonathan Maccabaeus and 
3000 Jewish soldiers ; but afterwards the city passed 
to the youthful Antiochus and his general Trypho. 
It was captured in B.C. 83 by the Armenian k. 
Tigranes, whomPompey vanquished in turn, making 
the city free. Under the Rms. it became the capital 
of the province of Syria and of the E. Under the 
Caesars it attained its greatestprosperity. The rights 
of the Jews, recorded on tablets of bronze, were 
respected by the Rms. To Herod the Gt. the city 
owed its splendid pillared street. Accdg. to a late 
writer, Titus set up over the gates the cherubim 
taken fm. the Temple. Close by was the grove of 
Daphne, a sanctuary of Apollo. In population A. 
ranked after Rm. and Alexandria. The city was 
noted for its love of Art and Lit., its love of 
pleasure, its profligacy, and its satirical bitterness. 

A. soon became a centre for both Jew and Gentile 
followers of Jesus (Ac. 1 1. 19 ), and here they were 
first called Christians (Ac. II. 26 ). On his first and 
second missionary journeys, St. Paul set out fm. and 
returned to A. (Ac. 13. 1 *, 14. 26 * I5. 40f % 18. 22 ). 
Here also took place the dispute between Paul and 
Peter as to the relation of Gentile Christians to the 
Mosaic law (Ac. 15. ; Gal. 2. llff -). A. played an im- 
portant part in the early days of Christianity, and 
continued to be the chief city in Syria as long as it 
was controlled from the W. With the coming of 
the Arabs the dominion passed to Damascus ; and 
now it is represented by a poor town of some 6000 
inhabitants called Antakiyeh. 

Lit. : Reland, Palastina, Iiojf. ; Conybeare and 
Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paid ; Guy Le 
Strange, Pal. under the Moslems, index ; Ramsay, 
St. Paul the Traveller, Cap. III. ; Jos. passim. 

(2) Pisidian A. was " a city of Phrygia towards 
Pisidia " (Strabo, xii. 569, 577), prob. also founded 
by Seleucus Nikator. Built by men fm. Magnesia on 
the Maeander, the Rms. declared it free in B.C. 190. 
Augustus raised it to the status of a colonia with 
Latin rights, under the name of Caesareia Antio- 
cheia, when it served, along with other colonies, in 
the region of wh. it was the centre, to overawe and 
restrain the barbarous Pisidians in the Taurus Mts. 



It possessed a Jewish synagogue, preached in by 
Paul on his first missionary journey (Ac. I3. 14ff ). 
The consideration and influence enjoyed by women 
in Phrygia is illustrated in ver. 50. The ruins of A. lie 
2 miles E. fm. Yalo watch, on the skirts of the long 
ridge called Sultan-Dagh, in a strong position, c. 
3600 ft. above sea-level, overlooking a large and fer- 
tile plain, wh. stretches away S.E. to the Limnai 
(Lake of Egerdir), and is drained by the river 
Anthies. 

Lit. : Ritter, Erkunde von Asien, xxi. 468. Arun- 
del, Discoveries in Asia Minor, i. 28 if. Ramsay, 
Ch. in Rm. Emp., 25-35 ; St. Paul the Traveller, 
99-107 ; The Cities of St. Paul, 24.J&. 

ANTIPAS, contraction for Antipater, a martyr 
of Pergamus (Rv. 2. 13 ). 

ANTIPATRIS, built by Herod the Gt., and 
named fm. his fr. (Ant. XIII. xv. I, XVI. v. 2 ; BJ. 
I. xxi. 9), now the ruin QaV'at Ras el-Ain, in the 
plain N.E. of Jaffa, at the source of the river i Aujah, 
on the road fm. Jrs. to Caesarea (Ac. 23. 31 ). 

APE (Heb. qof), a quadrumanous mammal im- 
ported by Solomon (1 K. io. 22 ), prob. some form of 
baboon. 



4\ 



Apes figured on Assyrian MonuiMEnt 

APHEK, APHEKAH. (1) A royal city of the 
Can. in the plain of Sharon (Jo. 12. 18 , LXX), prob. 
= A. in I S. 4. 1 , and A. near Antipatris (BJ. II. 
xix. 1), not identd. (2) A city of Asher (Jo. 13. 4 , 
19. 30 ), held by the Can. (Jg. I. 31 , Aphiq), poss. the 
mod. Afqa, on Nahr Ibrahim. (3) Genly. thought to 
be in the plain of Esdraelon (1 S. 29. 1 ). Robertson 
Smith (OTJC. 2 273, 435), Wellhausen (Comp. d. 
Hex. 254; Hist. 39), and G. A. Smith (PEFQ. 1895, 
252) think it may be = i,inwh. case the Phil, would 
assemble in Sharon, and approach Jezreel -by way of 
Dothan. If, however, they advanced fm. Shunem 
(1 S. 28. 4 , 29. 1 ), A. must have been in the plain W. 
of Jezreel. The monk Burchard (1283) professed to 
have seen the ruins of A. to the W. of El-Fuleh. 
(4) The scene of Benhadad's overthrow (1 K. 
20. 26, 30 ) in the Mishbr, the tableland E. of Jordan. 
It is identd. with Fiq, E. of the Sea of Galilee, some- 
times called J fiq. This place is prob. the scene of 
Joash's victory (1 K. 13. 17 - 25 ). 

APHEKAH, poss. identd. with A. (1). 

APOLLONIA, a town passed through by St. 
Paul (Ac. 17. 1 ), in the district of Mygdonia, c. 30 



Apo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ara 



miles fm. Amphipolis, and 38 fm. Thessalonica. 
It lay on the Via Egnatia, near Lake Bolbe. The 
name poss. survives in the mod. Pollina. 

APOLLOS, contraction for Apollonius, a Jew of 
Alexandria, a disciple of John the Baptist. A. came 
to Ephesus and was brought to the kge. of Jesus by 
Aquila and Priscilla. From Ephesus he went to 
Corinth. Some ascribe to him the Ep. to the 
Hebs. Not impossibly the points of resemblance 
between the adventures of Apollonius of Tyana and 
of Paul may be due to the fact that one of Paul's 
companions was known to have borne that name. 

APOSTLE. The word apostolos means prop, one 
sent and commissioned for special work. Jesus is 
thus the A. of God (He. 3. 1 ; cp. Lk. 4 . 43 ; Jn. 17. 18 ), 
and cert, brethren are As. of the churches (2 Cor. 
8. 23 , RVm. ; Php. 2. 25 ). Our use of the term is con- 
fined to those sent and commissioned by our Lord 
for particular service. In this sense it is first used of 
the Twelve whom He sent to preach, &c. (Mw. io. 2 ; 
cp. Lk. 6. 13 ; Mk. 6. 30 ). The Twelve seem to have 
thought the Apostolate limited to that number (Ac. 
I 25ff -), and proceeded to fill the vacancy left by 
Judas Iscariot. Subsequent events proved that no 
such limitations existed. Paul and Barnabas (Ac. 
14. 14 ), James the Lord's br. (Gal. I. 19 ; 1 Cor. 15. 7 ), 
Andronicus and Junias (Rm. 16. 7 ), and prob. Silas, 
so long the companion of Paul, were As. 

It was required of an A. that he shd. have seen 
the Lord, and be able to bear testimony as an eye- 
witness to His resurrection (Lk. 24. 48 ; Ac. I. 8 , 22 ; 
I Cor. 9. 1 ). All those mentioned above may very 
well have possessed this qualification. The A. re- 
ceived his commission directly from the Lord Him- 
self (I Cor. 12. 28 ; Gal. I. 15 ' 17 ; Eph. 4. 11 ), and he 
was authenticated, not by any human authority, but 
by the " signs of an A." (2 Cor. 12. 12 ), and by his 
success in gaining converts (1 Cor. cj. 2 ). 

The A. was sent as Christ's ambassador, to preach, 
to bear witness, and to make disciples of all nations 



(1 Cor. 



2 Cor. 5. 20 ; Eph. 6. 20 ; Lk. 24. 



Mw. 28. 19 ). But while it was agreed that Paul and 
Barnabas shd. " go unto the Gentiles " — Paul calls 
himself " the A. of the Gentiles " (Rm. II. 13 ) — and 
to Peter " the gospel of the circumcision " was com- 
mitted (Gal. 2. 7 " 9 ), no special territories seem to 
have been allotted to the various members of the 
band. 

The relations of the A. to the churches he 
founded, as counsellor, superintendent, and authori- 
tative interpreter of truth and morals, are well 
illustrated in the letters written by Paul to the con- 
gregations originated by him. 

APOTHECARY shd. in all cases be read with 
RV. " perfumer." The refc. is always to spices and 
mixing of perfumes (2 Ch. l6. ]4 ; Ex. 3c 25, 35 > 
37. 29 ; Ec. io. 1 ; Ne. 3. 8 ). 

APPEAL. See Paul. 



APPII FORUM, a place 43 miles fm. Rome on 
the Appian Way. Rm. Christians met Paul at A. F. 
(Ac. 17. 28 ). Horace {Sat. I. 5) mentions it as filled 
with sailors. Ruins near Treponti are supposed to 
represent A. F. As the head of a canal, A. F. was a 
centre of trade ; hence it was called the Forum or 
Market of Appius. 

APPLE, APPLE TREE. It is enough to say 
that the apple of the Bible is just the apple. All 
attempts to ident. it with the apricot, the quince, 
the orange, and the citron are futile. The tree 
grows to a good size, and affords pleasant shade 
(SS. 2. 3 , 8. 5 ). The fruit is sweet to the taste, and is 
much appreciated for its smell, esp. by the sick, who 
find it most reviving (SS. 2. 3 , y. 8 ). The very name 
survives in the mod. tuff ah (Heb. tappuah). Thus 
also Tiff ah is the Arb. name of Beth Tappuah (Jo. 
15. 33 ). Dr. Post suggs. (HDB) that the " pictures 
of silver " may be the baskets of filigree work in wh. 
the oriental silversmiths excel. 

AQUILA and PRISCILLA, a Jew of Pontus and 
his w., who had settled in Rome, but left when the 
Jews were expelled by Claudius (Ac. 18. 2 ). They 
were in Corinth when Paul arrived, and made their 
acquaintance. They were of the same trade as 
himself, so he lived with them. Both names are 
Rm., so it may be regarded as prob. that they 
possessed the citizenship of Rome. Tho' it is not 
cert., it appears likely fm. the nar. that they were 
Christians when Paul met them. A. and P. left 
Corinth with Paul, accompanying him as far as 
Ephesus, where they took up their abode (Ac. i8. 19 )„ 
Apollos was instructed by A. and P. (Ac. 18. 24 ). 
They are saluted by Paul (Rm. 16. 3 ). From this it 
has been deduced that they had returned to Rome ; 
but some have thought that the Epistle to the Rms. 
was, from Rome, sent on to Ephesus, and that 
chap. 16. was added ; that A. and P. were therefore 
still in Ephesus ; a view that is made more prob. by 
the fact that they are saluted in 2 Tim. 4. 19 . It is 
to be noted that in this passage P. is called Prisca. 
What befell them afterwards is not recorded. 

AR, a city on the S. side of the Arnon, the mod. 
Wddy Mojib (Nu. 2 1. 15 ; Dt. 2. 9 ), the same as Ar 
Moab (Nu. 21. 28 ; Is. 15. 1 ), prob. also 'Ir Moab (Nu. 
22. 36 ), to be identd. with " the city that is in the 
valley " (Dt. 2. 36 , &c). It lay on the border be- 
tween Moab and the Amorites in early times, and 
Isr. in later days. It may perhaps be identd. with 
the ruin noted by Burckhardt, wh. stands in a piece 
of " pasture land " below the confluence of the 
Mojib with the Lej-jun. 

ARAB, a city near Dumah in the Judean uplands 
(Jo. 15. 52 ). It may be er Rabiyeh, a ruin near 
Domeh. 

ARABAH, Heb. ha'arRbRh, "the Arabah " : 
AV. so renders only once (Jo. 18. 18 ) ; elsewhere 
" plain " : but so RV. uniformly, where the great 



27 



Ara 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ara 



hollow of the Jordan Valley, fm. the Sea of Galilee 
S'wards, and its continuation to the Gulf of Akabah, 
or any part of it, is referred to (Dt. I. 1 , 4. 49 ; Jo. 
II. 2 , &c.). In the pi. EV. translate " plains " — see 
Plain. The plains of Moab ( { arabotb) sue clearly 
the Steppes E. of Jordan, corrspdg. to the " plains 
of Jericho " on the W. Both are included in the 
A. For the A. N. of the Dead Sea (Sea of the A., 
Dt. 4. 49 ; Jo. 12. 3 ), see Jordan, Jordan Valley. 

About 10 miles S. of the Dead Sea a line of white 
cliffs, composed of sand, gravel, and marl, crosses the 
valley fm. N.W. to S.E., forming the limit of the 
Gbor. From this line S'wards stretches the hollow 
known as el-'Arabah to-day. It gradually rises for 
about 60 miles, when the floor of the valley is 
c. 700 ft. above the level of the Red Sea, and c. 
2000 ft. above the Dead Sea. It then descends to 
the shore at Akabah, a distance of some 45 miles. 
In its S. reaches it forms " the wilderness of Zin " 
(Nu. 34- 3 ). It well justifies its name, 'arabdb, 
61 Desert Steppe." At its N. end the A. is c. 10 
miles wide. It narrows to about |- mile nearly 
opposite Jebel Haroun ; fm. that point to Akabah 
it averages about 5 miles. The undulating surface 
is formed of loose gravel, stones, sand, and stretches 
of mud. It is torn by water-courses that come 
down fm. either side, converging on Wady el-Jaib, 
by wh. all the contributions fm. the adjoining 
mountains are carried N. to the Dead Sea. Here and 
there a (shrub ghada) or acacia may be seen ; green 
patches around the springs, e.g. at i Ain el-W aibeh on 
the W., and l Ain Abu Wairedeh, or Buwairedeh, on 
the E. ; and in parts of the water-courses, willows, 
tamarisks, reeds, and stunted palms. Up to the 
level of the Red Sea, some 25 miles S. of the Dead 
Sea, we are clearly traversing an old sea-bottom, the 
worn terraces of marl, &c, and other deposits, 
showing the height to wh. at one time the waters of 
the Dead Sea must have risen. The A. is bounded 
on the W. by the deeply furrowed edge of the great 
limestone uplands of et-Tib, the Wilderness of 
Paran ; and on the E. by the naked crags of Edom, 
wh., worn into strange fantastic forms, guard the 
gorges by wh. the highlands may be approached. 

Twice the Isr. seem to have passed through the 
A. : first, when they journeyed to Kadesh Barnea, 
and second, when they had to go S'ward as far as 
Wady el-Itbem, to find a way by wh. they mt. go 
round the land of Edom (Nu. 20. 21 , 21. 4 ; Dt. 2. 8 ). 

For Geology, see Palestine. 

Lit. : Hull, Mt. Seir, passim ; Stanley, Sinai and 
Pal., 2 index ; Robinson, BRP., index. 

ARABIA, ARABIAN. A. is the name of the 
great peninsula wh. is bounded on the W. by the 
Red Sea, on the S. by the Indian Ocean, on the E. 
by the Persian Gulf, and on the N. by Syria and 
Pal. This vast country of sand and desert hills, 
dotted with infrequent oases, with a great fertile 



tract in the S., loomed large and vague before the 
minds of the Scrip, writers. 

Among the names of Arabian families given in the lists 
(Gn. 10. , 25.), Sheba and Dedan are familiar. Hazarmaveth 
survives in the mod. Hadramaut. The location of Havilah 
and Ophir is still in dispute. No cert, trace of Joktan, who 
plays such an important part (Gn. 10. 26 ), is now to be found. 
Even to Jeremiah (6. 20 ) and Joel (3.8), Sheba, a great and 
powerful kdm., is known dimly as " a far country," " a nation 
far off " ; and to the evangelists, it is still " in the ends of the 
earth" (Mw. i2.*2 ( Lk. 11. 31). 

In Is. 13. 20 , and Jr. 3.2, Arabian appears as a gen. desig- 
nation of dwellers in waste places. 

Arabian, as the name of those who lived in the 
great peninsula, occurs only in 2 Ch. 21. 16 , " the 
Arabians wh. are beside the Ethiopians," who seem 
to have dwelt in the S. This, however, may be in- 
tended to denote the S. Arabians as distinguished 
from the N. Arabians (Socin, KB. s.v.), a distinction 
recognised in the genealogies, the Ishmaelites (Gn. 
25. 12ff -, P.) being the N. Arabians, as agst. the S. 
Arabians, the children of Joktan (Gn. lo. 25ff -), whose 
great ancestor was Eber. As the genealogical tables 
stand — e.g. cert, tribes, as Sheba and Dedan, appear- 
ing as " sons " of Cush and also of Keturah — it is im- 
poss. to construct fm. them an ethnological chart. 

Ishmael came in later times to be " associated 
vaguely with A. in gen." (Ant. I. xii. 2) : Mohammed 
was supposed to have been descended fm. him, 
through Kedar, and his tomb is still shown at 
Mecca.* 

The ks. of 'Ereb (RV., mingled peoples) are men- 
tioned in I K. io. 15 and Jr. 25.2*, with the ks. of A. 
The same name occurs in Is. 2 1. 13 (EV. Arabia). 
These are the tribes in the Syrian desert and N. 
Arabia, elsewhere called Kedar, and Children of the 
E. In the Cuneiform Inscrs. Arabians appear with 
Kedar and the Nabataeans, as a N. Arabian people. 
Herodotus (III. 5) relates that the Persians, pro- 
posing to invade Egypt, on the advice of Phanes of 
Halicarnassus, obtained permission from the k. of 
the Arabians to pass through his territories. He 
mentions Ienysus, a seaport not identd., and the 
Arabians held the coast as far as Lake Serbonis and 
Mt. Casius. Their territory adjoined that of the 
" Syrians " — see Aram. They are therefore a N. 
Arabian people, who seem to have made some 
advance in civilisation since they were under the 
rule of a k. 

In Ne. 2. 19 , 4. 7 , 6. 1 , we find the Arabians in league 
with the enemies of the Jews. These are prob. to 
be identd. with the Nabataeans, who at a later date 
played a considerable part in the hist, of the 

* " In medieval Jewish writers ' the lang. cf Ishmael,' or 
'of Kedar,' means Arabic. In the OT. , however, it is to 
be observed, Ishmael is hardly at all connected with what 
we call A. : the Arabian peninsula is peopled by the Jokta- 
nidse (descts. of Joktan, s. of Abraham's sixth ancestor Eber, 
and consequently much less closely connected with Isr.), Gn. 
10.26-30 • the Ishmaelites are limited to cert, specified tribes, 
living almost entirely on the N. or N.W. of these " (Driver, 
Genesis, p. 244). 

8 



Ara 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ara 




Maccabees. Their territory is the A. of the NT. ; and pos- 
sibly the Arabians of Ac. 2. 11 may have been Jewish settlers 
in their country. Accdg. to Jos. {Ant. XVIII. v. 1), Aretas, 
k. of the Arabians, inflicted signal defeat upon Herod 
Antipas, in revenge for the insult put upon him by the latter, 
who divorced his dr. to make way for Herodias. The battle 
was fought in the yr. 37 A.D. , about wh. time Paul escaped 
fm. the ethnarch of Aretas in Damascus, and went into A. 
See Aretas, Paul. The Arabian authority — i.e. the Naba- 
taean — appears then to have extended fm. Damascus, prob. 
granted to the k. by the Emperor Gaius, to the shores of 
the Red Sea, including the Sinaitic Peninsula (Ac. q. 23 , 
2 Cor. n.33, Gal. i. 17 , 4. 25 ). The last is heard of the Naba- 
taeans in 106 A.D., when the governor of Syria, Cornelius 
Palma, converted "A. belonging to Petra" into a Rm. 
province. 

Isr. was necessarily brought into close relations 
with the N. Arabians by reason of their neighbour- 
hood, and with the S. Arabians by means of com- 
merce ; this, however, not directly, but through 
the N. Arabians who were the great carriers. This 
prob. acts, for the vagueness of Heb. kge. regarding 
S. Arabian peoples. 

Among the articles of commerce received from 
S. A., incense was the most important (Ek„ 2J. 22 ). 
This is a gum secured fm. a particular tree, by slits 
made in the bark. The industry has been pursued 



ViEvV of Antioch from tiie Crusader's Hill 
(See pp. 25 and 26) 

country (1 M. ii. 17 ' 39 , 2 M. 5. 8 ). When Ptolemy 
defeated Alexander Balas the latter fled into A., 
where the Nabataean prince, Zabdiel, beheaded him, 
and sent his head to Ptolemy (1 M. II. 17 ). One, 
Eimalcuei, EV. Simalcue (Syr. and Jos. Malchus, 
Ylg. Emalchuel), reared Antiochus, the s. of Alex- 
ander (1 M. II. 39 ). Aretas— Arb. Haritha— 
(2 M. 5- 8 ) was k. — tyrannos — of the Nabataeans. In 
Graeco-Rm. times they were a powerful people to the 
S. and E. of Pal., Petra being their capital. During 
the last decades of the 19th cent, many inscrs. were 
discovered, and deciphered, wh. cast much light on 
their hist. (For Lit. see Schiirer, HJP. I. ii. p. 345^, 
esp. Gutschmid, Verzeichniss der Nabataischen 
Konige, in Euting's Nabataische Inschriften aus 
Arabien ; Hommel's sketch in Hilprecht's Explora- 
tions in Bible Lands) 

We first hear of the Nabataeans in 312 B.C., in connection 
with the attack upon them by Athenasus, the general of 
king Antigonus I. — an attack at first successful, but ending 
in utter and inglorious rout. Whether of Aramaean extrac- 
tion, as some hold, or of Arabian stock, and identical with 
Nebaioth, as others contend, they were at this time " un- 
civilised nomads. " Gradually, however, they advanced, and 
in the end of the 2nd cent. B.C. they had become a power to 
be reckoned with. These are the Arabians of Jos. and the 



i 


.' 


ft 










a . 




^S 


1 




*&* 




- W-. , 


SB&14. j 1 


f^fc 


jPpg!!' ^"P jME 


gjh;*/ •' .rWoHH 


b^'- «*>-* jdffflH 


■■'**sh. *. J '■ "■ -* 


vS 


IBuvK"'. 


- -" .3 



29 



Ara 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ara 



fm. anct. times in a small district on the S. coast, 
with the old city Dafar as its centre. Sprenger 
(Geog. 299) thinks the incense trade lay at the foun- 
dation of anct. commerce, such vast quantities of it 
were used in connection with the religious cere- 
monies of those days ; and Prof. Margoliouth 
(HDB. i. 134) notes the interesting fact that " the 
verb ' arab ' and its derivatives are used in Heb. to 
signify commerce." It was natural that this pro- 
lific source of Sabaean wealth shd. be strictly con- 
trolled and guarded. Precious stones and gold are 
mentioned as articles of commerce (Ek. 2J. 22 ), and 
as gifts brought by the queen of Sheba to Solomon. 
If Havilah was in A., as seems prob., it had early a 
reputation for the excellence of its gold (Gn. 2. 11 ). 
Ophir (Gn. io. 29 ), another rich gold-producing dis- 
trict, is also claimed for A. Gold must have been 
exported in considerable quantities, if Parvaim, 
whence came the gold with wh. Solomon " gar- 
nished " the house of the Lord, be identl., as seems 
prob., with the Arabian Sak el-Farwain. " Bright 
iron," accdg. to some anct. versions (RVm.), " from 
Uzal " (Ek. 27. 19 ), indicates a trade, wh. Doughty 
thinks mt. still be profitably pursued in some parts 
of A. San'a, wh. is commonly identd. with Uzal, 
still produces steel wh. is greatly valued. Dedan 
furnished " precious cloths for riding," and Kedar, 
the wealth of the nomads " in lambs and rams and 
goats." Exports of " bales of blue and embroidered 
work," and " chests of rich apparel, bound with 
cords and made of cedar," attest the progress made 
in Arts and Manufactures. 

Lit. : for geography, Sprenger, Die Alte Geo- 
graphic Arabiens ; Briinnow and Domaszewski, Die 
Provincia Arabia ; Musii, Arabia Petrcea. For 
hist., Ency. Brit. s.v. For recent works see 
Hommel's sketch, as above ; Doughty, Arabia De- 
serta. For religion, Wellhausen, Reste Arab. Hei- 
dentums ; Noldeke, Hastings' Ency. of Rig. and Etb., 
i. 6591?. 

ARAD, the city of a Can. k. in the Negeb (Nu. 
2 1. 1 , 33. 40 ), smitten by Joshua (12. 14 ). The Kenites 
settled S. of the city (Jg. I. 16 ). It is identd. with 
Tell l Arad, a ruined site on a large rounded hill 
16 miles S. of Hebron. 

ARAM. (1) S. of Shem. (2) S. of Kemuel, 
grandson of Nahor. (3) A nation whose territory 
stretched fm. the " Great Sea " to the Tigris, and 
fm. the Taurus mountains and Armenia to Pal., 
Babylonia, and Arabia. The W. part of this stretch 
was at first occupied by the Hittites. When they 
come into the Bible nar. the Arameans form a num- 
ber of independent states. The oldest of these, 
Aram-Naharaim, " A. of the two rivers," rendered 
Mesopotamia in EV., with A.-N. in the marg. 
Chushan Rishathaim, k. of A.-Naharaim, ruled 
Isr. 8 yrs. (Jg. 3- 8 ' 10 ). A.-N. is also called 
Padan-A., " the field of A." (Gn. 25. 20 ). This was 



the province between the. Euphrates and the Tigris. 
A.-Zobah lay N. of Damascus and E. of Hamath 
(1 S. 14. 47 ). A.-Beth Rehob in the same region was 
hired by Ammon to help them agst. David (2 S. io. 6 ). 
The same applies to A.-Maacah. Between these 
last was Damascus, the most important of the 
divisions of A., and that which came most in con- 
tact with Isr. ; it gradually absorbed the great 
mass of A., but was conquered by the Assyrians 
under Tiglath-Pileser (2 K. 16. 9 ). For Aramean 
Language see Syriac. 

ARARAT, in the OT., is the name of a country 
corrspdg. in part to the later Armenia. In the Asyr. 
Inscrs. it appears as Urardhu, or Urartu. The N. 
boundary of the kdm. was the Araxes, although it 
never seems to have included the mountains now 
called A. The Asyr. cuneiform characters came into 
use in A. in the 9th cent. B.C., the syllabary being 
considerably modified. In the Vannic texts the name 
is given as Biainas, or Bianas, wh. is represented by 
the mod. Van. For an act. of A., and what is known 
of its hist., &c, see Sayce, " The Cuneiform In- 
scriptions of Van," in the Journal of the Royal 
Asiatic Society, 1882, 1893, 1894. 

The Ark of Noah is said to have rested on the 
mountains of Ararat (Gn. 8. 4 ). Adrammelech and 
Sharezer, the murderers of Sennacherib, fled " to the 
land of A." (2 K. 19. 37 ; Is. 37.™, RV. ; in the latter 
passage LXX eis 'Apfxevtav ; AV. in both " Ar- 
menia,"), with wh. Asyr. was then at war, the Asyrn. 
leader being Esarhaddon. A. is named along with 
Minni and Ashkenaz (Jr. 51. 27 ). Minni, Mana in 
the Vannic Inscrs., and Ashkenaz, prob. the Asyr. 
Ashguza, lay to the E. of A. 

All the traditions with one consent place the resting-place 
of the Ark in this region. The great height of the Armenian 
plateau, rising from 6000 to 7000 ft. above sea level, natly. 
appealed to the dwellers-in the wide plains as the district 
where the great ship must first touch ground. There is, 
however, no agreement as to the exact spot. 

Berosus the Chaldaean {Ant. I. iii. 6) said that there was 
still some part of this ship— the ark of Xisuthrus— " at the 
mountain of the Kordyseans," and that the people took away 
bits of the pitch to use as amulets. The Chaldaean records 
call it the " mountain of Nazir," wh. maybe identl. with the 
peak of Rowandez, S. of Lake Urumiyah. Nicolaus of 
Damascus (Jos. loc. cit.) places it on a mountain called 
Baris, the Lubar of the Book of Jubilees (v.), wh. is identd. 
with Jebel Judi, S. of Lake Van. Here the Kurds say traces 
of the Ark are still to be seen. 

The mod. A. is the most conspicuous feature of 
the landscape to the far N. It rises 17,000 ft. above 
the level of the sea : it is called in Turkish Aghri 
Dagh, " the Painful Mountain " ; and in Persian 
Koh-i-Nuh, " the Mountain of Noah." Arghuri, a 
vill. built on the slope of the mountain, destroyed 
by earthquake and avalanche in July 1840, was re- 
puted the place where Noah planted his vineyard ; 
while Nachitjevan, in the plain of Araxes, was said 
to be the patriarch's burying-place. 

ARAUNAH, the Jebusite owner of a threshing- 
floor on Mt. Moriah, chosen as the spot where 



SO 



Arb 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Arg 



David shd. build his altar, after the plague was 
stayed (2 S. 24. 18 ; I Ch. 21. 18 ), called in Ch. Oman. 
He sold the ground and his oxen to David for 50 
shekels of silver (2 S. 24. 24 ) ; accdg. to the Chronicler 
the price was 600 shekels of gold (1 Ch. 2 1. 25 ). 

ARBA. See Kiriath-Arba. 

ARCHELAUS. See Herodian Family. 

ARCHEVITES, inhabitants of Erech (Gn. io. 10 ) 
placed as colonists in the territory of the Ten Tribes 
by the Assyrians (Ez. 4. 9 ). 

ARCHIPPUS,a Christian saluted by Paul (Phm. 2 ) 
as " our fellow-soldier," supposed by Lightfoot to 
be s. of Philemon. Tradition makes A. Bishop of 
Laodicaea in succession to Epaphroditus. 

ARCTURUS. AV. thus renders Heb. 'ash, 
l aish (Jb. 9. 9 , 38. 32 ), following the Vlg. ; LXX 
gives Hesperon ; Luther " wagen " = " the plough " ; 
RV. " the Bear," wh. seems to be correct. 

AREOPAGUS, a low hill, rising fm. the Agora of 
Athens to the W. of the Acropolis. Myth de- 
clared A. to be so named, because Mars (Ares) was 
there tried for homicide. A. afterwards applied to 
the supreme court of Athens in regard to homicide, 
sacrilege, and cognate crimes, wh. sat here. Under 
the Rms. the power of A. was extended to em- 
brace the functions of a Town Council and a Uni- 
versity Senate. During this period A. seems to 
have sat at least for preliminary investigations, not 
on the hill, but in the Stca Basileios. In the nar. 
(Ac. 17.), although individual members of the court 
were present, e.g. Dionysius, there does not seem to 
have been a judicial investigation. In order to hear 
Paul give a statement at length of his opinions, the 
philosophers adjourned, if not to the easily acces- 
sible eminence of A., at least to the Stoa Basileios 
where the court ordinarily sat. The courtesy with 
wh. he is questioned and the informal conclusion of 
the proceedings point to this. 

Lit. : Ramsay, Paul the Traveller ; Curtius, Stadt- 
geschichte v. A then ; Findlay, Annual of the British 
School at Athens, I . 

ARETAS (Heb. Hareth), k. of the Nabatasans ; 
his capital was Petra. A. was fr. -in-law of Herod 




Coin of Aretas 
Antipas (Herod). It is supposed that Caligula 
granted Damascus to A., and that Claudius con- 
firmed the grant, as there are no Damascus coins 
of either of those Emperors, altho' there are those 
of Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, and later emperors. 
During the time immediately succeeding Paul's con- 



version A. held Damascus by an Ethnarch. See 
Arabia. 

ARGOB, named with Arieh (2 K. 15. 25 ). The 
passage is genly. understood to mean that these were 
guards of Pekahiah, surprised and slain along with 
their master by Pekah and his fellow conspirators. 

ARGOB, a district in Bashan, or Bashan itself — 
for the name is used as the equivalent of Bashan in 
Dt. 3. 13 — in wh. there were threescore fenced 
cities " with high walls, gates, and bars, beside the 
unwalled towns — country towns — a great many " 
(Dt. 3. 4 , 6. 13 ; 1 K. 4. 13 ), called " the A." (Dt. 3. 13 ). 
It was conquered by " Jair, the s. of Manasseh," and 
was assigned as territory to his tribe. From Dt. 3. 14 
we may perhaps infer that it bordered upon Geshur 
and Ma'acah. In the present state of kge. it is 
imposs. with cert, to ident. the district. 

Gesenius trs. 'Argob, " a heap of stones," deriving 
it fm. the root ragab = ragam. This derivation is 
precarious. It cannot be proved that ragah = ragam. 
In Jb. 21. 33 , 38. 38 , regeb seems to mean " clod." 
Perhaps therefore we shd. take A., not as " stony," 
but " arable land." This wd. rule out El-Leja\ a 
tract wh. otherwise mt. claim consideration. A. ap- 
pears to have been a clearly defined district. Khebel, 
wh. invariably precedes the name, is first " a cord," 
then " a measuring line," then " the measured 
area," such as a tribal portion. There is no district 
in the country the boundaries of wh. are so dis- 
tinctly marked as those of El-Lejd\ " the refuge." 
It lies to the N.E. of the Hauran, N.W. of Jebel ed- 
Druze, and is composed of lava, wh. has flowed fm. 
the volcanic hills E. and S. Its average height above 
the surrounding plains is over 20 ft. A savage and 
forbidding wilderness it is to-day ; although there 
are stretches of rich land, and many traces of anct. 
cultivation within the rocky barriers. (For descrip- 
tion see Ewing, Arab and Druze at Home, 26ff.) 
Viewed fm. a distant height it looks like a dark 
island resting on a sea of emerald. The names of 
seventy-one ruined sites in El-Lejd > were collected 
by Ewing (PEFQ., 1895, pp. 3661!.). It corre- 
sponds to the Trachonitis of Jos. and the NT. 
The whole district, including the Hauran, and the 
slopes of the mountain — Jebel Hauran, or Jebel ed- 
Druze — is remarkable for the char, and quantity 
of the remains of anct. towns and cities. Most of 
these are prob. not older than the beginning of our 
era. Those of the Gr. and Rm. period are easily 
distinguished ; but it seems prob. that many of 
them rest upon much more anct. sites, where the 
spade of the excavator may yet reveal not a little of 
surpassing interest. 

Lit. : Merrill, East of Jordan ; Ewing, Arab and 
Druze at Home ; PEFQ., 1895 ; Porter, Five Tears 
in Damascus, The Giant Cities of Bashan ; Thom- 
son, LB. ; Burton and Drake, Unexplored Syria ; 
De Vogue, Syrie Centrale ; Driver, HDB. s.v. 



3i 



Ari 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ark 



ARIEL, (i) " Chief man " (Ez. 8. 16 ). (2) RV., 
name of a Moabite whose two sons were slain by 
Benaiah. The name occurs in Moabite Stone, line 
12, of a place. May the men slain by Benaiah not 
have belonged to that town ? (3) Name for Jeru- 
salem (Is. 29.) (4) Name for Altar (Ek. 43. 16 , 
harel). 

ARIMATHEA, the home of Joseph who took the 
Saviour's body fm. the cross, and laid it in his own 
tomb (Mw. 27." ; Mk. 15. 43 ; Lk. 23. 50 ; Jn. 19. 38 ), 
not cert, identd ; prob. = Ramah (i S. i. 19 ). 

ARIOCH. (1) K. of Ellasar, confederate with 
Chedorlaomer (Gn. 14. 1 ). The Tablets show us 
Eriaku, k. of.Larsa. Later A. was overthrown by 
Hammurabi (Amraphel). (2) Captain of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's guard (Dan. 2. 14 ). 

ARISTARCHUS,a Jew of Thessalonica (Ac. 24^, 
27« 2 ), a friend of St. Paul, who accompanied him fm. 
Troas to Jrs., and thence to Rome, where he re- 
mained (Col. 4. 10 ). Paul calls him his " fellow 
prisoner," but there is no hint of his accusation. 
He may have immured himself to be near his friend. 
(Cp. Lightfoot on Col. 4. 10 .) 

ARISTOBULUS, an inhabitant of Rome (or per- 
haps Ephesus), cert, of whose household are saluted 
by St. Paul (Rm. 16. 10 ). A. does not appear to have 
been a Christian or he also wd. have been saluted. 
It has been suggd. by Bishop Lightfoot (Ph., p. 174) 
that A. was a grandson of Herod, a man of great 
wealth, and intimate with Claudius ; he thinks it 
prob. that A. by this time was dead, but that his 
household kept together, poss. being bequeathed to 
the emperor. 

ARK, NOAH'S. See Flood. 

ARK (Ex. 25. 10 , &c), A. of the Testimony (Ex. 
25. 22 , &c), A. of the Covenant of the Lord (Nu. 
io. 33 , &c), A. of the Covenant (Jo. 3. 6 , &c), A. of 
the Covenant of God (Jg. 20. 27 , &c), A. of God 
(1 S. 3. 3 , &c), A. of the God of Isr. (1 S. 5. 7 , &c), 
A. of the Lord God (1 K. 2. 26 ). These names are 
frequently interchanged. 

The A. is represented as a chest 2^ cubits in 
length, 1 J in breadth and depth (Ex. 25. 10 ). Made 




Egyptian Ark 

of acacia wood accdg. to God's direction, within and 
without it was overlaid with gold. A rim or mould- 
ing of gold ran round the top ; four rings of the 

3 



same metal were put " in the four feet thereof," 
two on each side. Two staves of acacia wood, over- 
laid with gold, were put through the rings " to bear 
the A. withal." The staves were never withdrawn. 
The two tables of stone on wh. were the " ten 
words " — i.e. the " Testimony " (Ex. 25. 16 ), or the 
" Covenant " (1 K. 8. 1 , &c.) — were placed within. 
In later times it was believed that a pot of manna 
and Aaron's rod that budded were also in the A. 
(He. 9. 4 ). But the OT. knows nothing of this. 
The pot of manna and Aaron's rod were laid up 
"before the Testimony" (Ex. 16. 34 ; Nu. 17. 10 ). 
2 Ch. 5. 10 says " there was nothing in the A. save 
the two tables wh. Moses put there at Horeb." 
Over the A. was placed a covering of pure gold, 
kapporeth, from kdphar, " to cover," in the sense of 
covering, or expiating sin ; therefore, EV. " Mercy 
Seat." At either end of this and of one piece with 
it, stood a cherub. These looked towards the mercy 
seat, and their outspread wings covered it (but cp. 
I K. 6. 27 , 8. 6 ). Between the cherubim is the place 
where the presence of God is manifested (Ex. 25. 22 , 
I S. 4. 4 ). On the day of Atonement the incense 
cloud was made to cover the mercy seat, and on it 
was sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices (Lv. i6. 13ff ). 

That the A. was originally the sanctuary of a tribe wh. 
united with Isr. in the desert, and that it contained a fetish 
stone, is a theory that rests upon nothing but ingenious 
speculation. For discussion of this and similar ideas, see 
Benzinger, HA. index. 

Fm. the first the A. was an obj. of special rever- 
ence to all Isr. Its resting-place in the tent of 
meeting is sufficient evidence of its truly national 
char. By its movements those of the camp were 
regulated (Nu. lo. 33ff -). It has been inferred fm. 
this passage that the A. was thought of as moving 
spontaneously, but in view of the arrangements for 
bearing the A. (Dt. io. 8 , &c), the inference is un- 
warranted. The cloud was the guide of those who 
bore the A. 

The importance of the A. is illustrated by the 
part it played at the passage of the Jordan, at the 
capture of Jericho, and at the memorable scene in 
the Valley of Shechem (Jo. 3., 6., 8. 30ff -). The A. re- 
mained in the camp at Gilgal during the war of con- 
quest. Then it was moved to Bethel (Jg. 2. lff -), or, 
as the true text seems to be, to Bochim, prob. near 
Bethel (Moore, Judges, in loc). It is next found in 
Shiloh (1 S. 3 3 ; cp. Jo. 18. 1 ), whence it was taken to 
war agst. the Phil. It was captured, but such evils 
fell upon the Phil, in its presence that it was re- 
turned with gifts, on a new cart drawn by kine, to 
the great stone at Beth-Shemesh, whence it was 
taken to Kiriath Jearim, to the house of Abinadab, 
where it remained for a long time (1 S. 5., 6., y. u ). 
Owing to the disaster to Uzzah (2 S. 6. 6ff - ; 1 Ch. 
13. 9 ), the A. was left for a time in the house of 
Obededom. Blessing rested on the house, and three 
months later the A. was transported to Jrs. with 



Arm 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Arm 



great rejoicing, and placed in the tent wh. David 
had pitched for it. From the tent it was moved to 
its place in the Holy of Holies, in Solomon's temple, 
under the wings of the cherubim (i K. 8. 6 ). The 
temple was rifled by Shishak, k. of Egp. (i K. I4. 25ff -), 
but the A. is not mentioned among his spoil. Fm. 
2 Ch. 35. 3 it appears that away fm. its place in the 
temple the A, could rest only on the shoulders of the 
Levites. The command to restore it to the house, 
may point to its having been displaced by Manasseh 
(2 Ch. 33. 7 ), when he introduced his idol. It may 
have continued till the city and temple were de- 
stroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Jr. 3. 16 ' 17 ; 2 Esd. 
io. 22 ). The tale of Jeremiah concealing the A., &c, 
in the side of Mt. Pisgah (2 M. 2. 4 ), is destitute of 
support. The A. disappears fm. hist. In the second 
temple one point of inferiority to the first was that 
it contained no A. 

What was done " before the A." was regarded as 
done in the presence of God. Thus after the defeat 
at Ai, Joshua rent his clothes and fell on his face 
before the A., and communed with J". (Jo. J. m - ; see 
also the sacrifice (2 S. 6. 13 ), and dancing before the 
A. (ver. 13). The A. was cert, regarded as in some 
sense the dwelling of God, so that the presence of 
the A. secured His (Nu. lo. 35f ). It is carried into 
battle for the encouragement of Isr., and the Phil, 
hearing this are afraid, saying, " God is come into 
the camp " (1 S. 4-. 3ft ). It is found in the field at 
Rabbah (2 S. 1 1. 11 ). When David fled fm. Absalom 
the priests carried out the A. with them, cert, as a 
pledge of God's presence ; and only at the k.'s com- 
mand was it restored to its place. David had 
attained to a clearer vision of the relation of God 
to his people (2 S. I5. 23ff -). See also Tabernacle, 
Temple. 

ARMAGEDDON. See Har-magedon. 
ARMLET (Ex. 3s. 22 , RV. ; Nu. 31. 50 , RV. ; 
" tablets," AV.), ornaments worn on the upper arm, 
either whole rings or clasps. 

ARMOUR. (1) Sbiryon, "coat of mail," a 
breast-plate of scales (1 S. 17. 5 ). (2) Qob'a, "hel- 
met" (1 S. 17. 38 ). (3) Mitzcbab, 
" greaves " (1 S. 17. 6 ). (4) 
Tzinndh, " large shield," borne 
by shield-bearer (1 S. 17. 7 ). (5) 
Magen, " small shield " (Jg. 5. 8 ). 
(6) Sbelet, supposed to be a kind 
of shield (2 S. 8. 7 ). 

ARMOUR - BEARER, one 
who bare a large shield (tzinnab), 
Egyptian- with Large who also seems to have carried 
additional spears. Fm. the Asyr. 
marbles he appears to have been ready to despatch 
those whom his master had wounded. Jonathan's 
A. seems to have been also a gallant warrior (1 S. 
14. 7 , &c). 
ARMOURY. (1) 'Otzar, fig. (Jr. 50. 25 ), else- 



K. 7. 



51 



where, " storehouse " or " treasury " (] 

Ne. io. 39 , &c). (2) Nesheq (Ne. 3. 19 ). This is 

identd. with Solomon's " house of the forest of 





Assyrian Coats of Mail 

Lebanon," so called prob. fm. the wood of wh. it 
was built. (3) Talplyotb (SS. 4.*), a tower built by 
David as an A. (RVm. a tower " with turrets "). 

ARMS. See Weapons. 

ARMY. When Isr. journeyed through the wil- 
derness they were organised as an A. in wh. each 
tribe formed a brigade and each family a battalion. 
There is no trace at this time of any distinction of 
arms, as spearmen, archers, or slingers. In the war 
against Benjamin (Jg. 
20. 16 ) we learn that 
there were among the 
Benjamites 700 left- 
handed slingers that 
were singled out as 
marksmen ; implying 
that there were a con- 
siderable corps who were 
neither marksmen nor 
left-handed. The defeat 
of Saul at Gilboa appears to have been mainly due to 
the weakness of the Hebrew army in archery,a weak- 
ness that David set himself to remove (2 S. I. 18 ). 
Later, after his conquest of Hadarezer, David intro- 
duced a limited number of chariots into the armies 
of Isr. (2 S. 8. 4 ). The fact that both Asyr. and Egp. 
had cavalry renders it not improb. that Isr. had this 
arm also. Before the days of Saul the armies of 
Isr. were undisciplined hordes ; the inhabitants of 
difft. vills. wd. prob. fight, each under their own 
headman ; but otherwise there does not seem to 




Egyptian Archer 



33 



Arm 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Arn 



have been any cohesion. Saul gathered three although the N. Kdm. developed most, we have- 
thousand men to be the nucleus of a standing army more particulars in regard to the S. Jehoshaphat 
(i S. 13. 2 ). After the defeat of the Phil, at Ephes- appears to have done a great deal for the military 





Chariot (Egyptian) 



Archers and Shield-Bearer (Assyrian) 

dammim this standing army was increased ; David 
got the command of a thousand men (1 S. 18. 13 ). 
Under David the standing army was increased 
much more. If we presume that all his regulars 



organisation of Judah (2 Ch. 17. 13 " 19 ). We have on 

the monuments many illustrations of the armies 

of Egp. and Asyr. on 

wh. the armies of Isr. 

were to a large extent 

modelled. 

In NT. times Rome 
is the authority in mili- 
tary affairs. The Rm. 
unit was the Legion ; 
it was raised under 
Augustus to its nomi- 
nal complement of 6lOO Egyptian Horseman 
men ; it was divided into 10 cohorts and 60 cen- 
turies. With cavalry and allies, a Legion really 
amounted to nearly 10,000 men. Over each cen- 
tury was a centurion. 





Assyrian Horsemen 



were faithful, then we may estimate their numbers 
by the fact that Ahithophel demanded twelve 
thousand men when he wd. pursue after them. A 
levy en masse was resorted to in actual warfare when 
a large proportion of the male inhabitants joined 



ARNON, now Wady el-Mo jib, E. of the Dead 

Sea. It formed the boundary between Moab on the 
S., and the Amorites under Sihon on the N. (Nu. 
2 1. 13 , &c). It became the S. boundary of Isr. E. of 
the Jordan (Jo. 12. 1 , &c). It is formed by the junc- 



the standards. After the revolt of the Ten Tribes, tion of two streams c. 13 miles E. of the Dead Sea, 

34 



Aro 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Art 



Seil es-Sa'ideh fm. the S., and Wady Enkeileh fm. 
the E. It flows W'ward along the bottom of a deep 
gorge, and nearly 3 miles E. of the Dead Sea it is 
joined by the waters of Wady Weleh fm. the N.W. 
These streams drain a wide tract of country W. of 
the Hajj road. 

Trie " fords of A." are mentioned by Isaiah (16. 2 ). 
A city may be intended in Jr. 48 . 20 . Mesha says on 
the Moabite Stone that he made the " high way in 
A." and built Aroer. Remains of a Rm. road are 
found on either slope of the valley, traces of the 
bridge in the stream, ruins called Mahattet el-Hajj, 



his victorious march (2 K. io. 33 ). Mesha (Moabite 
Stone Inscr.) claims to have built — poss. "fortified" 
— it, so it must have been again in the power of 
Moab (cp. Jr. 48. 19 ). The old Rm. road descends 
into the Valley about an hour W. of Khirbet 'Ara'ir. 

(2) "A. that is before Rabbah " on the Amorite border of 
the territory assigned to Gad (Jo. 13. 25 ; Jg. n. 33 ). No 
identn. is yet poss. 

(3) A city in Judah (1 S. 30. 28 ), prob. the same as Adadah 
(Jo. 15. 22 ), now 'Ar'dra, c. 14 miles S.E. of Beersheba. 

ARPAD, a city named with Hamath (2 K. 18. 34 ; 

AV. Arphad in Is. 36. 19 , 37. 13 ), identd. with fell 

Erf ad, c. 1 3 miles N. of Aleppo. It is called Ar-pada 




Assyrian Warriors in Armour, Fighting in Chariots 



*' Station of the Pilgrimage," on the S. bank, and 
'Aqraba on the N., the ruin of i Ara < ir, or i Ar i ar = 
Aroer, lying further to the E. The Valleys (AV.) 
or Brooks (RV.) of A. are no doubt the Wadies con- 
tributory to the main stream (Nu. 21. 14 ). 

Lit. : Tristram, Land of Moab ; Dr. G. A. Smith, 
in PEFQ., 1904, 1905 ; Briinnow, Die Provincia 
Arabia ; Musil, Arabia Petra:a, i. passim. 

AROER, Heb. 'Aro'er. (1) A city on the N. bank 
of the Arnon, identd. with the modern 'AraHr, or having two names. 
< Ar l ar. Taken by Sihon fm. the Ammonites, it 
passed into the hands of Isr. (Dt. 2. 36 , 3. 12 , 4. 48 ; 



in the Asyr. Inscrs. It was captured in B.C. 740 by 
Tiglath-Pileser III., after a two years' siege. 

ARTAXERXES, ' Artachshashta, « Great King." 
(1) A Persian monarch who, induced by the adver- 
saries of Judah and Benjamin, hindered the building 
of the Temple (Ezra 4- 7 ' 24 ), supposed by some to 
be Pseudo-Smerdis, known by another name ; by 
others he is identd. with (2), because there is no 
trace in cuneiform inscrs. of Persian monarchs 



The text of Ezra as we have it clearly implies that A. 
reigned before Darius Hystaspis, and third after Cyrus — the 
precise position occupied by Smerdis the Magian. The want 
of epigraphic evidence that Persian monarchs had double 
names proves nothing : we shd. not have known from inscrs. 
that the successor of Tiberius was called Caligula, or that 
lthough it lay on the s. of Severus was called Caracalla. We know that the 
c T>~ U^~ ,"„ <.„;a +^ prince in question had two names: Herodotus calls him 
the S. border of the territory of Reuben, is said to § merdis ( ^ eschyl< PerSm 7JO , Mardos), but Ctesias, Tanyo- 

Jiave been built by Gad. Hazael pressed S. to A. in xarces ; and Xenophon, Tanaoxares. If the latter was the 

35 



Jo. I2. 2 , 13. 9 . 16 ; Jg. 11.26 . 2 S> 24- 5 ? where H> y. 
Smith (Samuel) reads " fm. A. and fm. the city that 
is in the midst of the Wady "). This seems to be 
the city named in Nu. 32. 34 , wh., 



Aru 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ash 



real throne name of the usurper, it was nat. for a Jewish 
scribe to change the little known Tanyoxarces into the well- 
known A. ; such a suggn. implies less change than the idea 
that the transaction referred to took place under (2). In the 
hist, of " Jossippon ben Gorion " Epiphanes is called " Es- 
pasianos " (Vespasian). 

(2) S. of Xerxes called Longimarms. Nehemiah 
was cup-bearer to A. (Ne. I. 11 ), and permitted by 
A. (2. 6 ) he went to Judea to act as Governor. A. 
reigned from B.C. 465-B.c. 425. Ezra petitioned 
A. for leave to go to Pal. and for assistance (Ez. J. 6 ), 
his petition was granted, and the authorities in the 
province " beyond the River " were ordered to 
supply his needs to " 100 talents of silver, 100 
measures of wheat, 100 bottles of wine, and 100 
bottles of oil " (Ez. 7- 22 ). From classical authori- 
ties he appears to have been one of the best of the 
Persian monarchs. 

ARUBOTH, RV. ARUBBOTH, the third of 
Solomon's commissariat districts, including Sochoh 
and Hep her (1 K. 4. 10 ). No identn. of the district 
is now poss. 

ARUMAH, a place near Shechem where Abime- 
lech dwelt (Jg. 9. 41 ), poss. el-Ormeh, S.E. of Nablus. 

ARVAD, a small island off the Syrian coast, c. 30 
miles N. of Tripoli, held by the Phoenicians ; the 
modern Arwad. The Arvadites were skilful sailors 
and brave soldiers (Gn. io. 18 ; 1 Ch. I. 16 ; Ek. 
27. 8 ' n ). In B.C. 1 100 Tiglath-pileser I. took the 
city. At a later date Ashurnazirpal availed himself 
of their seamanship {COT. 2 i. 173). Strabo (XVI. 
ii. 30) says that the city on the island was founded 
by men who fled from Sidon in B.C. 761 ; but it is 
really of much earlier date. Water supply was ob- 
tained fm. the mainland ; but springs of fresh water 
in the sea were resorted to in war-time. It was the 
centre of successful commercial enterprise, wh. 
passed, however, in later times, to its colony on the 
mainland, Antaradus, the mod. Tortus. 

ASA, s. and successor of Abijah, k. of Judah, c. 
B.c. 918-877. In 1 K. I5. llff - we have an act. of A.'s 
zeal in cleansing the land fm. idolatry, in wh. he did 
not even spare his mr. The hostile action of Baasha, 
k. of Isr., in fortifying Ramah agst. A. led him to 
secure the help of Benhadad of Syr., at the cost of 
the gold and silver treasures in the temple and in 
the palace. This ally quickly reduced Baasha to 
inactivity ; whereupon A., with the materials col- 
lected by Baasha, protected his frontier by fortify- 
ing Geba and Mizpah. The " pit " made by A. 
from fear of Baasha, may have been a reservoir for 
provision agst. a siege (Jr. 41. 9 ). " In the time of 
his old age " he suffered fm. what was prob. gout. 
The Chronicler (2 Ch. 14., 15.) goes into much more 
detail. The important additions he makes are : the 
assembling of an army of 580,000 men ; A.'s victori- 
ous war with Zerah the Ethiopian ; the conference 
with Oded as to his work of reform ; the cove- 
nant made with the Lord ; the condemnation by 



Hanani of the alliance with Syria, and the punish- 
ment of the prophet ; the statement that A. in his j 
sickness " sought not to the Lord, but to the 
physicianSo" He was buried in the City of David, 
with costly and splendid ceremonies. 

The diffcs. in chronology between the two nars. are not 
here discussed, as no satisfactory explanation of these is at 
present poss. 

ASAHEL. (1) The youngest s. of Zeruiah, br. 
of Joab and Abishai, distinguished by rleetness of 
foot (2 S. 2. 18 ). He was one of David's heroes, and 
commander of a division. He fell by the hand of 
Abner, whom he rashly persisted in pursuing (2 S. 
2 3 . 24 ; 1 Ch. 2 7 . 7 ; 2 S. 2. 23 ). (2) A Levite in the 
reign of Jehoshaphat. (3) A collector of tithes 
under Hezekiah (2 Ch. 3 1. 13 ). (4) A priest in the 
time of Ezra (Ez. io. 15 ). 

ASAPH, a Levite, s. of Berechiah, one of those 
set by David over the service of song (1 Ch. 6. 31, 39 > 
16. 5 ), called a " seer " (2 Ch. 29. 30 ). Twelve of the 
Psalms — 50, 73-83 — are ascribed to A. The 
" Brethren of A." were a guild of singers : the 
" Psalms of A." were really those that were the pro- 
perty of this guild. At the same time they might 
have been originally composed by A., and modified 
to meet new necessities, as is the case with mod. 
hymns, and also, it may be noted, with mod. 
Arabic poems. Joah (2 K. 18. 18 ) and Mattaniah 
(Ne. ii. 17 ) were descts. of A. 

ASENATH, w. of Joseph, dr. of Potipherah, 
priest of On. There is an interesting story of 
Asenath among the later Pseudepigrapha. Fabri- 
cius, Codex Pseudep. VT. 

ASH (Is. 44. 14 ), RV. " fir tree." The AV. trans- 
lators seem to have been misled by the superficial 
resemblance between Heb. or en, and Latin ornus,. 
" the ash." They are in no way related, and the A.. 
is not found in Pal. It is imposs. to say with cert, 
what tree is meant. The most prob. suggn. is that 
the pine is intended (LXX), and of the three 
species found in Pal., the maritime, or stone pine, 
best meets the conditions. It is -planted : witness. 
the groves planted to stay the indrift of the sand 
along the coast. It is nourished by the rain ; it is 
never watered by irrigation. It yields a fine firm 
resinous wood, wh. may be easily carved into an 
image, and it is in great demand as fuel. It will not 
bear transplanting, it is true (Celsius, Hierob.i. 193),. 
but " planting " means only the planting of the 
seed in suitable soil. The tree is called by the Arabs. 
Sanaubar. 

ASHAN, prob. = Cor-Ashan. It is in Judah (Jo. 
15. 42 ), is given to the priests (Jo. 19. 7 ; 1 Ch. 6. 59 ), 
and is described as belonging to Simeon (1 Ch. 4. 32 ) : 
unidentd. 

ASHDOD, or AZOTUS, a strong city of the 
Phil. : the name seems to signify " fortress." It is 
now Esdud, fully 20 miles S. of Jaffa, and c. 3 miles 



36 



Ash 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ash 



fm. the coast line (Jo. 13. 3 ). It was formerly occu- 
pied by Anakim (Jo. ii. 22 ). xA.ssigned to the tribe 
of Judah (Jo. 15. 47 ), it seems never to have been 
possessed by them (1 S. 5. 1 , &c). Uzziah's conquest 
(2 Ch. 26. 6 ) seems to have been but temporary (Am. 
I. 8 ). It was taken by the Tartan — the general — of 
the Asyr. Sargon, c. B.C. 711 (Is. 20. 1 ), and by the 
Egyptians under Psammitichus after a siege of 29yrs. 
(Herod. II. 157), c b.c. 630. Perhaps Jeremiah re- 
fers to this in the phrase " the remnant of A." 
(25. 20 ). Its inhabitants appear as hostile to the 
Jews under Nehemiah (4. 7 , 13. 23 ' 24 ). A. was over- 
thrown by Jonathan (1 M. io. 84 ), and added to the 
province of Syr. by Ptolemy. A. was declared free 
by Pompey, B.C. 63 (Ant. XIV. iv. 4 ; BJ. I. vii. 7), 
and rebuilt by Gabinius (Ant. XIV. v. 3). On the 
death of Herod it fell to his sr. Salome (Ant. XVII. 
viii. 1), and a.d. 10, to the Empress Livia (Ant. 
XVIII. ii. 2 ; BJ. II. ix. 1). The only mention 
of A. in NT. is in connection with the preaching 
of Philip (Ac. 8. 40 ). 

ASHER, " happy." Eighth s. of Jacob ; his mr. 
was Zlipah. A. had four sons and one dr. (Gn. 35. 26 , 
46. 17 ). In the blessings of Jacob he is promised good 
fortune (Gn. 49. 20 , J. ; Dt. 33- 24 ). Numbering 
41,500 adult males on leaving Egp., A. numbered 
53,400 in the plains of Moab (Nu. I. 41 , 26. 47 , P.). 
A. was placed between Dan and Naphtali, N. of the 
tabernacle. Sethur represented A. among the spies 
(Nu. 13. 13 ). Influenced prob. by profitable rela- 
tions with Phoenician neighbours, A. never took 
many of the cities assigned to him (Jg. I. 31 ). Later 
he is reproached for unpatriotic inaction (Jg. 5- 17f '), 
and his name is not found in David's list of chief 
rulers (1 Ch. 27. 16 ' 22 ). No hero arose from A. 
Some from A. humbled themselves, and came to Jrs., 
at the call of Hezekiah. Anna (Lk. 2. 36ff -) belonged 
to A. 

The towns allotted to A. are not all identd., and 
little more than a guess at the boundaries is poss. 
(Jo. I9. 24ff - ; Jg. i. 31 - 32 ; cp. Jo. I7. 10f -). Nahr ez- 
Zerqa-may have formed the S. boundary, and the E. 
border may have run N'wards at a distance of 8 to 
10 miles fm. the coast. Fm. about opposite Tyre 
it seems to have swept E'ward, including most of 
Beldd Besbdra, and Beldd esh-Shuqlf, returning to 
the sea near Sidon (see Ant. V. i. 22). Orange and 
olive still grow to perfection in glen and slope, while 
rich crops are reaped fm. the plains. (2) An un- 
identd. town on the border of Ephraim and Man- 
asseh (Jo. 17. 7 ). 

ASHERAH. See Grove. 

ASHES. (1) Heb. 'epher, Gr. spodos. The word 
is used fig. for what is transient and worthless (Gn. 
18. 27 ). " Proverbs of A." (Jb. 13. 12 , Heb.) are vain 
speeches. To wear sackcloth and sprinkle the 
person with A. is throughout Scrip, a common sign 
of grief, of humiliation, or of penitence (2 S. 13. 19 ; 



Est. 4. 1 , &c). To lie or sit (Est. 4. 3 ; Jb. 2. 8 ) or 
wallow (L. 3. 16 ) in A. marks profounder intensity 
of feeling. See further Red Heifer, Sacrifice. 
(2) The word deshen is used (Lv. I. 16 , 6. 10 , &c, P.) 
for the A. on the altar when the burnt offering is 
consumed; but it is = epher in Jr. 3 1. 40 . (3) P'tah 
(Ex. 9. 8, 10 ), RVm. prob. correctly " soot." (4) 
'Apher (1 K. 20. 38 - 41 ) shd. be rendered with RV. 
" headband." 

ASHIMA, a deity of the Hamathites (2 K. 17. 30 ), 
otherwise unknown. 

ASHKELON, a city of the Phil, close on the sea 
coast, c. 12 miles N. of Gaza, now l Asqaldn (Jo. 
13. 3 ; Jg, I. 18 ). If it was taken by Judah, it passed 
again to the Phil. (Jg. 14. 19 ; 1 S. 6. 17 ). Accdg. to 
Herodotus (I. 105), it contained the oldest temple 
of Astarte, or Aphrodite Urania, wh. was pillaged by 
the Scythians. It passed under the power of Egp., 
and then of Bab. It submitted to Jonathan (1 M. 
10. 86 ). As the birthplace of Herod it was greatly 
adorned by him (BJ. I. xxi. 11). It was given to 
Salome by Augustus (BJ. II. vi. 3). Later it was 
burned by the Jews. At the outbreak of the war 
the Jews attacked it, but were twice beaten off by 
its Rm. defenders (BJ. III. ii. iff.). It played a 
considerable part in the hist, of the Crusades. The 
existing ruins date fm. these times. The anct. har- 
bour has disappeared, and great inroads have been 
made by the sand, alike upon the bldgs. and the 
once flourishing gardens. 

ASHKENAZ, s. of Gomer, grandson of Japhet 
(Gn. io. 3 ). The Jews imagine the Germans de- 
scended fm. A., hence German-speaking Jews are 
called " Ashkenazim." 

ASHNAH. (1) A town in the Shephelah be- 
tween Zorah and Zanoah (Jo. 15. 33 ). (2) A town 
between Iphtah and Nezib (Jo. 15. 43 ), not identd. 

ASHPENAZ (DANIEL). 

ASHTAROTH. See Ashtoreth. 

ASHTEROTH-KARNAIM, a site of great anti- 
quity, where the Rephaim were defeated by Che- 
dorlaomer (Gn. 14. 5 ). It corrspds. with the " Car- 
naim " or " Carnion " of the Maccabees, where it is 
described as a city of great strength, and extremely 
difficult of access. It fell, however, before Judas. 
The temple of Atargatis, in wh. the inhabitants had 
taken refuge, was destroyed, and 25,000 were slain. 
OEJ. distinguishes two sites with similar names. 
One of these is cert. Tell 'Ashterd, 2 miles S. of el- 
Merkez, a hill once strongly fortified, about 80 ft. 
high. It cd. never, however, have answered the de- 
scription of A.-K. given above. Tell el-Asb c ary, c. 
\\ miles further S., while nothing can be inferred 
fm. the superficial resemblance of the name, wh. is 
radically different, standing on a tongue of land be- 
tween the gorge of the Tarmuk and a great cleft 
with a waterfall at the top, protected behind by a 
triple wall, must have been a position of enormous 



37 



Ash 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ass 



strength and difficulty of access. El-Mezerib, a cd. therefore be held only by men of wealth ; and as 
once strongly fortified city, on an island in the a sacred character attached to the office— they are 
midst of a small lake, on the great Hajj road, has sometimes called " high priests " — they were men of 
also been suggd. But any hope of cert, identn. now influence. They seem to have retained the title 
lies in excavation. after they had retired fm. office. 

ASHTORETH, the female counterpart of Baal Lit. : Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, excursus on 
in the Phoenician Pantheon ; she is the great nature- Asiarchate ; Ramsay, Cities and Bishopricks of 
goddess, the giver of fruitfulness. As Baal was the Pbrygia, I. 55-58 ; II. cap. xi. 
Sun in one of his aspects, so A. was the Moon, the ASNAPPER (Ez. 4. 10 ), prob. Asshurbanipal s of 



Esar-haddon, k. of Nineveh fm. b.c. 668 to 626 



Queen of the Stars. In this aspect she has the 
crescent as one of her attributes. Most frequently 
in the statues of A. she appears as a naked female, 
sometimes nursing a child. She was the goddess 
of sexual passion, hence was worshipped with rites 
licentious and impure. The name indicates some 
affinity with the Bab. goddess Istar, but A. has not 
the mythologic importance of Istar. The temples 
of A. were numerous, and her name forms a frequent 
element in Phoenician personal names. A. fre- 
quently appears in the plural as Ashtaroth, and is 
then generally associated with Baalim. (Rawlin- 
son, Phoenicia?) 

ASHURITES, a tribe over wh. Ishbosheth ruled 
(2 S. 2. 9 ). As no such tribe is known it is supposed 
that we shd. read " Asherites." LXX reads Tha- 
seiri ; a rdg. due to the resemblance between aleph 
and tau in Samaritan script. 

ASIA, in the NT., invariably means, not the Con- 
tinent, but the Rm. province of that name, with its 
capital at Ephesus. It was formed when in B.C. 133 
Attalus, k. of Pergamum, bequeathed his kdm. to 
the Rms. It included the W. part of Asia Minor, 
Mysia, Lydia, Caria, part of Phrygia, with the coast 
towns, the Troad, and the adjoining islands. The 
seat of government at first was Pergamos. It soon 
passed to Ephesus ; but Pergamos and Smyrna were 
both rivals for the title " First of Asia." It was a 
Senatorial province under a proconsul, hence Gr. 
anthupatos (Ac. 19. 38 ). To win this rich and 
prosperous province seems to have been the purpose 
of Paul and Barnabas in devoting the first mission- 
ary journey to its great cities. This seems to have 
been Paul's aim in the second journey until hindered During A.'s long reign Elam was conquered and 
by the Spirit. But his opportunity came during his Egp. held in subjection ; but the Asyr. Empire was 
long residence in Ephesus, when he met with people being exhausted, and old age had weakened the 
from all parts of the province (Ac. 19. 10 ). In Apoc. monarch himself; hence by the end of his reign 
A. has the older and wider significance. there are signs of decay. A. has earned the grati- 

ASIARCH (Ac. 19. 31 , AV. " chief of Asia," RV. tude of succeeding generations by the Library he 
" chief officers of Asia "). Little is known with collected, and the copies of anct. Bab. writings he 




Asnapper 



cert, regarding these officials. An A. is mentioned 
by Strabo (xiv. 649) in b.c 50. The office may have 
existed fm. the formation of the province of Asia. 
Some think they were elected annually ; others, 



caused to be made. A.'s connection with sacred 
hist, is due to the colonists he sent into the N. Kdm. 
ASP, a species of poisonous snake (Heb. petben), 
identd. by Tristram with Egpn. cobra. The Heb. 



every four years. They seem to have had to do with word occurs six times in Scrip.; four times it is 

the assemblies for the worship of Rm. and the em- rendered A., twice " adder." 

perors. They presided at the festivities and games ASS, the most commonly used beast of burden in 

in the great provincial cities, and prob. defrayed the the nearer East, alike in anct. and mod. times. Its 

expense of the spectacles, as did the Rm. aediles. It gentle step commends it to the rider ; while it 

38 



Ass 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ath 



carries stones fm. the quarry, sheaves fm. the field, 
or sea-borne commodities inland fm. the harbours. 
In Heb. the sexes are distinguished — hdmor, the 
male, and dthon, the she-ass. The prophet of Judah 
who came to rebuke Jeroboam rode on the first (i K. 
13. 23 ), and Balaam on the second (Nu. 22. 22 ). " A 
young ass " is 'ayir (Zc. c;. 9 ). There are two breeds of 
A. common in Pal. — a small black or dark-brown A. 
and a large white one. There seem to have been 
both breeds in anct. times. Civil rulers are distin- 
guished as " Ye that ride upon white asses " (Jg. 
5. 10 ) ; to a certain extent this is still the case. 

The intelligence of the A. is depended on in the East : in 
a long string of camels there are a number of small black 
donkeys dividing the camels into groups of four or five. They 
are provided for the riding of the drivers, who are, however, 
usly. walking together at the extreme rear,' while the donkeys 
are left to act as guides. The A. is depicted in Egpn. and 
Asyr. monuments along with captives not infrequently fm. 
Syria. The wild A. has two names in the OT.,pere and 
'drod ; there are two wild species found in the neighbourhood 
of Pal., but there is no cert, that the words represent difft. 
kinds ; or, if they do, wh. of the two either represents. In 
the Asyr. monuments they are depicted as objs. of chase. 

ASSEMBLY, AV. renders both 'edah and qdhdl 
by A. ; RV. restricts A. to the latter. Qdhdl is a 
meeting of the community regularly convened for 
business, as distinguished from the community in 
its more gen. aspect ; hence LXX usly. render by 
ekklesia — except in Gn., Ex., Nu., Pr., and Ek. For 
fuller discussion see Congregation. The other 
Heb. words rendered A. do not call for treatment. 
In the NT., only in Ac. 19. has ekklesia, referring 
to the citizens of Ephesus, something of its classical 
significance, i.e. the citizens of a Hellenic city con- 
vened for legislative or administrative purposes. 
Elsewhere EV. invariably render " church." Pane- 
guris (He. 12. 23 ) is primarily an assembly of a whole 
nation. Sunagoge is the technical term for Jewish 
places of worship apart fm. the temple. In the 
NT. it is only once (js. 2. 2 ) used of an " assembly " 
of Jewish Christians. 

ASSOS, the mod. Behram, c. 20 miles E. of Cape 
Lectum, on the shore over agst. Lesbos. The acro- 
polis was built on a height that sloped up fm. the 
shore, and the remains show it to have been a strong 
position. A. seems to have been architecturally an 
exceptionally fine city ; while the sculptures found 
in the temple of Athena are of singular value — now 
distributed between Paris, Constantinople, and 
Boston, U.S.A. A harbour constructed by means of 
a mole gave hospitality to the ships of merchant- 
men, while a Rm. road connected A. with Troas and 
the coast towns beyond. This road, cutting straight 
across the promontory, was much shorter than the 
voyage round Cape Lectum (Ac. 20. 13 ). 

ASSHUR, ASSYRIA. See Babylonia. 

ASTROLOGERS, ASTROLOGY, ASTRO- 
NOMY. Astrologers professed to tell the future 
fm. the relative position of the stars. A long trea- 
tise on Astrology in several recensions has come 



down to us fm. the reign of S argon I. Closely con- 
nected with Astrology is Astronomy : indeed the 
former may be regarded as a deduction fm. the 
latter ; without some sort of Astronomy, Astrology 
wd. have been imposs. The Astrologers of Bab. cd. 
predict eclipses with some accuracy. They were re- 
garded as. ministers of idolatry, and are denounced 
by Isaiah (47. 13 ) as habere shamaylm, " dividers of 
the heaven," hozim tfkokablm, " star-gazers," and 
modi'im lehodashlm, " monthly prognosticators." 
Fm. the Babn. and Egpn. kge. of Astronomy, the 
Hebs. cd. not escape some tincture of the science ; 
but their acquaintance with it seems to have been 
scanty. Almost all we know of the Heb. names of 
the constellations is drawn fm. the semi-foreign Bk. 
of Job. There we find Mazzdroth, " the signs of 
the Zodiac " (38. 32 ), 'ash, or l ayish, " the Great 
Bear " (c.. 9 , 38. 32 , AV. " Arcturus "). Orion is kes'il 
(c.. 9 , 38. 32 ; Am. 5. 8 ) ; the Pleiades, k'tmah (Jb. c.. 9 ; 
Am. 5. 8 ). Some think Draco is indicated by nahash 
bariah, " the crooked serpent " (Jb. 26. 13 ). When 
the Babs. began their observation of the heavens, 
the star " Alpha Draconis " was prob. the pole-star. 
" The Chambers of the South," hadrey teymdn (9- 9 ), 
are the Southern Constellations. Natly. the sun is 
prominent in the mind of the Hebs. The progress 
of the sun through the signs of the Zodiac had been 
noticed (Ps. 19. 6 ). The phases of the moon were 
observed, but " New Moon " was announced on ob- 
servation, never by calculation. The planets (maz- 
zdloth, 2 K. 23. 5 , poss. another form of mazzdroth, 
" signs of the Zodiac ") received worship. Saturn 
is " Chiun " (Am. 5- 26 ), and Venus is hay lay I ben 
shohar, " Lucifer, s. of the morning " (Is. 14. 12 ). 
Fm. this We may infer that all the planets were 
named. In the Bk. of Enoch there are some inte- 
resting, if crude, astronomical hypotheses to explain 
the varying length of the day. In Daniel, 'ashshd- 
phlm (i. 20 , &c.) are those who use enchantments, 
rather than Astrologers. These are more prob. re- 
presented by the Asyr. word hartumlm, derived fm. 
harutu, " a staff." Nebuchadnezzar's irritation at 
the delay in interpreting his dream was due to fear 
lest the auspicious time shd. change — a proof that 
he was dominated by Astrological ideas. 

ATAD, a place associated with the great mourn- 
ing of Joseph and his brethren, on their way to Heb- 
ron with the body of Jacob (Gn. 5o. 10f# ), apparently 
E. of Jordan, but not identd. 

ATAROTH. (1) A town near Dibon, E. of 
Jordan (Nu. 32. 3 « 34 ), identd. with Khirbet 'Attdrus, 
c. 7 miles N.W. of Dhlbdn. (2) A town on the S. 
boundary of Ephraim (Jo. 16. 2 ), also A.-Addar (ver. 
5), the mod. Ed-Ddriyeh, 12 J- miles N.W. of Jrs. (3) 
A town also on the S. border of Ephraim E'ward, 
unidentd. (4) In 1 Ch. 2. 54 prob. a family is meant 
(RV. Atroth beth Joab). 

ATHALIA, dr. of Ahab, called also dr. of Omri, 



39 



Ath 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ato 



her grandfr. (2 K. 8. 18 " 26 ; 2 Ch. 22. 2 ), w. of 
Jehoram, k. of Judah (2 Ch. 21. 6 ). She introduced 
the Phoenician Baal-worship, and secured the break- 
ing up of " the house of God," and the dedication 
of its furniture to Baalim (2 Ch. 24. 7 ). Her s. 
Ahaziah having been slain, she grasped at power, 
and had the seed royal destroyed, Joash alone being 
saved alive by his aunt. For six years she exercised 
the royal power. Then Jehoiada, the High Priest, 
made an arrangement with the officers of the 
soldiers, and of the guard, to have Joash brought 
forth and proclaimed k. The use of " the spears and 
shields that had been k. David's," wh. were given 
to the captains over hundreds, was doubtless in- 
tended to make a popular impression. Joash was 
brought into the temple, crowned, received " the 
Testimony " or law, and hailed k. with great re- 
joicing. The noise brought A., who only then 
learned what was on foot. Her shouts of treason 
awakened no response. Apprehended, and hurried 
beyond the precincts, she was forthwith slain. 

The Chronicler gives the crowning of Joash as the result 
of a popular movement, while none but Levites are permitted 
to enter the house of the Lord : this in accordance with the 
sanctity of the place, wh. mt. not be profaned by the feet of 
heathen mercenaries, such as the Carites (2 K. 11. ; 2 Ch. 
22., 23.). 

(2) A Benjamite, s. of Jcroham (1 Ch. 8. 2G ). 
(3) S. of Jeshaiah, returned fm. Bab. with Ezra (8. 7 ). 

ATHENS stood c. 3 miles fm. the coast, in the 
Attic plain. It was the centre of civilisation, of Art, 
and Letters in anct. Greece, and the mother city of 




Athens 

the great empire of former days (see Diet, of Gr. and 
Rm. Geog.). In NT. times it was in the Rm. pro- 
vince of Achaia. It was treated with special favour 
by the Rms., and enjoyed many immunities. The 
Piraeus was and continues to be the port of A., but 
the anct. walls connecting it with the harbour were 
already in ruins. The most striking feature of the 
city was the Acropolis, a hill, the platform of wh. 
was occupied by " one vast composition of archi- 



tecture and sculpture, dedicated to the national 
glory, and to the worship of the gods." Among the 
triumphs of Art, masterpieces fm. the hands of 
Praxiteles and Phidias were still to be seen ; and 
also the statue of Pericles, to whom the Acropolis 
owed its glory. To the W. lies the lower height of 
the Areopagus, called " Mars' Hill," fm. the Temple 
of Mars wh. stood upon it. S. of the Areopagus was 
the Agora, a spacious square, surrounded by splen- 
did bldgs., and adorned with noble sculptures, re- 
calling the great events in the hist, of A. This had 
been " the centre of a glorious public life, when the 
orators and statesmen, the poets and artists of 
Greece, found there all the incentives of their noble 
enthusiasm, and it still continued to be the meeting- 
place of philosophers, of idlers, of conversation, and 
of business, when A. could only be proud of the re- 
collections of the past." Here Paul met the philo- 
sophers with whom he spoke of Jesus and the resur- 
rection (Ac. 17. 18 ). The eagerness of the Athenians 
to hear new things was a matter of old standing 
(Demosthenes, Phil. i. 10), while their " over-re- 
ligiousness " is well attested. Jos. calls them " the 
most religious of the Grs." (Contra Afi. ii. 12). On 
every hand were altars and temples of the gods. 
The Athenians seem to have sought to win favour 
fm. every known god, while altars " of unknown 
gods," agnoston theon, are mentioned by Pausanias 
(I. i. 4) and Philostratus (fit. A foil. vi. 2). There 
seems to have been ground for the satirical saying 
that it was " easier to find a god than a man in A." 
(Petronius Arbiter, Sat. c. 17). No trace of the 
anct. synagogue has been found, but the inscrs. on 
cert. anct. tombstones attest the presence of a com- 
munity of Jews. 

Lit. : Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of 
St. Paul, x. ; Mommsen, Athene Christiana. 

ATONEMENT, THE DAY OF, called in later 
Jewish lit. " the day," or " the great day," fell on 
the loth day of the 7th month. It is referred to in 
Ac. 27. 9 as " the fast." Directions as to the day and 
its appropriate ritual are given mainly in Lv. 16., 
23. 26 ' 32 . With these must be taken Ex. 30. 10 , Lv. 
25. 9 , Nu. 29. 7 - 11 , He. c>. 7 . Fm. these we gather 
that fm. the evening of the 9th till the evening of 
the 10th day was " an holy convocation." The 
people were commanded to " afflict their souls," 
i.e. to observe a strict fast, abstaining fm. all food 
and drink. No one should do any kind of work. 
The penalty for breach of these requirements was to 
be " cut off fm. among the people." A special burnt 
offering " for a sweet savour " was made, a young 
bullock, a ram, and seven he-lambs, all without 
blemish, with their meal offerings ; and one he-goat 
for a sin offering. 

The great business of the day was laid upon the 
High Priest. He took a young bullock for a sin 
offering, and a ram for a burnt offering for himself ; 



40 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Aug 



and for the people, two he-goats for a sin offering, 
and one ram for a burnt offering. Taking off his 
ordinary clothes, he washed, and put on the holy 
garments of linen. Thus arrayed he presented the 
bullock for the sin offering, making A. for himself 
and his house. Then setting the two goats before 
the Lord, at the door of the tent of meeting, he cast 
lots upon them, one for the Lord, and one for 
Azazel. That wh. fell to the Lord he offered as a sin 
offering. The other he set alive before the Lord, 
and made A. for him ; thus apparently fitting him 
to carry away into the wilderness the people's sins. 
He then killed the bullock to make A. for himself 
and his house. Taking a censer with coals off the 
altar, and sweet incense in his hand, he went within 
the veil, cast the incense on the burning coals, caus- 
ing a fragrant cloud to envelop the mercy-seat. 
Then he sprinkled with his finger the blood of the 
bullock on the E. side of the mercy-seat, and before 
the mercy-seat, seven times. This done, he went 
out and killed the goat for the sin offering for the 
people, and carrying of its blood within the veil, 
sprinkled as before, making A. thus for the Holy of 
Holies. In like manner A. was made for the tent of 
meeting, because of the uncleanness of the Children 
of Isr., by sprinkling the blood of the sin offering on 
the altar of incense ; the H. Pt. being alone in the 
tent during the whole ceremony. Issuing from the 
tent he then made A. for the altar of burnt offering, 
putting of the blood of bullock and goat on the 
horns, and sprinkling seven times with his finger 
upon the altar. 

The H. Pt. then took the live goat, laid his hands 
on its head, confessed over it the iniquities of the 
Children of Isr., their transgressions and their sins, 
and sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of 
one who stood ready, that it mt. bear their iniquities 
into a land of separation, whence there cd. be no 
returning. Entering again the tent of meeting, the 
H. Pt. laid aside the linen clothes, assumed his ordi- 
nary garments, and, coming out, offered the burnt 
offering, making A. for himself and for the people. 
The fat of the sin offering was burnt on the altar. 
The other parts of the sin offerings, their flesh, &c, 
were carried without the camp and consumed by 
fire. The man who performed this duty, and he 
who led away the goat for Azazel, washed their 
clothes, bathed themselves, and then returned to 
the camp. 

The trumpets of Jubilee, proclaiming liberty, &c, 
were ordered to be blown on this day. 

Many mod. scholars believe that this legislation belongs to 
a late date ; that it is post-exilic. They rely upon such 
points as these : absolute silence as to its observance in pre- 
exilic times; such phrases as "afflict your souls," which 
occur elsewhere only in late Lit. ; the fixing of particular days 
in the year for fasting, and the highly elaborate ritual, are 
taken as indicating a time cert, subsequent to the exile. 
Questions concerning the day of A. must be considered in 
connection with the system to which it belongs. When the 



date of what is called the Priestly Code is satisfactorily 
settled, the smaller problem will also be solved. 

Particulars as to the observance of the day of A. in 
later times are found in the Mishnic tractate Toma, 
Ant. III. x. 3, and Philo, 7repl rrjs e/38ofjLr}s koll twi/ 
koprQiv (ed. Mangey, ii. 296). In order to guard 
agst. pollution, the H. Pt. was secluded for seven 
days before in a special chamber, away fm. his own 
house. He entered the Holy of Holies four times. 
The prayer he used before killing the sin offering is 
specified, and directions given for the sprinkling, 
additions being made to those in Lv. The two 
goats were to be as like each other as possible. On 
the neck of that wh. fell to Azazel, a piece of scarlet 
cloth was tied. The H. Pt's. prayer over it is given. 
When the sins of the people had thus been laid on 
it, some of the nobles of Jrs. went with it outside the 
city, and one man led it into the wilderness, where 
he hurled it over a precipice. See Azazel, Scape- 
Goat. 

It is to be noted that the sins to be atoned for 
were such as mt. be attributed to human frailty, 
apart from deliberate purpose of evil. Those who 
were unable to go up to the temple were held to par- 
ticipate in the solemnities, if they observed the 
directions as to work and fasting. 

As Jesus Christ is compared and contrasted with 
the H. Pt. (He. 9.), it is proper to observe that in this, 
the supreme function of his office, the H. Pt. acted 
as the representative of the people. But his minis- 
try only prefigured that of Jesus Christ ; it made 
nothing perfect. With the blood of beasts he en- 
tered but once a year into the Holy of Holies. Jesus 
by His own blood entered once for all into the 
presence of God. He makes an abiding purification 
for His people, who, no longer standing afar off, have 
free access perpetually to their God and King. 

Lit. : Mishna, tractate Toma ; Lightfoot, The 
Temple Service, Works, 1823, ix. pp. 173^. ; Eder- 
sheim, The Tern-pie, its Ministry and Services, 263ft. 

ATROTH, RV. ATROTH-SHOPHAN (Nu. 
32. 35 ), a town built by the Children of Gad, near 
Aroer and Jazer, not yet identd. AV. reads 
" Atroth, Shophan," as two names. 

ATTALIA, a seaport on the coast of Pamphylia, 
near the mouth of the river Catarrhactes, and c. 15 
miles fm. Perga. It was built by Attalus II. (b.c. 
159-138). It is now Adalia. Steamers cast anchor 
outside the harbour, wh. can now be used only by 
smaller craft. The place was visited by Paul on his 
first missionary journey (Ac. 14. 25 ). 

AUGURY. See Divination. 

AUGUSTUS, great-nephew and adopted s. of 
Julius Caesar ; b. b.c 63, d. a.d. 14. After the 
murder of his uncle (b.c 44), A. with consummate 
duplicity hoodwinked Cicero and the Republicans ; 
and, having secured an army as against Antony, 
united with him and Lepidus to form the 2nd Tri- 
[ B 2 



Aug 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Baa 



umvirate. Lepidus was soon thrown aside ; Antony 
having been defeated at Actium, B.C. 31, A. reigned 
for 44 yrs. sole emperor. During this period our 
Lord was born. See Jesus Christ. 

AUGUSTUS BAND, THE, of wh. Julius, to 
whom the charge of Paul was committed, was a cen- 
turion, was prob. a name for the Praetorian Cohorts, 
as the Imperial Guards were called. Tacitus (Hist. 
II. 92) mentions a Julius who was a centurion of the 
Praetorians, appointed one of their prefects. This 
wd. explain the influence Paul seems to have had 
among the Praetorians, " those of Caesar's house- 
hold." In Ac. 27. 1 the RV. rendering is not quite 
accurate ; it is not " the Augustan band " but " an 
Augustan band," implying that this cohort was one 
of several. These cohorts cannot be called A. as 
being composed of inhabitants of Samaria, although 
it was named by Herod Sebaste, " the Augustan " ; 
the words used wd. have been difTt. 

AVA, prop. AWA, a place whence people were 
brought to occupy Samaria, after Isr. had been 
carried away by the k. of Asyr. (2 K. 17. 24 ). 

AVEN. (1) Theplain,Heb.%'^,of A. (Am. I. 5 , 
RV. " valley ") is prob. the great hollow between 
the Lebanons, wh. is still known as el-Biqa' = Coele 
Syria. The sun worship at Baalbekk may act. for the 
Aven = idolatry. (2) A contraction of Beth Aven 
(Ho. io. 8 , cp. 4. 15 ) = Bethel. (3) Applied in con- 
tempt, by a slight change in the name, to the great 
city of On, or Heliopolis, in Egp. (Ek. 30. 17 ). 

AVENGER OF BLOOD. See Kin, Next of. 

AVIM, AVITES, prop, with RV. Avvim, Av- 
vites. (1) The idolatrous people of Avva (2 K. 




original inhabitants in S.W. Pal. 
(Dt. 2. 23 ), whom the invading Phil. 
" destroyed." The survivors fm. 
this destruction seem to have been 
absorbed by the conquerors : at 
least along with them they escaped 
a new " destruction " at the hands 
of Joshua (Jo. 13. 3 ). 

AX, or AXE, in EV. trs. seven 
Heb. words. (1) Garzen (Dt. 19. 5 , 
20. 19 ; 1 K. 6. 7 ; Is. io. 15 ). It was 
used to fell timber, with a head of 
iron that mt. "slip from the helve." 
(2) Hereb, "knife" (Jo. 5. 2 ), "razor" (Ek. 5. 1 ), or 
" tool " for stone dressing (Ex. 20. 25 ). This last 
is prob. intended in Ek. 26. 9 . It is usly. rendered 
" sword." (3) Kashshil (Ps. 74.6, RV. " hatchet "). 



Egyptian Axes 



20. 3 ), shd. prob. read Magzerdb. (6) Ma'atzdd 
(Jr. io. 3 ; Is. 44. 12 , AVm. and RV.). (7) Qardom 

(Jg. 9 .48; r S . 13. 20,21. p s> 7+> 5. j r# 46# 22 )5 used 




Egyptian Battle-Axe 

in cutting wood. In NT. A. trs. a£ivr) (Mw. 3. 10 ; 
Lk. 3 . 9 ). 

AZARIAH, "whom Jah helps." (1) S. of 
Amaziah, k. of Judah = UzziAH. (2) S. of Hilkiah, 
fr. of Seraiah (1 Ch. 6. 13 , 9. 11 ; Ez. 7. 1 ). (3) S. of 
Oded, who met Asa returning fm. the conquest of 
the Ethiopians, and exhorted him to that reform of 
relg. by wh. his reign was distinguished (2 Ch. 15.). 
(4) S. of Jehoram = Ahaziah (2 Ch. 22.6). (5) The 
H. Pt. who prevented Uzziah fm. burning incense 
on the altar (2 Ch. 26. 17 ' 20 ), although Solomon had 
done the same — incident omitted by the Chronicler 
—without rebuke (1 K. 9. 25 ). (6) The fr. of Joel 
(2 Ch. 29. 12 ). (7) A H. Pt. in the time of Hezekiah 
(2 Ch. 3 1. 10, 13 ). He was also " ruler of the house of 
God," wh. may be = " captain of the temple " (Ac. 
4. 1 , 5. 24 > 26 ). (8) S. of Hoshaiah (Jr. 43. 2 ), one of 
the men who opposed Jeremiah, and carried him 
with the remnant of the people into Egp. (9) One 
of the Heb. youths, called in Bab. Abednego (Dn. 

j 6, 7, 11, 19 2. 17 ). 

A. was a popular name : cp. I K. 4. 2 ' 5 ; I Ch. 



17. 31 ). (2) A people prob. of the 2. 



6 9, 10, 36. 2 Qh. 21. 2 , 23. 1 , 28. 12 , 29. 12 ; 



(4) Magzerdb (2 S. I2. 31 ). (5) Megerdh (i Ch. 8 



Ez. 7. 1 ' 3 ; Ne. 3. 23, 24 , 7. 7 , 8. 7 , io. 2 , 12. 

AZAZEL (SCAPE-GOAT). 'This trltn. is 
adopted by the RV. in prefce. to " Scape-goat " of 
the AV. See Scape-Goat. 

AZEKAH, whither Joshua pursued the Can. fm. 
the battle of Beth Horon (Jo. lo. 10L ), was assigned 
to Judah (Jo. 15. 35 ). It was near the Vale of Elah 
(1 S. 17. lf -). Rehoboam fortified it (2 Ch. II. 9 ; cp. 
Jr. 34- 7 ). It is named between Lachish and Zorah. 
It was occupied by the Jews after the captivity (Ne. 
11. 30 ). While the district in wh. it lay is thus well 
indicated, the site is not yet identd. 

AZMAVETH (Ez. 2. 24 =Beth Azmaveth, Ne. 
7. 28 ). It is mentioned with Anathoth among the 
towns occupied by the Jews after the captivity, and 
is identd. with Himzeh, between 'Andta and Jeb'a. 

Several men bore this name (2 S. 23. 31 ; 1 Ch. 
, 36 , 12. 3 ). 



B 



" possessor " ; 



BAAL, pi. BAALIM, the supreme male deity of ascription of sex. B. means " Lord, 
the Shemites ; prob. originally bisexual — the pro- therefore B. is an attributive, not a proper name, 
gress of anthropomorphism natly. involving the At first B. and Jehovah were identd., hence Saul and 

42 



Baa 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bab 



David had sons whose names had B. as a constitutive and is prob. ident. with Tell l Asur, c. 5 miles N. of 



element (1 Chr. 



[4/). Gradually it was Bethel (2 S. 23. 23 ). 



recognised that the connotation was so difft. that it BAAL-HERMON. " Mount of B.-H." stands 
was simpler to regard them as difft. beings. One in Jg. 3. 3 for " B.-Gad under Mt. Hermon " in Jo. 



point of diffce. was that B. was worshipped by- 
images, while ]" '. was not. The attributive char- 
acter of B. is confirmed by the fact that it always has 
the article. It occurs 52 times in the sing., and 16 
times in pi. In the same passage, and in refce. to 
the same obj., sometimes first the one is used 



and then the other (cp. Jg. 2. 



K. 



J ). 



13. . But some place E. of Jordan is indicated in 
I Ch. 5. 23 , where the Baal of Hermon was wor- 
shipped. This may be ident. with Bdnids, but 
there is no cert. 

BAALIS, k. of the Ammonites. See Gedaliah 
(Jr.40.14). 

BAAL-MEON, a town fortified (" built ") by 



Here appears a phenomenon akin to what we meet Reuben, its name being changed (Nu. 32. 38 ), the 

in Romanist countries ; the " Virgins " are in- Beon of v. 3. As Beth B.-M. Moses assigned it to 

dividualised by the localities where they are wor- Reuben (Jo. 13. 17 ). It was taken and fortified by 

shipped. While in one sense they are all difft., with Mesha (Moabite Stone Inscr.), and is named by Ek. 

difft. attributes ; in another they are one. Some- as a city of Moab. Jeremiah calls it Beth Meon 

times the distinction of sex was understood without (48 . 23 ). OEJ. places it near the hot springs (Callirr- 

diffce. of name, as indicated in LXX by fern, art., hoe in the Wddy Zerqa Ma l m), 9 Rm. miles fm. 

Jr. 2. 23 . However, Ashtoreth was usually as- Heshbon = the modern Khirbet Ma'm. Accdg. to 

sumed to be the fern, of B. In Canaan these were Euseb. it was the home of the prophet Elisha. 

identd. with the sun and the moon respectively. BAAL-PEOR, " the Baal of Mt. Peor." See Baal 

This was a purely local identn., as the Bab. Bel is the and Peor (Dt. 4. 3 ; Nu. 25. 3 ; Ps. 106. 28 ). 

same deity, but has apparently no connection with BAAL-PERAZIM, a place of worship in the 



the sun. B. seems to have meant deity in his 
governmental relation to his worshippers. The 
local Baalim do not show any solar connection. 
B.-Zebub, " god of flies " (this prob. shd. be read 
Zebul, "a house," i.e. "the sky"). B.-Berith, wor- 



plain of Rephaim, near Jrs., where David defeated 
the Phil. (2 S. 5. 20 ; 1 Ch. 14. 11 ). Mt. Perazim in 
Is. 28. 21 prob. refers to this place. 

BAAL-SHALISHAH (2 K. 4 . 42 ), a seat of Baal 
worship in the " land of Shalishah," wh. lay be- 



shipped in Shechem, Jg. Q. 4 . B-Peor, lord of Peor. tween Mt. Ephraim and the land of Shaalim 

While originally B. worship was degenerate Jah- (1 S. 9*) : poss. Kefr Thiltb (PEFM. II. 285, 298L). 

vism, it was difft. when Jezebel introduced the wor- BAAL-ZEBUB, Gr. Baalmuian (2 K. I. 2 , &c), 

ship of the B. of the Sidonians, with his bloody and " the Baal of flies," worshipped at Ekron. See 

obscene rites ; hence it was so fiercely combated by Baal, Beelzebub. 



Elijah. 

BAAL (1 Ch. 4. 33 ), prob. = Baaloth-Beer. 

BAALAH. (1) = Kirjath-Jearim (Jo. 15. 9 ; 
1 Ch. 13. 6 ). (2) (Jo. i5. 29 ) = Balah (19. 3 ), Bilhah 
(1 Ch. 4. 29 ). (3) Mount B. (Jo. 15. 11 ), lying be- 
tween Ekron and Jabneel. 

BAALATH, in Dan (Jo. 
9. 18 ; 2 Ch. 8. 6 ), named by Jos. {Ant. VIII. vi. 1) 
with Beth-horon, as not far fm. Gezer. 



BAAL-ZEPHON, the Egpn. deity, B 'aali Sapuna. 
after whom a place was called (Ex. 14. 2, 9 ; Nu. 
33. 7 , P.), near the spot where Isr. crossed the Red 
Sea. Nothing is now known either of the place 
or of the kind of worship there practised. A town 
Sapuna is mentioned in the Tell Amarna tablets — 
9 44 ), poss. = B. (1 K. No. 174, ed. Winckler (KB.). 

BAANAH. (1) A Benjamite who, along with his 
br. Rechab, murdered Ishbosheth, and was exe- 



BAALATH-BEER, or Ramah of the South (Jo. cuted and disgraced by David's orders (2 S. 4. 5f> ). 



19. 8 , RV.), Baal (i Ch. 4 . 33 ), a hill S. or S.E. of 
Beersheba, poss. marked by the white-domed 
sanctuary, Oubbet el-Baul, S. of Tell el-Milh. 

BAAL-BERITH. See Baal. 

BAAL-GAD, " Baal of Fortune " or " Destiny," 
N.W. of Hermon in the plain (Jo. II. 17 , &c). It 
marked the N. limit of Joshua's conquest. It is to 



(2) Fr. of Heleb (2 S. 23. 29 ; I Ch. II. 30 ). (3) One 
who returned with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 2 , &c). 

BAASHA, s. of Ahijah of Issachar, prob. of 
humble birth (1 K. 16. 2 ). Having murdered Nadab 
at Gibbethon, and destroyed the whole house of 
Jeroboam I., he assumed the monarchy, and reigned 
in Tirza 24 yrs. For his wars with Judah and the 



be distinguished fm. B. -Hermon. Conder thinks it combination agst. him with Syrria, see Asa. He did 



mav be 'A in Jedeideh. 

BAAL-HAMON, LXX Beelamon (SS. 8. 11 ). 
This may be = Belamon (Jth. 8. 3 ), in wh. case it was 
near Dothan, and is perhaps to be identd. with 
Ibleam — Bel-'ameh, c. \ mile S. of Jenin. 



evil, and destruction was denounced agst. his house, 
as it had been agst. that of Jeroboam I. (1 K. i6. lf -). 
BABEL, BABYLON, the most famous city of 
antiquity, capital of Babylonia. The act. of the 
foundation of B.,Gn. 11., relates to early movements 



BAAL-HAZOR, the property of Absalom, where of the population exhibited in a mythic form. It is 
Amnon was murdered. It was " beside " Ephraim, prob. that the city of the tradition was a yet older 

43 



Bab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bab 



city, wh. was destroyed. The Asyr. name Babilu, 
" the Gate of God," was transformed into Babel to 
be a mnemonic of " the confusion of tongues." 
Various causes led to the Temple there becoming 
the most important shrine in Bab. The obj. of 
every kinglet who aimed at extending his sway over 
all Bab., the point toward wh. every external con- 
queror directed his efforts, was the possession of 
Bab. It was here that Hammurabi (Amraphel) 
fixed his capital. During the Asyr. supremacy B. 
had its own L, and this independence was the occa- 
sion of many rebellions agst. the k. of Asshur. In 
order to avert this Tiglath-pileser, Sargon, Esar- 
haddon, and Ashur-bani-pal assumed the title of 
k. of B. and made it twin capital with Nineveh. 
Sennacherib was so enraged by its rebellions that he 
destroyed it ; his s. and successor rebuilt it. It 
owed its greatest splendour to Nebuchadnezzar. 
In Herodotus and Ktesias we have elaborate de- 
scriptions of the walls and bldgs of B. These two 
acts, differ in the circumference of B. by 14 miles ; 
as, however, there were two walls, one may be the 
circumference of the outer, the other of the inner. 
It was surrendered to Cyrus by treachery in the 
17th yr. of Nabonidus. It continued a place of 
importance into the Gr. period. It is now repre- 
sented by mounds and masses of brickwork on the 
E. bank of the Euphrates. These mounds occupy 
much less extent than that assigned to B. by the 
classical historians. Oppert has given a map of the 
city on classic scale, and includes within the walls 
Birs Nimroud, wh. is usually identd. with Borsippa. 
The mounds above referred to represent the Palace 
of Nebuchadnezzar, the Temple of Bel, and the 
Hanging Gardens. The bricks brought from B. are 
all stamped with the name, of Nebuchadnezzar. 

BABEL, TOWER OF. Each of the primitive 
cities of Babylonia had a special temple erected to 
the God there principally worshipped, and of this 
temple the ruler (-patesi) was priest. Fm. the ruins 
and representations on Asyr. bas-reliefs, we learn 
that these shrines were built first on a mound, and 
then in successive stages, each occupying much less 
room than that below it. The temple of Bel- 
Marduk. in Babylon was of this char. 

As there were older cities than Bab., it is poss. that the 
tradition was transferred to it fm. one of them. The LXX 
version of Is. 10. 9 preserves the tradition that it was Calneh 
where the "Tower" was built. Hommel [HBD.) hints a 
prefce. for Kish, a city only known to us by the monuments. 
The "Confusion of Tongues " gathers into dramatic unity 
the providential process by wh. God prevented the setting up 
of a premature civilisation. 

BABYLONIA and ASSYRIA. These two 
powers represent one movement in Civilisation, 
Religion, Literature, and Art, as much as do 
Britain and America. Their political methods, 
their religious ideas, and objs. of worship are the 
same : this is true also of their ideals of Lit. and 
Art. In Lang, and Writing they are practically one. 



As their hists. further interlace, it will be advan- 
tageous to consider them together under the heads 
of Political History, Civilisation, Religion, Lang, 
and Lit., and Art. 




Babylonian King 
From Hommel's Babylonien unci Assyrien 

I. History. — The earliest monarch who 
any degree claim to rule over B. was Sargon 
fr. of Naram-sin. 



cd. in 
L, the 



44 



Bab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bab 



The date of the latter is fixed by an inscr. of Nabu-nahid 
wh. declares that he ruled 3200 yrs. after Naramsin. As the 
date of Nabu-nahid may be taken as B.C. 550, this wd. make 
the date cf Sargon approximately B.C. 3800. We do net 
know the data wh. led Nabu-nahid to fix the interval, nor 
the precise length of the earliest Babylonian yr., but after 
all cteductiens we can scarcely place Sargon later than B.C. 
3000. There are the names of isolated sovereigns of an ap- 
parently earlier date ; but we know neither the length of 
their reigns nor the extent of their kdms. The connected 
hist, of B. begins with Sargon I. Before his time B. was 
occupied by small towns with parochial territories, ruled 
over each by its own patesi. With Sargon of Agade began 
the first definite attempt to unite B. under one sceptre. 

After the dyn. of Agade had fallen, that of Ship- 
urla came into prominence under Gudea. The next 
dyn. had their capital in Ur. This dyn. built much, 
as proved by the number of bricks that are found 
with their names. The Dyn. of Ur seems to have 
been overthrown by an incursion of Elamites who 
held the supreme power in Bab. for a couple of 
cents. The effect on Bab. of the Elamite rule was 
like that of the Gallic invasion of Italy on Rome — 
it removed all likely opponents to its supremacy. 
With Hammurabi (Am rap h el), the 6th of a, till 
then, inconspicuous dyn. of rulers, Bab. rose to Im- 
perial dignity. He wrested the power fm. the 
Elamites. It may be that the defeat wh. Abraham 
inflicted on the Elamite monarch, Kudur-Lagamar 
(Chedarlaomer), paved the way for the supremacy of 
Hammurabi (Ge. 14. 15 ). We may place the end of 
his dyn. about b.c. 2100. 

The overthrow of this dyn., if not caused by 
a Cassite invasion, at least synchronises with it. 
These Kashshu seem to have come fm. the moun- 
tainous region at the head waters of the Tigris. 
Simultaneous with the Cassite rule were the be- 
ginnings of Asyr. Colonists, refugees fm. the 
Cassite invaders, made their way northward fm. the 
alluvial ptain and founded cities in the region after- 
wards called A. 

This fact is concisely chronicled (Gn. io. 11 ), " Out of that 
land (Shinar = Sumer) went forth Asshur and builded Nine- 
veh, the city Rehcboth, and Caiah, and Resen between 
Nineveh and Calah ; the same is a great city." In the RV. 
" Nimrod " is the nominative ; he is said to have gone " into 
Assyria." Marduk is now identified with Nimrod. The 
cities of A. were scon combined under the rule of one mon- 
arch and, conscicus of their strength, early began to inter- 
fere in the affairs of B. Between Asshuruballit, k. cf A., and 
Burnaburyas II., k. of B. (B.C. 1350), there was first rivalry, 
wh. was healed by the marriage of the heir of the k. of B. to 
the dr. of the k. of A. ; on a revolution in wh. the s. of this 
union was assassinated, Asshuruballit invaded B. and set his 
great-grandson, Kurigalzu II., on the throne of his father. 
Half a century later, under the rule of Shalmaneser I., A. 
began her career of conquest. His campaigns were mainly 
W. of the Euphrates, so he did not intervene in the affairs 
of B.. but his s., Tikulti-ninib, ruled over A. and B. 
With the murder of Tikul-ninib, A. sank into temporary in- 
significance, while under the rule of Marduk-billidin I. (Mero- 
dach-baladan) there was a resuscitation of the power of B. ; 
but this was limited by the incursions and conquests of the 
Elamites. About B.C. 1135 arose Nebuchadnezzar I., who 
carried his arms to the shores of the Mediterranean. Though 
he had a conflict with A. in wh. he claims victory, he made 
no permanent conquests in the N. 



A. in turn- revived under Tiglath-pileser I. (b.c 



1 100) . His conquests in the N. and W. led Marduk- 
nadin-akhi, k. of B., to invade A., when he was de- 
feated. Tiglath-pileser followed up his advantage 
by conquering B., and capturing the city. He left 
Marduk-nadin-akhi the vassal kingship. Tiglath- 
pileser carried his arms victoriously into Elam. 
After his death A. sinks for a time into obscurity. 
This is no doubt owing to some extent to paucity of 
records ; but prob. also it was due to great racial 
movements putting the more settled communities 
on the defensive. 

It is poss. that at this time occurred the intrusion of the 
Kaldi from Arabia into B., who— if we take the rendering 
of AV. — were assigned cities by the Asyrs. and amalga- 
mated with the people of B. 

Again A. revived when Tiglath-pileser II. came 

to the throne. This restoration of the Empire was 

carried on by his successors, till it culminated in the 

reigns of Asshur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser II. 

The latter, in carrying on his conquests to the W., en- 
countered the Syr. confederacy under Ben-idri (Benhadad) 
of Damascus and Ahab of Israel in the battle of Qarqar. 
Shalmaneser claims the victory, but the fact that the cam- 
paign had to be renewed again and again gives his alleged 
victory the appearance cf a defeat. At length when Isr. 
and Syr. were weakened by mutual conflicts he captured 
Damascus and received the submission of Benhadad the s. 
of Hazael ; Jehu also brought tribute. 

Shalmaneser intervened in the affairs of B., 
at the call of Marduk-nadin-shum, whom he 
maintained on the throne as his vassal. After 
the death of Shalmaneser (b.c 825) a period of 
decadence set in. It is true that victorious cam- 
paigns are recorded in the annals, but the limits of 
the Empire are receding. 

During this period arose the brief empire of Jeroboam 
II. ; an empire only poss. during a time when Egp. and 
Asyr. were weak. 

In 745 Tiglath-pileser III. ascended the throne 
and restored the prestige of A. He appears to have 
been a usurper, as he does not claim a royal ancestry. 
He conquered and assumed the title of sarru Babil, 
k. of B. He overthrew Rezin, k. of Syr., and con- 
quered Galilee ; he reduced Isr. to the position of a 
vassal state under Hoshea. Ahaz of Judah declared 
himself the vassal of A. to be protected agst. Pekah 
and Rezin. On his death Hoshea rebelled agst. his 
s. and successor, Shalmaneser IV. (called Ululai, as 
k. of B.), who marched into Pal. and laid siege to 
Samaria. During the siege he died, and was suc- 
ceeded by Sargon II., who captured Samaria and 
deported all the leading inhabitants. Sargon was 
one of the greatest sovereigns of A., and extended 
the Empire in all directions. In a campaign in 
Cilicia the Yavna (the Greeks) were encountered 
and defeated by him. By his Tartan (generalissimo) 
he appears to have conquered the Phil. (Isa. 20. 1 ). 
He received the submission of Hezekiah, the result, 
it wd. seem, of a difft. campaign fm. that agst. the 
Phil. (Isa. io. 26 ' 32 ). Fm. the throne-name he chose 
it wd. appear that Sargon claimed an ancestry wh. 



45 



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linked him to the anct. k. of B. of the same name. 
Certainly this dyn. occupy themselves much more 
with the affairs of B. than those wh. preceded them ; 
in fact Babylon and Nineveh were twin capitals of 
the Empire under some of these monarchs. Various 
efforts were made to conciliate the people of the 
Southern Kdm. ; Sargon stayed occasionally in 
Bab. The efforts of the Sargonids at the pacifica- 
tion of B. were hindered by Marduk-billidin (Mero- 
dach Baladan) II., k. of Bit-Jakin, who had secured 
the throne between the death of Pul (Tiglath- 
pileser) and the accession of Sargon. Sargon, after 
a time, placed a younger s. as k. On the accession 
of Sennacherib Marduk-billidin appeared, and the 
deposed k. was murdered. Sennacherib, after re- 
peated attempts at satisfying its inhabitants, de- 
termined to treat Bab. as Frederick Barbarossa 
endeavoured to treat Milan ; he decreed its utter 
desolation. Whether as taking advantage of these 
difficulties in B., or as ally of Marduk-billidin, 
Hezekiah withheld his tribute ; Sennacherib, in 
marching agst. Tirhakah (Taharqa), determined to 
bring Hezekiah again into subjn., captured the 
majority of the cities of Judah and compelled 
Hezekiah to pay a large ransom (2 K. 18. 14 ). Hear- 
ing of the advance agst. him of Tirhakah, Senna- 
cherib determined to take Jrs., feeling a hostile for- 
tress a danger to his communications, but pestilence 
swept away the greater part of his army (Is. 37- 36 ; 
2 K. 19. 35 ). 

Herodotus relates this event fm. an Egpn. standpoint : 
Herod, calls Sennacherib k. of the Arabians. 

On his return to B., Sennacherib had to face a 
coalition of Elam with B. After several vicissitudes 
he was finally successful and appointed his s., Esar- 
haddon, viceroy in B. Sennacherib was assassinated 
by two of his sons, and Esarhaddon ascended the 
throne. Prob. during his viceroyalty Esarhaddon 
rebuilt Bab. Manasseh of Judah, whom he reckons 
one of his vassals, when he threatened rebellion, was 
carried to Bab., not Nineveh. Esarhaddon conquered 
Egp. and split it up into kdms. It was Esarhaddon 
who sent the heathen colonists into the Northern 
Kdm. of Isr. (Ez. 4-. 2 ). He was succeeded by his s. 
Asshur-banipal (Asnapper); he confirmed the power 
of A. in Egp. and completed the conquest of Elam. 
In the course of his long reign the Empire of A. 
gained its widest extent. On his death a period of 
rapid decadence set in ; his sons, Asshur-itil-ila, and 
Sinshar-iskun (Saracus),were unable to maintain the 
Empire. The circumstances of the fall of Nineveh 
can only be vaguely guessed. The numerous cam- 
paigns of the warlike Sargonids had no doubt ex- 
hausted A. ; there may have been incursions of 
nomads fm. the Altaic steppes ; there cert, was the 
rebellion of Egp. under Necho ; the setting up of 
an independent B. under Nabopollasar ; and the 
alliance of the latter with Media. If we cd. dis- 



entangle the prose fm. the poetry in the prophecies 
of Nahum we mt. form some idea of the occurrence. 
Nineveh, unlike its rival Bab., utterly disappeared 
within a comparatively short time after the fall of A. 

The fall of A. was the occasion of the rise of the 
last Babylonian Empire. Nabopollasar assumed 
the headship of the Asyr. Empire, and his s. 
Nebuchadnezzar encountered Necho at Carchemish, 
and defeated him. Necho had endeavoured to 
secure Pal. and Syr. as the Egpn. share of the fallen 
Empire, but his hopes were destroyed by this 
disaster. The young conqueror followed up his 
success by pursuing the Egpn. army to the boun- 
dary of their own country, and securing the allegi- 
ance of the recent vassals of Egp., who had formerly 
been all vassals of A. While engaged on this, he re- 
ceived news of his father's death. Leaving the 
heavy troops and the long line of captives to follow 
the usual caravan route through Syr., he crossed the 
desert with the light troops alone, and secured the 
throne agst. any usurper. Unlike his Asyr. prede- 
cessors, the inscrs. of Nebuchadnezzar do not record 
his military expeditions so much as the temples, by 
the erection of wh. he honoured the gods. Fm. the 
influence he had on the fortunes of the Jews, he is 
prominent in Scrip., but the Empire of Nebuchad- 
nezzar was much less than that of A. ; the North and 
East were the share of the fallen Empire appro- 
priated by the Medes. 

In his pursuit after Necho, Nebuchadnezzar had 
by a sharp siege compelled Necho's vassal Jehoiakim 
to submit to him, surrender a part of his treasure 
as ransom, and give hostages. For 3 yrs. he was 
faithful to his new suzerain, but in the 4th yr. 
he rebelled. Poss. he may have been seduced by 
promises of Egpn. aid ; or Nebuchadnezzar may 
have been occupied in war at a distant part of his 
Empire. It was 3 yrs. before Nebuchadnezzar 
came agst. the rebellious vassals. By this time 
Jehoiakim was dead, and his throne was occupied by 
his s. Jehoiachin, a youth. Nebuchadnezzar put his 
uncle Zedekiah on the throne. He also rebelled, 
after he had reigned about 8 yrs. Tho' Jerusalem 
resisted obstinately, it was at length taken and 
demolished. 

During his long reign of 43 yrs. Nebuchadnezzar 
practically rebuilt Bab. He was succeeded by his s., 
Evil-merodach, who was assassinated by his brother- 
in-law, Neriglissar, after a reign of 2 yrs. Neri- 
glissar reigned 4 yrs. and was succeeded by his s., 
Labosoarchod (Labashi-Marduk), a mere child, who 
after a nominal reign of 9 months, was put out of 
the way, and a Bab. noble, Nabunahid, was put on 
the throne. So the race of the Chaldean conqueror 
came to an end ; himself, his s. and his grandson 
had occupied the throne, as prophesied by Jere- 
miah (27. 7 ). Although he was not of the family 
of Nebuchadnezzar, he may have married into it. 



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The reign of Nabunahid was characterised by an en- 
deavour to centralise the worship of the Empire by 
bringing to Bab. the statues of the various local 
deities ; his efforts do not seem to have been counte- 
nanced by the priesthood. The beginning of his 
rule was vigorous, and appeared likely to be pros- 
perous, as the threatening power of the Medes was 
broken by the successful revolt of Cyrus, the k. of 
the vassal state of Anshan. Nabunahid reigned 1 6 
yrs ; during at least five of these he was in some way 
incapacitated ; the annals tell us that " the k. was in 
Tema " ; certain of the functions of royalty were 
therefore in abeyance, and others were performed 
by the " king's son," Belshazzar, who seems to have 
possessed warlike energy and skill, as the annals 
always declare him to have been with the " rabuti " 
on various points of the frontier. In b.c. 536 Cyrus, 
having conquered Lydia, turned his arms agst. B., 
poss. by invitation of the priesthood. By treachery 
Bab. was surrendered to his general Gobryas. So 
ended the Assyro-Babylonian Empire. It ought to 
be noted that, to the Jews, the Persian Empire was 
a continuation of that of Asy. ; even Darius 
Hystaspis is called " the k. of Assyria " (Ez. 6. 22 ). 

II. Civilisation of Babylonia and Assyria. — 
We have a very considerable amount of information 
as to life and manners in B. and A. In the age of 
Hammurabi, rather more than two thousand yrs. 
before Christ, we have the Code of that monarch, 
and further, a collection of letters fm. and to him. 
We are thus in a position to estimate to some extent 
the degree to wh. society had become organised in 
B. by the beginning of the second millennium B.C. 
For a later date, there are gathered in the difft. 
Museums of Europe and America, collections of 
contract tablets, i.e. clay tablets on wh. are recorded 
mercantile transactions of various kinds. These are 
of widely difft. dates, but are fullest about the end 
of the Sargonid period, and the last Empire of B. 
In a state of barbarism the individual has to do 
everything for himself ; the only complexity is 
what is involved in the constitution of the family. 
As society grows in civilisation the individual be- 
comes a more and more specialised organ, in an 
organism ever widening and always becoming more 
complex. In some aspects society was more com- 
plex in B. than among ourselves. There were four 
grades of legal status ; crimes had a difft. heinous- 
ness accdg. to the status of the criminal, in e relation 
to the victim of the crime. There were Patricians, 
Plebeians, Serfs, and Slaves. Each of these had 
certain rights as agst. the others. In the family 
there was equal complexity ; there were four classes 
of children — legitimate children, the progeny of 
legalised concubinage, natural children, and chil- 
dren by adoption. Besides the priests of various 
grades and various deities, there were female 
votaries connected with difft. shrines. There is 



some difficulty as to these votaries ; they may be 
married, but it is assumed that the marriage relation 
is merely nominal ; yet arrangements are made in 
the Code of Hammurabi for the sons of these 
votaries. Whether such a person was the s. of the 
votary's nominal husband by her maid, accdg. to an 
arrangement regularly entered into, or whether 
there was some such custom in regard to votaries as 
that narrated by Herodotus (I. 196), does not seem 
clear. In business and commerce, if relations were 
not as complicated as among ourselves, there were 
commission agents, partnerships, rents, leases, and, 
latterly at any rate, banks. Such various and exten- 
sive mercantile undertakings implied ample means 
of intercommunication. The two great rivers wd. 
early suggest to the inhabitants of B. the advantage 
of waterways ; this led to the making and preserva- 
tion of canals, wh. were also useful for irrigation. 
If roads were not made with the solidity and 
mathematical accuracy of the Romans, still trade 
routes were kept open. Large caravans regularly 
conveyed goods fm. the shores of the Mediterranean 
and the Red Sea, if not also fm. India. The staple 
occupation was agriculture, and the presence of the 
great rivers led to canals for irrigation. All this im- 
plies an efficient administration of justice ; tribu- 
nals on the whole fairly impartial, and a police 
fairly effective. Save in the matter of relg. there is 
truth in what Dr. Johns says (Bab. and Ass. Laws, 
viii.) : " A right thinking citizen of a modern city 
wd. prob. feel more at home in Anct. Bab. than in 
Mediaeval Europe." 

Such a state of civilisation cd. not be attained at 
once ; but as we have no records we can only con- 
jecture the line of progress followed. We see traces 
that immediately before the period of wh. we have 
distinct kge. B. was covered with small walled towns, 
the inhabitants of wh. cultivated the territory in 
their immediate vicinity. In the centre of each 
there was a ziggurat, or tower, built in lessening 
stages ; this served at once as a temple and a fortress. 
The rule was in the hands of the pate si or local 
priest. There was all the civilisation open to a vill. 
community, but that alone ; there wd. be car- 
penters, smiths, &c, all the trades that cd. be sup- 
ported in a small community. Any undertaking 
that implied the combination of several communities 
was imposs. Certain cities began to attain a leader- 
ship, and their rulers assumed the title of king. 
More extensive works cd. now be undertaken ; 
canals for irrigation and dykes to limit the inunda- 
tions, due to the annual swelling of the Tigris and 
the Euphrates ; these structures required perpetual 
care, watchfulness, and repair ; and the incidence of 
the burden of this cd. only be settled by a central 
authority. By the times of Hammurabi the central 
authority was thoroughly established. Each town 
had its -patesi ; prob. a hereditary office. The soul 



47 



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of civilisation, that without wh. all co-operation wd. 
be imposs., is the administration of justice. The 
Code of Hammurabi exhibits the function of the 
judge as so fully understood that no definition of his 
functions, or statement of the mode of his appoint- 
ment, is thought necessary. The cities retained a 
good deal of independence each under its own k. or 
patesi ; and the judge appears to have had the elders 
of the city as his assessors in any trial. 

The fundamental industry being agriculture, 
tenure and tenancy of land occupied a prominent 
place in the legislation of B. In the sale of land 
there were not only documents, but also careful 
plans. Serfs were sold along with the land when the 
portion sold was at all extensive, sometimes in the 
case of a large estate a city is mentioned as part of 
the subj. sold, though gen. the number of inhabi- 
tants indicates that it was rather a hamlet. The 
fundamental measure was the U or double cubit = a 
yard ; 12 of these squared was the GAR, and 1806 
of these was a GAN = $3 acres. Land was also 
measured by the amount of grain required to sow it 
The boundaries of fields were marked by boundary 
stones, many of wh. have come down to us. 

As has been already mentioned, the inhabitants of 
B. and A., esp. the former, were greatly occupied 
with commerce ; of every sale of any importance a 
record was made : apparently not only was a copy 
kept by each of the principals, but a third clay tablet 
was deposited in the village temple. This early 
suggd. a medium of exchange. The unit of value 
was the GUR of corn ; it was soon found that the 
precious metals formed a better medium, so we find 
the silver shekel as the unit of value = a GUR ; gold 
was to silver as 12 to I. Although there are no 
specimens of coins even from the latest Empire of 
B., yet their " sealed money " — whether it meant 
bars of silver stamped, or small bags sealed as con- 
taining a given amount — served very much the 
same purpose. When Abraham purchased the field 
of Machpelah the price he paid was said to be 
" current money of the merchant." All following 
on this we have rent of land, leases, hiring of 
labourers, debts and interest. Although slavery by 
its nat. implies a lengthened hist, in wh. the custom 
arose and crystallised, yet we find it existing in the 
most primitive forms of culture : our most anct. re- 
cords do not show us a time when it was not. Slaves 
in B. had certain clearly defined rights wh. made 
them less of mere chattels than were the negroes in 
America ; they cd. acquire property, engage in 
trade, and be principals in contracts with freemen. 
Serfs were on a higher plane than slaves ; although 
they cultivated plots of their master's ground, they 
often possessed land and stock of their own. Be- 
tween these classes were the married slaves who had 
a house of their own. Fathers often sold their chil- 
dren, " it was a sure provision for life for a child, to 



sell him as a slave to a family in good position " 
(Johns, B. fcf A. L., p. 173). 

More closely connected with the very foundation 
of society is the constitution of the family. Mar- 
riage in B. had primitively been by purchase : as in 
the case of Abraham with Isaac, the father arranged 
the union. The normal condition was monogamy, 
but in cert, cases, noticeably in the case of a female 
votary, who was a wife merely in name, she was ex- 
pected to act as Sarah did, and send her maid to the 
couch of her husband in her stead. Barrenness or 
disease on the part of the wife seem to have implied 
the same relationship. A man sometimes married 
two sisters at the same time, tho' this was rare. 
That a slave girl shd. be the concubine of her master 
is regarded as the prob. state of matters ; she had a 
different legal status if she had borne her master 
children. Children mt. be adopted ; indeed a cert, 
claim on the family inheritance mt. be grounded on 
the fact that a child had been brought up in it ; his 
foster father cd. not send him away penniless. The 
patria potestas is strongly maintained ; if a son 
struck his father his hands were to be cut off (C. of 
H.). Cert, trades had careful regulations made for 
them ; doctors esp., then house-builders and boat- 
builders ; shepherds, farmers, and boatmen were 
also regulated. It is assumed that the property of 
the father is, on his decease, to be equally divided 
among all his sons ; there seems no trace of primo- 
geniture giving any advantage as it did among the 
Jews (Deu. 2 1. 17 ). The number of letters and con- 
tracts that have come down to us, many of them 
signed by the actual scribe, show the important 
place in the life of B. filled by the scribe. It may be 
observed that several of these are women. 

As Science can only be pursued under a stable 
government, the state of Science is an indirect evi- 
dence of the civilisation of a community. The 
enactments in the Code of Hammurabi in regard 
to physicians, imply considerable proficiency in 
some of the simpler forms of surgery. It was, how- 
ever, mainly in Astronomy that B. taught the 
world. The Babylonians had fixed the length of 
the yr., the signs of the Zodiac, the phases of the 
moon, and the principal planets. On their return 
fm. B. the Jews adopted the Calendar of B., and the 
names of the months. See Year. 

III. Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. — We 
have seen that the primary name of the principal 
ruler of a city was patesi ; whether or not " priest- 
hood " was involved in name is not cert., but in 
practice he was the High Priest of the local shrine. 
These pyramidal ziggurats were the most prominent 
objs. in the flat plain of B. So far as can be ascer- 
tained there was only one deity worshipped in each 
small city. Sometimes the deity was simply called 
Bel, " Lord of," of a given place, e.g. Nippur ; who, 
we find, is also called En-lil. Others become identd. 



48 



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with powers of Nat. ; thus, the god of Sippar was Heaven, Earth, and Sea. At a later period female 
Shamash, " The Sun God," and the god of Ur was counterparts are assigned to these as wives, but these 
Sin, " The Moon God." Some of the names seem are colourless creations. Beneath these is a lower 
to be attributive, although it is difficult to decide, Triad of heavenly bodies — Shamash, the sun god ; 
from the occasional ambiguity of the signs. That Sin, the moon god ; and Ramman, the god of the 
the natl. obj. was regarded, not 
as the god but as his symbol, 
may be proved by a scene on a 
"" Sun-god tablet " in wh. the 
deity is represented sitting in his 
shrine, while a fig. lets the sun 
down with ropes. If each vill. 

began intending to worship the !'; itoi-itfi-'li; I'l^^il&v f 

one supreme God, but soon was 
led to give prominence to cert, 
attributes, or to associate Him 
with cert. natl. objs. as His 
symbols, we can easily under- 
stand the growing differentia- 
tion. It wd. soon appear that 
the difft. names and attributes 
represented difft. beings ; the 
analogy of this process we have 
seen in Roman Catholic coun- 
tries with regard to the "Vir- 
gins " of difft. places (see above). 
The ascription of sex might 
follow fm. grammatical or attri- 
butive reasons. When, possibly 
owing to assaults by marauders 
fm. the mountains or the desert, 
the separatist tendency was 
superseded by one wh. led to 
combination, the relation of the 
deities to each other had to 
be taken into account. The need of a unifying atmosphere. Then comes Marduk, the s. of Ea, who 
Theogony led to the composition of the sacred becomes later identd. with Bel, and is regarded 
Epics by some unknown poet or poets, who per- by Nebuchadnezzar as the supreme Deity. This 
formed for B. what Hesiod did for Greece. The identn. is made the easier that Bel primarily meant 
attribution of sex suggd. marriage and progeny. "Lord." Along with Marduk is his s. Nabu (Nebo), 
This in turn suggd. a Cosmogony in wh. the gods prob., as Marduk was a sun-god, originally the 
themselves had a beginning. The ages of the re- planet Mercury, latterly the god of wisdom. Ner- 
spective gods seem to have been to some extent gal is also a prominent deity, the god of battle, pesti- 
fixed by the relative date at wh. the city in wh. their lence, and of the dead. The relg. of B., although so 
temple was, attained prominence. Further from markedly polytheistic, may have sprung fm. mono- 
physical or metaphysical reasons, cert, beings were theism, and certly. shows tendencies back to mono- 
looked upon as more primitive ; thus Chaos, per- theism. Many of the hymns of B. mt., if J", were 
sonified as the Dragon Tiamat, is looked upon as to replace Marduk, be used by a pious Heb. At the 
existing before the gods — a view wh. we find also in same time the actual worship of the people, it is 
Hesiod. Such a beginning shows the influence of almost cert., wd. be the crassest idolatry. 
philosophic reflection rather than free mythologic IV. Language of Babylonia and Assyria. — In 
imagination, and therefore represents the end, not the actual evolution of a lang. the spoken neces- 
the beginning, of the evolution of theologic thought, sarily precedes the written ; words are first spoken, 
Apsu is assigned to Tiamat as consort ; then follows and then after a time comes the thought of record- 
the birth of the gods. There are traces of a yet ing the words so uttered. When one learns the 
earlier theorising as to the gods. Accdg. to it, at the living lang. of a civilised people, the words spoken 
head of all things was a Triad or Trinity, consisting and written are learned almost simultaneously. In 
of Ami, Bel-, and Ea, the deities respectively of the case of the recovery of the lang. of Anct. Bab. 

49 




Babylonian Temple (Ziggurat) 
From Hommel's Babylonien unci Assy Hen 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bab 



and Asyr., the discovery of the significance of the 
strange chars, cut on the face of the rock at Be- 
histun, preceded by a considerable length of time 
the successful trn. of these into their vocal equiva- 
lents. The problem was complicated by the fact 
that the lang. of the earlier inhabitants of Bab., who 
invented the cuneiform script., greatly difrd. fm. 
that of Nineveh and -Bab. in the days of the Sar- 
gonids and Nebuchadnezzar, hence the same chars. 
had widely difft. sounds. 

The story of the decipherment of the cuneiform inscrs. is 
one of fascinating interest, but too lcngto be narrated here : 
-suffice it to say the accurate copies made by Carsten Niebuhr, 
the brilliant conclusions drawn fm. a painstaking study of 
these by Grotefend, and the verification, and to a slight ex- 
tent the correction of these by the skill, perseverance, and 
daring of Rawlinson supplemented by the labours of others, 
have opened to modern times the volumes of Babylonian and 
Assyrian hist. , that had been shut for more than two mil- 
lennia. Further discoveries and decipherments revealed the 
fact, that the writing of the time of the Sargonids and 
Achaemenids, was a late form at once of spelling and script. 
The relation in wh. these stand to each other may be com- 
pared to that of the Old English Black Letter to mod. type. 
Only in the earliest form, that in wh. the code of Hammurabi 
was inscribed, is there any trace of the hieroglyphic origin 
of this form of writing ; and even in it the instances are few 
where this is obvious. The form of the chars, in this earliest 
script suggs. that the inscr. was scratched en a hard surface. 
Some of the bricks fm. Mugheir have been stamped by a 
stamp in relief ; this was prob. moulded on an excised inscr. 
made on stone. When clay became the ordinary writing 
material the incisions were made by a fine blunt metal chisel, 
the end pressure of wh. made the wedge-shaped mark whence 
this script is called cuneiform. 

shav ki- ib- ra- tim ar- la- im. 

First line: c. b.c. 3750. Second line : c. b.c 2000. 
Third line : New Asyr. Cursive. 

Development of Cuneiform Scrtpt 

(Title of the King : lit. " King of the Four Regions " = 

All Babylonia) 

It was early guessed that each char, represented a 
syllable, and it was also soon recognised that, as in 
Egpn., determinatives marked off the meaning of 
the substantives, e.g. when a word meant the name 
of a god it was preceded by the sign )m , when it 
meant a country by ►^- The difficulty of analysing 
the structure of the recovered lang. was increased by 
the number of syllabic signs — over 4CO. Many of 
these represent widely differing sounds ; and further, 
not a few instances are found in wh. the same sound 
is represented by difft. chars., e.g. the name Eri-aku 
(Arioch) may be also read Rim-Sin. Gradually, 
however, the grammatical forms were ascertained, 
when it was found that the later Babylonio-Assyrian 
tongue was Semitic. The verb is nearly as elaborate 
as the Arabic ; it has twelve conjugations, arranged 
in three classes, and three tenses. The pronouns are 



essentially the same as in other Semitic langs. The 
discovery of the extensive library of Asshur-bani- 
pal, and afterwards of other collections of bks., 
enables us to speak of a Babylonian and Assyrian 
Lit. The earliest literary form that langs. assume is 
poetry. Asyrn. is no exception to this gen. law ; its 
Lit. proper consists almost entirely of sacred Epics, 
hymns to the gods, and penitential psalms. Prose, 
as a literary vehicle, seems never to have been at- 
tained ; their hists. are baldly annalistic. Weber 
{Babylon. Lit) maintains that there was an elabo- 
rate and strictly maintained system of versification. 
It seems to have been founded on relations of 
thought rather than of sound, as is the case with the 
poetry of the Hebs. For the Epics of Creation and 
the Deluge, see Creation, Flood. The lang. of the 
Babylonian penitential psalms suggs. to the reader 
the Heb. Psalter. See Psalms. 

While we have above devoted ourselves mainly to 
the Semitic tongue in use in the monuments of the 
Asyr. Empire, there was an earlier lang. called pro- 
visionally, sometimes Accadian, sometimes Sume- 
rian, the precise relationships of wh. are difficult to 
fix. In this the sacred books seem to have been 
written, and were trd. into the later Semitic tongue. 
In the library of Asshur-bani-pal numerous sylla- 
baries were found giving the equivalents in the 
more recent lang. of the words and phrases of the 
more anct. Another change had taken place before 
the days of the Sargonids. Aram, appears to have 
superseded Asyrn. as the spoken lang. of the people. 
A number of weights were found in the palace of 
Sargon, having on the one side the denomination of 
the weight accompanied by the names and titles of 
Sargon in Asyrn., while on the other we have in 
Aram, merely the weight in shekels ; the one side 
was the formal and legal, the other was that meant 
for ordinary use. Our coins present a similar pheno- 
menon ; on the one side we have the k.'s titles in 
Latin, on the other the denomination of the coin 
in English. The numerous contract-tablets that 
have been preserved give us another proof of this ; 
while the contract proper is in the Bab. -Asyrn. 
char, and lang., the docket on the wrapper is very 
frequently in Aram., a practice wh. implies that 
those searching the records mt. be presumed to 
be more intimate with Aram, than with Assyrian 
(Winckler, Gesch. Bab. and Asyr., p. 179). 

V. Art in Babylonia and Assyria. Although 
in Architecture the Solomonic Temple drew largely 
fm. Egp., in the details there seems to be evidence of \ 
Asyrn. influence. The cherubim, name and form, 
appear to have come fm. B. ; the belt of alternate 
cherubim and palm-trees has a decidedly Asyrn. 
feeling. Springing up in a wide, alluvial plain, in 
wh. clay was plentiful and quarries inaccessible, the 
bldgs. erected were masses of brickwork. At first 
these bricks wd. be merely sun-dried, then wd. be 



50 



Bab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bal 



learned the effect of fire in making clay almost as 
hard and durable as stone. Such a material did not 
lend itself to pillars or lintels ; the Ziggurat, with its 
successive stories each smaller than that beneath it, 
was the architectural form that suited best the cir- 
cumstances of B. At the same time clay Was a sub- 
stance that suggd. modelling. When the Art of B. 
passed into A., where slabs of soft gypsum were 
easily accessible, modelling in clay became sculpture. 
As the people of A. were essentially a warlike race, 
whose favourite amusement was the chase, their Art 
glorified force rather than power. This led to the 
prefce. for bas-relief over free statues. Prob. the 
soft gypsum would have crumbled had the artist of 
those winged, human-headed bulls, now in the 
British Museum, cut away the lower part of the 
slab, and left the weight of the body to rest unas- 
sisted on the legs. This sculpturesque tendency 
weakened the influence of the Art of B. and A. on 
the Israeli tish people. In B. the bas-reliefs were 
often on glazed and coloured brick, as may be seen 
in the Louvre. 

BABYLON IN NEW TESTAMENT, (i) In 
the Ape. (e.g. Rv. 17.) it is Rome that is intended, 
as appears fm. these facts : (a) It is a city (v. i8 a ) ; 
(b) built on seven hills (v. 9) ; (c) of great wealth 
and immorality (v. 2) ; (d) having imperial power 
(v. i8 b ) ; only Rome united these characteristics in 
the days of John. (2) In I P. 5. 13 there is more 
reason for discussion. Most Protestant Comm. 
since Calvin maintain that the lit. B. is meant. In 
favour of this is the fact that in all other Epp. places 
referred to are lit. places, not symbols. All Romanist 
Comm. and some Protestant hold that Rome is in- 
tended here ; in favour of this is the Apocalyptic 
use ; the universal tradition that Peter was in Rome, 
a tradition that is confirmed by the presence with 
the writer of Mark (1 P. 5. 13 ), whom wc know to 
have been summoned to Rome by the Apostle Paul 
(2 Tm. 4. 11 ) . The allegedimpossibility of there being 
a Christian Church in B. is founded on the story re- 
lated by Jos. (Ant. XVIII. ix. 5-9), that the Jews in 
B. were all massacred or expelled ; many of the 
statements in this story seem scarcely worthy of 
credit. Jewish tradition always represents the 
Jewish community of B. as being both large and 
prosperous. It is difficult to decide, but the usage 
of the Apostle John, and the early tradition of 
Peter's presence in Rome, seem to throw the 
balance in favour of the Romanist view. 

BABYLONISH GARMENT (Jo. 7. 21 ). While 
the robes of Ninevite ks. show no indication that 
they were embroidered, in the portraits of Bab. ks. 
we see evidences of elaborate embroidery ; prob. 
such was the robe that Achan coveted and took. 

BACA, THE VALLEY OF (Ps. 8 4 . 6 ). All anct. 
W. render " the vale of weeping." The word baka 
occurs only here in the sing. The pi. (2 S. 5. 23 ; 



I Ch. 14. 14 ) EV. render " mulberry trees " ; RVm. 
more prob. " balsam trees." The drops of balm 
may have suggd. the fall of tears (Heb. bekl, " weep- 
ing"). It shd. poss. be taken as a fig. of speech. If 
any real vale is intended, it cannot now be identd. 

BADGER SKINS, as coverings of the Taber- 
nacle (Ex. 25. 5 ; Nu. 4_. 6 ). A mistrn. ; prob. the 
skin of some species of seal is meant. 

BAG. (1) Hartrtm, used only in pi., the B. in wh. 
Gehazi received silver fm. Naaman (2 K. 5- 23 ). In 
Is. 3. 22 AV. renders " crisping pins," RV. "sat- 
chels." (2) Kls, in wh. the travelling merchant- 
carries his weights (Dt. 25. 13 ; Pr. 16. 11 ; Mi. 6. 11 ) ; 
also used for " purse " (Pr. I. 14 ; Is. 4 6. 6 ). (3) KKi 9 
denoting genly. " utensil," " clothing," " tool," &c. 
In Is. 17. 40 49 , it is clearly the shepherd's bag. In 
such a B. prob. the " little lad " (Jn. 6. 9 ) carried his 
provisions ; the " scrip " or " wallet " (RV.), wh. 
the Apostles were to do without (Mw. io. 10 , &c). 
(4) Tzeror, fm. the idea of " compressing " or 
" tying together." The " bundle " of money (Gn. 
42. 35 ) shd. prob. be B., or " purse " (cp. Jb. 14. 17 , 
Hag. I. 6 ). The corrspdg. verb is used of binding up 
the contributions for the restoration of the Temple 
(2 K. 12. 10 ). (5) Balantion (Lk. 12. 33 ) is a purse. 
(6) Glossokomon = glossokomeion, prop, a case for the 
mouthpiece of an instrument ; prob. a portable 
cash-box (Jn. 12. 6 ). (7) Zone (Mw. io. 9 , &c.) refers 
to the pouch in the girdle, wh. is commonly used 
as a safe purse in the East. 

BAHURIM, in Benjamin, the home of Shimei 
(1 K. 2. 8 ), lay on the road followed by David in his 
flight, fm. Absalom, over the crest of Olivet (2 S. 
15. 30 , 16. 1 ), and down the N.E. slopes to Jericho. 
B. prob. was near Wady Far a, wh. may be " the 
brook of water " of 2 S. 17. 20 . At B. Abner dis- 
missed Paltiel, sending his w. Michal to David (2 S. 
3. 16 ). Here David's messengers were hidden in a 
well (2 S. 17. 15 ' 20 ). B. was the home of Azmaveth, 
one of David's heroes (2 S. 23. 31 ; I Ch. II. 33 ). 

BAJITH, RV. BAYITH, " a house," &c. It is 
used only once as a proper name (Is. 15. 2 ). RVm. 
here gives " the Temple " ; it may be = Beth- 
Bamoth, " the house of the high places " of the 
Moabite Stone Inscr. Like the Arb. bayt, the word 
has many meanings : house, tent, palace, temple, 
dwelling-place, family, race, are some of them. It 
appears often as part of place names, e.g. Beth-El. 

BAKING. See Bread, Oven. 

BALAAM (Bil'am), s. of Beor (Bosor, 2 P. 2. 15 ), 
fm. Pethor (Pitru), soothsayer and prophet of God, 
brought by Balak to curse Isr. (Nu. 22-24, 31). B. 
first refused, then on being asked a second time con- 
sented. On his way occurred the incident of the ass 
seeing the Angel of J", and warning him. 

To understand B. we must bear in mind that prophecy 
by Divine Inspiration and soothsaying were not yet dis- 
criminated. While B. recognised that no curse, unless it 



51 



Bal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bam 



expressed the Divine sentence, wd. harm Isr. , he believed 
that if Isr. cd. be tempted to sin agst. J". He mt. be enraged 
to destroy them. He hoped to be able to circumvent God 
and gain the reward promised by Balak (Mi. 6. 5 ; Jg. n. 25 ; 
Rev. 2. 14 ). He was slain in the defeat of Midian (Nu. 31. 8 ). 

BAL AH stands in Jo. 19. 2 for Bilhahin I Ch. 4. 29 . 
It was assigned to Simeon, and is prob. = Baalah in 
Judah (Jo. 15. 29 ). It is not identd. 

BALAK, s. of Zippor, k. of Moab, summoned 
Balaam ; otherwise unknown. 

BALANCE. The common word is moznayim, a 
dual, referring to the two scales. Qaneh (Is. 46. 6 ), 
" reed " or " stalk," is prob. = zugon (Rv. 6. 5 ), de- 
noting the beam of the B. Peles (Pr. 16. 11 , LXX 
rope, AV. " weight," RV. " balance " ; Is. 40. 12 , 
LXX stathmos, EV. " scales ") may be the beam or 
tongue of the B. 




Balance (Ancient Egyptian) 

The beam, tapering towards the ends, was sus- 
pended by a ring or cord passed through a hole in 
the middle, or tied round it : the scales were hung 
by cords fm. the ends. A " tongue " projected 
downwards at right angles fm. the centre of the 
beam. A plummet suspended fm. the same point 
enabled one to see when the tongue was perpen- 
dicular, and so the B. even. 

It was easy to falsify the B. by slightly shifting the 
central adjustment, or in steadying the plummet, to 
incline it to one side. Values were measured by 
weight (Gn. 23. 16 ; Ex. 22. 17 — " pay," lit. " weigh " 
— 38. 24f -, &c). The merchant's weights, originally 
stones, were carried in a bag. See Weights. 
*' Weighing in the B." is a fig. expression for the 
testing of char. (Jb. 3 1. 6 ; Dn. 5. 27 ). 

BALDNESS was regarded as a misfortune, if not 
as a disgrace, among anct. peoples. Herodotus 
(iii. 12) says it was very unusual in old Egp. ; and 
mod. research confirms his observation. He thought 
their practice of shaving gave strength to the hair. 
B. was one of the disasters that befel the soldiers of 
Nebuchadnezzar in the long siege of Tyre (Ek. 29. 18 ), 
owing poss. to unwonted diet and conditions. 

B. caused by leprosy or ringworm, and therefore 
unclean, is carefully distinguished fm. nat. B. (Lv. 



13.), wh. involved no ceremonial disabilities. But, 
unusual as B. was, and to this day is, in Pal., a cert, 
suspicion attached to it, and to be called " bald- 
head " was deep indignity (2 K. 2. 23 ). Held thus in 
reproach, B. became the symbol of wretchedness and 
misery (Is. 3. 24 ; Jr. 47. 5 , &c). Artificial B. was 
prohibited (Lv. 2 1. 5 ), referring to the idolatrous 
rites of neighbouring peoples. But the Nazirite cut 
off his hair on completing his vow (Nu. 6. 18 ; Ac. 
18. 18 , &c). Well-set hair was a point of manly 
beauty (Is. 3. 24 ). Its cutting off was a sign of 
mourning (Jr. 16. 6 ; Ek. 27. 31 ; Mi. I. 16 ), the cus- 
tom herein diffg. fm. that of the Egpns. (Gn. 41. 14 ). 
See Hair. 

BALM. It is not cert, what substance is in- 
tended by the Heb. tzori, trd. " balm " by EV. 
(Gn. 37- 25 ). Fm. its association with Gilead in Jr. 
8. 22 , 46. 11 , it has been regarded as the product of 
some tree growing in Gilead, in repute as a medi- 
cine. The mastic has been suggd. This tree grows 
in Pal., and in the Greek islands, but not E. of the 
Jordan. Tristram curiously says it is " specially 
abundant in the woods of Gilead." He seems to 
have confused it with Arb. daru, the terebinth. 
The mod. monks ident. B. with the Zuqqum. Gum 
made fm. the fruit, wh. is like the olive, is valued as 
a salve, and is largely sold to pilgrims. But in Pal. 
it is confined to the Jordan Valley. Prob. the B. of 
Scrip, was the product of the Mecca balsam, Arb. 
balasdn, the Balsamodendron Gileadense, a native of 
S. Arabia. This is the tree, a root of wh., accdg. to 
Jewish tradition, having been brought to Solo- 
mon by the Queen of Sheba, was cultivated, and 
flourished greatly in the plains of Jericho {Ant. VIII. 
vi. 6). It was plentiful in the days of Herod the 
Gt. {Ant. XV. iv. 2 ; Pliny, N. H. XVI. xxii.). The 
tree has now totally disappeared fm. these parts. 
The gum was exuded through incisions made in the 
bark, and was for long a valued article of commerce. 





Egyptian Standards. See Banner 

BAMAH, " High Place " ; in Ek. 20. 29 only, as a 
proper name. Contempt and scorn are expressed by 
some play upon the word B., but no satisfactory ex- 
planation has yet been offered. 

BAMOTH, a place where Isr. halted on their 



Ban 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bap 



way fm, the Arnon, between Nahaliel and Pisgah 
(Nu. 2 1. 19 ), and near Kirjath-Huzoth. It is prob. 
ident. with B.-Baal (Jo. 13. 17 ), and may be the 
Beth-B. fortified by Mesha (Moab. St. Inscr. 1. 27). 
Guthe suggs. the height of Jebel 'Attar us. 

BANISHMENT. See Crimes and Penalties. 

BANNER (Ensign Standard), a pole with some 
device upon it, used in Egpn. and Asyrn. armies. 
It is used figly. in Scrip. (SS. 2. 4 ; Ps. 60. 4 , &c). 

BANQUET. EV. have tried to preserve the 
meanings of mishteh (lit. " a drinking ") accdg. as it 
seems to indicate eating and drinking, or drinking 
only or chiefly. In the former case they render 
" feast," in the latter " banquet " {cp. Gn. 19. 3 
with Est. 5. 4 , &c). Banqueting-house (SS. 2. 4 ) is 
lit. " house of wine " ; and banqueting (1 P. 4. 3 ) is 
" drinking," Gr. potos. The name mishteh shows 
that drinking was a prominent feature of old time 
feasts. See Feasts. The guests were entertained 
by musicians and dancers. 



ger ') is like a child just born " (Teb. 48b, J. E. II. 
500, cp. Jn. 3- 5 ). " Except a man be born of water 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kdm. of God." 
The Greek terms used, the verb /3aTrri(o), and 
the nouns /3d7TTtcrixa and ^Sa7TTtcr/xo§, have an evolu- 
tion worthy of consideration. The verb occurs four 
times in LXX, twice in the canonical books : 2 K. 
5. 14 , of Naaman; Is. 21. 4 , symbolically of iniquity 
overwhelming one ; twice in the Apcr. ; Jth. 12. 7 of 
ceremonial washing, Sr. 34. (3 1.) 25 of ceremonial 
cleansing after contact with a dead body. The verb 
originally meant " to dip " ; it was changed in two 
opposite directions ; on the one hand it was intensi- 
fied to mean "to overwhelm" (see Diod.Sic.XV. 80, 
Polyb. I. li. 6 ; VIII. viii. 4 ; so also Jos. BJ. IV. 
iii. 3). In Is. 2I. 4 the verb has this force, " iniquity 
overwhelms me" At the same time it is softened 
to simple sprinkling in Sr. 34. (31.) 25 . The received 
trn. of this verse does not bring out its precise 
meaning ; it ought to be rendered " He that is bap- 







ZLE 



Musicians at Egyptian Banquet 



BAPTISM, BAPTIZE. The initiatory rite of 
the Christian Church : it was appointed by our 
Lord in the Apostolic Commission (Mw. 28. 19 ), 
and used as such by the Apostles (Ac. 2. 41 ). Before 
this the Apostles had administered B. (Jn. 4. 2 ). It 
is not introduced as a new thing by our Lord ; it is 
assumed as a rite having a cert, if indefinite refce. to 
the coming Messiah ; hence John the Baptist is 
challenged why he baptizes, if he is neither the 
Messiah nor His prophetic forerunner. B. was the 
initiatory rite among the Essenes (Waiters for the 
Redemption), and also was continually practised by 
them (BJ. II. viii. 7). It was no novelty to give 
bodily cleansing a sptl. meaning, e.g. the symbolical 
washings of the Levitical law, the interpretation of 
wh. was given when Ezekiel said, " Then will I 
sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean ; 
fm. all your filthiness and fm. all your idols will I 
cleanse you " (Ek. 36. 25 ). If we may trust Talmudic 
tradition, some form of baptismal washing formed 
part of the ritual for the reception of a Gentile 
proselyte into the Jewish community. The special 
significance attached to this part of the ritual is 
worthy of notice. " The bathing in the water is to 
constitute a -new birth, wherefore the ger (' stran- 



tized fm. a corpse — cleansed by sprinkling fm. con- 
tact with a corpse — if he touch it again, what profit 
is his washing ? " i.e. the washing that accdg. to Nu. 
19. 11 " 21 followed the cleansing sprinkling. Having 
had the " water of separation " sprinkled upon him, 
and thus the uncleanness due to his .contact with a 
corpse having been removed, if a man again touch a 
corpse, his going on to " bathe himself in clean 
water " wd. be valueless. Only in this way can 
we preserve the force of the contrast between 
/5a7TTt{o/xevo? and Xovrpco ;"a distinction wh. we find 
in the LXX of Nu. IG:. 19 . The passage in Jth. really 
confirms this. (1) However reckless the writer of 
that romance may be he seems to have known some- 
thing of Pal., and cd. not fail to know that in the hill 
country between the plain of Esdraelon and Jeru- 
salem there is no " fountain " (iriqyri) large enough 
for a woman to immerse herself in it. (2) No 
writer cd. mean to represent a general so mad with 
love that he wd. allow even the obj. of his affec- 
tion to contaminate by bathing in it one of the 
fountains " by " (really " in ") the camp. (3) The 
purification of the Jews did not mean " immersion " 
but " affusion." Before leaving this we note the 
fact that when ftairrLfa means " overwhelm " it is 



53 



Bap 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bap 



totally divorced fm. all idea of submergence in a 
flood, as may be seen in the passage cited fm. Jos. 
In that passage the historian declares that the influx 
into Jrs. of the fanatics from the country districts 
ultimately destroyed (e/SaTTTLcrav) the city. The 
nouns are not found in the LXX : the NT. usage is 
that fiaTTTio-}ia is used of the Christian rite (Rm. 6. 4 ) 
of the B. of John (Mk. I. 4 ), and metaphorically of 
calamities (Mw. 20. 22 ; Mk. io. 38 ). The use of 
/3a7TT«rp5s is more gen. ; it is doubtful if it is ever 
used of Christian B. ; it is used of the Jewish cere- 
monial washings. 

It is difficult to fix precisely the significance of 
the B. of John. That it was not equivalent to the 



B. of Christ is clear fm. Ac. i\ 



25 



Yet if we 



press Jn. 4- 2 , the Apostles must either have been 
themselves unbaptized, or had only received the B. 
of John. John's B. was a B. of repentance in the 
expectation of the coming of the Messiah, in whom 
they should believe (Ac. 19. 4 ) ; and it is significant 
of the unrest that pervaded the Isr. of the disper- 
sion in the time of our Lord, that a doctrine so 
vague shd. have disciples in Alexandria and Ephesus. 
The B. administered by the Apostles before Christ's 
resurrection must have had many points of analogy 
with that of John. 

Those who administered the Sacrament of 
Christian B. seem genly. to have been Church 
officials, as the Apostles and Philip. Yet Ananias, 
who baptized Paul, does not appear to have held any 
office. On the other hand the Apostle Paul does 
not regard " baptizing " as among his highest duties 
(1 Cor. I. 14 ) ; he left it to the Church officials whom 
he had already ordained. When B. assumed some- 
thing of a magical meaning, and the rite itself was 
regarded as necessary to salvation, any believer was 
held, in cases of emergency, to be able to administer 
it effectually. 

In the earliest days as at present in our Foreign 
Mission Stations, the great mass of those baptized 
were adults. That there is no record of the B. of 
infants is of even less value than the argumentum 
e silentio is ordinarily. Fm. the analogy of our 
Modern Missions we see how much more import- 
ance is given to the B. of an adult convert than to 
the B. of an infant of parents already Christian. 
Fm. the way in wh. the then world, Jew and Gentile 
alike, with the exception of a few philosophers, re- 
garded the child as merged in the family, and the 
family summed up in its head, there wd. have been 
need of a positive enactment to have prevented the 
rise of the belief wh. lies at the root of infant B. and 
wd. natly. have produced it. The fact that again 
and again whole households are baptized, in the 
light of what we just adverted to, renders the con- 
clusion prob. that there were children baptized in 
some of these cases. This view is strengthened 
when we recall the fact that Paul in Col. 2. 11 ' 12 , 



shows that he regards circumcision as superseded 
by B. ; that circumcision was administered to in- 
fants wd. seem to have made it incumbent on Paul 
to warn believers agst. falling into the nat. mistake 
of thinking that B., like circumcision, was applicable 
to the children of the faithful. If faith is necessary 
to B., it is necessary to holiness, yet the Apostle 
Paul declares those children to be holy only one of 
whose parents was a believer (1 Cor. 7. 14 ). The 
meaning of our Lord's declaration when He took 
the little children into His arms and blessed them, 
that " of such is the Kdm. of Heaven," does not 
seem to be exhausted when it is regarded as a state- 
ment of the spt. that ought to animate His followers. 
The testimony of Christian antiquity is, when pro- 
perly understood, to the same effect. Of great 
value is the testimony of Tertullian, as he personally 
thought it hazardous. Could he have maintained 
with any show of probability that infant baptism 
was an innovation, he cert. wd. have done so, with 
all the vigour of his fiery rhetoric. Origen declares 
infant baptism to be a practice received fm. the 
Apostles. Other testimony mt. be brought for- 
ward, but what we have advanced may suffice. The 
undeniable rarity of any notice in the first Christian 
centuries of men of mark in the Church having been 
baptized in infancy, may be explained partly by the 
fact above alluded to, that the whole Church was 
a mission to the heathen, so converts were more 
noticed than those who had grown up in the faith, 
who wd. necessarily be few. Another influence was 
at work wh. tended to increase this rarity, the idea 
that there was a very special heinousness in sins 
committed after baptism ; this led many, as the 
Emperor Constantine, to delay baptism till death. 
A similar practice obtains among the Scotch High- 
landers in regard to Communion. It was the nat. 
result of such a view that infant baptisms would 
tend to diminish. 

The mode in wh. B. was administered is not by 
any means so clear as some wd. have us believe. 
Although the balance of opinion is in favour of im- 
mersion, there are a number of difficulties in the 
way of accepting it. If we take the cases of B. re- 
corded, while there are none that necessitate total 
immersion, there are several in wh. it seems almost 
imposs. to imagine this as the mode followed. The 
first and most obvious case is the B. of the " three 
thousand," followed by that of the " five thousand " 
in Jrs. after the dry season had begun ; in a city 
whose whole water supply was derived fm. cisterns. 
The case of the Ethiopian eunuch : on the way S. 
from Hebron to Gaza, there wd. only be shallow 
pools where springs bubbled up ; nowhere a foun- 
tain like that at Tell el-Qady in wh. a grown man cd. 
be immersed. It seems, to say the least, extremely 
unlikely that there wd. be a plunge bath in the 
house of the Philippian jailer. As will be seen in 



54 



Bap 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bar 



the article Bathe the ancts. rarely bathed by plung- 
ing into water ; it was more frequently by affusion : 
one bathed by pouring water on oneself, or having it 
poured over one by an attendant. Another thing 
wh. may be advanced is the way B., e.g. that of our 
Lord, is represented in anct. pictures. He is shown 
standing up to the knees in. water, while John pours 
the water on His head (see Didache 7). It is a mis- 
taken idea that St. Paul's comparison of B. to burial 
implies any external resemblance between the pro- 
cesses. Jewish burial in Pal. was in caves nat. or 
artificial, in wh. there were either shelves or short, 
small tunnels ; in either case there was no resem- 
blance to immersion. In the Catacombs we see that 
the Christian ideas of Burial were akin to the 
Jewish. The real ground of the fig. lay in the fact 
that j3a7TTi£(o had, besides its ceremonial meaning, 
the signification of " utter destruction." By B. the 
past sinful life is utterly destroyed, and the believer 
is born to a new life. It is a misrepresentation to 
call the common mode in wh. B. is administered 
" sprinkling " ; it is really " affusion " attenuated to 
a symbol ; just as in the " Lord's Supper " a full 
meal, the principal meal of the day, becomes merely 
a crumb of bread and a sip of wine. One sacrament 
has become merely symbolic, without diminishing 
its sptl. validity : may it not be so also with the 
other ? (Clem. F. Rogers, Baptism and Christian 
Archeology, Oxford, 1903). 

Unquestionably in the early Church B. was re- 
garded as equivalent to Regeneration (Regenera- 
tion). The various aspects of this will be discussed 
below ; meantime we note again that, in the admis- 
sion of the heathen proselyte to the Jewish Church, 
B. was the symbol of birth. Our Lord's words as re- 
corded in Jn. 3. 5 , " Except a man be born of water 
and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kdm. of 
God," gave a certain plausibility to the view above 
indicated ; the refce. in our Lord's statement is 
really to the Jewish proselyte B., but transferred to 
the Christian ; the proselyte entered by faith into 
the Commonwealth of Isr., so by faith only cd. he 
enter the holier Commonwealth, the Kdm. of God. 
The words* of the Apostle Paul in Tt. 3. 5 , " He saved 
us by the washing of regeneration," seem to support 
the same idea. The Apostle's refce. is not to the 
physical ordinance, but to the sptl. change of wh. 
it is the symbol. 

The Significance of B. — On the human side B. is 
really a vow of consecration to the service of God. 
In the case of adult B. the vow is taken by the person 
baptized himself ; in the case of children, by their 
parents. The ordinance has a divine side ; it is 
given by God to believers, administered by the 
Church. The Protestant doctrine may be stated in 
the words of Turrettin, " B. is a sacrament in wh., 
by the external sprinkling and cleansing, there is de- 
clared and sealed to believers their internal absolu- 



tion, alike the remission of sins and sanctification 
through the blood and Spirit of Christ." It is as- 
sumed in this that in the case of infants the faith of 
the parents is taken for that of the children. The 
Anglican doctrine is that " B. is actual internal puri- 
fication " (Plummer, HDB). " B. is called ' wash- 
ing of regeneration,' not because it symbolises it, 
but because it effects it " (ib). 

" B. with the Holy Ghost and with fire " is de- 
clared by John the Baptist to be the characteristic 
of the B. of Him whose forerunner he was (Lk. 3. 16 ). 
Symbolically this was fulfilled at Pentecost ; actu- 
ally throughout the whole hist, of the Church has 
been manifested this B. of the Holy Spirit, this en- 
dowment with the fire of zeal. " B. of blood " is an 
ecclesiastical phrase to denote martyrdom. It was 
an axiom of the Anct. Church that the B. of blood 
superseded the necessity for the B. with water. 

Another matter that has to be considered, though 
briefly, is the presence of " sponsors," or to use the 
ordinary Anglican terminology, " godfathers and 
godmothers " at B. Originally, as we learn from the 
term {Apost. Const, viii. 32), the sponsor testified to 
the char, of the candidate for B. These sponsors 
were usly. the deacons. In regard to infants the 
office appears to have been instituted in times of 
persecution in case the parents mt. fall victims. 

B. for the Dead (1 Cor. 1 5. 29 ). — There have 
been many attempts to give an explanation of this 
passage wh. shall meet all difficulties ; none has been 
quite successful. If, without cataloguing the various 
opinions, we investigate the matter for ourselves, 
the first thing that meets us is the fact that the 
Apostle assumes a practice to be extant, a practice 
wh. must have quickly fallen into disuse, as the Gr. 
fathers do not know it as Christian. We learn fm. 
Lightfoot on this passage, that in the case of one 
dying in ceremonial uncleanness, another on his ac- 
count underwent the cleansing rites. The reference 
here is prob. to this. Such ceremonial purification 
wd. be meaningless if there were no resurrection. 
The Apostle's appeal to the practice no more implies 
an approval of it than our Lord's question to the 
Pharisees (Mw. 12. 27 ), " By whom do your children 
cast them out," implies approval of their methods of 
exorcism. There was a large Jewish community in 
Corinth, and among the Christians a considerable 
Judaising element ; such a practice wd. be perfectly 
well known when the Apostle was writing and mt. 
have been imitated by the Judaisers. Within half 
a cent, the breach between the Jews and the Chris- 
tians became absolute ; hence Chrysostom and the 
other Gr. fathers mt. well be ignorant of it. The 
Marcionite practice of baptizing a living believer 
for one who died as a catechumen, may have arisen 
fm. this passage. 

BARABBAS is the Gr. form of Aram. Bar-Abba 
= " s. of the Teacher." B. was imprisoned for in- 



55 



Bar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bar 



surrection made in the city and for murder (Lk. 
2 3- 19fl- )' J onn ca ^ s ^ m a " robber," and this agrees 
with the char. Jos. gives to the revolutionaries of 
that time (BJ. IV. hi. 4). When Pilate offered, 
accdg. to custom, to release to the Jews a prisoner at 
the Feast, they vociferously preferred this murderer 
and robber to Jesus. It is poss. that the two who 
were crucified with Jesus were associates of B. in the 
insurrection (Mk. 15. 7 ). In Mw. zy. 16 ' 11 , cert, cur- 
sives, the Armenian V., and copies of the Jrs. Syriac, 
give to B. also the name of Jesus. This is prob. due 
to a scribal error. 

BARAK, " lightning " (cp. Carthaginian Bared), 
s. of Abinoam of Kedesh-naphtali, also in Jg. 5. 15 , 
connected with Issachar, was roused by Deborah 
(Jg. 4. 6 ), and poss. by his own suffering (5. 12 ), to as- 
semble the N. tribes agst. the Can. oppressors of Isr. 
His forces gathered on Mt. Tabor, Deborah being 
with him. During a fierce storm that beat in the 
faces of the enemy, he swept down and practically 
annihilated the army of Sisera, in the soft soil of 
Esdraelon, along the banks of the Kishon. He is 
named joint author of the song of triumph com- 
posed on the occasion (Jg. 5. 1 ). 

BARBARIAN. The Greeks divided mankind 
into Gr. and B., i.e. speakers of Gr. and speakers of 
other tongues. In this sense the inhabitants of 
Malta are called B. (Ac. 28. 4 ). So in I Cor. 14. 11 , a B. 
is one who speaks an unknown lang. The conven- 
tion was accepted as implying no reproach. Paul 
(Rm. i. 14 ) and Philo (Life of Moses, 5) class Jews as B. 
The Romans at first acquiesced in the custom, but 
discarded it as other ideas became associated with the 
word. The Greeks, however, called them B. till the 
end of the E. Empire. 

BAR-JESUS. See Elymas. 

BARLEY is extensively grown in Pal. It is the 
staple food for horses. B. and wheat meal mingled 
form a not uncommon article of diet (2 Ch. 2. 10 ). 
Only the very poor use B. meal alone (Jg. 7. 13 ; Jn. 
6. 9 « 13 ). The use of B. meal for the jealousy offering 
(Nu. 5. 15 ), and of B. to purchase the adulteress (Ho. 
3. 2 ), may indicate a cert, contempt for the persons 
concerned. For sowing, &c, see Agriculture. 

BARN. See Garner. 

BARNABAS (" s. of consolation " or " exhor- 
tation," Ac. 4- 36 ), otherwise Joses, a Levite of 
Cyprus. Eusebius (HE. I. 12) says B. was one of the 
" Seventy." B. introduced the newly converted 
Paul to the Apostles at Jrs. (Ac. c;. 27 ) ; later he in- 
duced Paul to leave Tarsus, whither he had retired, 
and come to Antioch (Ac. II. 25 ). They went as 
deputies fm. Antioch to Jrs. (Ac. II. 30 , 12. 25 ). Soon 
after their return, set apart by the Church, they 
started on a missionary journey to Cyprus and Asia 
Minor (Ac. 13. 2 — 14. 20 ). When they had completed 
this they were sent again to Jrs. to consult the 
Apostles as to status of the Gentile converts (Ac. 



I4. 26 -I5. 22 ). On their return to Antioch Paul pro- 
posed that they shd. revisit the churches they had 
founded, but as B. wished to take John Mark, his 
nephew, whom Paul cd. not depend on, they sepa- 
rated. With the exception of a passing refce. in 
I Cor. c;. 6 , B. disappears fm. NT. Tradition says 
he was martyred in Cyprus, whither he departed 
with his nephew after leaving Paul ; they show his 
grave not far fm. the ruins -of Salamis. Other tradi- 
tions take him to Milan, Rome, and Alexandria. 
To him among others is attributed the " Epistle 
to the Hebrews." The anct. writing called the 
" Epistle of Barnabas " is universally regarded as 
pseudonymous. 

BARTHOLOMEW, " s. of Tolmai," i.e. " of 
Ptolemy." John omits B. fm. his list of Apostles, 
and gives Nathanael in his place Nathanael does 
not appear in the Synoptics, wh. always name Philip 
and B. together. In John's record Philip brings 
Nath. to Jesus. B. is therefore prob. = Nath. There 
are traditions of B. preaching in Armenia, and also 
in India, where he was tortured by flaying ; but we 
have no sure kge. of his life. 

BARTIM^US (Mk. io. 46 ), " s. of Timseus," the 
blind man healed by our Lord after leaving Jericho. 
Luke (i8. 35ff -) mentions also one man, but places the 
miracle before entering the city. Matthew speaks of 
two, but agrees with Mark as to the place. B. may 
be named because he was the more energetic and in- 
sistent, and acted as spokesman. For discussion of 
the variations in the nars. see Trench, Miracles. 

BARUCH, s. of Neriah. The friend of Jere- 
miah (Jr. 32. 12 ), and his amanuensis (36. 4 ) ; he read 
the prophecy before Jehoiakim, and shared with 
Jeremiah the risk of imprisonment (v. 26). Accdg. 
to Jos. (Ant. X. ix. 1), B. was in the end imprisoned 
with his friend and was released at the capture of 
Jrs. by Nebuchadnezzar. After the murder of 
Gedaliah, B. was accused of having suborned Jere- 
miah to prophesy agst. the remnant of Judah going 
down to Egp. The after hist, of B. is unknown. 
For " The Prophecy of Baruch," see Baruch, Apo- 
crypha. 

There is an Ape. that claims B.'s name. It was found in 
a Syriac trn. by Ceriani in the Ambrosian Library, Milan, 
and published by him in 1866; its prob. date is B.C. 59. 
Another work of a later date appeared entitled "The Rest 
of Baruch " ; it prob. was composed in the 2nd cent. 

BARZILLAI, " of iron," a rich man of Rogelim 
in Gilead, who succoured David with great gene- 
rosity when fleeing fm. Absalom (2 S. 17. 27 ), and 
conducted him back over Jordan when the rebellion 
was crushed. He excused himself, on the ground of 
old age, fm. going with the k. to begin a new life in 
the city, but committed his s. Chimcham to David's 
favour (2 S. I9. 31ff -). David commended the chil- 
dren of B. to the kindness of Solomon (1 K. 2. 7 ) ; 
but his descts. seem later to have fallen on evil days 
(Ez. 2. 61ff -). 



56 



Bas 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bat 



BASHAN, often with the article in Heb. hab- 
bashan, " the B." It corrspds. in meaning prob. 
with el-Batantyeh, "wheat land," applied to a dis- 
trict N. of Jebel ed-Druze. While it has a narrower 
significance, B. seems to have denoted genly. the 
land E. of Jordan, stretching fm. the border of 
Gilead to the roots of Hermon. The boundaries 
are given in some detail, but with our present kge. we 
cannot certly. follow them. Geshur and Maacath 
seem to be given as the W. border of B. (Jo. I2. 4ff -, 
I3. llff -), but if Golan (Dt. 4/ 13 ) were in the district 
that bears its name to-day — the Jaidan — B. must 
have reached to the brink of the Jordan Valley. 
This is the boundary indicated in Dt. 4. 47 . In 
favour of this is Dr. G. A. Smith's attractive suggn. 
that Dan was at Banids, on the slope of the moun- 
tain, wh., if true, gives an intelligible sense to the 
saying, " Dan . . . leapeth forth fm. B." (Dt. 
33. 22 ). Again, the Mt. or Mts. of B. (Ps. 68. 15 ' 16 ) 
can hardly be Mt. Hermon, wh. is never certly. 
ascribed to B. " Mt." or " Mts. of protuberances " 
or " humps," mt. well describe the uplands of el- 
Jauldn, as seen fm. the heights of Naphtali, the 
many great mounds that mark extinct volcanoes 
giving a " humpy " appearance to the high plateau. 
On the other hand " Mt. of God " does not so aptly 
apply to these wide uplands. The only alternative 
seems to be to agree with Wetzstein (Das batandische 
Giebelgeberge, 1884; KB. s.v.), and recognise the 
Mt. of B. in Jebel ed-Druze, with its humplike 
summits. 




PEF. Photo 

Mountain of Bash an (Peak of el-Kuleib) 

If B. lay E. of Geshur and Maacath, then these 
unconquered peoples lit. " dwelt in the midst of 
Isr." (Jo. i 3 .i3). 

The desert S. of Bozrah, and the N. border of 
Gilead, formed the S. boundary of B. It reached E. 
to Salecah, the mod. Salkbad, on the ridge of Jebel 
ed-Druze ; and prob. included lands to the N. cor- 
rspdg. to the mod. Hauran. Its chief cities seem to 
have been Ashtaroth, Edrei, Golan, and Sale- 
cah ; but it was strong in fenced cities : under the 
numerous ruins that stud the country the remains of 
these anct. strongholds may yet be found. 



It was ruled by the giant Og, but his empire ended 
with the victory of Isr. at Edrei (Jo. I3. llf -, &c). It 
was the scene of the mighty deeds of the warrior Jair 
(Dt. 3. 14 , &c). It was allotted to the half tribe of 
Manasseh (Jo. 13. 30 , 17. 1 , &c). It was conquered 
by Hazael the Syrian (2 K. io. 33 ), but recovered by 
Jeroboam II. (2 K. 14. 25 ). In later times it passed 
into the hands of the Nabataeans : then it became 
part of the dominion of Herod the Gt., and was ruled 
in succession by Herod, Philip, and Agrippa II. 

The lion long since finally disappeared, but the 
leopard, nimr, is still met with at times (Dt. 33- 22 ; 
SS. 4. 8 ). The rams of B., but notably the cattle, 
were famous, and are taken to represent blatant and 
brutal strength (Ps. 22. 12 ; Ek. 39. 18 ; Am. 4. 1 ). B. 
is frequently named with Carmel, as excellent pas- 
ture land, but nothing is said of its crops, wh. are such 
an important feature to-day. The reddish brown 
soil, disintegrated lava fm. the surrounding craters, 
yields abundantly, esp. in en-Nuqrah, " the hollow." 
On the E. slopes the oak, esteemed for oars by 
Tyrian sailors (Ek. 2J. 6 ), still flourishes. 

Lit. : Guthe, Zeitschrijt des Deutsch. Pal. Ver., 
XII. 230 ; Schumacher, ib. XX. 6jft. ; Smith, 
HJHL., 575f. ; Porter, Giant Cities of B. ; Ewing, 
Arab and Druze at Home. 

BASKET represents several Heb. and Gr. words. 
(1) Sal, " a twig," a B. for bread (Gn. 40. 16f - ; Ex. 
29. 3 ), for meat (Jg. 6. 19 ). (2) Salsilotb, for grapes 
(Jr. 6. 9 ). (3) Dudb, used for carrying genly. (Jr. 
24. 1 ), prob. like that used in Pal. now, not unlike 
that in wh. carpenters with us carry their tools. 
(4) Kopbinus (NT.), used with refce. to fragments 
taken up after the feeding of the 5000 (Mt. 14. 20 ; 
Mk. 6. 43 ; Lk. 9. 17 ). (5) Spurts, the ordinary pro- 
vision B. used in refce. to the feeding the 4000 
(Mt. 15. 37 ; Mk. 8. 8 ) ; in Ac. 9. 25 , the means of 
Paul's escape ; in 2 Col. II. 33 sargan is the word. 
In Am. 8. ls 2 , klubh is used for a fruit B., but this 
word in Jr. 5« 27 is " a bird-cage." 

BASON in the OT. represents several Heb. 
words, prob. names of difft. forms or sizes of the 
same utensil. Although a great many metal and 
pottery vessels have come down to us, there is no 
means of fixing special names. B. (aggdnoth) were 
used by Moses in making the Covenant (Ex. 24.°). 
Hiram made B. (mizrdqotb) " of brass " (1 K. 7. 45 ), 
" a hundred B. (mizrdqim) of gold " for Solomon 
(2 Ch. 4. 8 ). The same word is used (Am. 6. 6 ) of 
drinking vessels, but trd. " Bowls." Our Lord 
used a B. (ynrTY)p) in wh. to wash the disciples' 
feet (Jn. 13. 5 ). 

BAT (Heb. ^atallepb, supposed by Ges. to mean 
" night-flier "). It is the only class of mammals en- 
dowed with the power of flying ; hence regarded 
by the ancts. as a bird (Aristoph. Aves, 1564 ; Plin. 
H.N. io. 61 ). In Lv. 11. 19 , Dt. 14. 18 , the B. is 
reckoned a bird, and unclean. The B. is used as the 



57 



Bat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bat 



symbol of utter desolation (Is. 2. 20 ), " A man will 
cast his idols to the moles and to the bats." In Lv. 
and Dt. Luther renders " schwalbe," but without 
any justification ; in Is. he trs. " fliedermaus." 
There are several species of B. in Pal. ; it is very 
common. 

BATH, BATHE (Heb. rahatz). Although to B. 
is a luxury in such a climate as that of Pal., it may be 
doubted whether we have in Scrip, any instance of 
an Isr. bathing for any but ceremonial reasons, or for 
the sake of cleanliness. It is prob. that the Isr. 



excluding older sons by other wives. Adonijah's rash 
enterprise was almost fatal to her hopes ; but with 
the help of Nathan, she proved equal to the occa- 
sion. She must have known the necessary conse- 
quence to Adonijah of his request for Abishag. She 
encouraged his suit, and so furnished Solomon with 
a pretext to remove a dangerous rival. We may 
perhaps trace to her influence, while Solomon was 
still a youth, the fate of Joab and Shimei. 

B. disappears suddenly from hist. Had her s. 
grown weary of her masterful ways ? 




Egyptian Lady in Bath, with her Attendants 



bathed by affusion as did the Egyptians. In Greece 
the practice appears to have been for a person to 
dash water over himself fm. a large basin. Fm. 
Jn. 13. 10 it may be deduced that the custom of 
washing the whole body daily was common. The 
Essenes looked upon this daily B. as a religious act. 
See Waiters for the Redemption. 

BATH-RABBIM. See Heshbon. 

BATHSHEBA (1 Ch. 3.*, Bathshua), dr. of 
Eliam (2 S. n. 3 ), or of Ammiel (1 Ch. 3. 5 ), prob. 
granddr. of Ahithophel (2 S. 23. 34 ), w. of Uriah the 
Hittite, one of David's warriors. She appears to 
have been a woman shrewd, ambitious, and un- 
scrupulous. Prob. discontented with her lowly 
station, in her husband's absence at the siege of 
Rabbah she sought successfully to ensnare the k., 
and became his mistress. It was easy to frustrate 
David's design in bringing Uriah home. If she did 
not sugg. the scheme, when that soldier returned to 
the front bearing his own death sentence, we may be 
sure it had the good wishes of his faithless w. The 
k's. chivalry cd. not leave her to the fate of an 
adulteress, so she became his w. Having gained 
a footing in the palace, she rapidly acquired a 
powerful influence over the monarch, and secured 
the succession to the throne for her own s., Solomon, 



Some think that Ahithophel turned agst. David because 
of his granddr's. betrayal. It is not likely. An oriental 
wd. not be too nice about the manner of his kinswoman's 
advancement. 

Lit. : Marcel Dieulafoy, David the King, pp. 
21 iff. ; Margoliouth, New Lines of Defence. 

BATTERING-RAM (Heb. kar, " ram "). The 
principal engine for beating down the walls of a 
fortress in anct. days. It consisted of a long, heavy 
beam of wood, latterly headed with iron. Those 
that worked the B. were protected by a roof ; some- 
times working in the basement of a Tower moved to 
the walls on wheels. Battering-rams were used by 
the Asyrs. (Ek. 4.2, 21. 22 ). 

BATTLE. An action in War in wh. the main 
part of the opposing armies were engaged. There 
does not seem to have been any manoeuvring in the 
B. of OT. times. The opposing forces, drawn up 
in line of battle, after a discharge of arrows and 
javelins, advanced against each other and fought 
man to man ; panic seems usly. to have decided 
the result. Ambushes seem the nearest approach 
to manoeuvres used. 

BATTLE-AXE, BATTLE-BOW. See Weapons. 

BATTLEMENT (Heb. ma'aqeh), a parapet or- 
dained to be erected round the edge of the flat roof 
of a House to prevent one accidentally falling off 



ss 



Bat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bed 



(Dt. 22. 8 ). B. was also a part of the fortification of 
a wall (netishoth, Jr. 5. 10 ). Ges. renders here " ten- 
drils," RV. " branches." 




Battering- Ram 

BAY (Heb. amutzim), a Colour, reddish brown 
(Zc. 6. 3, 7 ), ascribed to horses. 

BAY TREE (Ps. 37™, AV.) is a mistrn. RV. 
gives correctly " tree in its native soil." If, how- 
ever, some green and spreading tree was in the 
Psalmist's mind, the sweet bay, Laurus nobilis, a 
beautiful evergreen, growing plentifully on Carmel 
and Gilead, wd. be no unfamiliar sight. 

BDELLIUM, bedolah (Gn. 2. 12 , LXX, anthrax ; 
Nu. II. 7 , LXX, krustallos), a product of the land of 
Havilah, to wh. manna was likened, and therefore, 
as Driver remarks, a well-known substance. Some 
think it a precious stone, others the pearl. Remem- 
bering how the ancts. valued aromatic gums, we 
need not hesitate toident. B. with the Gr. bdella or 
bdellion, the Lat. bedellium, a. transparent, yellowish, 
wax-like substance exuded by a tree found in 
Arabia, Bab., India, &c. ; the best coming from 
Arabia. Bedolah is poss. a foreign word (KB.). 
For authorities see Driver, Genesis, on 2. 12 . 

BEAM. The trn. of eight Heb. words in EV. ; 
two of these are connected with Weaving ; 'ereg, 
trd. also " shuttle," manor, " the cross-piece of the 
frame of a loom." In six cases B. means various 
portions of the carpentry of a House. In Mt. J. 3 , 
Lk. 6. 41 , Sokos means a B. of wood, though the word 
may apply to stone (Diod. Sic. II. 36, 8. XWivat). 

BEANS (Heb. £o/ = Arb. Jul) have been culti- 
vated in Pal. fm. anct. times. Flowering in Jan., 
they are reaped in May. They fig. among the pro- 
visions given by Barzillai to David (2 S. 17. 28 ). 
With the poor they are a frequent dish. When 
ground they are sometimes mingled with the meal 
of wh. the bread is baked (Ek. 4. 9 ). 

BEAR (dobh). The Syrian B. is now restricted, so 



far as Syria is concerned, to the Lebanon and the 
Anti-Lebanon. It is sometimes, though rarely, 
carnivorous ; when it has tasted blood it becomes a 
terror to the shepherds fm. the havoc it works. In 
OT. times it seems to have been found in every part 
of W. Pal. 

BEARD. The Egyptians shaved the face (Gn. 
41. 14 ), but wore artificial beards. The Jews allowed 
the hair to grow long on chin and upper lip. Cert, 
idolatrous cuttings of the hair were forbidden (Lv. 
19. 27 ). Only disease justified shaving (Lv. 14. 9 ). 
To neglect the beard is a sign of grief (2 S. 19. 24 ). 
To pluck or cut the B. is a great indignity (Is. 50. 6 ; 
2 S. io. 8 ). Only a madman wd. defile it (1 S. 21. 13 ). 
The beardless meet scant respect in the East. Men 
swear by the B., and the suppliant seeks to to .ch 
the B. of one fm. whom he begs. 

BEATING. See Crimes and Penalties. 

BEAST. The trn. of three Heb. words in the 
OT. and three Gr. in the NT. Of the OT. words 
hay, " life," is any creature having life ; behemah, 
primarily " an animal of the ox tribe," then extended 
to mean " any quadruped " ; bir occurs only in Ps. 
78. 48 out of the Pent., and means " cattle." Of the 
NT. words zoon is the most gen., in Rv. (RV. 
" living creatures "), of the " four " round the 
throne (see Revelation) ; the second, therion, 
" wild beast," in Rv., of the representative of 
Antichrist ; ktenos, " an animal as an article of 
property," e.g. " a beast of burden." 

BECHER. (1) S. of Benjamin (Gn. 46. 21 ). 
(2) S. of Ephraim (1 Ch. 7. 20 , Bered). Lord A. 
Harvey idents. those two ; he thinks that as the 
slaughter of the Ephraimites (1 Ch. 7. 21 ) had ren- 
dered it necessary that the drs. of Ephraim shd. 
seek husbands in other tribes, B. shd. be regarded as 
the s. -in-law of Ephraim and the s. of Benjamin. 

BED, BED-CHAMBER. The sleeping arrange- 
ments of the Hebs. were very simple. It was not 
their custom to undress, and as among their suc- 
cessors in Pal. to-day, a mattress stuffed with cotton, 
hair, or even straw, spread on a rush mat on the 
floor, served as a bed for the great majority. The 
covering in winter was a quilt, but in warmer 
weather a special covering cd. be dispensed with. 
The pillow was a cushion stuffed like the mattress. 
It was therefore easy to carry a man on his bed, and 
also for a man to carry his bed (1 S. 19. 15 ; Lk. 
5. 18ff -). The dizvan or raised platform round three 
sides of the room, two to three feet wide, and 
covered with cushions, used as a sofa in the day- 
time, is often slept upon. This is prob. true also 
of anct. times. Occasionally the dizvan is built of 
stones and mortar, but it is often just a frame of 
wood wh. can be moved at will. Among the better 
classes much time is spent in ornamenting this 
frame, and in embroidering the covers of mattresses 
and cushions. The common people have no sepa- 



59 



Bed 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bee 



rate bed-chamber. The living room serves all 
purposes. In summer the Bs. are spread on the 
roof, or in the court. Many who sleep outside have 
only the outer hair cloak for a wrap, and a stone for 
a pillow.- But fm. of old, in bldgs. of any preten- 
sions, the sleeping apartments have been as private as 
poss. (Ex. 8. 3 ; 2 K. 6. 12 , &c). "Bedstead" ap- 
pears only once in EV. (Dt. 3. 11 ), but the meaning 
is uncert. Bedsteads, however, are figd. on the 
Egpn. and Bab. monuments, so we may infer that 
they were not unknown to the Hebs. 

BED AN. (1) A judge (1 S. 12. 11 ) not named in 
Jg. LXX and Psh. take it as an error for Barak, a 
view now commonly accepted. The Rabbis sugg. 
" Ben Dan " = Samson. (2) S. of Ulam (1 Ch. 7. 17 ). 

BEE (Heb. dehor ah, Arb. nahal), a common 
hymenopterous insect frequent in Pal. The B. of 
Pal. (apis jasciata) is smaller than the ordinary hive- 
bee, lighter in colour, and its sting is not so strong. 
Now the B. is found in Pal. not only wild but also 
domesticated ; but in Bible times there is no trace 
of anything but the wild bee. The nat. of its 
flowers, so many of them being honey-bearing, and 
the abundant limestone rocks with their frequent 
caves, make Pal. a country peculiarly suited to the 
B. ; hence honey was a staple export (Ek. 27. 17 ). 
Like all inhabitants of the nearer East the Isrs. 
delighted in sweets ; hence to declare anything 
" sweeter than honey " is to call it supremely 
pleasant (Ps. 19. 10 ). It appears to have been eaten 
alone (Pr. 24. 13 ) ; at the same time it seems always 
to have been wild honey that was thought of 
(Ps. 8i. 16 ). 

The fierce way in which the B. swarms out agst. any in- 
truder was the characteristic mcst noted (Ps. 118. 12 ). As 
the result of the B. not being domesticated the feature of B. 
life most prominent to Western nations, its diligence, does 
not seem to have been observed by the Isrs. That a swarm 
of Bs. should settle in the carcase of a lion does not seem 
extraordinary to any one who has seen how quickly in Pal. 
even the carcase of a camel is reduced to a dry skeleton. 

BEELZEBUB (Mw. io. 25 , &c). Although RV. 
retains this spelling, relegating with AV. " Beelze- 
bul " to the margin, the latter is certly. correct. 
He appears as the " prince of devils." He was 
clearly a familiar fig. in the popular angelology of 
the time. Some think he is the old god of Ekron 
(2 K. i. 2 ), the latter part of his name transformed in 
contempt, so that he becomes " god of the dung- 
hill." Of this there is no proof, and everything 
about him is wrapped in obscurity. See Baal- 
Zebub. 

BEER. (1) A place where Isr. halted N. of 
Arnon, and the digging of a well was enshrined in 
one of the oldest Heb. songs (Nu. 2i. 16ff -). It may 
be = BEER-ELiM„ The Targumists make this the 
last appearance of the water that followed the people 
in their desert wanderings (cp. I Cor. io. 4 ). It was 
given for Miriam's sake, because she had guarded 



the infant Moses. At her death it disappeared, 
and thenceforward had always to be summoned by 
special act ; e.g. smiting the rock at Kadesh, and 
digging here. " Miriam's well " was finally located 
in the Sea of Galilee, and is now shown between the 
city and the baths (see Driver, Expositor, vol. ix. 1 889, 
15m). (2) The town to wh. Jotham fled (Jg. 9. 21 ), 
not identd. 

BEER-ELIM, " Well of the mighty," on the 
border of Moab, prob. = Beer (i). 

BEER-LAHAI-ROI, " Wellof the Living One 
who sees me " (Gn. 16. 14 , &c), where God arrested 
Hagar in her flight fm. Sarah, and Isaac sojourned 
in later days ; on the way to Shur. It may be the 
mod. l Ain Muweileh, c. 50 miles S. of Beersheba 
(see PEFQ. 1871, 2if. ; Driver, Genesis, in loc). 

BEEROTH, one of the cities the inhabitants of 
wh. deceived Joshua (9. 17 ), in Benjamin (18. 25 ). 
The murderers of Ishboshetihwere Beerothites (2 S. 
4. 2 ). The name appears in Ez. 2. 25 , Ne. J. 29 . It 
is prob. el-Bireh, the first night's resting-place of 
caravans going N. fm. Jrs. ; the traditional place 
where Jesus was missed (Lk. 2. 43 ). 

BEEROTH-BENE-JAAKAN, a halting place of 
Isr. in the desert, not identd., prob. on the border of 
Seir or Edom (Dt. io. 6 ; Nu. 33. 31 ). 

BEERSHEBA, the modern Bir es Saba', " Well 
of the Seven" (Gn. 21. 31 ), or "of Swearing" 
(26. 33 ). The two explanations are prob. the same, 
fcr the Heb. verb " to swear " means really " to 
pledge oneself in some way by seven sacred things " 
(cp. Herodotus, hi. 8 ; Robertson Smith, RS. 2 , 
1 8 if.). Driver (Genesis on 2 1. 31 ) concludes that 
the refce. is to the seven wells. 

B. lies fully 27 miles S.W. of Hebron. Two large 
wells are on the N. bank of Wddy es-Saba 1 , one of 
them I2-| ft. in diameter, and between 40 and 50 ft. 
deep, to the surface of the water. It is locally con- 
nected with Abraham. In the bed of the valley, at 
some distance from these, are five less important 
wells. Although now desolate, the ruins around 
prove it to have been once a populous district. The 
place has associations with Abraham (Gn. 2i. 22f ), 
Isaac (26. 25f -), and Jacob (28., 46. 1 ). As the most im- 
portant outpost to the S., it came to be spoken of 
as the S. limit of Isr. (" Dan. to B."). It is men- 
tioned in connection with Samuel's sons (1 S. 8. 2 ), 
Joab's census (2 S. 24. 7 : I Ch. 21. 2 ), and Elijah's 
journey to Sinai (1 K. 19. 3 ). It was the birthplace 
of Zibia, mr. of Joash (2 K. 12. 1 ; 2 Ch. 24. 1 ). It 
was reoccupied after the Exile (Ne. II. 30 ). Amos 
refers to some heathen ritual connected with B. 
(5- 5 , 8. 14 ). 

BEESHTERAH. See Ashtaroth. 

BEETLE (Heb. hargol, Lv. u. 22 , " the leaper "). 
It is one of the insects that may be eaten ; the 
creatures it is associated with, and the char, by wh. 
they are to be recognised, prove B. to be a mistrn. 



60 



Bfch 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bel 



RV. " cricket " is better. Though B. are numerous 
in Pal., none of them progress by leaping. 

BEHEADING. See Crimes and Penalties. 

BEHEMOTH (in form pi. of Heb. behemdh ; 
Ges. says it represents the Egpn. p-ehe-mootit, " the 
ox of the river "). An animal described poetically 
in Jb. 40. 15 " 24 , the hippopotamus, a pachyderm, re- 
stricted to African rivers. Described incorrectly by 
Herod, ii. 71. In the Jewish Haggada B. occupies a 
secondary place to Leviathan, but shares with it the 
distinction of supplying fm. its flesh, food for the 
Saints at the Messianic feast. These two 'great beasts 



These prob. resembled the B. figured in Wilkin- 
son's AE. II. 312 ; a leather bag fitted into a 
wooden frame, with a pipe, metal-tipped, to carry 




Behemoth (Egyptians Hunting) 

are to kill each other. They are referred to in Ape. 
Bar. 29, as reserved as food for the Saints, in the 
days of the Messiah. 

BEKAH, half a shekel (Ex. 3s. 26 ). See Money. 

BEL. The original gen. name for deity, latterly 
identd. with Marduk (Babylonia and Assyria). 

BELA. (1) = Zoar. (2) S. of Beor (to be dis- 
tinguished from Balak, s. of Beor), who reigned over 
Moab in Dinhabah (Gn. 36. 32 ), a city E. of Jordan, 
not identd. (see PEFQ. 1902, ioff.). (3) S. of Ben- 
jamin (Gn. 46. 21 , &c). (4) A Reubenite, s. of 
Azaz (1 Ch. 5. 8f -). 

BELIAL {Belly a' at), means primarily " worth- 
lessness," usually connected with " man of," or " s. 
of " (1 S. 25. 25 ; Jg. 19. 22 ). In the OT. E. is not a 
proper name, only appellative. In the NT. it be- 
comes a personal name in the changed form of 
Beliar ; this change is due to rough Syr. pronuncia- 
tion ; later, as Syr. had transferred ar)p from Gr., 
the second element in the name was supposed to 
mean " air," and it is rendered the " Lord of the 
Air" (Eph. 2. 2 ). In Apocalyptic Lit. = Satan, 
e.g. Asc. Is. 

BELL. In OT. only on High Priest's robe (Ex. 
28 z* 3 ). In Zc. 14. 20 the word shd. be rendered with 
LXX " Bridles." 

BELLOWS, once only mentioned in Scrip, in 
connection with the smelting of lead (Jr. 6. 29 ). 




Bellows 

the wind to the fire. A man stood with one under 
each foot, pressing them down alternately,pulling up 
the exhausted skin with a string held in the hand. 

BELSHAZZAR. Accdg. to Dn. 5. 30 the last k. 
of Babylon ; he claims Nebuchadnezzar as his fr„ 
(Dn. 5. 13 ) ; in Baruch he is declared associated with 
Nebuchadnezzar on his throne (Ba. I. 12 ). Accdg. 
to MT., B. makes a great " feast for a thousand of 
his lords," in the course of wh. a writing appears on 
the wall wh. is interpreted to mean his overthrow,. 
" that night was B., k. of the Chaldeans, slain." 
The act. in LXX (Chigi) differs fm. MT. in many 
points, most markedly in not asserting that B. died 
the night of the feast. It was thought at one time 
that B. was unhistorical ; Berosus did not mention 
B., but declared the last k. of Babylon to have been 
Nabunahid. The device adopted by Jos. to main- 
tain the historical existence of B. was to ident. him 
with Nabunahid ; others (Niebuhr) held B. to be 
another name of Evil-Merodach. It has been 
found, however, that B. was the name of the eldest 
s. of Nabunahid, and that fm. the 7th to the nth 
yrs. of his fr.'s reign he had to fulfil the functions of 
kingship. That Nebuchadnezzar is called the fr. of 
B. is paralleled by Shalmaneser's calling Jehu the s. 
of Omri. B. appears to have been a gallant soldier ; 
so long as he held the reins Cyrus did not invade 
Babylonia. There is nobility in his treatment of 
Daniel wh. is apt to be forgotten ; although Daniel 
had interpreted the writing on the wall to mean 
judgment on him, he did not because of this, bate 
one jot of the reward he had promised. Dr. Pinches 
(SDB.) computes that he wd. be 57 yrs. of age at 
his death. 

BELTESHAZZAR. The Bab. name of Daniel 
accdg. to MT. All the more anct. W., i.e. LXX, 
Theod., Pesh., Vulg., have the same trltn. of B. and 
Belshazzar. The motive that led the Scribes to 
change Moses (Moshe) into Manasseh, in Jg. 18. 30 ,. 



Ben 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ber 



has induced them to insert " t," to make a difTce. be- 
tween the name of the prophet and that of the k. 
All arguments agst. the authenticity of Dn. based on 
Dn. 4- 8 , MT., are worthless. 

BENAIAH. (i) S. of Jehoiada of Kabzeel in 
Judah, one of David's mighty men, whose deeds are 
recorded in 2 S. 23. 20fl - He was " captain of the 
guard." He remained faithful in. Adonijah's rebel- 
lion, and assisted at the coronation of Solomon. By 
his hand Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei were executed 
(1 K. 2. 25 ' 29ff -' 46 ). (2) B. of Pirathon (2 S. 23. 30 ; 

1 Ch. II. 31 ). Men of this name are mentioned 
(i Ch. 15. 18 ' 24 ; 2 Ch. 20. 14 , 31. 13 , &c). 

BEN-AMI, s. of Lot's younger dr., and ancestor 
of the Ammonites (Gn. 19. 38 ). The LXX and Vlg. 
insert " Amnion," making B. " the s. of my people," 
a phrase explanatory of the name ; this is evidently 
an afterthought. Delitzsch explains Ammon as a 
patronymic fm. B. While the kindred people of 
Moab are always named simply by the name of 
their ancestor, the Ammonites are genly. called 
" bene Ammon." 

BENE BERAK (Jo. 19. 45 ), a town in Dan E. of 
Jaffa, now Ibn Ibrdq. 

BENEFACTOR, Gr. Euergetes, the title dis- 
tinguishing Ptolemy III. and Ptolemy IX., ks. of 
Egp., B.C. 247-222 and B.C. 147-117 respectively. 

BENHADAD, the name of three of the ks. of 
Damascus (Syria). In Asyrn. B. appears as Bar- 
Hadad (Sayce, HBD). B. means, " s. of the god 
Hadad." (i) s. of Tab-Rimmon, ally of Asa (1 K. 
15 , 18 ). (2) S. and successor of (1). He warred with 
Ahab, besieged Samaria unsuccessfully, and was 
decisively defeated at Aphek (i K. 20). In the 
Asyrn. annals he is called Dad-Idri, and heads a 
great confederacy agst. Shalmaneser II. ; Shal- 
maneser claims to have defeated B. and his allies at 
Qarqar. He is prob. the k. of Syria referred to in 

2 K. 5., 6., 7., 8. ; murdered by Hazael (2 K. 8. 15 ). 
(3) S. and successor of Hazael (2 K. 13. 3 ' 25 ). 

BENJAMIN, at whose birth his mr. Rachel died, 
was called by her Benoni, " s. of my sorrow." Such 
a name mt. seem to bode evil, so Jacob called him 
B., " s. of my right hand." He was Jacob's youngest 
s., and figs, almost as the pet of his fr. and brs. In 
all the transactions concerning B. in Egp., these 
latter show up in an attractive light, very gratifying 
to Joseph (Gn. 42., 45.). B. was then, however, no 
mere child. Joseph is represented as about 40, and 
in Gn. 46. 21, 26 , B. himself is the fr. of a family v/hen 
they go down to Egp. 

In the wilderness B. numbered 35,400 men of war 
(Nu. I. 37 ) ; in the plains of Moab 45,600 (Nu. 26. 41 ). 
The position of the tribe on the march was with 
Ephraim and Manasseh, W. of the tent of meeting 
(Nu. 2. 18ff -). Palti represented B. among the spies, 
and the " prince " of B. at the division of the land 
was Elidad, s. of Chislon (Nu. 13. 9 , 34. 21 ). 

6 



The boundaries of B.'s territory were : on the E. 
the Jordan ; the N. fm. Jordan across the plain, up 
the mountain by way of Ai and Bethel, and down to 
Bethhoron the lower ; the W. fm. Bethhoron to 
Kirjath-Jearim, and the S. fm. K.-J. to the N. shore 
of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, including Jrs. (Jo. 
i8. llfl -, P.). " The goodness of the land " on act. of 
wh., accdg. to Jos. (Stct rrjv t^s yrjs dperrjv, Ant. V. 
i. 22), the portion was so small, applied mainly to the 
part in the plains of Jericho. B. thus guarded the 
approaches to the highlands ; that by way of Ai fm. 
the E., and the longer and easier ascents from the 
W., notably that scene of glorious conflicts, by 
Ajalon and Bethhoron ; while he sat astride the 
path connecting N. and S. As was nat. in the cir- 
cumstances, B. produced brave and skilful soldiers, 
esp. archers and slingers. They seem also to have 
cultivated the use of both hands, wh. gave them 
great advantage in battle (1 Ch. 8. 40 , 12. 2 ; Jg. 20. 16 , 
&c). '- The left-handed Ehud was the second de- 
liverer judge (Jg. 3. 15 ). 

A terrible story is told of B. in Jg. 20-21. It is not free 
from difficulties, but clearly reflects some horrible crime, 
and fearful vengeance. The first k. , popularly elected, was 
Saul the Benjamite. His tribe shared his hostility to David, 
as shown by the conduct of Shimei and Sheba (2 S. 16. 5 , 
19. 20 ). At the disruption of the kdm., Jrs. had become 
the capital of the Davidic house, and the S. portion of B. 
natly. amalgamated with Judah. Bethel, however, was in 
the hands of Jeroboam, and belonged finally to the N. kdm. 
We may suppose therefore that some part of the tribe, how 
great we cannot say, joined in the revolt fm. Rehoboam. 

The second of the judges and the first of the ks. were 
Benjamites. But the glory of his career who fell on Gilboa, 
was eclipsed by that of another Saul, who also claimed de- 
scent from B. , to whose enterprise the Gentile world owes, 
under God, the blessings of the gospel. 

BEOR, " torch " or " burning." (1) Fr. of Bela, 
k. of Edom (Gn. 36. 32 ; 1 Ch. i. 43 ). (2) Fr. of 
Balaam (Nu. 22. 5 , &c). 

BERACHAH, RV. BERACAH, "blessing." 

(1) A Benjamite who went to David at Ziklag 
(1 Ch. 12. 3 ). (2) The scene of Jehoshaphat's 
thanksgiving for victory (2 Ch. 20. 26 ) = Breikut, W. 
of Tekoa. 

BEREA, RV. BEROEA. (1) A town in Mace- 
donia, to wh. Paul went when driven fm. Thessa- 
lonica (Ac. iy. im -), c. 50 miles S.W. of the latter 
town. The Jewish community there is well spoken 
of. The town preserves its anct. name, Verria or 
Veria, and is still a place of some importance. 
Sopater, a companion of Paul, was a native of B. 

(2) = Aleppo, see Apocrypha. (3) (1 M. 9. 4 ) = 
Beeroth. 

BERED (Gn. 16. 14 ), accdg. to the Targumists = 
Khalatza, called by Ptolemy Elusa, ident. with 
Khalasah, c. 15 miles S. of Beersheba. 

BERI, a desct. of Asher (i Ch. y. 36 ). Berites 
(Heb. BerJm), poss. the clan descended fm. B. (2 S. 
20. 14 ). The passage in wh. Bs. are mentioned is 
corrupt. 

It is an account of Sheba, s. of Bichri, and his rebellion ; 



Ber 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bet 



And he" jJoab or Shebap ' went through (2 S. 8. 8 ), wh. in I Ch. 18. 8 is called Cun. It lay 

between Damascus and Hamath. An echo of the 
old name is poss. heard in Wady Brissa, in the 
Lebanon, not far from Kadesh on the Orontes. 

BERYL, a precious stone not very clearly identd., 
but supposed to be our topaz. Its Heb. name, tar- 
shish, in all likelihood was given because it was 



EV. render 

all the tribes of Isr. unto Abel and Beth-Maacah " (here 
it is clear fm. v. 15 : cp. 1 K. 15. 20 : that we ought to read 
Abel-Beth-Maacah) "and all the B. ^(LXX ^appi, Psh. 
qerim, Vlg. viri electi, reading Idhurim) ; Driver {Sam. 
p. 264) suggs. Bikrim, "the clansmen of Sheba the s. of 
Bichri," a rdg. wh. necessitates a change of punctuation; 
Lord A. Harvey {Speaker's Commentary) wd. tr. "for- 
tresses " ; " and they were gathered together," the kthib 
reads "and they were despised"; "and they went" (in) 
"after him"— a rendering wh. implies that B. were followers brought im. the bpanisn Iarshish. It appears in 



the fourth row of the High Priest's breastplate. 
BESOR, a torrent S. of Judah (1 S. 3a 9 - 10 ). h. 



of Sheba. 

There is, not far from Abil-el-Qamh (Abel-beth- 

maacah), an Arab vill. Kefr-BirHm, wh. may rep re- may be Wady i Ar i arah (Robinson) or Wady esh- 

sent Berim. Shari'ah (Guthe). 

BERIAH. (1) S. of Asher (Gn. 46. 17 ). (2) S. of BETAH, named with Berothai (2 S. 8. 8 ), called 

Ephraim, born after the death of his brs. " Ezer and Tibhath, prob. correctly, by inversion of the letters 

Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in the (1 Ch. 18. 8 ). 

land slew because they came down to take away BETEN, an unidentd. city in Asher (Jo. 19. 25 ). 

their cattle " (1 Ch. 7. 21 ), who received his name OEJ. places it 8 Rm. miles E. of Ptolemais. 

fm. this calamity (v. 23). He was the ancestor of BETHABARA, RV. BETHANY (Jn. I. 28 ). 



Joshua (v. 27). 



Origen preferred the former rdg., although nearly 
all the copies to wh. he had access had the latter. 
No Bethany E. of the Jordan has been found. 



It is difficult to determine the nat. or date of ^ affair 
wh. led to the death of the brs. of B. ; they may have been 

h'at &£ST3KSf aS" Ei,hertf V t 'h M eLwd th 2s^ Conder (PEFM. II. 39 S.) locates B. at the ford of 

that the event occurred during the residence of Isr. in Egp. 
Another theory is that we have here to do, not with persons, 
but with clans ; and that the slaughter in question took place 



'Abarah, on the Jordan, above the mouth of Nahr 
Jalud, near Beisan. This satisfies all the require- 
after the conquest of the land. Accdg. to tnis view, the ments of the nar. (cp. Sanday, SSG. 23, 35 ; Guthe, 
begetting of B. was the adoption into Ephraim of a portion KB., s.v.). Bethabara = " place of crossing " ; 
of the Asherite clan of B. Though it is plausible, the state- 
ments as to birth of B. are too personal, and the descent of 
Joshua fm. him is mentioned in tco matter of fact a way 
for this theory to be prob. 



Bethany = " place of the boat.' 

BETH-ANATH, " Temple of Anath," in Naph- 

tali (Jg. I. 33 ; Jo. I9. 38 ) = 'Ainatha, 12 miles N. of 

BERNICE, BERENICE, dr. of Agrippa I. and Safed. 

Cypros, dr. of Phasael. A girl of 16, she escaped BETH-ANOTH, in the hill country of Judah 

with difficulty fm. the riot on the death of her fr. (Jo. 15. 59 ), prob. —Beit 'Ainun, 3 miles N. of 

(Ac. 12. 23 ; Jos. Ant. XIX. ix. 1). She was already Hebron. 

married to her uncle Herod of Chalcis, by whom BETHANY. (1) The home of Lazarus and his 
she had two sons. On his death, while in the bloom srs., and of Simon, on the Mt. of Olives (Mw. II. 1 ), 
of her beauty, in her 21st yr., she came to reside with c. 15 furlongs fm. Jrs. (Jn. II. 18 ). This points de- 
her br. Agrippa II., who had succeeded his uncle, finitely to el-' A zany eh, a vill. on the SE. slope, 
her h., as k. of Chalcis. In order to put a stop pleasantly situated among fruit trees, and command- 
to scandalous charges of incest with her br., she ing a wide prospect of the Wilderness of Judea, and 
married Polemo, k. of Pontus. Polemo, enamoured across the Dead Sea. Under the old Convent 
of the wealth if not of the beauty of B., consented to Tower in the centre of the vill. a vault is shown as 
be circumcised. She soon left Polemo and returned the tomb of Lazarus. The anct. tombs lie E. of the 
to her br. at Csesarea Philippi. It was during this vill. It was on the Mt. hard by that Jesus was 
second residence with Agrippa that she accom- parted fm. His disciples (Lk. 24. 50L ). (2) See 
panied him in his visit of courtesy to Festus at Bethabara. 

Caesarea Stratonis (Ac. 25. 13 ), the Roman capital of BETH-ARABAH, on the border of Judah and 

the province of Judea ; and so was present at the Benjamin, in the Dead Sea plain (Jo. 15. 6 ' 61 , 18. 22 , 

examination of Paul. Though much his senior she 18. 18 , ha 'Ardbah), unidentd. 

so fascinated Titus, that but for the opposition of BETH-ARBEL (Ho. io. 14 ), may have been either 

the Roman public he wd. have married her. She Irbel (or Irbid), N. of Tiberias, on the S. lip of Wady 

endeavoured in vain to protect the Jews fm. the Hamdm ; or Irbid, in Gilead, NE. of Pella. The 

cruelties of Florus ; with no more success she strove balance of opinion favours the E. site. 

to dissuade the Jews from making war agst. the BETH-AVEN, " House of Idolatry " or " Noth- 

Romans. The date of her death is not known ingness," in Benjamin, between Bethel and Mich- 



precisely. 



mash, near Ai (Jo. J. 2 , 18. 12 ; I S. 13. 5 ). Hosea 



BERODACH-BALADAN, a scribal blunder in seems to apply this name in mockery and contempt 
2 K. 20. 12 for Merodach-Baladan (Is. 39. 1 ). to Bethel (4. 15 , &c.). 

BEROTHAH (Ek. 47. 16 ), probably = Berothai BETH-AZMAVETH = Azmaveth. 

63 



Bet 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bet 



BETH-BAAL-MEON = Baal-meon. to the stone set up and anointed (Gn. 28. 22 ), but 

BETH-BARAH (Jg. 7- 24 ), prob. = Bethabara. natly. soon attached to the place consecrated by the 

BETH-BEREI (i Ch. 4. 31 ; RV. B.-Beri) is called divinity residing in the Pillar. The sanctuary over- 

Lebaoth in Jo. 15. 32 , 19. 6 . A town in Simeon shadowed in importance the neighbouring town of 

unidentd. Luz, to wh. finally its name was given. Jacob 

BETH-CAR (1 S. 7. 11 , LXX ^aiB^op), whither visited B. again on his return from Padan Aram 




Isr. chased the Phil. ; poss. Beth-horon (KB. s.v.). (Gn. 35. : for critical analysis and discussion, see 

Driver, LOT . and Genesis). 

When Isr. came B. had a k. (Jo. 12. 16 ). It was 
allotted to Benjamin (Jo. 18. 22 ), but not occupied ; 
and later it was captured by Ephraim (Jg. I. 22 ; 
1 Ch. 7- 28 ). The headquarters of Isr. were moved 
fm. Gilgal to B., and for a time the Ark rested here 
(Jg. 20. 18 , LXX), and B. became a place of sacrifice 
(1 S. io. 3 ). Near B. was the home of Deborah 
(Jg. 4. 5 ). It was one of the towns in Samuel's cir- 
cuit (1 S. 7. 16 ). Here Jeroboam set up the golden 
calf, intending the shrine and ritual to rival those 
of Jrs. It was the residence of the priests of the 
high places, and the most important sanctuary in the 
N. kdm. (1 K. I2. 29ff - ; Am. 7. 13 ). Fitly enough it 
was here that Jeroboam heard the prophet's denun- 

Beth-Arbel (Irbel, in Galilee) dation of doQm ^ R> ^ ^ j t was captured by 

BETH-DAGON. (1) A town in the Shephelah Abijah,k. of Judah (2 Ch. 13. 19 ). For the prophetic 

(Jo. IS- 41 ), the mod. Beit Dejan, c. 6 miles SE. of attitude to B., see Jr. 48. 13 , Am. 3. 14 , &c. BethAven 

Jaffa. (2) On the border of Asher (Jo. 19. 27 ), for is the name it deserves. Despite the idolatry, how- 

wh. Conder suggs. Tell D'auk, near the mouth of ever, a school of the prophets flourished here (2 K. 

the Belus, S. of Acre. 2. 2f -), and near by, bears avenged the insult to Elisha 

BETH-DIBLATHAIM (Jr. 48. 22 ) poss. = Al- (2 K. 2. 23 ). The priest who taught the people im- 

mon-D., the station between Dibon-Gad and Nebo ported by Asyr. resided here (2 K. I7. 28ff -). As the 

(Nu. 33. 46f> ), unidentd. Samaritans place B. on Mt. Gerizim, Conder thinks 

BETH-EDEN. See Eden. the priest may have lived there (Tent Work, 25 1). It 

BETHEL, the mod. Beitln, on the N. road, c. 12 was occupied after the Exile (Ez. 2. 28 , &c), fortified 

miles fm. Jrs., a poor vill. of c. 400 inhabitants, by Bacchides (1 M. 9. 50 ), and disappears fm. hist. 

crowning a slight eminence. Four springs and a with its capture by Vespasian (BJ. IV. ix. 9). (2^ An 

rock-hewn reservoir to the S. afford a plentiful unidentd. town in Judah, variously spelled, Bethul, 

r Bethel, and Bethuel (Jo. 19. 4 ; I S. 30. 27 ; I Ch. 4. 30 ). 

BETH-EMEK, an unidentd. town in Zebulun 
E. of Acre (Jo. 19. 27 ). 

BETHER (SS. 2. 17 , AVm. "division," RVm. 
"perhaps the spice malobathron"). In Jo. 15. 59 , 
LXX. A. reads jSatdr/p, and I Ch. 6. 59 /3aid6r)p, as 
cities in the SW. of Jrs. At B. the Rms. quenched 
the rebellion of Bar Kochba in Jewish blood. It is 
now Bittir, c. 6 miles S W. of Jrs. (see Milman, Hist, 
of the Jews, 434*?.). 

BETHESDA. " There is in Jrs. by the sheep 
gate a pool, wh. is called in Heb. Bethesda, having 
five porches " (Jn. 5. 2 ). We shd. read, " There are 
in Jrs. at the sheep-pool, wh. is called in Heb. 
supply of water, but the uplands around are bleak Bezatha (or Bethzatha), five porches." Bethesda wd. 
and stony. Here Abraham built an altar (Gn. 12. 8 ). be Aram, for beth-hesdd, " place of compassion " : 
On a point to the E. commanding an extensive view, Bezatha mt. be the well-known name of a quarter of 
including the plains of Jericho, prob. Abraham Jrs. N. of the Sanctuary (see Jerusalem). The pool 
parted with Lot (Gn. 13). To Jacob's visit and of this quarter wd. then be intended. But the 
experience B. owed its name (Gn. 28. 10ff- ). " The writer may have understood the word as Aram. 
place " may mean the spot where Abraham sacri- beth setha, " place of the sheep." 
ficed (cp. Arb. maqam). The name at first applied The pool was prob. square, with a porch on each 

64 





PEF. Pho 



Sacred Stone Circle near Bethel 



Bet 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bet 



side, and a causeway dividing the pool into two 
parts, with a fifth porch in the middle. So Cyrill 
of Jrs. understood it. In his time the pool was 
shown, under the name of the Twin-pools, in the 
NE. quarter of Jrs., not far from the position of the 
old sheep gate. Part of this double pool was found 
again in 1888, near the present Church of St. Anne. 
The Gospel gives no clear indication as to the 
position of the pool ; nothing, therefore, can be 
said agst. this old identn. Only in later times was 
Birket Isro'ln, the large pool on the northern boun- 
dary of the present sanctuary, taken for Bethesda. 
It prob. belongs to Roman Jrs. G. H. Dalman. 



Jordan, " Place of the Partridge " {cp. Arb. hajal), 
now l Ain Hajleb, with the adjoining monastery 
Qasr Hajleh, SE. of Jericho. 

BETH-HORON. Upper and Lower B.-H. 
corrspd. to the mod. Beit i Ur el-Foqah, and Beit c Ur 
et-Tahtah (Jo. 16. 3 ' 5 ). They were on the border of 
Benjamin and Ephraim, but assigned to the latter 
(Jo. i8. 13 > 14 , 21. 22 ). Fm. el-Jib (Gibeon), 6 miles 
N. of Jrs., there is an ascent of 6 miles to B.-H. the 
upper, on the highest point of a ridge, down wh. 
there is a rough descent of c. 4 miles, past B.-H. the 
lower, towards the plain. They command the most 
important approach fm. Sharon to the central up- 




Photo, Bonfils Bethlehem 

BETH-EZEL (Mi. I. 11 ), an unidentd. town, lands. They were therefore repeatedly fortified 

poss. in the Phil, plain. It may be = Azel (Ze. 14. 5 ). (1 Ch. y. 2i ; 1 K. 9. 17 ; 2 Ch. 8. 5 ; 1 M. 9. 50 ; 

BETH-GADER (1 Ch. 2. 51 ), poss. = Geder (Jo. Jth. 4> 5 ). Down these rugged steeps were driven 

I2. 13 ). in rout the Amorites (Jo. IO. 10 ), the Syrians under 

BETH-GAMUL (Jr. 48. 23 ) = Umm el-Jamal, S. Seron, and again under Nicanor (1 M. 3. 13ffi , 7. 39ff -), 

of Medeba. and the Romans under Cestius Gallus (BJ. II. xix. 

BETH-GILGAL (Ne. 12. 29 ), poss. = Gilgal, near 8, 9). Hither also turned a company of the Phil. 

Jericho. agst. Saul (1 S. 13. 18 ). 

BETH-HACCEREM, RV. B.-HACCHEREM BETH-JESHIMOTH, the S. limit of Isr.'s camp 

(Ne. 3. 14 ; Jr. 6. 1 ), " Place of the Vineyard," near E. of Jordan (Nu. 33. 49 ; Jo. 12. 3 ). It was allotted 

Tekoa, and suitable for a beacon, may be the Hero- to Reuben (Jo. 13. 20 ), but appears in Ek. 25. 9 as a 

dium S. of Bethlehem, or i Ain Kdrim, W. of Jrs. city of Moab. It is prob. l Ain Suweimeh, c. I mile 

(Conder). • fm. the NE. corner of the Dead Sea. 

BETH-HARAM, AV. wrongly BETH-ARAM BETH-LE-APHRAH, AV. HOUSE OF APH- 

(Jo. 13. 27 ; Nu. 32. 36 ; " Beth-Haran," Jos. Ant. RA (Mi. I. 10 ), an unidentd. Phil. town. 

XIV. i. 4 ; cp. XVIII. ii. 1), now Tell er-Rdmeb, on BETH-LEBAOTH, " House of Lionesses " (Jo. 

the S. bank of Wddy Hesbdn, c. 6 miles E. of Jordan. 19. 6 ) = Beth-Berei (i Ch. 4. 31 ), a town in Simeon. 

BETH-HOGLAH; in Benjamin (Jo. 18. 21 ), near BETHLEHEM, the anct. Ephrath or Ephrathah 

65 C 



Bet 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bet 



(Gn. 35- ] 



Jo. 15. 59 , LXX), in Judah, lies (Mw. 2 1. 1 , &c). Clermont-Ganneau suggs. Kefi 



c. 5 miles S. of Jrs., on a double knoll with steep et-Tur, on Olivet. 

sides N. and S. It is a town of some 5000 inhabi- BETH-REHOB, a town by the valley in wh. 

tants, mostly Christians, industrious tradespeople, Laish, subsequently Dan, lay (Jg. 18. 28 ; 2 S. io. 6 ). 

who make a good livelihood by selling their carved Some think it may be the anct. name of Banias. 

work in olive wood, mother-of-pearl, &c, to pil- BETHSAIDA. (1) A town in Lower Gaulonitis 

grims and tourists. The Church of the Nativity, 

E. of the town, is the oldest Christian church in 

use to-day. The roof is English oak, the gift of 

Edward III. The traditional spot of the Nativity 

is in a cave under the church. In an adjoining 

apartment, tradition says, St. Jerome wrote the 

Vulgate. 

At B. Rachel died. It was the home of Boaz and 
Ruth, and seems to have been fm. old time in 
friendly connection with Moab (Ru, passim, I S. 
22 3 - 4 ). Here dwelt the family of David. When 
garrisoned by the Phil, three mighty men brake {^nt. XVIII. 11. I, &c), near the shore of the Sea 
through their ranks, and brought David water fm. of Galilee, adorned by Philip, and called Julias, 
the well (2 S 2i 14ff -), wh. tradition idents. with a m honour of the Emperor's dr. It is mentioned 

Lilt VVW1 l^ w. *j. ,, 




Bethsaida of Galilee (?) 




in Lk. 9. 10 , prob. also in Mk. 



Schumacher, 



Bethsaida Julias, from the Jordan 

cistern NW. of the town. It was fortified by Reho- 
boam (2 Ch. n. 6 ), and reoccupied after the Exile 
(Ez. 2. 21 ; Ne. 7- 26 ). It is enshrined in affectionate 
remembrance for all time as the birthplace of Jesus. 
(2) B. in Zebulun = Beit Lehm, c. 7 miles NW. of 
Nazareth. 

BETH-MAACAH (2 S. 2o. 14 - 15 ) = Abel I. 

BETH-MARCABOTH, an unidentd. city near 
Ziklag, in Simeon (Jo. 19. 5 ; 1 Ch. 4. 31 ). 

BETH-MEON = Baal-Meon. 

BETH-MERHAK, AV. " a place that was far 
off," poss. the city boundary (2 S. 15. 17 ). 

BETH-MILLO. See Millo. 

BETH-NIMRAH, " Place of the Leopard " (Nu. 
32. 3 " Nimrah," v. 36 ; Jo. 13. 27 ), now fell Nimrln, 
on the edge of the plain E. of Jericho. 



the best authority for this district, draws atten- 
tion to the good road connecting el-Araj on the 
shore, with et-Tell, fully a mile inland, on higher 
ground {The Jaulan, p. 246), and asks if el-'Araj mt. 
not be the fishing village, and et-Tell the princely 
residence — a suggn. which Sanday attributes to 
Guthe (SSG. 48 n.). He inclines, however, to ident. 
B. with el-Mes'adJyek, fully a mile and a half E. of 
the mouth of the Jordan. (2) B. of Galilee (Jn. 
12. 21 ), the home of Philip, Andrew, and Peter (Jn. 
I. 44 ), poss. also of James and John. It is referred to 
in Mk. 6. 35ff - No site bearing this name has been 
discovered, and the early pilgrims say nothing of it. 
But in the lapse of cents, a prob. insignificant vill. 
mt. disappear — it may have been but the " fisher 
town " of Capernaum — while the name, like that of 
Salim, mt. wander to a neighbouring shrine. In 
Sheikh c Aly es-Saiyadln, " Sheikh 'Aly of the 





Bethsaida of Galilee (Colony at et-Tabigha) 



BETH-PALET, RV. B.-PELET, a town S. of Fishermen," on the rocky side of Tell 'Areimeh, E. 



Beersheba (Jo. 15. 27 , &c). 



of Khan Minyeh, there is prob. an echo of the anct. 



BETH-PAZZEZ, an unidentd. town in Issachar name. B. may yet be found either at et-Tabigha, or 
(Jo. 19. 21 ). at Khan Minyeh itself, if Capernaum be finally 

BETH-PEOR (Dt. 3. 29 , &c). S^Peor. identd. with Tell Hum (or Talhum, as Macalister 

BETHPHAGE, an unidentd. vill. near Bethany suggs.). 

66 



Bet 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bet 



Some have tried to prove that B. of Galilee was in Gaulo- 
nitis, and was in fact ident. with B. Julias (Guthe, KB. s.v. ; 
G. A. Smith, HJHL., 459 ; Sanday, SSG. and DCG., s.v. 
Capernaum). The argument seems to be that Jos. places 
Gamala, a fortress midway down the E. shore of the Sea of 
Galilee, now in Gaulonitis, and again in Galilee. If this was 
the usage of the time, the Evangelist mt. quite legitimately 
describe Julias, wh. lay between Gamala and the Jordan, on 
the very border of the province, as " B. of Galilee." 

The passages cited fm. Jos. really tell the other way. Judas 
is spoken of as a " Gaulonite" of Gamala {Ant. XVIII. i. 
1), while elsewhere he is called a " Galilean." But it is not 
unusual to describe a man as belonging to the district most 
closely identd. with his life, even if he were not born there. 
There is nothing to support the theory here. 

Jos. was placed in command of the two Galilees, and 
Gamala was added to his jurisdiction {BJ. II. xx. 4). If 
Gamala had been in Galilee, there wd. have been no need to 
specify it separately. But, to make the matter certain, the 
following paragraph says that " in Gaulonitis he fortified 
Seleucia, and Sogane and Gamala." It wd. have been im- 
poss. in any case, fm. the special arrangements made in view 
of war, to infer that, at an earlier date, B. Julias was in Gali- 
lee, even if Philip had not given such convincing proof that 
it belonged to his tetrarchy. 

The boundaries of Galilee are specified in BJ. III. iii. 1. 
There, obviously, the Sea is reckoned to Galilee, and the dis- 
tricts adjoiningit to the E. are named, Gaulonitis amongthem. 



natural use in the circumstances — can hardly shake the in- 
ference fm. the uniform usage in NT. 

Further, there is no suggn. that the disciples had been 
driven out of their course, when they found themselves over 
agst. "the land of Gennesaret" (Mk. 6. 53 ). This wd. have 
implied a wind from the E. But if their course was from 
point to point along the E. and NE. shcre, an E. wind wd. 
not have distressed them, and certly. cd. never have blown 
them out to sea. It is clear that they were rowing agst. 
contrary winds. The time occupied — from evening till the 
fourth watch — some 8 or 9 hours, wd. be absurd if their 
objective were B. Julias. But toiling in the teeth of a storm 
from the W. , such as one often sees tc-day, it is quite intel- 
ligible. This points definitely to a site for B. of Galilee near 
or in the Plain of Gennesaret. 

It is to be remembered also that in the time of Christ, B. 
Julias was one of those centres of Greek influence, wh. He is 
never known to have entered. It is therefore unlikely that 
He wd. send His disciples thither. 

The " scene of the miracle" on the E. of the Lake is of 
course not fixed with any definiteness. An inference based 
on the assumption that it is known is therefore futile (San- 
day, DCG., s.v. Capernaum, end of par. 4). Even if the 
two Bs. were only 3 or 4 miles apart, they belonged to difft. 
jurisdictions. When we remember how frequently names 
are repeated in Pal. , we need not wonder if ' ' Fisher Home " 
appeared twice, in each case marking a gcod fishing ground. 
There are two Safeds in Galilee to-day. 




Beth-Shan : Citadel Mound 



BETH-SHEAN, BETH-SHAN, at the E. end of 
the vale of Jezreel, on the S. bank of Nahr Jalud, 
where it sinks into the Jordan Valley, the mod. 
Beisdn. It was a city in Issachar, assigned to Man- 
asseh (Jo. I7. llff - ; Jg. I. 27 ). The Can. were 



not 



Finally, Gamala is described as a part of Lower Gaulonitis, 
when Vespasian advanced to besiege it {BJ. IV. i. 1). The 
testimony of Jos. is perfectly clear. Gamala, although joined 
to his command, was never regarded as being in Galilee. 
The proof of the theory therefore, as far as it rests on Jos., 
entirely breaks down. 

It is nothing to the purpose to cite Ptolemaeus (a.D. 140) to 
the effect that Julias was in Galilee (Dr. Furrer, quoted by driven out, but when Isr." became strong they were 
Saaday SSG. 95), since among other changes in the inter- get tQ tas k_ wor ^ The Phil, held it after Saul's de- 
val, Julias was definitely attached to Galilee in A.D. 84 ... n 

(Smith, HJHL. 459 n.). f eat on Gilboa, and here exposed the bodies 01 him- 

Dr. Sanday thinks that the words in Mk. 6.45 have been self and his sons (i S. 3I. 7ff ")- Here Jonathan eluded 
too strictly interpreted. He reminds us that the Gospel , f TVvnho (l M 12 *°) It was called 

"was prob. written at Rome and that its author was a tne snares 01 iryptio {I 1V1. 12. ). it was called 
native of Jrs., not of Galilee. We cannot be surprised if Scythopohs by the Greeks. After a chequered hist, 
his lang. on topographical points lacks precision." But is j t was re built by Gabinius (Ant. XIV. v. 3), and was 
it not just in this Gospel that we shd. expect precision on , , . • 1 t-v v \*r r t j /w 

such points, if it embodies the recollections of Peter? He tne onl 7 Clt 7 m the -Decapolis W. of Jordan {BJ. 
was not likely to convey wrong impressions of the scenes of 
his boyhood and young manhood, or of the sea wh. he knew 
so well. 

With all respect for the judgment of the scholars named, 
it is difficult to believe that sis to nipav cd. ever have been 
used of a point a little way along the shore, with no dis- 
tinct bay (Guthe) to cross, -nipo-v has a sufficiently definite 
meaning, " the other side " of river or of lake. In no other 
cisci in NT. cd. it well be rendered as these scholars suggest. Shemesh T 
As Dr. Sanday courteously implies that those who oppose 
his view have invented a second B. to support their own, it 
may not be out of place to ask if this interpretation wd. ever 
have been heard of, but for the somewhat shaky theory it is 
brought to buttress. The citation of the verb Siairepatdco, used 
of a voyage from Tiberias to Tarichaea (Jos. Vit. 59)— a 



III. ix. 7). Jos. mentions its heathen inhabitants 
{Vita, 6). The Mishna (Avoda Zarah, i. 4) notes it 
as containing an idol. It is now occupied by a 
colony of Circassians. 

BETH-SHEMESH, " House " or " Temple of 
the Sun." (1) B.-S. in Judah (Jo. 15. 10 , &c. = Ir 
). 19. 41 ), the mod. i Ain Shems, 15 miles 
W. of Jrs. It was assigned to " the sons of Aaron." 
Here the Ark rested (1 S. 6.), and Amaziah was cap- 
tured (2 K. 14. 11 ' 13 , &c). Under Ahaz it was taken 
by the Phil. (2 Ch. 28. 18 ). (2) An unidentd. city in 



67 



Bet 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bis 



Issachar (Jo. 19. 22 ). (3) An unidentd. city in 
Naphtali (Jo. 19. 38 ). (4) A place of idolatrous wor- 
ship in Egp. (Jr. 43. 13 ), the famous city of Heliopolis, 
known in the Middle Ages as l Ain Shems. 

BETH-SHITTAH,aplacepastwh.theMidianites 
fled (Jg. 7- 22 ), prob. Shutta, in the vale of Jezreel. 

BETH-TAPPUAH, "* Place of Apples," a town 
in Judah (Jo. 15. 53 ) = Taffuh, W. of Hebron, forti- 
fied by Bacchides (1 M. 9. 50 ). 

BETHUEL. See Bethel. 

BETHUEL, s. of Nahor, fr. of Rebecca and 
Laban (Gn. 22. 23 , &c). 

BETH-ZUR, a town in Judah (Jo. 15. 58 ), forti- 
fied by Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 7 ), and reoccupied after 
the Exile (Ne. 3. 16 ). Here Judas defeated Lysias 
(1 M. 4. 29 ' 61 , " Bethsura "). Taken by Antiochus 
Eupator (1 M. 6. 31, 50 ), it was fortified by Bacchides 
(1 M. 9. 52 ). It fell into the hands of Simon Mac, 
b.c. 140 (1 M. ii. 65 , 14. 33 ). It is the mod. Beit 
Sur, W. of the Hebron road, near Halhul. 

BETONIM, a town in Gad (Jo. 13. 26 ), poss. 
Batneh, SW. of es-Salt. 

BETROTH. See Marriage. 

BEULAH (" married," of the woman), applied to 
Pal. (Is. 62. 4 " 5 ), to wh. God turns again " with a 
love as strong and deep as the first love of a bridal 
pair " (Delitzsch, ad loc.). 

BEZALEEL, the principal architect of the 
Tabernacle in the wilderness, and the principal 
artificer under whose superintendence the various 
articles used in the Tabernacle worship were made, 
and the structure itself erected. In Ex. 31. 2 we are 
told that God called him to the work. He was the 
s. of Uri the s. of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 

BEZEK. (1) In Judah (Jg. I. 5 ), prob. Bezkah, W. 
of Jrs. (2) Where Saul assembled his army (1 S. II. 8 ), 
prob. Khirbet Ibzik, c. 14 miles NE. of Ndblus. 

BEZER, a city of refuge in Reuben, in the 
Mishor, or tableland E. of Jordan (Dt. 4» 43 ; Jo. 
20. 8 , &c.), poss. ident. with Bozrah. 

BIBLE. See Scripture. 

BIER. See Burial. 

BILDAD, one of Job's three friends. He is called 
a Shuhite — a term that implies that he was a desct. 
of Abraham through Shuah his s. by Keturah. In 
the LXX, tyrannus, " ' ruler ' of the Saucheans." In 
the dialogue he speaks after Eliphaz and before 
Zophar ; in char., too, his speeches are inter- 
mediate between the polished eloquence of the first 
of the interlocutors, and the blunt coarseness of 
the third. 

BILEAM = IBLEAM (1 Ch. 6. 70 ; Jo. 17. 11 , &c), 
a Levite city in Manasseh = Bel'ameh, \ mile S. of 
Jenin. 

BILHAH. (1) Rachel's slave, mr. of Dan and 
Naphtali (Gn. 29« 29 , &c). (2) A city in Simeon 
(1 Ch. 4. 29 ) = Baalah (Jo. 15. 20 ), Balah (Jo. 19. 3 ), and 
Baalath (Jo. 19. 44 ), unidentd. 



BIRD, and FOWLS, stand for three words in OT., 
l oph, " a flying creature," l ayit 9 " a bird of prey," 
tzippor, " a twittering bird " ; and for two in the 
NT., peteinon, " a flying creature," and orneon, " a 
ravening bird." In our Lord's parable of the Sower 
Bs. represent evil (so Rv. 18. 2 ; Jr. 5J 27 ). Bs. are 
also the symbol of transitoriness (Ho. 9. 11 ). Though 
song-Bs. are not a prominent feature of the E., yet 
the song of the B. is a sign of spring (SS. 2. 12 ). Fowls 
were supposed to be specially endowed with wis- 
dom (Jb. 28. 21 ). 

BIRTH. Childbirth seems to have been easy 
among the Hebs., as it still is among Oriental 
women, esp. the Arb. (Ex. I. 19 ). The " birth stool " 
(RV.), on wh. the mr. sat in labour, is still occa- 
sionally in use, but the common attitude is kneeling 
on the knees. Midwives were in attendance. The 
child was washed, salted, and wrapped in swaddling 
clothes (Ek. 16. 4 ), a custom wh. still prevails. An 
Eastern friend once hinted to the present writer the 
opinion that Europeans have a peculiar odour, be- 
cause they are not salted in infancy ! In early times 
the mr. suckled her children (Gn. 2 1. 7 ), but in later 
days resort was had to nurses, esp. by the better 
classes (2 S. 4. 4 ; 2 K. 1 1. 2 , &c). In NT. times the 
name was given to boys at circumcision on the 8th 
day (Lk. I. 89 , 2. 21 ). In earlier times there is no 
trace of this custom, the name being given at birth 
by mr. or fr. (Gn. 16. 15 , 29. 32 , &c). The birth of a 
s. rendered the mr. unclean for 40 days, that of a 
dr. for 80 days. Similar provisions existed among 
other nations, e.g. among the Greeks (HA. 1475.). 

BIRTHDAY. The ks. of Egp. were accustomed 
to celebrate Bs. with feasts (Gn. 40. 20 ). Fm. 
Jb. I. 4 we gather that the practice was common. 
The customs of Persians and Greeks are alluded to 
in Herod, i. 133, 2 M. 6. 7 , Jos. Ant. II. v. 3. And 
in NT. (Mw. 14. 6 ; Mk. 6. 21 ), Herod Antipas makes 
a feast for his lords on his B. 

BIRTHRIGHT. See Family. 

BIRZAVITH, RV. BIRZAITH, a town in 
Asher (1 Ch. 7. 31 ), poss. =Bir ez-Zeit, near Tyre. 

BISHOP represents the Gr. episkopos, " overseer," 
the title of the officials sent by Athens to superin- 
tend the affairs of her subject allies. As ekklesia, the 
Gr. word trd. Church, means primarily the as- 
sembly of the citizens of a Gr. Republic for the 
transaction of business, and the council that pre- 
pared business for this Assembly was a Gerusia, the 
members of wh. were called " presbyters " or 
" elders " ; it is a seductive idea that there was fm. 
the beginning an Episkopos, representing the Church 
universal, or, in stricter analogy with Hellenic 
notions, the Church at Jrs. As a matter of fact 
it seems cert, that at first Bs. and Elders or Presby- 
ters were identl. (1) The same persons are called 
" elders " and " bishops " (Ac. 20., cp. vv. 17-28, and j 
Tt. 1., cp. vv. S-7)- (2) " Bishops " and " elders " 



68 



Bit 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bio 



are never united in the same clause as if they filled 
different offices, as Bs. and deacons are (Php. I. 1 ). 
(3) " Elders" are exhorted to exercise the functions 
of a "bishop," episkopein. The same identy. of Bs. 
with Elders is implied in Clem. Rom. XLII. and 
XLIV. In the Epist. of Ignatius first does the B. 
appear separate from the eldership, though here the 
B. is pastor of one congregation (ekklesia) ; the 
Elders are compared to a " garland " {Stephanos) 
round him ; so J post. Const. II. 

From this the evolution of the diocesan Bishop 
was easy and natural. The times of persecution 
and heresy which followed called for a monarchical 
constitution in the separate churches. For this 
development the Church may have had apostolic 
authority. 

BIT, BRIDLE, Heb. resen, metheg; EV. render 
both words " bridle " ; once only (Ps. 32. 9 ) metheg 
is trd. " bit." Re sen is clearly the Arb. rasan, 
" halter " ; while metheg prob. corrspds. to It jam, 
"bit." Mahsom (Ps. 39. 1 ) shd. be "muzzle." 
Chalinos (Js. 3. 3 ) is a bit or curb. 

BITHIAH, an Egpn. princess (1 Ch. 4. 18 ), w. of 
Mered. She is distinguished fm. another w. called 
" the Jewess," and may have been a convert. Her 
name signifies " dr." or " worshipper of J"." 

BITHYNIA, a district in the NW. corner of 
Asia Minor, named fm. the Thracian immigrants, 
the Bithynians. It was left to the Rms. by Nico- 
medes III., b.c 74. It was joined with Pontus in 
a single province, wh. Augustus made Senatorial, 
b.c 64. It was not visited by Paul (Ac. 16. 7 ). 
There were Jews in B. (1 P. I. 1 ), and the younger 
Pliny gives to the Emperor Trajan an act. of the 
Christians there (Ep. ad Traj. 96, 97). 

BITTER HERBS. The eating of a salad of B. H. 
with the lamb and unleavened bread (Ex. 12. 8 ; Nu. 
9. 11 ) was in line with immemorial practice in the 
East. The watercress, the pepper-grass, the endive 
are plentiful and genly. used. They were pre- 
scribed, doubtless, because they cd. be swiftly pro- 
cured. 

BITTER WATER. The ordeal of jealousy (Nu. 
5. 11 ' 31 ). Holy water was taken by the priest, and 
dust from the floor of the Tabernacle was strewed on 
it ; then the woman suspected of adultery was made 
to drink it, calling down curses on herself, if guilty. 
If she had been unfaithful, disease of a loathsome 
kind fell upon her ; if innocent, she bore children. 
This ordeal was really a protection of the innocent 
agst. the insane jealousy of the Oriental. 

BITTERN (Heb. qippod), AV. ; RV. trs. " por- 
cupine." There is considerable difficulty in decid- 
ing between these two renderings. In favour of AV. 
are : (1) the habits attributed to the B., e.g. frequent- 
ing marshes (Is. 14. 23 ), " lodging in the upper lin- 
tels " of desolate houses (Zp. 2. 14 ) ; (2) it is associ- 
ated in Is. 34. 11 and in Zp. 2. 14 with qa'ath, " cor- 



morant," wh. is certly. a bird ; (3) Aq. trs. " pelican" 
and Thd. " swan." In favour of RV. are : (1) the 
apparent meaning of the word fm. its etymology ; 
(2) the fact that the corrspdg. word in Aram, and 
Arb. means " porcupine," or " hedgehog " ; (3) the 
LXX and the Vlg. both tr. by words meaning 
" hedgehog " ; (4) the Psh. and the Tg. tr. by the 
etymological equivalent in Aram., wh. means " por- 
cupine " or " hedgehog." On the whole we prefer 
the RV., as the descriptions of the habits of the B. in 
the poetical passages quoted are slightly ambiguous, 
while the etymological evidence is strong and un- 
ambiguous. 

BLACK. See Colour. 

BLAINS. See Diseases. 

BLASPHEMY. See Crimes and Penalties. 

BLEMISH. (1) Bodily defects wh. rendered an 
Aaronite incapable of fulfilling the priest's office 
(Lv. 2 1. 17 " 21 ). (2) Defects in animals wh. made 
them unfit for sacrifice (Lv. 22. 20-25 ). Accdg. to the 
Talmudists the Priest mt. suffer fm. fifty specified 
Bs. ; the animal fm. seventy-three. 

BLESSING and CURSING. (1) Effective; 
divine B. or C, thus God blessed " the house of 
Obed-Edom " (2 S. 6. 11 ) ; on the other hand God 
declared Cain cursed (Gn. 4. 11 ). (2) Indirect ; 
prayer or imprecation. In the East, the efficiency of 
B. or C. for good or ill is universally believed in. 
There poss. was an element of this in Jacob's eager- 
ness to gain his father's B., and his dread lest, his de- 
ception being discovered, his father shd. curse him 
(Gn. 27. 10 - 13 ). So with Micah (Jg. 17. 1 - 3 ), and 
Balak, and Balaam (Nu. 22. 6 ), B. and C. were to be 
put on Mts. Gerizim and Ebal respectively (Dt. 
II. 26 * 27 ). The priests were to bless the children of 
Isr. (Nu. 6. 23 " 27 ) : this was done after the morning 
and evening sacrifices. (3) Declarative ; blessing 
God (Gn. 14. 20 ; Ne. 8. 6 ; Dn. 2. 19 ). It shd. be 
noted that injb. 2. 9 , where AV. has" Curse God and 
die," the word used is barak, " bless " ; RV. gives 
the idea " renounce " ; the lit. rendering wd. be 
" bless," the meaning being " take good-bye of." 

BLINDING. See Crimes and Penalties. 

BLINDNESS. See Diseases. 

BLOODisidentd.with"thelife"(Lv.l7. 11 ),hence 
its sacredness in the eyes of the Isr. This idea ap- 
pears to have been held beyond the limits of Isr., as 
the dependent idea of sacrificial Atonement is so 
widely spread. Further, fm. this flowed the idea 
that blood wantonly shed, even that of a beast, 
brought a curse (Lv. 17. 4 ) ; the guilt of murder lay 
in the shedding of " man's blood " (Gn. 9- 6 ). 
Bloodguiltiness (lit. " bloods "), murder {cp. Gn. 
9. 5 , 42. 22 ; Pr. 28. 17 ). The attempt to use Ek. 3. 18 
to soften the meaning of Ps. 51. 14 seems as absurd as 
it wd. be to make " murder " mean merely " hate " 
in Lk. 23. 19 , because in 1 Jn. 3. 15 it is said, " Whoso- 
ever hateth his br. is a murderer." Fm. this also 



69 



Bio 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bon 



followed the prohibition of B. as an article of Food 
(Lv. 7. 26 , 17. 13 ). The Blood of Christ = His Aton- 
ing work (Mw. 26. 28 ) ; this is prominent in the Epp. 
(Eph. 2. 13 ; 1 P. i. 19 ; 1 Jn. I.' ; Rv. I. 5 ). Blood, 

Avenger of (goel). Shd. a person be killed, it was 
the duty of the eldest in the clan to take vengeance 
by slaying the slayer, whether the death were the re- 
sult of accident or intention. It was to limit this 
that the Cities of Refuge were instituted. The 
thought of the East has changed in regard to man- 
slaughter : it is no longer the horror of the shedding 
of blood that is prominent ; it is the loss of the fight- 
ing strength of the clan ; hence, to equalise matters, 
a man of the clan to wh. the slayer belonged must be 
killed, whoever it is. Monetary compensation to 
some extent implies the same idea. The anct. Gr. 
idea is more in accordance with the Jewish, e.g. the 
case of Adrastus (Herod. I. 35). 

BLOOD, ISSUE OF; BLOODY FLUX. See 
Diseases. 

BLUE. See Colour. 

BOANERGES, the name given by our Lord to 
the sons of Zebedee and explained to mean " Sons 
of Thunder " (Mk. 3. 17 ). This title may have been 
given to James and John because of their vehement 
zeal which led them to desire to call down " fire fm. 
heaven " on those Samaritans who refused to re- 
ceive their Master (Lk. 9. 55 ). There has been a 
difficulty as to the precise Aram, words that this 
term represents, but in the Sinaitic Palimpsest 
(Lewis), B. appears as Beni-Ragshi without any ex- 
planation following, proving that the word was in- 
telligible to Palestinians ; the diffce. in the vowel 
may be due to an attempt to represent the broader 
pronunciation of Galilee. ^T!, properly " tumult," 
mt. have " thunder " as a secondary meaning, altho' 
no other example survives. 

BOAR (Heb. hazir, Arb. khanslr), occurs only in 
Ps. 80. 13 of the wild animal ; the Heb. word is found 
other six times, but always apparently of the 
domestic swine. The wild boar is still fairly common, 
esp. in the thickets near the Jordan. 

BOAT. See Ship. 

BOAZ, a pillar standing in front of Solomon's 
Temple, prob. as obelisks in front of Egpn. temples. 
It has the same name as the ancestor of Solomon, 
but whether it was so named because of him is not 
cert. 

BOAZ, a wealthy land-owner in Bethlehem, the 
benefactor, and then the h. of Ruth (Ru. 2ff.), an 
ancestor of David, and so of Christ (Ru. 4. 17 ; Mw. 
I. 5 ; Lk. 3 . 32 ). 

BODY. No word in early times stands for the 
complete bodily organism, altho' various members 
are named. " Flesh " in Scrip, indicates the 
material or bodily part of man. Botte homer, 
" houses of clay " (Jb. 4. 19 ), may mean " clay huts," 
but perhaps more natly., the dwellings of the human 



spt., i.e. " bodies," corrspdg. to 2 Cor. 5. 1 . Geshem 
(Dn. 3. 27 , 4. 30 ), and nidneh, lit. " sheath " (Dn. 7. 15 ), 
are used for the body. In NT. soma stands for the 
complete body as distinguished fm. the spt., each 
being regarded as an essential constituent in the 
nat. of man (Laidlaw, HDB., s.v.). 

BOILS. See Diseases. 

BOLLED. " The flax was boiled," RV. " was in 
bloom," i.e. about the latter half of Feb. (Ex. 9. 31 ). 

BOLSTER (1 S. 19. 13 , &c), invariably in RV. 
" head." 

BOND, BONDAGE, BONDMAN, BOND- 
MAID, BOND-SERVANT, BOND-WOMAN, 
BOND-SERVICE. Although slavery cannot be 
an absolutely primitive condition, yet as far back as 
records carry us we find the institution in existence. 
It prob. originated in the victors sparing the chil- 
dren of an otherwise exterminated tribe ; the 
sparing of captives wd. be a later stage in develop- 
ment ; then sale and purchase, when the B.-man 
became a chattel. Though slavery undoubtedly 
existed among the Hebs., we have comparatively 
few refcs. to it ; we must therefore supplement our 
Biblical information fm. other sources. In Bab., in 
the days of Hammurabi, bondage was an understood 
relationship, and was regulated by the Code. The 
condition of the B.-man and B.-maid are considered 
and regulated in the Law (Ex. 2I. 2 " 11 - 20 « 21 - 26 « 27 ; 
Lv. 25. 39 ' 54 ), but it is the case of the Heb. who has 
sold himself that is in question. He cd. only serve 
six years, and if the year of Jubilee intervened, that 
period mt. be shortened (Lv. 25. 10 ). The existence 
of foreign slaves is assumed, but their status is not de- 
termined by law. A Heb., if his master had given 
him as w. a foreign B. -woman, mt. become per- 
manently the B.-man of another. A race in bon- 
dage occupied the condition of an inferior caste. 
Thus Joshua did not make the Gibeonites slaves 
to individuals ; they were " hewers of wood and 
drawers of water to the congregation." There 
seems to have been a form of serfdom, as we learn 
fm. the case of Ziba in relation to the family of Saul. 
While l ebed, the Heb. word, means slave, na'ar, 
" youth," was frequently used for servant, whether 
B. or free. Although slaves cd. not have been 
numerous in Pal. in the days of our Lord, yet, fm. 
the frequency with wh. the word doulos occurs, 
the institution was well enough known. The 
Apostles had to consider the duties of slaves and 
slave-owners (Col. 3. 22, 4. 1 ). See further, Slave, 
Slavery. 

BONNET in AV. stands for two Heb. words. 
(1) Migha'oth (Ex. 28. 40 , &c), RV. uniformly 
" head-tires." (2) PPer (Ex. 39 . 28 EV. " goodly "; 
Is. 3. 20 RV. " head-tires " ; 61. 3 , AV. " beauty," 
RV. "a garland"; 61. 10 , AV. "ornaments," 
RV. " a garland " ; Ek. 24. 17 , AV. " the tire of 
thine head," RV. " thy head-tire " ; 24. 23 EV. 



70 



Boo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bra 



" tires " ; 44. 18 RV. tk tires." Prob. the ordinary 
eastern head-cloth is meant, wh., bound on with a 
fillet of wool, is at once an ornament and a good 
protection agst. the sun. 

BOOK. See Writing. 

BOOTH. The booth is of simple construction, 
consisting of four upright posts with cross-bars in 
wh. are wattled leafy branches, In such a shelter 
the peasant often spends most of the working months 
in the fields. In a booth raised upon tall poles, the 
watcher sits guarding the fruit or vegetables in the 
open (Is. I. 8 , RV.). Bs. served instead of tents for 
the army (2 S. II. 11 , R.V., &c). See Tabernacles, 
Feast of. 

BOOTY. See War. 

BORROWING. See Usury. 

BOSSES were metal studs added to the surface 
of the anct. buckler of wood and hide to blunt the 
effect of a blow and bind the structure more closely 
together (Jb. 15. 26 ). 

BOTCH. See Diseases. 



^5=4 




Bottles of Skin 

BOTTLE (Heb. nebel and no'd) was the skin of 
kid, goat, or bullock, stripped off and sewed up so as 
to retain roughly the shape of the animal. When 
Bs. are used for the conveyance of milk or water, 
the hair is not removed but simply turned inside. 
For wine or oil they are slightly tanned, partly with 
oak bark, and partly by being hung in the smoke. 
When new wine is put in these skin bottles the pro- 
cess of fermentation is not quite complete, and so 
the bottles suffer a distention ; then the astringent 
power of the wine fixes them so that they can dis- 
tend no more ; hence the saying of our Lord (Mw. 
9. 1 "). There were also earthenware Bs. (baqbuq). 
Possibly the glass Bs. now found in tombs, for keep- 
ing perfume in, wd. be known in OT. times. 

BOTTOMLESS PIT, Gr. phrear Us abussou, 
" the pit of the abyss." See Pit. 

BOW. See Arms. 



BOWELS (Heb. me' aim, Gr. (nrXay^ya), the 
seat of the emotions, tender or painful. Accdg. to 
Heb. psychology the various functions of the soul 
were distributed to the various organs of the body. 

BOWL represents several Heb. words. (1) Men- 
aqqitb (Aram.), a libation vessel (Ex. 25. 29 ). (2) 
Gabia, a cuplike ornament of the golden candle- 
stick. (3) Gol, gulla, anything hemispherical (1 K. 
7. 41 ; Ec. 12. 6 ). (4) Mizraq, a Bason (Nu. 7. 13 ). 
(5) Saph sepbel, anything to contain liquid (Jg. 5. 25 , 
6. 38 ). 

BOX, AV. for Heb. pak (2 K. 9. 1 ), better RV. 
" vial " ; for " B. of ointment," see Alabaster. 

BOX TREE. The true boxwood is not found in 
Pal. The Syriac tr. Cupressus Semper virens, is only 
a guess. It was evidently a familiar tree, being 
named with others well known (Is. 41. 19 , 6o. 13 ). In 
Ek. 27. 6 , we shd. prob. read with RV., " inlaid in 
boxwood," DnBWni for D*"»B>K"ri3- The tree 
is not identd. 

BOY. See Family. 

BOZEZ, a " rocky crag " opposite another called 
Seneh (1 S. 14. 4 ' 5 ), wh. rose on the N. of the pass 
" in front of Michmash." Conder idents. it with 
the N. cliff, " a remarkable bastion of rock," E. of 
Mukhmas. 

BOZRAH, "a fortification." (1) The capital 
of Edom (Gn. 36. 23 ; I Ch. I. 44 ). It is often referred 
to by the prophets (Am. I. 12 ; Is. 63. 1 , &c). It may 
be el-Buseireh, 7 miles SW. of Tufileh, on the main 
road to Petra. Or it may be Qusur Basbair, SE. of 
Dibon. The latter, however, may be Bezer. (2) B. 
in Moab (Jr. 48. 24 ) is prob. = i„ The great city in 
the Hauran seems too far to the N., and prob. 
appears for the first time in Maccabees as Bostra. 




Bozrah, Western Gate (Bab el-Hawa) 

BRACELETS have always been a favourite orna- 
ment among Eastern women. They are made in 
great variety both of form and material. They were 
also worn by men (Nu. 31. 50 ). That worn by Saul 
was prob. part of the royal insignia (1 S. I. 10 ). The 
" bracelet " in Gn. 38. 18 « 25 , shd. be " cord," patbtl, 
by wh. the signet was suspended round the neck. 

BRAMBLE is used in AV. for afad (Jo. 9. 14 , &c, 



7i 



Bra 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bre 



RV., " thorn "), and hoah (Is. 34. 13 , RV., " thistle "). 
The B. is, however, mentioned in Lk. 6. 44 . 





Bracelets (Ancient Egyptian) 

BRANCH. Many Heb. and four Gr. words are 
rendered B. in EV. B. is used figly. as in English. 
Qaneh, used of the Bs. of the Golden Candlestick 
(Ex. 25. 32 , &c), is lit. " cane." Tzemafr (Is. 4.2 ; 
Jr. 23. 5 , &c.) and netzer (Is. II. 1 ) are clearly applied 
to the Messiah. Klema appears only in Jn. 15., as 
the B. of a vine. The other three NT. words, 
Baton, klados, and stibas, were interchangeable (Jn. 
12. 13 ; Mw. 21. 8 ; Mk. 11. 8 ). 

BRASS (Heb. ndhush, nehushah, nehosheth, Gr. 
chalkos). Where a simple metal is intended {e.g. 
Dt. 8. 9 ; Jb. 28. 2 ), we shd. read " copper." Some- 
times, as in the case of Goliath's armour (1 S. 17. 5 ), 
" bronze " may be meant. This alloy of copper and 
tin was known and used for such things b.c 2286. 
B. is a symbol of hardness (Lv. 26. 19 , " your earth as 
B."), of drought (Dt. 28. 23 ), of strength (Jb. 6. 12 ). 
B. in NT. stands for money, the coins most fre- 
quently in use being bronze (Mw. io. 9 ). The 
Brazen Altar and Brazen Sea were prob. of 
Bronze {see Temple). Moses made a Serpent of B. 
that the serpent -bitten mt. look to it and live (Nu. 
21. 9 ). It becomes the symbol of the uplifted Christ 
(Jn. 3. 14 ). Several anct. serpents of copper have 
been found in Pal. Some think they were designed 
to represent the Serpent of Moses. 




s^^B* 



PEF. 



Bron2E Cobra 



BREAD was usually made of wheaten flour ; bar- 
ley mt. be added (2 Ch. 2. 10 ). See Barley. Other 
cereals mt. be mingled (Ek. 4. 9 ). Prob. the earliest 
way of baking was to lay the dough, when prepared, 
onhot ashes (Is. 44. 15 ' 19 ; cp. I K. 17. 12 ' 13 ; Gn. 18. 6 ). 
Smooth stones heated by fire came to be used for 
this purpose ; and then the convex sheet of iron, 
found now almost everywhere in the East, part of 
the ordinary furniture of the Arb. tent {see Oven). 
The original practice, no doubt, was to bake B. just 
when required, and to eat it preferably while fresh 



(Gn. 18. 6 , &c. ; Jo. g. 5 - u - 12 ). When thus prepared, 
leaven was not necessary {see Leaven). A common 
form of loaf is circular, fully 6 inches in diameter, 
and about an inch thick. But the most popular 
cakes are very thin, as their name indicates — marquq, 
from zvaraq, " leaves " or " paper," corrspdg. to the 
Heb. raqlq. The dough is rolled out, and then by 
dextrous casting between the hands and forearms, 
the desired thinness is secured. With a skilful twist 
the baker throws it over the plate, or on to a cushion, 
whence it is transferred to the heated side of the 
oven, and it is quickly ready for use. In eating this 
with butter, thickened milk, or cooked food, a por- 
tion is torn from the cake, folded to form a sort of 
spoon with wh. the food is conveyed to the mouth, 
the " spoon " being eaten with each mouthful. 




Serpent of Copper (Hollow) 

Thus many will sit round a single dish, dipping the 
B. in turn (Mw. 26. 23 ). 

It is a mark of true liberality to give B. to the 
poor (Pr. 22. 9 ) ; to deal B. to the hungry is accept- 
able to God. In the entertainment of the stranger 
B. must not be absent (Lk. II. 5 ). To injure one 
with whom we have eaten B. is esteemed unpardon- 
able infamy (Ps. 41. 8 ). Hence the obloquy of Judas' 
deed (Jn. I3. 26ff -). See Hospitality. 

B. has always been regarded in the Orient with a 
certain religious reverence, as the evidence of God's 
bountiful care. Hence Orientals never willingly 
waste a morsel (Jn. 6. 12 , &c). They will rescue a 
crust from the mud and give it to a dog, or lay it 
where birds may find it. 

As the staple article of diet, B. is used for the food 
necessary to sustain life (Gn. 3. 19 ; Is. 51. 14 , &c). 
Manna is called B. (Ex. 16. 4 , &c). Referring to this 
Jesus calls Himself the " living bread," the B. " that 
came down fm. heaven," of wh., if a man eat, he 
shall live for ever (Jn. 6. 35 , &c). 

BREAST-PLATE. See Armour. 

BREAST-PLATE OF THE HIGH-PRIEST 
(Heb. hosben, " ornament " ; the full name is hoshen 
hammiskpdt, " the ornament of judgment " ; the 
Gr. version conveys a slightly difrt. idea, to logeion 
ton kriseon, " the oracle of judgment "). The B. 



72 



Bre 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bre 



was essentially a bag in wh. the oracular Urim and 
Thummim were placed. The materials of it were 
the same as those of the Ephod, gold, blue, purple, 
scarlet, fine twined linen (Ex. 28. 15 ). It was in size 
a cubit each way, and was fastened to the Ephod by 
chains of wreathen work and " a lace of blue." In- 
serted in the B. were twelve gems, on wh. were en- 
graven the names of the twelve tribes of Isr. The 
B. was worn by the H. P. when he went into the 
presence of the Lord, that he mt. " bear the judg- 
ment of the children of Isr. upon his heart before 
the Lord continually." The gems by wh. it was 
adorned are treated under their names. 

BREECHES, part of the dress prescribed for the 
priests, made of fine linen, tied round the waist, and 
reaching to the thighs (Ex. 28. 42 , 3c;. 28 ; Lv. 6. 10 , 
16. 4 ; Ek. 44. 18 ). 5^ Priest. 

BRETHREN OF THE LORD. Who the bre- 
thren of the Lord were is a question that owes its 
main interest to the bearing of the answer given, on 
another question — that of the perpetual virginity 
of Mary the mr. of Jesus. Many views have been 
held, but only three call for notice here. (1) The 
first takes the words lit., as meaning that they 
were the sons of Joseph and Mary, born after Jesus. 
This seems to be the view of Hegesippus, a.d. 160 
(Euseb. HE. iv. 22) ; it was advocated by Tertullian 
(died a.d. 220), and was restated by Helvidius — 
hence called the Helvidian view — and others c. 
a.d. 380. (2) The second, that of Jerome — the 
Hieronymian — put forward in opposition to that of 
Helvidius c. a.d. 380, makes them the sons of the 
virgin's sr., " Mary of Clopas," thus clearing the 
way to assert the virginity, not of Mary only, but 
also of Joseph. (3) The third, that supported by 
Epiphanius c. a.d. 370 — the Epiphanian — regards 
them as the sons of Joseph by a former w. A clear 
and careful digest of the Lit. will be found in 
Lightfoot's Com. on Galatians, pp. 2746°. 

A study of the relevant passages of Scrip. (Mw. 
I. 25 , 12 47 , 2 7 . 56 ; Mk. 3. 20ff - 31ff -, i5*>. 47. Lk. 
2. 7 , 4. 16 - 30 , 8. 19 , 24. 10 ; Jn. 2. 12 , 7. 2 " 8 , 19 25ff - ; Ac. 
I. 14 ; Gal. i. 18f -; 1 Cor. g. 5 ) will bring out the 
following points : (1) The mr. and B. of Jesus are 
spoken of as if living in the relationship nat. to 
mr. and sons in a family group. (2) They did not 
ackge. the claims of Jesus, and refused credit to His . 
mission. (3) Consequently none of them were 
among the Twelve. 

The last point is fatal to Jerome's view, wh. re- 
quires that not one but three of the B. of our Lord 
shd. be of the Twelve. Apart fm. this, Jerome has 
to make " Mary of Clopas " mean " M., the wife of 
C," whereas the nat. meaning is " dr. of C." He 
has to ident. Clopas with Alphaeus, making the 
latter a Gr. trltn. of the former (Aram.). But 
Alphaeus stands for the Aram, Halpai, and cd. not 
poss. represent an Aram. Qlopha. Further, two 



sisters bearing the same name, Mary, cannot be 
lightly accepted. The passage on wh. this is based 
(Jn. 19. 25 ) prob. refers to four women, named in 
pairs, " his mr. and his mr.'s sr. — prob. Salome — 
Mary the dr. of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene." 
The copula is not put between pairs. 

In addition to this, Jerome's theory is quite un- 
supported by early tradition. 

The Epiphanian view rests on no reliable autho- 
rity. Hegesippus is indeed claimed as almost cert, 
favouring it (Harris, DCG. s.v), but this is doubt- 
ful. Origen, who inclines to the view of Mary's per- 
petual virginity, although not regarding it as autho- 
ritative, cites in its support two apocryphal books, 
The Gospel of Peter — the part containing the refce. 
is lost — and the Protevangelium Jacobi. 

Lightfoot rejects the Hieronymian theory, wh. 
even its author did not consistently hold. He re- 
gards the Epiphanian and the Helvidian as pretty 
equally balanced, but favours the former on what 
seems hardly adequate ground. "One objection," he 
says, " has been hurled at the Helvidian theory with 
great force, and as it seems to me, with fatal effect, 
wh. is powerless agst. the Epiphanian." Jesus on 
the Cross commits His mr. to the care of John, and 
the charge is at once accepted. If she had four sons 
besides drs. living at the time, wd. Jesus " thus have 
snapped asunder the most sacred ties of mutual 
affection " ? The mere fact of their unbelief, soon 
changed to faith, cd. not " override the paramount 
duties of filial piety." With them living in the same 
city, worshipping in common, cd. she thus be " con- 
signed to the care of a stranger " ? 

" Stranger " is perhaps hardly the word to use of 
one who was the bosom friend of her S., bound to 
Him in the close intimacy of sympathetic compre- 
hension ; and prob. her own nephew. We do not 
know how His B. were placed ; but we may be sure 
that in the house of the beloved disciple His mr. 
wd. find the calm and loving friendship wh. her 
pierced and bleeding heart required. And we have 
only to note that if these others were her step- 
children, there was a stronger reason to avoid any- 
thing that mt. look like a slight upon them, to see 
with what " fatal effect " the objn. wd. tell on the 
other side. 

The existence of a tradition of the perpetual vir- 
ginity of Mary, in the early Church, may seem to 
favour the Epiphanian theory. But this may easily 
have arisen fm. the name given her in common use, 
as the Virgin mr. of the Lord. And perhaps it wd. 
be the less carefully examined, because it seemed to 
lend support to the excessively high ideas of the 
value of virginity, wh. became prevalent in the 
second cent. 

In favour of the Helvidian view is the nat. mean- 
ing of the lang. of Scrip. " Brother " means 
" brother," not " cousin," or one more remotely 



73 



c 2 



Bri 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bur 



-connected, or not connected by blood at all. It 
takes the plain meaning of Mw. I. 25 , kol ovk 
iyLvoxTKev avrrjv eco§ ov eTeKev vlov, as indicating the 
limit of abstinence ; while the description of Jesus 
as her " first-born " wd., in other circumstances, be 
taken to mean that other children were born later. 
The difficulty remains, of course, that if Mary were 
the mr. of a large family, some of whom held by no 
means obscure positions in the Church, this fact 
shd. have been so utterly forgotten in the course of 
a single cent. 

On the whole the balance of available evidence 
seems to favour the Helvidian theory. 

Lit. : Lightfoot, as above ; recent Bible Diction- 
aries, s.v. Expositor, 1908, Oct., pp. 1635., No^., 
pp. 457m 

BRIBE, BRIBERY. See Crimes and Penalties. 

BRICK, Heb. lebenah (from laban, " to be 



the water — elsewhere rendered " stream," " river." 
(2) Teor, an Egpn. word, applied almost invariably 
to the Nile and canals of Egp. It is rendered B. 
only in' Is. 19. 6 ' 7> 8 . In Jb. 28. 10 , it is the channel 
for water cut among rocks. In Is. 33. 21 " streams," 
EV. In Dn. 12. it is applied to the Tigris. (3) Mlk- 
hal occurs only in 2 S. 17. 20 . The derivation and 
meaning are uncert. (4) Nahal is the word com- 
monly rendered B. There is no exact equivalent in 
Eng. It is applied to the valley with a watercourse 
in the bottom, and corrspds. to the Arb. Wady. It 
shd. be distinguished from gai\ a hollow not imply- 
ing the presence of a stream. Like the Arb. wady, 
nahal is used now for the valley (Nu. 21. 12 , &c), and 
again for the stream (Dt. 9. 21 , &c). In Pal. the 
zuddys form a striking feature of the landscape. 
Breaking down fm. the watershed of the Western 
Range, their descent E. to the Jordan Valley is short 



tMMhf 




Brick-making at Ancient Thebes 



white "), clay moulded and sun-dried or burnt in a 
kiln ; the former was frequent in Egp., the latter in 
Bab. When made of Nile mud, the sun-dried Bs. 
were liable to crack in the sun unless they had straw 
in them. The invention of B. is attributed to Bab. 
(Gn. II. 3 ), in wh. case " slime " (bitumen) was used 
for mortar. Babylonian Bs. are usly. whitish in 
colour, in size about 14 in. sq., 3^ in. thick, and 
stamped with the name of the k. in whose reign they 
were made. In 2 S. I2. 31 , Jr. 43. 9 , Na. 3. 14 , we find 
mention of B. -kilns, showing the acquaintance the 
Hebs. had with B. -making. 

BRIDE, BRIDE-CHAMBER, BRIDEGROOM, 
BRIDEGROOM'S FRIEND. See Marriage. 

BRIDLE. See Bit. 

BRIER. See Thistles and Thorns. 

BRIMSTONE. Sulphur is plentiful in Pal. ; in 
the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea sulphur springs 
are frequent, as also near Gadara. Fm. the sulphur- 
ous smell that sometimes accompanies a thunder- 
storm, it was spoken of as a " rain of fire and B." 
(Gn. 19. 24 ). 

BROOK represents several words in Heb. 
(1) A-phlq (Ps. 42. 1 ) is prop, the channel containing 



and steep. In the course of ages, terrific gorges 
have been hollowed out. Wady el J Aujeh, e.g., wh. 
enters the Jordan Valley N. of Jebel Quruntul, de- 
scends 4200 feet in about 15 miles. The slope 
towards the W. is longer and more gradual. The 
alluvial deposits in the valleys are rich, and, where 
cultivated, yield good returns. For great part of 
the year many of the watercourses are dry, depend- 
ing for supplies solely on the rain. The Jordan is 
the one " river " of Pal., but cert, other streams, 
such as the Jabbok and the Yarmuk, are almost en- 
titled to the name. 

BROTH. See Food. 

BROWN. See Colour. 

BUCKLER. See Arms. 

BUL. See Year. 

BULL, BULLOCK. See Ox. 

BULRUSH. See Reed. 

BULWARK. (1) (Heb. hel, 
rendered " rampart " (Na. 3. 8 ). 
9. 14 ), a defence of besiegers, but trd. " snares" (7- 26 ), 
(3) Matzor, the same as 2 (Dt. 20. 20 ). 

BURDEN. (1) Literal (Ex. 23. 5 ; 2 K. 5. 17 , 
&c). (2) Of Prophecy, a specially Isaianic word 



Is. 26. 1 ), usly. 
(2) Matzod (Ec, 



74 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Caes 



(Is. 13. 1 , 15. 1 , 17. 1 ) ; used by Jr. (23. 33f -), of false 
prophecy; accdg. to Isaiah's usage is Na. I. 1 ; 
Hb. i. 1 . (3) Symbolic, of the sense of oppression 
due to trial, &c. (Gal. 6. 2 ). 

BURIAL. As recognised by Tacitus, the habit 
of the Jews was to bury their dead. When the 
person had ceased to breathe, some near relative, 
his eldest son for prefce., closed the eyes ; the body 
then having been washed, it was wound round with 
linen, and the head bound with a napkin. Although 
embalming was not a Jewish custom, spices, as we 
see fm. the case of our Lord (Jn. 19. 39 ), were used 
plentifully. Simultaneously with these prepara- 
tions for entombment, the voice of lamentation was 
raised, not only by relatives, but by persons hired 
for the purpose (Jr. 9. 17 ; Mk. 5. 38 » 39 ). Accom- 
panied by these mourners, personal and profes- 
sional, the body was carried on a bier to the tomb. 




Bed and Bier (Egyptian) 

No coffin was used by the Hebs., except in such a 
case as that of Joseph, and perhaps his fr. It seems 
prob. that the graves of the poor wd. simply be dug 
in the earth ; only the wealthier people cd. afford 
rock-cut tombs. Of this latter class some, where 



the surface of the rock was bare of soil, were exca- 
vated for a couple of feet into the rock, and a slab 
to serve as a lid prepared to be placed over the de- 
posited body. It was prob. to such tombs as these 
that our Lord referred (Lk. n. 44 ), " graves which 
appear not." More distinctively Jewish, however, 
was what may be called cave B. See further, 
Sepulchre. 

BURNT-OFFERING. See Sacrifice. 

BUSH represents two Heb. words : (1) siab, a B. 
in the sense of a plant of a particular size (Jb. 30. 4 ). 
(2) Seneh, the B. wh. " Burned," " and was not 
consumed," in wh. J", appeared to Moses (Ex. 3. 2 ). 
Fm. a somewhat doubtful etymology Ges. assumes 
seneh to be a thorny bush of some sort ; in favour of 
this is the LXX batos, " a bramble," wh., however, 
does not grow on Sinai. 

BUSHEL (modius), a Rm. measure, about a peck 
(Mw. 5. 15 ; Mk. 4. 21 ; Lk. 11. 33 , where it is the 
vessel, not the measure that is in question). 

BUTLER. See Cup-bearer. 

BUTTER. See Food. 

BUZ, Abraham's nephew, s. of Nahor and Milcha 
(Gn. 22. 21 ), br. of 'Uz, progenitor of a tribe settled 
in the NE. of Edom (cp. Jb. 32.2). " Buz and 
Hazo (v. 22) are poss. the countries of Bazu and 
Hazu (the former described as full of snakes and 
scorpions) wh. Ezarhaddon invaded (KIB. II. 131 ; 
Driver, Genesis in loc). 

BUZI, the fr. of Ezekiel the Prophet (Ek. I. 3 ), 
an Aaronite ; because B. means " despised," some 
Rabbinical comm. ident. him with Jeremiah. 

BY AND BY, tr. in AV. of three Gr. words, 
meaning really " immediately " ; RV. " straight- 
way." 



o 



CAB (Heb. qab), a measure of capacity containing 
c. 3 pints. See Weights and Measures. 

CABUL. (1) A city on the border of Asher and 
Zebulun (Jo. 19. 27 ), the Chabolo of Jos. (Fit. 43, 
&c), the mod. Kabul, a vill. E. of Acre. (2) A dis- 
trict containing 20 cities given by Solomon to 
Hiram (1 K. 9. 13 ), prob. connected with the above 
(Buhl, GAP. 221). 

CAESAR, the cognomen (family name) of Julius 
C, the Dictator, and also of his gt. -nephew and 
adopted son, Augustus ; it was transmitted as a 
title to all the successors of Augustus. C. appears 
only as a title in the NT. (Mw. 22. 21 ; Ac. 25. n ). 
Three Cs. are named : Augustus (Lk. 2. 1 ), 
Tiberius (Lk. 3. 1 ), Claudius (Ac. ii. 28 , 18. 2 ) ; 
Tiberius is the C. referred to in Jn. 19. 12 , and Nero 
in Ac. 25. 11 . Our Lord's birth occurred during the 
reign of Augustus, His ministry, death, and resur- 
rection under Tiberius ; and Paul's missionary 
labours and martyrdom under the three following 



Cs. The Gospels and the later Epp. were written 
under the Flavians. Thus the foundation of Chris- 
tianity coincided with the rule of the " twelve Cs." 
Until the Neronian persecution the Rm. power was 
on the whole favourable to the spread of the Church. 
With the burning of Rm. under Nero began the life 
and death struggle between the Empire and the 
Church. 

CESAR'S HOUSEHOLD. As Paul was handed 
over to the Prefect of the Praetorians, as the Im- 
perial guard were called, he wd. be continually in 
contact with members of that body, and in conse- 
quence with members of " C.'s household." This 
wd. include not only the immense host of slaves 
actually in the palace, but also the numerous Im- 
perial freedmen. Many of these were doubtless 
Jews, and therefore filled with Messianic hopes. 
Many of the names of those saluted in Rm. 16. have 
been found in Columbaria appropriated to mem- 
bers of the Imperial household. Agst. this identi- 



75 



Caes 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cai 



fication is the idea, wh., however, is without sup- 
port fm. MSS. or VV., that the 16th chap, of Rm. 
really belongs to an Epistle to the Ephesian Church. 
CvESAREA. (i) C. Palestina, on the sea coast, 
fully 30 miles N. of Jaffa, was known as Strato's 
Tower, B.C. 200 {Ant. XIII. xi. 2). It was greatly 
enlarged and adorned by Herod the Gt. (b.c. 12), 
who named it C. or Sebaste (Ant. XV. ix. 6 ; 
XVI. v. 1), in honour of Augustus. He instituted 
public games on a vast scale. The building of a 
good harbour added to the importance of the city, 
making it the main sea-port of the country. It be- 
came the seat of the Rm. procurator of Judea. It 
was owned for a time by Agrippa I., whose tragic 
death here is recorded (Ac. I2. 19, 23 ). It was the 
home of Philip the Evangelist, and the station of 
Cornelius (Ac. 8. 40 , 21. 8 , 10.). It was visited by 
Paul in his travels (Ac. 9. 30 , 18. 22 ), was the scene of 
his repeated examinations, and hence he set out for 
Rome (Ac. 23. 23 , &c). Strife between the Jewish 
and Gentile inhabitants of C. occasioned the out- 



ROMAN 

AND 

MEDIEVAL RUINS 

kaisArieh 



of the cathedral are still seen on the site of a temple 
built by Herod ; also the traces of two aqueducts, 
by wh. water was brought across the marshes fm. 
the Crocodile river. The circuit of the anct. wall 
was much greater than that of the wall built by the 
Crusaders, wh. Sultan Bibars destroyed (1296). 
(2) C. Philippi stood on a triangular terrace at the 
SW. foot of Hermon. The ruins of wall and towers 
testify to its anct. strength. Hard by the fountainof 
the Jordan rises in front of the great cave, dedicated 
of old to the worship of Pan, the Paneion, whence 





Sacred Grotto at Banias 

the name Paneas was given to the whole district 
(Ant. XV. x. 3). There is no more romantically 
beautiful place in all Syria. Unfailing streams bless 
the soil, fruitful garden and fair field are dashed 
with grateful shade fm. mighty oak and fragrant 
wood. The rushing water makes music in the glen, 
while high over all frowns the grim fortress, es 
Subeibeh, fm. the E. height. Herod the Gt. built a 
temple here in honour of Augustus. Philip en- 
larged and beautified the town, and called it C. 
The district was visited by Jesus (Mw. 16. 13 , &c). 
Called Neronias by Agrippa II., the old name pre- 
vailed over both C. and N., and still persists in the 
Arb. form of Banias — a vill. of some 350 inhabi- 
tants, built among the ruins. 

CAIAPHAS (Heb. prob. Qayapha), a nickname 
of Joseph (Ant. XVIII. ii. 2), High-priest during our 
Lord's earthly ministry. Valerius Gratus had de- 
prived Annas, C.'s fr.-in-law, of the H.-p'hood, and 
after three sons of the last named had briefly en- 
joyed the dignity, appointed C, shortly before 
Pilate succeeded him in the procuratorship. 
Although he had the dignity, his fr.-in-law had 
most of the power. C. took a leading part in the 
condemnation of Jesus. C. saw that any political 
rising mt. be made an excuse by the Rm. to deprive 
the Jews of the remnants of independence wh. they 
break of the war (BJ. II. xiii. 7, xiv. 4^.). The still retained. Hence, as Jesus had been proclaimed 
Jews suffered cruelly at the instance of Florus. by multitudes as the Messiah, and therefore the 
Eusebius the historian was bishop of C. The ruins prob. leader of a revolt in the near future, C, 

76 



PEF Drawing 



Cai 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cal 



thought it expedient that He shd. be put out of the 
way before He occasioned an uproar. When direct 

» testimony failed to supply the Sadducean with a 
plausible pretext, C. adjured Jesus to declare 
whether or not He were the Messiah, forcing Him, 
either by abjuring His Messiahship to lose His 
power over the people, or by affirming it to furnish 
a reason for handing Him over to the Rm. as a rebel 
agst. their authority. C. was removed fm. the 
pontificate by Vitellius shortly after the recall of 
Pilate. Of his after fate there is no record. 

CAIN, the first s. of Adam. The name in Heb. is 
ident. with Qayin, " a spear," wh. mt. Sugg, the 
man of blood who slew his br. The motive for the 
crime was jealousy, indicating a condition of heart 
wh. sufficiently explains the rejection of his offering. 
His sullen question, " Am I my brother's keeper l " 
has become proverbial as describing the attitude of 
the selfish and unbrotherly. Convicted of the 
murder, he feared for his life. Protected by a 
terrible threat of vengeance agst. any who mt. hurt 
him, a mark was put upon him by wh. all mt. recog- 
nise him, and he was banished to the " land of Nod " 
= " flight " or " exile," where he is represented as 
building a city (Gn. 4. 17 ). Among his descts. were 
the tent-dwellers, and those who originated the arts 
and handicrafts (4. 20 * 21 ). Accdg. to Jewish tradi- 
tion C. was killed in mistake by Lamech, who also by 
misadventure killed his s. Tubal Cain (Eisenmenger, 
Entdecktes Judenthum, I. 47of.), prob. an invention 
to explain the fragment of song (Gn. 4- 23f ')« 

There are cert, difficulties in the nar. wh. we are not yet 
in a position to solve. The distinction of shepherd and 
husbandman, with their characteristic diffcs. , seems to belong 
to a later time, although indeed it is not easy to say what is 
primitive and what is not. The building of a city, and the 
apparently widespread population, also present problems. 

(2) A city in Judah (Jo. 15. 57 ), prob. ident. with 
Khirbet Taqin, S. of Hebron, near which is the 
alleged tomb of C. 

CALAH, RV. trs. Gn. io. 11 , " Out of that land 
he (Nimrod) went forth and builded Nineveh, 
Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah." Although it is thus re- 
garded as one of the earliest Bab. colonies in Asyr., 
Shalmaneser claims to have founded C. It is repre- 
sented now by the mound known as Nimrud, SE. of 
Nineveh. In it have been found the ruins of the 
palaces of Asshur-nazir-pal, Shalmaneser II., Tig- 
lath-pileser III., and Esarhaddon. These stood on 
a great stone-faced platform overhanging the Tigris. 

CALAMUS. See Reed. 

CALEB, s. of Jephunneh, of the tribe of Judah 
(Nu. 13. 6 , &c), one of the spies sent by Moses, 
shared with Joshua the distinction of opposing the 
advice of the faint-hearted, and received with him 
the reward of entering the promised land. He 
claimed and received fm. Joshua, as his possession, 
Hebron and the mountainous district belonging to 
it (Jo. I4. 6f -, where he is called " the Kenizzite " ; 



I5. 131 -). The city was assigned to the Kohathites, 
the surrounding country and vills. being possessed 
by C. (2i. 10f -). For C.'s genealogy, see I Ch. 2. He 
seems later to have been assumed as the hero- 
ancestor of a clan settled around Hebron (1 S. 25. 3 , 
30. 14 ). 

CALEB EPHRATHAH (1 Ch. 2. 24 ). The true 
readg. prob. is " Caleb came to Ephrathah " — the 
district of Bethlehem. See Ephrathah. 

CALF, THE GOLDEN (Heb. <Fgel 9 really " bul- 
lock," Ex. 32. lf -). Starting fm. a highly sptl. relg., 
the Egyptians, among whom the Isrs. had lived for 
four cents., had descended to the lowest zoolatry, 
and worshipped, among other animals, very promi- 
nently the ox. The winged, human-headed bulls of 
Bab., whence Isr. had come, showed the sacred 
char, there ascribed to the ox. It is therefore not 
astonishing that when Moses had left them for forty 
days Isr. shd. fall back fm. the high sptl. level at wh. 
Moses endeavoured to keep them, and that they 
shd. revert for a visible symbol of Deity to Egp. 
They appealed to Aaron, and he demanded their 
golden ear-rings ; fm. these he made the G. C. It 
is prob. that the gold in thin plates covered a core of 
wood. While Moses was in the mount J", warned 
him of what was taking place in the camp ; this 
warning wd. be conveyed in symbol and by sugg., 
so the real concrete meaning only dawned upon him 
when he saw the God who had brought the people 
out of Egp. worshipped under the animal symbol of 
the god Apis (Ex. 32. 4 ). Moses, when he saw the 




Bronze Figure of Apis with Sacred Marks on his Back 

rebellion of Isr., called upon the Levites, his own 
tribe, to avenge the Lord ; and they slew 3000 
men. Then Moses renewed the petition in more 
definite terms, wh. he had presented to God in the 
mount, that He wd. pardon the sin of His people ; 
in the sublimity of his self-devotion he is ready to 
be accursed for them. 

Criticism distinguishes J. and E. portions of the nar., but 
Elohim occurs in J. and JHVH in E. ; neither is complete 
without the other. The incident is also recorded in Dt. 
9.9-21. 

Moses burnt the G. C. and ground it small, then 
cast it into the brook and made the people drink 
the water. This event is referred to in Ps. io6. 19f - 

For the Calves at Bethel and Dan, see Jeroboam. 



77 



Cal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Can 



CALNEH (Gn. io. 10 ), one of the four cities that 
formed the beginning of Nimrod's kdm. ; unidentd. 

CALVARY. See Golgotha. 

CAMEL (Heb. gamal and beker, the latter prob. 
meaning " a dromedary "), the largest domesticated 
ruminant ; it is practically the oldest of the larger 
mammals, as a C. not specifically difTt. is found in the 
Miocene. The C. was among the first of animals to 
be domesticated. What the date is among plants 
that the C. is among animals to the inhabitant of 
SW. Asia ; it is the Arab's most valuable posses- 
sion. The C. bears his burdens ; it has great powers 
of endurance, going days without food or water ; 
its hair is woven into cloth for his tents, or for gar- 
ments, like that of John the Baptist (Mw. 3. 4 ) ; its 
milk is drunk, its flesh is eaten, and fm. its skin shoes 
are made. The C. seems to have been first domesti- 
cated in Arabia, as it is rare and relatively late on the 
monuments of Egp., and is not mentioned in the 




Camel : Assyrians Loading 

Code of Hammurabi ; yet Abraham, Jacob, and 
Job have flocks of C. (Gn. 12. 16 ; Gn. 30. 43 ; Jb. 
42 , 12 ). As suited to the needs of the nomads, the 
possession of the C. mt. be largely restricted to 
them. While the C. is adapted to tread on sand and 
gravel, and can live on the roughest provender, it is 
liable to slip and fall on mud ; a fall to a C. is fre- 
quently fatal ; hence they wd. be less useful on the 
banks of the Nile or the Euphrates. Not only is the 
C. the great bearer of burdens as he always has been, 
but he is the great roadmaker ; the broad, heavy 
feet of the C. tread the sand and gravel into a firm 
pathway. Long strings of Cs., laden with wheat 
fm. the Hauran, whenever the harvest has been 
thrashed and winnowed, are to be met on their way 
to 'Akka or Haifa ; sometimes as many as 100 may 
be seen following each other in single file, separated 
into groups of four or five by donkeys. The C. is 
the stupidest of domesticated animals : it can never 
find its way back to its home. The C. is surly and 
ill-tempered ; he has no affection for his owner, if 
even any recognition of him ; he growls when he 
receives the signal to kneel, even if it be for unload- 
ing ; and growls equally when he is summoned to 
get up. The C.'s Furniture (Gn. 31. 34 ) means 
prob. the palanquin in wh. women travelled on 



C.-back. As the C. is the largest animal in use in 
SW. Asia, its size is the chartc. emphasised in pro- 
verbs ; thus our Lord declares, " It is easier for a 
C. to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich 
man to enter the Kingdom of God " (Mt. 19. 24 ) ; 
again He speaks of those who " strain out the gnat 
and swallow theC."(Mw.23. 24 RV.). It ought to be 
noted that the cloth made from C.'s hair is soft, and 
brown in colour. Although the flesh of C. is eaten 
by the Arabs, it was unclean to Isr. (Lv. II. 4 ). 

CAMP (Heb. mabaneb, " host," Gn. 32. 2 ), the 
temporary resting-place of a tribe or army. In 
Nu. 2. we have an act. of the encampment of Isr. in 
the wilderness. They were divided into four Cs., 
prob. widely apart (see Numbers). The Isrs. used to 
erect round their C. a rampart of wagons (1 S. 26. 1 , 
wrongly trd. " trench," AV.) ; sentinels were 
placed at recognised "watches" (Jg. 7. 19 ) ; Cs. 
were usly. placed on heights (Jg. 4. 12 ). Fm. the fact 
that sieges were commonly very prolonged, " to be- 
siege " a city was " to encamp agst. it." In such 
cases " booths " (succotb) were erected (1 K. 20. 16 ). 

CAMPHIRE. This is the henna plant, found in 
Egp., Nubia, Arabia, and in the cleft by the Dead 
Sea. It grows to a height of 7 or 8 ft., " with pale 
green foliage, and clusters of white and yellow 
blossoms, wh. emit a delightful perfume." The 
leaves, dried, powdered, and made into paste with 
water, are used to stain figures on the hands and 
feet, and to dye the nails and the hair — a very 
favourite form of adornment in the E. A sprig of 
henna, for its sweet perfume, is put in nosegays. It 
is worn about the person by women (SS. I. 13 * 14 ). 
It seems to have been grown along with the 
spikenard, and other plants yielding precious 
perfumes (SS. 4. 13 ' 14 ). 

CANA OF GALILEE (Jn. 2. lf -, &c), the home of 
Nathaniel, where Jesus wrought His first miracle. 
Guthe curiously makes it the home of Simon (Mw. 
io. 4 ; KB. s.i>.). There is no clear indication of 
position. It was in the uplands, whence one had to 
" go down " to Capernaum (Jn. 2. 12 ). The rival sites 
are Kefr Kennak, 3 miles fm. Nazareth, on the mod. 
Tiberias road, and Khirbet Qana, 8 miles N. of 
Nazareth, on the edge of the plain of Asochis. This 
is prob. the vill. named by Jos (Fit. 16, ,cp. 41). 
Conder suggs. a third claimant, i Ain Qana, near er 
Reineb. There is no steady tradition pointing to 
any site. The Crusaders cert, accepted Khirbet 
Qana, or, as it is also called by the natives, Qana el 
Jelll = Gr. Kava ttJs FaA.iA.tas (see evidence in 
Conder's Tent Work, 79/ff.). The pilgrims agree 
only in placing C. between Nazareth and Caper- 
naum. Probability seems inclined to the northern 
site. 

CANAAN. See Palestine. 

CANAANITES. Although used frequently for 
all the non-Isr. inhabitants, C. referred primarily to 



78 



Can 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cap 



the dwellers on the sea-coast and the valley of the 
Jordan (Nu. 1 3- 29 ). It wd. seem that the Phil, were 
regarded as C. (Jo. 13. 2 ' 3 ) ; fm. Mw. 15. 22 , con- 
firmed by Euseb., Prepar. Evang. I. 10, the Phoe- 
nicians were regarded as C. This view of the ex- 
tent of the C. is in agreement with Gn. IO. 19 . Fm. 
their dwelling on the sea-coast the thought readily 
suggs. itself that they were immigrants, a view wh. 
is confirmed by Dt. 2. 23 , where it is asserted in re- 
gard to Philistia, that the Avim were the original 
inhabitants, but dispossessed by the Caphtorim. 
As in Gn. 10. 6 Canaan is represented as br. of Miz- 
raim (Egypt), it wd. seem that the C. and the 
Egyptians were looked upon as cognate peoples. The 
C. were advanced in civilisation ; they had cities 
united in confederacy ; in war they used chariots of 
iron (Jo. 17. 16 ) ; fm. the spoils taken by Thothmes 
III. it appears that they had also made advances in 
manufacture. They were addicted to trade, hence 
C. in later times meant " merchant " (Is. 23. 8 ). As 
to the lang. of the C, it appears to have been Heb.; 
this is implied in Is. 19. 18 . In its wider use C. com- 
prehends other five, or, with the addition of the 
Girgashites, six, races ; regarding these, see under 
their respective names. 

CANDACE, the Ethiopian queen whose trea- 
surer was baptized by Philip (Ac. 8. 26f> ). C. was 
prob. a dynastic title. See Ethiopia. 

CANDLE, CANDLESTICK. For C. we shd. 
prob. always read " lamp," and for C. -stick, " stand." 
RV. retains C. in Jr. 25. 10 , Zp. I. 12 , without appa- 
rent reason. The lamp-stand is found in the pro- 
phet's chamber (2 K. 4. 10 ). It figures in the Gospels 
(Mw. 5. 15 , &c). The nebrashtd (cp. Arb. nibras, 
" lamp ") supported the lights in Belshazzar's 
great hall (Dn. 5. 5 ). The advent of the lucifer 
match has removed the necessity for the lamp kept 
alwavs burning in the eastern house, wh. supplied 
the figs, in such passages as Ps. 1 8. 28 , Pr. 24. 20 , Rv. 2. 5 . 



CAPERNAUM appears in the Gospels as a highly 
favoured city. When driven out of Nazareth Jesus 
found shelter here, and C. becomes " His own city," 
where only He is " at home " (Mw. 4. 13 , 9. 1 ; Mk. 




Tell Hum. from the West 

CANE. See Reed. 

CANKERWORM, the caterpillar stage of the 
Locust. 

CANON. See Scripture. 




Excavation of Synagogue : Tell Hum 

2. 1 ). It was the scene of many of His mighty works 
(Mw. 8. 5ff -, II. 23 , &c). Peter and Andrew were 
called on the shore, and Matthew fm. the " place 
of toll" (Mk. I. 16 ; Mw. c.. 9 ). Reports of Jesus' 
teaching here are given in Mw. 18. 2 , &c, Jn. 6. C. 
stood " by the sea " (Mw. 4. 13 ), in or near the plain 
of Gennesaret (Jn. 6. 17ff - ; cp. Mw. 14. 34 , Mk. 6. 53 , 
BJ. III. x. 8). A Christian tradition traceable to 
the 4th cent, idents. C. with Tell Hum, a ruin on the 
N. shore of the Sea of Galilee, z\ miles W. of the 
mouth of the Jordan. A Jewish tradition seems to 
locate C. at Khan Minyeh (Conder, Tent Work, 
294). The question has been discussed recently by 
Dr. Sanday (SSG., and Journal of Theological Studies, 
quoted Expository Times, XV. ioofL), Prof. Knight, 
and Rev. Asad Mansur, of Nazareth (Expositor, July 
1906, April 1907), Mr. A. S. Macalister, and Dr. 
Masterman (PEFQ. April and July 1907). The 
only contribution of value is made by Mr. Macalis- 
ter. Fm. the pottery found on the two sites, he con- 
cludes that at Khan Minyeh " there was no settle- 
ment whatever in the time of C," while Tell Hum 
" flourished at exactly the period of the glory of C." 
This seems to negative the claims of Khan Minyeh, 
tilting the beam in favour of Tell Hum. For sure 
grounds of decision, however, we must await the 
results of the excavations now going forward. 
Meantime we make four observations : — 

(1) The pottery points to the Rm. period, but 
hardly with cert, to the time of the Herods. The 
bldgs. seem to date fm. that of the Antonines. 

(2) The local name is undoubtedly Tell Hum. 
Mr. Macalister supports the derivation from Kaphar 



79 



Cap 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Car 



Tanhumim, a Jewish variant of C. As no Arabic 
speaker wd. " ever think of applying the word Tell, 
' mound,' to this flat, widespread ruin," he thinks 
it " more prob. that the name is one word, T album, 
not two, Tell Hum." But in Egyptian Arabic tell 
means " ruin," and the Rev. Asad Mansur, an edu- 
cated Syrian, whose lang. is Arabic, after examining 
the site, says : "I do not understand what the ob- 
jectors mean by the word ' tell.' In Arabic ' tell ' 
is used for any heap of ruins or mound. So that the 
ruins of Tell Hum themselves are to-day a ' tell ' " 
(Expositor, April 1907, 370). The rejection of 
" Tell Hum " is therefore precarious. 

(3) The difficulties as to the fountain called C. 
by Josephus, still remain. If it is, as seems cert., 

Ain ef Tabgha, it is not only 2 miles distant ; the 
efficacy of the spring was exercised westward — away 
from Tell Hum. Having regard to the ruins on the 
neighbouring slopes, it is hard to see why the foun- 
tain shd. be connected with Tell Hum, wh., standing 
on the shore, had no use for its water. 

(4) Fm. Mw. II. 23 , &c, it mt. be inferred that 
C. stood on a height. 

CAPHTOR, CAPHTORIM. The Philistines 
are said to come fm. C. (Am. y. 7 ), poss. Crete 
(Dillmann), or Cilicia (Cheyne). 

CAPPADOCIA, the Rm. province N. of the 
Taurus Mts., stretching fm. the Euphrates in 
the E. to the border of Lycaonia in the W. Jews 
early found their way into C. (1 M. 15. 22 ), main- 
taining, however, their intercourse with Jrs. (Ac. 
2. 9 ), and among them were converts to the Christian 
faith (I P. I. 1 ). 

CAPTAIN, a military title (Heb. nasi', nagld, 
and sar, wh. are also rendered " prince " : Gr. 
chiliarchos and strategos = Lat. tribunus militis). 
The corrspdg. title in mod. armies wd. be " colonel," 
and anything over that rank. 

CAPTIVITY. See Israel. 

CARBUNCLE represents two Heb. words. 

(1) Eqdah, only used in Is. 54. 12 of the gates of the 
glorified Zion ; the gem intended is not identd. 

(2) Barqalh, bareqeth (Ek. 28. 13 ), part of the 
treasures of the k. of Tyre. The second form ap- 
pears in the third stone of the High Priest's breast- 
plate (Ex. 28. 17 , 39. 10 ). Prob. this is the " emerald." 

CARCHEMISH (Heb. Karkemlsh, Egpn. Qar- 
qamesh, Asyr. Gar garnish), a city commanding the 
fords of the Euphrates. Formerly C. was identd. 
with Circesium, near the junction of the Khabur 
and the Euphrates (Smith's Diet. Gr. and Rm. 
Geog.), but it has been proved (Maspero, G. 
Smith, &c), fm. Egp. and Asyr. inscrs., and by ex- 
cavations on the spot, to have been much further up 
the river. It is now represented by Jerablus (Gr. 
Hierapolis or Bambyce, Syr. Mabug), a vill. on the 
W. bank of the Euphrates. C. was taken by 
Thothmes III. fm. the Retennu, c. b.c 1520, and 



held by the Egyptians for rather more than a cent. 
It then fell into the hands of the Hittites and 
became the capital qf one of their kdms. When the 
Ninevite Empire was revived by Asshur-nazir-pal 
the Hittite k. Singara became tributary, c. B.C. 876. 
On the fall of the Asyr. Empire it was in the pos- 
session of Pharaoh Necho for a short time. In the 
decisive battle for this city, c. b.c. 605, Necho was 
defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, thereafter C. be- 
came part of the Bab. Empire. Its remains, acedg. 
to G. Smith, consist of the ruins of huge walls and 
of a large palace. 

CARMEL, usly. with the art. the Carmel, " the 
garden with fruit trees," is a mountain that rises 
abruptly fm. the shore, at the S. extremity of the 
bay of Acre, and extends to the SW. about 13 
miles. The Monastery of Elias stands on the pro- 
montory, at a height of 500 ft. Rising gradually, 




Promontory of Mount Carmel : seen from Haifa 

the ridge reaches its greatest height at Esjiyeh 
(1742 ft.). It sinks in the depression of Wady el- 
Mifteleh, rising again in el-Mahraqah (1687 ft.). 
The mountain forms roughly an oblique triangle, 
its base running S. along the edge of the plain. It 
falls steeply on the NE. and E., but sinks gradually 
to the SW. in a series of long vales and ridges. 
Surrounded by plains on three sides, this great 
mountain forms an impressive feature of the land- 
scape, arresting the eye fm. all parts of central Pal. 
The water supply is limited, but it still justifies its 
name, prosperous vills. dotting its fertile slopes. 
Oak, olive, and pine, myrtle, honeysuckle, box, and 
laurel grow luxuriantly, while in the spring its 
sides are radiant with the rainbow hues of multi- 
tudinous flowers. Cisterns, oil and wine presses 
hewn in the rock, attest the anct. cultivation. It 
is often refd. to in Scrip., e.g. as a symbol of beauty 
(SS. 7. 5 ), of fertility (Is. 35. 2 ), of prosperous and 
happy life (Jr. 50. 19 ) ; while a blight upon C. signi- 
fies disastrous days for Isr. The position of the 
mountain made it worthless fm. a military point of 
view, but its isolation, and its abounding caves in 
the hard limestone, made it a haunt of refugees fm. 



80 



Car 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cas 



old time (Am. o,. 3 ). Its remote heights with their carriages," RV. " took up our baggage," RVm. 
spacious 



groves, a 




outlook, its sheltered retreats and shady " made ready." 

ttracted worshippers before the dawn of CART, l agalZ (i S. 6. 7 , &c. ; EV. tr. " wagon " 

in Gn. 45 . 19 , &c). It seems to have been a two- 
wheeled wooden vehicle, used for transport of pas- 
sengers and goods, drawn by two oxen or cows. In 
the Egpn. and Phil, plains, they cd. be easily em- 
ployed. Poss. in Pal. they were used in the fields 
as at the present day. For threshing wagon (Is. 
28. 28 ), see Agriculture. 

CARVE, sometimes used as = " grave " ; e.g. 
"graven image" (Jg. l8. 18 ), wh. represents one 
word in Heb., pesel. More specially it trs. qala\ 
and is used of the wooden panels of the Temple 
carved with " cherubim and palm-trees." AV. trs. 
hatuvoth, " carved works " : better RV., " striped 
cloths." 

CASEMENT, Heb. eshnab (Pr. 7. 6 , RV. " lat- 
tice," as in Jg. 5. 28 and SS. 2. 9 ). See House. 

Carmel in Judah 

hist. On a place of sacrifice already anct., Elijah 
raised his altar (i K. l8. 30ff -), and here transpired the 
conflict of imperishable memory wh. closed in the 
carnage of the brook below. The place is genly. 
identd. with el-Mahraqah, " the place of burnt- 
offering," a sanctuary of the Druzes in the moun- 
tain to this day. Near by is a Latin Chapel. Some 
think that C. is the scene of the incidents recorded 
in 2 K. i. 9ff - (see Elijah). The cave of Elijah is 
shown under the monastery, but an older claimant 
is that in ed-Deir, near 'Ain es-Slh. Elisha also 
frequented C, clearly visible fm. Shunem, across 
the level reaches of Esdraelon (2 K. 2. 25 , 4- 25 ). 
C. was on the S. border of Asher, but later belonged 
to Tyre (BJ. III. iii. 1). (2) A town in the uplands 
of Judah (Jo. 15. 55 ; 1 S. 15. 12 ), owned by Nabal 

(i S. 25. 2 ), the mod. el-Karmal, 7 miles S. of Assyrian Castle on River Bank 

Hebron, with considerable ruins, a tower of the 12th 

cent., a large reservoir, caves and tombs. The CASLUHIM (Gn. io. 14 ; 1 Ch. I. 12 ), a race re- 
inhabitants are called Carmelites (i S. 27/*, &c). presented as springing fm. Mizraim (Egp.), fm. 
CARPENTER. See Handicrafts. whom the Philistines sprang. 

CASSIA, Heb. qiddah (Ex. 30. 24 ; Ek. 27. 19 ), 
qetzi'oth (Ps. 45. 8 ). Prob. both words refer to 
strips of aromatic bark fm. the Cinnamomum Aro- 
maticum, a native of Cochin China, inferior in 
fragrance, and so in value, to cinnamon. 

CASTLE. (1) Tirah (Gn. 25. 16 ; Nu. 31. 10 ), 
RV. " encampment," prob. consisting of reed huts, 
defended by a rampart of thorns. (2) "*Armbn 
(Pr. 18. 19 ), usly. "palace" (Is. 25. 2 ). (3) BirR- 
nlyoth (2 Ch. 17. 12 )," fortresses." (4) Migdol (iCh. 
27. 25 ), usly. " tower." (5) Mdtzod, matzudab 
(1 Ch. II. 5 - 7 ), " a strong-hold." In Ac. 22. 24 the 
Tower Antonia is called C. 

CASTOR AND POLLUX, twin sons of Zeus 
and Leda, and brs. of Helen, the patrons of sailors ; 
hence the name of the Alexandrian ship (Ac. 28. 11 ). 





Cart (Assyrian) 

CARRIAGE, in AV. always means something 
"carried." (1) KebuddRh, RV. "goods" (Jg. 
18. 21 ). (2) Kell, RV. "baggage" (1 S. 17. 22 ; Is. 
io. 28 ). (3) NestTab, RV. "a burden" (Is. 46. 1 ). 
In Ac. 2 1. 15 , AV. trs. a verbal phrase, " took up our 



81 



Cat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cen 



CATERPILLAR, Heb. basil, and yeleq, the 
Locust in its wingless or caterpillar condition. 
The second of these is usly. trd. CankerwoRm ; 
fm. Na. 3. 16 it wd. seem that its assumption of 
wings had been observed. 

CAUL. (1) Tothereth, the membrane enclosing 
the liver (Ex. 29. 13 ). (2) Segor, the enclosure of the 
heart, the rending of wh. signifies utter destruction 
(Ho. 13. 8 ). (3) Shab'tsim (Is. 3. 18 , EVm. "net- 
works "), prob. represent the ornamented veil worn 
by women in the E., covering the head, and tucked 
under the hair behind. 




Cave Dwellers at Petra 

CAVE. In the limestone rock — the main forma- 
tion of Pal. — natl. caves abound. They have often 
been modified by human art, and used for various 
purposes. In the sandstone of the Edom plateau, 
caves hollowed out in old time, prob. the homes of 
the Horites, the anct. cave-dwellers (Gn. 14. 6 , &c), 
may still be seen, esp. in and around Petra. On the 
E. of Jordan vast Cs. were transformed practically 
into underground cities, like that still to be seen at 
Der'ah, although now unoccupied. In mod. Pal. 
some vills., e.g. Siloam and Gadara, consist largely 
of Cs. protected by a wall in front. Cs., prob. 
dwellings in anct. times, are used to store grain, 
heavy stone doors being swung in their mouths. 
Others, carefully cemented, serve as cisterns. One 
such, of vast extent, under the city of Safed, is said 
to contain water sufficient for many months for the 
whole city. The Cs. afforded shelter for the shep- 
herds and their flocks by night, and in stormy 
weather. They were places of refuge in old times 
(Gn. 19. 30 ; Jo. io. 16 , &c. ; see esp. Hist, of David). 
They were used for sepulture (Gn. 23. 19 ; Jn. 
II. 38 , &c). They were the haunts of robbers in 
later times. Herod the Gt. routed out the turbu- 
lent occupants of the Cs. in Wady Hamam, the tre- 
mendous gorge that breaks back fm. Magdala {Ant. 
XIV. xv. 5). He also stamped out the banditti 
harboured in the Cs. of Trachonitis (XV. x. 1). 

CEDAR. The C. is the noblest tree in its order 
{Conifer a, "cone-bearers"). In its native home, 
the Taurus and Lebanon ranges, it attains gigantic 
stature, and lives through many cents. Although 



in countries where it has been introduced it yields 
timber of inferior quality, in its own mountains the 
wood is fine, close-grained, and greatly valued fm. 
old time for its aromatic perfume, its beauty, and 
durability. Remains of the anct. forest that prob. 
once covered the mountain are found in difft. 
parts. The most striking is the famous grove at 
the source of the Kadisha. The Phoenicians who 
dwelt on the skirt of the mountain were skilful in 
handling the C, and to them was entrusted the 
erection of the splendid bldgs. and timber work in 
Jrs. (2 S. 5. 11 , 7. 2 ; 1 K. 5. 8 , &c). Part of Solo- 
mon's glory was to make C.-wood common in Jrs. 
(1 K. io. 27 ). It natly. appears in the fig. lang. of 
Scrip. Jehoash boasts himself a C. agst. the thistle 
Amaziah (2 K. 14. 9 ). The righteous grow in 
strength and beauty like the C. (Ps. 92. 12 , 104. 16 ). 
The C. of Lv. 14. 4 is prob. some species of juniper 
growing in the wilderness. It is uncert. what tree 
is meant in Nu. 24. 6 . 

CENCHREA, RV. correctly Chenchrea, the 
seaport on the E. side of the isthmus of Corinth, 
named in connection with Paul's vow (Ac. 18. 18 ), 
and as the home of the deaconess Phcebe (Rm. 16. 1 ). 

CENSER. Heb. mahtah and miqtoreth ; the 
latter only occurs twice, and both times with a bad 
connotation (2 Ch. 26. 19 ; Ek. 8. 11 ), yet etymologi- 
cally it seems to be the technical word. In Egp. 
the C. was either a metal spoon or a pot, prob. of 
earthenware. The former word is elsewhere ren- 
dered "snuff-dishes" (Ex. 25. 38 ) and "firepans" 
(Ex. 27. 3 ). C. occurs thrice in NT. (Gr. ihumia- 




Egyptian Censer 

terion, more prop. " altar of incense " (Heb. 9*), 
the LXX equivalent of miqtoreth ; libanotos (Rv. 
8. 3 ), prop. " frankincense "). 

CENTURION, the commander of fm. 50 to 100 
men in the Rm. army. Although in the extent of 
his command similar to a " captain," in social posi- 
tion the C. seems more nearly equal to a " sergeant " 



Cep 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cha 



in our army. Five centurions are mentioned in seems to have restricted C. to the part of Bab. near 
NT. : the C. whose servant was healed (Mw. 8. 5 ) ; the Persian Gulf, as Merodach Baladan is some- 
the C. who watched the Cross (Lk. 23. 47 ) ; Cor- times called the k. of Beit Yakin, and sometimes k. 
nelius, the first Gentile convert (Ac. io. 1 ) ; the C. of the country of the Kaldu. In Heb. the C. are 
told off to superintend the scourging of Paul, who called Kasdim, a name that seems connected with 
warned the " chief captain " agst. carrying out his Kassatu ; a race that had the supremacy in Bab. 
purpose ; Julius, to whose charge Paul was com- about b.c. i 300. ^ The Kaldu seem to have been a 
mitted when he was sent to Rm. It is to be noted race of nomads civilised by contact with the Babs. 
that they all appear as having acted worthily. The Tried by the standard of lang. they appear to have 
badge of the C. was a vine-twig. been Semites. The use of the MT. in Daniel, wh. 

seems to make C. the name of a caste of magicians, 
is due to a false reading. In the majority of in- 
stances the LXX omits C. or puts the word in a 
difft. connection. 

CHAMBERLAIN. The word so trd. in EV. is 
saris, lit. " eunuch" (2 K. 23. 11 ; Est. I. 10 , &c). 
These men often control the internal arrangements 
of the oriental palace, supervise the harim, and exer- 
cise great influence with their masters (Ac. 12. 20 ). 
Erastus was city treasurer of Corinth (Rm. 16. 23 , 
RV.), not C. (AV.). 

CHAMELEON (Heb. koah, Lv. II. 30 ). The 
C. is common in Pal., but prob. it is not here 
intended. The Heb. word means " strength," 
a characteristic one does not associate with the C. 





Centurions 

CEPHAS. See Peter. 

CHAFF. AV. so trs. 4 words. (1) Hashash (Is. 



24 



33. 11 ), lit. " dry grass." (2) Motz (Jb. 



21. 



18 



&c.) consists of the light husks and smaller pieces of AV. trs. C, following LXX. ; RV. " land-croco- 
straw wh., in the process of winnowing, are often dile." RV. renders tinshemeth, " chameleon " 
driven by the wind far fm. the threshing-floor. (Lv. II. 30 , AV. "mole"). The same word ap- 
(3) Teben (Jr. 23. 28 ), this is the straw broken and pears among the names of birds in v. 18, where it is 
crushed by threshing, wh. in winnowing falls in a rendered, RV. " horned owl," AV. and RVm., 
heap hard by the grain. It is largely used for following LXX, " swan " ; so also in Dt. 14. 16 . 
fodder. It is trd. " straw " in Gn. 24. 25 , but This suggests some corruption of the text in Lv. 
"stubble" (Jb. 2 1. 18 ) is wrong. (4) 'Or, Aram., n. 30 . Whatever the koah was, it was prob. among 
of uncert. meaning, prob. the small dust of the the unclean animals with wh. Isr. cd. not fail to be 
threshing-floor. The Gr. achuron (Mw. 3. 12 ; Lk. familiar, both in Egp. and Pal. See J. G. Wood, 
3. 17 ) prob. = leben. Only the refuse is ever burned. Bible Animals. 

CHAIN, AV. so trs. hah, prop. " hook " (Ek. CHAMOIS (Heb. zemer, Dt. 14. 5 ), a clean ani- 



19. 4 . 9 ), nehZsheth, "brass," prob. "fetter" (Jr. 
^o,. 7 , &c), netiphoth, prop. " pendants " (Is. 3. 19 ), 
haruzim, prop. " strings of jewels." The other 
words meaning prop. " chain " need not be sped- 



mal of the deer or antelope family. " Chamois," 
however, of EV., is certainly wrong, as the C. does 
not occur in either Egp. or Pal. " Camelo-pardus " 
of LXX and Vlg. is equally untenable. Psh. with 
fied. Cs., esp. of gold, were a mark of distinction greater probability renders "wild sheep." The 



and symbol of authority (Gn. 41. 42 ; Dn. 5. 7 ). 
They were used for adornment (Nu. 3 1. 50 ), and in 
ornamental work (Ex. 28. 14 ). With Cs. or manacles 
captives and prisoners were bound (Ps. 149. 8 ; Jr. 
40. 1 , &c). In NT. demoniacs were, as now, bound 
with Cs. (Mk. 5. 3 ) ; so Peter (Ac. 12. 6 ) and the 



agility of this animal suggests the goat rather than 
the sheep (Wood). 

CHANCELLOR (Heb. be' el te l em, lit. " lord of 
judgment," or " man of commands "), the title of 
Rehum, one of those who wrote to Artaxerxes agst. 
Jrs. (Ez. 4. 8, 9 « 17 ). Sayce connects te'em with Asyr. 



dragon (Rv. 20. 1 ). Prisoners were chained by the Dhem, applied to reports to the Bab. and Asyr. ks. 
wrist to the soldiers in charge of them (Ac. 28. 20 , fm. representatives in foreign lands ; and wd. tr. 
&c). Criminals in Eastern fortresses to-day may " lord of official intelligence," or " post-master." 
be seen chained together by the ankles. CHAPEL (Heb. miqdash, " sanctuary "), a 

CHALCEDONY, the third foundation of the mistrn. of AV. in Am. 7. 13 , applied to Bethel. It 
New Jrs. (Rv. 21. 19 ). The mod. C. is a kind of exhibits, however, the dependence of this sanctuary 

on the Court, calling it " the k.'s C." 

CHAPITER ( = Capital), represents three Heb. 

CHALDjEA, CHALDEANS, in Biblical usage words : (1) kothereth, " a chaplet " (1 K. 7. 16f -) ; 
Babylonia and Babylonians; earlier Bab. usage "the ornamental upper portion of a column"; 

83 



agate. King {Antique Gems) thinks it was an in- 
ferior kind of emerald. 



Cha 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Che 



applied to the moulding of the " brazen lavers " ; 
(2) tzepheth, of doubtful meaning, used for 1 (2 Ch. 
3. 15 ) ; (3) rosh, " head " (Ex. 38. 17 ), of the pillars 
of the Tabernacle. 

CHARGER, the large round tray of metal, wood, 
or wattled work on wh. cooked food, e.g. meat with 
rice, is set down for a meal. Cs. of precious metal 
were esteemed as gifts, as salvers among ourselves. 

CHARIOT (Heb. mainly merkabah and rekeb), 
an anct. two-wheeled vehicle used for civil (Gn. 
41 . 43 ) and military (Jg. 4. 15 ) purposes, drawn usly. 
by horses, but sometimes by other animals (Is. 21. 7 ). 
The form of the C. was practically the same fm. the 
times of the Pharaohs to that of the Caesars ; the C. 
in wh. Joseph rode did not differ essentially fm. 
that in wh. the Ethiopian eunuch sat and read 
" Esaias the Prophet." 

CHARITY is the AV. tr. of agape. We shd. 
read with RV. in every case " love." 

CHARM, CHARMER. See Divination. 

CHASE. See Hunting. 

CHEBAR, a river of Bab. by the banks of wh. 
Ezekiel saw his visions (Ek. I. 1 ), not = HABOR (2 K. 
17. 6 ) ; poss. a canal (Shatt en-Nil) : identd. by 
Hilprecht, Bab. Exp. of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, 
ix. pp. 27I, j6 ; Expl. in Bible Lands, p. 411 n. 

CHEDORLAOMER (Gn. 14. 1 ), k. of Elam, con- 
federate with Amraphel (LXX, chodollogomor). 
The name is Elamite : Kudur-Lagamar. In some- 
what late inscrs. we find refcs. to the allies of C. as 
contemporaries ; the name of C. also occurs, but 
fm. the absence of the determinative it is not abso- 
lutely cert, that he is a k. During the reign of 
Hammurabi (Amraphel) the supremacy in Bab. 
passed fm. Elam to Bab. {see Babylonia and 
Assyria) ; the occasion of this may have been the 
overthrow inflicted on C. by Abraham at Hobah 
(Gn. 14.1 5 ). 

CHEESE. See Food. 

CHEMARIM, pi. of chomer, of Aram, origin 
(Zp. I. 4 ). It is trs. " idolatrous priests " (2 K. 23. 5 ; 
Ho. io. 5 ). It has this evil sense in these three pas- 
sages, but in the Syr. it carries no reproach. 

CHEMOSH (Heb. Kemdsh), the name of the 
supreme Deity of the Moabites (1 K. II. 33 ). Jeph- 
thah appears to regard C. as supreme God of the 
Ammonites (Jg. II. 24 ) ; it has been suggd. that the 
reading shd. be " Milcom." C, however, was prob. 
an attributive made a name, as Milcom or Molech 
cert, was ; the fr. of Mesha seems to have been called 
Chemosh-Molech : the separation between C. and 
Molech may have been a later development. 

CHEPHAR-AMMONI (AV. C.-Haammonai), 
" vill. of the Ammonites," in Benjamin (Jo. 18. 24 ), 
prob. = Kefr 'Ana, c. 2 miles N.E. of Bethel. 

CHEPHIRAH, a vill. of the Hivites, near Gibeon 
in Benj. (Jo. 9. 17 , &c), the mod. Kefir eh, c. 5 miles 
S.W. of el-Jib. 



CHERETHITES AND PELETHITES. The 

former of these fig. as a branch of the Phil, settled 
in the Negeb (1 S. 30. 14 ) ; the latter seem a variation 
of Phil. As the Phil, came fm. Caphtor, wh. has 
been identd. with Crete, it has been argued that C. 
= " Cretans." These two races formed David's 
bodyguard (2 S. 8. 18 ) ; the Swiss Guards of the later 
French kings are brought forward as an analogue. 
There is no cert, indication of their existence after 
the first yrs. of the reign of Solomon. C. are called 
" Carites " in RVm., following the Kth'ib. 

CHERITH, THE BROOK (1 K. 17. 3 . 5 ), was 
" before," i.e. " E. of Jordan," therefore not Wady 
Qelt. In some unknown retreat among the gorges 
of his native uplands, familiar enough to him, the 
prophet fm. Gilead wd. find safe asylum. 

CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM, attendants on 
the Divine Majesty in a Theophany. In the record 
the fig. of C. is presumed to be familiar to the Isr. ; 
no description is given, and we have to deduce the 
form of the C. and S. fm. what is said about them. 
That the C. had wings appears fm. Ex. 25. 20 . In 
the first appearance of C. they are associated with a 
" flaming sword " that guarded the " way of the 
tree of Life." In Ek. io. 20 we have what at first 
sight purports to be a description of C, but when 
looked at more attentively this becomes more doubt- 
ful. We sometimes find the whole combined mani- 
festation is one C. (Ek. c;. 3 ) ; sometimes the four 
" living creatures " are regarded as each C, and so 
are referred to in the plural (Ek. io. 1 ). Again (Ek. 
io. 21 ), we are told " every one had four faces " ; yet 
in v. 14 we learn that " the first face was the face of a 
C." We have to do, it wd. seem, with a very fluid 
symbol. At first C. was the symbol of storm, taking 
the place of the storm-cloud (Ps. 18. 10 ) ; in Ek. the 
symbol appears to be extended to take in all nature. 
The C. are the sptl. beings behind physical pheno- 
mena. While C. are regarded as the sptl. side of the 
" storm-cloud," the " chariot of Jhwh," the S. 
were the sptl. side of the lightning flashes that came 
fm. the cloud. Further as the Holy Spirit is the 
Divine Hypostasis by wh. God realises Himself in 
things, the C. and S. may be regarded in their collec- 
tive capacity as symbolising, in a rudimentary way, 
the third Person of the Trinity. The " seven Spirits 
wh. are before His Throne " are usly. regarded by 
orthodox divines as completing the Holy Trinity, 
with " Him wh. is and wh. was and wh. is to come," 
and " Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness, the First- 
begotten of the Dead, the Prince of the Kings of the 
Earth." It may be noted that " the four Beasts " 
(RV. " living creatures ") represent the naturalistic 
side of the sacred symbol. But at the same time they 
have a cert, individuality ascribed to them. What 
has been said of the C. applies also to the S., wh. are 
C. regarded fm. a special point of view. There does 
not seem to be any connection with the winged 



84 



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bulls of the Ninevite palaces, save that both are 
composite symbols. The hist, of the degradation 
of the tremendous beings of Isaiah's and Ezekiel's 
visions to the chubby child's face, with wings and 
no body, is a somewhat amusing episode in the de- 
velopment of art. In the first place, while four 
wings were assigned to each Cherub, they had only 
one face each, and that of childlike roundness ; two 
of the four wings covered the feet, wh. were thus 
only indicated ; the hands also were inconspicuous. 
In the next stage only the four wings were seen, and 
that in a somewhat tangled condition, as if the 
artist was encumbered by at least the second pair. 
The last step was to have only two wings and these 
of small size, while the face was undisguisedly that 
of a child. 

CHESALON, on the N. border of Judah (Jo. 
15. 10 ) = Kesla, c. 2 miles N. of Kiriath-Jearim. 

CHEST (Heb. 'arm, usly.trd. " ark," e.g. " ark of 
the Covenant " : not, however, of Noah's " Ark "), 
used of the box for offerings made by Jehoiada (2 K. 
12. 9 ). 

CHESTNUT TREE. The C. does not grow in 
Pal., so it- was not indicated by l armon (Gn. 30. 37 ; 
Ek. 3 1. 8 ). The plane tree grows luxuriantly, and 
forms just such aji impressive object as the prophet 
clearly alludes to. The branches wd. lend them- 
selves to such a purpose as that of Jacob. Natura- 
lists agree in identifying 'armon with the plane. 

CHESULLOTH (Jo. 19. 18 ) = Chisloth Tabor 
(19. 12 ), on the border of Zebulun. It is the mod. 
Iksal, on the N. edge of Esdraelon, c. 3 miles W. of 
Tabor. 

CHEZIB (Gn. 38. 5 ) = Achzib. 

CHILD, CHILDREN. See Family. 

CHILION, s. of Flimelech and Naomi. See 
Ruth. 

CHILMAD (Ek. 2j. 22> ), apparently a region with 
wh. Tyre traded ; unident. 

CHIMHAM. (1) For Barzillai's sake, C, prob. 
his s., was well entreated by David (2 S. ic;. 37f - ; 
cp. I K. 2. 7 ). (2) A geruth, " lodging-place," on 
the highway to Egp. (Jr. 41. 17 ), may have been 
built by him, or called by his name as proprietor of 
the land. 

CHINNERETH (Dt. 3. 17 ; Jo. n. 2 ; " Chinne- 
roth," 19. 35 ), a city apparently N. of Rakkath 
(Tiberias ?), poss. on the site of mod. Magdala, fm. 
wh. the Sea of Galilee derived its OT. name (Nu. 
34. 11 , &c). 

CHIOS (Ac. 20. 15 ), the mod. Scio, an island off 
the coast of Asia Minor, due W. of Smyrna. It is 
30 miles long, and fm. 8 to 18 miles broad. Its 
principal city bears the same name. Wine and gum 
mastic are its most profitable products (cp. Herod's 
voyage to the Black Sea, Ant. XVI. ii. 2). 

CHISLEU. See Year. 

CHISLOTH-TABOR. See Chesulloth. 



CHIUN (Am. 5. 26 ), the name of an Asyr. deity, 
prob. Kai-wa-nu = Saturn ; the name appears to 
have got the vowels of shiqqutz, " abomination," so 
that readers mt. avoid taking the " name of the 
heathen god " into their mouths. Another inter- 
pretation takes C. to mean " pedestal " — a rendering 
that has little to recommend it save the AV. tr. of 
Sikkuth as " tabernacle," wh. is genly. abandoned 
now. Prob. we shd. render " idol " instead of 
" images " ; and recognise in the word trd. " star " 
the name of another deity. 

CHLOE (1 Cor. I. 11 ), a lady, members of whose 
household, prob. Christians, told Paul of the 
bickerings at Corinth. 

CHORAZIN (Mw. n. 20ff - ; Lk. io. 13 ), the mod. 
Kerazeh, a considerable ruin on the rt. lip of Wady 
Kerazeh, N. of Tell Hum. There are a few carved 




PEF. Drawing 



Carved Niche at Chorazin 



stones, remains of the anct. synagogue. A paved 
road connected the city with the great highway 
to Damascus. 

CHRIST. See Jesus Christ. 

CHRIST, PERSON OF. The question which 
Jesus asked His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, " Who 
say ye that I am ? " is still the central one for 
Christianity. Peter's answer to that question was, 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God " 
(Mw. 16. 16 ; in Mk. 8. 29 , " Thou art the Christ "). 
What do the words of this confession mean ? The 
answer of the Apostolic Church, which the Church 
in all ages has accepted as its own, is not obscure. 
Christ is the eternal Son of God, manifested on 
earth for man's salvation — true Man and true God 
in the unity of one Person. Often as the attempt 
has been made to remove Christ from this high 
dignity (Ebionites, Gnostics, Arians, Socinians, 
Humanitarians, &c), the attempt has invariably 
broken down. The present age witnesses a new 
endeavour on the part of the adherents of a 
non-miraculous Christianity to interpret Christ in 
terms of mere humanity, but it may be predicted 
this, like the attempts which have preceded it, will 
end in failure. The facts will not fit into it. No 
historical Church (Latin, Greek, Protestant) has 
yet suggested the removal of this article from its 
creed, nor would it stand long if it did. 

The doctrine of the Person of Christ, as the 
Church has held it, involves three points. (1) That 



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Christ was true man — possessed humanity in its 
integrity. (2) That Christ was more than man — 
the Son of God, existing from eternity, Divine in 
nature as the Father is Divine. (3) That in Christ 
Divinity and humanity existed in the unity of a 
single Person. It is believed that this doctrine 
rests on Biblical data — is, indeed, nothing more 
than what Scripture teaches on the Person of 
the Redeemer. 

I. A glance may be taken, first, at the Old Testa- 
ment preparation for this doctrine of a Divine and 
human Christ. Messianic prophecy is sometimes 
said not to transcend the limits of an earthly king. 
This, however, is hardly the case. (1) Ps. 45. 
cannot be pressed in this connection, though its 
language is applied to Christ in Heb. I. 8 ' 9 . But 
other Messianic psalms, e.g. Ps. 2., 72., no., do 
seem to transcend the limits of ordinary humanity. 
It is in no mere strain of Oriental eulogy that a 
King is looked for who is set by Divine decree 
at God's right hand, who shall reign for ever, in 
whom, in fulfilment of the oracle to Abraham, all 
nations shall be blessed. (2) The Immanuel oracle, 
culminating in the marvellous announcement, 
" Unto us a child is born," &c. (Is. 7. 14 , 8. 8 , c.. 6 ' 7 ), 
has a grandeur and breadth which imply Divine 
prerogatives : "God with us " (Mw. I. 23 ). (3) The 
servant of Jehovah, especially as depicted in Is. 53., 
is rejected and put to death, yet enjoys a triumph 
which means a Divine exaltation (vv. 10-12). 
(4) The One " like unto a Son of Man," in Dn. 7. 13 , 
to whom is given an everlasting kingdom (v. 14), 
was naturally identified with the Messianic King, 
and in later Apocalypse (Enoch) was regarded as 
Divine. Similarly, " the Messenger of the Cove- 
nant " in Ml. 3. 1 " 3 has attributes which transcend 
humanity. While the theocratic King is in this way 
practically invested with Divine attributes, there is 
no speculation as to the nature of His Person. 

II. It is to what is narrated and taught about 
Christ Himself in the New Testament that we 
naturally turn for full instruction on His Person. 
The high Christology of the Epistles is hardly dis- 
puted. But it is contended by many that the 
doctrine of the Epistles is contradicted by the 
picture of the historical Christ in the Gospels. A 
distinction is again drawn between the Synoptic 
Gospels, which, it is alleged, know nothing of 
Christ's dignity, and the fourth Gospel. This, it is 
allowed, does teach it, but is set aside as a product 
of later theological reflection. It may be shown, 
however, that, while certain contrasts must be ad- 
mitted, these are overstrained when held to imply 
an essentially different view of Christ's Person. 

1. The Synoptic Gospels. — Interwoven with the 
picture of Jesus in these Gospels are superhuman 
traits which no ingenuity of criticism can remove. 
Jesus is truly human, yet supernatural in a sense 



and degree which it requires the apostolic doctrine 
to explain and justify. The two names which are 
given to Christ in the Gospels attest this — " Son of 
Man " and " Son of God." (1) The one name 
affirms His unique relation to humanity. He is 
true and perfect man. He represents universal 
humanity.. Not " Son of David," or " Son of 
Abraham " only, but " the Son of Man." The title 
may be suggested by Daniel, and have Messianic 
significance. But as it came from Christ's con- 
sciousness (He alone uses it) it meant a sense of 
relation to the race. (2) The other name affirms a 
like unique relation to God. He is not " Son " 
only, but " the Son " in a peculiar and incommuni- 
cable sense (Mw. n. 27 ). He constantly in speech 
distinguishes His own relation to the Father from 
that of His disciples. He claimed the title " Son of 
God " in a sense which the High Priest interpreted 
as blasphemy (Mw. 26. 63 " 65 ; cp. Jn. I. 49 " 51 , io. 33-36 ). 
In the baptismal formula He is united as Son with 
the Father and the Holy Spirit (Mw. 28. 19 ). 

More particularly, no one now will doubt that in 
the Synoptic Gospels Jesus is represented (1) as 
partaker of a true humanity. The Gnostic fiction 
of a phantasmal Christ finds no support in these 
narratives. Jesus is born of a human mother ; 
grows in wisdom and stature ; hungers, thirsts, 
sleeps, is weary ; is sustained by food ; suffers pain ; 
endures temptation ; sorrows, weeps, rejoices ; is 
moved with indignation ; at length dies upon the 
Cross. A truer man never lived. The tendency 
in these days is not to question Christ's humanity, 
but to resolve everything into it. He is not only 
man, but perfect man — the ideal or archetype of 
humanity. 

But (2) into the framework of this picture of one 
truly human what wonderful traits that transcend 
humanity are continually wrought ! Not here and 
there, in features that might be removed, and leave 
the general representation intact, but as part of the 
total picture. Christ is miraculously born — so the 
only two Gospels that narrate His earthly origin 
affirm (Mw. 1., 2. ; Lk. 1., 2.). He is perfectly 
sinless. Through His whole life He separates Him- 
self in consciousness from sinners — puts Himself 
over against them on the side of God as their 
Saviour. He is the Holy One (Lk. I. 35 ; Mk. I. 24 ). 
He is announced by the Baptist as the Baptizer 
with the Holy Spirit (Mw. 3. 11 ), and Himself be- 
stows the Spirit (Luke 24. 49 ). He represents Him- 
self as the goal and fulfilment of all Old Testament 
revelation (Mw. 5. 17 , 12. 6 , 26. 24 > 31 - 54 ; Mk. 9. 12 ; 
Lk. 4. 17 - 21 , 22. 37 , 2 4 . 27 ' 44 , &c). He is the Christ— 
the Messiah — at once the Founder of the Kingdom 
of God and Lord over it (Mw. 16. 16 - 19 ' 27 - 28 , 25. 31ff -, 
&c). All power and authority have been given 
Him in heaven and on earth (Mw. 1 1 . 27 , 28. 18 ). He 
performs stupendous miracles on nature and on 



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man — stills the storm, raises the dead. He an- His being " wearied " at the well (4. 6 ), of His 

nounces His coming again to judge the world, and " weeping " and " groaning " at the grave of 

proclaims Himself the Judge — the arbiter of the Lazarus (n. 33-38 ), of His saying on the cross, "I 

everlasting destinies of men (Mw. 25. 31ff -, &c). thirst " (19. 28 ). He died a true death, and ex- 

On one supreme occasion He was gloriously trans- perienced a true resurrection. Yet through the 

figured (Mw, I7- 1 " 8 , &c). His death is voluntary humanity a Divine glory shone. It was from what 

(Mw. 26. 53 ), but after His death and burial He rises John beheld in Him as man that he rose to think of 

again from the dead. Can any one affirm that this Him as the only-begotten of the Father (i. 14 ). 

is the image of One who can be put in a frame of 3. The Book of Acts agrees with the Gospels in 

mere humanity ? It is not there the Gospels put seeing in Jesus One who was perfectly human yet 

Him. We have seen that the Son is joined with the truly Divine. He was " a man approved of God 

Father and the Holy Spirit in the one Name into by mighty works, and wonders, and signs which 

which we are baptized (Mw. 28. ]9 ). Not without God did by Him " (2. 22 : Peter takes the people 

good reason does Bousset declare that " already the here on their own ground) ; but He had been 

oldest Gospel is written from the standpoint of exalted to be " both Lord and Christ " at God's 

faith ; already for Mark is Jesus not only the right hand (vv. 34-36), and had poured forth the 

Messiah of the Jewish people, but the miraculous Spirit on the Church. He was the ordained " Judge 

eternal Son of God " {Was wissen wir von Jesus? of living and dead" (io. 42 , 17. 31 ). Only through 

p. 54). Him can men be saved (4. 12 , io. 43 ). 

2. The Gospel of 'John. — The representation in the 4. The Epistles and. Revelation. — (1) The perfect 

Gospel of John is not essentially different, except humanity of Jesus is attested or implied continually, 

that the Divine side of Christ's Person, in accordance Christ was "born of a woman" (Gal. 4 4 ), was 

with the aim of the Gospel (John 20. 31 ), is now put " born of the seed of David according to the flesh " 

in the forefront, and the discourses and miracles (Rm. I. 3 ; 2 Tm. 2. 8 ), took flesh and blood (He. 

are selected with a view to illustrate Christ's Divine 2. 14 ), was made in all things, except sin, like unto 

Sonship. His brethren (Rm. 8. 3 ; He. 2. 17 , 4. 15 ), endured 

(1) The key to the Gospel is given in the pro- temptation (He. 2. 18 ), prayed " with strong crying 

logue. " The Word became flesh " (i. 14 ). "The and tears," was made perfect through suffering 

only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the (He. 5. 7 " 9 ). The mark of Antichrist, according to 

Father, He hath declared Him" (v. 18). The John, was the denial that Jesus had" come in the 

" Word " (Logos) who became " flesh " was in the flesh " (1 J. 4. 2, 3 ). 

fullest sense Divine. " The Word was with God, (2) As undeniably is Jesus conceived of in the 

and the Word was God " (v. 1). He was the Epistles of Paul, John, and Peter, the Epistle to the 

Divine agent in creation (v. 3). Stress is laid in Hebrews, and the Book of Revelation, as a Being 

various sayings on Christ's pre-existence. He was truly Divine. " Existing," Paul says, " in the form 

" before Abraham " (8. 58 ). He had glory with the of God," He " emptied Himself, taking the form of 

Father before the world was (17. 5 ' 24 ). As in the a servant " (Php. 2. 6, 7 ). He created all things in 

Synoptics, all authority is given to Him (17. 2 ). heaven and in earth (Col. I. 16 ). All things are 

The chief point of- contrast with the Synoptics is " through Him, and unto Him ; and He is before 

that in the latter this clear declaration of pre- all things, and in Him all things consist " (vv. 16, 

existence is wanting. This, however, only proves 17). Similarly in Hebrews, " through whom He 

the fidelity of the Evangelists in recording Christ's [God] made the worlds " ; " Upholding all things 

utterances. Not one of them but knew and be- by the word of His power " (i. 2,3 ). In Revelation, 

lieved that Christ had pre-existed. But they never He is " the Alpha and Omega," " the first and the 

put this claim in Christ's own mouth. It could not last" (i. 8,17 ). Divine worship is ordained to be 



be looked for at a time when Christ had not yet paid to Him (Php. 2. 



10 



1 P. 3. 22 ; He. i.« 



publicly proclaimed His Messiahship, or in dis- Rv. 5. 11 " 14 ). In every Epistle He is conjoined with 

courses and parables addressed to Galilean multi- the Father, sometimes with the Father and the 

tudes. Even in John it occurs only rarely. Yet, Holy Spirit, as the Source of blessing to the Church, 

as the passage quoted from Bousset shows, it is im- The recurring formula is : " Grace to you and peace 

plied in what the Evangelists do say about Jesus, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ " 



If Christ was Divine, pre-existence follows. 

(2) But, again, not less than in th 
Jesus in John's Gospel truly human. " The Word 
became flesh" (i. 14 ). He had human needs and 



(Rm. I. 7 , and generally). Cp 



Synoptics is passages (1 Cor. 12. 4 " 6 
Rv. I. 4 - 5 ). Theolog: 



the Trinitarian 
; 2 Cor. 13. 14 ; I P. I. 2 ; 

ical difficulties as to the union 



of Divine and human in this one Person have not 



wants, experienced human emotions, was tenderly yet arisen. But that the Son is regarded as at once 
sympathetic, had mental trouble as His hour drew Divine and human, and this in the most perfect 
near (12. 27 ). It is John who preserves the trait of sense, is beyond reasonable question. 



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III. The questions which the New Testament 
writers do not yet raise could not but arise for the 
later thought of the Church. How is this union of 
divinity and humanity in one Person to be con- 
strued ? The rise of heresy and error — negations 
or mutilations of the truth on one side or the other 
(Gnostic denials of the humanity ; Ebionitic and 
Unitarian denials of the divinity ; Arian denials of 
eternity and full Godhead, &c.) — made reflection 
on and testimony for the complete truth imperative. 
The problem also was one which, for its own 
satisfaction, the Church had to consider. Many 
•answers were attempted, but most had to be 
rejected. Apollinarianism sought to substitute the 
Divine Logos for the rational soul in Jesus ; but 
this was rightly pronounced a mutilation of the 
humanity. Nestorianism conceived of the union as 
a moral " indwelling " of the personal Logos in the 
human soul of Jesus : this was rejected as a dis- 
solving of the unity of the Person. Eutychianism 
spoke of a blending of the natures, or of an absorption 
of the human in the Divine ; this was repelled as 
repugnant to the distinctness of the natures. In 
a.d. 451 the Council of Chalcedon affirmed the 
unity of the Person of Christ " in two natures," 
without confusion, conversion, division, or separa- 
tion, and this doctrine has passed into the creeds of 
the Greek, Latin, and Protestant Churches. 

The Chalcedonian decision states a truth, but 
leaves the problem of the how of the union un- 
resolved. Modern Christologies have too often cut 
the knot by rejecting the Divine Person, and re- 
verting to a more or less disguised Humanitarianism. 
Jesus is God-filled man — or even less. Against this 
the teaching of Scripture, as traced above, the con- 
sciousness of the Christian Church, and the need of 
a Divine Saviour for the ends of redemption, unite 
in protest. A peculiar form of modern Christology 
is the " Kenotic." On this view the Incarnation 
meant the laying aside by the Son of God of His 
Divine glory, attributes, and even consciousness ; 
His abdication for the time of His place and 
functions in the Godhead ; and His being born as 
a human babe with all the limitations which that 
state implied. His Divine glory is resumed at the 
exaltation. Such a renunciation of the attributes 
of Godhead, however, as this theory supposes, must 
be pronounced an inconceivability ; nor is there 
anything in Scripture to warrant such a view. The 
humiliation of Jesus relates only to His earthly 
manifestation Difficult as the conception may be, 
there seems to be implied in the Incarnation a 
twofold state of being, corresponding to Christ's 
twofold nature as God and Man. As in John : 
" No one hath ascended into heaven, but He that 
descended out of heaven, even the Son of Man, 
who is in heaven " (3. 13 ). 

The question is frequently raised in modern 



times : How does the Incarnation affect Christ's 
human knowledge ? On one side there have been 
those who denied all limitation in Christ's know- 
ledge — all ignorance. On the other side are those 
who freely impute to Christ not only ignorance of 
most things, but abundance of error. Neither 
view can be justified. That Christ was humanly 
ignorant in spheres that lay beyond His Messianic 
vocation is implied in what is said of His growth in 
" wisdom and stature " (Lk. 2. 52 ), and indeed in 
His assumption of a true humanity. Calvin, com- 
menting on Lk. 2. 40 , says : " If we do not choose to 
deny that Christ was made a real man, we ought 
not to be ashamed to acknowledge that He volun- 
tarily took upon Him everything that is inseparable 
from human nature." In this he includes ignor- 
ance. In one notable case Jesus disclaims know- 
ledge of the time of His own Advent (Mk. 13. 32 ). 
Ignorance, however, does not necessarily imply 
error. From that it must be held that Christ's 
mind was free, even as it was from sin. 

James Orr. 

Lit. : On Messianic prophecies — A. B. Davidson, 
OT. Prophecy, chaps. 1 8.-20. ; Riehm, Messianic 
Prophecy ; Orelli, OT. Prophecy ; on NT. evi- 
dence — Denney, Jesus and the Gospel ; Liddon, 
Our Lord's Divinity ; Biblical Theologies of Weiss, 
Oosterzee, &c. ; on Church theories — Orr, Pro- 
gress of Dogma ; on Kenotic theories — A. B. Bruce, 
The Humiliation of Christ ; on whole subject — 
Dorner, Person of Christ. 

CHRISTIAN, a name coined by the Antiochians 
for the followers of Christ, c. a.d. 43 (Ac. II. 26 ). It 
is used by Agrippa (Ac. 26. 28 ), and appears again in 
1 P. 4. 16 . Tacitus (Ann. xv. 44), and Suetonius 
{Nero 16), use it as a familiar name of Christ's 
followers. The Jews wd. refrain fm. its use because 
of the significance attaching to the name " Christ " 
= " Messiah." If it were a term of contempt, this 
wd. explain why, at first, it was seldom used by 
Christians ; and not until well into the second 
Christian cent, do we find them gen. so describing 
themselves. 

CHRONICLES, I. and II. (Heb. Dibre hayya- 
mlm, " the events of the days," Gr. paraleipomenon, 
" Appendices "). Our English name is derived fm. 
Jerome, who in the list of OT. Bks. in Prologus 
Galeatus calls this Bk. Chronica ; this name has 
been gen. adopted in European W., e.g. Luther's 
German and Osterwald's French. Originally it 
was one bk. ; but the unwieldy size of a papyrus roll 
large enough to contain the whole of C. led, as in 
the case of Samuel and Kings, to its division. The 
relation of C. to Ezra and Nehemiah has occa- 
sioned some diffc. of opinion. The almost uni- 
versal opinion of mod. scholars is that Ezra and 
Nehemiah formed one bk. with C. ; on the other 
hand the early Jewish opinion appears to have sepa- 



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rated C. from Ezra and Nehemiah ; the received 
LXX, the Psh., Melito of Sardis, and Jerome all 
separate the bks. The Tim. {Baba Batbra), while 
assigning the writing of C. to Ezra, separates C. fm. 
Ezra's own bk. The Apcr. bk. of I (3) Esdras 
begins with 2 Ch. 35., and, going to the end of the 
bk., contains the whole of the canonical Ezra with 
the 8th chap, of Nehemiah, inserting the episode 
concerning Truth after the 4th chap, of the 
canonical Ezra (Ezra and Esdras [Apcr.]) : a pheno- 
menon wh. seems to indicate that at some point in 
the evolution of the Canon, C, and at all events a 
portion of Ezra and Nehemiah, formed one bk. 
The structure of Nehemiah will be considered 
under Ezra and Nehemiah. 

Contents. — C. may be regarded as an epitome 
of the hist, of the world fm. Adam to the Decree 
of Cyrus restoring the Jews. To the end of 
chap. 9. we have the genealogies mainly extracted 
fm. earlier Canonical bks. with notes frequently 
drawn fm. sources now lost, e.g. I C. 7. 21 ' 22 . The 
writer seems originally to have intended to give 
a genealogy for each of the Tribes of Israel ; if he 
carried out his plan the portions referring to two 
have not come down to us. The most noticeable 
feature is the prominence given to the Tribes of 
Levi and Judah ; to some extent also of Benjamin. 
The Temple stood close to the boundary between 
Judah and Benjamin, and the function of the 
Levites was found in the Temple worship. The 
next portion (1 C. 10.-29.) is occupied with the reign 
of David. There are many insertions and omis- 
sions, condensations and amplifications, wh. make 
the narr. of C. different fm. that of S. and K. ; the 
purpose of these apparently is to concentrate the 
reader's attention on the Temple. David's con- 
quest of Jerusalem, where the Temple was to be, 
and his making it his Capital ; the bringing up of 
the Ark fm. Kirjath-Jearim first to the house of 
Obed-Edom, and then to Jerusalem ; his foreign 
conquests, and the treasures of gold and silver wh. 
he thence acquired and stored up for use in the 
adornment of the Temple ; his desire to build a 
Temple ; his purchase of the threshing-floor of 
Araunah ; his appointment of Solomon as his 
successor; andhis directions to him as to the bldg.of 
the Temple — all prove that this was the point fm. 
wh. the author considered the hist, of David, and 
indeed of Isr. The hist, reaches its culmination 
in the act. of the reign of Solomon, wh. occupies 
the first 9 chaps, of 2nd C. ; all notice of Solomon's 
declension is omitted, and even his literary activity 
(1 K. 4. 29 " 33 ) ; Solomon has an interest for the 
writer only as the k. who built the Temple. The 
rest of the bk. exhibits the same characteristics. 
After Rehoboam's loss of the Northern Kdm. and 
the plunder of the Temple by Shishak, those ks. 
are made prominent whose efforts were directed to 



the reform of worship, or the repair of the Temple. 
Abijah, although not commended in 1 K., is 
honoured because of the speech assigned to him in 
wh. he glorifies the Temple and its worship. His 
son Asa has 3 chaps, devoted to him ; his victory 
over the Ethiopians wh. followed his putting down 
of idolatry in his kdm. (14.) ; the further manifes- 
tation of his zeal and his great sacrifice (15.) ; his 
fall, his taking of the Temple treasures to hire 
Benhadad's help agst. Baasha, k. of Isr. (16.). 
Jehoshaphat has a yet larger space devoted to him 
because he continued the work of reformation ; 
nevertheless he makes alliance with the wicked 
house of Omri, falls into danger and suffers loss on 
this act. (18.) ; is rebuked because of it by Jehu, s. of 
Hanani, and submits (19.) ; thereafter he gains a 
great victory over the combined forces of Moab, 
Ammon, and Mount Seir (20.). The wicked reigns 
of Jehoram and Ahaziah, and the usurpation of 
Athaliah, are more summarily treated. The nar. 
expands when it relates the hist, of Jehoash, the 
Temple child ; his being hid, anointed, and pro- 
claimed k. in the Temple (23.) ; his zeal for the re- 
pair of the Temple during the lifetime of Jehoiada, 
his preserver ; his declension, punishment, and 
death (24.). Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham, war- 
like, and on the whole prosperous ks., are passed over 
with greater brevity ; their activity had little to do 
with the Temple. Of Uzziah it is recorded that he 
attempted to desecrate the Temple by usurping the 
Priest's office and offering incense : but God smote 
him with leprosy. The evil reign of Ahaz, and the 
punishments inflicted on him because of his idola- 
tries, occupy chap. 28. As to the reign of Heze- 
kiah, the nar. of C, when compared with that in 
2 K., is in parts fuller, and in parts more condensed ; 
the parts relating to his reformation of the Temple 
worship, his celebration of the Passover, are dwelt on 
at considerable length ; while his deliverance fm. 
Sennacherib, his recovery fm. sickness, the message 
of the Bab. ambassadors to him, are condensed (29.- 
32.). Although the reign of Manasseh is the longest 
of all the ks. whether of Judah or Isr., yet the narra- 
tion of it occupies only 20 vv., nearly the half of this 
space being taken up with his captivity, repentance, 
and consequent efforts at the restoration of the 
Temple worship, incidents that have no place in 
the bk. of K. The concluding vv. of chap. 33. 
suffice for the short and wicked rule of Amon. The 
reformation of worship and of morals, and the repair 
of the Temple connected with Josiah are expanded 
fm. the nar. of K. ; dwelt on at yet greater length 
is his Passover. His annexation of the provinces of 
the N. Kdm. in the confusion that accompanied the 
fall of the Empire of the Sargonids is passed over 
without notice (34., 35.). The reigns of the four ks. 
after the fall of Jrs., and the edict of Cyrus, are re- 
lated in the space of a score of verses. When we 



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treat of Ezra we shall find similar prominence given 
to the Temple. After this summary of its contents, 
it will be obvious that C. is primarily a hist, of the 
Temple and its worship, with passing refcs. to con- 
temporary events. 

Sources. — The Genealogies in the 1st chap, 
are apparently taken fm. Gn. ; some of those that 
follow are drawn fm. Ex., Nu., Jo., and S. The 
other genealogical lists are prob. taken fm. the 
records preserved by cert, families ; that there were 
such registers is proved by the sons of Barzillai 
(Ez. 2. 62 ; Ne. 7- 64 ), who claimed to be Aaronites 
.but were unable to find " their register." Some 



of the histl. notes, e.g. 4: 



38-43 



21-23 



their 



origin to this source. In the chaps, following the 
genealogies there are elaborate refcs. to authorities. 
(1) " The Bk. of the Ks. of Isr. and Judah " ; ap- 
parently = the "Bk. of the Ks. of Isr.," " The doings 
of the Ks. of Isr." (2) The bks. of various prophets, 
e.g. " The words of Samuel the Seer," " The words 
of Nathan the Prophet," and " The words of Gad 
the Seer " (iCh.29. 29 )," The Story (mzdrash) of the 
Prophet Iddo" (2 Ch. I3. 22 ),&c. ; poss., however,all 
these prophets wrote the annals of their successive 
times in a condensed shape, each message being in its 
turn added to the document that is now our " Bks. 
of Kings." This view is confirmed by 2 Ch. 32. 32 , 
" The rest of the acts of Hezekiah . . . are written in 
the Vision of Isaiah the Prophet, the s.of Amoz,in the 
bk. of the Ks. of Judah and Isr." : see also 2 Ch. 20. 34 
RV., Kings I. and II. There are, however, nume- 
rous cases where events are recorded of wh. there is 
no trace in the Bks. of Kings, e.g. " the falling away 
of Asa " (2 Ch. 16.), " Jehoshaphat's victory in the 
Valley of Berachah " (2 Ch. 20. 1 " 30 ), and " Pekah's 
victorious expedition into Judah in the reign of 
Ahaz " (2 Ch. 28. 5-15 ) ; these seem to have been 
extracted fm. prophetic Lit., although not inserted 
in our Bks. of Kings. (3) The lists of David's 
" mighty men," of those that came to him to 
Ziklag, of the singers, the musicians appointed by 
David, were prob. drawn fm. official documents. 
The relation of the Chronicler seems in some points 
to have been slavish dependence without adequate 
understanding ; in others his modifications have 
been much greater than mod. historians permit 
themselves. This is most observable in regard to 
numbers wh. are increased beyond all reasonable 
belief. In this case, however, it is prob. we have to 
do with the megalomania of a later Jewish scribe. 
With regard to C. and most of the Kethubim, accu- 
racy of transcription was not protected by Syna- 
gogue reading. 

Historicity. — Putting to the one side the mis- 
directed efforts of the ambitious redactor, we find, 
as we have already remarked, a slavish dependence 
on the sources. A well-known proof of this is 
1 Ch. 25. 4b , in wh. a portion of a Psalm has acci- 



dentally dropped into the genealogy of Heman ; the 

Chronicler has split the lines into nine names. 

Some of the resulting names are common enough : e.g. 
Hananiahand Hanani ; the others, while not occurring else- 
where, can be paralleled in form. This portion of the verse 
does not appear in the Psh. While in MT. 6 out of the 14 
names in this verse are repeated in relating the order of the 
courses of the singers, in Psh. the names that are doubtful 
assume a difft. form : e.g. Romanti-ezer (MT.) becomes in the 
Psh. Riimon ; and Joshbekashah (Ml'.) becomes Eliashib 
(Psh.). This accidental intrusion does not seem to have been 
found in the Bab. copies fm. wh. the Psh. was trd. Some- 
times when omitting an incident fm. his source the Chronicler 
quotes words and phrases wh. imply the portion he has 
omitted: e.g. 2 Ch. 10. 15 refers to Ahijah's prophecy, wh. 
yet is omitted. Some of the documents on wh. the Chronicler 
relied may not have been contemporary with the events, and 
some of them may have suffered fm. the hands of interpola- 
tors, but he seems to have given us a fairly accurate version of 
what they recorded. It is not scientific to degrade C. because 
it opposes the momentarily reigning hypothesis as to Jewish 
hist., and declare its statements to be " in conflict with the 
known course of history " (Curtiss, HDB.). Some of the 
events wh. we know only fm. C, and wh. were supposed to 
be instances of flagrant inaccuracy, e.g. the captivity of 
Manasseh in Bab., have been proved to beat least prob. In 
the case of Manasseh, the idolater and persecutor, whose 
iniquities had caused the destruction of Jrs., who was be- 
lieved to have put Isaiah to death, whose evil reputation ap- 
pears in unsofcened harshness in the reign of Nero when the 
Ascension of Isaiah was written, it seems improb., almost 
imposs. , that a writer shd. invent for him a repentance, even 
if preceded by a captivity. The singular piece of historic 
accuracy in sending him to " Bab." rather than to Nineveh, 
when Esar-haddon had been crowned k. of Bab. , treating 
it, along with Nineveh, as the twin capital of his empire, 
can scarcely be attributed to luck. The case of 2 S. 2t. 19 , 
compared with 1 Ch. 20. 5 , seems at first sight an obvious 
effort of the harmoniser, but when the passages are looked 
at more carefully this does not seem so clear. It is ad- 
mitted that the passage in S. is corrupt, that J aare-oregim , 
"forest of weavers," is not a man's name, and that Jair in 
C. is more prob. In the Psh. the name is given as Malaph- 
zeqiiri, " teacher of weaving," wh. seems an effort to put a 
sense into the Masoretic name. The 'ahi, "brother of," of 
the original document, has been confounded with 'eth, the 
sign of the accusative. 

C. records the Hist, of the Temple, and of 
Judah and Jrs. so far as involved in it. Fm. this 
point of view it may be taken as accurate. 

Style. — That the Heb. of C. is relatively late is 
what mt. be expected in a post-exilic bk. ; but this 
may easily be exaggerated. When we compare C. 
with Ec. we find far more traces of lateness in the 
latter bk. ; in Ec. we have the short relative so fre- 
quent in Talmudic ; the vav conversive is rarely 
used. If we apply these tests to C. we find the 
Chronicler regularly uses the vav conversive, and 
never employs the short relative. Making allow- 
ance for the diffc. between prose and poetry, the 
Heb. of C. has a close resemblance to that of Haggai 
and the earlier chaps, of Zechariah. Shd. it be said 
that the Chronicler imitated the earlier and more 
classic style : agst. this it is to be noted that style, 
as an indication of a period, was not recognised ; 
the writer of Ec. cd. claim to be Solomon, and have 
his claim allowed without making any attempt to 
avoid the peculiarities of his own time. 

Date and Author. — Fm. the style, as above 
noted, C. wd. seem to be nearly contemporary with 



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Haggai and Zechariah. Agst. this is to be put the 
fact that in the genealogy of Zerubbabel (i Ch. 
3. 19 " 24 ), Anani, the last name, is of the 6th genera- 
tion after Zerubbabel ; in Ne. 12. 10 " 11 the priestly 
genealogy is carried down to Jaddua of the 5th 
generation ; Jos. makes Jaddua contemporary with 
Alexander the Great, a view that is confirmed by 
vv. 22f., " the priests to the reign of Darius the 
Persian " — this " Darius " being, fm. the connec- 
tion, Darius Codomannus who was overthrown by 
Alexander. These stages in descent occur only in 
two genealogies — the priestly, wh. was cert, kept 
with great care, and the Davidic, wh. was kept prob. 
with scarcely less care. A copyist who wished to 
bring the nar. up to date wd. have no difficulty in 
adding the various names : in both passages there 
are traces of interpolation. These later members 
of the genealogies are prob. due to the editor who 
exaggerated the numbers. Jewish tradition, alike 
in the Tim. (Jzo. En.) and the Apocalyptic 2nd 
Esdras, points out Ezra as the writer. Everything 
in the char, of Ezra suits the contents and style of 
C. Despite the adverse weight of critical opinion, 
we think that C. was originally written by Ezra, and 
edited about the time of Alexander the Great. This 
hypothesis appears to act. for all the phenomena. 

CHRONOLOGY, the science of dating events in 
relation to other events. The earliest system of 
dating that has come down to us is by the yr. of the 
reign of the monarch. When people began to have 
a Calendar, that is before any extant hist., the rela- 
tion of the regnal yr. to the Calendar became a 
matter of importance. The most common way was 
to reckon the first yr. of the k. that during wh. he 
ascended the throne, even though it mt. be in its 
last month : this method was genly. adopted. It has 
obvious disadvantages. The first yr. of one sove- 
reign has been already denoted as the 13th or 14th, 
or whatever the number mt. be of his predecessor : 
thus at each change of monarch a yr. was added. 
Again, when a k. assumed his s. as colleague ; it be- 
came a matter of doubt whether the regnal yrs. of a 
monarch who had been colleague with his fr. and 
survived him, shd. be reckoned fm. the date of his 
assumption as colleague, or fm. his reign as sole 
monarch ; this is a frequent cause of confusion in 
the C. of the Bks. of Kings. The Babs. got rid of 
these difficulties by reckoning the first yr. of a sove- 
reign that wh. began on the New Year after his ac- 
cession ; the portion of the preceding yr. wh. was 
included in his reign was called " the beginning of 
his reign " ; so 2 K. 25. 27 . If there were colleague- 
ships on the throne during the Bab. supremacy, no 
trace is left on the contract tables. The Asyr. C, 
though not reckoned on the Bab. system, is also very 
precise. The Egyptian methods are less reliable. 
Whether the various dyns. are to be regarded as all 
successive, or some of them as contemporaneous, is 



yet in doubt. When a synchronism can be got, it 
is clearly a great advantage in chronological investi- 
gation. It is esp. advantageous in regard to the C. 
of the Bible ; the Christian Revelation in both 
Testaments is distinguished fm. every other Lit. 
claiming to have a Divine origin, in that it claims to 
be the hist, of a Divine process, related by human 
agency. While the Divine thought must be pre- 
sent there is also always the possibility of error. 
Biblical Hist, embraces the two Testaments ; there 
is between the end of the first and the beginning of 
the second a period of four centuries and a half wh. 
need be little more than referred to. Fm. the con- 
tact with the Greek power every event during that 
period is brought into relation with the Era of the 
Seleucids, and through it with the Rm., ab urbe 
condita (AUC.) " fm. the foundation of the City." 
Neglecting then this intermediate period, there are 
two series of dates to be considered, the OT. and 
the NT. ; these we take in order. 

The Chronology of the Old Testament.— This 
occupies the period fm. the Creation to the end of 
the 2nd Governorship of Nehemiah ; that is to say, 
on the received C. of Ussher, fm. B.C. 4004. to B.C. 
430. This must be divided into several shorter 
periods accdg. to the relation in wh. they respec- 
tively stand to known external hist. (1) There 
is what may be called the Prehistoric : fm. the 
Creation to the Call of Abraham. This period is 
divided in two by the Flood. Here no events are 
narrated and no persons named in the sacred Hist, 
that can be identified in profane. (2) Semi-historic: 
fm. the Call of Abraham to the Foundation of Solo- 
mon's Temple. This period, like the former, is 
divided into two by an outstanding event — in this 
case the Exodus. While there are refcs. in the 
Bible story to events and persons known fm. other 
sources, there are no corrspdg. refcs. fm. profane 
hist, to any Biblical person or event. It embraces 
about a millennium and a quarter ; fm., approxi- 
mately, b.c. 2200 to b.c. 950. (3) Historic : fm. 
the Foundation of the Temple to the 2nd Governor- 
ship of Nehemiah ; approximately fm. b.c 950 to 
b.c 430. Regarding this shorter period we have 
fuller information, and may divide it as follows : 
(a) Fm. the founding of the Temple to the Revolt 
of the Northern Tribes, (h) Fm. the Revolt of the 
Northern Tribes to the Fall of the House of Omri. 
{c) Fm. the Fall of the House of Omri to the Fall 
of Samaria, (d) Fm. the Fall of Samaria to the 
Capture of Jrs. by Nebuchadnezzar, (e) Fm. the 
Capture of Jrs. to the Decree of Cyrus. (/) Fm. 
the Decree of Cyrus to that of Darius, (g) Fm. 
that to the 2nd Governorship of Nehemiah, b.c. 
430. 

(1) The Prehistoric Period.— In calling this 
period prehistoric we do not imply that the events 
narrated did not happen, or that the persons named 



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never lived, but that the events have come down to 
us in a parabolic or mythic form. The questions 
raised as to the historicity of the Bible nar. here are 
discussed under Babel, Fall, Flood : we have to 
do here only with the sequence of events and the 
time occupied by them. As we have already said, 
this period tails into two parts. 

(a) Fm. the Creation of Adam to the Deluge. 
Accdg. to the received C, wh. we owe to Arch- 
bishop Ussher, the Creation occurred b.c 4004. It 
seems imposs. to evade or deny the evidence wh. 
goes to show that man has lived upon the earth 
much longer than 6000 yrs. Even admitting the 
full force of the arguments wh. mt. enable us to 
shorten the Egpn. dates by regarding many of the 
dyns. as contemporary, we cannot place Menes 
later than about 1000 yrs. anterior to the received 
date of the Flood. Egpn. hist, did not begin with 
Menes : there are numerous remains of prehistoric 
races. Yet further back are we carried by Bab. 
hist. ; at present it seems cert, that Sargon I. was 
reigning b.c 3800, when, accdg. to the received C, 
Adam had 700 yrs. yet to live. Moreover in Sargon's 
time Bab. appeared to stand at the end of a long 
civilisation. We cannot in the present condition 
of kge. estimate precisely the value of the ante- 
diluvial records ; yet we may note cert, things : 
many Biblical genealogies are defective in some 
places, wh. we can so far complete : many more, we 
have reason to suspect, are incomplete, but have not 
the means of making the lack good : any number of 
links may have been dropped out of the ante- 
diluvian genealogy. The extreme age ascribed to 
the patriarchs may be due, as some have thought, 
to the " month " being then the " year " (Heb. 
shenah means primarily " repetition "), i.e. the 
period in wh. the celestial phenomena repeated 
themselves, tho' of such a mode of reckoning we 
have no indication. When, however, we compare 
the Biblical tales of the " beginnings " with those of 
Egp. and Asyr. we are struck with the moderation 
of the former. The Biblical genealogy fm. Adam 
to Noah has come down to us in three forms : the 
Massoretic (MT.), wh. we have in ordinary English 
Bibles ; the Septuagint (LXX), the Gr. tr. used 
by the Apostles and the Early Church ; this in- 
creases the period between the Creation of Adam 
and the Flood by nearly 600 yrs. ; and the Sam- 
aritan, in the recension of the Pnt., used by the 
Samaritan community in Nablous ; this shortens 
the period in question by almost 350 yrs. When we 
compare the three Genealogies, we find that in re- 
gard to the first five terms and the seventh, MT. 
agrees with Sam. agst. LXX ; in the sixth it agrees 
with LXX agst. Sam. ; in regard to the next two 
all three differ ; while in regard to Noah all three 
are agreed. In this way the balance seems to lie 
with MT. as most near the original. 



At birth of S. — 


MT. 


LXX. 


S im. 


Adam . 


• 130 


230 


130 


Seth . 


• i°5 


205 


i°5 


Enos 


• 90 


190 


90 


( lainan . 


70 


170 


70 


Mahalaleel . 


■ 6 S 


165 


65 


Jared . 


162 


162 


62 


Enoch . 


• 6 5 


165 


65 


Methuselah . 


. 187 


167 


67 


Lamech 


.. 182 


188 


53 


At the Flood- 








Noah . 


. 600 


600 


600 



1656 



2242 



[307 



The reasons that lie behind these variations can 
only be vaguely conjectured ; the desire to lengthen 
the time between the Creation and the Flood can 
scarcely act. for the LXX diffes. as the lengthening 
is relatively so little. 

(b) The remarks made in regard to the period 
before the Flood apply equally to that between the 
Flood and the Call of Abraham. It seems necessary, 
in the present state of kge., to regard not only the C. 
of MT., wh. is the shortest, but even that of LXX, 
the longest, as too short to meet the requirements of 
archaeology. It is the twilight that skirts the his- 
toric. Here, as in the antediluvial period, there 
are three lines of Genealogy, the MT., LXX, Sam. : 
of these the MT. is much the shortest, and the 
LXX considerably the longest. 

Birth of s. to Shem MT - LXX. Sam. 

after the Flood .2 1 2 

Age at birth of s. — 

Arphaxad . -35 *35 J 35 

Cainan . 

Salah . 

Eber . 

Peleg . 

Reu 

Serug . 

Nahor . 

Terah . 
At his call — 

Abraham 





130 




30 


130 


130 


34 


154 


i34 


30 


130 


130 


32 


132 


132 


30 


130 


130 


29 


179 


79 


70 


70 


70 



75 



75 



75 



367 1246 1017 

Here, as before, in the majority of instances two 
sets of figs, agree agst. the third. MT. agrees with 
Sam. in saying that Arphaxad was born " two yrs. 
after the Flood" — LXX, "in the second yr. after the 
Flood " ; they also agree in omitting the second 
Cainan inserted by LXX after Arphaxad : in re- 
gard to the age of Arphaxad and the five who come 
after (LXX) Cainan, LXX and Sam. agree agst. 
MT. ; as to the age of Nahor all three differ, while 
as to that of Terah and of Abraham at his call all 
three are at one. This leads us to regard Sam. as 
best representing the primitive text. 

For the period before the Flood the MT. 
reckoning, and for the period after the Flood that 
of the Sam., are prob. the most reliable. Com- 
bining these two we get approximately the dura- 
tion of the whole period from Adam to the call 
of Abraham : thus — 



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MT. 


LXX. 


Sam. 


Comb. 
MT. & Sam 


Before Flcod . 
Till Abraham . 


1656 
3 6 7 


2242 
1246 


i3°7 
1017 


1656 
1017 



2023 



3488 



2324 



2673 



When more of the mounds of Bab. and Pal. are 
ransacked, the Genealogies of Scrip, may poss. be 
supplemented, or explained. Till that time comes 
our attitude shd. be one of suspended judgment, 
forbearing hypotheses. 

(2) The Semi-historic Period: fm. the Call 
of Abraham to the Foundation of the Temple. 
During this time there are refcs. in the Bible to 
recognisable historic persons and events, but no 
corrspdg. refcs. have yet been found in profane 
records to Biblical chars, or transactions. The 
Exodus divides this period into two portions of 
nearly equal length. 

{a) The Call of Abraham. If we may regard the 
identn. of Amraphel with Hammurabi as proved, 
the Call of Abraham may be dated approximately 
B.C. 2200. 

We may not assume absolute accuracy for the Chrono- 
logical estimates of Nabunahid ; dyns. may have been con- 
temporary wh. he regarded as successive ; links may have 
been left out or inserted ; we cannot tell. 

Fm. the Call of Abraham to the birth of Isaac 
was 25 yrs. (Gn. 17. 17 ) ; Isaac was 60 yrs. old at the 
birth of Jacob and Esau (Gn. 25. 26 ) ; and Jacob was 
130 yrs. old when he went down to Egp. Of these 
numbers the sum is 215 yrs. ; wh. wd. make the 
date of going down into Egp. b.c. 1985, towards the 
end of the Hyksos period. In Ex. 12. 40 it is said 
that " the sojourning of the Children of Isr. who 
dwelt in Egp. was 430 yrs." The nat. meaning is 
that this covered the residence of the people of 
Isr. in Egp. : not the whole period fm. the Call 
of Abraham to the Exodus. This wd. place the 
Exodus in the most flourishing period of Egpn. 
hist. ; the period made illustrious by the reigns of 
the three Thothmes and of Queen Hatasu. An 
event such as the escape of the children of Isr. was 
not one to be chronicled on the walls of temples. 
The age of Hammurabi has only been approxi- 
mately fixed and may be even a couple of cents. 
later. On the other hand, Egpn. Chronology is 
very uncert. The oppression and the Exodus may 
have occurred a cent, later than the date given 
above. Jos. in his quotation fm. Manetho indi- 
cates his belief that the Exodus took place during 
the reign of Tuthmosis (Thothmes) : he prob. had 
some traditional reason for this identn. If the 
Habiri of the Tel-el-Amarna tablets are to be 
identd. with the " Hebrews " we have another fact 
confirmatory of the above suggn. The oppres- 
sion is commonly dated under Rameses II., and 
the Exodus under his s. and successor Menephtha. 
The recently discovered inscription of Menephtha 



seems to imply that the Isrs. were already in Canaan. 
Moreover it makes the stay of Isr. in Egp. too long, 
and does not leave time for the 480 yrs. wh. elapsed 
(1 K. 6. 1 ) between the Exodus and the Foundation 
of the Temple. That Rameses in his campaign agst. 
the Hittites did not encounter the Isr. is explicable 
by the fact that he passed through the territory of 
the Phil. 

(b) The period fm. the Exodus to the founding of 
the Temple was 480 yrs. (1 K. 6. 1 ) ; there seems no 
more reason to assume that Solomon was inaccurate, 
than to regard Nabunahid as necessarily accurate in 
the far longer time he considered to have elapsed 
between himself and Naram-Sin. The LXX has 
440 yrs., due poss. to the attraction of the two " 4s." 
That Jos. makes the period 582 yrs. is of little value, 
as he has merely summed up the numbers given 
in the bk. of Judges ; numbers that are suspicious 
by the frequent recurrence of " 40 yrs.," and the 
possibility that several of the Judges were contem- 
poraries. The Solomonic number may be regarded 
as confirmed by the argument of Jephtha (Jg. II. 26 ) 
that Isr. had enjoyed 300 yrs. of undisturbed pos- 
session of the Trans-Jordanic territory in his day. 
This wd. leave 180 yrs. to be distributed among the 
Judges who succeeded Jephtha and the reigns of 
Saul and David. No note of events affording 
synchronisms occur in Jg., unless Chushan-Risha- 
thaim can be identd. The suggn. of Dr. Sayce 
(HCM.) that he was a chief of the Mitanni who as- 
sailed Egp. and were driven back by Rameses III. is 
worthy of consideration ; poss., however, too late. 
He may have been one of the kings of the Hatti with 
whom so many of the Egpn. kings were in conflict. 
We may fix the end of this period — the founding of 
the Temple — not earlier than half a cent, before 
b.c. 1000, nor later than half a cent, after, say 
b.c 950. 

(3) The Historic Period : fm. the Foundation of 
the Temple to the 2nd Governorship of Nehemiah ; 
fm. approximately b.c 950 to approximately b.c. 
435, when x^rtaxerxes Longimanus died. This 
period may be divided as follows : (a) The rest of 
the reign of Solomon and the Revolt of Ten Tribes. 

(b) Fm. the Revolt to the Fall of the House of Omri. 

(c) Fm. the Fall of the House of Omri to the Fall of 
Samaria, (d) Fm. the Fall of Samaria to that of 
Jrs. (e) The Bab. Captivity to the Decree of Cyrus. 
(/) Fm. that to the Decree of Darius, (g) Fm. the 
Decree of Darius to Nehemiah's second appoint- 
ment as Governor. 

(a) Taking the date of the Foundation of the 
Temple as b.c. 950, the Revolt may be placed about 
b.c 910. This occurred while Shishak (Sheshonk) 
was k. of Egp. ; but this synchronism, though con- 
firmed by Egpn. annals, does not much assist 
Biblical C. 

(b) The presence of Ahab at the battle of Karkar 



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Kings 


of Israel. 


Jeroboam re 


'gned 


22 yrs 


Nadab 


n 


2 ,, 


Baasha 




24 ., 


Elan 


, , 


2 ,, 


Omri 


,, 


12 ,, 


Ahab 


t , 


22 ,, 


Ahaziah 




2 1, 


J ehoram 


,, 


12 ,, 



(b.c. 854) makes one date fairly definite ; it will 

place the Fall of the House of Omri between B.C. 850 

and B.C. 840. The sum of the reigns of the kings 

of Isr. during this period is 98 yrs. ; that of the 

kings of Judah is 95 yrs : — 

Kings of Judah. 

Rehoboam reigned 17 yrs. 

Abijah ,, 3 ,, 

Asa ,, 41 ,, 

Jehoshaphat ,, 25 ,, 

J ehoram ,, 8 ,, 

Ahaziah ,, 1 ,, 



95 

Fm. these fallto be deductedfive yrs. fm. the reigns 
of the Davidic kings, and eight yrs. fm. the reigns of 
the Northern kings, to compensate for the yrs. 
reckoned twice at each accession to the throne. 
Moreover, there are cases of co-regency : among 
the kings of Judah one is clearly noted. Jehoram was 
colleague with his fr. at all events two yrs. before 
his death (2 K. 8. 16 ) ; very prob. also, for a yet 
longer time, Jehoshaphat was the colleague of Asa 
his fr. The same thing appears to have occurred 
in the kdm. of Isr. 

(c) The period fm. the Fall of the House of Omri 
to Capture of Samaria by Sargon is clearly defined 
by the dates given in the Asyr. gypsum slabs. We 
learn that Jehu paid tribute to Shalmaneser II. in 
B.c. 842 ; this wd. prob. be done immediately on his 
usurping the throne. Samaria was taken by Sargon 
b.c 722 ; but some have thought (Fotheringham, 
Chronology of the Old Testament, p. 72) that the 
overthrow of the Northern kdm. occurred II yrs. 
later, and that what took place in 722 was the depo- 
sition of Pekah. It is cert, that in 711 Sargon sent 
an expedition agst. the Phil. (Is. 20. 1 ), and poss. 
then he deposed Hoshea. The sum of the reigns of 
the kings of Isr. fm. the accession of Jehu to the 
deposition of Hoshea is 143 yrs., while that of the 
kings of Judah is 164 yrs. 

Kings of Judah. 

Athaliah reigned 6 yrs. 

Jehoash ,, 40 ,, 

Amaziah ,, 29 ,, 

Azariah ,, 52 ,, 

Jotham ,, 16 ,, 

Ahaz ,, 16 ,, 

Hezekiah ,, 5*,, 

143 1 164 

The older Chronologers tried to harmonise these 
totals by inserting " interregna " in the Northern 
list ; it is now seen that even the sum of Northern 
reigns is too long by 10 or 20 yrs. The difficulty 
must be met by supposing " co-regencies." 

(£) The sum of the reigns of the kings of Judah, 
fm. the Capture of Samaria to that of Jrs., is 
* When Samaria was taken. 



Kings of Israel. 


Tehu reigned 


28 yrs. 


fehoahaz ,, 


17 .. 


Jehoash 


16 ,, 


Teroboam 


41 M 


Menahem 


IO ,, 


Pekahiah 


2 ,, 


Pekah 


20 ,, 


Hoshea ,, 


9 -. 



134 yrs. ; accdg. to the Bab. reckoning the period 
fm. 722 to 586 (the date of the capture of Jrs.) is 
136 yrs.; fm. 711 it is 125 yrs. On neither 
hypothesis is the discrepancy great. 

(e) The period fm. the Fall of Jrs. to the Decree 
of Cyrus is clearly marked ; fm. b.c 586 to 538 is 
48 yrs. The events narrated in bk. of Daniel, and 
the favour shown by Evil-Merodach to Jehoiachin 
(Jeconiah, 2 K. 25. 27-30 ), are the only things re- 
corded. 

(/) The Decree of Cyrus seems to have been taken 
advantage of only to a very limited extent ; if 
" Ahasuerus " of Ez. 4. 6 is Cambyses, and Arta- 
xerxes of \? is Smerdis the Mede, we have a reason 
for this. The Decree of Darius Hystaspis, b.c. 520, 
marked a renewal of Jewish activity. 

(g) The period fm. the Decree of Darius to the 
death of Artaxerxes Longimanus embraces the bks. 
of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. It has an import- 
ance in the hist, of the Canon, as Jos. declares in 
his treatise agst. Apion, that one of the marks of a 
bk. received into the Canon was that it had been 
written before the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus. 

In Nehemiah 12. 11 ' 22 , there is mention of the 
High-priest Jaddua, a contemporary of Alexander 
the Great, and of " Darius the Persian," presumably 
Darius Codomannus, who was overthrown by 
Alexander. As, however, no events are recorded 
during the period between the death of Artaxerxes 
and the date implied by these refcs. we cannot 
reckon it into OT. Chronology. 

The C. of the inter-Biblical period will be con- 
sidered under the various bks. of the Apocrypha. 

The Chronology of the New Testament.— This 
is divisible into the C. of the Gospels, and that of 
the Acts. The majority of the critical dates will be 
discussed under Jesus Christ and Paul; in the 
present article we shall only indicate general con- 
clusions. 

(a) The C. of the Gospels.— In regard to this part 
of NT. C. there are three dates of primary import- 
ance : (1) That of the Nativity ; (2) that of our 
Lord's entrance upon His ministry ; (3) that of 
His Crucifixion. 

(1) The Nativity.— The Talmudic date wh. wd. 
make our Lord's visit to Egp. take place during the 
persecution inflicted on the Pharisees by Alexander 
Jannaeus, our Lord being then a young man, may be 
dismissed without discussion. Almost as untenable 
is the date advocated by Bunsen (Chronology of the 
Bible, p. 78), b.c. 15. This idea is founded on the 
statement of Irenaeus, that our Lord entered on 
His ministry when He was between 40 and 50 yrs. 
of age ; and the shout of the multitude (Jn. 8. 57 ), 
" Thou art not yet 50 yrs. old, and hast thou seen 
Abraham ? " It involves the tossing out of doors 
the Gospel of Luke as a historical authority, in 
favour of the statements of Irenaeus, who wrote 



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more than a cent, after Luke, and of the jibe of the 
Jewish mob. As imposs. is the date assumed by 
Dionysius Exiguus as the first of our Era ; the Gos- 
pels of Matthew and Luke unite in placing the 
Birth of our Lord in the reign of Herod the k. ; but 
accdg. to the Dionysian date Herod was already four 
yrs. dead. The commonly received date — B.C. 4 — 
implies that the Nativity occurred in the December 
immediately preceding Herod's death, a date ren- 
dered imposs. by the prolonged char, of his last ill- 
ness, and his apparently perfect health at the time 
of the visit of the Wise Men. A number of lines 
converge on 6 or 7 b.c ; Lewin {Fasti Sacri), Turner 
(HDB), Ramsay {Was Christ horn in Bethlehem ) 
agree in this date. Singularly Kepler was led to 
this date fm. astronomical reasons ; he found that 
three of the planets — Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars — 
were in conjunction in the constellation Pisces in the 
yr. b.c 6. The synchronism of the death of a s. or 
sons of Herod, as noted by Macrobius, points to the 
same date. The date of the " enrolment " (" tax- 
ing ") under Quirinius (" Cyrenius "), referred to by 
Luke (2. 1 ), seems on Professor Ramsay's showing to 
have, in all probability, taken place in one or other 
of these years. The one chronological statement 
that seriously conflicts with this is Jn. 2. 20 , " 40 
and 6 yrs. was this temple in bldg." ; if this dia- 
logue took place at the very beginning of our Lord's 
ministry, and if Luke's " about 30 yrs. of age " is to 
be taken as a Gr. way of saying that this was His 
precise age (Ramsay, Was Christ horn in Bethle- 
hem ? p. 197), it seems difficult to place the birth of 
our Lord earlier than B.c. 4. It mt., however, be 
the second yr. of our Lord's ministry, and if " 40 
and 6 yrs " meant, as in Jewish reckoning they mt., 
little if at all more than 45 yrs., we arrive at the 
earlier date above mentioned. 

It may be observed before passing to other mat- 
ters that the 25th of December cannot be the true 
anniversary of the Nativity, as it is between the be- 
ginning of May and the end of October that shep- 
herds in the East are with the flocks at night. The 
ingenious calculations of Lewin make the beginning 
of August a not improbable date. 

(2) The Beginning of the Ministry. — Our 
Lord's ministry began with His baptism, and this 
seems to have occurred early in the Baptist's 
Mission. The determinants of date in Lk. 3. 1 may 
be held as applying directly to our Lord's Mission ; 
the Mission of the Baptist and its char, are thus 
another note of time. What precisely is meant by 
" the 15th yr. of the reign (hegemony) of Tiberius 
Cesar " is a question of some difficulty ; the choice 
lies between "the 15th yr." after the death of 
Augustus, and " the 15th yr." after Augustus had 
transferred to Tiberius the supreme command in 
the Eastern provinces. If the former is preferred, 
then our Lord's Baptism took place in the beginning 



of a.d. 29 ; if the latter, then the Baptism must be 
dated a.d. 26. Of these dates Lewin prefers the 
former, and Ramsay the latter, while Turner, 
taking the notes of time in Lk. 3. 1 as applying to the 
preaching of John, wd. date the opening of the 
Ministry a.d. 27. The determination of these de- 
pend to some extent on the date to be assigned to 
the Crucifixion. 

(3) The Crucifixion. — As, in the light of John's 
Gospel, the length of the Ministry must be three 
yrs., the possible dates are 29, 30, 33. Here the 
day of the week on wh. our Lord was crucified is of 
some importance ; tradition has practically without 
variation declared that it was a Friday — a tradition 
wh. has the support of the Didache ; yet there are 
several considerations wh. throw doubt on this. 
(1) Our Lord's definite statement (Mw. 12. 40 ), " For 
as Jonas was three days and three nights in the 
whale's belly ; so shall the Son of Man be three 
days and three nights in the heart of the earth." If 
He had been crucified on Friday, although He had 
been a portion of three days in the grave when He 
rose again, He had only been two nights. (2) When 
Joseph of Arimathaea went to Pilate to beg the body 
of Jesus, the sun having set, and so a new day begun, 
that day is called " the preparation," i.e. Friday 
(Mk. I5. 42 - 43 ). (3) At "the ninth hour," within three 
hours of sunset and Sabbath, our Lord cried out, 
" Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani " ; there is too little 
time, even if we deny the correctness of the last 
argument, for the transaction of all that was done. 
(4) Maimonides declares (yad ha-Hazakah) that the 
Jewish Calendar is so arranged that the Passover cd. 
not happen on the third, fourth, or sixth days of the 
week. (For further development of this, see West- 
cott's Introd. to the Study of the Gospels, p. 348 ; 
Gall, Good Friday, a Chronological Mistake) These 
reasons seem very cogent ; the main difficulty is the 
early tradition that Friday was the day of the 
Crucifixion. As the Jewish state was overthrown 
a.d. 70, and the Church became more and more 
essentially Gentile, the Jewish mode of reckoning 
the day fm. sunset to sunset wd. fall into forgetful- 
ness ; hence prob. the mistake. If this is correct it 
wd. seem that our Lord's crucifixion took place on 
the day preceding the " Preparation " of the Pass- 
over, a.d. 30. 

(b) The C. of Acts. — The first important date is 
that of the conversion of St. Paul. There appears 
little reason to doubt the accuracy of the date as- 
signed by Lewin (Fasti Sacri, p. 253), a.d. 37. The 
fact that Aretas had possession of Damascus fixes 
it between a.d. 34 and a.d. 40. The evidently 
slackened condition of Rm. authority, as evidenced 
by the murder of Stephen, points to the yr. of 
Tiberius' death, and the accession of Caligula. The 
conclusion of the Acts, when Paul had already 
" dwelt two whole yrs. in his own hired house," may 



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be placed at a.d. 6i ; his release may have occurred 
the following yr. The Pastoral Epp., except 
2 Tm., were written during this season of re- 
gained freedom. Paul's second arrest was prob. in 
a.d. 65 ; in prison he wrote 2 Tm. Prob. his 
martyrdom may be dated in that same yr. 

Although the dates of the publication of the later 
books of the NT. are important, they belong more 
to Biblical Criticism than to Chronology : the dates 
of the Fourth Gospel, of Hebrews, and 2nd Peter 
will be considered under these headings. 

CHRYSOLITE (Rv. 21. 20 ), prob. the Oriental 
Topaz. See Beryl. 

CHRYSOPRASUS (Rv. 21. 20 ), prob. a leek- 
green variety of Agate. 

CHURCH. " He saith unto them, But whom 
say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter answered and 
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art 
thou, Simon Bar-jonah, for flesh and blood hath not 
revealed it unto thee, but My Father wh. is in 
heaven. And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, 
and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail agst. it ; and I will give 
unto thee the keys of the kdm. of heaven ; and 
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound 
in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven." The words of Jesus em- 
bodied in this incident form the fundamental state- 
ment of Scrip, on the subj. of the Church. The 
very difficulty and obscurity of some of the clauses 
are guarantees of truth ; and the scene in wh. they 
occur was so critical in the life of our Lord that the 
record of it was sure to be faithfully retained in the 
memory of the Twelve. Apart, however, fm. dirfcs. 
of interpretation, the intention of Jesus to found a 
Church on earth is unmistakably intimated ; and 
He prophesies that it will last till the end of time. 
Jesus was not merely a teacher, who breathed into 
human existence a new spirit, destined to refresh 
and sweeten society : He was at the same time a 
founder, who appreciated the virtue of positive 
institutions, and He not only set agoing an incom- 
parable influence, but provided the channel in wh. 
it shd. flow fm. land to land and fm. generation to 
generation. 

Jesus Himself made use of the word in only one 
other recorded instance, to wh. allusion will be 
made below ; but it occurs more than a hundred 
times between Acts and Revelation. There can be 
no doubt that it was introduced into the NT. fm. 
the Old, where, in the LXX, it is the word for 
'" congregation," as in classical Greek it was the 
name for a public meeting. It ought not to be for- 
gotten that, in its true conception and essence, the 
•Church existed even before the commencement of 
the Christian era ; as is indicated in the words of the 
§cots Confession of 1 560 : " We maist constantlie 



belief, that God preservit, instructit, multipleit, 
honourit, decoirit, and from death callit to lyfe His 
Kirk in all aiges, fra Adam till the cumming of 
Chryst Jesus in the flesche." 

Though the adjective " ecclesiastical " is directly 
derived fm. the NT. noun, our own word " church " 
has a difft. origin, being fm. a Gr. adj., wh. means 
" belonging to the Lord," and is applied in 1 Cor. 11. 
to the Lord's Supper, and in Rv. 1. to the Lord's 
day. It no doubt, therefore, designates the Church 
as the Lord's house. Whatever, however, be the 
form of this term, no proof is required to bring 
home to any mind the place it holds in the hist, and 
lit. of the mod. world. It is obviously one of the 
great words of mankind, the sound of wh. has gone 
forth to the ends of the earth. It has been con- 
tinually on the lips of the nations wh. have been 
foremost in the progress of the past ; and, as new 
peoples emerge into the light of hist., they learn to 
repeat it. To a third part of the human race it is 
a term familiar yet sacred. Every utterance of it, 
however, echoes back to its pronouncement by 
Jesus at Csesarea Philippi ; and all the omens con- 
spire to prove that the prophecy in wh. the word 
was embodied is destined to a still more universal 
fulfilment. On the rock, wh. is neither Peter apart 
fm. his testimony nor his testimony apart fm. Peter, 
and can be Peter only because he was built on Him 
who is the chief corner-stone, on wh. were built al 1 
the apostles, so that the Church may be said to be 
built on them all — on this rock has the edifice of 
wh. Jesus prophesied been rising fm. age to age ; 
and it is no ruin or antiquarian relic, but a structure 
still attracting the very ablest hands, to rear it up to 
the measure of the dimensions of the Founder's plan. 

In the great saying of our Lord on this subj. 
quoted above, the Church seems to comprehend the 
true Christians of all countries and all ages, and to 
be, therefore, to a large extent invisible, for many 
included in it have passed into the unseen, and 
many more are yet unborn. In other places, as 
e.g. Rm. 16. 23 , where Paul calls Gaius " mine host 
and of the whole C," it seems to include all tht 
members of the Christian body at any time visible 
on the earth. A third undeniable meaning is where 
it denotes a single Christian congregation, the most 
obvious indication of this being the frequent use of 
the word in the plural. Whether, between these 
two last-quoted meanings, it ever, when used in the 
singular, denotes jointly all the churches of a city 
or country, is a question in wh. more is involved 
than may at first meet the eye ; for the assumption 
that a number of congregations are spoken of as one 
C. is one of the favourite arguments of those who 
hold that in the NT. there is evidence of a central 
authority extending its power over a plurality of 
congregations. Congregationalists hold, on the 
contrary, that there is no indubitable proof of this, 



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their minds being led to favour this view, as they kings, instead of the kings for the people ; and v 

believe the single congregation to be not only the similarly, in theology, theories about the clergy? 

unit but the limit of ecclesiastical authority. While their places, powers, and privileges, have been built 

some Congregationalists, indeed, allow to neigh- up without refc. to either the plans of God or the 

bouring congregations a cert, amount of control, utilities of mankind. 

and ordain elders in the individual C, and all recog- Of like nature are the discussions on the subj. of 
nise an ordained ministry, the keener advocates of the C. usly. to be found in books of Catholic theo- 
the Congregationalist principle reject all interfer- logy. As a rule, these resolve themselves into the 
ence fm. without with either creed or practice, and specification of cert, marks of the true C, such as 
consider the congregation itself, in public meeting that it must be visible, undivided, holy, apostolic, 
assembled, to be competent for the functions usly. catholic, and infallible ; and then the question is 
handed over to office-bearers in other communions, raised, wh. of all the bodies professing to be the C. 
Organisation, in short, is reduced to a minimum, its of Christ exhibits these qualities. The argument is 
multiplication being regarded as an obstacle, in- managed as if the quest of the true C. were the one 
stead of a help, and as a waste of men and means, supreme concern of the human soul ; and, while all 
At the opposite extreme fm. this stands the Romish other bodies are depreciated, the most extravagant 
C, in wh. organisation reaches the maximum, claims are advanced on behalf of the C. of Rome, 
developing, fm. the Pope downwards, through But it is only on the ignorant that this style of as- 
rmmerous degrees into an extensive hierarchy. In sumption can tell. In the same way, if Protestants 
the Anglican C. likewise the organisation is toler- modestly hesitate to take to themselves the great 
ably elaborate, there being many officials of various promise about the gift of the keys of the kdm. of 
names. In this respect Presbyterianism comes in heaven, or wonder what the Saviour can have meant 
between Prelacy on the one hand and Congrega- by promising to mortals that what they bound 
tionalism on the other. It looks on two offices only on earth shd. be bound in heaven, and that what 
as essential — those of elder and deacon — but it they mt. loose on earth shd.be loosed in heaven, 
holds that congregations ought to be combined in Romanist interpreters have no hesitation in appro- 
cities, provinces, and countries, and ruled by an priating these words, in their crassest forms, for 
authority representative of the several parts. their C. and her officials ; but they forget that, 
Such are the three forms of organisation wh. have whatever binding and loosing may mean, there is 
historically manifested themselves ; and each of nothing more notorious than that in cases innumer- 
them has, at some time or other, not only been able, what the C. of Rome has bound and what it 
found in the Scrips, but believed to be of Divine has loosed cd. not have been ratified by any autho- 
obligation to the exclusion of every other form, rity that was wise, charitable, or just. 
This is still the position of the C. of Rome in regard The true way of arriving at satisfactory views on 
to its own organisation ; and many Anglicans hold this subj. is to inquire first for what purpose the C. 
at least the threefold order of bishops, elders, and exists, and then to ask what its functions must be, in 
deacons to be essential to the existence of a true C. order that this purpose may be best realised. 
In the greatest book on the subj., however, that has The purpose for wh. the C. exists is not difficult 
ever issued fm. this communion, Hooker's Eccle- to define ; for it is implied in the NT. name. The 
siastical Polity, the opposite view is taken — that, Gr. word is derived fm. two others, the one of wh. 
while the organisation of the author's own C. can be means " out " and the other " call " ; and the C. 
defended as Scripl. and seemly, no stereotyped form exists for the purpose of calling out of the world a 
of organisation is essential to a Church's existence ; people to be the Lord's. It will be remembered 
and a view akin to this, as to their several denomina- how this idea was impressed on what the late Dean 
tions, will prob. be increasingly held by the wise. Stanley calls the first chapter in Church History — 
As, three hundred yrs. ago, the Divine right of kings though it was not really the first — the call of 
was devoutly believed in, and the members of a Abraham. In our Lord's farewell addresses and 
single family were supposed to have a claim to the high-priestly prayer, when the development of His 
crown derived directly fm. heaven, but we now C. was uppermost in His mind, the Twelve are 
know that there may be good government under spoken of as those chosen by Him out of the world ; 
difft. types of supreme authority, and that it is and no description of the new society of wh. He is the 
infinitely more vital that a nation shd. be well Founder is more characteristic than that in I P. 2. 9 : 
governed than that any particular dyn. shd. be kept " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an 
upon the throne, so the first question about the C. holy nation, a peculiar people ; that ye shd. show 
is not what number or kind of officials it requires, forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of 
but what kind of service it is intended to render to darkness into His marvellous light." Christian hope 
God and to man. The old political philosophy may, indeed, anticipate a time when the limits of 
thought and spoke as if the people existed for the the C. of Christ will be identl. with those of the 

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human race ; but, even after that, there will be a 
separation, and the C. triumphant will consist of a 
multitude " redeemed fm. among men." The C. 
has to seek out those whom Jesus spoke of as given to 
Him by the Father ; so that her work is a continua- 
tion of His own ; for He came to seek and to save 
that wh. was lost. The same work is, in Scrip., 
specially ascribed to the Holy Spirit, who may be 
said to take it up at the point at wh. the Son of God 
left it ; and few names ever given to the C. have 
been more felicitous than that of Dorner, when, in 
his great dogmatic work, he terms it " the kdm. of 
the Holy Ghost." 

This primary obj., then, for wh. the C. exists de- 
termines its functions. Of these the first may be 
called Evangelisation. The very first duty of the C. 
is to make the Gospel known to those who are 
ignorant of it, or who are ignoring it as completely 
as if they were ignorant of it. The desire of the 
risen Saviour was the preaching of His name to all 
nations ; and those who, like Paul, went forth at 
once to do this were acting most in accordance with 
the mind of Christ. Sometimes, in the course of 
subsequent ages, the primacy of this function has 
been forgotten ; but, on the whole, the christian- 
isation of the heathen has paused but seldom for any 
length of time, and in our day, at all events, the 
missionary enthusiasm has so captured the imagina- 
tion that multitudes of the young are dreaming of 
the conversion of the world in a single generation. 
Of course the successful accomplishment of this 
work implies a variety of means and methods, the 
science of wh. is part of the C.'s responsibility. 
Foremost among methods is perhaps the transla- 
tion and circulation of the Holy Scriptures ; and 
this is going on in hundreds of langs. 

Next to evangelisation comes what may be called 
Catechisation, or the instruction of the young. 
This might, indeed, be included amongst missionary 
methods ; but it is so important as to deserve men- 
tion by itself. The training of catechumens was one 
of the most prominent features of early Christianity 
in its purest days, and it is equally prominent in 
mod. missionary enterprise. Catechisation, how- 
ever, must always be one of the principal cares of 
the C. in its most organised form likewise ; and it 
includes the place of relg. both in day schools and 
Sunday schools. The name itself suggs. the com- 
position of catechisms, in wh. the essence of the 
Scrips, is expressed in forms easily apprehensible by 
youthful minds ; and catechisms naturally expand 
into creeds, wh. may be employed for the same pur- 
pose for the benefit of the more mature, though 
they serve other ends besides, to wh. refc. may be 
made further on. 

The Worship of God wd., no doubt, be placed by 
many first among the functions of the C. ; and, if 
here it is put in the third place, because it is for 



those who have been already evangelised and cate- 
chised, this is with no intention of disparaging it. 
Public worship is not, indeed, an exclusively Chris- 
tian act : it has belonged to all relgs. under the sun ; 
and this may be the reason why at this point 
Christianity has oftener relapsed into pagan prac- 
tices than at any other. But the worship of Him 
who is a Spirit in spt. and in truth is one of the 
supreme functions of the C, and it requires vigilant 
cultivation. Prayer and praise are its most obvious 
elements ; but each of these involves the expendi- 
ture of care and wisdom in the accumulation of 
materials and their artistic employment. The art 
of architecture has to be called into use by all de- 
nominations wh. erect places of worship ; and all 
employ the other arts as well, more or less, whether 
or not they consciously and on principle apply art 
to the service of relg. But the most distinctive 
elements of Christian worship are the sacraments. 
These go back for their authority to Christ Him- 
self ; and, although their importance has been often 
exaggerated in a manner for wh. there is no justifica- 
tion either in the words of the Lord or the other 
refcs. to them in the NT., yet they will always be 
cherished by true members of the Ch., and it will 
always be one of the standing duties of the C. to 
determine how they may best be administered for 
edification. 

Preaching is a part of public worship, but it is 
such an important function of the C. as to deserve 
mention by itself. While the other parts of wor- 
ship are directed towards those who have already 
been evangelised and catechised, preaching includes 
the evangelisation of those without as well as the 
edification of those within ; for amongst those who 
are outwardly within the C. there are multitudes in 
whom the Word of the kdm. has taken no indepen- 
dent root ; and nothing cd. be either more untrue 
to the facts of the case or more detrimental to the 
best interests of the C. than to preach exclusively, as 
some have proposed, to those already evangelised. 
Preaching, though practised also in some other 
relgs., such as the Mohammedan, holds a unique 
place in Christian worship. It was the main 
feature of the ministry of both our Lord and the 
apostles, express attention being drawn in Scrip, to 
the precedence given to it before sacraments ; for 
" Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples," 
and St. Paul said : " Christ sent me not to baptize 
but to preach the gospel." Our religion is not solely 
or principally one of emotions — it is founded on 
truth ; it believes in the power of conviction to 
form the char, and to produce action in harmony 
with itself ; and this is why the setting forth of the 
truth as it is in Jesus must always be the principal 
business of the C. in the world. 

Along with preaching goes Pastoration. Through 
preaching the flock as a whole is fed ; but the sheep 



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have likewise to be shepherded one by one, and 
special care has to be bestowed upon the wandering, 
tlie suffering, the sinning. Even the stern processes 
of discipline cannot be spared. Jesus mt. indeed 
be supposed, in the parable of the wheat and the 
tares, to forbid all exclusion ; but this impression is 
corrected by the only other passage, besides the one 
quoted at the commencement of this article, in wh. 
Jesus mentions the C. by name (Mw. i8. 15-18 ), and in 
the Epp. to the Corinthians the most' unmistakable 
instructions are given for the application of disci- 
pline to scandalous members of the C. The unre- 
buked presence of such within the Christian com- 
munion is an offence to the earnest disciples of 
Christ ; where it is tolerated on a large scale there 
will always be a disposition to leave the C. and set 
up a purer communion ; and, though this may be 
called schism, the blame may lie not on the seceding 
but the remanent body. 

Such are the principal functions of the C. ; and 
the aim of them all is to call out of human society 
a peculiar people, to be justified and sanctified, till 
they are ready to be transferred to a better world, 
where they will reign as ks. and priests unto God 
for ever. But it is to be carefully noted that all 
these are functions of the C. itself, not of the clergy. 
The entire task rests upon the body as a whole, and 
on every member in particular. It is, however, poss. 
that, for the efficient fulfilment of this immense 
task, the C. may require functionaries, i.e. members 
to whom cert, portions of the work are specially en- 
trusted, or who may be called on to give up their 
secular occupations and devote their whole time and 
strength to the service. The selection and conse- 
cration of such may be designated Ordination ; and 
this is the last function of the C. to be specified. 
The C. has the power, derived fm. God, to ordain as 
many officials of as many kinds as she may require for 
the fulfilment of all her legitimate functions, under 
the guidance of the Scriptures. In the 6th chapter 
of Acts we have the fullest report in the NT. of the 
ordination of office-bearers ; and, in this case, these 
were elected by the members fm. among themselves, 
and then consecrated by prayer and the laying on 
of the apostles' hands ; popular election by the 
membership being thus combined with the dignity 
of ordination by those already in office. Timothy 
wd. seem to have been designated for office by the 
prophets of the C. in wh. his ordination took place, 
and then to have been ordained by the elders with 
St. Paul at their head (i Tm. 4. 14 ; 2 Tm. I. 6 ). 
The essential principle is that office-bearers are 
fm. the C, wh. has the power of producing them 
through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Intelli- 
gent members of the C. recognise that few objs. are 
more deserving of their solicitude than the training 
of those about to enter the ministry ; and they will 
often have on their lips the prayer enjoined by the 



Saviour Himself : " The harvest truly is plenteous, 
but the labourers are few ; pray ye, therefore, the 
Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers 
into His harvest." 

If nothing is to be allowed to come between the C. 
and her work, still less must anything be allowed to 
come between her and her Lord. The Ch. is the 
bride of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the C. 
This implies not only that His virtue is in all the 
true members, but that His authority extends over 
all the C.'s activities. Fm. Him she must take her 
instructions, allowing no rival authority to inter- 
pose. This gives her the right to defend herself 
agst. officials of her own who, assuming to them- 
selves the position of lords over God's heritage, at- 
tempt to impose laws and observances of their own 
devising, in opposition to the prescriptions of the 
Word. The adult conscience, in such cases, is able 
and bound to ascertain the will of Christ for itself, 
and, having done so, to adhere to it. It has been by 
means of the same consciousness of loyalty to her 
living Lord that the C. has been able to resist the 
encroachments of the State ; for, when the com- 
mands of the State have contradicted those of Christ, 
she has felt entitled to disobey them, in obedience 
to a previous responsibility. The relations of C. 
and State have, indeed, had a long and extraordinary 
hist. wh. is not yet complete. At first the State 
persecuted the C, forbidding its subjs. to worship 
God as the C. prescribed. Then, in the beginning 
of the fourth cent., under the reign of Constantine, 
the State adopted the C, showering upon it favours 
of every description. But these blandishments had 
to be dearly purchased, the Byzantine court assum- 
ing to itself extensive rights of control ; and this 
continues to this day in the Eastern Church, where 
the Czar is virtually Pope. In the West there raged 
for cents, a mighty struggle between the officials of 
the C. and those of the State, as to wh. shd. have the 
upper hand. At the Reformation Protestantism 
received, in many quarters, the favour of princes, to 
whom on this act. was accorded far too much con- 
trol in the Church's affairs, and under this incubus 
the continental churches are still groaning. But, in 
Great Britain and America, there has been a growth 
of freedom, wh. has passed through many phases, but 
still divides opinion too sharply to be discussed here. 
All earnest Christians, however, wd. claim the right 
to obey Christ rather than Caesar. 

James Stalker. 

CILICIA, a stretch of country along the S.E. 
coast of Asia Minor ; the W. part, mountainous and 
rugged, known as " C. aspera," and the E., a rich and 
fertile plain, as " C. campestris." Its principal city, 
Tarsus, was the birthplace of Paul (Ac. 22. 3 , 23. 34 ). 
The name Khilakku, is found in Asyr. inscrs. of 
the 9th cent. B.C., and still earlier Krk (Klk). 
Guthe (KB.) suggs. that C. is hidden in the mean- 



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Cit 



ingless Heb. Helek (Ek. 27. 11 ), and wd. read " the 
men of Arvad and C." After the fall of the 
Seleucid empire the Rms. joined C. to the province 
of Syria, hence in NT. C. and Syria are closely as- 
sociated (Ac. 15. 23 , &c). Jews were numerous in C. 
in NT. times (Ac. 6. 9 , cp. Philo, Leg. ad Gaium, 36). 
Twice at least in later life Paul visited C. (Ac. 9. 30 , 

I5. 41 ). 

CINNAMON, the inner bark of the Ctnna- 
momum Zeylonicum, a species of laurel wh. grows to 
greatest perfection in SW. Ceylon. It was an in- 
gredient in the holy oil (Ex. 30. 23 ), was used as a 
perfume (Pr. 7. 17 ), and is named as part of the mer- 
chandise of Bab. (Rv. 18. 13 ). Oil of C. is obtained 
by boiling the fruit. C. was imported into Judea 
thro' Arabia, and prob. also by the Phoenicians. It 
brought a high price in anct. times. 

CIRCUMCISION. Cutting away the foreskin 
is a practice anct. and widespread. It is found in 
places as far apart as Africa, the New Hebrides, and 
America. It prevailed very early in Egp., whence 
prob. it spread to Ethiopia and Pal. It is significant 
that Abraham's C. is placed after his visit to Egp. 
(Gn. 17. 10 , &c, P.). It seems to have been prac- 
tised by Isr.'s neighbours (Jr. 9- 25 ), the Phil, being an 
exception — a point of reproach to them (1 S. 17. 36 , 
&c). It is not easy to see exactly what weight at- 
taches to the nar. in Jo. 5. 2ff - Sound policy wd. be 
agst. disabling the whole army by this operation, in 
face of a vigilant enemy. But it is clear that C. is 
regarded as removing that wh. exposed them to the 
reproach of the Egpns. (v. 9). Its omission by Moses 
is represented as bringing him into deadly peril 
(Ex. 4 . 24ff - P.). 

The age at wh. the rite was performed among 
other peoples shows it to be an initiation into the 
rights and privileges of manhood, as an adult 
member of the community. So it is among the 
Arabs to this day. In many cases it was an essential 
preliminary to marriage. 

In Isr. the rite is in form the same, but it takes a 
decidedly religious char., and is performed at an 
earlier age. The idea is not so much membership in 
the nation, as dedication to the nation's God and 
protector. The sooner, therefore, the dedication 
was accomplished the better. The choice of the 
8th day seems arbitrary (Lv. 12. 3 , &c). But we 
may note that on the 8th day animals were deemed 
fit for offering (Ex. 22. 30 , &c). Every male Isr., 
children of slaves born in the house, and strangers 
who desired to be identd. with the community had 
to be circumcised (Gn. I7. 10ff - ; Ex. I2. 46ff -). 

During the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes, C. 
was forbidden (1 M. i. 48 ). While some proved unfaithful 
(v. 15), many mothers endured the extreme penalty for their 
fidelity (v. 60). 

In later times the name was given at the time of C. (Lk. 
i.59, 2. 21 ). At first the rite was performed with knives of 
flint or glass, wounds with wh. healed more easily than those 
made with bronze instruments. Steel is now universally 



employed. For practice of mod. Jews see Schechter, Studies 
i?i Judaism, 35 iff. 

The idea of C. is spiritualised in such passages asDt. io. 16 ; 
Rm. 2. 29 , &c. C. becomes the symbol of willing obedience ; 
uncircumcision, of obstinacy and rebellion agst. God. 

A section of the Apostolic Church wished to im- 
pose C. on all converts to Christianity, maintaining 
that only thro' Judaism, whose char, rite was C, 
cd. men enter the Christian Church. For the atti- 
tude of Paul, and the final decision of the Apostolic 
Council, see Ac. 16. 3 , Rm. 4. 10 , Gal. 2. 3 , Ac. I5. 23ff - 

Lit. : Driver, Genesis, 189 ; Nowack, HA., i. 
l66ff. ; Wellhausen, Skizzen by index. 

CISTERN. In Pal, where the rainfall is con- 
fined to a few months of the yr., and perennial 
springs are scarce, it has always been necessary to 
provide for the capture and storage of the rain 
water. Most houses of any pretensions have a 
cistern excavated below, in wh. the water is col- 
lected fm. the roofs. On the hills, and occasionally 
by the wayside, Cs. are found, whence by rope and 
leather bucket water is drawn for flocks or for 
animals in a caravan. Very large Cs. are sometimes 
found in the cities, e.g. the " Great Sea " under the 
Temple area in Jrs., with a capacity of 3,000,000 
gallons. So also in such fortresses as Machaerus and 
Masada (Ant. XIV. xiv. 6 ; BJ. VII. viii. 3, VII. 
vi. 2), wh. enabled them to hold out agst. a siege. 
An example may be seen in the old castle above 
Banias, with steps down to the bottom for cleansing 
purposes. A fissure in the rock, or a crack in the 
cement, made the C. useless for water. Then it 
mt. be used as a prison (Gn. 37. 23 ; Jr. 38. 6 ), or for 
storage of grain. 

CITIES OF REFUGE. These were 6 in num- 
ber, 3 on each side of Jordan. On the E., Bezer in 
the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth-Gilead in Gad, and 
Golan in the half tribe of Manasseh. On the W., 
Hebron in Judah, Shechem in Ephraim, and 
Kedesh in Naphtali. Thither one mt. run who had 
slain a man unwittingly. If he eluded the Avenger 
of Blood, and reached the gate of the city, he was 
sure of asylum until the death of the High Priest, 
when he went forth without fear. The refuge, 
however, availed him nothing, if he were proved 
guilty of wilful murder (Nu. 35. 6 ; Dt. 19. 2 ; Jo. 
20. 2 ). 

CITIZEN. The word embodies an essentially 
Gr. idea corrspdg. to that of the autonomous city. 
Gr. C'ship was very restricted ; Rm. was more 
generous in this respect ; still even Rm. C'ship, till 
the time of Caracalla, was given sparingly. Rm. 
C'ship conveyed great advantages to its possessor : 

(1) exemption fm. scourging and crucifixion ; 

(2) right of appeal to the Emperor. Paul in- 
herited this rank ; his grandfr. may have been a 
Pompeian captive, manumitted in Rm. ; his descts. I 
wd. be Cs. Paul took advantage of this on three I 
occasions (Ac. 16. 37 , 22. 25 , 25. n ). It is used meta- 



100 



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Cle 



phorically (Eph. 2. 19 , " fellow-Cs. with the saints "); 
also in Php. I. 27 , where AV. has " let your conver- 
sation be," the Gr. has politeuesthe, "act the citizen." 
To the Jews the Church was a " kingdom," basileia 
ton ouranou ; when it passed out of Jewry it be- 
came an ekklesia — a " city " ; this " city " was in 
heaven. 

CITY. The fear of common danger fm. ma- 
rauding bands prob. first led men to build their 
houses together, and organise for mutual protection. 
The favourite positions were by a river, on the sea- 
shore, or a spot easy of defence — e.g. Jrs. The Cs. 
thus resulting were not all walled (Est. 9. 19 ), but 
natly. walls were the rule. These were often of 
great strength, pierced by gateways, the mighty 
doors in wh. were opened at sunrise, and closed at 
sunset (Rv. 21. 25 ). Before the gate was a broad 
place where, in ordinary times, market was held, and 
justice was dispensed. Provision of a good water 
supply was of first importance. See Cistern, Con- 
duit. The streets (see Street) were narrow and 
crooked, and, like those in the mod. East, often not 
in good repair (Is. io. 6 , &c.) ; while cleaning and 
lighting are new devices. Ideas of sanitation were 
elementary. Herod the Gt. did, however, build 
a system of sewers under the streets of Csesarea 
{Ant. XV. ix. 6). Men of a particular trade were 
gathered in a street called by their name, e.g. 
" street of the bakers " (Jr. 37. 21 , &c). In mod. 
oriental Cs. people of various faiths occupy separate 
quarters ; a Jew is not found in the Moslem qr., nor 
a Moslem in the Jewish. The C. was of old what it 
is still, a centre of learning (Is. 47 . 10 ), of luxury, and 
wickedness (Is. 5. llfL , 28. ; Na. 3. lfl -)- The more 
important were " mother Cs." (2 S. 20. 19 ), each 
being the capital of a district ; the smaller towns 
and vills.., being in some respects dependent on it, 
were called its " daughters " (Nu. 21. 25 ; Heb., &c). 
See Jzv. En. s.v. ; Benzinger, HA., \2\R. 

CITY OF DAVID. See Jerusalem. 

CITY OF SALT, a city in Judah " in the wilder- 
ness " (Jo. 15. 62 ), prob. ident. with Tell el-Milh, an 
important ruin, 14 miles E. of Beersheba. 

CITY OF WATERS, and CITY ROYAL. 
See Rabbah. 

CLAUDIA (2 Tm. 4. 21 ), a Rm. lady saluted by 
Paul. The fact that Pudens is also saluted in the 
same v. has suggested the ingenious identn. of C. 
with the " Claudia Rufina " of Mart. xi. 53, who 
was w. of Aulus Pudens. She was dr. of the British 
k., Claudius Cogidubnus (Tacitus, Agric, 14). 

CLAUDIUS. The 4th Roman Emperor, ele- 
vated to the throne by the soldiery on the murder of 
Caligula. C. reigned fm. a.d. 41 to a.d. 54. The 
rule of C. was synchronous with the principal part of 
the Apostle Paul's missionary labours. Wise and 
liberal measures characterised the administration of 
C. ; this was fortunate as coinciding with the in- 



fancy of the Church. His edict expelling the Jews 
fm. Rm. brought Aquila and Priscilla in con- 
tact with Paul (Ac. 18. 2 ). With the prophecy of 
Agabus, and its fulfilment in the reign of C, another 
point of contact is found between him and Chris- 
tianity. Suetonius (Claud, xxv.) informs us that 
the occasion of the decree expelling the Jews fm. 
Rome was " that the Jews raised tumults because of 
Christ (impulsore Chresto)." In his private rela- 
tions C. was unfortunate ; one needs only name his 
wives, Messalina and Agrippina, and his favourites, 
Pallas and Narcissus, to recognise this. He was 
poisoned by Agrippina to make way for her s. Nero. 




Coin of Claudius Nero 

CLAUDIUS LYSIAS, the military tribune 
commanding the cohort stationed in Jrs. when Paul 
returned thither. C. L. had purchased Rm. citi- 
zenship (Ac. 22 28 ), and represents in his letter to 
Felix that he saved Paul because he was a Rm. 
(Ac. 23. 27 ). 

CLAY was used for bldg. in anct. Egp., Pal., and 
Mesopotamia, the sun-dried bricks being sufficiently 
durable in a climate where there was no frost to 
crumble them. On C. tablets, letters and records 
of various kinds were impressed. They were then 
baked in an oven. To these, preserved in the earth 
for thousands of yrs., we owe much of our kge. of 
the past. See Pottery. Sometimes the name C. 
is applied to the trodden mud in the streets (Is. 
io. 6 , &c, barrier, EV. " mire " ; Ps. 18. 42 , &c, fit, 
EV. " mire "), and to the sediment gathered in the 
bottom of a pond or well (Ps. 40. 2 , &c, " miry C). 
In Jn. 9. 6 , C. is applied to earth moistened with 
spittle. 

CLEAN (Heb. tahor, bar, with the corresponding 
verbs taher, barar). It is characteristic of the Heb. 
mind that the first of these roots, and by far the most 
frequently used, never occurs but in a ceremonial or 
ethical sense. The 2nd is once used in the ordinary 
meaning (Pr. 14. 4 ), " Where no oxen are the crib is 
clean." The origin of the distinction cannot be 
determined with cert. As to " animals " used for 
food there may have been hygienic reasons ; but the 
pig is used for food freely by Christians in Syria 
without any observably bad effects. If it is sug- 
gested that as pastoral nomads it was fm. their 
flocks and herds that the Israelites took the material 
for their feasts, and what was customary to them 
soon was regarded as alone suitable, why was the 



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Col 



camel excluded and the antelope included ? The 
distinction prob. arose through consecration, and 
consequent separation, involving a certain amount 
of arbitrariness. In regard to persons, see Un- 
clean, Unclean ness. 

In several passages C. means " quite," and is not repre- 
sented in the Heb.— e.g. Zc. n. 17 , "quite dried up." In 
NT. katharos most generally applies to cleanliness, e.g. 
Mw. 23. 26 , " outside C. also." 

CLEMENT, a Philippian believer saluted by 
Paul (Php. 4. 3 ). It has been suggd. that this was 
Clemens Romanus ; tho' it has the support of 
tradition, it is merely a possibility. C. was a 
common name under the Flavians. 

CLEOPAS, CLEOPHAS. See Brethren of 
the Lord. 

CLOKE. See Dress. 

CLOUD. Oct. till March is the usual time for 
Cs. in Pal. Fm. Apl. till Sep. dew-Cs. often form 
in the morning, but disappear with rising day. A 



COCK. Although the word barburim in I K. 4. 23 
tr. " fatted fowl " may be our domestic fowl, it is 
very doubtful, as no representation is to be found 
in Egyptian paintings ; there is no other possible 
reference in the OT. In the NT. they have be- 
come common ; the crowing of the C. is a note of 
time, and the habits of a hen with her chickens 
offer our Lord an illustration (Mw. 23. 37 , &c). 
The refce. in 1 K. 4. 23 may be to ducks, which 
were well known in Egypt. 

COCKATRICE. See Adder. 

COCK-CROWING. It is the habit of the cock 
to crow at intervals during the night ; as the diffc. 
in length of night between winter and summer is 
less in Pal., these crowings occur more regularly 
there. At midnight, and a short while before 
dawn, are the two Cs. of Scrip. (Mk. 14. 30 , &c). 

COCKLE. The word bo 9 shah occurs only in Jb. 
3 1. 40 . It is not a proper name, but denotes genly. 
evil-smelling, noxious plants. 




. 1, — Jl^jl 

Egyptian Ducks. 




jOtfttfiA 

See Cock 



C. in the S.W. — the direction called by the Arabs 
bob esh-sbitta, " the rain gate " — is still the herald of 
coming storm. The grateful shade and refresh- 
ment afforded by the Cs. give them a prominent 
place in the thought and imagery of the Orient. 
" Cs. without rain " awaken hopes they cannot fulfil 
(Ju. 12 ; cp. Pr. 25. 14 ). Their transiency makes 
them fit images of what is fleeting (Jb. J. 9 , &c). 
The C. is the visible symbol of God's presence — 
e.g. in the Pillar of C, wh. cast a shadow by day, 
and glowed with light in the darkness (Ex. 33- 9 , &c). 
Cs. formed as it were the veil of the Divine Majesty 
on Sinai (Ex. 19. 16 , &c). Cs. are the habitation of 
J". (Ps. 97 . 2 , &c). Fm. the C. God speaks on the 
Mt. of Transfiguration (Mw. 17. 5 , &c). A C. re- 
ceived Jesus as He ascended (Ac. I. 9 ), and in the Cs. 
the Son of Man is to appear again (Mw. 24. 30 ). 

CNIDUS, a Dorian colony, and a city of impor- 
tance in the anct. world, was situated on Cape 
Cario, at the S.W. extremity of Asia Minor. An 
island off the coast was joined to the mainland by a 
causeway, forming two excellent harbours. There 
were Jews here in the 2nd cent, b.c (i M. iv 23 ). 
It was visited by Paul on his voyage to Rm. (Ac. 27. 7 ). 

COAL. The most common word is gaheleth (Gr. 
anthrax), wh. means " live embers." Less frequent 
is peham, wh. seems to denote fuel prepared for the 
fire (Pr. 26. 21 ). Mineral C. is not found in Pal. The 
most usual fuel fm. of old has been charcoal, unless, 
perhaps, dried dung shd. be given the first place. 



COFFER (Heb. argaz only in 1 S. 6. 8 - 11 - 15 ), a 
small box into wh. the Phil, lords put their golden 
offerings in returning the Ark. 

COIN. See Money. 

COLLEGE (Heb. mishneh). In 2 K. 22. 14 , AV., 
following Tg. Jn., trs. " college," RV. " second 
quarter"; in Ne. II. 9 , EV. " second " ; inZp. I. 10 , 
AV. " second," RV. " second quarter." Accdg. 
to Keil and Thenius we shd. tr. " Acra " : see 
Burney, Books of Kings, p. 357, and Jerusalem. 

COLONY, used only once in NT. of Philippi, 
wh. see. 

COLOSSE, a Phrygian city on the S. bank of the 
river Lycus, in the Rm. province of Asia. It is 
described by Herodotus (vii. 30), and Xenophon 
(A nab. i. 26), as a " city of great size." Its pros- 
perity was due to its flourishing weaving (wool) in- 
dustry, and to its position on the great military and 
trade route fm. Ephesus to the Euphrates. Fm. 
Strabo (567, 568), we gather that C. was in his day 
overshadowed by the neighbouring Laodicea and 
Hierapolis. Paul hoped to visit C. (Phm. 22 ), but 
there is no evidence that he ever did, although he 
may have done so in the course of the journey re- 
corded in Ac. 18. 23 (but cp. Col. I. 2 ). The church 
in C. prob. owed its origin to Epaphras, and seems 
to have been closely related to those in Laodicea 
and Hierapolis ; all three being under the super- 
intendence of Epaphras (Col. 4. 12 ' 13 ). Michael be- 
came the patron saint of C. It was related that he 



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Com 



interfered by a miracle to save the city fm. a 
threatened inundation, and opened the great gorge 
at Chonae (Ramsay, Ch. in Rm. Emp., 456fT.). C. is 
now represented by Chonae, a place with a mighty 
fortress, 3 miles S. of the anct. site. 

COLOSSIANS, EPISTLE TO THE. The 
Canonicity and Pauline Authorship of C. was 
acknowledged or implied very early. In the 2nd 
cent. Justin Martyr repeatedly quotes the phrase, 
" the first-born of every creature (' of all creation,' 
RV.)," in his dialogue with Trypho : this phrase is 
too striking to be dropped into accidentally, and too 
frequently quoted not to be regarded as authorita- 
tive. C. was in the Canon of Marcion. Irenaeus 
quotes C. by name, and attributes it to Paul. Hip- 
polytus quotes frequently, and still more frequently 
Tertullian. Eusebius placed C. among the homo- 
logoumena. It was necessary to Baur's theories of 
the development of doctrine to hold C. late, so he 
denied its authenticity because of the diffc. between 
its vocabulary and that of Romans, and alleged re- 
ferences to Gnostic heresies. That the style of C. 
and of the other Epp. of the 1st imprisonment 
differs fm. that of Rm., I and 2 Cor., and Gal. may 
be admitted, but not more than happens in the case 
of other authors. Diffc. of circumstances, sub]., 
and audience, furnish sufficient explanation. The 
authenticity of C. is now generally admitted. 

The place where C. was written is commonly 
believed to be Rome. Meyer, followed by Haupt, 
maintains that the imprisonment fm. wh. C. was 
written was endured in Caesarea, not Rome, because 
Onesimus, he thinks, wd. more naturally flee to 
Caesarea than to Rome, as if the communication 
between Rome and the provinces was not constant, 
while inter-provincial communication was inter- 
mittent, and a runaway wd. naturally feel safer in 
the vast " colluvies " of Rome than in the com- 
paratively small community of Caesarea. 

The occasion of C. is the appearance in the 
church at C. of a Judaeo-Gnostic heresy, prob. 
Essenism (Lightfoot, Colossians, pp. 71-111) ; asceti- 
cism and worship of angels seem to have been its 
most marked features. 

Contents. — After salutation,thanksgiving, prayer 
(1 . 1 " 14 ), Paul dwells on the surpassing glory of Christ ; 
declaring Him " the Image of the Invisible God," 
" the Creator of all things," " the Head of the 
Church," "the source of Redemption" (i. 15 " 29 ). 
Fm. this he proceeds to deduce arguments wh. 
ought to prevent the Colossians fm. being led away 
by " Philosophy " (so Essenism is called by Jos.) ; 
the conquest over all things wh. Christ had achieved 
in His death raised them above the necessity of the 
ascetic conquest of the body (2. 1 - 23 ). As there 
seem to have been symptoms of a reaction agst. 
Essenism, wh. tended to the opposite extreme, 
Paul warns the believers agst. excesses (3. 1 " 10 ). He 



then gives affectionate exhortations, urging mutual 
love and helpfulness because of their renewal in 
Christ (3. 11 " 17 ), and applies these principles to 
domestic relations (3. 18 -4. 6 ). He concludes with 
personal notes concerning Tychicus, who is convey- 
ing the Epistle to C. ; Onesimus, the fugitive slave ; 
salutations fm. several saints with him ; and saluta- 
tions to saints in Colosse. The resemblance be- 
tween C. and Eph. is the result of composition in 
similar circumstances and in similar mental mood. 

literature : for the scholar Lightfoot's is prob. 
still the best commentary. For more popular use 
Moule (Cam. Bib. for Schools) and Maclaren (Exp. 
Bible) will be found of benefit. 

COLOUR. The Heb. lang. has many words for 
colours. First there are those that indicate the 
presence or absence of reflected light, white and 
black ; the Heb. for these is lab an and shdhor respec- 
tively ; the verbal form qeddr is used for the latter as 
applied to " night." In Gr. leukos and melas are the 
most common words. To pass on to colours as 
more genly. understood ; beginning at the upper 
end of the spectrum we have " blue " (tekeleth), and 
its cognate " purple " ('argdmdn) ; in Ex. 24. 10 we 
have evidence of a sensitiveness to colour without 
the possession of a discriminating term, " like a 
sapphire stone as the body of heaven for clearness." 
There are two words for " yellow," yeraqraq, also 
trd. " greenish " (Lv. 13. 49 ), applied to " gold " (Ps. 
68. 13 ), and tzabob, applied to " hair " discoloured 
by leprosy. " Green " does not seem to have been 
discriminated fm. " yellow " ; yereq and ydraq, fm. 
the same root as the word for " yellow," is the term 
most common ; chloros is the NT. term, also trd. 
" pale " (Rv. 6. 8 ). When we reach the lower end of 
the spectrum Heb. is more prolific of terms : 'adorn, 
" red " genly., tho' suggesting a " dull red " ; kar- 
mil, " crimson," connected with our " carmine " ; 
tola 6 , " scarlet," appears to be connected with 
tola 6 ath, " a worm," Gr. kokkinos (Mw. 2J. 28 ) ; 
shashar, " vermillion " (Ek. 23. 14 ) ; shariim, AV. 
" scarlet " (Is. I. 18 ). The symbolic use of colour we 
find in the Tabernacle and in Is. I. 18 , but more 
elaborately in Zc. 6. 2 ' 3 ; and more elaborately still 
in Rv., tho' indirectly, through the medium of 
precious stones ; " white " symbolises " purity " 
(RV. 7. 9 ), " scarlet " and " purple " symbolise 
" cruelty " and " luxury " (Rv. ij?- 4 ). 

COMFORTER. See Holy Spirit. 

COMING OF THE LORD, THE SECOND. 
Altho' this phrase does not occur in Scrip., yet there 
is refc. (He. c;. 28 ) to the appearance of Christ " the 
second time without sin unto salvation." In the 
prophets the two appearances are not distinguished, 
but the refcs. to the Messiah's coming in lowliness, 
and to His coming in splendour, sugg. an expecta- 
tion of more than one manifestation. This dis- 
tinction is obliterated in apocalyptic Lit., but in the 



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preaching of the Lord it becomes prominent. In unions (Gn. 30. 3 , &c. ; see Code of Hammurabi, 
His apocalyptic discourse (Mw. 25. ; Mk. 13. ; Lk. 137, 183). But the numbers noted in later times 
21.) this "coming" is not distinguished fm. that (1 K. n. 30 ; 2 Ch. n. 21 , &c.) are due to luxury and 
at the last judgment, but is intimately associated deterioration of char. 

with the destruction of Jrs. The children of the C. had equal rights with 

It has been a difficulty to some that there is no indication tnose of the legitimate w., as we learn fm. the case 
of a long interval between the first fulfilment, in the destruction of Jacob's sons. The C. was held equally inviolable 

with the w., and outrage on her was resented with 



of Jrs. , and the second. When we bear in mind the psycho- 
logical phenomena of prophecy this may be explained. The 
future was unveiled to the prophet in a vision — a picture, in 
wh. what was in the foreground represented the immediate 
future : that in the background the mere remote. In lineal 
projection the near and the far wd. be in close juxtaposition ; 
the prophet in telling his vision wd. retain this juxtaposition. 
As the immediate future was necessarily conditioned by the 
f emote, it cd. only be understood in the light of it. Our 
Lord as Prophet acts under prophetic conditions, hence the 
apparent mixture. 

The teaching of our Lord had another side : 



no less fervour (Gn. 35. 22 , 49.* ; Jg. 19. ; 2 S. 3. 7 , 
i6. 21ff -). 

CONDUIT (2 K. 18. 17 , &c). There are in Pal. 
many remains of Cs., or aqueducts, by wh. the 
water was brought fm. distant sources for domestic 
use or for irrigation. The C. mt. be a channel 
cut in the rock, or built of stones, cemented, and 
covered with flat stones. The ancients did not know 
the parables there is refc. to the Lord delaying His that water confined in a pipe will rise to the level of 
Coming (Mw. 2^ 8 , 25.* ; Lk. 18. 7 ). In the Epp. lts source. The C. therefore preserved a slight 
the Coming of Christ was expected during the life- slo P e fm - the source to the P oint of delivery ; so it 
time of believers then living, but this was condi- had to be carried round the flanks of the hills, or 
tioned by the kge. that cert, signs wd. precede the thro ' triem h J a tunnel, and across the valleys on 
appearing of their Lord. At last, in 2 P. 3.8. 9 , the arches of masonry. 



CONEY, a small animal resembling the rabbit in 
size and habits. Scientifically it is called Hyrax 
Syriacus, and is reckoned a pachyderm, i.e. of the 
same class as the elephant and the horse. 

CONFESSION. In Scrip. C. has two meanings. 
(1) To acknowledge God as our God. This use is 
rare in OT., practically occurring only in Solomon's 



possibility is clearly recognised that a millennium 
mt. elapse before the blessed event occurred. 

This expectation, altho. a mistaken one, conferred a great 
economic benefit on the infant Church ; when surrounded 
byfoes that seemed mightier than themselves, the early be- 
lievers were supported by the thought that their Lord wd. 
soon appear and discomfit all their enemies. As in course 
of time the Church grew stronger, and was able to realise 
the lengthened period it wd. have to wait, the expectation of prayer at the Dedication of the Temple (i K. 8. 33 ; 
an immediate Coming became fainter. 2 CL 6 2^ « confess T hy Name, and turn fm. their 

In the Ape. the hope has become slightly dim- sin." In NT. it is more frequent (with the addi- 
mer than in the Epp., tho' still the visions vouch- tion of C. of Christ), e.g. Mw. 10 , 32 , " Whosoever 
safed to the Apostle are of " things that must shall C. me before men " ; Jn. 12. 42 , " they did not 
shortly come to pass." In the 4th Gospel the S. C. C. him lest they shd. be put out of the Synagogue " ; 
is revealed in its sptl. aspect, as fulfilled largely in Rm. io. 9 , " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth 

the Lord Jesus." (2) An acknowledgment of 
guilt, either to God or to our fellows. The former 
of these is the commonest, esp. in OT., e.g. Lv. 5. 5 , 
" he shall C. that he hath sinned " ; Nu. 5. 7 , " they 
shall C. the sins that they have done " ; in NT. 



the mission of the Comforter. For a fuller dis- 
cussion of the questions involved, see Eschatology 
and Holy Spirit. 

COMMUNION. See Fellowship, Lord's 
Supper. 

CONCISION (Php. 3 . 2 ). Circumcision cd. not 



I Jn. I. 9 , " If we C our sins, He is faithful and 
have for the Gentiles the significance it had for the just to forgive us our sins." The second aspect of 

C. in relation to sin is found in Js. 5. 16 , " C. your 
faults one to another." There is no notice in 
Scrip, of auricular confession to a functionary of 
the Church. 

CONGREGATION (Heb. l edah, qahal, Gr. 
synagoge : other three Heb. words are trd. C. in 
AV., but not in RV. : the most important is mo'ed, 
as applied to the Tabernacle), genly. the assembly 
foreign woman purchased as a slave, no rights were of the people of Isr. or of Judah, for political pur- 
secured ; and no Isr. might take as Cs. the drs. of poses. Fm. this it comes to mean the people who 
Canaan. The strong desire for many children, uni- had a right so to assemble. " One ordinance shall 
versal in the E., acts, for the presence and status of be for the C. and the stranger " (Nu. 15 
the C. Even legitimate ws., themselves barren, or Ac. 13. 43 , where alone it occurs in NT., C 
of limited fruitfulness, gave maids to their hs., those present in a " synagogue." See Assembly. 
claiming some interest in the offspring of such CONIAH. See Jehoiachin. 

104 



Jews. Paul therefore wd. not call it by the time- 
honoured name (peritome), but by one wh. suggests 
a mere bodily mutilation (katatome). 

CONCUBINE, Heb. pllegesh, cp. Gr. pollakis. 
In the Heb. social system the C. had a recognised 
place, and in cert, cases her rights were guarded by 
law (Ex. 2i. 7fL ; Dt. 2i. 10ff -), i.e. when she was of 
Heb. blood, or was a captive taken in war. To the 



15 ). In 
means 



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Cor 



CONVERSATION in EV. is generally = " con- 
duct " (Heb. derek, Ps. 37. 14 , 50. 23 , Gr. anastrophe, 
Gal. I. 13 ; Eph. 4. 22 , &c). Once (Phil. 3. 20 ) it 
stands in AV. for politeuma, " citizenship " — so 
RV. ; or " commonwealth " — RVm. Tropos (He. 
13. 5 ), may be well rendered with RVm., " turn of 
mind." 

CONVOCATION (Heb. miqra)\ an assembly of 
Isr. for religious purposes ; hence it always has the 
adj. " holv " ; e.g. Lv. 23. 8 , " The seventh day is 
an holy C" 

COPPER (Heb. neboshetb), usly. trd. Brass. 

COR. See Weights and Measures. 

CORAL (ntofeO, ra'moth, Jb. 28. 18 ; Ek. 27. 16 ) 
is formed of the hard skeletons of cert, polyps, de- 
posited in the bed of the sea. It is doubtful if this 
tr. is correct, but no more prob. suggestion has been 
made. The red C. is found in the Mediterranean. 
It was greatly prized by the ancts. as an ornament, 
and was also used for amulets. 

CORBAN (Heb. qorban), in Lv. and Nu. is used 
for " oblation " in payment of a vow. However 
rash the vow the stricter Rabbin wd. not allow 
any release fm. it ; hence if a man in a moment of 
irritation agst. his father or his mother declared 
" Qorban by whatsoever thou mightest be profited 
by me," he mt. not in any way assist them. 

Perhaps through the influence of Christianity, the strict- 
ness of this was modified later when it infringed on filial 
duties. 

CORIANDER. Manna is twice compared with 
C.-seed (Ex. 16. 31 ; Nu. II. 7 ). It is the Arb. kuz- 
barab, a plant bearing aromatic seeds, used as a con- 
diment, and in medicine as a carminative ; much 
cultivated in the S. of Europe, and in the East. 

CORINTH. The anct. city of C. was destroyed 
by L. Mummius, who transported its artistic 
treasures to Rm. in B.C. 146. A cent, later Julius 
Caesar restored the city as a Rm. colony. This is 
the C. of the NT. It stood on the gulf of C, at 
the S. end of the isthmus wh. joins the Pelopon- 
nesus to the mainland. The harbour on the shore, 




Coin of Corinth 

Lechaeum, was connected with the port of Cenchrea, 
on the E. of the isthmus, by a ship tramway, on 
wh. smaller vessels were taken over, thus avoiding 
the delay and expense of trans-shipment, and the 
dangers of a voyage round Cape Malea. At a later 
date Nero tried to cut thro' the isthmus with a 
canal, employing 6000 prisoners of war on the work. 



Standing thus with a foot on either sea, C. found 
herself on the great highway of the world's com- 
merce, and the wealth of E. and W. flowed into the 
coffers of the Corinthian merchant princes. Capital 




Corinth : The Citadel, Acrocorinthus 

of the province of Achaia, she soon ranked in wealth 
and importance, second in Europe only to Rm. her- 
self. The citadel on the Acrocorinthus, S. of the 
city, rising 1800 ft. above the sea, together with 
her fortifications, rendered C. a position of great 
strength. Altho* no longer a purely Gr. city, C. 
had charge of the Isthmian Games held in the 
Stadium beside the shrine of Poseidon on the isth- 
mus. The inhabitants included Italians, Greeks, 
and Asiatics. Gladiatorial displays were introduced, 
and foreign religions met with easy tolerance. 
To the influence of Asiatic superstitions, with their 
obscene ritual, we may perhaps trace the hideous 
social demoralisation, wh. gained for C. a name of 
infamy, and raised its revolting form even in the 
Christian Church (1 Cor. 5. lfl# ). For the gospel 
campaign C. was a place of great strategic value, 
whence influences mt. radiate far and wide. Paul 
therefore spent in it no less than 18 months, labour- 
ing to establish and build up a Christian community 
(Ac. 18. 11 ). Here he met Aquila and Priscilla, 
driven fm. Rm. by the decree of Claudius, and with 
them he wrought at his trade of tent-making. 
Stirred up no doubt by his success, Crispus, a ruler 
of the synagogue, being among his converts, the Jews 
rose agst. him. Their accusations were disregarded 
by Gallio, and their antagonism seems to have 
fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel. 



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To the Church there founded, the Epistles to the 
Corinthians were addressed. Poss. Paul again visited 
the city (Ac. 20. 2 ). In post-apostolic times the 
Epistle of Clement was written to the Corinthians. 

C, altho' still the seat of a bishop, has fallen on 
evil days. The splendid city of the past is repre- 
sented now by a miserable vill. 

CORINTHIANS, FIRST EPISTLE TO THE, 
is one of the most important of the Pauline Epp., 
vying with Romans in eloquence and doctrinal sig- 
nificance. Its value historically is much greater, as 
revealing the habits, modes of worship, and moral 



Their arguments need not delay us, as by equivalent argu- 
ments one might outdo Hardouin and declare all classic Lit. , 
even Herodotus and Cicero, the composition of mediaeval 
monks. A good act. of this school of criticism is to be found 
in Dr. Dykes Shaw's The Pauline Epistles, pp. 67-84. 

Fm. internal evidence we learn that I C. was 
written a.d. 56 or 57. The Occasion of its writing 
appears to have been twofold : (1) Information as 
to internal condition of the Corinthian Church con- 
veyed to Paul by members of the " house of Chloe " 
(1 C. I. 11 ). Paul thus learned that there were 
among the Christian community in Corinth, re- 
ligious parties ; and immorality of various kinds. 




Site of Corinth 



characteristics of the early Christians. Corinth, (a) Factions (i. 12 - 



The polished rhetoric of 



to the Christian community of wh. this Ep. and 2 Apollos attracted to him a number of believers who 

C. were sent, was the commercial capital of Greece seemed to think their admiration of Apollos was in- 

(see preceding article). Its situation, between two adequate if they did not slight Paul. There were 

seas, attracted a large seafaring and commercial the Judaisers, as yet not prominent, who called 

population fm. all quarters of the Mediterranean themselves by the name of Cephas. Then there was 

shores. While the city was notorious for its vice, it a party allied to them, those who claimed that in 

was to a great extent typically Gr., and therefore contradistinction to others who named themselves 

addicted to art and philosophy. Naturally there was not by any subordinate teacher, they were the fol- 

a considerable Jewish population, through whom lowers of Christ Himself. These were of necessity 

the Apostle gained an entrance to the rest of the Jewish Christians who poss. had seen our Lord in 

inhabitants. During his stay of a year and a half the flesh, or at all events had learned the substance 

Paul built up a Christian Church that was promi- of His personal teaching fm. those who had heard 



nent all thro' the early cents. To this Church, 
during his stay in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul wrote 
the Ep. before us. The authenticity of I C. had 
never been doubted till the rise of the school of wh 
Van Manen is the most typical representative. 



I0(j 



Him. They are prob. referred to in 2 C. 3. 1 as those 
who had received " epistles of commendation " fm. 
the Jrs. Apostles. Last, there was the still predomi- 
nant division, the partisans of the Apostle Paul. 
Assuming as cert, that they were one in essentials, he 



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shows the folly of faction ; he proceeds next to show 
the reason of the diffc. between his teaching and 
that of Apollos ; he came to Corinth determined to 
be simple (i C. 2. 2 ), and defends his decision. Not 
that he undervalued the gifts of Apollos. While he, 
Paul, planted, Apollos watered. Both had their 
place in the husbandry of God. In chap. 4. he 
offers a dignified rebuke to those who despised him. 
It is to be noted how small a space the Judaisers 
occupy in this epistle, compared with that 
given them in 2 C. or in Gal. (b) Immorality 
(_j. 21 -6. 20 ). This seems to have assumed three 
forms : Incest, Litigiousness, with its root Covetous- 
ness, and Sensuality. It is a Pauline characteristic 
to associate covetousness and sensuality, vices that 
we contrast ; see Rm. I. 29 ; Eph. 5 A The nat. of 
Corinthian society explains the prominent vices of 
the Church there. As we know by mod. examples, 
seaport towns are prone to wallow in sensuality. 
Covetousness is the vice of a trading community, 
and the Greeks were notoriously litigious. Paul ex- 
pected that the Church, the " ekklesia " of believers, 
wd. settle all civil disputes among themselves. The 
Church was to him the true state. (2) Answers to 
questions brought to the Apostle fm. the Corinthian 
Church by Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus ; 
and his answers seem rather to have followed the 
order of the questions, than the logical order wh. 
the connection of the subjs. wd. have suggested. 

(a) Marriage and Celibacy. His conclusion on this 
is, that neither is in itself the holier state, but that 
in the then condition of the Church, matters wd. be 
easier for individuals who were not married. A 
concrete case seems to be referred to (7. 36 " 40 ), where 
a member of the Corinthian Church had under his 
care, either as parent or guardian, young, marriage- 
able women ; the Apostolic decision is, he is to be 
guided by circumstances and his own view of them. 

(b) Things offered to idols (chap. 8.). As idolatry 
permeated social life, and every feast was a sacrifice 
to some heathen deity, the position of the Christian 
member of a heathen household was one of extreme 
delicacy. The principle Paul lays down is the great 
Christian principle of love. Evidently some had 
maintained, what was logically true, that as an idol 
was nothing in the world, the fact that the viands 
had been offered to an idol was a matter of no im- 
port ; hence it was needful to show that love is 
higher than logic, and that eating or not eating was 
decided by it. (c) The support of the ministry of the 
gospel (chap. 9.). This support was to be fm. the 
free-will offerings of the Church. He meets an 
objection that he foresees may be offered ; he himself 
did not receive any fee or reward. His answer is 
that he feels himself to stand in a peculiar position : 
what was incumbent on him was not incumbent on 
other ministers of the word, (d) The subj. taken 
up in chap. 10. is connected closely with that of 



chap. 8. — the conduct of the believer in regard to 
idolatry. While to Paul the idol was nothing, the 
deity whom the idol represented he regarded not as 
a nonentity but as a devil. His argument wd. be 
none the less forcible if we take him as making use of 
the argumentum ad hominem ; his correspondents so 
believed; let them act accdgly. ; over and above there 
was the motive of love wh. he had implied earlier in 
his discussionof the cognate subject of "meat offered 
to idols." (e) Public worship (chap. 11.). The 
conduct and deportment of women in Church is the 
first point he touches on (1 1. 1 ' 16 ) ; Paul had to har- 
monise the freedom that is in Christ Jesus with 
eastern ideas of propriety. In connection with the 
Lord's Supper, and the " Love Feast " with wh. it 
was so closely connected, he gives his nar. of the in- 
stitution of the Ordinance. (/) In the section that 
follows (12.-14.) we find the Apostle's answer to 
questions about Sptl. Gifts, and incidentally of 
Church Government. Under this head comes the 
difficult subj. of the Gift of Tongues, (g) Whether 
the Corinthians had inquired concerning the Re- 
surrection is not clear, but at all events some of 
them had doubted its reality, and thus gave Paul 
occasion to collect the evidence of our Lord's 
Resurrection, and to deduce fm. that the gen. 
Resurrection (15.). (h) The concluding section, 
after reminding the Corinthians of the collection to 
be made for the " poor saints," proceeds to personal 
notes and salutations. The whole Epistle ends with 
" My love be with you all in Christ Jesus." 

CORINTHIANS, THE SECOND EPISTLE 
TO THE. This Ep. stands in close relation to the 
first ; it is its sequel. While the diffc. in date be- 
tween them is but little, much has happened since 
1 C. was written. When 1 C. was sent to Corinth, 
Paul was in Ephesus, intending to stay there some 
time ; but the uproar excited by Demetrius the 
silver-smith had caused him to leave, and go to 
Philippi. In Corinth, too, there had been changes ; 
many favourable. The incestuous person had been 
brought to repentance, the Corinthian Church had 
been moved to an increase of Christian zeal by 
I C. Some of the changes were unfortunate ; the 
Judaisers, esp. those of the Christ party, had become 
more numerous and pronounced in their opposition 
to Paul. One of the marked features of 2 C. is its 
autobiographical char.; many important events inthe 
life of Paul are only thus known to us. As in the case 
of 1 C, the Pauline Authorship of 2 C. has been 
denied only by German professors with a reputation 
to make. Its integrity has been called in question, 
but on grounds wh. it is imposs. to regard as cogent ; 
the connection between the sections, chaps. 1.-9. 
and 10.-13., is too close for them to have been pub- 
lished as separate letters. There may have been an 
epistle sent by Paul to Corinth wh. has been lost, as 
there seems to have been a visit paid of wh, we have 



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no record save in the traces wh. we find in 2 C. 

Contents. After the salutation the Apostle 

" makes his peace," as it has been put, with the 

Corinthians (i. 5 ~7. 16 ). He had said some severe, 

although necessary things ; now in tenderness of 

heart he begins to fear that he has been too severe ; 

so when they have repented, Paul appears eager 

almost to minimise their faults. In the course of 

this, after a passing refc. to the Judaisers with their 

Epp. of commendation, Paul proceeds to give an 

act. of his ministry as an Apostle, its methods and 

motives ; ending with a fervid appeal to those to 

whom he is writing (6.). In the following chap, he 

describes his own feelings in waiting for the coming 

of Titus, and his joy at the news he brought. Next 

(8.-9.) he urges on the Corinthian believers the duty 

of contributing to the collection he was gathering 

for the saints in Jrs. 

It is to be observed that in regard to this collection Paul 
makes no appeal to the sympathies of his correspondents ; 
he says nothing of the necessities of the saints in Jrs. ; he 
assumes that the duty cf this contribution wd. be acknow- 
ledged at once by all. The Christian republics recognised 
the church in Jrs. as their metropolis, it being to them what 
the " mother cities " were to the Gr. colonies ; so they owed 
a certain tribute to the Mother Church. The same idea is 
seen in the contributions wh. Jewish communities all over 
the world were then in the habit of sending to Jrs. 

As his Apostleship had been assailed by the 
Judaisers (10.-12.), he gives an act. of his call to that 
office, and of the tokens of divine favour he had re- 
ceived, ratifying this call ; his own sufferings being 
an evidence of how costly a thing it was to him to 
have accepted it. He concludes the Ep. with an 
exhortation, to prepare them for his approaching 
visit. 

CORMORANT (Heb. qfatb, also trd. Pelican ; 
and shalak), an aquatic bird common in Pal. ; classi- 
fied as unclean (Lv. II. 17 ; Dt. 14. 17 ). 

CORN, a gen. term applied to all cereals. 

CORNELIUS, a Rm. officer in Csesarea (Ac. io. 1 , 
&c), prob. a native of Italy. He was friendly to the 
Jews (Ac. io. 22 ), and is described as " one who feared 
God." The prominence given to his case shows 
clearly that his baptism marks an important step in 
the hist, of Christianity. This is quite intelligible 
if we suppose that he was the first uncircumcised 
person to be received into the fellowship of the 
Church. 

Tradition says that he built a church in Caesarea, 
and, later, became Bishop of Scamandros, exercising 
miraculous gifts. 

CORNER-STONE. The first step in bldg. a 
house in Pal. is to dig four deep pits at the four 
corners of the area to be occupied by the house. In 
these is put either one large stone, or a mass of stones 
united with cement. Fm. the corner pits ditches 
are made, joining adjacent corners ; as these become 
gradually shallower in the middle and the individual 
stones are shaped like arch-stones, the foundation of 



each wall is really an arch. The consequence of this 
is that the whole weight of the superincumbent 
bldg. ultimately rests on the C.-S. 

CORNET. See Music. 

COS, an island off the SW. coast of Asia Minor, 
over agst. Cnidus and Halicarnassus. In its rela- 
tions with the Jews it is referred to in 1 M. 15. 23 , 
Ant. XIV. vii. 2, x. 15 ; BJ. I. xxi. 11. A town of 
the same name stood on the NE. of the island, to 
wh. perhaps refce. is made in Ac. 21. 1 . It is very 
fertile, and in anct. times was noted for its silk. 

COTTON, karpas, a foreign word in Est. I. 6 , 
EV. tr. " green." The marginal tr., " cotton," is 
prob. correct. Where " linen " appears, " C." may 
sometimes be intended. It was not always easy 
to distinguish the two materials. 

COUNCIL (gen. tr. of synedrion, "the Sanhed- 
rin "), the principal national council of the Jews. 
When the C. originated is not cert., but prob. some- 
thing of the kind existed, at all events fm. the return 
fm. Bab. As to the constitution of the C. we have 
no reliable information. The High Priest appears 
to have been the president. Our Lord was tried 
before the C. ; as also were the Apostles Stephen, 
and the Apostle Paul. The acts, of the Sanhedrin 
in the Talmud are valueless. They were not com- 
mitted to writing until the Sanhedrin had ceased to 
exist for half a millennium. 

COURT. See Temple, House. 

COVENANT. The Heb. berith may be derived 
fm. the stem bara, " to cut." This wd. accord 
with the view that originally Cs. were confirmed by 
a solemn ceremony wh. involved cutting of animal 
victims in pieces. The usl. phrase " to cut," kdratb, 
" a C." poss. refers to this practice. Another de- 
rivation suggd. is fm. Asyr. birtu, a bond or fetter. 

Originally there were prob. three stages in the 
making of a C. between parties on equal footing: (1) 
terms were arranged ; (2) these were sworn to ; (3) 
the parties passed between the severed pieces of the 
slaughtered victim or victims, apparently invoking 
upon themselves the like fate, shd. they violate their 
oath. Fm. this last may have come the phrase of 
such common use, " God do so unto me and more 
also," prob. surviving in speech long after the cere- 
mony was obsolete. 

Berith is used of agreements between Isaac and 
Abimelech (Gn. 26. 28 ), Jacob and Laban (3i. 44ff> ), 
&c, where the contracting parties, as equals, make 
mutually satisfactory terms. But we have also the 
berith between God and men, where the latter are 
bound to accept and observe the terms imposed, if 
they are to enjoy the benefits promised : e.g. the Cs., 
(1) with Noah, its sign is the rainbow ; (2) with 
Abraham (Gn. 15. ; J. 17., P.), confirmed by a 
weird and awful ceremony (i5. 10ff - ; cp. Jr. 34. 18 ) : 
its sign is circumcision ; (3) with Moses for Isr. at 
Sinai, confirmed by sacrifice and sprinkling of blood 



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(Ex. 24. 3ff -). Accdg. to P. (3 1. 13 ), its sign is the 
Sabbath. The word so used passes by an easy 
transition to mean the Divine will toward man, 
expressed in ordinance and appointment. LXX 
almost invariably tr. berith by diatheke, " appoint- 
ment," not by suntheke, " contract." Jehoiada's C. 
with the captains, &c, was simply a duty imposed 
on them. C. becomes therefore a synonym for 
" law " in such phrases as " book of the C." (Ex. 2^.. 7 , 
&c), " ark of the C." (frequently). 

The conditions of the C. mt. be conceived as ful- 
filled by outward observance. This led to their 
real, if not formal neglect, in times of declension. 
The prophets, penetrating to the deeper sptl. mean- 
ing, did not hesitate to predict the making of a new 
C. with the people, wh. shd. rest not in outward 
rite and ceremony, but in inward conformity to 
the will of God (Jr. 31. 31 ; Ek. 37. 26 ). Hence the 
familiar distinction of old and new Cs. 

The NT. word is diatheke : AV. often tr. " testa- 
ment" RV. gen. prefers " C." The phrase " blood 
of the C." in the institution of the Lord's Supper, 
makes this appear as the counterpart of the C. con- 
firmed by bloody sacrifice. The influence of classi- 
cal usage, in wh. diatheke = " last will " or " testa- 
ment," may perhaps be traced in Gal. 3. 15 * 17 ; He. 
9. 16, 17 , passages of admitted difficulty. The pi. 
form in Rm. 9*, &c, may, accdg. to a common Gr. 
idiom, be sing, in meaning ; or it may refer to the 
Cs. mentioned in the hist, of the patriarchs. 

COVENANT OF SALT (Nu. 18. 19 , &c). To 
eat of a man's salt constitutes one of the most 
binding relationships in the E. Cases are known 
in wh. housebreakers, having accidentally tasted 
salt, have forthwith departed, leaving everything 
undisturbed. 

For full discussion, see Davidson, HDB., s.v. 

CRAFT, CRAFTSMEN. See Handicrafts. 

CRANE (Heb. sus or sis, Is. 38. 14 ; Jr. 8. 7 , RV. 
" swallow," following LXX and Vlg.). Tristram 
(SDB.) trs. " swift " ; he holds deror as the only 
word for Swallow ; and 'agur he wd. tr. " crane " : 
but Dr. Post (HDB.) does not agree to this identn., 
as " the trumpeting of the crane " cd. not " be 
called twittering." It is difficult to see how birds 
so prominent were unnoticed in the Bible. 

CREATION. The act. of C. found in Gn. i. 1 - 
2. 3 (P.), wh. is followed by the more compendious 
act. (Gn. a. 4-25 , J.), is, rapidly stated, as follows : 
God {Elohlrri) began by creating the heaven and the 
earth. When the earth was created it was " with- 
out form and void " (tohu wabohu), " darkness was 
on the abyss, and the Spirit of God brooded on the 
face of the waters," " and God said, Let there be 
light, and there was light." The division of light 
fm. darkness, of night fm. day, followed ; " then 
there was evening and there was morning ; one 
day." In the second day a firmament established a 



separation between waters above and waters be- 
neath. On the third day the dry land appeared 
and plants were created. On the fourth day the 
heavenly bodies became visible. The fifth day saw 
the C. of marine animals and birds. The sixth day 
was occupied with the C. of the land animals and, 
finally, man. 

It is to be noted that the succession of events does 
not essentially differ fm. that presented to us by 
geology. The earth is shown us first as a mass of 
incandescent gas, gradually depositing in fluid lava, 
wh. in turn shows symptoms of solidifying on the 
surface ; while a covering of vapour hundreds of 
miles thick envelops it ; yet not so thick but that 
faintly light and darkness, night and day, are dis- 
tinguishable : this is not unlike the tohu wabohu 
of Gn. I. 2 . As the earth cools and solidifies the 
vaporous envelope is gradually lifted up fm. the face 
of the mass of the earth : there is a separating " fir- 
mament " between the water that is being deposited 
on the cooling surface and that still suspended in 
vapour. The cloudy envelope gradually thinning 
becomes rent at times, and so the sun is seen during 
the day, and the moon and stars at night. The 
gradual cooling of the earth leads to the absorption 
of the water in the earth ; and its shrinking forms 
heights and depressions in wh. the water collects, 
and the dry land appears. The swarming forth of 
the fishes in the sea, and fm. them the birds, is quite 
in accordance with the geologic record, in wh. the 
earliest fossils are those of marine animals. The 
sixth day shows the evolution of land animals and 
man, wh. coincides with the function of the Tertiary 
period. After that there is the practical arrest of 
the work of C. ; " God rested on the seventh day 
fm. all the work wh. He had made." No careful 
reader can fail to be impressed with this as the lead- 
ing feature ; that the whole process is an orderly 
evolution under one intelligent creative Will. 

It has been assumed by some that the Biblical 
act. has been derived fm. the Bab. C.-myth. This 
we may therefore briefly consider. 

" Before the heaven above was named, or the 
earth beneath, there were Apsu, Mummu (der mit- 
waltende Sohn und Brzeuger ; Weber, Lit. Bab. u. 
Asyr., p. 44), and Tiamat." When their " waters 
are mingled together " the gods are produced, first 
Lachmu and Lachamu, then Ashar and Kishar, and 
after an interval, Anu, Bel, and Ea, who produced 
among themselves the other gods. Apsu and 
Tiamat feel that their supremacy is threatened by 
these children of theirs, and so determine to de- 
stroy them. But Ea, discovering their purpose, 
deals with Apsu and Mummu as Kronos, accdg. to 
the Gr. myth, dealt with his father Uranus. Tiamat 
now forms other beings to help her in wreaking 
vengeance on the gods she had already produced ; 
these new beings are dragons, fiery serpents, furious 



109 



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dogs, men-scorpions, &c. Agst. these the gods arm 
themselves ; after various expedients Marduk agrees 
to be the champion of the other gods provided they 
are prepared to acknowledge him as Supreme. He 
encountered Tiamat and " cleft her like a fish " 
(Driver, Archeology and Authority, p. 12). One 
half of her he made into the heavens ; as to the 
lower portion (Berosus), he made it into the earth. 
The sixth tablet wh., it is supposed, contained an 
act. of the dry land, has not yet been recovered ; 
hence the statement of Berosus cannot be veri- 
fied absolutely. Such is the C. story of Bab. ; it is 
difficult to see any resemblance between this and 
the Biblical nar. ; there is certainly here no intel- 
ligent will fixing the place of every successive 
phenomenon. 

Even Canon Driver, who holds the dependence of the 
record in Gn. on the Bab. Epos, admits that there are pro- 
found theological diffcs., but holds that these are counter- 
balanced by " material resemblances." These resemblances 
reduce themselves to two ; the world begins in "water"; 
and the first step in educing order is the separation of 
waters beneath fm. those above. With regard to the first 
point ; the alleged resemblance is due to Dr. Driver's failure 
to recognise that the "mingling of the waters" is a euphemism 
for sexual intercourse. How Dr. Driver sees any resemblance 
in the second point it is difficult to comprehend. Marduk 
certainly places guardians at Tiamat's mouth that the waters 
within her body may not gush out ; but that is a totally 
difft. thing fm. separating into two portions waters wh. 
formed one mass. 

If now the differences are considered these will be seen 
to be insurmountable. In the Bab. act. there is nothing 
parallel to the successive days each with its appropriate work 
wh. forms so characteristic and essential a feature in the 
Biblical nar. ; there is nothing of the C. of light by the 
words wh. seemed so sublime to Longinus, " God said, Let 
there be light, and there was light." If we turn to the 
other side ; if the ident. of Tiamat and tehom (" the deep ") 
be assumed, still there is no word in the Heb. act. of " the 
deep" supplying the material of the heaven and the earth, 
or of the gods being produced fm. Tiamat- — essential features 
of the Bab. mythus. These diffcs. cannot be regarded as 
theological as distinct fm. what Dr. Driver calls "material." 
But the theological elements are essential to both narratives. 
Even the verbal ident. of Tiamat with tehom of wh. Dr. 
Driver makes so much, wd. really prove the Bab. derivative 
due to the corruption of Language. 

Dr. Driver is compelled to fall back en the alleged resem- 
blance between the Bab. deluge myth and the scripl. act. of 
the flood, as making for the probability that the story of C. 
is borrowed also ; but the one mt. be derived fm. Bab. 
without the other being so. See Flood. It is needless 
to claim greater antiquity for the Bab. myth ; because the 
tablets containing the C. story were found in the library of 
Asshurbanipal (b.c. 668-626), therefore later than the dates 
commonly assigned to J. or E. , the sources of the second 
C. nar. The Heb. nar. seems to us much nearer the source ; 
its very simplicity over agst. the complexity of the other may 
be regarded as proof. 

The tablet in the Bab. Creation Epos wh. prob. 
contained the act. of the Creation of Man has not 
yet been recovered. 

The Tg. Jrs. tell that " The Lord God created man in two 
stages ; He took dust fm Mt. Moriah the place of the Sanc- 
tuary, and fm. the four winds of the world, and mixed fm. all 
the waters of the world, and created him black, white, and 
red, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life." The 
Mohammedan myth asserts that the four angels were em- 
ployed to gather the dust, and instead of the dust fm. Mt. 
Moriah it is dust from Mecca that is taken first. In the 



Qabala we are told that Adam was 96 miles high and 94 miles 
broad, and that he was androgynous. The Mohammedan 
tradition declares A.'s height to have been so great when 
first created that had he stood up his head wd. have reached 
the seventh heaven. He had as yet no soul ; his soul had 
been made 1000 years before, and only unwillingly entered 
into the body. Then A. arose and his eyes were nearly 
blinded because his face was so near the throne of God. All 
the angels were called upon to worship him ; but Eblis 
(Satan) refused to do so. Such are some of the myths of 
the creation of man. 

Any one desiring more of this curious lore will 
find it in Baring-Gould's Legends of Old Testament 
Characters. 

CRESCENS, a companion of Paul, sent to 
Galatia — poss. to Gaul in Europe (2 Tm. 4. 10 ). 
Tradition says he founded churches in Vienne and 
Mayence. 

CRETE is the large island now called Candia, 
lying to the S. of Greece. The climate is healthy ; 
the soil fruitful. Paul touched it on his voyage to 
Rm. Tt. I. 5 may imply an earlier visit. Recent 
excavations show that C. played a great part in pre- 
historic times. There are traces of Semitic settle- 
ments (see Caphtor, Cherethites). It was early 
colonised by the Dorians. The Cretans, or 
Cretians (AV.), of Tt. I. 12 , were the native inhabi- 
tants, whose evil repute is noted by other anct. 
writers besides Epimenides, whose line is quoted 
here. The Cretans of Ac. 2. 11 were Jews resident 
in the island. They were specially numerous in 
Gortyna (1 M. 15. 23 ). Cretan soldiers were famous 
as archers and slingers, and were found as merce- 
naries in many great armies. C. was joined with 
Cyrene in a single province by Augustus, b.c. 27. 

For recent discoveries, see Evans, Journal of 
Hellenic Studies, xix. 1894. ; Archaeological Report of 
the Egpn. Ex-plorn. Fund, 1 899-1900, pp. 6on\ 

CRIMES AND PENALTIES. (1) Crimes. C. 
is denned as " an iniquity to be punished by the 
judges " (Jb. 3 1. 11 ). It is a deed agst. either God 
or man wh. exposes one to legal penalties. Such 
were the following : — 

Adultery, unfaithfulness to marriage vows (Ex. 
20. 14 , &c), mt. be punished by death (Lv. 20. 10 ; 
Jn. 8. 5 ), mutilation (Ek. 23. 25 ), or, later, by divorce. 
It is used as a fig. of unfaithfulness to God (Jr. 3. 14 , 
&c). Blasphemy (Lv.24. 10ff ; Nu. 15. 30 ). Breach 
of Trust (Lv. 6. 2ff -). Bribery (Ex. 23.8, &c). 
Debt (Mw. 5. 26 ). Divination (Dt. 18. 10 ). Drun- 
kenness (Is. 28. lff -, &c). Failure or neglect to 
observe any Divine requirement. Falsehood or 
Deception, very common Oriental vices (Lv. 19. 11 ; 
Ps. 62. 4 ; 1 Jn. i. 6 , &c). False swearing (Ex. 
20. 16 ), esp. agst. the innocent (Ex. 23. 7 ; Pr. 6. 17 ). 
Fornication, including all unlawful commerce be- 
tween unmarried persons. Prostitution was pro- 
hibited (Lv. 19. 29 ; Dt. 23. 17 , &c). F. is a fig. of 
idolatry (Jr. 3. 8 , &c), and of the infamies of Bab. 
(Rv. 14. 8 , &c). This formed part of heathen 
religious ceremonies (Gn. 38. 21 , RVm. ; Ho. 4. 14 \ 



no 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cri 



Homicide, or accidental taking of human life (Ex. 
22. 2 ; Nu. 35. 22f 0- The owner was responsible for 
the deeds of his cattle (Ex. 21. 28 ). Incest, carnal 
intercourse between persons within the prohibited 
degrees of consanguinity (Lv. i8. 6ff -). Injuries to 
the person (Ex. 2i. 18ff - ; Lv. 24. 19ff -; Dt. 2S. llff -). 
Irreverence to, or ill-treatment of parents 
(Ex. 20. 12 , 21. 15 ' 17 ; Lv. 20. 9 ; Dt. 2i. 18ff -, &c). 
Man stealing (Dt. 24. 7 ). Murder, taking human 
life of set purpose, as the outcome of hatred (Dt. 
19. 11 , &c), whether by violence or treachery (2 S. 



22. 19 , &c). Usury mt. be taken fm. a foreigner, 
not fm. a br. Isr. (Ex. 22. 25 ; Dt. 23. 20 ). 

(2) Penalties. Under this head we must take 
act. of suffering inflicted by arbitrary power, as well 
as of pains inflicted by law on wrong-doers. Banish- 
ment : not prescribed by Mosaic law, but a common 
Rm. penalty (Rv. I. 9 ). Some offenders thought it 
wise to banish themselves (2 S. I3- 3T ; 1 K. n. 40 , 
&c). Beating (He. 1 1. 35 , RVm. ; cp. 2 M. 6. 19 , &c). 
Beheading : practised by foreign people, but not a 
Mosaic penalty. Prob. thus the chief baker died 




. (or nautical) MILE 



Chart of South Coast of Crete- 



4. 5ff - ; Jr. 41. 2 , &c). Life for life was the law (Nu. 
35. 16 * 21 , &c). If an animal known to be vicious 
killed a man, its owner was judged guilty (Ex. 2 1. 29 ). 
Rape (Dt. 22. 25 ). Removing Landmarks (Dt. 
19. 14 ). Reviling of Rulers, God's representatives 
(Ex.22. 28 ,&c). Robbery (Ex. 22. 2 ,&c). Sabbath- 
breaking. Seduction. One who enticed an un- 
betrothed maid was bound to marry her unless her 
fr. objected, and in any case to pay the usual dowry 
(Ex. 22. 16ff -). Dt. 22. 28 leaves no option. A bond- 
maid was scourged, and her betrayer fined, besides 
having to make a trespass offering (Lv. I9. 20ff -). 
Slander (Ex. 23. 1 ; Ps. 15. 3 ). Sodomy (Gn. 13. 13 ; 
Lv. 18. 22 ; Dt. 23. 17 , &c). Stealing (Ex. 22. 1 ) ; 
but the offence mt. be modified by necessity (Pr. 
6. 30 ). Uncleanness (Gn. 38. 9f - ; Lv. i5. lff -, 18. 19 , 
20. 18 ). Unnatural vice, a capital offence (Ex. 



(Gn. 40. 19 ), his body being afterwards hung up. 
Thus perished the Baptist (Mw. 14. 8 ), and the 
Apostle James (Ac. 12. 2 ; cp. Rv. 20. 4 ). In other 
cases the head may have been cut off after death 
(2 K. io. 6ff - ; 2 S. 20. 21ff -). Blinding : sanctioned in 
Isr. only in retaliation (Ex. 21. 24 ), but mucli prac- 
tised by foreign nations (Jg. 16. 21 ; 2 K. 25. 7 , &c). 
Branding : forbidden by Moses (Lv. 19. 28 ), but 
slaves seem to have been branded to prove ownership 
(Is. 44. 5 , RVm. ; Gal. 6. 17 ). Burning : the punish- 
ment suggd. for Tamar (Gn. 38. 24 ) ; prescribed 
for cert, forms of unchastity (Lv. 20. 14 ) ; practised 
by the Phil. (Jg. 14. 15 ). In Bab. the furnace 
was used for execution (Jr. 29. 22 ; Dn. 3 ; cp. Is. 
43. 2 ). Crucifixion: see Cross. Cutting asunder : 
the doom threatened to the astrologers, &c. (Dn. 
2. 5 , 3. 29 ; cp. Mw. 24. 51 , &c). Cutting off fm. the 



Hi 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cro 



people : this seems to indicate the death penalty, 
but not the mode of its infliction (Gn. 17. 14 , &c). 
It mt. poss. mean excommunication. Drowning 
is alluded to in Mw. 8. 6 , &c. ; cp. Ant. XIV. xv. 10. 
Exposure to Wild beasts : practised by many anct. 
peoples (Dn. 6. ; Mi. 4. 13 ), alluded to 1 Cor. 15. 32 , 
&c. Fines : imposed by judges for injuries not re- 
sulting in permanent disablement (Ex. 21. 22 ), and 
in certain cases of manslaughter, " for redemption 
of his life " (v. 30) ; but never for murder (Nu. 
35- 31f ")- If h^ ox killed a slave, a man was fined 30 
shekelsof silver (cp. Dt. 22. 19 « 29 ). Flaying: referred 
to Mi. 3. 2f - ; practised by the Asyrs. and Persians. 
Hanging : in our sense not an Isr. penalty, but 
Ahithophel and Judas thus committed suicide (2 S. 
17. 23 ; Mw. 27. 5 ). In Scrip. H. means impalement, 
the dead body being pierced and raised aloft on a 
pointed stake (1 S. 31. 10 ; 2 S. 4. 12 , 2i. 12f -). One 
thus exposed was reckoned accursed (Dt. 21. 23 ; 
cp. Gal. 3. 13 ). The " gallows " of Est. 2. 23 , &c, 
was prob. the stake. Imprisonment : a common 
practice. It mt. itself be the penalty, e.g. that of 
the Baptist (Mw. 4. 12 ), and Barabbas (Lk. 23. 19 ). 
The accused were thus held for trial (Gn. 3o,. 20f - ; 
Ac. 4. 3 , &c), and the condemned for execution (Ac. 
12. 4 ). It mt. be aggravated by toil (Jg. 16. 21 ), beat- 
ing (J r - 37- 15 )> torments (Mw. 18. 30 ' 34 ), reduction 
of food (1 K. 22. 27 ), stocks (Ac. 16. 24 ), and chains 
(Ps. 105 , 18 , &c). Jeremiah was imprisoned for his 
safety (37. 21 ). See Prison. Mutilation: sanc- 
tioned only in retaliation, but inflicted at times, 
e.g. on Adonibezek (Jg. i. 6f -). The revolting 
cruelties of Antiochus Epiphanes (2 M. 7. lff- ) ac- 
corded with Asyr. practice. The custom of cutting 
off the hands of thieves may be alluded to in Jesus' 
counsel of self-mutilation rather than evil-doing 
(Mw. 5 . 30 , &c.) . Plucking off the hair (Ne. 1 3 . 25 ; 
cp. Is. 50. 6 ) mt. cause great suffering (2 M. J. 1 ), and 
was always deep indignity. See Hair. Precipi- 
tation : inflicted on the Edomites (2 Ch. 25. 12 ; 
cp. 2 M. 6. 10 ) ; prob. meant by " dashing in pieces " 
(2 K. 8. 12 ; Ho. io. 14 ). The Nazarenes sought 
thus to kill Jesus (Lk. 4> 29 ) : see Stoning. Restitu- 
tion. The offender was bound to make good to 
the injured any loss resulting fm. his crime, with 
cert, additions as penalty. An ox stolen and killed 
or sold shd. be restored fivefold, a sheep fourfold : 
if found alive in the thief's possession, double. 
Loss of crop caused by a strayed animal, or by fire 
thro' negligence, shd. be made good. Aught held 
in trust lost by theft or negligence shd. be restored 
double (Ex. 22. 1£f -) ; and in the matter of a deposit, 
a fifth part was added (Lv. 6. 2ff -). If a Rm. jailer 
lost his prisoner, he was liable to the penalty for the 
crime of wh. the latter was accused (Ac. 12. 19 , 16. 27 ). 
Retaliation. The law, " eye for eye," &c. (Ex. 
2 1. 24 , &c), rests on the principle that injury is 
avenged by equal injury to the aggressor. But as 



the loss of a hand mt. be greater, e.g. to an engraver 
than to a singer, prob. it mt. be avoided by a money 
payment, regulated by the judges (Ex. 2 1. 22 ). The 
false accuser incurred the penalty of the crime he 
alleged (Dt. ic.. 16ff -). Sawing asunder (He. n. 37 ). 
David subjected the people of Rabbah to " saws," 
and other instruments of torture (2 S. I2. 31 ). Justin 
Martyr {Dialogue with Trypho) says that Isaiah died 
in this way. Scorpions, chastising with : prob. 
the use of whips into the lashes of wh. pointed 
pieces of metal had been twisted (1 K. 12. 11 ). 
Slavery. A bankrupt, and a thief who cd. not make 
restitution, mt., with w. and children, be sold 
as slaves (Ex. 22. 3 ; 2 K. 4. 1 , &c), but no Isr. mt. 
be held in permanent bondage (Lv. 25. 39fl -). See 
Slave. Slaying by spear, dart, or sword: a 
common form of execution (Ex. 19. 13 ; Nu. 25. 7f - ; 
1 K. 2. 25 ; He. 11. 37 , 12. 20 , &c). Stocks, suffered 
by Hanani (2 Ch. 16. 10 , RVm.) and Jeremiah (20. 2 ) : 
a wooden engine with five holes, in wh. were placed 
the neck, arms, and legs of the victim. One form 
received the feet only (Ac. 16. 24 ). Stoning: a 
death penalty incurred, e.g. by adultery (Lv. 20. 10 ; 
Dt. 22. 21 ' 24 ), blasphemy (Lv. 24. 10ff -), idolatry (Dt. 
13. 10 ). The culprit was precipitated fm. a height ; 
if this did not kill him, stones were cast at him. 
The witnesses cast the first stones (Dt. 17. 7 ). 
Strangling : not used by Jews till post-biblical 
times. Stripes, as a penalty, were limited to 40. 
Not the punishment, but the excess, was felt to 
be degrading (Dt. 25. 3 ). It was inflicted with a 
scourge of three thongs, 13 strokes of wh. made 39 
stripes, thus keeping safely within the prescribed 
limit (2 Cor. II. 24 ). It was incurred by a man and 
a bondmaid having illegal intercourse (Lv. 19. 20 ), a 
man slandering his w. (Dt. 22. 18 ), a debtor (Mw. 
18. 34 ), &c. The culprit, stretched on the ground, or 
bound to a pillar, received it on his naked back. 
Females sat in a stooping posture. See Scourging. 

The disgrace and ignominy of cert, penalties were 
deepened, e.g. by leaving the dead bodies exposed to the 
dogs and birds of prey (1 K. 14. n ; Ps. 79. 2 ), cutting off 
the head (1 S. 17. 57 , &c. ), burning (Jo. 7. 15 , &c), or hanging 
the body aloft (2 S. 4. 12 , &c). 

Many disasters befalling the people were regarded as 
penalties inflicted by God because of unfaithfulness: e.g. 
drought (Dt. 11. 17 ), famine (Lv. 26. 26 , &c), plague and 
pestilence (Ek. 6. 11 ), defeat and captivity. Any great 
national calamity was referred to the displeasure of God. 

See Nowack, HA. i. 3271!. ; Poucher, HDB. s.v. 

CRIMSON. See Colour. 

CRISPUS, the chief ruler of the synagogue in 
Corinth, converted and baptized by Paul (Ac. 18. 8 ; 
I Cor. i.M). 

CROSS, CRUCIFIXION. The C. as an instru- 
ment of execution is found among many anct. 
peoples. We have here to do with its use under the 
Rms. The name, stauros, may mean a stake, but it 
is also the equivalent of the Lat. crux. This con- 
sisted of an upright post, with a cross-beam at the 



112 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cup 



top ; or the top mt. project above the beam. The 
latter seems to have been the form of the C. of 
Jesus (Mw. 27. 37 , &c), the superscription being 
nailed over the crucified. It was customary to 
scourge the condemned man — itself a terrific pun- 
ishment — and to make him carry the cross-beam to 
the place of execution, where it was attached to the 
upright. The victim was stripped naked, set astride 
a piece of wood wh. projected fm. the stake — the 
sedile — his hands nailed to the cross-beam (some- 
times the feet also were nailed to the post), and 
there he was left to die ; the sedile supporting the 
weight, lest the hands shd. tear and the body fall 
forward. The feet were usly. almost touching the 
ground. Death came thro' excruciating agonies wh. 
mt. last for days. To the pain of inflamed wounds, 
and tortured limbs, in the fierce sun of Syria, there 
were added burning thirst and fever, often ending 
in wild delirium. The bodies of the crucified were 
commonly left to the dogs and vultures. Fm. the 
time of Augustus, however, the relatives of one con- 
demned in a civil court mt. have the body if they 
begged it. The clothes were the perquisite of the 
executioners. 

The ignominy of C. for the Jews was intensified by the 
fact that it was a foreign mode of execution, introduced by 
their conquerors, among whom no death was reckoned more 
shameful and degrading, it being at first employed only in the 
case of slaves. The extent to wh. C. was carried by Rm. 
authorities is appalling, wood for crosses and space to erect 
them alike failing under Titus (Ant. XVII. x. 10 ; XX. v. 
2 ; BJ. II. xii. 6 ; II. xiii. 2 ; V. xi. 1). 

The Jews did not practise C. , but it was ccmmon to hang 
up the dead bodies of criminals (Dt. 21. 22 ; 2 S. 4. 12 ), and 
bodies thus exposed were accursed. The crucified were 
reckoned under this curse, as in the striking passage of Paul 
(Gal. 3.12). 

The carrying of the cross-beam furnished the fig. used of 
those who face trouble and distress for Christ's sake — to take 
up their C. (Mw. 16. zi , &c). The C, as the instrument by 
wh. Christ died, became the symbol of the saving work com- 
pleted by His death (1 Cor. i.w ; Gal. 6.i2ff , &c). Thus 
the instrument of reproach and ignominy has been trans- 
figured, and charged with holy and blessed significance. 

CROWN, DIADEM. The C. (Heb. z'er) of 
Ex. 25., 30., 37. is a rim or moulding. It was prob. 
a decorative golden wreath. Nezer (lit. " consecra- 
tion ") is the ornament on the high-priest's mitre 
(Ex. 2o,. 6 ; Lv. 8. 9 ), as well as that worn by the 
monarch (2 S. I. 10 ; 2 K. II. 12 ). 'Jtdrdb, " a band 
round the head," is the C. of the k. of Rabbah (2 S. 
I2. 30 , &c), made of gold, and flashing with precious 
stones, wh. became the C. of David (cp. Est. 8. 15 ). 
It is frequently used figuratively of dignity, honour, 
and riches. Kether (Est. I. 11 , &c.) is the peak of the 
Persian turban ; the jewelled tiara. Diadem in 
OT. stands ior mitznepheth (Ek. 2 1. 26 , RV. "mitre"), 
tzanoph, or tzaniph (Is. 62. 3 ; Jb. 29. 14 , RVm. 
" turban "), and tziphirah (Is. 28. 5 ). A diadem is 
in its origin nothing more than a fillet to confine 
hair that is worn long (RS. 2 , 483). The Persian 
symbol of royalty was a broad fillet of silk, blue 
and white-, worn round the head, and tied behind 



(Xenophon, Cyr. viii. 3, 13). It mt. be studded 
with jewels. Adopted by Alexander the Gt. it 
became the symbol of royalty among the Greeks. 

In the NT. diadema is the emblem of sovereign 
power (Rv. 12. 3 , 13. 1 , 19. 12 ). Stephanos, the wreath 
or chaplet won in the games (1 Cor. 9- 25 ), and the 
reward of fidelity (2 Tm. 4. 8 ; Rv. 2. 10 , &c), is the 
emblem of victory or achievement. It was the 
" crown " of thorns placed in cruel mockery upon 
the head of Christ (Mw. 27. 29 , &c). 




Diadem 

CRYSTAL (Heb. zekuBth, qerah), the first sup- 
posed by Tristam (SDB.) to be " Glass " and the 
second " rock-crystal." There are no data on wh. 
to decide. 

CUB, AV. CHUB. The Heb. hub is prob. a 
scribal error for lub, " Lybia " (Ek. 30. 5 ) : so LXX. 

CUBIT. See Weights and Measures. 

CUCKOW (Heb. shahaph, Lv. n. 16 ; Dt. 14. 15 , 
RV. " sea-mew "), an unclean bird wh. cannot be 
cert, identd. ; supposed to be the petrel (Tris- 
tram, SDB.). 

CUCUMBER. The word qishshiTim is found 
only in Nu. II. 5 . It prob. corrsps. to Arb. gitbthd, 
a C. long and thin, with hairy, green rind, largely 
grown in the E. Another kind, the Arb. khiydr, is 
more appreciated for its succulence and flavour. 
But for its cultivation water is necessary, while the 
gitbthd can almost bid drought defiance. Miqshdh 
(Is. I. 8 ) is " the place of Cs." The " lodge " is the 
frail shelter of wattled branches in wh. the watcher 
sits to guard the crop. 

CUMMIN (Heb. kammon, Arb. kammun) is an 
umbelliferous plant, prob. indigenous to Pal., bear- 
ing small delicate seeds, wh. wd. be crushed by 
threshing in the ordinary way ; the rod is still used 
to beat them out (Is. 28. 25, 27 ). It is a common con- 
diment, and has also cert, medicinal uses. It was 
one of the plants subj. to tithe (Mw. 23 # 23 ). 

CUP (Heb. kos, Arb. kds) is the name of various 
forms of drinking vessels. Gabl'a (Gn. 44. 2 ) is 
Joseph's silver divining C, prob. larger than the kos. 
The word is trd. " bowl " in Ex. 25. 31 , &c. Qesd- 



"3 



Cup 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cyp 




Cup (Assyrian) 



voth (i Ch. 28. 17 ). In Nu. 4- 7 , AV. trs. " covers," 
RV. " cups " ; in Ex. i$&, 37. 16 , AV. trs. " covers," 
RV. "flagons." 'Aggdn 
(Is. 22. 24 ). In Ex. 24. 26 , 
EV. tr. " bason," and in 
SS. 7- 2 "goblet." The 
NT. poterion corrsps. to 
Heb. kos. 

In Scripl. metaphor, C. stands for the experience of life 
wh. a man receives fm. God (Ps. n. 6 , &c. ; cp. Mw. 20. 22 , 
&c). As one drinks what is handed to him by the C- 
bearer, so one takes what is given by God. 

CUP-BEARER. The "butler," mashqeh (Gn. 
40. 5 ), is lit. "C. -bearer" (1 K. io. 5 ; 2 Ch. 9.*; 
Ne. I. 11 ). The duty of this official was to protect 
the k. agst. poison. His position was often one of 
intimate confidence. Frequently C.-bs. were 
eunuchs {Ant. XVI. viii. i). 

CURSE. The ideas connected with a C. are 
gen. the same everywhere. Here we need only 
note a point connected with the use of the word 
herein, wh. AV. trs. now " a devoted thing " (Lv. 
27. 28 , &c), and again " a cursed thing " (Dt. 7. 26 , 
&c.) : RV. uniformly " a devoted thing." The 
root idea is that of separation. Whatever is herein 
is removed irrevocably fm. all ordinary uses ; and 
this either (a) that it may be devoted absolutely to 
God, for the purposes of the sanctuary, and to 
supply the wants of the priests (Lv. 2J 28L ) y or 
(b) that it may be utterly destroyed (1 K. 20. 42 , &c). 
The latter sense is the more usual. To curse is to 
devote to irremediable ruin. The fear of a C. is 
still strong in the Oriental heart. It will blanch the 
cheek of even the intelligent and educated man, 
who is emancipated fm. most superstitions. Among 
the Moslems, to " curse the prophet " is a capital 
offence. 

CURTAIN (Heb. yerfoth). Tents in the E. are 
usly. made of lengths of goat's-hair cloth sewn to- 
gether. The various lengths of such that went to 
the formation of the Tabernacle are called Cs. 
The " hanging " in front of the Holy Place (mdfdk) 
is once called C. (Nu. 3- 26 ). See Hanging. 

CUSH. (1) The first named of the sons of Ham 
(Gn. io. 6 ). 

Though it does not appear in AV., in RV. as in Heb. and 
AVm., in Gn. 2. 13 we have C. instead of Ethiopia; in every 
case where Ethiopia in OT. occurs, the Heb. has C. 

(2) The general reference of C. (and Ethiopia) is 
to a powerful kdm. established S. of Egp. identd. 
with mod. Nubia and Abyssinia. In hieroglyphic 
the name appears as Kesh. Tirhakah (Is. 37- 9 ), k. 
of C. (Ethiopia), threatened Sennacherib ; several 
dynasties fm. Ethiopia secured the supremacy in 
Egp- (3) In the title to Ps. 7. there is mention of 
C, a Benjamite ; nothing is known of him — it may 
have been a nickname. In 2 S. 18. 21 , a runner is 
mentioned called Cushi, " Ethiopian " ; not impos- 
sibly he may have been a Nubian brought fm. Egp. 



as a slave ; there are many in Pal. at the present 
time. (4) As C. was the fr. of Nimrod, and, as 
mentioned above, the second river of Paradise 
" compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia " (Gn. 
2. 13 ), it wd. seem that there was a C. in southern 
Bab. It is prob. that the Kashshu, " the Cossaeans," 
are intended. Cushan, in Hb. 3. 7 , is regarded 
as a lengthened form of C. : fm. the mention of 
Midian in the parallel clause it has been argued 
that this was an Arabian C. 

CUSHAN-RISHATHAIM, a k. of Mesopo- 
tamia who oppressed Isr. (Jg. 3« 8 ) ; not yet identd. 

CUSTOM (Mw. 17. 25 , RV. " toll " : Rm. 13. 7 ), 
an ad valorem tax upon goods, collected by the 
Publicans. In Galilee and Peraea it went to the 
tetrarchs, in Judea to the Rms. 

CUTH, CUTHAH. One of the cities whence 
colonists were brought to N. Isr., hence the inhabi- 
tants of Samaria are called by the Tim. Cuthseans. 
C. is identd. with Tell Ibrahim (Kuti of the inscrs.), 
to the NE. of Bab. ; remains of a temple to Nergal 
have been found there. 

CUTTINGS IN THE FLESH (Lv. 19. 28 , 21. 5 ■ 
Dt. 14. 1 ). The phrase " for the dead " connects 
the custom prohibited with the practice of self- 
mutilation in mourning for the dead, common 
among many diverse and widely scattered peoples. 
Association with heathen rites wd. lead to its being 
forbidden, but in spite of the prohibition there are 
indications of its survival to a late time (Jr. 16. 6 ; 
cp. Ho. G;. 4 ). The original meaning seems to per- 
sist among cert, rude peoples where the blood is 
applied to the dead body, fm. wh. in turn a piece is 
taken and kept, or even eaten. The obj. clearly is 
" to make an enduring covenant with the dead " 
(RS. 2 323). Such a custom was intolerable among 
those who were " a people holy unto the Lord " 
(Dt. 14. 2 ). In this light it appears in the nar. of the 
dramatic scene on Carmel (1 K. 18. 28 ). 

Marks printed on the body were also forbidden 
(Lv. 19. 28 ), apparently because of their heathen 
associations. In origin, Robertson Smith thinks 
(RS. 2, 334, n.) they may be nothing more than the 
permanent scars of punctures made to draw blood 
for a ceremony of self-dedication to the deity. It is 
evidently the tattoo marks developed fm. this that 
are prohibited, the mark being the sign that the 
worshipper belonged to the god. The practice is 
alluded to in Is. 44. 5 (RVm.), and Gal. 6. 17 . See for 
discussion and Lit., Robertson Smith, Kinship and 
Marriage in Early Arabia, 1 2i2rT. 

CYMBAL. See Music. 

CYPRESS, Heb. tirzdh (Is. 44. 14 ). It is imposs. 
to say what tree is intended. It mt. be the beech, 
the holm-oak, or the juniper. It is safest, with Dr. 
Post, to trlt. and call it the " tirzah." 

CYPRUS, an island in the Levant, c. 60 miles off 
the Syr. coast, and 40 miles S. of Cilicia. It is 120 



114 



Cyr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cyr 



miles in length, and its greatest breadth is 60 miles. 
Two mountain ranges run parallel fm. E. to W., 
forming the N. and S. boundaries of a spacious and 
fertile plain. The highest peak of the S . range is Mt. 
Troodos, 6406 ft. The forests for wh. C. was noted 
in anct. times have largely disappeared, and the rain- 
fall is far short of requirements. Recently, under 
British influence, trees have been protected, and ex- 
tensive irrigation works have been carried out. The 
olive, vine, and palm grow luxuriantly. Grain, 
fruit, silk, and leather are among its exports. 
The obj. of a long dispute between the Persians 



the Gt. it was under the Ptolemies. Falling into the 
hands of the Rms. b.c 96, it became a province 
B.C. 75, and was joined to Crete b.c 6j. There 
were many Jews in C. Ptolemy I. introduced great 
numbers, believing that their presence made for 
general prosperity (Ant. XIV. vii. 2). Of this city 
was Simon (Mw. 2j. 32 ). Jews fm. C. were in Jrs. at 
Pentecost, and had share in a synagogue (Ac. 2. 10 , 
6. 9 ). Preachers fm. C. laboured in Antioch, of 
whom was Lucius (Ac. II. 20 , 13. 1 ), afterwards, 
accdg. to tradition, first bishop of C. 
CYRENIUS. See Quirinius. 




and the Greeks, at the death of Alexander the Gt. 
it passed with Egp. to Ptolemy, b.c 306 ; falling to 
Rm. b.c 57. After the battle of Actium it became 
an imperial province : but in b.c 22 Augustus re- 
stored it to the Senate, and the governor (Ac. 13. 7 ; 
cp. 18. 12 , 19. 38 ) is rightly called anthupatos, "pro- 
consul." 

Christianity was introduced by fugitives fm. the 
persecution in Jrs. (Ac. II. 19 ). It was the birth- 
place of Barnabas and Mnason. Paul visited the 
island in company with Barnabas and John Mark 
(Ac. i3- 4f -), and the latter two afterwards returned 
to C. (15. 39 ) 

C. was known in OT. as Chittim. 

CYRENE, a Gr. colony founded b.c 624, the 
chief city of Cyrenaica (mod. Barca), the fruitful 
district on the shore W. of Egp. After Alexander 



CYRUS (Heb. Koresh, Persian Kurush, Bab. 
Kuras y Susian Kuras). A popular etymology, 
quoted by Plutarch fm. Ctesias, derived the name 
fm. a Persian word signifying " the sun " (mod. 
Pers. Khor). This, however, is philologically im- 
poss., and the name was prob. of Elamite origin, like 
that of the river Cyrus. Accdg. to Strabo (xv. p. 
729) the original name was Agradates. Various 
legends grew up about the childhood of Cyrus and 
his conquest of Media, some of wh. are reported by 
the Gr. writers. Herodotus made him the grand- 
son of Astyages of Media, whose dr., Mandane, was 
married to a Persian noble, and who, in consequence 
of a dream, ordered Harpagus to put him to death. 
Harpagus, however, gave the child to a herdsman 
who adopted him. In time the royal origin of 
Cyrus was discovered, and he was acknowledged by 

15 



Dab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dam 



his grandfr., who punished Harpagus by serving up 
his own s. to him at a banquet. In revenge Har- 
pagus urged Cyrus to rebel agst. the Medes, and in a 
critical battle went over to the Persians, who cap- 
tured Astyages and put an end to his kdm. 

Accdg. to Ctesias, Cyrus was a Mardian bandit, 
not related to Astyages, who, after the overthrow of 
the Medes, treated Astyages like a f r. and married his 
dr. Amytis. Xenophon invented a s. and successor 
of Astyages, called Cyaxares, whom he made the 
uncle of Cyrus, the Persian k. having been brought 
up at the Median court, and afterwards conquer- 
ing the Armenians and Chaldaeans as general of 
Cyaxares, who left his kdm. to him. 

The cuneiform inscr. of Nabonidos, the last Bab. 
k., and of Cyrus himself, have given us the true hist. 
of events. Cyrus calls himself k. of Ansan or Anzan, 
in Elam, and great-grandson of the Achaemenid 
Persian, Teispes, who was also the ancestor of 
Darius. 

In b.c. 549 Astyages attacked Cyrus, who was 
already k. of Ansan, but his army revolted agst. him 
and handed him over to his enemy. Cyrus there- 
upon marched to Ecbatana, the Median capital, 
took possession of the treasures of Astyages, and be- 
came head of the Median empire. Three yrs. later 
he assumed the title of k. of Persia, and the over- 
throw of Crcesus of Lydia soon afterwards placed 
Asia Minor and the Gr. cities on its coast in his 
hands. In b.c 538 he was ready to invade Bab, 
A battle fought near Opis in Tammuz or June, 
decided the fate of the Babn. army, wh. was com- 
manded by Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidos. Sip- 
para surrendered on the 14th of the month, and two 
days later Gobryas, governor of Kurdistan, entered 
Bab. with a portion of the invading forces " without 
fighting or battle." Nabonidos was captured and 



imprisoned there. On the 3rd of Marchesvan or 
October, Cyrus himself came to Bab. and proclaimed 
a gen. amnesty. Eight days later " the son " of 
Nabonidos died, and there was mourning for him 
throughout the country, after wh. Cambyses, the 
s. of Cyrus, offered gifts and made sacrifices to 
Merodach on his fr.'s account. The Gr. stories of 
the dissipation of the waters of the river Gyndes and 
of the long siege of Bab. were all fictions. Cyrus 
had been assisted in his campaign by a disaffected 
party in Bab. itself ; after his conquest, therefore, 
he posed as the faithful worshipper and agent of 
Bel-Merodach, who had employed him to punish 
the godless Nabonidos. Nabonidos had been a 
usurper, and had created discontent by attempt- 
ing to centralise Babylonian worship in Bab. ; the 
Babylonian priests, accdly., professed to see in Cyrus 
the rightful successor of the anct. ks. In further- 
ance of his policy of conciliation he now allowed the 
exiled populations in Babylonia to return to their 
homes with the images of their gods. The Jews, 
who had no images, took with them their sacred 
vessels (Ez. I. 7 ). 

The conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus was followed 
by the extension of his empire to the E. In the last 
yr. of his reign Cambyses was associated with him on 
the throne. Accdg. to Herodotus he met his death 
in battle with Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, 
beyond the Araxes (b.c 529) ; accdg. to Ctesias it 
was in war with the Derbices. The inscrs. show 
him to have been a ruler of great military genius, 
tactful and conciliatory in policy, and a polytheist 
rather than a Zoroastrian in religion. 

Lit. : Records of the Past, new series, pp. 143-75, 
Bagster, 1 89 1 ; Floigl, Cyrus und Herodot, 1 881 ; 
Prasek, Medien und das Haus des Ky ax ares, Berlin, 
1890. A. H, Sayce. 



D 



DABBASHETH, RV. DABBESHETH (Jo. 
19. 11 ), prob. the mod. Dabsheh, a ruin E. of Acre. 

DABERATH, on the boundary of Issachar and 
Zebulun (Jo. 19. 12 ), given by Issachar to the Ger- 
shonites (Jo. 21. 28 ; 1 Ch. 6. 72 ), prob. = Deburiyeh, a 
small village with ruins at the N.W. foot of Tabor 
(cp. Jos. Fit. 62 ; BJ. II. xxi. 3). 

DAGGER. See Weapons. 

DAGON, a Phil, deity, formerly taken to be the 
" fish-god." Prof. Sayce (SDB.) has shown, by the 
offerings sent to ]" '. (1 S. 6. 5 ), that he was an agri- 
cultural deity, and connects the name, not with dag, 
" a fish," but with dagan, " corn." Prof. Beecher 
concurs (HDB.). Konig (Jzv. En.) and Seigfried 
(KB.) think D.=Ea (also Odakon), the Asyr. god 
of the waters. Final decision must await further 
discoveries. 



Wellhausen (Text d. Buck. Sam. p. 50), thinks } at the 
end of Dagon in the last clause of 1 S. 5. 4 is due to the J 
beginning the next word; so the clause shd. read " only 
his fish was left to him." This ingenious suggestion is 
without support fm. the VV. : all imply a word dropped 
out. 

DALE, THE KING'S, where the k. of Sodom 
met Abraham (Gn. 14. 17 ), and Absalom erected his 
pillar (2 S. 18. 18 ), two furlongs fm, Jrs. (Ant. VII. 
x. 3), prob. in the valley near En-Rogel. 

DALMANUTHA. See Magdala. 

DALMATIA, whither Titus went (2 Tm. 4. 10 ), 
on the E. shore of the Adriatic ; originally the name 
of the S. part, but later applied to the whole pro- 
vince of Illyricum. 

DAMARIS, a female convert of Paul in Athens 
(Ac. 17. 34 ), whom Chrysostom conjectured to be 
the wife of Dionysius. 



Il6 



Dam 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dam 



DAMASCUS (Gn. 14. 15 , &c). The mod. city she fell at times into the hands of the Ptolemies, 

stands in a position of great charm and beauty, Aretas, k. of Arabia, in B.C. 85, with the good-will of 

under the shadow of Anti-Lebanon, on the N. edge the people, entered the city and assumed control 

of the rich and fertile plain wh. is watered by the {Ant. XIII. xv. 2). In b.c. 65 it was taken by 

river Barada, " the cool," the anct. Abana. The Metellus, and passed under the power of Rm. At 




Damascus : from Tower of Great Mosque 

city is girt around by the embowering greenery the time of Saul's conversion (Ac. 9. 2fl *), the city 
of her famous orchards, and by her marvellously was governed by a representative of Aretas, the 
fruitful gardens, through wh. the sweet waters of Nabataean k., to whom Caligula seems to have 
the Abana are carried in multitudinous channels, granted it (2 Cor. n. 32 ). There must have been 
The plain, dotted with groves of olive and fruit a large Jewish colony, as no fewer than 10,000 
trees, supports a peasant population of about 50,000. perished in one popular uprising {BJ. II. xx. 2). 
The inhabitants of D. number at least 150,000. A Pliny reckons D. to the Decapolis (NH. v. 6). A 
railway now climbs Mt. Lebanon, and, descending long hist, of strange vicissitudes leaves D. still the 
into the Beqa c , runs down with the river to D. The 
line is continued to the S., along the great pilgrim- 
age route, and is designed in the end to reach Mecca. 
A branch, crossing the Jordan below the Sea of 
Galilee, and ascending the Vale of Jezreel past 
Bethshan, connects D. with Haifa, at the base of 
Carmel. The old-world city is now lit by elec- 
tricity, and the whizz of the electric car is heard 
in her streets. 

The city is named in the Egpn. hists. of Thothmes 
III., b.c 1 501-1447 {timasqu), and in those of 
Ramses II., b.c 1292-1225 (tirumasqi). To possess 
such a position wd. be an obj. of ambition between 
the Egpns. and Hittites in these far-off times. 
Accdg. to Moslem tradition, Eliezer founded the 
city, and Abraham reigned there for a time {cp. 
Ant. I. vii. 2). By the beginning of the 1 2th cent, 
the Syrs. were in possession. Their defeat by 
David is recorded in 2 S. 8. In his time Rezon, s. 
of Eliada, laid the foundations of the Syr. empire, 
wh. was destined to make much trouble for Isr., 
until its overthrow by Asyr., b.c 732. Their re- 
lations, however, were often friendly ; commercial 
exchanges promoted their mutual interests (i K. 
I9. 15ff -, 20. 34 ; 2 K. 5., 8. 7fL ). Ahaz found here the 
altar on wh. he remodelled that at Jrs. (2 K. l6. 10ff -) . 
With its conquest by Tiglath-pileser III., b.c 732, 
the importance of D. waned {cp. Is. 8. 4 , 17. 1 , &c). 
In the Gr. period her rank of first city in Syr. was 
surrendered to the newly-built Antioch on the 
Orontes. During the troubled yrs. that followed, 




Ancient Wall of Damascus 
down IN 



Paul was let 



than 



chief city in Syr., possessing, perhaps, more 
any other, the mysterious spell of the Orient. 

The great temple (2 K. 5. 18 ) was changed by Theo- 
dosius into a Christian church. Subsequently it became a 
Moslem mosque, where, accdg. to Moslem tradition, the 
head of John the Baptist, accdg. to Christian tradn. the 
body of John Damascenus, lies buried. Over the S. gate- 
way stands in Gr. the text "Thy kdm., Q Christ, is an 



117 



Dan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dan 



everlasting Kdm., and Thy dominion endureth for all 
generations." The "Street called Straight " is the mod. 
Derb el-mustaqim, running due E. and W. The alleged 
houses of Ananias and of Judas, the spot where Paul escaped 
fm. the city, -and the site of the house of Naaman, are all 
shown with a confidence wh. there is not much to justify. 




concern the southern territory-. The settlement in 
the N. grew in importance, and was regarded, along 
with Abel, as a strong conservator of true Israelite 
customs (2 S. 20. 18 LXX). In Gn. 49. 16 and Dt. 
33. 22 , D. is described as something of a freebooter, 
who joins cunning to his dashing bravery. Maha- 
neh-dan, " the camp of Dan," is placed behind 
Kirjath-jearim in Jg. 18. 12 , between Zorah and 
Eshtaol in 13. 25 . For the numbers assigned to D. 
see Numbers. 

DAN, the anct. Laish (Leshem, Jo. 19. 47 ), ap- 
parently an outlying settlement of Tyre, captured 
by Dan (Jg. 18.), is possibly Dan-jaan of 2 S. 24A 
It lay " near Mt. Lebanon and the fountains of the 
lesser Jordan " {Ant. V. iii. I, VIII. viii. 4). OEJ. 
places it 4 Rm. miles fm. Paneas, on the way to 
Tyre. This clearly points to Tell el Qady — Qady 
being the Arb. equivalent of Heb. Dan — a mound in 
the plain W. of Banias, with ruins on the S. side. 
Two springs rise at its base, that on the W. being 

Moslem Pilgrimage (el Hajj) setting out from Damascus the largest Source of the Jordan. The tWO unite 

their waters in Nahr el Leddan, wh., 5 miles lower, 
Outside the E. gate is the tomb of St. George, the porter ••^. 1 _ x tt i • i_ j -n • r 

who paid with his life for the assistance rendered to Paul. J oms the streams fm. Hasbeiyeh and Banias, to form 
The great highways " between N. and S., E. and W., the Jordan. The mound is the crater of an extinct 
along wh. flowed the commerce and marched the armies of vo l cano an d r ises some 80 ft. fm. the midst of a 
the anct. world, lav through the heart of the city. Resting ... ' . . _, . . £ , ,. , , ., , 

in the midst of a beautiful oasis, en the edge of the change- thicket of bushes. lne worship ot Micari s idol 
less desert, surrounded by desert hills, she formed the 
natural harbour, whither steered the argosies fm. the sea of 
sand, bearing the treasures of the E. ; whence again the 
sombre mariners set forth on their dreary vcyage homeward. 
Herein we have the secret cf her perennial greatness. A 
strong position she never was, and often has she bent be- 
neath the stroke of the conqueror, becoming ' a servant to 
task work.' But ever as the tides of war rolled back, she 
has arisen again, fresh and vigorous as of yore. She has 
been the meeting-place and mart of the nations, and as she 
has been of use to all, alike to the desert nomad and to the 
more settled peoples, so the necessities of all have conspired 
to perpetuate her prosperity." See Hastings, DB. s.v. 

DAN and Naphtali were sons of Bilhah, Rachel's 
maid (Gn. 30. 6 ). They come next in order after 
the first four sons of Leah. " Dan " may be con- 
tracted fm. some Divine name such as x4bidan (Nu. 
I. 11 ). Nothing is recorded of his personal hist., 
and the tribe seems to have played quite a subordi- 
nate part. Only one clan is named, that of Hushim 
(Gn. 46. 23 ), or Shuham (Nu. 26. 42 ). We cannot fix 
the boundaries of the portion of D. (Jo. 19.). It lay 
S.W. of Ephraim, with Benjamin on the E., and 
Judah on the S.E. and S. It included the low hills 
and the plain, apparently reaching to Jaffa (Jo. 19. 46 ). 
Cert, cities given to D. in Jo. 19. are in Jo. 15. given 
to Judah. " The Amorites forced the children of 
D. into the mountain " (Jg. I. 34 ), but in 5. 16 they 
still appear on the coast. The district proved too 

small for them. An expedition of 600 men set out 

r l XT ._ 1 • vi .1 .i -j 1 j • . r Fountain of the Jordan at Tell el Qady, Dan 

for the N., taking with them the idol and priest 01 

Micah the Ephraimite, captured the town of Laish was here maintained " all the time that the house of 

" in the valley that lieth by Beth Rehob," and God was in Shiloh " (Jg. 18. 31 ). When Jeroboam 

settled there (Jg. 1 8.). Samson was the one great set up the golden calf, the descendants of Micah's 

man produced by D., and the stories of his exploits priest seem to have secured the priesthood (Jg. 

118 




Dan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dan 



i8. 30f - ; I K. I2. 29 - 30 ), wh. they held till the invasion 
of Tiglath-pileser (2 K. 15. 29 ). D. was taken by 
Benhadad (1 K. 15. 20 ), restored to Ahab (20. 34 ), and 
was doubtless included in the kdm. of Jeroboam II. 

D. marked the N. boundary of Isr. (Jg. 20. 1 , &c.), 
and of Gilead (Dt. 34. 1 ). Hither Abraham pursued 
the army of Chedorlaomer. 

DANCE. Among the anct. Isrs. occasions of joy 
were celebrated with song and D., esp. by the 
women, e.g. the great deliverance at the Red Sea 
(Ex. 15. 20 ), the warriors' home-coming (Jg. II. 34 ; 
I S. 18. 6 ), harvest and vintage (Jg. 21. 21 ). The D. 
had also its place in worship (Ps. 149. 3 , 150. 4 , &c). 
In these cases the word used is mahol, wh. signifies 
the rhythmic movement of a company, keeping time 



hostages in the Bab. court. Their names being 
changed, D. was called Belshazzar, modified by the 
Massoretes into Belteshazzar. As they were prob. 
c. 18 yrs. old, the close of their novitiate of 3 yrs. 
finds them in early manhood. Nebuchadnezzar, in 
his 2nd or 3rd yr., has a dream, and requires his 
astrologers to reveal at once the dream and its inter- 
pretation. This he believes they can do, and, attri- 
buting their failure to treason, orders the execution 
of them all. Even students of astrology like D. and 
his friends are involved. In answer to prayer, the 
dream and its interpretation are revealed to D., so 
that he alone passes the k.'s test, and receives high 
honour, his friends also being promoted to positions 
of trust. D. likewise interprets a second dream of 





Ancient Egyptians Dancing 



to the beat of tambourines. Men also danced, as 
David before the ark (2 S. 6. 14 ), but fm. his wife's 
taunt, we may infer that this was common only 
among the humbler classes (6. 20 ). In such religious 
processions, men and women seem to have marched 
together (Ps. 68. 25 ). In their excitement they 
leaped, pazaz (2 S. 6. 16 ), skipped, ragad(l Ch. 15. 29 ), 
and wheeled round, karar (2 S. 6. 14 ). The single 
dancer does not appear in OT., nor men and women 
dancing in couples. Gr. influence is seen in such a 
performance as that of the dr. of Herodias (Mw. 
14. 6 , &c). This form of entertainment still per- 
sists in the E. ; its attraction consists, unhappily, 
in its immodesty. 

DANIEL ("God is my judge," or "Divine 
judge "). (1) Second s. of David (i Ch. 3. 1 ), born 
in Hebron (see Chileab). (2) A priest of the time 
of Ezra (8. 2 ; Ne. io. 6 ). (3) The fourth of the 
" Greater Prophets." At Nebuchadnezzar's desire, 
Ashpenaz (Abiesdri LXX), " the master of the 
eunuchs," chose D., prob. of the " seed royal," with 
Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, to be reared as 



the k. (see following art.). Under Nabunahid D. is 
no longer at the head of the astrologers. He has to 
be specially summoned to Belshazzar's feast. He 
interprets the mysterious inscr. and is raised to the 
third place in the kdm. Darius (Gobryas) the 
Mede makes him one of the three Presidents. The 
envy of his associates in the government leads to his 
being thrown to the lions, fm. whom, to the joy of 
Darius and the discomfiture of his foes, he is de- 
livered. His visions are considered in the next art. 
When Cyrus issued his decree D. was over 80, too 
old to go with the first contingent of returning 
exiles. Mohammedan tradition makes him gover- 
nor of Syria. 

DANIEL, THE BOOK OF, is the earliest 
Apocalypse. The authenticity of no bk. in OT. 
has been more persistently assailed. 

Text.— The MT. in our Heb. Bibles differs 
markedly fm. that behind the LXX (Chigi), and 
considerably also fm. that implied in Thd., Psh., 
and Vlg. As D. was not a bk. regularly read in the 
synagogue, its text was not guarded by uniformly 

19 



Dan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dan 



diffused kge., as was that of the Torah, fm. mistakes 
of scribes. Moreover, Apes, were esp. liable to in- 
terpolation. There are traces of modification to 
adapt the text to its readers, esp. in the Aram., 
wh., originally Eastern, was changed into Western : 
a few Eastern forms survive, showing what the 
original was. The same process is seen in the Heb., 
e.g. in I. 12 we have the consonantally common form 
zero'im, " pulse " : in v. 1 6 it is replaced by the late 
form zer'o?iim, a word already familiar to the scribe. 
In a frequently copied writing the presence of 
antique words proves its antiquity, while the pre- 
sence of recent words proves only carelessness in the 
"scribe. There was no motive to cultivate an an- 
tique style ; men had not yet thought of the 
chronology of style ; the writer of Ec, although he 
wished men to think Solomon the author, did not 
feel bound to avoid the short rel., or to make gen. 
use of the vav conversive. 

Language. — D. shares with Ez., and to a small 
extent Jr., the peculiarity of being written in two 
langs., Heb. and Aram. : chaps. 2. 4 ~7., about -J of 
the whole is Aram., the rest is Heb. In the few 
cases of works published in two langs., the reason for 
introducing a second is usually quite obvious. In 
histl. works, documents are sometimes quoted in 
their original form ; so also authorities for state- 
ments in scientific or philosophical writings. But 
in D. we have not to do with quotations ; another 
explanation must be found. Keil and others think 
that in the Aram, portion we have the development 
of the world-power over agst. the kdm. of God, and 
in the Heb. that of the kdm. of God over agst. the 
world-power. Merx's theory is that in the Aram. 
the unlearned Jews were addressed ; in the Heb. 
the learned. Eichhorn thinks the diflc. of lang. 
implies a diffc. of author. All these assume that 
D. is not one bk. Lenormant's view, very genly. 
adopted, is that the Heb. part of D., lost during the 
Antiochian persecutions, was supplied fm. a Tg. wh. 
survived. It is difficult, on this theory, to under- 
stand why there is no trace of any Tg. of the rest of 
D. If, as we think, D. was originally issued in 
separate tracts, it may well be imposs. now to assign 
the reasons why an author, to whom Aram, and Heb. 
were equally familiar, chose Aram, for one tract 
and Heb. for another. 

The Aram, of D. as represented by MT. is Chaldee, i.e. 
Western. Aram. There are many evidences that it was 

originally Eastern : e.g. the Mandsean use of ^ p reformative 
instead of > in the impf. of the substv. verb, and the use of 
3 compensative for dagesh forte : Eastern grammatical forms in 
the K'thib, cccidentalised in the Qri : words found in Eastern 
Aram. wh. not even the influence of D. has been able to 
bring into Western use. Cert, confusions in the text and mis- 
takes in trn. imply Eastern peculiarities in the exemplar before 
the copyist or translator. In many points, the Aram, of D. 
resembles grammatically that of the Sinjirli inscrs. : e.g. 
Haphel instead of Aphel ; the use of T\\ (TV), the sign of the 

ace, only to support the oblique case of a pronoun ; the 1 
performative in the impf. ; besides a gen. lexical similarity. 

I 



The main points of diffc. are the use in D. of dt instead of zi 
for the rel., and 'ar'a for 'arqa' , " earth," "land." These 
represent scribal changes, to harmonise the written with the 
spoken lang. ; just as in Pal. Arabic q becomes even further 
attenuated into hamza, and dh becomes z. The Heb. cf D. 
resembles that of Ez., Ne., and Ch. among the histl. bks., 
and of Ek. and Zc. among the Prophets. It contrasts with 
the Heb. of Ec, wh. uses the short rel., and sparingly the 
vav conversive. Aram, words in the Heb. part do not 
prove lateness in the work of one whose conversation and 
correspondence wd. be mainly Aram. 

Structure and Contents.— D. consists of two 
nearly equal portions : the first deals with incidents, 
the second with visions. It is a further peculiarity 
that while most of the incidents are narrated in 
Aram, and most of the visions in Heb., the intro- 
duction to the incidents is in Heb., and the first 
vision is in Aram. Moreover, each incident and 
each vision is marked off by a distinct, genly. dated, 
beginning and ending ; all suggesting that each was 
published as a separate tract. This view is con- 
firmed by the two recensions we possess of D., wh. 
treat the nars., esp. of the incidents, individually. 
Neither recension shows one chartc. throughout. 
In relating one incident, the Egpn., as seen in LXX, 
is pleonastic, the Palestinian condensed ; in relating 
another this is reversed. The tractates had evi- 
dently been current separately, one set in Egp., 
another in Pal. The two series, of incidents and of 
visions, are arranged chronologically. Prob. while 
the several tracts were still circulating, a collection 
of them was made, wh. forms our bk. of D. ; but 
meanwhile copyists were modifying individual ele- 
ments, and these changes were introduced, one set 
into the Egyptian, the other into the Palestinian 
recension. In the 1st chap, there are indications 
of trn. fm. Aram. 

On the above hypothesis D. is not an artistic 
unity. The contents of the separate tracts, pub- 
lished, prob. on clay tablets (in Heb. and Aram., 




Nebuchadnezzar 
From A. Jeremias' Das A.T. im Lichte des Alien Orients - 

not Asyr.), like those on wh. the Creation Epic 
was stamped, are not related to each other. First, 
certain hostages (among whom is Daniel), are 
selected to be educated in the Bab. court, acedg. to 
the practice of the ks. of Nineveh. The next sec- 
tion tells of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the failure of 
the astrologers, and the success of D. (see preceding 
art.). In his 1 8th yr. (Thd. and LXX.) the k. makes 
a golden image, wh. he requires all officials in his 

20 



Dan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dan 



empire to worship ; D.'s three companions refuse, 
and are cast into the fiery furnace : their miraculous 
deliverance secures that J", shd. be recognised as 
" a great god," dishonour to whom involves severe 
punishment. In this D. does not appear. Then 
comes the 2nd dream of Nebuchadnezzar, of the 
great tree that was cut down. D. is at once sum- 
moned (LXX), and with much sorrow foretells 
approaching disaster — becoming mad, the k. is to 
be driven forth fm. men. Belshazzar, s. of Nabuna- 
hid, makes a great feast, his guests drinking fm. the 
sacred vessels fm. the Temple at Jrs. : D. alone can 
interpret a mysterious inscr. wh. appears on the 
wall, and shows that it portends the overthrow of 
the Bab. Empire ; he is raised to the third place in 
the kdm. On the overthrow of Belshazzar, Darius 
the Mede " receives the kdm.," and makes D. one of 
his three councillors. His envious associates con- 
spiring agst. him, he is cast into the den of lions 
{see preceding art.). With this ends the series of six 
incidents. The first vision, the four beasts coming 
out of the sea, is dated the first yr. of Belshazzar ; 
the next, in his third yr., describes the conflict of 
the Persian ram with the Grecian he-goat. The 
third vision, of the 70 weeks, is dated the first yr. 
of Darius ; the fourth, in the third yr. of Cyrus, k. 
of Persia, describes the "man clothed in linen." 
Chap. 11. is an interpolation, describing the con- 
flicts of the ks. of the N. and of the S. It may be 
the interpretation put on a lost vision of D. In 
chap. 12. the man clothed in white linen declares 
the end of the vision. 

The Purpose of the bk. prob. was, by telling of 
God's dealings with D. and his friends, to show how 
He preserved His people's faith, even when they 
dwelt among the heathen, and to indicate by 
visions what wd. come to pass, " that when it had 
come to pass they mt. believe." The original 
writer, and the later collector and editor, acting 
under inspiration, need not have been clearly con- 
scious of the final purpose. They were " holy men 
of God, who spake as they were moved." 

Some hold that the bk. of D. is not a hist., but a work 
of imagination — a parable — designed to rouse the Jews to 
armed rebellion agst. the oppressor Epiphanes. In this idea 
there is nothing necessarily repugnant to inspiration. Our 
Lord's parables wd. be equally replete with sptl. meaning, 
whether or not they dealt with actual events. But a re- 
ligious novel must conform to the nat. laws of such a com- 
position. This D. does not do : it is not a self-complete 
whole : its parts are only externally united, and even at times 
appear discrepant: e.g. i. 5 cp. 2. 1 , i. 21 cp. 10. *. If it is 
a novel some things call for explanation : e.g. D's. absence 
when his companions are called to worship the golden image : 
D. does nothing to facilitate the return of his people fm. 
exile, nor does he j oin them when numbers do return. These 
things make it difficult to take D. as a work of imagination. 
If it is a picture of a Jewish saint in a heathen court, they 
are inexplicable : in a hist, written immediately after the 
events, no explanation was required. 

Again, the bk. does not suit the alleged purpose. It 
records no case of deliverance resulting fm. active resistance : 
in the stories of the Lions' Den and the Fiery Furnace, re- 



sistance is purely passive. We may see the nat. outcome of 
this teaching in the retreat of cert. Jews to the wilderness, 
and their slaughter by the soldiers of Antiochus (1 M. 
2. 29ff ). Mattathias and his followers, on the contrary, bs- 
lieved that only by active resistance to the utmost of their 
might could life and faith be preserved. A story modelled 
on the exploits of Samson wd. have served the alleged pur- 
pose better than the canonical Bk. of D. Those who assert 
that Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius are intended 
to be portraits of Epiphanes, must have singular ideas cf 
portraiture : yet that is a necessary part of the case. The 
tendency in writing a novel with a purpose — the nearly 
irresistible tendency — is to overdrive the moral. In D. the 
moral is impenetrably concealed : yet it was meant for a 
popular audience. 

It cannot be said that the bk. is written up to 
either possible sense of the name of the reputed 
author, " God is my Judge " or " Divine Judge." 
The Lions' Den incident alone mt. be construed as 
showing God as the hero's Judge. Nothing in the 
canonical bk. refers to the second meaning. The 
Apocryphal additions, Su. and Bel., show what 
Jewish imagination cd. do in creating a Divine 
Judge. There are, indeed, references to D. in the 
bk. of his contemporary Ezekiel (i4-. 14, 20 , 28. 3 ), but 
the characteristics there assigned to D. are not pro- 
minent in the bk. We may therefore reasonably 
assume that the bk. of D. is a nar. of facts. 

Date and Authenticity. — We shall consider 
first, External Evidences ; second, Internal Evi- 
dences ; third, Objections. 

(1) External Evidences. — These are indications in 
Lit. or Hist, of acquaintance with the bk. or its con- 
tents. Mattathias (1 M. 2. 59f -) refers to the deliver- 
ance of " the three " fm. the fiery furnace, and of 
D. fm. the " den of lions." Some (Schurer, HJP., 
II. iii. 8) date I M. after b.c. 105, when John Hyr- 
canus died; others (Abrahams, Jzv. En), b.c. 135. 
We may take b.c. 100 as the latest prob. date. There 
is distinct reference to D. in En., in the Bk. of 
Similitudes, b.c. 200 (see Enoch). There is a still 
earlier reference in the Prophecy of Baruch, c. b.c. 
300, 1. 11 . " Nabuchadonosor,k. of Bab.," and " Bal- 
thasar his s." are mentioned. The rest of the bk. to 
the end of chap. 3. is mainly an expansion of the 
prayer in Dn. 9. We may note the resemblance of 
Nehemiah's prayer (Ne. 9.) to that of D., and of the 
"four horns "of Zc. to those of the "Grecian Goat." 
Further, if D. were not a man such as is portrayed 
in this bk., Ek. cd. not have placed him on a level 
with Noah and Job ; nor wd. Tyrus be accused of 
arrogance in thinking itself wiser than D. In 
judging the force of this we must remember the 
paucity of contemporary or approximately contem- 
porary Lit. — yet with all the Lit. of the Augustan 
age, the evidence that Virgil wrote the ^Eneid is 
not so strong as this. 

Again, only by some such events as are recorded 
in D. can we account for the hist, of the Jews after 
the exile. Before the Captivity they were prone to 
idolatry. In the opinion of the time, the capture 
of J".'s city, the burning of JVs temple, and the re- 



121 



Dan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dan 



moval of J'Vs people by those of Bel-Marduk, wd. 
be taken as showing J'Vs inferiority to the gods of 
Bab. In Bab. the Jews were in the midst of 
heathen, ready, we may be sure, to wile them away. 
They were deprived of sacrifice, a familiar element 
in the worship of J"., the only element in the minds 
of many of themselves and of all their heathen 
neighbours. It was not thought wrong to worship 
the " god of the land " where one sojourned. 
David took his banishment as consignment to the 
service of " other gods." Every external influence 
made for the total abandonment of the worship of 
]". Prophets of J", indeed had declared that 
disaster wd. follow apostasy fm. the God of their 
fathers, and when disasters came, mt. appeal to 
these predictions. From Jr., however, we learn that 
the conduct of cert, prophets in Bab. tended to dis- 
credit the whole order, and therefore their inter- 
pretation of events. Another explanation of the 
national disasters was also current (Jr. 44. 16fL ) ; they 
were caused, not by Manasseh's apostasy, but by 
Josiah's reformation. Everything tended to an 
apostasy as complete as that of the captives fm. the 
N. Kdm. Yet the advent of Cyrus finds them 
fanatical monotheists, worshipping J", alone. Only 
such events as the deliverance of the three Heb. 
youths, and of D., cd. explain this change of mental 
attitude. 

Cyrus singled out the Jews for special treatment ; 
the gods of other peoples were sent back to their re- 
spective countries ; the Jews alone were restored to 
their own land. Religious sympathy mt. explain 
this favour, if Cyrus were a monotheist, wh. is 
doubtful. If, however, he learned fm. D. what ]" '. 
had done for His people, he mt. regard the God of 
the Jews as a great and terrible God, whom it mt. 
be well to propitiate. 

(2) Internal Evidences. — The bk. is ascribedto D., 
who, but for it, wd. be an inconspicuous person. His 
mention by Ek. wd. tend to place him among the 
anct. patriarchs of the race. The statements in D. 
answer to facts now known, wh. had been forgotten 
as early as the Gr. period. The author knows of 
Belshazzar. Josephus, with Berosus before him, 
knew not that Nabunahid had a s. so named, and 
presumes Belshazzar to be another name of Nabu- 
nahid himself. 

That Belshr. calls Nebuchadr. fr. , does not prove the 
author's ignorance, for his acquaintce. with Jr. must be 
assumed ; and there (52. 31 ) Evilmerodach is the immediate 
successor and presumably the s. of Nebuchadr. This is 
proved by the contract tablets. In Asyr. usage, the suc- 
cessor of a famous man was regarded as his s. Shalmaneser 
II. calls Jehu the s. of Omri. This was not due to ignor- 
ance ; Asyr. monarchs had ample means of information 
regarding their subject allies (2 K. 18. 22 ). Hence in this 
sense Belshr. was the s. of Nebuchadr. 

The writer says nothing of a siege of Bab. Hero- 
dotus and Xenophon, who had special advantages 
for knowing Persian affairs, tell of a siege, and the 



turning aside of the waters of the Euphrates, so that 
the Persians entered by the river bed. These his- 
torians differ so widely as to the hist, of Cyrus, tliat 
agreement here might almost seem proof of accu- 
racy. Yet inscrs. by Cyrus prove that Bab. was 
betrayed to the Persians without a siege. How did 
the writer of D. escape the snare into wh. Josephus 
fell ? 

In D. persons are designated by symbols, intelli- 
gible in the Bab. or early Persian period, wh. wd. 
not be understood in the Gr. period. In the vision 
of the " Ram " and the " He-goat," Alexr. the Gt. 
appears as a one-horned he-goat, Persia, the power 
he overthrows, being a two-horned ram ; yet Alexr. 
chose to declare himself the s. of Jupiter Ammon, 
and, on his coins, assumes the two ram's horns. All 
through the hither East this was known as the cog- 
nisance of Alexr. Mohammed, in the Qur'an, calls 
him Iskander dhu H-Qarnain, " Alexr. of the two 
horns." After the conquest of Egp., when he as- 
sumed this symbol, to designate him as a goat and to 
transfer to Persia his own chosen symbol, the two- 
horned ram, wd. be unintelligible. 

We can more easily follow the action of Meltzar 
with regard to the Heb. youths, if they sat in 
messes of four, accdg. to Asyr. custom, than if they 
reclined like the Greeks, on couches, in groups of 
nine or twelve ; as in the former case the pecu- 
liarity of the food they ate wd. not be noticed, 
whereas it cd. not escape notice in the latter. 
Authors in anct. days did not aim at antiquarian 
accuracy ; they transferred with careless freedom 
their own customs to other times and countries. 

The writer leaves unexplained matters wh. to contem- 
poraries required no explanation, but wh. mt. prove enigmas 
to a subsequent age. He knew Jr., and therefore knew 
that Evilmerodach was Nebuchadr. 's successor and s. 
Why then, it is asked, does he make Belshazzar call 
Nebuchadr. his fr. ? Contemporaries did not need to be 
told in what sense Belshr. was Nebuchadr. 's s. If D. had 
been a fiction, written for men presumably familiar with Jr. 
and 2 K., the author wd. have been bound to explain why 
he gave Nebuchadr. a s. and successor difft. fm. the one 
mentioned in these accredited histories. 

Why, it is often asked, did D. not return to Pal., under 
the decree of Cyrus? If D. is a contemporary nar., the 
reasons may have been too obvious to require mention. If 
it were written long after, silence is inexplicable. So to 
contemporaries, explanation of D's. absence fm. the trial of 
his three friends wd. have been superfluous. 

Darius the Mede in the nar. has long been a diffi- 
culty. Josephus idents. him with the 2nd Cyaxares, 
s. of Astyages, uncle of Cyrus, mentioned only in 
Xenophon's Cyroficedia. But if the writer of D. 
borrowed fm. Xenophon, why did he change the 
name to Darius ? The author of Bel naively as- 
signs the role of Darius in the story of the lions' den 
to Cyrus. Why did the writer of D. not explain 
who " Darius the Mede " was ? This is intelligible 
if, as Dr. Pinches thinks, Darius stands for Gobryas 
— scribes who knew of Darius but not of Gobaru 
having changed the unknown into the well-known. 



122 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dan 



Dara (Darius) is to this day in the E. a name 
suggestive of magnificence, showing how deeply 
the imagination of the E. was impressed by the 
monarchs of that name. 

The writer's geographical kge. suits the period of 
D. The writer of Esther knows of India in the E., 
and the writer of I M. knows of Rm. in the W. 
The writer of D. knows only of Javan and Chittim 
(Asia Minor and Cyprus) in the W., and Media and 
Persia in the E. His kge. in other directions suits 
the traditional D. He knows of Jr., the law of 
Moses, and Solomon's prayer ; but not of the later 
bks.— Ez., Ne., Est., Hg., Zc, and Ml. These 
reasons appear to us convincing, but others mt. be 
adduced. 

As to date, we must choose either the traditional 
date, making the writer approximately contempo- 
rary with the events ; or the critical, i.e. the Macca- 
baean period. The latter is impossible. In the 
Maccabaean period great importance is attached 
to the ceremonial law, circumcision, avoidance of 
swine's flesh, observance of feasts, &c. In D. cir- 
cumcision is not mentioned ; nor is swine's flesh, 
although it mt. have been effectively introduced as 
rejected by the four hostages. Feasts are disre- 
garded ; D. fasts over the feast of the Passover 
(io. 3f -). The date of his fasting is mentioned, but 
not its coincidence with the Passover. The Law of 
Moses is referred to, but the bk. of the law enjoys no 
special reverence ; whereas in Maccabaean times, 
the Greek attempt to destroy them had lent to 
copies of the law a peculiar sanctity. Further, 
D.'s mental attitude to Nebuchadr. is very difft. 
fm. that of the Jews to Antiochus, as revealed in the 
bks. of the Maccabees. D. accepts the quasi wor- 
ship offered by the k., a thing repugnant to the 
pious Jew of later times (Ac. 14. 11 - 18 ). 

(3) Objections. — These all aim to prove that D. 
was written, not by a contemporary of the alleged 
events, but by a Maccabaean author. It is con- 
tended that D.'s position among the Ketbubtm, not 
the Prophets, is proof of lateness. This assumes: 
(a) That the Jews judged as late the bks. placed in 
the third division of their Canon ; a view refuted 
by a simple study of the reputed authors, (b) That 
they always placed D. there ; contrary to the 
evidence of LXX, Josephus, Melito, Psh., and NT. 
(Mw. 24. 15 ; Mk. 13. 14 ). The real question is, 
What led the Rabbis of Jerome's time to remove D. 
fm. the Prophets to the Hagiographa ? It was done 
on literary grounds. Lamentations, attributed to 
Jr., is placed among the " writings." If the Jews 
thought canonical any writing by a prophet origi- 
nating before the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus 
(Jos. cont. A-p. i. 8),* we cd. at once claim for D. a 



* With Jos. the Kethublm consist of only four bks., wh. 
"contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of 
human life." 



date in the early Persian period. Josephus' prin- 
ciple most easily explains the exclusion of Sr. fm. 
the Canon, and the inclusion of Est., the inclusion 
of SS., and exclusion of Ws. 

Certain anachronisms are alleged in D. Nebuchadnezzar 
is said to have captured Jrs. in the third yr. of Jehoiakim, 
whereas the firstof Nebuchadnezzar coincided with the fourth 
of Jehoiakim. But the fourth yr. in Jewish wd. be the third 
in Bab. reckoning. Fm. Berosus' act. Nebuchadnezzar must 
have taken Jrs. before he ascended the throne. Again, 
the Chaldeans are represented as magicians, a meaning 
attached to that term first in Rm. times. If this reading 
were right, D. must be dated after the capture of Jrs. 
by Titus ! A correction of the text is clearly necessary. 
The text of the LXX does not make the Chaldeans a class 
of magicians. 

It is said (Dn. 4» 8 ) that D. was named " Belte- 
shazzar, accdg. to the name of my god." This is 
held to prove the writer's ignorance of Asyr., as 
Belteshazzar has no connection with Bel. But in 
all the VV., the Bab. name of D. is " Belshazzar." 
The change was evidently made that a Heb. prophet 
mt. not appear with the name of a heathen god 
(cp. Jg. 18. 30 ). For objections based on the names 
of musical instruments (Dn. 3.), see Dulcimer, 
Psaltery, Sackbut. Most other difficulties, prop, 
understood, really support our conclusion, that D. 
is essentially authentic. 

Interpretation. — This concerns the view to be 
taken of the Four Monarchies, and the Seventy 
Weeks, (a) The Four Monarchies. Taking the 
image Nebuchadr. saw, and the Four Beasts of D. 
(Dn. 2., 7.), what kdm. is intended by the Fourth ? 
The traditional view places, first, the Bab. ; 
second, the Medo-Persian ; third, the Greek ; and 
fourth, the Roman. The gen. Critical view places, 
first, the Bab. ; second, the Median ; third, the 
Persian ; and fourth, the Greek ; thus splitting the 
Medo-Persian. But the writer seems almost to 
have taken pains to make this splitting impossible. 
By the " two arms " of the dream statue and the 
beast " that raised itself up on one side " he clearly 
presents the Empire as one, with two dominant 
but kindred races, that wh. last attains prominence 
becoming supreme. Of an empire ruled by two 
kindred peoples, what symbol cd. be clearer than 
that of the ram, wh. had " two horns, and the horns 
were high, but one was higher than the other, and 
the higher came up last " ? Again, Darius Hys- 
taspis is called " k. of the Persians and the Medes " 
in 1 M. I. 1 . Even if the Critical date of D. were 
accepted, a view wh. contradicts that of the author, 
and those prevalent among the Jews in the Macca- 
baean period, can hardly be correct. 

Another Critical expedient to escape the tradi- 
tional view is to distinguish the personal empire of 
Alexr. fm. that of his successors, esp. the Seleucidae. 
But the writer (Dn. 9.), and the Maccabaean Jews 
(t M. i. 1 , 6. 2 ), regarded the whole reign of the 
Greeks as one. 



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The main obstacles to the acceptance of the tradi- 
tional view are a -priori ideas of the nat. of prophecy. 
There is no proof that the prophet must only speak 
what primarily appealed to his immediate audience ; 
and we cannot discard the predictive element in 
prophecy, the purpose of wh. was stated by Jesus 
(Jn. 13. 19 , 14. 29 ). It must indeed be in terms con- 
veying some definite ideas to the hearers ; but un- 
less predictive prophecy is denied, there is no valid 
objection to identg. the Fourth Monarchy with Rm. 

Corruption of the text as shown in various rdgs. 
of the VV., esp. the LXX, makes it harder to inter- 
pret the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The 
Critics assume that " the going forth of the com- 
mandment to restore and to build Jrs." (Dn. c;. 25 ) 
is Jr.'s prophecy of its destruction ; at least the cal- 
culations usly. start fm. B.C. 586. That daberV shd. 
mean " prophecy of " is unexampled. The nat. 
and traditional meaning, " commandment," " de- 
cree," agrees with the universal rendering of yatza 
dabar (Dn. 9- 23 ), " the comdt. went forth." The 
"weeks" are generally regarded as "weeks of yrs."; 
70 weeks = 490 yrs. As Cyrus' decree, permitting 
the return and rebuilding of the Temple, said 
nothing of rebuilding the city, we must come down 
to the decrees of Artaxerxes' 8th and 20th yrs. 
(b.c. 457 and B.C. 445 respectively) ; the latter dis- 
tinctly commanding the rebuilding of the walls ; 
this wd. bring the times into relatively close agree- 
ment. We must remember that prophetic times 
are not measured with astronomical accuracy. 
Jr.'s " 70 yrs." of captivity are represented by 59, 
if we count fm. the carrying away of Jeconiah, 
B.c. 597, to Cyrus' decree, b.c 538 ; by 66, if we 
start fm. Jehoiakim's submission to Nebuchadr. 
The problem also, as we have seen, is complicated 
by corruption of the text. 

All Versions of value for the text of D. are earlier 
than the 6th cent. : (a) LXX, preserved in the 
Chigi MS., fm. a text differing much fm. MT., 
sometimes modified to suit Thd., c. b.c. 150. 
(b) Theodotion, representing the Pal. text of 
Origen's time, (c) Peshitta, Syr., c. a.d. 120 ; 
nearer MT. than Thd. (d) The Vulgate (Jerome), 
genly. agreeing with MT. There is also the Coptic 
trn. fm. Thd., interesting for an additional nth 
chap., and Paulus Tellensis' trn. fm. LXX. 

All commentaries written before the Asyr. and 
Bab. discoveries are valueless, (a) Taking the Con- 
servative view : Pusey, Lects. on D. ; Keil, Daniel 
(tr. Clark, Ednr.) ; Zockler, Daniel (Lange's 
Bibelwerk, tr. Clark) ; Fuller, Daniel (Speaker's C.) ; 
Lenormant, La Divination ; Thomson, Daniel 
(Pulpit C.) ; Wright, D. and his Prophecies, D. and 
his Critics, (b) Taking the Critical view : the 
Comm. of Meinhold ; Bevan, Bk. of D. ; Marti ; 
Behrman ; Driver (Cambridge Com.). 

DAN-JAAN (2 S. 24. 6 ). The text is corrupt. 



Klostermann suggs. a rdg. " Dan and Ijon." See 
Dan. 

DANNAH (Jo. 15. 49 ), ^oh. = Idhnah, a vill. 
S.W. of Hebron. 

DARIC. See Money. 

DARIUS. (1) "The Median" (Dn. 5.8!). 
There are several suggestions as to who this is : 
(a) Cyaxares II., uncle of Cyrus, 
only known fm. Xenophon's 
romance, the Cyropa?dia. The 
circumstances wd. suit, but there 
is considerable doubt of his his- 
toric existence. (b) Astyages. 
Although both Herodotus and 
Ctesias tell us that Cyrus treated 
him with mildness, they have no 
hint that he made him governor 
of Babylon, (c) Cyrus. In the 
Apocryphal Add. to Dn., " Bel 
and the Dragon," Cyrus casts 
Daniel into the Lions' Den ; 
the age and char, do not suit. 
(d) Gobryas (Gobaru). This is the sugg. of Dr. 
Pinches ; on the whole it seems the most prob. 
ident. We know that he was appointed governor 
of Babylon, and that he appointed under-governors. 
That he is called D. is probably due to a scribal 
blunder. (2) D. Hystaspis ; the Persian k. under 




Darius 




Tomb of Darius Hystaspis 

whom Zerubbabel returned to Palestine. He had 
ascended the throne on the death of the usurper 
Smerdis ; he organised the Persian Empire and 
made the first Persian attempt to conquer Greece. 
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(3) D. the Persian (Ne. 12. 22 ), prob. Codomannus, 
who was overthrown by Alexr. the Gt. 

DART. See ARMS. 

DATHAN AND ABIRAM (Nu. 16. 1 ) were 
Reubenites associated with Korah in rebellion agst. 
Moses. D. and A. are genly. named with Korah, 
but prob. their rebellion had a political, not 
like Koran's, a sacerdotal reference ; the place of 
Reuben, Jacob's first-born, being usurped by Judah 
and Ephraim. 

DAUGHTER (Heb. bath) is in Scrip, any female 
desct. (Gn. 2.J.. 48 , &c.) ; in the pi., the women of a 
nation (Gn. 27. 46 , &c). The D. of any art, e.g. 
music, is a female devoted to it (Ec. 12. 4 ). Some- 
times D. stands for a city (Is. 52. 2 ), for town or vill. 
depending on a " mother city " (Nu. 2 1. 25 , Heb.). 
See Family. 

DAVID (" beloved "), youngest s. of Jesse, who 
was apparently a well-to-do farmer in Bethlehem. 
No mention is made of his mr. His fr. was already 
an old man in the days of Saul (1 S. 17. 12 ). The 
family consisted of 8 sons and 2 drs. (1 S. i6. 10f -, 
17. 12 ; 2 S. 17. 25 — in this last verse for " Nahash," 
read " Jesse "). D.'s sr., Zeruiah, was mr. of Joab, 
Abishai, and Asahel ; and Abigail was mr. of the 
unfortunate Amasa. These four nephews of D. 
became soldiers of ability and distinction, playing no 
mean part in a time wh. was rich in heroic men. 

Of D.'s parents almost nothing is known (see 
Jesse). His fr.'s ancestry is of course given in the 
genealogies ; and Jewish tradition says that Jesse 
was a weaver of sacred carpets, who also farmed cert, 
lands near Bethlehem (Tg.Jn. on 2 S. 21. 19 ). When 
first mentioned D. was occupied guarding his fr.'s 
sheep ; a task often performed by the younger 
members of the family (1 S. 16. 11 ). He is described 
as " ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, 
and goodly to look upon." It is not clear that 
D. or his relatives understood the significance of 
Samuel's anointing. That it signified a cert, pre- 
ference they cd. not doubt. This may have some- 
what qualified brotherly relationships. Eliab's 
speech (1 S. 17. 28 ) wd. hardly have been addressed 
to one whom he knew as the destined k. of Isr. It is 
appropriate enough as the expression of a jealous 
heart. But fm. the day of anointing we read that 
" the Spt. of the Lord came mightily upon D." 

With the material at our disposal it is impossible 
to construct a continuous and self-consistent nar. of 
D.'s early yrs. 

To explain the apparent discrepancies several expedients 
have been tried. The simplest is to assume that we have 
here bits of separate and independent accounts, thrown 
together by the hand of a scribe. If this is so he seems 
to have done the work rather clumsily, with a strange 
lack of intelligence, leaving very obvious difficulties to 
puzzle his readers. Not that all difficulties of wh. mod. 
scholars write have any real existence. In such a com- 
pressed nar. we need not be surprised to find that the youth 
of the earlier verses in a chapter is the valiant soldier of the 



later. But it is staggering to learn that the skilful harper of 
chap. 16., whose music charms away the evil spirit fm. the 
k. — the mighty man of valour, beloved of Saul, and made 
the royal armcur-bearer — is the youth of chap. 17. .apparently 
withcut experience of war, unknown to the k., and even to 
Abner : strange surely if he had been the k.'s armour-bearer. 
The statement that "D. went to and fro fm. Saul to feed 
his fr.'s sheep at Bethlehem," is regarded as a harmonistic 
insertion (17. 15 ). 

This theory takes the incidents that resemble each other 
as " doublets," i.e. independent versions of the same events : 
e.g. 1 S. i8.iof. and 19. % ; 1 S. io. 10ff - and io.23f. 

The difficulties are not of modern discovery. Prof. 
Robertson Smith thought that LXX. B. preserved the 
original text (OT/C. 1 i25ff.). It omits vv. 12-31, 41, 50, 55-58 
of chap. 17. , and vv. 1-5 of chap. 18. A continuous and self- 
consistent nar. is thus secured ; but the process suspiciously 
resembles an effort to get over c ifficulties by ignoring them : 
and critical opinion inclines to regard this simply as an 
early attempt to harmonise chaps. 16. and 17. 

We must remember that the records are extremely scanty. 
In the light cf ampler information no longer available, what 
seem to us discrepancies in the statements made, may have 
had no existence for the writer. 

The youthful shepherd found time in the leisure 
of his days on the uplands to make himself master 
of the harp ; an accomplishment turned to act., as 
we have seen, in soothing the paroxysms of the 
insane k. This secured for D. his introduction to 
the court : and here his wisdom and discretion, not 
less than his gifts, won for him a position of dignity 
and trust (1 S. i6. 14ff -). 

The engrossments of a war with the Phil., who 
invaded the country, seem to have roused afresh the 
better nat. of the k., and D. was free for a longer 
period to return to his work at home. His elder 
brs. were at the war, where, one feels, Saul's 
armour-bearer ought to have been. But we do 
not know the terms of the relationship between the 
young soldier and the monarch. 

The two armies lay over agst. each other in the 
Vale of Elah. Goliath of Gath, the giant cham- 
pion of the Phil., struck terror into the heart of Isr., 
and daily, with insulting challenges, cast reproach 
on Isr.'s God. D., whom his fr. had sent with pro- 
vision for his brs., heard the loud boasting of the 
Phil., accepted his challenge, and, rejecting Saul's 
armour as untried, with the clear eye and steady 
hand of the shepherd, and the shepherd's simple 
sling and stone, vanquished the braggart, carry- 
ing away the giant's head in triumph. The dis- 
heartened Phil, fled before pursuing Isr. to the gates 
of Ekron. 

D.'s victory carried the right to marriage with 
the k.'s dr. (1 S. 17. 25 ). Saul, recognising his value, 
attached him permanently to his person ; and 
between D. and Jonathan, the k.'s son, an affec- 
tion sprang up wh. was as strong and tender as it 
was romantic and beautiful. 

When the stir and excitement of war were over, 
Saul's darker moods began to return, and the chival- 
rous monarch becomes the jealous and truculent 
despot. The women welcomed the army returning 
fm. the battle, and in their songs gave due meed 



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of praise to the brave young soldier whose heroic 

venture had brought deliverance to Isr. 

•• Saul hath slain his thousands, 
And David his ten thousands." 

This was beyond what the proud spt. of the k. cd. 
brook. " What can he have more but the kdm. ? " 
And so the tree was planted wh. was destined to 
bear such bitter fruit. 

Distrust and hatred of D. brought a new ele- 
ment of disturbance into the distressed mind of the 
k., inducing attacks of frenzy no longer subj. to the 
influence of music. Twice he sought to kill the 
minstrel with his javelin. Failure convinced him 
that D. in some way was under divine protection, 
and filled his heart with fear. His supposed foe was 
therefore removed fm. the royal presence and given 
a command in the army, where he won golden 
opinions fm. all. Saul, observing, " stood in awe 
of him." 

Saul then offered D. the hand of his dr. Merab, 
to wh. he was already entitled, on condition that 
" thou be valiant for me, and fight the Lord's 
battles " ; in the hope that Phil, spears mt. succeed 
where his own had failed. But, fickle in purpose as 
erring in aim, he soon gave Merab to another. 

Michal, Saul's younger dr., loved the gallant and 
popular young captain. Saul heard of this with 
pleasure, and schemed to make it a means of getting 
rid of D. The latter was nothing loth to become 
the k.'s s. -in-law. As a poor man he was delighted 
to learn that to provide the dowry required he had 
but to slaughter ioo Phil. Saul's treacherous plot 
miscarried : the dowry was provided twice over : 
Michal became the w. of D. " Saul was yet the 
more afraid of D.," but also, apparently, yet the 
more his enemy. 

Jonathan refused to be D.'s executioner, and per- 
suaded his fr. for a time to relent. But a new 
victory won by D., bringing, doubtless, a fresh ac- 
cess of popularity, roused the evil passion again, and, 
failing once more to transfix his victim, he sent his 
guards to D.'s house to despatch him. Michal con- 
trived her h.'s escape, and he fled to Samuel, in 
Ramah. Company after company sent by Saul, 
and finally the k. himself, finding D. there with 
Samuel and the prophets, were overwhelmed by the 
Spt. of God and themselves prophesied. Thus pro- 
tected, D. fled once more ; and having learned, by 
signs agreed upon with Jonathan, that Saul's wrath 
was implacable, sought thenceforward to avoid 
personal contact with the k. Kindness shown to 
the fugitive by the priests at Nob brought dire 
vengeance upon them (see Doeg). Thence D. 
took the sword of Goliath. Girded with this 
weapon, his visit to Gath looks like foolhardiness. 
Of course he was recognised, and his preservation 
was due to his own ready wit, and skill in simulating 
madness. 



Retiring to the cave of Adullam, his retreat 
became a gathering-place for the distressed, debtors, 
and discontented, and soon he found himself at the 
head of about 400 men. Provision for his parents' 
safety was made in Moab ; an arrangement doubt- 
less facilitated by the kindly relations of a past 
generation (Ru. I. 1 , &c). 

At the instance of the prophet Gad, D. went up 
to the forest of Hareth, where he was joined by 
Abiathar, the sole survivor of the massacre of the 
priests at Nob. D. then turned his arms agst. the 
Phil., who had attacked Keilah. Inquiring of God 
by means of the ephod Abiathar had brought, he 
learned that the men of Keilah, the city he had 
rescued, were ready to hand him over to Saul. He 
therefore departed with his followers, numbering 
now about 600, and " remained in a mountain in 
the wilderness of Ziph." Here he was encouraged 
by an interview with Jonathan ; but the Ziphites 
sought to betray him to Saul, and he narrowly 
escaped capture in the wilderness of Maon, at " the 
rock of escape," Saul being called away at a critical 
moment to meet a raid of the Phil. 

These two instances of loyalty to Saul illustrate 
the hold wh. that great k. still had upon his people's 
hearts, despite the darkness and oppression of these 
days. 

D. then took refuge in the fastnesses around En- 
gedi. There Saul inadvertently fell into his power. 
D.'s forbearance and chivalry appealed to what of 
good was still in the distracted monarch, who with 
tears confessed his wickedness, and his conviction 
that D. wd. " surely be k." Having extracted fm. 
D. an oath of kindness to his seed when he shd. 
come to the throne, Saul went home (1 S. 24.). 

A function of great value was performed by D. 
and his men to the flockmasters in the wide pastures 
of the wilderness, in protecting their property agst. 
marauders. This service was gladly acknowledged 
by gifts of food, &c. Such acknowledgment Nabal 
of Car mel churlishly refused, and owed his preser- 
vation to the tact and skill of his beautiful w. 
Abigail. And on the death of Nabal, Abigail 
became the w. of D. He also married Ahinoam of 
Jezreel. Meantime Saul had given D.'s w. Michal 
toPhalti(i S. 25.). 

Returning to the pursuit of D., guided by the 
Ziphites, Saul once more fell into D.'s power, and 
again D.'s forbearance melted for the time the k.'s 
heart (26.). But D., despairing of safety in the 
land of Isr., betook himself to Achish, k. of Gath, 
who assigned the town of Ziklag to D. and his 600 
men. Here they remained a yr. and four months. 
Raids upon the Geshurites and others were reported 
to Achish as attacks upon Judah, &c. He therefore 
thought an irreparable breach had been made 
between the refugees and their own people (27.). 

We can only conjecture D.'s purpose in agreeing 



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to march with the Phil, to war agst. Isr. If he 
assisted the Phil., clearly he must resign all hope of 
the crown of Isr. He may have intended, as the 
lords of the Phil, thought, to fall away to Saul when 
the battle opened. In any case the suspicions of 
these men delivered him fm. an awkward situation. 
Despite the confidence of Achish, D. and his men 
were sent back (29.). In their absence the Amale- 
kites had raided and burnt Ziklag, carrying off all 
the women and children. A swift pursuit, a sudden 
and unexpected attack, and that raid was avenged. 
Women, children, and all their property were re- 
covered. A timely gift of the spoil taken fm. the 
Amalekites, to the elders in various cities of Judah, 
wd. pave the way for the return of the exile (30). 

Two days later came the news of Isr.'s crushing 
defeat, and the death of Saul and his sons. An 
Amalekite, who brought to D. the k.'s crown and 
bracelet, claiming to have slain Saul, was at once 
ordered to execution. D. and his men were cast in 
great grief, and his personal sorrow over Saul and 
Jonathan found expression in the most pathetic and 
beautiful of the world's elegies (2 S. I.). 

D.'s reputation no doubt preceded him on his 
return to Hebron, and there he was chosen, appa- 
rently with unanimity, k. of Judah, remaining prob. 
a vassal of the Phil. Abner had meantime set up 
Ishbosheth as k. over Isr. in Mahanaim. The 
troops of the rival monarchs met at Gibeon, under 
Joab and Abner, when the latter was beaten ; and 
in the war wh. ensued, the supremacy of D. was 
gradually asserted (2 S. 2., 3. 1 ). 

As a mark of his growing dignity D. increased his 
harim, and six sons were born to him in Hebron. 

Abner does not seem to have been a good 
champion of a failing cause. A reproach fm. Ish- 
bosheth decided him to cast in his lot with D., and 
his weak master was not in a position to resist him. 
Michal was restored at D.'s desire. The presence of 
Saul's dr. in his harim mt. strengthen the apparent 
legitimacy of his claims. Abner came to an under- 
standing with D. and proceeded with arrangements 
for the transfer of the kdm., when he was treache- 
rously entrapped and murdered by Joab : doubtless 
fm. fear lest Abner's influence with D. shd. eclipse 
his own, altho' the ostensible motive was revenge 
for Asahel's death. D.'s grief was deep and sincere ; 
but he cd. venture no more than to curse the man 
who had done the foul deed. He had already 
found one thorn in the crown he wore (3.). 

Ishbosheth was murdered by the two sons of 
Rimmon, who brought his head to D., and received 
the reward they merited. Ishbosheth's head was 
buried in the grave of Abner (4.). 

It was now recognised that D. was the only 
possible k. of Isr., and the tribes, assembling at 
Hebron, practically gave effect to a foregone con- 
clusion by electing him. Then, doubtless, allegiance 



to the Phil, was renounced. The choice of a 
capital more central and easier of defence than 
Hebron was clearly necessary. The city Jebus ad- 
mirably met these conditions. The stronghold 
called Zion was taken by storm, and there arose the 
fortifications of the City of David {see Jerusalem), 
and the workmen of Tyrian Hiram built a palace for 
the k. D. also still further enlarged his harim. 

The Phil. cd. not view with complacency the ad- 
vancement of their erewhile vassal. They invaded 
the country apparently before his fortifications were 
complete, and he retired to "the hold" — prob. 
Adullam (1 S. 22. 4 ). To this time must be assigned 
the incident recorded in 2 S. 23. 14ff - Acting under 
Divine direction he twice defeated the enemy with 
great slaughter (2 S. 5.). 

D.'s next step was to bring up the Ark fm. Kir- 
jath-jearim to Jrs. Progress was interrupted by the 
tragedy at the threshing-floor of Nachon, and the 
Ark was left for a time in the house of Obed-edom. 
The blessing it brought there encouraged the k. to 
complete his task, and place it in the tent he had 
pitched for it in Jrs. What seemed to Michal his 
extravagant enthusiasm on this occasion provoked 
her contempt, for wh. she fell into the k.'s dis- 
favour (6.). 

The duties assigned to the Levites in the re- 
organised service are indicated in I Ch. 15., 16.. 
where D.'s psalm of thanksgiving is preserved 
(16. 7 - 36 ). 

While his purpose was reckoned to him for 
righteousness, D. was not permitted to build a 
temple for the Ark. The reason is explicitly stated 
in 1 Ch. 22. 8 . But great blessing was promised to 
him and to his house, and he was urged to prepare 
materials for the temple to be built by his s. This 
he did, in great abundance (1 Ch. 22. 2 " 5 , &c). 

Kindly memory of old friendship led D. to make 
generous provision for Jonathan's son, Mephibo- 
sheth. A long-standing blood-feud between the 
house of Saul and the Gibeonites was settled by 
handing over to the latter two of that monarch's 
sons by Rizpah, and five sons of his dr. Merab — a 
striking illustration of the recognised solidarity of 
the Kin. D. also brought the bones of Saul and 
Jonathan fm. Jabesh-gilead, and laid them in the 
sepulchre of Kish (2 S. 2I. 1 ' 14 ). 

The Phil, were completely subdued, D. taking 
" the bridle of the mother city fm. them." The 
Moabites shared a similar fate, becoming tributary. 
D. also defeated Hadadezer (or Hadarezer), k. of 
Zobah, and his allies of Damascus, carrying away 
rich booty. Garrisons were placed in the territory 
of Damascus, ai:d its people brought tribute. Toi, 
k. of Hamath, thankful for deliverance fm. Hadad- 
ezer, sent his s. with generous gifts to D. The 
spoils of this campaign, together with those taken 
fm. the other peoples whom he had conquered, D. 



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dedicated to J". A great victory was gained over in the day of his sore adversity. The other tribes, 

the Aramaeans in the Valley of Salt (2 S. 8. 1 " 13 ). The however, professed offence because Judah had fore- 

Edomites also were brought low, Joab remaining in stalled them in bringing back the k., and Sheba, s. of 

Edom for six months to complete its subjugation Bichri, a Benjamite, summoned them to a fresh 

(8. 14 ; 1 K. ii. 14fL ). This opened for Isr. the ap- rising agst. D. and Judah. D. had not forgiven 

proach to the Red Sea. Joab, whose hand had slain the rebel prince. 

Hanun of Ammon grossly insulted the messengers Amasa, therefore, was sent to gather the men of 

sent by D. with a message of sympathy on the death Judah within three days for the conflict. Amasa 

of his fr. This cd. have but one result — war. The delayed, and D., fearing lest Sheba shd. have time 

army of Isr. under Joab and Abishai defeated the to strengthen his position, despatched the men who 

Ammonites and such allies as they were able to were with him under Abishai to pursue him. Joab, 

gather. The Ammonites retired within the walls of course, was in the company. At Gibeon they 

of Rabba. Hadadezer made a rally in the far north, met Amasa, and Joab, who cd. brook no rival, here 

but was decisively overthrown by*D. at Helam : covered his name with still deeper infamy by the 

Shobach, the captain of his host, being among the treacherous murder of his cousin. Then, assuming 

slain (10.). command, he stamped out the revolt with his usual 

Rabbah was now closely besieged under the direc- skill and promptitude (2 S. 20.). 
tion of Joab. D., remaining in Jrs., fell under the A psalm, attributed to D. in the day that the Lord 

spell of Bathsheba, and incurred the infamy of delivered him fm. the hand of all his enemies, is pre- 

Uriah's treacherous murder. Bathsheba became served in chap. 22. In chap. 23. a short psalm 

D.'s w., and bare him a s. who, as a mark of God's (vv. 1-7), also attributed to D., introduces an act. 

displeasure, was not permitted to live. Her second of D.'s mighty men and their exploits. 
s., Solomon, was destined to be D.'s successor Two lists are given of D.'s administrative officers 

(u. 1 -i2. 25 ). (8. 16-18 , 20. 23fL ), with slight variations. The latter 

Rabbah was finally taken, and the crown of Mai- may be taken as the fuller, poss. the original. Joab 

cam * — poss. an idol — was placed on D.'s head, is commander-in-chief of the army ; Benaiah is 

The inhabitants, if not tortured, were at least captain of the guard ; Adoram has charge of the 

humiliated. Sec Harrow. " levy," or " forced labour," always a feature of 

After his great sin D.'s life was shadowed by Eastern despotism ; Jehoshaphat was the mazklr : 

many trials, arising fm. his own family circle, this has been understood as " recorder " or " anna- 

Amnon's dastardly outrage, and Absalom's grimly list " ; more prob. he was the counsellor who kept 

waited-for revenge, must have burdened the royal the k. informed as to the course of public affairs ; 

heart. Absalom, whom he loved, must needs de- Zadok and Abiathar — the companion of D.'s exile — 

part fm. his fr.'s presence, inflicting thus a double were over the priests, evidently holding their ap- 

bereavement. That prince used the opportunities pointment fm. the k. In the first list some priestly 

brought by restoration and reconciliation to con- function appears to be assigned to D.'s sons ; in 

spire agst. the k. who loved him all too well. So the second, their place is taken by Ira, the Jairite. 
strong was the support given to Absalom's unex- D.'s bodyguard consisted of foreigners ; Chere- 

pected rising that the aged D. fled, amid the jeers thites, prob. ident. with Phil., and Pelethites, not 

and insults of ungenerous foes, to Mahanaim. identd. I Ch. 27. gives an act. of the army as 

Ahithophel's wise counsel having been thwarted organised by D., the warriors of the different tribes 

by the crafty Hushai, time 'was found for assembling going out for exercise in a fixed rotation, so that 

the army wh. overwhelmed the prince's troops in there were always 24,000 men under arms. Six 

the forest of Ephraim. Absalom's death ended the officers were entrusted with the management of the 

rebellion; but it also broke his fr.'s heart. D.'s k.'s property ; and the names are given of those who 

unrestrained grief for his s. depressed the spirits of formed the royal council. Levites were appointed 

his followers, and but for Joab's rough but timely for the administration of justice (1 Ch. 23. 4 ). 

and kind remonstrance, it mt. yet have gone hard Elaborate arrangements were made for the conduct 

with him. of the services of the Sanctuary (1 Ch. 23.ff.). 

For the anarchy prevailing in Isr. as a result of The chronicler's act. of the great k.'s work, although 

the rebellion, the only cure was the return of the k. written much later, was doubtless derived fm. 

Judah was the first to welcome him. The men of reliable sources. 
Benjamin also came, with Shimei, whom D. forgave. 
He then rewarded such as had shown him kindness 



* In Heb. only the vowels distinguish between " their 
king" and " their Molech." The crown worn by their king 
may have been called " the crown of their Molech," as that 
of Hungary was called " the crown of St. Stephen." 



Anything in the nat. of a census or registration 
has always been regarded with suspicion in the East, 
as furnishing rulers with an instrument for fresh ex- 
tortion or oppression. That proposed by D. en- 
countered a storm of opposition. Sorely agst. their 
will, Joab and his officers had to carry it out. This 



128 



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Dav 



distasteful work, in wh. the numbering of Levi and 
Benjamin was omitted, occupied 9 months and 20 
days : the men of war in Isr. were reported as 
800,000, those of Judah 500,000. The Chronicler 
gives 1,000,000 and 470,000 respectively (2 S. 2^.. lft - ; 
1 Ch. 2i. lff -). God's displeasure at this impious 
enterprise brought a pestilence by wh. 70,000 men 
perished, and the very existence of Jrs. was im- 
perilled. The penitent k. bought the threshing- 
floor of Araunah, where the angel of destruction had 
paused, and offered sacrifice there, whereby " the 
Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was 
stayed fm. Isr." (2 S. 24. ; 1 Ch. 21.). 

Coverings were not sufficient to warm the spent 
frame of the aged k., so the young Shunammite, 
Abishag, was brought to " cherish " the old man. 




Traditional Tomb of David 

This time of his fr.'s weakness Adonijah chose to 
have himself declared D.'s successor. Joined by 
many who had hitherto stood by D. through all 
changes; his venture seemed hopeful. But he had 
failed to reckon with Nathan, and, above all, with 
Bathsheba, whose influence over the k. seems to 
have been unimpaired ; and with the anointing and 
proclamation of Solomon, Bathsheba's s., by D.'s 
order, the cause of Adonijah collapsed. 

The Chronicler tells of a great convocation ad- 
dressed by D. when he gave his parting charge to 
Solomon, directing him as to the bldg. of the 
Temple. By exhibition of the treasures, &c, wh. 
he had provided for this purpose, he roused the 
liberality of the tribes, who willingly brought of 
their substance, to the great joy of the old k., who 
blessed the Lord, and prayed for blessing upon his s. 
and his people. The solemnities of the day con- 
cluded with a great sacrifice (1 Ch. 29.). 

The last scene as depicted in I K. 2. opens with 
appropriate counsels to Solomon, but is unlovely in 
its close. Many critics think there are reasons for 
rejecting the authenticity of this part of the nar. 
For sake of D.'s reputation one wd. fain agree with 



them. But the case is not proved ; and we must 
remember that there was a fierce strain in D.'s 
blood ; while both Joab and Shimei had richly 
deserved their fate. 

The complexity of D.'s char, makes any fair and 
adequate estimate difficult, if not impossible. In 
some respects he seems almost the combination 
of opposites. He is highly spiritual, and grossly 
sensual. Now he is impulsive and generous ; 
again he is a man of calculating duplicity. He can 
show a fine chivalrous regard for what is good even 
in his enemies, restraining his hand when he has 
them in his power ; but at other times the ferocity 
of his Semitic nature flashes forth in his treatment 
of fallen foes. 

It is usual to say that D. must be tried by the 
standards of his own time. This is true. Compared 
with the monarchs who ruled the nations around 
him, D. might come out well. But the influence of 
his age will not act. for everything. In one matter 
his great predecessor set him an example he wd. 
have done well to follow (1 S. 14. 50 ). 

Others defend D. on the ground that if he was a 
great sinner, he was also great in repentance. No 
doubt it is well that wicked men shd. repent of the 
evil they have done ; but no bitterest penitential 
tears will bring back to sweet life the murdered 
victim of unholy passion.* 

D. was a man of many accomplishments. He was 
a skilful musician. His name attached to the hymn- 
book of the OT. Church attests his mastery of tune- 
ful verse (see Psalms). He was a brave and capable 
soldier, possessing the magnetic charm wh. wins the 
affections of men, and inspires them to go through 
fire and water for their leader. How far D. gave 
Saul occasion for his suspicion that he was aiming at 
the throne, we cannot now tell ; but clearly fm. an 
early time he regarded himself as that monarch's 
destined successor. When the opportunity came 
he proved himself fully equal to the dignities and 
responsibilities of the kdm. All hostile enterprises 
went down before his victorious arms, and under 
him the dominion of Isr. reached its widest limits. 
Dwelling in security, the nation was knit together, 
a people strong and free, bound in the ties of grati- 
tude and affection to their deliverer. The unstable 
throne inherited fm. Saul, he bequeathed to his s. 
established on a broad and enduring base. 

The troubles that darkened D.'s later yrs. sprang 
fm. the bosom of his own family. Engrossment 
with the affairs of state may be pleaded as his ex- 
cuse for neglect to train aright his children (cp. 
2 S. 13.). He seems to have been something of a 
doting father (2 S. 14. 1 ; 1 K. I. 6 ). Some sense of 

* Margoliouth (New Lines of Defence) points out that 
while Bathsheba wd. have been stoned had Uriah returned, 
David wd. have escaped. To give Uriah a warrior's death 
was, he thinks, the bad best that cd. be done. 



29 



Day 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Deb 



his own failing may have lent poignancy to the k.'s 
grief over the fate of his wayward s. (2 S. 18. 33 ). . 

With the exception of his s. Solomon, no k. so 
impressed the imagination of later ages with the 








Photo, PEF. 



Triumphal Arch, Jerash. See Decapolis 



greatness and splendour of his power ; and in suc- 
ceeding times the mightiest hopes of his people 
gathered round his name (Ek. 34. 23f - ; Ho. 3. 5 ). 
By no nobler title than " son of D." can the Jewish 
populace greet him whom for the time they are 
ready to acknowledge as their Messiah (Mw. 21. 9 ). 

D. was crowned in Hebron when 30 yrs. of age. 
There he reigned 7J yrs. For the next 32J yrs. his 
capital was Jrs. His reign prob. extended fm. 
b.c. 1013 to b.c. 973. 

Lit. : Smith, Intern. Crit. Com., Samuel ; Ewald, 
Hist, of Isr., Eng. tr. iii. 541!. ; Dieulafoy, David 
the King ; Deane, David : his Life and Times. 

DAY (Heb. yom). The term is used for (1) The 
24 hrs. that make a complete day (Gn. I. 5 , &c). 
(2) The hrs. of light, as contrasted with " night," 
the time of darkness (Ps. 121. 6 ). (3) The time in 
which anything occurs, e.g. the D. of calamity 
(2 S. 22. 19 ). (4) In the pi. it indicates a period, 
e.g. " the days of Herod the k. (Mw. 2. 1 ). It stands 
in the Heb. title of the bks. of Chronicles — " The 
words (deeds) of the Days." 

DAY'S JOURNEY (Gn. 31. 23 ; Ex. 3. 18 , &c). 
A day on the road means seven or eight hrs. in the 
E. Speed varies with the condition of the ground, 
of the animals, and of the travellers ; but on an 
average, 20 to 25 miles may be taken as a D.-J. 

DAYSMAN. See Mediator. 

DEACON, DEACONESS. The Gr. words 
diakonein, diakonia, diakonos, refer to service 
generally, so that the Apostle Paul finds it poss. to 
describe Christ as a " deacon of the Circumcision " 
(Rm. 15. 8 ). Those who serve the guests are deacons 
(Jn. 2. 5 ). The seven were chosen (Ac. 6. lf -), to 
" serve," diakonein, tables, that the Apostles mt. be 
free for the " service," diakonia, of the word. As a 



technical term applied to one holding office in the 
church, diakonos appears in Php. I. 1 ; I Tm. 3. 8f - 
These officials are prob. indicated by the " helps " 
of I Cor. I2. 28 . Fitness for the position implied 
what is now regarded as the char, of a Christian 
gentleman (1 Tm. 3. 8ff> ). The " women " in this 
last passage are not the deacons' wives (AV.), but 
evidently women (Deaconesses), set apart for 
similar functions (cp. Rm. 16. 1 ). Their service wd. 
consist largely in attending to the poor. In view of 
the seclusion of women in the E., the help of 
females in this work wd. be necessary. 

DEAD SEA. See SALT SEA. 

DEATH. See Eschatology. 

DEBIR (Heb. " back part " or " inmost recess," 
so applied to the Holy of Holies, in I K. 6. 5 ). 
(1) A town, called also Kiriath-sepher, " book 
town" (Jo. 15. 15 ), and Kiriath-sannah, "town of 
instruction " (Jo. 15. 49 ). Fm. a refc. in the Egpn. 
papyrus, "Travels of a Mohar " (b.c 1300), it 
appears that the name was K.-sopher, " scribe's 
town," not K.-sepher. Owing prob. to some con- 
fusion in the text, it is described as taken by Joshua 
(lo. 38f -), and again by Othniel (l5. 15f - ; Jg. I. 11 *-). 
It was in the mountain of Judah, not far fm. Heb- 
ron ; but no satisfactory identn. has been proposed. 
Guthe suggs. ed Daherlyeh, SW. of Hebron. It 
was given to the priests (Jo. 2 1. 15 ). Fm. the anct. 
name, " book town " or " scribe's town," it is 
reasonable to expect that, when it is identd., some 
remains of old-world Lit., clay tablets, or such like 
may be found here. (2) On the border of Judah 
and Benj. (Jo. 15. 7 ). There may be an echo of the 
name in T ugh ghat ed-Dabr, on the way fm. Jrs. to 
Jericho. (3) Not far fm. Mahanaim (Jo. 13. 26 ). If 



S A. I 



General View of Jerash. See Decapolis 
the rdg. Lidebir is correct, it is prob. = Lodebar 

(2 S. 9.4, I 7 .27). 

DEBORAH. (1) The nurse of Rebecca, who 
died on Jacob's return fm. Mesopotamia and was 
buried under the " terebinth of weeping " near 
Bethel (Gn. 35- 8 ). (2) The prophetess, w. of 
Lapidoth. A prose version of her exploits is given 
in Jg. 4., and a poetical in Jg. 5. She dwelt under 



130 



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Ded 



her palm " between Ramah and Bethel." She 
stirred up Barak to lead the N. tribes agst. Sisera, the 
captain of Jabin's forces. She accompanied the 
army on its victorious enterprise. There is no con- 
vincing reason why she shd. not be regarded along 
with Barak, as the authoress of the song commemo- 
rating the triumph. Attention has been called to 
the resemblance between lappldotb, " flames," and 
Baraq, " lightning," but it does not 
follow that these were names of the 
same man. 

DEBT. With the idea of pro- 
perty, of wh. some of the higher 
animals seem to have the rudi- 
ments, is bound up that of borrow- 
ing and lending. At first men 
would accommodate each other 
with individual objects, such as 
weapons, implements, or animals ; 
but in time the notion of a medium 
of exchange was evolved, and this 
came to be used in such trans- 
actions. Very early, grain seems 
to have served this purpose among 
agricultural peoples. With money 
came the idea of interest. From 
the laws of Hammurabi we learn 
that interest was expected on loans 
of grain. The Mosaic law seems to 
contemplate only loans of money. 
When a loan was obtained the 
borrower gave a pledge to his 
creditor (Dt. 24.. 10 ) ; but not every 
object might be given as a pledge 
(v. 6, &c). A frequent form of 
oppression was the retention of the 
pledge after the debt was paid (Ek. 
18. 7 " 16 ). In the ancient as in the 
mod. East, men had often to borrow 
in order to pay their taxes (Ne. 5. 4 ). 
In the days of Nehemiah interest 
was exacted at the rate of I per 
cent, per month — the rate at wh. 
the Fellahin in Pal. borrow now. 
The interest contemplated by the 
code of Hammurabi, on the lowest estimate, is nearly 
three times as much : on the higher, nearly 30 times 
as much. With interest on such a scale indebtedness 
wd. rapidly increase ; and all hope of repayment wd. 
tend to vanish. To secure his " rights," the creditor 
mt. sell the debtor or his family into slavery (2 K. 4. 1 ; 
Mw. 18. 25 ). The Isr. were strictly forbidden to take 
interest of their brethren (Ex. 22. 25 ; Dt. 23. 19 ). 

DECALOGUE. See Ten Commandments. 

DECAPOLIS (Mw. 4 . 25 , &c, Ant. XIV. iv. 4; 
BJ. III. ix. 7). This consisted of cities, originally 



for the purposes of self-defence and commerce, 
under the Governor of Syr. To each city was at- 
tached the district immediately around it, and they 
were independent of the tetrarchy or province in 
wh. they were situated. The number of cities in 
the league changed, but the name D. was retained. 
Ptolemy names 18. All were on the E. of Jordan 
except Scythopolis. 




Carved Doorway, Qanawat 

The inhabitants were mainly Greek, and their relations 
with the Jews were uniformly hostile. The ruins of temples, 
theatres, and other public buildings in Jerash, Qanawat. 
Gadara, &c. , bear witness to the greatness and splendour of 
these cities. They were centres of Hellenic culture. All 
but two of the cities named by Pliny (N.H. v. 18) can still 
be identified: Gadara, Scythopolis = Beisdn, Hippos = 
Susieh, E. of the Sea of Galilee, Damascus, Canatha= 
Qanawat, on Jebel ed-Drnze, Pella —Khirbet Fahil, on the 
E. edge of the Jordan Valley, Ger AS A =Je rash, and Phila- 
delphia. = ' a?nmdn — see Rabbah. Dium and Raphana are 
unidentd. 



DEDAN appears, 
Cush, and in 25. 



in Gn. 10. 

is a desct. 



? , as grandson of 
of Abraham, by 



ten in number, to wh. Pompey granted cert, privi- Keturah. The reference is doubtless to Arabian 
leges and immunities, constituting a confederacy tribe or tribes of whom D. was the reputed ancestor. 

131 



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Deu 



With, the Dedanites Isr. seems to have been in close 
commercial relations (Is. 21. 13 ; Jr. 25 , 23 ; Ek. 27. 20 ). 
They may have occupied the country to the S. of 
Edom (Glazer, ii. 392m). Poss. they are men- 
tioned in line 31 of the Moabite Stone Inscr. 

In Ek. 27. 15 , LXX gives Rodoi (Heb. Rodanim), an easy 
change of 1 into "). The commodities there mentioned 
were no doubt familiar articles of trade with the merchant- 
men of Rhodes. 

DEDICATION, THE FEAST OF, commemo- 
rated the reconsecration of the altar of burnt- 
offering by Judas Maccabaeus, on the 25th of 
Chisleu, B.C. 167, after its pollution by Antiochus 
Epiphanes. It lasted eight days. The time being near 
the winter solstice, Jesus natly. sought protection 
fm. the cold winds of the mountains in Solomon's 
porch (Jn. io. 22 ). The customs of the feast re- 
sembled those of the Feast of Tabernacles (2 M. 
io. 6 ), by wh. name it appears in 2 M. I. 9 . The 
Jews mt. celebrate this feast anywhere, not requir- 
ing to go up to Jrs. Every house was illuminated, 
and it was called the Feast of Lights (Ant. XII. 
vii. 7). Poss. this suggested to Jesus the claim, " I. 
am the light of the world " (Jn. g. 5 ). 

DEEP, THE (Heb. tehum ; Gr. abussos). The 
primitive Semitic idea of a vast mass of water on wh. 
the world floated (Gn. I. 2 , 7. n ,49. 25 ; Ex. i5. 5 ,&c). 
It assumed the mythological form " Tiamat " in 
the Babylonian Epic of the Creation. In NT. it 
signifies the abode of the Dead (Rm. 10. 7 ). In Rv. 
9. 1 , &c, it is rendered " bottomless pit." 

DEER. See Fallow-Deer. 

DEGREES. See Dial. 

DEGREES, SONGS OF. See Psalms. 

DELILAH. Samson's Philistine mistress, who 
treacherously wrought his undoing (Jg. 16 4ff -). 

DEMAS (a contraction of Demetrius), prob. a 
native of Thessalonica (Col. 4. 14 ; Phm. 24 ). He 
left Paul during his second imprisonment in cir- 
cumstances wh. the Apostle regarded as unworthy 
(2Tm. 4. 10 ). 

DEMETRIUS. (1) A silversmith in Ephesus, 
who made and sold silver miniatures of the famous 
Temple of Diana. The results of Paul's labours in- 
terfering with his business, he raised an uproar agst. 
him, with the assistance of his fellow-craftsmen 
(Ac. 19. 24 ). (2) A Christian named in 3 Jn. v. 12. 

DEN. (1) The dwelling-place of wild beasts, 
esp. of lions (Ps. io. 9 ; Am. 3. 4 ; Na. 2. 12 ). (2) The 
hiding-place of robbers (Jr. 7. 11 ). The limestone 
cliffs of Pal. have, fm. old time, furnished ample 
shelter for outlaw and robber, in their numerous 
caves. (3) A place in wh. Asyr. and Bab. monarchs 
kept lions (Dn. 6. 7 ). 

DENARIUS. See Money. 

DEPUTY (Heb. nitztzab). (l) A vicegerent in 
Edom (1 K. 22. 47 ). The absence of the k. may be 
stated to explain the ease of Jehoshaphat's com- 



munications with Ezion-geber. (2) A governor 
(Heb. pehah) under the Satrap in the Persian 
Empire (Est. 8. 9 ). (3) The governor of a Sena- 
torial province under Rm. (Ac. 13. 7 , 18. 12 , 19. 38 , 
RV. " proconsul "). See Roman Empire. 

DERBE, a city in Lycaonia (Ac. 14. 6 ), the for- 
tress of the robber Antipater (Strabo, p. 569), taken 
by k. Amyntas of Galatia, B.C. 27, at whose death, 
two yrs. later, it fell to the Rms. It became (a.d. 41) 
the frontier city of the Rm. province of Galatia, 
and received the name of Claudio-Derbe. The 
people still used the Lycaonian speech when Paul 
visited the district (Ac. 14. 11 ). The site is not 
identd. with cert. Ramsay conjectures Gude- 
lissen, a large mound, with remains of great an- 
tiquity, c. three miles NW. of Zosta, c. 120 miles 
SE. of Antioch (Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, 336L ; 
The Ch. in the Rm. Emp. 9 541!.). 

DESERT. See Wilderness. 

DESIRE (Heb. ablyyonah), is lit. " the caper- 
berry," the bud of a shrub common in Pal., an 
aphrodisiac. The strongly flavoured young berries 
are preserved in pickle as a relish. The idea in the 
text (Ec. 12. 5 ) seems to be that even the caper- 
berry shall fail to excite desire. 

DESTRUCTION, CITY OF. See Ir-ha- 

HERES. 

DETESTABLE THINGS. See Abomination. 

DEUTERONOMY. The bk. of Deuteronomy 
forms the conclusion of the fivefold collection 
known in the OT. Canon by the name of the Pen- 
tateuch or Torah. The name, Deuteronomium, 
taken over fm. the Gr., is the word used by the 
translators in 17. 18 , " a copy of this law," wh. they 
took in the sense of repetition, or second giving of 
the Law. In the Heb. Bible, however, the bk. is 
simply indicated, as are the other bks. of the Pnt., by 
the opening expression : " These are the words," 
or, more briefly, " Words." As a component part 
of the Pnt. it follows the thread of hist, that runs 
through the whole, opening with the situation im- 
plied at the end of the bk. of Nu., and closing with 
the death of Moses. Yet a comparison with the 
three preceding bks. shows at once that it is not a 
literary continuation of these, but forms an indepen- 
dent and self-contained work. The bk. in its open- 
ing verses purports to give an act. of " words " or 
addresses delivered by Moses beyond Jordan before 
the Israelites crossed to take possession of Canaan. 
Fm. the first verse it mt. be inferred that there is to 
follow a recapitulation of various addresses given at 
various times and at various places on the wilderness 
journey ; but vv. 3-5 give the place, the land of 
Moab, and the time, the fortieth yr. fm. the 
Exodus, at wh. the succeeding addresses were de- 
livered. And it is to be noted that the expression in 
v. 5, " began Moses to declare this law," does not 
mean that he then for the first time gave forth the 



132 



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Deu 



Law as a new thing, but rather that he "set himself 
to expound " it. And in the sequel this is the char- 
acteristic of the laws, that they are put forth in a 
homiletical manner and with a practical enforce- 
ment. The thought is present throughout that the 
ao-ed leader's work is done, and that a new era in the 
people's hist, is about to begin. But, though the 
bk. is a unity, in the sense that the situation and tone 
are the same throughout, and the style unusually 
uniform, yet the disposition of the matter is not 
such as we look for in a composition coming fm. one 
hand at one sitting. One large section in the middle 
ofthebk., embracing chaps. 1 2.-26., and constituting 
what may be called the Deuteronomic Code, is so 
homogeneous that its essential unity may be taken 
for granted. But it is preceded and followed by 
chaps, wh. have more or less a detached or frag- 
mentary char. It wd. be precarious and prob. mis- 
leading to judge anct. Oriental productions by mod. 
literary standards. The statements of the bk. itself 
(3 j 9, 22-26) ^q not warrant us to say that it pro- 
fesses, in its present form, to come fm. the hand of 
Moses. Accdgly., in the absence of direct informa- 
tion on the subject, we are left to speculation as 
to the manner in wh. any addresses and written 
materials of Moses may have been preserved, handed 
down, and embodied in the bk. wh. lies before us. 
On the one hand, it mt. be supposed that the 
" Code " was the original part of the bk., composed 
as a compend of the constitution under wh. the 
nation was to be consolidated and guided, and that 
the addresses wh. precede and follow, with the his- 
torical notes, were subsequently added as a frame- 
work or setting to the laws. On the other hand, we 
mt. suppose the addresses to have been the primary 
matter — the dying leader, solicitous for the future 
welfare of his people, insisting on the fundamental 
principles on wh. their national calling was based — 
and the laws, perhaps expanded in detail by a later 
writer, to have been expounded on those principles 
in their practical refc. to the life on wh. they were 
about to enter. It wd. seem that the writer of the 
bk., or the editor through whose hands it has come 
to us, took the latter view fm. the manner in wh. the 
person of Moses and the situation of the time are 
put in the forefront, and the tone that pervades the 
legal part as expounded by the legislator. This 
much is plain : that the stress of the bk. is laid, not 
so much on the inculcation of this or that law, or of 
the law genly., as on the enforcement of the duty 
of fidelity to the Covenant of God, and warning 
agst. the contamination of heathen worship. 

The date and mode of composition of the bk. of 
Deut. have been among the most keenly debated 
questions of criticism. Canon Driver states the 
question (Intern. Crit. Com., p. xii) as follows : 
" As a work of the Mosaic age, Deut., I must own, 
though intelligible, if it stood perfectly alone, i.e. if 



the hist, of Isr. had been other than it was, does not 
seem to me to be intelligible, when viewed in the 
light shed upon it by other parts of the OT." 
Others mt. be disposed to express the matter 
differently and say that, as a work of the Mosaic age, 
the bk. is intelligible, provided that the hist, of Isr. 
is taken as it is represented by the Biblical his- 
torians, and not as reconstructed on the basis of 
modern theories. Be that as it may, it is a fact 
that, in the prevailing school of Criticism, the com- 
position of the bk. is relegated to a period far pos- 
terior to the Mosaic age ; and this is accounted one 
of the most incontestable, as it is one of the most 
far-reaching, conclusions of Criticism. It may be 
well, therefore, in the first place, to look at the bk. 
as " if it stood perfectly alone," i.e. apart fm. any 
preconceived or pre-established scheme of hist., 
and thereafter to consider the arguments by wh. 
its actual date is claimed to be determined. 

The situation assumed by the writer of the bk. is 
plain. The people are encamped in the plains of 
Moab, ready to go in to possess the land. There is 
a pause of forty days, and the aged leader, who 
knows that he is not to cross the Jordan, takes 
occasion to deliver a series of solemn addresses, in 
wh. he recounts the leading events of the past 
wilderness journey, anticipates the vicissitudes of 
the future, and for the present gives such admoni- 
tions, warnings, and encouragements as seem fitting. 
He dwells particularly on the fact that God had 
made with them a covenant at Horeb, and insists 
on the duty wh. it implied. As to the future, he 
speaks both of the immediate task that lay before 
them, with its temptations, and also of the possi- 
bilities of the more distant time, when they shd. 
have exchanged their wandering life for that of 
a settled agricultural people, and when different 
social and national conditions shd. prevail. With 
all this in view, he recapitulates and sums up the 
statutes and ordinances wh., by Divine authority, he 
had communicated to them, forming a fairly com- 
prehensive code for guidance in the life on wh. they 
were about to enter. The code is not all-em- 
bracing : although sacrifice and ceremony are pre- 
sumed and prescribed, details of the ritual are 
omitted, it being taken for granted that the priests 
are instructed and able to give instructions on such 
matters {2^, 26. 3 , &c). One point, however, in 
regard to the worship is emphasised. When the 
people shd. have rest fm. all their enemies round 
about so that they shd. dwell in safety (12. 10 ), the 
Lord wd. choose a place out of all their tribes to put 
His name there (12. 5 ' u » 18 « 21 > 26 ), and thither they 
shd. bring their burnt-offerings and sacrifices, and 
tithes and heave-offerings, and vows and freewill 
offerings and firstlings (12. 6 ). A concession, how- 
ever, is made (vv. 20-25) 5 when their territory shd. 
be enlarged, and the place wh. God shd. choose wd. 



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be too far distant, they wd. be permitted to kill and 
eat of the herd and the flock, just as they wd. eat of 
the gazelle and the hart. That more is meant here 
than ordinary eating of food is implied in the men- 
tion of the distant sanctuary ; for, had it been 
ordinary food, it did not matter whether the place 
were near or far. Moreover, a restriction follows 
(vv. 26f.) in regard to " holy things " wh. must only 
be eaten at the central sanctuary. But the im- 
mediate and pressing duty was to destroy all the 
" places " at wh. the heathen inhabitants of Canaan 
practised their worship, to break down their altars 
and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their 
Asherim with fire, hew down the graven images of 
their gods and destroy their names out of " that 
place " (i2. 2 » 3 ). And here it is remarkable that the 
term bamah, bamoth, " high place," wh. occurs so 
frequently in the subsequent hist., is not employed, 
but only the gen. word " place," maqom, wh. has 
survived in the mod. maqam. 

In all this, one wd. say, the writer, whoever he is, 
keeps faithfully to the assumed situation ; and, if 
he is long posterior to Moses, he has imagined very 
vividly the circumstances of speaker and hearers, 
without betraying himself by anachronisms such as 
mt. have been expected in a late writer. In point 
of fact, it is not fm. internal features of the bk. itself, 
but mainly fm. a comparison with other OT. bks. 
that the main arguments are drawn for the late 
origin of Deut. ; and they form an important part 
of the wider question of the origin of the Penta- 
teuch. First of all, on a comparison of the legis- 
lative elements of the Pnt., it is maintained that 
three different statements of the law as to the place 
of worship are discoverable. Whereas in the por- 
tions known as JE. sacrifice mt. be offered anywhere 
(Ex. 20. 24 ), Deut., as we have seen, restricts it to 
a central sanctuary, and the legal system of the 
Priestly Code (PC.) is based on the idea that wor- 
ship at a central sanctuary is the sole and customary 
practice. These are assumed to mark three stages 
in the historical evolution of the law on the subject, 
from a more free to a more restricted practice. 

Turning then to the historical bks. for informa- 
tion as to the actual practice, the critics point out 
that, in the earlier period of the hist., and even after 
the Temple was built, sacrifice was offered at various 
places even by the most pious of the nation ; that 
not till the time of Josiah were the high places 
abolished and worship concentrated at Jrs. ; and 
that after the exile the restored Temple was the 
sole place of sacrificial worship. The conclusion is 
that the Code of Deut. was not in existence till 
about the time of Josiah, just as the Code of P. 
was not promulgated till the return fm. the Exile. 
To explain how the bk. came to be composed in this 
form at so late a time, it is supposed that some per- 
son or persons, grieving over the apostasy of the 



times, and esp. the existence of the high places, 
drew up a code or programme of what they believed 
to be the ideal of the national religion and worship, 
with the obj. of effecting a reform and providing an 
authoritative guide for the reformed State. Though 
not the work of Moses it was conceived in the spt. 
of the Mosaic legislation, and was such as Moses, 
had he been alive at the time, mt, have put forth ; 
and, in order to give it authority, it was put into the 
mouth of Moses, and furnished with a historical and 
hortatory setting befitting the situation of Moses 
at the close of his life. The bk. may have been 
written in the troublous times of the reign of 
Manasseh (2 K. 21.), and may have been hidden in 
the Temple ; or it may have been composed in the 
earlier yrs. of Josiah, when the reforming party saw 
the prospect of their hopes being accomplished. 
In any case it was the bk. of the Law discovered in 
the Temple in the 18th yr. of Josiah's reign (2 K. 
22. 8 ), and intimately connected with the reform. 

This act. of the origin of the bk., " if it stood 
perfectly alone," has strong attractions at the pre- 
sent time, as professing to explain by a regular pro- 
cess of development certain apparent discrepancies 
in the laws and certain apparent difficulties in 
the hist. It may be questioned, however, whether 
it gives a fair estimate of these difficulties, and 
whether it does not raise other difficulties wh., to 
some minds, are at least as serious as those wh. it 
professes to remove. It must not be forgotten 
that the glaring primary fact in the hist, of Isr. is 
not the neglect or violation of the law of centralised 
worship, but the more heinous offence of forsaking 
their Covenant God and going after other gods. 
This was the root of the worship at the high places, 
wh. was condemned by prophets long before the 
time of Josiah. As to the offering of sacrifices by 
good men elsewhere than at the central sanctuary, 
it is to be remembered that the law of JE. did not 
legalise all places indifferently (Ex. 20. 24 ), and pre- 
sumed worship at a central sanctuary (23. 14 " 17 ) ; 
that there is no record of good men frequenting the 
popular local sanctuaries, and that the code of Deut. 
itself, as we have seen, made provision for sacrifice 
at a distance fm. the sanctuary. 

But the most serious difficulties are encountered 
in the act. that is given of the composition of the bk. 
There is nothing in Deut. itself to betray a late 
writer, nor is there the least indication that any one 
in the time of Josiah had a suspicion that the bk. 
found in the Temple was not anct. and authorita- 
tive. And, when it is asserted that the writer set 
himself to compose a work in the " spirit " of Moses, 
it is pertinent to ask how he came to know the 
Mosaic legislation, if nothing hitherto existed be- 
yond the law of JE., composed, as is alleged, long 
after the time of Moses. Or, if he did write in the 
spirit of the Mosaic legislation, he must have under- 



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stood the law of JE. to point to, or to be consistent 
with, worship at a central sanctuary. In fact, 
before the time of Samuel we find Shiloh regarded 
as a central sanctuary ; it cannot be maintained 
that the Temple, when once erected, was on a level 
with the local high places ; and Hezekiah, before 
the time at wh. Deut. is said to have been written, 
attempted to do what Josiah more effectually accom- 
plished (2 K. 18. 4 ). Moreover, this so-called late 
writer not only writes in the " spirit " of Moses, but 
introduces details of hist, and law wh., though quite 
apposite in the time and situation of Moses, have 
neither point nor application for the time of Josiah, 
apparently forgetting the primary obj. with wh. he 
sat down to write the bk. When all is said in favour 
of the late writer, an uneasy feeling remains that he 
is either too clever a romancer for the time, or that 
he is setting down what he knows will mislead his 
readers ; and either supposition is hard to reconcile 
with the earnest, spiritual tone wh. pervades the bk. 
It is highly desirable, and surely it is not impossible, 
to give some act. of the origin of the bk. consistent 
with belief in the good faith and honesty of the 
writer. Is it not highly prob. that Moses, who 
had led his people for forty yrs., shd. have coun- 
selled and warned them as his end approached, and 
is it likely that any words he uttered in such cir- 
cumstances shd. have been allowed to pass im- 
mediately into utter oblivion ? We are told that 
" Isr. served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all 
the days of the elders that outlived Joshua " (Jo. 
24. 31 ). Such a period, resembling the Apostolic and 
post-x\postolic periods of the Christian Church to 
wh. we owe so much relating to the origins of 
Christianity, wd. be a time in wh. the words of the 
lawgiver, as well as " the work of the Lord that He 
had wrought for Isr.," wd. be preserved by a pious 
tradition ; and, though the times that followed 
were marked by apostasy and decline, there was not 
wanting a line of prophetic men who cherished and 
kept alive the principles of the Mosaic relg. The 
earliest writing prophets regard themselves as the 
continuators of the true national relg., and Hosea in 
so many respects resembles Deut. that Prof. Driver 
says, " In a special degree the author of Deut. is the 
spiritual heir of Hosea " {Deut. p. xxvii). May it 
not be the other way, that Hosea, a " prophet like 
unto " Moses, is only repeating and emphasising the 
teaching of the great leader ? {cp. Dt. 18. 5 with 
Ho. 12. 13 ). And, whereas critical writers find it 
necessary to postulate a Deuteronomic " school " 
of writers, who not only adopted the tone and style 
of Deut., but set themselves to revise and retouch 
older documents in the Deuteronomic " spirit," 
may it not be the case that these touches in earlier 
bks. are the echoes of the Deut. of the Mosaic age, 
and that Moses himself is the father of all the 
Deuteronomists ? Certain it is that Mosaic author- 



ship is claimed for this bk. in a much more explicit 
manner than for any other book of the Pentateuch. 

James Robertson. 

DEVIL. See Satan. 

DEW. During the dry season in Pal., when 
water is scanty, much of the vegetation owes its life 
to the dew. The west winds at evening are heavy 
with moisture fm. the sea, wh. settles in refreshing 
D. by night, and at sunrise covers plain and moun- 
tain-side with white drapery of cloud disappearing 
with the heat of day. 
For the country it is 
impossible to exag- 
gerate the import- 
ance of D. (Gn. 
27. 28 , &c; 2 S.I. 21 , 
&c). 

DIADEM. See 
Crown. 

DIAL(2K.2o. 11 ; 
Is. 38. 8 ), "the D. 
of Ahaz" (AVm. 
" degrees," RVm. 
" steps "). A D. is 
a device to tell the 
hour of the day by 
the length or direc- 
tion of the shadow 
of some object. 
Herodotus (ii. 109) 
credits the Baby- 
lonians with this 
invention. As the 
civilisation of Asyr. 
and Bab. was really 
one, Ahaz may have 
learned the use of 
the D. fm. the Asyrs. 
in his intercourse 
withTiglath-pileser. 
As there have as yet 
been found no speci- 
mens of D. we can only conjecture the appearance 
of " the D. of Ahaz." The most plausible suggn. 
is that it consisted of an obelisk set upon a pedestal 
of steps ; after mid-day the lengthening shadow wd. 
descend more and more " steps." We do not know 
the space of time indicated by " a step." 

DIAMOND (Heb. yahalem, LXX iaspis, Vlg. 
jets-pis). A precious stone, third in the second row 
on the high-priest's breastplate (Ex. 28. 18 ), sup- 
posed to be the " onyx." 

DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS. The Romans 
identd. their goddess of the woods, D., with Arte- 
mis. Even the Hellenic deity appears to have 
united several different divinities ; the slim, beau- 
tiful huntress has but little in common with the 
polymastic monstrosity worshipped in Ephesus. 




Diana of the Ephesians 



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The Asiatic goddess was really a deification of all- with Jesus. Elsewhere it occurs only in Ac, and 

sustaining Earth ; hence the many breasts with wh. there it denoted a believer in Jesus (16. 1 , &c). 

she was endowed. The image of D. was declared Once the fem. form appears, mathetria, of Tabitha 

to have come down fm. heaven (diopetes) ; a state- (9- 36 ). 

ment wh. suggs. an aerolite. This is negatived by DISEASES AND REMEDIES. Disease meets 

the fact that it was made of wood, prob. ebony us very frequently in the Bible, and in many difft. 



(Pliny, NH. xvi. 40). 



The Ephesian temple of D. was regarded as one of the 
wonders of the world ; it was 425 ft. long and 220 broad, 
and had 127 pillars of the Ionic order. . . . Pausanias in- 
forms us that D. more than the other gods was privately- 
worshipped (Paus. IV. 31. 6) : this explains the trade in 

24 



aspects. It occurs among the incidents recorded as 
biography and hist, are unrolled before us ; it is the 
motive prompting many enactments of sanitary 
legislation ; it is the subj. of warnings and threaten- 
ings to the chosen people by their prophets ; it is 



silver shrines " (Ac. 19.2-1). He mentions that the worship trie background of much deep sptl. experience : n 

of the Ephesian D. was common in the Peloponnesus. It is . . c Vj 1 1 1 , <• i 1 i 

more curious than important that the priests of D. were 1S . the ne \d where, even by the prophets of the old 

called " Essenes." dispensation, but much more by our Lord and His 

DIBLAH, poss. an error for Riblah (Ek. 6. 14 ), or Apostles, God's power over the forces of nat. is 

it may be ident. with Dibl in Upper Galilee, S. of made manifest. The outstanding fact with regard 

Tibtiin. to the attitude of the Scriptl. writers to disease, in 

DIBON. (1) A city in Moab, taken by Sihon hist, no less than in miracle, is the way in wh. they 

(Nu. 2l. 26fL ), captured later by Isr. and assigned lose sight of secondary causes, and attribute both 

to Gad ; thence called D.-Grad (32. 34 , 33- 45 ), but diseases and their cures directly to God's hand 



reckoned to Reuben (Jo. 13. 



(32.3*, 
P.). 



From the (e.g. Ex. 15. 26 ; Dt. 28. 27 ' 29 , 32. 39 ; Ps. 30. 2 , 103. 3 ). 



Moabite Stone we learn that D. had passed into One of the most striking illustrations of this point of 



Mesha's hands ; and in Jr. 48. 18 « 22 it appears as a view occurs in 2 Ch. 16. 12 , where we are told that 

Moabite city. In Is. 15. 9 it is called " Dimon." Asa " in his disease sought not to the Lord but to 

It is represented by the mod. DJbdn, a little to the the physicians " : an antithesis wh. suggts. an atti- 

N. of the Arnon, on the Rm. road, with ruins of tude towards the healing art not unlike that of the 

anct. tower, walls, cistern, &c. (2) A town occu- " Peculiar People " at the present day. 

pied by the Jews after the exile (Ne. n. 25 ), perhaps A directly contrary estimate of the physician and 

= Dimonah, in the S. of Judah (Jo. 15. 22 ). his efforts appears in the Apcr. (Sr. 38. 1 ' 15 ), where 



DIDYMUS. See Thomas. 
DIKLAH (Heb. Diqlah), s. of Joktan (Gn. io. 27 ). 
The tribe designated cannot be identd. In Aram. 



he is so praised that some have supposed that the 
writer must himself have been a physician. Here 
it is fully recognised that the physician and his 



the Tigris is Diglath. The territory of the tribe remedies are special gifts fm. God : " Then give 
may have been near that river, wh. may have given place to the physician, for God hath created him 
them their name. ... for they shall also pray unto the Lord that He 

DIMON, DIMONAH. See Dibon. would prosper that wh. they give for ease and 

DINAH, dr. of Jacob and Leah, whose seduction remedy to prolong life." 
by Shechem, s. of Hamor, was so treacherously and a very difft. view of disease was held by most other anct. 
terribly avenged by her brs. (Gn. 30. 21 , 34.), to the nations. The Babs. esp. seem to have had their lives made 

a burden to them by the many evil spts. whom they believed 
to be waiting at every turn to do them hurt. We need go 
no further than the Apcr. (Tobit) for a striking example of 
superstitious belief in evil spts., and in magical remedies for 
their discomfiture. The OT. writers, do, indeed, in rare 
instances attribute disease to evil spts. ; but even then the 
powers of evil are regarded as under God's control (1 S. 
16. 14 ; Jb. 2.4,6,7). 



grief and indignation of Jacob (34. 30 , 49. 5ff -). See 
Simeon, Levi. 

DINNER. See Food. 

DIONYSIUS, a member of the council of Areo- 



pagus, converted by Paul (Ac. 17. 34 ). Accdg. to 
Eusebius {HE. iii. 4, 10), he became bishop of 

Athens, where he is said to have suffered under Disease is in the OT. very genly. regarded as a 

Domitian (Niceph., HE. iii. 11). Others say he direct punishment for sin {e.g. Dt. 28. 21f -, &c. ; 

was beheaded in Paris, at Montmartre, " Martyr's I S. 5. ; 2 S. 24. ; Ps. I07. 17f - ; Jr. 24. 10 ). How 

Mount," c. a.d. 95 ; hence the claim that he is strongly this view was held in the time of our Lord 

St. Denys, the patron saint of France. Voluminous we learn in Jn. 9« 2 , where the disciples assume as a 

writings, dealing with angelology, &c, were pub- matter of course that sin must be the cause of the 



lished under the name of D. in the fifth cent. 

DISCIPLE. In classical Gr. mathetes meant the 
" pupil " of a philosopher, i.e. didaskalos, or teacher. 
In NT. it is applied to the followers of John the 



blind man's affliction. Christ shows them that 
God sends disease for other ends than the infliction 
of punishment. 

In Is. 38. 10 " 20 , we have Hezekiah's psalm of 



Baptist (Mw. 9. 14 , &c), and to the Pharisees, as Ds. thanksgiving " when he had been sick, and was re- 
of Moses (Jn. 9. 28 ) ; but in the Gospels esp. to the covered of his sickness." It is natl. that such crises 



chosen twelve (Mw. 10. 



&c), who were always in men's lives shd. stir them to the depths, and that 

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their gratitude for life restored shd. find expression. 
In many of the Psalms we meet with such vivid 
descriptions of physical distress that we cannot but 
regard them as the record of bodily disease, though 
they are usly. linked with the expression of mental 
suffering, either fm. the sense of sin or fm. the 
malignant enmity of foes (see Pss. 6., 22., 38., 39., 
102., 116.). The most graphic and detailed record of 
the Psalmist's disease is given in Ps. 102. (see below) ; 
and it is in this Psalm also that the contrast is most 
striking between the depression and misery of sick- 
ness and the exaltation and rapture in the contem- 
plation of the Lord, the Healer. Disease and its 
cure are described in Ps. 107. 17 " 22 as one of the great 
experiences of human life ; here, however, the 
Psalmist is not the sufferer but the onlooker. 

Of very special interest and importance are the 
diseases healed by our Lord. At the present day 
almost all the critics of the NT. are agreed that it is 
imposs. to separate the teaching of Christ fm. the 
cures He wrought. Those who do not believe in 
His supernatural origin or power maintain that the 
cures were of the same nat. as those met with at the 
present day, where a strong mental impression on 
the sufferer is effectual in at once removing the 
disease. Such cures all occur in what are known as 
functional diseases of the nervous system, that is 
diseases where no permanent change has occurred in 
the structure of the parts affected. They consti- 
tute a small proportion even of diseases affecting 
the nervous system ; and a very small fraction of the 
whole number of cases of disease. The whole tenor 
of the Gospel nars. indicates that Christ did not 



: ' select His cases 



app< 



to Him for relief 



was always responded to ; His method was appli- 
cable to " all manner of sickness and all manner of 
disease." 

Further, such cases are almost always young, and 
in the great majority of instances of the female sex. 
In no single case cured by Christ with regard to wh. 
any details are given can this view of the disease be 
regarded as a natl. explanation of the circumstances 
recorded. Severe idiocy or insanity, a " withered 
hand," congenital blindness, an " issue of blood " 
(dysentery) of twelve yrs. duration, are not the 
diseases that are curable by means of a strong 
mental impression, so far as mod. experience can 
guide us. If Christ's power over disease had been 
no more than this, the record of its exercise wd. 
surely have included a proportion of cases wh. we 
cd. recognise as belonging to the class that is curable 
in this way. If it be admitted that the nars. are 
founded on real cures, these must have been of such 
a nat. as quite transcends any mod. experience of 
the treatment of disease (see Dr. Ryle's art., Hibbert 
Journ., vol. v., Apr. 1907). 

Some of the diseases we may consider in groups : 
I. Leprosy; 2. Epidemic Diseases; 3. Fevers; 



4. Paralysis ; 5. Blindness ; 6. Demonic Posses- 
sion. Individual cases of interest wh. do not fall 
into these groups will be discussed afterwards. 

Leprosy. — This subj. is treated in such detail 
in Lv. 13. and 14. that we mt. hope to be able to 
recognise with certy. unattainable in the case of 
other maladies, what the disease is to wh. the 
descriptions and regulations apply. It is genly. 
assumed that it is the terrible disease familiar to 
us under the name of leprosy. In this country, 
happily, it is no longer to be met with, except in 
occasional imported cases ; but in the Middle Ages 
it was very prevalent, and we hear much of it still 
in foreign lands — Norway, Syria, India, China and 
the Sandwich Islands among others. The hope- 
lessness with wh. it is regarded, the terrible dis- 
figurements and mutilations to wh. it leads, and 
the dread wh. its victims inspire, have impressed 
the imagination of the world. 

There has been much confusion with regard to 
its nomenclature. Our name is directly derived 
fm. the Gr. word lepra, wh. occurs in the NT. and 
is rendered " leprosy " in our VV., and is also con- 
sistently used in LXX to represent the Heb. word 
tsara'atb, trd. " leprosy " in EV. There is no 
reason to doubt that the Gr. and Heb. terms really 
corrspded. Now we know that the term lepra was 
used by the Gr. physicians not for what we know as 
L., but for cert, forms of scaly eruption of the skin, 
diseases disfiguring, no doubt, but not seriously 
affecting the general health. The most character- 
istic of these is now known in English as psoriasis. 
St. Luke was well acquainted with the Gr. nomen- 
clature, and in all probty. used the term in the same 
sense as other physicians of the day. It is doubtful 
whether what we call L. was known to the earlier 
Gr. physicians : later, when they did become ac- 
quainted with it, they genly. designated it elephan- 
tiasis, never lepra, though among them also there 
was some confusion of names. The earliest known 
use of the word lepra to designate " true leprosy " 
occurs in a medical work of about the tenth cent. 
The evidence of nomenclature, therefore, is agst. 
the disease spoken of in the Bible being that wh. we 
now call L. 

Let us look now at the refcs. to the disease in the 
Bible. In Lv. 13., 14. no mention is made of any 
sign or symptom of the disease except its effect on 
the skin and the hair ; no allusion is made to the 
grave constitutional enfeeblement, the loss of eye- 
sight, and the mutilations to wh. it so often leads. 
A variety of appearances in the skin and the hair 
in difft. parts of the body are described, and direc- 
tions are given wh. are to be regarded as unclean and 
wh. as clean. Some of these corrspd. with appear- 
ances to be met with in L. ; some are difficult to 
reconcile with the features of that disease. In 
doubtful cases a quarantine of one or two weeks is 



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enjoined, with re-examination. The course of L. 
as it is met with at the present day is so extremely 
slow that this period cd. not be expected to produce 
any recognisable change in the features of the 
disease. One extremely curious enactment (Lv. 
I3. 12L ) is difficult to explain on any hypothesis, im- 
poss. if the disease were the L. we know, namely, 
that if a person were leprous all over, he was clean. 

The description in the same chapters of L. of 
garments (i3. 47ff *) and of bldgs. (14. 33 * 53 ), increases 
the probty. that the term tsara i ath was applied to 
a variety of appearances with a superficial resem- 
blance, rather than to the manifestations of one 
disease. Nothing is known, however, as to the 
nat. of this L, of inanimate objs. 

In the other Biblical refcs. to the disease we have 
(with one exception) no suggn. that any one dies 
of it, is disabled by it, is deprived of sight or limb ; 
no one is prevented doing anything he wishes to do, 
or that any one else is able to do, except ceremonially 
(e.g. Naaman, who, though a leper, discharged the 
onerous duties of a commander-in-chief, 2 K. 5. 1 ). 

In three passages one chartc. of the disease is 
prominent, namely, its white appearance, wh. in 
each of them is compared to snow (Moses, Ex. 4. 6 ; 
Miriam, Nu. 12. 10 ; Gehazi, 2 K. 5. 27 ). There are 
cert, forms and stages of true L. in wh. the colour 
of the affected part is somewhat paler than natural ; 
but the common and prominent change of colour is 
in the opposite direction, and there is no known 
form of the disease that cd. be described as " white 
as snow." This comparison mt. quite well apply 
to some cases of psoriasis ; and also to some other 
diseases, especially the condition known as leuco- 
derma, esp. as they are met with in the darker races. 
In leucoderma the only discoverable change is the 
loss of colour in the skin and hair of the part affected. 

The one passage wh. points to a more serious 
view of the malady is Nu„ 12. 12 , where Aaron's 
prayer for Miriam (" Let her not be as one dead, of 
whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out 
of his mother's womb ") cert, suggs. an ulcerative 
and destructive form of disease. (With regard to 
Jb. 30. 17 RVm., see below, in discussion of Job's 
disease.) 

We have no independent evidence of the exist- 
ence of true L. in Pal. in Bible times. The earliest 
classical writers who refer to it agree in regarding 
Egp. as the home of the disease, and allusions to it 
are believed to have been found in early Egpn. 
papyri. It is thus quite likely that the Isrs. may 
have known the disease in Egp, ; and poss. that they 
may have carried it with them to Pal. As we have 
seen, it cannot be clearly recognised in the Biblical 
records. 

The absence of any mention of L. by any of the 
prophets supports the idea that its importance was 
largely ceremonial. It is nowhere spoken of in the 



Bible as a type of sin, in the way so familiar in mod. 
theological writings. Even the Early Fathers use 
it much more as a type of heresy than of sin in the 
ordinary sense : the mod. view seems to have de- 
veloped during the Middle Ages, when true L. was 
very prevalent in Europe. 

It seems prob., then, that the words trd. " lep- 
rosy " (Heb. tsara'ath, Gr. lepra) were used, not of 
what we wd. call one disease, but of a group or 
family of diseases, of wh. the most striking feature 
was a skin eruption. True, L. may poss. have been 
one of them. One at least of these forms of disease 
was prob. regarded as infectious, and the preven- 
tion of its communication to others was the original 
reason for the regulations in Lv. Such a provision 
as that in I3. 12f - makes it imposs. to believe that the 
regulations were entirely directed agst. infection. 
A consideration of all the evidence makes it prob. 
that the importance of the disease was to a large 
extent due to ceremonial considerations, the mean- 
ing of wh. is very obscure to us now (see Sir J. 
Risdon Bennett, The Diseases of the Bible). 

Epidemic Diseases. — Numerous severe and fatal 
pestilences are recorded in the Bible : the fifth 
of the plagues of Egp. (Ex. 9. 1 " 7 ) was a deadly 
disease, affecting the domestic animals ; the last a 
mysterious death of the firstborn. The sins of the 
Children of Isr. in the wilderness (Nu. II. 33 , 14. 37 , 
l6. 46 ), of the Phil. (1 S. 5.), of David (2 S. 24. 13 - 16 ), 
of Sennacherib (2 K. 19. 35 ), were punished by such 
visitations. In the prophetic bks. plague and pesti- 
lence are frequently foretold as punishments for sin 
(e.g. Dt. 28. 21 ' 58 " 62 ; Jr. 14. 12 , &c. ; Ek. 5. 12 , &c. ; 
Zc. 14. 12 ' 15 » 18 ; Rv. l6. 2f -). With regard to most 
of these pestilences no details are given to indicate 
the nat. of the disease. At difft. times most of the 
acute epidemic diseases with wh. we are acquainted 
have been very fatal; bubonic plague, cholera, 
typhus fever, smallpox, measles, diphtheria, and 
many others : how many may have been prevalent 
in Bible times it is imposs. to tell. The nar. in 
Nu. II. 33 suggs. a direct causal connection between 
the quails and the pestilence ; the flesh of the birds 
may have been poisonous because they had been 
feeding on some deleterious plant ; or the insanitary 
conditions caused by so much decomposing flesh 
may have lighted some epidemic disease into un- 
wonted virulence. 

Bubonic Plague. — There is one of the pesti- 
lences, however, wh. we may with some confi- 
dence ident. The most fatal and terrible epidemic 
known to hist, was the " Black Death," wh. in about 
three yrs. in the 14th cent, of our era killed at 
least one-fourth of the population of Europe, and 
shook the framework of society to its foundations. 
It was a peculiarly virulent form of the bubonic 
plague, the plague par excellence, wh. has been re- 
sponsible for many epidemics in past cents., and in 



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our own times (since 1894) has reappeared in force 
in China, India, and elsewhere, and has even re- 
visited our own shores after more than 200 yrs.' 
absence. It is a disease primarily affecting rats and 
mice ; and in India it was known cents, before our 
era that its appearance among rats was the prelude 
to a human epidemic. Quite recently the meaning 
of this sequence has been explained, for it has been 
shown that the carrier of the infection is almost 
always one of the species of fleas that infest the rat. 
This creature leaves its host, when he dies, for some 
other animal or for a human being, carries the 
disease germs in its body, and inoculates its new 
host with them. 

Bubonic plague is the only acute and fatal epi- 
demic wh. is commonly characterised by the pre- 
sence of tumours ; these are always met with except 
in the most virulent and rapidly fatal cases. In 
I S.5., 6. we have an act. of an epidemic attended by 
tumours (5. 6 > 9 , RV.) specially noted in the milder 
cases of the disease (5. 12 ), and closely associated 
with mice (6. 4, 5 ) or rats ; the two are not dis- 
tinguishable in the anct. tongues. It seems imposs. 
to avoid the conclusion that this was the same 
bubonic plague that we know to-day. 

This identn. gives a new meaning to the epidemic 
atBethshemesh(iS.6. 19 ). The coverings of the Ark, 
particularly the " badger-skins " (Nu. 4« 5, 6 ), wd. 
form an admirable retreat for the fleas fm. the dead 
plague-rats in the Temple which were harbouring 
the disease. Those who looked into the Ark must 
have disturbed these coverings, and would attract 
the fleas, and fall victims to the plague. The 
spread of the epidemic without human intercourse 
fm. Ekron to the Israelites is thus easily and natu- 
rally explained. 

An interesting parallel has been suggd. with regard to the 
pestilence in Sennacherib's army, wh. made him abandon 
his expedition (2 K. 19.). Herodotus gives an Egpn. story of 
the same invasion, in wh. its abandonment is attributed to 
" mice of the fields, wh. ate up their quivers and their bows 
and the handles of their shields, so that being without de- 
fence of arms great numbers fell." Here, again, we have a 
fatal disease brought into connection with mice (or rats) ; 
it seems at least poss. that this too may have been bubonic 
plague of a very virulent char. 

The Plague of the Fiery Serpents. — A curious 
suggn. has been made that the serpents fm. wh. 
the children of Isr. suffered (Nu. 21. 4 " 9 ) were 
really Guinea-worms. This parasite, a kind of 
worm, occurs in various tropical countries, and has 
been known since before the Christian era to be 
prevalent in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea. It 
gains entrance to the body in drinking-water, de- 
velops to a length ranging up to three feet, and 
finds its way to the feet or legs, where it penetrates 
the skin and discharges its young externally. It 
sometimes causes much pain and inflammation, and 
if the person suffering fm. it be in a debilitated con- 
dition, may even prove fatal. The anct. Gr. name 



for the parasite, " little dragon " (SpaKovriov), 
suggs. that it was regarded as a sort of serpent ; the 
epithet fiery may very well refer to the inflamma- 
tion produced by its presence. This view of the 
passage, while it appears at first sight far-fetched, is 
yet a poss. explanation of the events recorded. 

Fevers. — The word occurs in the AV. of the 
OT. only in Dt. 28. 22 ; but the feverish state must 
have been common and familiar. In Ps. 102. the 
features of it may be clearly recognised ; the heat 
(v. 3), the loss of appetite (v. 4), the dry mouth 
(v. 9), the pain and distress (vv. 5,9), the depression 
(vv. 6, 8), the wasting (v. 11), the weakness (v. 23), 
all point to some severe febrile illness. Those who 
have suffered fm. ague in the E., where it is very 
common, say that the description may well apply 
to that disease. 

In the NT. we have " a great fever " (the Gr. 
technical term) used of the illness fm. wh. Simon's 
w.'s mr. suffered when Jesus healed her (Lk. 4. 38 ) ; 
the nobleman's s. whom He healed (Jn. 4. 46ff, )> also 
suffered fm. fever (v. 52) ; and in Ac. 28. 8 , RV., we 
read that Publius' fr. was healed by Paul of " fever 
and dysentery," again a Gr. technical term. 

Paralysis or Palsy. — Loss of power due to 
disease, temporary or permanent, of some part of 
the nervous system, is of many forms : it may be 
rapidly fatal, or it may not tend at all to the 
shortening of life. The centurion's servant (Mw. 
8. 6 ; Lk. J. 2 ), who was " grievously tormented," 
and " ready to die," was prob. suffering fm. an 
acute and progressive form of palsy ; .^Eneas (Ac. 
9- 33 ), and prob. the man brought to Christ at 
Capernaum " borne of four " (Mk.2. 3 ), were chronic 
but severe cases. The man " whose right hand was 
withered" (Mw. 12. 10 ; Mk. 3. 1 ; Lk. 6. 6 ) had 
prob. suffered fm. " infantile paralysis," wh. may 
leave one or more limbs shrunken and useless with- 
out detriment to the genl. health. We have a genl 
refce. to the healing of sufferers fm. palsy in Mw. 
4. 24 ; and again in Ac. 8. 7 . 

In the OT., Mephibosheth, who was " lame on 
both his feet " as the result of a fall at the age of 
five, prob. suffered fm. disease of the spine, with 
deformity and partial paralysis of the lower limbs 

(2 s. 4.4, 9.). 

Jeroboam (1 K. I3- 4 " 6 ) was struck suddenly with 
paralysis of the arm, wh. is said to have " dried up," 
and was healed on the intercession of the prophet. 
Such a sudden withering of a limb as is suggd. by the 
nar. does not corrsp. to any known disease. If the 
expression is merely a fig. one, to emphasise the loss 
of power, the disease may have been the curious 
condition known as catalepsy, where a limb remains 
rigid in the position in wh. it happens to be placed, 
and cannot be moved by the exercise of the will. 

Blindness. — Diseases of the eyes are extremely 
common in the E. at the present day 5 and fm, the 



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frequent refcs. to blindness in the OT., and the 
number restored to sight by our Lord (Mw. n. 5 ; 
Lk. 7. 21 , besides individual cases), we may be sure 
that they were so also in anct. times. In no case 
mentioned in the Bible can we be sure what form of 
disease was the cause of the blindness. The dim- 
ness of age referred to in Gn. 27. , 1 , 48 . 10 ; 1 S. 3- 2 ; 
Ec. 12. 3 , is usly. due to cataract. 

Demonic Possession. — The belief in the direct 
causation of disease of many kinds by evil spts. 
was deep-rooted among the Jews in our Lord's 
time, as is clear fm. Rabbinical lit. An exami- 
nation of the nars. regarding demoniacs in the 
NT. shows that the term is used in a much more 
limited sense. The demoniac in the synagogue at 
Capernaum (Mk. 1. 23 - 26 ; Lk. /j.. 33 " 35 ) was excited, 
aggressive, without self-control ; he fell down (Lk.) 
with a loud cry and violent movements (Mk.). At 
the present day his malady wd. be described as 
epileptic insanity — one of the most dangerous and 
uncontrollable forms of mental disorder. The 
Gadarene demoniac (Mk. 5. 1 - 17 ; Lk. 8. 26 " 37 ), or 
demoniacs (Mw. 8. 28 ' 34 ), were dead to all social in- 
stincts and restraints ; restless, noisy, violent, prone 
to inflict injuries upon themselves, and dangerous 
to others. Their disease wd. now be called acute 
mania. 

In both these nars. one of the most remarkable 
features is the way in wh. the demoniacs bear testi- 
mony to Christ's mission, and the way in wh. Christ 
instantly silences that testimony. To this further 
refc. must be made. 

The demoniac boy (Mw. 17. 14 - 20 ; Mk. 9. 14 - 29 ; 
Lk. o,. 37 " 43 ) had been affected fm. infancy, was dumb, 
and suffered fm. severe epileptic fits, whose symp- 
toms (the cry, the fall, the foaming mouth, the 
grinding teeth, the convulsive movements followed 
by stillness with deep unconsciousness) are faithfully 
narrated. This boy wd. now be called an epileptic 
idiot. 

In the Acts of the Apostles we read of a " damsel 
possessed with a spirit of divination " wh. " came 
out " at the bidding of the Apostle Paul (Ac. 
16. 16 " 18 ) ; she appears to have been harmlessly and 
mildly demented ; and of the man at Ephesus " in 
whom was the evil spt.," who turned upon and 
routed the " seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew," when 
they tried to exorcise the demon in the name of 
Jesus (Ac. 19. 13 " 16 ), he must have been a dan- 
gerous lunatic. 

The dr. of the Syro-phcenician woman (Mw. 
15. 21 - 28 , &c), the dumb demoniac (Mw. 9 32 - 34 , &c), 
and the blind and dumb demoniac (Mw. 12. 22 " 24 , 
&c), were prob. suffering fm. congenital mental 
defect, and wd. now be called idiots or imbeciles. 

The other refcs. to demoniacs in the Gospels and 
the Acts furnish no particulars wh. enable us to 
ident, the form of disease j but we may safely 



assume that in all it was a disorder severely disturb- 
ing the minds of the sufferers. One feature of the 
cures stands out prominently ; other demoniacs, 
like those of Capernaum and Gadara, bore witness to 
Christ's Messiahship, and were also at once silenced 
by Christ (Mk. i. 34 , 3 . llf - ; Lk. 4. 41 ). This consis- 
tent testimony of the demoniacs to Christ's mission 
is no less remarkable than His response to it. How 
differently He receives such a confession fm. His 
disciples! (Mw. 14. 33 , 16. 15 - 17 ; Jn. I. 49 ). The 
other features of demonic possession, so far as they 
are recorded, may be explained by various forms of 
mental disorder with wh. we are familiar to-day. 
A repeated and distinct proclamation of Christ's 
office and authority by such witnesses is so surprising, 
so unlike what we shd. expect of the insane, that it 
seems to demand some further explanation. May 
we conclude with Alexander {Demonic Possession) 
that it was a deliberate attempt to frustrate 
Christ's mission by its premature proclamation, and 
that it was "due to demonic inspiration " ? 

Some of the individual cases of disease may be 
shortly considered. 

(1) Saul. — The disease wh. afflicted his later yrs. 
wd. now undoubtedly be called melancholia, or 
severe mental depression. The outbursts of homi- 
cidal impulse (1 S. l8. 10f -, &c.) may poss. indicate 
an epileptic element in addition to the melancholia. 
The soothing influence of music and of cheerful 
companionship was for some time effectual in 
keeping his disorder in check. 

(2) "The Shunammite's Son (2 K. 4. 18 - 37 ).— The 
disease of wh. the boy died was prob. either sun- 
stroke or very acute meningitis. 

(3) Jehoram (2 Ch. 2i. 14 " 19 ).— The features of 
the disease corrsp. to those of a severe chronic 
dysentery, prob. succeeding an acute epidemic of 
the disease (v. 14). 

(4) Hezekiab (2 K. 2c 1 * 7 ; 2 Ch. 32. 24 ; Is. 38.). 
— The only definite indication we have of the nat. 
of the disease is that given us by the prophet Isaiah 
when he said : " Let them take a lump of figs and 
lay it for a plaister upon the boil and he shall re- 
cover." The severity of the disease, and its almost 
fatal issue, show that it cannot have been an ordi- 
nary boil. By some it has been supposed to be a 
case of bubonic plague, and connected with the 
pestilence wh. routed Sennacherib's army (vid. 
supra). A carbuncle, a disease similar to a boil but 
much more severe, and not unfrequently fatal, 
seems to corrsp. better with the facts given to us ; 
it is usually a single swelling, as Hezekiah's appears 
to have been, whereas in plague there are almost 
always several distinct tumours. The local treat- 
ment, by means of a poultice, is not unlike what 
mt. be used to-day. 

(5) 7°b- — Prominence is given to the skin erup- 
tion (2. 7 , 7. 5 , 30. 30 ) : the use of the "potsherd" 



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(2. 8 ) prob. indicates either intense irritation, or 30. 14 " 16 ), the balm of Gilead (not certainly identd. 

much scaly exudation in connection with it. It Jr. 8. 22 , 46. 11 ), and perhaps the caper-berry (Ec. 

greatly changed his appearance, and made him 12. 5 RV.), are the only individual drugs specified, 

loathsome to look upon (2. 12 , J. 5 RVm., 19. 17 No doubt the spices wh. are frequently mentioned 

RVm. 2 ). There are many indications, however, that were used not only as perfumes and condiments, 

it was not merely a skin disease, but affected deeper but for medicinal purposes also. 

parts (2. 5 , 19. 20 , 30. 17 ) ; there was emaciation (16. 8 , Of external applications we read in Is. I. 6 (dress- 

17. 7 ) ; sleeplessness (7. 3L ), and fearful dreams (v. ing and ointment), 38. 21 (fig poultice) ; Lk. io. 34 

14) ; depression and hopelessness (3., &c). There (dressing, oil and wine). We have also a refc. to 

is an anct. belief that Job's disease was true leprosy ; the treatment of a broken limb in Ek. 30. 21 , where it 

this wd. corrsp. to many of its features. The RVm. is clear that the importance of fixing the injured 

of chap. 30. 17 , " my bones drop away fm. me," is part in order to effect reunion of the broken bone 

much more appropriate to leprosy than to any was well known. 

other disease. This is, however, too doubtful a Our Lord's miraculous cures were often wrought 

foundation to establish the conclusion, esp. as the " with a word " (Mw. 8. 16 RV., 15. 22 - 28 ; Jn. 4. 46-53 , 

Heb. text is here uncertain. &c), but perhaps more often He laid His hands 

(6) Nebuchadnezzar (Dn. 4.) suffered fm. the on the sick (Mk. 6. 5 ; Lk. 4. 40 , &c), or other- 
variety of insanity known as lycanthro-py, in wh. the wise touched them (Mk. I. 31 * 41 , &c.), and the 
sufferer believes himself to be one of the lower popular belief in the virtue of contact was very 
animals ; for he appears to have imagined himself strong (Mk. 6. 56 ). On three occasions we are told 
an ox. His being " driven fm. men " (v. 33) may that He also used saliva (Mk. y. 3B , 8. 23 ; Jn. 9. 6 ) : in 
indicate that he was violent and dangerous. the last instance earth in addition ; perhaps it was 

(7) Herod A grip-pa I. (Ac. 12. 23 ). — The same for this reason that He directed the man to wash in 
event is recorded by Josephus, who does not mention the Pool of Siloam. 

worms, but says that Herod was seized by sudden In the cures recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 

and violent pain in the belly, wh. lasted for five days there is a similar variety. Contact by laying on of 

before he died. The two nars. together make it the hands or otherwise is mentioned in some cases, 



prob. that intestinal worms led to perforation of not in others. In chap. 19 



nf. 



read that gar- 



the bowel and peritonitis (or inflammation of the ments wh. had been touched by Paul were the 

coating of the bowels). This is an intensely painful means by wh. cures were wrought ; and fm. chap, 

form of disease ; but consciousness is usly. retained 5- 15 we learn that the shadow of Peter was regarded 

till very near the end, as fm. Josephus' act. seems to as possessing the same virtue. R. A. Lundie. 

have been the case here. DISPERSION. See Israel. 

Remedies. — The refcs. to those who prepared DISTAFF. See Spinning. 

and administered remedies in the OT. are few. DIVINATION. This may be explained as the 

We are told of the physicians in Egp. who did the pretended art of obtaining a kge. of the secret 

work of embalming bodies (Gn. 50. 2 ). Jb. 13. 4 counsels of the gods, esp. with regard to the future, 

and Jr. 8. 22 both make refc. to the calling of the by means of signs and omens ; and also in many 

physician. Asa's employment of physicians has cases as the means of counteracting destined evils 

already been referred to. Fm. Ex. 21. 19 we may by the use of spells and charms ; and, by similar 

infer that the healer of injuries received a reward for methods, of bringing evil upon others. Egp. and 

his work. " The art of the apothecary " is men- Bab. were to the anct. world the original sources of 

tioned in Ex. 30. 25 ' 35 , 37- 29 ; and one of his pro- all such kge. and practice, and in each of these there 

ducts in Ec. io. 1 ; but he was rather a perfumer was a considerable development, though fm. difft. 

(as in RV.) than an apothecary as we understand bases and in difft. lines. In Egp. the start was fm. 

the word. In almost all the passages where oint- the idea of the divine unity. Then came the per- 

ment is mentioned, it is used as a perfume and a sonification of the divine powers in a hierarchy of 

luxury, not as a curative application. The only sptl. beings to wh. man by prop, means mt. ap- 

exceptionis in Is. I. 6 . proach, and wh. by suitable rites he cd. control. 

In our Lord's time physicians seem to have been In Chaldea, on the other hand, the beginning was 
more familiar figs, in society, as we may infer fm. that idea of superstitious naturalism or fetichismwh. 
the currency of the proverb, " Physician, heal thy- peoples all nature with spts. in man's image, and to 
self"(Lk. 4- 23 ), and the "manyphysicians" who had wh. worship, consisting of enchantments and con- 
treated the woman with dysentery (Mk. 5 , 26 ) . The jurations, must be paid. In the end, however, little 
only one who is known to us by name is Luke diffc. existed between the methods practised in Egp 



(Col. 4."). 



and Bab., and in each case the result was the same ; 



Of drugs or other methods of treatment in use the priests got into their hands all the functions of 
we have very scanty record. The mandrake (Gn. communication with the unseen world, they be- 

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came sorcerers, and as superstition magnified the 
powers to wh. they made pretensions, they soon 
attained a despotic pre-eminence over the people, 
whom they bound in the bonds of superstitious 
fear. All the ks. of Bab. consulted diviners and 
awaited omens. The records of Sargon I. tell of 
these consultations, and at the head of each para- 
graph in his hist, we find the omen for the day. In 
Egp. the bks. of magic belonged to the king, and 
were used by the priests of the sacred college, who 
were called when their assistance was thought 
needful. Amongst the Hebs. we do not find any 
trace of an original development. Whatever they 
possessed or used of magic art they either brought 
with them as part of the original family inheritance 
fm. Bab., or borrowed fm. the Egpns. and the Cans., 
who also were given to all kinds of D. and necro- 
mancy (Dt. 18. 11 ). The power and wealth that 
such pretensions brought soon attracted those who 
were desirous of such things, and thus we find that 
fm. very early times there were societies or guilds of 
the " initiated," who were known by various names. 
These are sometimes merely of gen. import, telling 
only of the kge. or wisdom of those who bear them, 
at other times they are an index to the pretended 
sources of sptl. illumination or to the methods of 
the soothsayer. 

Among the general class distinctions we find that 
of chachamlm both in Egp. and Bab. (Ex. 7. 11 ; Dn. 
5. 11 ). This word means wise men, a name wh. 
simply designated their superior learning, but with 
wh. vulgar superstition associated a supernatural 
power, wh. these men seem to have been ready 
enough to admit. Of a similar import is the word 
yidde'ontm (Lv. 19. 31 , 20. 6 ), wh. means the knowing 
ones or wizards, and wh. seem to be used to indi- 
cate all who by some means or other could reveal 
the future. The qosemtm (Dt. 18. 14 ) also, though, 
in the stricter sense, they may have belonged to the 
class of astrologers or magi, and although their 
name is connected with " cutting," either in the 
sense of " decreeing " fm. their observations, or fm. 
the practice of cutting their bodies (1 K. 18. 28 ), gave 
general name to the practice of D. as we find in 
1 S. 28. 8 . The chartumlm mentioned in both Egp. 
and Chaldea (Ex. 7. 11 ; Dn. I. 20 ) were originally 
the sacred scribes and priests of Egp. Their 
name has been variously derived fm. the Egpn. for 
" wonder-workers " or " bearers of sacred spells," 
and fm. the Semitic for " a pen." They were in 
the way of getting greater learning than those 
around them, and were not slow in using it for their 
own advantage and credit. Jannes and Jambres 
(2 Tm. 3. 8 ) prob. belonged to this class, as each of 
their names is compounded with the Egpn. for 
" scribe." As a rule the working of the charm or 
spell was understood to depend on the pronouncing 
of certain formulae, and to those who acted this part 



the name of kashshaphlm or mekashsba-phlm was 
given (Ex. 7. 11 ; Dt. 18. 10 ). The word is connected 
with praying and liturgical worship, and doubtless 
to those who were responsible for this we owe the 
multitude of hymns and spells that have been dug 
up in Egp. and Bab. It appears that women were 
admitted into this guild (Ex. 22. 18 ). Every rela- 
tionship to the mysterious was valuable to the sor- 
cerer, and as serpents were worshipped in a great 
part of the anct. world, and as ability to control 
them was an indisputable proof of Divine power, 
there arose guilds of enchanters or menachesh'im 
(2 K. 17. 17 , 21. 6 ; Ps. 58. 5 ), who were able to render 
them harmless and obedient. This was chiefly 
done by the power of music, and prob. also by the 
use of some hereditarily acquired secret. A similar 
influence was exercised over scorpions. The obser- 
vation of the heavens was a frequently sought guide, 
and various sects of astrologers interpreted its 
signs. In Isaiah (47. 13 ) we read of " observers of 
the heavens," " star gazers," and " prognosticators 
fm. the new moons," and this class included the 
NT. magi (Mw. 2. 1 ). They watched the con- 
junctions and oppositions of the stars, their posi- 
tions in rising, at the zenith, and when setting, and 
so cast horoscopes. Bab. esp. was devoted to such, 
and among the tablets fm. Bab. there is a set of 
seventy dated B.C. 1600, giving good and bad pre- 
sages, and the ruling body in the heavens for every 
day in the yr. Prob. with the astrologers we ought 
to class the me'oriim (2 K. 21. 6 ; Mi. 5. 12 ), though 
the name has been variously interpreted. AV. 
regards them as " observers of times," auspicious 
for travel, trade, &c. Some derive the word fm. 
'anan, to cover, and so connect them with " covert 
or hidden " arts, or, to cloud over ; and so make 
them soothsayers who predicted times fm. obser- 
vation of the clouds ; while others again connect it 
with the eye, l ain i so that they become " fascinators 
with the eye," or have a connection with the " evil 
eye " in wh. there was a universal belief in these 
days (Dt. 15. 9 ; Mw. 20. 15 ). LXX is inclined to 
regard them as " observers of words," and that this 
was also a means of D. we can see in Gn. 24. 14 ; 
1 S. 14. 9 - 10 ; I K. 20. 33 . 

Observations of various other kinds were made to 
obtain guidance in action. In Ezekiel (21. 21 ) we 
have an example of belomancy, or D. with arrows.* 
Jerome explains this as the drawing of an arrow fm. 
a quiverful, each of wh. had the name of a city 
written upon it. Not unlike this was rabdomancy, 
or D. by rods (Ho. 4. 12 ). It was an appeal to Allat, 
who was the " lady of the rod," and in practice 
short pieces of stick with the bark on the one side, 
and bare on the other, were used. They were 
thrown in the same way as dice, and the turning up 



* See illustration Asnapper, where the king holds the 
divining- arrow in his hand. 



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of the white side was considered a good omen. In 
much the same manner the Arab to-day writes 
upon sticks " God bids," and " God forbids," and 
draws. We have also D. by cups (Gn. 44~ 5 ), a 
system still in use amongst the Arabs. The " in- 
itiated," by means of the radiation of the light on 
the water in the cup, is enabled to see in it, and 
to describe the actual scene regarding wh. kge. is 
sought. In sacrifices too the liver was examined 
(Ek. 2 1. 21 ; Heb.), and success or failure determined 
accdg. to its healthy or unhealthy condition. The 
consultation of oracles (2 K. i. 2 ; Is. 41. 21 " 24 , 44. 7 ) 
and teraphim (1 S. 15. 23 ; Ek. 21. 21 ; Zc. io. 2 ) may 
have been carried through in any or all of these 
ways. Dreams also were sought (1 So 28. 6 ), and 
their interpretation was a subject of systematic 
study (Dt. I 3 . 2 -3; Jg. 7 .i3). 

Very much akin to the consultation of the spts. of 
nature or of minor deities, but still very different, 
was the conjuring of the spts. of the dead or necro- 
mancy, commonly designated the " having of 
familiar spts." The Heb. word, 'obh, originally 
meant a skin bottle (Jb. 32. 19 ), wh. cd. be inflated 
by the wind. It was transferred to such magicians 
as were supposed to be controlled by some " sptl. 
afflatus " (Lv. 20. 6 ), and thence to the spts. them- 
selves, whose presence was the supposed cause of 
inspiration. In OT. we are told that they " chirped 
and muttered " (Is. 8. 19 ), and in NT. they are 
named " spts. of Python " (Ac. 16. 16 ), fm. wh. we 
understand that they spoke with a deep or sup- 
pressed voice, and so we may infer that a good deal 
of their power depended on ventriloquism. The 
" Witch of Endor " is named " the mistress of a spt. 
by wh. the dead are conjured " (1 S. 28. 7 ), and her 
case is the only one in OT. in wh. we see anything 
of the art in operation. 

The NT. shows us that this superstition still 
existed among the Jewish people in the time of 
Christ (Lk. n. 19 ) ; and elsewhere in the Rm. world, 
in view of the prevailing scepticism toward the 
Greco-Roman pantheon, it was natural that light 
shd. be sought where it professed to shine. Simon 
Magus (Ac. 8. 9 " 11 ) was thus enabled to carry on a 
lucrative trade ; so was Elymas the sorcerer (Ac 
I3- 6 " 8 ), and other Jews (Ac. 19. 13 ). To the extent 
of the practice we have ample testimony in the 
statement of the value of the bks. of D. belonging to 
one community (Ac. 19. 19 ). 

The amount of reality behind the pretensions of the magi- 
cian has been variously estimated. The synagogue and the 
early Church regarded such powers as real and attributed 
them to infernal or satanic agency, and advocates of this 
view have in modern times brought forward as proof of it 
the confessions of converted Esquimaux and Indians, who 
declared that they had acted under the control of a super- 
natural power with wh. they lost contact on conversion. A 
contrary view is that it is altogether trickery and fraud on 
the one hand, and superstition and excessive credulity on 
the other. To us it seems, however, that while in the main 
issue — revelation fm. the unseen world — all is fraud and 



imposture, the sorcerer did use and manifest powers with 
wh. the people were unacquainted. We have mentioned 
ventriloquism, and we receive confirmation of -its use fm. 
stories of speaking statues, while there was doubtless also a 
kge. of mesmerism, telepathy, and allied forces, wh. science 
is once again revealing, and wh., but for the spread of edu- 
cation, wd. be as incomprehensible now as informer days. 

Considering the part played by these agencies in the 
Semitic world, the manner of their treatment by the Bible 
is remarkable. Never once are they treated as powers that 
have in them any reality that is to be feared. In this it 
stands in striking contrast to all other holy books. The 
hymns of Bab. and Egp. are all prayers agst. magical 
powers. The Koran treats charms and incantations as 
having power to produce evil consequences ; while the books 
of rabbinical Judaism are saturated with this superstition. 
They teach that hurtful demons may be seen ; that life, 
children, wealth, and wisdom depend on the stars ; that 
change of name may alter one's fate (Gn. 17.5-6) ; that 
amulets are efficacious agst. scorpions and serpent bites, 
agst. bleeding at the nose, and a mad dog. Yet in the 
whole Bible there is not a single prayer for protection agst. 
the powers of sorcery. So far as life and action are con- 
cerned, its teaching is that the results of these things are 
illusive. When we study the most tangible of all examples 
— that at Endor— we see this. The witch at the best mani- 
festly depended on skilled acting, and Saul was expected to 
see nothing with his own eyes. Something unusual, however, 
did occur — unusual even to the woman — for that the raising 
of Samuel was something of a kind she had never before ac- 
complished, we can see by her consternation, wh. was even 
greater than that of Saul (1 S. 28. a2 ). Her power came far 
short of that night's results. But though to the authors of 
the Bible the pretensions of sorcery are baseless, they un- 
hesitatingly condemn its practices (Ex. 22. 18 ; Is. 65. 4 ; Ek. 
13. 7 ; Gal. 5.20 ; Rv. 9. 21 ) ; and prophet and king in Isr. 
were expected to stamp it out. In Egp. equally hard things 
were said about it, as e.g. that it was " a villainy worthy of 
death" ; but there the offence was agst. Pharaoh and the 
interests of the privileged class. In Isr. the offence was agst. 
God. Witchcraft was rebellion (1 S. 15. 23 ) as being an 
appeal to a supposed power alien to God, a false system of 
ascertaining the Divine counsels, an abandonment of the true 
oracle wh. was open to faithful Isr. (Jg. i.M 1 . ; 2 S. 2. 1 ; Ps. 
28. 2 ) but closed to the unfaithful (1 S, 28. 6 ). It was allied to 
idolatry, and consequently death was the penalty on all who 
professed the use of sorcery. Such men were not only the 
most shameless and unscrupulous of impostors and deceivers, 
but for their own material interests they were antagonistic 
to all truth, and besides, the crimes that were perpetrated 
in all lands on account of their teaching and influence 
justified the extreme penalty. 

W. M. Christie. 

DIVORCE. See Marriage. 

DIZAHAB (Dt. i. 1 ). Burckhardt (Syria, 1822) 
and others have suggested Mina edh-Dhahab, be- 
tween Ras Muhammad and 'Aqaba : but cert, 
identn. is imposs. 

DODANIM (Gn. io. 4 ), s. of Javan. Instead of 
D. the Sam. and the LXX read Rodanim and 
Rodioi respectively ; although the change is easy 
in the square character, it is not so in the Sam., but 
is easiest of all in the " angular script." wh. pre- 
ceded it. The reading of the LXX is preferable 
on diplomatic grounds. The Rhodians, moreover, 
as great traders, wd. early be known in Pal. 

DODO. (1) Fr. of Eleazar, one of David's 
" mighty men " (2 S. 23. 9 ). (2) Fr. of Elhanan, 
another of David's worthies (2 S. 23. 24 )„ (3) Fr. of 
Tola, the judge who succeeded Abimelech (Jg. io. 1 ). 

The first of these ought to be read " Dodai " ; so LXX 
and Jos. 



143 



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DOEG (i S. 21. 7 , 22. 9ff -), an Edomite, chief of 
Saul's herdsmen — Gratz reads haratzim, " runners," 
for haro'im, " herdsmen " — who told Saul of 
David's kindly entertainment by the priests at 
Nob ; and finally, when the guards shrank fm. the 
sacrilegious crime, executed Saul's impious order, 
slaughtering the priests and all connected with 
them. 

DOG. The neighbours of Isr. on the SW. and 
NE., the Egpns. and Asyrns., made use of the D. in 
hunting. Josephus {Ant. IV. viii. 9) assumes that 
the D. was employed in Isr. fm. early times, both in 
hunting and in guarding the sheep. The only 
notice of this in Scrip, is in Jb. 30. 1 . The gen. 
attitude of the Jew to the D. was one of contempt 
(Ex.22. 31 ; Dt. 23. 18 ; Ec. 9. 4 ). They, however, 
performed a function of the greatest value, as they 
do to this day in Eastern cities, devouring refuse 




Types of Egyptian Dogs 

thrown into the streets, wh., but for their scaveng- 
ing, mt. breed a pestilence (2 K. 9. 10,36 ). The 
three breeds of D. in Pal. to-day are the Kurdish, 
shaped like the collie, but with reddish hair ; a 
larger D. resembling the mastiff ; and the street, 
or pariah D., smaller than either. The howling of 
these last, in the streets after nightfall, is often 
dismal in the extreme (Ps. 59. 6 * 14 ). 

Children in the East often make pets of the 
little, dogs, even taking them into the houses of their 
parents, so that they may well eat of the crumbs 
falling fm. the table (Mk. J. 21t , where the Gr. 
word is kunaria, "little dogs"). Soon, however, 
they outgrow this kindness, and must resume their 
life on the streets. 

DOR, a city founded by the Phoenicians (Jos. 
Fit. 8 ; Contra Af. ii. 10), conquered by Joshua 
(11. 2 , 12. 23 ), assigned to Manasseh in the territory 
of Issachar (17. 11 , Ant. V. i. 22, the W. boundary 
of Manasseh). The city is distinguished fm. the 
na-photh, " heights " of D. (Jo. II. 2 , 12. 23 ). These 
were prob. the W. and SW. slopes of Carmel, D. 
being represented by the ruin Tantura, on the 
adjoining coast. The inhabitants held out agst. 
Manasseh (17. 11 ), but were tributary to Solomon 



(1 K. 4. 11 ). The town played some part in later 
Jewish hist. {Ant. XIII. vii. if. ; xii. 2 ; XIV. 
iv. 4 ; XIX. vi. 3). 

DORCAS is the LXX equivalent of Heb. Tzebi, 
Aram. Tabitha, " a roe " or " gazelle " (Dt. 12. 15 , 
&c). It occurs as a personal name (Ac. 9.). D. was 
evidently a woman of means, who added value to the 
gifts of her charity by personal labour. Her raising 
fm. the dead was an illustration of the miraculous 
power granted to Peter. Her memory and influ- 
ence are perpetuated in the Christian Church by 
numerous " Dorcas " societies. Locally her name 
is commemorated by an institution in Jaffa, called 
by her Aram, name, the "Tabitha School," for the 
education and care of poor girls. 

DOTHAN (Gn. 37. 17 ; 2 K. 6. 13 ). About five 
miles SW. of Jeriin, on the side of an anct. highway 
f m. Esdraelon to the coast, lies the mod. Tell Dothan, 
a considerable mound with ruins, cisterns, and a 
spring. The plain and neighbouring slopes fur- 
nish excellent pasture. This is prob. the scene of 
Joseph's sale, and of Elisha's marvellous preservation 
fm. the Syr. 

DOVE. The D. is one of the most plentiful 
wild birds of Pal. There are several species, all 
known to the Arb. as Hamam. Wady Hamam, 
"valley of doves," is a common name, where, in the 
caves, doves are specially numerous (Jr. 48 , 28 ). It 
appears early in Scrip. (Gn. 8. 8 ), and is the only 
bird specified for sacrifice (Lv. 14. 21 ). It is used as 
a term of endearment (SS. 2. 12 ) ; and as a type of 
harmlessness (Mw. io. 16 ) ; but also of silliness (Ho. 
7. 11 ). Its powers of long flight were well known 
(Ps. 55. 6 ; Ho. II. 11 ). Tame doves are taught to 
fly into the air at a given signal, and after circling 
there, to alight upon their master's head, shoulder, 
or hand. This may have suggd. to the Evangelists 
the beautiful comparison of the descent of the Holy 
Ghost upon Jesus' head to that of a D. (Jn. I. 32 , &c). 

What was meant by Doves' dung it is impossible 
now to say (2 K. 6. 25 ). Prob. it denoted some kind 
of seed. There is no known instance of lit. Doves' 
dung being eaten, even in famine. 

DOWRY. See Marriage. 

DRAGON is the Eng. equivalent in AV. of 
several Heb. words and one Gr. (1) Tannim, fem. 
tannoth, pi. of tan (Is. 13. 22 , &c), the name of 
an animal that howls in waste places. RV. trs. 
" jackals." More prob. " wolves " are intended. 

(2) Tannim, in Ek. 29. 3 , 32. 2 , is perhaps a mistake 
for tannin, as evidently the Egpn. crocodile is meant. 

(3) Tannin, pi. tanninim (Gn. I. 21 , AV. "whales," 
RV. " sea-monsters " ; Is. 27. 1 , &c). While genly. 
it seems to denote some monster of the deep, it 
is also used of serpents (Ex. 7. 9 , &c). (4) Gr. 
Drakon, the monstrosity of Rv. 12 3 , &c, shaped like 
a serpent (20. 2 ), is prob. a development from the 
serpent of Gn. 3. 1 , &c. 



144 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dre 



DRAGON WELL. See En-rogel. 

DRAM, a weight, and then a coin, approxi- 
mately worth £i (Ez. 2. 69 ; Ne. 7™ ff -, RV. 
" Daric "). See Money. 

DREAMS. Accdg. to the view clearly assumed 
throughout Scrip., that no region or condition of 
human consciousness is beyond the influence of the 
Spirit of God, the Hebs. believed that intimations 
of the Divine will mt. come to men in dreams (Gn. 
20. 3 , 28. 12 ; Mw. I. 20 , &c). Certain dreamers are 
indeed condemned, not, however, because of their 
dreams, but because they are false prophets (Dt. 
I 3- 2ff "5 J r - 23. 25ff -). It is consonant with the 
Scripl. conception of the dignity of man, that 
greater importance is attached to the conscious 
operation of the human faculties. It is almost ex- 
clusively in the earlier times that Ds. are used as the 
medium of revelation (Gn. 15. 1 , &c). In NT. 
they are used only to give direction in circumstances 
of difficulty or peril (Mw. 2. 13 ; Ac. 18. 9 , &c). 
While the " interpretation of Ds. belongs to God," 
the bulk of the Ds. recorded in OT. were granted to 
men beyond the pale of Isr., e.g. to Abimelech (Gn. 
20. 3 ), to Laban (31. 24 ), to the chief butler and baker 
(40. 5 ), to Pharaoh (4i. lfL ), to the Midianites (Jg. 
7. 13 ), and to Nebuchadnezzar (Dn. 2. 1 ) ; and in NT. 
to the Magi (Mw. 2. 12 ), and to Pilate's w. (27. 19 ). 
The experience recorded of Jacob at Bethel, and of 
Solomon at Gibeon (Gn. 28.' llff -, cp. Ho. 12. 4 ; I K. 
3. 5ff -), may indicate an expectation, that to one 
sleeping in his sanctuary special revelations mt. be 
made by the deity. While Ds. are recognised as a 
means for Divine communication with men, we have 
also a rational suggn. of their cause : " a D. cometh 
through the multitude of business " (Ec. 5. 3 ). To 
this day much importance is attached to Ds. in the 
E. Mohammed is reported to have given rules for 
behaviour after good and bad Ds. He declares 
that the truest dream is the one you have about 
daybreak (Mishkat, XXI. c. 4). 

DRESS. (1) Material— -The first record of the 
use of clothing tells us it was made of the skins of 
animals (Gn. 3. 21 ), and till the present day such has 
remained common among the poorer classes. In 
Syr. we see the jellahln with sleeved jackets made of 
skins, the hair or wool being on the inner side. 
Weaving was early introduced. The use of tents 
(Gn. 4. 20 ) implies this, and the most convenient 
material was hair-cloth, of wh. there is also early 
mention (Ex. 26. 7 , 35. 6 ). As used by the Arabs 
to-day it is mostly of black goats' hair, waterproof, 
and almost indestructible. The sack-cloth of wh. 
we read so often (Is. 20 2 , &c.) was of this coarse, 
black material. A finer brown cloth was made of 
camels' hair, and it seems that the ordinary mantle 
of the prophet — the addereth — was of this (2 K. I. 8 ; 
Zc. 13. 4 ; Mw. 3. 4 ). Wool was also used fm. early 
times, and flocks of sheep were kept by the patriarchs 



for its production (Gn. 38. 12 ). It was woven into 
cloth and made intogarments (Lv. 13. 47 ; Dt. 22. 11 ). 
Linen and cotton were known in Egp., and were 
used by the Isrs. fm. the time of the Exodus (1 Ch. 
4. 21 ; Ex. 28. 4ff -). Mixtures of flax and wool, 
shatnez, were forbidden (Dt. 22. 11 ). The intro- 
duction of silk was late (Rv. 18. 12 ). 

(2) Colour. — Egpn. taste, as we know from the 
monuments, was toward simplicity in colouring, 
and the garments of that country are mostly white. 
The Cans., on the contrary, were fond of brilliant 
colours and gaudy combinations. Long before the 
Exodus we find Semites, represented on 12th dyn. 
monuments at Thebes, clad in patchwork of various 
colours, and amongst them a Syrn. ambassador clad 
in alternate stripes of blue and red. The Hebs., by 
the way they speak of purple, scarlet, violet, and 
blue, show us that, like the Cans., they mostly ap- 
preciated what was gorgeous and brilliant. The 
art of dyeing was known to the patriarchs (Gn. 
38. 28 ), and cloth was woven of coloured (Ex. 35- 25 ) 
and even of gold (Ex. 28. 6 ) threads. Embroidery 
was greatly prized (Jg. 5. 30 ), and, as used by persons 
of rank, was of gold (Ps. 45 , 13 ) . It was a special pro- 
duct of Tyre (Ek. 16. 13 ), but neighbouring peoples 
also knew the art. Purple (Pr. 31. 22 ; Lk. 16. 19 ) and 
scarlet (2 S. I. 24 ) were worn by people of wealth, but 
in the use of these the adjoining peoples seem to 
have been more lavish than the Isrs. (Ek. 23. 6 , 27. 7 ; 
Est. 8. 15 ). Gorgeous garments of foreign manu- 
facture were among the imports to Pal. (Jo. 7. 21 ; 
Zp. i. 8 ). The poor had to be content with cloth- 
ing of more sober appearance. Indigo is used at 
Magdala to-day, and that town was famous for its 
dyeworks in our Lord's days. Fm. this and several 
Talmudic references we shd. judge that the blue 
and white striped cloth of mod. Galilee was very 
common in the first cent. 

(3) Articles. — The clothing of the Hebs. differed 
very little in form fm. that of the Beduin and 
jellahln of to-day, and can best be understood fm. a 
study of theirs. The kuttoneth (Gr. chiton) or coat 
was the inner garment, and it corrsps. to the thaub 
of the Arab. It is commonly made of cotton stuff, 
by folding the length of the material in two, sewing 
it down the sides, and leaving openings for the head 
and for attaching the sleeves wh. sometimes reach 
the knee ; though on pictures of Jewish prisoners on 
Asyr. monuments it has very short sleeves. Some- 
times the opening at the neck and the front of the 
skirt are ornamented with coloured needlework. 
By a cord or a girdle of leather or linen the thaub is 
bound round the waist. A very fine dress of this 
kind was the kuttoneth passim, wh. reached the 
wrists and the ankles. It was the dress of princesses 
(2 S. 1 3. 18ff -), and was the coat wh. Joseph's brethren 
envied him ; as it meant that to him, as the eldest 
son of Rachel the beloved wife, had been given the 



145 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dre 



right and badge of primogeniture. It is doubtful 
if the tr. " of many colours " is correct. Even if it 
were, the meaning wd. be the same. It has always 
been the custom of the sheikh, in virtue of his rank, 
to wear a garment of many coloured stripes. The 
simldh (Gr. himation) or cloak was worn above the 
kuttoneth, but of its form we have no evidence fm. 
the OT. In its uses it corrsps. to the Arb. 'abdyeh. 
This is made of coarse, almost untearable woollen 
cloth, often of brown and white stripes. It is made 
by sewing together two pieces of the material three 
cubits (27m.) long and one cubit wide, doubling over 
each end about 18 in. and sewing along the top. 
Openings are then made to allow the arms to pass 
through, and the hems are all overedged, while the 
neck and front are sometimes ornamented with 
needlework. The strength and the form made it 
a useful article for carrying all sorts of things (Ex. 
12. 34 ; Jg. 8. 25 ; 1 S. 21. 9 ). It was a protection 
by day agst. rain and heat, and by night agst. the 
cold as a bedcover, for wh. reason it was not 
allowed to be kept as a pledge after sunset (Ex. 
22. 26 ; Dt. 24. 12ff -). The most primitive form of 
head-dress known among the Arabs is a single cord 
to bind the hair. The Syrian ambassador on the 
Egpn. monument appears thus, so it is not unlikely 
this was also an early Heb. custom (cp. 1 K. 20. 31 ). 
But as it formed no protection, the adoption of the 
kaffiyeh was natl. It is made of a square of cloth 
folded corner-wise, and, laid on the head over a 
small felt or knitted skullcap, is bound to the head 
by the cord or 'agdl. One of its corners thus pro- 
tects the neck, while the other two are drawn round 
under the chin and thrown over the shoulders. On 
the feet sandals were worn. The na l al consisted of 
a sole of wood or leather attached to the foot by 
thongs or straps — the serokh of Gn. 14. 23 ; Is. 5. 27 „ 
Even the very poor possessed them (Am. 2. 6 , 8. 6 ), 
and, as a token of respect, they were removed on 
entering a house or sanctuary (Ex. 3« 5 , 12. 11 ). These 
articles form the costume of the nomad to-day, 
and there is no reason for believing the Isr. dressed 
otherwise before the conquest of Can. 

With settled life, however, changes had to come. 
The simldh wd. be felt to be a bulky and incon- 
venient costume for the home, and so among the 
peasantry its proportions were reduced to the size 
and form of a jacket, reaching almost to the knees, 
and having sleeves half-way down to the elbows. 
Among the upper classes the simldh retained its 
place as the outdoor cloak ; but they introduced 
another article of D. — the me'tl, mantle — wh. 
was worn over the kuttoneth, and wh. corrsps. to the 
Ghumbdz as now worn in Pal. It is of much finer 
cloth than the simldh and difft. in shape ; resem- 
bling a closely fitting dressing-gown. When it is 
worn, the thaub or kuttoneth consists of plain cotton 
or linen, and is designated the qamls. 



The me r il is mentioned in the OT. as worn by ks. 
(1 S. 24. 4 ), prophets (1 S. 28. 14 ), chiefs (Jb. I. 20 ), and 
young men (1 S. 2. 19 ). Round the waist above the 
me'll, the girdle, hagor, was now worn. It some- 
times consists of a linen or cotton shawl folded up 
and wound around the body, but oftener it is a 
strong woven band not unlike a saddle girth and 
ending with an ornamental fringe or tassel. It 
allows the upper part of the me'71 to be used as a 
pocket ; the writer's outfit is carried between it 
and the body, and a fold within it forms a very safe 
purse {cp. Mw. io. 9 , zone). The head-dress also 
suffered change. The kaffiyeh was folded in a long 
strip and wound round the felt cap forming a 
tzariiph (Is. 3. 23 , 62. 3 ), Arab, laffeh, or turban, and 
the cord was laid aside. Fm. the Jrs. Tim. we 
learn that all turbans were white. Further change 
does not seem to have taken place in the clothing of 
the men except in the adorning of these articles, 
and in the imitating the magnificence of foreigners. 
In references to the further East, however, we find 
the names of other garments worn there by Isrs., and 
they deserve attention. The sarbdlin, "hosen" (Dn. 
3. 21 ), are also mentioned by Herodotus (i. 195), and 
are without doubt the sirwdl of mod. Syr. These 
are loose trousers made of a sack of cloth and having 
openings at the lower corners for the feet to pass 
through. They are gathered round the waist by a 
draw-cord. The pattlsh, worn with the sarbdltn, 
must have been the short jacket or vest that is worn 
with the sirwdl. The karbeld is explained by the 
Asyr. karballatu, as a head-dress, hat, or helmet. 
The takhrikh (Est. 8. 15 ) seems to be a general term 
for the inner garments of fine linen. Other words 
of general import are met in the OT. wh. have 
sometimes been mistaken for the names of particular 
garments. Begea 7 seems to be of this nat. It is 
used equally for gorgeous (1 K. 22. 10 ) and for filthy 
clothing (Is. 64. 6 ). It even includes the girdle and 
the turban (Ex. 28. 4 ). Kesuth is used when cover- 
ing or protection is mainly thought of (Ex. 22. 26 ; 
Jb. 26. 6 , 3 1. 19 ) ; lebush, wh. is chiefly poetical, 
is used in prose of the warrior's cloak (2 S. 20. 8 ) 
and the priest's vestments (2 K. io. 22 ). Sadin, wh. 
means linen, seems to have been the same as the 
kiittdneth (Jg. 14. 12 ; Is. 3- 23 ), and was prob. just 
another designation for that garment {cp. Mk. 14. 51 ). 
The simldh, though meaning particularly the cloak, 
is also used occasionally for clothing generally (Gn. 
35. 2 ; Ex. 3. 22 ; Dt. io. 18 ), as is also its Gr. equiva- 
lent himation, in the NT. Other NT. articles are 
the chlamys, the military cloak introduced by the 
Rm. Emperors and worn by the soldiery (Mw. 27. 28 ), 
and the Rm. pcenula (Gr. phailones), a long travel- 
ling cloak (2 Tm. 4. 13 ), with only one opening for 
the head, and a hood to protect agst. the weather. 

The priests in connection with their official 
duties wore a particular adaptation of the ordinary 



146 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dul 



D. It consisted of short drawers (mikhnasaylm), 
extending fm. the waist to the upper thighs, and a 
kuttoneth, reaching to the feet, both of white linen. 
The girdle (abnet) was woven with coloured flowers. 
The turban (migbd'dh) was goblet-shaped. The 
High Priest's clothing was much adorned with em- 
broidered work and colours, and he wore, above a 
gorgeous me'll, the ephod and breastplate. His 
turban (mitznepheth) was difft. in form fm. that of 
the common priests. Heb. women wore the kut- 
toneth, the simldh, and the tzanipk (SS. 5. 3 ; Ru. 3. 3 ; 
Is. 3. 23 ), just as the men did, but there was some 
difL, and one was forbidden to wear the garments of 
the other sex (Dt. 22. 5 ). When the me^il was intro- 
duced the same diffc. may have existed as we find 
to-day. That of the men is open down the front, 
but the woman's ghumbdz is sewed fm. the breast 
downward. The distinguishing feature, however, 
of the woman's D. was the veil. In the days of the 
ks. the Heb. woman was greatly given to luxury in 
D., and many new names of articles of adornment 
are met with. The contents of a lady's wardrobe 
may be seen in Is. 3. 18 " 24 . Much disputation 
has taken place over the various articles of D. and 
jewellery, but on the whole RV. may be trusted. 

Stores of clothing were a characteristic of wealth (Jb. 27. 16 ; 
Mw. 6. 19 ; Js. 5. 2 ), and the presentation of rcbes was a way 
of showing honour (Gn. 45.22 ; 2 K. 5. 5 ). The giving of the 
best robe meant special distinction (Lk. 15. 22 ). When given 
in token of office, investiture was also implied (Gn. 41. 42 ; Is. 
22.21; E s t # 8. 15 ), and the taking of them away meant dis- 
missal (2 M. 4.3 s ). 

The simldh was natly. thrown off (Mk. 10. 50 ; Jn. 13.4; 
Ac. 7. 58 ) or left in the house close by (Mw. 24. 18 ), when 
active work was to be done. For the purposes of running 
the me'il was girded, i.e. the ends were drawn up and within 
the girdle (1 K. 18. 46 ; 2 K. 4.2s, 9. 1 ). Grief and indignation 
were shown by rending the garments (Jb. 1.20 ; Mw. 26. 65 ), 
renunciation by shaking them (Ne. $}%; Ac. 18. 6 ), loyalty 
and joyful submission by spreading them cut before another 
(2 K. 9. 13 ), and reverent awe and sorrow by wrapping them 
round the head (2 S. 15. 30 ; 1 K. 19. 13 ). One dressed in 
the kuttoneth alone was said to be naked (Is. 20.2). 

We can now understand the division of our Lord's 
clothing among the quaternion of soldiers at the 
cross. The five parts, four of wh. the soldiers took 
without dispute, were the sandals, the head-D., the 
kuttoneth, the me'il, and the simldh. There still re- 
mains a doubt over wh. part the lots were cast. 
John names it chiton, but although that was origi- 
nally the kuttoneth, it seems to us that when the 
word came back to Pal. in Greek it meant another 
garment wh., judging fm. its contrast with the 
himation (Mw. 5. 40 ), we shd. infer to be the me'il. 

DRINK. See Food. W ' M - Christie - 

DRINK, STRONG. See Drunkenness. 

DROMEDARY, a light, swift, riding camel (Heb. 
beker, rekesh, 1 K. 4> 28 ; Jr. 2. 23 , &c), bearing the 
same relation to the carrying camel as the riding 
horse to the dray horse. 

DROPSY. See Diseases. 

DROSS, the impurities extracted in the process 



of refining metals, esp. silver (Is. I. 25 ; Pr. 25. 4 ). 
It is used figly. for the wicked and degraded (Ps. 
119. 119 ; Ek. 22. 19 , &c). 

DROUGHT represents various Heb. words, all 
referring to the effects produced by heat in the 
absence of rain. All vegetation in Pal. is dependent 
on the rainfall. When it is exceptionally late or 
scanty, the crops are light ; when it fails, the earth 
is baked hard in the fierce heat, and famine stares 
the husbandman in the face. In the late summer 
all but the more important streams are dried up, 
and then the traveller may often know what is 
meant by " the D. of summer " (Ps. 32. 4 ). 

DRUNKENNESS is the condition resulting fm. 
excessive indulgence in Strong Drink. Of the 
words used in OT. the most important is shdkar, 
" to be drunken," fm. wh. we have the noun shekdr, 
" strong," i.e. " intoxicating liquor." The NT. 
word is methuo, " to be softened " or " soaked with 
drink." For the various kinds of drink, see Food. 
We need not specify the mental and physical effects 
of D. noted in Scrip. These are the same every- 
where. We only observe that while these were fully 
understood, and their debasing influence appreci- 
ated, so that D. is condemned in the most em- 
phatic manner (Is. 28. 1 ; I Cor. 6. 10 , &c), there is 
no general prohibition of the use of intoxicants. 
On the other hand their moderate and medicinal 
use seems to be commended (Ps. I04. 15 ; I Tm. 3. 8 , 
5. 23 ). . Abstinence, however, was imposed upon the 
priest in view of his service in the sanctuary (Lv. 
IO. 9 ), and upon the Nazirite during the period of 
his vow (Nu. 6. 3 , &c.) ; fm. wh. it may be inferred 
that higher efficiency of mind and body was thus 
secured. It must be remembered also, that in 
anct. times, not many cd. afford to drink intoxicants. 
The cheap processes by wh. alcoholic liquors are 
now produced, bringing them within reach of the 
poorest, have introduced a new phase of the pro- 
blem. The personal practice of the Christian must 
be determined in accdce. with the principle stated 
by Paul (1 Cor. 8. 13 ). See Wine. 

DRUSILLA, third and youngest dr. of Agrippa I. 
She married, a.d. 53, Aziz, k. of Emesa, who con- 
sented to be circumcised, Epiphanes, s. of Autia- 
chus, k. of Commagene, to whom she had been 
betrothed, having resigned her rather than submit 
to this rite. Felix, attracted by her great beauty, 
employed one Simon — poss. Magus — a professed 
magician, who persuaded her to leave Aziz ; where- 
upon she was married to Felix, to whom she bore 
a s. When she accompanied Felix to the court 
where Paul was on trial, she was only 18. Nothing 
further is known of her hist. {Ant. XIX. ix. 1 ; XX. 
vii. 2 ; Ac. 24\. 24 ). 

DULCIMER (Dn. 3> 10 - 15 ), tr. of Heb. [kthlb] 
sump only a, v. 10 siponiya ; Psh. tziphoniya ; RV. 
" bagpipe." 



M7 



Dum 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ear 



It seems as if this were a loan word fm. the Greek ; cer- 
tainly there is a Gr. word almost identical with this wh. 
means " concert," "harmony." Its place in the text is doubt- 
ful ; it is omitted fm. the list in v. 7, in the kthb in v. 10 its 
place is taken by siponia, another word altogether ; it only 
appears once in Thd. If it is in the text the form of the 
word has to be considered. The word tziphoniya in the 
Psh. cd. not have been derived fm. sumponiya ; it is more 
akin siponiya ; though even in regard to the latter, it wd. more 
naturally be derived fm. tziphoniya than vice versa. There 
is a Gr. word sipho?iia wh. , however, has no musical meaning. 
If it means anything it is " a little fire-engine." When the 
Gr. word sumphonia occurs in the NT., as it does in 
Lk. IS- 25 , Psh. does not render tzipho?iiya, but zemora, 
"singing," showing that the Gr. sumphonia was not regarded 
as meaning the same as the Aramaic word wh. is so like it. 
It cd. be no objection to the first consonant, for erv>/3oAa is 
transferred (Ws. 2. 9 ). Further, the Gr. word dees not mean 
"a musical instrument," but a concert of singers (Polyb. 
xxvi. 10. ; Plato, Sym. 187). It appears to be a case of verbal 
assimilation. 

DUMAH. (1) A city in the mountain of Judah 
(Jo. 15. 52 ), prob. = Domeh, a considerable ruin, with 
rock tombs, cisterns, &c, about 13 miles SE. of Beit 
Jibrin. (2) A s. of Ishmael (Gn. 25. 14 ; I Ch. I. 30 ), 
prob. representing a locality in Arabia. The most 
likely identn. is with Dammat el-Jandal, now known 
as el-Jauj (see Doughty, Arabia Deserta, by index). 
Some have thought that the oracle, Is. 2 1. 11 , refers 
to this D. Poss. Idumea (LXX) may be intended. 

DUNG. In the absence of wood, the D. of 
camels and other animals is often used as fuel. 
Cows' D. mingled with straw, and plastered on the 
rough walls to dry for fuel, is a common sight in the 
E. For regulations as to cleanliness, see Dt. 23. 10ff - ; 



Lv. 



Ex. 29. 14 

)r 
Zp. i. 17 ; Ml. 2. 3 



iif. 



Nu. IQ. 5 . 



as expressing contempt, see 2 K. o,. 37 ; 



For the use of D. 
Jr. 9 . 22 
Php. 3. 8 , &c. 
DUNGEON. See Prison. 
DUNG GATE. See Jerusalem. 



DURA, the plain, or district, near Bab., where 
Nebuchadnezzar set up the golden image (Dn. 3. 1 ). 
The name is poss. related to the Bab. dura, " a wall." 
The most prob. site appears to be that suggd. by 
Oppert (Exped. en Mesop. i. 238), to the SE. of Bab., 
where, near a mound called " Duair," he found the 
base of a great statue. 

DUST is a very common cause of discomfort in 
Pal. The limestone rock is easily worn, and in the 
drought and heat of summer the fine D. is very 
searching; esp. does it fret the feet of the traveller. 
This makes washing peculiarly refreshing. For the 
Jews, the D. of heathen countries was unclean. 
Figly. anything that stuck to one was called D. ; 
e.g. " the dust of an evil tongue " (LTJ. i. 644)0 
To shake the D. off feet or garments indicates entire 
separation. 

DWARF (Heb. daq., " thin," " shrunk," " with- 
ered "). The term indicated some physical defect, 
on account of wh. a priest mt. not " approach to 
offer the bread of his God " (Lv. 2 1 . 20 ) . Many ren- 
derings have been suggd., " blear-eyed " (Vlg.), 
" short-sighted," " freckled " (LXX, ephelos), &c. 
The lit. meaning, "withered," mt. suit as well as any. 

DYEING. Although the process of D. is never 
mentioned in Scrip., yet the result is referred to 
(Ex. 25. 5 ; Is. 63. 1 ; Ek. 23. 15 ). It was practised in 
Egp. and prob. in Asyr. In Classical antiquity 
Phoenicia was regarded as the centre of this in- 
dustry. This is confirmed by huge mounds of 
fragments of the shells of the murex beside Tyre 
and Sidon ; but although there are frequent refes. 
to the cities of Phoenicia in Scrip., there is no notice 
of D. in connection with them. See Colours, 
Dress, Handicrafts. 



E 



EAGLE (Heb. nesher, Gr. aetos). Like the Arb. 
nisr, the Heb. term denotes several birds of prey. 
Prob. the griffon vulture is most frequently in- 
tended. It has no true feathers on head and neck ; 
hence the phrase, " enlarge thy baldness as the E." 
(Mi. I. 16 ). This bird abounds in Pal., making its 
nest in the lofty cliffs that overhang the valleys 
(Jr. 49. 16 ). It is noted for the telescopic range of 

29' 



the E. beat its way upward high into the sun, whence, 
plunging into the sea, its old feathers were shed, 
and, new plumage appearing, it rejoiced again in the 
strength of youth. There is, of course, no ground 
for this superstition. 

There are also found in Pal. the Lammergeier (ossifrage), 
the greater spotted eagle, the tawny eagle, the golden eagle, 
the imperial eagle, and the short-toed eagle. This last feeds 
entirely on reptiles, lizards, snakes, &c, and migrates in the 



its eyesight (Jb. 39- 29 ). It spies the fallen animal season when snakes hibernate, 
from immense distances, and its flight seems to be EAR, the organ of hearing, associated in Heb., as 

watched by many other birds that follow to feast in many langs., with the idea of obedience. To 

upon the carrion (Mw. 24. 28 ). It attracted the eye " incline the E." is to give attention, " to hearken " 

of the prophet as it soared in graceful circles far into is often = to obey. The tip of the priest's E. was 

the sunny sky (Is. 40. 31 ). Its speed on the wing is touched with blood at his consecration (Lv. 8. 23L ), 

often referred to (Dt. 28. 49 ; Jr. 4. 13 , &c), and in also that of the cleansed leper (14. 14 , Sec). An awl 

Ek. 17. it is the symbol of power. There is an allu- put through a slave's E. into the door-post signified 

sion in Ps. 103. 5 to the ancient belief that, by some for him perpetual servitude (Ex. 21. 6 ). Ear-rings 

means, the eagle was able to renew its youth. In have always been a favourite female ornament in 

the Middle Ages it was believed that every ten yrs. the East (Gn. 24» 22 , AV. ; Ex. 32. 2 , &c). They 

148 



Ear 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eba 



form part of every young bride's outfit, and arc 
frequently valued as amulets. They are seldom 
now worn by men (Jg. 8. 24 ). 




Ear-rings 



EARNEST (2 Cor. i. 22 , 5.5; Eph. i. 14 ), Gr. 
arrabon, mod. Arb. rcfbon. This is some part of 
the price, or wage for service, agreed upon, given 
when the bargain is made, as a pledge of mutual 
obligation to fulfil the terms. What the Christian 
enjoys here of God's goodness is a foretaste, or E., 
of his inheritance. 

EARTH stands in EV. for several Heb. and Gr. 
words, (i) 'Addmdh, the soil worked by the hus- 
bandman (Gn. 2. 5 ), used also for land or country 
(Gn. 47 . 19 ; Is. io. 17 ; Zc. 2. 12 ), and for the whole 
earth (Gn. I2. 3 , 28. 14 ). (2) 'Eretz, earth as 
opposed to heaven (Gn. I. 1 ), as opposed to the sea 
(i. 20 ). This is the usual word for country (19. 28 , 
&c), but it occurs also for the whole earth (Gn. 
18. 18 , &c). (3) In I S. 2. 8 , &c, tebel is a synonym 
for 'eretz. Like 'eretz (Gn. I. 28 , &c.) it may denote 
the whole inhabited earth, and so is prop, equiva- 
lent to the Gr. oikoumene (Mw. 24. 14 , &c. ; cp. 
Lk. 21. 26 ). This meaning also attaches to Gr. ge 
(Mw. 5. 5 ; Rm. 9. 17 , &c). It is used as equivalent 
to addmdb (Mw. 13. 5 , &c), and to 'eretz (Mw. 
24. 35 , &c). 

EARTHQUAKE. Although in recent geologic 
times there have been no active volcanoes in Pal., 
earthquakes often occur, and are sometimes of great 
severity. On the 1st of Jan. 1837, tne city °f Safed 
in Galilee was reduced to a heap of ruins by an E. 
That only the more remarkable earthquakes are re- 
corded, two only being mentioned in the historical 
bks. (1 S. 14. 15 ; I K. 19. 11 ), may be due to the very 
frequency of the phenomenon. The giving of the 
law on Sinai was accompanied by an E. (Ex. 19. 18 ). 
Korah and his company perished by means of an E., 
when the ground opened and swallowed them up 
(Nu. l6. 31f - ; Ant. IV. iii. 3). The E. in the reign 
of Uzziah must have been terrible (Am. I. 1 ; Zc. 
I4. 5 ). Josephus tells of an E. in the reign of Herod 
wh. wrought great and widespread destruction 
(Ant. XV. v. 2). Matthew reports an E. at the 
time of the Crucifixion in Jrs. (27. 51 ). An E. sig- 
nalised the deliverance of Paul and Silas fm. bonds 
in the jail at Philippi. The E. is prominent among 
the causes of calamity spoken of in the latter days 
(Mw. 24.', &c), and fm. the terror it inspires it 
natly. plays a large part in the visions of the Apo- 
calypse (Rv. 6. 12 , &c). 



EAST, CHILDREN OF THE (Jg. 6. 3 , &c), de- 
notes genly. the peoples dwelling to the E. of Pal., 
esp. the nomads in the Syr. desert and Arabia. 

EAST SEA, EASTERN SEA. See Seas. 

EASTER (Ac. 12. 4 , AV.) = Passover. 

EBAL. (1) (1 Ch. I. 22 ), or Obal (Gn. io. 28 ), s. of 
Joktan, prob. representing some S. Arabian people 
or district. (2) (Gn. 36. 23 ; I Ch. I. 40 ), s. of Shobal. 

EBAL. The twin summits in central Pal., seen 
on all sides fm. afar, Mts. Ebal and Gerizim, rise N. 
and S. of the deep, narrow vale wh., running E. and 
W., cuts Mt. Ephraim in two. In the bottom of 
the vale lies the city of Nablus, the anct. Shechem. 
The slopes of E. on the N. rise through fruitful 
gardens, shady orchards, and olives to steep, rocky 
terraces, sprinkled with thorny scrub, over wh. the 
ascent is painful, to the wide back of the mountain. 
The highest point is to the W., 3077 ft. above the 
sea, 1402 ft. above Nablus, more than 200 ft. higher 
than Gerizim. On the summit are the ruins of an 
anct. fortress, with mighty walls. To the E. is a 
ruin called Khirbet kanlseh, " church ruin." A 
Moslem Wely near the top is reputed to cover the 
skull of John the Baptist. The view ranges fm. 
Hermon and the S. buttresses of Mt. Lebanon in 
the N., to Jrs. and the Dead Sea in the S., with 
Bashan, Gilead, and Moab on the E., and the long 
line of the seashore to Carmel in the W. 

E. appears in the dramatic picture of Jo. 8. 33fL , 
when Moses' instructions (Dt. 27. llfl -) were carried 
out. The ark, with priests and Levites, was in the 
midst, the tribes being divided between the slopes 
of E. and Gerizim, responding respectively, when 
the law was read, to the " blessing " and the 
" cursing." In Dt. 27. the response seems to be 
required only to the cursing. On the mountain 
Joshua set up an altar of unhewn stones, on wh. he 
offered sacrifice (Dt. 27. 6 ; Jo. 8. 30 ). Upon the 
stones of this altar (Jo. 8. 32 ), or upon " great stones " 




Eagle. {See p. 148) 
set up for the purpose and plastered over (Dt. 27. 2 ), 
he wrote a copy of the law. The mountain was 
thus associated, in the minds of the people, with this 



149 



Ebe 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ecc 



revelation of the will of God ; and its giant form, 
dominating all the land, wd. perpetually remind 
them of their covenant relation to Him. 

The formation of the Vale of Shechem, at the 
watershed, with a slight recess in either mountain, 
makes quite poss. the scene depicted in Jo. 8. 33ff - 

EBED-MELECH, "servant of the k.," an 
Ethiopian eunuch who secured Jeremiah's release 
fm. the dungeon of Malchiah (Jr. 38. 6L , 39. 16 ). 

EBENEZER, " stone of help." (1) The scene 
of Isr.'s defeat by the Phil. (1 S. 4. 1 ), over agst. 
Aphek, also unidentd. (cp. Jo. X2. 18 , LXX). (2) A 
stone erected by Samuel to commemorate Isr.'s 
victory over the Phil., somewhere between Mizpah 
and Yeshana (1 S. 7. 12 , LXX, Syr.), the latter being 
prob. = i Ain Sinia, N. of Bethel. 

EBER, s. of Salah, gt. -grandson of Shem, fm. 



and sptl. experiments on the " Highest Good." It 
is proved that if the individual makes it his aim to 
attain merely and solely his own personal happiness, 
whatever the sphere be in wh. he makes his attempt, 
the result is " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The 
epilogue is the necessary conclusion " of the whole 
matter." " Fear God and keep His command- 
ments, for this is the whole duty of man " — not 
pleasure but duty is man to make his purpose of 
life. While this is the scope of the bk., there is no 
strict logical sequence ; such a thing was not to be 
expected then or there. A general division may, 
however, be hazarded. There is first a prologue 
wh. assigns a reason for undertaking the investiga- 
tion (i. 1 " 11 ). Second, an act. of the first investiga- 
tion ; can wisdom, or pleasure, or both combined, 
be the Supreme Good ? The result is : " Vanity of 




Gerizim 

whom the Hebs. are named (Gn. IO. 21 , &c). See 
also 1 Ch. 5. 13 , 8. 12 - 22 ; Ne. 12. 20 . 

EBONY (Ek. 27. 15 ), brought fm. Dedan on the 
Persian Gulf to Tyre, is the familiar E. of commerce. 
The tree grows mainly in tropical India and Ceylon. 

EBRON, a town in Asher (Jo. 19. 28 , AV. wrongly, 
Hebron). Poss. we shd. read " Ebdon," wh. stands 
for E. (Jo. 21. 30 ; 1 Ch. 6. 74 ). It is prob. = 'Jbdeb 
on the N. of the plain of Acre, 3 miles E. of ez-Zib. 

ECCLESIASTES (Heb. qoheleth, Gr. ekklhi- 
astes), the fourth of the five Megilloth in the ordi- 
nary Heb. Bible. The Gr. title, fm. wh. the Eng. 
is derived, means " a member of assembly " : the 
Heb. has occasioned more discussion as it only ap- 
pears in this bk. ; it seems to mean the " herald " 
who summons an assembly. On the whole, - 
Luther's trn., followed by EV., is fairly satisfactory ; 
the purpose of the bk. is hortatory, and the form of 
the word implies an assembly : the tr. der Prediger, 
v the Preacher," combines the two ideas. 

(1) Scope and Contents. — The literary form is 
that adopted by Browning in " The Ring and the 
Book " ; a monologue wh. conceals a real dialogue. 
In matter it is the nar. of a series of speculations 



Ebal 

vanities " (i. 12 -2. 26 ). In the third the preacher ex- 
tends his view ; what, after all, can a person effect ? 
There is a fixed cycle of events ; generations come 
and pass ; all labour is really resultless ; hence it is 
all " Vanity and vexation of spt." (3. 1 -4. 16 ). Be- 
fore he begins his fourth section the preacher seems 
to hear some one sugg. that vows and prayers judi- 
ciously used will secure much. He does not deny 
the benefit, but implies that the worshipper has 
to be so perpetually on his guard lest his worship 
be the sacrifice of fools, that this will benefit him 
little. He proceeds to consider knowledge as poss. 
the " Supreme Good." Its limitations, however, 
show that it cannot be what is sought for. Men 
benefit by wisdom but forget him who manifested 
it ; it has little influence (9. 14 " 18 ) ; any failure makes 
it appear valueless (io. 1 ). Throughout there is, as 
the chorus of a Gr. tragedy, the sugg. that after all 
comfort is best ; the total neglect of all speculative 
difficulties, united with a cynical recognition of the 
valuelessness of it all : " Rejoice, O young man, 
in thy youth . . . for childhood and youth are 
vanity." The solemn epilogue emphasises this last 
by a highly wrought description of old age and 



150 



Ecc 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Edo 



death ; then oums up the whole in the declaration 
that to revere God and obey Him is the supreme 
end of man. The attitude of the writer is not one 
of dogmatic doubt, wh. is only an explanation of 
disbelief ; but reverent doubt, rising fm. a ground 
of profound belief. 

(2) Language. — The Heb. of E. is unlike that of 
any other portion of the OT. No other bk. has so 
large a proportion of words, phrases, and senses of 
words peculiar to itself. In its vocabulary, and many 
of its constructions, it is related to the Mishna. We 
need only remark on the preference for the short 
relative, the rare use of the vav conversive, and the 
avoidance of the sign of the ace. At the same time 
it must be observed that most of the linguistic pecu- 
liarities have analogues in classic Heb. 

(3) Date and Authorship. — No one without 
violence to facts can maintain the Solomonic 
authorship. The author assumes the name of 
Solomon as Browning speaks as " Abt Vogler " 
or " Fra Lippo Lippi." Many of the autobio- 
graphical notes are only dramatically so ; the 
background is not at all that of the time of 
Solomon ; there are oppressions of the poor by the 
rich, wh., if Solomon had known of, he wd. have 
remedied. He claims to have more wealth " above 
all that were in Jrs. before him." But David, his 
fr., was his only predecessor in Jrs. ; this makes the 
word " all " absurd. Without pressing the lateness 
of the language, the style is unlike that of " Pro- 
verbs " or the " Song of Songs." At the same time 
it is difficult to fix its date ; some, as Graetz, fol- 
lowed by Robertson Smith, declared it was written 
during the reign of the Herodians. Agst. this is 
the fact that it is quoted repeatedly in Sr., wh. 
cannot be dated later than B.C. 130. Save that it is 
post-Solomonic, the earlier limit cannot be fixed so 
definitely. There seem to be refes. to definite ex- 
ternal events, but these cannot be identd. with cert. 
While the contrast (4. 13, 14 ) between " a poor and 
wise child," and " an old and foolish king," suggts. 
some historic event, it may be a cynical refce. to the 
joy with wh. Eastern subjects anticipated a new 
reign, and poured contempt on that wh. was nearing 
its termination. It is difficult to regard the incident 
in 9. 14 ' 15 as other than actual: the title "Great 
King " wd. seem to indicate either an Assyrian or a 
Persian monarch. The state of matters referred to 
in io. 16 ' 17 is somewhat obscured by the current tr.; 
the " king " of v. 16 is not a " child," but " a ser- 
vant," as may be seen by the contrast in v. 17, "a 
king — the son of nobles." The servant k. suggs. a 
satrap, under whom the native nobility, excluded 
fm. affairs, wd. be liable to give themselves over to 
luxury ; when, on the other hand, the suzerain 
selected one of the nobles and made him subject k., 
the nobles wd. be admitted by him into judge- 
ships, &c, and so wd. not be left to find in gluttony 



the only refuge fm. ennui open to them. As is well 
known, the hist, of Judea and of SW. Asia for the 
last cent, of the Persian rule is an absolute blank. 
It is not to be wondered at that we cannot ident. 
events. If we may assume with the Canon of Jos. 
{contra. Af. 18) that only prophetic writings dating 
before the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus were 
received as authoritative by the Jews, then it must 
be placed in the early part of the Persian domina- 
tion. The claim to Solomonic authorship wd. con- 
fuse the issue. As the latest additions to Nehemiah 
appear to have been made at the time of Alexander 
the Great, we may assume the Jewish Canon 
(Scriptures) to have been formed then : prob. we 
may assign the composition of E. to some time 
during the later Persian period. Of the author 
nothing is known except what may be deduced fm. 
internal evidence. He prob. was a scribe, a leading 
member of the Jewish community, resident in the 
territory of a k., subject to the Persians. The fre- 
quent refce. to ks. and to the conduct of men in 
regard to them (8. 2 » 4 , io. 20 ), implies that the circle 
of the writer was in touch with royalty. Yet the 
refce. to a " Great King " (9. 14 ), and the fragment 
of autobiography we have in that connection, imply 
that it was a much lowlier k. that he had to do with. 

(4) Canonicity. — It formed part of the Alexan- 
drian Canon when the Younger Siracides went to 
Egp. In the time of Jos. it was in the Canon of Judea. 

The Talmudic stories about the Council at Jabne are with- 
out historic value. 

(5) Versions. — The LXX is slavishly close to the 
Heb., so much so that j*|N, the sign of the ace, is 
trd. crvv, but construed with ace, not with dat., as 
in Gr. gram. The Psh. is much freer. The Tg. is 
very diffuse, but supplies the Jewish interpretation 
wh. is always interesting. TheVlg. is fairly accurate. 

(6) Commentaries. — A full list up to i860 in 
Ginsburg, Coheleth. Since then Wright, Bullock, 
Zockler. 

ED, " witness," the name apparently given to the 
altar erected by Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of 
Manasseh on returning to the E. of Jordan after the 
conquest of Canaan (Jo. 22. 34 ). See Gad, Reuben. 

EDEN, the land in wh. was the garden where 
God placed Adam when He had created him (Gn. 
2. 8 ). Many idents. have been suggd., but the pre- 
sence of the Euphrates and the Hiddekel (Tigris) 
limits the area within wh. it must be sought. The 
Asyr. inscrs. fixed E. in Babylonia. Delitzsch {Wo 
lag das Paradies?) regards the Gihon and Pison as the 
Arakhtu and Pallukat of the inscrs. ; as yet there 
does not seem to be any genly. admitted equivalents 
of these. There is another E. conquered by the 
predecessor of Sennacherib (2 K. 19. 12 ). E. traded 
with Tyre (Ek. 27. 2S ). It appears to have been in 
the neighbourhood of Damascus. 

EDOM, EDOMITES. (1) Name and Origin. 



151 



Edo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Edr 



— The term Edom has been variously derived 

(a) fm. the root meaning red, supposed to apply to 
the red colour of the sandstone cliffs of Mt. Seir ; 

(b) fm. the word adam, " man " or " mankind " ; 

(c) fm. the name of the god contained in the term 
Obed-edom ; (d) fm. the town Udumu, or Adumu, 
or Dumah. There seem to have been several towns 
of that name, and Dumah in Mt. Seir (cp. Is. 21. 11 ) 
may'have given its name to the tribe who lived there. 

The Edomites, or collectively Edom, or the " sons 
of Edom " (Ps. 137. 7 ), are represented as the descts. 
of Esau, the brother of Jacob, and the story of the 
two brothers is undoubtedly coloured by the rela- 
tions between the two peoples {c-p. art. Esau). The 
wild Bedouin tribe of Edom, living by plunder in 



marked by deadly hate and bitter jealousy (cp. Am. 
I. 11 ), dating in all probty. fm. David's subjection 
of the country (2 S. 8. 14 ; I Ch. I8. 11 " 13 ), although 
Isr. was prohibited fm. smiting E. in the wilderness 
journey, and the Edomite was allowed to enter the 
congregation of the Lord in the third generation 
(Dt. 23. 7 » 8 ). Fm. the conquest, of David, E. re- 
mained a vassal kdm. till the days of Jehoram (2 K. 
3. 8ff -), but was again subdued by Amaziah (2 K. 
14. 7 ). At a later date we find Edomites united with 
Moab, Judah, Egp., and Philistia agst. Sargon, B.C. 
711, and agst. Sennacherib, 701. On the destruc- 
tion of Jrs. the Edomites joined in the plunder and 
took possession of several Jewish towns (La. \. 21L ; 
Ek. 3 5 , 3 " 15 ) . At a later date, during the Maccabaean 




PEF. Drawing 

Traditional Site of Altar of Ed (Qarn Sartabeh), looking South: Dead Sea in distance. {See p. 151) 



the mountain fastness of Mt. Seir, is hated by the 
peaceful agricultural people of Isr., while their 
common reverence for the same patriarchal heroes 
and their kindred lang. point to a similar origin. 
Edom seems to have taken possession of Mt. Seir 
prior to the occupation of Canaan by Isr. (cp. Nu. 
20. 14-21 ). The original inhabitants, the Horites, 
were destroyed (Dt. 2. 22 ) or assimilated by the con- 
quering nation (cp. Gn. 36.). 

(2) Country and Government. — The boundaries 
of the land of E. do not appear to have ever been 
very clearly defined, and varied at different times in 
the hist, of the tribe. Mt. Seir remained the home 
of the people, but their sphere of influence extended 
at various times E. and W. The towns Dumah, 
Bozrah, Teman, and the important seaport Elath, 
on the iElanitic Gulf, are mentioned as belonging 
to E. The people were governed by dukes (allu- 
phirii), a form of government no doubt taken over 
fm. the original Horites (Gn. 3 6. 29 > 40 " 43 ; Ex. 15. 15 ), 
though at a later date we find a k. in E. (Nu„ 20. 14 ). 

(3) History. — The relations of E. to Isr. were 



revolt, E. (now known as Idumea) harassed the 
Jews, who under John Hyrcanus reduced the 
nation, compelling them to accept circumcision 
and the Jewish faith. Fm. this time onward 
Idumea became a Jewish province, and the Idu- 
mean Herod became k. of Judea (cp. art. Herodian 
Family). Regarding the relg. of E. little is known 
besides the names of their gods Kosah, Kaus, Hadad, 
Edom; although it is not unlikely that circumcision 
was practised before Hyrcanus. W. F. Boyd. 

EDREI. (1) A city of Bashan, near Ashtaroth 
(Jo. 12 4 , 13. 12 ), the scene of Og's overthrow (Nu. 
2i. 33ff - ; Dt. 3. lfL ), assigned to Machir, s. of Manas- 
seh (Jo. 13. 31 ). It is the W. limit of Bashan, as agst. 
Salecah on the E. (Dt. 3. 10 ). The mod. Der'ab, 
c. 13 miles SE. of Tell 'Jskterah, and nearly due W. 
of the great fortress of Salkhad, seems to meet all 
requirements. It is remarkable for what is practi- 
cally an underground city, as yet imperfectly ex- 
plored (Schumacher, Across the Jordan, I2iff.). It 
lies on the S. lip of Wady ez,-7,eidy. There are 
many remains of anct. bldgs., a large reservoir, and 



152 



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between 



an aqueduct. (2) An unidentd. town 
Kedesh and En-hazor (Jo. 19. 37 ). 

EGLON. (1) K. of Moab, who oppressed Isr. 
and was slain by Ehud. (2) A royal city of the 




f r 



s. ' 



i* 




Modern Egyptian Village, on Bank of the Nile 



Can. (Jo. io. 3 ) near Lachish and Hebron (io. 34 ), in 
the Shephelah (15. 39 ), taken by Joshua and assigned 
to Judah. It is prob. = Khirbet t Ajldn i c. 10 miles 
W. of Beit Jibrin. 

EGYPT (Heb. Mitzraim), fm. Gr. "Atywrros, 
itself derived fm. Hd-ku-Ptah, " House of the 
double of Ptah " (Hikupta in the Tel el-Amarna 
tablets), was the sacred name of Memphis. The 
Heb. name means the two " Matzors," i.e. Upper 
and Lower Egp. ; Matzor, " the wall of fortifica- 
tion," being the name applied to Lower or Northern 
Egp. (2 K. 19. 24 ; Is. 19. 6 , 37- 25 ) fm. the line of forts 
wh. protected it on the Asiatic side and gave a name 
to the desert of Shur, the " wall " (Gn. 25. 18 ). 
Upper Egp. was properly Pa-to-ris, " the land of 
the South," Pathros in Heb. (Is. n. 11 , whence the 
Pathrusim of Gn. io. 14 ). In the OT. Egp. is also 
called poetically " the land of Ham," and Rahab 
(Ps. Sj. 4 ). In the native texts it is often named 
Kemi, fm. its " black " soil, the desert being Desher, 
" the red " land. The country is the gift of the 
Nile, the Delta in the N. being formed fm. the silt 
brought down by the river, and Upper Egp. con- 
sisting of the Nile-banks and of such portions of the 
desert beyond as can be irrigated by canals. In the 
OT. the Nile is Yeor, fm. the Egpn. Atur, later Aur 
(Coptic lor), the arms of the Nile in the Delta being 
known as the Te ore Matzor, or "Rivers of Matzor " 
(2 K. 19. 24 ). They were formerly seven in number, 
the two chief of wh. were the Canopic on the W. 
and the Pelusiac on the E. ; the last is now dry. In 
Egpn. the Nile was usly. termed Hapi. The per- 



manent body of water in the river is provided by 
the White Nile wh. flows fm. Lake Albert Nyanza, 
the inundation being derived fm. the three Abys- 
sinian rivers — the Blue Nile, Atbara, and Sobat, and 
depending on the rains in Abyssinia. In Egp. the 
inundation usly. begins in June or July, and is at 
its height in September. The fertility of the soil 
mainly depends upon it, tho' the actual existence of 
Egp. is due to the White Nile, wh. provides a con- 
tinuous supply of water for what (fm. March to 
June) wd. otherwise be a waterless land. Fm. 
Khartum to the sea, a distance of 1800 miles, the 
Nile receives no tributary, and after the drying up 
of the Abyssinian rivers in the early spring the 
amount of water in it varies with the rainfall in 
Central Africa wh. provides water for the White 
Nile. 

Geologically the Delta is of recent formation — a 
bay of the sea wh. once extended to the present 
Cairo : southward the rocks consist of nummulitic 
limestone until, a little to the N. of Silsilis, the older 
sandstone crops up. At the First Cataract the 
original granite floor makes its appearance ; the 
primitive metamorphic rocks similarly rise to the 
surface in the higher parts of the eastern desert. 
The Nile valley was originally a fault or crevasse 
intersected by a number of shallow lakes ; thro' this 
the river gradually cut its way, deepening its channel 
and filling the bay at its mouth with silt. 

Thanks to this silt, the fertility of the Egpn. soil is 
enormous. But as nothing will grow without water, 
constant irrigation is necessary, and every inch of 
irrigated land is too valuable to be left uncultivated. 
Consequently there are few trees in Egp., except 
palms and acacias, wh. are grown for the sake of 
profit, and no wild flowers except those of the 
desert. But cereals and vegetables of all kinds, and 
most fruits, grow there more luxuriantly than else- 




Nile Boats: Cairo in the Distance 

where (see Nu. II. 5 ). Since the beginning of its 
dynastic hist. Egp. has been a land of agriculturists 
and gardeners, and the shaduj, or machine for irri- 
gation, goes back to an early date. After the 



153 



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Persian conquest it was supplemented by the water- 
wheel, and in the 19th cent, by the pumping- 
engine. The fisheries of Egp. have always been 
productive, tho' the scaleless fish have a muddy 
taste wh. is displeasing to European palates. 

The characteristic flora of anct. Egp. — the 
papyrus and blue lotus — have both disappeared. 
When, with the invention of linen paper, the use of 
papyrus for writing purposes was given up by the 
Arab conquerors of Egp., its artificial cultivation 
ceased, and to find it growing naturally we must 
now go to the Sudan. It is the " flag " or " reed " 




The Shaduf 

of the AV., and river-boats were made of its rind 
(Ex. 2. 3 ; Is. 18. 2 ). Like the flora, the character- 
istic fauna of anct. Egp. is also extinct — the croco- 
dile or " dragon " (Ek. 2c;. 3 ), wh. has retired south- 
ward before the steamers, the hippopotamus (see 
Behemoth), and the sacred ibis. With the excep- 
tion of the hyaena there have been no other dan- 
gerous wild beasts in Egp. since the beginning of 
the historical epoch, and the presence there of the 
giraffe, elephant, and ostrich likewise belongs to the 
prehistoric age. The horse was not introduced 
before the Hyksos period, and the camel before the 
Roman age. The domestic cat comes in with the 
Middle Empire. Snakes and scorpions still abound. 
The earliest division of the country was into nomes or 
districts (Egpn. hesepu), each with its special deity or obj. 
of worship, and its central town. Out of the separate nomes 
gradually emerged the two kdms. of Upper and Lower Egp., 
the capital of the kdm. of Upper Egp. being at Hieraconpolis, 



opposite El-Kab. But the division into nomes persisted to 
the last. The number and boundaries of them varied, how- 
ever, at different times ; in the Mosaic age the number was 
37, subsequently we hear of 42, 20 in Lower, and 22 in 
Upper Egp., while Ptolemy makes them 47. 

History. — In the prehistoric age Egp. was in- 
habited by a race, sometimes supposed to be related 
to the Libyans, wh. was unacquainted with the use 
of metal or the art of writing, and was still in the 
pastoral stage. It lived in the desert, the Delta and 
banks of the Nile being morasses covered with jungle, 
the haunt of wild beasts and venomous serpents. It 
buried its dead, and had attained a considerable 
proficiency in the manufacture of flint implements 
and hard stone vases, while its pottery (wh. survived 
in Nubia down to a late date) indicates a strong 
artistic sense. Invaders fm. Asia, who prob. came 
fm. Babylonia thro' Southern Arabia, entered the 
Nile valley in the neighbourhood of Edfu, bringing 
with them a kge. of copper and writing, and speak- 
ing a lang. of the Semitic type. With the help of 
their metal weapons they conquered the natives of 
the country, and slowly moved northward under 
leaders who regarded themselves as the representa- 
tives of the hawk-god Horus. Cities were built 
wh. became the centres of the nomes, the land was 
drained, the inundation of the Nile regulated, and 
canals dug. The engineering science wh. directed 
the work seems to have been derived fm. Babylonia, 
the conquered natives being employed upon it and 
transformed into agriculturists. Eventually the 
different states into wh. the country was divided 
coalesced into the two kdms. of the N. and S. 
These were finally united under Menes, the k. of 
This (now Girga), This having succeeded Hiera- 
conpolis as the capital of Upper Egp. Menes, the 
founder of the 1st dyn. of the united kdm., 
diverted the Nile, a little to the S. of the apex of 
the Delta and the priestly city of On or Heliopolis, 
into a new channel, and on the embankment gained 
fm. the river built a new capital, Memphis (Men- 
nefer, " the good place "), at the point where the 
borders of Upper and Lower Egp. had met. The 
date of Menes is uncertain, Egpn. chronology before 
the rise of the 1 8th dyn. being still a sub j . of dispute. 
The latest chronological scheme is that of Prof. 
Flinders Petrie, wh. wd. make it B.C. 5510, in sub- 
stantial agreement with the date assigned to it by 
Prof. Wiedemann (b.c. 5650). The French Egypt- 
ologists give it as b.c 5000, while the Berlin School 
wd. reduce it to b.c 3400 on the strength of a sup- 
posed calendrical date in a 12th dyn. papyrus, wh., 
however, has turned out not to bear the interpreta- 
tion put upon it (see A. H. Gardiner, Zeitschr. filr 
JEgy-ptische Sprache, xliii. p. 136 *). Moreover, the 

* Papyri examined by Mr. Gardiner show that, at least 
from the 18th dynasty onwards, the names of the months 
for calendrical purposes were a month behindhand, the 
name of Epiphi, for instance, being applied not to the real 
Epiphi but to the following month. 



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Sphinx and Great Pyramid 



Egpn. chronology are incomplete or otherwise in- 



chronological reduction wd. not allow time for the in by no means a backward condition. Indeed, 

number of ks. belonging to the 13th and 14th dyns., Prof. Petrie has discovered that the granite blocks 

whose names we know, or for the three dyns. of Hvksos of the great pyramid at Giza were cut with tubular 

Pharaohs. Unfortunately our two authorities for drills filled with the points of some hard stone. 

The 5th and 6th dyns. carried on the traditions of 
the 4th. A wooden fig. of a well-to-do farmer 
(" Sheikh el-Beled "), now at Cairo, is one of the 
most striking and realistic statues in existence, while 
a statue of Pepi of the 6th dyn., more than life-size 
and made of hammered copper, is a remarkable 
example of modelling and portraiture. Scribes 
and books were already numerous, tho' the oldest 
bk. that has been preserved is an ethical treatise 
written in the age of the 3rd dynasty. 

The first six dyns. constituted the Old Empire. 
They were followed by a period of civil war and 
decay. Egp. revived again under the nth and 
1 2th dyns., wh., with the 13th and 14th, constitute 
the Middle Empire. The princes of the nth dyn. 
were of Theban origin, and after carrying on war 
for several generations with the Herakleopolite 
Pharaohs of the loth dyn., finally succeeded in 

sufficient — the Turin papyrus, compiled in the time making themselves masters of the whole country. 

of Ramses II., wh. contained a list of the Egpn. ks. Memphis was supplanted by the new capital,Thebes, 

with the length of their reigns, but wh. has come wh. had grown up around the sanctuary of Amon at 

down to us in fragments, and Manetho, who wrote Karnak, and Egp. entered upon one of the most 

a lost hist, of Egp. in Gr. (b.c. 270), and whose 

ciphers are reported differently by his Christian 

copyists, Julius Africanus and Eusebius. We now 

know, however, that an accurate register of yrs., 

imitated fm. Babylonia, was kept fm. the earliest 

days of the united monarchy. A portion of it, 

compiled in the time of the 5th dyn., is engraved on 

a monument now in the Museum of Palermo. The 

Babylonian system was adopted of naming the yrs. 

fm. the important events wh. characterised them ; 

to this was added a statement of the Height of the 

Nile in each yr. The date of the accession and 

death of each Pharaoh was of course carefully noted. 
The tomb of Menes has been found at Negada, 

some twenty miles N. of Thebes ; those of his 

successors at Abydos. The dynastic civilisation 

of Egp. was already far advanced ; the system of 

writing was complete, and a cursive hand was already 

in use. Exquisitely cut vases of obsidian indicate 

trade with Melos. The ks. of the 2nd dyn. con- 
tinued to bury at Abydos ; those of the 3rd built 

vast structures of brick with arched staircases, and 

finally introduced the stone pyramid. The great 

pyramid at Medum was the sepulchre of the last k. 

of the dyn. ; those of Giza belong to Khufu (Cheops), 

and his two successors, Khafra (Chephren) and 

Men-ka-Ra (Mycerinus), of the 4th dyn. Under 

the 3rd and 4th dyns. art reached a high per- 
fection. The realistic statuary carved out of the glorious periods in its hist. Nubia was conquered, 

hardest of stones has never been surpassed, and the art patronised, and architecture received a new 1m- 

huge blocks of stone that were transported fm. one pulse. The pyramid made way for the rock-cut 

end of Egp. to the other show that mechanics were tomb, the temple of brick for the temple of stone. 

155 




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The architectural work of Montuhotep, the virtual expelled by Ahmes I., the founder of the 18th dyn., 

founder of Thebes, was never surpassed. But the and therewith of the New Empire. Under Ahmes 

Middle Empire was also the feudal period of Egp. ; and his successors the war was carried into Asia, and 

the princes of Thebes had been themselves members an empire founded wh. extended to the Euphrates 

of a territorial aristocracy, and their success meant and Cilicia in the N., while the Sudan was conquered 

the triumph of the aristocratic over the autocratic in the S. The reign of Thothmes III. (b.c. 1503- 

principle in the state. The result of feudalism, 1449, according to Mahler) was one long series of 

when there was no longer a strong ruler to check it, victories, and tribute was sent to him fm. Asyr. as 

was seen in the short reigns and decaying power of well as fm. the islands of the Gr. seas, 
the ks. of the 14th dyn. When Egp. was invaded The New Empire was distinguished by a new art 



by the Hyksos or " Shepherd " hordes fm. Canaan, 
the reigning Pharaoh was in no condition to oppose 
him. The whole country was overrun by the bar- 




Obelisks at Karnak 



barians, who sacked, burnt the temples, and en- 



and a new political system. Feudalism was replaced 
by a bureaucracy wh. looked to the k. for its wealth 
and honours. Henceforward there were only three 
powers in the kdm., the Pharaoh, the priests, and 
the soldiery, for a standing army also had come into 
existence. With the influx of wealth pauperism 
made its appearance, and v/orkmen's strikes were 
organised at the capital, Thebes. But the 1 8th dyn. 
went down in disaster. Asia captured the Pharaoh 
and his court ; marriages were contracted with Asi- 
atic princesses, and Asiatics were raised to the high 
offices of state. Eventually Amon-hotep IV., under 
the influence of his mr., Teie, endeavoured to intro- 
duce a religious revolution. The Pharaoh sought to 
replace the old relg. of Egp. by a monotheistic pan- 
theism, and persecuted the followers of the faith of 
wh. he was the religious head. He changed his own 
name to Khu-n-Aten, " the splendour of the solar 
disk " — the visible symbol of his new creed — and ex- 
punged the name of the god Amon fm. the monu- 
ments of his predecessors. But the priesthood of 
Thebes proved too strong for the k. He retired 
northward with his followers, and built a new capital 
at Tel el-Amarna, on the eastern bank of the Nile, 
midway between Assiut and Minia, where he drew 
up the articles of the new faith and expounded the 
dogmas of its creed. Along with the new relg. a 
new art was introduced wh. aimed at excessive 
realism, and workmen fm. the iEgean were em- 
ployed on the ornamentation of a palace wh. was 



trenched themselves in a great camp, with ramparts made gorgeous with frescoes, mosaics, statuary, and 
of earth, N. of Memphis. The foreigners, however, gilded bronze. 

soon yielded to the culture of Egp. ; the Hyksos Khu-n-Aten died in the midst of civil and re- 
leader became a Pharaoh, whoseseat was at Memphis, ligious war. His mummy was torn to shreds, his 
and who was followed by three successive dyns. of capital and palace destroyed, and his religion pro- 
Hyksos ks. during a period of more than 500 yrs. scribed. The Asiatics were driven into exile or re- 
The Hyksos court became outwardly Egpn. ; the duced to serfdom, and after a few short reigns the 
foreign Pharaohs even adopted Egpn. names and 19th dyn. was founded in the person of Ramses I., 
patronised Egpn. lit. and science. An Egpn. mathe- who represented the national reaction agst. the 
matical work that has come down to us was com- Asiatic stranger and the foreign creed. Two yrs. 
posed for one of them. The Egpns., however, later he was succeeded by his son Seti I., who re- 
never forgot that they were foreigners ; the country conquered Pal., wh. had been lost in the recent 
had to be garrisoned with Asiatic troops and was troubles. Seti was followed by Ramses II., whose 
regarded as an appanage of Canaan, the southern long reign of 6j yrs. was chiefly marked by his pas- 
part of wh. was also under the control of the Hyksos sion for bldg. Among the cities he founded were 
k. An attack on Egpn. relg. eventually led the Raamses and Pithom (Pa-Tum, now Tel el-Mas- 
prince of Thebes to revolt, and after five genera- khuta), wh. were constructed by Israelitish labour. 
tions of warfare the Asiatic stranger was at length The earlier part of his reign was spent in a struggle 

156 



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with the Hittites for the possession of Pal. ; eventu- 
ally, in his 2 1 st yr., a treaty was concluded fixing the 
boundaries between the two powers, and guarantee- 
ing amnesty to all political offenders who had found 




Mummy of Ramses II. 

refuge in the dominions of the two contracting 
parties. Ramses II. was followed by his s., Menep- 
tah, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, wh. seems to have 
taken place in his 5th yr., when Egp. was invaded 
by Libyans fm. the W. and sea-pirates fm. Asia 
Minor and the Gr. islands, since the land of Goshen 
is described shortly afterwards as having been de- 
serted by its inhabitants. Egp. never recovered fm. 
the shock of the invasion, and when Meneptah died 
a few yrs. later, his s., Seti II., found that the em- 
pire in Asia was gone. The 20th dyn. followed, the 
second k. of wh., Ramses III., was the last of the con- 
quering Pharaohs. He succeeded in beating back 
an invasion of Egp. by the Northern tribes, wh. 
was even more formidable than that in Meneptah's 
reign, and the temple of Medinet Habu at Thebes 
commemorates his victories by land and sea. But 
the struggle between the k. and the priesthood wh. 
had been going on since the time of Khu-n-Aten, 
had now ended in favour of the priests : hence- 
forward Egp. was virtually governed by the high- 
priests of Thebes, the Pharaohs being either mere 
shadows of sovereignty or finding a refuge in the 
Delta. The 22nd dyn., founded by Shishak I., the 
general of the Libyan mercenaries, formed, how- 



ever, a partial exception ; but it, too, decayed, and 
Egp. was overrun by negro chieftains fm. the Sudan. 
One of these, Sabako, established the 25th dyn., wh. 
offered a vigorous but unsuccessful resistance to the 
Assyrians. Taharka, the third k. of the dyn., was 
driven back to the Sudan ; Thebes, after more than 
one revolt, was levelled by the Assyrians to the 
ground (b.c. 662), and the whole country divided 
into 20 satrapies under Assyrian rule. 

The revolt of Babylonia fm. Asyr. gave Psamme- 
tichus, s. of Necho, the satrap of Sais, an oppor- 
tunity of shaking off the foreign yoke ; and with the 
help of Ionian and Carian mercenaries sent to him 
by Gyges of Lydia, he succeeded in making himself 
independent k. of Egp. and founding the 26th dyn., 
b.c. 660. Egp. now entered upon the St. Luke's 
summer of its hist., and an antiquarian revival was 
accompanied by a revival of art. Wealth poured in 
fm. the Gr. settlements in the N., and order was 
kept by Gr. mercenaries. Psammetichus was fol- 
lowed by his s. Necho (b.c. 610), who reopened the 
canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, and sent 
Phoenician sailors to circumnavigate Africa. The 
fall of Nineveh tempted the Pharaoh to re-establish 
the Egpn. empire in Asia ; Josiah was overthrown 
and slain at Megiddo, and Syr. once more obeyed 
Egpn. rule as far as the Euphrates. But Necho was 
himself overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar in a battle 
at Carchemish (b.c 605), and his Asiatic possessions 
lost. Ten yrs. later he died (b.c 594). His s., 
Psammetichus II., reconquered Nubia, but died in 
b.c 589, when he was succeeded by Apries (Hophra), 
who seems to have been his br. After failing to re- 
lieve Zedekiah, whom he had tempted to revolt fm. 
Nebuchadnezzar, Apries, with the help of his Gr. 
mercenaries, succeeded in capturing Sidon and the 
other Phoenician cities, but in an expedition agst. 
Cyrene his army was utterly overthrown. The 




Prone Statue of Ramses II. 



J 
157 



fugitive remnants of it demanded the deposition of 
the k., whose preference for his Gr. body-guard they 
resented ; the general Amasis, sent to pacify them, 
"oined the rebels ; the Gr. mercenaries were over- 



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whelmed by numbers in a battle at Momemphis, down to the time when the sacred animals were ex- 
and Apries fell into the hands of his enemies and plained as mere symbols of the omnipresent god- 
soon afterwards was put to death. Amasis (Ahmes head, and art united their heads to the body of a 
II.) now seized the crown (b.c. 569), and covered man. 

Egp. with his bldgs. Taught by the experience of Various schools of theology grew up in the 
his predecessor, he disbanded the native army and country, and the combination of their often contra- 
relied entirely on his Gr. soldiers. Gr. commerce dictory doctrines, with little or no attempt to har- 
was encouraged, the Pharaoh married a Gr. w. and monise them, constitutes one of the chief difficulties 
sent presents to the Gr. temples. He died B.C. 525, of Egpn. relg. At Hermopolis the supreme deity 
at the very moment when Cambyses was marching was Thoth, the Moon-god and patron of learning, 
agst. him, and his young s., Psammetichus III., was who had created the world by his word, or rather 
powerless to resist the invader. The Gr. troops voice ; at Heliopolis the inferior deities were re- 
were decimated in a decisive battle at Pelusium, solved into forms of the Sun-god in his threefold 
Memphis was taken by storm and Psammetichus put manifestation as rising, mid-day, and setting sun. 
to death. Cambyses now proceeded to despatch in- But the theology wh. eventually became the official 
vading forces into Ethiopia and agst. the Oasis of and orthodox creed of Egp. was that of Abydos (de- 
Ammon, and aroused the hatred of the Egpns. by rived, perhaps, originally fm. the Delta), with its 
slaying the sacred bull, Apis, and profaning the god Osiris, " the Good Being." Osiris had revealed 
temples. But the warm climate of Egp. tempted himself in human form and been the benefactor of 
him to remain too long away fm. his capital. The man ; in return he had been put to death ; but his 
Magian conspiracy was allowed to come to a head, worshippers believed that he had risen fm. the dead, 
and he died while on the march to oppose it. as they too wd. do thro 5 faith in him, and that those 
Darius endeavoured to conciliate his Egpn. subjs., who had followed his example on earth wd. dwell 
but the revolt of Khabbash, after the Persian defeat with him hereafter in the Paradise of the Blest — the 
at Marathon, shows that his efforts were in vain, fields of Aalu. Alone among pagan relgs. the Osi- 
On the death of Xerxes the Egpns. again revolted rian creed taught that salvation cd. be secured only 
under the Lybian Inaros, with the help of the Athe- thro' obedience to an exceedingly high moral code, 
nians (b.c 464), and more successfully under Amyr- and the examination of the soul before the tribunal 
tseus of Sais, who constituted the 28th dyn. (b.c. of Osiris after death was searching in the extreme. 
41 e;). He was followed by Nepherites of Mendes,the Osiris formed part of a trinity, the other members 
founder of the 29th dyn., under whose four succes- of wh. were the goddess Isis and his s. Horus — " the 
sors Egp. continued to be independent. The last avenger " of his father, with whom also he was one. 
of the Mendesians was murdered by his soldiery, Horus at an early date had been identd. with Ra, 
who placed Nectanebo I. of Sebennytus on the the Sun-god of Heliopolis, and in his title of " Re- 
throne. Under the three Pharaohs of the 30th deemer " the early Christians of Egp. saw a reflec- 
(Sebennyte) dyn. Egp. witnessed a revival of power tion of Christ. The " Book of the Dead," the 
and art, but in b.c. 349 the last of them, Nectanebo origin of wh. goes back to the age of the 1st dyn., 
II., was forced to fly to Ethiopia, and Egp. compelled was the ritual of the Osirian creed. But the creed 
to submit to the army of Artaxerxes Ochus. The was not accepted throughout Egp. before the time 
Persian empire, however, soon made way for that of of the 1 8th dyn., when the practice of embalming 
Alexander ; Alexandria was founded, and Egp. fell first became universal. Under the earlier dyns. the 
eventually to the share of Ptolemy Lagus and his other world was conceived of as a dark and dreary 
successors. region underground, and in place of the winged ha 
Religion. — Egpn. relg. varied at different periods, or " soul," the Egpn. believed in a ha or " double," 
and little attempt was made to harmonise the later dependent on the food and drink offered in the 
conceptions with those wh. had been derived fm. an tomb, and condemned to a shadowy existence in the 
earlier period. Each nome had originally its pre- sunless land of the dead. At the end of the 1 8th 
siding deity or deities ; these were in most cases dyn. Amon-hotep IV. endeavoured to establish a 
fetiches, or more often sacred animals, in wh. we new faith wh. was a pantheistic monotheism. The 
must see the objects of worship of the primitive manifold deities of Egp. had already been resolved 
African population. The dynastic Egpns. brought into forms of " the one God " ; to this one God 
with them the idea of anthropomorphism ; the gods Amon-hotep gave individual shape, and saw his 
were conceived as men, and conversely the men as visible symbol in the solar disc. For the first time 
gods, the Pharaoh himself becoming divine. The it was declared that all mankind, Egpn. and bar- 
hist. of Egpn. relg. is pervaded by the attempt to barian alike, were children of " the one God," and 
reconcile the two conceptions of divinity, fm. the that the beasts and birds and plants — including the 
day when the " dynastic " leader was identd. with sacred animals of Egp. — had their origin in him. 
the hawk-god who was a sort of totem of his tribe, For the first time also there was persecution for 

158 



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Egy 



religion's sake, and an attempt was made by the 
Pharaoh to extirpate the worship of Amon and the 
old official relg. of his country. Under his direc- 
tion the articles of the new faith were drawn up and 
embodied in a creed, and the Pharaoh himself de- 
livered sermons upon them. But the religious re- 
volution failed ; and the 18th dyn. went down in 
disaster. Under the 19th dyn. the solar theology of 
Heliopolis became fashionable at court ; the gods 
were all identd. with the Sun-god, whose bark 
carried each night thro' the heavens the select few 
to whom the mysteries of the solar theology were 
known. Salvation was thus made to depend upon 
knowledge, and the Osirian creed, with its doctrine 
of righteousness, was replaced by a system of Gnosti- 
cism. Meanwhile the uneducated masses continued 
to worship the sacred animals in whom the educated 
saw only symbols and forms of the divine. Magic, 
however, played a large part in the religious life and 
belief of both classes of society ; the " Book of the 
Dead " itself is full of it. In the later days of Egp. 
the magical element absorbed everything else, and 
the charm and amulet took the place once occupied 
by the performance of good deeds and the avoidance 
of sin. Dreams had always occupied an important 
place in Egpn. belief ; it was believed that the 
future was revealed in them, and books to interpret 
them were numerous. 

Social Condition. — Under the Old Empire Egp. 
was a land of agriculturists. Much of the land was 
owned by the farmers who worked it ; many of them 
were wealthy, and they could rise to high offices of 
state. With the Middle Empire feudalism was in- 
troduced ; property passed into the hands of the 
great proprietors, who also formed an exclusive 
aristocracy, and had bodies of armed retainers in 
their service. Then came the Hyksos conquest, out 
of wh. Egp. emerged with a bureaucracy appointed 
by the k. in place of the feudal aristocracy, and the 
individual possession of the land was at an end. 
Henceforward the k. and the priesthood, apart fm. 
the military allotments, were the sole legal owners of 
the land ; and public granaries (laritu) had been 
built into wh. all the corn grown in Egp. was stored 
and then sold by the government. The hist, of this 
change in the political and economical condition of 
the country, wh. has not yet been recovered fm. the 
monuments, is given in Gn. 46. 20 " 26 . All kinds of 
cereals were cultivated : in the nth dyn. tombs at 
Der el-Bahari have been found oats, wheat, barley, 
durra, as well as beans, millet, flax, and olives. 
Along with them was a basket of the lichen Pamelia 
jurjuracea, wh. was used for leavening bread, and 
must have been imported fm. Greece. Vines were 
grown in Upper Egp. fm. a very early period ; the 
names of the vineyards of some of the ks. of the 1st 
dyn. are now known to us ; and wine was made fm. 
the grapes. The houses of the rich had flower- 



gardens attached to them, and flowers were used as 
a decoration at dinner. Geese, ducks, oxen and 
sheep were fattened on the farms, and tho' swine 
were regarded as unclean they were known at least 
as early as the time of the 4th dyn. The Egpn. was 
fond of fish, and large quantities of the scaleless fish 
of the Nile were consumed. Ropes and baskets were 
made fm. palm-fibre ; Moses' cradle, however, was 
of papyrus rind. Land was divided into small plots, 
and as the changes in the Nile frequently altered the 
form of these, it was necessary for cadastral purposes 
that the plots shd. be measured every yr. Hence 
.arose the science of trigonometry and surveying. 

Literature. — The art of writing was introduced 
by the dynastic Egpns., the script being pictorial. 
But before the accession of Menes the pictorial 
hieroglyphs had come to be used syllabically to ex- 
press the mere sounds of words as well as the words 
themselves, and an alphabet had been further 
evolved fm. them. It was not long before a cursive 
hand was formed out of the hieroglyphs, and em- 
ployed in writing upon parchment and papyrus. 
In the age of the 22nd dyn. this cursive hand, or 
" hieratic," became still more conventional, and 
passed into what is called " demotic," wh. was 
finally superseded by the Gr. alphabet when Egp. 
became Christian. The addition of four demotic 
characters to the Gr. letters made the alphabet 
" Coptic." Egpn. Lit. is as old as the introduction 
of the " hieratic " script ; the earliest fragment of 
it that has come down to us is a moral treatise by 
Qaqemna of the time of the 3rd dyn. Another 
early bk. is a work on ethical philosophy by Ptah- 
hotep, who lived under the later 5th dyn. kings. 
As time went on, most branches of Lit. came to be 
represented ; among others, the historical novel. 
One of the most curious bks. that have survived is a 
satirical act. of a tourist's misadventures in Canaan 
in the reign of Ramses II. A treatise on mathe- 
matics was written for a Hyksos king. Legal 
matters are the sub j . of other papyri. Egpn. law was 
famed for its combination of justice with humanity ; 
the supreme court consisted of 30 judges, and litiga- 
tion seems to have been frequent. 

Society and Mode of Life. — Women enjoyed as 
much freedom as men, and the throne cd. be occu- 
pied by a queen. Indeed one of the greatest of the 
Egpn. sovereigns was Queen Hatshepsu of the 1 8th 
dyn. They cd. hold and dispose of property, and 
in the Ptolemaic age a large proportion of the landed 
estate in the country was in their hands. A de- 
motic papyrus contains a record of a suit brought 
by a husband agst. his wife to recover the " pin- 
money " due to him fm. her under the marriage 
settlement. Monogamy was the rule, except in the 
case of the ks., who also, as members of the divine 
solar race, were encouraged to marry their half- 
sisters, and descent was counted thro' the mother. 



x 59 



Egy 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ehu 



Under the Old Empire the army consisted of 
militia ; after the accession of the 18th dyn. it was a 
standing one, and was mainly composed of foreign 
mercenaries — Libyans, negroes, Sardinians, &c. — 
under Egpn. officers. The use of mercenaries went 
back at least to the age of the 1 2th dyn. ; wooden 
models of that age have been found representing a 
squadron of native Egpn. troops, in mod. marching 
order, armed with metal, and another squadron of 
Nubians armed with flint-tipped arrows. Engines 
of war were employed for the capture of cities. 
The Egpns. were advanced in mechanics, and were 




J.ZMPLE AT Ti:iL/E 



able to move large blocks of stone with great rapi- 
dity. They were fond of games, and had invented 
harps and other musical instruments. Their artistic 
sense was great ; their animal drawings are espe- 
cially good, and they had a keen appreciation of 
colour. The common articles of every-day use 
were artistically made, and chairs and tables with 
bulls' legs were already manufactured in the age of 
Menes. Much of their jewellery was of exquisite 
workmanship, and the 12th dyn. pectorals dis- 
covered at Dahshur are so skilfully inlaid with 
precious stones as to resemble work in enamel. 
Their religious architecture was distinguished by 
massive sublimity ; the domestic architecture, on 
the other hand, was graceful, and owed much to 
bright colouring. The private houses found at Tel 
el-Amarna, the site of the capital of the " Heretic 
King," had their walls frescoed with domestic 



scenes, and were provided with bath-rooms, while in 
summer they were cooled by fountains, and kept 
warm in winter by braziers (Mitteilungen der Deut- 
schen Orient-Gesellsckaft, Sept. 1907, pp. 14-31). 

Lit. : G. Maspero, Histoire ancienne des Peuples de 
V Orient classique, Paris, 1895-9 ; Eng. tr. Dawn of 
Civilisation, Struggle of Nations, Passing of Empires, 
S.P.C.K., 1894-1900 ; W. M. Flinders Petrie, A 
History of Egypt (6 vols.), Methuen ; J. A. Knudt- 
zon, Die El-Amarna Tafeln, Leipzig, 1907-8 ; 
A. Wiedemann, Die Rsligion der alten TEgypter, 
Miinster, 1890 (English tr. 1897) ; Sayce, Religions 
of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, Clarke, 1902 ; 
Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie 
Egyptiennes, Paris, 1 893-1900 ; Renouf, Book of the 
Dead, P.S.B.A. xiv., &c. ; Gardner Wilkinson, 
Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians, ed. 
Birch, 1878 ; Erman, JEgypten und JEgyptisches 
Leben, 1885 ; De Morgan, Recherches sur les Ori- 
gines de Vfigypte, 1896-7 ; W. Max Miiller, Asien 
und Europa, 1893 ; J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of 
Egypt, 5 vols., Chicago, 1906-7. A. H. Sayce. 

EGYPTIAN, THE (Ac. 21. 38 ), with whom 
Lysias thought to ident. Paul, was followed by c. 
30,000 (poss. we shd. correct to 4000) people, who 
believed him to be a prophet, to the Mt. of Olives, 
expecting that by miraculous destruction of the 
walls he wd. take Jrs. They were scattered by 
Felix, who killed 400 and took 200 prisoners. " The 
Prophet " made his escape {Ant. XX. viii. 6 ; BJ. 
II. xiii. 5). 

EGYPT, RIVER OF. Two Heb. terms are thus 
trd. in the AV., nehar Mitzraim (Gn. 15. 18 ), and 
Nahal Mitzraim (Nu. 34« 5 ; Jo. 15. 4 ' 47 ; 1 K. 8. 65 ; 
2 K. 24. 7 ; Is. 27. 12 , " stream of Egypt "). In Gn. 
15. 18 the phrase ought to mean the Nile ; this, how- 
ever, is excluded by the context, and the choice of 
the word nabar, " river," seems to be due to its 
opposition to the " great river " Euphrates. The 
Nahal Mitzraim corrspds. with the mod. Wady el- 
'Arish, and formed the boundary between Pal. and 
Egp. In Jo. 13. 3 , its place appears to be taken by 
the Sihor, wh. Brugsch idents. with the Shi-FIor or 
" Horus Canal," wh. passed Zar, the frontier city 
of Egp. A. H. Sayce. 

EHUD, a Benjamite, s. of Gera, who went with 
a company, apparently carrying tribute, to Eglon, 
the oppressor of Isr. When they had gone a cert, 
distance homeward — as far as " the quarries," or 
" carved stones," wh. may have refc. to the stones 
set up by Joshua (4. 20 ) — he returned to the k., and 
on the pretext of having a secret to communicate, 
secured a private interview. Being left-handed, he 
took the k. at unawares and stabbed him with a 
two-edged dagger. Locking the door of the apart- 
ment, as no danger was suspected, he escaped, and 
stirred up his countrymen to strike effectively for 
freedom (Jg. 3. llff -). 



160 



Ekr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eia 



EKRON, the most northerly of the five chief 
Phil, cities, with its district (Jo. 13. 3 , 15. 45 ), first as- 
signed to Judah, and later to Dan (Jo. 19. 43 ). There 
was no effective conquest of E. by Isr. Under 
David, for a time, it may have been tributary (2 S. 
S. 1 ). Otherwise it is represented as in Phil, hands 
(1 S. 5., 6. ; Am. I. 8 , &c. ; also Asyr. inscrs. of the 
time of Sargon and Sennacherib). It was given to 
Judas Maccabaeus by Alex. Balus (1 M. io. 89 ). It 
is prob. the mod. i Aqir y 14 miles SE. of Jaffa, a 
small vill. with few anct. remains. 

EL. See God. 

ELAH, s. and successor of Baasha, k. of Isr. (1 K. 
i6. 6fl -), whose drunkenness exposed him to the regi- 
cide Zimri, in the house of his steward Arza, at 
Tirza. His reign was brief (two yrs.), and in- 
glorious. For others of this name, see Gn. 36. 41 ; 
2 K. 15. 30 ; 1 Ch. 4. 15 , 9 . 8 . 




Photo, PEF. 



Vale of Elah 



ELAH, THE VALLEY OF, " Vale of the tere- 
binth " (1 S. 17.), where David slew Goliath, is prob. 
ident. with the plain in Wddy es-Sunt, at its junction 
with Wddy es-Sur and Wddy el-Jindy, c. \ mile 
broad, through wh. flow two streams. These, 
uniting, sink into a deep ravine. Saul prob. occu- 
pied the slopes of Wddy el-Jindy on the E., the 
Phil, lying on the rising ground beyond. 

ELAM (th% 'AiX&fi, 'EX&fL, Elymais). The 
Heb. name represents the Asyr. Elamtu, " the 
high-lands," a tr. of the Sumerian Numma. It was 
given to the mountainous district to the E. of Bab., 
the chief city of wh. was Susun, or " Shushan 
the fortress," Susa (now Shush). The larger por- 
tion of Elam was known as Anzan or Ansan, wh. 
seems to have derived its name fm. a city Anzan, 
the site of wh. is still unknown. East of Susa was 
the plain of Mai-Amir, where important monu- 
ments have been discovered. In the Neo-Susian 
inscrs. of the Persian period Khapirti (or Apirti) 
takes the place of Anzan and Elamtu, its equivalent 
in the Persian texts being Uwaja (classical Uxii 
(Herod, iii. 93), mod. Khuzistan). 



De Morgan's excavations at Susa and Mussian 
have revealed there a neolithic age with painted 
pottery of fine fabric and beautiful forms. Much 
of it resembles the early geometric pottery of the 
iEgean, and along with it is found a black ware with 
incised lines filled with white. The introduction of 
copper was accompanied by that of the cuneiform 
system of writing, or rather the pictographs out of 
wh. the cuneiform or cursive script was evolved. 
At a later date (b.c. 3750) Susa was conquered by 
Sargon of Akkad and his s. Naram-Sin, and became 
the seat of a Babn. satrap. The Babylonian lang. 
and script were introduced, as well as Babn. law and 
other elements of culture, and Elam cd. accordingly 
be described as a s. of Shem (Gn. io. 22 ). About 
B.C. 2500 the native Elamites revolted ; the last k. 
of the dyn. of Ur was slain in battle with them, and 
Susa was henceforward the capital of a non-Semitic 
kdm. The cuneiform script was retained, but the 
lang. for which it was used (commonly called " An- 
zanite " and " Neo-Susian ") was agglutinative. 
The Semitic advance, wh. was thus checked in Elam, 
was next assailed in Bab. itself, and for many cents, 
the Elamite ks. made frequent endeavours to 
conquer the Babylonian plain. About B.C. 2100 
Kudur-Laghghamar (Chedor-laomer) made himself 
master of Bab., and the Elamite, Eri-Aku, governed 
Southern Bab. as his vassal. Khammu-rabi (Amra- 
phel), however, succeeded in defeating the Elamite 
army, and uniting Bab. under his sceptre. 

The great builder at Susa was a later k., Untas- 
gal, who erected temples and statues innumerable. 
A statue of his w., cast in bronze, is one of the finest 
portrait-statues that have come down to us. The 
temples were richly coated with bronze and coloured 
enamelled tiles, wh. seem to have been an Elamite 
invention. At a still later date (c. b.c i 100) Sutruk- 
Nakhkhunte, who styles himself " k. of Anzan and 
Susa, prince of Khapirti," made Susa a sort of 
national museum, filling it with the monuments he 
had carried off fm. Bab., wh. included the famous 
Code of Khammu-rabi and the stelae whereon 
Naram-Sin had recorded his victories. After the 
rise of the later Asyr. empire Elam assisted Bab. in 
resisting the Asyr. attack. But tho' the assistance 
delayed the Asyrn. conquest of Bab. and enabled 
the Babns. to rebel fm. time to time agst. their Asyr. 
masters, it was never permanently effective. The 
Elamites counted descent thro' the mother, so that 
the nephew of the k. rather than his s. succeeded 
him, the result being continual civil wars. The 
country, moreover, was in the hands of feudal 
chieftains, like mod. xA.byssinia, who often refused to 
unite under the nominal k. Merodach-baladan, 
however, was successfully protected by Umman- 
nigas of Elam agst. Sargon in b.c 721, and in b.c 
695 Bab. was captured by Khalludus in the rear of 
Sennacherib. But a yr. and a half afterwards the 



l6l 



Ela 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ele 



Elamite nominee at Bab. fell into the hands of the 
Asyrns., and in the following September Khalludus 
was murdered. Sennacherib thereupon ravaged the 
western and northern parts of Elam. In B.C. 690 
came the battle of Khalule between Sennacherib 
and the combined forces of Bab. and the Elamite k., 
who had under him the troops of Parsuas or Persia. 
About B.C. 665 internal discord opened Elam to the 
army of Assur-bani-pal, who placed Umman-igas on 
the throne as tributary prince. He joined, how- 
ever, the great revolt agst. Asyr., but his murder by 
his s., and the civil wars wh. followed, once more left 
Elam a prey to the Asyrns. Susa and other cities 
were burnt, the temples and palaces destroyed, and 
the sacred groves cut down. Thirty-two statues of 
the ks. were carried to Asyr. along with the images of 
the Elamite deities. But Asyr. derived little benefit 
fm. the desolated province, and the drain of men 
and money involved in its subjugation had much to 
do with the decay of the Assyrian empire. After 
the overthrow of the empire, Susa, wh. was restored 
by Nebuchadnezzar, fell to the share of Bab., while 
Anzan was occupied by the Persian Teispes, who, 
like his descendant Cyrus, was a tributary of the 
Babs. In B.C. 606, Jeremiah (25. 25 ) refers to " the 
ks. of Elam," and the Persian conquest of Anzan is 
prob. meant in 4c;. 35 ' 39 . In Is. 21. 2 " Elam " may 
be a refce. to Cyrus of Anzan. Fm. Acts 2. 9 we may 
gather that the native lang. continued to be spoken 
after the Christian era. 

Lit. : Loftus, Ghaldcea and Susiana, Nisbet, 
1857 '■> Dieulafoy, UAcro-pole de Suse, Paris, 1890 ; 
Billerbeck, Susa, Leipzig, 1893 ; De Morgan and 
Scheil, Memoires de la Delegation en Perse, Paris, 
1 899-1908. A. H. Sayce. 

ELATH, or ELOTH, " a grove," a seaport town 
on the Red Sea, belonging to Edom, on the route 
followed by Isr. (Dt. 2. 8 ). As the name indicates, 
it was a place of trees, and is prob. ident. with El 
Paran of Gn. 14. 6 . After David's conquest of 
Edom (2 S. 8. 14 ), it is mentioned along with Ezion- 
geber as a place of shipbuilding, and the starting- 
point of merchant fleets (1 K. 9- 26 ). Lost by 
Jehoram (2 K. 8. 20 ), it was retaken and restored by 
Uzziah (14. 22 ), and finally taken fm. Ahaz by the 
Syrs. (16. 6 ). E. is identd. with mod. 'Aqaba. 

ELDAD AND MEDAD, two of the seventy 
elders chosen by Moses (Nu. n. 16 ). While the 
others obeyed the summons to the Tabernacle, E. 
and M. remained in the camp and prophesied (v. 26). 
Joshua's jealous appeal to Moses agst. their conduct 
elicited that leader's generous response on their 
behalf. An apocryphal Bk. of E. and M. is quoted 
by Hermas and in Tg.Jrs. 

ELDER (OT.). In all primitive communities of 
wh. we have any kge. rule was in the hands of the 
heads of families, or the older men in the state. 
The word " elder " was not a mere official designa- 



tion as it is among us, but actually denoted seniority 

in age. The Rm. f aires, and Gr. gerontes, find their 

mod. counterpart in the Sheyukh, " elders," of 

Arabia. The like functionaries were found in anct. 

Egp. (Gn. 50. 7 ), Moab, and Midian (Nu. 22. 7 ). In 

war each E. led the men of his own house ; in 

time of peace they administered justice, each 

within the sphere marked by definite relationship. 

There is nothing to show how a man became acknowledged 
as an E., wielding authority in the congregation. Prob. 
the process was not unlike what takes place among the 
Arabian tribes to-day. One is not chosen for this position 
by any direct appeal to the pecple. Authority gradually 
gathers in the hands of those who, by their wisdom, high 
character, and deeds, have won the respect and esteem of 
the community. All intertribal questions are entrusted to 
their management ; and their decisions in matters of dispute 
submitted to them are, for the most part, loyally accepted. 

Fm. among those recognised as elders in Isr. 
Moses chose seventy to share with him the burden 
of responsibility in the wilderness (Nu. Il. 16ff -). 
See Sanhedrin. 

In the cities the elders dispensed justice in the 
market-plaCe, wh. in Semitic cities was at the prin- 
cipal gate. They decided both criminal and civil 
causes (Jo. 20. 4 ; Ru. 4. 2 , &c). Not only every 
township, but every tribe (2 S. 19. 11 ), had its own 
elders. The " heads of the tribes " (Dt. 5. 23 ) prob. 
occupied a position superior to that of the E., but no 
act. is given of their mode of election. 

As the line between secular and sacred is not 
drawn in the East as it is among us, the civil func- 
tions of the E. cd. never be strictly distinguished fm. 
the religious. The management of the Synagogue, 
on its institution, naturally fell to the local elders in 
each place. Christ's rejection by the elders (Lk. 
6. 22 ) indicates that they were the Pharisees who 
exercised the right of casting men out of the syna- 
gogue on cause shown (Jn. 12. 42 ). They are also 
among the leaders who take counsel to put Jesus to 
death (Mw. 21. 23 , &c). 

ELDER (NT.). See Bishop. 

ELEALEH, a town in Reuben (Nu. 32. 37 , &c), 
near Heshbon = el- 6 A I, a mound with ruins fm. the 
Byzantine period, c. a mile N. of Heshbon. It is 
referred to as a Moabite town (Is. 15. 4 ; Jr. 48 . 34 ). 

ELEAZAR, the third s. of Aaron (Ex. 6. 23 ), ap- 
pointed chief over the Levites (Nu. 3. 32 ) ; on his 
fr.'s death E. was invested with the sacred garments 
as his successor (Nu. 20. 28 ). With Moses he super- 
intended the second census of the people (Nu. 
26. 3L ), and with Joshua he presided at the alloca- 
tion of Canaan to the tribes (Jo. 14. 1 ). He was 
buried in Mt.EpiiRAiM (Jo. 24. 33 ), and was succeeded 
by Phinehas his s. 

' EL-ELOHE-ISRAEL. Jacob so named the 
altar he erected on the ground he had bought fm. 
the sons of Hamor (Gn. 33. 20 ). It is difficult to 
understand why such a name shd. be given to an 
altar. Dr. Selbie (HDB), following LXX, suggs. 



162 



Ele 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eli 



an emendation wh. involves the omission of a single 
letter (*)), and wd. read "and called on the God 
of Isr." 

ELEPH, a town in Benj. (Jo. i8. 28 ), Conder 
idents. with Lifta, W. of Jrs. 

ELHANAN. As the text stands in 2 S. 21. 19 , 
E., s. of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slays Goliath 
of Gath ; in 1 Ch. 20. 5 , E., s. of Jair, slays Lahmi 
the br. of Goliath. Oregim, " weavers," has evi- 
dently slipped into the name in 2 S. fm. the follow- 
ing line. " Bethlehemite " and " Lahmi " are also 
confused. It is held by many that " the br." is in- 
troduced in 1 Ch. to harmonise with the nar. in 
1 S. 17. E., s. of Dodo, one of David's mighty men 
(2 S. 23. 24 , &c), is prob. the same man. 

ELI, judge (1 S. 4. 18 ) and priest (i. 9 ) in Shiloh 
late in the period of the Judges. To his care 
Samuel was entrusted, and by the latter God com- 
municated His purpose to destroy the house of E., 
because of the misconduct of his sons, whom he had 
failed to correct (1 S. 2., 3). This was confirmed by 
a man of God (2. 27 ). On receiving tidings that the 
ark was captured by the Phil., and his sons slain, E. 
fell back and brake his neck. The house of E. was 
finally ejected fm. the priesthood in the person of 
Abiathar (1 K. 2. 26 ). 

ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI. These 
words of our Lord upon the cross are Aram., not 
Heb. Although not committed to writing, it is 
not impossible that there was an Aram, version of 
the Psalms, handed down by usage. While poss. 
our Lord's lang. was usually Greek, in the house 
at Nazareth it would be Aram, that wd. be 
spoken. In the time of His extremity our Lord 
returned to the tongue of His childhood. Some 
have thought that He repeated the whole of the 
22nd Psalm ; but of this there is no evidence. 

ELIAB. (1) Prince of Zebulun (Nu. I. 9 , &c). 
(2) Fr. of Dathan and Abiram (Nu. 16. 1 ). (3) 
David's eldest br. (1 S. 16. 6 , &c). (4) One of 
David's musicians, a player on the psaltery. (5) A 
Gadite warrior who joined David in the wilderness 
(1 Ch. 12. 9 ). (6) An ancestor of Samuel (1 Ch. 

er>). 

ELIAKIM. (1) Successor of Shebna as master 
of the k.'s household at the time of the invasion of 
Sennacherib (2 K. 18. 18 , &c). The position was 
one of great influence, frequently used by the occu- 
pant to the advantage of his own friends. E. is the 
" nail fastened in a sure place " on wh. all his fr.'s 
house, both great and small, depend (Is. 22. 23 , &c). 
(2) S. of Josiah = Jehoiakim (2 K. 23. 34 ). (3) A 
priest in Nehemiah's time (Ne. 12. 41 ). (4) An 
ancestor of Jesus Christ (Mw. I. 13 ; Lk. 3 30 ). 

ELIAM, fr. of Bathsheba (2 S. II. 3 ), called 
Ammiel (1 Ch. 3. 5 ), prob. identd. with E., s. of 
Ahithophel (2 S. 23. 34 ). 

ELIASHIB, a high-priest who assisted in bldg. 



the wall of Jrs. (Ne. 3. 1 ), but who did not share the 
objection — he wd. prob. have called it prejudice — 
of Ezra and Nehemiah agst. foreign alliances. He 
was himself related to Tobiah (13. 4 ), Nehemiah's 
bitter foe, and provided for him a chamber in the 
temple court, whence he was driven by Nehemiah 
(i3. 7fl -). E.'s s. married the dr. of Sanballat, and 
was promptly expelled by Nehemiah (13. 28 ). The 
name E., " God will restore," occurs also in 1 Ch. 
3. 24 , 24. 12 ; Ez. io. 24 , &c). 

ELIEZER. Twelve men of this name are men- 
tioned in Scrip. The more important are (1) Abra- 
ham's steward, a native of Damascus (Gn. 15. 2 ). 
(2) The prophet who foretold the wreck of the joint 
fleet of Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah (2 Ch. 20. 37 ). 

ELIHU. (1) Grandfr. of Elkana, fr. of Samuel 
(1 S. I. 1 ). (2) S. of Barachel the Buzite, a supple- 
mentary speaker in Job. It is to be noted that the 
name is consonantally the same as Elijah. 

ELIJAH (" Jah is God "). Under the influence 
of the Phoenician princess Jezebel, the cult of the 
Tyrian Baal had made great progress in Isr. Ahab 
lent himself to support it, even to the extent of per- 
secuting the worshippers of J". A splendid temple 
had been built to Baal in Samaria, and a great es- 
tablishment of prophets of Baal and of the Asherah 
flourished under the royal favour. 

When the prospects of the true faith seemed at 
their darkest, one of the greatest figures in the pro- 
phetic line suddenly appeared — Elijah the Tishbite 
(1 K. 17. 1 ), a native of Thesbon in Mt. Gilead 
(LXX). Nothing is known of his parentage and 
early life. Reared among the rough uplands E. 
of Jordan, he seems to have possessed a powerful 
physique. He seems to have loved solitary life ; 
and in his musings amid the great silences of moun- 
tain and wilderness, in communion with God, his 
strong soul was girt with power for the dangerous 
and difficult task of stemming the tide of apostasy in 
Isr. Clothed with the rough hair-mantle of the 
prophet, he ignored the refinements of city life ; 
and even in the presence of royalty he affected 
nothing of the courtesy of the courtier. The 
message he delivered to Ahab was as startling as his 
appearance must have been. The guilty conscience 
of the k. required not statement of the reason for 
the drought wh. E. announced. The prophet 
vanished as suddenly as he had appeared. 

The " three yrs." become " three yrs. and six months" in 
Lk. 4.2 s . If the drought began with the close of the spring 
rains, then, when three yrs. had passed, there wd. still be 
the six months of summer before the rainy season wd. com- 
mence. 

E. found a hiding-place by the brook Cherith, 
" before," i.e. " east " of Jordan. This was doubt- 
less some gorge among his own native hills. His 
kge. of the district wd. guide him to a safe retreat. 
Here he was miraculously supplied by ravens. Late 
Jewish tradition has it that the birds carried, the 



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flesh from the altar in Jrs. The brook furnished ings he fled once more. Taking with him only his 
him with drink. " servant," whom tradition idents. with the s. of 

With the continuance of the drought the brook the widow of Zarephath and the prophet Jonah, he 
dried up, and E. was guided by the Spt. of God to went to Beersheba. Thence, quite alone, he en- 
the Phoenician seaboard, where at Zarephath he tered the southern desert. In a mood of despair, he 
found hospitable shelter with a widow. Her gene- lay down with his head under the shade of a flower- 
rosity was rewarded by the prophet's action, wh. ing broom (see Juniper) and prayed for death, 
prevented the meal and oil in her store from be- Instead of death came words of cheer and divine 
coming exhausted, and by the restoration of her sustenance, which upheld him during 40 days' 
dead son to life (1 K. 17.). roaming in the wilderness, at the end of which time 

Finally E. was commanded to go and show him- he found himself at " Horeb, the mount of God." 
self to Ahab, the set time of the drought having Tradition locates the cave in wh. he lodged in a rocky- 
been accomplished. The land suffered heavily fm. retreat under the summit of Jebel Musa, " the 
"famine. Ahab and Obadiah his chamberlain were mount of Moses." Amid these mighty solitudes, 
scouring the country in search of water and fodder shut in by granite rock and precipice, what fitter 
for the horses and mules. In spite of the corrup- theatre can be imagined for the tremendous drama 
tions of the court Obadiah had preserved his interest to be enacted; wherein was demonstrated the 
in the religion of J"., a hundred of whose prophets power of gentleness as agst. violence ; of grace and 
he had concealed and supplied with necessaries, mercy as agst. law and justice. The disheartened 
no doubt at his own imminent peril, through the prophet was taught the lesson often repeated in the 
days of persecution. Him E. met and sent with a hist, of our race ; he was encouraged to believe that 
message to Ahab, appointing a meeting. quieter and gentler methods mt. succeed where the 

The k. attempted to browbeat the prophet, but more forceful had seemed to fail ; while his despon- 
his reproaches were hurled back with interest. It dency was rebuked by the assurance that seeming 
was no cringing, apologetic fig. that stood before failure is not always real, for J", has reserved to 
Ahab. It is the k. who quails, and is fain to Himself 7000 men in Isr. who have not bowed the 
accept E.'s challenge to put the rival claimants for knee to Baal. 

the homage of Isr. to such a test as shall prove E. was sent forth again with a threefold commis- 
decisively whether Baal or \ '. is God. sion : to anoint Hazael as k. of Syria, Jehu as k. of 

Then followed the never-to-be-forgotten scene Isr., and Elisha as the successor to his own office, 
on Mt. Carmel, wh. culminated in the triumphant The last of these he executed {see Elisha) ; the 
vindication of J'Vs claims, and the slaughter of the other two seem to have been bequeathed as sacred 
prophets of Baal. duties to Elisha, who, fm. the day of his call, became 

It is sometimes asked where the water so lavishly em- as a S. to E. (2 K. 2. 12 ). 
ployed on this occasion cd. have come fm at the end of such The dastard l y crime hy wh . Naboth was mur- 
a long period of drought. If the contest took place at El ] . J ... , .. , , ^ 

Mahragah, the traditional "place of burnt sacrifice," the dered and his patrimony filched brought E. once 
eastern summit of Mt. Carmel, then the water mt. have been more, as the herald of doom, into the presence of the 
discovered in a great reck cistern ; or it mt. have been ob- , ■> j A 1 1 /_ -ir _ _ on\ tu;,, *.~+.«.l\-A^ A^„ ~^;„ 

tained fm. a perennial spring wh. rises lower down on the wretched Ahab (l K. 2I. 20 ). His terrible denuncia- 
breast of the slope. tion of wrath overwhelmed the k., and because he 

No better token of the return of Jehovah's favour " humbled himself," execution of judgment was 
cd. be given than the coming of rain. A most stayed during Ahab's lifetime. The stern duty of 
realistic description of E.'s waiting and the gather- vengeance fell to an officer who rode behind the k. 
ing of the rain-clouds is preserved (i8. 42ff -). The that day, who, when the time came, made effective 
rich plain between Carmel and Jezreel goes swiftly use of E.'s words (2 K. g. 25t ) ; see Jehu. This cd. 
to mud when the rains fall. Ahab, warned that not fail to show that the relg. of J", was not merely 
there was no time to lose, " mounted his chariot at a thing affecting ceremonial observances, but was 
the foot of the hill. And E. was touched as by a the true and only effective safeguard of the rights 
supporting hand : and he snatched up his streaming and liberties of men. 

mantle, and twisted it round his loins, and, amidst The attempt of Ahaziah, s. and successor of 
the rushing storm with wh. the night closed in, he Ahab, to consult Baal-zebub as to the result of an 
outstripped even the speed of the royal horses, and accident he had suffered, was thwarted by E., who 
* ran before the chariot ' — as Bedouins of his native sent word to the k. that he wd. surely die. The 
Gilead wd. still run, with inexhaustible strength — prophet is here described as " an hairy man, and 
to the entrance of Jezreel, distant, though visible, girt with a girdle of leather about his loins " (2 K. 
fm. the scene of his triumph." I. 7 ). He dwelt " in the top of the hill," evidently 

If the prophet thought the proud spt. of Jezebel somewhere between Samaria and Ekron. Two cap- 
wd. be humbled by the disaster at Carmel, he was tains and their fifties sent by the k. to capture him 
bitterly disappointed, and fm. her truculent threaten- were destroyed by fire. At the entreaty of the 

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Eli 



third captain sent, by divine direction E. went with had the prophet responded to the appeal (Mw. 

him ; but no reprieve was granted to the royal 2y. i7 ). He plays a great part to this day in the 

culprit. traditional beliefs of the Jews. He is also confused 

How long E. lived we cannot tell. A letter sent with El-Khudr, that strange, weird creature of the 

by him to Jehoram, k. of Judah, was prob. written Moslem fancy, who goes unwearied, an endless pil- 

during a co-regency of Jehoram with his fr. in the grimage round the world, to whom little sanctuaries 

closing yrs. of Jehoshaphat's reign (2 Ch. 21. 12 ). are erected wherever he appears. When he rests by 

E. was prob. gone before Jehoram came to the night in one of these, the light is so strong within 

throne. that none can enter ; but the awed beholders know 

Aware that his time was drawing near, E. sought that the immortal wanderer tarries here a little ere 

to meet the hour of his departure alone, but the setting out once more on his age-long journeyings. 
faithful Elisha wd. not leave him. They went 



together fm. Gilgal to Bethel, and fm. Bethel to 
Jericho ; in both places the " sons of the prophets " 
alluded to the coming separation of the two. Still 
together they walked eastwards. E. divided the 
Jordan by a stroke of his mantle, and on the other 
side Elisha received the reward of his fidelity. He 
seeks a double portion of the spt. of E. — not double 
the endowment possessed by E., but as a s. he asks 
the portion of the first-born (Dt. 2 1. 17 ). The re- 
quest was granted on condition that he shd. see his 
master when he was taken away. This looks like a 



Of the relation of Elijah, and his successor Elisha, with 
the communities called sons of the prophets, we have no 
sure information. Living in ccmmunities, they were not celi- 
bates (2 K. 4. 1 ). We hear of no great prophet who grew 
up among them. Samuel appears to have been the ' ' head " 
of the community in Ramah. Poss. Elijah and Elisha exer- 
cised some oversight over the different establishments. 

Lit.: Schurer, HJP. II. ii. l$6L, lii. 1291?.; 
Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, index ; Hist, of Jewish 
Ch., ii. 241 ff. Robertson Smith, The Prophets of 
Isr. 2 , j6ft. ; Commentaries on Kings. 

ELIM, a station in the wilderness (Ex. 15. 27 ; 
Nu. 33- 9 ), with 12 wells of fresh water and 70 palms, 
test of Elisha's powers ; to see if he possessed the The most prob. identn. seems to be Wady Gharan- 
seer's peculiar gift of vision, enabling him to see del, where vegetation is plentiful, with many palms, 
what others cd. not (cp. 2 K. 6. 17 ). And as they and wells dug in the sand, where water is generally 
went on and talked, " behold there appeared a to be found. A day's journey wd. take the wan- 
chariot of fire and horses of fire, wh. parted them derers to the Red Sea. Elath has also beensuggd., 
both asunder ; and E. went up by a whirlwind into but this involves a different position — not deter- 
heaven." Elisha, seeing, exclaimed, " My father, mined — for Mt. Sinai. See Exodus. 
my father, the chariots of Isr. and the horsemen ELIMELECH, an Ephrathite of Bethlehem, h. 
thereof." Did he think his master a defender of of Naomi, the mr.-in-law of Ruth, apparently the 
Isr. stronger than all the chariots and horsemen of head of a clan in Judah (Ru. I. 2 , 2. 1 ). 
her foes ? Lifting the mantle of E. wh. had fallen, ELIPHAZ. (1) S. of Esau (Gn. 36. 4 ). (2) The 
he sadly retraced his steps to Jericho, the waters of Temanite, one of the friends of Job. 
Jordan responding again to the touch of the pro- ELISHA (" God is salvation "), s. of Shaphat, of 
phet's robe. To this day in the Orient the virtue Abel-meholah (i K. 19. 16 ), brought up to farm 
of a holy man is believed in some mysterious way to work on the rich land of the Jordan valley. Sum- 



cling to his garments {cp. Ac. 19. 12 ). 



moned by Elijah fm. the plough, he slaughtered the 



The manner of his departure well became one yoke of oxen, boiled their flesh with the instruments 

who may almost be described as the prophet of fire of the oxen, and made a feast for his neighbours. 

and whirlwind. Swift, impetuous, fearless, with a Then he went with Elijah as his companion and 

passion for the honour of J /y '., and for the highest minister — he " poured water on the hands of 

welfare of his countrymen, he appeared at a time Elijah " (2 K. 3. 11 ). E.'s bearing at this critical 

when all that was best in Isr. was in grave jeopardy, point proved his fitness for the prophetic office to 

Single-handed, agst. what must have seemed over- wh. he was called. He did not lightly sever the 

whelming odds, with splendid courage he fought ties of kindred and home : but recognising the call 

successfully the battle for righteousness. Of the of God, he did not flinch fm. the choice ; and over 

influence he exercised we may gather some idea fm. the sacrificial meal he bade his friends farewell. At 

the impression made on the mind and imagination this time he must have been quite a young man, as, 

of succeeding generations. It was expected that after some seven yrs. of preparatory training with 

E. would come to earth again to right all wrongs, Elijah, his own prophetic activity in Isr. extended 

and end oppressions (Ml. 4- 5f -)- He was to be the through more than 50 yrs. He took the place of a 

herald of the Messiah (Lk. I. 17 ; Jn. I. 21 , cp. Mw. s. to the older prophet, and was bound to him in the 

ij. lon -). He was one of the three who communed ties of deep loyalty and affection. He was the sole 

with Christ on the Mt. of Transfiguration; and human witness of Elijah's translation ; and fm. that 

those who thought that Jesus on the cross had sublime scene he turned to the task that awaited 

called for E. wd. apparently not have been surprised him, with a " double portion " of his master's spt. 

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Elk 



The Jordan divided at the touch of the old prophet's 
mantle in his hand, and thus his confidence was 
strengthened. 

E. was in many respects difft. fm. his great prede- 
cessor. He was not a frequenter of deserts : he 
was easily accessible to those who wished to consult 
him : he was the friend and counsellor of ks. : and 
his miracles were for the most part deeds of benefi- 
cence. He was prob. a man of independent means ; 
arid his lot was cast in happier times, the conflict 
with Baal being over, and J", recognised as the God 
of His people. 

We need not here follow in minute detail the 
familiar act. of E.'s activities. No attempt is made 
to preserve strict chronological order. " The k. of 
Isr." cannot always be identd. Jehoram succeeded 
Ahaziah, and he was followed by Jehu the regicide. 




Elisha's Fountain: Jericho 

E. continued to prophesy under two ks. of Jehu's 
dyn. — Jehoahaz and Joash. 

At Jericho E. healed the noxious waters of the 
spring — prob. that still known as " the Fountain 
of E." At Bethel the insulting youths were torn by 
the she-bears fm. the wood. He visited Elijah's 
haunts on Carmel, and returned to Samaria. He 
went with Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, and the k. of 
Edom agst. Mesha of Moab. The prophetic mood 
having been induced by the playing of a minstrel, 
he announced miraculous deliverance for the allies 
(2 K. 3.). He relieved the necessities of the widow 
of a prophet by multiplying her store of oil. Pass- 
ing on his way to and fm. Carmel, he was hospitably 
entertained by a lady of Shunem — mod. Solam., at 
the W. base of little Hermon — whose dead s. he 
restored to life. At Gilgal he rendered harmless 
the poisonous pottage prepared, in a time of dearth, 
for the sons of the prophets. Miraculous increase 
was given to the bread and barley brought fm. 
Baal-shalishah. At E.'s direction Naaman bathed 
in Jordan and was healed of leprosy. Gehazi, the 
prophet's servant, for falsehood and covetousness, 



was punished with this loathsome disease. Then 
we have the story of the iron that he made to 
swim (6. 1 ' 7 ). 

The ambuscades and stratagems of the k. of Syr., 
who made war agst. the k. of Isr. — prob. Jehoram — 
were uniformly revealed to the latter by E. Dis- 
covering who thus thwarted his plans, the Syr. k. 
surrounded E. in Dothan ; and the prophet's trem- 
bling servant was reassured by the vision of the 
celestial armament sent for his master's defence. 
The Syrs. were blinded and led to Samaria, where 
E. delivered them fm. the k.'s purpose of cowardly 
revenge (2 K. 6. 8 " 23 ). 

The marauding " bands " of Syr. gave place to 
the entire Syr. host, who besieged Samaria and re- 
duced it to dire straits, for wh. the k. was disposed 
to blame E. To the messenger of that murderer's 
s. E. announced a deliverance wh. must have seemed 
incredible, but wh. soon came (6. 24 ~7.). 

E.'s gratitude to his erewhile hostess of Shunem 
received further illustration (8. 1 " 6 ). There is no 
notice elsewhere of the seven yrs. of famine here 
referred to; poss. E. spent them in Damascus. With 
patriotic grief at the disasters this man wd. inflict 
upon Isr. E. anointed Hazael as k. of Syr. : a posi- 
tion wh. the latter secured by the murder of his 
master (8. 7 " 15 ). 

E. saw in the rough soldier Jehu a fit instrument 
to carry out the doom pronounced on Ahab's house, 
and of the prophet's part, inviting him to the 
bloody work, there can be little doubt (g. m -). 

E.'s career for the rest of his life is left in obscurity. 
Jehu's immediate successor did not possess his 
martial power, and Isr. fell on evil days. But ere 
his death the prophet saw the dawning of a new day 
of hope with the advent of the youthful Joash, to 
whom, fm. his dying bed, he gave a message of 
good cheer (13. 14 " 19 ). 

The miraculous power of the prophet was not 
exhausted with his death. A dead man cast into 
his tomb suddenly revived (i3. 20f- ). 

Altho' there is no further mention of E. in the 
OT. scrip., and his name appears but once in the 
NT. (Lk. 4- 27 ), he certainly held a position of great 
influence in his time. Even the k. of Syr. sends to 
consult him : and he takes his place in hist, as a 
divinely inspired prophet, a true patriot, and a 
kindly man. 

For E.'s relation to the sons of the prophets, 
see Elijah. 

ELISHAH, s. of Javan (Gn. 10 4 ) ; prob. Greece. 
With this suits Ek. 27. 7 , where mention is made of 
the " isles of E." (Javan). 

ELIZABETH, w. of Zacharias the priest (Lk. 
I. 5 ), herself of priestly descent, and related to the 
Virgin Mary (v. 36), who in her old age became the 
mr. of the Baptist (vv. 18, 57). 

ELKANAH, an Ephraimite (1 S. I. 1 ), or Levite 



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Erne 



(i Ch. 6. 26ff - 33fl -), h. of Hannah and Peninnah, the 
former of whom, barren for a time, after prayer at 
Shiloh became the mr. of Samuel. For others of 
this name see Ex. 6. 24 ; I Ch. 6. 25 ; 2 Ch. 28. 7 , &c. 

ELKOSH, birthplace of the prophet Nahum 
(Na. i. 1 ). Some wd. place E. in Galilee ; others in 
Judea; others on the Tigris. There is no material 
for a satisfactory decision. 

ELLASAR, the capital of Arioch, one of the 
allies of Chedarlaomer (Gn. 14. 1 ), ident. with 
Larsa. 

ELM (Ho. 4. 13 , AV.), shd. be Terebinth. 

ELNATHAN, a courtier of Jehoiakim, sent to 
Egp. to fetch Uriah (Jr. 26. 22 ). He was present and 
remonstrated when the k. burned the roll (36. 12 ' 25 ). 
He was prob. ident. with E., fr, of Nehushta (2 K. 
24. 8 ). For others see Ez. 8. 16 . 

ELON. (1) The Hittite fr.-in-law of Esau (Gn. 
26. 34 ). (2) S.ofZebulun(Gn.46. 14 ; ^.Nu.26. 26 ). 
(3) A Zebulunite judge of Isr. (Jg. I2. llf -), buried 
in Aijalon — prob. Elon — of Zebulun. (4) A town 
in Dan (Jo. 19. 43 ), prob. = Elon Beth Hanan (1 
K. 4. 9 ), unidentd. 

ELTEKEH, an unidentd. town in Dan (Jo. 
19. 44 ), given to the Kohathite Levites (21. 23 ), prob. 
near Ekron. It was the scene of the Asyr. victory 
over the Phil, and Egpns. (Sennacherib's hexagon 
prism inscr.). 

ELTEKON, an unidentd. town in Judah (Jo. 
15. 59 ), poss. =Tekoa. 

ELTOLAD, one of Simeon's towns in Judah (Jo. 
15. 30 ), prob. =Tolad (1 Ch. 4 . 29 ), unidentd. 

ELUL. See Year. 

ELYMAS, the title of Bar-jesus, who in the pre- 
sence of Sergius Paulus, governor of Cyprus, with- 
stood Paul and Barnabas (Ac. I3. 6-11 ). E. is ex- 
plained as Magos, " Sorcerer." The word seems 
akin to the Arb. 'alama, " to know," whence we 
have i aUm, " learned man," or " doctor of the law," 
pi. 'ulama'. 

E. seems to have been a representative of that system of 
interpreting Nature and her mysterious powers which in the 
anct. world took the place now occupied by mod. science. 
It claimed to be a religion as well, a claim advanced for 
science also, by some of its less prudent votaries. Wonders 
wrought by means revealed only to the initiated, poss. at 
times by the application of recondite forces, at others by 
feats of legerdemain, were relied upon to secure adherents. 
E. doubtless regarded Paul and Barnabas as rivals com- 
peting for the favour of the governor, and used his black 
arts agst. them. Pauf replied in kind ; and the blindness 
that fell upon the "sorcerer" was demonstration of a 
Power behind the apostle, greater than any known to E. 
The Cypriot, Simon, who assisted Felix in his nefarious 
designs upon Drusilla (Ant. XX. vii. 2), and Simon Magus 
(Ac. 8. 9 ff.), prob. belonged to the same class. 

EMBALMING. Among the Hebs. we hear only 
of Jacob's body and that of Joseph being embalmed 
(Gn. 5o. 2 ' 26 ). The practice prevailed in Egp. 
(For full act. see Herod ii. 86ff., Bonn's edn. ; 
WAR. ii. 382, &c.) 



The brain was removed, and all the vessels and organs 
fm. the cavity of the body, wh. was then washed out with 
palm wine, and perfumes applied. It was filled with fragrant 
spices and drugs, myrrh, 
cassia, &c. , and steeped in 
natron for seventy days — in 
Jacob's case it appears to 
have been forty. It was then 
washed, rubbed with salt- 
petre, and swathed in strips 
of linen smeared with gum. 
Several methods were fol- 
lowed, varying in cost fm. 
£\o upwards, the object 
being the preservation of the 
body fm. decay. The features 
remained quite recognisable. 
The body was placed in a 
wooden case, and set up in 
the home. It might be en- 
closed in a stone coffin before 
being placed in the burial 
vault. It has thus been 
poss. to ident. the bodies of 
many of the great Egpn. monarchs of the past. 

EMBROIDERY. The Heb. words do not mean 
E. in our sense : shabatz is prop, to make cloth of 
chequer work (Ex. 28. 39 ; cp. v. 4) ; rdqem, " em- 
broiderer " (EV.), and hdsheb, " cunning workman," 
are distinguished in Ex. 35- 35 , &c. The work of the 
rdqem was composed of " blue, purple, and scarlet, 
and fine twisted linen " simply interwoven (Ex. 
26. 36 , &c), while that of the hdsheb was marked by 
gold thread, and inwrought designs 




Widow Weeping before her 
Husband's Mummy 




Embroidery on Robe of Assyrian King 

EMEK-KEZIZ (Jo. 18. 21 , RV.), named between 
Beth-hoglah and Beth-arabah, therefore prob. S. of 
Jericho : unidentd. 

EMERALD (Heb. nopek, Gr. anthrax, Vlg. car- 
bunculus, Luther rubin). It is imposs. to decide 
wh. stone is intended in Ex. 28. 18 , 39. 11 , or in Ek. 



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Eno 



27. 16 , 28. 13 . In Rv. 4- 3 and 21. 19 , where E. trs. Gr. Levite town in Issachar (Jo. 19. 21 , 21. 29 ; 1 Ch. 6. 73 

smaragdus, there is less doubt ; though even here " Anem "), prob. = Ginnea {Ant. XX. vi. I ; BJ. 

prob. the aquamarine as well as our E. is included III. iii. 4), the mod. JenJn, on the S. edge of the 

under the term. plain of Esdraelon, with copious springs, gardens, 

EMERODS. See Diseases. and orchards. 

EMIM, " terrors " (Ges.), a primitive race akin EN-GEDI (Jo. 15. 62 , &c). The anct. name per- 

tothe Anakim, dispossessed by Moab (Dt.2. 10 ), who sists in the mod. i Ain Jidy, a spring about the 

occupied the land E. of the Dead Sea in the days of middle of the W. coast of the Dead Sea. It rises 

xA.braham (Gn. 14. 5 ). on a terrace at the foot of a steep slope, and is 

EMMANUEL (Mt. I. 23 ). See Immanuel. surrounded by luxurious vegetation, all the more 

EMMAUS (Lk. 24. 13 ), 60 furlongs, or c. seven beautiful because of the bleak desolation of the dis- 

miles fm. Jrs. It cannot have been Amwas, 20 trict. Hazazon Tamar was the name by wh. it 

miles away. Josephus (BJ. VII. vi. 6) mentions E. seems to have been known to Abraham (Gn. 14. 7 ; 

60 furlongs fm. Jrs. — accdg. to the best MSS., 30 — cf. 2 Ch. 20. 2 ) ; it may linger still in Wady Hasasa 

in wh. Titus settled 800 of his veterans. This may to the N. The ruins nearer the shore represent a 

be Qolonieb, 35 furlongs distant, on the Jaffa road, place of great antiquity. The wilderness of Judea 

The change of name to " Colony " wd. thus be ac- here lets itself down upon the sea in beetling crags, 

counted for ; and if we can believe with Dr. Sanday torn by great gorges, in the limestone sides of wh. 




Photo, PEF. 



En-cedi and Dead Sea 



(SSG. 31) that Luke was mistaken as to the distance, 
we may place E. here. There are no fewer than six 
sites whose claims have been supported. 

ENAIM (Gn. 38. 14 ; Jo. 15. 34 , " Enam "), a town 
in the Shephelah, between Adullam and Timnah. 
It may be Khirbet Wady Alin (Conder), near Beth- 
shemesh (AV. trs. Gn. 38. 14 " in an open place," 
RV. " in the gate of E."). 

ENCAMPMENT. See Camp. 

ENCHANTMENT. See Divination. 

ENDOR, a town of Manasseh, in the territory of 
Issachar (Jo. 17. 11 ), the home of the witch consulted 
by Saul (1 S. 28. 7 ), past wh. fugitives fm. Sisera's 
army attempted escape (Ps. 83. 10 ). It is the mod. and largely influenced the thought of the times of 



caves abound (1 S. 24. 1 ). 

ENGINE (Heb. hishshabon, 2 Ch. 26. 15 ). It is 
mentioned in Chronicles that Uzziah had E. " in- 
vented by cunning men to shoot arrows and great 
stones withal," apparently balistce and catafulta. 
Although no trace of these has been found either on 
the Asyr. or Egpn. monuments, Pliny (vii. 56) attri- 
butes these two engines of war to the Syrians and 
the Phoenicians respectively. 

EN-HADDAH, named with En-gannim (Jo. 
19. 21 ), a town in Issachar, prob. = the mod. Kefr 
Adan, c. three miles W. of Jeriin. 

EN-HAKKORE, " spring of the crier," or " of 
the partridge " (Jg. 15. 19 ), in " the hollow place 
that is in Lehi," so called perhaps fm. its resem- 
blance to a jaw-bone. Water flowed fm. the cleft, 
whence drinking, Samson was refreshed. Conder 
suggs. A'yun Kara, near Zorah. 

EN-HAZOR, in Naphtali, named with Kedesh, 
Edrei, and Iron (Jo. 19. 37 ), poss. = Hazireh 3 al- 
though the absence of a fountain to corrspd. with 
" En " is a difficulty. 

EN-MISHPAT, " fountain of judgment " (Gn. 
14. 7 ), a name of Kadesh. 

ENOCH. (1) S. of Cain; Cain built a city and 
called it after his son's name (Gn. 4. 17 ). (2) S. of 
Jared and br. of Methuselah ; he lived 365 yrs. and 
was translated. 

Book of E.— The Bk. (or rather the Bks.) of 
E. forms the largest and most important of the re- 
mains of Jewish Apocalyptic. It is quoted in Jude, 



Endur, on the N. slope of Jebel ed-Duhy. 



our Lord and of those immediately succeeding. 



EN-EGLAIM (Ek. 47. 10 ), an unidentd. place on The title " Son of Man," wh. our Lord assumes as 

the Dead Sea, named with En-gedi. <Ain el-Fesh- denoting His claim to be the Messiah, has been 

hah and i Ain Hajleh have been suggd. Eglaim taken fm. E. 
(Is. 15. 8 ) must be sought E. of the Dead Sea. (1) Contents.— The Bk. is made up of portions 

EN-GANNIM. (1) A town in the Shephelah of various dates. There are several pretty clearly 

named between Zanoah and Tappuah (Jo. 15. 34 ), marked sections, (a) Chaps. 1.-36. are occupied 

prob. = Umm J ma, S. of Wady es-Sarar. (2) A with Angelology ; the fall and punishment of the 

168 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Enr 



is narrated ; the story of their fall is taken as George Syncellus (c. a.d. 800), it utterly dis- 
fm. Gn. 6. 2 . (b) Chaps. 37.-71. form the Bk. of appeared fm. knowledge till, in 1773, Bruce the 
Similitudes ; this is largely modelled on Daniel, and Abyssinian traveller brought to Europe three copies 
is Messianic in its aim. There are three of these of an Ethiopic tr. ; retaining one himself, he de- 
similitudes, the last in a fragmentary condition, posited the other two, one in the Royal Library in 
(c) The Bk. of the Course of the Heavens ; this Paris, and the other in the British Museum. It 
gives an act. of physical phenomena as apprehended was almost half a century later that Archbishop 
by the writer (chaps. 72.-82.). (d) The Bk. of Lawrence published his tr. Lord Napier's cap- 
Visions sketches the hist, of mankind fm. Adam to ture of Magdala was the occasion of a great many 
the wars of the Maccabees, and the figure of what more MSS. of the Eth. version being brought 
befalls a herd of cattle wh. latterly becomes a flock within the knowledge of scholars. Later came, in 
of sheep (chaps. 83.-92.). (e) In the fifth Bk., after 1887, the recovery in Akhmim of fragments of the 
recapitulating the summary of the world's hist., Gr. text : these were edited, with a new tr. of 
the writer proceeds to warn his descendants agst. the Eth., by Mr. Charles in 1894. The kmg- frn. 
evil (chaps. 94.-104.). There follow appendices in wh. the Eth. has been trd. is Gr., but behind the 
wh. is narrated the birth of Noah, and the portents Gr. there is a Semitic original. It is difficult to say 
that accompanied it ; then the conclusion of the with certainty whether this original was in Heb. or 
Bk. (chaps. 106., 107.). Mainly in the second Bk. Aram. ; the balance on the whole is in favour of 
there are a number of interpolations fm. a Bk. of Heb. being the lang. in wh. E. was first written. 
Noah. The Book of the Secrets of Enoch. — In the 
(2) Date. — The most generally received view is Latin tr. of Origen (de Princi-p) there is refce. to a 
that the framework is formed of sections a, c, and d, Bk. of E. wh. does not suit our bk. ; there has been 
and that this was written towards the end of the found in a Slavonic tr. a bk. with wh. it agrees. It 
Maccabaean struggle. Next section b appeared, is mainly occupied with physical speculations, and 
wh. some have dated as late as the days of Herod, if appears to have been written in Egp. An edition 
not even in Apostolic times. The present writer of it was published in 1896 by Messrs. Charles and 
ventures to hold that section b is the nucleus, and Morfill. 

that interpolations were made in this fm. the lost Literature. — This is very extensive. Charles's 

" Apocalypse of Noah " ; of the same date and tr. is the best ; Schodde's and Lawrence's may be 

authorship are chaps. 91., 92. ; these shd. be dated consulted. For discussions of the questions involved, 

c. b.c. 200, and the Noachian fragments a score of Lucke, Often. Johannes ; Ewald, uber Henokb ; 

yrs. after. Sections a, c, and d, except the last two Hilgenfeld, Mes. Jud. ; Drummond, Jewish Mes- 

chaps., were written about b.c 160. One of the siah ; Thomson, Bks. wh. Influenced our Lord, &c. 

main reasons for assigning to section b the position ENOS (Heb. 'enosh, "man"), s. of Seth and 

of nucleus is the relative simplicity of the physical grands, of Adam (Gn. 4 26 J., 5. 6 P.). 

speculations in it, as compared with the complexity EN-RIMMON, occupied by the Judahites after 

in the Noachian fragments and the yet greater the Exile (Ne. II. 29 ). This is cert, the town indi- 

complexity of those in section c. In what we catedby" Ain and Rimmon " (Jo. 15. 32 , 19. 7 ; I Ch. 

reckon the nucleus there seem to be refces. to events 4. 32 "Ain Rimmon"). It is prob. = Umm er- 

wh. occurred in the reign of Antiochus the Great, Rummamin, c. 16 miles S. of Beit Jibrin. 

as if they had just happened ; and it seems most EN-ROGEL (prob. " fuller's spring "), accdg. to 

natural to regard the ram with the noticeable horn Jo. 15. 7 , 18. 16 , lay immediately S. of Jrs. It is called 



the dragon's spring (Ne. 2. 13 , Heb.). The high 
place of the stone Zoheleth was near it (1 K. I. 9 ). 
It was thus a convenient place for feasts like Adoni- 
jah's, and maidservants going there for water cd. 
give news of things going on in Jrs. (2 S. 17. 17 ). It 



(chap. 90. 2 ) as no other than Judas Maccabasus. 
The white bull that appears after is the Messiah, 
with whose appearance the vision really ends. 

(3) Place of Origin. — There seems no doubt 
that it originated in Pal. As the various parts pro- 
ceed fm. one movement this naturally suggs. that it must be ident. with that now called by the Jews 
sprang fm. a community. This led the present Bir Eyub, " Job's Well." Josephus has a mon- 
writer to ascribe the authorship to the Essenes, the strous story about the earthquake in Uzziah's time 
visionaries who had their central habitation on the (Zc. 14. 5 ), wh. detached half of the mountain W. 
shores of the Dead Sea. Jos. says of them that of the spring, and made it roll four stadia agst. the 
they were addicted to prophecy and had sacred bks. mountain to the E. {Ant. IX. x. 4). Something like 



of their own ; features that wd. suit the Apoca- 
lyptic bks. generally, and especially the E. bks. 

(4) Language and Text. — Altho' it had been in- 
fluential in modifying the thought of Apostolic and 
post-Apostolic times, and was known in Gr. as late 



this, on a very small scale, may have happened. 
The well is now 125 ft. deep. In former times 
there was, of course, less depth on the surface of 
alluvial soil, and the well prob. had direct com- 
munication with the small stream wh. in the winter 



169 



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Eph 



sometimes rises a little lower down the valley. To 
the SW. of the well, stairs and subterranean pas- 
sages in the rock were found by Sir Charles Warren, 
only 70 ft. under the present surface. Perhaps they 
belonged to the old En-rogel, the water of wh. cd. 
then be reached by a staircase. One can understand, 
therefore, why it was spoken of as " a spring," i ain : 
and, with its " living water," it may still be pro- 
perly called a spring. G. H. Dalman. 

ENROLMENT. In Lk. 2. 1 , RV. and AVm., 
" to be enrolled " is used instead of " to be taxed," 
to tr. apographesthai. It has been discovered that 
in addition to a general census there were provincial 
Es. wh. occurred periodically, e.g. in Egp. every 14 
yrs : Ramsay, Was Christ born in Bethlehem ? See 
Quirinius. 

EN-SHEMESH ("sun spring"), on the border of 
Judah and Benj., between Adummim and En-rogel 
(Jo. 15. 7 , 18. 17 ), prob. 'Ain el-Hod, known as the 




'AlN EL HOD 

Apostles' Spring, on the descent to Jericho, just 
below Bethany. But see Jerusalem. 

EN-TAPPUAH (" apple spring "), on the border 
of Manasseh, E. of Shechem, prob. a spring near 
Tasuf (Conder). See Tappuach. 

EPvENETUS, a believer saluted (Rm. 16. 5 ) as 
the " firstfruits of Asia," a member of the Rm. 
Church, wh. seems to have consisted largely of 
foreigners; or on the supposition that Rm. 16. was 
really appended to the epistle when it was sent to 
Ephesus, he wd. be an Ephesian. 

EPAPHRAS, a leading Colossian believer, founder 
of the Church in Colosse (Col. I. 7 ), and probably 
also of those in Laodicaea and Hierapolis, over wh. 
he seems to have had charge (Col. 4. 12L ). He was 
the bearer of good news to St. Paul during the first 
imprisonment in Rome (Col. iS 7L ), where he also 
seems to have suffered confinement for the truth 
(Phm. 23 ). St. Paul refers to him by the honour- 
able title of " bond-servant of Jesus Christ," and 
bears testimony to his char, as " a faithful minister 
of Christ " (Col. I. 7 , 4- 12 )- The name is an abbre- 
viation of Epaphroditus. 

EPAPHRODITUS, a member of the Church in 



Philippi sent to Rm. with gifts for St. Paul (Php. 
4. 18 ). There, in his devotion to the Apostle, he 
hazarded his life (Php. 2. 30 ), and was sick nigh unto 
death. How greatly St. Paul esteemed him, and 
how deep had been his anxiety, may be gathered 
fm. the fervour of his thanksgiving for the recovery 
of his " brother and fellow-worker, and fellow- 
soldier " (Php. 2. 25ff -). He was the bearer of the 
epistle to the Philippians. 

EPHAH. See Weights and Measures. 

EPHES-DAMMIM ("boundary of blood"), 
between Sochoh and Azekah, where the Phil, were 
encamped (1 S. 17. 1 ). See Elah. 

EPHESIANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE. The 
longest of the Epp. of the first imprisonment. 

(1) Contents. — It maybe divided into two nearly 
equal portions occupied with thanksgiving and 
exhortation, (a) Thanksgiving : after two vv. of 
formal exordium the Apostle blesses God for the 
Gospel as the great unifying principle, by wh. all 
things were made one in Christ, who is for this 
exalted above all principality and power. This 
leads to thanksgiving for believers as " quickened 
together with Christ," and, changing the metaphor, 
" built ... a holy temple in the Lord." In the 
third chap, the Apostle, on the supposition that his 
thanksgiving has been well grounded, prays for the 
believers he is addressing, that they may continue 
to abound in all grace, (b) The hortatory portion 
begins with urging generally the duty of holy living 
in order to maintain the unity of the Church wh. is 
the glory of Christ. Next the believers are warned 
against special sins ; lying, dishonesty, and im- 
purity. Fm. considering sins to be avoided the 
Apostle directs attention to duties ; these he con- 
siders under the different domestic relations, wives 
and husbands, children and parents, servants and 
masters. Finally he exhorts those to whom he 
writes " to be strong in the Lord," and for this end 
to " put on the whole armour of God." He con- 
cludes by asking for their prayers, and telling them 
that Tychicus will inform them of his state. While 
E. is rich in doctrine it is all subservient to the main 
objects of thanksgiving and exhortation. Its Chris- 
tology is esp. prominent. In the Angelology of E. 
there is a suggestion of a hierarchy, wh. gave rise in 
later centuries to the works published under the 
name of Dionysius the Areopagite. There are no 
greetings of individuals, and no autobiographic 
notes such as those wh. make the Epp. to the Corin- 
thians so interesting. 

(2) Authenticity. — Altho' the vocabulary of E. 
is different fm. that of Romans, 1 and 2 Cor., and 
Gal., yet the external evidence is strong and consis- 
tent ; referred to by Ignatius in the short Gr. re- 
cension (Eph. 12), quoted by Polycarp (12), and 
echoed in Clement of Rome's Epistle to the Corin- 

. thians. E. is quoted as Paul's by Irenaeus {adv. 
70 



Eph 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eph 



Har. v. 2), and Clement of Alexandria (Strom, iv. 
65 ; Peed, i. 18). Thereafter testimonies are fre- 
quent. Marcion, altho' he called it " to the Laodi- 
caeans," ascribed it to Paul. A tradition thus early 
and unvarying is of great weight. 

(3) Destination and Origin. — The only voice 
denying that it was sent to the Church at Ephesus is 
that of Marcion. Our two oldest MSS., B. and X., 
omit the words iv E<£eo-w ; Basil the Great and 
Jerome appear to have used MSS. wh. had not these 
words. On the other hand Tertullian and Epi- 
phanius denounce Marcion for calling it, not " to 
the Ephesians," but " to the Laodicaeans." If it 
were intended for the believers in the Roman pro- 
vince of Asia it wd. naturally be sent first and princi- 
pally to the Church in the capital city, as at once the 
largest, most influential, and the one he knew best 
(see Ephesus). 

(4) Where written. — There is a practical unani- 
mity in the tradition that E. was written in Rm. 
As Paul was a prisoner when he wrote E. the choice 
is limited to his imprisonment in Csesarea and that 
in Rm. There is nothing impossible in either hypo- 
thesis. But E. seems to have written in the same 
circumstances as Col., Php., and Phm., therefore 
indications of time and place wh. apply to one must 
apply to all. Guided by this, the balance of pro- 
bability appears to be in favour of Rm. as the place 
of origin. Fm. this it follows that E. must be dated 
a.d. 63. It is impossible to fix the order in wh. the 
Epp.of the first imprisonment were written; E. and 
Col. and Phm. appear to have been written about 
the same time. 

EPKESUS. Four valleys break westward fm. 
the main mass of Asia Minor, those of the Caicus, 
the Hermus, the Cayster, and the Mseander, sepa- 
rated by ridges, like the fingers (Ramsay) of a gigan- 
tic hand, wh. reach out to the sea. E. stood in the 
mouth of the Cayster valley, on a rich plain c. three 
miles fm. the shore, the Cayster being then navi- 
gable to the walls. E. was the most important city 
in the Rm. province of Asia. The great road swept 
fm. her gates into the eastern uplands ; and, as the 
leading seaport, here the highway of land travel and 
commerce, joined with those of the sea. Jews early 



and a main source of wealth to her people, was the 
splendid temple of Diana (see Diana), the city 
boasting the title of " Temple-keeper," or " Temple- 
warden " (Ac. 19. 35 ). It attracted multitudes of 




Coin of Ephesus 

settled here, and attained the dignity of citizenship 
(Ant. XIV. x. 11, 19, 25 ; Ac. 18. 19 , 19. 8 ). They 
were protected in t : e exercise of their religion, and 
freed fm. military service. The chief glory of E., 

I 




Coin of Ephesus 



worshippers, who spent freely of their means ; and 
in the sacred security of the temple itself, was de- 
posited much public and private treasure. Minia- 
tures of the shrine in the precious metals were 
greatly sought after, as souvenirs or amulets (see 
Demetrius) . Secure in the supremacy of their own 
goddess, the Ephesians seem to have entertained no 
jealousy of other religious sects, as long as their 
teaching produced no injurious effects upon their 
trade and income. They seem to have been pecu- 
liarly open to the influence of those who practised 
the " black arts " (Ac. I9. llff -), cert, magical for- 
mulas being known as " Ephesian letters." But 
while superstitions such as these flourished under 
the aegis of Diana, the overthrow of the sorcerers wd. 
cause no anxiety to the temple authorities. The 
sanctuary was the centre of Asiatic influence, of 
opposition to enlightenment and progress, as agst. 
the Greeks, who loved freedom, and sought outlet 
for their energy and ambition in commercial enter- 
prise. 

The strategic value of E. fm. St. Paul's point of 
view is obvious. By gaining a footing here, he cd. 
not only attack the rampant heathenism at its very 
heart : by means of the vast companies of pilgrims, 
and those whose commercial and other interests 
brought them to E., he cd. touch practically the 
whole of the great Asian province. He first visited 
E. on his second missionary journey, returning fm. 
Corinth (Ac. 18. 19 ). His stay then was short ; but 
he left with the purpose of coming again for a longer 
period, clearly making it his objective in his third 
missionary journey. Coming fm. Pisidian Antioch, 
he settled down to three years' work in E. (Ac. I9. 1 - 
10 , &c). Apollos and his friends, knowing only the 
baptism of John (Apollos), were more fully in- 
structed, and added to the fellowship of Christians. 
Then followed a period of great and varied activity, 
in wh. the foundations of the Ephesian Church 
were laid. First to the Jews in the synagogue, for 
three months, he sought to commend the gospel. 
Finding them obdurate, he secured the lecture hall 
of the philosopher Tyrannus, where he met with 
great success. But privately also, fm. house to 
house, he prosecuted his mission, until the influence 

71 



Eph 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eph 



of his teaching was seen in the public failure of 
interest in the worship of Diana, manifested in the 
disinclination to purchase the souvenirs by wh. the 
craftsmen made their wealth. These then stirred 
up the crowd agst. Paul and his companions, and 
rushing to the theatre with vast uproar, things 
assumed a threatening aspect. Then the " chief 
officers of Asia " (Asiarchs), officials of the pro- 
vince, not of the city, having no direct concern with 
the worship of Diana, befriended Paul ; and the 
wise advice of the secretary of the city, allaying the 
tumult, averted danger for the time. Then he 
deemed it expedient to leave the city. On his re- 
turn fm. Macedonia, going to Jrs., he summoned 
the elders of E. to meet him at Miletus (Ac. 18., 19., 
20.). On Paul's departure Timothy was left in 
general charge (1 Tm. I. 3 ), prob. with the assistance 
of John Mark (2 Tm. 4. 9 " 11 ). Later the Apostle 
John resided in E. The first of the Epp. to the 
seven churches is addressed to E. (Rv. I. 11 , 2. 1 ) — 
the first brilliant on the string of stars. Here, says 
tradition, were buried John, Timothy, and the 
Virgin Mary. 

The decline cf E. was marked by the silting up of 
the river bed and the harbour with alluvial deposits, wh. 
she lacked energy to prevent. Cut off thus from the sea, 
her importance for commerce disappeared, and her glory 
departed. 

The remains of the temple discovered by Mr. Wood in 
1870 show the grandeur of the scale on wh. it was con- 
structed. The temple itself measured 343 ft. by 164 ft., and 
the basement 418 ft. by 239 ft. The theatre, an enormous 
structure of the usual form, with tiers of stone seats, was 
capable of holding over 24,000 people. 

Lit. : Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus ; Fergusson, 
The Temple of Diana at Ephesus ; Ramsay, Hist. 
Geog. of Asia Minor, by index ; The Letters to the 
Seven Churches, 21 off. 

EPHOD. The E. was the characteristic gar- 
ment of the priests (1 S. 22. 18 ). The E. of the 
High Priest was a very elaborate and costly garment. 
Full and minute directions for its making are given 
in Ex. 28. 6 " 12 , but fm. the terms employed it is im- 
poss. now to determine its form with certainty. It 
may have been like a herald's coat — a back and front, 
united by shoulder-straps, and bound round the 
body by a girdle (RV. " cunningly woven band "). 
It was fastened on the shoulders by two brooches of 
onyx stone, on each of wh. were engraved the names 
of six of the tribes of Isr. The E. was made " of 
gold, of blue, and of purple, scarlet, and fine 
twined linen, the work of the cunning workman." 
The " robe of the E." (v. 3 iff.), over wh. it was 
worn (29. 5 ), was all of blue, with " a hole for the 
head in the midst thereof." There is no mention 
of armholes, so prob. it was like the garments de- 
scribed by Doughty (Arabia Deserta, i. 375). " Some 
of these women's smocks are made open sidewise, as 
it were but a shirt-cloth, through whose midst the 
head is put, so only hanging fm. the neck." The 

17 



skirts were ornamented with pomegranates of blue 
and purple and scarlet, and balls of gold. The 
breastplate was fastened to the E. by " a lace of 
blue," through rings of gold attached to each. 

The E. worn by the ordinary priests was of simple 
linen, but prob. similar in shape to the above. 

Gideon "set up" (Heb. yatzeg) in Ophrah an E. made of 
gold the present value of wh. wd. be about ^"3600 (Jg.8. 26f -). 
This, it has been thought, cd. not be an ornamental vest- 
ment for a priest : but prob. encased some obj. of idolatrous 
worship, as the E. did the priest. " All Isr. went a whoring 
after it." We may, however, suppose it to have been an 
elaborate piece of golden scale or chain-work, worn by the 
priest, to whose oracles a factitious value and super- 
stitious reverence attached. The Heb. yatzeg means "to 
establish " (Am. 5J 5 ), as well as " to set up." The mention 
of E. and Teraphim as principal objects in a sanctuary 
(Jg« *7- 5 > &c.) points to a distinction between images and E. 

At Nob we find that Goliath's sword was placed 
" behind the E." (1 S. 21. 9 ). This prob. refers to 
the frame or other support on wh. the E. hung 
when not in use. " The E." there is doubtless that 
of the High Priest, as distinguished fm. those of the 
other priests (22. 18 ). It was taken by Abiathar 
when he escaped to David. In it seems to have 
been the bag containing the sacred lots, Urim 
and Thummim. Wearing the E., the priest was 
able to give oracular responses (30. 7 ). This made 
the E. so essential a part of the furniture of a shrine. 

EPHPHATHA, an Aram, word spoken by our 
Lord to a deaf and dumb man (Mk. J. 34 ) ; imp. 
ithpa'al of pethah, " to open." Strictly it ought to 
be ethphathah. The assimilation of the n to the 
£ may represent a Galilean pronunciation. 

EPHRAIM, 2nd s. of Joseph and Asenath, born 
in Egp., adopted, along with his br. Manasseh, by 
Jacob, who preferred the younger to the elder (Gn. 
4i. 50fl -, 48. 13fl -). The blessing of Jacob united them 
in Joseph (49. 22f -). For the strength of the tribe 
see Numbers. A certain prestige attached to E., 
whence sprang the great leader Joshua (1 Ch. J. 27 ). 
It never willingly occupied a second place, and was 
quick to resent a real or fancied slight (Jg. 7. 24 , 8. 1 , 
I2. lff -). No objn. was raised to the advancement of 
Benjamin, a Rachel tribe, by Saul's election to the 
throne, although the passing of power fm. the hands 
of the Ephraimite Samuel must have been a wrench 
to loyalty ; but only with a bad grace did E. con- 
cede the hegemony to Judah, in the person of 
David (2 S. 2. 9ff -). The Ephraimites were ready to 
stab at Judah by alliance with Absalom (2 S. 15. 13 ), 
and tried to sow discord on the k.'s return (19 41fL ). 
E.'s own ambition, and her envy of Judah, opened an 
inviting field for the designs of Jeroboam, and when 
the folly of Rehoboam furnished the occasion, E. 
was more than ripe for revolt. After the dis- 
ruption there was no question of E.'s leadership in 
the northern kdm. ; fm. that time " Israel " and 
" Ephraim " are synonymous terms. 

E. and Manasseh appear at first to have occupied 



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territory in common (Jo. I7. 14ff -). When the 
division was made we do not know. In Jo. 16. the 
boundaries of E. are indicated, but we cannot follow 
them with certy. The S. corrsps. with the N. 
border of Benj., running down W'ward fm. Bethel 
to Beth-horon the lower. It then swept N'ward to 
the bank of the brook Kanah (Wddy Kanab), along 
wh. it ran E'ward and turned to the N., skirting the 
W. edge of the plain of Mukhneh (Michmethah) 
to the neighbourhood of Shechem. It then bent 
E. and S. past Taanath-shilo (Ta'ana) and Janoah 
(Tanun) to Ataroth, prob. et Trtme, on the border 
of Benj. This included much excellent land, well 
watered, abounding in corn-fields and vineyards. 
The prosperous agricultural life in E. is reflected in 
many prophetic utterances, e.g. Is. 28. 1 ' 4 ; Jr. 31. 18 ; 
Ho. 9. 13 , io. n , &c. 

The Forest of E., Heb. ycfar E., prob. a rocky 
district with scrub and brushwood = Arb. zca'r, 
where Absalom was overthrown, therefore E. of 
Jordan, not far fm. Mahanaim, unidentd. 

Mount E. — The Heb. har-E. must not be trd. 
with RV. " hill country of E." It is a phrase like 
the mod. Jebel Ndblus, wh. does not mean " hill 
country of N.," but that part of the mountain wh. 
is subj. to Nablus. So Mt. E. is just that part of 
the mountain wh. fell to the lot of E. 

EPHRAIM. (1) An unidentd. city, near wh. 
was Baal Hazor — Tell l Asur (2 S. 13. 23 ), prob. = the 
E. of OEJ., 20 Rm. miles N. of Jrs., near Sinjil 
and el-Lubbdn. Fm. it the district " Apherima in 
Samaria " may have been named (1 M. II. 34 ; Ant. 
XIII. iv. 9). (2) The place near the wilderness, 
whither Jesus withdrew (Jn. II. 54 ). Jerome (OEJ. 
s.v. " Afra ") mentions a vill. " Efrem " five Rm. 
miles E. of Bethel, perhaps the same named by 
Josephus with Bethel (BJ. IV. ix. 9). This prob. 
corrspds. with mod. et- < Taiyibeh y an anct. site four 
miles NE. of Beitin. 

EPHRATAH, RV. EPHRATHAH. Taking Ps 
132. 6 with 1 Ch. 2. 50 , it wd. appear that E. is the 
name of a district, not of a city, the extent of 
wh. may be roughly estimated fm. the three cities 
within it ; Kirjath-jearim, Bethlehem, and Beth 
Gader. Ephrath. — (1) Said to be the anct. name 
of Bethlehem (Gn. 35. 16 ; Ru. 4. 11 , &c.) ; fm. this 
the above district may have been named. (2) 
Caleb's second w. (1 Ch. 2. 19 ). 

EPHRON(2Ch. i3. 19 ,AV. u Ephrain"). (1) A 
town taken by Abijah along with Bethel and 
Jeshana : prob. = Ephraim 2. (2) A mountain on 
the border of Judah and Benj. between Nephtoah 
and Kirjath-jearim (Jo. 15. 9 ) : prob. the ridge W. of 
Bethlehem. (3) A Hittite fm. whom Abraham 
bought the land with the cave of Machpelah. 

EPICUREAN, a follower of Epicurus ; the E. 
taught that tranquil pleasure was the SupremeGood: 
that though there were gods they took no care of 



men. When Paul encountered the E. they had 
become mere materialists (Ac. 17. 18 ). The word 
survives in the speech of mod. Palestinian Jews in 
the form of E-pikoris, a term of opprobrium applied 
to apostates fm. the ancestral faith. 

ERASTUS. (1) Chamberlain (RV. "treasu- 
rer ") of the city of Corinth (Rm. 16. 23 ) ; see Cham- 
berlain. (2) A friend and travelling companion 
of Paul and Timothy (Ac. 19. 22 ; 2 Tm. 4. 20 ). 

ERECH, one of the four cities that formed the 
beginning of Nimrod's kdm. (Gn. io. 10 ). It is the 
Uruk of the inscrs., the Arb. Warka, a great and im- 
portant ruin to the SE. of Bab., on the left bank of 




ESAR HADDON 

the Euphrates. The site measures about six miles 
in circumference. Extensive excavations have cast 
light chiefly on the later hist, of the city, but inscrs. 
prove it to have been made the capital of Bab. c. 
4000 b.c. (Rogers, History of Bab. and Asyr. i. 354^.). 
Here Ishtar was worshipped. The city is frequently 
mentioned in the Lit. of Bab. and Asyr. 

ESAR-HADDON (Asshur-ah-iddina, " Asshur 
has given a brother "), s. and successor of Senna- 
cherib, k. of Asyr. E. was conducting a war in 
Ararat when his fr. was murdered by his brs. 
(2 K. 19. 37 ; Is. 37- 38 ). He met and defeated the 
parricides with the army of Ararat, where they had 
taken refuge, near Malatiyeh, and was hailed by the 
victors as k. of Asyr. He rebuilt the ruined Bab., 
wh. then ranked with Nineveh as a royal residence. 
For this restoration Manasseh, k. of Judah, along 
with other subject monarchs in the W., provided 
wood and stone ; and hither, accdg. to the chroni- 
cler (2 Ch. 33. 11 ), he was carried captive. 

As a ruler E. was prudent and humane, as a soldier he 
was sagacious and skilful. His enemies in the N. were 



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decisively subdued. Sidon he took and destroyed, settling 
in the country colonists fm. Elam and Bab. (Ez. 4. 2 ). After 
a successful campaign to reduce certain tribes in Arabia, he 
subdued Egp. , Taharka the k. taking refuge in Ethiopia. 
Two years later, while on the way to quell a rebellion in 
Egp., he was taken ill and died, having reigned thirteen yrs. 
Under him, with the conquest of Egp., the Asyr. empire 
attained its greatest power. 

ESAU, the elder twin br. of Jacob, with whom 
rivalry began before their birth (Gn. 25. 22 « 26 ). 
His name, " rough," was given fm. his appearance, 
"all over like an hairy garment." E. grew up strong 
of frame and fond of the chase. He was his fr.'s 
favourite, while Jacob, a quiet lad about the tents, 
was his mr.'s care. To the weary huntsman re- 
turning fm. the hills, ready to perish with hunger, 
the prerogatives of the first-born, including social 
and religious headship of the family, besides, in this 
case, the inheritance of the promise, did not seem of 
great value, and he fell into the snare laid for him 
by his crafty br., selling, in his extremity, his birth- 
right for a dish of cooked lentils. Fm. the colour of 
the food he is said to have been called " Edom," red. 
The name, as applied to the land occupied by his 
descendants, prob. came fm. the red hue of the pre- 
vailing rocks (Edom). E.'s hope of securing his fr.'s 
blessing was frustrated by the artifice of Rebekah 
and Jacob's skill in deception (Gn. 27.). Rebekah, 
hearing of E.'s anger and purpose of revenge, got 
Jacob sent to her own kindred, under pretext of 
seeking a w. {see Jacob). E. married, at the age of 
40, two Hittite w.'s (Gn. 26. 34 ). In the hope of 
pleasing his parents he married also Mahalath, his 
cousin (Gn. 28.°). During Jacob's absence E. 
gained a position of wealth and influence in Mt. 
Seir, henceforth associated with his descendants. 
Poss. no longer caring for revenge, or mollified by 
the rich gifts of his br., he welcomed him back with 
great cordiality, and returned to his adopted home 
(Gn. 32., 33. 1 " 16 ). The brs. met again at the burial 
of their fr. (35> 29 ). Thereafter they parted ami- 
cably, E. taking with him to Mt. Seir the share of 
his fr.'s property that fell to him (36. 6ff -). Perhaps 
" worldly-minded " best expresses the meaning of 
bebelos, applied to E. (He. 12. 16 ). The memory of E. 
was cordially detested among the later Jews, who 
thought no crime too black to be laid to his charge. 
See Jacob. 

ESCHATOLOGY. In treating of this subj. we 
must be on our guard agst. the tendency to build 
conclusions upon single texts, or to ask fm. the N.T. 
detailedinformation about the future world. Every- 
thingabout that world necessaryfor consolation is to 
be found in the NT., but nothing that ministers to 
curiosity. Further, it is not always easy to deter- 
mine for how much of his teaching an apostle wd. 
have claimed authority. How far did NT. writers 
simply use the fig. lang. of their time ? may there 
not be more than one eschatological scheme in 
Scrip. ? has the teaching of Jesus on the subj. been 



modified by His reporters ? — these are some of the 
more difficult problems confronting the mod. stu- 
dent. In short, there is no department of theology 
where we are more urgently called to maintain a 
wise agnosticism as to all unessential details on the 
one hand, and on the other unflinching assurance 
as to the central fact. 

We shall take three natural divisions : (1) The 
Return of Christ ; (2) Resurrection and Immor- 
tality ; (3) Judgment and its Issues. 

(1) The Return of Christ. — Our Lord, we may 
reasonably hold, spoke of His own return in the 
lang. of His age ; ignoring, however, the national 
limitations wh. the Jewish mind had bound up with 
its eschatology, as well as all inquisitive calculations 
of day and hour. But of the fact that He will come 
again in glory Jesus was sure ; it is indeed upon its 
certainty and its suddenness that He chiefly dwells. 
Again and again He warns the disciples agst. being 
unprepared. Did He regard the end as very near ? 
Some features of His teaching, like the parable of 
the Mustard Seed, representing the kdm. as subj. 
to the law of growth, make that improbable, and in 
general it is unlike Jesus to be much concerned with 
times and seasons. He seems rather desirous of so 
forearming and forewarning His followers as that 
they shd. not grow dejected or confused if the Par- 
ousia were long delayed. Not exact prediction, but 
sptl. truth, is His chief aim ; and fm. this point of 
view the elusive atmosphere wh. surrounds many of 
His refcs. to the end is quite intelligible. His own 
return in glory, then, as an event of absolute cer- 
tainty but incalculable suddenness — this forms the 
core of the eschatology of Jesus. There is a re- 
markable kinship of ideas, suggestive of dependence 
on the part of the apostle, between the eschatology 
of Jesus and that of St. Paul. Like other Chris- 
tians, the apostle felt that the exaltation of Christ 
could not be the last chapter in the story. Some 
day the growth of the kdm. would be complete, and 
the Lord wd. come again to vindicate His universal 
power. But he rarely paints a picture of the Lord's 
return. When he does, the minor details vary. 
The one thing needful — that we shall be for ever 
with the Lord — is insisted on ; everything else is 
left in obscurity. To begin with, St. Paul expected 
the Parousia in his own, or at all events his readers' 
lifetime. Though he wd. not have affirmed it 
dogmatically, this is clear from I Thess. In 2 Cor., 
however, a presentiment crosses his mind that his 
life will have ended before Christ comes. And in 
Php. there is a striking juxtaposition of the two 
modes of feeling ; while in 1 , 23 — " I have a desire to 
depart and be with Christ, for it is very far better " 
— both the certainty and the desire of surviving 
have disappeared. Yet to the last St. Paul held that 
the end of the world was not far distant. He does 
not profess, any more than Jesus Himself, to know 

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the day or hour. And in general we may say that 
the nearness of the Second Advent is a variable, and, 
so to speak, a detachable element in his forecast. 
St. John, on the other hand, dwells not so much on 
the fact that Christ will come again on the clouds of 
heaven, as on the experimental certainty given to 
every believer that He has come already, and is with 
His people always as an unseen presence. The only 
other point wh. we need mark is the allusion in Rv. 
20. 4 " 8 to a millennial kdm. ; a period, that is, in wh. 
Christ will reign in bodily presence upon earth for a 
thousand yrs. Before this period the writer of the 
bk. places a resurrection of saints ; at its close occur 
the general resurrection and the Last Judgment. 
The only general principle wh. casts real light on 
such a passage is the principle that all numbers of 
the kind have a symbolic, rather than an arith- 
metical significance. As the late Prof. Milligan has 
put it : " The thousand yrs. mentioned in this pas- 
sage express no period of time. . . . They embody 
an idea ; and that idea, whether applied to the sub- 
jugation of Satan or to the triumph of the saints, is 
the idea of completeness or perfection. Satan is 
bound for a thousand yrs. ; that is, he is completely 
bound. The saints reign for a thousand yrs. ; that 
is, they are introduced into a state of perfect and 
glorious victory." 

There is that in the Christian mind, incontest- 
ably, wh. kindles at once to the promise of Jesus 
that He will come again. The faith evoked by His 
Person dares to believe that He will one day strike 
finally into hist., bringing salvation to its climax. 
The Church, coping with evil in her anguish, knows 
that triumph can never be the result of a merely nat. 
process of evolution. There must be a supernatural 
interposition on God's part. All the conditions 
of our being must be transformed, and hist, con- 
ducted to its close. Hence the Christian hope of 
the Second Advent is only, at bottom, one aspect of 
faith in the exalted Lord, for wh. His return is not 
an event within the present order, but the end of 
it. Only so is the goal reached for wh. God made 
the world ; only so is the moral significance of all 
things revealed unmistakably. Christus Creator is 
also Christus Consummator. He must reign, till He 
have put all enemies under His feet. 

(2) Resurrection and Immortality. — The doc- 
trine of a resurrection originated with the OT. pro- 
phets, first in relation to the nation as a whole, and 
later to the individual. The idea that individuals 
wd. rise again first entered into OT. eschatology 
when religious persecution produced martyrs ; as it 
has been put, " those who died fighting God's 
battle must not be robbed, when it came, of the joy 
of victory." In this whole region, the fundamental 
thought is that of fellowship with God. It consti- 
tutes an indissoluble bond, wh. death cannot break. 
What OT. believers are concerned with is not the 



mere existence of the spt. beyond death, wh. indeed 
was never doubted ; it was rather life with God 
and in the light of His face. Hence faith in immor- 
tality, when it came to clear consciousness of itself, 
did so as a corollary or aspect of faith in God. 

Here, then, is the bridge leading to NT. doctrine. 
We see this strikingly in Christ's interview with the 
Sadducees (Mw. 22. 23ff -), and in that piercing word 
with wh. He concludes His answer to their paltry 
puzzle : " God is not the God of the dead, but 
of the living." In other words, the man to whom 
God has once given His fellowship possesses and is 
possessed by Him for ever. When once we have 
known Him as being to us all that the name God 
means, we know that immortality is involved in that. 
It is on this basis that NT. faith in the resurrection 
is built. It is, indeed, a pre-supposition of belief in 
the resurrection of Christ Himself, as is shown by 
St. Peter's words : " God raised up Jesus, having 
loosed the pains of death, because it was not -possible 
that He shd. be holden of it." In view of the faith- 
fulness of God it was not possible that one like Jesus 
shd. be relinquished to the grave, and see corruption. 

The teaching of Jesus, as reported in the first 
three Gospels, appears to presuppose a gen. resur- 
rection. The delineation of the Last Judgment, in 
Mw. 25., in wh. " all nations " are gathered before 
the Son of Man, is indeed unintelligible save as 
implying the resurrection of all. In the Fourth 
Gospel, however, the resurrection of the believer is 
treated as a part of the bestowment of eternal life ; 
its necessary pre-condition is his sptl. revival, and 
Jesus represents Himself as having a personal share 
in effecting it. " No man," He says, " can come 
unto Me except the Father draw him, and I will 
raise him up at the last day." This makes it diffi- 
cult to explain the resurrection of the unbeliever, 
since in his case the pre-condition just named is lack- 
ing. But the difficulty is really owing to the fact 
that the prime concern of faith, its deepest interest, 
has to do with the resurrection of life, and, under 
this impulse, lang. is often used as if there were no 
other. Scrip, tends, in short, to bind up resur- 
rection with a true relationship to God. 

At the centre of St. Paul's eschatology stood the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ, as its reality broke upon 
him with tremendous force on the way to Damascus. 
Ever afterwards the unseen world was interpretedby 
him in terms of that all-transforming vision. Christ 
is the first-fruits of them that sleep ; not only so, the 
resurrection body they are to wear will be like His 
glorious body. The apostle does not seem to have 
felt the difficulties which have troubled many as to 
the ident. of the present with the future body. The 
sptl. organism we receive will be perfectly fitted for 
the new life and the new environment ; but it has 
nothing to do with the present material body. 
" That wh. thou sowest, thou sowest not the body 



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that shall be, but a bare grain " (i Cor. 15. 37 ). 

Like other Scrip, writers, St. Paul deals with the 

point solely as it concerns believers. He answers 

difficulties wh. had been felt by Christians about 

their own destiny, but he does not theorise at large. 

Little is said in the NT. regarding the Intermediate State. 
No vital religious interest seems to have been attached to the 
subject. Our Lord's words to the tbief on the cross plainly- 
state that after death the penitent wd. be with Him, i.e. 
with God. Further, the NT. use of "sleep" to denote 
death need not imply that after death there comes a space 
of unconsciousness, for " a sleeping man does not cease to 
know himself to be, as dreams sufficiently show us " ; but 
it doas imply other ideas, such as repose, continuous exist- 
ence, and the certainty of waking. Generally, it may be 
said that apostolic faith overleaps everything between death 
and resurrection, and hastens on to the goal of reunion 
with Christ. " Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." 
It may be noted further, that in all the Pauline literature 
there is not a single allusion to the intermediate state of 
unbelievers. Faith has no interest in expatiating on such a 
theme. 

It is worth noticing that no formal demonstration 
of immortality is offered by the NT. The tone of 
the apostles is that of men who by faith knozv that in 
Christ they are immortal, and feel no need to but- 
tress an intuitive certainty by logic. Christ was 
to them a test case ; in His experience was ex- 
hibited, once for all, the principle on wh. God will 
go in robbing the grave of its power. There is that 
in God wh. is stronger than death ; it evokes a cert, 
expectation in the Christian mind ; and in the end 
that expectation will be translated into fact. With 
what seems the infallibility of common-sense, the 
NT. represents the future life as life in a body. But 
it is meaningless to say that that body will be ident. 
with our present body ; some far better thing is 
promised us, and the NT. enunciates an infinitely 
more inspiring truth when it declares : " He shall 
change the body of our humiliation, that it may be 
like unto the body of His glory." 

At this point we may refer to the question of Future Pro- 
bation ; probation, that is, between death and judgment. 
This is the view that no one will perish who has not had a 
real opportunity of appropriating the redemption wh. is in 
Christ ; all men are to be brought face to face with Christ, 
in order that they may deliberately accept or reject Him ; 
and if this has not taken place in this life, it will take place 
in the next. It is probable that those who hold this theory 
will always do so not so much upon grounds of Scrip. — for 
its points of attachment with the NT. are few — as because 
of their gen. view of the Gospel. We are certainly not en- 
couraged by the NT. to say dogmatically that probation in 
every case is limited to time. We dare not assert that men 
to whom Christ has never been worthily presented may not 
take with them into the unseen such tendencies of char, as, 
uniting with the effect of Christ's immediate presence, and 
the consequent revelation of the immeasurable evil of sin, 
may lead to a change of heart. But neither may we assert 
that it must be so. And it is a fair question whether, if there 
be probation for any, there must not be probation for abso- 
lutely all. In any case, nothing cd. be more unlike the NT. 
than a way of thinking upon this subject wh. minimises the 
importance of moral decisions taken in this world. To 
throw the emphasis upon the possible opportunities of the 
future life, is to strike a blow at the ethical solemnity and 
nobleness of the present. 

(3) Judgment and its Issues.— In the teaching 
of Jesus there occur several allusions to coming 



judgment. Indeed, " the sternest and most in- 
exorable lang. wh. the NT. contains on this awful 
subj. is to be found in our Lord's own lips." In 
proof of this assertion refce. may be made to the 
passage in the Sermon on the Mount regarding those 
who claim to have prophesied in Christ's name (Mw. 
7. 21 " 23 ), and the picture of the last tribunal in Mw. 
25. In the latter passage the apocalyptic scenery is 
at a minimum. It is an ethical judgment that is 
portrayed ; the object is the moral conduct of 
persons ; the principles applied by the judge are 
sptl. It is a more difficult question who are the 
subjects of judgment. Are they all mankind, or 
Christians, or the heathen ? The third of these 
possible views has, on the whole, most in its favour. 
St. Paul's dependence on the tradition of our Lord's 
words is again clear in his belief that the judge, in 
the final scene, will be Christ Himself. Similarly, 
the issues on wh. he dwells are always ethical. All 
men, including believers, will be judged ; the fire 
shall try every man's work ; but also it will be part 
of Christ's righteous judgment — that is, of His 
fidelity to His word — to bestow the reward pro- 
mised for obedient service. Scrip., however, gives 
no support to the common notion that the reward 
will be equal in every case. Nothing is clearer 
fm. Jesus' parables of the Talents and the Pounds 
than that each will be assigned that place and 
that portion for wh. capacities developed on earth 
have fitted him. 

In regard to those who are not in Christ, three 
views of the issues of judgment have been held. 
(a) Universal Restoration. — No one can possibly 
contend that the gen. drift of the NT. is in favour 
of this theory. The utmost that can be pleaded is 
that the Christian hope is occasionally stated in terms 
so ample as to sugg. the ultimate salvation of all men. 
So, for example, Rm. n. 32 , " God hath shut up all 
unto disobedience, that He mt. have mercy upon 
all " ; or I Cor. 15 . 28 , " that God may be all in all." 
But a more precise exegesis shows these verses to 
be irrelevant to our problem. More support, un- 
questionably, not of a logical but of a sptl. kind, 
may be found in some great OT. texts, such as " He 
retaineth not His anger for ever, because He de- 
lighteth in mercy." On the other hand, a verse like 
1 Cor. I. 18 , " The preaching of the cross is to them 
that perish foolishness," cannot be evaded. Hence 
the dogmatic assertion of universal restoration can 
only be described as a departure fm. NT. relg. The 
real difficulties of the theory have nothing to do 
with God's mercy ; they have to do with man's 
freedom. (b) Conditional Immortality. — This is 
the view that man is not immortal by nature, but 
only receives the gift of immortality through union 
with Jesus Christ. When it becomes impossible to 
separate a man fm. his sin, when he and evil are one, 
nothing remains but that the evil shd. be annihi- 



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lated. The doctrine of man's nat. immortality, on 
the other hand, was no part of the original message, 
and was introduced in the second or third cen- 
tury. The value of this theory lies in its conviction 
that life, accdg. to the only sense in wh. a Christian 
feels it worth while to use the word, is life in Christ. 
Nor does it necessarily involve the denial of future 
punishment, but merely of eternal future punish- 
ment. What it maintains is that God will not to all 
eternity tolerate a dead limb in a universe wh. He 
has redeemed. At some time in the future, He fm. 
whom life has come will withdraw the gift of life 
fm. the invincibly wicked, (c) Everlasting Pitnish- 
ment. — The strength of this theory resides in its firm 
grasp of the persistence of moral char. And to be 
fair, it must be remembered that its advocates wd. 
emphasise the fact that the doom of the impenitent 
is self-chosen. Nothing that God may do, wmether 
in this life, or, if that be conceivable, in the next, 
can impair man's liberty to choose ; for ever and 
ever he is free, and master of his fate. Moreover, 
punishment is to be distinguished fm. torture. In 
conclusion, it may be said that on NT. ground we 
have to choose between the last two of the views 
just described. There is a severance of the good fm. 
the evil, and it is final. There is an eternal life, and 
an eternal death as its antithesis ; but over the pre- 
cise nat. of final destruction a veil is drawn. In any 
case, if we desire to gain and keep the NT. perspec- 
tive, we shall fix our minds, as we look forward, not 
on the doom of the lost, but on the glory reserved 
for those who are Christ's at His coming. 

H. R. Mackintosh. 

ESDRAELON. See Jezreel. 

ESHCOL. (i) One of the Amorite chiefs who 
joined Abraham in pursuit of Chedorlaomer (Gn. 
14. 13 , &c). (2) Vale of E., "Vale of grape clus- 
ters " (Nu. 13. 23 , &c). The name prob. lingers in 
Beit Iskdhel, c. three miles NW. of Hebron. The 
grapes of this district are still greatly esteemed. 

ESHTAOL, a town in the Shephelah, on the 
border of Judah and Dan (Jo. 15. 33 , IQ. 41 ), near 
Zorah, between wh. and E. lay Mahaneh-Dan, the 
home and burying-place of Samson. It is prob. the 



mod. Ashuc 



\ miles E. of Zorah — Sar'ah. 



ESHTEMOA, a priestly city (Jo. 21. 14 ; 1 Ch. 
6. 57 ), in the mountain of Judah (Jo. 15. 50 ) wh. is as- 
sociated with the Calebites (1 Ch. 4. 19 ) ; favourable 
to David (1 S. 30. 28 ) = es Semu'a, a vill. with many 
ruins fm. Byzantine and Crusading times, nine 
miles S. of Hebron. 

ESTHER, THE BOOK OF. The last of the 
five Megilloth, " Rolls," the others being Ruth, Ec- 
clesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations. It 
was read at the Feast of Purim, and is an explana- 
tion of the institution of that feast. 

(1) Contents. — The Persian k. Ahasuerus makes 
a feast in Susa, during the course of wh. he quarrels 



with and divorces his queen, Vashti. After some 
yrs. he desires to put some one in the place of 
Vashti. A Jewish maiden named Hadassah, who 
had been brought up by her cousin Mordecai, is, 
possibly by the connivance of Mordecai, introduced 
into the seraglio, with the result that she becomes 
queen. A new name is given to her, and prob. a 
fictitious parentage devised for her, in order to hide 
her Jewish origin. Her cousin is able to communi- 
cate with her ; he makes use of this facility to 
inform her of a conspiracy agst. Ahasuerus, wh. is 
thus frustrated. Meantime Haman, the newly ap- 
pointed vizier, has taken umbrage at Mordecai, and 
determines on his act. to destroy the whole Jewish 
nation. Having secured the decree fm. the monarch, 
he waits but the auspicious day for realising his de- 
sign ; so he has " lots " (purim) cast before him ; 
the lot indicates the 13th day of the 1 2th month. 
Mordecai informs E. of the disaster impending over 
her nation. By her influence over her husband she 
secures the destruction of Haman, the enemy of 
her people ; by gaining them the right of self- 
defence she delivers her kinsfolk fm. threatened 
annihilation. 

(2) Language. — In grammar and vocabulary it 
is late, very like the style of Nehemiah and Ezra. 

(3) Date. — Prob. the later yrs. of the Persian 
rule. 

(4) Historicity. — If E. were a romance it wd. 
not detract fm. its inspiration, but it wd. certainly 
make a diffc. in interpretation. The main argu- 
ments agst. the historicity of E. are disagreements 
with Herodotus ; but the accuracy of the " father 
of history " is not now unquestioned. The iden- 
tity of Ahasuerus is a crucial question ; the choice 
is restricted to Darius, Xerxes, or Artaxerxes. The 
first and last are excluded by dates and char. The 
char, of Xerxes suits, and also very strikingly the 
dates. In his third yr., when X. makes the feast of 
chap. 1., he has just returned fm. the reconquest of 
Egp., and is beginning his preparations for invading 
Greece. In his seventh, when Esther is introduced 
into the harem, he has not long returned fm. that 
disastrous expedition. In several other points there 
is an accuracy in regard to the habits and consti- 
tution of the Persian court wh. is unlike the Jew ; 
at the same time there are symptoms that Jewish 
megalomania has influenced a later editor. That 
E. may be Amestris is not so impossible as some 
maintain. A Gr. historian relating the story of E. 
fm. Persian sources wd. represent her as rivalling 
Amestris in cruelty ; and, as we have said above, an 
ancestry cd. easily be provided. 

(5) Canonicity. — The fact that the name of God 
does not occur, and that fasting is the only reli- 
gious exercise mentioned, afforded reason of debate 
among the Rabbins ; it led them to remedy the de- 
fect by discovering acrostics of the sacred name. 



177 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eth 



The Alexandrian Jews inserted passages in wh. the 
Divine Name is frequent, dreams by wh. God makes 
known the future, and prayers for help. No book 
has had more influence on the Jews than the 





PEF. Photo 

Pools of Solomon : Lowest Pool. See Etam. 

" Megillah."* At times, to mark escape fm. disaster 
wh. threatened the nation, a new " Megillah " has 
been composed, e.g. in Egp. in 1524 (see Jewish 
Quarterly, Jan. 1896, pp. 274-288). The theory of 
Jensen, that E. records the triumph of the Bab. 
relg. in Elam ; that E. and Mordecai are Istar and 
Marduk, and Haman and Vashti are Elamite deities, 
has only the accidental resemblance of names in its 
favour. 

ETAM. (1) A town in Judah, fortified by 
Rehoboam (2 Ch. 1 1. 6 ), named with Bethlehem 
andTekoa (cp. LXX, Jo. 15. 59 ; Ant. VIII. vii. 3). 
The name is found in i Ain 'Atdn, at the " Pools of 
Solomon," three great reservoirs in the valley E. of 
the Hebron road, two miles SW. of Bethlehem, con- 
nected with Jrs. by Pilate's aqueduct. The power- 
ful spring in the heart of the hill is identd. with 
the " sealed fountain " (SS. 4. 12 ). (2) A town in 
Simeon, prob. = 'Aitun, NW. of Beersheba. (3) The 
rock E. (Jg. 15. 8 ), in the cleft of wh. Samson dwelt ; 
unidentd. 

ETHAM. A station of the Isr. on the edge of 
the wilderness of Etham, W. of Shur (Ex. 13. 20 ; 
Nu. 33. 6, 8 ). The name answers to the Egyptian 
ketem, " fortress." E. may have been the fortress 
at the eastern end of the Egpn. frontier defences, 
wh. stretched across the isthmus of Suez. 

ETHAN. (1) A wise man whom Solomon ex- 
celled (1 K. 4. 31 ), to whom the title ascribes Ps. 89. ; 
s. of Ezrah = Zerah (1 Ch. 2. 6 ). (2) A descendant 
of Gershon (1 Ch. 6. 42 ). (3) A Merarite Levite, 
who gave his name to a guild of musicians (1 Ch. 
6. 44 , &c). 

ETHANIM. See Year. 

ETHBAAL, k. of Tyre, c. B.C. 885-854, fr. of 
Jezebel (1 K. 16. 31 ), said by Menander to have been 
a priest of Astarte, who gained the throne by the 
murder of his predecessor (Jos. Contra Ap. i. 18 ; 
" Ithobalos "). 

* "The Megillah" applied specially to the Bk. of Esther. 

I 



ETHIOPIA, ETHIOPIANS. (1) Name and 
Country. — The Heb. Cush is'trd. in the LXX by 
the Gr. ^Ethiopia. The Gr. name is of doubtful 
origin, some deriving it f m. the Gr. aithops, meaning 
red, but it is doubtful if we have not a native or 
perhaps an Egpn. name carried over and given a Gr. 
dress. The land Ethiopia or Cush was situated in 
the valley of the Nile S. of the first cataract and ex- 
tending towards the Upper Nile on the W. and the 
Red Sea and Arabian Gulf on the E. The Gr. 
term Ethiopia, however, seems to have been vaguely 
applied to the land S. of Egp., while Cush was re- 
stricted to land of the Nile valley. About B.C. 1500 
this territory, wh. at a later date came to be called 
Nubia, was divided into northern and southern pro- 
vinces, the former called Wazuat, the latter Kos, the 
Heb. Cush, wh. came to be applied to the whole 
territory. 

(2) History. — Ethiopia or Cush during the cen- 
turies underwent many political changes, being at 
one time an independent kdm., and again a depen- 
dency of Egp. It was repeatedly invaded by Egpn. 
ks., and during the earlier dynasties was placed under 
an Egpn. deputy resident at Naputa. At a later 
date Ethiopia became an independent kdm. with 
Meroe as its capital. It was ruled over by ks. who 
seem to have been little more than the creatures 
of a priestly aristocracy, while the queen mother 
exerted an important influence, and several queens 
of Ethiopia are mentioned. At the time of Isaiah 




Eunuci 



ran 

Assyrian. (See p. 179.) 



we find Cush regarded as a first-rate power (cp. Is. 
7. 18 ),and practically identd. with Egp. (Is. 20 4f -). 
In the yr. b.c 24, Candace, a queen of Ethiopia, 
invaded Egp., wh. led to the destruction of the 

78 



Eth 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eut 



capital by the Rm. general Petronius. The refce. in 
Acts 8. 27 to the eunuch of Candace shows that the 
kdm. survived this defeat. In the Christian era the 
name Nubas or Nobades was given to the tribes of 
the Nile, and a Christian Nobadian kdm. existed 
till late in the Middle Ages. 

The people of Cush seem to have been a mixed race, con- 
sisting for the most part of negroes, among whom reddish 
brown, probably Ham i tic, tribes were mingled. 

W. F. Boyd. 

The Ethiopic Canon, as shown by the Bible of the 
Abyssinian churches, is more extensive than even that of 
Alexandria. A large number of the pseudepigrapha, the 



EUODIAS, a female member of the Church of 
Philippi, at variance with Syntyche (Php. 4. 2 ), prob. 
owing to different views in matters of relg. 

EUPHRATES (Heb. phrat, in Sumerian pura, 
" the water," hence Bab. purat, and Old Persian 
U phrat), the principal river of SW. Asia. In OT. 
usually " the river," as in Ex. 23. 31 ; Dt. II. 24 ; 1 K. 
4. 24 . The E. rises in Armenia ; after flowing SW. 
it finds its way through the Taurus, and turns to the 
SE. After a course of 500 miles it is joined by the 
Tigris at Kurna, and, as Shaft-el-' Arab, falls into the 
Persian Gulf. It is one of the four rivers of Para- 















111 III ' 














^m. :; -&>M 
















Wm) 


iv c * m 






WhlHIiM -—^ Jt 






Ly,yy { V-- : 










.-; - ; ■ * y" 










"■ 


















jmw> 


^^^^^P 




' 


,.,.>' 


Try,- •■**'•'* 
















l*V^'"' '■''' ''• ■ '* 







Crossing the Euphrates 



existence of wh. had been known previously only by refer- 
ences in the Fathers, are in it. But all the received bks. 
are translated fm. the Gr. The Ethiopic VV. are of value 
chiefly as helping to fix the text of LXX. 

ETHNARCH. See Governor. 

EUNICE, a Jewess (Ac. 16. 1 ), mr. of Timothy, 
dr. of Lois ; married a Gr. St. Paul mentions her 
" unfeigned faith " (2 Tm. I. 5 ). 

EUNUCH (Heb. sari;). Eunuchs were usual 
adjuncts to an Eastern court, and so are frequently 
depicted on the slabs of Nineveh. E. were not 
allowed to enter the congregation of the Lord (Dt. 
23. 1 ). Frequently E. was used of " court official," 
as of Potiphar (Gn. 39. 1 ), who is called saris. 
Eunuchs often wielded great influence in high 
places (Rawlinson, And. Mon. iv. 175). In the anct. 
world they were renowned for their fidelity (Herod 
viii. 105 ; Xenophon, Cyr. vii. 5, 6o ff -). They were 
common in Pal. at the time of Christ {Ant. XVI. 
viii. 1 ; Mw. IQ. 12 ). 



dise (Gn. 2. 14 ). One famous ford in anct. times was 
at Carchemish — mod. Jerabis. For irrigation the 
water of the E. was conducted in canals all over the 
Babylonian plains. In former times the two rivers 
entered the Persian Gulf apart ; but the gathering 
silt has pushed back the seashore and drawn them 
into one channel. 

EUROCLYDON. The exact form of the name 
has been much canvassed ; that now generally 
adopted — cp. WH. and RV. — is Euraquilo, wh. 
prob. means ENE. Judging by the course taken by 
the drifting ship, this is the direction whence the 
tempestuous (lit. " typhonic ") wind must have 
blown (Ac. 27. 14 ). This is quite in harmony with 
mod. experience in the Levant. 

EUTYCHUS, a youth of Troas, who, overcome 
by sleep during a long speech by Paul, fell fm. a 
window seat in an upper room, and, being taken up 
dead, was restored to life by the apostle (Ac. 20. 7fl -). 



179 



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Exo 



EVANGELIST, lit. " proclaimer of good news." 
In the list (Eph. 4. 11 ) of those whom God has given 
to perform special functions in the Church, the E. 
comes after the Apostle and Prophet, and before the 
Pastor and Teacher. In the case of Philip, who is 
called " the E." (Ac. 21. 8 ), we have one who was set 
apart for other work (Ac. 7- 3f -), who afterwards went 
fm. place to place, spreading the " good news " of 
the coming of the Messiah (Ac. 8. 5 , &c), finally 
settling at Caesarea, where prob. he still carried on 
the same work. The higher functions did not ex- 
clude that of the E., since both Apostles and Pro- 
phets were also bringers of the good news. But the 
Apostles were possessed of special authority, and the 
E. cd. not, like them, bestow the Holy Ghost (8. 14fft ), 
nor did he enjoy the special inspiration of the Pro- 
phet. He simply communicated the good news 
to those who had not heard it. He was not a 
Pastor with oversight of a particular flock, nor a 
Teacher whose business it was to instruct the saints. 
Timothy, in addition to the charge entrusted to 
him, cd. also do the work of an E. (1 Tm. 4« 5 ). 

The name is not found as the title of a distinct official in 
sub-apostolic times. As the life, works, death, and resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ, embodied in the fcur Gospels, came 
to mean "the Evangel " par excellence, the name E. was 
applied to the writers, and this use has been common since 
the time of CEcumenius and Chrysostom. 

EVE (Heb. haivzvah, " life "), w. of Adam, fm. 
whose side she was taken ; deceived by the serpent, 
she led Adam into transgression. 

EVIL-MERODACH (Bab. Amil-Marduk), s. 
and successor of Nebuchadnezzar. In the yr. of 
his accession he released Jehoiachin, k. of Judah, and 
assigned him a portion fm. the k.'s table (2 K. 25. 27 ). 
After a reign of two yrs. E. was assassinated by 
Nergal-Sharezer, his br. -in-law. 

EXCELLENT. Kratistos is a title of respect 
used four times (Lk. I. 3 ; Ac. 23. 26 , 2/f.. 3 , z6. 25 ). In 
the first two cases AV. trs. " most excellent," in the 
others " most noble " ; RV. uniformly " most ex- 
cellent." In the last three instances it is cert, used 
as an official title, in addressing the Rm. gover- 
nors, Felix and Festus. The presumption is that, 
although it cannot be proved, Theophilus was a 
man of high rank. 

EXODUS, BOOK OF. This name was given to 
the bk. by the Gr. translators with refce. to the out- 
standing event it records, the " Departure " of the 
children of Isr. fm. Egp. In the Heb. canon it is 
simply denoted by the opening words, " These are 
the names," or more briefly, " Names," and Jewish 
writers, when they wish to indicate more precisely 
its contents, call it " Damages," fm. the legalistic 
aspect of the latter part of the bk. Although in a 
manner complete in itself, it is closely related to 
Genesis and to the succeeding bks. of the Pentateuch 
of wh. it forms a constituent part. The Bk. of 
Genesis exhibits the gradual elimination and expan- 



sion of a chosen family, wh., as the bk. closes, goes 
down to Egp. E. shows how this people grew into 
a nation, and was prepared to enter upon an inde- 
pendent national life. The bk. divides itself natly. 
into two parts : the first, chaps. I.-15. 21 , tracing the 
growth and preparation of the people, and their de- 
liverance fm. Egyptian bondage ; and the second, 
chaps. I5. 22 ~40., the consolidation of the people 
with a civil constitution and regulated worship. In 
the first part we are told how the Isrs. were op- 
pressed in Egp., and how they multiplied in spite of 
the measures taken to reduce them. We have the 
birth and upbringing of Moses, his flight, and his 
call to be the leader of his people ; the prolonged 
struggle for liberty, marked by the plagues, and 
culminating in the death of the first-born of the 
Egyptians and the institution of the Passover ; the 
hasty departure and the march to the Red Sea ; the 
destruction of the Egyptian host and the Israelites' 
triumphal song of deliverance. In the second part 
are related various incidents on the march to Sinai, 
where in awful majesty God gives the Law, and the 
Covenant is ratified as the basis of the nation's con- 
stitution. Directions are given for the making of 
the Tabernacle and the consecration of the priests, 
followed by the episode of the golden calf, and the 
renewal of the broken Tables. The construction and 
erection of the Tabernacle are described, on wh. 
the cloud of glory descends to symbolise the Divine 
presence, and to guide the people on their future 
journeys. There are thus two literary elements in 
the bk., narrative and legislative ; but these are not 
kept absolutely distinct, for there runs a thread of 
nar. through the legislative portion, and the institu- 
tion and regulations of the Passover, for example, 
come in the middle of the nar. of the deliverance. 
Moreover, though there is a general progression in 
the nar., things are not always related in their strict 
historical order. Thus, in 12. 17 , in the institution 
of the Passover, before the Exodus had taken place, 
we read : " for in this selfsame day have I brought 
your hosts out of the land of Egp." ; and in 16. 34 , 
before there is any mention of the Tabernacle and 
the Ark of Testimony, it is said that Aaron laid up 
a pot of manna before the Testimony to be kept. 
The following verse adds that " the children of Isr. 
did eat manna forty yrs., until they came to a land 
inhabited." These are clear indications that the 
bk., in its present form, is later than the events wh. 
it records ; and it is the task of criticism to deter- 
mine, if poss., the time and manner of its composi- 
tion. Now, seeing that E. forms a constituent part 
of the Pnt., and exhibits literary features found in 
other parts of that composite work, mod. critics 
recognise in it the various " sources " and " redac- 
tions " through wh., by a gradual process, the whole 
Pentateuch came into its final form. Thus the 
older historical sources J. and E., wh. in many places 



180 



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Exo 



are so closely blended as to be separately indistin- 
guishable, are found in the nar. parts of the bk., 
while the portions wh. describe the Tabernacle are 
all assigned to the late priestly writer, P. Besides 
these, however, there are recognised the additions of 
redactors before or at the time of the fusion of J. 
and E., and also additions by a Deuteronomic re- 
viser after JE. had been combined and before the 
final addition of P. These conclusions are arrived 
at by critical processes wh. the ordinary reader finds 
himself not very able to follow, and at not a few 
points of wh. he will be disposed to make objection. 
For example, seeing that Moses is so prominent in 
the bk., and by universal consent was the chief in- 
strument in giving the nation a civil and religious 
constitution, and that it is distinctly stated that he 
wrote certain things (17. 14 , 24.*, 34- 27 ), it is hard to 
believe, as is asserted, that we cannot be sure that 
any part of the present bk. came fm. his hand. It is 
one thing to say that in its final form it is not his 
work, but quite another thing to say that nothing 
wh. he said or wrote is preserved in it. And when 
critics say that the Law, though not expressed in the 
words of Moses, is conceived in his spirit, one is dis- 
posed to ask how the people who showed themselves 
so incapable of apprehending the spt. at all shd. have 
achieved this without preserving any authentic re- 
cord of his spoken or written words. There is also 
a difficulty in accounting for the so-called Deutero- 
nomic additions (Deuteronomy). As to the Taber- 
nacle, it is, no doubt, a remarkable thing that we 
hear so little of it after the wilderness journey, and 
strange that so gorgeous an erection shd. pass en- 
tirely into oblivion. But surely it wd. be no less 
incredible that a writer so late as the Exile shd. give 
so minute a description of a thing wh. never existed 
— a thing of wh. one must believe he had to con- 
struct a model before he cd. give such a concrete 
description of its parts. The question naturally 
arises, how far these critical speculations affect the 
validity of the bk. as a historical record. Some 
critics, indeed, go so far as to deny the sojourn of the 
tribes of Isr. in Egp., and reduce Moses to a very 
shadowy or legendary fig. The more moderate 
critics, however, assign to Moses a paramount place 
as a leader and organiser, and the founder of the 
Law, although not the author of the legislative codes 
of the Pnt. They also accept as historical facts the 
sojourn of some tribes, at least, in Egp., their suc- 
cessful issue fm. that country, their wandering in the 
desert, and their final occupation of Canaan. Some 
may be disposed to think that the evidence on wh. 
they accept these facts wd. be sufficient to establish 
more. Less than that, at all events, cd. scarcely be 
asserted in the face of the concurrent testimony in 
the main of the different sources, and the subsequent 
hist. That hist, finds a great part of its confirma- 
tion and explanation fm. this bk. It shows how the 



Isr., though dwelling in Egp., were not worshippers 
of the gods of the country, and, though bondmen, 
had not lost their sense of unity nor the recollection 
of the faith of their fathers. The bk. clearly teaches 
that the God who took Isr. into covenant as a nation 
first showed Himself Lord of nature and mightier 
than the gods of Egp., a different view fm. that wh. 
represents Him as simply the god of a single tribe or 
confederacy of tribes. The bk. also shows the be- 
ginning of what the whole subsequent hist, exhibits 
at length. Moses was the first in the long line of 
prophets on whom was laid the hard task of re- 
minding a disobedient and gainsaying people of their 
high calling in God's purpose, and holding up before 
them a standard of holiness to wh. they were un- 
willing or unable to rise. James Robertson. 

EXODUS, THE. The date of the Exodus of the 
Isr. fm. Egp. was fixed by Prof. Naville's discovery 
of the site of Pithom in 1883. Pithom, Egyptian 
Pa-Tum, " House of Turn " (now Te lel-Maskhuta), 
proved to have been built by Ramses II., third k. of 
the 19th dyn. (b.c. 1 348-1 281, Mahler; 1 300-1 234, 
Petrie). Since the Isr. had built it, together with 
Raamses (Ex. I. 11 ), for the Pharaoh of the Oppres- 
sion, the latter must have been Ramses II., and the 
Pharaoh of the Exodus (Ex. 2. 23 ) will therefore have 
been his son and successor Meneptah II. The city 
of Raamses, wh. Petrie idents. with Tel er-Rotdba 
(Hyksos and Isr. Cities, 1906), was also built by 
Ramses II., as we learn fm. a papyrus. The 19th 
dyn. represented the national reaction agst. the 
Asiatic tendencies of the later Pharaohs of the 18th 
dyn. They had married Asiatic princesses, and 
finally Amon-hotep IV. (Khu-n-Aten) had filled his 
court with foreigners fm. Canaan, had persecuted 
the orthodox worshippers of Anion, and had endea- 
voured to force an Asiatic form of faith upon his 
people. But the attempt had failed ; the national 
party had triumphed, and the new creed and its ad- 
herents had been stamped out. The offices of state 
were again held by natives, and Egyptian armies re- 
covered the lost province of Canaan. The foreigner 
was expelled fm. Egp. or reduced to public servitude. 
This was the case with the Isr., whose position in 
Goshen (Wddy Tumildt) on the north-eastern border 
of Egp. made them dangerous in the event of an 
invasion fm. Asia. Thro' Goshen the enemy cd. 
penetrate without difficulty into the Delta. The 
free Bedouin, accdgly., who herded their cattle in 
Goshen, were made the Pharaoh's serfs, and em- 
ployed upon the constructions of a k. whose master- 
passion was bldg., and who, during his long reign 
of 6j yrs., covered Egp. with cities, temples, and 
palaces. Even so the serfs multiplied, and further 
measures were taken to diminish their numbers by 
destroying the male children. One of these was 
saved by a dr. of the k., who adopted the boy and 
gave him the name of Messu (Mosheh), " son," a 



181 



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Exo 



common Egyptian name at that period, wh. was appealed to the Pharaoh, and Aaron enforced 

borne in the reign of Meneptah by a governor of the appeal by changing his rod into a serpent, a 

Ethiopia. Moses, on growing up, killed an Egyptian feat, however, wh. was imitated by the Egyptian 

overseer whom he saw oppressing one of his race, " magicians." Then followed the ten plagues (see 

and was accdgly. forced to fly beyond the frontiers Plagues), and at last, when the k.'s own first-born 

of Egp. to Midian, where he married the dr. of the had died in the night along with the first-born of his 

High Priest. While here Ramses II. died, and he subjects, the Isr. tribes were dismissed in haste. 

They fled in the night, after first despoiling their 



I 




Meneptah 



received commands fm. ]". to return to Egp. and de- 
liver the Isr. fm. their bondage. The priest Aaron, 



late task-masters, accompanied by their flocks and 
herds and " a mixed multitude." Hardly were they 
gone than Meneptah regretted their dismissal ; his 
late serfs were making for the home of the ancestral 
enemies of Egp., and it wd. be easy to overtake them 
before they had passed the Shur or " Wall " of for- 
tifications wh. protected Egp. on its Asiatic side, 
and, after destroying the more independent and 
dangerous among them, to reduce the rest to their 
former servitude. A squadron of 600 chariots was 
therefore sent after them, followed by a body of 
foot-soldiers. The Isr. 'had avoided the northern 
road along the coast fm. Egp. to Pal., as that wd. 
have led them to Gaza, wh. was still an Egyptian 
garrison, and they accdgly. took the road towards 
the mod. Kantara, hoping to be able to slip past the 
southern end of the Shur. The town of Raamses or 
Rameses had been their gathering-place ; hence 
they marched toSuccoth, Egyptian Thukot, the civil 
name of Pithom and the district in wh. it stood. 
Their next stage was Etham, called the Khetem or 
" Fortress " of Thukot in a 19th dyn. papyrus wh. 
describes how two runaway slaves had slipped past 
" the Wall " fm. this point " N. of the Migdol of 
Meneptah." This is prob. the Migdol or " Tower " 
of Ex. 14. 1 , between wh. and " the sea " the Isr. 
encamped opposite the Canaanite shrine of Baal- 
zephon, and before Pi-hahiroth, wh. Naville wd. 
ident. with the Egyptian Pi-qeheret (written Pi-qe- 
rehet), a temple on the east side of Pithom. The 
Isr., however, were not able to escape notice like 
the two slaves ; the Khetem blocked their way to 
the desert ; southward was another desert, and to 
the E. was the Gulf of Suez, wh. appears at that 
time to have extended as far N. as Ismailiya. But 
a strong E. wind blew all night ; the shallow 
waters of " the sea " were driven before it, and be- 
fore morning the fugitives had safely crossed the 
dried-up bed, like Alexander's army when marching 
round the foot of Mount Climax in Pamphylia 
(Strab. xiv. 3, 9 ; Arr. i. 27 ; Plut. Alex. if). The 



who was a skilled orator, was associated with him in 600 Egyptian chariots had by this time reached the 

his mission, and the Pharaoh, who seems to have been spot and attempted to follow the Isr., but the wind 

at Zoan (Tanis), was requested to allow his serfs to had fallen, and before they cd. reach the opposite 

go three days' journey into the desert and there shore the waters returned and swallowed them up. 

sacrifice to their God. Meneptah refused the re- Meneptah was behind with the rest of his army, and 

quest, the daily task of his Israelite brickmakers was lived to a good old age. His mummy, wh. is now in 

increased, and they were bidden to find for them- the Cairo Museum, is that of a somewhat corpulent 

selves the chopped straw (tibn) wh. was mixed with man of over 60 yrs. who had been a sufferer fm. his 

the clay of the bricks. Again Moses and Aaron teeth most of his life. The Isr. now felt them- 

182 



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Eze 



selves safe beyond pursuit, and took " the way of the 
wilderness of the Yam Suph " or Gulf of Aqaba 
(Nu. 21. 4 ; I K. 9. 26 ). For three days they had to 
march along an unknown road without finding 
water, and the water that they then found was 
bitter. 

It is obvious that they cd. not have been as 
numerous as is represented, 600,000 adult men (Ex. 
I2. 37 ) implying a population of about 2,000,000. 
Prof. Petrie has ingeniously suggd. {Researches in 
Sinai, pp. 209-17, London, 1906) that in the census- 
lists of the Pnt. the word CpK was originally that 
wh. signifies " clan," " family," not " thousand." 
This would reduce the numbers to possible propor- 
tions, the two census-lists giving totals of 5550 and 
5730, wh. is the limit of the population the Sinaitic 
district can at present support. Goshen wd. not 
contain a pastoral population of more than 20,000 ; 
the Arabian desert or the oasis of Kadesh-barnea 
wd. support even less. 

The Date of the Exodus can be approximately 
fixed. A letter addressed to Meneptah, now in the 
British Museum, tells us that in the fourth yr. of his 
reign the Pharaoh's lands in Goshen were deserted, 
and consequently some Edomite Bedouin were al- 
lowed to feed their cattle there. Three yrs. previ- 
ously Lower Egp. had been invaded by the Libyans, 
while Achaeans, Lycians, and other northern pirates 
landed on the coasts of the Delta. The invaders 
seem to have found allies in the land of Goshen ; at 
all events Meneptah describes Heliopolis as the city 
he was called upon to defend, and the " tents " of 
the enemy as being pitched on the banks of the canal 
wh. passed Heliopolis and watered a district that 
" was not cultivated, but left as pasture for cattle 
for the sake of the foreigners, and so abandoned 
since the time of (his) ancestors." The Exodus wd. 
have taken place under cover of the invasion. A 
poem in honour of Meneptah after his repulse of the 
invaders was found by Petrie at Thebes in 1896. In 
this the writer says : " Wasted is the land of the 
Libyans ; the land of the Hittites is tranquillised ; 
plundered is the land of Canaan with every evil ; 
carried away is the land of Ashkelon ; overpowered 
is the land of Gezer ; the land of Innuam is as a 
thing of nought. The Israelites (I-s-r-a-lu) are deso- 
lated and have no seed, the land of Khar (Southern 
Palestine) is become like the widows of Egp." Here 
the Isr. alone are described as without land of 
their own ; they must therefore have already left 
Goshen and not as yet acquired fresh territory for 
themselves. That " seed " here means " offspring," 
as usually in the Egyptian texts, is shown by the ad- 
ditional statement that the kinsfolk of the Isr. had 
become husbandless. The male seed of Isr., in fact, 
had been cut off (Ex. I. 16 ). Prof. Petrie has also 
found (in 1906 at Tel el-Rotaba) the broken tomb- 
stone of User-maat-Ra-nekhtu, " chief archer, 



keeper of the foreigners of Syria in Succoth (Thu- 
kot), keeper of the Residency in Succoth " (Hyksos 
and Israelite Cities, p. 71). As this official lived in 
the reign of Ramses II., " the foreigners of Syria " 
wd. have been the Isr. 

Lit. : E. Naville, Store-city of Pithom and Route 
of the Exodus, Trubner, 1885 ; Goshen, Triibner, 
1887 ; Sayce, Early History of the Hebrews, Riving- 
ton, 1897; Gamurrini, Peregrinatio Sylvia, Rome, 
1887. A. H. Sayce. 

EZEKIEL. Ezekiel is by no means so interesting 
a personality as Isaiah or Jeremiah, nor does the Bk. 
of E. possess anything like so living an interest for 
the average individual man of the 20th cent, as do 
the prophecies of Jeremiah, or the great composite 
work now known as the Bk. of Isaiah. 

E. was a priest, and all his interests and sympathies 
were priestly and ritualistic. Nevertheless E., as an 
individual, played a most important part in the re- 
ligious hist, of his nation ; and his bk. was one of the 
most epoch-making in the OT. Canon. It was fm. 
this priest and fm. this bk. that Judaism got the im- 
pulse wh. continued to dominate its development 
till Christ came. 

Fortunately, there neither is nor can be any ques- 
tion as to the authenticity or date of the bk. The 
text, no doubt, is often very corrupt, and there are 
occasionally some duplettes such as to make it diffi- 
cult to say wh. shd. be preferred, or whether, in view 
of the tendency to repetition so common in men of 
a priestly cast of mind, both may not be equally 
genuine (cp. 2. 3 " 7 and 3. 4 " 11 ). 

The bk. itself falls naturally into two equal parts 
— chaps. I. -24., the destruction of Isr. as a secular 
nation ; and chaps. 25.-48., the reconstruction of 
Isr. as a priestly organisation, with a hierarchical 
constitution. 

The destruction of Jrs. is for E., just as for 
Jeremiah, the keystone of his earlier prophecies. 
Naturally enough, such ideas as that Jrs., the Holy 
City, and the Temple, the dwelling-place of J*., 
shd. be totally destroyed and continue to lie desolate 
and desecrated, and that J".'s own peculiar people 
shd. be driven into exile and be left by Him to live, 
in shattered fragments, helpless and seemingly un- 
cared for, among the heathen hordes that made up 
the huge empire of the Babylonian conqueror, wd. 
appear to most Isrs. to be ideas radically irreligious. 
But to E. the revelation had come so clearly as to 
be a rooted conviction that such utter ruin and 
national death must somehow eventuate in a new 
life. The breach with the past was complete. Yet 
the destruction must be but the Divine preparation 
for a new upbuilding of a regenerated community. 

Still, what cd. the new community be wh. J". 
was intending to create ? The wild and frenzied 
thoughts wh. each successive national catastrophe 
aroused among the people of Isr. were voiced by the 

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false prophets, who maintained even to the last that 
J", cd. not desert His people, that J".'s covenant 
must and wd. stand, and that therefore Isr. must 
triumph over all her foes. " Peace, peace is around 
thee, O Jrs.," said these false prophets (cp. chap. 13.). 
But despair echoed back the wailing cry, " J", has no 
eyes for His people now." It was in circumstances 
such as these that E., a priest of the family of Zadok, 
was commissioned to prophesy what the final issue 
even of national extinction wd. be, and that at a 
time when those who remained true to J", cd. do 
nothing but " sigh and cry " (9.*). 

When Jrs. was captured in 597, E. was carried off 
to Bab. along with Jeconiah and the flower of the 
nation's manhood. When he thus lost home and 
country, E. cannot have been quite a youth. He 
was already too well acquainted with Pal. and the 
neighbouring lands, as is proved by what he wrote 
in Bab., not to have reached man's estate ere he 
became an exile. His description of the market- 
place of Tyre as the Emporium of the World, and all 
her mercantile glory (chaps. 26.-28.), is so vivid and 
so detailed that one may almost with certainty con- 
clude that he must have been an eye-witness of the 
scenes enacted there, the splendour and variety of 
wh. he describes so picturesquely. He seems like- 
wise to have been familiar with not a few of the 
cities of Egp. (cp. 30. 13 " 18 ), and all this kge. of men 
and countries he must have acquired in the days of 
his freedom. In Bab. he dwelt beside the river 
Chebar, one of the tributary canals of the Euphra- 
tes ; and there, in the fifth yr. of k. Jehoiachin's 
captivity, E. was called to be a prophet, through the 
word of J", coming expressly upon him. This hap- 
pened, therefore, just when Zedekiah was about to 
rebel agst. Bab. During the next four yrs. the pro- 
phecies of E. are very numerous, and he continued 
to prophesy till the day Nebuchadnezzar began 
the siege of Jrs. As events were now fulfilling his 
earlier prophecies to the letter, he then ceased to 
prophesy, and for a long while thereafter the pro- 
phet continued mute. What need for a prophet to 
speak agst. his own people at a time when J /; '. Him- 
self was fulfilling what His prophet had already 
spoken agst. them ? 

During the time immediately before and after the 
destruction of Jrs., however, E. published a few 
prophecies agst. the neighbouring peoples wh. were 
being also drawn into the mighty maelstrom of 
Bab.'s imperial policy. When fugitives arrived at 
Chebar, and brought the news of Jrs.'s fall, in the 
1 2th yr. (we shd. prob. read the nth yr.) after its 
first capture, E. again became a prolific writer. Up 
till then he had always declared the fall of Jrs. to be 
inevitable. This he explained to be a necessary 
judgment upon the nation for its rebellious conduct 
towards J". Now, on the contrary, he foretold the 
restoration of the people and the rebuilding of the 



Temple. The prophet survived the downfall of 
the Holy City many a long yr. The last great 
picture wh. he lived to sketch of the national sanc- 
tuary is described as belonging to the 25th yr. of 
" our " Captivity (40. 1 ), and a short prophecy as to 
Nebuchadnezzar's victory over Egp. is two yrs. 
later, being dated on New Year's Day of the 27th yr. 

E., living as he did in a foreign land, was denied 
any directly effective action with respect to the fate 
of his people. No doubt he had a Jewish audience 
of a kind, as he lived in a Jewish colony, and his 
fellow-countrymen wd. gratefully appreciate the 
privilege of having a prophet dwelling among them. 
Whenever an emergency arose they seem to have 
willingly asked his advice. Nevertheless that was a 
very different position fm. what Jeremiah occupied. 
The latter cd. proclaim J'Vs message to the people in 
the Temple, or go to the king in person and tell it him 
face to face. E. was not empowered, like Jeremiah, 
" to raise up nations and cast them down." But he 
was commissioned to act as God's messenger to in- 
dividuals, to act as pastor to the little Jewish com- 
munity on the Chebar, to exhort the pious and 
warn the ungodly ; and that the responsibilities in- 
volved in the faithful discharge of such duties must 
have lain heavy on the prophet we may legitimately 
infer f m. the words wh. he himself records as coming 
fm. the mouth of ]". : " If the wicked die unwarned, 
his blood will I require at the watchman's hand " 
(33- 6 ). E. therefore cd. not but be conscious that 
he himself was such a watchman, and that at his 
hands the blood of the unwarned wd. be required. 

The peculiar nature of E.'s style must be ex- 
plained by his environment. He is fond of sym- 
bolical representations, the interpretation of wh. the 
reader is left to find out for himself. Moreover, in 
his loneliness as exile, E.'s own sptl. life was a con- 
tinual pondering on the mysterious purposes and 
ways of ]". This induced him to adopt somewhat 
artistic and even artificial forms of expressions. His 
prophecies were, fm. the very first, written, not 
spoken addresses, and these bear the marks of his 
Babylonian surroundings — e.g. thesymbolicalfigures 
so characteristic of the religions of the Euphrates 
valley. When E. quits the allegorical and pictorial, 
he speaks the simple lang. of daily life ; he is not a 
master of poetic diction such as Isaiah had at his 
command, but writes plain, unadorned prose, so that 
his meaning can be easily grasped. 

Each of the two equal divisions of the bk. falls into 
two very unequal sections. The first section of the 
first half contains but three chaps., wh. describe the 
manner of E.'s call and the char, of his mission. The 
second section consists of 21 chaps., and describes 
under a great variety of figures the destruction of 
Jrs. and the causes thereof. The first section of the 
second half consists of eight chaps., and is made up 
of oracles agst. heathen nations (25.-32.) ; and the 



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last and most interesting section consists of 16 
chaps, mainly descriptive of Isr.'s restoration and 
its ideal Temple. 

In chap. 34. E. affirms that J", will make " a cove- 
nant of peace " with Isr. and set one shepherd over 
them, even " David, my servant." In chap. 35. we 
have the antithesis to Isr.'s restoration depicted in 
Edom's desolation. In " the dry bones " wh. came 
together, bone to his bone, the prophet gives his 
most memorable picture of his people's restoration 
(chap. 37.). In the following chap. E. expressly 
refers to the prophecies of his predecessors (38. 17 ), 
and declares that even after the breaking of Bab.'s 
yoke a new war-storm will blow fm. the N., but 
these invading hordes of Gog shall but serve to en- 
hance, by their signal defeat in the valley of Hamon- 
Gog, the glory of Isr.'s God (39.). Finally, in the 




Winged Bull, or Cherub 

last nine chaps. (40.-48.), we are told how E. was 
taken in vision to Canaan and shown the ideal 
Temple with all its measurements and services, and 
the ideal distribution of the tribes of Isr. in their 
own land. 

What difTc, however, wd. the existence of a 
Temple make, however magnificent, if it were not 
to be preserved for ever inviolable ? For the new 
Temple, therefore, there must be a new Law. The 
door through wh. the glory of J", had been seen to 
enter must remain for ever shut agst. any one who 
wd. bring pollution upon the Sanctuary. No alien 
is to be admitted, nor are any Levites to exercise 
priestly duties there, because they have defiled 
themselves with idols and must therefore " bear 
their iniquity." None save the sons of Zadok 
shall officiate as priests before ]". All around the 
Temple a part of the land is declared to be holy 
ground, so that on it the priests and the Levites 
may live together. To the king also is assigned a 
definite territory, that he may oppress no man. 
Then, most wonderful of all, a spring of water 



streams forth fm. the Temple and pours itself in full 
flow into the Dead Sea, making even its salt waters 
sweet ; and by the bank of that river, on this side 
and on that side, shall grow every tree for meat, and 
it shall bring forth new fruit every month, and the 
fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof 
for healing (47 . 1 " 12 ). The whole land is divided into 
twelve portions, one portion for each tribe, and 
then Jrs. is given its new name, Jehovah Shammah, 
" Y '. is come thither." 

The last section of E. shows us how the Exile 
necessitated the formulation of a new Law. E. 
stands midway between the early prophets and the 
men who created the new Jrs. of Ezra and Nehe- 
miah. Being himself a prophet as well as a priest, 
E. did not merely reiterate the old laws, the 
inefficiency of wh. had now been unmistakably 
proved by the destruction of Temple and nation. 
Consequently, just as his new Temple, while closely 
resembling Solomon's, is nevertheless in many im- 
portant respects on a new plan, so his new Law or 
Torah, while essentially based on, and in harmony 
with, the old, differs fm. the old in many respects, 
because E. has been forced by the logic of facts to 
recognise that the actual condition of the people 
has made the continuance of the old Law no longer 
possible. These new ordinances of E. are in part 
adapted to the conditions then existing in Isr., but, 
in part, they transcend the limits of nature. The 
new Temple itself is much after the pattern of Solo- 
mon's ; but the lofty mountain in the very middle 
of the land, and the river, the life-giving waters 
of wh. issued fm. under the E. threshold of the 
Temple, are objects wh. the natural Canaan never 
possessed. Just as we are not to imagine, fm. the 
first chap., that E. guarantees that we shall see 
wonderful four-headed beasts beside God, so we are 
not to infer that a new Temple, built exactly accdg. 
to the measurements he gives, will one day stand 
upon a newly-raised mountain in Pal. But as his 
vision of the four-headed creatures upbearing J".'s 
throne is certainly meant to indicate that the glory 
of the living God will manifest itself to us in won- 
drous ways far beyond our present powers of 
apprehension, so his description of the Temple is 
assuredly intended to sugg. to the reader how in- 
effably rich in holy majesty and grandeur will be 
the manifestation of God's presence on earth itself 
as well as in heaven. 

E.'s relation to Jeremiah is very noteworthy. He 
shows himself well acquainted with Jeremiah's 
writings, and it is quite possible that E. had in his 
possession the bk. wh. Jeremiah wrote in Jehoia- 
chin's reign. The parables of the two sisters, 
Samaria and Jerusalem (Ek. 23.), of the wicked 
shepherds whom God smites (34.)) and the explana- 
tion given of the proverb, " The fathers have eaten 
sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on 

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edge " (18. 2 ), are all founded on passages fm. Jere- 
miah {cf. Jr. 3. 6 ' 12 , 23. 1 * 4 , 31. 29 ). Nevertheless the 
individual outlook of these two prophets is alto- 
gether different. 

Jeremiah's whole aim is so to influence the people 
that they may, by the tender mercies of their God, 
live in righteousness and peace. For E., the Temple 
is to be Isr.'s most precious possession, and his aim 
is to enable the restored community of Isr. to wor- 
ship ]". in such strict accordance with priestly ordi- 
nances as to retain the Divine favour for evermore. 

Jeremiah's teaching culminates in the declaration 
.that God will make a new covenant with His people, 
when the Ark shall no more be thought of, and 
neither priest nor prophet be required, because 
every man shall know the Lord, having the law 
engraven on the fleshy tablets of the heart. 

E.'s teaching culminates in the idea that J", will 
build a new Temple and have His people dwelling 
all around it, a people of consecrated priests. One 
need not say that there is any contradiction here ; 
but there is certainly a very great difference of con- 
ception. In Jeremiah, the prophet far outweighs 
the priest. In E., the priest far outweighs the 
prophet. 

The former is the forerunner of the Low Church 
Evangelical, or the Nonconformist, in whose eyes 
forms of service are as nothing. The latter is the 
High Church priest, fm. whose thoughts ritual is 
never for a moment absent. J. A. Paterson 

EZION-GEBER, a station of the Isr. near to 
Elath (Nu. 33- 35 ; Dt. 2. 8 ), where maritime expedi- 
tions of Solomon and Jehoshaphat were fitted out 
(1 K. 9. 26 , 22. 48 , &c. ; Ant. VIII. vi. 4). It was 
therefore a seaport at the head of the Gulf of 
'Aqaba. The name may linger in i Ain el-Ghudydn, 
some miles fm. the present beach. It is prob., 
however, that in anct. times the sea reached as far 
inland as the spring. 

EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. The yr. b.c. 538, 
the starting-point of the Bk. of Ez., is one of the 
most momentous yrs. in the history of the world. 
When Cyrus, in this yr., captured Bab. and thus put 
an end for ever to the Bab. Empire, the Aryan race, 
of wh. Cyrus was representative, asserted its superi- 
ority over the Semitic, and all Western Asia lay for 
the first time prostrate at the feet of an Aryan 
conqueror. The tide of Persian conquest now 
flowed fast and far, and was not stemmed till, at 
Marathon, the European branch of this Indo-Euro- 
pean race proved more than a match for the Asiatic 
branch thereof ; and a cent, and a half later the 
armies of Alexander the Great completed the proof 
wh. Marathon began. The Seleucidse soon occu- 
pied the throne of Syr. ; and in Egp. the Ptolemies 
displaced the Pharaohs. 

Cyrus was as great in statecraft as in war. Hence 
by his edict permitting the exiled Jews to return to 

I 



Jrs. and rebuild the Temple of ]". Cyrus achieved 
a double object. He removed fm. among the popu- 
lation of Bab. an alien element, and he took the 
likeliest means of securing the lasting gratitude of 
men and women who had suffered cruelly fm. the 
Bab. policy of deportation, by settling in Pal. 
those in whose loyalty he and his successors mt. 
safely rely. A direct though of course unintended 
result of this policy on the part of Cyrus was to pre- 
pare in Pal. the. proper soil in wh. to plant the 
Christian relg. when in the fulness of time the 
Messiah shd. come. 

While the Bk. of Ez. thus begins with Cyrus, the 
Bk. of Ne. takes us, at least incidentally, as far as the 
time of Alexander the Great, for in Ne. i2. 11>22 
Alexander's contemporary, the High Priest Jaddua, 
is mentioned by name. Jaddua held the office of 
High Priest fm. b.c. 351-331, and is expressly de- 
clared to be three generations later than Eliashib, 
the High Priest contemporary with N. It is clear, 
therefore, that though the two bks. are now de- 
scribed respectively as the Bk. of Ez. and the Bk. of 
Ne., these titles cannot possibly mean that the first 
was written by E. and the second by N. As a 
matter of fact, they are not two bks., but one ; and 
contents and style prove that they have been com- 
piled by the same hand as the two Bks. of Ch. not 
earlier than B.C. 320, and prob. considerably later. 
It is a very curious fact that 2 Ch. ends with part of 
the paragraph with wh. the Bk. of Ez. begins ; and 
it is nothing short of extraordinary that the Heb. 
Bible, of wh. 2 Ch. is the last bk., shd. close abruptly 
with the middle sentence of a verse wh. is found in 
its complete form in Ez. I. 8 . This is a fact of wh., 
on the traditional theory, it is impossible to give a 
satisfactory explanation. Moreover, the order of 
the bks. in the Heb. Bible, viz., Ez., Ne., and 2 Ch., 
is contrary to chronology. The Bks. of Ez. and Ne. 
were evidently given these titles in consequence of a 
tradition having grown up that E. wrote the one 
and N. wrote the other. This tradition is without 
foundation, as the facts mentioned above are quite 
sufficient to prove. Nevertheless the Bk. of Ez. does 
contain, in the long and important passage written in 
the istpers., authentic extracts fm.E.'sownmemoirs; 
and in like manner the parts of Ne. in the 1st pers. 
are selections fm. N.'s memoirs ; and it is a remark- 
able fact that the style of N., the cupbearer and the 
man of action, is more graphic and effective than 
the style of E., the man of letters, the professional 
scribe learned in the Law. The passage in Ez. in 1st 
pers. occurs in the middle of the bk. (chaps. 7. 27 -9. 15 ). 
Ne., on the contrary, begins with one such long 
passage and ends with three short ones, whereas the 
middle part of it is written in the 3rd pers. (1st pers. 
passages in Ne. i. 1 ^. 5 , I2. 27 " 32 - 37 " 40 , 13. 4 - 31 .) There 
are also two passages in Ez. written in Aramaic, one 
in each section, viz., Ez. 4. 8 -6. 18 and 7. 12 - 26 . These 
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Aram, passages include more than mere official docu- 
ments, and their style and thought prove that the 
compiler cd. write as easily in Aram, as in Heb., and 
treated his Aram, authorities with exactly the same 
freedom as his Heb. sources. Thus 4. 24 (Aram.) 
clearly refers back to 4. 5 (Heb.), and the Aram, in 
6. 1 " 18 is marked by the same chartcs. of style as the 
compiler's Heb. ; cf. 6. 9 with I. 2 and 3*. 

That Ez. and Ne. were originally one bk. is made 
absolutely cert, by the fact that there is no Masso- 
retic note at the end of Ez. such as the Massoretes 
invariably put at the end of every bk. wh. they re- 
garded as a complete whole, and that in the Masso- 
retic note at the close of Ne. it is stated that the 
middle verse of the bk. is Ne. 3- 32 . One can hardly 
be surprised that both bks. shd. have long been 
given the name of Ez., when one considers the en- 
during influence exercised by E.'s life-work over the 
whole subsequent hist, of his fellow-countrymen. 
The Old and the New Testaments are the canonical 
records of a relg. wh. has passed through three 
clearly marked stages. 

The first stage of this religious development may 
be briefly designated the Religion of Isr. as founded 
by Moses ; the second, Judaism as founded by E. ; 
and the third, Christianity as founded by Jesus 
of Nazareth. On the Mt. of Transfiguration, no 
doubt, it was Moses and Elias, not Moses and E., 
who were privileged to speak with our Lord of the 
decease He shd. accomplish at Jrs. ; but this only 
proves that Christianity was to be definitely sptl., 
and was to retain down all the ages of its progress 
the prophetic element so powerfully present in 
the teaching both of Moses and of Elijah, but alto- 
gether wanting in the intermediate stage of Judaism 
ushered in by E. the Scribe in the yr. B.C. 444. 

Yet does it not look like a contradiction of this to 
say that the chief work of E. was to make the Penta- 
teuchal laws binding upon the Jewish community, 
for is not the other name of the Pnt. the Law of 
Moses ? How, then, can the distinction between 
the work of E. and the work of Moses be so great as 
is implied in what has just been said ? Herein con- 
sists the revolution in thought as to the growth and 
development of OT. relg. wh. has been gradually 
effected during the last cent, by the researches of 
Biblical scholars and by the application, to the bks. 
of the OT., of the historical method of inquiry. 
The official promulgation of the Law on the 1st day 
of the 7th month in the yr. b.c. 444 is fully described 
in Ne. 8. 

Till that day no bk. had ever had the power wh. 
this bk., the Law of God (Ne. 8. 8 ), was henceforth to 
exercise over all Jews until Christ came to destroy 
the letter thereof, but at the same time to vivify and 
enlarge the spt. Since, therefore, the climax of E.'s 
life-work is recorded in the Bk. of Ne., it is clear that 
the two bks. cannot be treated separately. 



The Bk. of Ez. falls most naturally into two sec- 
tions, (1) Ez. I. -6. ; (2) 7.-10. ; and the Bk. of Ne. 
into three, chaps. i.-7. 73a , 7. 73b -io., 11.-13.; the 
two together thus forming a sort of miniature Pnt., 
so to speak, just as the Psalter itself is divided into 
five bks. on the same analogy. These bks. are not 
continuous hist, but rather a selection of the most 
important historical incidents connected with the 
origin of Judaism. 

In the first section we are told of the return of the 
first and largest body of exiles fm. Bab. immediately 
after the proclamation of the Edict of Cyrus in 538, 
and of the Dedication of the Altar of Burnt-offering 
in 537, and the laying of the foundations of the 
Temple in May 5 36 ; then we read of the Samaritan 
opposition and the consequent delay of all bldg. till 
520, when Darius Hystaspis, on being appealed to, 
searched for the Edict of Cyrus, and on finding it in 
Achmetha (Ecbatana) gave orders that the bldg. of 
the Temple shd. proceed. Naturally in this first 
section E. is never so much as named. 

The second section (chaps. 7.-10.) records howE., 
" a ready scribe in the Law of Moses " and high in 
favour at the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus, was 
given permission, in b.c. 458, to lead a second body 
of Jewish exiles back to Jrs., and was also authorised 
to institute there whatever religious reforms he 
mt. consider necessary. Thus between chaps. 6. 
and 7. there lies an interval of no less than 58 yrs. 
wh. is passed over in absolute silence, the connecting 
phrase in 7. 1 being nothing more than the ordinary 
commonplace " now after these things." This 
silence is conclusive proof that the editor cd. not 
have been E. himself, for it is inconceivable that E. 
cd. have passed over all the events in the 60 yrs. im- 
mediately preceding his first visit to Jrs. with such a 
trite remark. Before a writer can pass so lightly 
over an interval of 60 yrs., he must himself live at 
least several generations later. Practically all we 
know of E. and his life-work is contained in the 
last four chaps, of Ez. and the eighth chap, of Ne. 
His journey fm. Bab. to Jrs. occupied exactly four 
months. He started fm. Bab. on the first day of the 
first month of b.c 458, and on the first day of the 
fifth month he arrived at Jrs. ; and after resting 
three days he proceeded to discharge his duties as 
Imperial Commissioner and religious benefactor. 

Then came the princes of the Jews and volun- 
tarily confessed that the laws agst. intermarriage 
with foreigners had fallen into such desuetude that 
some of the chief offenders were princes and rulers, 
and even priests and Levites. The effect of this 
confession on E. was such that it must be given in 
his own words. "When I heard this thing, I rent my 
garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of 
my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied 
. . . and I sat astonied until the evening obla- 
tion" (9- 3, 4 ). The people promised to obey E., 

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who formed a committee to investigate the matter 
of mixed marriages, with the result that no fewer 
than 113 Jews, some of them priests, were convicted 
of having married foreign wives. They all pro- 
mised to put away these wives, even though they 
had borne them children, and with this statement 
the Bk. of Ez. ends abruptly. We hear no more of 
E. himself or of the result of his reforms till 13 yrs. 
have passed. Then he is once more at Jrs. in the 
retinue of Ne., the favourite cupbearer of Artax- 
erxes, and also the Tirshatha or Governor. Many 
suppose that E. himself had been Governor till 
.superseded by N., but as there is not the slightest 
proof that E. was ever at Jrs. in the interval, it is 
much more natural to suppose that, after effecting 
the marriage reforms on wh. so much stress is laid 
in the two last chaps, of Ez., he had returned to his 
former high position at the court of Artaxerxes. 
Had E. been all the while at Jrs. it is impossible 
to believe that the illegal unions so emphatically 
condemned and severely punished cd. have again 
become so general as N. on his arrival found them 
to be. Indeed E. is never mentioned again till after 
N. had succeeded in rebuilding the walls of Jrs. in 
the almost incredibly brief space of 52 days (Ne. 6. 15 ). 
But the spur of necessity and the example of fear- 
less enthusiasm such as N. had exhibited can work 
miracles. It is therefore prob. that N., finding 
both relg. and morals among the Jews at so low an 
ebb, may have summoned E. to help him in the 
practical reforms wh. he had determined to make. 
However that may be, it is cert, that the greatest 



day in E.'s life is that described in Ne. 8., when, fm. 
a pulpit of wood specially erected for the purpose, 
E. read to the assembled Jews the Law-bk., wh. has, 
ever since, exerted over the nation for wh. it was 
written a greater influence than any other national 
Law-bk. ever published. 

Twelve yrs. after this memorable occasion N. 
paid a second visit to Jrs. and found that his own 
reforms had been almost as transient in their effect 
as E.'s. N. therefore showed no mercy to the back- 
sliders, however highly placed or powerful. For 
example, the High Priest's grandson had married 
the dr. of Sanballat, the Horonite, " therefore," 
says N., " I chased him fm. me," a decisive act that 
had consequences wh. still endure. This son-in- 
law of Sanballat, named Manasseh, accdg. to Jose- 
phus, fled to Samaria, taking with him a copy of the 
Pnt. Being of priestly descent, he was elected priest 
by the Samaritans, and set up a temple on Mt. 
Gerizim as a rival to that on Mt. Zion. Though 
the Bk. of Ne. seems to end abruptly, yet, in reality, 
nothing cd. well be more appropriate and inspiring 
than the last glimpse we are thus privileged to get 
of the dauntless, energetic N. We see him, as it 
were, with outspread hands uttering this brief, 
characteristic prayer, " Remember me, O my God, 
for good." And has not God hearkened to His 
faithful servant's prayer, and fulfilled it far beyond 
his utmost expectation ? For wherever the Bible is 
read, N.'s name is known and honoured by every 
pious worshipper of N.'s God. 

J. A. Paterson. 



F 

FACE. It is by the face that a man is usually 5. 12 , &c), or " fashion " (Js. I. 11 ). Opsis occurs 



recognised, and so the F. comes to be associated in 
thought with the personality. From old time the 
F. has been regarded as reflecting the character ; 
while the play and change of features convey a swift 
expression of thought and emotion. In Heb. 'aph, 
" the nose," as the most prominent feature, and 
'ayin, " eye," as the most expressive, are used by 
metonymy for " face " (Gn. 3. 19 , &c. ; Nu. 14. 14 , 
&c.) ; the usual word is pdriim (pi. ; the sing, paneh 
is never used). It means lit. the part turned 
towards one, the front, or surface ; hence face, 
person, or presence. It appears in such phrases 
as "from the presence of the Lord" (Gn. 3. 8 , 
lit. " from the face "), " before the Lord " (Gn. 
io. 9 , lit. " in the face of "), " from my sight " (Gn. 
23. 3 , lit. " from before my face "), " in the fore- 
front " (Ex. 26. 9 , lit. " over against the face "). A 
peculiar use is " table of shewbread " (Nu. zj.. 7 , lit. 
" table of the face "). The NT. word is prosopon. 
It also stands for " person " (Mw. 22. 16 , &c), 
" presence " (Ac. 3. 13 , &c), " appearance " (2 Cor. 



only once (Jn. n. 44 ), and stoma, " mouth," only 
the phrase " face to face " (2 J. 12 ; 3 J. 14 ). 




Fair Havens 

Many of the biblical idioms are ident. with our 
own, e.g. face of the earth, of the waters, of the sky, 
&c. To seek one's face is to desire his favour ; to 
turn the face to one is like our own " to counte- 
nance." To veil the face is a sign of modesty (Gn. 
24. 65 ) ; to cover it, of reverence (Ex. 3. 6 , &c.) or of 



mourning (2 S. 19. 4 ) ; to disfigure it, of fasting 



188 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fam 



(Mw. 6. 16 ). To see the king's face is to be ad- 
mitted to his presence (Est. I. 14 ). To appear before 
God's face is to be present in the Sanctuary (Ps. 
42. 2 ). In i K. 20. 38 read with RV. " with his head- 
band over his eyes," instead of AV. " with ashes 
upon his face." 

FAIR HAVENS, kaloi limenes (Ac. 2J. 8 ), is the 
mod. Limeonas Kalous, a. bay affording indifferent 
shelter for shipping, on the S. coast of Crete, c. five 
miles E. of Cape Matala, the most southerly point of 
the island. See Paul. 




Fallow-Deer 

FALLOW-DEER (Heb. and Arb. yabmur), more 
correctly "Roebuck." The F. is practically un- 
known in Pal. 

FAMILIAR SPIRIT. The Heb. 9 5b is lit. 
" necromancer," one who professes by magical songs 
and incantations to summon the spirits of the dead, 
who are supposed to answer questions as to things 
hidden from mortals. EV. renders l ob " one with a 
familiar spirit " (Lv. 19. 31 , &c). 

FAMILY. For the wider relationships covered 
by the term in Scrip, see Kin, Kinship. This 
article deals mainly with the family as understood 
among ourselves, consisting of the parents, children, 
and dependents of one household. 

In the earliest scriptural picture of family life one 
man is united with one woman, who with their off- 
spring constitute the F. This appears to have been 
in harmony with the Creator's purpose (see Mar- 
riage). But soon polygamy appears (Gn. 4. 19 ), and 
subsequent hist, presents many illustrations of the 
evils, family discords, and miseries wh. this practice 
introduced. The strong Oriental desire for a large 
posterity led to a further slackening of the conjugal 
ties, and women to whom the rank of wife was not 
conceded bore children to their master (see Concu- 
bine). 



It is certain that the Matriarchate once prevailed 
among the Semites (see Robertson Smith's Kinship 
and Marriage in Early Arabia 2 ) . Relationship was 
determined by descent fm. a common mother. A 
man's heir was not his s., but his uterine br. ; failing 
whom, his uterine sr. The w. did not enter her hus- 
band's family, but was visited by her husband in her 
fr.'s house, the children belonging to the mr.'s F. 
Some think it prob. that this system prevailed in 
early Isr., pointing to apparent traces of it in cert. 
passages. A man must leave fr. and mr. and cleave 
to his w. (Gn. 2. 24 ). Light is cast on the conduct of 
Judah and Reuben ; accdg. to this anct. view there 
was no affinity between the s. and the mr.-in-law. 
We can also understand the marriage of half-br. 
with half-sr. (Gn. 20. 12 ; 2 S.13. 13 ), since only de- 
scent fm. the same mr. constituted prop, affinity, 
making such marriages illegal. Joseph alone is 
reckoned the " brother " of Benjamin (Gn. 42. 38 , 
&c). Eliezer treats with Rebekah's br. Laban, and 
her mr., not with her fr. Bethuel (Gn. 24.). Gideon 
reckons his brs. as sons of his mr. (Jg. 8. 19 ). There 
may also be some trace of this anct. system in the 
hist, of Samson, whose w. remains in her fr.'s house 

(Jg- I5- 1 )-. 

There is, however, no reason to suppose that in 
anct. times the prevailing custom in Isr. was differ- 
ent fm. that of later days. The fr. was undisputed 
head of the F., the w. or wives, children and de- 
pendents living under his protection and control. 
Large powers were vested in him. The w. was 
legally under his authority. But resourceful women 
(e.g. Sarah and Rebekah) cd. devise means for 
getting their own way, while wise prudence and 
tactfulness secured for the w. honour and influence 
(Pr. 3 1 . 10ff -) . Her position was greatly strengthened 
if she were the mr. of many sons. Over the children 
in anct. times the fr.'s authority was absolute, ex- 
tending even to the power of life and death (Gn. 
22. ; Jg. II. 34 , &c). The marriage of a dr. brought 
her within the pale of another F., but over the sons 
the fr.'s authority continued unimpaired till his 
death. To this day, in Arabia, the fr. does not 
hesitate to slay his child, if by so doing he may erase 
a stain fm. the family honour. Even in Pal., despite 
the restraint of Turkish law, the present writer knew 
a case in wh., for this reason, a fr. took his dr.'s life. 

This power was to some extent modified by the 
Law. Only on cert, conditions mt. a man sell his dr. 
as a bond-woman (Ex. 2i. 7f -). The son who struck, 
cursed, or insulted his parents, was liable to the 
capital penalty (Ex. 21. 15 ' 17 ; Lv. 20. 9 ; Dt. 27. 16 ). 
The parents also were enjoined to report a " stub- 
born and rebellious son," " a riotous liver and a 
drunkard," to the elders, who, on the charge being 
proved, condemned him to death by stoning (Dt. 
2 1. 18 " 21 ). 

The birth of a son has fm. old time been an occa- 



89 



Fam 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fam 



sion of joy in an Oriental F. The son perpetuates 
the fr.'s name, and adds to the people's military- 
strength. The man who has his " quiver full of 
them . . . shall not be ashamed when they speak 
with their enemies in the gate" (Ps. 127. 5 ). No 
doubt also the desire so strong in the heart of the 
mod. Arab, to be kindly remembered in the religious 
thought of his children, may have had something to 
do with it. " There is a sacrifice for the dead wh. 
I have seen continued to the third generation. I 
have seen a sheykh come with devout remembrance 
to slaughter his sacrifice, and to pray at the heap 
where his fr. or his fr.'s fr. lies buried ; and I have 
" seen such to kiss his hand in passing any time by the 
place where the sire is sleeping, and breathe out, 
with almost womanly tenderness, words of blessing 
and prayer ; and this is surely comfort in one's 
dying, that he will be so long time so kindly had in 
his children's mind " (Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i. 
240L). The family joy is shared by friends and 
neighbours, who assemble to invoke blessings on the 
child, and to drink maghleh, a hot spiced drink pre- 
pared for the occasion. The son as he grows is the 
apple of the fr.'s eye, and his whims are indulged 
usually far beyond what is reasonable. 

The advent of a girl, on the other hand, is seldom 
welcome. The feeling was like that of the mod. 
Arabs. " The woman is not born to manage the 
sword, but her hand is for the silly distaff; she 
neither strengthens the ashira [clan] nor is aught to 
the increase and bldg. of her fr.'s household, but an 
unprofitable mouth is added to the hungry eaters of 
a slender substance, and yrs. long must he wear a 
busy head for the keeping of a maiden ; the end of 
all is an uncertain bride-money (therewith he buys 
for her again some household stuff, and it is her 
dower), when she will go forth as a stranger to 
another house " (Doughty, of. cit. i. 239/f.). There 
is, however, nothing recorded in Isr. corrspg. to the 
horrible old Arabian custom of exposing female in- 
fants. If a man had only daughters his name mt. 
perish, and his family possessions pass to another, un- 
less special provision were made to prevent this (Nu. 
2J. 1S -). When a woman became the mr. of sons she 
received some compensation for earlier slights in the 
love and honour of her children, through whom she 
often exercised great influence. This is seen, e.g., 
in the respect paid to the queen mr. in Isr. 

For the most part the mrs. suckled their own chil- 
dren (Is. 49. 15 ) — see Nurse — and during tender yrs. 
they were under the care of the mr. and her women. 
When boyhood was reached the sons passed into the 
fr.'s charge (2 K. io. 1 ' 8 ), and by him were instructed 
in the relg. and hist, of their people, and had the 
principles of patriotism instilled (Ex. 13. 8 ; Dt. 
4.9ff.)__ w School. The fr. wd. also see that his sons 
attained proficiency in the work falling to them — 
tending the flocks and herds, tilling the soil, culti- 

1 



vating the vineyard and the orchard, or following 
the paternal Handicraft. 

Respect and obedience to parents are enjoined 
and enforced in many passages of Scrip., and it is 
laid upon parents, not only to rebuke and exhort 
offending children, but also to inflict corporal 



10 



17 



punishment (Ex. 20. 12 ; Lv. 19. 3 ; Pr, i. 8f - 
17. 10 , 29. 17 , &c). 

A cert, sacredness attached to the firstborn son. 
He is mentioned with the firstlings (Ex. 13. 2 ' 13 ). 
In sparing the Heb. firstborn when those of Egp. 
were slain, God had established a special claim to 
their service. But the Levites were chosen and set 
apart in place of the firstborn of all the families of 
Isr., on condition that redemption money for these 
were paid into the sanctuary (Nu. 3. llff -» 44 ^ 46 ? &c). 
By birthright the position of the firstborn in the F. 
was one of dignity and honour ; and on his fr.'s 
death he inherited a double portion as compared 
with what fell to the younger brothers. It is true 
that, for what seemed to him good reasons, the fr. 
might put this past the eldest son (see Heir). 

The ger> " stranger," during his sojourn was 
counted with the household. The old laws of 
hospitality made his comfort and safety the care of 
every member of the F. He mt. become partaker in 
Isr.'s religious privileges, and eat the Passover with 
the F., if he were circumcised (Ex. I2. 48 , 20. 10 , &c). 

Domestic slaves formed an integral part of the F., 
subject to the authority of the head, and enjoying 
his protection. One who conformed to the relg. of 
his master mt. even become his heir (Gn. 24. 12 , 15. 3 ). 
The slave mt. marry his master's dr. (1 Ch. 2. 34f -). 
It was not unusual for the female slave to become 
the concubine of her master. 

The F. appears originally to have been a social 
unity, held together by religious ties. There is evi- 
dence, e.g. in the ritual of the Passover, that the head 
of the F. was the priest, regulating the relations 
of the members of his household with the Deity 
(Ex. 12., I3. 8ff -). His esp. was the right of sacrifice. 
This is also supported by the transference of the 
name " father " to the priests (Jg. 17. 10 , 18. 19 ). In 
historic times we find that clans and tribes had their 
separate sacrificial feasts, to wh. great importance 
was attached (1 S, 20. 29 ). These at least suggest an 
older family ritual as their source. Further, the 
slave became a member of the F. by taking part in 
its worship. Thus Eliezer, as we have seen, prayed 
to his master's God (Gn. 24. 12 ). Fm. anct. times 
foreign slaves have been received into the religious 
society of the F. by the rite of Circumcision (Ben- 
zinger, HA. l^6i.). 

FAMINE. In Bible lands, fm. very early times, 
Fs. have occurred at intervals. Some were quite 
partial, like that in Gn. 12. 10 , where Egp. is un- 
affected ; or those of Gn. 26. 1 ; 2 K. 8. 1 , where 
Philistia remains untouched, while the higher lands 
90 



Fan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fea 



suffer; or that of Ru. I. 1 , wh. blighted Judea, 
but spared Moab. At times all the neighbouring 
countries were afflicted together (Gn. 41 . 27 , &c). 

The most frequent causes of F. were, in Pal., 
want of rain at the proper season, and in Egp., 
failure of the Nile overflow. The fertility of Egp. 
depends entirely upon the rise of the river. A high 
Nile is the assurance of a plentiful harvest ; a low 
Nile the herald of want. There are records of occa- 
sions when, for several successive yrs., the waters 
have failed to rise, and the agonies to wh. the people 
were reduced make gruesome reading. The seven 
yrs., a.d. 1064-1071, afford a terrible illustration. 
Dead bodies, both human and animal, were con- 
sumed with eagerness, and at last no one cd. regard 
his life as safe. 

In Pal. the main springs and streams are too low 
for any extent of irrigation ; the great bulk of the 
country is watered only by rain, on wh. also the 
springs are ultimately dependent. If the rains, due 
in Oct., are long delayed, crops are scanty. If they 
come not at all, starvation stares the people in the 
face. The goodwill of Him who controlled the 
rain was, therefore, of supreme importance. The 
calamities consequent on its withholding were 
traced directly to His displeasure (2 S. 2 1. 1 ; Ps. 
io5. 16 ,&c). 

F. was also brought about by the devastations of 
war, and in cities by sieges (2 K. 6. 25 ). Some of the 
most terrible things in hist, are recorded by Jose- 
phus in his act. of the sufferings in Jrs. during the 
siege of Titus (BJ. V. vi.). 

A common accompaniment of F., adding to its 
horror, is pestilence (Mw. 24. 7 AV., &c). 

FAN. See Agriculture. 

FARTHING. See Money. 

FASTING. Abstinence fm. food and drink for 
long periods appears in Scrip, as a means of express- 
ing grief, designed to excite the compassion of God, 
with a view to the removal of actual, and the avoid- 
ance of threatened calamities, national or personal 
(Jg. 20. 26 ; 2 S. I. 12 , &c). Cert, days of sorrowful 
memory in Isr. were set apart for F. (see Fasts), and 
special occasions were frequent on wh. this exercise 
was thought becoming. Associated thus with ap- 
peal to the Deity, F. came to be regarded as lend- 
ing special effectiveness to prayer. The man who 
fasted and prayed ranked as a benefactor ; his un- 
washen, grief-stricken face secured for him the re- 
spect and gratitude of his fellows. This tended to 
outwardness, and led inevitably to the prevailing 
hypocrisy wh. Jesus so sternly condemned (Mw. 
6. 16ff «). 

Of F. as a moral and sptl. discipline there is no 
sure trace in Scrip. ; but such a passage as Dn. g. 3 
may mean that it was used as a help towards the 
right devotional frame. Jesus possibly, and His 
followers certainly, as religious Hebs., observed 



the practices of their people in this as in other re- 
spects (Ac. 13. 2 , 27.° ; 2 Cor. 6. 6 , &c). But Scrip, 
affords no sanction for the ascetic practices found 
in the churches of later times. 

The word " fasting " is no part of the genuine 
text in Mw. 17. 21 ; Mk. o,. 29 ; 1 Cor. J. 5 . 

FASTS. In the Mosaic Law the Day of Atone- 
ment alone is marked out as an annual F. (Lv. 16. 29 , 
&c.) . On that day the Children of Isr. shd. " afflict 
their souls." It fell on the tenth day of the seventh 
month. The people observed cert. Fasts during the 
Exile, one in the fifth and one in the seventh month 
(Zc. 7« 5 ) ; to wh. are added in chap. 8. 19 one in the 
fourth and one in the tenth month. In each of 
these months there was a day of sorrowful memory 
for the Jews, wh. may have been the day set apart 
for humiliation and fasting. On the ninth day of 
the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh yr. Jrs. was 
taken (Jr. 3c;. 2 , 52. 6f -). On the tenth day of the 
fifth month Jrs. was destroyed (Jr. 52. 12fl -). In the 
seventh month — day not named — Gedaliah was 
murdered at Mizpeh, and disaster and dispersion 
followed for the Jews (Jr. 41 . lff -). On the tenth day 
of the tenth month of Zedekiah's ninth yr. the siege 
of Jrs. began (Jr. 52. 4 ). 

The F. of the Day of Atonement prescribed in 
Lv. 16. is not again referred to in the canonical bks. 
of the OT., but there is a description of the ritual 
in Sr. 50. 5ff - It appears as " the feast " in Ac. 27A 

Appointed fasts became more frequent in later 
Judaism. Certain branches of the Christian Church 
have also set times for Fasting. Neither, however, 
have anything corrspg. to the annual month of fast- 
ing, Ramadan, wh. must be observed by all faithful 
Moslems. 

FATHOM. See Weights and Measures. 

FEAR. In AV. of the OT. fear sometimes means 
" terror " or " dread," but for the most part it de- 
notes " reverence." Where it represents the Heb. 
magor, as in Jr. 6. 25 , it always means " dread." The 
most common Heb. term is yirah, wh. is used in 
both senses, but most frequently means " rever- 
ence," as in Gn. 20. 11 , " Surely the F. of God is not 
in this place " ; and Pr. I. 7 , " The F. of the Lord is 
the beginning of knowledge." But in Dt. 2. 25 it 
means " dread." Heb. pahad most generally means 
" dread," as in Job 4. 14 , " F. came upon me and 
trembling" ; and Ps. 3 1. 11 , " I was a F. to my 
acquaintance." Even in relation to God -pahad 
means " dread " rather than " reverence " : " The 
F. of God was on all the kingdoms of the countries " 
(2 Ch. 20. 29 ). But occasionally it means " rever- 
ence " : " There is no F. of God before his eyes " 
(Ps. 36. 1 ). God is even described as the F. (pahad) 
of Isaac (Gn. 31. 42 ). In NT. the Gr. f hobos has 
most frequently the ordinary meaning " dread " 



(Mw. 14. 26 , 28. 4 ; Lk. 



Jn. 7. 13 ). Sometimes 



the OT. significance is transferred (2 Cor. 7. 1 ; Eph, 



191 



Fea 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fea 



5. 21 ). John contrasts the OT. attitude with that of 
the New. " There is no F. in love, but perfect love 
casteth out F., because F. hath torment. He that 
feareth is not made perfect in love " (1 Jn. 4. 18 ). 

FEAST. Fm. of old it has been customary to 
mark an occasion of joy by calling friends to eat and 
drink together. This practice the Hebs. shared 
with other peoples (Gn. 21. 8 ; 2 S. 3. 20 ; Est. 2. 18 ; 
Lk. 5. 29 , &c). Prob. all feasts, cert, those where an 
animal was slain for food, partook of a religious char. 
(see Hospitality). The word mishteb, when trd. 
Banquet in EV., prob. refers to cases when drinking 
predominated. In other cases more of food is 
suggested. Lehem (Dn. 5. 1 ) is lit. " bread." Deip- 
non of Mw. 23. 6 , &c, is lit. " supper " (see Meals). 
Doche (Lk. 20. 46 , 14. 13 ) is a " reception " or " enter- 
tainment." They furnished opportunities for en- 




Assyrian Feast 

counters of wit (Jg. I4. 10ff -), for enjoyment of music 
(Is. 5. 12 ), and were often scenes of gross excess (1 S. 
25. 36 ; Jr. 51.39, &c). 

FEASTS. It will be convenient in this place to 
give a general sketch of the Sacred Seasons of Isr., 
reserving a fuller treatment of the more important 
feasts for separate articles. 

To the Hebrews the moon was the " measurer " 
of time (see Year). It passed through its phases in 
28 days — the Lunar Month. This was divided into 
four groups of seven days by the sacred number, 
seven ; and the week of seven days became the basis 
of all calculations as to times and seasons. Each 
seventh day, completing the week, was marked as 
holy. No work might be done ; the shewbread 
was changed ; and the daily sacrifices were doubled 
(see Sabbath). 

The New Moon was the occasion of a festival, as 
the beginning of a month. It was to be a day of 
gladness, with blowing of trumpets over burnt-offer- 
ings and peace-orTerings," for a memorial before your 
God " (Nu. io. 10 ). It was a day of rest fm. ordi- 
nary work (Am. 8. 5 ). There are many references to 
the observance of this festival in Scrip. (1 S. 20. 5 ; 
Ez. 3. 5 ; Ps. 81.3 ; Ek. 45. 17 , &c). Sabbaths and 



New Moons are frequently named together, as being 
both lunar festivals and rest days. The first day of 
the seventh month, the beginning of the New Year, 
was signalised as a " solemn rest ... a memorial of 
blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation," when 
special burnt-offerings were made (Lv. 23. 24f -). 

The appearance of the New Moon, to wh. so 
much importance attached, was determined by 
actual observation. Watchers on the hills near Jrs., 
on seeing it, ran to inform the Sanhedrin, who an- 
nounced the fact ; and by means of beacons on the 
hilltops the news was flashed to distant places. The 
Samaritans are credited with the malicious lighting 
of these fires, so misleading the Jewish communities 
they were designed to benefit. 

The seventh day of the week and the seventh 
month of the yr. were thus marked as sacred, and the 
seventh yr. was appointed to be a Sabbath for the 
land — the Sabbatic Year. The soil was to have rest. 
The Hebrews were neither to plough, sow, nor reap. 
What grew of itself was to be left for the poor and 
for the beasts. The orchards and vineyards were to 
be untended. There shd. be neither harvest nor 
vintage. The fruit mt. be used for food only 
(Ex. 23. 10f -; Lv. 25. 1 - 7 - 20ff -). To brother Israelites 
debts were forgiven (Dt. I5. lffl ). Heb. slaves, un- 
less they wished to remain with their masters, were 
set free (Ex. 2i. 2fl -). The neglect of this law was 
threatened with disaster, and in the succeeding 
desolation, while the land lay waste, it shd. enjoy 
compensation for the Sabbaths of wh. it had been 
defrauded (Lv. 26. 34f - ; cp. 2 Ch. 36. 21 ). At the 
F. of Tabernacles, at the beginning of the seventh 
yr., the law was to be read " before all Isr. in their 
hearing " (Dt. 31. 10 ; cp. Ne. 8. 13 - 18 ). Evidence of 
its observance in later times is found in Alexander's 
grant to the Jews of immunity fm. tribute in the 
seventh yr. (Ant. XI. viii. 5). The like exemption 
was granted by Julius Caesar (ib. XIV. x. 6). 

The end of the seventh septennium was marked 
by the Year of Jubilee — the fiftieth yr. (Lv. 25. 8ff -). 
The seventh Sabbatic yr. was followed by the great 
yr. of deliverance, itself also a Sabbatic yr. It was 
proclaimed throughout the land by sound of trum- 
pet, on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the 
seventh month. All captives were set free, and all 
property sold since the last Jubilee reverted to the 
original owner or his heirs. (For the exception of 
houses in walled cities, and cities of the Levites, 
see Lv. 25. 29ff -) See Year of Jubilee. 

There were three great annual Feasts when all male 
Israelites were required to appear before the Lord 
their God at the place wh. He shd. choose, viz., the 
F. of Unleavened Bread, the F. of Harvest (or F. of 
Weeks, Dt. 16. 16 ), and the F. of Tabernacles (Ex. 
2 3- 14ff ')- The first fell at the beginning of harvest, 
the second at its close, and the third marked the 
completion of the vintage. They therefore followed 
92 



Fea 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fea 



the seasons of the solar yr. These Feasts involved It commemorated the people's dwelling in booths 
pilgrimage to a sacred place. The name, baggzm, is in the wilderness (Lv. 23. 42f -). It was a festival of 
paralleled by the Arb. hajj, and is clearly distin- great joy, signalising the complete ingathering of 
guished im. mo'adim, " sacred seasons." the earth's annual produce. (For the sacrifices and 
Only in late times is there evidence that these offerings prescribed, see Nu. 2y. 12S -) During the 
Feasts were regularly observed. It is true that times F. the people left their houses and occupied booths 
of national peace, good government, and order wd. covered with the foliage of trees. This practice 
be most favourable to their observance. But there was in abeyance fm. the days of Joshua until its re- 
were periods in the hist, when these conditions pre- vival by Ezra (Ne. 8. 14 ). But evidence is not want- 



vailed ; and we must not too readily conclude fm 
silence regarding them, that they were neglected 
It is almost in an aside that we hear of Elkanah going 
up once a yr. to Shiloh (i S. I. 3 ). 

The Passover commemorated the deliverance fm. 
Egp., when God passed over the houses of Isr. but 
the first-born of the Egyptians perished (Ex. 12.). 
It fell on the 14th day of the first month, and 



ing that the F. itself was observed (1 K. 8. 2 ; 2 Ch. 
5- 3 , 7 ; 8 ; cp. Zc. I4. 16ff -). Jeroboam seems to have 
appointed this F. in his kdm. on the 15th day of the 
eighth month, prob. to suit a later harvest in the 
N. (1 K. 12. 32 ). 

Feasts of later institution and less importance 
were Purim and the Dedication. Purim, or " Mor- 
decai's Day " (2 M. 15. 36 ), commemorated the de- 



the F. of Unleavened Bread began on the 15th, liverance of the Jews fm. the schemes of Haman 
lasting for seven days (Lv. 23. 5ff - ; Nu. 28. 16ff - ; cp. 
Ant. III. x. 5). The Passover clearly partook of a 
sacrificial char. (Ex. 12. 27 , &c), and was distinct in 
origin fm. the F. of Unleavened Bread ; yet it was 
perhaps natural that the two falling so closely to- 
gether shd. in the end be identified, so we find the 
Passover described as the first day of the F. of Un- 
leavened Bread (Mk. 14. 12 ). This F. is said to com- 
memorate the haste with wh. Isr. left Egp. when 
there was no time to bake with leaven (Dt. 16. 3 ). 
It is also clearly associated with the beginning of 
harvest (Dt. i6. 8f - ; Lv. 23. 6ff -). On the first and 
last days of the F. was " an holy convocation," when 
all servile work was forbidden (Lv. 23. 7f -). On the 
second day a sheaf of the first-fruits was presented 
as a wave-offering ; and as a burnt-offering a male 
lamb of the first yr., with its appropriate meal and 




Modern Feast: 



drink offerings (Lv. 23. 10 * 14 ). During the F., in 



Jews at Synagogue of Rabbi Meir, Tiberias 

and the downfall of that arch-foe (Est. 9. 20 - 32 ). The 



addition to the " continual burnt-offerings" (Nu. name means "lots," referring in mockery to the 

28. 23 ), there was a daily burnt-offering of two young means by wh. Haman thought he had discovered a 

bullocks, one ram, seven he lambs of the first yr., lucky day for his great enterprise (Est. 3.'). The F. 

with their respective meal and drink offerings, and was held on the 14th and 15th days of the twelfth 

one he goat for a sin offering (Nu. 29. 2fl -). month, and may be the F. alluded to in Jn. 5. 1 . It 

The F. of Harvest (Ex. 23. 16 ), or of Weeks (Ex. is naturally a very joyful F., and it is celebrated to 

34« 22 ), or of Pentecost (Ac. 2. 1 , &c), was held fifty this day by the Jews with hilarious good cheer, 

days after the F. of Unleavened Bread (Lv. 23. 15ff -). The F. of the Dedication dated fm. the cleansing 

It lasted but one day, and marked the end of the and reconsecration of the Temple by Judas Macca- 

harvest. It was a day of holy convocation (Lv. baeus after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes. 

23. 21 ). As the wave-offering of a sheaf was made at It lasted for eight days, beginning on the 25th day 

the beginning, so at the close of harvest the wave- of the ninth month. This also was a joyful F., the 

offering consisted of two loaves of leavened bread, palm branches carried by the worshippers symbo- 

baked with fine flour, as first-fruits (Lv. 23. 17 ). lising the jubilation of their minds. All signs of 

Other offerings are specified (Lv. 23. 18ff - ; Dt. 16. 10 ). mourning, whether public or private, had to be sup- 

The observance of this F. is not recorded in the OT. pressed during the F. It is referred to in Jn. io. 22 

It was popular in NT. times (Ac. 2. 1 , 20. 16 ; I Cor. (cp. Ant. XII. vii. 7). 

16. 8 ; cp. BJ. II. iii. 1). Josephus (BJ. II. xvii. 6) speaks of the festival of 

The F. of Tabernacles, or of Ingathering (Ex. wood-carrying (cp. Ne. io. 34 , 13. 51 ). Other festi- 

23. 16 ), began on the 15th day of the 7th month, and vals of small moment are mentioned in 1 E. 9. 50ff * ; 



lasted to the 21st. 

convocation — " the great day of the F. 



On the 22nd was a day of holy I M. 7. 49 , I3. 50f 



(Jn. 7. 37 ). For interesting accounts of the various festivals 
93 G 



Fel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fet 



see Edersheim, The Temple, its Ministry and the death of Claudius had deprived his br. Pallas of 
Services. influence F. on his recall to Rm. disappears fm. hist. 

The Jews in mod. Pal. are accustomed to go on FENCE. Where it applies to cities or strong- 
pilgrimage at certain seasons to the shrines of famous holds, "fenced" = "fortified." In 2 S. 23. 7 

"lit. "full," male; in Is. 5.2 




Gadt 







1 I 




[1 1 


II 








I I 




I I 


I / 
If 



fenced " = " armed," 
— " digged " ; in Jb. io. 11 = " intertwined." 
(Nu. 22. 24 ; Ps. 62. 3 ) is a wall or Hedge. 

FENCED CITIES (Heb. 'are mibtzar, RV. 
" fortified cities," Nu. 32. 17 , &c). While unwalled 
collections of dwellings were 
" villages," those surrounded 
by a wall were " cities." The 
ramparts of cities were origi- 
nally of earth, the gates were 
prob. defended by stone towers 
(as in Gezer and Lachish, 
PEFQ). In the historic period, 
as seen by the Egp. and Asyr. monuments, the 
fortifications were of stone. There were genly. 
towers at intervals, sometimes rampart within 
rampart. 

FERRET (Heb. >2n5qab, RV. " gecko," LXX 
[xvyaXrj, "shrew-mouse," Lv. II. 30 ). As the ferret 
is unknown in Pal., the RV. is prob. right. The 
Gecko is a pretty lizard wh. utters a sharp cry, 
whence its name. 



Assyrian Castle 
(Numrud Obelisk) 



Assault on Fenced City: Egyptian. Testudo 
and Scaling-ladder 

rabbis, and there to hold high festival. One of the 
most popular of these " feasts " is held at the Syna- 
gogue of ben-Yochai at Meiron, over against Safed. 
Quite an illumination is often made at night by the 
burning of precious shawls and silks which have been 
steeped in oil. They are burned on pillars c. 4 ft. 
high, with saucer-like hollows on the top. This is 
done to the accompaniment of singing and dancing. 
Similar scenes are enacted at the Synagogue of 
Rabbi Meir. 

FELIX, Procurator of Judea fm. a.d. 52 to 60. 
He was br. of Pallas the favourite of Claudius, 
therefore Gr. by birth. Fm. the representations of 
Tacitus and Jos., lust, greed, and cruelty were the 
characteristics of his rule. Thro' the arts of Simon 
Magus he wiled away Drusilla fm. her husband. 
Tacitus {Hist. v. 9) calls Drusilla granddr. of Antony 
and Cleopatra. By Claudius Lysias Paul is sent to 
his tribunal. Altho' Paul was vehemently accused, 
F., " having more perfect knowledge " of Chris- 
tianity, did not condemn him, but postponed de- 
cision in the hope of being bribed. F. knew the 
Christian sect was numerous, and therefore mt. be 
successfully " squeezed." As the bribe was not 
forthcoming, he " left Paul bound." Tacitus' sum- 
mary of his rule is: "With lust and cruelty he exer- 
cised the power of a k. in the spt. of a slave." As 




Fetters: Assyrian 



FETTER. (1) Rebel, an iron chain (Ps. 105. 18 , 
149. 8 ). (2) Zeq, used only in pi., ziqqlm, fm. zanaq, 
"to bind," a synonym for kebel (Ps. 149. 8 ; Is. 45. 14 , 



194 



Fev 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fir 




Fetter: Egyptian 



"chains," &c). (3) Nehosheth, a chain of copper, 
or perhaps bronze (Jg. 16. 21 ; 2 S. 3- 34 , &c). The 
fettered prisoner in the E. has a chain attached to 
his waist, with strong 
rings at the ends, wh. 
are fastened round his 
ankles. The NT. pede 
was prob. used in the 
same way. 

FESTUS (PORCIUS), 
successor of Felix as pro- 
curator of Judea (Ac. 
24- 27 , &c). Paul was ex- 
amined before him, and 
it was fm. F.'s proposal 
that he shd. be tried at 
Jrs. that Paul appealed 
to Caesar. The character 
of F., as it appears in Ac. and Jos., is on the whole 
good; F. represents the higher type of Rm. official. 
He died in the yr. following his appointment, and 
was succeeded by Albinus. 
FEVER. See Diseases. 

FIELD. The most common Heb. word is sddeh, 
Aram, bar (Dn. 2. 38 , &c), wh. is quite general, de- 
noting now a definitely marked bit of land (Gn. 23. 9 , 
&c), and again the open country (25. 29 , &c). In 
NT. agros (Mw. 13. 24 , &c.) is the cultivated land 
near town or vill. Chora (Jn. 4. 35 ; Js. 5. 4 ) may be 
the open country, while chorion (Ac. I. 18 , &c.) is a 
definitely limited piece of land — " a little space." 

FIG, FIG TREE. The F. T. is a common 
feature in the Pal. landscape (Dt. 8. 8 ; Nu. 13. 23 ; 
Ne. 13. 15 ; Mw. 7. 16 , &c). Several varieties were 
cutivated, and the fruit, fresh and dried (1 S. 25. 18 ), 
is an important element in the native diet. It must 
of course be distinguished fm. that of the Sycamore. 
A man sits under his vine and F. T. in time of rest 
and peace (Mi. 4 4 , &c). The failure or destruc- 
tion of the F. betokens wide disaster (Jr. 8. 13 ; Ho. 
2. 12 , &c). Its budding is among the first signs of 
spring (SS. 2. 13 ; Lk. 2i. 29f -). The young fruit 
forms ; then comes a rush of leaves. The earliest 
fruit is ripe about the beginning of June (Ho. 9. 10 ; 
Is. 28 4 , &c). Fs. were used as a plaster in cert, 
troubles (2 K. 20. 7 , &c). 

The lesson of the withered F. T. (Mw. 21. 19 , &c.) 
is obvious. Jesus may have thought it poss. that a 
few winter Fs. mt. still cling to the twigs. But 
whether or not, the new fruit shd. have been set, 
before the leaves expanded. He found no fruit at 
all. The leafy, barren F. T. symbolises the fair 
profession, whose pretensions are hollow. 

FIR. Berosh is prob. = cypress {sempervirens). 
It grows plentifully in the Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon (1 K. 5/; 2 Ch. 2. 8 ; Is. 37. 24 ). For 
bldg. purposes it is more highly valued than cedar, 
being specially prized for its strength, colouring, and 



aromatic qualities. Its straight stem, with irregu- 
lar horizontal branches, reaches a goodly height 
(Ho. 14. 8 ), and it is serviceable for all the purposes 
associated with the F. in Scrip. : for flooring, doors, 
ceiling, and rafters (1 K.6. 5 - 34 ; 2CI1. 3. 5 ; SS. I. 17 ). 
It is also used in bldg. ships (Ek. zj. 5 ). In 2 S. 6. 5 a 
slight alteration of the text brings it into harmony 
with 1 Ch. 13. 8 , wh. is certly. correct. We shd. 
therefore read " with all their might, with songs, 
&c," instead of " with all manner of instruments 
made of F. wood," &c. 

FIRE. For the various uses of F. a good concord- 
ance is a sufficient guide. For its connection with 
offerings, see Sacrifice. It is frequently associated 
with the presence of God (Ex. 3« 2 ; Dt. 4. 36 ; Ps. 
105 , 39 , &c). The descent of F. marked an accept- 
able offering (Jg. 6. 21 ; 1 Ch. 21. 26 , &c). " F. fm. 
before the Lord," " the F. of God " (Lv. io. 2 ; Jb. 
I. 16 ), is lightning. F. appears in Scrip, as serving 
all the purposes common among ourselves — cooking, 
warming the house, refining metal ; as a purifying 
agent, and as a destroyer of obnoxious things. For 
the material of F. see Fuel. 

FIRKIN (Gr. metrites, prob. = Heb. bath), used 
of the watering-pots at Cana. See Weights and 
Measures. 

FIRMAMENT. See Creation. 

FIRSTBORN. See Family. 

FIRST-FRUITS. Canaan was J'Vs land, Isr. 
were J'Vs possession, His slaves ; in token of this the 
Isr. presented before God the first and best of the 
produce of his threshing-floor, wine-fat, and oil- 
press, the firstlings of his flocks and herds, and re- 
deemed his own first-born. There were two Heb. 
names given to F., rP shith and bikkurim ; the dis- 
tinction, somewhat indefinite, between them was 
that while the first was to some extent the result of 
human labour, the second was the direct product of 
nature. Besides the gen. claim to F. (Ex. 22. 29 ) 
there were three seasons on wh. they were offered : 
(a) On the day after the Passover a sheaf of barley 
was waved before the altar (Lv. 23. n ) ; after this the 
harvest mt. be begun, (b) At Pentecost two loaves 
of leavened bread made fm. the new flour were 
waved before the altar (Lv. 23. 15 " 17 ). (c) The Feast 
of Ingathering in Tishri (Sept.), when the F. of the 
Vintage mt. be offered (Lv. 23. 39 ). There were 
besides a cake of the first dough (Nu. 15. 19 " 21 ) and a 
basket of the F. of the land. These were individual 
offerings (Dt. 26. 2 " 11 ). The consecration of the. 
first-born (Ex. 1 3 . 12 " 15 ) was of the same nat. Most of 
these offerings, either by enactment or by custom, 
were presented in the Temple and given to the 
Priests. In the northern kdm. the prophet had the 
place of the priest ; F. are brought to Elisha (2 K. 
4 42 ) . Besides the annual offerings of F. there was the 
consecration of the fourth yr.'s fruit of a tree; the 
first three yrs. were regarded as " uncircumcised." 



*95 



Fis 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fit 



FISH. There is no specific name for any kind of 
" fish " either in OT. or NT. ; the only distinction 
is clean and unclean, having fins and scales or being 
without them. It seems to have been recognised in 




anct. times in the streams and lakes of Pal. Fm. the 
meagre directions regarding fish (Lv. n. 9fl -) we may 
infer that they were not a common article of diet. 
The " companions " (Jb. 41 . 6 ) are Phoenician fisher- 
partners, who supplied Isrs. with their fish (Ne. 
1 3 . 16 ) . The fishermen of Is. 1 o,. 8 are Egpn., and the 
articles of the fisher's outfit mentioned in OT. are 
Egpn. or Phoenician : the drag-net with lead sinkers 
on the lower edge (Is. 19. 8 ; Hb. I. 16 ) ; the casting- 
net (Ek. 26. 5 ; Hb. i. 16 ) ; the line and hook Qtakkdh, 



sir tzinnah, Jb. 41. 
the harpoon (Jb. 4] 



: ; ; ' 



Is. 19. 8 ; Am. 4.2 ; Hb. i. 15 ); 

? " fish spear "). In NT. there 




PEF. Drawing 

Fishes Found in the Waters of the Jordan Valley 
The first is a deep-water fish found only in the Sea of Galilee. 
The second is found in the Sea of Galilee and Lake Huleh. Both 
are called musht by the fishermen. 

addition that the fish of " the great sea " were difft. 
fm. those of the lakes and rivers of Pal. and Asyr. 
(Ek. 47. 10 ). In the Sea of Galilee the fish often go 
in shoals, small but of great density (PEFQ. Jan. 
1908 [Masterman]) ; see Fishing. The most pala- 



PEF. Drawing 
A Carp which Abounds in the Sea of Galilee, and in the 
Affluents of the Jordan from the East 

is ample reference to F. in the Sea of Galilee. Such 
names as Bethsaida, " Fisher home," and Tarichaea, 
" place of fish salting," attest the prosperity of the 
calling (cp. Mw. 4- 18ff - ; Mk. I. 16 ; Lk. 5.2 ; Jn. 
2 1. 3 ' 7 ). The anct. methods, boats, hooks and nets, 
may be seen in use on the Sea of Galilee to-day. 
Favourite F. places are at i Ain el-Fuliyek, N. of 
Tiberias, et-Tdbgba, and the neck of the Jordan, 
where it enters the sea. A tax is levied by the 
Government on fish taken in Gennesaret, and a rent 
is paid to the Sultan for the fishing in the Waters of 
Merom. 

FISH POOLS (SS. 7. 4 ) is an error. Read with 
RV. simply " pools." The phrase " all that make 




A a The, pel. d b The floats. 

Fishing with Drag-net 



c c The leads. 



table fish in the Sea of Galilee is the musht. Another sluices and ponds for fish " (Is. 19. 10 ) shd. read " all 
(Clarias macr acanthus), wh. haunts the mud bot- 
toms, mt. easily be mistaken for a serpent (Mw. 7. 10 ; 
Lk. 11. 11 ). 

FISH-GATE. See Jerusalem. 

FISHING. Nothing is said of this pursuit in 



they that work for hire shall be grieved in soul.' 

FITCHES. The word kussemeth occurs thrice 
(Ex. 9 . 32 , AV. " rye," RV. " spelt " ; Is. 28.2s, AV. 
" rye," RV. " spelt " ; Ek. 4 . 9 , AV. " fitches," RV. 
and AVm. " spelt "). It corrsps. to the Arb. kir- 



196 



Fla 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fli 



senneh. Qetzab (Is. 28. 25 - 27 ) is the plant called 
" black cummin " (Nigella sativa), with pale blue or 
white flowers, the seeds of wh. are often used for a 
flavouring in bread. 




the Sea of Galilee: Paying Out the Net 



FLAG, (i) 'Ahu (Jb. 8. 11 ) is parallel to gome, 
" rush." In Gn. 41 . 2 » 18 , it is trd. " meadow," RV. 
" reed grass." It is a gen. term wh. may cover 
various forms of luxuriant herbage. (2) Suph (Ex. 
2. 3 ' 5 ; Is. 19. 6 ), the sedge in the river, and (Jh. 2. 5 ) 
weeds in the sea. Tarn Suph is the usual name of 
the Red Sea. 

FLAGON. In the AV. F., in four of the five 
cases in wh. it occurs, trs. ashishah, wh. really means 
" raisin-cakes," the rendering in RV. In the fifth case 
F. trs. nebel (Is. 22. 24 ), in wh. the RV. agrees : neb el 
means usly. a musical instrument of the lyre species, 

FLAX. This is the plant pishtah, the stalks of 
wh. were steeped in water to rot away the pulp, 
dried (Jo. 2. 6 ), hackled, and the fibres, pisbttm, spun 
into thread, of wh. various kinds of Linen were 
woven. A few fibres twisted together formed a 
wick (Is. 42. 3 ; cp. Mw. 12. 20 ). It has long been 
cultivated in the E. (Ex. 9. 31 , &c). 

FLEA, an insect pest of the E. twice used by 
David as the symbol of the contemptible (1 S. 24. 14 , 
26. 20 ). The common F. is plentiful in Pal., esp. in 
the hotter districts ; but the annoyance it causes 
breeds disgust rather than contempt. 




Fishing in the Sea of Galilee: Drawing the Net Ashore 



FLESH (Heb. bdsdr, Gr. sarx). In Heb. the 
term sometimes denotes the soft part of the frame, 
as contrasted with the hard, the bone : e.g. " your 
bone and your flesh " (Jg. c;. 2 ) ; so with the specia- 
lised pans, e.g. " all his flesh with his head, &c." 
(Lv. 4. 11 ) ; again, it stands for the whole body, e.g. 



" yet in my F. shall I see God " (Jb. 19. 26 ). It may 
denote animated nature as a whole, esp. when pre- 
ceded by the word " all," e.g. " all F. died that 
moved upon the earth " (Gn. 7. 21 ). In this connec- 
tion, however, it is more gen. used for " humanity," 
e.g. " All F. had corrupted its way " (Gn. 6. 12 ), 
" shall all F. come to worship " (Is. 66P). In such 
passages as Gn. 6. 3 , " for that he also is F.," and Is. 
3 1. 3 , " their horses are F. and not spirit," it sym- 
bolises weakness. There is no suggestion that the 
body as such is evil. Our physical nature represents 
moral weakness rather than actual wickedness ; a 
liability to yield to temptation, and so to " corrupt- 
ing their way." The phrase wh. appears in English 
as " nigh of kin " (Lv. 25 49 , &c.) is in Heb. literally 
" remainder of his F." The most common LXX 
tr. of bdsdr is sarx, except where F. is referred to as 
food, and then it is usually kreas, wh. corresponds 
to the NT. usage (Rm. 14. 21 ; 1 Cor. 8. 13 ). Sarx 
occurs in NT. in nearly the same senses as bdsdr in 




Mending the Nets on the Shore at Tiberias. {See p. 196.) 

OT. (Lk. 24. 39 ; I Cor. 15. 39 ; Mw. 16. 17 ; Rm. 8. 3 ). 
It is to be observed, however, that, especially in the 
writings of St. Paul, F. is regarded as that part of 
human nature in wh. sin resides : " in me, that is in 
my F., dwelleth no good thing " (Rm. 7. 18 ) ; " the 
carnal mind (the mind of the flesh) is enmity agst. 
God " (8. 7 ). This does not refer merely to sins of 
sensuality, as in Gal. 5. 19 . Hatred, variance, emu- 
lations, wrath, &c, are works of the F., as well as 
" adultery, fornication, uncleanness." See Soul 
and Spirit. 

FLIES. (1) The house fly (Heb. zebub, Ec. io. 1 ; 
Is. 7. 18 ). (2) The Heb. ''drob is used only of the 
" fly " of the Egpn. plague (Ex. 8. 21 : Ps. 78. 45 , 
105. 31 ) ; it is not cert, whether a peculiar kind of fly 
is referred to, or whether it is flying insects of all 
kinds. The cockroach has been suggd. 

FLINT (Heb. halldmlsh). Altho' AV. and RV. 
so tr., the correctness of the rendering may be 
doubted, as in every instance (Dt. 8. 15 , 32. 13 ; Jb. 
28. 9 ; Ps. 114. 8 ; Is. 50. 7 ) a massive rock is implied, 
a form in wh. F. is rarely found. 

97 



Flo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Flo 



FLOOD (Heb. mabbul, Gr. kataklusmos) . The covered. On the seventh, day Par-na-pishtim looks 
act. of the Noachian F. is found in Gn. 6. 1 -8. 22 . out and sees the desolation ; presumably after an 
Critically the act. is divided between J. and P. All interval he sends out a dove wh. returns to him ; 
flesh have corrupted their way before J"., and He then a swallow wh. also returns ; last of all he sends 
determines to destroy all life fm. the face of the a raven wh. does not return. Thereafter Par-na- 
ground. Noah alone finds favour with J". (J.), pishtim leaves the Ark and offers a sacrifice round 
Noah is commanded to build an Ark (tebdh); the wh. the gods cluster like flies. In the council of the 
length is to be 300 cubits, the breadth 50, and the gods wh. follows it is determined that not again shall 
depth 30. Into it he is to gather pairs of all crea- the earth be destroyed by a F. 
tures that lived upon the land with all manner of The points of resemblance between the two acts, 
"food that is eaten"; because God is about to are numerous and obvious. In both there is a divine 
bring a F. of waters upon the earth (P.). Into the determination to destroy mankind ; in both there 
Ark, so constructed, Noah is commanded to enter is one individual who finds favour, and by divine 
with his w., his sons, and his sons' wives, and pairs of sugg. builds an Ark into wh. he brings his family ; 
all living creatures. There is a variation introduced; in both the inhabitant of the Ark tests the state of 
clean beasts and birds are to be brought by sevens the earth by sending out birds ; in both a dove and 
(Gn. J. 2 ; cp. 6. 19 , J.). When Noah had entered a raven are sent ; in both cases the abandonment of 
into the Ark " the fountains of the great deep were the Ark is consecrated by a sacrifice wh. proves ac- 
broken up and the windows of heaven were opened." ceptable to Deity, and is followed by a promise that 
For 40 days and 40 nights it rained, and the earth the earth shd. never again be destroyed by a F. 
was submerged, while the Ark floated : for 150 days Although the resemblances are undeniable, the 
the waters prevailed upon the earth ; the moun- diffes. are many and striking. Polytheism is promi- 
tains were overtopped by 15 cubits. Then God re- nent in the Bab. act. even to ludicrousness,over agst. 
membered Noah, and for another 150 days the the restrained monotheism of the Heb. nar. The 
waters receded and the Ark grounded among the Bab. Ark is much larger than that of Noah ; about 
peaks of Ararat ; at the expiry of 40 days thereafter 20 times its cubic content. While Noah takes into 
Noah sends out a raven and a dove ; the raven re- the Ark only his w.,his sons, and his sons' wives, Par- 
mains outside, but the dove returns to the Ark. na-pishtim takes not only his immediate family but 
After another week he sends out the dove again : it his flocks and slaves ; nay, over and above, crafts - 
returns, but with a leaf of olive in its beak. At the men, and silver and gold, and seed of all kinds. While 
end of seven days more he sends the dove out a third both send out birds as scouts, Noah sends only two 
time, and now it does not return. At length, at the birds ; he sends the dove and the raven together at 
end of a yr. and ten days, God told Noah to leave the first; when the latter did not return he sent the 
Ark, and the living creatures with him. After Noah dove twice, at intervals of a week. Par-na-pishtim 
had descended fm. the Ark he offered sacrifices to again sends out a dove wh. returns, a swallow wh. 
J"., whereupon, smelling the sweet savour, J", pro- returns also, and a raven wh. does not return. These 
mised no more to destroy the earth with a F. The two acts, appear to be too discrepant for either to be 
Ark had grounded, as above, on Mt. Ararat. borrowed fm. the other directly. 

That the nar. is composite is argued (a) fm. the There remains the question, Wh. is the more 
frequent repetitions : but these are to be found in primitive ? The presence and prominence of an 
all nars. of primitive peoples, a simple device to elaborate polytheism is a sign of the relative recency 
secure unity ; (b) fm. alleged discrepancies, most of the Bab. nar. It also has a greater length and 
of wh. are capable of reasonable explanation. possesses a greater multiplicity of features, wh. is a 

It is assumed by some authorities, e.g. Zimmern, further evidence of recency ; the tendency always 
that the Heb. nar. has been " borrowed " fm. the is to add features to every traditional nar. (comp. 
Bab., acedg. to wh. cert, of the great gods determine the earliest form of "The Battle of Otterburn " 
to bring a F. upon the earth to destroy mankind and with the latest of " Chevy Chace "). Some of the 
all pertaining to them. Ea, however, has a favour features added, suggd. by the habits of a quasi- 
for Par-na-pishtim, and warns him to forsake all his maritime people, wd. be useless, or even harmful in 
possessions and save his life by building an Ark. We the circumstances supposed : e.g. Par-na-pishtim 
have an elaborate act. of its construction : its length provides a mast : a mast wd. be easily provided that 
is 600 cubits (Smith), its height and depth 120 ; a wd. be effective on the small raft -like boats used on 
mast (acedg. to another rendering, " a rudder ") is the Euphrates, but wd. not be procurable of a size 
provided. Disobeying the command to forsake all to suit his enormous Ark ; and if procured wd. be in 
his possessions, he takes into the Ark his flocks and the highest degree dangerous to such a cranky craft, 
herds, his slaves male and female, his silver and gold. It moreover served no purpose, as the obj. was 
The rain begins to fall, accompanied by thunder simply to keep afloat. The other trn. of the term, 
and tempest, and in seven days the mountains are " rudder," is liable to the same objections, save that 

198 



Flo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Foo 



of danger ; it too is a feature added fm. custom in 
defiance of the purpose of the Ark. 

We mt. refer to the obvious fact that the Bab. form of the 
legend implies a complicated state of society, in wh. there are 
slaves, cattle, artisans, gold and silver ; whereas nothing of 
the kind is to be found in the Heb. nar. Moreover all these 
additions are, like the "mast" and the "rudder," derived 
fm. custom, but contradict the state of matters supposed. 
How cd. the distinction of ranks implied in the mention of 
"slaves" and "artisans" be maintained in the desolated 
world ? What purpose wd. the silver and gold serve when 
of necessity all idea of property wd. be in abeyance ? The 
other alternative is that the Heb. starting with Bab. legend 
arrived at the Biblical by the omission of these features wh. 
contradicted the implied purpose of the Ark, or the circum- 
stances resulting fm. the F. This wd. imply a power of 
philosophical analysis, unexampled in a people otherwise 
so undeveloped as the Hebs. If a prophet by inspiration 
did attain this point of philosophic insight, he wd. only 
with difficulty persuade his countrymen to abandon the 
more elaborate story with wh. they had been accustomed, 
and traces of his struggles wd. be left on the nar. This 
difficulty is only increased if we regard the Biblical nar. 
as the result of the combination of two similar nars. wh. 
differed on unimportant features. The balance of proba- 
bility is in favour of the Heb. form being the more primitive. 

The fact that the tradition of a universal deluge is very 
widespread renders it at least prob. that at some remote 
period such a catastrophe did occur. Some of the phe- 
nomena of the "Glacial Period" show that it was much 
more sudden in its onslaught and much shorter in its 
duration than we have commonly been wont to suppose. 
If fm. any reason, either fm. battery by a huge cloud of 
aerolites, or fm. an enormous and widespread eruption fm. 
within, the earth's northern cap of palaeccrystic ice were 
broken up, a vast tidal wave wd. be generated that wd. 
cover the whole of the northern hemisphere with ice. Such 
an occurrence wd. be designated by those that survived it 
as the " breaking up of the fountains of the great deep." 
It seems impossible to approximate to the date at wh. this 
event may have occurred. 

FLOUR. See Food. 




A Stretch of Flowers, with Mount of Beatitudes 

FLOWERS come with the spring in Pal. with 
wonderful profusion and beauty ; plain and hill- 
side are glorious with marvellously blended colours. 
Coming swiftly, they also swiftly fade, and so they 
are an apt emblem of what is lovely but frail and 
transient (Mw. 6. 28ff - ; Ps. 103. 15 , &c). A single 
afternoon of burning E. wind will often lay in the 
dust all the splendours of the mountain-side. 

FLUTE (Aram. mashroqitha\ Dn. 3. 5 - 7 . 10 -i% a 
musical instrument akin to our F. or flageolet. 

FODDER. The word belil is trd. " F." (Jb. 6. 5 ), 
" corn " (Jb. 24.6, RV. " provender," AVm. " min- 
gled corn "), and " provender " (Is. 30. 24 ). F. con- 



sists of grain of various kinds, with wh.. the cattle 
are fed {cp. Jg. 19. 21 ). 

FOLD (Heb. gederah, usly. pi., Nu. 32. 16 ), a place 
walled in, into wh. a flock of sheep may be led at 
night to guard them fm. wild beasts or robbers. 
AV. also trs. Hedges, RV. Fences (Jr. 49- 3 .) In 
NT. (Jn. io. 16 ) the word used is aule, also rendered 
" palace " (Mw. 26. 58 ). In Jn. io. 16b , " F." is a 
mistranslation ; RV. more correctly trs. " flock." 

FOOD. Accdg. to the nars. of Gn. man lived at 
first entirely on vegetable food (i. 29 , 2. 16 ) ; and it is 
not till after the flood that animal food is expressly 
mentioned (cj. 3 ) . The keeping of sheep (4. 2 ) and the 
offering of animal sacrifices (v. 4), however, almost 
necessarily imply the use of their flesh as food : the 
permission to Noah must therefore be regarded 
rather as a confirmation of an antecedent practice 
than the institution of a new one. The Biblical 
record thus corrsps. with what we gather fm. other 
sources with regard to man's early hist. : his nearest 
relations among the lower animals are vegetable 
feeders ; but the earliest remains known to archaeo- 
logy reveal him as a hunter and fisher. 

A strictly vegetarian diet appears again in Dn. 
j 8-16 . no doubt the objection of the Jews to the 
" k.'s meat " was that they cd. not eat flesh food, 
killed and prepared as it was for a heathen monarch's 
court, without ceremonial defilement. It is none 
the less striking to meet with this warm commenda- 
tion of a vegetarian diet in the anct. records. 

The diet of the Jews appears to have consisted 
mainly of vegetable food (grains, pulses, fruits, &c), 
with milk and its products. Flesh was used mainly 
by the rich, and on festal occasions. 

The grains used were chiefly wheat and barley. 
The former was more esteemed (2 K. 7. 1 ; Rv. 6. 6 ; 
Ps. 81 . 16 ) ; the latter was accordingly the food of the 
poorer classes, and was used, as are oats in northern 
countries, to feed the beasts of burden (1 K. 4- 28 ). 
The barley came to maturity before the wheat (Ex. 
9. 31fE -; Ru. I. 22 , 2. 23 ), and the barley harvest was 
used as a date in the yr. (2 S. 2I. 9 ), like the wheat 
harvest (Ex. 34- 22 ). 

The other grains mentioned are spelt and millet. 
The former, a coarse corn resembling wheat, ap- 
pears as fitches (Ek. 4« 9 , AV.), and rye (Ex. 9. 32 ; Is. 
28. 25 ). The latter is only mentioned in Ek. 4A 

The grain was sometimes eaten raw (Mw. 12. 1 ), 
often roasted, for speed and convenience : this is the 
" parched corn " frequently mentioned (e.g. Ru. 
2. 14 ; 1 S. 17. 17 , 25. 18 ) ; but usually made into bread 
or cakes. 

The grain was sometimes pounded in a mortar 
(Nu. II. 8 ; Pr. 27. 22 ), but usually ground in a hand- 
mill (Mw. 24. 41 ) by the women of the household, by 
slaves (Ex. 11. 5 ), or by captives (Jg. 16. 21 ). 

The flour or meal was made into unleavened 
bread or cakes when a hurried meal had to be pre- 

99 



Foo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Foo 



pared (Jg. 6. 19 ; I S. 28. 24 ) ; this is one of the parti- Almonds and (pistachio) nuts are mentioned to- 

culars, therefore, by wh. the Passover supper recalls gether in Gn. 43. n ; both are much grown in Pal., 

the Israelites' hasty departure fm. Egp. The bread little in Egp. The " garden of nuts " (SS. 6. 11 ) 

in ordinary use was leavened. Bread was the main was a walnut orchard. 

food of the people, the " staff of life/' even more The sycamore is a large tree common in Pal. ; into 

than with us : the word is often employed to ex- it Zacchseus climbed to see Jesus pass (Lk. 19. 4 ). 

press all that is used as food (e.g. Gn. 18. 5 " 8 , The fruit, wh. grows in clusters fm. the trunk and 

43. 31 - 34 ), and " bread and water " mean all that is larger branches, is a small and insipid fig. It is still 

needed to sustain life (Dt. 23*; Is. 33. 16 ). The plucked and eaten only by the poor (Am. 7. 14 ). 

word is, of course, often used figly., esp. in the NT. " The cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, 

Of the pulses, beans are mentioned in 2 S. 17. 28 and the onions, and the garlick " of Nu. II. 5 are 

and Ek. 4. 9 with lentils. The latter appear as a crop prob. the same plants we know under these names, 

in 2 S. 23. u , and as the main constituent of Jacob's 2 K. 4. 39 shows that some form of wild gourd must 

"■ mess of pottage " in Gn. 25. 34 . The pulse of Dn. have been eaten, for wh. on this occasion a poisonous 

I. 12 - 16 prob. includes more than we genly. mean plant was mistaken. The tree called mulberry in 

by the term ; it seems to stand for vegetable food our versions was prob. not what we know under 

in gen. that name ; perhaps not a fruit-tree at all. 

The fruits most often mentioned and most In Jb. 30 4 mallows are spoken of as a food of the 

prized are grapes and figs. Both were very coin- poor in time of famine ; this plant cannot be cert. 

monly cultivated (1 K. 4 25 ). At the present day identd. The juniper roots in the same verse were 

the vine is less common in Pal. as compared with prob. used as fuel for cooking. The " husks wh. 

other fruit-trees than in anct. times, because of the the swine did eat " (Lk. 15. 16 ) were the fleshy pods 

Mohammedan prohibition of the use of wine. Both of the carob or locust-tree, still used in some 

grapes and figs were dried, and in this condition countries to feed swine. They were not the locusts 

formed a portable and convenient food (1 S. 25. 18 ; St. John the Baptist ate (Mw. 3. 4 ). 

I Ch. 12. 40 ). The juice of grapes was boiled down The bitter herbs of the Passover feast (Ex. 12. 8 ) 

into a thick syrup ; this and a similar syrup prepared were such plants as are now used in salads ; their 

fm. dates were used as we use sugar, and formed one exact nature is uncertain. 

of the staple exports of Pal. It is these syrups that The condiments used with food, " mint, anise, 

are meant in several passages where our VV. have and cummin" (Mw. 23. 23 ), included also spices 

brought fm. the E. 

Manna. — The food of the Children of Isr. in the 
wilderness (Ex. 16., &c.) has been identd. by various 
authors with one or other of several sweet exuda- 
tions fm. trees and shrubs growing in Arabia and the 



honey " (e.g. Gn. 43 . u ; Ek. 27. 17 ). 

One of the most important crops of Pal. in anct. 
times,, and still at the present day, is the olive. It is 
eaten as a relish with other food, but its most im- 
portant function is to furnish the oil wh. is indispen- 
sable to the people for cooking, for giving light at neighbouring countries, wh. are collected and used 
night, and for other purposes. The very frequent for food by the inhabitants. None of them occurs 
refces. in the OT. to the tree and its cultivation in- in anything like sufficient quantity to sustain the 
dicate its importance : oil is mentioned as another present population, much less to answer the require- 
of the products exported fm. Pal. (1 K. 5. 11 ; Ek. ments of the Scrip, nar. ; and there is no proof that 
27. 17 ). See Olive Tree. any of them contains the constituents required to 

Dates must have been largely used ; the (date) support life for a prolonged period. Nothing but a 

palm is often referred to, and in Jl. I. 12 among the miraculous provision can explain the record, 
fruit-trees. It is singular that the fruit is nowhere Animal Foods. — Among quadrupeds, the clean 

mentioned (except 2 Ch. 3 1. 5 , AVm., an alternative animals, those permitted as food, were strictly 

not retained in RV.). limited to such as are cloven-footed and chew the 

Pomegranates are several times mentioned ; they cud (Lv. ll. 3f -), that is to what we now know as 
were one of the fruits brought by the spies fm. the ruminants ; cattle, sheep, goats, and the wild ani- 
Promised Land (Nu. 13. 23 ). They suggd. the orna- mals allied to them (Dt. I4 4f -)- The camel, how- 
mentation of the border of the High Priest's robe ; ever, wh. is now classed with the ruminants, was un- 
the handsome flowers of the tree are bell-shaped, clean. The domestic swine is a notoriously filthy 
and are prob. represented by the bells (Ex. 28. 34 ). feeder, and its flesh, when imperfectly cooked, is 

There has been much controversy regarding the .very often responsible for the transmission of para- 

apple of the Bible : it has been regarded by some as sitic diseases to man : some modern states have been 

the quince, by others as the citron ; but the apple at much pains to try to prevent these diseases by 

does grow in Pal. ; its Arabic name is closely akin to methods far less direct and effective than that of 

the Heb. word, and it seems poss. that it may be the Moses. The reason for the prohibition of such 

See Apple, clean feeders as the hare and the coney is not so clear. 
200 



fruit referred to (Pr. 25. 11 ; SS. 2. 5 ). 



Foo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Foo 



The flesh of the calf seems to have been the most 



Honey in and fm. the honeycomb was abundant, 

esteemed, and was used by the wealthy to do honour and was used as we use sugar (for the fruit syrup, 

to guests (Gn. 18. 7 ; Lk. 15. 23 ). A kid was simi- also called honey in our versions, see above). Cp. 

larly employed by those in poorer circumstances Dt. 32. 13 ; SS. 5. 1 ; Mw. 3.* ; Lk. 2|. 42 ; and esp. 

(Jg. 6. 19 , 13. 15 ; Lk. 15. 29 ). the incidents related of Samson (Jg. 14.) and Jona- 

There is a long list of unclean birds (including than (1 S. 14.). 

bats) both in Lv. II. and Dt. 14. ; but the clean The salt used in the E. was, and still is, mixed 

birds are not specified. The forbidden birds, so far with a large quantity of insoluble impurities ; when 

as they can be identd., are all, except the ostrich and it has been affected by damp it does not dissolve 

some species of bat, forms wh. live on animal food, away entirely, but " loses its savour," and the resi- 

Those eaten seem to have been all vegetable feeders, due is utterly useless (Mw. 5. 13 ). It seems to have 

We have mention of turtle-doves and -pigeons (Lv. had the same significance as it now has among the 

I. 14 , &c.),wh. are abundant in Pal. ; of quails (Nu. Arabs. Those who have eaten salt together are 

II. 31 ); of partridges as hunted, and therefore con- bound to befriend and help each other to the 

sidered eatable (1 S. 26. 20 ) ; of " fatted fowl " (1 K. utmost of their power for ever afterwards (Nu. 



4- 23 ), poss. ducks and geese; and in the NT. of 18. 19 ; 2 Ch. 13 



power 
, 5 ; Ez 



4- 14 ). 



domestic poultry (Mw. 23P ; Mk. i 3 .™). The last There are some remarkable prohibitions with 
are believed to have been introduced fm. India regard to food, besides those referring to unclean 
through Bab. ; they may be the " fowls " prepared 
for Nehemiah (5. 18 ). Eggs were also eaten; the eggs 
of wild birds in earlier times {see Dt. 22. 6 ) ; prob. 
hens' eggs in our Lord's day (Lk. II. 12 ). There is 
no law on the point, but prob. only the eggs of 
clean birds were used. 

Of fish, those that have fins and scales are al- 
lowed : no particular kind of fish is anywhere named 
in the Bible ; but their capture and their cultivation 
were well known (SS. 7 4 ; Is. icj. 8 * 10 ). The active 
and important fishery in the Sea of Galilee in our 
Lord's time is familiar fm. many refcs. in the NT. 

The only other animals permitted are the locust 
and some allied insects (Lv. II. 22 ) ; the only men- 
tion of their use is in the case of John the Baptist 
(Mw. 3 . 4 ). 

Milk and its products formed a very important 
part of the diet : consider, e.g., the frequent de- 
scription of Pal. as " a land flowing with milk and animals 
honey." Not only cows' milk (1 S. 6. 7 ; 2 S. 17. 29 ), blood, 
but that of camels (Gn. 32. 15 ), sheep (Dt. 32. 14 ; 
1 Cor. 9. ?), and goats (Pr. 27- 27 ) was used. The 
last seems, fm. the refc. given, to have been con- 
sidered the best. 




Butter-making 



The chief of these is the prohibition of 
It is found in Gn. o,. 4 , is several times re- 
peated in Lv. and Dt., and recurs in the NT. (Ac. 

; Ek. 33.25). The 



15. 20 , &c. ; see also 1 S. 14. 

reasons given are that " the blood is the life," and 

that " it is the blood that maketh atonement by 



Besides fresh milk, sour or fermented milk was reason of the life " (Lv. 17. 10 " 14 , RV. ; Dt. I2. 2a 
drunk: it is much used by many Eastern nations, Fat is also forbidden (Lv. 3. 17 , 7. 23 " 27 ). The pro- 
and under the names of Koumiss and Kephir is be- hibition is expressed only with regard to sacrificial 
coming familiar in this country as a nutritious and animals, and is thus much less absolute than that re- 
very easily digestible form of nourishment. It is to garding blood (cp. vv. 23 and 26). It is a remark- 
be understood in most of the passages where our able provision ; for a diet including meat and ex- 
trs. speak of " butter" ; see esp. Jg. 4. 19 , 5. 25 . Fer- eluding fat is found with us not a very wholesome 
mented milk wd. be a most suitable and refreshing one. The large place of milk and of olive oil in the 
drink for a tired and thirsty man : butter is not kept dietary of the East prob. made up the deficiency, 
in a bottle nor used as a drink in the E. any more There is also a prohibition wh. has given rise to 
than with us. Butter is meant in Pr. 30. 33 ; it much discussion : " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in 
is made in a skin bottle, and the process is much his mother's milk." It occurs thrice, and with 
more analogous than our churning to "wringing much emphasis (Ex. 23. 19 , 34- 26 ; Dt. 14. 21 ). It has 
the nose. 5 ' Cheese is referred to by Job (io. 10 ) ; been construed by the mod. Jews to forbid the use 
and is mentioned among provisions for military of meat and milk at the same meal. A kid stewed in 
expeditions (1 S. 17. 18 ; 2 S. 17. 29 ). milk is a favourite dish with the Arabs to this day ; 



201 



Foo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



For 



it may originally have been connected with heathen 
sacrifices or magical rites. It is difficult otherwise 
to understand the emphatic banning of this special 
dish. 

Cooking. — Boiling seems to have been the com- 
mon method of cooking (Gn. 25. 29 ; I S. 2. 13 ; 2 K. 
4~ 38 ) ; but meat was often roasted (Ex. 12. 8 ; Pr. 
12. 27 ; Is. 44. 16 ), and in many passages where cook- 
ing is mentioned, there is nothing to indicate the 
process used. We have glimpses of elaborate kit- 
chen arrangements in the anct. royal courts (Gn. 
40.2* 16, 17 . 1 S. 8. 13 ), but much of the cooking re- 
corded is that of sacrifices (Ex. 29. 31 ; 2 Ch. 35. 13f- ). 
The baking of bread and cakes is often mentioned ; 
in Jeremiah's day the bakers were numerous enough 
in Jrs. to occupy a street (37. 21 ), hence named 
Baker Street (?). 

The regular meals were in general two, one about 
the middle of the day (Gn. 43. 16 - 25 ; Ru. 2 14 ; Ac. 
io. 9 « 10 ), and one in the evening (Lk. iy. n -, 24. 29f -), 
after the day's work was done. Eating in the morn- 
ing seems to have been regarded as a vicious habit 
(Ec. io. 16 ; cp. Ac. 2. 15 ). Hospitality demanded 
that a meal shd. be prepared for guests at any time 
(e.g. Gn. i8. 1-8 , 19. 1 " 3 ; Jg. 13. 15 ). Entertainments 
were given at either of the principal meals (Lk. 14. 12 ), 
but chiefly at the evening meal (Mk. 6. 21 ; Lk. 
I4. 16 > 24 ). Most of the feasts mentioned in the OT. 
were religious festivals ; but birthdays (Gn. 40. 20 ; 
Mw. 14. 6 ), weddings (Jg. 14. 10 ; Mw. 22. 2f -), the 
making of treaties (Gen. 26. 30f> ), and many other 
occasions were celebrated by feasts. These some- 
times lasted a week (Jg. 14. 12 ; Est. I. 10 ), as did the 
great relgs. festivals (Lv. 23. 6,34 ). 

Where the attitude assumed at meals is specified, 
it is usly. "sitting at meat": at least in more primi- 
tive conditions and among the humbler classes the 
seat was the ground, as it is now. The only men- 
tion of any other seat (kings' thrones excepted) is in 
2 K. 4. 10 , where a stool is provided for the prophet 
Elisha. In later times, and among the wealthy, a 
reclining posture was adopted (Est. J. 8 ; Am. 6. 4 ; 
Jn. 1 3- 25 ). In our Lord's time this position was usual, 
and " sitting " in our version of the NT. sometimes 
stands for Greek words wh. clearly mean reclining. 

The food was prob. often set upon the ground ; 
but we read of tables very frequently, fm. that of 
Adonibezek (Jg. I. 7 ) onwards {e.g. 2 S. o,. 7 ; I K. 
13 20 ; Ps. 23. 5 , 128 3 ; Lk. 16. 21 ). 

The use of knives and forks at meals was unknown; 
the meat as well as the bread was taken in the fingers. 
Hence a necessity for the washing of hands of wh. 
we know nothing fm. our experience in this country ; 
butthe custom was made aburden bythe elaboration 
of the Jewish ritual in our Lord's time (Mk. 7 3 ' 4 ). 
The food was genly. taken fm. a dish common to all 
that were eating together, and often dipped in a 
sauce or relish (Ru. 2. 14 ; Jn. 13. 26 ). Sometimes, 



however, a special dish was sent to an honoured 
guest (Gn. 43. 34 ; 1 S. c;. 23f -). 

Water was the common beverage, but wine was 
often drunk. R. A. Lundie. 

FOOL (Heb. (1) >eml, (2) kes'd, (3) ndbdl), 
FOLLY, FOOLISHNESS (Heb. Hwweleth, kesel, 
nebdldh). The characteristic of all these is the 
implied presence of the element of moral evil. 
Altho' the distinctions are not decisive, yet (1) 
seems most associated with " impiety " (Ps. 107. 17 ), 
and (3) with sexual immorality (2 S. 13. 12 ). Poss. 
this connotation explains Mw. 5. 22 . 

FOOT. Orientals leave their shoes at the door 
of the sanctuary (Ex. 3. 5 ) lest any defilement ad- 
hering to them shd. be carried within. For the 
same reason the Moslem steps out of his shoes on to 
his prayer carpet. On entering a private house also 
the outer shoes are put off, poss. fm. some primitive 
thought of the sanctity of the dwelling. Washing a 
guest's feet is a kindly act of great refreshment to 
one who has suffered fm. the heat and the chafing 
of the sand (Lk. 7. 38 * **, &c). Footmen were in- 
fantry, as distinguished fm. horsemen and chario- 
teers (Nu. 11. 21 ; 2 S. 8. 4 ; 1 Ch. 19. 18 ). To be 
trodden under foot was to be utterly subdued 
(Is. 14. 25 , &c). 

FOOTSTOOL. The literal F. appears only 
twice in Scrip., in 2 Ch. 9. 18 (" a F. of gold," Heb. 




^t-* 



King makes his Enemies his Footstool 

kebesh) and Js. 2. 3 (" here under my F."). The Gr. 
word is hupopodion. The F. is used to indicate ab- 
solute subjection : " Until I make thine enemies thy 
F." (Ps. no. 1 ) ; a passage quoted five times in NT. 
An instance of the practice here referred to is found 
in Jo. io. 24 . The earth also is described as God's 
F. (Is. 66. 1 ; quoted Ac. 7. 49 ). 

FORD. See Jordan. 

FOREHEAD. On the F., as the most promi- 
nent part of the person, symbols are worn (Ex. 28 38 , 
&c), and marks are placed (Rv. 7. 3 , 9- 4 , &c). On 
the F. the Jews bind a phylactery in prayer. The 
unveiled F. of the harlot proclaims immodesty (Jr. 
3. 3 ). Hardness of F. means obstinacy (Ek. 3. 8 ). In 
Ek. 16. 12 read with RV. " a ring upon thy nose." 



202 



For 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fox 



FOREIGNER, also STRANGER, SOJOURN- 
ER (Heb. ger, zur, nokri). In primitive times, 
when nationality was regarded as derived fm. kin- 
ship actual or putative, cert, religious privileges 
and ritual duties were associated with it. The 
reception of a F. into the kin or nation was pro- 
claimed by his participation in the family sacrifice 




Fountain under Mount Lebanon 

or ritual of religious worship. In these respects 
Isr. does not seem to have been nearly as strict as 
were the Hellenic races. When Isr. came up out 
of Egp. " a mixed multitude " (Ex. 12. 38 ) were 
allowed to join them : all through their pre- 
captivity hist. Kenites, Kenazites, Jerahmeelites, 
&c, races that seem of Arabian or Edomite origin, 
act along with Isr. Not till the time of Ezra is the 
exclusion of the F. made absolute (Ne. 13. 3 ). The 
Pauline use of the terms is founded, not on the 
Heb., but on the Hellenic use. 

FORESKIN. See Circumcision. 

FOREST. The refcs. to woods and Fs. in 
Scrip, warrant the inference that large tracts of W. 
Pal., now bare, were clothed with trees in anct. 
times. These have disappeared fm. the higher and 
more open spaces, and such as remain are gathered 
largely in the valleys. On the E. of Jordan, esp. in 
the land of Gilead, there are still fine Fs. mainly of 
oak and terebinth, while in Mt. Lebanon consider- 
able wooded tracts and traces of the Fs. of antiquity 
are found. The growth of trees to replace those 
that are cut down is hindered by the industry of 
charcoal burners, and by the goats, wh. destroy un- 
hindered the fresh young shoots. As late as the 
middle of last cent, the slopes of Tabor boasted a 
covering of great oaks, poss. a remnant of the Wood 
of Ephraim (Jo. 17. 15 ). To-day only a few giants 
over the mountain break the monotony of the brush- 
wood. The most common word for F. is ya'ar. It 
may, however, like Arb. weft, signify a stony region 
(Is. 21. 13 ), or a district covered with wild under- 
growth, as opposed to the cultivated land (Is. 32. 15 , 
&c). Paries (Ne. 2. 8 ) is prop, an enclosed park. 

FORNICATION. See Crimes and Penalties. 



FORTRESS. See Fenced Cities. 

FORTUNATUS, a Corinthian Christian who, 
with Stephanas and Achaicus, visited St. Paul 
(1 Cor. 16. 17 ). If, as some think, he was a son of 
Stephanas, he would then be a young man, and 
may be ident. with the F. mentioned by Clement 
(Ad. Cor. 65. 1 ). 

FOUNTAIN. The name e ain, " eye," given to 
the F. by the Arabs (Heb. i ayin), betokens the esti- 
mation in wh. the water springs are held. They are 
centres of life, beauty, and fruitfulness, in a land 
with scanty water supplies. Access to the springs 
is a condition of prosperity (Jo. 15. 9 ) : it is the 
condition of existence to the flockmaster and his 
charges. The water of the F., " living water " (Jn. 
4. 10 , &c), as contrasted with that collected in 
cistern or well, has always been highly prized for 
drinking and domestic purposes. Notable Fs. in 
W. Pal. are, that at the " Pools of Solomon," in the 
heart of the hill, poss. = " the sealed F." (SS. 4. 12 ) ; 
\Ain es-Sultdn or Elisha's F. at Jericho ; 'Ain Jalud, 
poss. = the well of Harod, at Jezreel ; the strong 
spring at et-Tdbgba (Heptapegon), on the N. shore of 
the Sea of Galilee ; and the great Fs. at the roots 
of Hermon, Tell el-Qddy, Bdnids, and Hasbeiyab, 
whence rise the waters of Jordan. Copious hot 
springs are found at Tiberias, and in the Yarmuk 
valley, wh. are visited by multitudes in search of 
healing and health. The hot springs of Calirrhoe, 
in Wddy Zerqd Ma l in 9 were visited by Herod the 
Gt. before his death. See further Water. 

FOUNTAIN GATE. See Jerusalem. 

FOWL. See Birds. 

FOWLER (Ps. 124. 7 ; Ho. 9.8), one who catches 
birds by means of snares ; a method common now 
in the East. 




Fowlers at Work 

FOX (Heb. shifat). In OT. there is no distinc- 
tion between the F. and the jackal ; in some cases 
Fs. are meant, e.g. Ne. 4. 3 ; in others, where we have 
the pi., it is the jackal that is intended. In Jg. 15. 4 
it is clearly the jackal ; there wd. be comparatively 
little difficulty in trapping a pack of them ; the 
flame wd. make them flee frantically (Tristram, 



203 



Fra 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Fro 



Fauna and Flora ; Wood, Bible Animals). In NT. 
the Gr. (xAwtt^ is the F. (Lk. 13. 32 ). Both F. and 
jackal are great enemies of the vine-growers (SS. 
2. 15 ), working no little havoc in the vineyards. 



W'JfikX & 



Modern Palestinian Fox 

FRANKINCENSE (lebdnah), an ingredient in 
the sacred incense (Ex. 30. 34 , &c). It corrsps. to 
the Arb. lubdn, the fragrant gum of the Boswellia 
Serrata, a tree plentiful in Central and S. India. It 
was brought into Pal. by the Arabian merchants 
(Is. 60. 6 , RV. ; Jr. 6. 20 , RV.), and was among the 
gifts offered by the wise men (Mw. 2. 11 ). 

FRIEND in EV. stands for 'oh'eb (fm. 'Shah, " to 
love "), in wh., as in its Gr. equivalent, philos (Mw. 
II. 19 ), the element of affection is prominent (2 S. 

19. 6 ; 2 Ch. 20. 7 , &c.) ; mere i a (Gn. 26. 26 , &c), 
re'a (Gn. 38. 12 ; Ex. 33. 11 ), and r?eh (2 S. 15. 37 ; 
1 K. 4 . 5 ), fm. rd'dh, " to tend," " to delight in," 
where companionship and neighbourly intercourse 
are mainly suggd. The classical Heb. instance of 
friendship is that between David and Jonathan, wh., 
in beauty and pathos, is unsurpassed by any in pro- 
fane lit. Friendship passed fm. fathers to children 
(Pr. 27. 10 ), like the guest-friendship of other peoples 
(see Hospitality). Friends may be more faithful 
than even one's own blood relations (Pr. 18. 24 ), but 
reproof is a matter requiring delicate and tactful 
handling (2J. 6 ). Proportioned to the intimacy of 
the friendship will be the pain caused by the faith- 
lessness or cruelty of those whom we have trusted 
(Jb. 6. 14 * 27 ; Ps. 41 . 9 ). Into the intimacy of friend- 
ship God is pleased to receive His servants (2 Ch. 

20. 7 ; Js. 2. 23 , &c), and Jesus calls His chosen ones 
His friends (Jn. 15. 13 ). One of the most beautiful 
things said of Jesus, uttered by His enemies, de- 
scribes Him as the "friend of publicans and sinners" 
(Mw. 11. 19 , &c). The King's F. was prob. an 
official title of the k.'s chief counsellor (1 K. 4. 5 ). 
For Bridegroom's F., see Marriage. 

FRINGES. The objects thus designated wd. be 
better named tassels. They are described under 
two different names, tzitzith (Nu. I5. 38f -) and 
gedhillm (Dt. 22. 12 ). The former designation really 
means flower, and was applied to the tassels because 
they were looked upon as being related to the gar- 
ment just as the flower is to the plant. The latter 
name has refc. to the manner of construction, and 
is derived fm. a root signifying " to twist." It does 



not necessarily mean enlargement, as has been, sup- 
posed, but that thought may, by a play on the words, 
be introduced. The command for their use evi- 
dently arose out of the case of Sabbath-breaking re- 
corded in Nu. 15. 32 " 36 , wh. rabbinical tradition says 
occurred in the wilderness of Sinai, and it was in- 
tended to be a constant warning of the punishment 
that wd. follow broken laws. Fm. its being linked 
with " all the commandments of the Lord," the 
Jews regard the law of tzitzith as of peculiar sanctity, 
and they unite it, therefore, numerically with the 
613 precepts gathered by the scribes fm. the Pnt., 
making up this number in the case of the tassels fm. 
the numerical value of the name, together with 
eight for the cords and five for the knots contained in 
each. Rabbinical Judaism has many regulations as 
to their construction and attachment. They were 
required to be of wool, attached by a cord of blue 
through two holes in the garment, and to be at least 
of one finger length. All the rules were evidently 
intended to prevent their being lost or cut short. 
They are attached to the four corners of the prayer- 
cloth (talith), and by the more orthodox they are 
also worn continuously on an under garment. 
Among those excommunicated fm. heaven is the 
Jew " who has no tzitzith on his garment " (Pesa- 
chim, H3 b ). The prayer, " Hear, O Israel," is for- 
bidden without them, and so the prayer of thanks- 
giving for them precedes it, and during its repeti- 
tion there is a demonstrative kissing of the corners of 
the talith. As a part of the fulfilling of all righteous- 
ness these tassels were worn by our Lord Himself, 
and it was one of these, with its reputed sanctity, 
that the woman with the issue of blood ventured to 
touch (Mw. 9. 20 ). In connection with their osten- 
tation in things religious, the Pharisees made them 
large and conspicuous (Mw. 23. 5 ). Continually 
before the eyes during the times of prayer, dressing, 
and undressing, they were an ever-present memorial 
and warning, and they are calculated to show us 
that material reminders of religious obligations are 
not excluded fm. Scrip. Wm. M. Christie. 

FROG (Heb. tzefhardVa [Ex. 8. 2 " 14 ], Gr. bat- 
rachus [Rv. 16. 13 ]). The edible frog is common in 
Pal. and Egp. The frog haunts the marshes and 
spots where water is to be found : hence the 
Oriental saying that the voice of the frog is music 
to the ear of the thirsty man. 

FRONTLETS. See Phylacteries. 

FROST. The Heb. word hanamdl, so trd. in Ps. 
78. 47 , is of uncertain meaning. Altho' LXX and 
Vlg. render it as " frost," this can hardly be correct, 
as frost is unknown in Egypt. Gesenius suggests 
" ants," comparing it with Arb. namal. Qerah is 
lit. " ice," so called because of its smoothness (from 
qarah, " to make smooth "). In Gn. 3 1 . 40 it stands 
for cold. RV. substitutes " ice " in Jb. 37. 10 , but 
retains " frost " in Jr. 36. 30 , 



204 



Fru 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gad 



FRUIT. The most usual word in Heb. is -perl, 
Gr. karpos. F. is an important part of food in Pal. 
The grape and fig abounded in anct. times. In the 
proverbial picture of happy rural contentment, each 
man sits under his own vine and fig tree (i K. 4 # 25 , 
&c). The olive also has been plentiful fm. old 
time, esp. in Galilee. Apples, pomegranates, mul- 
berries, dates, &c, still flourish along with the 
citron, quince, lemon, orange, &c. Only in the 
fifth yr. was the F. of a young tree regarded as 
eatable (Lv. 19. 25 ). To this day, even in the 
bitterest war, care is taken, as far as poss., to pre- 
serve the F. trees (Dt. 20. 19f -). In later times the 
F. was taxed (1 M. io. 30 ). F. is used fig. for re- 
ward (Is. 3. 10 ), conduct (Mw. 7. 16 , &c), the result 
of the Holy Spirit's work (Eph. 5« 9 ), &c. 

FUEL (Heb. 'okldh, ma'aceleth, " food " [of fire], 
Ek. 15. 4 ; Is. 9. 5 ). In Pal. to-day four kinds of F. 
are used : hatab, " branches of trees " ; qardmi, 
" roots or stumps of trees " ; faham, " charcoal " ; 
and dried dung-cakes. These wd. in all probability 
be in ordinary use in Bible times. Coal in Scrip, 
always means " charcoal." 

FULLER, FULLER'S FIELD. In OT. the 
word is part. Qal. (2 K. 18. 17 ; Is. J. 3 , &c.) or Piel 
(Ml. 3- 2 ) of kkdbas, lit. " to wash clothes by tram- 
pling " ; NT. gna-pheus (Mk. c;. 3 ). The fulling of 
new, and the washing of old clothes, was pursued 
in anct. times in Egp. (JVAE. ii. 106) and other 
countries. Cert, alkaline substances served as soap. 
The clothes were trampled, or pounded with pieces 



of wood, in large tubs with water, and then stretched 
in the sun. The unpleasant odour, and the quan- 
tity of water employed, led to the work being done 
outside the city. For F.'s Well see En-Rogel. The 
F.'s Field, where Rabshakeh delivered the message 
of Sennacherib, was prob. on the N., whence only the 
citymt.be approached by any considerable company. 




a c r b 

Fullers 
a b, inclined tables ; c c, water running off into the trough below. 

FURLONG. See Weights and Measures. 

FURNACE. There are four words so rendered 
in EV. (1) 'Attun (Aram.), into wh. the Heb. 
youths were cast (Dn. 3. 6 , &c). This was prob. a 
large smelting F. The youths seem to have been 
cast in fm. the top, while the k. must have looked in 
fm. below. (2) Kibshdn may have been a lime-kiln 
(Ex. 9. 8 , &c). (3) Kur, a smelting furnace, used in 
refining metals (Dt. 4. 20 , &c). (4) 'Alii, a crucible. 
(5) Tannur, prob. a baker's oven (Lv. 2. 4 ; Ho. 7« 4 ). 

FURROW. See Agriculture. 



G 



GAAL was leader of the revolutionary party in 
Shechem, consisting of natives and idolatrous Isrs., 
who rose agst. Abimelech, intending to overthrow 
the house of Gideon, and re-establish pagan rule. 
Abimelech, recalled by his officer Zebul, stamped 
out the rebellion, and banished G. and his brethren 

Og-9- 26 ')- 

GAASH. A mountain in the territory of 

Ephraim on the N. side of wh. lay Timnath Serah, 
where Joshua was buried (Jo. 24. 30 ; Jg. 2. 9 ). The 
brooks or valleys (nahale) of Gaash, whence came 
Hiddai (2 S. 23. 30 ) or Hurai (1 Ch. II. 32 ), one of 
David's heroes, are prob. to be sought in the same 
neighbourhood. 

GABBATHA, the place where Pilate's judgment- 
seat was erected when he pronounced final sentence 
on Christ, called " the Pavement, but in Heb. 
Gabbatha " (Jn. 19. 13 ; another rdg. " Gabatha "). 
The Aram, (not Heb.) word, however, does not 
mean " pavement," but either " bald forehead " 
(Aram, gabbahtd) or " hill " (gaba'ta). Perhaps 
even " back " or " bulwark " (Aram, gabbd ; cp. Jb. 
13. 12 ) mt. be possible, although the fern, form, 



gabbethd, is unknown. " Pavement " in the Gosp. 
is not a tr. but a description of the locality. It 
was a paved place, or square. Its position depends 
on that assigned to Pilate's praetorium (see Jeru- 
salem). The sentence had to be pronounced in the 
open air. A platform was erected on wh. the judge 
took his seat. The Gr. bema (RV. " judgment- 
seat," Mw. 27. 19 ; Jn. 19. 13 ) means the platform, 
not the chair of the judge. G. H. Dalman. 

GABRIEL (" Hero of God "), one of the two 
Archangels named in Scrip. His function is that of 
a revealer of Divine will : to Daniel (Dn. 8. 16 ), to 
Zacharias (Lk. I. 19 ), to Mary (Lk. I. 26 ). In the 
Enoch bks., chaps. 9., 40., 70., G. is one of four 
angels of the " Presence." See Angels. 

GAD, a deity, prob. of Bab. origin = Gr. Tucke, 
identd. with the planet Jupiter, the Gt. Fortuna of 
the Arabs. That he was reverenced by the anct. 
Syrs. is sufficiently attested by Gn. 30. 1 (RV. 
" Fortunate " : we shd. prob. read " Fortune is 
come "), and such place-names as Baal-gad and 
Migdol-gad. Among the later Isrs. it is evidenced 
by the clan name Azgad, " Gad is strong " (Ez. 2. 12 ; 



205 



Gad 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gad 



Ne. 7. 17 ), and by the practice of the Bab. Jews, and Elijah the Tishbite. To G. the Isrs. fled for 

who prepared a table to Gad. i.e. served him with refuge fm. the Phil. (1 S. 13. 7 ) ; and here Elijah 

offerings known as lectisternia {cp. Jr. 7. 18 , 51. 44 ), in found shelter fm. Jezebel (1 K. 17. 3 * 5 ; wCherith). 

wh. tables were spread as for a banquet to the gods. In G. the partisans of the house of Saul made their 

GAD (" Fortune "), seventh s. of Jacob, born of abortive rally (2 S. 2. 8 ). To G. David retreated in 

Zilpah (Gn. 30. 11 ). In Gn. 49. 19 there is a play in the rebellion of Absalom (17. 27 ). Fm. 1 K. 12. 25 

Heb. upon the name, as if it meant " marauding we gather that G. joined Jeroboam. Moab appears 

band " ; Gad gedud yegudennu, zvahii yagud ( dqeb, thereafter to have recovered some of her anct. pos- 

lit. " Gad, a troop shall troop upon him, but he sessions in this territory, wh. were taken again by 

shall troop upon their heel " (Driver, ad loc). This Omri, and once more recovered by Mesha {Moabite 

is in allusion to the brave and warlike character Stone). 

of the tribe. Plundering bands wd. come upon him This district was the main theatre of the pro- 

to their destruction^. Dt. 33. 20 ). Almost nothing longed and bitter struggle with the Syrs., Ramoth 

is recorded of his personal hist. Seven sons were in Gilead figuring prominently in the war ; and its 

born to him before leaving Can. (Gn. 46. 16 ; cp. Nu. inhabitants were among the first to be carried into 

26. 15ff -). For the strength of the tribe see Num- captivity by Asyr. (2 K. 15. 29 ; 1 Ch. 5. 26 ). 

bers. In the desert march G. was placed in the GAD, the prophet (1 S. 22. 5 ), a follower of David, 



camp of Reuben, on the S. of the Tabernacle (Nu. his seer and counsellor (2 S. 24. 11 , &c), who also 



2. 14 ). 
(Nu. 



The prince of G. was Eliasaph, s. of Deuel wrote a hist, of David's reign (1 Ch. 2c;. 29 ). 



I. 14 ) or Reuel (2. 14 ). G. was represented 



among the spies by Geuel, s. of Machi (13. 15 ). 

When Isr. had taken the fine pasture land E. of 
Jordan, G. and Reuben, still flock-masters as their 
fathers had been, besought Moses to give it to them. 
Their request was granted on condition that, leaving 
their children and non-combatants there, they shd. 
themselves cross Jordan and assist their brethren to 
conquer W. Pal. (Nu. 32.). This accomplished, 
they returned to the E., rearing the great altar in 
the Jordan Valley, wh. shd. witness to the unity of 
the tribes, despite the natl. barrier between them 
(Jo. 22.). 

The whole land E. of Jordan was occupied by 
these two tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh, at 
the conquest or subsequently ; Reuben being in the 
S., and Manasseh in the N. Nu. 32. 34ff - (JE.) makes 
Arnon the S. border of G. ; but vv. i6fr. assign 
cities in the district N. of Arnon to Reuben. Jo. 
13. 25 (P.) clearly makes Wady Hesban the S. border. 
In the former passage the Jabbok may be the N. 
boundary ; in the latter G. reaches to the Sea of 
Chinnereth. The difhculty of determining the 



GAD, RIVER OF (2 S. 2 4 . 5 AV., lit. " torrent 
valley towards G."). This is certy. the Arnon {cf. 

Jo. I 3 . 9 ' 16 ,&C). 




Gadara 



of Theatre 



GADARA, the city of the Gadarenes (Mk. 5. 1 ; 
Lk. 8. 26 « 37 ) = mod. M'Qeis or Umm Qeis. It stands 
boundaries is greatly increased by the fact that, so on a height above Wady Tarmuk, S. of the hot 
far, comparatively few places E. of Jordan have been springs, c. 6 miles SE. of the Sea of Galilee. The 
identd. with any certy. It is prob. too that, ex- ruins are of great extent, and include two theatres, 
posed as they were to attacks fm., and liable to be and a Basilika wh. occupied the site of an anct. 
involved in strife with, surrounding peoples, the temple. A paved road connected the city with 
boundaries of the tribes frequently changed (1 Ch. Der'ah, and a great aqueduct has been traced to the 
5. 18L ). We may take it that the bulk of Gilead pool of el-Khab, c. 20 miles N. of Der'ah. To the 
passed into the hands of G. In some cases G. is E. are many rock tombs, some used as corn stores, 
practically = Gilead (Jg. 5. 17 ). Ramoth in Gilead, others as dwellings, closed by stone doors with orna- 



the City of Refuge, was in G. (Jo. 20. 8 ). This city, mental carving. To these the name of Jedur 

with Mahanaim, Heshbon, and Jazer, were given to (Gadara) still clings. The view on all sides is mag- 

the Merarite Levites (1 Ch. 6. 80ff -). nificent, including the rising slopes of Jaulan to 

A fine type of manhood seems to have been de- Hermon, and beyond the blue waters of the sea in 

veloped on these uplands, strong, fearless, warlike their deep bed, the breezy uplands of Galilee. 
(1 Ch. I2. 14ff -). Among the heroes of the tribe we G. is first mentioned as restored by Pompey and 

shd. prob. reckon Jephthah (Jg. II. 34 ; cp. Jo. 13. 26 ) set free {Ant. XIV. iv. 4 ; B J. I. vii. 7). This im- 

206 



Gai 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gal 



plies an earlier Jewish rule. But the G. taken by 
Alex. Jannaeus, and called by Josephus (BJ. IV. 
vii, 3) the capital of Peraea, is prob. = Jedur, near 
es-Salt (Guthe, KB. s.v.; Buhl, GAP. 255). To G. 
belonged a wide district bordering on the Sea of 
Galilee. The owners of the swine (Mk. 5. 11 , &c.) 
may have been correctly called Gadarenes, as occu- 
pying a subordinate town in the territory of G. It 
was a member of the Decapolis. In B.C. 30 it was 
given to Herod the Gt. by Augustus, and at his 
death it resumed its status as a free city under the 
Empire. 




Gadara: Vaults under Seats of Theatre 



GAI, RV. for " valley," AV. (1 S. 17. 52 ). We 
shd. prob. read with LXX " Gath." 

GAIUS. Four men so named are mentioned in 
NT. Nothing further is known of them (Ac. 19. 29 , 
20. 4 ; 1 Cor. I. 14 ; Rm. 16. 23 ; 3 J. 1 ). 

GALATIA. In the third cent. B.C. warrior 
tribes, who had migrated eastwards fm. Gaul, en- 
tered Asia Minor and made themselves masters of a 
large part of the country. They lived a nomadic 
life, roaming over the land with their flocks and 
herds, plundering and laying waste. When not en- 
gaged in warlike expeditions on their own behalf 
they enlisted as mercenaries in the service of Asiatic 
princes. Some 40 yrs. after their arrival in Asia 
Minor their power received an effectual check at 
the hands of Attalos I., King of Pergamos, and fm. 
that time onwards they were confined to a tract of 
country in the heart of Asia Minor, some 200 miles 
long fm. E. to W., and 100 miles wide fm. N. to S. 
This territory, wh. was inhabited by a Phrygian 
population, was henceforth called Galatia. In 
this country the Gauls lived as a dominant military 
aristocracy among the far more numerous native 
Phrygians, whom they prob. employed as serfs to 
till the land. The chief cities of the country were 
Ancyra (in the centre), Tavium (in the east), and 
Germa and Pessinus (in the west), the population of 
wh., even in later days, was only to a very slight 



extent Gaulish in origin, the majority being Greek- 
speaking Phrygians engaged in trade. 

The territory of the Gauls passed under the power 
of the kdm. of Pontus about the end of the second 
cent. B.C., but at the close (b.c 71) of the Mithri- 
datic wars, in wh. the Gauls fought on the side of 
Rm. agst. Mithridates, King of Pontus, Galatia re- 
ceived its independence under three rulers, the most 
powerful of whom (Deiotarus) was eventually recog- 
nised as King of Galatia. On the death of the Gala- 
tian king, Amyntas, in B.c. 25, the kdm. of Galatia 
passed into the hands of Rm., when a new province 
— the province of Galatia — was formed, comprising 
among other districts not only Galatia proper in the 
north, but parts of Phrygia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia 
to the south. 

It is important to have this sketch of the fortunes 
of Galatia in mind in order to determine the diffi- 
cult question as to the destination of the Epistle to 
the Galatians. After the formation of the province 
Galatia had a double significance, according as it 
was used in the narrow local sense to denote the 
territory of the Gaulish tribes (Galatia proper or 
North Galatia), or in the wider Roman-official sense 
as the name of the complex of territories united 
under one provincial governor (Province of Galatia). 
Similarly the name Galatians mt. be applied either 
to the inhabitants of North Galatia or to the in- 
habitants of any other part of the province. From 
this difference of meaning has arisen the difficulty 
of deciding the locality of the churches to wh. the 
Epistle to the Galatians was sent. What may be 
called the traditional view is that St. Paul wrote 
his epistle to churches in Galatia proper, wh. were 
founded during the second missionary journey, on a 
visit to the country shortly referred to in Ac. 16. 6 : 
" They went through Phrygia and Galatic terri- 
tory." This view, wh. is known as the North 
Galatian theory, is still held by the majority of 
scholars, although in recent years an increasing 
number have given their adherence to the view 
that " the churches of Galatia " are to be sought in 
the southern part of the province, in Pisidian An- 
tioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, wh. St. Paul 
evangelised on his first missionary journey (Ac. 13., 
14.). This is known as the South Galatian theory. 
In the absence of unanimity on the matter it will 
be desirable to give shortly the chief reasons wh. 
weigh with those who take opposing views. 

To take the South Galatian theory first: (1) It has 
been alleged and widely accepted that the habitual 
practice of St. Paul was to use the Roman-official 
nomenclature in describing the districts in wh. he 
had planted churches. That is to say, he wrote of 
the churches founded by him under the name of the 
province in wh. they were situated. Thus we read 
of " the churches of Asia " (1 Cor. 16. 19 ), " the 
first fruits of Achaia " (1 Cor. 16. 15 ), " the brethren 



207 



Gal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gal 



wh. are in all Macedonia " (i Th. 4. 10 ). This ex- 
clusive use of the provincial names by St. Paul (if 
true) does not in itself prove that the churches ad- 
dressed in the epistle were the churches of South 
Galatia, for the name of the province wd. of course 
be appropriate to churches in North Galatia as well, 
but it makes it indubitably clear that St. Paul might 
have called the Christians in Antioch, Iconium, 
Lystra, and Derbe "Galatians," and might have ad- 
dressed their churches as "the churches of Galatia." 
This being so, (2) it seems on the face of it moreprob. 
that the epistle was written to the churches of South 
Galatia, of whose planting we have a full account in 
Ac. 13., 14., than to churches in Galatia proper of 
wh. Acts makes no mention. Further, (3) it cannot 
but strike one as very strange that, if the epistle was 
addressed to Christians in Galatia proper, St. Paul 
shd. have made not the slightest reference in any 
of his letters to the important churches in South 
Galatia. (4.) As finally clinching the matter, it is 
contended that St. Paul was never in North Galatia 
at all, and that the passage in Ac. 16. 6 , wh. has 
usually been understood as mentioning a visit to 
that district, speaks only of a journey through 
" the Phrygian and Galatic region," wh., rightly 
interpreted, means the district in wh. Pisidian 
Antioch and Iconium were situated — the territory 
wh. was " geographically Phrygia, but politically 
Galatia." 

These grounds, to wh. others not so plausible 
might be added, constitute a strong case in favour 
of finding the destination of St. Paul's epistle in 
South Galatia, and if the last-mentioned contention 
cd. be substantiated there wd. be, of course, an end 
to the debate. There are, however, weighty reasons 
wh. tell in favour of the traditional view that the 
epistle was written to churches in Galatia proper. 
(1) It is not altogether certain that St. Paul always 
uses the Roman-official provincial names. (2) In 
Ac. 16. 4 we read of St. Paul's visitation of the South 
Galatian churches, and 16. 5 evidently concludes 
the account of this stage of the journey (" so the 
churches were strengthened . . .") and prepares for 
a further stage. On the most natural reading of the 
passage the churches visited must be all the four 
churches in South Galatia (Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, 
Antioch). Accordingly, when we read in Ac. 16. 6 
that "they went through the region of Phrygia and 
Galatia" (or rather "Phrygia and Galatic territory") 
we conclude that this describes the new stage of the 
journey on wh. St. Paul and his companions entered, 
and refers to districts other than those already 
traversed. This being so, it is natural to interpret 
" Galatic territory " as indicating Galatia proper. 
(The expression " Galatic territory " wd. be chosen 
deliberately by Luke instead of " Galatia " because 
of the ambiguity of the latter name.) (3) This 
conclusion is confirmed by the natural interpreta- 



tion of Ac. 16. 6 ,* that it was because he was " for- 
bidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in 
Asia " that St. Paul went through Phrygia and 
Galatic territory. With his work in South Galatia 
completed, the apostle purposed breaking new 
ground by evangelising in the province of Asia ; but 
as this course was forbidden him, he changed his 
plans and " passed through Phrygia and Galatic 
territory." This cannot surely mean that he re- 
tracedhisstepsandjourneyed through SouthGalatia. 
Most naturally it may be taken to mean that he con- 
tinued his journey in a new direction, wh. led him to 
Galatia proper. And finally, (4) the statement wh. 
St. Paul makes in Gal. 4. 13 , that it was on account 
of an illness that he first preached the Gospel among 
the Galatians, is difficult to harmonise with the ac- 
count given in Ac. 13., 14. of theplanting of churches 
in South Galatia. On the other hand, St. Paul's ill- 
ness maybe alluded to in Ac. i6. 6 ,in the refusal given 
by the Holy Spirit to allow him to preach in Asia. 

On the whole, the evidence must be pronounced 
indecisive, although the balance of probabilities 
leans towards the traditional view that the Galatia 
of St. Paul's epistle is the territory of Galatia proper, 
first visited by the apostle on his second missionary 
journey. In the western part of that district we 
may suppose that St. Paul, during his convalescence, 
founded a few churches close to one another, prob. 
in Pessinus and its neighbourhood, where Greek was 
spoken. A long journey wh. wd. have embraced 
Ancyra and Tavium is not to be thought of. That 
Luke in Ac. 16. 6 makes only the barest mention of 
the visit to North Galatia, and gives no account of 
the planting of churches where St. Paul was received 
with such enthusiasm (Gal. 4. 14 ), is certainly strange; 
it may be surmised, however, that the brief notice 
is due to the fact that the historian's thoughts were 
at this stage concentrated on the West and on the 
extension of Christianity fm. Asia to Europe. 

A. F. FlNDLAY. 

GALATIANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE. 
(1) Authenticity. — That the Epistle to the Gala- 
tians was written by the apostle Paul is recognised 
by all but a small handful of scholars who on the 
most arbitrary grounds deny that we have any letters 
of St. Paul at all. The genuineness of the epistle 
is placed beyond challenge by its own char. The 
thought throughout is suffused by so deep an emo- 
tion, and the authority of the apostle is a matter of 
such vital concern, that it is impossible to regard the 
idea that another than St. Paul is the author as any- 
thing else than an extravagance of criticism. 

(2) The Readers of the Epistle.— The epistle 
was addressed to a group of churches — the churches 

* Supporters of the South Galatian theory for the most 
part maintain that in the Greek of Ac. 16. 6 , " the sequence 
of the verbs is also the sequence of time," and translate, 
" they went through . . . they were forbidden . . . " — a 
strained if not impossible interpretation. 



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of Galatia — evidently so closely connected that they he had submitted his teaching to the apostles for 

cd. be regarded for all practical purposes as one their approval (2. 2 ). Along with the denial of St. 

religious community. Where these churches were Paul's authority went a bitter personal attack on the 

situated has already been discussed in the foregoing apostle. Base motives were ascribed to him ; in 

article (Galatia), and although the question cannot his work he was swayed by self-interest and a desire 

be looked upon as finally settled, the greater body of to stand well in the eyes of men (i. 10 ), and even in 

expert opinion is in favour of the view that the important matters he was charged with inconsis- 

persons to whom the letter was sent were the mem- tency on the ground that he enjoined circumcision 

bers of churches in North Galatia. The destination when it suited him (5. u ). 

of the epistle is, however, of comparatively small It is poss. that the Judaising opponents of the 

moment. All that need be said further in this con- apostle had been active before his second visit to 

nection is that the persons addressed were for the Galatia (Ac. 18. 23 ). But if that was so, at that visit 

most part Gentile Christians (4. 8 ), with possibly a any impression wh. they had made was apparently 

slight admixture of Christians who formerly had destroyed. The subsequent rapid falling away of 

been Jews. On the North Galatian view there is no his converts came upon St. Paul as a complete and 

reason for believing that the churches were com- painful surprise (i. 6 ). It was on hearing of this that 

posed to any appreciable extent of those of Gaulish the apostle wrote the letter. The stern tone in wh. 

descent ; the fickleness of the Galatians so frequently he addressed his converts, breaking at one point into 

adduced as an indication of the Celtic tempera- affectionate appeal and remonstrance (4~ 12ff -), and 

ment, was more characteristic of the native Phrygian the hot indignation wh. he poured on the heads of 

population wh. inhabited the territory of Galatia. his opponents, reveal how serious a view St. Paul 



(3) The Occasion of the Epistle.— In the Gala 
tian churches, wh. had received the Gospel fm. St. 
Paul with enthusiasm, and had continued in it for a 
time with great steadfastness (5. 7 ), emissaries of the 
Judaistic party in the Church had set to work, with 



took of the situation. 
(4) The Purpose and Contents of the Epistle.— 

It was in fact a crisis of the gravest magnitude, in 
wh. the existence of Christianity as a spiritual 
religion was at stake. St. Paul threw the whole 



the result that the Galatian Christians were being strength of his nature into the task of counteracting 
carried away fm. their spiritual faith, and were re- the influence wh. not only imperilled his own work 
turning to " the weak and beggarly elements " of a but wd., if unchecked, have bound the faith of the 
ceremonial religion (5. 3 ). The leader of the false new-born Christian Church in the fetters of Juda- 
teachers was evidently a man of outstanding autho- ism. It was important, considering the nature of 
rity and personal distinction, and under his direc- the attack to wh. he had been exposed, to establish 
tion the agitation agst. the Pauline Gospel had been his authority as a preacher of the Gospel, and to 
carried on with such power and persuasiveness that this St. Paul first addressed himself. After a brief 
the apostasy of his converts seemed to the apostle address and greeting (i. 1 " 5 ), and a reference to the 
to be the action of men under a spell (3. 1 ). The position of matters in terms of indignant expostu- 
burden of the teaching of St. Paul's Judaistic oppo- lation (i. 6 " 10 ), St. Paul proceeded to demonstrate 
nents was that the fulfilment of the Mosaic law by a survey of historical facts that he had not re- 
was necessary for salvation. The Gospel wh. they ceived his Gospel and apostolic authority fm. the 
preached theydeclared to be the true Gospel, com- original apostles. This first main section of the 



pleting what St. Paul had begun. The righteous 
ness wh. was of faith was good enough for a be- 
ginning, but the promise of a perfect salvation was 
only to those who attained the complete righteous 



epistle extends fm. l. 1J -2. 21 . It recounts the story 
of his conversion and his three yrs. sojourn in 
Arabia, followed by a flying visit to Jrs., and makes 
clear that in this preliminary period, before he 



ness by a^ strict observance of the requirements of entered on his work, he was not dependent on others 

the Mosaic law, m particular of circumcision (5. 2ff -), for his conception of the Gospel (i. 13 " 20 ). Then 

and Jewish festivals and seasons (4. 10 ). It is prob. after a missionary activity of 14 yrs., in wh. he had 

that in itself this insistence on rites and outward a place in the Church as an authoritative teacher, 

observances made a strong appeal to the sympathies he had an opportunity afforded him of laying his 

the Galatian Christians who had been nurtured Gospel before his brethren in Jrs., and the "pillars" 



in a ceremonial religion ; and the Judaistic teachers 
pressed home their advantage by denying that St. 
Paul had any real authority. He was in the strict 
sense, so they declared, no apostle at all ; what- 
ever authority he possessed he had received fm. the 
original apostles who were the authoritative teachers 
of the Church. And this, they affirmed, St. Paul 



of the Church, far fm. differing fm. him in any 
essential matter, acknowledged his right to be the 
apostle to the Gentiles (i. 21 -2. 10 ). And, most con- 
vincing proof of all that he did not hold his apos- 
tolic authority by the will of men, he had withstood 
Peter to the face and rebuked him for his incon- 
sistent conduct (2. 11 - 21 ). With the third chapter 



had himself recognised when at the Council of Jrs. begins the second main section of the epistle, in 

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which St. Paul deals argumentatively with the 
questions at issue, and proves that the freedom of 
the Christian Gospel is inconsistent with the obli- 
gation to observe the Mosaic law (3I-5 . 12 ). He 
first reminds his converts that they had received the 
Spirit not by the works of the law but by faith 
(3. 1 - 5 ), and adduces the case of Abraham to prove 
that the promises of salvation are attached to faith 
(3. 5 - 18 ). The law in its nature was temporary and 
preparatory, suited for a state of pupilage and de- 
signed as a means for leading men to Christ ; but 
.with Christ's coming, the law having served its end, 
men were through Christ delivered fm. the bondage 
of the law and introduced into the freedom of sons 
and heirs of God (3. 19 -4- 7 )- That the Galatians 
who had known God shd. seek the service of the law 
was to return to a bondage similar to that in wh. 
they lived when they were heathen (4. 8 - 11 ) . At this 
point the argument is interrupted by a passage m 
wh. mingle entreaty and affectionate concern— an 
appeal to the Galatians for their old loyalty's sake 
to renounce their new allegiance (4. 12 - 20 ), after wh. 
the apostle proceeds to show by a reference to the 
hist, of Ishmael and Isaac— allegorically interpreted 
—that the freedom of Christ is absolutely incom- 
patible with a legalistic manner of life, and that 
they who wd. be justified by the law have fallen 
away fm. grace (4- 21 -5- 6 )- The section closes with 
words wh. are intended to impress upon the Gala- 
tians the peril of their position, and with a passion- 
ate outburst against those who had seduced them 
(5. 7 - 12 ). The -final main section of the epistle is 
devoted to the practical aim of making clear that 
the freedom of Christ leaves no place for moral 
laxity— a charge wh., no doubt, was advanced by 
St. Paul's opponents — but imposes moral obliga- 
tions of the highest kind (5. 13 -6. 10 ). _ The epistle 
concludes with a short postscript written by the 
apostle's own hand, whose effect must have been 
like "a thunderstorm clearing the air," in wh. 
St. Paul gives a last earnest word of warning, a 
warm confession of his faith in Christ crucified, and 
an abrupt and sharp demand that he who was so 
unmistakably Christ's servant should no longer be 
interfered with. A short benediction brings the 
letter to a close. 

(5) The Date of the Epistle.— On the view, 
considered to be the more probable one, that the 
churches addressed were the churches in North 
Galatia, the date of the epistle can be determined 
with approximate accuracy. As a notice in the 
epistle implies (" Ye know that because of an in- 
firmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you 
the former time " : 4. 13 ), St. Paul had paid two 
visits to the Galatians before the writing of the 
epistle, and the reference to their sudden apostasy 
makes it certain that the second visit was quite 
recent when the letter was written. As we learn fm. 



Ac. 18. 23 , St. Paul's second visit to the Galatians 
took place on the third missionary journey immedi- 
ately before his sojourn in Ephesus, and we are ac- 
cordingly led to the conclusion that the epistle was 
written early in the period of the Ephesian resi- 
dence, about the yr. 55. In all probability it was 
written before the two epistles to Corinth and the 
epistle to Rome, wh. belong to the same period. 
On the South Galatian theory the date must be 
placed somewhat earlier, during the apostle's resi- 
dence at Corinth (Ac. 18. 1 - 17 ), or when he was at 
Antioch (Ac. 18. 22 ) before the commencement of 
the third missionary journey. 

(6) The Significance of the Epistle.— If, as is 
likely, 1 Corinthians was written after the Epistle to 
the Galatians, we gather fm. the reference in 1 Cor. 
16. 1 that the Christians in Galatia had been won 
back to St. Paul and his Gospel. The Epistle to the 
Romans bears witness to the same effect. ^ For while 
it deals with the same issue as the Epistle to the 
Galatians, the exposition is calm and measured — 
a very strong contrast to the passionate tone of 
Galatians and its sharp dialectic. The battle for 
Christian freedom had, in fact, been fought out to 
a victorious conclusion on Galatian soil. Thence- 
forth the issue, wherever it was raised, was never 
doubtful. The epistle is, however, something more 
than a writing dealing with a controversy of a by- 
gone day ; it is for all time the charter of Chris- 
tian freedom " not only fm. the Mosaic law but 
fm. every yoke that is imposed upon the religious 
life as an external condition of salvation without 
reference to any inner necessity of the soul." 
The Epistle to the Galatians furnished Luther 
with his weapons in the battle for freedom at the 
Reformation. A. F. Findlay. 

GALBANUM, an ingredient in the sacred in- 
cense (Ex. 30 34 ; cp. Sr. 24. 21 ), Arb. qinnah. It is a 
gum derived fm. an umbelliferous plant, not cert, 
identd. Alone, the odour is unpleasant ; in anct. 
times it was used to keep away snakes and gnats. 

GALEED, fm. Heb. gal, " a heap of stones," and 
'ed, " a witness " (Gn. 31. 47 ). Here prob. is sug- 
gested a derivation of the name Gilead. The 
association of inanimate objs. with events, as wit- 
nesses, was not uncommon in the anct. world. 

GALILEE, Heb. gdUl or gffilah, lit. " circuit " 
or " district," applied originally to a tract in Mt. 
Naphtali (Jo. 20. 7 , 21. 32 ), but came to cover a wider 
region, Cabul, in Asher, being among the cities 
" in G." given by Solomon to Hiram (1 K. 9. 11 ). 
The victory of Joshua (11.), and later that of Barak 
(Jg- 4-)> assured the supremacy of Isr. ; and cert, 
towns within the district— Abel Beth Maacha and 
Dan (2 S. 20. 18 , LXX)— were noted as the homes of 
pure Israelitish religious customs : yet the old in- 
habitants, Amorites and Hivites who had come S. 
fm. the heights of Lebanon, continued, at least to 



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the time of Solomon, to hold many of the towns 
(supra). This may act. for the full name " G. of 
the Nations " (Is. 9. 1 ). 

G. lay to the N. and W. of the Sea of G., bounded 
on the S. by the plain of el-Battauf. The N. 
boundary is uncert. Benhadad I. of Syr. overran 
the country (1 K. 15. 20 ). It suffered in the strife 
between Hazael and Benhadad his s., and Jehoahaz 
and Jeroboam II. (2 K. io. 23 , 13. 22 , I 4 . 25ff -). With 
the transportation of its people by Tiglath-pileser 
III., the captivity of the N. kdm. began (2 K. 15. 29 ). 
That this opened the way for a larger infusion of 
heathen blood is not open to doubt ; but there was 
still a proportion of Isrs. in the population (2 Ch. 

3O.10L). 

After the Exile, and the defection of Samaria, G. 
appears as the most northerly of the three provinces 
of W. Pal. Its S. border runs along the S. edge of 
the plain of Esdraelon, and its N. boundary is the 
tremendous gorge of the Litany, wh. shears it off 
fm. the mass of Lebanon. Lower G. stretched fm. 
Esdraelon to the plain of er-Rdmeh. The steep 
wall of the N. mountains formed a natl. boundary 
beyond wh. lay Upper G. The Jordan and the 
Sea of G. were the E. boundaries, but we cannot 
now determine the limits on the W. (BJ. II. xx. 6 ; 
III. iii. iff.). Guthe, Sanday, and others wrongly 
assume that G. included Gamala. See Bethsaida. 

The purely Jewish population of G. in post- 
Exilic times continued small, and in b.c 165 Simon 
the Maccabee, with 3000 men, rescued them fm. 
their threatening neighbours, and conducted the 
entire community to Judea (1 M. 5. 14fl- )- They 
appear soon to have returned in considerable 
numbers (Ant. XIII. xii. 4, 5). The methods of 
Hyrcanus and Aristobulus doubtless secured large 
accessions to Judaism fm. the mixed peoples of G. 
(ib. ix. 1 ; xi. 3), and in Rm. times the population 
was mainly Jewish. This mingling of races suffi- 
ciently acts, for the distinction in dialect (Mk. 
14. 70 , &c.) and the freedom fm. Pharisaic tyranny 
wh. brought upon the province the contempt of 
the Judeans (Jn. I. 46 , 7. 52 ). But among the peasant 
farmers who tilled the rich valleys and tended the 
orchards and olive groves of G., a fine spt. of pa- 
triotism and high courage was developed. They 
formed the main strength of the Jewish armies in 
the bitter struggles for independence wh. marked 
the evening of the nation's life. 

Herod the Gt., then a youth of 25, was military 
governor of G. in b.c 47. Later it became part 
of his kdm. On his death, b.c. 4, it was given to 
Antipas, who ruled in G. all the days of Jesus. He 
was banished c. a.d. 40, and G. was added to the 
dominions of Agrippa I. After his death, a.d. 44 
(Ac. i2. 21fL ), an interval of Rm. rule followed, 
and then part of G. was given to Agrippa II., who 
held his position through all the stormy period to 



a.d. 100, fighting agst. his own countrymen. In 
a.d. 66 the two Gs. and Gamala, the strongest city 
in the N., were entrusted to the command of 
Josephus, in the patriotic interest ; but in spite 
of the heroic resistance offered, the overwhelming 
strength of Rm. under Vespasian soon brought the 
struggle to an end. 

In the early Rm. period Sepphoris (Dioccesared) 
was the chief city of G., but this distinction passed 
to the new city, Tiberias, built by Antipas on the 
lake shore ; and here the Sanhedrin, after a brief 
sojourn in various Galilean towns, found its final 
home. Here the Mishna was reduced to writing, 
and the Jrs. Talmud was compiled. 

G. comprises rich and varied scenery, mountain, 
valley and plain, with much that is picturesque and 
beautiful. The Sea, " the eye of G.," the " sapphire 
in a setting of emerald," lends a peculiar charm to 
its surroundings, reflecting in its calm depths the 
white-robed form of Gt. Hermon. Her children 
have ever been among the most industrious and en- 
terprising in Pal., and her produce, esp. her oil, has 
long been famous. Although the numbers given by 
Josephus may be exaggerated (c. 3,000,000), there 
is no doubt that G. supported a very large popula- 
tion. In this land nearly the whole life of Jesus was 
spent ; and it is worthy of note that eleven of His 
chosen twelve were Galileans. See Asher, Jezreel, 
Naphtali, and Zebulun. 

GALILEE, MOUNTAIN IN, where the dis- 
ciples met Jesus by appointment after His resur- 
rection and heard fm. His lips the missionaries' 
marching orders (Mw. 28. 16 ). Certainty is im- 
possible here, but Jebel Qan'dn, a bold height E. 
of Safed, overlooking Gennesaret, and the scenes of 
the Galilean ministry, with its spacious view of the 
land, in its length and breadth, wd. be a fit place 
for that memorable interview, and its far-reaching 
commission. 

GALILEE, SEA OF (Mw. 4. 18 , &c), called Sea 
of Chinnereth (Nu. 34. 11 , &c), Lake of Gennesaret 
(Lk. 5. 1 ) or of Tiberias (Jn. 6. 1 , 21. 1 ). The sea 
lies in the bottom of the Jordan Valley, c. 680 ft. 
below the level of the Mediterranean. It is c. 13 
miles long. Fm. el-Mejdel to the mouth of Wddy 
Semakh it is over 7 J miles broad, narrowing towards 
the S. The water is clear and sweet. The natives 
prize it as light and pleasant, but they will not drink' 
fm. the Jordan. Fish of many kinds abound, and 
may be seen at times, esp. near the warm springs, in 
vast shoals. The hills to E. and W. rise to a height 
of c. 2000 ft. To the N. lies the great mass of Mt. 
Naphtali. A strip of plain runs round the edge of 
the sea. On the E. it narrows N. of Wddy F7q, 
where the mountains drop precipitously on the 
beach : then it widens into the marshy plain of 
el-Bateiha y through wh. the Jordan enters the sea. 
At 'Aim, et-Tineb the cliff projects into the water. 



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Thence the plain of Gennesaret sweeps round S.W. 
to el-Mejdel, where lofty crags rise steeply fm. the 
shore. At Tiberias, again, there is a small crescent- 
shaped plain. Limestone is the prevailing forma- 
tion, overlaid with lava ; and the hot springs at 
Tiberias, 'Ain el-Fultyeh and et-Tdbgba, are re- 



bright shafts of the morning over the dark brows of 
Bashan. Is it fanciful to suppose that this furnished 
the material for his " sea of glass mingled with fire "? 
(Rv. 15. 2 ). If fm. the middle of the sea one has 
seen the shining glory of Hermon, thrusting his 
crystal battlements high into the royal blue of the 




Tiberias on Sea of Galilee 



minders of the volcanic character of the region. 
The surrounding soil is extraordinarily fertile. The 
heat, pouring down into the valley, and reflected 
fm. the opposing steeps, is often terrible, esp. in E. 
w ind — the dry sirocco. But a soft air stirs fm. the 
sea, esp. at evening ; and the whole atmosphere is 
frequently changed and freshened by the storms 
that break down with amazing fury fm. the uplands, 
through the deep valleys (Mk. 4. 37 ; Jn. 6. 18 ). 

In the time of Jesus the sea was the centre of a 
great and prosperous population. The remains of 
their splendid cities lie on slope and height around, 
and the land once well cultivated is now the grazing 
ground of the nomads. Fishing was then a flourish- 
ing industry, and the export of cured fish seems to 
have been profitable (Strabo, XVI. ii. 45). Over 
20 boats' crews are engaged in fishing to-day, using 
still the anct. gear. 

Much of our Lord's ministry is inseparably linked 



N. sky, he can hardly doubt whence came the sug- 
gestion for " the great white throne " (Rv. 20. 11 ). 

The lake has also laid its spell upon minds un- 
touched by these associations : witness the local 
Jewish belief, that for any one drowned in its 
waters, a special place is reserved in Paradise, 
very near to the throne : and the expectation that 
when Messiah comes He will rise fm. the lake. 

GALL. (1) Mererah, or merordh, " bitterness " 
(Dt. 32. 32 ), used of the " bile " or " gall," because 
of its bitterness (Jb. 16. 13 , 20. 25 ). The ancts. 
thought that serpents' poison was the G. (Jb. 20. 14 ). 
(2) Rosh, " head," a plant bearing a bitter head 
(Dt. 29. 18 , &c. ; Ho. io. 4 , EV. " hemlock ") ; most 
prob. the poppy is intended. The G., chole, 
mingled with vinegar for our Lord (Mw. 27. 34 ), is 
ident. with the "myrrh" of Mk. 15. 23 . It was 
usual to give the victim wine mixed with frankin- 
cense to drink, before crucifixion ; the effect being 




Sea of Galilee looking to NW. from the Open Sea 



with the blue waters of G., whence He called the 
chief members of His disciple band. John, in his 
boyhood and young manhood, was familiar with 
this beautiful lake. Often he had seen it smooth as 
polished glass in the grey dawn, reflecting in its 
clear depths every wrinkle of its guardian hills, and 
the flush of oleander on the shore. He had seen 
it kindled almost to unearthly splendours by the 



to deaden the pain. " Myrrh " is fm. the same 
root as merordh, and also means " bitterness." 

GALLERIES, the tr. of two Heb. words. 
(1) 'Attiq (Ek. 41. 16 , 42. 5 , LXX o-roa, irzpi<TTv\ov), 
prob. a colonnade. (2) Rabat (SS. J. 5 ) ; RV. renders 
" tresses," a preferable tr. The dark locks of the 
" prince's dr." captivated the k. 

GALLEY. See Ship. 



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Gam 



GALLIM (i S. 25. 44 ; Is. io. 30 ), a town in Benj., 
apparently N. of Jrs. : unident. 

GALLIO, " Deputy (proconsul) of Achaea " (Ac. 
l8. 12 ) at the time of Paul's residence in Corinth. 
He was br. of Seneca the Philosopher, who extols his 
disposition. When Paul was brought before his 
judgment-seat by the Jews, he dismissed the case 
contemptuously. When the populace, taking their 
cue fm. the governor, beat Sosthenes the Jew, G. 
did not interfere ; this attitude of G. helped the 
establishment of the Church in Corinth. After his 
br. had (a.d. 65) been compelled to commit suicide 
G. was spared a little while, but soon also perished. 



A, oKh6n JubbYoW ^ T 




PEF. Map 

Sea of Galilee and its Surroundings 

GALLOWS. See Crimes and Penalties. 

GAMALIEL. (1) S. of Pedahzur, prince of 
Manasseh (Nu. I. 10 , &c). (2) A Jewish Rabbi of 
distinguished eminence in the first days of the 
apostles. He appears to have been grandson of the 
famous Hillel. He is generally referred to in Jewish 
Lit. as " Gamaliel the Elder," and is thus distin- 
guished fm. his own grandson, Gamaliel II., whose 
name does not appear in Scrip. The impression 
made by G. on his age, confirmed by what is re- 
corded of him, was that of a man deeply learned in 
the law, singularly open-minded, tolerant, and just. 
His interference on behalf of the apostles (Ac. 5- 27ff -) 
quite accords with his char. He was the Jewish in- 
structor of St. Paul (Ac. 22. 3 ). The Mishna records 



that " when he died the honour [outward respect] of 
the Torah ceased, and purity and piety became 
extinct " (Sotah, xv. 18 ; quoted in Jzv. En. s.v). 
The favour shown to the apostles no doubt ac- 
counts for the belief at a later time that G. was 
secretly a Christian (Clem. Re cog. i. 65). There is 
no reason to question his loyalty to the Jewish faith. 

GAMES. In the OT. references to games are 
almost entirely awanting. This does not, however, 
warrant us in drawing far-reaching conclusions re- 
garding the serious habits of the people. It should 
be borne in mind that among the Hebrews re- 
ligious ceremonies were frequently so joyful and 
sensuous in their nature as to satisfy the instinctive 
desire for mirth and recreative pleasures. That the 
children of the Hebrew people had their games as 
children have in other lands might have been 
assumed even in the absence of any allusion, but 
there is an explicit reference in Zechariah's picture 
of the restored Jerusalem : " The streets of the city 
shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets 
thereof " (Zc. 8. 5 ). The instinct of imitation 
plays a large part in the diversions of children, and 
that this was the case in Palestine is borne out by 
the words of Jesus (Mw. II. 16 - 17 ; Lk. 7. 31 . 32 ), 
where the Jews are compared to petulant children 
who refuse to join their playmates at their games of 
weddings and funerals. It is interesting to note 
that the words both of Zechariah and Jesus speak 
of the streets and open market-place as the scene 
of the children's games. A trustworthy reference 
to the amusements of children in the villages of 
Palestine is to be found in the Apocryphal Gospel 
of Thomas, where we read that the Jewish children 
diverted themselves by modelling in wet clay and 
by making dams to keep back streams of running 
water (chap. 2.). It has also been ingeniously 
suggested that the horseplay indulged in towards 
Jesus (Lk. 22. 64 ) was a sort of " Blind Man's Buff," 
probably played by children, in which one was 
blindfolded and, when touched or slapped, was 
asked to guess who struck him. Dancing was an 
amusement engaged in both by the young (Jb. 2 1. 11 ) 
and by grown-up people, although in the case of 
the latter it was indulged in most commonly in 
connection with religious ceremonies (cp. Ex. I5. 20f -; 
Jg. 2i. 19ff - ; 2 S. 6. 14 ). 

Unlike the Greeks, the Hebrews did not to any 
great extent cultivate manly sports and exercises. 
It is a fair inference, however, from several passages 
that these were not altogether unknown. In Jg. 
20. 16 we read that the tribe of Benjamin was famous 
for its expert slingers in war, and the reference in 
that passage, as well as considerations of a general 
kind, entitle us to believe that the practice of the 
sling was indulged in by way of sport. The same 
may be said of archery. The use of the bow was of 
course primarily for military purposes, but shooting 

13 



Gam 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gar 



at a mark must have been a customary recreation 
(cp. I S. 20. 20 ; L. 3. 12 ). Beyond these exercises, 
however, which had their origin in military training, 
there is no reference to manly sports in the OT. 
Gymnastic training and athletic exercises (among 
which throwing the discus is specially mentioned) 
were first introduced among the Jews in B.C. 174 
by Jason, a Grecising High Priest, 
but his action was most repugnant 
to the stricter spirits among the 
people (2 M. 4. 7 - 17 ). 



obtain 



Cor. 9 



26 



:c I therefore so run, not as 
uncertainly " ; Php. 3- 13 - u ; He. 12. 2 , " looking 
(away from everything else) unto Jesus ") ; (6) the 



I2. J 




need of endurance or staying power (He. 
" run with patience ") ; (7) the joy of victory (Ac. 
20. 24 ) ; (8) the prize awarded to the winner (1 Cor. 
9. 25 , where the enduring reward of the Christian 
life is contrasted with the perishableness of the 
wreath of olive or pine given to the victor in the 

14 . ^ T™ -7 5 



The Stadium 



foot-race; Php. 3.1 4 ; 2" Tm. 2. 5 , 4. 8 ) ; (9) the 
spectators who sat round the stadion on seats rising 
Lighter diversions, not strictly to tier upon tier (He. 12. 1 ; 1 Cor. 4. 9 ) ; and (10) the 
be regarded as games, were music judge, whose chief characteristic should be fairness 
and singing, story-telling, and the (2 Tm. 4. 1 ), who disqualified dishonourable corn- 
giving of riddles. petitors (l Cor. 9 . 27 , " lest I myself should be a 
In the NT., beyond the reference castaway," i.e. disqualified for not observing the 
to the amusements of children men- rules), and who was stationed in the full sight of the 
tioned above, the passages relating to runners at the goal to award the prize (He. 12. ; 
games contain metaphorical allusions Php. 3. 14 ). 

to the well-known Greco-Roman The widespread interest m games, which amounted 
athletic contests. There is one refer- to a passion in Greco-Roman times, explains the 
ence to the venationes or contests frequency with which St. Paul makes use of the 
in which trained men (bestiarii, image of the foot-race to impress on his converts 
venatores) fought with wild beasts the self-discipline and the wholeheartedness which 
(1 Cor 15 32 ), and although the were necessary for living the Christian life. The 
passage has been understood by some competent metaphor was one calculated to make a popular and 
scholars as indicating that St. Paul was exposed in forcible appeal, and it is noteworthy that the most 
the arena to the attack of wild animals, it is generally sustained application of it is found in one of the 
regarded as a figurative allusion to the mob-violence letters to the Church at Corinth, in the vicinity 
through which, at Ephesus, the apostle was in dan. of which were held every two years the famous 
ger of his life. The account given in Acts 19. of Isthmian Games. A. *. *indlay. 

the apostle's experience at Ephesus makes reference 



to the Asiarchs (" certain of the chief of Asia," 
v. 31), the High Priests of the imperial cult or 
Roman state-religion, who had to maintain the 
dignity of their office by providing at their own 
expense gladiatorial and other games. With the 
exception of one or two allusions to boxing (1 Cor. 
9. 26 , " so fight I, not as one that beateth the air " ; 
2 Tm. 4. 7 ), the NT. references to Greek games are 
exclusively confined to the foot-race, the most im- 
portant of all the athletic contests. Allusions of a 
general kind are to be found in Acts 13. 25 , 20. 24 ; 
2 Th. 3. 1 (" that the word may run ") ; Gal. 2. 2 , 
5. 7 ; Php. 2. 16 ; 2 Tm. 4- 7 . More extended refer- 
ences are contained in 1 Cor. 9. 24 " 27 ; Php. 3- 12 " 14 ; 
He. 12. 1 ' 2 ; and in these we see reflected all the 
details and circumstances of a Greek foot-race. 
There are allusions to (1) the training necessary for 
the contest (1 Cor. 9- 25 - 27 ) ; (2) the stadion or race- 

24 



course (1 Cor. 9- 24 , " they which run in a race- 
course ") ; (3) the summons given by a herald to the 
competitors (1 Cor. 9- 27 , " when I have preached 
to others," i.e. called others to the contest) ; (4) the 
stripping for the race in which the runners ran naked 




Assyrian Garden and Fish Pond 



GAMMADIM (Ek. 27. 11 ). LXX gives phulakes, 
guards," but the name of a people, or inhabitants 

(He. 12.1, " k^aslde ^y^umbrance and of some place, se s to be fended. Guthe suggs. 

the sin that hampers us"); (5) the concentration Qdmtd el-Lauzmthe Baqa^ {KB. s.v.). 



of the runner (1 Cor. 9 



« so run that ye may GARDEN stands for Heb. gan, gannab, 
214 



enclo- 



Gar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gat 



sure," and -paries, a word of Persian origin, and used 
in mod. Armenian for " pleasure ground " or " gar- 
den." The terms are somewhat elastic, like the 
Arb. jannah and bustan, wh. cover vegetable Gs. as 
well as orchards, &c. The G. was usually fenced 
around to protect it fm. marauders, animal and 



the E. The Arabs put it into the buttermilk wh. 
they drink, believing it to possess excellent tonic 
qualities. 

GARNER. Grain is not stored in the E. until it 
is threshed and winnowed. The apotheke (Mw. 



3- 



Lk. 



3. 17 " garner 



Mw. 6. 26 , 13. 30 ; Lk. 




Garden in Modern Palestine 



human (SS. 4. 12 ). Water is the wizard that works 
wonders in Pal. Wherever it is found the G. 
prospers, by the bank of the stream (Nu. 24. 6 ), near 
the perennial spring (SS. 4. 15 ), or hard by the cistern 
or great reservoir, whence the water, captured in the 
rainy season, is led in runlets to the roots of tree and 
plant. Without water the G. perishes (Is. I. 30 ). 
The G. is planted, of course, with a view to utility 
(Jr. 2c;. 5 ), and a great variety of fruit is grown in 
the orchards of Pal. : flowers also, of wh. Orientals 
are very fond, and vegetables ; while grain is some- 
times sown in the spaces between the trees. 

Gs. in old times were favourite resorts of ido- 
laters (Is. 6$?; Ba. 16. 70 ). The Oriental loves to 
stroll in the G. (SS. 6. 2 ; Est. j.\ &c). One who 
has escaped fm. the flats, e.g. of the plain of Acre, 
with its fierce heat and dusty ways, into the shade of 
the great G., el-Bahjeh, with its cool water and de- 
licious fruit, can understand why the Moslem Para- 
dise is dreamed of as el-Jannah, " the G." par- 
excellence. See Eden, Paradise. The natives often 
sleep under the fruit-trees. The Gs. on Olivet 
attracted Jesus and His disciples. He was wont to 
go thither with the dying day (Mk. n. 19 , RV. ; Lk. 
2I. 37 ), and there the traitor found Him (Jn. 18. 1 ' 26 ). 
In a tomb made in a G., accdg. to anct. practice 
(2 K. 21. 18 , &c), His body was laid to rest (Jn. 19. 41 ). 

GAREB. (1) One of David's heroes, "the 
Ithrite," i.e. prob. native of Jattir (2 S. 23. 38 ; 
1 Ch. 11. 40 ). (2) A hill, unident., prob. W. of Jrs. 
(Jr. 3 iP). 

GARLICK, a condiment very popular in Egp. 
(Nu. II. 5 ; cp. Herod, ii. 125). It is used all over 



12.I8, 24 « B arn ") i n R m> times was prob. a bldg. of 
some kind. But the immemorial usage of the E. has 
been to conceal the grain in carefully prepared pits 
or caves, wh., being perfectly dry, will preserve it 
for yrs. It thus escaped, as far as poss., the atten- 
tions of the tax-gatherer as well as of the robber — 
not always easily distinguished in the E. (Jr. 41 . 8 ). 




Raising Wheat from a Cistern-like Garner 

GATE (Heb. sha'ar), the entrance to walled 
towns. For purposes of protection the gates were 
sometimes placed in the basement of a tower, or 
were specially fortified by flanking towers. They 
closed with two leaves (daletboth, Jg, 16. 3 ). Watch- 
men were set in the towers over the G. ; sometimes 
there was a chamber over the G. (2 S. 18. 33 ). 
Anciently in the open space in front of the G. 
was the market, where the people fm. the country 
brought wares for sale. As there was frequently an 



215 



Gat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gaz 



outer and an inner G. the space between was hist. The last refce. to it is Mi. I. 10 . The site is 
utilised for the meeting of the elders of the town now uncert. Fm. I S. 17. 52 we gather that it was 
as judges (Gn. 23. 10 ; Ru. 4. 1 ). near Wady es-Sunt. OEJ. places it five Rm. miles 




Damascus Gate, Jerusalem 



GATH, a royal city of the Phil., not taken by Isr. 
(Jo. 13. 3 ). It was the scene of many desperate en- 
counters, and remained a thorn in the side of Isr. 
down to the close of the monarchy (2 S. 21. 20 ; I K. 
2. 39 ; 2 Ch. 26. 6 , &c). It was the home of Goliath, 
wh. makes the reported visit of David (1 S. 2i. 10ff -) 
appear madness indeed. The Ark was taken fm. 
Ashdod to G., and thence despatched to Ekron (1 S. 




PEF. Drawing 



Tell es-Safi (Gath?) 



5. 8 ). Fm. the battle in the Vale of Elah, the Phil, 
fled to G. (17. 52 ). It was taken by David (1 Ch. 
18. 1 ) and fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. n. 8 ). It 
fell also to Hazael, k. of Syr. (2 K. 12. 17 ), but it was 
still in Phil, hands when Uzziah " brake down the 
wall " (2 Ch. 26. 6 ). Thereafter it disappears fm. 

2 



on the way fm. Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin) to 
Diospolis (Lydda). In his com. on Mi. I. 10 Jerome 
places it on the way fm. Eleutheropolis to Gaza. 
" Gaza " is clearly wrong : if it stands for Gazara, 
then the same site is indicated as in OEJ. This 
points definitely to the important vill. and ruin, 
Dhlkrtn. Tell es-Safi, the usually accepted site, 
lies four miles further N. It is the Crusaders' 
" Blanchegarde," a position of great strength, S. of 
Wady es-Sunt. 

GATH-HEPHER (" Winepress of the pit "), the 
home of Jonah, lay on the boundary of Zebulun 
(Jo. 19. 13 ; 2 K. 14. 25 ). Jerome (Com. on Jonah) 
places it on the Tiberias road, two miles fm. Sep- 
phoris (Seffurieh). With this corrsps. el-Meshhed, a 
vill. with ruins, and a tomb associated with Jonah, 
on a hill N. of the road, c. \ mile fm. Kefr Kennah. 

GATH-RIMMON. (1) An unident. city in 
Dan (Jo. 19. 45 , 21. 24 ), reckoned to Ephraim (1 Ch. 
6. 69 ). (2) A Kohathite city in Manasseh (Jo. 
2I. 25 , LXX, /?, 'Itfiadd; a, £cu6W, I Ch. 6.™ 
" Bileam "), unident. 

GAZA, still called by its anct. name, Ghuzzeh, 
lies on a hill three miles fm. the sea, c. 40 miles S. of 
Jaffa. The population is variously estimated at 
16,000 (Baedeker) to 35,000 (Guthe). The main 
industries are the culture of silk, weaving, and 
pottery. Numerous wells supply abundance of 
fresh water. Luxuriant gardens and great stretches 
16 



Gaz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ged 



of olive and palm brighten the landscape. Standing 
on the highway to Egp., the first place of call on the 
N'ward journey, the western terminus of the roads 




PEF. Drawing 

Bas-relief on Pier of Great Mosque, Gaza 

fm. Sinai and Arabia, it is to-day what it has always 
been, a famous market and meeting-place of mer- 
chantmen and tribesmen fm. the neighbouring 
deserts. The ruins above ground are fm. Crusading 
times. In the sanctuary Abu el- l Azm, " Father of 
Strength," there is prob. an allusion to Samson. 

G. marked the S. boundary of the Can. (Gn. io. 19 ), 
of Joshua's conquest (io. 41 ), and of Solomon's do- 
minion (i K. 4~ 24 ). Judah, to whom it was allotted, 
failed to take G. (Jg. I. 18 , LXX, 15 47 , 3. 3 ). It 
figures prominently in the story of Samson (Jg. 16.). 
In the strife between Asyr. and Egp. G. suffered 
much, fm. its capture by Tiglath-pileser III. (b.c. 
734) to its overthrow by Pharaoh, prob. Necho 
(b.c. 610-594, Jr. 47. 1 ). It fell in succession to 
Bab. (b.c 605), the Persians, Alex, the Gt. {Ant. XI. 
viii. 3). Taken by Antiochus III., under whom it 
became a thoroughly Gr. city, it was besieged by 
Jonathan the Maccabee (1 M. n. 61f - ; Ant. XIII. 
v. 5) and destroyed by Jannaeus {ib. xiii. 3). It was 
declared free by Pompey, b.c 62, and rebuilt, prob. 
on a site nearer the sea, by Gabinius {ib. XIV. iv. 4, 
v. 3) ; and the new city enjoyed great prosperity. 
It was given, b.c 30, to Herod the Gt., and at his 
death was added to the province of Syr. {ib. XV. 
vii. 3 ; XVII. xi. 4). It is mentioned (Ac. 8. 26 ) 
as " desert " : this prob. refers to the old city. It 
was destroyed, a.d. 66, by rebellious Jews {BJ. II. 
xviii. 1). That it was little harmed by this " de- 
struction " is shown by many evidences of its con- 
tinued prosperity. It was captured by Abu Bekr's 
general, 'Amr ibn el J As, a.d. 634. It was taken but 



not fortified by the Crusaders, and reverted to the 
Moslems after the battle of Hatttn, a.d. 1 170. 

Lit. : see Schiirer, HJC. II. i. 68ff. ; G. A. 
Smith, HGHL. 1 i82ff. 

GAZELLE. RV. for Roe, Roebuck, wh. see. 

GEBA, " a hill." (1) A Levite city on the NE. 
boundary of Benj. (Jo. 18. 24 , &c), marking the N. 
frontier of the kdm. of Judah (2 K. 23. 8 ). G. in 

2 S. 5. 25 = " Gibeon " in 1 Ch. 14. 16 . G. stood 
over agst. Michmash (mod. Mukhmds), S. of the 
gorge Wddy Suweiriit, and is prob. ident. with Jeba', 
less than a mile fm. the valley, the passage of wh. it 
commands. Fortified by Asa (1 K. 15. 22 ), it is men- 
tioned by Isaiah (io. 28fl> ). It was reoccupied after 
the Exile (Ne. II. 31 ; Ez. 2. 26 ). The proximity of 
Gibeah led to occasional confusion of the names 
(Jg. 20. 10 ' 25 ; 1 S. 13. 2 ' 16 ). (2) A fortress between 
Samaria and Scythopolis (Jth. 3. 10 ), poss. = Jeba' a, 

3 J miles N. of Sebastiyeb. 

GEBAL. (1) A district S. of the Dead Sea (Ps. 
83. 7 ), prob. = "Gebalene," with wh. OEJ. idents. 
Seir. The mod. Jebdl extends S. fm. Zerqd Ma'~in 
to Wddy er-Rmeyl, el-Wdleh, and its continuation 
Seyl Hey dan (Musil, Arabia Petrcea, i. 1). (2) An 
anct. Phoenician city on a low hill near the shore, 
c. four miles N. of the mouth of Nahr Ibrahim = 
mod. Jebeil (Ek. 27. 9 ). It was noted in antiquity 
as the seat of Adonis worship. Its inhabitants were 




North-west Gateway, Tiberias : Ruins of Watch-tower 
on Top. See Gate 

called Giblites Qo. 13. 5 , RV. " Gebalites " ; so 
1 K. 5. 18 , RV.). 

GEBIM (" cisterns "), a place named between 
Anathoth and Nob (Is. io. 31 ), prob. on the hill S. of 
l Andta, NW. of Jrs. 

GEDALIAH, s. of Ahikam, grands, of Shaphan ; 

17 



Ged 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gen 



he protected Jeremiah, and after the capture of 
Jrs. he was made governor over Judah (Jr. 39. 14 , 
40. 7 ). His rule appears to have been wise, but after 
two months Ishmael, s. of Nethaniah, " of the seed 
royal," came with ten men and treacherously slew 
him (Jr. 41 . 2 ). 

GEDERAH, a city of Judah, in the Shephelah 
(Jo. 15. 36 ), prob. = Khirbet Jadireh, three miles 
SW. of Gezer. To this prob. corrsps. G. of I Ch. 
4. 23 , RV. Gederathite, an inhabitant of G. (1 Ch. 
12. 4 ). 

GEDEROTH, an unident. town in the Shephe- 
lah (Jo. 15. 41 ; 2 Ch. 28. 18 ). Conder suggs. Katrah, 
near Yebna. 

GEDEROTHAIM, as it stands in MT., is the 
15th, where only 14 cities are intended. LXX 
seems to tr. " cattle shelters." 

GEDOR. (1) A town in the uplands of Judah 
(Jo. 15. 58 ; 1 Ch. 12. 7 ), prob. ident. with Khirbet 
Jedur, c. seven miles N. of Hebron. (2) Where the 
sons of Simeon sought pasture (1 Ch. 4 39 ). We 
shd. prob. read " Gerar." (3) An ancestor of Saul 
(1 Ch. 8. 31 , c.. 37 ). See also 1 Ch. 4> 18 . 

GE-HARASHIM (1 Ch. 4. 14 , RV. ; "Valley of 
Charashim," AV. ; Ne. 1 1. 35 , " Valley of Crafts- 
men," EV.). There is poss. a reminiscence of the 
name in Khirbet Hirsha, E. of Lydda. 

GEHAZI, the servant (na'ar, " lad ") of Elisha 
(2 K. 4. 12 , &c). A man of insight, he advised 
Elisha of the Shunamite's great desire (v. 14). He 
was sent with his master's staff to lay on the 
dead boy (v. 31). His covetousness overcame both 
honesty and truthfulness, and brought disaster upon 
him (ib. 5. 20ff -). He appears in a better light in his 
conversation with the k. (8. 4ff -). 
GEHENNA, RVm. See Hell. 
GELILOTH, a place on the S. border of Benj. 
over agst. the Ascent of Adummim (Jo. 18. 17 ), 
called "the gilgal " in 15. 7 (Heb.) : not ident. 
The Heb. word is elsewhere used in the sense of 
" district " (Jo. 13. 2 , 22. 10 , &c). 

GENEALOGY (Heb. yahas). Although men- 
tion of G. is post-Exilic, yet there must have been 
Gs. before the Exile in order that they mt. be 
available after it. When Ezra introduced more ex- 
clusive ideas as to the privileges of Israelite descent, 
natly. Gs. became more important ; especial at- 
tention appears to have been given to the Priestly 
and Royal tables of descent ; the case of the " chil- 
dren of Barzillai " (Ne. J. u ) is in point. To under- 
stand the value to be attached to the anct. Gs. we 
must remember the ideas prevalent. Even now a 
slave, it mt. be a Nubian, purchased into a tribe in 
youth wd. be regarded as descended fm. the tribal 
ancestor. Hence the Israelite tribes are not to be 
looked upon as descended fm. Jacob. Prob. the 
great mass were the offspring of his slaves or of 
those possessed by his sons. Only the princes of the 



tribes cd. really regard the name-father of the tribe 
as their ancestor. The influence of Levirate mar- 
riage and adoption have to be considered ; accdg. 
to these a man mt. figure in two if not three Gs. 
Post-Exilic Gs. seem to have been accurately kept 
(Jos. con. Ap. I. 7). In regard to the Gs. in Gn. 
they have difft. historic value ; the links in the Gs. 
of the sons of Jacob may be taken as approximately 
correct. In the case of the earlier lists only the 
more outstanding names wd. be recorded. Gn. 10. 
is a record of what was believed as to ethnological 
affinities ; modified to some extent by geography. 
As to the yet earlier table we are scarcely in a posi- 
tion to come to a final conclusion. We cannot tell 
the antiquity of writing, nor when clay tablets were 
first used for writing on. The accurate keeping 
of the Gs. rendered such interpolations as that in 
Ne. 12. 11 readily possible. Fm. Chronicles we 
learn that interspersed with the steps in the Gs. 
there were notes historical and other, wh. in some 
cases have occasioned mistakes, e.g. 1 Ch. 25. 4 , 
in wh. a verse of a Ps. is split into proper names ; 
these blunders imply documents wh. have been mis- 
read. No traces seem to have been found as yet 
either in Egp. or Asyr. of a system of registration of 
births. 

Genealogy of our Lord. — The diffces. between 
the G. of our Lord as given in Mw. 1. and that in 
Lk. 3. meet the most casual reader. The diffce. of 
order is the least important, tho' that wh. is first to 
be observed — from David downward the steps differ 
except at two points. While Mw.'s G. is carried 
through Solomon and Lk.'s through Nathan, at the 
date of the return from the Captivity there are 
two names of father and son identical in both Gs., 
Salathiel and Zorobabel, and Joseph is represented 
as the son of Jacob in Mw. I. 16 , and of Heli in Lk. 
3. 23 . Various theories have been advanced to har- 
monise them. The most plausible, on the whole, 
is that while Mw. gives the legal G. through Joseph, 
Lk. gives that of Mary, wh. is the true natural G. of 
Jesus. As Mary was one of a family of daughters, 
she wd. have to marry within her own kin ; there- 
fore in all probability she was, like her husband, of 
David's descent. Salathiel and Zorobabel in Mw. 
and Lk. must be taken as different individuals ; and 
Joseph, while son of Jacob, was son-in-law of Heli. 
In reading the law at the Passover, if there be no son 
of the house, the eldest son-in-law takes the place. 

Another theory is that both give, as they osten- 
sibly do, the genealogy of Joseph, and differences 
are explained by adoptions, occurring at two dis- 
tinct steps. If the prophecy (Jr. 22. 30 ) that Jecho- 
niah was to be childless is to be taken literally, 
Shealtiel (Salathiel) was his adopted son. Again, 
natural descent from Zerubbabel (Zorobabel) ter- 
minated in Jacob, son of Matthan, who adopted his 
kinsman Joseph, son of Heli. 
18 



Gen 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gen 



Matthew, then, gives the legal, while Luke gives 
the natural, descent of Joseph. 

The main difficulty of this method of harmonis- 
ing the two genealogies is that it seems to imply that 
our Lord need not have been of Davidic descent. 
But as Mary had no brothers, she would be obliged 
to marry into her father's family. Therefore, inde- 
pendently of the genealogies, it is evident that our 
Lord would be of Davidic descent. 

GENERATION (Heb. dor, " a cycle "), a some- 
what indefinite period of time ; etymologically it 
has no connection with steps of descent, altho' 
usage appears to assume this meaning {see Dt. 
23. 3 « 8 ). At times G. means a century (Gn. 15. 13 , 
cp. 16 ). G. also means those that were contempo- 
raries,, e.g. Ex. i. 6 . This meaning may explain how 
G. came to mean a century ; fm. the birth of the 
oldest of the contemporaries of a great man to the 
death of the youngest wd. be approximately a 
hundred years. In NT. G. (Gr. gennema) means 
"offspring" (Mw. 3J and parallels), " G. of vipers." 
Occasionally G. means a " class," e.g. Ps. 14. 5 , " G. 
of the Righteous " (cp. Pr. 30. 11L ). 

GENESIS (Heb. bereshlth, fm. the opening word), 
the first bk. in the Pentateuch (the Torah). Con- 
tents. — (1) Creation of the world and man ; man 
placed in Eden (Creation), chaps. I . and 2. (2) The 
fall ; Cain and Abel ; genealogies of the lines of 
Cain and Seth, chaps. 3.-5. (3) The Flood ; the 
blessing of Noah ; the division of the races of man- 
kind ; the building of Babel ; genealogy fm. Seth 
to Abraham, chaps. 6.-11. (4) Hist, of Abraham to 
the Marriage of Isaac, chaps. 1 2.-24. (5) I saac > to 
the departure of Jacob to Padan-Aram, chaps. 25.- 
27. (6) Hist, of Jacob to the death of Isaac ; with 
genealogies of Esau, chaps. 28.-36. (7) The hist, 
of Joseph, chaps. 37.-50. G. is thus an Introduc- 
tion leading up to the legislative portions of the 
Pentateuch. The hist, becomes more and more 
detailed till the descent into Egp. Four-fifths of 
the bk. are occupied with the hist, of the Patriarchs ; 
more than the half dealing with the details of the 
hist, of Jacob and his family. G. is thus primarily 
founded, as was the hist, of Rome, on the hist, of a 
family. 

Sources. — While Myth (Parable) and Legend 
(Tradition) have had a share in supplying the 
materials of G., we must not forget that writing 
was practised by regular scribes long before the call 
of Abraham, so that records of events may quite 
possibly have been preserved by being stamped on 
clay tablets. The act. of Creation must be due 
either to Imagination or Revelation : unless we are 
prepared to deny the possibility of the latter we 
must regard it as psychologically the more probable. 
We have seen in studying Creation and the Flood 
that the Heb. form of these stories is the more primi- 
tive, and that all races, in the earliest form of their 



respective religions, were monotheistic. Which- 
ever the source, poetry must have been the vehicle ; 
therefore the Truth was symbolic, not literal. 

It shd. be noted that in the act. of Creation, the scene 
is portrayed as it mt, be supposed to present itself to a 
human eye. If that is taken as granted most of the objec- 
tions {i.e. the appearance of the stars after the plants) are 
rendered pointless. 

In Legend there is present a certain colouring, 
like that introduced into microscopic anatomical 
sections, to give distinctness to the parts. 

The objections urged that some of the events are imposs. 
are often due to failure to realise the actual state of matters 
in primitive times. For example, when Gunkel declares 
the defeat of Chedorlaomer and his confederates by 
Abraham and his 318 servants to be imposs., he for- 
gets, first, that the army of Chedorlaomer and those with 
him was prob. not more than 10,000 men ; next, that in 
addition to the servants of Abraham there were the men 
of his Hittite allies, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre ; each of 
whom wd. have a following nearly as large as that of 
Abraham : he forgets the effect of surprise on a half- 
disciplined army. 

Structure. — Gunkel notes a clearly marked dis- 
tinction between the legends wh. regard mankind 
as a whole, and those wh. apply only to the Abra- 
hamic race, i.e. Gn. I. 1 -!!. 32 , as compared with the 
chaps, following. The common Critical position, wh. 
this somewhat oversets, is that there was a Judean 
document characterised by a preference for " Je- 
hovah " (JHWH) as the name of God : this, it is 
alleged, was composed about b.c 850, that is to 
say, while Jehoshaphat was k. ; this is called J. 
According to some, about the same time there 
was compiled in the Northern, Ephraimite kdm. 
another document, whose writer preferred " Elo- 
him " (God) as the name of Deity ; this document 
is called E. Some date E. 200 yrs. later, during the 
reign of Manasseh : an unlikely date. 

A more improbable idea is that J 2 , (a Judean 
writer on the lines of the earlier Jehovist) wrote at 
this date, when Manasseh was promoting idolatry 
and putting down Jehovism by persecution. In 
the reign of Josiah, b.c 630, it is alleged that 
Deuteronomy was " discovered " (there is no evi- 
dence to restrict the " Bk. of the Law " in 2 K. 
22. 8 to Dt.) ; about the same time a writer imbued 
with the spt. of the Deuteronomic reformation 
over-wrote the documents of J. and E., wh. had 
prob. now been combined in JE. In Bab., under 
the influence of Ezekiel, about b.c 500, some priest 
went over the Torah, making extensive additions. 
This was the " Law " promulgated by Ezra ; even 
to it there were additions made. 

We venture to say that such a process of modi- 
fications, interpolations, and redactions is unex- 
ampled in any other literature, and shd. therefore 
be accepted only on the strongest evidence. That 
the Pnt. is composite as a whole, and that G. by 
itself is so also, is apparently certain ; but the 
Critical hypothesis of its composition now in favour 
is, to say the least, doubtful. One defect in the 



219 



Gen 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gen 



Critical Theory is its failure to recognise the diffc. 
in structure between G. and the rest of the Pnt. 
Besides differing very considerably in vocabulary, 
there are in G. formulae recurrent that are not in 
the after bks., e.g. " the book of the generations of," 
wh. introduces genealogies or parallel accounts. 

Dr. Driver's idea, that by this formula " the narrative 
of G. is cast into a framework or scheme," is mistaken; 
were it so G. wd. begin with this formula, wh. it does not. 
Against it also is the great inequality of the sections ; e.g. 
the 5th section contains 17 vv., whereas the next contains 
12 chaps, and portions of other two ; the 7th section con- 
tains 7 vv. , while the 8th consists of 10J chaps. ; the 9th 
is only 8 vv., the 10th 35 vv., whereas the nth occupies 
14 chaps. It wd. almost seem as if Dr. Driver concealed 
fm. himself the incorrectness of his view. In his paradigm 
(LOT. pp. 5, 6) he gives no indication that the formula is 
not present at the beginning of the 1st chap., nor that it 
appears in 2. 4 ; he is equally reticent as to the fact that two 
of these so-called sections occur in the 36th chap. 

On the other hand, the phrase " the Lord (or 
God) spake unto . . . saying," so frequent in the 
middle bks. of the Pnt., is rare in G. All this indi- 
cates that G. had a different literary hist. 

Date. — Without assuming the Mosaic author- 
ship we shall endeavour to discover what traces we 
have of the kge. of the nars. in G. in the earlier 
prophets, Amos and Hosea. Amos knew of the 
destruction of Sodom (4. 11 ) ; Hosea knew of the 
hist, of Jacob (12. 3 " 5 ). The passages referred to 
are mainly drawn fm. J 2 ., except one or two sen- 
tences in regard to Bethel, wh. are attributed to E. ; 
but J 2 , is dated long after the fall of the Northern 
Kdm. The way both authors assume in their 
auditors an intimate acquaintance with the hist, of 
G. implies that the bk. had been long known. The 
episode of chap. 14. (Amraphel, Arioch, Chedor- 
laomer, Tidal) is relegated to late in the time of 
the Exile. Singularly enough, the names of all these 
ks. have appeared in the monuments, and are found 
to be contemporaries ; and approximately of the 
date of Abraham. No one who has studied speci- 
mens of Midrash wd. anticipate such accuracy ; the 
truth is that glaring anachronisms are generally 
present. It is utterly agst. the doctrine of chances 
that a Jew, laying aside Nimrod whom he had to 
hand, shd. invent four names, with one exception, 
unlike any names elsewhere in Scrip., and that these 
shd. turn out to be those of monarchs contemporary 
with each other (see Israel). It is simpler to imagine 
the nar. drawn fm. clay tablets preserved among the 
Isrs., or it mt. be among the Hittites of Hebron. 
Of course there is no record of the overthrow pre- 
served. It seems prob. that the empire of Ham- 
murabi (Amraphel) began with the defeat of the 
allies at Damascus, wh. broke the supremacy of 
Chedorlaomer. The compilation of G. may be due 
to the literary activity of the prophetic schools of 
the days of Samuel. There has been a process of 
editing, but its extent cannot be determined. 

Historicity. — As we have seen, the opening chaps. 



of G. may be looked upon as parabolic, while, in 
respect of the latter portion, the legendary element 
may be present, colouring the bald facts. In re- 
gard to the hist, of Joseph the destruction of the 
records of the Hyksos Kings by the dynasties that 
succeeded them renders the want of all refc. to him 
of little probative force. Gunkel's objns. {Legends 
of Genesis) to the historicity of G. are not of much 
val., e.g. " a world-conquering army cannot be con- 
quered by 318 men"; but the army of the Meso- 
potamian allies wd. probably be little more than 
10,000 strong, and Abraham's allies wd. not un- 
likely have each as large a following as he, and then 
there was the effect of surprise and night attack. 
The odds at Marathon were probably greater agst. 
the Greeks than agst. Abraham at Damascus, and 
the Greeks had not the advantage of surprise. He 
objects to the silence of the act. during the resi- 
dence of Isr. in Egp., but Jewish history is silent 
concerning a nearly equal period during the Persian 
supremacy. 

GENNESARET, LAKE OF. See Galilee, 
Sea of. 

GENNESARET, LAND OF (Mw. 14. 34 ; Mk. 
6. 53 ), is the mod. Gbuweir, Little Ghor, wh. stretches, 
crescent -like, fm. el-Mejdel to '"Ain et-Tineh, along 
the NW. shore of the sea, in length c. three miles, 
and in average breadth c. a mile. The land, now 
largely neglected, is of marvellous fertility, and in 
anct. times it was the scene of a perfect " rivalry of 
Nat.," all kinds of fruit and garden produce vieing 




The Land of Gennesaret looking from et Tabgha 
towards the mount of beatitudes 

with each other in luxuriance (BJ. III. x. 8). The 
writers of the Talmud are no less enthusiastic 
(Pesachim, 8 b , Megillah, 6 a , Bereshith Rabba, quoted 
by Edersheim, LTJ. ii. 5). Water fm. the great 
fountain at t Tabgha was carried by an aqueduct 
round the promontory of Tell l Areimeh for use in 
the N.E. of the plain. The streams fm. Wady el- 
'Amud, 'Ain el-Madowzverah, er-Rubadiyeh, and 
Wady el-Hamam are abundant through most of 
the yr. Capernaum stood in or near this plain ; 
prob. also Bethsaida. In this and the surrounding 
country much of the earthly ministry of Jesus was 
exercised. 



220 



Gen 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ger 



GENTILE (Heb. Goim, Gr. etbne), other races 
as distinguished fm. Israelites (Gn. io. 5 , &c). 
Every race has a tendency to segregate itself, as may 
to some extent be seen among mod. nations. The 
Gr. called all non-Hellenic races "Barbarians." 
This exclusiveness had to a large degree a religious 
meaning. The religious function in regard to the 
world made it of advantage that they shd. main- 
tain it. It was intensified under Ezra by way of 
reaction agst. the earlier tendency so prominent 
among the Isr. to conform themselves to the 
nations round about. 

It is the glory of Christianity that it has refused 
to acknowledge such lines of distinction, declaring 
that God " made of one blood all nations of men " 
(Ac. 17. 26 ) ; and that in Christ Jesus there is neither 
Jew nor Greek. The apostle who made the greatest 
impression on the world was assigned his sphere of 
labour among the Gentiles. 



But why shd. the people be called " Gadarenes " ? 
G. was prob. within the district of Gadara (not the 
capital of the Peraea ; see Gadara), wh. may have 




PEF. Photo 
Land of Gennesaret seen through the Gorge of 
Wady el-Hamam 

GERAH. See Weights and Measures. 

GERAR is prob. the mod. Kh. Umm Jerar, c. 6\ 
miles S. of Gaza. It was on the S. border of Can. 
(Gn. IO. 19 ). It was the seat of the Phil. k. Abime- 
lech, visited by Abraham and Isaac (Gn. 20. 1 , 26. 1 ). 
It was a place with good pasture land (1 Ch. 4. 39 , 
read G. for " Gedor "). It is noted on the way fm. 
Pal. to Egp. (2 Ch. I4. 12ff -). Cp. Robinson, BRP. 
i. 189, ii. 43 ; Thomson, LB. ii. 530. 

GERASA is referred to in Scrip, only in the rdg. 
"Gerasenes" (Mk. 5. 1 ; Lk. 8. 26 , RV., "Gada- 
renes," AV. ; Mw. 8. 28 , "Gadarenes," RV., "Ger- 
gesenes," AV.). Among the various rdgs. that best 
attested for Mw. is " Gadarenes " ; for Mk. and Lk. 
" Gerasenes." G. is undoubtedly represented to- 
day by the ruin Kersa, near the E. shore of the 
Sea of Galilee, just S. of Wady Semakh. The pre- 
sent writer is familiar with the slopes wh., between 
here and Wady Fiq, descend steeply almost on the 
beach, and with the burial caves in the upper 
reaches. This scene in all particulars suits the nar. 








Place of Sacrifice 



extended along the lake shore (Jos. Fit. o,f.). The 
inhabitants, in that case, mt. with propriety be 
called either Gadarenes, as occupying the land of 
the mother city, or Gerasenes, as living in G. 

For the great and splendid city in the Decapolis 
see Schiirer, HJP. II. i. n6ff.). It is represented 
by the ruins of Jerash, until lately the best pre- 
served of all the ruins E. of Jordan. It lies 20 miles 
E. of the river, \\ miles N. of Wady 7,erqa. For de- 
scription see Ewing, Arab and Druze at Home, 1456°. 

GERIZIM, MT., the mod. Jebel et-Tor, stands 
S. of the pass of Nablus, the anct. Shechem, over 
agst. Ebal. It is 2849 ft. high. G. appears in 
connection with the reading of the law to the people 
(Dt. ii. 29 , 27. 12 ; Jo. 8. 33 ), and again in the story of 
Jotham (Jg. 9. 7 ), who seems to have spoken his 
parable fm. one of the lower cliffs. The main 
interest of the mountain to-day is derived fm. its 
association with the Samaritans, the whole com- 
munity, c. 200 souls, now living in Nablus, at its 
base. Their schismatic temple was built on the 
mountain c. B.C. 432 (Ryle, The Canon of the OT. 
91 f.). It was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, b.c. 129. 
The rivalry between Jrs. and G. was still keen in 
the time of Jesus (Jn. 4. 20ff -). To this day the Sa- 




PEF. Photo 



Gerizim from Jacob's Well 



maritans yearly celebrate the Passover on the moun- 
tain. The holy places shown by them on G. in- 
clude the place where Abhm. offered Isaac ; Bethel 
(Kh. Lauzeh) ; the site of the tabernacle ; the twelve 
stones and altar referred to in Dt. 27. 4ff , where they 
read " G." for " Ebal." On the summit to the N. 



221 



Ger 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY Of THE BIBLE 



Get 



are the ruins of a church, and of Justinian's fortress, cence, or his entire ignorance of the matter. To 

The slopes to the W. are terraced and cultivated, rend the clothes is a sign of distress and alarm (Gn. 

Abundant springs rise under the N. slopes and fill 37- 29 , &c.), of grief (Jg. n. 35 ), of penitence (i K. 

the valley with fertility. 2i. 2r ; Jl. 2. 13 ). Clapping the hands and dancing 

GERSHOM, s. of Moses (Ex. 2. 22 ), ancestor of are familiar expressions of joy and triumph. To spit 

Jonathan, priest of Dan (Jg. 18. 30 , instead of upon one, or to spit in his face, is a mark of utter 



Manasseh " we shd. read " Moses "). 



contempt (Dt. 25.° ; Jb. 30. 10 ; Mk. 15. 19 , &c). 



GERSHON, eldest s. of Levi (Ex. 6. 16 ; Nu. 3. 17 ), GETHSEMANE, a garden on the Mt. of Olives, 

fr. of Libni and Shimei (Ex. 6. 17 ). Gershonites, E. of the ravine Kidron, where on His last night 

descts. of G. : in the wilderness their duty was to Jesus prayed and was betrayed (Mw. 26. 36 ; Mk. 

carry the Tabernacle, its curtains, coverings, and 14. 32 ; Lk. 22. 39 ; Jn. 18. 1 ). In the fourth cent, 

the hangings of the Court (Nu. 4- 24ff- )- They had tradition laid the scene of the betrayal near the 

13 cities assigned them in Galilee and Eastern mod. " Cave of the Agony," at the foot of the Mt. 

Manasseh (Jo. 21. 6 ). of Olives, N. of the road to Bethany, and the place 

GESHEM, the Arb. ally of Sanballat and Tobiah of Christ's prayer higher up, on the slope of the 

in their opposition to Nehemiah (Ne. 2. 19 , 6. 1, 2 ), mountain, near prob. S. of the road, not far fm. 

prob. sheikh of an Arb. tribe in the S. of Judah. the Latin " Garden of G." As the Tomb of the 

GESHUR, a small Aram, state, on the W. border Virgin, near the Cave of the Agony, was included in 

of Bashan, S. of Hermon (Dt. 3. 14 ; Jo. 12. 5 , 13. 11 , " Gethsemane," tradition seems to have known this 

&c). It retained its independence (13. 13 ). The as a name attached to the foot of the mountain, to 

Geshurites captured the cities of Jair (1 Ch. 2. 23 , the N., not only of the road leading nearly SE. over 

RV.). David married Maacah, dr. of Talmai, k. of the summit to Bethany, but also of the road wh. 

G. (2 S. 3. 3 ), to whom her s. Absalom fled for refuge ascends due E., and afterwards, branching, descends 

after the murder of Amnon (13. 37 ). In 2 S. 2. 9 we by two paths to Jericho. One garden cd. not have 

shd. prob. read, with Vlg. and Syr., " Geshurites " comprised land on both sides of these important 



for " Ashurites." A second G. seems to be indi- 
cated in Philistia (Jo. 13. 2 ; 1 S. 27.8, LXX B. 
omits G.) of wh. nothing further is known. 

GESTURE in the Orient might almost be de- 



and anct. highways. In the absence of any reason 
for such comprehensive significance, it is not even 
likely that the local name covered so much. There 
is no reason, therefore, to place the scene of Christ's 



semane " is now shown ; but rather to the N. where 
no road followed the valley, or crossed over the 
mountain. Here only cd. there be a " garden," 
and on the lower terrace of the mountain a denser 



scribed as a language in itself. We are so easily prayer S. of these roads. If Jesus first left the 
offended by awkward or inappropriate gesture that majority of His disciples, and then even the chosen 
we have almost entirely discarded it, trusting to tone three (so Mw. 26. 36f -; Mk. I4. 32f - — Lk. 22. 40f - speaks 
or emphasis to convey our meaning. To the more only of the disciples as a whole), His intention clearly 
emotional Oriental apt and expressive gesture comes was to retire where He might be undisturbed byany, 
almost as second nature : and the ideas are few for even by the traitor, until He shd. be ready. He 
wh. he cannot find effective utterance in this way. would therefore seek for the most secluded spot. 
By its aid doubtful phrases become luminous, and This cd. not be found to the S. or E. hard by im- 
the spoken word is invested with fresh meaning. A portant public roads, least of all where " Geth- 
grimace, a tilt of the head, a motion of the hand, 
a shrug of the shoulder, are often eloquent. The 
Bible, as an Oriental book, is full of references to 
gestures {see Salutation). Men fall prostrate, bend 
down the body, or bow the head in token of rever- plantation of olives, with perhaps a sprinkling of fig 
ence, homage, and worship (Gn. 50. 18 ; Ek. II. 13 ; and carob trees, was possible. It seems prob. that, 
I K. I. 16 ; Est. 3. 2 ; Gn. 24. 48 ; 2 K. 5. 18 , &c). as the oldest tradition has it, Jesus met the traitor 
The like significance attaches to bowing the knee just at the division of the road beyond the ravine. 
(Eph. 3. 14 ; Php. 2. 10 , &c). Much meaning is Here, as in the case of Golgotha and Akeldama, 
thrown into a glance of the eye (Jb. 22. 26 ; Mk. 3. 5 ; the question is not whether a gospel site has always 
Lk. 22. 61 ), a curl of the lip (Ps. 22. 'J, a movement of been known, but whether a local name might be 
the head (2 K. 19. 21 ; Mw. 15. 29 , &c). To shake off preserved until an independent Christian tradition 
one's feet or garments the dust of a place means that took form. 

we renounce all connection with it (Mk. 6. 11 , &c). In the MSS. the name appears as Gethsemani, 
St. Paul and Barnabas thus declared their severance Gethsemane, Gessemani, and Gesamani. It is Heb., 
from the Jews of Antioch in Pisidia, and denial of all not Aram., and means either " press of oils " 
responsibility for them (Ac. 13. 51 ). A man accused ( = gath shemdmn, gath shemane) or, if the ending 
of, or questioned regarding some deed, will take the shd. be Gr., " oil-press " ( — gath shemen) or " valley 
lapel of his garment between his finger and thumb, of fatness " ( = ge shemanin, cp. Is. 28. 4 ; Dahnan, 
and by shaking it gently, indicate either his inno- Grammatik des judisch-p alas tints c hen Aramaisch 2 , 

222 



Gez 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gib 



p. 191). In the last case clearly a place called " a 
fat valley " cd. only be at the foot of the mountain. 
The name wd. quite suitably apply to the part of 
the Kidron Valley immediately N. of the main road 
fm. Jrs. If, however, the first is correct, we must 
assume that there was actually an oil-press in the 
garden ; and it is noteworthy that the so-called 
" Cave of the Agony " in Gethsemane possesses the 
features of the caves used for oil-presses. The tomb 
found in G. was identd. with that of the Virgin, 
perhaps in consequence of the belief that the 
garden belonged to John Mark (Ac. 12. 12 ), in whose 
house Mary was supposed to have lived. 

G. H. Dalman. 
GEZER, a Canaanite city whose k., Horam, came 
to assist Lachish (Jo. io. 33 ). Although there is no 
mention of the capture of G. immediately on the 
destruction of Horam and his people, it is reckoned 
among the cities wh. had been taken by the Isr. 
(Jo. 12. 12 ). The Canaanites seem to have regained 



* v 



'lUW&M* 



rzY 



^<r% 





PEF. Drawing 



Limit of Gezer 



possession of it shortly after, for it is mentioned 
as a city fm. wh. Ephraim did not drive out the 
Canaanites (Jo. 16. 10 : Jg. I. 29 ) ; it was allotted to 
the Levites (Jo. 21. 21 ). Earlier than the date of the 
conquest of Canaan by Isr. Thothmes had conquered 
G., and later it is referred to in the Tell el-Amarna 
correspondence. The next notice of G. is when it 
is mentioned as the limit of David's pursuit of the 
Philistines after the battle of Rephaim (2 S. 5. 25 ; 
1 Ch. 14. 16 ) ; there seems to have been a conflict at 
G. with the Phil., apparently at a subsequent date 
(1 Ch. 20. 4 ) ; from these it wd. seem that G. be- 
longed then to the Phil. In the days of Solomon it 
was captured by Pharaoh, and given as a dowry to his 
dr. when she married Solomon. It wd. seem that 
G.was also called Gob {cp. 2 S. 21. 18 with I Ch. 20. 4 ). 
In 1874 Clermont-Ganneau, by discovering two 
stones marked tahum Gezer, confirmed a previous 
conjecture of his as to the site of G. Since then 
extensive excavations have been carried on under 
the direction of Mr. R. A. S. Macalister wh. have 
revealed a primitive city beneath the city of the 
Canaanites ; and also the structure of G. in its 
various periods. As in all primitive cities there was 
a High Place with an altar ; near it was a row of 



standing stones. There was evidence of human 
sacrifice ; sometimes the victims wd. seem to have 
been eaten. A sacred cave was discovered wh. Mr. 
Macalister thinks was used to manufacture oracular 
responses. The walls of G. even in the Canaanite 
period were of stone, and more formidable than 
the earthen ramparts that surrounded many of the 
contemporary towns. Two fragments of contract 
tablets inscribed in cuneiform have been found. 
As the governor of the city, who signs as a witness, 
bears an Egyptian name, Mr. Macalister argues that 
on the death of Solomon G. had reverted to the 
Egyptians. This seems unlikely, as the tablet is 
dated B.C. 649 or 651, during the reign of Ma- 
nasseh of Judah, and what is of more importance, 
during that of Asshur-bani-pal, who held Egp. as 
a subject territory. The use of the Asyr. language 
and the cuneiform character points rather to sub- 
jection to Asyr. 

Mr. Macalister has traced practically the whole 
course of the outer wall wh. protected G. from 
about B.C. 1500 till B.C. 100. Its total length he 
estimates " at about 4500 ft., wh. is rather more 
than one-third the length of the modern wall of 
Jrs." {PEFQ. Jany. 1905). This enables us to 
realise how small in size an important city and 
fortress in ancient times might be. 

GIANTS (Heb. nepbffim, Gn. 6. 4 ; Nu. 13. 33 ; 
rephaim, Dt. 2. 11 ; Jo. 12. 4 : the latter also trd. 
" dead " in Pr. 2. 18 ; Is. 14. 9 , &c). Immigrant 
races tend to magnify the differences between them 
and their predecessors, and regard them either as 
Gs. or dwarfs. The Isr. regarded the Emim, the 
Zamzumim, and the Anakim as Gs. Fm. the nar. 
in Gn. 6. the first of the Heb. words, nephlltm, has 
been derived fm. naphal, " to fall," as if it meant 
" the fallen ones " ; a similar etymology mt. be 
proposed for rephaim. Rdphdh, accdg. to Ges., 
means " to throw down," then " to be remiss." 
The Isr. were prob., like the Jews, a small race, hence 
if the Anakim were taller than the average they wd. 
regard them as gigantic, and, as such, supernatural. 
While the narrative in Gn. 6. 1 " 4 has assumed a 
legendary form in the ordinary Jewish interpreta- 
tion wh. is found in Enoch, the historic truth may 
be merely an intermarriage between two differing 
races. We know too little of the nature of angels, 
or of the possible relationships of spirit and material 
organism, to dogmatise as to what is impossible. 
The Anakim must have been immigrants to Hebron 
at a comparatively late date, as Abraham does not 
meet them during his residence at Mamre ; nor do 
Isaac or Jacob encounter them. They may have 
been refugees from Moab or Ammon. 

GIBBETHON, a city in the portion of Dan (}o. 
19. 44 ) assigned to the Levites (21. 23 ), held later by 
the Phil. While besieging the city Nadab was 
killed by Baasha ; and 25 yrs. afterwards Omri was 



223 



Gib 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gid 



here made k. (i K. 15. 27 , i6. 15ff ) : unident. Kib- 
biab, c. 16 miles S. of E. fm. Jaffa, is suggd. 

GIBEAH. (1) An unident. city in Judah, prob. 
SE. of Hebron (Jo. 15. 57 ; 2 Ch. 13. 2 ). (2) G. of 
Benjamin. Here was enacted the frightful tragedy 
and bloody requital recorded in Jg. 19., 20. It is 
distinct fm. the neighbouring Geba (Is. io. 29 ), with 
wh. it is sometimes confused. The story in Jg. 19. 
puts G. near the great N. highway between Jrs. and 
Ramah, not far fm. the junction with the road to 
Geba (Jg. 20. 31 ). In v. 33 for Maareh-geba we 
shd. prob. read " fm. the W. of Geba." It is not 
a place name. Josephus (BJ. V. ii. 1) speaks of 
" Gabaothsaul," 30 stadia N. of Jrs. All this seems 
to point to a site on Teleil el-Ful, an artificial mound 
with few ruins above ground, c. four miles N. of Jrs. 
Saul belonged to G. (1 S. io. 26 ), whence it is called 




PEF. Drawing 



The Pool of Gibeon 



" G. of Saul " (ii. 4 ; Is. io. 29 ). It is prob. = " G. 
of God " (1 S. io. 5 , RVm.). Fm. this point Saul 
directed the battle agst. the Phil. (13., 14.), and 
here Rizpah guarded the bodies of his unfortunate 
sons (2 S. 2i. 7fL ). Gibeath (Heb. gibe'ath, st. 
const, of gib'ah, " hill of ") appears as the first 
element in cert, place names : (1) G.-ha'aral6th, 
" hill of the foreskins " (Jo. 5. 3 ). (2) G.-Phinehas, 
the burial-place of Eleazar, in Mt. Ephraim : uni- 
dent. (Jo. 24. 33 ). (3) G.-hammoreh (see Moreh). 
(4) G.-ha Elohim = Gibeah 2. (5) G.-ha Hachllah 
(see Hachilah). (6) G.-Ammah (see Ammah). 
(7) G.-Gareb (see Gareb). 

GIBEON, a Hivite city whose inhabitants de- 
ceived Joshua, made a league with Isr., and secured 
the safety of their allies in three other cities (Jo. 9.). 
It was a position of great strength. Moved by 
jealousy of its good fortune, the rest of the Cans. 
rose to destroy it. Apprised of this, Joshua made a 
night march fm. Gilgal, certainly by Wddy Suzvei- 
mlt, surprised the confederates and drove them 
headlong down the pass of Bethhoron (Jo. 10.). 
The site must be that of the mod. el- Jib, 5 J miles 
N, of Jrs. It .stands on the N. end of a double hill, 



not far S. of the pass wh. goes down by the Beth- 
horons, opening into the Vale of Aijalon. There 
are numerous springs, and a great reservoir hewn 
fm. the rock to the SW. of the vill., wh. is doubt- 
less "the pool of G." (2 S. 2. 13 ; Jr. 41. 12 ; Ant. 
V. i. 17). Saul, for some unexplained reason, slew 
many of the inhabitants, an outrage avenged by- 
David (2 S. 2l. lff -). Here Joab defeated Abner 
(2. 12ff -). David defeated the Phil. (5. 25 , for " Geba " 
read " G." ; cp. 1 Ch. 14. 16 ). By the "great 
stone," not otherwise known, Joab murdered Amasa 
(2 S. 20. 8 ). Here stood the great sanctuary in wh. 
Solomon dreamed his famous dream, and offered 
sacrifice (1 K. 3. 4ff -, cp. 9? ; 2 Ch. I. 3 ' 13 ; cp. 1 Ch. 
16. 39 , 2 1. 29 ). G. was in the portion of Benj. (Jo. 
18. 25 ), and was allotted to the children of Aaron 
(2 1. 17 ). It was reoccupied after the Exile (Ne. 3. 7 ). 

GIBLITES. See Gebal. 

GIDEON ("feller"), s. of Joash the Abiezerite, of 
Ophrah, an unident. city in Manasseh (Jg. 6. 11 ). 
Accdg. to the present text (Jg. 6. u -8. 32 ) G. was 
called by an angel to deliver Isr. fm. the Midianites, 
and a sign convinced him of the divine origin of the 
command. He outraged the altar of Baal, cut 
down the Asherah, the sacred pole that stood by it, 
and sacrificed a bullock to J". As this resulted in no 
injury to him, Baal's impotence was inferred. The 
name Jerubbaal is referred to this event (" Let Baal 
plead," EVm.). The children of the E. in vast 
hordes crossed the Jordan, swarmed up the vale of 
Jezreel, and filled all the plain with their black tents 
and camels. Abiezer, his own clan, Manasseh, 
Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, gathered at his call, 
and, encouraged by the sign of the fleece, he ad^ 
vanced agst. the foe. He pitched by the Well 
of Harod. There, of 32,000 men, 22,000 turned 
back afraid, and of the 10,000 remaining, only 300 
were ultimately chosen to fight. Encouraged by a 
dream, he sent his men to three sides of the camp of 
the enemy lying towards the hill Moreh, and raised 
a night alarm, so demoralising the Midianites that 
they slaughtered each other in their headlong flight. 
The torch lit and thrust into a jar wd. smoulder ; 
the jar broken, the torch, whirled round the head, 
wd. burst into a bright flame. The rally of the 
Ephraimites at the fords of Jordan, the capture and 
slaughter of Oreb and Zeeb, the judicious and con- 
ciliatory handling of the complaining Ephraimites, 
the pursuit and capture of the kings Zebah and 
Zalmunnah, and the punishment of the men of 
Succoth and Peniel, brought the career of victory 
to a close. He judged Isr. 40 yrs. ; but while " the 
land had rest " ease and comfort seem to have cor- 
rupted him, and, dedicating the gold taken as booty 
to idolatrous purposes, he prepared the way for a 
new declension of the people. 

G. is called Jerubbesheth in 2 S. n. 21 -, the element " Baal " 
being mutilated, to show contempt for that heathen deity. 



224 



Gie 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gil 



The writer has made use of more than one existing 
account in preparing the story of G. See the careful 
article in HDB. s.v. 

GIER-EAGLE (Heb. rabam = Arb. rakhm), the 
Egyptian vulture, wh. shares with the dog the office 
of scavenger in the East. RV. trs. by G. feres, re- 
garding it as equivalent to " Lammergeier." See 
Eagle. 

GIFT. The word has genly. in Scrip, the mean- 
ing it has among ourselves ; only in the Orient Gs. 
are seldom disinterested : a quid -pro quo is usually 
expected. Gs. made to the wealthy and powerful 
are almost always in the nat. of " a sprat to catch a 
mackerel." To bring Gs. or presents to a monarch 
betokened submission (Ps. 6cj. 29ff -, 72. 10 , &c.) ; or 
" Gs." mt. be another name for tribute (2 S. 8. 2, 6 , 
&c). Cert, offerings are called Gs. (2 Ch. 32. 23 ; see 
Core-an, Sacrifice). Gs. may be bribes, either to 
expedite or to prevent justice. The Arb. bakh- 
shish has the same ambiguity. In NT. doron has 
usually the common meaning : anathema (Lk. 21. 5 ) 
is lit. " a votive offering set up in a temple," and 
refers to Herod's lavish Gs. : charisma is a sptl. 
endowment bestowed by God, to be used for the 
advantage of the Church (1 Cor. J. 1 , &c). 

GIHON. S^Eden. 

GIHON, a place below the city of David where 
Solomon was anointed k. (1 K. 1 .33, 38, 39^ Heze- 
kiah stopped the upper issue (RV. " spring ") of the 
waters of G. and led them down to the W. side of 
the city of David (2 Ch. 32. 30 ; cp. Sr. 48. 17 ). 
Gihon, lit. " bursting forth," is evidently a spring 
E. of the city of David, a conduit leading its waters 
to the W. (see Shiloah). It is ident. with t ain 
umm ed-daraj, " the spring of the stairs," to wh. one 
descends by a long staircase. It is an intermittent 
spring, the water rushing forth at intervals with 
great power. It may once have had an open out- 
flow towards the valley. Warren (1867) discovered 
an approach to the spring fm. above, by a subter- 
ranean passage and shaft, where the water, wh. had 
been led deeper into the mountain by a tunnel, cd. 
be drawn up with a rope running through a ring. 
When this approach was made is unknown. The 
objects found in the passage by Warren do not point 
to a very anct. date, but they may be of later origin. 
The brittle nature of the rock prob. soon made the 
approach dangerous, so that it fell into disuse. 

G. H. Dalman. 

GILBOA. The mountain (1 S. 28. 4 , 29. 1 , 
31. 1 ' 8 ' 10 ; 2 S. I. 21 ) can be no other than Jebel 
Fuqu'a, within easy distance of Shunem, Endor, 
Jezreel, and Bethshan. The mountain rises S. of 
the vale of Jezreel, and runs S. along the edge of 
Esdraleon until it merges in the hills of Samaria, the 
E. slopes falling into the Jordan Valley. Its highest 
point is c. 1700 ft. above the sea. If a place is meant 
by G. in I S. 28. 4 it is prob. the mod. Jelbon, on the 



slope E. of Jenin. The main formation is lime- 
stone, with here and there basalt. The higher 
reaches are bare and sterile, but the soil in the 
hollows is very fertile. See Kishon, Well of 
Harod. 

GILEAD. (i) Mount G. appears in Gn. 
3i.2i.23; Dt. 3.i2 ; ss> 4<1# The name j ebgl 

Jil'ad is confined now to a height between the 
Jabbok and es-Salt. But it certainly signified the 
whole land of G. as seen fm. the W. of Jordan. A 
Mount Gr. is mentioned in Jg. 7A This is prob. 
ident. with the N. part of" Mt. Gilboa. There 
seems to be a reminiscence of this in the name of the 
great spring, l Ain Jalud, rising at its base. (2) The 
city G. (Ho. 6. 8 ; prob. also Jg. 10.1 7 ) may be repre- 
sented by the ruin Jil'dd, five miles N. of es-Salt. 
(3) Sometimes G. stands for the whole country E. 
of Jordan (Gn. 37. 25 ; Jo. 22. 9 - 13 , &c), but genly. 
it denotes the land between the Tarmuk on the N. 




PEF. Drawing 



Monument on Mount Gilboa 



and Wady Hesban on the S. (Dt. 3. 10 ; 2 K. io. 3 3). 
The Jabbok (Nahr ez-Zerqa) cut off the kdm. of 
Sihon fm. that of Og (Dt. 3. 16 ). G. was divided 
between Manasseh and Gad, Mahanaim, N. of the 
Jabbok, being given to the latter (Jo. 13. 24 ' 30 ). 
The boundaries, however, were not permanently 
fixed (1 Ch. 5.11 ; cp. Jg. 5. 17 ). Fm. the Yarmuk 
to Nahr ez-Zerqa is now known as t Ajlun, under the 
government of Irbid. Fm. ez-Zerqa to the Arnon 
is el-Belqa, under es-Salt. The prevailing forma- 
tion of the region is limestone, contrasting with 
the basalt of Moab and Bashan. There are great 
stretches of oak forest. The terebinth, the olive, 
and other trees grow luxuriantly, and many of the 
hills wh. diversify the landscape are wooded to the 
top. The great Wadys contain water all the yr. 
It affords splendid pasture land (SS. 6. 5 ), and the 
desire of the Arabs to preserve it has hindered culti- 
vation. While not so rich as the volcanic soil N. 
and S., wherever it is tilled the land yields excellent 
returns. See Ramoth G., Jabesh G., Per^a. 

Lit. : Merrill, East of Jordan ; Laurence Oliphant, 
The Land of G. ; Ewing, Arab and Druze at Home. 

(4) The fr. of Jephthah (Jg. 11 *•). (5) The 
grandson of Manasseh (Nu. 26. 29 , &c). (6) A 
Gadite (1 Ch. 5.1 4 ). 

GILGAL was the first halting-place of Isr. W. of 

5 H 



Gil 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Goa 



Jordan (Jo. 4. 19 ) where the 12 stones were set up 
(v. 20), whence the name " a circle of stones " was 
derived. It remained for a time the base of opera- 
tions for the conquest (5. 10 , c;. 6 , 10. 7 , &c). It was 





Parti. Glass-blowers. Bern' Hassan. 

2. The same. Thebes. 

The gloss at the end of the .blowpipe b b is coloured green. 
a is the fire. d a glass bottle. 

in the circuit of Samuel (1 S. 7. 16 ) ; here was 
enacted the tragedy of I S. 15., and here Judah met 
David on his return fm. Mahanaim (2 S. 19. 15 ). 
Fm. its associations we need not be surprised that it 
became a famous sanctuary (Ho. 4. 15 , &c. ; Am. 
4 4 ; Mi. 6. 5 ). The site is prob. marked by Birket 
Jiljuliyeh, a ruin and reservoir, with anct. remains, 
8^ miles fm. Jericho, and three miles fm. Jordan. 
Guthe wd. ident. with this the G. of 2 K. 2. 1 . 
Buhl {GAP. 202) argues for Juleijel, three miles 
S. of E. fm. Nablus. It is over agst. Ebal and 
Gerizim (Dt. n. 30 ), and fm. it the prophets wd. 
"go down" to Bethel (2 K. 2. 2 ). Guthe thinks 
" the 'Arabah " (RV.) shows that the writer of Dt. 
1 1 . had G. in the Jordan Valley in his mind ; while 
LXX in 2 K. 2. 2 has simply " came " to Bethel. 
But the order in wh. the cities are named seem to 
require a G. in the mountain. This mt. be either 
Juleijel or Jiljilia, two miles W. of Sinjil, and seven 
miles N. of Bethel. In Jo. 1 5 . 7 we shd. prob. under- 
stand some conspicuous circle of stones. In Jo. 
12. 23 read with LXX " Galilee " for G. 

GILOH, the native place of Ahithophel(2 S. 15. 12 , 
23. 34 ). It may be either Beit Jala, ij mile NW. of 
Bethlehem, or Kh. Jala, six miles N. of Hebron. 
G. (Jo. 15. 51 ), in the S. of Judah, is not ident. 

GIMZO, a Phil, town taken fm. Ahaz (2 Ch. 
28. 18 ) = the mod. Jimzu, three miles SE. of 
Lydda. 

GIN, tr. two Heb. words, pah (Jb. 18. 9 ), and 
moqesh (Am. 3. 5 ) ; both words are also trd. Snares. 
It is impossible to decide what the difference was 
between these ; both were used by Fowlers for 
catching birds. 

GIRDLE. See Dress. 



GIRGASHITES (Gn. io. 16 ; Jo. 24. 11 , &c), one 
of the Can. peoples, of whom nothing is known 
with cert. 

GITTITH, title of Ps. 8., 81., 84. ; meaning 
imposs. to determine. See Psalms. 

GLASS (RV. Jb. 28. 17 , Heb. zekokith, AV. 
" crystal " ; Gr. vaXos, Rv. 21. 18 ; adj. MXivos, 
Rv. 4. 6 ). This well-known substance was manu- 
factured very early ; the process of glass-blowing is 
portrayed in the tomb of Tih in Saqqara, dated the 
5th dyn. It was long believed that glass was dis- 
covered, casually, on the seashore of Pal., not far 
fm. Acre, through the melting of the sand under a 
fire (Pliny, NH. xxxvi. 191). It must be noted 
that the material " glass " had nothing to do with 
Looking-glasses in Scrip. These were of polished 
metal. See Sea of Glass. 

GLEANING. The corners of the field, and the 
G. of the harvest and of the vintage, were to be left 
for the poor of the people. It is a kindly provision 
observed to this day in the Orient. 

GLEDE (Heb. re? ah, Dt. 14. 13 ), a bird of prey, 
unclean. In Lv. II. 13 we find da? ah (AV. "vul- 
ture ") ; fm. the fact that in LXX both words are 
trd. yvxp it is prob. there is a mistake in one or other 
passage ; mistakes wd. be 
easy fm. the likeness be- 
tween 1 and "\. 

GLORY (Heb. kabod, 
Gr. 86£a), general admira- 
tion ; magnificence, as that 
wh. induces admiration 
(Ex.28. 40 ; Mw. 6. 29 ), used 
of the human spirit (Ps. 
16. 9 , 57- 8 ). Divine G. is 
adoring wonder in contem- 
plating the Divine attri- 
butes (Ps. 104. 31 ). It is 
most frequently used for 
the Shekinah, the " pillar 
of cloud and fire " that ac- 
companied Isr. in the Wilderness and appeared over 
the Ark (Ex. 24. 16 ). But it applies to any visible 
token of God's presence (Ek. 8. 4 ). The NT. use is 
practically one with that of OT. 

GNAT (Mw. 23. 24 ), the mosquito ; the Phari- 
sees wd. " strain out the G. (RV.), but swallow the 
camel." 

GOAD (1 S. 13. 21 , &c. ; Ac. 26. 14 , RV.), a long 
tapered rod with a sharp nail projecting fm. the 
smaller end, with wh. the oxen are spurred and 
guided in the furrow. On the other end is a broad 
blade, to remove earth clinging to the plough. In 
skilful hands it mt. be a formidable weapon (Jg. 3. 31 ). 

GOAH (AV. GOATH). See Jerusalem. 

GOAT (Heb. 'ez, " G." generically, or some- 
times "she-goat," Gn. 15. 9 , 3 1. 38 ; 'attud, Nu. 7." 




The Peregrine Falcon 
or Glede 



tzaphlr, Dn. 8. 5 
26 



sa'tr, Lv. 16. 7 , " he-G."), one of 



God 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



God 



the earliest domesticated animals. The hair is used 
to make a rough cloth ; of the skin, churns, and 
wine and water bottles are made. It was much 
used for sacrifices and also for food (see Scape-goat). 
In Mw. 25. 32 the G. (eri-phos) is the symbol of the 
wicked as distinct fm. the good. In Pal. Gs. and 




Wild Goat (Nimrud) 

sheep go together in herds under one shepherd. 
The Gs. in Pal. are black, of the long-eared variety. 

The wild or mountain goats (Heb. ye'ellm, 1 S. 
24- 2 ; Jb. 39. 1 : Ps. 104. 18 ) are animals naturally 
wary, with extremely keen sense of sight and smell, 
and ordinarily very difficult to approach. But the 
mother goat is accustomed to hide her kid in some 
safe recess in the mountains, while she roams in 
search of food. Hunters mark the spot, and con- 
cealing themselves near by, easily take her on her 
return. Many think this was the game hunted bv 
Esau(Gn. 25 , 27 ). 

GOD. In the Bible man's kge. of God is uni- 
formly conceived as being the outcome of His self- 
revelation. He manifests Himself to men, and they 
see and know Him. Not merely is the inquiry 
nowhere made as to what God is apart from, or 
behind, this self-disclosure, but the possibility that 
His hidden being may differ fm. what is revealed 
does not present itself. It is assumed that He makes 
Himself known to men as He really is. 

Scrip, contains not so much a formal doctrine of 
the Divine essence, as rather a hist, of what God has 
done to redeem the world. We are given, not in- 
formation about God, but a picture of His working 
for human salvation, specially in the fortunes of Isr. 
and supremely in the presence and work of Jesus 
Christ. We ought not, therefore, to expect that the 
idea of God should remain exactly the same from 
the first page of the Bible to the last. If revelation 
is inwoven in the texture of human hist, it will of 
course be an advancing thing ; and the conception 
of God animating it will become always higher, 



richer, and more spiritual. There is nothing 
strange in the fact that the idea of God has grown. 
Every one of our ideas has grown ; each sprang once 
fm. humble origins, and has had a long evolution 
in the past. Why the loftiest of them all shd. form 
an exception to this rule is hard to see. But the 
conception of God is no more discredited by this 
fact of its development than, say, the conception of 
number. When at first men flung out their minds 
at the great supramundane reality, they of course 
used ideas that were exceedingly imperfect ; but 
the light has grown, and esp. through the influence 
of Jesus men's minds have been led into an ever 
worthier agreement with the inexhaustible truth. 
The faint streaks of dawn have brightened, more 
and more, into the full shining of noon-day. 

The OT. takes the existence of God for granted 
in the first verse of Genesis. There is no thought 
of proving His reality. The prophets know that 
God has spoken to them ; the speculative question 
of His being therefore cd. not occur. Even the 
fool, whom Ps. 14. describes as saying that there is 
no God, is to be conceived less as guilty of specu- 
lative negation than as what we shd. call a practical 
atheist. His belief is but his manner of life be- 
coming articulate. 

All the prophets appear to regard the Exodus as 
the great redemptive interposition by wh. Jehovah 
for the first time made Isr. His people, and Himself 
their God. Fm. the beginning moral elements had 
a place in the conception of ]' '., though the purging 
out of ingredients we shd. now call pagan was a long 






;'W' l 




Arabian Ibex or Bedem ■. The Wild Goat of Scripture 

wavering process. Thus at first J", was not God 
alone, but only God of Isr., confined to a specific 
dwelling-place ; other gods ruled alongside of Him, 
in other lands. But fm. the first His superiority to 
all other gods was exultantly affirmed, and by de- 
grees this passed into a recognition alike of the unity 
and of the universality of God. Here the prophets 
led the way. In His dealings with Isr. and with 



227 



God 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



God 



their own lives they found clear proof that He is 
Holy Love, intent on the spiritual education of His 
people, and that His sway covers the whole earth. 
It is helpful to regard the prophets as having each 
contributed individual elements to the complete 
idea. Amos, for example, taught that God is 
righteousness ; Hosea that He is unwearied love ; 
Isaiah that He is the transcendent and universal 
Lord, with absolute claims on human service. In 
Jeremiah the relation of God to the single soul 
is dwelt upon, and in Ezekiel His sublime self- 
existence. This brief characterisation does not, of 
course, imply that a prophet may not be quite aware 
of aspects of the Divine char, on wh. he fails to 
insist. All these aspects — righteousness, love, tran- 
scendence, care for the individual — may be illus- 
trated abundantly fm. the Psalms. 

The God of Isr. is a spiritual being, high and 
lifted up above things of earth and sense. " The 
heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool" 
(Is. 66. 1 ). His nature is ethical, demanding conse- 
crated purity of heart and rectitude of life in His 
people : " Be ye holy, for I am holy " (Lv. II. 44 ). 
He also maintains a continual intercourse with men, 
speaking to them in ways that can be understood, 
and directing their lives. There is no suggn. in 
Scrip., as so often in non-biblical religions, of a 
Deity so remote and transcendent that He needs 
intermediate beings through whom to conduct His 
relations with the world. So really does He reveal 
Himself within human experience, that figures and 
principles drawn fm. the life of men are freely 
applied to Him ; it is said, for example, that the 
Lord has made bare His holy arm, or that He re- 
pented of having made Saul king. But these figures 
convey a real kge. of His mind ; they are not merely 
symbolical. When it is said, for instance, " I the 
Lord thy God am a jealous God," it is meant that 
He is such that His servants must serve Him only. 
However metaphorically His relations to men are 
described, they are real relations. Indeed His char, 
is viewed almost wholly in the light of His attitude 
towards men, as when He is said to think upon the 
poor and needy, to look not on the outward appear- 
ance but on the heart, or to have no respect of 
persons. The intensely ethical nat. of these rela- 
tions to men is exhibited in the fact that He con- 
signed His chosen people to exile, rather than com- 
promise the holiness of His providential govern- 
ment ; while yet in His wise love purposing to 
gather again a purified remnant. The loftiest con- 
ception of God within the OT. is found in Deuter- 
onomy and the second part of Isaiah. And it 
scarcely needs saying explicitly that His personality 
is everywhere assumed. In Him perfect self-con- 
sciousness and perfect self-determination are united. 
These abstract terms, indeed, only express truths 
wh. are put far more vividly in phrases born directly 



in the religious consciousness, as when it is said 
that God is the Lord who made heaven and earth, 
that He is the Shepherd of His people, &c. 

Does the OT. give to God the name " Father " ? 
There are some half-dozen passages, unquestionably, 
in wh. the name occurs. So in Dt. 32. 6 it is asked : 
" Is He not thy Father that hath bought thee ? " 
with wh. we may compare Jr. 3. 4 : " Wilt thou not 
fm. this time cry unto Me, My Father, Thou art the 
guide of my youth ? " (cp. also Is. 63. 16 , 6^. 8 ; Ml. 
i. 6 , 2. 10 ). But, in the first place, this thought of 
Him does not really dominate the Heb. conception 
of God, wh. is influenced rather by the overpower- 
ing fear of His holiness, or the feeling of His remote 
sublimity. God is King more than Father, and it 
has been pointed out that " in the passage in the 
prophetic writings where the ideal of humanity 
rises to the highest and grandest point, the term 
used is not Son but Servant " (Is. 52. 13ff -). And 
further, even so the Fatherhood of God defines 
His relationship not to men or man as such, but 
to His chosen covenant people, Isr. His Father- 
hood is insisted on precisely in those passages of 
expostulation where His faithful and unmerited 
compassion is being set over agst. the persistent 
ingratitude of the people. Even in Ps. 103. 13 , the 
mind of the writer permits him to say no more than 
that the pity of the Lord is like that of a fr. to his 
children. 

It is here that we find a quite new element in the 
teaching and life of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught no 
new God, as Mohammed did centuries later; but He 
taught a new truth about the ancient God of Isr. ; 
and this novelty may be briefly comprehended in the 
statement that He proclaimed the Fatherhood of 
God with a depth and sweep of meaning, as well as 
a liberty and joy, wh. are absolute and final. He 
made no attempt to furnish a conception of God 
wh. science could employ. And He shows no dis- 
inclination to describe God by terms now styled 
" anthropomorphic " ; drawn, that is, fm. the life 
and experiences of humanity. He employs such 
human metaphors freely, though He employs only 
the most spiritual. God sees, knows, wills, accdg. 
to Jesus ; nay more, He is perfect holiness, perfect 
love. Father, in short, is His true name. Let it 
be noted, however, that this revelation of God is 
given not merely, or perhaps even mainly, in words. 
It is given rather in Jesus' personal attitude to 
sinners. Through Jesus' mercy to her, the fallen 
woman in Simon's house became aware of the mercy 
of God Himself. She was able somehow to feel 
that for her Jesus was the door of entrance into life ; 
in Him God said to her aching heart : " I am thy 
salvation." It is fm. such incidents in the Gospels, 
such extracts fm. real life, that we best perceive 
wherein lay the newness of Jesus' disclosure of the 
Eternal. There had never been anything like it in 
128 



God 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



God 



the world before. In Jesus, and His treatment of 
men, it was made known for the first time that God 
loves and seeks every sinful man, in spite of his sin ; 
and that He will reckon no cost too great to pay for 
his recovery. To have declared this, and to have 
enabled the lost to believe it, is the crown that will 
never be taken from Jesus' head. He thus put God 
wholly within men's reach, and made Him sure to 
them as faithfully and unchangeably Redeemer. 
All national limitations have definitely dropped off ; 
the Father's love, the Father's promises, encircle all 
the world. He is ready to be Father even to those 
who thrust Him away, vainly trying to exclude Him 
fm. their lives. In all this Jesus was conscious of 
revealing God perfectly ; and indeed it is obvious 
that divine revelation can go no further, since all 
that sinners need to know is already told. 

Behind the fatherly relationship of God to men, 
as we can see, there stood uniformly God's unique 
relationship to Jesus ; He Himself was, in an un- 
shared sense, the Son, and God was His Father. 
God and He belonged together in a fashion so deep 
and high that human speech can only faintly sugg. 
its import. Indeed it was in virtue of this, His own 
unparalleled intimacy with God, that Jesus was 
able to declare with finality the mind of the Father 
toward sinful men. And what the Fatherhood of 
God implies we see by careful study of the Sonship 
of Jesus. The one answers to the other, part to part. 
Jesus as Son is exponent of God as Father. And 
here once more our kge. of the fact is derived less 
fm. Jesus' words than fm. what we are permitted to 
see of His inner life of fellowship with God, as re- 
vealed outwardly in action or demeanour. 

Hence for the writers of the NT. the distinctive 
name of God comes to be " the God and Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." To think of God and Christ 
apart fm. each other is now impossible. All that 
they know about Jesus Christ — His life, His passion, 
His death, His resurrection, His ascension to glory — 
has become to them a clear glass through wh. they 
look up into the very heart of God. 

The NT. hardly contains any attempt to define 
God. Perhaps what comes nearer a definition than 
any other passage is Jesus' saying to the woman of 
Samaria " God is spirit " (Jn. 4~ 24 ), not " God is a 
spirit," as in our version. What the word is meant 
to convey is not so much the Divine personality as 
rather the nat. or essence of God : His incorporeal 
being, that needs no temple, and may be worshipped 
anywhere. Another incipient definition is the great 
Johannine word twice repeated, " God is love " 
(i Jn. 4. 8 « 16 ). Nothing like this, for emphasis and 
absoluteness of tone, is to be found in the sacred 
bks. of any other relg. But it is important to note 
that to the apostles the love of God is not a neces- 
sary truth of reason. It is not something wh. can 
be deduced fm. the very idea of Godhead. On the 



contrary, it is a truth of inestimable preciousness 
wh. has come to them in a definite way, and the 
certainty of wh. is based upon definite historic facts. 
In other words it is a revealed truth ; revealed, how- 
ever, not by being spoken fm. heaven, but by being 
manifested before men's eyes in the life and death of 
Jesus. This is clear fm. one or two great apostolic 
utterances. "Herein was the love of God mani- 
fested in our case," says St. John, " that God hath 
sent His only begotten Son into the world, that 
we mt. five through Him " (i Jn. z{.. 9 ). And St. 
Paul strikes the same note : " God commendeth 
His own love towards us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us " (Rm. 5. 8 ). The 
student of physical nat. cd. not have said " God 
is love " with absolute unreserve. If cert, facts 
appear to evidence the Divine love, others are as 
obviously agst. it. It is because the apostles have 
received a convincing and overwhelming revelation 
of it that the love of God has become axiomatic for 
their minds ; and that revelation, as is shown by 
many texts like those just quoted, shines out pre- 
eminently fm. the Cross on wh. Jesus died a death 
for sin. In the Cross, as the supreme disclosure 
of His mind and char., God's love became once 
for all real, present, and sure to their souls ; and 
thenceforth they knew that neither height nor 
depth, nor any other creature, was able to separate 
them fm. the love of God wh. is in Christ Jesus. 

This is not the place at wh. to consider the 
biblical doctrine of Christ's Person ; but it is 
obvious that, if we agree with all the greatest 
Christian minds of all the centuries in asserting the 
essential and inherent Deity of our Lord, this will 
produce a change in, or an addition to, the doctrine 
of God we mt. hold otherwise. What we believe 
about Christ will give new content to our idea of 
God. At least this was so in the case of apostolic 
writers. As it has been put : " They did not cease 
to be monotheists when they became preachers of 
Christ, but they instinctively conceived God in a 
way in wh. the old revelation had not taught them 
to conceive Him." As a result of their experience 
of Christ, and of the new life received through the 
Spirit, they came to see distinctions in the Divine 
nat. previously unsuspected by the believing mind. 
And what they say about God fm. this point of 
view is usually treated under the NT. doctrine of 
the Trinity. 

In this doctrine, wh. is put forward more inci- 
dentally than of set purpose, two features are worth 
noting. In the first place, it is in no sense a specula- 
tive doctrine. There is nothing merelyphilosophical 
about it ; it does not consist in, or come out of, the 
logical manipulation of ideas. On the contrary, it 
was because apostolic men had found God in Christ, 
and had the Divine life conveyed to them in the 
Holy Spirit, that they felt obliged to gather these 



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certainties into a new and richer view of God. In 
trie second place, we are not dependent for a doc- 
trine of the Trinity on isolated verses of the NT. 
Undoubtedly verses may be quoted wh. prove that 
as Trinitarians we stand in the true line of descent 
fm. the apostles ; but, over and beyond this, we are 
given a clear look for ourselves at the facts on wh. 
the statements made in these verses are based. We 
may say, indeed, that the doctrine of God's triune 
being is present in solution throughout the Epp. 
and Gospels as a whole. 

The apostles seem to have recognised the sig- 
nificance of the new truth only by degrees. Thus it 
has been pointed out that in the Epp. we find an 
alternation between Two Divine Names and Three ; 
2 Cor., for example, wh. opens with a double salu- 
tation, closes with the full Trinitarian benediction. 
But in reality the Third Name is implied even 
where it is not specifically mentioned. It is only 
through the Spirit that the grace and peace mani- 
fested in Christ become ours. We have a right to 
say, therefore, that whether early Christian writers 
speak of God, or of God the Father and the Son, 
or of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they 
virtually mean the same thing. 

A typical expression of the NT. view of the 
Trinity is 2 Cor. 13. 14 : "The grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com- 
munion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." That is 
fm. a letter dated some quarter of a cent, after the 
resurrection, and St. Paul evidently assumes that 
his readers will have no difficulty in understanding 
him. We may note how the very order in wh. the 
Names occur — first Christ, then God, finally the 
Spirit — suggs. that it is through the historic reve- 
lation given in Christ that believers know God. If 
it were not for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the love of God wd. still be an unknown thing. 
Similarly, it is in the Spirit that the love of God 
becomes the realised possession of Christian men, 
hence the " communion of the Holy Ghost " natly. 
comes last. Other passages in wh. the same naive 
and spontaneous view of the Trinity finds expres- 
sion are 1 Cor. I2. 4 ' 6 ; Rom. 8. 9 " 11 ; Eph. 2. 18 . The 
last of these reads : " Through Him (Christ) we 
both have access by one Spirit unto the Father," 
with the clear implication that it is only in 
Christ, and through the teaching of the Spirit, 
that the Fatherhood of God is made sure to us. 
Hence it is a mistake, accdg. to the NT., to 
speak as though God were revealed in nature as 
Father, or as though the speculative intelligence, 
working with abstract ideas, had a right to predicate 
Fatherhood of the Absolute, the unity of being out 
of wh. everything is supposed to rise, and into wh. 
it is supposed to flow back. On the contrary, our 
conception of God as Father is something wh. we 
owe directly to the historic Christ ; in Jesus' own 

2 



words : " No man knoweth the Father save the Son, 
and he to whomsoever the Son willeth' to reveal 
Him." There are other indications that not merely 
the Son, but the Spirit, forms an integral part of the 
one Divine agency, the living God, by whom our 
salvation is accomplished. Let any one read Rm. 
8. 9 " 17 carefully, and he will be impressed by the way 
in wh. God, Christ, and the Spirit belong together 
indissociably, and the experiences of the redeemed 
man are referred now to one, now to another, with- 
out embarrassment. These three do not represent 
the Deity, a man, and an influence, casually linked 
together ; they are the one indivisible God of sal- 
vation, personally revealed in Christ, and person- 
ally communicated in the Spirit. Similarly, in the 
parting words of Jesus in the upper room, it is the 
Father who, in response to the prayer of the Son, 
gives the Spirit to abide with the "disciples for ever. 
Through this Spirit, the disciples are told, they will 
know that the Son is in the Father, and that between 
them and the Son exists a personal fellowship of life. 
The Father sends the Spirit in the Son's name ; of 
this sending the Son is mediating cause ; the Spirit 
testifies of the Son and carries on His work to still 
greater issues. As it is put (Jn. 15. 26 ) in lang. that 
is typical of the whole : " When the Paraclete is 
come, whom I will send unto you fm. the Father." 
Thus all three are represented, here and genly. 
throughout the NT., as constituting one active 
principle and source of redemption, as conjointly 
entering into, and expressing, the inward life of the 
Godhead. Not that this in any way abrogates the 
subordination of Son and Spirit wh. is often hinted 
at in the NT. writings. Thus Christ points to the 
Father as having conferred on Him power to have 
life in Himself ; and again, the purpose of the 
Spirit's being given is that He may glorify the 
Son. Always the Father is the fount and origin 
of Godhead. This being assumed, however, all 
three belong intrinsically to each other, and are 
intelligible only in and through each other. 

We cannot say, it is true, that the doctrine of the 
Trinity, as it is familiar in later Church doctrine, 
is expressly stated in the NT. The apostles do not 
use the abstractions and technicalities of theory 
wh. came to prevail. Their attitude to the realities 
of faith is too direct for that. St. Paul makes no 
attempt to explain speculatively how Father, Son, 
and. Holy Spirit are one God ; as it has been ex- 
pressed, " he simply records and enforces what were 
to him the facts of spiritual experience." The 
same thing may be said of St. John. Apostolic 
statements are rather the seed than the full growth 
of articulated doctrine, hence it is a mistake to 
press their doctrinal implications too far. They 
were not written fm. the same point of view as 
later creeds. 

Nevertheless it is poss. to see that the existence of 

3° 



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personal distinctions in the Godhead, to wh. the 
NT. points, makes it an easier thing for us to con- 
ceive some most essential aspects of the Divine life. 
Take, for example, the aspect of self-consciousness. 
Thought implies a duality of subj. and obj., and if 
in God it be eternally perfect, it wd. seem to de- 
mand an eternal Object answering fully to the 
thinking Subject, that God may know Himself com- 
pletely. Or consider, again, what is involved in the 
statement that God is will, in eternal and perfect 
action. It is the essence of will to produce, and, at 
its highest, to realise itself in another will, capable of 
giving back a resonance of its energies ; this also is a 
point at wh. our intelligence welcomes the suggn. of 
the Christian revelation, that within the oneness of 
the Divine nat. there is found a duality, a variety 
of personal distinctions. And finally, the very idea 
of love, wh., in the NT., constitutes the core 
and substance of the Divine life, is unthinkable as 
existing in a lonely unit. Love in God can never 
have been a mere potentiality, " sleeping until it 
woke to shed its beneficence upon an obj. other than 
itself." An unbeginning and perfect obj. there 
must have been, in that ineffable and transcendent 
life, a Lover and a Loved, if the nat. of God is to be 
conceived as by its very essence a scene of self- 
enjoyment and self-manifestation. Love such as 
His can be adequately received and returned only 
by One who is Himself not less than God. Or, to 
sum up all in a word, Fatherhood in God cannot be 
an acquired attribute ; to view it as the creation of 
time is to strike at its very life. It is essentially 
constituted by relations ; hist, and experience, as 
they are centred in Jesus Christ, and the new life 
conveyed to men by His Spirit, give us a clear view 
of what these relations actually are ; therefore, in 
spite of the felt poverty of human conceptions and 
human words, we must nevertheless conclude that 
Father and Son, and no less the Spirit, through 
whom we grasp both, represent eternal facts, in- 
trinsic relationships, without wh. the Godhead cd. 
not be. So to conceive the matter, in the light of 
the revelation in Christ, is our surest defence agst. 
the paralysing suspicion that God, after all, may be 
only loveless thought, or abstract substance, or 
mere almighty energy. Only so is Fatherhood the 
essence of God ; or rather, as we may put it other- 
wise, Father-Sonship, in an indivisible unity. In 
this way we can enter into the amazing sacrifice for 
our redemption of wh. announcement is made in the 
simple words : " God so loved the world that He 
gave His only-begotten Son " ; " Ye know the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was 
rich, yet for your sakes He became poor." We see 
into the heart of God, we know the last and highest 
truth concerning Him, when we perceive that He 
Himself has stooped down to bless us in His Son. 
H. R. Mackintosh. 



GOG (Ek. 38. 2f -), prince of the land of Magog, 
Meshech and Tubal. G. has been identified with 
Gyges. There seems to be some connection be- 
tween Magog and the Islands of the Ionian Sea 
(Ek. 39- 6 ) : their usual identification with Lydia 
seems plausible — only Meshech and Tubal suggest 
a Scythian rather than a Lydian affinity. 

GOLAN, a city of Manasseh in Bashan, the most 
northerly of the Cities of Refuge E. of the Jordan 
(Dt. 4. 43 ; Jo. 20. 8 ), given to the Gershonite 
Levites (Jo. 21. 27 ; 1 Ch. 6. 71 ) : unident. Sahem 
el-Jauldn has been suggd. It is a small vill. with 
extensive ruins, in the open country, 17 miles E. of 
the Sea of Galilee. The natives claim it as the 
anct. capital of the country. See Schumacher, 
Across the Jordan, 916°. ; Ewing, PEFQ., 1895, 
174L The old name now belongs to the district 
el-Jauldn, wh. stretches fm. the roots of Hermon to 
the Yarmuk, bounded on the W. by the Jordan, 
and on the E. by the Ruqqdd. Where cultivated, 
the volcanic soil is very fruitful. It is a popular 
grazing ground of the Arabs in summer. 




Golden Baskets from Ancient Egyptian Tomb 

GOLD (Heb. zdhdb). The value of this metal 
was early recognised (Gn. 2. 11 ). Apart fm. Scrip, 
the oldest ornaments preserved to us are of gold, no 
doubt owing to its indestructible char. These or- 
naments are often in the form of rings, bracelets, &c. 
(Gn. 24. 22 ). The Isr. on leaving Egp. seem to have 
carried with them great quantities of gold. Even 
after the destruction of the golden Calf (Ex. 32. 2ff -) 
they were still able to supply what was required for 
the vessels and furniture of the Tabernacle (Ex. 
35. 22 ). A wedge of G. tempted the cupidity of 
Achan (Jo. 7. 21 ). Gold figured largely in the furni- 
ture of the Temple (1 K. 6. 20ff -), and its abundance 
in Jrs. was a point in the splendour of Solomon 
(2 Ch. I. 15 ). The refining of G. is a symbol of 
the purifying of char, by adversity (Jb. 23. 10 ). 

Idols may at times have been made of G. (Is. 46. 6 ), 
but more commonly it may have been spread over a 
core of inferior value (Is. 40. 19 ) ; see Ephod. Gene- 
rally G. may be taken as a symbol of preciousness 
(Rv. 2 1. 18 , &c). It is further to be noted that gold 
was among the gifts presented to Jesus by the wise 
men. See Magi. 

GOLGOTHA, the place where Jesus was cruci- 
fied (Mw. 27. 33 ; Mk. 15. 22 ; Lk. 23. 3 3; Jn. 19. 17 ), 
and, as His tomb was near (Jn. I9. 41f -), even buried. 
As a place of execution and of tombs it was outside 
of, but near to the city (Jn. 19. 20 ), and beside a 
public road (Mw. 27. 39 ; Mk. 15. 29 ). We may infer 
that it was not far fm. the praetorium as the place of 



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judgment. While it is not called a hill, the name 
G., if rightly trd. " skull," may have been due to 
some natural feature suggesting a skull. Christian 
tradition (Athanasius, Ambrosius ; cp. Cyprianus, 
Origines, and others) related that, accdg. to Jewish 
belief, Adam's skull was found there. This has no 
support in Jewish Lit. When the Emperor Con- 
stantine, a.d. 326, ordered the place of our Saviour's 
resurrection to be purified fm. pagan abomination, 
there was no doubt about the locality. It had been 
marked by a temple of Aphrodite, erected not far 
fm. the centre of iElia Capitolina, W. of the main 
street. We now know that at least two sepulchres 
were found : one with slide loculi, and another 
with only one bench loculus. The latter was taken 
to be Joseph of Arimathaea's " new tomb " (Mw. 




PEF. Drawing 

Plan of Traditional Holy Sepulchre 
A, the Sepulchre ; t, alleged centre of Earth. 

27. 60 ; Lk. 23. 53 ; Jn. 19. 41 ), apparently because it 
was unfinished, and corresponded better to the 
description of Jn. 20. 7 ' 12 . There it is assumed that 
the body rested on an open bench loculus at the 
side of the tomb. The slide loculi were small tun- 
nels running into the wall of the burial chamber, 
into which bodies were pushed. To the NW. of 
these two there is a third tomb, with three bench 
loculi, perhaps of later origin. 

It was thought sufficient proof of authenticity 
that a tomb, corresponding with the biblical de- 
scription, was found at the place indicated by 
tradition. That trustworthy tradition was possible 
cannot be denied. The Gospels prove that the first 
Christian Church had a definite opinion regard- 
ing the locality, and led every Christian, whether 
visiting Jrs. or resident there, to ask for it. The 
Christian reverence for the tombs of the martyrs, 
already in vogue about a.d. 150, would ensure a 
special interest in the tomb of Christ. The exact 



site of the garden with Joseph's tomb may not have 
been known for a time ; but G., the name of the 
whole locality, wd. be familiar to all who were 
acquainted with local names, even if they cared 
nothing for the tomb of Christ. It is poss. that, as 
Eusebius says, the temple of Aphrodite, wh. may 
have been associated with the veneration of Adonis, 
had been intentionally built on the spot sacred to 
Christian remembrance. The temple wd. then 
presuppose living tradition. In any case it cast 
strong light upon the assured confidence of the 
tradition that, in the midst of a city surrounded by 
hundreds of rock tombs, it pointed to a place where 
no tomb could be seen. We are free to doubt 
whether the authentic tomb was found, if, indeed, 
it were still in existence ; but we must have strong 
and well-grounded objections if we decline to 
accept the general situation so clearly indicated. 

Eusebius, writing (a.d. 337) his life of Constan- 
tine, speaks of the sepulchre, but of neither G. nor 
the cross. Cyril of Jrs., who preached only ten 
yrs. later in Constantine's Church, calls the Basilica 
the " Martyrion " (Catech. xiv. 6). He knows that 
it is in or on G. (ib. iv. 10, xiii. 22, 26), that G. is 
visible as an outstanding rock (ib. xiii. 39), and that 
the true cross has been found (ib. iv. 10, x. 19). If 
Eusebius is silent about these things, he must have 
been doubtful whether the site of the crucifixion 
and the cross had really been discovered. This 
we can understand. There was no proof that the 
rocky slope E. of the tomb was G., that the cruci- 
fixion took place at a spot on it only 120 ft. fm. the 
tomb, and that wood found in an adjoining cistern 
was the true cross. 

In view of all this, we may say that the space 
enclosed by Constantine's edifice can only gener- 
ally indicate the direction in wh. tradition at this 
time pointed. And the direction fully answers all 
reasonable demands. The rock-hewn tombs, wh. 
cannot be dated before Hellenistic times, prove 
that the place was outside Herod's Jrs. Schick 
and others, for a time, mistakenly believed that 
the moat of the " second wall " had been found, 
running S. and E. of this site. But even if the 
" second wall," as some pretend, ran 100 ft. W. of 
the tomb excavated in the time of Constantine, 
this wd. not prove the tradition erroneous, but only 
that excavation did not hit the exact spot. The 
" gate of the gardens " led in the direction indi- 
cated by tradition ; so gardens were found there. 
An important public road, leading northward fm. 
the old city, passed in the same direction. If 
Pilate's prastorium were Herod's palace, no place cd. 
be found nearer, or more easily accessible. Here, 
at a corner formed by two walls, in public ground 
available for the purpose, it was quite natural for 
the execution to take place. The garden with the 
tomb wd. be further fm. the wall, to westward. If, 



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Gos 



as we believe for reasons not connected with this 
question, the " second wall " followed the line of 
the great market street of mod. Jrs. and ^Elia 
Capitolina, the only poss. objection to the locality 
now shown in the Church of the Sepulchre wd. be 
the close proximity of cross and tomb. But the 
cross may quite well have stood 200 ft. to eastward, 
between the wall and the road to the N. And we 
must remember that the gardens and tombs were 
there before the crucifixion. 

If, as the Gospels assume, the old name of G. is = 
Aram, golgotbd, " skull " or " vertex," some promi- 
nent rock or knoll may have borne a resemblance to 
a human head, or the upper part of it. But a 
derivation fm. gal goHhd, " the heap of Goa," is 
quite as defensible fm. a linguistic point of view. 
In this case Goa may just be the name of the spur to 
wh. the traditional place belongs (cp. Jr. 31. 39 , and 
Jerusalem). In either case, as is customary with 
Oriental place names, G. may have covered a wide 
area, while taken from some conspicuous feature 
within it. Possibly, therefore, the whole eastern 
slope of the NW. hill, over agst. the Gabbatha on 
the SW. hill, bore the name of G. 

If the indications of local tradition be left out of 
account, there are several sites NW. and E. of Jrs. 
wh. mt. in some degree meet the conditions ; but 
the fancy wh. has lately fixed upon a hill to the N. 
of the city as G., and on a Byzantine tomb at the 
foot of it as the sepulchre of Christ, has nothing in 
common with historical and archaeological science. 

G. H. Dalman. 

GOLIATH, the Phil, giant of Gath, whom the 
stripling David slew (1 S. 17.). Elhanan, one of 
David's heroes, is said also to have killed a " G. the 
Gittite," i.e. " of Gath " (2 S. 21."). Accdg. to 
the Chronicler, he was the br. of G. (1 Ch. 20. 5 ). 
The impression made by the conflict of David with 
G. on the mind of the E„ is reflected in many 
stories, Jewish and Arabian, wh. glorify the prowess 
of David. 

GOMER (Gn. io. 2 ), s. of Japheth, fr. of Ash- 
kenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. Supposed by some 
to represent the Kimmerioi of the Greeks ; others 
regard it as representing Cappadocia, wh. is called 
" Gamir " in Armenian (Asyr. gimirai). 

GOMORRAH. See Sodom. 

GOPHER WOOD (Heb. 'atze gdpher), of wh. 
the Ark was built (Gn. 6. 14 ), is not identd. ; cypress 
or cedar may be intended. 

GOSHEN. The limits of this land cannot now 
be determined with cert. It clearly lay on the E. 
border of the Delta, and was first reached by Jacob 
on his journey fm. Pal. to Egp. (Gn. 46. 28 ). It was 
good pasture land, and here Jacob and his family 
were settled, with their flocks and herds (Gn. 47- 6 ). 
It seems also to have produced abundantly cucum- 
bers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlick (Nu. II. 5 ). 



The later Jews identd. it with the Arab nome, the 
district adjoining Syr. LXX trs. ge Gesem Ara- 
bias (Gn. 45. 10 , 4 6. 34 ; cp. Jth. i.». 10 , ge Gesem). 
" Gesem " is prob. = Qes or Qesem, of the Ptolemaic 
nome lists, capital of the 20th nome, and apparently 
ident. with Per-Sopd, the mod. Sanft el-Henneh. 
Poss. a second capital was intended, and Qes may be 
= Fdqus, eight miles E. of Abu Keb'ir. We may 
with some confidence say that G. lay to the E. of 
the canal Abu el-Menegge, the W. border running 
fm. Belbeis to Faqiis, including the Wddy Tumtlat. 
(2) A district in the S. of Judah conquered by 
Joshua (io. 41 , ii. 16 ) : unident. (3) An unident. 
town in Judah (Jo. 15. 51 ). 

GOSPELS, THE. The problems connected 
with the study of the Gospels are of amazing extent, 
and of the greatest complexity. They are also of 
the highest interest. The religious interest is of the 
most absorbing kind. For the Gospels are the very 
citadel of the Christian Faith ; as the great Figure 
whose life and work they depict, and whose sayings 
they record, is the obj. of the Christian Faith, and 
the source of the Christian life. The main interest, 
then, for the Christian is this, whether the Gospels 
give us a true and trustworthy act. of what the 
Master was, of what He did, and of what He said. 
Did He make those claims on the allegiance of men 
wh. the Gospels ascribe to Him ? did He do these 
works for men, and endure these sufferings for them, 
wh. the Gospels affirm He did ? and did He really 
occupy that unique position in hist., as the Mediator 
between God and man, wh. is the foundation claim 
for Him wh. the Gospels make ? The issue is the 
most important ever raised for the Christian Church, 
and it is raised now as it never was raised before. 

It is not our purpose here to sketch the hist, of 
critical opinion on the Gospels, since the rise of 
historical criticism. It has been done many times, 
and fm. various points of view. Broadly, the issue 
formerly raised, and discussed with such energy fm. 
the time of Baur and Strauss to the end of the 19th 
cent., may be said to relate to the Gospel docu- 
ments as a whole. When, and by whom, were the 
Gospels written ? Were they documents of the 
first cent, or of the second ? Were they trustworthy 
accounts by eye-witnesses, or by those who received 
the testimony of eye-witnesses and recorded them ? 
Or were they compilations of the second cent. ? 
Various answers were given to these questions wh. 
need not be recorded here. After prolonged dis- 
cussion the extreme views wh. set the Gospels down 
as products of the second cent, were very largely 
departed fm., and a large number of scholars agreed 
with the verdict of Harnack that all the documents 
of the NT., with one or two exceptions, were docu- 
ments of the first cent. To make them later was to 
be guilty of an anachronism. That long contro- 
versy may be said to close with a victory for the 

33 H2 



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Gos 



traditional position. Every student is aware of the 
fact that there is still a number of scholars who do 
not agree with Harnack ; readers of the recent 
Dutch school, and of the Encyclopedia Biblica, 
need not be reminded of that fact ; but we do not 
propose to deal with these views here, as they are a 
school whose adherents are daily decreasing. 

Supposing, then, that the Synoptic Gospels are 
documents of the first cent., and that the fourth 
Gospel dates fm. the end of the first, or the begin- 
ning of the second cent., what is the present situa- 
tion ? Is the controversy ended ? Can one take 
up these Gospels and read them with the belief that 
"in them he has trustworthy acts, of Jesus, of what 
He said, of what He did, and of His position and 
function in the universe ? The question is not 
easily answered. A whole series of questions has 
emerged in connection with the problem, and 
answers to them are given of the most various kind. 
Take the Gospels as we have them : the question is 
now asked, Through what processes has the material 
gone ere it reached the form in wh. it is now em- 
bodied in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ? What 
are the sources of the Gospels ? 

In the study of this great question there is one 
thing wh. ought to be remembered by all students, 
whatever their predilections may be. In the second 
cent, there exists an organised Christian Church, 
consisting of many individual churches, ranging 
throughout the Rm. Empire, and characterised by 
cert, definite beliefs, founded on documents wh. it 
regards as authoritative and sacred. Of these docu- 
ments the Gospels are not the least authoritative or 
sacred. Rather they seem to be the most funda- 
mental of all, and all the other documents seem to be 
explicative or interpretative of them. While the 
Gospels form the norm and rule of Christian life, 
and while the life of the Church is fostered and 
nourished by them, yet the Church existed before 
the Gospels came into their present form. Yet at 
the beginning of the second cent, the life of the 
Church depended on the documents of the NT., 
and ever since the Church, in her highest and best 
moments, has found that her life depended on the 
appropriation of the spirit of the NT. Down 
through the cents, the Church has found in them a 
constant source of life, thought, and action, and 
these documents have formed a perennial source of 
reformation and strength. While the Christian 
society existed before the NT. took shape as Lit., 
yet fm. the time of the appearance of the NT. the 
life of the Church has depended on its appropriation 
of it, and obedience to it. 

In the second cent., then, and ever since, the exist- 
ence of the NT. is a fact of the highest importance 
for the life of the Church and for the hist, of the 
world. The NT. has been one of the chief factors 
in human hist. How did it come into existence ? 



and what are its sources ? Jesus Himself left no 
writings. He did not commit His sayings to writing, 
nor did He give to His disciples a body of laws, or a 
series of commands. In fact He wrote nothing. 
Yet within a hundred yrs. there grew up a unique 
Lit., the highest type of wh. is the NT. Limiting 
our view to our proper subj., how did the Gospels 
arise ? and having arisen, what dependence can we 
place on them as the sources of our kge. of Jesus ? 

Clearly there is here a proper subj. of historical 
inquiry. It is clearly the duty of historical criti- 
cism to examine the documents wh. are the authori- 
tative documents for a period of the world's hist. 
Looking, then, at the Gospels with the view of 
ascertaining the truth, what do we find ? In the 
Synoptic Gospels we have striking agreements and 
striking diffcs. What these agreements and diffcs. 
are cannot be specified within our limits. But they 
are obvious to all readers of the Gospels, and have 
always been recognised. They have been the main 
difficulties in the way of a harmonistic act. of the 
life of Jesus. As we study the Gospels some things 
seem clear. We find that most of the second Gospel 
is contained in the first and the third Gospels ; we 
find that the first and third Gospels have agree- 
ments in common in material wh. is not contained 
in the second Gospel. In short, the first and third 
Gospels seem to have used the second as one of their 
sources, for they are in agreement with it with 
regard to the story of the baptism of our Lord, the 
ministry in Galilee, the last week at Jrs., the passion, 
and the discovery of the empty tomb. But there 
seems to be a second source (reconstructed by 
Harnack in his work, The Sayings of Jesus), wh. 
may have been oral or written, consisting mainly 
of sayings or discourses of Jesus. This recognition 
of two main sources of the first and third Gospels 
seems to command something like universal consent. 
Though suggd. first in connection with a suggn. as 
to the meaning of the word " logia," wh. is not 
strictly true, yet it is supported by so much rele- 
vant evidence that it may be accepted as pointing 
towards a true conclusion. 

This conclusion, however, does not carry us very 
far. For the further question immediately arises 
as to the processes by wh. these two sources them- 
selves came into being. The Christian Church, in 
its earliest form, was a Church wh. arose out of the 
apostolic teaching, influence, and example at Jrs. 
It was founded on apostolic testimony as to the 
life, char., and teaching of Jesus Christ. It told of 
what He had done, of what He, in the belief of the 
apostles, was — of His person and of His work. The 
earlier chapters of the Acts of the Apostles enable us 
to see how the first converts were altogether depen- 
dent on the witness of the apostles. " They con- 
tinued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and 
fellowship " (Ac. 2. 42 ). The doctrine consisted of 

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reminiscences of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, of 
agreements between these facts and the OT. pro- 
phecy, and of interpretations of facts and prophecy 
for the edification of the infant Church. That the 
facts of the life of Jesus, specially of His death and 
resurrection, formed a constant element of apostolic 
teaching, we know fm. I Cor. 15. 1 ' 8 . That there 
went with the story of Jesus and His works a 
constant refce. to the OT. we also know fm. the 
speeches of Peter and of Paul, and also fm. their 
epistles. Thus the first instruction bestowed on 
the Church was oral. There were no written docu- 
ments. The apostles gave themselves to the minis- 
try of the word, but it was a spoken word. While 
the apostles and the Church were together in Jrs., 
and constant refce. might be made to them by the 
Church, the absence of written documents wd. not 
be felt. So for some yrs. they abode together, and 
the disciples were instructed by the apostles in the 
facts of the life of Christ and in the right interpreta- 
tion of these facts. For a time the instruction was 
oral, and the propagation of the faith was also oral. 
But as Christian converts returned to their homes 
fm. Jrs. they carried with them some kge. both of 
the facts and of their interpretation. It seems 
evident that there were bodies of Christians in 
various cities of the Rm. Empire before what may be 
called the apostolic mission really began. For the 
churches at Antioch and at Rome, to take only these 
examples, arose fm. the zeal and energy of private 
Christians. If this is so, then what wd. be the 
Gospel wh. they taught ? Clearly so much as they 
cd. remember of the teaching of the apostles, and of 
what they had heard in the catechetical classes at 
Jrs. Clearly also we must take into act. the thirst 
for greater acquaintance with the facts of the life of 
the Saviour, their curiosity as to His manner of life, 
His sayings, and their desire to conform their lives to 
His precepts. Act. must be taken also of that con- 
stant tendency in human nat., illustrated both by 
children and by grown-up people, to wit, the desire, 
when once a story is heard, to insist that it shd. be 
told again in exactly the same words, and in the 
same sequence. Hearers are impatient of variations 
in the telling of a story. Memory is very tenacious 
and very conservative. 

Oral teaching wd. tend towards a fixed form. 
The apostles, beginning with the significance of the 
death of Christ, and of His resurrection and its 
meaning, wd. natly. lay stress in the first place on 
the events of the passion week, on the crucifixion, 
on the burial, and on the resurrection. These were 
the significant facts, and on the act. of these all the 
three Synoptic Gospels are in essential agreement. 
That the stress was laid on these events we know fm. 
the apostolic teaching recorded in the Acts of the 
Apostles. These acts. wd. thus soon take a fixed 
form, and the first converts wd. carry these acts. 



rooted in their memory, ready to be told to whom- 
soever wd. listen, Refce. mt. be made to the 
example of Paul, to wh. refce. has been made 
already. 

The fixedness of oral teaching wd. soon take a 
wider range than the record of the passion week, the 
crucifixion, and the resurrection. It wd. extend 
backwards to other events, and incidents of the 
life of Jesus. One thing is evident as we read the 
three Gospels, namely, that most of the incidents 
are hung on a geographical thread. We follow 
Jesus in His journeyings, and as we follow we find 
that many of His sayings are represented as spoken 
in the course of cert, journeys. In all three, for 
example, the healing of the woman with the issue of 
blood is represented as occurring in the course of 
the walk towards the house of Jairus, and the ex- 
planation is that it happened so. There are many 
other illustrations of the same fact. In short, as we 
follow the journeys of our Lord through Galilee, 
through Samaria, down the E. of the Jordan, or fm. 
Jericho to Jrs., we find the natl. string on wh. the 
Gospels, in the historical part of them, is con- 
structed. Still further, as Professor Burkitt has so 
well shown in The Gospel History and its Trans- 
mission, in the chap, entitled " Jesus in Exile," in 
the itinerary recorded in Mark 6. the parts avoided 
by Jesus and His company are the dominions of 
Herod Antipas. Fm. this fact Professor Burkitt 
draws many striking inferences. What we are here 
concerned with is the light wh. the fact throws on 
the traditional origin of the material embodied in 
the Gospels. The apostles told the disciples what 
they remembered of the doings and sayings of the 
Lord. They remembered more easily as they re- 
called the journeys, and what had happened during 
these itineraries. This is genly. the way in wh. 
memory works. Things said by our friends, things 
wh. happened as we travelled with them, come back 
vividly as we recall the place and time when they 
were said or done. 

During the period while the teaching of the 
Church was orally conducted, and while the eye- 
witnesses were at hand to testify, the need for a 
written record was not clamant. But the expansion 
of the Church, and its settlement in Gentile cities, 
wd. speedily quicken the demand for a more per- 
manent form of the Gospel message. No doubt 
memory acts the more surely the more we trust it. 
Oral tradition and oral teaching do more wonderful 
things than we dream of, who depend so much, on 
the printed page, and on notes for our work. It is 
surprising to us to learn how much may be carried 
in the memory, and how easily it can carry length- 
ened books correctly on its tablets. It is not 
likely that the Jrs. Church wd. have any written 
Gospels, while the apostles were together there. 
Yet the need wd. speedily arise in Samaria, in 



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Antioch, and in the other churches of the first half 
of the first cent. Notes wd. be written, sections of 
the life wd. find a written form. The Story of the 
Passion wd. be one of the first to be written. 

It may well be that many sayings of the Lord, 
and many isolated doings of His, may have been in 
separate and detached circulation. Parts of the 
Gospels may have been in a written shape, some in 
this Church and some in that. Our present Gospels 
may be a selection of the material afloat in the 
separate churches, and the evangelists may have 
chosen so much of these materials as seemed to fall 
in with their main purpose. 

It is therefore necessary to take into act. the 
action of the memory of the apostles, the action 
of memory and of mind in oral tradition, and the 
idiosyncrasies of the editors of the various Gospels, 
if we are to have a true and adequate act. of the 
phenomena manifested in them. It ought to be 
remembered, however, that there were many oppor- 
tunities of making the infant Church acquainted 
with the substance of the oral Gospel. There were 
the classes for catechetical instruction, and in par- 
ticular there was the weekly assembly on the Lord's 
Day. No doubt the OT. continued to be read in 
the assemblies of the Christian Church, but the 
recitation of the story of the life, death, and resur- 
rection of our Lord wd. soon have a prominent 
place in the readings, or, at least, in the exhorta- 
tions of the sanctuary. Repeated week after week, 
enlarged as new messengers came round fm. the 
mother Church, or fm. sister churches, the body of 
reminiscences wd. soon amount to a considerable 
bulk. How soon or how late the oral Gospel came to 
be written we may not well determine. The pro- 
cess may have been continuous, until the material 
reached the position described by Luke in his pro- 
logue. But however great the material may have 
been, it was ruled by the test that each part of it 
must be authenticated by refce. to the testimony of 
those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the 
word. 

It is time, however, to ask the main question, wh. 
is pressed so ardently in various circles nowadays. 
It is contended that but little dependence can be 
placed on the record of our Lord's sayings as these 
are recorded in the Gospels in our possession. For 
it is alleged that these were written, not because 
they were said by Him, but because the Church 
thought they ought to have been said. The Gos- 
pels were written not for the sake of truth, but 
for edification. The needs of the Church were the 
determining element in the selection of topics, and 
in the statement of what mt. have been appro- 
priately said or done by the Lord in any set of cir- 
cumstances. Thus the conclusion is that fm. any 
saying or doing of our Lord recorded in the Gospels 
we must make allowance for the idealising tendency 



of the Church, and her desire to exalt her Lord, 
and her determination to change any saying, or to 
eliminate any act. of Him, wh. wd. seem to detract 
fm. His high merit, or fm. the place He filled in the 
mind of the Church. Only these sayings can be 
histly. true, wh. convey hints of weakness, of im- 
perfection, and these were allowed to remain only 
because they were overlooked. Thus fm. the 
idealising tendency of the Church, and fm. the 
selection of what is required for the needs of the 
Church, it is contended that we have really no act. 
of histl. events or of histl. sayings in the Gospels : 
we have only homilies, things not histly. true, only 
things wh. the Church found to be needful for her 
edification. 

Again, many are good enough to trace for us the 
elements wh. helped to enable the Church to con- 
struct the great Figure wh. meets the reader of the 
Gospels, as he turns over their pages. These ele- 
ments are very numerous, and various. In fact 
they are too numerous to be noticed in this short 
article. But the main source, insisted on by Baur 
and Strauss, and by many writers since their time, 
is to be found in the OT., and esp. in the Messianic 
prophecies of the OT. It may be well to say some- 
thing of this contention. It may be remarked 
genly. that the heroes of the nations bear a national 
aspect, and are subj. to national limitations. The 
heroes of Homer are Greeks, and all the heroes of 
Greek hist, are Greek in their excellence and in 
their limitations. Roman, Indian, Persian, Teu- 
tonic, English, Scottish, American heroes, held up 
for the admiration and imitation of their respective 
nationalities, are each of them intensely national, 
and so limited, they scarcely appeal to other 
nationalities. It wd. take too much space ade- 
quately to illustrate this principle and its bearing on 
the matter in hand. Let one read the nth chapter 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews and note the heroes of 
faith mentioned there. He will find that all these 
heroes are Jews, and have charcts. of Jews. But 
the Jesus, Who is the last of that series, is universal. 
He is the One who alone can be described as the 
Author and Finisher of faith ; the One who is 
neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, 
because He is all of them. He is the universal 
human ideal, because He is the Real Man in whom 
humanity attained its true ideal. Because He is 
universal all nations may find and have found their 
ideal in Him. For after criticism of the Gospels 
has done its work, and after only a poor residuum 
has been left, when the critic faces the problem of 
the fact of Christ, of His influence, of His place in 
hist., and so on, then we find the Figure again 
growing under the hand of the critic until it attains 
somewhat of the stature of the Gospel as it was 
before it had passed under the levelling roller of 
the critic. 



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So the question arises, How did the infant Church 
construct that heroic and universal Figure ? We 
know something about that early Church, and 
something of their limitations. Something has been 
found out about the Jews of the time of our Lord, 
of their patriotism, of their narrowness, of their 
intense fanaticism, of their exclusiveness : how did 
they transcend all these and other limitations, and 
give to the world the universal Figure depicted in 
the Gospels ? There is no answer by the critics to 
this question. Then as to the influence of the OT. 
on the making of the New, and as to the influence 
of current Messianic expectations on the Messiahism 
of the New, a calm investigation proves that the 
Messiahism of the Jews in the time of Christ and 
the Messiahism of the NT. have nothing in common 
but the name. No doubt the kdm. of God in the 
OT. has many features realised in the kdm. of God 
in the NT. But it is to be observed that the 
features of the kdm. common to the idea in both 
testaments are precisely those wh. had no part in 
the current Jewish conception. For the Jewish 
conception was external, temporal, limited to the 
outward dominion of Jew over Gentile, and to their 
consequent freedom fm. oppression and fm. sorrow. 
In their pictures of the kdm. of God, outward, 
temporal conditions filled their whole horizon, and 
no room was left for those spiritual qualities wh. are 
the essential elements of the NT. picture. 

Instead, therefore, of the OT. conception giving 
rise to that of the New, we have to reverse the pro- 
cess ere we reach the truth. The advent of Christ 
gave rise to a new reading and interpretation of the 
OT. So powerful was the impression made on the 
disciples by the personality of Jesus, by His whole 
demeanour, by His teaching, His life, death, and 
resurrection, that they saw all things in His light. 
The OT., familiar to them fm. their youth, took on 
a new form, colour, and meaning. The hidden mean- 
ing of many sptl. passages leaped to light, and it was 
to them as if an obscuring veil had fallen fm. their 
faces. They found a meaning, unseen by Jewish 
eyes, in the fig. of the Suffering Servant of the Lord, 
and Psalms like the twenty-second glowed with a 
fresh significance. Under this new light they read 
the Scriptures, and found them luminous with the 
presence of their Master. The Epistle to the 
Hebrews may be read as a treatise on the theme, 
" How to find Jesus in the OT." Instead, then, of 
the thesis that the OT. helped to form the portrait 
of Jesus wh. is present in the Gospels, the contrary 
thesis may safely be maintained, that the Jesus of 
the Gospels compelled His disciples to read the OT. 
in a new way. His Figure made the NT. ; it also 
dominated the OT., as it was read by the Christians. 
The very difficulty wh. we now have in our attempts 
to vindicate the Christian interpretation of many 
OT. passages is a testimony to the fact here insisted 



on. If these interpretations seem to us to be some- 
what strained, or to have an artificial meaning im- 
posed on them, that is an additional testimony to 
the dominating influence of Jesus over the minds of 
His disciples. 

In truth readers of the Gospels can never break 
away fm. the commanding influence of that tran- 
scendent Figure. He rules it fm. beginning to end. 
Looked at fm. any point of view, the difficulty of 
that Figure being the creation of the idealising ten- 
dencies of the early Church becomes ever greater. 
The early Church cd. never have created that great 
and impressive char. It was contrary to every 
Jewish ideal, was unlike every char. wh. the Gen- 
tiles delighted to honour. The only explanation of 
the matter is that He was real, for no race, and no 
individual, cd. have invented Him. 

As for the consideration, so often insisted on, that 
the Gospel story, incident and saying, was dominated 
in its construction by the needs of the Church, that 
contention has simply to be reversed. The needs of 
the Church were really created by Jesus Christ Him- 
self. They simply were not, until He came and 
made them. For the need of the Church arose out 
of the fact that the Church as a whole, and the in- 
dividual Christian within the Church, was a new 
creation, suited to a new environment, and both the 
Christian and His environment were the creation of 
Christ, the result of His action. The needs were 
new needs, and the unsearchable riches of Christ 
were the supply of those new needs. Christ made 
the needs, the needs did not make Christ. 

It seemed best in this genl. article to limit our- 
selves to the enunciation of broad and genl. prin- 
ciples, and to state broadly the issues involved in 
the controversy. literary and other critical ques- 
tions can be better treated in connection with the 
separate Gospels {see arts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
John). As to the fourth Gospel, it has so many 
problems peculiar to itself that they must be treated 
separately. It professes to be the work of an eye- 
witness. Its treatment of its topic is that of an 
eye-witness, and is different fm. the calm, objective, 
impersonal treatment of the Synoptic Gospels, in 
wh. the personality of the editors is ever in the 
background. James Iverach. 

GOURD (Jh. 4. 6ff -). This is most likely the 
" bottle G." called by the Arabs qar'ab. It is fre- 
quently trained over trellis work, when its broad 
leaves make pleasant shade. It grows very rapidly, 
but when injured, e.g. by a slug gnawing the bark, 
it seems almost to collapse. The rind of the fruit, 
when emptied of seeds, is used for bottles. The 
castor-oil plant, favoured by Guthe (KB. s.v), is 
out of the question. The wild Gs. (2 K. 4. 39 ) are 
prob. the fruit of the colocynth, Arb. hondol, wh. 
creeps along the ground, and trails, vine-like, over 
bush and plant. Its melon-shaped fruit is c. 3 in 



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diameter. It contains smooth seeds embedded in 
bitter, poisonous pulp. 

GOVERNMENT. When Isr. came out of Egp., 
and prob. during their residence there, each tribe 
was under its own " prince " (nas?) ; presumably 
" families " and " houses " would be under rulers 
also (alluphlm, Zc. I2. 5 ). When they settled in Pal. 
the princedom fell into abeyance, and the G. was 
exercised by the Elders (Jo. 8. 33 ; I S. 4. 3 ) of 
Isr. ; each tribe had its Elders (2 S. 19. 11 ) ; the 
most prominent in the ordinary G. were the Elders 
of the Cities. Every City had towns and villages 
"under it, reckoned its " daughters." While by 
these Q. was ordinarily administered, fm. time to 
time Judges (shopbefim) were raised up as de- 
liverers (Jg. 2. 16fl - ; Ps. 2. 10 , &c.) ; moved by Divine 
inspiration they performed some heroic deed and 
the people followed them (e.g. Gideon), and they 
" judged Isr." The kind of authority exercised, and 
its extent, is quite uncertain. Dissatisfaction with 
the conduct of Samuel's sons led to the establish- 
ment of the kingship. The k. was the viceregent of 
Jehovah (JHWH), and the first k. was selected under 
Divine guidance, first by Samuel, then by lot before 
the people. David was likewise chosen by God, 
through the instrumentality of Samuel ; prophetic 
choice intervened to select Jeroboam and Jehu. 
What precisely were the limitations to the kingly 
authority implied in the " manner (misbpdf) of the 
kingdom " cannot be determined. Latterly the 
kingship passed fm. fr. to s., though not by primo- 
geniture. The power of the k. depended on his 
personal char, and following. Towards the end of 
the Southern Kdm. the princes play a prominent 
part in the government ; the k. professing himself 
impotent as agst. them (Jr. 38. 5 ). After the return 
fm. Bab., the kingship having ceased, the authority 
of the High Priest increased, and the supreme power 
under the Persians seems to have been exercised by 
him. Under the later Maccabceans kingship was 
revived. See Elder, Sanhedrin, Rome. 

GOVERNOR. While there are several words 
meaning " ruler," occasionally trd. " G." in AV., 
if by G. is meant " viceroy " the OT. word is pehah 
(I K. io. 15 ; Ne. 2. 7 ; Ez. 5. 3 ). They were officials 
of the Assyrian and Persian Empires. Sagnln, wh. 
occurs only in Dn., may have the same meaning. 
In the NT. " G." represents the Gr. begemon, the 
Gr. name given to the Procurator — a subordinate 
governor, as Pilate over Judea in subordination to 
the Governor of Syria. 

GOZAN, a province of the Asyr. Empire on the 
Haboras (Khabur), to wh. the Isr. of the Northern 
kdm. were deported (2 K. 19. 12 ) by Sargon. In 
Asyr. inscrs. it is gusannu ,• Ptolemy calls it Gau- 
zanitis. 

GRAFTING. See Olive. 

GRAPES. See Vine. 



GRASS. The Heb. words so trd. denote herbage 
in general. In EV., unfortunately, no uniform ren- 
dering is adopted. (1) Desbe\ " grass " (Gn. I. 11 ), 
" tender herb " (Dt. 32.2, RV. " grass "), " herb " 
(2 K. 19. 26 , &c). (2) Hatzir, " leeks " (Nu. II. 5 ), 
"grass" (1 K. 18. 5 ), "herb" (Jb. 8. 12 ), "hay" 
(Pr. 27. 25 ). (3) Tereq, " green thing " (Ex. io. 15 ), 
" grass " (Nu. 22. 4 ), &c. (4) 'Eseb, " herb " (Gn. 
I. 11 ), "grass" (Dt. II. 16 , &c). In NT. X o/oros 
includes flowers as well as " grass " (Mw. 6. 30 ) ; it 
is trd. "blade" (13. 26 ) and "hay" (1 Cor. 3. 12 ). 
Grass in the sense of pasture lasting through the year 
is unknown in Pal. It is seen, only in the spring 
months ; with the advance of summer it is withered 
up, and disappears. This makes the grass an apt 
emblem of human life in its transiency (Is. 40. 6 ; 
Js. I. 10 , &c). 

GRASSHOPPER (Lv. n. 22 , Heb. hdgdb - Jg. 
6. 5 , 'arbeb), prob. a variety of Locust. 

GRATE, GRATING, prob. a network of 
bronze wire covering the lower part of the altar 
(Ex. 27. \ &c). 

GRAVE. See Tomb. 

GREAT SEA, THE, is the Mediterranean (Nu. 
34. 6 , &c). See Sea. 

GREAVES, a covering for the front of the leg ; 
fm. the Asyr. marbles they wd. seem to have been 
straps of leather faced with strips of bronze. 
Goliath (1 S. 17. 6 ) wore them. 

GREECE, GREEKS (Hellenism). (1) Name. 
The words Greece and Greeks are the names wh. 
the Latin peoples applied to Hellas and its inhabi- 
tants. In the OT. Javan is the name given speci- 
ally to Ionia, but also to Greece as a whole. In Jl. 
3. 6 the " men of Javan " is trd. " the Grecians," 
where " Greeks " or " Ionians " wd. be more cor- 
rect. In the NT. " Grecian " is to be distinguished 
from " Greek." A " Grecian " was a Jew, genly. of 
the Diaspora, who spoke the Gr. lang. and had 
adopted Gr. customs and modes of thought, though 
perhaps the Greeks of the fourth Gospel are rather 
Greek-speaking Jews than pure Greeks. The word 
" Greek " in the mouth of Jews came to have a 
secondary meaning. The Greeks divided the world 
into Greeks and Barbarians, the Jews made the 
division into Jews and Greeks. Thus Greek came 
to be the name applied to every heathen, and in 
the NT. we have both this usage and the more 
classical one. " Greek," meaning simply Gentile or 
uncircumcised, occurs Gal. 3. 28 ; Mk. J. 2Q ; and also 
" Greek" as opposed to " Barbarian " is found in 
Rm. i. 14 ; Col. 3. 11 , while "Greece" is used as 
equivalent to " Hellas " in the old classical sense 
and distinguished from Macedonia in Ac. 20. 2 . 

(2) Influence of Greece on Israel. — Unless 
modern conjecture, wh. regards the Phil, as iden- 
tical with the Pelasgi, who founded Mycene and 
thus Greeks be correct, Isr. did not come into con- 



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tact with Greece till the time of Alexander the 
Great. Alexander and his successors sought to ex- 
tend the Gr. lang. and influence into the conquered 
provinces of Asia, Syria, and Egp. They founded 
many colonies, particularly Alexandria, where many 
Jews settled and acquired the Gr. lang., while re- 
taining their own relg. A proof of the great influ- 
ence Gr. thought came to have on the Jews beyond 
Pal. is seen not only in the fact that the OT. was 
trd. into Gr., and that the Apocrypha, for the most 
part, and the NT. were written in Gr., but also in 
the evidence of Gr. ideas in the LXX tr. itself. 
Thus e.g. in Heb. we read " Enoch walked with 
God," which in the LXX is deprived of its anthro- 
pomorphic colouring and becomes " Enoch pleased 
God." In Pal., surrounded by Greek-speaking 
peoples and visited frequently by Greek-speaking 
Jews, the Gr. influence became ever stronger, and 
was only partially retarded by the conservative 
movement under the Maccabaeans. At the time of 
Jesus it is not unlikely that many Jews of Pal. were 
bilingual, speaking both Gr. arid Aram. The con- 
clusion that Jesus spoke Greek, while not unlikely, 
cannot be proved from such passages as Mk. y. M ; 
Jn. 7. 35 , 12. 20 . He undoubtedly knew a few Gr. 
words, and was at least able to read the inscr. on the 
coin (Mw. 22. 20L ). On the other hand, Gr. terms 
for coins, weights, and measures had to a large 
extent displaced the old Heb. terms. The crowd 
at the cross seems to have been mainly composed of 
Gr.-speaking Jews, otherwise they could not have 
misunderstood the cry : " Eloi,. Eloi, lama sabach- 
thani," while the Jews in Jrs. were agreeably sur- 
prised when Paul addressed them in Aram. (Ac. 

22. 2 ). 

(3) Greek Thought and the Bible. — Influences 
of Gr. thought on the OT. are practically non- 
existent, with the prob. exception of Ecclesiastes, 
who seems to have been dimly acquainted with the 
Epicurean philosophy (cp. Ec. 2. 24 ) and also with 
the Aristotelian doctrine of the mean (cp. Ec. 7. 16 ). 
The Apocrypha shows more signs of Gr. influence, 
particularly in the Wisdom of Solomon, which seeks 
to combine the Heb. doctrine of wisdom and 
principles of Gr. philosophy. In the NT. the 
Synoptics and particularly the words of Jesus show 
no traces of Gr. influence. The prologue of the 
fourth Gospel, as well as the enthusiasm of the 
writer for the truth, and his dualistic opposition of 
God and the world, show traces of Hellenistic influ- 
ence. Paul, while undoubtedly acquainted with 
Gr. thought, is affected only on minor points by 
Gr. speculation (cp. arts. Paul, John). 

W. F. Boyd. 

GRECIANS in Jl. 3. 6 is AV. tr. of bene hay- 
yevariim (RV. " sons of the Grs.") = Greeks. In 
NT. (Ac. 6. 1 9« 29 ) G. means the Gr.-speaking Jews, 
i.e. the Jews of the dispersion, as distinguished fm. 



those retaining their Semitic tongue. In Ac. II. 20 
RV. gives " Greeks." 

GREEK, LANGUAGE OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT. As Palestine was a bilingual 
country our Lord may have spoken Greek and 
Aramaic with equal facility. At the same time 
writings composed in the Aramaic lang. appear to 
underlie the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and 
St. Luke. Aram, or Heb. documents may also have 
been employed in Acts I. -1 2. and in parts of the bk. 
of Revelation. The view is held by some scholars 
that the Epp..of St. James and St. Peter were trans- 
lated from Aram.. originals ; but for this hypothesis 
there is no valid evidence. Apart fm. these excep- 
tions, real or conjectural, the NT. was written fm. 
the first in Gr. 

The Gr. of the NT. is the kolvyj or " common " 
Gr. wh. was current in the eastern half of the Rm. 
Empire. As a result of the conquests of Alexander, 
the Gr. civilisation, and with it the Gr. lang., had 
been imposed on Egp. and on the various countries 
of Asia Minor. The language thus adopted was 
different, however, in many important respects 
fm. that of the great Classical period. Its ground- 
work was Attic, or rather the mixture of Attic and 
Ionic wh. had grown up around the ^Egean Sea in 
the days of the Athenian supremacy. This mixed 
dialect became further modified by the influence of 
other Gr. dialects and of the native langs. of the 
conquered peoples. During the three centuries wh. 
had elapsed since Alexander it had also been de- 
veloping itself fm. within. New words had been 
added to satisfy new requirements. Grammatical 
forms had been simplified, and exceptions brought 
into line with the prevailing rules. The numerous 
particles wh. were characteristic of anct. Gr. had 
been largely discarded. Prepositional phrases were 
used to express relations wh. had formerly been 
defined by case alone. Words and forms peculiar to 
poetry were adopted into common speech. The 
classical syntax was broken up and was replaced by a 
loose co-ordination of the several clauses in the 
sentence. In these ways, and in many others, the 
kolvtj marked the first stage of the process whereby 
a new lang. was gradually evolved out of anct. Gr. 

The extant Lit. of the period does not represent, 
except in a limited measure, the lang. that was 
actually in use. Literary modes of expression are 
always more or less artificial ; and this was emi- 
nently the case in Gr. composition of the sub- 
classical age. Grammar, style, vocabulary had all 
been fixed several centuries before by the great 
Attic models, and later writers made it their aim to 
conform as nearly as poss. to the correct Attic usage. 
Although they only half succeeded, their lang. was 
a literary dialect, barely intelligible to the mass of 
uneducated men. The writers of the NT. be- 
longed to the people, and wrote for the people. We 

39 



Gre 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gre 



1. Brit. Mus.— Pap. 98. 

TlQTO\rrHHUlKQYAJLtH*HYnHKO 

2. Brit. Mus.^Cod. Alex.-<8t. John L 1-5.) 

KlApX^HMNOAOrOCKAlOAorocH 

•n poc-ro KeNKA 1 ec m mo\ o ro c . 

oyroCHNeNx^HncocTONeN 

TTXNTXMXYrOVereNGTOKM^a» 

peiCNYToyere NGToovxeeN- 

OFerONeNeNAVTUJ^CUHHKl^ 

K^ 1 nro <b cue e m tVi c k on x<4> x t 

Me » 1a 1 h c koti a a ytoo vi<*re 




do not expect fm. them an academic diction, such 
as we find in Plutarch, Lucian, and other contem- 
porary authors. Their Gr. has to be considered in 
its relation to the actual spoken lang. of the first 
cent. 

It was taken for granted, until recent yrs., that 
the NT. was written not so much in a lang. as in a 
patois, compounded largely of Semitic idiom. Its 
authors were admittedly Jews, and their Gr., alike 
in its gen. char, and in matters of detail, is in marked 
contrast to that of any other extant writing. The 
theory passed without question that they wrote as 
foreigners, endeavouring to express themselves in a 
medium of speech with wh. they were imperfectly 
acquainted. So recently as 1889 a great scholar 
like Hatch (Essays in Biblical Gr., p. 11) cd. describe 
the lang. of our NT. as a lang. by itself, an exotic 
Jewish dialect wh. required to be interpreted acedg. 
to its own peculiar rules. 

This view has been entirely changed in conse- 
quence of the discoveries of the last few yrs. 
Excavations in Egp. have yielded a large and 
ever-increasing mass of familiar letters, household 
accounts and memoranda, commercial and civic 
documents, wh. obviously reflect the common lang. 
of the people. By means of these papyri and pot- 
sherds, dating fm. various periods between the third 
cent. B.C. to the sixth cent, a.d., we have been 
enabled to get behind the conventional Gr. of the 
extant Lit. It is true that they serve as evidence 
only for the Egyptian dialect, wh. may have been, 



in some respects, peculiar ; but the results obtained 
fm. them have been substantially confirmed by the 
inscrs. recently discovered at Pergamum and Mag- 
nesia. There is good reason for concluding, with 
Thumb, Deissmann, and other careful investigators, 
that the kolvtJ was marked by few dialectical 
differences. The free communication wh. had 
been established among the various provinces of 
the Rm. Empire had led to a common type of lang., 
and the variations were confined almost wholly to 
accent and pronunciation. 

The study of the papyri has disclosed a remark- 
able coincidence between the Gr. employed in 
them and that of the NT. There is the same loose 
construction of sentence, the same deviation fm. 
classical usage in the forms of the verb and the 
meanings assigned to prepositions. Idioms wh. 
were once regarded as unmistakably Semitic are 
now seen to have been customary in the Gr. of 
every-day life {cf. ovofxa, where the " name " sig- 
nifies the " person " ; €v(o7rtov, " in the face of," 
instead of the simple " before "). Even more strik- 
ing is the occurrence, in the ordinary speech of the 
time, of many religious and ecclesiastical words wh. 
seemed to be the peculiar product of Christianity. 
Thus Kvptos ( = " Lord") was a name frequently 
given to heathen deities, and formed its adjective 
KvptaKOS, as in the NT. ; eTrio-KOTros and irpeo-- 
fivrepos (" bishop " and " elder ") were words taken 
over fm. the organisation of heathen cults. It is 
more than prob. that the closer sifting of the 



24.0 



Gre 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gre 



3. Brit. Mus.— Add. 17, 211.— (St. Luke xx. 9, 10.) 

-a 




< A I P u> 



papyri will reveal some equivalent to almost every 
word or phrase wh. has been hitherto set down as 
an innovation of NT. Gr. We are learning to ac- 
knowledge that the lang. of the sacred writers was 
not a jargon invented by themselves, but was 
nothing more or less than the ordinary spoken lang. 
of the Hellenic world. It is the contemporary Lit. 
wh. represents an artificial dialect ; while the NT. 
is composed in the living tongue. 

Hebraic elements are undoubtedly present, but 
they affect not so much the lang. in the narrower 
sense, as the gen. structure and colouring of the 
style. In all the writings we can observe a ten- 
dency to parallelism — the literary form in wh. Heb. 
thought natly. expressed itself when it became im- 
passioned. In the accounts of our Lord's teaching, 
more esp., we meet not only with constant paral- 
lelism, but with apologue, aphorism, and other 
modes of speech characteristic of the East. But 
the Hebraic element in the various bks. is chiefly 
due to the direct influence of the OT. Scrip. The 
writers are all familiar with the OT., and quote it 
continually, either in entire sentences or in single 
words and phrases. Their quotations are usually 
made fm. the Septuagint version, in wh. there was 
little attempt to render the Heb. original in idio- 
matic Gr. Apart fm. literal quotations they allow 



their lang. to be modified, in a large degree, by the 
Septuagint. They delight in turns of expression 
wh. had become consecrated by frequent use in 
Scrip. They employ many terms in the sense at- 
tached to them by the translators of the Bible, and 
not in the sense wh. they bore in ordinary Gr. A 
contemporary reader wd. at once recognise a foreign 
element in their lang., but he wd. not set it down to 
any want of acquaintance with the lang. as com- 
monly spoken. He wd. be affected much as we 
ourselves are in reading a bk. saturated with Scrip, 
phraseology, although evidently written by an 
Englishman of our own day. 

When we have made allowance for the inevitable 
influence of the Bible on NT. Gr., the traces of 
Semitic idiom become exceedingly few. They are 
found (i) in words directly borrowed from Heb. or 
Aram. (<?.£. , A^^a, , afx^v,y€€wa, Tracrya, <xa/?/3a,Ta) ; 
(2) in the frequent use of Hebraic formulas, esp. in 
narration (" he answered, saying," " and it came to 
pass ") ; (3) in a few isolated expressions to wh. 
neither the Lit. nor the papyri have yet offered any 
parallels, and wh. may provisionally be classed as 
Hebraic. It must be remembered, however, that 
even these may be brought within the scope of 
normal Gr. usage, in the light of further dis- 
covery. 



241 



Gre 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gut 



The NT. is the work of a number of writers, and 
the lang. of each one of them has its own peculiar 
char. St. Luke and the author of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews are the most correct, when judged by the 
accepted standards of literary Gr., in their choice of 
words; and sometimes in the structure of their sen- 
tences they betray some affinity with the Atticising 
authors of their time. St. Paul is the greatest 
writer as well as the greatest thinker of the NT. 
His style is marked by a wonderful resourcefulness 
and flexibility ; and if it were not for the tradi- 
tional theory that he wrote in an arbitrary dialect, 
he wd. long ago have been recognised as a great 
master of lang. The Johannine writings are the 
least versatile in expression ; but in all of them the 
constant repetition of the same ideas in the same 
unvaried and simple terms is evidently intentional. 
In spite, however, of many inevitable differences, 
due to its composite authorship, our NT. exhibits 
throughout the same broad linguistic features ; 
and these are accounted for, not by the Jewish 
origin or imperfect culture of the writers, but by 
the fact that they all employed the spoken as dis- 
tinguished fm. the merely literary lang. 

This fact is no doubt to be explained fm. the cir- 
cumstances of the Church in the first cent. Chris- 
tianity had made its converts, almost exclusively, 
among the poorer classes, to wh. the more culti- 
vated modes of speech were unfamiliar. They 
required to be addressed in the lang. of every-day 
life, before the message of the apostles cd. make 
its due appeal to them. In the next cent. Chris- 
tianity had ceased to be a merely popular move- 
ment, and the writers of the Church conformed to 
the usages of the conventional literary style. It is 
do matter for regret that this was impracticable in 
the earlier period. The Gr. of the NT., however 
rude and incorrect when tried by classical standards, 
was the living tongue, and lent itself, as only the 
living tongue cd. do, to the utterance cf heartfelt 
thought. All the more because it had never previ- 
ously been used in Lit., it enabled the sacred writers 
to express themselves with a splendid boldness and 
spontaneity. They were not bound down to any 
stereotyped rules. They worked with a lang. wh. 
was still in the making, and cd. mould it, with entire 
freedom, to the purposes of the new revelation. 

In one sense, therefore, the NT. is written in a 
separate lang. Christianity, like every great spiri- 
tual movement, impressed a new char, on the ordi- 
nary forms of speech. It brought with it a wealth 
of new ideas wh. it sought to express by means 
of existing words ; but in this process the words 
acquired a fresh significance. The Gr. of the NT. 
was something very different fm. either the literary 
or spoken Gr. of the time. It was different also fm. 
the Gr. of the Church Fathers, for while they took 



over much of the new vocabulary, they made no 
further attempt to develop the resources of the 
vulgar tongue. The NT. stands by itself, the one 
monument in Lit. of the living vernacular Gr. of 
the first cent. As our kge. of the popular lang. 
increases, we may expect that not a few of the pro- 
blems in its interpretation will be solved. But we 
must always take account of the new spt. wh. re- 
acted on the lang. and shaped it to higher and finer 
issues. 

Literature : Blass, Grammatik des neutestament- 
lichen Griechisch (1902) ; Moulton, Grammar of 
NT. Gr., vol. 1, Prolegomena (1906) ; Deissmann, 
Bibelstudien (1895), Neue Bibelstudien (1897) [these 
works are both included in the English tr. by Dr. 
Grieve, Bible Studies] ; New Light on the NT. (1907); 
Thumb, Die Griechische Sprache im Zeitalter des 
Hellenismus (1901) [the most important bk. yet 
written on the " common " dialect and its relation 
to NT. Gr.]. E. F. Scott. 

GREEN. See Colour. 

GREET, GREETINGS. See Salutation, Sa- 
lute. 

GREYHOUND (Heb. zarzlr mothnayim, Pr. 
30. 31 , EV. ; but AVm. "horse," RVm. "war- 
horse "). The LXX, Psh., Vlg., Tg. have " cock." 
The term does not occur elsewhere, and it is imposs. 
to decide its precise meaning ; the words mean 
" girt loins." 

GROVE (1 K. 14. 15 , Heb. 'asherdh). AV. renders 
" G." ; better with RV. trlt. " ashera " ; it ap- 
pears to have been a tall pole that formed part 
of a Canaanitish shrine. In Gn. 21. 33 , eshel, trd. 
" grove," prob. means a " tamarisk." 

GUARD. The G. of foreign monarchs are 

usually tabdhlm (Gn. 37- 36 ; 2 K. 25. 8 ; Dn. 2. 14 ), 

" slayers " ; the verb is applied to a cook killing 

animals for cooking (Gn. 43. 16 ). In regard to 

Israelite kings G. trs. ratzlm, " runners " (1 K. 

14."). 

. The suggn. of Gratz that in 1 S. 21. 7 we shd. read ratzim 
instead of ro'tm is alluring, but as in no script earlier than 
the "square" is there any resemblance between ]) and ^, 
the letters involved, it cannot be regarded as even plausible. 

GUDGODAH (Dt. io. 7 ), corrsps. to Hor-hag- 
gidgad (Nu. 33- 32 ), an unident. station in the 
Journeyings of Isr., prob. in the Arabah. 

GUEST. See Hospitality. 

GUR, THE ASCENT OF, where Ahaziah was 
wounded (2 K. 9- 27 ). Ibleam, near wh. was the 
" going up " (A V.), lies -| mile S. of Jeriin. 

GUTTER. (1) Heb. rahat, " trough " (Gn. 
30. 38 ). (2) Heb. tzinnor, RV. " watercourse " 
(2 S. 5. 8 ) ; in Ps. 42. 7 this word is trd. " water- 
spouts " ; RVm. " cataracts." The passage in 2 S. 
is regarded by Driver as prob. corrupt ; it is cer- 
tainly very difficult to explain satisfactorily. 



242 



Hab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Had 



HABAKKUK, eighth of the Minor Prophets, 
was a contemporary of Jeremiah, but of his personal 
life we have no cert, information. His prophecy is 
concerned with the rise of the Chaldeans to power, 
and he was already familiar with their methods of 
warfare and their success. In b.c, 625 the Chal- 
deans became independent of Asyr., in 607 Nineveh 
fell, and in 605 Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabo- 
polassar, defeated Necho of Egp. at Carchemish. 
A few yrs. later the Chaldeans invaded Judah. 
The prophecy of H. belongs to the latter part of 
this period, and deals with the religious problems 
raised by the speedy success of this terrible power. 
The bk. describes the state of Judah, where crime 
and lawlessness are rampant, and yet ]". seems un- 
willing to interfere (i. 1 " 4 ). To the prophet ]" '. de- 
clares that the Chaldean power is a Divine instru- 
ment for the punishing of iniquity. The Chaldeans 
are a bitter and hasty people, and are here de- 
scribed as overmastering all the difficulties of oppo- 
sition. They make a god of their might and scoff 
at kings and princes, but J", makes use of them 
(i. 5 " u ). Jeremiah had accepted the view that the 
Chaldeans were simply the instrument of ]" '., and he 
continually preached patience under the affliction. 
This, however, does not satisfy the inquiring mind 
of H., but only raises a new problem. 

How can the righteous J", use as His instrument, 
for any purpose whatever, a people who swallow up 
those more righteous than themselves, and who 
worship no power, other than the might of their 
own hands ? They spare not to slay the nations, 
regardless of God or man (i. 12 " 17 ). H. reveals 
an intimate acquaintance with the doings of the 
Chaldeans, wh. is evidently the result of immediate 
kge. At the beginning of their career, it mt. still 
be poss. to consider them as the messengers of J". 
appointed to punish sinners, and H. had at first 
accepted this view (i. 5 ) ; but now their great power 
for evil, and their evident disregard of any Divine 
purpose, caused him perplexity. The prophet takes 
his place, figuratively, upon his watch-tower, to 
await the answer to his " complaint," or his ques- 
tioning of the ways of God (2. 1 ). He is told to 
write the answer on tablets, that it may be easily 
read and preserved, for its full meaning will only be 
known later. It is to the effect that the Chaldeans, 
being puffed up and unrighteous, bring their own 
destruction upon themselves, but the just shall live 
by their faithfulness (2. 4 ). In spite of apparent 
contradictions, let the righteous only remain stead- 
fast and retain their loyalty to God, for in that 
alone is life : let them wait for His explanation. 
" Though it tarry, wait for it ; because it will 



surely come, it will not delay " (2. 3 ). Then the 
prophet denounces the Chaldeans in a series of 
" Woes " (2. 5 - 20 ), supposed to be uttered by the 
vanquished nations. They are directed agst. their 
ungovernable passion and violence (vv. 5-8), agst. 
their insatiable desire to conquer wh. only hastens 
their own doom (vv. 9-1 1), agst. their cruel and 
iniquitous treatment of the vanquished cities (vv. 
12-14), agst. their debasing influence upon the 
conquered (vv. 15-17), and agst. their foolish 
idolatry (vv. 18-20). 

Great diffc. of opinion exists among critics as to 
the proper order of the verses in these chapters, and 
various ingenious rearrangements have been suggd. 
Budde has an interesting theory, and one wh. has 
gained important adherents, that the passage I. 2 " 4 
refers to the Asyrs., the oppressors of Judah, whom 
the Chaldeans overcame, instead of the usual inter- 
pretation given above, wh. takes the passage as 
referring to the sins of Judah itself. 

Chap. 3. is very difft. fm. the first two, consisting 
of a poem of great poetic beauty, wh. places its 
author high in rank among the poets of the OT. 
It contains a prayer that J", wd. renew the great 
work He had done in the past. The poet pictures 
J", appearing in majesty to punish His enemies, and 
for the salvation of His own people. The imagery 
is drawn fm. the story of the Exodus, an event re- 
peatedly referred to by the prophets as a signal 
manifestation of the hand of J". After impres- 
sively describing the effect of this theophany, which 
is alarming even to those who fear Him, the chap, 
ends with a noble passage, expressing calm confi- 
dence in God, and a triumphant assurance that J". 
is his strength, even though all the blessings of 
earth were denied him. John Davidson. 

HABERGEON. This is the antique designa- 
tion of the "cuirass" or "coat of mail." The 
latter is the tr. adopted by RV. in Ex. 28. 32 , 
39. 23 ; 2 Ch. 26. 14 ; Ne. 4. 16 . In Jb. 41. 26 , RV. 
has " pointed shafts." The coat of mail might 
be of leather, or of metal scales. 

HABOR (2 K. 17. 6 , 18. 11 ), a river to the banks of 
wh. the exiles of the Northern Kdm. were deported ; 
it is identified with the Khdbur, a tributary of the 
Euphrates. 

HACHILAH, a hill near the wilderness of Ziph, 
a hiding-place of David, and once the site of Saul's 
camp (1 S. 23. 19 , 26. 1 ' 3 ). Ziph is the mod. Tell 
ez-Zif, S. of Hebron. 

HAD AD. (1) The successor of Husham on the 
throne of Edom (Gn. 36. 35 ), who " smote Midian in 
the field of Moab," and reigned in the city Avith. 
(2) An adversary of Solomon, " of the king's seed in 



243 



Had 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hag 



Edom," who as " a little child " was rescued from 
the fate that befell the males in Edom at the hands 
of Joab, and carried into Egp., where he found 
favour with the Pharaoh and married the queen's 
sr.* When the old warrior king, David, died, he 
ventured back to Edom. What success he achieved 
in his efforts to free his country from the power of 
Isr. we do not know (i K. II. 14 " 28 ). (3) In Gn. 
36. 39 , for " Hadar " we shd. prob. read " Hadad," 
withPsh. and cert. Massoretic and Sam. MSS., thus 
agreeing with 1 Ch. I. 50 . 

HADAD-EZER (2 S. 8. 3 " 12 ), K. of Zoba, con- 
quered by David ; called in 1 Ch. 18. 3 Hadar-ezer. 
He assisted the Ammonites, but his forces were 
defeated by Joab, and he was finally subdued by 
David at Helarn (2 S. io. 6 ' 19 ). 

HADADRIMMON (Ze. 12. 11 ), thought to be 
the place of mourning over Josiah's death (2 K. 23. 29 ; 
2 Ch. 35- 22ff -), and genly. identd. with Rummaneh, a 
small vill. seven miles NW. of Jenin. 

HADASSAH (" myrtle "), Esther's own Jewish 
name (Est. 2?) : see Esther. 

HADES, RV. See Hell. 

HADID (Ez. 2. 33 , &c), prob. = " Adida" (1 M. 
I2. 38 , 13. 13 ), corrspg. to mod. Haditbeb, c. three 
miles NE. of Lydda. 

HADRACH (Zc. 9. 1 ), the name of a district near 
Damascus, apparently ident. with " Hatarikka "of the 
Asyr. inscrs., wh. place it to the N. of Mt. Lebanon. 

HAGAR ("flight"), Sarah's Egpn. handmaid 
(Gn. i6. 1 ),accdg. to the custom of the time, her own 
private property. Despairing of offspring herself, 
Sarah gave H. to Abraham, following the practice of 
the land of their origin (Laws of Hammurabi, 144-7), 
the children of the handmaid being reckoned to the 
mistress. Sarah's jealousy, H.'s pride, and the en- 
suing trials for Abraham, as well as for the handmaid 
and her s., are very true to human nat. Unable to 
endure Sarah's oppression, H. fled, but the " angel 
of the Lord " met her, promised a great posterity 
for her s. (see Ishmael), and sent her back. Mean- 
while God's promise of a s. to Sarah having been 
fulfilled (Gn. 21.), the Egyptian and her boy became 
an eyesore to the jealous wife, and at her instigation, 
but also with the approval of God, they were finally 
sent away by Abraham. Again the angel of God 
intervened to preserve them in the thirsty wilder- 
ness (vv. I7ff.). H. took a w. of her own country- 
women for her s. She ranks as the great ancestress 
of the Ishma elite tribes. The Moslem Arabs claim, 
indeed, that she was the legitimate w. of Abraham, 
and that Ishmael, as the first-born, secured the lion's 
share of the inheritance. She died and was buried, 
they say, in the holy city of Mecca. 

Hagarenes, Hagarites, or Hagrites, RV. (1 Ch. 



* The recent sugg. that H. fled to Mitzri, a district W. 
of Edom. and not to Mitzraivi, the Egypt so well known 
to hist., is without reasonable support. 



5. 10 ' &c. ; Ps. 83. 6 ), a nomad tribe of the Syrian 
desert, attacked and pillaged by the Reubenites in 
the time of Saul. Prob. they counted their descent 
fm. Hagar. They may be identl. with the " sons 
of Agar " (Ba. 3. 23 ). Jaziz, David's flockmaster, 
was of this tribe (1 Ch. 27. 31 ). 

HAGGAI, tenth of the Minor Prophets, and one 
of the exiles who returned fm. Bab. with Zerub- 
babel and Joshua, inspired the people with a new 
enthusiasm for the rebldg. of the Temple. The 
captivity had ended in B.C. 536, when Cyrus, k. of 
Persia, now the master of Bab., gave the exiles per- 
mission to return. At first they contented them- 
selves with laying the foundation of the Temple and 
setting up the altar of burnt-offering (Ez. 3.), for 
they had learned to dispense with the sanctuary 
during the captivity, without injury to the religious 
life of the people. Moreover, the eagerness of their 
hostile neighbours to accuse them of rebellion agst. 
the over-lord wd. help to chill the ardour of the 
Jews. The murder of Cambyses and the accession 
of Darius had been the occasion of a wide revolt 
among the peoples subj. to the Persian rule ; and, 
as in the past, the prophets came forward to trans- 
late the events of hist, into the lang. of the purpose 
of J". In b.c. 520, the second year of Darius, H., 
supported by Zechariah, uttered the Divine com- 
mand to rebuild the Temple, declaring that they 
cd. not hope for the favour of ]". till this first duty 
was fulfilled. The news of the upheaval within the 
Persian empire aroused in H. the hope of the fall of 
the heathen empires, and the coming of the Mes- 
sianic Age. He declared that, if the Temple were 
completed, J", wd. come with mercy and blessing. 

The four prophecies of H. belong to the one 
yr., b.c 520. In chap. 1. he appeals to governor 
and High Priest to make a beginning of bldg. the 
Temple. The slackness of the people had not been 
caused by their poverty, for they had built for 
themselves " panelled " houses, while J'Vs house 
lay waste. There had been times of drought, and 
crops were failing ; wages were small, and they 
quickly vanished, as if put in a bag full of holes. 
All this was the punishment of their neglect of an 
obvious duty. Let them restore the Lord's house 
and He wd. again have pleasure in them. It was 
rare that a prophet saw such immediate fruit of his 
ministry. H. had delivered his prophecy on the 
1st day of the 6th month, and on the 24th day the 
work was begun. 

In the 2nd prophecy, on the 21st day of the 7th 
month (2. 1 " 9 ), H. encourages those who had seen 
the former Temple, and who now felt the impos- 
sibility of building anything like it. He tells them 
that the best is yet to be, and that the latter glory 
of this house shall be greater than the former. 

The 3rd prophecy (2. 10 " 19 ) was delivered on the 
24th day of the 9th month, and in it H. develops 



244 



Hag 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hai 



the thought that all their ills have arisen fm. neglect 
of the Temple ; but, now that it is being built, the 
blessing of J", will be given. 

The 4th prophecy (2. 20 ' 23 ) is addressed, on the 
same day, to Zerubbabel, of the house of David ; 
and a promise is given of Divine favour and protec- 
tion in the day when J", will destroy the strength 
of the nations. 

H. has little of the fire and poetic power of most 
of the prophets, but he makes his appeal and gives 
his promises in a plain, direct way wh. wins assent ; 
and he has the power of arousing enthusiasm in his 
hearers for the cause wh. is near his heart. In four 
yrs. the bldg. of the Temple was completed. 

John Davidson. 
HAGGITH, w. of David, mr. of Adonijah (2 S. 
3 4 , &c). 

HAIL (Heb. bdrdd, Gr. cbalaza) is usual during 
the winter in Pal., when it seldom does damage. 
In spring, and later, it sometimes works great havoc 
on the crops and fruit (Ex. o,. 25 ; Ps. 78. 47 ). It is 
often accompanied by thunder (Ex. o,. 23 ; Ps. 148. 8 ; 
Rv. 8. 7 , &c). At times the great hail-stones are a 
danger to life (Ex. 9. 18 ; Jo. 10. 11 , &c). About the 
year 1890, a hail-storm broke over Galilee, in wh. 
many goats were killed on Mt. Carmel, the hail- 
stones in one instance piercing the window shutters 
of a house like musket balls. The present writer 
was caught in a hail-storm in June 1898, when 
riding on the shore N. of Sidon, and carried for 
weeks painful marks of the hail-stones, wh. seemed 
to be c . ^ in. in diameter. H. was used as a symbol 
of the judgment of God (Rv. 8. 7 , II. 19 , 16. 21 ), and 
was an instrument with wh. He chastised His 
people (Ps. 105. 32 ; Hg. 2. 17 ,&c). 

HAIR. Among the Semites and other primitive 
peoples an importance, strange to us, attached to 
the H. Part of a person's life was held to reside in 
it. This sheds light on customs connected with 
the H. wh. were otherwise unintelli- 
gible. Altho' the practice has varied 
fm. age to age, prob. some attempt 
was always made to distinguish the 
sexes by the manner of wearing the 
H. In NT. times the man's H. was 
cut short ; the woman's grew long 
(I Cor. 11.15; q m i Sm 3> 24. Ek# l6i 7). 
In earlier days men seem to have let 
their H. grow longer. Solomon's 
youthful horsemen produced striking 
effects by sprinkling gold dust on their 
long H. {Ant. VIII. vii. 3 ; cp. SS. 
5*' n ). The Arab men to this day wear the H. in 
long plaits. Long H. marked the Asyrs. (Herod, i. 
195). The Egpns. shaved clean (Gn. 41. 14 ), but wore 
false H. plentifully (WAE. ii. 324, &c). The barber 
is mentioned Ek. 5. 1 Illustrations of the attention 
given to the H. are found in 2 S. 14. 26 ; 2 K. 9. 30 ; 




Egyptian Wig 
(front view) 
2\ feet long 

2, 



Is. 3. 24 ; Jr. 7. 2 » ; 1 Tm. 2. 9 , &c. Combs are not 
named in Scrip., but were doubtless familiar in Pal. 
as in Egp. (WAE. ii. 349). Metallic ornaments were 
worn in the H. (Is. 3. 18 ), as coins and tiny bells 
adorn the locks of Oriental 
beauties still. Herod the 
Gt. dyed his H. (Ant. XVI. 
viii. 1). The Hebs. do not 
seem to have used wigs. To 
pluck the H. (Ez. 9. 3 ), or 
leave it untended (2 S. 19. 24 ; 
Is. 15. 2 , &c), was a sign of 
grief (see Mourning). To 
mishandle the H. of another 
is to inflict deep indignity 
(2 S. io. 4ff - ; Is. 7. 20 , 50. 6 , 
&c.) . A woman was humili- 
ated by the untying of her 
H. (Nu. 5. 18 , RV. ; cp. Lk. 7.™). It was forbidden 
to follow the heathen practice of cutting the corners, 
i.e. the locks on the temples, at puberty. Hence, by 




Assyrian Mode of Dressing 
the Hair 




Tiberias Jew with Long Love-locks 

a curious perversion of the prohibition, the love- 
locks, so carefully preserved by pious Jews to-day. 

As among the Arabs, the man under a vow, the 
Nazirite, might not cut his H. until the vow was 
accomplished (Nu. 6. 5ff - ; Jg. 13. 5 ; 1 S. I. 11 ). 
Among anct. peoples, offerings of H. meant really 
offering of part of the life. To get a portion of a 



245 



Hal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ham 



man's H. was to possess some mysterious connection another reading. When the bk. of Esther is read 
with him wh. even death did not end (RS. 2 324*!. ; in the synagogue at the feast of Purim, whenever 
Wellhausen, Skizzen, hi. 118, 146). Swearing by the name of H. occurs the Jews express their hatred 



the H. or beard is connected with the same super- 
stition (Mw. 5- 36 ). The change of the captive 
slave-girl's condition is marked by shaving the H. 
(Dt. 21. 12 ). 

White H. is held in reverence (Pr. 16. 31 ; Ws. 2. 10 , 



of him by stamping with their feet and spitting. 
See Purim. 

HAMATH. The entering in of H. is men- 
tioned as the most northerly point visited by the 
spies (Nu. 13. 21 , RV.), and frequently as the N. 



&c.) as a mark of old age An offence is aggravated limit of Isr.'s territory (Jg. 3.2, &c). This is prob. 
if it bring sorrow on grey H. (Gn. 42. 38 ). H. " like the great depression between the.N. end of Lebanon 
pure wool " is an element expressing the Divine and the Nusairiyeh mountains, affording easy pas- 
majesty of the Ancient of Days (Dn. J. 9 ; cp. Rv. sage fm. the coast to the plain of the Orontes (BRP. 
i. 14 ). See Leprosy. iii. 568L ; LB. hi. 297). The city H. lay c. forty 

HALAH. See Calah. miles further N., on the banks of the Orontes. It 

HALAK (Heb. ha-har hehaldk). Instead of Mt. is now represented by Hamdh, a town of some 
H. we shd. prob. read " the smooth " or " bare 60,000 inhabitants (Baedeker), under the governor 
mountain" (Jo. 1 1. 17 , 1 2. 7 ), marking the S. boundary of Damascus, 
of the land conquered by Joshua : unident. H. was the capital of a kdm., the boundaries of 

HALHUL, a city in Judah named with Bethzur wh. are unknown. K. Toi was on friendly terms 
(Jo. i5. 58 ) = mod. Halhul, an important vill. near with David (2 S. 8. 9f -). It was taken by Jero- 
Beit Sur, four miles N. of Hebron. There is a 
good spring, rock-hewn tombs, and remains of 
anct. bldgs. 

HALI, a town on the border of Asher and 
Zebulun (Jo. 19. 25 ), poss. = mod. Khirbet 'Alya, c. 
13 miles NE. of Acre. 

HALLELUJAH, " Praise Jehovah (JHWH)," 
a doxology found at the beginning (Pss. ill., 112.) 
or end (Pss. 104., 105., &c.) of certain Psalms, and at 
both beginning and end of others (Pss. 106., 135., 
146., 147., 148., &c). In Ps. 135. it also opens v. 3. 
Pss. 113.-118., in wh. the phrase is of frequent oc- 
currence, are sung together as one composition by 
the Jews on the night of the Passover, and are called 
the " Hallel of Egypt." In the Psalms the word is 
always translated " Praise ye the Lord." In Rv. it 
is trltd. fm. the Gr. Allelouia. 




Hammath : Hot Baths, Tiberias 



HAM, s. of Noah (Gn. 5 
Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. The name suggests captured it (2 K 
a connection with the root hdmam, " to be hot 
it is also connected with the native name of Egypt 



), fr. of Cush, boam II. (2 K. 14. 28 ). Sennacherib claims to have 



34 



19. 



cp. Is. 36.19, 37.13). 



It is called H. the Gt. (Am. 6. 2 ). The cuneiform 
inscrs. show that the Asyrs. attached great impor- 



Khemi. H. is regarded as the progenitor of the tance to H. Men fm. H. were settled in Samaria 
Southern races ; the only exception being the (2 K. 17. 24 ). The Greeks changed the name to 
Canaan ites. The incident (Gn. 9- 22 ), as the curse Epiphania, but the old name lived in the mouth of 
of Noah is directed against Canaan, not Ham, may the natives, and, with the Arab conquest, resumed 
indicate a confusion in the nar. ; prob. Canaan, its place. The castle stood on an eminence to the 
not H., was guilty. The incident may point to the N. The river flowing through the town is spanned 
licentious character of the Canaanites. by four bridges. Water fm. the deep bed is raised 

HAMAN, s. of Hammedatha, vizier and favourite for the gardens by means of huge wheels, wh. are 
of Ahasuerus. Enraged at the refusal of Mor- driven by the force of the current. Here were 
decai, the cousin of Esther, to do him reverence, he found cert, inscrs. supposed to be Hittite. Ha- 
sought revenge in the destruction of the whole math Zobah (2 Ch. 8. 3 ) may poss. be identl. with 
Jewish people. His plots were frustrated, and the this, or it may have been so called to distinguish it 
fate he had devised for Mordecai was meted to fm. H. the Gt. ; but no site answering to it has 

been discovered. 

HAMMATH, " hot spring " (Jo. 19. 35 ; AnU 
XVIII. ii. 3 ; BJ. IV. i. 3), a city of Naphtali- 
mod. el-Hammdm, i| miles S. of Tiberias, on the 



himself. H. is called an Agagite (Est. 3. 1 ), that is, 
a desct. of Agag, k. of Amalek, whom Samuel hewed 
in pieces before the Lord (1 S. 15. 33 ). In LXX he 
is called a " Bougean," a name which points to 



246 



Ham 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Han 



seashore. The spring supplying the large public 
bath has a temperature of 140 Fah. Patients fm. 
all quarters, esp. Jews, visit the baths, wh. are 
reputed good for rheumatic and other complaints. 
H. is prob. = Hammon (1 Ch. 6. 76 ) and Hammath 
Dor (Jo. 2 1. 32 ). 

HAMMEAH, TOWER OF, RV. See Meah. 

HAMMELECH (Jr. 36. 26 , 38. 6 ), not a proper 
name : shd. tr. " the king." 

HAMMON, HAMMOTH DOR. (1) See Ham- 
math. (2) A town in Asher (Jo. 19. 28 ). A poss. 
site is Umm el-'dmud, N. of the Ladder of Tyre, an 
anct. sanctuary of Baal Hammon. 

HAMON-GOG, the place where the host of 
Gog wd. be buried (Ek. 39. 11 ' 15 ). 

HAMOR (" he ass "), prince of Shechem, fm. 
whose " sons " Jacob purchased the " parcel of 
ground " wh. was before the city (Gn. 33. 18ff- )- 
H. perished in the massacre by Jacob's sons (see 
Dinah). The old nobility of Shechem in later 
times were known as " the sons of H." (Jg. 9- 28 ). 

HAMUTAL (2 K. 23. 31 , 24. 18 ; Jr. 52. 1 ), w. of 
Josiah, mr. of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah. 

HANAMEL, cousin of Jeremiah, fm. whom the 
prophet in prison bought the field at Anathoth 
when the fall of Jrs. was imminent, believing that 
the land would again be possessed by Isr. (Jr. 32. 7ff -). 

HANANEL, a tower on the wall. See Jeru- 
salem. 

HANANI. Of the men who bore this name in 
Scrip, we need mention only H. the br. of Nehe- 
miah — i.e. poss. a relative — who came to " Shushan 
the palace " fm. Jrs., telling a sad story of the con- 
dition of things there (i. 2 ). To Hm, along with 
Hananiah, " governor of the castle," Nehemiah 
subsequently entrusted " the charge over Jeru- 
salem " (7. 2 ). 

HANANIAH (" ]". has been gracious "). (1) A 
" patriot " who opposed the policy of Jeremiah, 
prophesying that within two yrs. Jeconiah wd. re- 
turn fm. Bab. with the captives of Judah, and the 
sacred vessels of the Temple (Jr. 28. lf -). He died 
within two months of Jeremiah's denunciation. 

(2) One of Daniel's companions (see Shadrach). 

(3) A man of importance in Nehemiah's time, 
governor of the castle, and one of the commanders 
of the city (Ne. J. 2 ). The name is frequent in OT. 

HAND (Heb. yad, " the open H," kaph, " the 
closed H.," Gr. cheir). "At hand" is -Heb. 
qarob, and Gr. engus, " near " (Is. 13. 6 ; Mw. 26. 18 , 
&c). Tamm, " right hand," and semol, " left 
hand," are used for " North " and " South " re- 
spectively ; directions being fixed with the face to 
the E. Sometimes yad = " monument " (1 S. 15. 12 ; 
2 S. 18. 18 ; Is. 56. 5 ). " Hand " = " power " (Dt. 
2. 15 , 4. 34 ), " protection " and " care " (Ez. 7- 6 , &c. ; 
cp. Jn. io. 28f -), " inspiration " (Ek. 8. 1 , &c). 

The raised Hs. denote prayer (Ex. 17. 11 , &c). 



To lift the H. is = "to vow" (Gn. 14. 22 , &c). 
Washing the Hs. protests innocence (Dt. 21. 6 ; 
Mw. 27. 24 , &c). To pour water on another's Hs. 
is to be his servant (2 K. 3. 11 ). "Clean Hs." = 
innocence (Ps. 1 8 . 20 , &c.) . Blessing is conveyed and 
sin transferred by Laying on of Hands (Gn. 48 , 14 ; 
Lv. 16. 21 , &c). To fill the Hs. was to consecrate 
to the priesthood (Ex. 28. 41 , &c). In conspiracy 
men join H. in H. (Pr. II. 21 ). Striking Hs. seals a 
bargain (6. 1 , &c). Marks or cuttings in the Hs. 
identified the deity one served (Is. 44.5, RVm. ; 
cp. Gal. 6. 17 ; Rv. 20. 4 ). The place of honour is 
at the right H. (Ps. no. 1 ; Lk. 22. 69 ; Rm. 8. 34 ; 
cp. Ps. 109. 31 ). 

HANDBREADTH. See Weights and Mea- 
sures. 

HANDICRAFTS. While certain occupations 
were held in some contempt, altho' regarded as 
necessary (e.g. that of the tanner), the general atti- 
tude of the anct. Hebs. to work was one of respect. 
To them there was nothing incongruous in the 
thought of a workman being called by the Lord 
to his craft, and filled by His Spirit with wisdom 
and skill (Ex. 3l. lff -). Even so in later days great 
Rabbis, such as Hillel, followed their trades without 
compromising their dignity. Not to teach a youth 
some trade was looked on as equivalent to teaching 
him to be a thief. Apostolic precept and practice 
were equally wholesome (Ac. 1 8 3 ; 1 Cor. 4. 12 ; 
I Th. 4. 11 ; 2 Th. 3. 10 , &c). Jesus Himself con- 
formed to this custom (Mk. 6. 3 ), thus conferring a 
new dignity upon toil. 

The words commonly used in Heb. for artificer 
or craftsman are derived fm. the root hrsh, " to 
cut." Hdrdsh is the usual form, and the trade is 
defined by the addition of the material in wh. the 
artificer works ; e.g. worker in wood = carpenter ; 
worker in stone = mason, &c. 

No doubt in primitive times each man made 
his own weapons. The importance attaching to 
means of attack and of self-defence wd. ensure the 
early development of the Armourer. His craft wd. 
be among the first applied to working in metal. 
The "smith" is the armourer in 1 S. 13. 19 , and 
prob. also in 2 K. 24. 14 ' 16 , &c. The Baker appears 
in Egp. in Joseph's day (Gn. 40. 1 ). Hosea (7 4 - 6 ) 
is familiar with his methods. In Jrs. the bakers 
gave their name to the street where they practised 
their calling (Jr. 37. 21 ) ; see Bread, Oven. The 
Barber is mentioned only in Ek. 5. 1 , but his craft 
was familiar (see Hair). The Carpenter's trade 
must be distinguished from the mere taskwork of 
the " hewer of wood " (Jo. 9. 21 ), who prob. only 
gathered firewood. It comprised all kinds of skilled 
work in wood for buildings, furniture, and orna- 
mentation. He also carves wooden idols (Is. 4b. 20 , 
41. 7 , 44. 13 , &c). In the last-quoted verse several of 
the carpenter's tools are named : the measuring line ; 



247 



Han 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Han 



the pencil (Heb. sered), wh. Kimchi thinks was red 
chalk ; prob. it was a metal stylus — cp. Arb. sardd, 
" an awl " ; the plane, lit. " graving tool " ; and 
compasses. Axe, Saw, and Hammer are mentioned 
elsewhere. The carpenter in Jesus' time wd., like 
his mod. successors, make ploughs, yokes, &c, for 
the Galilean farmers. He knew the importance 
of well-fitting yokes (Mw. n. 29f -). Cheesemakers 
were so numerous as to give their name to a valley. 
Poss., however, cheesemongers may be intended (see 
Jerusalem). The Cook (tabbdh) is in Heb. synony- 
mous with "executioner " and " slaughterer," show- 
ing that it was his duty to kill the beasts to be used 
for food (i S. 9. 23f -). The art of the Dyer was 
practised (see Dyeing). The Embroiderer's art 
is frequently referred to. He wrought in blue and 
purple and scarlet and fine linen, apparently using 
also threads of gold (Ex. 35. 35 , 38. 23 , 39. lff -, &c). 
The Engraver cut designs and lettering on pre- 



tion, prob. a pick ; the hammer, maqqdbdb, prob. a 
smaller hammer used in dressing stones (i K. 6. 7 ), 
and patthb, wh. may be a heavy implement used in 
the quarry (Jr. 23. 29 ) ; the measuring reed (Ek. 
40 , 3 , &c), and the plummet (2 K. 21. 13 , &c). 
David had a plan (EV. " pattern ") made for the 
buildings to be undertaken by Solomon (1 Ch. 28. 11 ), 
and prob. it was customary in all important struc- 
tures for the builders to work from a plan (cp. He. 
II. 10 , AV. "builder," RV. "architect"). The 
Miller is not named, but see Mill, Millstone. 
Perfumers are called " confectionaries " in AV. 
(see Perfume). The art of working various metals 
was known fm. very early times, and the handi- 
work of the Smith frequently appears (Gn. 4. 22 ; 
I S. 13. 19 , &c). The anct. Hebs. understood the 
methods of melting (Jg. 17. 4 ) and refining (Pr. 17. 3 ; 
Zc. 13. 9 , &c.) metals. Iron was for the most part 
wrought when red hot (Is. 44. 12 , &c), but it also 




Carpenters at Work 

a, piece of dark wood applied to one of ordinary quality, b; c, adze; e, ruler; /, right angle; g, box. 2. Something 
is being ground; i, glue pot on fire; ;', piece of glass. 3. Glue applied with brush. 



cious stones (Ex. 28. 9fL , 31. 4 , &c). Graven images 
were probably cast, and finished with graving tools. 
Graven stones (Ac. 17. 29 ) arethework of the sculptor. 
The precious metals were wrought and adapted 
to many purposes, esp. those of ornament, fm. very 
early times ; but the name of the Goldsmith, as 
practising his craft, occurs only thrice, and then as 
a maker of images (Is. 40 , 19 , 41. 7 , 46. 6 ). The gold- 
smiths, apparently a trade guild, are mentioned as 
taking part in repairing the walls of Jrs. under 
Nehemiah (3 32 ). "Jewels" (EV.) of silver and 
gold were, of course, made by the goldsmith, so 
that, in old English usage, the goldsmith was the 
Jeweller. Now this word denotes the worker and 
dealer in precious stones. Mason in EV. is applied 
to those who quarry and dress stones (1 Ch. 22. 2 , &c.) 
as well as to those who actually build them (1 Ch. 
14. 1 , &c). Of the marvellous stone cutting and 
building of ancient days illustrations may be seen 
in Baalbek. In the W. wall of the Temple of the 
Sun are three stones of over 60 ft. in length, at a 
height of 19 ft. from the foundation, while a giant 
still lies in the quarries wh. measures 71 ft. x 14 ft. 
x 13 ft. Its weight may be about 1500 tons. Of 
stoneworkers' tools there are mentioned the axe 
(1 K. 6. 7 ), a tool mentioned in the Siloam inscrip- 



might be melted (Ek. 22. 20 ). Mention is made of 
blowing the smith's fire with bellows (Is. 54. 16 ; 
Jr. 6. 29 ) ; the anvil (Is. 41. 7 ) ; the hammer and 
tongs (Is. 44. 12 ) ; and solder (41. 7 ). Spinning, 
Weaving, and making of Tents in anct. as in mod. 
times would be largely in the hands of the women. 
In NT. times Tentmaking was a special trade, fol- 
lowed, among others, by the apostle Paul (Ac. 18. 3 ). 
See also Fuller, Linen, Potter, Tanner. Other 
occupations are treated under their own names. 

In mod. Damascus we have a picture of anct. 
conditions in the gathering of those who follow a 
particular craft in one street or bazaar, e.g. the street 
of the saddlers, the bazaar of the goldsmiths, &c. 
(cp. Ne. II. 35 ; Jr. 37. 21 ; BJ. V. viii. 1). This 
circumstance wd. facilitate the formation of some- 
thing like trade unions, for defence and promotion 
of their mutual interests, wh. seem to have existed 
fm. early times, e.g. that of the goldsmiths (Ne. 
3. 8 * 12 ) and of the silversmiths (Ac. 19. 24 ). 

HANDKERCHIEF. As the name soudarion, a 
word borrowed fm. the Latin, indicates, this was a 
small cloth carried for the purpose of wiping off 
perspiration (Ac. 19. 12 ). 

HANES, a city in Egp. (Is. 30. 4 ), prob. to be 
identified with Heracleopolis ^Egpn. Hnes), near 



Han 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Har 



Zoan ; the connection suggs. a city wh. was the 

seat of government. Tg. Jn. has Tahpanhes ; the 

LXX has read hinnam as they tr. maten, " in vain," 

the final mem being read instead of semech ; the 

confusion may have been made by the Massoretic 

scribes. 

HANGING, AV. (Heb. mdsdk), a curtain of 

" blue and purple, and scarlet and fine twined linen 

wrought with needlework," wh. served as a door 

to the Tabernacle (Ex. 26. 36 ) ; also a similar 

curtain wh. covered the entrance into the " Court " 

round the Tabernacle (Ex. 27. 16 ). 

In the three cases in wh. this word occurs elsewhere than 
in the Pentateuch it is trd. " covering," e.g. 2 S. 17. 19 . RV. 
has instead of H. " screen," a rendering which has the dis- 
advantage that it suggests, not anything of the nature of a 
portiere, but a fixed structure of wood, metal, or stone, e.g. 
an altar screen. 

Hangings (Heb. qeld'lm), the linen curtains wh., 

suspended fm. pillars, formed the boundary of the 

Tabernacle Court and marked it off fm. the rest of 

the camp (Ex. 27. 12 ). 

In iK. 6. 34 the Heb. word occurs, and is rendered "leaves" 
(of folding doors) as if it had been tzda^im, since clearly 
there has been a scribal blunder. In 2 K. 23.7 H. repre- 
sents another Heb. word, bottim, " houses," EVm. " tents." 

HANNAH, w. of Elxanah, mr. of Samuel 
(1 S. i. 2ff -). 

HANNATHON (Jo. 19. 14 ), a town on the N. 
boundary of Zebulun, poss. = Kefr i Andn, c. three 
miles E. of er-Rdmeh. 

HANUN, k. of the Ammonites, s. of Nahash, 
whose insult to David's messengers brought dis- 
astrous war upon his people (2 S. io lff - ; I Ch. 
I9. lff -). For others see Ne. 3. 13 ' 30 . 

HAPHRAIM, a town in Issachar (Jo. 19. 19 ). 
OEJ. idents. H. with Afarea, six Rm. miles N. of 
Legio, mod. Khan el-Lejjun. This corrsps. with 
mod. El-Ferrlyeh, an anct. site with notable tombs. 

HAR A, the name of a place not mentioned else- 
where, to wh. the Assyrians are said to have carried 
captives of Isr. (1 Ch. 5- 26 ). The text is prob. 
corrupt. Poss. we shd. read hare, " mountains," 
i.e. the mountains of Media (cp. 2 K. 17. 6 , 18. 11 , 
LXX). MT. of these last passages gives 'are 
mdddi, " cities of the Medes." 

HARAN. (1) S. of Terah, br. of Abram, and fr. 
of Lot (Gn. ii. 26 ). (2) S. of Caleb (1 Ch. 2. 46 ). 
(3) S. of Shemei(i Ch. 23. 9 ). 

HARAN, a very anct. city SE. of Edessa, on the 
river Belias, a tributary of the Euphrates. Hither 
came Terah with his family (Gn. n. 31 ). Hence, 
after his fr.'s death, Abram set out (i2. lff -). Tradi- 
tion places the meeting of Rebekah and Eliezer at a 
well near H. (24. 15 ). It was the home of Laban, 
Nahor's grandson (27 43 ), and therefore prob. that 
of his and Rebekah's fr. Bethuel. It was taken by 
Asyr., and is often mentioned in cuneiform inscrs. 
Ezekiel names it as a centre of trade (2jP). It 
was long a seat of Moon-worship. 



HARBONA, one of the chamberlains (eunuchs) 
of Ahasuerus (Est. I. 10 ) ; he suggd. that Haman 
shd. be hanged on the gallows he made for Mor- 
decai (Est. y. 9 ) ; the LXX attributes the suggn. 
to Bougathan. 

HARE (Heb. arnebeth), declared unclean because, 
although it chewed the cud, it did not divide the 
hoof (Lv. ii. 6 , &c). Its apparent chewing of the 
cud is the grinding of the teeth together to prevent 
them growing too long. There are several species 
of H. in Pal. The Moslems reckon it good for food. 

HARETH, RV. HERETH (1 S. 22. 5 ), a forest 
in Judah, poss. ident. with Horesh (1 S. 23. 15 RVm.), 
near Ziph, now Khirbet Khoreisd, S. of Tell ez-7,if. 
Conder suggests Khards, seven miles NW. of 
Hebron. 

HARLOT. From the beginning of Hist, the H. 
(Heb. zondh, qedeshah, Gr. pome) appears, plying 
her unholy and seductive arts (Gn. 38. ; Pr. 6. 24 ; 
Is. 23. 16 ; Lk. 15. 30 , &c). The term "strange 
woman " (Pr. 6. 24 , &c. ; cp. 1 K. II. 1 ) perhaps indi- 
cates that in Isr. they were mainly foreigners. The 




Har-magedon : Looking Eastward over the Plain 
of esdraelon 

law was severe only as regards violation of the 
marriage sanctities (Lv. I9. 29 ; Dt. 22. 28fL ). The 
one exception applies to the priest's dr. (Lv. 21. 9 ). 
The reason for this will appear immediately. The 
H. and her children were debarred fm. social rights 
(Dt. 23. 2 ; Jg. II. 1 ; Mw. 21. 32 ; Jn. 8. 41 , &c). 

The heathen sanctuaries throughout Syria were 
scenes of the most horrible debauchery. The 
obscene deities personifying nature's reproductive 
powers were thus worshipped, both men and 
women prostituting themselves to this service. 
This sheds clear light upon Lv. 21. 9 , and on the 
prohibition of Dt. 23. 17 . The danger to Isr. is 
obvious. The idolatries into wh. the people fell 
were all too literally what the prophets called them 
(Am. 2. 7 ; Ho. 4. 13 , &c). The bitterness of the 
Bab. captivity finally extracted the evil virus fm. 
the nation's veins. In later times the Church 
had to struggle for its very life against the same 
evil (Ac. 15. 20 ' 29 ; Rm. i. 24ff - ; 1 Cor. 6. 9ff - ; Gal. 
5. 19 , &c). 

HAR-MAGEDON (RV.), ARMAGEDDON 
(AV.) . The name occurs only in Rv. 16. 16 . H. is to 



249 



Har 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hau 



be the scene of the final battle between the powers 
of darkness and God, on " the great day of God 
Almighty." H. is the Gr. form of the Heb. 
har megiddon, " the mountains of Megiddo," the 
heights in the neighbourhood of Megiddo, on the 
SW. edge of the Plain of Esdraelon. Witnesses as 
they had been for cents, of the fierce tides of battle 
rolling in the plain, it was not unnatural, in apoca- 
lyptic vision, to associate them with the last decisive 
conflict of opposing hosts. 

HARNESS, a shirt of mail formed of metal 
scales on a basis of cloth. See Armour. 



39. 10 , where it is trd. " to harrow." It may have 
been done by cross ploughing. The word hdrltz, 
trd. "harrow" (2 S. 12. 31 ; 1 Ch. 20. 3 ), prob. 
denotes some sharp instrument such as pick or 
mattock. Then poss. we shd. read with RVm., 
making the necessary change, " put them to saws 
and to mattocks of iron, and to axes of iron, and 
made them labour at the brick mould " (H. P. 
Smith, Samuel, ad loc), i.e. he reduced them to 
what, for people of their kind, was a peculiarly 
galling form of slavery. 

HARSITH. See Jerusalem. 




Well of Harod 



HAROD, THE WELL OF, at wh. Gideon 
proved his soldiers, is prob. ident. with \Ain Jalud, 
on the edge of the Vale of Jezreel, under the N. 
declivity of Mt. Gilboa. It is a strong spring of 
sweet water rising in a cave. It gathers in a pool 
and then flows E'ward to the Jordan. 

HAROSHETH, the town whence Sisera marched 
to battle with Barak (Jg. 4« 2 ' 13 » 16 ), therefore prob. 
W. of Esdraelon. El-Harithlyeb, a vill. on the edge 
of the oak forest, N. of Carmel and the Kishon, 
overlooking the plain of Acre, is commonly identd. 
with H. 

HARP (Heb. kitmor), a. stringed musical instru- 
ment portrayed on the Asyr. bas-reliefs, and on 
the Egpn. wall paintings. See Music. 




Machine used as Harrow in Egypt 

HARROW. There is no evidence that the H. 
was used by the anct. Hebs. It was not known in 
Egp. (WAE. ii. 395). The word sddad is twice 
rendered " to break the clods " (Is. 28. 24 ; Ho. io. 11 ). 
The operation is evidently the same as that in Jb. 

2 



HART, HIND (Heb. 'ayyal, 'ayydlah), the male 
and female of the fallow deer. It is still met with 
in Pal., but it must have been common when it 
formed part of the daily provision for Solomon's 
table (1 K. 4- 23 ). It is specified as clean (Dt. 12. 15 , 
&c). It corresponds to the Arb. Hyyal, and is still 
an object of eager chase. Ps. 42. 1 speaks of its 
longing for water ; SS. 2. 9 , &c, prob. allude to its 
gracefulness and speed ; while Is. 35. 6 refers to its 
powers of leaping. The Hind appears in the super- 
scription to Ps. 22., in what may be the name of a 
tune, " the H. of the morning " (EVm.). Often in 
the dawning day it may be seen, like the gazelle, 
near to stream or fountain. It is sure of foot (2 S. 
22. 34 = Ps. 18. 33 ). It seeks remote and inaccessible 
places to calve (Jb. 39. 1 ; Ps. 29. 9 ). In dearth of 
pasture it may forsake its young (Jr. 14. 5 ). The 
reading, " Naphtali is a hind let loose " (Gn. 49. 21 ), 
is due to corruption of the text. 

HARVEST. See Agriculture. 

HAT. See Dress. 

HATACH, RV. HATHACH, a eunuch, at- 
tendant upon Esther the queen, and the medium 
of communication between her and Mordecia 
(Est. 4.5, &c). 

HAURAN, in Ek. 47. 16 ' 18 , is the district lying 
between Damascus and Gilead, reaching fm. the 
Jordan to the Mountain of Bashan. It included 
the mod. Jaulan and part of the country S. of the 
Yarmuk, as well as the region now known as H. Fm. 
the rolling breadths of Southern Jaulan, torn by 
5° 



Hail 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Haw 



deep watercourses, the land rises gradually, with 
many dark hills, cones of extinct volcanoes, to the 
steeps of Hermon. The E. boundary of the Jaulan 
is Nahr er-Ruqqdd, beyond wh. lies the great hollow, 




Hauran : Modern Dwellers in the Mountain 
50 miles long by 45 broad, containing some of the 
finest grain-growing land in the world. This 
applies esp. to en-Nuqrah, " the cavity," in the S. 
El-Lejd? is sterile and rocky (see Argob). El-Jebel 
is the range wh. separates the Hauran fm. the 
eastern desert, with Salkhad on the ridge to the S. 
The mountain and the E. of el-Leja? are now occu- 
pied by the Druzes, who came fm. Lebanon after 
the massacres in i860. The mountain is popularly 
called Jebel ed-Druze. It is well wooded, with 
many vineyards, while the lower slopes are very 
fertile. 

The ruins of Bozrah, Salkhad, Qanawat, and 
other great cities, show that the province was once 
the scene of high civilisation, with a numerous and 
prosperous population. The Rms. took the N. 
part in B.C. 64. In a.d. 106 the Nabatasans, who 
till then had held the S., were overcome, and the 
province of Arabia was formed, with Bozrah as its 
capital. Evil days, wh. still continue, began with 



el-Kufr {PEFQ., July 1895, inscr. No. 150). Many 
of the houses in the Hauran are built entirely of 
stone ; doors and windows being closed with stone 
slabs, often elaborately carved, and swung with 
great skill. Prob. these are not earlier than the 
beginning of our era ; but the substructions and 
underground dwellings found in the district may 
be very anct. 

HAVEN (Heb. huph, "shore," or "beach," 
Gn. 49. 13 ; mdhoz, " refuge," or " port," Ps. 107. 30 ). 
The Hebs. were not a sea-going people. The sea- 
board was held mainly -by the Phil, and the Phoe- 
nicians. Zebulun may have reached the sea at Mt. 
Carmel — some think huph may survive in mod. 
Haifa — and its N. border approached Zidon. The 
H. at Ezion Geber was for a time in the hands of 
Isr. (1 K. 9. 26 , 22. 48 , &c). There was no good 
nat. H. on the Mediterranean coast ; but there 
are remains of artificial structures at Gaza, Jaffa, 
Caesarea, Acre, Tyre and Sidon, wh. afforded 
shelter to such vessels as the ancients used. See 
also Fair Havens. 





the Moslem conquest, a.d. 632. Many inscrs. 
have been found among the ruins of temples and 
public buildings ; the latest in wh. mention is made 
of a Christian building was found by Ewing in 



Hawk or Kestrel 

HAVILAH. (1) In the description of Eden 
(Gn. 2. 11 ), a land compassed by the river Pison, 
rich in gold, bdellium, and onyx. (2) Two dis- 
tricts in Arabia, one inhabited by Shemites (sons of 
Joktan, Gn. io. 29 , 25. 18 ) ; and the other by Hamites 
(Cushites, Gn. io. 7 ). Niebuhr found two regions 
in S. Arabia bearing the name Khaulan ; Glaser, on 
the other hand, wd. assign both Havilahs to N. 
Arabia. 

HAVOTH JAIR (" the encampments," or " tent 
villages of Jair "). We cannot certainly ident. the 
district intended. The name havvoih points to a 
land of nomads ; but as Moore (Judges) suggests, 
with the change to settled life it mt. be transferred 
to more permanent buildings. It is placed in 
Gilead (Nu. 32. 41 ; Jg. io. 4 ) ; it is identd. with 
Argob and Bashan (Dt. 3 , 4, 13ff -), fm. wh. again it 
is clearly distinguished (1 K. 4. 13 ). Guthe (KB.) 
thinks it may be the eastern or nomadic, as dis- 
tinguished fm. the western or settled part of Jair 3 
possession in Gilead (cp. Buhl, GAP., jyi., 1 1 8). 
See also Jair. 

HAWK (Heb. netz), declared unclean (Lv. n. lc ; 



25 



Hay 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hea 



Dt. 14. 15 ). As in both cases the H. is followed by 
the phrase " after his kind," all species of that genus 
are included. 

HAY (AV. Pr. 27. 25 ; Is. 15. 6 ; EV. 1 Cor. 3. 12 ). 
The tr. is misleading. H. is never made in the 
East. Read uniformly " grass." 

HAZAEL, an official in the court of Benhadad 
II., k. of Syria, whom God commissioned Elijah 
to anoint as successor to that monarch (1 K. 19. 15 ). 
The commission was carried out by Elisha (2 K. 
8. 7ff -), and he secured the throne by the murder of 
his master (v. 15). He carried on successful war 
with the contemporary kings of Isr., Jehoram, 
Jehu, and Jehoahaz. His name appears in the 
inscrs. of Shalmaneser, who claims to have defeated 
him. We may, however, doubt the completeness 
of the Asyr. victories, as the conflict had to be 
renewed again and again. He was succeeded by 
his s. Benhadad III. His reign prob. extended fm. 

C. B.C. 85O tO 815. 

HAZxA.R is the first element in many place names. 
(1) H. Addar, on the S. border of Can. (Nu. 34*), 
poss. = Hezron (Jo. 15. 3 ). (2) H. Enan (Nu. 34. 9f - ; 
Ek 47. 17 , 48. 1 , " H.-enon "), on the N. border of 
Isr. : unidentd. (3) H. Gaddah (Jo. 15. 27 ), placed 
by OEJ. {s.v. " Gadda ") on the extreme boundary 
of Daroma, overlooking the Dead Sea ; poss. = 
Masada (BJ. VII. viii. iff.). (4) H. or Hazer 
(RV.) Hatticon = H. Enon (Davidson on Ezekiel, 
47- 16f ')- (5) Hazarmaveth, s. of Joktan (Gn. io. 26 ; 
1 Ch. I. 20 ), whose name attached to a clan in S. 
Arabia. It survives in the mod. Hadramaut, a 
mountainous and fruitful district E. of el-Yemen. 
The ruins and inscrs. prove that in anct. times a 
great civilisation flourished there. (6) H. Shual, in 
the S. of Judah (Jo. 15. 28 , &c), reckoned to Simeon 
(1 Ch. 4- 28 ), prob. = Tell es-Sdzveb, 12 miles E. of 
Beersheba. (7) H. Susah (Jo. 19.5 = 1 Ch. 4. 31 , 
Heb. " Susim "), in Simeon : unidentd. 

HAZAZON-TAMAR, " pruning of the palm " 
(Gn. 14. 7 , AV. Hazezon-tamar, 2 Ch. 20. 2 ). See 
En-Gedi. 

HAZEL (Gn. 30. 37 , Heb. luz) = Almond, RV. 

HAZERIM (Dt. 2. 23 ), read with RV. " villages." 

HAZEROTH (Nu. n. 35 , &c), a station in the 
desert wanderings commonly identd. with l Ain 
Hadrah, a fountain in Wddy Hadrah, to the left of 
the main road fm. Jebel Mousa to i Aqaba. The 
same place may be meant in Dt. I. 1 . 

HAZOR. (1) The royal city of Jabin, formerly 
head of the neighbouring kdms., captured and de- 
stroyed by Joshua (li. lff -). Fortified by Solomon 
(1 K. 9. 15 ), it was taken by Tiglath-pileser III. (2 K. 
15. 29 ). It was in Naphtali (Jo. 19. 36 ), S. of Kedesh 
(1 M. II. 63 ' 73 ), above the lake Semechonitis {Ant. 
V. v. 1) = el-Huleh. The name seems to linger in 
Jebel and Merj el-Hadireh, in the uplands, c. five 
miles W. of el-Huleh. (2) A town in the S. of 



Judah (Jo. 15. 23 ). (3) A town identd. with Hezron 
(ib. 15. 25 ). (4) A town in Benjamin (Ne. n. 33 ), 
poss. = Khirbet Hazzur, c. one mile E. of Neby 
Samwil. (5) A place in Arabia : unidentd. (Jr. 
49. 28 ' 33 ). 

HAZOR-HADATTAH, - " the new H." (Jo. 
15. 25 ). The text is doubtful. The name is 
omitted by LXX B. 

HEAD. The term is used figuratively to signify 
the fr. or chief person in a family, tribe, &c. (Ex. 
6. 14 , 18. 25 ; Nu. I. 16 ; Jo. 14. 1 ; Eph. 5. 23 , &c.) ; 
the chief city of a district (Jo. 1 1 . 10 ) ; the source, or 
beginning of a river, &c. (Gn. 2, 10 , &c.) ; the top of 
a thing, e.g. a ladder (Gn. 28. 12 ) ; the armed end of 
a tool or weapon, e.g. an axe (lit. " iron," Dt. 19. 5 ), 
or spear (1 S. 17. 7 , lit. " blade "). The H. is also 
used as a symbol of the man : to lift up a man's H. 
is to raise him fm. humiliation, e.g. out of prison to 
honour (Gn. 40. 20 , &c.) ; to lift up the H. is to 
boast (Jb. io. 15 ), to recover fm. disaster (Jg. 8. 28 , 
&c), and to be refreshed (Ps. no. 7 ). To cover 
one's H. is to guard him fm. danger (Ps. 140. 7 ). 
To smite or wound the H. is to destroy (Ps. 68. 21 , 
&c). The supreme importance of the H. doubt- 
less led to the laying hands on it in blessing (Gn. 
48 , 14 , &c), and subsequently in ordination. In 
confessing sin hands were laid on the H. of the 
animal for sacrifice (Ex. 29. 15 , &c). The Jews 
swore by the H. (Mw. 5- 36 ). The results of a man's 
evil deeds come on his own H. (2 S. I. 16 , &c). The 
H. was often cut fm. an enemy slain in battle, and 
exposed as a trophy in the temple of the victor's 
god (1 S. 17. 51 ; 1 Ch. io. 10 , &c). Contempt and 
mockery are expressed by shaking the H. (Ps. 44. 14 , 



109. 25 ; Mw. 27. 39 , &c). 



also Anointing, 



Mourning, Nazirite. 

HEAD-TIRE. See Dress. 

HEART. While the H. cd. not have for the 
anct. Hebs. the significance it possesses since the 
discovery of the circulation of the blood, it was 
recognised as an organ of central importance for 
the life of man ; and greater value attached to it 
than to head or brain. It was regarded as the 
source of what is deepest and most influential in 
moulding char, and directing conduct. It was the 
organ of the activities by us associated with the 
intellect, affection, and will, e.g. of understanding 
(Jb. 34. 10 ), kge. (1 K. 4. 29 ), reflection (Hg. I. 5 ), 
memory (1 S. 21. 12 ), purpose (1 K. 8. 18 ), desire 
(Pr. 6. 25 ), conscience (Jb. 27. 6 ). We see there- 
fore what is meant by God looking on the H. 
(1 S. 16. 7 ), and the doctrine of Jesus that the H. 
determines the char, of the life (Mw. 12. 34 , &c). 
A change of H. (Ek. 36. 26 ) means a renewal of the 
whole man. 

HEARTH represents several Heb. words. (1) 
'Ah, a vessel in wh. a charcoal fire is carried to 
heat apartments ; in this Jehoiakin burned Jere- 



252 



Hea 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Heb 



miah's roll (Jr. 36. 23 ). It prob. resembled the Arb. 
tannur, wli. may be of clay or metal, with, a wide 
mouth. It is commonly set in a hollow in the 
middle of the floor, a practice that appears to be 
ancient. (2) Kinor, lit. " a fire pan " (Zc. 12. 6 , 
RV.) ; it is frequently rendered " basin " or 
" laver " (Ex. 3c 18 - 28 , &c). (3) Moqed (Ps. 102. 3 ) 
may be a " fire-brand," or poss. " fire-place," fm. 
the root ydqad, " to burn." (4) "Ar?el (Ek. 43. 18 ) 
prob. means " hearth of God " (AV. " altar," RV. 
"hearth"). In Gn. 18. 6 , AV. inserts the words 
" upon the hearth," to complete the definition of 
'ugoth, cakes wh. are baked by laying the dough on 
the H. fm. wh. the hot embers have been swept, 
and then drawing the embers over it. 

HEATH (Heb. 'ar'ar, i aro i er = Arabic 'ar'ar), a 
species of juniper found in the Edom range. There 
are no heaths in the desert (Jr. 17. 6 , 48. 6 ). 

HEATHEN (goylm, "nations") on Heb. lips 
always meant non-Isrs. (Lv. 25. 44 , &c), generally 
hostile to Isr., as servants of other gods. 

HEAVEN (Heb. shdmayim, Aram, shamayin, Gr. 
ovpavos, most frequently in pi. ovpavot). The 
Heb. word being in pi. (not dual), implies the idea 
of more than one H. ; there was the H. of the 
clouds (1 K. 18. 45 ), of the birds (Gn. jP) ; above 
this was the " firmament of H." (rdqla ( ). It was 
regarded as a crystal sphere in wh. the sun, moon, 
and stars had their abode (Ps. 8. 3 ). There is a yet 
loftier H. in wh. God is regarded as specially dwel- 
ling and specially manifesting Himself (Ps. II. 4 ; 
Dt. 26. 15 ; 1 K. 8. 30 ). There is no attempt to 
describe H. in the OT. ; the angels are indicated 
as dwelling in H. (Jb. I. 6 , 2. 1 ; 1 K. 22. 19 ). In the 
Enoch bks. there is a great increase in the amount 
and definiteness of ideas concerning H. In the 
Ape. we have the NT. aspect of H. The ideas 
have yet greater definiteness. H. is presented in 
symbols that wd. be especially intelligible in Pal. ; 
it is a city with a river through streets shaded with 
fruit trees ; these streets are paved with gold, the 
gates are of pearl, and its foundations of precious 
stones ; there is the sea of glass mingled with fire, 
and the Great White Throne. The most pro- 
minent distinction between the PI. of the OT. and 
that of the NT. as seen in Rv. is the prominence 
given to the moral, " And there shall in no wise 
enter into it anything that defileth, neither what- 
soever worketh abomination or maketh a lie " (Rv. 
2 1. 27 ). No longer are angels the only inhabitants, 
it is the redeemed fm. among men that are the most 
prominent : " They that are written in the Lamb's 
book of Life." The spirituality of the Johannean 
H. is implied in the statement : " The city had no 
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in 
it ; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the 
Lamb is the light thereof." The idea of a multi- 
plicity of Heavens was common among the Hebs., 



and is so far countenanced by the apostle Paul 
(2 Cor. 12. 2 ). 

HEAVE-OFFERING (Sacrifice). 

HEBER. (1) The ancestor of the Heberites 
(Gn. 46. 17 ; Nu. 26. 45 ), a clan of Asher. (2) The 
nomad Kenite who, being " at peace " with Jabin, 
moved fm. S. Pal. to the country of his ally (Jg. 4. 11 ). 
In his tent Jael murdered Sisera. (3) A Calebite 
(I Ch. 4. 18 ). (4) A Benjamite (1 Ch. 8. 17 ). 

HEBREW. See Israel. 

HEBREW. See Language of the Old Testa- 
ment. 

HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE. (1) Title.— 
This writing of the NT. bears in the best MSS. 
only the title " To the Hebrews." In all proba- 
bility the original title given by the author was 
lost, and later transcribers gave this description to 
the work, influenced either by tradition or by the 
contents of the epistle itself. The writing has a 
strong local colouring, and was most likely ad- 
dressed to a particular church and had a definite 
title ; but it cannot be proved that the epistle 
bore the title " To the Laodiceans " or " To the 
Alexandrians," as has been suggested. The best 
MSS. do not give the remark found in the end of 
the English translation, " Written from Italy by 
Timothy." 

(2) The First Readers. — We have little beyond 
the epistle itself to guide us in determining to 
whom the epistle was addressed. The transcribers 
regard the readers as Hebrews. The name Hebrew 
was used in a narrower and a wider sense. It was 
used to distinguish Jews from Gentiles (cp. 2 Cor. 
II. 22 ; Php. 3. 5 ), but it was also applied to Jews of 
Pal. who spoke Aramaic in contrast to Greek-speak- 
ing Jews of the dispersion. As far as the inscription 
is concerned, all that we can gather is that the 
epistle was in the earliest times regarded as ad- 
dressed to Christians of Jewish extraction, while 
the local colouring, and the absence of any refce. to 
Gentile members of the Church, would lead us to 
conclude that the epistle was directed to a church 
where Hebrew Christians largely predominated. 
Such has been the view held almost universally in 
the Church till a very recent date. Lately, how- 
ever, the view has been brought forward, that those 
addressed were not of Jewish birth. It has been 
said that the writer regards Christianity as a con- 
tinuous development of Judaism, and holds that 
all Christian believers are children of Abraham and 
heirs of the promises. It is contended that the ex- 
hortations given in the epistle do not sugg. that the 
people were in danger of falling. back into Jewish 
ceremonialism, but rather of falling fm. all faith in 
God, judgment, and immortality (cp. 3. 12 , 6. lf -), 
while the arguments fm. the OT. are no more 
prominent than those we find in other epistles ad- 
dressed to Gentiles, e.g. the Epistle to the Galatians. 



2 53 



Heb 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Heb 



This view seems, however, quite untenable. The 
whole teaching of the epistle, the arguments and 
illustrations adduced, presuppose so intimate a 
knowledge of Jewish ideas, and such a familiarity 
on the part of the readers with the OT. Scrip., 
that we feel that had the readers been Gentiles 
they cd. not have understood the writing. We 
cannot but think with Westcott that this idea of 
Schurer, Weizacker, Pfleiderer, Von Soden, and 
others, is little else than an " ingenious paradox." 

But while it seems certain that the first readers 
were Christians of Jewish descent, it is difficult to 
fix on any particular body of Christians which suits 
all the details mentioned in the epistle. There are 
no traces of heathen converts among the people 
addressed. They had been converted to Chris- 
tianity at a particular date by apostolic missionaries 
who had heard Christ Himself (cp. 2. 3 ), and had 
performed signs and wonders (2. 4 ; cp. also io. 32 ). 
They had evidently been converted long before the 
epistle was written. Their teachers had passed 
away (13. 7 ), and they had had an eventful hist., 
passing through a period of persecution (io. 32 ). 
Their early zeal had now waned (6. 10 , io. 34 ). They 
forsook the worship of God (io. 25 ), and were in 
danger of apostasy (2. 3 , io. 29 ). The enthusiasm of 
their first love had passed. They had endured the 
spoiling of their goods and persecution fm. their 
own countrymen (io. 34 ), but now they were count- 
ing the cost, and inclined to draw back. Indi- 
viduals had, it seems, done so (12. 13 " 17 ), and the 
church was in need of encouragement to faith, 
patience, and endurance. 

(3) Place. — Where, in the anct. world, was such 
a community to be found ? Various suggestions 
have been made. The refce. in the text, " they of 
Italy" (13. 24 ), may imply either that the epistle 
was written in Italy, and that the writer sends the 
greetings of the church where he lived, or on the 
other hand, that the letter was addressed to a com- 
munity in Italy, and the author was accompanied 
by Italian Christians who joined in greeting their 
brethren. 

Accordingly Rome has been suggested as the 
destination of the epistle. This view has been 
supported by the fact that Clement of Rome at an 
early date was acquainted with the epistle. But 
Rome does not seem to suit the conditions. There 
may have been a synagogue of Christian Jews in 
Rome even after the expulsion of the Jews fm. 
Rome by the emperor Claudius, but the conception 
of Judaism and the OT. religion, as centring in 
sacrificial and priestly ordinances, seems to sugg. 
some place where Judaism wd. present itself with 
practical force under this aspect. Nor does it seem 
possible that the words of the epistle cd. be used of 
the Church of Rome at whatever date the epistle 
was written. In all probability the Roman Church 



was founded by the settling of Christian believers in 
Rome, and not by apostolic missionaries Up. 2. 3 ), 
while it could hardly be said of a church that had 
suffered under Nero, " Ye have not yet resisted 
unto blood " (12 4 ), and the description of the 
losses of the Hebrews (io. 33 ) is, to say the least, a 
very mild way of describing the terrors of the 
Neronic persecution. 

If it be necessary to assume that the people ad- 
dressed were largely influenced by and intimately 
connected with Jewish ceremonial worship, two 
wide alternatives seem to meet the case. Either the 
epistle was addressed to a church of Syria or Pal., 
where the people were acquainted with the ritual of 
the Temple in Jrs., or it was sent to a community 
in Egp. where the worship of the Jewish temple in 
Leontopolis bulked largely in men's minds. Ac- 
cordingly both Jrs. and Alexandria have been sug- 
gested as the destination of the epistle. Jrs. itself, 
however, is on various grounds impossible. The 
people there had, unlike the readers of our epistle, 
heard Christ Himself (cp. 2. 3 ). They had endured 
martyrdom for the faith (cp. 12. 4 ). It is unlikely 
that a writer cd., to a Jrs. audience, dispose so 
lightly of the whole of the OT. ritual as " standing 
in meats and drinks and divers washings " (9. 10 ), 
and as " weak and unprofitable " (7. 18 ). Nor can 
we believe that an audience in Jrs. wd. have been 
so much interested in Timothy (cp. 13. 23 ). 

The attempts to show that the epistle was ad- 
dressed to Alexandria are not any more successful. 
The Jewish temple in Leontopolis may have been 
known to the writer, but his refces. regarding sacri- 
fices apply rather to the tabernacle of Moses than 
to any existing temple either in Egp. or Pal. Alex- 
andrian writers never sugg. that the epistle was ad- 
dressed to them. On the whole the question must 
be left unsettled, but the conditions seem best 
satisfied by assuming that the epistle was destined 
for some Jewish Christian community in the East ; 
and perhaps Antioch might suit the conditions 
best, as the church there was undoubtedly com- 
posed for the most part of Heb. Christians who 
spoke Gr., and was founded by apostolic mission- 
aries who left Jrs. on the death of Stephen. 

(4) Author.' — Regarding the authorship of the 
epistle a like uncertainty obtains. Three tradi- 
tions on the subject are to be found in the Church 
of the early centuries. 

(a) The Roman tradition consistently maintains 
that the epistle was not the work of St. Paul. 

(b) In North Africa we find the view that the 
author was Barnabas. 

(c) In Alexandria the opinion prevailed that 
Paul was the author. Even in Alexandria, how- 
ever, the difficulty of this view was felt by the 
fathers of the Church. Thus Clement tries to ac- 
count for the difference in language and style from 



! 54 



Heb 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Heb 



the accepted Pauline epistles, by assuming that the 
epistle was written by Paul in Heb. and translated 
by Luke, while Pantaenus, who regards the work as 
Pauline, ingeniously seeks to account for the omis- 
sion of the apostle's name. 

By the time of Augustine the Alexandrian tradi- 
tion had prevailed, and the epistle had come to be 
regarded as the work of St. Paul, and this view was 
held till the Reformation, when it was rejected by 
Erasmus, Luther, and Calvin. Luther suggested 
that the writer might be Apollos. 

We can say with certainty that Paul was not the 
author. The weakness of the tradition is at once 
apparent, while the style, thought, and lang. are not 
Pauline. The writer is a master of pure idiomatic 
Gr. He delights in rhythmical sentences, pointed 
antitheses, and rhetorical effect. He sees the end of 
his argument clearly before him, and never turns 
aside fm. his main purpose, as is so usual in the 
Pauline dialectic. Paul's method of quotation fm. 
the OT. differs entirely fm. that of our author. 
The former quotes frequently direct fm. the Heb., 
and introduces his quotation with the phrase " as 
it is written," or " the Scrip, saith." The latter 
quotes always fm. the LXX, even when it differs 
entirely fm. the Heb. original, and his introductory 
phrases are, " He saith " (i. 5, 6 ' 7 ' 13 ), or " some one 
somewhere testifieth " (2. 6 ), or " as the Holy Spirit 
saith " (3. 7 ), or " He testifieth " (7. 17 ), phrases 
never used by Paul. Other essential diffces. occur 
in the construction of sentences and in the use of 
particles, wh., along with the marked diffces. in the 
mode of thought, show clearly that Paul cd. not 
have been the author. 

Who, then, was the writer ? It seems clear that 
he was a Hellenistic Jew, as he only quotes fm. the 
LXX and is a thorough master of the Greek lang. 
He was a student of the OT. as well as of Alex- 
andrian philosophy, and is well acquainted with the 
ideas of Philo. He was also, however, a student of 
Paul, and had prob. read the Epistle to the Romans. 
His thought on the great subjects of the Christian 
faith is in harmony with that of St. Paul, but he 
writes fm. a different standpoint. While Paul re- 
gards Judaism as a system of law, the writer to the 
Hebrews regards it as a system of worship, while 
there are also traces of a radical diffce. in the nature 
of the religious experience of the two men. Paul 
passed to the new by an abrupt breaking with the 
old ; the author of our epistle passes to the new by a 
gradual transition, and regards the new as the com- 
pletion of the old. Some have imagined that the 
name of a writer of such outstanding ability as our 
author cd. not but be found in the NT., and various 
suggestions have been made, as Luke, Timothy, Pris- 
cilla, &c. Apollos, as Luther suggested, " an elo- 
quent man, and mighty in the Scriptures," may have 
been the author, though much might be said for the 



North African tradition wh. makes Barnabas the 
writer. It seems cert, that Barnabas did write an 
epistle, while it is certain that the so-called Epistle 
of Barnabas was not by his hand. Barnabas was a 
Levite, and naturally wd. be interested in cere- 
monial worship ; although, on the other hand, it is 
doubtful if Barnabas cd. write 2. 3 , and the descrip- 
tion given of him in Acts II. 24 does not sugg. that 
he was a man of any great ability. 

(5) Date. — The epistle was evidently written to 
meet a great crisis wh. seems impending. The day 
of judgment is approaching (io. 25 ). The epistle 
contains no mention of the fall of Jrs., wh., in view 
of the writer's argument, wd. be difficult to under- 
stand, had that event already taken place. We 
may date the epistle between a.d. 68 and 70, a view 
wh. also seems to be indicated by the mention of 
forty yrs. during wh. Isr. saw God's works (3- 9 ). 
Forty yrs. fm. the beginning of the Church wd. 
bring us to the yr. 70, or thereby. Others, however, 
suppose that the fall of Jrs. was the reason wh. led 
the writer to show the imperfect nature of Jewish 
ordinances wh. had now ceased. 

(6) Teaching of the Epistle. — The aim of the 
writer was to warn and encourage those Christians 
who, owing to the stress of the times, were inclined 
to fall away fm. their allegiance to Christ. With 
this in view he sets himself to prove the finality 
and the perfection of the Christian religion, and 
its superiority to Judaism. Christianity is the sub- 
stance of wh. Judaism is but the type and shadow. 
It is the religion of free access to God, by means of 
an ever-living Mediator. It is the religion of the 
new covenant, wh. excels and supersedes the old. 
This new covenant has been brought in by Jesus 
Christ, and the writer seeks to show its superiority 
to the old by a series of contrasts. Jesus, the 
Mediator of the new covenant, is contrasted 
with the mediators of the old dispensation. He is 
superior (1) to the prophets, by whom God spoke of 
old ; (2) to the angels, the ministers of the old dis- 
pensation ; (3) to Moses ; (4) to Aaron. He is the 
Son as opposed to the servants. He is the High 
Priest of the ideal, the Melchizedek type. His 
priesthood is universal, sovereign, eternal. But the 
work of this great High Priest is also perfect and 
final. The sacrifice He offered, in that He offered 
Himself through an eternal spirit to God, is a sacri- 
fice of abiding efficacy and permanent value. It is 
able to cleanse the conscience fm. dead works to 
serve the living God. Nor does it need, like the 
sacrifices of old, to be repeated yr. by yr. By one 
offering He hath perfected for ever those that are 
sanctified. This Bearer of the new covenant is 
perfect in Himself as the Son. He was perfected 
by suffering. He is the perfect High Priest, the 
perfect Mediator and Intercessor, who, after He 
had offered a perfect sacrifice, entered into heaven 



255 



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Heb 



itself, there to make intercession for us, just as the 
High Priest of old entered into the Holy Place once 
every yr. to make annual intercession for the people. 
Christ the perfect Intercessor makes " continual 
intercession for us." Fm. such a consideration of 
the perfect Mediator and His final and perfected 
work the writer goes on to appeal to the Hebrews 
to hold fast their profession. He shows how, by 
coming to the throne of grace, they may find help 
for every time of need. He gives a list of those who 
through faith overcame, and calls on his readers, 
being surrounded with such a cloud of witnesses, 
to run with patience the race that is set before 
them, to live the life of faith looking unto Jesus. 
The changing things of time, the passing away of 
earthly teachers, ought to teach them faith in Jesus 
Christ, who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and 



Hebron grapes are highly esteemed. The indus- 
tries of glass-blowing and the making of skin 
" bottles " are pursued ; there is also a consider- 
able market. It is the meeting-place of four great 
roads : fm. Jrs., fm. Gaza, fm. Egp. by way of 
Beersheba, and fm. the Red Sea by the Arabah. 
It is the first town offering rest and security to 
travellers fm. the desert. The connection of H. 
with the patriarchs lends it a sacred char. It is 
one of the " holy cities " of the Jews, and is no less 
venerated by the Moslems. Over the traditional 
cave of Machpelah, where lies the dust of Sarah, 
Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob, stands 
the famous mosque, carefully guarded by the 
Mohammedans. The site was formerly occupied 
by a Christian church. It is surrounded by a high 
wall, the lower part of wh. is of great antiquity. In 




Hebron 



for ever. The epistle closes with a chapter on the 
common duties of the Christian life. 

Lit. : Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 
London, 1903 ; A. B. Davidson, Epistle to the 
Hebrews, Edinburgh, 1882 ; Farrer, Cambridge 
Bible, "Hebrews," 1896; W. Robertson Smith. 
" Hebrews " in Ency. Brit. ; v. Soden, " Hebrews " 
in Ency. Bib. ; A. B. Bruce, " Hebrews " in DB. ; 
T. C. Edwards, E-pistle to the Hebrezos, London, 
1888 ; Delitzsch, Epistle to the Hebrews, 2 vols, 
trans., Edinburgh; Stevens, The Theology of the NT., 
Edinburgh, 1899, &c. &c. W. F. Boyd. 

HEBRON ranks as one of the oldest cities in the 
world, having been built seven yrs. before Zoan 
(N11. 1 3. 22 ; BJ. IV. ix. 7). It is represented by the 
mod. KhaTtl er-Rahman, " Friend of the Compas- 
sionate," i.e. Abraham (2 Ch. 20. 7 ; Is. 41. 8 ; Js. 
2. 23 ), genly. contracted to el-Khalll. It is one of 
the few cities in Pal. built in a hollow. It lies in 
the upper end of the Vale that runs S'ward, c. 19 
miles S. of Jrs. It is a typical Palestinian town, 
with some 20,000 inhabitants, of whom about 
18,000 are Moslems, reputed fanatical ; the rest are 
Jews. Vineyards are numerous on the slopes, and 



recent yrs. a hospital has been established by the 
United Free Church of Scotland. 

The Vale of H., or Mamre (Gn. 37. 14 ), opens in a 
fruitful plain to W'ward, where, by certain oaks, 
Abraham pitched his tent (13. 18 , 14. 13 , &c). An 
oak long shown as that of Abraham died within the 
last few yrs. Ramet el-Khatil, two miles N. of H., 
is marked by the foundation of a large bldg., and a 
little further N. is the place called Beit el- Kh alii. 

Two anct. pools are formed in the bed of the 
valley, W. of the mod. town, beside the lower and 
larger of wh. prob. the mangled bodies of Ishbo- 
sheth's murderers were exposed (2 S. 4. 12 ). Qagr 
Hebrun, on the W. slope, is identd. by the Jews 
with the tomb of Abner, in wh. was buried Ishbo- 
sheth's head (2 S. 3. 32 , 4. 12 ). 

The cave was in Machpelah, a portion of land 
" before," i.e. E. of Mamre, wh. is H. (Gn. 23. 17 ' 19 ). 
The anct. city therefore probably lay W. of the 
Vale. This inference is supported by ruins of great 
antiquity on the hill, er-Rumeideh, over agst. the 
mod. city. 

As the act. stands, Joshua took H. and destroyed it 
(Jo. io, 36f - ? I4. 12ff -, i5. 13ff -)> certain of the old inhabi- 



256 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hel 



tants being left. They were driven out by Caleb, 
to whom H. was given. The city was assigned to 
the Kohathite Levites (Jo. 21. 11 ) and made a City of 
Refuge (20. 7 ). It shared the spoil of the Amalekites 
(1 S. 30. 31 ). Here David reigned over Judah 7^ yrs. 
(2 S. 2. 11 ), and was finally anointed over Isr. (5. 3 ). 
H. was the rallying point in Absalom's rebellion 
(i5. 7ff -). It was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 10 ) 
and reoccupied after the Exile (Ne. n. 25 ). Later 
it fell into the hands of the Edomites, fm. whom it 
was taken by Judas (1 M. 5. 65 ; Ant. XII. viii. 6). 

H. was so called fm. the Khabiri of the Tel 
el-Amarna Tablets (Hommel, Anct. Heb. Trad. 234), 
where the anct. name, Kirjath-arba, appears in the 
form of " Rubuti " = " Roba'ot." The old in- 
habitants were of the giant race of Anak (Nu. 13. 22 , 
&c), of whom, accdg. to one rdg., Arba was the 
greatest. The text is suspicious. It is more natl. 
to take the name as given with the article (Gn. 
35. 27 ; Ne. n. 25 ), Q. ha' arba, " town of the four." 
Guthe (KB. s.v.) suggests the four roads. It poss. 
refers to a confederacy of four clans, of wh. the 
town was the centre. See Eshcol. 

HEDGE. The terms so trd. denote an enclo- 
sure or fence, wh. may be of stone, with thorns fixed 
on the top, or entirely of thorns. A very common 
H. in mod. Pal. is of prickly pear. 

HEIFER (Heb. ( eglah, parah, the former the 
more usual), a young cow used for agricultural pur- 
poses, for treading out corn (Ho. io. 11 ) and plough- 
ing (Jg. 14. 18 ). Ritually the ashes of a " Red H." 
(j)drah) were used for the purification of one un- 
clean through contact with the dead (Nu. io,. 2 *-). 
In the case of a murdered body being found, and no 
evidence being procurable as to the murderer, the 
elders of the nearest city purged themselves by slay- 
ing a H. (Dt. 2i. lfL ). When Abraham made his 
covenant with God a H. was one of the animals 
slain and divided (Gn. I5. 9fl -). 

HEIR. In early Isr. all questions of transfer 
of property and succession were settled by anct. 
custom. The will as a written instrument does not 
appear till late, under Gr. and Rm. influences. The 
rule seems to have been that the firstborn s. by a 
legitimate w. (Gn. 2i. 9ff -, &c.) succeeded to the posi- 
tion and responsibilities of the fr., taking a double 
share of his possessions as compared with what fell 
to younger sons. The rule was prob. subj. to many 
exceptions, since it was found necessary to restrain 
the fr. fm. giving to the son of a favourite w. the 
honour wh. custom regarded as rightly belonging 
to another (Dt. 2i. 15fL ). Cases are recorded in wh. 
the firstborn was deposed by the fr., and a younger 
son put in his place, e.g. the displacement of Esau, 
Reuben, and Manasseh. Ahithophel (2 S. 17. 23 ) 
and others arranged the disposition of their pro- 
perty. Upon the H. devolved the duty of pro- 
viding for his fr.'s wives and other women, his fr.'s 



property, now regarded as belonging to him. The 
children of concubines mt., if the fr. pleased, share 
the inheritance with the legitimate children ; other- 
wise Sarah's anxiety wd. have been unreasonable 
(Gn. 2 1. 10 ). Prob. the fr. usually discharged any 
felt responsibility for them by gifts during his life 
(Gn. 25. 6 ) ; but, if he chose, they and their mr. mt. 
be simply sent away (Gn. 21. 14 ). Legitimate chil- 
dren mt. do this after the fr.'s death (Jg. 1 i. lff -). In 
some cases drs. were given a share (Jb. 42. 15 ). Fail- 
ing male heirs, the dr. mt. be married even to a 
slave in hope of obtaining a son (1 Ch. 2. 34f -), the fr. 
being or becoming a member of the w.'s clan, to 
keep the family inheritance in its hands (Nu. 36. 6fl -). 
Failing drs., a man's br. heired him ; failing brs., 
his uncle ; failing uncles, his nearest kinsman (Nu. 
27. 5ff -)- 

Succession to the throne rested ultimately on the 
people's will ; but in ordinary circumstances the k. 
cd. appoint his heir, usually, but not always, his 
eldest son (2 Ch. 21. 3 ; 1 K. I. 30 ). 

HELAM, the city where David defeated the 
Syrians under Hadarezer (2 S. io. 15ff -). Guthe 
suggests Halab, Aleppo. 

HELBAH, an unidentd. town in the lot of Asher 

(Jg- 1- 31 )- 

HELBON, a place famed for its wine (Ek. 27. 18 ) 
= mod. Halbun, 13 miles N. of Damascus, still 
noted for the excellence of its grapes. 

HELDAI. (1) The captain of the guard in the 
Temple for the twelfth month (1 Ch. 27. 15 ). He is 
called " the Netophathite," and may poss. be iden- 
tical with Heleb (2 S. 2 3 . 29 ), or Heled (1 Ch. n. 30 ), 
son of Baanah, one of David's heroes. (2) One of 
a company who returned fm. the Captivity, fm. 
whom Zechariah was directed to take silver and 
gold, to make of these a crown, and set it on the 
head of Joshua, the High Priest. This was to be a 
memorial of the men who furnished the precious 
metals (Zc. 6. 10ff -). Helem (v. 14) is a scribal error 
for Heldai. 

HELEPH, an unidentd. town on the border of 
Naphtali (Jo. 19. 33 ). 

HELKATH, an unidentd. city allotted to the 
Levites in the territory of Asher (Jo. 19. 25 , 2 1. 31 ). 
For H. in 1 Ch. 6. 75 stands Hukok. 

HELKATH-HAZZURIM ("field of sword 
edges "), the scene of battle near Gibeon (2 S. 
2. 16 ). Some read with LXX DH'VH 71, « field of 
the crafty," i.e. " of the ambush." 

HELL. As in Middle English H. meant " the 
state of the dead," the translators of AV. have used 
it freely to represent the Heb. she'ol and the Gr. 
aS-qs. Occasionally she'ol is trd. " grave." In the 
OT. there is no distinct indication of the possession 
of any definite ideas in regard to the future punish- 
ment of the wicked ; though not a few phrases in 
the Prophets point toward it (Is. 30 33 , &c). With 

57 * 



Hel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Her 



the rise of Apocalyptic, Jewish ideas concerning H. 
attained greater clearness. Especially is this the 
case in respect to the Enoch bks. ; in that collection 
there is more than one description of the place of 
the lost ; in Enoch it is specially prepared for the 
fallen angels (c-p. Mw. 25. 41 ). In the NT. there is 
a clearly marked distinction between the state of 
the dead (RV. " Hades ") and the place of punish- 
ment (RV. " Gehenna "). It is to be noted that 
with the exception of Js. 3« 6 all the instances occur 
in the words of our Lord. The other NT. phrases 
are " outer darkness," " everlasting (Gr. aionios) 



HEMLOCK occurs only twice in AV. (1) La- 
l anah (Am. 6. 12 ), RV. Wormwood. (2) Rosh (Ho. 
io. 4 ), RV. Gall, 

HEN. See Cock. 

HENA (2 K. i8>*, 19.1 3 ; Is. 37.13), a Syrian 
town conquered by Asyr. : unidentd. Hommel 
(HDB.) thinks it may be a divine name, identical 
with the star name Al-harfa. 

HEPHER. (1) An unidentd. Can. city named 
with Tappuah and Aphek. (2) A district in the 
neighbourhood of Socoh (i K. 4. 30 ). (3) A 
Gileadite son of Manasseh, fr. of Zelophehad and 




Herds: The Upper and Lower Lines join at A and B 
1. Long-horned oxen, with number above, 834. 2. Cows with calves, 220. 3. 3234 goats. 4. 760 asses. 



6 represents man carrying calves in baskets. 

fire," " everlasting punishment " (Gr. kolasin 
aionion) ; these are found in the Synoptics ; in Rv. 
" the lake burning with fire and brimstone " is the 
phrase used by John. 

It is a singular result of the action of one man that the 
desecration by Josiah of the place where his grandfr. had set 
up the image of Molech affords the word of execration to 
Mohammedans fm. Calcutta to Mogadon 

HELMET. See Armour. 

HEM. See Dress. 

HEMAN. (1) One of the wise men of Solomon's 
time (1 K. 4. 31 ) mentioned as of the tribe of Judah, 
with his brs. Ethan, Calcol, and Dara (Darda), sons 
of Zerah (1 Ch. 2. 6 ). (2) One of David's singers, 
a Levite (1 Ch. 15. 17 ' 19 , &c), to whom Ps. 88. is 
ascribed by the superscription. From his mention 
with Ethan some think he may be identl. with (1). 



5. 974 sheep. 
7. Shepherd gives amount to steward. 

the Hepherites (Nu. 26. 32f -, 27. 1 ; Jo. 17.*-). See 
also I Ch. 4. 6 , II. 36 . 

HEPHZI-BAH ("in her is my delight"). (1) 
Mr. of Manasseh, k. of Judah (2 K. 21. 1 ). (2) The 
name to be borne by restored Jerusalem in Mes- 
siah's day (Is. 62. 4 ). 

HERALD (Heb. karoz, " a crier "), only used in 
Dn. 3 4 of one who makes a proclamation. Of the 
H. in the Gr. or Rm. sense there is no trace among 
the Jews. 

HERD. The commonest Heb. word for this is 
baqar, "an ox" (Gn. 13. 5 ; Ex. io. 9 ) ; more rarely 
miqneh, " possession," is used (Gn. 47. 17 ), and i eder, 
"flock" (Jl. I"). Herdman (Heb. boqer, Am. 
7.1 4 ; ra'ab, Gn. 13. 7 ; 1 S. 21. 7 ). Fm. the fact 
that cattle were so largely the wealth of the Israelite 



258 



Her 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Her 



the H. was a prominent person, as may be seen in Jauldn. It is by far the most prominent feature of 

the story of Doeg. the landscape. The Phoenicians called it Sirion 

It ought to be noted that Driver, following Graetz, wd. ( Ps - 2 9- 6 )> tne Amorites Senir (Dt. 3. 9 , &c.). It is 

read rdtzim, "runners," in the title of Doeg instead of called " the Hermons," fm. its triple summit (Ps 

stan'h'v^oTn^ 2I ' 7) - Thediffce - in Heb - writmg is 4*. 6 , RV.). The moderns call it Jebel eth-Thalj, 

small, D VI D JH. ti Mount Qf g^,, ^ JM ^_^ -^ « Mt> of 

HERES. (i) Heb. bar heres (Jg. i. 35 ), a place the Chief" or "Old Man." The upper reaches 

in Dan, named with Aijalon and Shaalbim, there- are bare and barren, but the lower parts to the W. 

fore poss. a city. Heres = Shemesh, " sun " ; some and S. are rich in vineyards and orchards, and the 

have thought it another name for Beth-shemesh. land is fertile. The wolf, the leopard, and the 

(2) The ascent of H. (Jg. 8. 13 , RV.) : unidentd. brown bear are still found in the mountain. It 



seems improbable that the Transfiguration took 
place on any part of Mt. H. The name Little 
Hermon attaching to Jebel ed-Duhy, S. of Tabor, 
dates only fm. the Middle Ages. 



*3jig£* 



The text is questionable. See Timnath Heres. 

HERESY (Gr. haeresis). In the NT. this word 
means definitely a religious " sect." It is so trd. 
referring to the Pharisees, Sadducees, &c. (Ac 5. 17 , 
15. 5 , 26. 5 ). It is applied to the community of 
Christians {2^, 28. 22 ), or the " way," according to 
St. Paul, wh. his enemies called " a sect " (24. 14 
RV.). Within the Church the sectarian spirit early 
manifested itself in " factions " (1 Cor. n. 19 RV.). 
This is among the " works of the flesh " against wh. 
the Galatians are warned (Gal. 5 . 20 ) . The damnable 
or destructive heresies (RVm. " sects of perdition ") 
of 2 P. 2. 1 approach nearer to the later ecclesiastical 
meaning. The " heresies," however, are still within 
the Church, and are due to the introduction of false 
doctrine wh. emboldens men to follow " lascivious 
doings," thus bringing the truth into disrepute, 
and ensuring their own swift destruction. 

HERMAS (abbreviated form of Hermodorus or 
Hermogenes), a Christian greeted by Paul (Rm. HEROD, HERODIAN FAMILY. The founder 
16. 14 ). In primitive times he was believed to have of the Herodian family was an Idumsean named 
written The Shepherd, a work then regarded as of Antipater or Antipas. Jannaeus made him governor 




PEF. Drawing 

Mount Hermon from South of Sea of Galilee 



Scriptural authority. This, however, is untenable. 
He refers to Clement (b.c. 90-100) as his contem- 
porary. The Muratorian Fragment makes him br. 
of Pius, and dates the writing c. a.d. 139. No 
certainty is possible. 



of Idumasa, wh. his fr. Hyrcanus had conquered, 
forcing the inhabitants to become Jews. His 
s., also called Antipater, became a close friend of 
Hyrcanus, the elder son of Jannaeus. Hyrcanus, a 
weak and indolent man, was seduced into giving up 



HERMES, a Christian at Rome saluted by Paul to his br. Aristobulus the High Priesthood, to wh. 
(Rm. 16. 14 ). Many slaves bore this name. H. mav as elder s., he had the right. Antipater, however, 



have been attached to the emperor's establishment. 

HERMOGENES, mentioned by Paul (2 Tm. 

I. 15 ) as having with Phygellus turned away fm. him. 



roused the suspicions of his friend against his br. 
even to fear that he wd. aim at taking away his life, 
and led him to make his escape to Aretas, k. of 



HERMON, MOUNT, in wh. the Antilebanon Arabia. With the Arabian k. as an ally Hyrcanus 
range culminates to the S., rises 9200 ft. above the shut up his br. in Jrs. and besieged him there. The 
sea, dominating all the land of Pal. Mighty reser- Romans forced him to desist fm. the siege. As 
voirs in the heart of the mountain, fed by the snow Pompey shortly after arrived in Syria both parties 
wh. lies on the heights great part of the yr., issue in appealed to him. Antipater managed to win over 
the springs of Jordan at Hasbeiyeh, Bdnids, and Tell Pompey to the side of Hyrcanus. The somewhat 
el-Qddy. It forms a ridge fm. 16 to 20 miles long insolent bearing of Aristobulus also inclined Pompey 
fm. N. to S., rising about the middle into three to decide in favour of Hyrcanus. Aristobulus re- 
distinct peaks, the two higher being to the E. belled agst. this decision. Pompey marched agst. 
Under the highest are the ruins of Qasr c Antar 7 Jrs., into wh. Aristobulus had thrown himself, 
poss. an anct. sanctuary of Baal. The mountain After a siege he captured it, and desecrated the 
dips steeply to the E., the lower slopes sinking Temple by entering the Holy of Holies. Soon 
gently into the plain of Damascus. To the W. the after this Cassius, with the remnant of the army of 
descent is more gradual into Wddy et-Teim : fm. Crassus wh. had been defeated by the Parthians, 
the S. base fall away the rough uplands of the came into Judea. Antipater secured his favour, 

259 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Her 



Meantime the Civil War broke out and Pompey, the 
patron of Antipater and of Hyrcanus, was defeated 
at Pharsalia by Julius Caesar. Antipater, however, 
by assisting Caesar's lieutenant, Mithridates, in the 
Alexandrian War, gained the favour of the dictator. 
He made Hyrcanus Ethnarch of Judea and Galilee, 
and assigned to Antipater the position of Roman 
procurator. Antipater sent his s. Herod to Galilee 
as under governor, and appointed Phasael to the 
same position in Judea. Herod manifested the 
energy of his character in the ruthless vigour with 
wh. he put down the robbers — really Zealots — in 
Galilee. He was tried before the Sanhedrim for his 
cruelty, but surrounded by his soldiers he overawed 
the court into acquitting him. 

Another change occurred. Julius Caesar was 
assassinated in the Senate House by Brutus and 
Cassius. When the conspirators scattered to collect 
armies Cassius came again to Syria, and Herod at 
once got into favour with him. Antipater was 
assassinated by one Malichus, and the two sons were 
left to maintain their position as best they could. 
The defeat of Cassius and his associates at Philippi 
might have seemed to expose them to the vengeance 
of Antony, to whom the East, under the second 
triumvirate, was assigned. Again the Herodian 
charm triumphed, and H. became as great a 
favourite with Antony as he had been with Cassius. 
H. and Phasael were made tetrarchs of Judea. In 
order to strengthen his position H. was betrothed 
to Mariamne, the granddr. of Hyrcanus and of his 
brother Aristobulus. 

New actors, however, appeared upon the scene. 
Antigonus, the s. of Aristobulus, who had taken 
refuge with the Parthians, induced them to take 
advantage of the disturbed condition of the empire 
to invade Syria and seat Antigonus on the throne in 
Jrs. By treachery they secured the persons of old 
John Hyrcanus and of Phasael. In order to render 
Hyrcanus incapable of being High Priest they cut 
off his ears, and they killed Phasael. H. escaped 
and removed his mother, his betrothed wife, and 
his relatives generally to Masada, while he himself 
made for Alexandria and thence to Rome. Once 
there, through the influence of Antony H. received 
the kdm. of Judea. He did not for some time get 
possession of his dominion, as Antigonus held Jrs., 
and the Parthian war hindered Antony fm. assisting 
him with troops. H., however, succeeded in con- 
quering Galilee, and after celebrating at Samaria 
his marriage with Mariamne, he advanced against 
Jrs., captured it, and took Antigonus, who was be- 
headed by Antony at the instigation of H. As John 
Hyrcanus was incapacitated and his grandson too 
young for High Priesthood, an inconspicuous Ana- 
nelus (Hananeel) was made High Priest, only shortly 
to be dispossessed in favour of Aristobulus, the 
brother of Mariamne. Him H. had suffocated in a 



bath. H. was threatened with a danger fm. the 
side of Egypt. Cleopatra unsuccessfully impor- 
tuned Antony to assign to her the dominions of H. 

A new civil war arose, the second triumvirate 
having broken up, and Octavianus and Antony 
fought for the empire of the world at Actium. 
Octavianus (Augustus) was victorious. Again the 
Herodians had favoured the losing side. H. pro- 
ceeded to Rome, gained the favour of Augustus, and 
returned to Judea with greater power than before. 

Now began the tragedy of the Herodian family. 
Hyrcanus was murdered before H. went to make 
friends with Augustus. During his absence Mari- 
amne discovered his orders that, shd. his embassy 
fail, she shd. be put to death. On his return she 
met him with scorn and recrimination. False 
charges were made agst. her by Herod's sr. Salome, 
and she and her mr. were put to death. 

Externally all prospered with H. Samaria was 
added to his other dominions. He had to the full 
the taste for magnificence then so prevalent. To 
propitiate his new Samaritan subjects he erected a 
street of columns, many of which, altho' deprived of 
their capitals, still attest their former splendour. 
In compliment to Augustus he changed the name 
of Samaria to " Sebaste," the Gr. equivalent of 
" Augustus." 

The village of Strato's Tower he enlarged into 
a city, supplied it with a harbour, and called it 
C^sarea. His greatest work, however, was re- 
building the Temple at Jrs. in the utmost splen- 
dour : the work was unfinished at his death. 

Still the domestic tragedy went on : friend after 
friend, son after son, roused the suspicion of the 
bloodthirsty tyrant and were put to death. It 
was towards the end of his reign, when Herod was 
out of favour with Augustus, knowing that his 
people wished him dead, and without a friend he 
cd. trust, that Christ was born and wise men from 
the East came to worship Him. There is no word 
in Josephus of the Massacre of the Innocents at 
Bethlehem, but Macrobius, a heathen writer of the 
fourth Christian century, gives a confused reference 
to a massacre of two-year-old children under H.'s 
orders, in wh. a son of his own was killed. This 
mischance suggested the witticism of Augustus that 
it " was safer to be Herod's sow than his son." He 
lingered on after our Lord's escape into Egp., a 
miserable, disease-stricken old man. He had exe- 
cuted his two sons by Mariamne at the instigation 
of Antipater, his eldest s., and when nearing his end 
found that this eldest s. had not only falsely accused 
his brothers, but was conspiring against his father's 
life. Having got permission from Augustus, H. had 
him executed, and five days later the old tyrant 
passed away himself. He is called " H. the Great," 
but it may simply mean the " elder," as compared 
with his sons who had the same name. At the same 



26o 



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Her 



time there was a grandiose magnificence about the 
man that renders the title "Great " not wholly inept. 
By his will, wh., with modification, was allowed by- 
Augustus, his s. Archelaus, whom he had nominated 
as his successor, got Judea with the title of Ethnarch. 
Herod Antipas, his heir by a previous will, received 
Galilee and Perea with the title of Tetrarch, and 
Philip became Tetrarch of Iturea. Another Herod 
Philip lived in Rome as a private individual, who 
had married his niece Herodias, the dr. of his 
half-br. Aristobulus. 

Archelaus proceeded to Rome to receive the 
kdm., but he had to meet the opposition of an 
embassy from Judea, a fact to wh. our Lord points 
in the parable of the pounds (Lk. 19. 14 ). Augustus 
gave Archelaus Judea with the title of Ethnarch. 
He too faithfully acted, as did the nobleman of the 
parable, in slaughtering his enemies, and his rule 
was protested against repeatedly, until at the end of 
nine yrs. he was deposed by the emperor. He wd. 
be nearing the end of his reign when our Lord made 
His visit to the Temple as a child. 

Herod Antipas is the most prominent of all 
Herod's sons in the Gospel narratives. He had 
many of the characteristics of his fr., cruel, lustful, 
magnificent, but in a less degree. The two por- 
tions of his tetrarchy were separated fm. each other 
by the territories of the Decapolis. He built a city 
on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and wishing, like 
his father, to ingratiate himself with the reigning 
emperor, named it Tiberias. He had strengthened 
himself politically by marrying the dr. of Aretas, k. 
of Arabia. In his frequent visits to Rome he en- 
joyed the hospitality of his brother, Herod Philip, 
and repaid his kindness by wiling his wife away 
fm. him. It is, however, likely that this ambitious 
woman preferred to reign in Galilee to being the 
wife of a private person in Rome. This connection, 
wh. added the guilt of adultery to that of incest, 
was denounced by John the Baptist. For this bold- 
ness the Baptist was imprisoned and ultimately 
beheaded, the latter at the special instigation of 
Herodias, who seems to have been the Jezebel to 
Herod's Ahab. 

Josephus says that John was imprisoned in the fortress 
of Machaerus, E. of the Dead Sea, and that the execution 
took place there. But the birthday feast was made for 
." the chief of Galilee " (Mk. 6. 21 ). It is difficult to believe 
that the chief inhabitants of Galilee were conveyed to that 
lonely fortress, four days' hard riding away fm. Galilee. 
Further, Machaerus seems at this time to have been in the 
hands of Aretas,* the wrong done to whose dr. by the crime 
of Herod John had so boldly rebuked. See John the 
Baptist. 

* Jos. makes Herod send his wife, at her own desire, to 
Machaerus, " wh. was subject to her fr." {Ant. XVIII. v. 1), 
she being then aware of his infidelity. In the next section 
(ib. 2) he says that Herod sent John as prisoner to Ma- 
chaerus. Aretas was not likely, in the circumstances, to 
act as custodian of Herod's political prisoners. There 
seems to be some confusion in the narrative. 

26 



Herod's lawful wife had left his house and be- 
taken herself again to her fr. Only the power of 
Rome hindered Aretas fm. taking vengeance on 
Antipas for the dishonour done to his house. 
Meantime the figure of the murdered John haunts 
H.'s dreams, and when our Lord's preaching and 
miracles draw the multitudes then his uneasy con- 
science suggests that the Baptist has risen fm. the 
dead. He was eager to see Jesus, and when our 
Lord wd. not reply to his questions, or wcrk a 
miracle to satisfy his curiosity, he and his soldiery 
mocked Him and set Him at nought. Shortly after 
the tragedy of Calvary Aretas invaded the terri- 
tories of H. and inflicted a severe defeat on him. 
To get his revenge on Aretas H. endeavoured in 
every way to ingratiate himself with Tiberius. 
At length, some seven yrs. after the crucifixion, 
Tiberius died, and was succeeded by Caius Caligula, 
his step-grandson. Thinking to secure that his 
tetrarchy shd. be raised to a monarchy by the 
addition of his br. Philip's territory, and moved 
thereto by his wife, H. went to Rome to gain 
the favour of the young emperor. His nephew, 
H. Agrippa, however, had forestalled him, and 
voicing the complaints of the Galileans, secured 
the banishment of H. and his wife to Gaul {Ant. 
XVIII. vii. 2). 

Next of the Herodians in prominence in the NT. 
is Herod Agrippa I., called usually " H. the k." 




Coin of Herod Agrippa I. 

He was the grands, of H. the Great by Mariamne, 
and so cd. claim descent from the Hasmoneans. 
Brought up in Rome in intimate association with 
the members of the Imperial House, he learned 
habits of reckless extravagance. Falling out of 
favour with Tiberius for a number of yrs. he led a 
vagabond life. He returned, however, to Rome, 
and ingratiated himself with Caius, the heir to the 
empire. Some indiscreet words, when in a chariot 
with Caius, indicating his desire for the accession of 
his friend, overheard by a slave and reported, led to 
his imprisonment. The opportune death of Tibe- 
rius saved him. Caius gave him the tetrarchies of 
Lysanius and of his uncle Philip. That of his uncle 
Antipas was added when he (Antipas) was banished, 
and the title k. was given him. Shortly after Judea 
and Samaria were added to his dominions. He thus 
entered into the kdm. of his grandf. He endeav- 
oured to gain popularity with the Jews by scrupulous 
attention to all the prescriptions of the law. He is 
celebrated in the Talmud for his reverence for the 



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Hez 




Coin of Herod Agrippa II. 



law. In his efforts to secure Jrs. he built the wall to 
the N. Owing to interference by the Romans it 
was not quite completed at his death. In pursu- 
ance of his policy of currying favour with the Jews, 
he beheaded James, the s. of Zebedee, and im- 
prisoned Peter with the view of treating him in a 
similar manner (Ac. I2. 2 ' 7 )„ Shortly after this, in 
receiving at an assembly in Caesarea deputies from 
Tyre and Sidon, he was smitten with acute disease 
and died.* He certainly endeavoured to benefit 
the Jews. His noblest action was his successful 
opposition of the mad design of Caligula to set up 
his- statue in the Temple at Jrs. — an opposition that 
was highly hazardous, as the project was the freak of 
a madman. His daughters Bern ice and Drusilla 
both appear in the Scripture nar. His s., Herod 
Agrippa II., on the death of his fr. received the 
small principality of Chalcis with the title of k. 
He was a weaker character than his fr., but en- 
deavoured to pursue the same policy. Before the 
outbreak of the Jewish War, wh. ended in the 
capture of Jrs. by Titus, Agrippa used every effort 
to stave off the calamity, 
but in vain. He retired 
to Rome, and died pro- 
bably in Rome about the 
end of the first Christian 
cent. Paul was brought 
before him by Festus when he had come to welcome 
Festus to his new governorship. Tho' his moral 
char, left much to be desired, he was for a Herodian 
a fairly good man. The best of the Herodians ap- 
pears to have been Philip the Tetrarch of Iturea 
and Trachonitis. He seems to have ruled with 
moderation and acceptance {Ant. XVIII. iv. 6). 
Perhaps the fact that the population of his tetrarchy 
was mainly Greek or Syrian rendered it easier to 
rule gently. He beautified Paneas and changed its 
name to C^sarea, to wh., to distinguish it fm. that 
greater Caesarea on the coast, was added the name 
Philippi, after its founder. He is only named in 
the NT. once (Lk. 3. 1 ). The function of the Hn. 
family was to promote steadfast allegiance to Rome, 
and their intercourse with the Romans tended to 
break down effectively the exclusiveness of the 
Jews and bring them into the Imperial system, so 
opening the way for the wider freedom of Pauline 
Christianity. 

HERODIANS, a sect only known to us fm. the 
Gospels (Mw. 22. 16 ; Mk. 3. 6 , 12. 13 ). It is not cer- 
tain what their tenets were ; that they were a 
political party primarily seems prob., but the refce. 
to the " leaven of Herod " implies religious doc- 
trines as well. 

HERODIAS, granddr. of Herod the Great. 

* Braun (Jw. En. ) says he was assassinated by order of the 
Romans during the games at Caesarea, but gives no authority 
for his statement. 




Hercn 



She married first her uncle, Herod Philip, but, as he 
was not a sovereign, deserted him for her uncle 
Antipas. She instigated the murder of John the 
Baptist. Her dr. Salome, who was the instrument 
of her vengeance, 
married her uncle, 
Herod Philip, Te- 
trarch of Iturea. 

HERON (Heb. 
'ana-phah), a bird de- 
clared unclean (Lv. 
II. 19 ; Dt. 14. 18 ). It 
is uncertain what 
bird is meant ; there 
are several species of 
H. known in Pal. 

HESHBON, the 
royal city of Sihon, 
k. of the Amorites 
(Nu. 2i. 25 ,&c), for- 
tified by Reuben 
(32. 37 ), on the S. border of Gad (Jo. 13. 26 ), to whom 
it is reckoned as a Levitical city (21. 39 ). It appears 
later as a city of Moab (Is. 15. 4 ; Jr. 48.2, &c). It 
was held byjannaeus {Ant. XIII. xv. 4). Jos. calls 
the country Essebonitis {ib. XV. viii. 5 ; cp. BJ. 
II. xviii. 1). It is ident. with the mod. Hesbdn, in 
the mountains over agst. Jericho, c. 16 miles E. of 
Jordan. The existing ruins are mostly Rm. The 
spring in the valley forms pools (SS. 7. 4 ). The 
city is approached fm. the valley by a steep path, 
through a cutting, wh. may have been closed by a 
gate (Conder, Heth and Moab, 142). On a ridge 
to the W., el-kurmlyeh, dolmens and stone circles 
are found (Musil, Arabia Petrcea, i. 3831!.). 

HETH. S^Hittite. 

HETHLON, a place named only in Ek. 47. 15 ,48. 1 , 
in his description of the future frontiers of Israel's 
land, as on the N. boundary. It is associated with 
Zedad and the " entering in of Hamath " {cp. Nu. 
34. 8 ). This seems to point to the ident. suggested 
by Furrer, with Heitala, to the NE. of Tripoli. 
Some (Von Kasteren, Buhl, and others) are inclined 
to place it at l Adlun, N. of the river Qasimiyeh ; 
but this seems too far to the S. 

HEZEKIAH ("J ,/ . hath strengthened," or 
"strengtheneth") at 25 yrs. of age succeeded his fr. 
Ahaz, k. of Judah (2 K. i8. 1L ). The fall of Samaria 
is placed in his 6th yr. (v. 10) ; his accession wd. 
therefore be in b.c. 727. But Sennacherib's in- 
vasion, B.C. 701, is placed in his 14th yr. (v. 13). 
This wd. date his accession in b.c 715. The ear- 
lier date agrees with the statement that he was a 
contemporary of Micah (i. 1 ), who prophesied before 
the destruction of Samaria (v. 6). The discrepancy 
cannot at present be explained. 

The events of his reign are prob. not recorded in 
chronological order, but the youthful enthusiasm 
62 



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Hig 



of one with his disposition and char, may well have 
found immediate expression in the reformation of 
relg. (2 Ch. 29. 3 ) . Accdg. to the Chronicler the 
Northern tribes still occupied their country (30. 5fl -). 
Others think H.'s reforming zeal was connected 
with the deliverance fm. Sennacherib. He had 
the high places restored, the pillars and Asherah 
broken ; and the brazen serpent of Moses, wh. had 
become an obj. of superstitious reverence, he brake 
in pieces, calling it nebusktan, " a bit of copper." 
The Temple was cleansed and the service re- 
organised. The destruction of the high places, 
images, &c, by the people who had gathered to Jrs., 
extended to the Northern Kdm. (2 K. i8. 4ff - ; 2 Ch. 
29. f.). Despite the relapse under Manasseh, the 
work then done laid the foundations for Josiah's 
thorough-going reform. 

For a time H. preserved the tributary alliance 
with Asyr. inherited fm. his fr. On the death of 
Sargon discontent long felt broke out, and took body 
in a league of the peoples along the Syr. seaboard, to 
oppose Asyr., relying upon help fm. Egp., a reliance 
ridiculed by Isaiah (30.). Prob. at this time Mero- 
dach Baladan, who had recovered for a brief space 
the monarchy of Bab.,. sent ambassadors with gifts 
to Jrs., to strengthen the league agst. the common 
enemy, Asyr. Sennacherib's account of his vic- 
torious march against the cities in this league is 
recorded on the Taylor cylinder. There was a pro- 
Asyr. party, to wh. belonged Padi, k. of Ekron. The 
patriots had handed him over to H., but at Senna- 
cherib's request he was set free. The defeat of the 
allies at Eltekeh, the capture of many cities of Judah, 
the deportation of a great portion of the population, 
and the apparent certainty of the fall of Jrs. itself, 
compelled H. to sue for terms of submission. He 
purchased immunity fm. immediate attack by a 
payment of 30 talents of gold and 300 talents of 
silver, stripping off, for this purpose, the gold orna- 
ments of the Temple. 

It was prob. on a second campaign (689), that 
Sennacherib sent his boastful and threatening em- 
bassy to Jrs. Strongly supported by Isaiah, H. took 
up an attitude of trust in God, amply vindicated by 
the swift destruction of the boaster's army, and his 
return to his own city, only to fall by the hands of 
his own sons (2 K. i8. 17 -i9. ; 2 Ch. 32. 9ff - ; cp. 
Herod, ii. 141). This left H. free to work for the 
safety of the country, and the welfare of the people. 
The captured cities wd. be reconquered, and to this 
time may belong the successful war with the Phil. 
(2 K. 18. 8 ). He fortified the city and initiated 
works of public utility, e.g. in relation to the water 
supply. Under him the famous Siloam tunnel 
may have been made. He was a man of literary 
interests and poetic gifts (Pr. 25. 1 ; Is. 38. 9 ). His 
grievous sickness and recovery, accompanied by the 
miraculous sign {see Dial), are related as showing 



God's special favour. His memory is held in 
highest honour among the Jews, and their Rabbis 
have always regarded Is. 9. lff - and H. 1£E * as referring 
to him. 

HEZION, the grandfather of Asa's contempo- 
rary, Ben-hadad, king of Damascus (1 K. 15. 18 ). 
The name is prob. corrupt. Winckler would read 
" Hazael," wh. may be correct. Others (Ewald, 
Thenius, Klostermann) think " Hezron " to be the 
original, of which " Rezon " (1 K. n. 23 ) is another 
form. 

HEZRON. (1) Jo. 15. 3 , P oss.=Hazar i. (2) 
Jo. I5. 25 =Hazor 3 {see Kerioth 2). The name 
may linger in Jebel Hadireh, S. of Beersheba. (3) 
A s. of Reuben (Gn. ^6. 9 ). (4) A s. of Perez 
(Gn. 46. 12 ). 

HIDDEKEL (Asyr. Diglath, mod. Digleh), the 
Tigris ; it rises in Armenia in a mountain lake not 
far fm. the source of the Euphrates. It flows SE., 
parallel to the Euphrates, and unites with it not far 
fm. where they both fall into the Persian Gulf. 
The H. is one of the four rivers of Paradise (Eden). 

HIEL, the Bethelite who rebuilt Jericho in the 
reign of Ahab (1 K. 16. 34 ) and endured the curse 
of Joshua (Jo. 6. 26 ). Some have thought that H. 
sacrificed his sons, placing the first under the foun- 
dation, and the last under the threshold of the city. 
But the language seems rather to imply death for 
them by misadventure during the work. 

HIERAPOLIS (Col. 4. 13 ), mentioned only once 
in Scrip., a city of Phrygia, on the Lycus, c. six miles 
N. of Laodicaea. It was famous for its hot springs, 
greatly valued for medicinal purposes. The alum 
wh. the water contains quickly precipitates, so that 
the steep rocks over wh. it flows, S. of the city, 
have been transformed " into the appearance of an 
immense frozen cascade" Leto was the goddess 
of the city (Strabo, 469L). Near the anct. site 
stands the mod. vill. Pambuk Kalesi. See Ramsay, 
Cities mid Bishopricks of Phrygia, index. 

HIGH PLACES (Heb. bdtnoth). While it was 
believed that a god might be worshipped wherever 
he dwelt, or at any spot where he had shown him- 
self (see Altar), the sanctuaries of the Canaanites 
were mostly in conspicuous places. This prob. 
explains why the name " high place " came to be 
attached to any seat of idolatrous worship. Thus 
we find H. P. used as equivalent to " sanctuary " 
(Am. 7. 9 ), and even the centres of the Baal cult in 
the valley of Hinnom are called H. Ps. Most inte- 
resting accounts of the high place at Gezer are found 
in the PEFQ. 1903, p. 236?., &c. Scrip, contains 
many illustrations of the association of divine 
worship with mountains, and one of the most im- 
portant discoveries of recent yrs. is that of the high 
place on the height at Petra, where altar, steps, 
court, &c, are carved out of the living rock, on the 
summit. 
163 



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Hil 



In the confusion of the times of the Judges, while 
the supremacy of the central hearth of the nation 
was recognised theoretically, the sacrifices of the 
whole people were not restricted to one altar. 
Each tribe and family had its own high place. These 
were frequently anct. Canaanitish shrines, connected 
fm. hoary antiquity with the impure rites of the 
heathen Amorites. These unholy associations exer- 
cised a baneful influence, tending to degrade the 
worship of Jehovah there to the level of that of 
Baal. This led the prophets to lay emphasis upon 
the Deuteronomic legislation. 
-In accordance with what we find elsewhere in 



(Am. 4. 4 ; Ho. 8. 11 ). Hezekiah was the first who 
resolutely set himself to put down the H. Ps. (2 K. 
18. 32 ), but his work was undone by Manasseh his s. 
Josiah zealously renewed the efforts of his great 
grandfr. The hist, of the Bks. of Kings is written 
exclusively fm. the prophetic standpoint ; hence it 
is mentioned as a blemish in the rule of e\en such 
a monarch as Jehoshaphat, that " nevertheless the 
H. Ps. were not taken. away " (1 K. 22. 43 ). The cap- 
tivity in Bab., and the destruction of the Temple 
on Mt. Zion, occasioned the rise of synagogue 
worship {see Synagogue), and after the return fm. 
Bab. there is no further mention of high places. 




High Place at Petra 



antiquity, there must always have been the central 
altar to symbolise the unity of the nation ; but in 
these early times the exclusive sanctity ascribed to 
it had not the same sanction. It is not impossible 
that " the second giving of the law " (Deutero- 
nomy) contained most of the enactments now 
found in it. But during the period of the Judges 
frequent foreign domination added much to the 
perils of travel, and the regulations fell into abey- 
ance. Something not unlike this happened in 
Christendom, when, despite the Second Com- 
mandment, and the contempt poured by the 
primitive fathers upon idols, image-worship became 
universal. 

Elijah and Elisha did not endeavour to reform 
the modes of worship. They were concerned with 
a more important matter, viz., the Person to be 
worshipped. In like manner, neither Wycliffe nor 
Huss denounced image-worship. Amos and Hosea 
declared the sinfulness of worship in high places 

2 



Isr. cd. still worship, even when hindered from 
going up to the Temple. The facts regarding that 
time brought to light in the documents recently 
discovered at Assouan, and also the action of Onias 
some three cents, later, prove that the Israelites 
held it right to set up a Temple to J", wherever they 
were in sufficient numbers. 

There are many curious customs, possibly sur- 
vivals of the primitive cult, connected with local 
sanctuaries in the East to-day. These latter may 
in many cases be identical with the high places 
of antiquity (Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion 
To-day). 

Lit. : The Lit. is extensive, but specially impor- 
tant are Robertson's The Early Religion of Israel ; 
Wellhausen's Proleg. to the Hist, of Isr. ; and 
Robertson Smith's RS. 

HIGH PRIEST. See Levi, &c. 

HILKIAH (" the portion of J"."), the High 
Priest who found the bk. of the law in the Temple 
64 



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Hir 



wh. inspired and directed the reforms of Josiah 
(2 K. 22. 8ff - ; 2 Ch. 3 4 . 8ff -). See also 2 K. 18. 18 ; 
iCh.6. 45 ; Ne. 8. 4 ; jr. I. 1 , 29A 

HILL. (1) Gib 1 ah (1 K. 14. 23 , &c.) denotes a 
hill standing apart, and is never used of a range. 
It is uniformly trd. " hill " (see further Gibeah). 




Ancient Door Hinges and Sockets 

(2) Har may be either a single hill (1 K. II. 7 , &c), 
a mountain range (Ps. 68. 15 , &c), a definite part of a 
range (Jo. 17. 15 , &c, see Mount), or a mountainous 
district (Jo. 13. 6 , &c, in wh. cases RV. genly. trs. 
Hill Country). (3) ( Otbel 9 " a swelling " (2 K. 5. 24 , 
wOphel). In NT. (Mw. 5. 14 ; Lk. 4 . 29 , 9.^, RV. 
" mountain "), H. stands for oros, lit. " mountain." 

HIN. See Weights and Measures. 

HIND. See Hart. 

HINGE. In ancient times the H. was always 
made by a pivot and socket above and below ; some- 
times the socket was of metal set in the stone, some- 
times a hole was cut in the stone of the threshold or 
lintel. In the Hauran anciently doors were made 
of slabs of stone cut so as to leave pivots projecting 
at top and bottom. Such a door may be seen in 
Selfurieh (Sepphoris), dating fm. Christian times. 

HINNOM (or HINNAM), an unknown person 
after whom (Jo. 15. 8 , 18. 16 ; Ne. n. 30 ), or his son 
(Jo. 15. 8 , 18. 16 ; Jr. 7. 31f -, i 9 . 2 > 6 , 32. 35 ; 2 Ch. 28. 3 , 
33. 6 ), or his sons (2 K. 23. 10 , EV. " children "), a 
valley S. of Jrs. was named. In Jr. 2. 23 it is simply 
" the valley." It appears in the name, " the gate of 
the valley " (see Jerusalem). From Jo. 15. 8 , 18. 16 it 
is clear that mod. Wady er-Rabbabi is intended. 
The name, however, must have covered part of the 
large basin at the junction of this valley with the 
Kidron (see Tophet). The valley was dry, i.e. 
watered by no spring, and formerly even treeless 
(En. 26. 4 ). For the pools, not mentioned in the 
Bible, in the upper part and at the head of the 
valley, see Jerusalem. For the high place at its 
issue into the Kidron see Tophet. Jeremiah's 
prediction that it shd. be called " the valley of 
slaughter," or " of the slain " (7- 32 , 19. 6 , corrected 
text), together with Is. 66. 2i , gave foothold to the 
notion that this valley, with the lower part of the 
Kidron, shd. become the place of eternal damnation 
(En. 2J. in -), wh. accdgly. was called " Gehenna " 
( = ge Hinnam, " valley of Hinnom " [Mw. 5. 29 , RV. 



" hell "] ). In the fourth cent, this name was 
applied to the whole Kidron valley E. of Jrs. As 
Wady en-Nar, " valley of hell fire," it is still used 
for the lower reaches of the same valley. 

G. H. Dalman. 
HIRAM, Hirom (1 K. 15.1°, &c), Huram (2 Ch. 
2. n ,&c). (1) S.ofAbibaal,k.ofTyre. After the 
capture of Jrs. he assisted David in building his 
palace, with cedar and workmen (2 S. 5. llfL ). The 
cordial relations established with David H. sought 
to maintain with Solomon (1 K. 5. 1 ), and this with 
entire success. His skilled artisans assisted in build- 
ing the Temple and Solomon's palace, cedar and fir 
being brought fm. Lebanon (1 K. 5., 6., 7.), Solomon 
giving him annually large quantities of oil and 
wheat, besides presenting him with cert, cities in 
Galilee ; Hiram giving in return 120 talents of gold 



(1 K. 9. 



lOff. 



the statements in 2 Ch. 2. 3f -, 8. af - 



differ considerably). The friendship of the mon- 
archs was doubtless strengthened by copartnery in 
commercial enterprise, the success of wh. wd. be 
largely due to the skill of Tyrian sailors (1 K. 9. 26ff -, 
io u,22. 2 Ch> ^m 9> 2i) # The reign of H was 

one of great splendour. Accdg. to Rawlinson (Hist. 




Hiram's Tomb 

Phoen., 421, 427, 433), H. came to the throne at the 
age of 19, when David was in full vigour, and 
reigned 43 yrs. He greatly extended and adorned 
the city of Tyre, and under his direction the Tyrian 
people grew rich and prosperous. (2) A skilful 
artificer in metal work, who cast the great pillars of 



265 



Hir 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hit 



brass (bronze ?), and prepared the metal orna- 
ments and utensils for the Temple (i K. y. 13ff - ; 
2 Ch. 2. 13ff -). His fr. was a Tyrian, and his mr. an 
Israelite of the tribe of Dan (2 Ch. 2. 14 ) or of 
Naphtali (1 K. 7. 13 ). 

HIRE, HIRELING. See Servant. 

HITTITES, the p^D, Xerraiot), Khatd, Khatti 
in cuneiform, Khata in Egyptian, a people whose 
original seat was in eastern Asia Minor, but who 
played a great part in the history of Syria. When 
the Assyrians first became acquainted with Syria and 
Palestine they formed so dominant an element in 
the population as to cause the old Babylonian title, 
" land of the Amorites," to be replaced by " land of 
the Hittites." Even as late as the age of Senna- 
cherib the Assyrian campaign against Phoenicia and 
Judah is stated to have been made against " the 
land of the Hittites." Hence in Gn. io. 15 " Heth " 
occupies the first place among the races and tribes of 
Canaan. In Nu. 13. 29 the Hittites are described 
along with the Jebusites and Amorites as dwelling 
" in the mountains," in opposition to the Amalekite 
Beduin in the southern desert, and the Canaanites 
on the sea-coast and in the Jordan valley. 

The " sons of Heth " (HI! '03), from whom 
Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah, correspond 
with the " sons of the god Khatu " of the native 
texts, and must therefore have been a Hittite tribe 
settled at Hebron. The painted pottery found in 
the pre-Israelitish strata of Lachish and Gezer has 
been traced by Prof. J. L. Myres to Cappadocia, and 
shown to be of Hittite origin (Jnl. Anthropological 
Institute, xxxiii. pp. 367 sqq.), and a stela in the 
Louvre (C. 1) belonging to the beginning of the 12th 
dynasty refers to " the palaces of the Hittites " in 
southern Palestine, tho' the ethnic meaning of the 
name in this passage is denied by some Egyptolo- 
gists. A Hittite army invaded Babylonia as early 
as the Abrahamic age, and the astrological texts of 
the same period associate " the king of the Hittites " 
with " the king of the Amorites " or Canaan. The 
people of Ashkelon are still depicted with Hittite 
features in a bas-relief at Karnak of the time of the 
19th dynasty. The Hittites of the Israelitish period 
of Hebrew history are confined to the north. The 
Canaanite who betrayed Beth-el built the town 
of Luz among them (Jg. i. 2G ) ; the merchants of 
Solomon traded in horses between Egypt and " the 
kings of the Hittites " (1 K. io. 28, 29 ), and the king 
of Samaria was supposed to have " hired the kings of 
the Hittites " against its panic-stricken assailants 
(2 K. 7. 6 ). A probable correction of the text, based 
upon Lucian's recension, transforms the unintel- 
ligible Tahtim-hodshi of 2 Sam. 24.® into " the 
Hittites of Kadesh," the southern capital of the 
Hittite empire. 

The history of the Hittites has been in part re- 
covered, first from the inscriptions of Egypt and 



Assyria, and now from their own monuments. 
Their primitive seat was in Cappadocia and the 
Taurus mountains. They were thick-set and 
muscular, with large, protrusive jaws and nose, high 
cheek-bones, fairly prominent eyebrows, hairless 
face, and retreating forehead and chin. Their ex- 
cessive prognathism distinguishes them among the 
populations of Western Asia. They wore pigtails 
and tunics wh. descended to the knees, mantles wh. 
came down to the ankles, and mountaineers' boots 
with upturned toes. These latter, originally in- 
tended for walking thro' snow, were retained by 
them even in the hot plains of Syria. The usual 
head-dress was a sort of skull-cap, but the priests, 
like the figures of the gods, wore a high-peaked 
mitre, wh. was also often adopted by the king, and in 
the case of the High Priest was of an elaborate de- 




PEF. Copy 
Hittite Inscription: The Stone of Offering from Hamath 

scription. The dirk was used, but not the sword, 
along with the spear, bow, and arrow. 

The Hittite language, wh. seems to have been 
divided into several closely-allied dialects, was re- 
lated to those of the proto-Armenian (Vannic) and 
Mitannian cuneiform inscriptions, and was probably 
of Caucasian origin. The type is " Asianic," like 
that of the other pre-Aryan languages of Asia 
Minor. Like the modern Georgian, it was inflec- 
tional, and in many respects presented striking 
resemblances to the Indo-European languages. 
Thus (as in Vannic and Mitannian) the nominative 
and accusative sing, of the noun ended in -s and -n y 
the ace. pi. in -s, the first and third person sing, of 
the verb in -i, -zoi, or -u and -/, while the possessive 
pronouns were mis, ta-s, and sa-s. It was, never- 
theless, not a member of the Indo-European family 
of speech. 

The native monuments are scattered over the 
larger part of Asia Minor, from the frontiers of 
Armenia to Lydia, as well as over northern Syria as 
far south as Hamath. Most of them are accom- 
panied by inscriptions in a peculiar hieroglyphic 
system of writing, wh. was probably invented in 



266 



Hit 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hit 



Cappadocia. The hieroglyphs, however, were for based on a confederacy of nine Hittite states. The 

the most part reserved for monumental purposes, contest between the Hittites and Egyptians for the 

the ordinary literary script being the cuneiform, possession of Syria was finally brought to an end in 

adopted from the Assyro-Babylonian settlers in the the 2lst year of Ramses II. (c. B.C. 1280), when a 

neighbourhood of Kaisariyeh, where they had been treaty was concluded between him and Khattu-sil 

established as early as the Abrahamic age. The II. defining the boundaries of the two empires and 

ruins of Boghaz Keui, north of the Halys, the site guaranteeing immunity to the political refugees of 

of the capital of the Hittite empire, contained two the two countries. The treaty left Canaan in the 

libraries of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform hands of Egypt. The Hittite empire seems to have 

characters, hundreds of wh. have now been dis- been broken up by the movement of the northern 

interred. Most of the texts are in the native tribes of Greek or Thracian origin wh. took place 

language, but for documents of an international about B.C. 1200; henceforward it was represented 

nature, like the Hittite copy of the treaty between by a number of separate independent states, of wh. 

Khattu-sil and Ramses II., Assyrian is used. And the best-known were that of the Khatti-na on the 

even the native texts are filled with words and Gulf of Antioch and the Lydia of the Herakleid 

phrases borrowed from Assyrian. dynasty. In Asia Minor the Hittites were called 
The standard Babylonian work on astrology 



shows that already in the Abrahamic age " the king 
of the Hittites " was a power, and the Hittite in- 
vasion of Babylonia in B.C. 1900 seems to have 
brought about the fall of the dynasty to wh. 
Khammu-rabi (Amraphel) belonged. Eastern Asia 
Minor was rich in metals wh. had long since been 
exported to Syria and Babylonia ; already in the 
age of the 6th dynasty gold was brought from 
thence to Egypt : and it was from the same region 
that bronze appears to have made its way to the 
south and east. In the wake of the trader came the 
soldier, and the Tel el-Amarna tablets reveal to us 
a Canaan filled with Hittite free-lances, who sold 
their services to the highest bidder and, while pro- 
fessing allegiance to the Egyptian government, 
carved out principalities for themselves. Thus 
Labbawa, from the neighbourhood of Aleppo, 
established himself at Shechem, and the sons of 
Arzawaya (from Arzawa in Cappadocia) in the 
neighbourhood of Jerusalem, whose king bore a 
Hittite name and had the Hittites of Kas (Cappa- 



upon to struggle against the Thraco-Phrygians ; in 
Syria against the Aramaeans and Assyrians. The 




Hittite Mound with Modern Fortress in Aleppo 



capture of Carchemish (Jerablus), wh. commanded 
the ford of the Euphrates and the high-road of 
commerce from east to west, marks the final fall of 
Hittite power. It was taken by Sargon b.c. 717 
docia and Cilicia) in his pay. Ezekiel (i6. 3 - 45 ) was and made an Assyrian satrapy, 
therefore justified in describing the " mother " of Hittite religion was a nature-worship, the chief 
Jerusalem as a Hittite, and the Hittite descent of ob j ect of wh _ was t he Earth-goddess or " Great 
Uriah (2 Sam. 23P) and Ahimelech (1 Sam. 26. 6 ) Mother." Rites were performed in her honour 
can be accounted for. The decay of the Egyptian sym bolising the mysteries of marriage and birth, 
empire enabled the Hittites to make themselves and she was served by multitudes of eunuch priests, 
masters of Syria as far south as the northern borders Akmg with her son> who was also her husband, she 
of Palestine, and establish their southern capital at f ormed a sort G f trinity, the conception of wh. was 
Kadesh on the Orontes. Under Khattu-sil I. and pro bably derived from Babylonia. Originally the 
his successors, Subbi-lulmma (who corresponded ob j ects of worsn i p were fetishes— bull-heads, the 
with Amon-hotep IV. c. b.c. 1380), Mur-sil, and cn ariot, the sacred tree, the sacred dirk, the sacred 
Khattu-sil II., a great empire was founded wh. ex- stone? commns and po l es a nd the like— but contact 
tended from the shores of the ^gean to the fron- with Babylonian culture introduced the idea of 
tiers of Egypt, with its capital at " the city of the deities in hu man form, of whom the fetishes and 
Hittite god," now Boghaz Keui. Here temples gacred anima i s were svm bols. Each city or state 
and palaces were erected, enclosed by a stone wall was a divmitv a nd represented a special form of 
of great length, and in a rocky ravine (Yasili Kaia) the Earth-goddess. By the side of the deified state 
near the city bas-reliefs were cut representing the stood the Sun-god, who seems to have been iden- 
figures of the deities in human form and the rites tified with it< The moU ntains and rivers were also 
with wh. they were worshipped. The empire was accounte d divine. By eating and drinking at a table 

267 



Hiv 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hoo 



before the image of the deity the worshipper was 
believed to participate in the divine nature. The 
" asylum " or city of refuge was a Hittite institution. 

Hittite art was derived from Babylonia, but 
modified in a special way. It is characterised by a 
peculiar roundness and thickness of outline, and 
tho' vigorous, is heavy and at times clumsy. It 
shows a particular fondness for animal forms wh. 
are often composite. Thus the centaur, like the 
winged horse, passed from Babylonia to Greece 
thro' Hittite hands. The Hittites were metal- 
lurgists from an early period ; their work in silver 
was. especially skilful, and their hieroglyphs were 
originally embossed on metal plates, the characters 
being afterwards imitated in relief on stone. The 
painted pottery of the eastern basin of the Medi- 
terranean, in wh. red plays a prominent part, has 
been traced to their primitive seat in Cappadocia, 
where the red ochre was found. Their buildings 
were of unmortared stone, not of brick, and the 
remains at Boghaz Keui show that in the Mosaic 
age their architectural designs rivalled those of 
Assyria or Egypt. 

[Sayce, Monuments of the Hittites, Trans. S.B.A., 
1881 ; The Hittites, R.T.S., 1903 ; W. Wright, 
Empire of the Hittites, Nisbet, 1884; L. Messer- 
schmidt, Corpus inscriptionum Hettiticarum, Berlin, 
1900-6 ; H. Winckler, Mitteilungen der Deutschen 
Orient-Gesellschaft 35, Dec. 1907 ; Sayce, De- 
cipherment of Hittite Inscriptions, Proc. S.B.A., 
1907.] A. H. Sayce. 

HIVITE. A Canaanitish race expelled by the 
Israelites (Jo. 24. 11 ) ; they seem to have dwelt in 
central Pal.; e.g. Gibeon (Jo. 9.') and Shechem (Gn. 
33. 18 ) were H. cities. The origin of the name is 
doubtful ; the sugg. that H. simply means " vil- 
lager " is contradicted by their dwelling in large 
cities such as Gibeon and Shechem. They seem 
to have had a settlement in Ccelosyria, between 
Lebanon and the Antilibanus (Jo. II. 3 ; Jg. 3. 3 ). 

The suggested various reading cf ' ' Hittite " instead of 
H. in these passages " from geographical reasons " has no 
weight with those who know how Kurdish, Circassian, 
Druze, and Arab villages alternate in modern Pal. 

HOBAB, br.-in-law of Moses, s. of Jethro 
(Raguel). This follows fm. the most natural in- 
terpretation of the apparently conflicting accounts 

of the household into wh. Moses married (Nu. 
Ia 29ff. . j g< 4 n . ^ Ex 3 _i 5 &c y A]t}lo , eager at 

first to return to his own land and kindred after 
visiting Moses with his fr., he seems to have been 
persuaded to stay with Isr. His acquaintance with 
the desert, and his powers of observation trained in 
the wilderness, on wh. wanderers in waste places so 
largely depend, wd. be of great value to the camp 
(Nu. io. 31 ). 

HOBAH, whither Abraham pursued Chedor- 
laomer (Gn. 14. 15 ), poss. = Hobd, c. 60 miles NW. 
of Damascus, 



HOHAM, k. of Hebron, slain by Joshua (io. 3ff ). 

HOLINESS, HOLY (Heb. qddesh, qadosh). The 
essential idea of holiness in OT. is " separation." 
It applies equally to persons and things. What is 
" holy " is " set apart " for the use or service of 
the deity. It did not necessarily imply ethical 
purity. The moral content of the idea depended 
upon the known char, of the deity concerned. The 
char, of J"., however, as revealed to His people was 
such that men knew He could not be served with 
iniquity. And in the teaching of Scrip, it is made 
increasingly plain that " holiness to God," to be 
pleasing to Him, must be " separated " from all 
impurity, dishonesty, injustice, oppression of the 
poor, &c. The requirement, "Ye shall be holy, for 
I the Lord your God am holy," " Ye shall be holy 
unto Me, for I am holy " (Lv. 19. 2 , 20. 26 ), is con- 
nected with ritual enactments designed to separate 
Isr. fm. all other races. The prophets showed that 
this ritual separation was a symbol of moral purity. 
The use of qddesh for " sodomite," and qedeshdh 
for " harlot," expresses the fact that these were 
" set apart " for the impure rites of Ashtoreth. 

A " holy place " is thus a place set apart for 
purposes of worship (Lv. J. & ) ; what is used in 
the ritual of worship is " holy " (Nu. 5. 17 , &c.) ; 
the priest is " holy " (Lv. 21. 7 , &c.) ; the nation is 
" holy " (Ex. 19. 6 , &c.) ; so also is the day set apart 
for special service (Ex. 12. 16 , &c). 

We may take hagios in NT. as simply a tr. of 
qadosh ; it becomes practically the technical term 
for followers of Jesus Christ (Ac. 9. 13 , &c, "saints "). 
In I Tm. 2. 8 ; Ti. I. 8 ; He. 7. 26 ; Rv. 15. 4 , " holy " 
represents the Gr. hosios, lit. "gracious." 'In I 
Cor. 9. 13 ; 2 Tm. 3. 15 , the Gr. word is hieros, lit. 
" priestly." 

HOLM TREE (Is. 44. 14 , RV.). See Cypress. 

HOLON. (1) An unidentd. city in Judah, 
named with Goshen and Gilo (Jo. 15. 51 ), given to 
the priests (21. 15 ; 1 Ch. 6. 58 ; Hilen). (2) An 
unidentd. city in Moab (Jr. 48. 21 ), evidently S. of 
Heshbon. 

HOLY OF HOLIES. See Tabernacle, Temple. 

HOLY SPIRIT. See Spirit, Holy. 

HOMER. See Weights and Measures. 

HONEY. See Food. 

HOOD. This is the AV. tr. of the Heb. tzdnlph 
(Is. 3. 23 ), wh. RV. correctly renders " turban." 

HOOK. (1) Agmon (Jb. 41. 2 ), lit. " rush." (2) 
Vdv (Ex. 26. 32 , &c), used of the pegs or hooks 



r- 



Pruning Hook 



on wh. the curtains were hung. (3) Hdh (Ex. 
35. 22 ), prob. = " ring," like that put in the nose of a 
beast to master it. Fish hooks are mentioned in 
Jb. 41. 1 ; Am. 4. 2 ; Mw. 17. 27 . The Pruning H. is 



268 



Hop 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hor 



shaped like our own shearing hook, on a much 
smaller scale. It is fitted with a long wooden 
handle, so that thorny trees can be pruned without 
danger to the hands. 

HOPHNI and Phinehas, sons of Eli, were priests 
in Shiloh (i S. I. 3 ). They used their position to 
secure more than their due of the sacrifices, and are 
described as " men of Belial " (i S. 2. 12ff -). LXX 
omits the charge of licentiousness (v. 22). Eli had 
lost all control over them. They were slain in 
battle with the Phil, in fulfilment of the doom 
pronounced on the house of Eli (1 S. 3. llf % 4- n ). 

HOPHRA (Egp. uah-ab-rah), k. of Egypt, who 
reigned fm. b.c. 586 to 569. He intervened in the 
affairs of Pal., sending an army to relieve Jrs. The 
Babylonians temporarily raised the siege ; but as 
H. did not venture to encounter Nebuchadnezzar, 
the siege was renewed, and the conqueror wreaked 
all the severer vengeance on Jrs. and its k. After an 
unsuccessful expedition agst. Cyrene he was put to 
death by his subjects (jr. 44. 30 ; tho' not named he 
is the " Pharaoh " of Jr. and Ek. : see also Herod, 
ii. 161-163). 

HOR. (1) A mountain wh. cannot now be 
identd., " by the border of the land of Edom " 
(Nu. 20. 22 , 33. 37 ), in wh. Aaron died and was buried 
(vv. 38ff.). Tradition has long pointed to Jebel 
Hdriin, a prominent height E. of the Arabah, hard 
by the famous city of Petra {Ant. IV. iv. 7), wh. in 
Jerome's time was identd. with Kadesh (OEJ. 
s.v. " Or "). The mountain commands a spacious 
view of the Arabah, and of the broken uplands E. 
and W. It is crowned by a whitewashed sanctuary, 
the reputed tomb of Aaron, held in great veneration 
by the Moslems. Pilgrims fm. Damascus yearly 
bring a covering for the tomb of Sayidna Hdriin. 
In former times, when the Hajj pilgrimage passed 
by el-Kerak and esh-Shobak, great numbers ascended 
the mountain. Now only a few of those more 
zealous for the honour of Aaron visit his grave 
(Musil, Arabia Petrcea, II. i. 41). But the identi- 
fication is imposs. Petra was cert, not Kadesh, and 
"Jebel Hdriin lies in the heart, not on the border of 
Edom. The NW. frontier was prob. Wddy el- 
Fiqrah. Jebel Madarah, S. of this Wady, c. mid- 
way between i Ain Qadis and the Dead Sea, has been 
proposed (Trumbull, Kadesh Barnea, 12.7R). The 
position seems to suit the requirements of the text ; 
but without further kge. certainty is imposs. (2) A 
mountain named only in Nu. 34. 8 , as on the N. 
border of the land of Can. : unidentd. The text 
is difficult, and the mountain is not known to 
Ezekiel (47. 15L ). 

HOREB (Ex. 31., &c.) = Mt. Sinai. 

HOREM (" consecrated "), a fortified city in the 
uplands of Naphtali (Jo. 19. 38 ), poss. ident. with the 
mod. Hurah, wh. occupies a mound at the S. end of 
Wddy el-Ain, to the W. of Kedesh-Naphtali. 



HOR-HAGGIDGAD, an unidentd. station in 
the wanderings (Nu. 33. 32L ). LXX understands 
" mountain of Gidgad." But the Heb. word is 
hor, " hollow " or " cavern," not har, " mountain." 
See Gudgodah. 

HORIM, HORITES, the primitive inhabitants 
of Mount Seir (Gn. 14. 6 ) expelled by the Edomites 
(Dt. 2. 12 " 22 ). The name H. is supposed to mean 
" cave-dwellers." 

HORMAH (" accursed "), a city near Kadesh, the 
scene of disaster to Isr. (Nu. 14. 45 ; Dt. i. 44 ). When 
taken later its name, Zephath, was changed to H. 
(Nu. 2I. 3 ; Jo. 12. 14 ; cp. Jg. I. 17 ). It lay in the S. 
of Judah, in the territory assigned to Simeon (Jo. 
I5. 20ff -, 19. 4 ; 1 Ch. 4. 30 ; see also 1 S. 30. 30 ). The 
anct. name prob. survives in es-Scbaita, c. 23 miles 
N. of l Ain Qadis, 14 miles S. of l Asluj ( = Ziklag ?). 
Robinson decides for some position on Naqb es- 
Safd, but that seems too far fm. Kadesh. 

HORN. We read of H. vessels for oil (1 K. I. 39 ; 
I S. 16}) and for eye paint (Jb. 42. 14 , Keren-happuch, 
lit. " horn of eye paint "), also of H. trumpets (jo. 
6. 4 ). H. perhaps stands for weapon of attack (Ps. 
18. 2 ). To prosper or crush a man is to exalt or break 
his H. (1 S. 2. 1 ; Jr. 48. 25 , &c). The arrogant man 
lifts his H. (Ps. 75. 4 ). The H. symbolises strength 
(Dt. 33. 17 , &c.),andis used formonarchs and empires 
(Dn. y. s , 8. 21 , &c). The Hs. of the altar are pro- 
jections at the corners. See Altar. 

HORNET, a large hymenopterous insect (Vespa 
orientalis), larger than the common wasp but not so 
vicious. It is referred to in connection with the 
conquest of Pal. by Israel : " I will send the H. 
before you " (Ex. 23. 2S ; Dt. 7. 20 ; Jo. 24. 12 ; Ws. 
12. 8 ). It prob. is metaphorical for the terror that 
unmanned the Canaanites before the Israelites. As 
in all three cases where the word occurs the LXX 
has acfirjKLa, no suggestion of a various reading 
need be considered. 

HORONAIM, an unidentd. city in the S. of 
Moab (Is. 15. 5 ; Jr. 4s. 3 , &c. ; cp. Moabite Stone, 
1. 32f.). The " descent of H." may be the way 
leading up Seyl ed-Drd c and Wddy Kerak, by el- 
Mezra and Kerak (Musil, Arabia Petnsa, i. 21). 

HORONITE (Ne. 2. 10 ), a native of Beth-horon. 

HORSE (Heb. stif, par ash). Among the Jews 
the H. was used only for war or pageant, for 
chariots Qus), or for cavalry (paras h, usually in the 
pi. tr. " horsemen "). The H. was not introduced 
into Egp. till the times of the Hyksos. As Isr. was 
an agricultural nation, and not intended by Provi- 
dence to play an imperial role, they were forbidden 
to addict themselves to horsemanship. The k. was 
forbidden to multiply Hs. (Dt. 17. 16 ) ; it was re- 
garded as a proof of apostasy to ride upon Hs. (Is. 
30. 16 ). After his victory by the Waters of Merom 
Joshua " houghed the Hs." of Jabin and his allies 
(Jo. II. 9 ) ; David acted similarly (2 S. 8, 4 ), tho' 



Hor 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hos 



he " reserved of them for a hundred chariots." 
Solomon reversed this policy ; he had " forty thou- 
sand stalls for horses for his chariots and twelve 
thousand horsemen " (i K. 4. 28 ) ; and he estab- 
lished a regular traffic in Hs. Cavalry and chariots 
were more used in the Northern than in the 
Southern Kdm. The only refces. to Hs. in agri- 
culture are Is. 28. 28 and Am. 6. 12 . The hilly nature 
of Palestine rendered chariots ineffective, so they 
were needless in defensive war ; they cd. only he of 
use in aggressive war, and this was to be discouraged 
in the Jews. For the Jews to found an " empire " 
was to be untrue to their calling. As used for pur- 
poses of pageant the heads of the horses were 
adorned with trappings of various kinds — bells and 
studs. 




Head of Assyrian Chariot-horse, showing Collar and 
Bells attached 

HORSE-GATE. See Jerusalem. 

HORSE-LEECH (Heb. 'aluqdh). The leech in 
both species is common in Pal. ; most pools are 
infested with them, so that horses frequently get 
them in their mouths. The name occurs only in 
Pr. 30. 15 . 

HOSANNA (Heb. hoshl'a nd, " save now "), the 
exclamation used by the multitude at our Lord's 
triumphal entry into Jrs ; taken fm. Ps. 118. 25 . 

HOSEA, the first of the Minor Prophets, is one 
of the earliest of the writing prophets of OT. He 
prophesied in the days of Jeroboam II., k. of Isr., 
and his successors, and was a younger contemporary 
of Amos. But, while Amos of Judah looked upon 
the evils of the Northern Kdm. fm. the outside, H. 
himself belonged to the land wh. he denounced ; 
and while he condemns, there is, as in the case of 
Jeremiah, tender affection for the people in all he 
says. H. has the distinction of being the only 
prophet of the Northern Kdm. who has left any 
written prophecy. He speaks of its k. as " our 
k.," and refces. to Judah are not frequent. Of his 
personal life we know nothing except what can be 
gathered fm. his prophecy, and of his fr., Beeri, the 
name only is known. 

It was an evil time in the hist, of Isr., and H. 
saw clearly that it was the beginning of the end. 



Jeroboam reigned till B.C. 746, and the first three 
chaps., which belong to his time, reveal the vices 
and arrogance of the wealthy during his prosperous 
reign, when the name of J", was dishonoured. 
H. foretells that disasters would follow, and that 
the royal house of Isr., wh. began in bloodshed 
when Jehu destroyed the house of Ahab, would 
itself be overthrown. Jehu had acted under the 
instigation of the earlier prophets, but they were 
not responsible for the cruelty and selfishness wh. 
was shown ; and now H. declares that the blood of 
Jezreel (2 K. io. 11 ) will be avenged. Zechariah, s. 
of Jeroboam, reigned only six months, and with his 
murder the house of Jehu came to an end. H., in 
the second part of his bk. (4.-14.), gives a picture of 
the condition of anarchy wh. ensued when ks. were 
set up and quickly removed, one after the other. 
Shallum, the next k., was overthrown by Menahem, 
who called in the aid of Pul or Tiglath-pileser, k. of 
Asyr. The difrt. parties in the kdm. looked either 
to Asyr. or to Egp. for support, and H. plainly de- 
clares that as the result of this they will become 
subj. to Asyr. This prophecy was soon fulfilled. 
Menahem was succeeded by his s. Pekahiah, but 
after two yrs. he was killed by Pekah, who in his turn 
fell before Hoshea. Pekah had come into conflict 
with Tiglath-pileser, whose assistance had been 
invoked by Ahaz, k. of Judah, agst. him and his 
allies in b.c 734. The Asyr. k. took captive the in- 
habitants of Galilee and Gilead (2 K. 15. 29 ), and 
Hoshea was made k. of the much weakened and 
reduced kdm. of Samaria, under the over-lordship 
of Asyr. On the death of Tiglath-pileser, Hoshea 
attempted to throw off the yoke, trusting to the 
help of Egp., but Shalmaneser IV., the successor 
of Tiglath-pileser, attacked Samaria ; and after a 
siege of three yrs. the city was taken by Sargon, who 
succeeded Shalmaneser, and the Northern Kdm. 
came to an end in b.c 722. This event was fore- 
seen by the prophet H., for there is reason to con- 
clude that his prophecy was delivered before the yr. 
b.c 734. His refces. to Gilead (6. 8 , 12. 11 ) must have 
been made before the deportation of its inhabitants, 
and while it was still a part of the kdm. of Isr. ; and 
there is no mention of the attack of Pekah upon 
Judah. 

H. ranks among the very greatest of OT. pro- 
phets, and he had a distinct contribution to make 
to men's thoughts about God. His prophetic in- 
spiration seems to have come in connection with an 
unhappy domestic life. His personal experience 
of an unfaithful wife, whom he still continued to 
love and to seek to win back to love and virtue, 
gave him an insight into the relation of God to His 
people. God is love. H. knew what this meant, 
fm. what he had learned of his own heart ; and 
herein he found the explanation of J".'s dealings, 
and of His requirement from Isr. J", is the Hus- 
70 



Hos 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hos 



band and Isr. the mr., and His patient, forbearing 
love will not let His people go. But they must 
be changed. H. insists upon the ethical and sptl. 
nat. of worship, and laughs at the calves of Bethel, 
and the worship connected therewith. God re- 
quires loving-kindness and not sacrifice, and the 
kge. of God more than burnt-offerings. When we 
consider that these ideas, wh. are of the essence of 
the highest relg., were absolutely new to the world, 
we must look upon H. as one of the greatest re- 
ligious geniuses wh. the world has produced. 

The greatness of H. has been obscured by the 
difficulty of his style, and the sequence of his 
thought is often hard to follow. His prophecy is 
well described as a monologue, in wh. a deeply 
moved soul is expressing all its changing moods and 
impressions, without thought of logic or order. 
He passes quickly fm. condemnation to promise, 
fm. despair to hope. In the midst of his strongest 
denunciations of the false relg. and of the unfaith- 
fulness of Isr., the thought of the yearning love 
of J", continues to recur ; and the prophecy ends 
with an exquisite picture of the beauty and the joy 
wh. would return to Isr. if she wd. even yet return 
to J", her God, and place all her confidence in Him. 

The 1st division of the bk. (chaps. I.— 3.) gives an 
act. of the prophet's domestic life, and the circum- 
stances wh. gave rise to his religious insight. In 
chap. 1. the story is told of his false w., Gomer, who 
bore three children, to whom, like Isaiah, he gave 
significant names, accdg. to the direction of J" '. 
The 1st, Jezreel, was named as a prophecy of the 
fall of Jeroboam's house, wh. had begun in blood- 
shed at Jezreel. Next a dr. was born, who was 
named Lo-ruhamah, meaning " That hath not 
obtained mercy " ; and then again a son, Lo-ammi, 
" Not my people," indicating that Isr. was re- 
jected by Y '. Yet the prophet is not willing to 
give up all hope, and the chap, closes with a picture 
of future restoration. 

Chap. 2. gives the prophet's explanation of the 
foregoing chap. Ephraim's ingratitude and un- 
faithfulness to J", occasion the punishment wh. He 
will send upon her — a punishment, however, not 
meant as a final destruction, but as a means of 
bringing her to repentance. When the nation re- 
turns to her allegiance ]". will make a new covenant 
with her, and will have mercy on her that had not 
obtained mercy. 

In chap. 3. H.'s own story is continued. He be- 
haves towards his w. in the way in wh. J", deals with 
Ephraim. Gomer, who has left her husband and 
become the w. of another, is bought back by H. and 
is kept beside him, for a time on probation. Thus 
J"., who is forsaken by His people, will deprive them 
for a time of their liberty, as in the Exile, and then, 
taught by experience, they will return with fear 
unto the Lord and to His goodness. 



The 2nd part of the bk. (chaps. 4.-14.) consists of 
a series of prophecies, arranged without apparent 
system or continuity. H. inveighs esp. agst. two 
great evils : first, agst. the false worship, wh. puts 
emphasis on the wrong things, and thinks of relg. 
as a matter of ceremonial, instead of moral obedi- 
ence ; and secondly, agst. the political tendencies 
of the time, when the nation set its hope upon the 
help of Asyr. and Egp., instead of trusting in J". 
alone. In chap. 4. a vivid picture is drawn of the 
moral deterioration of the people, wh. is laid to the 
charge of the priests, who themselves are worldly 
and immoral ; and in chap. 5. the priests and princes 
are addressed personally, their sin is denounced, 
and Y . is represented as finally leaving Ephraim to 
itself. The prophecy continues with fierce de- 
nunciation of immorality and faithlessness, while 
ever and again occurs a passage of tender longing 
for the repentance and restoration of Isr. " O 
Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ? " " How 
shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? " " O Isr., return 
unto the Lord thy God." Such alternate promise 
and condemnation continue throughout, for H. 
feels deeply for those whom he is compelled to de- 
nounce. He is one of themselves, and he experi- 
ences the shame of their evil doing. But if they 
will only repent and trust in the God of love, whom 
he has declared, then all the threatenings wh. their 
own sin deserved will be given up ; and even yet 
J", will be ready to bestow His blessings upon them. 

John Davidson. 

HOSHEA. (1) The original name of Joshua 
(Nu. 13. 8 , AV. " Oshea " ; Dt. 32. 44 ). (2) Ruler of 
Ephraim under David (1 Ch. 27. 20 ). (3) The last 
k. of Samaria. He slew and succeeded Pekah, s. of 
Remaliah (2 K. 15. 30 ). Fm. the Asyr. inscrs. it is 
clear that H. was of the pro-Asyr. party in Isr., and 
carried out this conspiracy in concert with Tiglath- 
pileser III., whose puppet he became. He did evil 
" but not as the ks. of Isr. that were before him " 
(2 K. 17. 2 ), influenced, perhaps, by the preaching 
of Hosea, his contemporary. H. doubtless felt the 
Asyr. tribute burdensome, and sought for greater 
independence by alliance with So (or Sawa), k. 
of Egp. The non-arrival of his tribute roused 
the suspicions of Shalmaneser, who marched into 
Samaria and besieged H. in his capital for three yrs. 
Shalmaneser died and was succeeded by Sargon, an 
energetic and able prince, who completed the con- 
quest and took H. prisoner. The summary given in 2 
K. ly.is supplemented by theconqueror'sbrief words 
in the Khorsabad inscrn. : " Samaria I besieged, I 
captured, 27,290 of her inhabitants I carried away." 

HOSPITALITY is primarily the reception and 
entertainment of travellers ; but around this have 
grown up cert, deeply interesting ideas and prac- 
tices, sanctioned by immemorial usage, and conse- 
crated by religion. 



271 



Hos 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hos 



Among the dwellers in the anct. Orient to ask a 
wayfarer to pay for lodging and food wd. have been 
reckoned an outrage ; and not less for the guest to 
offer payment. The traveller was regarded as un- 
fortunate, a man to be pitied, and kindly entreated. 
No man wd. leave home and kindred to wander 
amid strange places and people except under the 
urgency of dire necessity. Save in the larger centres 
of population, dearth of patronage made houses of 
public resort impossible. In the fleeting tent 
villages of the nomads an " inn " wd. be an ab- 
surdity. Were there no welcome for a man in the 
tent it is his hap to find, there wd. be little assur- 
ance of life amid the perils of the wilderness. No 
man knows when his own fortune may cast him on 
the consideration of others. Each, therefore, tries 
to deserve kindness by showing it to such as come 
his way. The host expects, and usually receives, 
no thanks. The guest has only had what custom 
prescribes as his right, wh. he mt. take if it were re- 
fused. In the villages, if no one is rich and generous 
enough to win honour by taking the burden on 
himself, responsibility for the proper care of the 
guest is shared by the whole community. 

The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as 
the anct. Hebs., held H. in high esteem, and its re- 
quirements are still loyally observed in all the far- 
spreading encampments of Arabia. The old dislike 
of travel is nearly universal. A man's position and 
influence depend largely on his reputation for open- 
hearted H. A niggard in this regard is held in con- 
tempt, while he who spurns the guest is covered 
with indelible infamy. 

The rights and duties of H. centre in the tent or 
dwelling, and in the common meal. There is no 
safety for the stranger met in the country, if he be 
not valiant, or have not powerful relatives ; but 
even in an enemy's land peril is past if he touch but 
the most distant peg of the foeman's tent. When 
he eats and drinks with the owner the two pass 
under a sacred bond to defend each other to the 
uttermost. 

The tent is regarded as belonging to God, by 
whose favour it stands. By entering or touching it 
appeal is made to the Deity for shelter and suste- 
nance. These His servant, the occupant, is ready 
and eager to give. The host does not speak of the 
stranger as " my guest," but as " the guest of God." 
To mishandle or neglect the guest were to incur the 
displeasure of God. 

In the desert food and drink are not articles of 
merchandise. They represent the bounty of the 
Divine Host, and all alike are His " guests." Only 
a churl wd. refuse or take payment for a share in 
life's necessities supplied to a fellow-sojourner in 
God's great tent. 

The Arab recognises " duties " and " rights " 
only within the circle of his own kin. Nothing 

2 



done to those beyond is " wrong," and fm. them no 
rights can be claimed. But one born without may 
acquire the kindred relationship by eating and drink- 
ing withone or more members of a kin — thisof course 
to a certain limited extent, wh.' includes the right 
to food and protection. The kin is a sacred unity. 
If one member suffer in life or honour, the duty of 
vengeance lies upon all. This idea seems to rest 
on the primeval faith that the deity shared his life 
with the kin. When one eats with a clansman he 
is said to become sharer in the same life. His blood 
is renewed and refreshed fm. a common source. 
He thus shares the life of the clan, and also of the 
clan god, and must therefore be protected at all 
costs. Sacred associations attached to the common 




An Arab Meal: Company sitting at a Public Feast 
of Thanksgiving 

meal. The animal slain is still called dhablhab, 
" sacrifice," and to the feast all members of the kin 
are free to come unbidden. 

This " brotherhood of the bread " or " of salt," 
with its mutual obligations, lasts only 36 hours 
after the guest leaves the tent ; but it may become 
perpetual by frequent repetition. 

The guest's right of entertainment, it is genly. 
allowed, runs to three days. Beyond this the host 
may give him work to do. No guest of honour will 
stay to his host's inconvenience. 

" The guest who arrives after sunset sleeps with- 
out supper " ; so runs the desert law. The host 
must have time to do himself credit by the meat 
prepared. But as no one wd. willingly be abroad 
after sunset, the law is often relaxed. The guest, 
mindful of the host's honour, will always leave a 
portion of the food as evidence that more than 
enough has been supplied. 
72 



Hos 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hou 



The right of asylum attaching in all times to 
particular places, in origin rests on appeal for H. 
made by the fugitive to the god there worshipped. 
Joab indeed was slain at the altar ; but he had 
forfeited the right of asylum by his own breach of 
the law (i K. 2. 31ff -). Jael's treacherous murder of 
Sisera was a gross outrage, bearing witness to the 
savage lawlessness of the time (Jg. 4. 17 , &c). 

Biblical illustrations of or refces. to H. are 
numerous: e.g. Gn. 18., I9. 2ff - ; Jg. 19. 15 ' 18 ; Jb. 
3 i. 31f -; Mw. io. 9f -, 25. 35 ; Lk. 7. 44fl -, io. 4fl -; Jn. 
13. 20 ; Rm. I2. 13 » 20 ; 1 Tm. 3. 2 ; He. 13. 2 , &c. 
See further Inn. 

HOST OF HEAVEN (Heb. tzeba hashsha- 
mayim), primarily the stars (Gn. 2. 1 ; Dt. 4. 19 ) ; 
fm. this the transition was simple to the Angels 
(1 K. 22. 19 ; c-p. Lk. 2. 13 ). 

HOSTS, LORD OF (Heb. JHWH tzeba >oth), 
a prophetic title of God, used also in Samuel, Kings, 
Chronicles, and Psalms. It is uncertain whether 
the reference is to " hosts of Isr." or the " hosts of 
Heaven," i.e. the stars, or the angels. 

HOUR (Aram, sha'dh) in the OT. occurs only in 
Daniel (3. 6 , &c.) ; the Hebrews did not divide the 
" day " into hours. Even for the Greeks until the 
time of Hipparchus H. had a very indefinite mean- 
ing ; it mt. equally be a season of the yr. or a portion 
of a day. The Rms. gave definite meaning to the 
term. In NT. the Gr. hora has also the meaning 
of an appointed time (Jn. 7. 30 ), or the time during 
wh. anything occurs (Rv. 3. 10 , &c). 

HOUSE (Heb. bayith, poss. from bdndh, " to 
build," or fm. buth [Aram.], " to pass the night." 
It is sometimes used for " a tent " ; though bayith 
is elsewhere contrasted with 'ohel, the usual word 
for " tent," 2 S. J. 6 ). In the beginning two forms 
of shelter wd. be open to men, the shade of trees 
and the shelter of caves. When these were not 
available men had to invent substitutes for them, 
so the tent took the place of the tree, and the built 
house that of the cave. In countries like Greece, 
where trees were plentiful, or like Egp. where 
winter rains did not make solid shelter imperative, 
the tent generated the " booth," and that in turn 
the " wooden hut " ; fm. this sprang the pillared 
architecture of Egp. and Greece. In Pal., where 
the winter rain is torrential, the limestone rocks 
afford many examples of caves, and there is abun- 
dance of rock that may be easily quarried, built 
houses appear to have been the rule in anct. times 
as now. 

We have shown under Corner-stone that the 
foundations of an Eastern H. are really four arches, 
the piers of wh. are the " Corner-stones." The 
next step in building is to collect a quantity of earth 
and mould it into the shape of the inside of a vault ; 
when this is done, stones shaped as voussoirs of an 
arch are laid upon the mound above described and 



united with cement. After this has settled the 
earthen core is removed and there is left the vault, 
the imitation cave. The ends are closed up with 
walls, in which necessarily the doors and windows 
are placed ; walls are also built up tangential to 
the sides, enclosing the vault. The space between 
these side-walls and the vault is filled up with earth 
and rubble. The whole is overlaid with earth to 
form the flat roof so characteristic of the nearer 
East. This has to be rolled with a stone roller 
when the first rain indicates the approach of winter, 
to obliterate the cracks made by the summer heat 
and make it water-tight. If this is not done the 
rain percolates through : at times the mass of 
rubble gets so water-logged that the haunches of 
the vaults fall in. Sometimes the roller is a stone 
that had been a drum of a small column in Roman 
times. Access to the roof is most frequently 
afforded by an outside stair. Although the enact- 




Flooring over an Arched Room 

ment of the law (Dt. 22. 8 ) is generally complied 
with, yet cases in wh. there is either no parapet at 
all, or one too low to be of any use, are frequent, 
hence injuries in consequence of falling fm. the 
roof are not uncommon. When a second storey is 
contemplated the retaining walls are carried up to 
the requisite height, the space roofed over with 
beams, covered with rough boards and brushwood ; 
upon this earth and clay are placed, and again the 
flat roof is formed. In the case of the house of a 
rich man, a number of these vaults, the erection of 
wh. we have described, are arranged in the form of a 
square, forming a courtyard in wh. there may be 
trees and a fountain. In the cases of the sheikh of 
a village, who has to consider the housing of horses 
and cattle, occasionally all the vaulted chambers are 
used for stabling, and the living rooms are built 
as an upper storey upon them ; a broad passage 
guarded by a parapet going round in front of the 
various rooms. The windows to the street are 
usually small and high, and often unglazed. 

Sometimes, if the houses exceed two storeys, the 
windows protrude beyond the line of the wall ; it 
was through a " lattice " of this sort that Ahaziah 

73 



Hou 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hun 



the s. of Ahab fell (2 K. I. 2 ). The roof in anct. 
days, as now, was a place to wh. one mt. retire for 
devotion, as Peter did in Joppa (Ac. io. 9 ). One 
often betakes himself to the housetop to enjoy the 
coolness of the evening. For a like reason small 
chambers are frequently erected on the roof for 
sleeping in. That Bathsheba shd. be bathing on 
the housetop throws a sinister light on her char- 
acter ; for the housetop in a city was not a place of 
seclusion. 

There is little of what we wd. regard as furniture 
in an Eastern house ; there may be a small table or 
.two. Along the wall is a " diwan " or stone seat, 
and on it are numerous cushions laid. Occasionally 
one of the walls is covered with stone shelves in wh. 
are laid precious carpets fm. Damascus or Persia. 
In the kitchen premises tall whitewashed structures 
built of stone cemented with clay serve the pur- 




PEF. Drawing 



Stone Door 



poses of grain chests. Filled fm. the top, the grain 
is withdrawn for use by an orifice at the foot. In 
the houses of the wealthy there is no difficulty in 
securing privacy for the harem ; in smaller houses a 
curtain has to afford the desired seclusion. Fm. 
the general warmth of the climate in Pal. there is 
no need of fire-places ; that, conjoined with the 
absence of woodwork, makes destructive conflagra- 
tions practically unknown in Pal. The description 
we have just given applies to houses erected about 
half a century ago and earlier ; since then western 
methods have been rapidly gaining ground. In 
the primitive period of Jewish hist., if we may judge 
fm. the remains at Tell el-Hesy and Gezer, things 
must have been very much as they were in the 
middle of last cent. The pillared structures of 
Solomon owned the effect of Egyptian influence ; 
while in the period of the Herodians a Roman- 
ised Hellenism predominated among the wealthy. 



Even in the time of our Lord the external appear- 
ance of the houses of the middle and lower classes 
must have been much what it is at present. 




Deer: Assyrian. See Hunting' 

In certain ruined and deserted cities in the 
Hauran houses are found standing practically intact, 
with walls built of squared blocks of stone, and roof 
of stone slabs. The door is a single slab of stone, 
swinging easily on its Hinges ; while the aperture in 
the wall corresponding to our window is filled by a 
smaller slab, similarly hung. These doors are often 
elaborately carved. The date of these houses is un- 
certain, but probably they were built about the 
beginning of our era. 

The mod. fig. use of " house " for " family " or 
" household " has prevailed in all ages. The first 
time " house " appears in EV. it is used in this 
sense (Gn. 7. 1 ). 

HUKKOK, on the boundary of Naphtali, not far 
fm. Tabor (Jo. 19. 34 ), prob. = Taquq, NW. of the 
Sea of Galilee, five miles fm. el-Mejdel. H. stands 
for Helkath in 1 Ch. 6. 75 . 

HUKOK (1 Ch. 6. 75 ) --HELKATH (Jo. 21. 31 ). 

HULDAH, the prophetess, w. of Shallum, the 
keeper of the wardrobe (2 K. 22. 14ff - ; 2 Ch. 34- 22ff -), 
with whom Josiah took counsel when the bk. of the 
law was found in the Temple. 

HUNTING as a form of sport was little known 
among the Hebs., as indeed it still is among 




Net set for Deer 



Orientals. Herod's love of H. was prob. due to 
foreign influence (BJ. I. xxi. 13). Birds, such as 
the partridge (1 S. 26. 20 ), quail, even the lark, and 
cert, wild animals, the gazelle, the roebuck, the 
hart, and wild goat (Dt. 12. 15 ' 22 , 14. 5 ; 1 K. 4. 23 ), 



274 



Hur 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ico 




were valued as food. In securing these men used 

snares (Ps. 6/j.. 5 , &c), decoys (Sr. n. 30 ), nets (Ps. 

9. 16 , &c), slings (1 S. 17. 40 ), clubs (Jb. 41. 29 ), bows 
and arrows (Gn. 2J. Z , &c). 
Pits were dug for larger 
animals (Ps. 9. 15 , &c). Dogs 
for hunting are mentioned 
in Jos. {Ant. IV. viii. 9) but 
not in Scrip. Despite the 
prohibition of Moses and 
Mohammed, the boar is some- 
times hunted and eaten. The 
presence of the lion (in anct. 

t., ■-„■ times), bear, wolf, leopard, 

Home, with Coupled f x, &C, Compelled men to 

acquire some kge. of H. for 
the protection of themselves and their flocks. 

HUR was a name borne by several persons. 
(1) H. with Aaron supported the hands of Moses 
on Horeb, while the battle of Rephidim was being 
fought on the plain (Ex. 17. 12 ) ; with Aaron he was 
left as Moses' vicegerent (Ex. 24. 14 ) when the latter 
went up Sinai. Jewish tradition declares H. to have 
been the husband of Miriam. (2) Grandfr. of 
Bezaleel (Ex. 31. 2 ). (3) A king of Midian slain by 
Isr. (Nu. 31. 8 )". 

HUSHAI the Archite, the friend of David who, 
in the rebellion of Absalom, overthrew the counsel 
of Ahithophel (2 S. 15. 32 , &c. ; 1 Ch. 27« 33 ). 

HUSKS. These are the brown pods of the 
carob tree, wh. grows luxuriantly in Pal. They are 
used to feed cattle and horses, and wd. cert, be 
given to swine (Lk. 15. 16 ). Sweet to taste, they are 
sometimes eaten by the poor. It is customary to 
boil them, extracting a substance like molasses, 
used in various ways for food. See Locust. 

HUZZAB (Na. 2. 7 ). It is doubtful whether H. is 
a prop, noun as it is in EV. Rabbinic comm. declare 
H. to have been Queen of Nineveh. No such name 
has yet been found. The text may be corrupt. 

HYMEN^EUS, a false teacher associated with 
Alexander (1 Tm. I. 20 ) and with Philetus (2 Tm. 
2. 17 ). He taught that the " Resurrection was past 
already." The precise force of Paul's sentence on 



H. and Alexander, " delivered unto Satan," cannot 
be decided absolutely, but " excommunication " 
seems the simplest meaning. 

HYMN (Gr. humnos). The H. has been a 
feature of Christian worship, public and private, 
fm. the earliest times (Mw. 26. 30 ; Ac. 16. 25 ; He. 
2. 12 , &c). In Eph. 5. 19 ; Col. 3. 16 , humnoi are ap- 
parently distinguished fm. psalmoi and odai pneu- 
matikai, " psalms " and " spiritual songs," the 
psalms prob. referring to the contents of the 
psalter, the others being religious songs, humnoi 
being specially songs of praise. But the distinc- 
tion is not maintained ; Josephus speaking of the 
" hymns " wh. David wrote {Ant. VII. xii. 3). Fm. 
Col. 3. 16 it wd. appear that such compositions were 
used to convey instruction. Eph. 5. 14 is evidently 
part of an anct. H. There are prob. many frag- 
ments of Hs. in NT. Illustrations are Mary's song 
(Lk. i. 46ff -), reminiscent of that of Hannah (1 S. 
2. lff -), and the H. of the angels (Lk. 2. 14 ). 

Lit. : Julian, Diet, of Hymnology ; Lightfoot, 
Galatians, ad. 3. 16 ; Edersheim, LTJ., i. 153 ; The 
Temple, its Ministry and Services, $6f., \\ii. 

HYPOCRITE, in OT. represents Heb. haneph, 
" impious," frequently in Jb., twice in LXX hypo- 
krites : in NT. meaning " an actor " in religion, 
i.e. one who wd. seem more pious than he actually 
is. In Mw. 24. 51 haneph appears to have been in 
the mind of the Evangelist ; in the parallel passage 
in Lk. 12. 56 we read " unbelievers." 

HYSSOP, a plant of wh. the twigs formed into a 
bunch were used as a sprinkler (Ex. 12. 22 , &c). It 
is described as springing out of the wall (1 K. 4- 33 ). 
The herb intended is prob. a species of Marjoram, 
the Origanum Mam, wh. is found plentifully in 
Pal. Its " straight, herbaceous stems and rough, 
hairy leaves " are easily made into a bundle fitted 
for the purpose named. The leaves and heads 
have an aromatic flavour, with a refreshing quality. 
On this act. prob. the sponge with vinegar was laid 
on a bunch of H. and raised to the lips of Jesus, on 
the end of a reed (Jn. 19. 29 ; cp. Mw. 27. 48 , &c). 
It often grows in the chinks of rocks, between the 
stones in old dykes, terrace walls, &c. 



IBLEAM, a town in Manasseh (Jo. 17. 11 ; Jg. 
I. 27 ). It is ident. with the mod. BeVameh, a large 
tell \ mile S. of Jenin, with anct. remains. " The 
city has been inhabited certainly fm. the Amorites 
to the early Arabs " (R. A. Macalister, PEFO., 
April 1907, p. 129). 

IBZAN (Jg. I2. 8ff -), a minor judge, successor of 
Jephthah, prob. fm. Bethlehem in Zebulun. Jewish 
tradition identd. him with Boaz. The fr. of a re- 
markable family, he judged Isr. seven yrs. 



ICHABOD (Heb. n chabdd, poss. " the glory has 
departed "), s. of Phinehas. His mr., overwhelmed 
by disastrous tidings, died in giving him birth (1 S. 

4- 19 S H- 3 )- 

ICONILTM, a Phrygian city rivalling Damascus 
in antiquity, resembling that city in the beauty and 
fruitfulness of its surroundings, and in its protec- 
tion by western mountains (Ramsay, The Cities of 
St. Paul, 317JBF.). It is represented by the mod. 
Konia, in the great plain of Lycaonia, N. of the 



275 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ido 



Taurus, at a point where cert, important roads 
meet, connecting it with the sea and the Euphrates 
valley. Possessing thus many commercial advan- 
tages, it attracted a colony of Jews. Paul visited 
I. on his first missy, journey, coming fm. Antioch 





Coin of Iconium 

in the W., and met success among both Jews and 
Gentiles (Ac. 13. 51 , i/\.. m -). Trouble arising, he 
passed on to Lystra and Derbe, returning later 
to " confirm the souls of the disciples." To the 
experiences of this time he alludes in 2 Tm. 3. 11 . 
Timothy was well known in I., and may have been 
circumcised and ordained here, when Paul came on 
his second missy, journey (Ac. i6. lff -). Although 



" the chief at the place Casphia " (Ez. 8. 17 ), to 
whom Ezra sent for " ministers for the house of our 
God." See also 1 K. 4. 14 ; 1 Ch. 27. 21 ; Ez. io. 43 ; 
He. 12 4 - 16 . 

IDOL, IDOLATRY. Every representation of 
Deity used for worship was an idol, and all rever- 
ence given to it was idolatry. Idols in Isr., if we 
may make a reasonable deduction fm. the remains of 
Asyr. and Egp., were usually figures representing 
men, animals, or composite beings. These last 
were prob. recognised as symbols ; not representa- 
tions. Very frequently they symbolised the repro- 
ductive powers of nature (see Ashtoreth). Some- 
times amorphous stones, posts, or natural objects, 
such as trees, were regarded as representatives of 
Deity and worshipped. The Heb. names for idols 
are numerous, but the most common are 'elilem and 
gillulim, " idols " generally ; pesel, " graven image " ; 
massekah, " a molten image " ; the frequency with 
wh. these two last terms occur together suggests 
that the " idol " was first cast, then the graver 
completed the work ; or that a cast was made 



^■fcitfLn 




Konieh (Iconium) 



not named, it was prob. visited again on the third 
missy, journey (Ac. 18. 23 ). Ill-adapted for defence, 
the city owes its continuance to its central position 
and serviceableness, with its well-watered and fruit- 
ful district. It became a Rm. colony, and in later 
times it was the capital of the Seljuk empire. It is 
still the chief town of the district. The scene of 
the legend of St. Thekla is laid here (Ramsay, The 
Ch. in the Rm. Emp., 3 iff., 375ff.). 

IDDO. (1) 'Iddo (2 Ch. 12. 15 , 13. 22 ), Te'do, or 
Te'di (2 Ch. 9. 29 , prob. in error for 'iddo), a prophet 
who wrote a hist, of the times of Solomon, Reho- 
boam, and Abijah. (2) 'Iddo (Zc. I. 1 ), or i Iddo > 
(i. 7 ; Ez. 5. 1 , 6. 14 ), fr. of Zechariah. (3) 'Iddo, 



fm. the " graven image " and used as a mould. 
The earliest refce. to idols in Isr. is Gn. 31. 19 , 
the " teraphim " that Rachel stole. Later Jacob 
buried " all the strange gods " under the oak at 
Shechem. How far Isr. was addicted to idolatry 
in Egp. it is impossible to say. The case of Micah 
(Jg. I7. lff -) shows that very soon after their settle- 
ment in Pal. Isr. relapsed fm. the spiritual worship 
of Y . to make use of idols. The hist, of the period 
of the Judges is one of repeated fallings away into 
idolatry. The revival under Samuel of the purer 
worship of J", continued till the reign of Solomon. 
Prob. Solomon's personal view was that, as all 
worship was really directed to J"., the form was 
76 



Ido 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Idu 



indifferent. At the disruption of the kdm. Jero- 
boam introduced the worship of the " calves." As 
he had been so long in Egp. where there was a 
spiritual religion behind idolatry, Jeroboam chose 
the form of Apis wh. had been worshipped by 
Isr. in the wilderness (Ex. 32. 4ff -, JE.). In the 




PEF. Drawing 

Cow Divinity (Pottery) 

Northern Kdm. the alternation was between Baal- 
worship and the worship of ]". by idols. In the 
Southern there was more spirituality; though under 
some of the kings, e.g. Manasseh and Amon, and 
possibly also Ahaz, there were lapses into heathen- 
ism. There does not seem to have been anything 
equivalent to the worship of the calves in the 
Southern Kdm. 

The reason for the severity of the Mosaic law 
towards idolatry is found partly in the immorality 
wh. accompanied all heathen worship ; partly in 
the tendency to regard all material symbols as re- 
presentations. The materialised and limited deity 
became a person. The parabolic descriptions of 
the powers of nature took form in myths, the con- 
tents of wh. were regarded as sacred facts. The 
spirituality of God was gradually obscured, and 
progress towards fetichism was accelerated. 

Again, idolatry was to be deprecated if Judaism 
was to be the precursor of and preparation for 
Christianity. Human sacrifice is a constant feature 
in the history of all heathenism. This was an 
infamy wh. Isr. did not wholly escape (2 K. 16. 3 , 
17. 17 , &c). It involved denial of the sanctity of 
the individual as a child of God. One who offered 
his son was held as sacrificing his most precious 
possession. But Christianity declares that each 
individual has a direct personal relation to God, and 
cannot be regarded as the possession of another, 
even of his father. 

After the return fm. Babylon the Jews appear to 
have been completely weaned fm. idolatry. They 
seem indeed to have imbibed the contempt for 
idol-worship wh. we find in the prophets. The 



Persians as fire- worshippers stood in a closer relation- 
ship to spiritual worship than did the worshippers 
of Bel-Marduk and Nebo, so their domination 
favoured the anti-idolatrous views of the prophets. 
The advent of the Greek power exposed Judaism to 
a severer test. For a time the Hellenisation of the 
Jews went on rapidly, and idolatry was the natural 
termination of this. The effort of Epiphanes to 
hasten the process resulted in the revolt of the 
Maccabees, and the deepening of the antagonism 
to idolatry. Under Rome there was no attempt at 
compelling the Jews to be worshippers of idols. 
Every form of faith or unfaith was tolerated within 
its empire. Judaism was, however, a purely national 
religion. The Jews attempted no mission to con- 
vert the world fm. idolatry ; this was the function 
of Christianity. In the days of the apostles scepti- 
cism was the rule among the educated classes. The 
apostle Paul, when he said (1 Cor. 8. 4 ) " an idol is 
nothing in the world," must have assumed general 
agreement with the statement, or he wd. have 
argued the question. It is a singular phenomenon 
that Christianity, wh. thus in the beginning assumed 
the absolute nonentity of idols, shd. within half a 
millennium become fanatically addicted to idol- 
worship. 

In Athens St. Paul takes a further step. He 
considers idol-worship as misdirected worship of 
the true God (Ac. 17. 23 ), alt ho' idolatry was so 
common in Athens that men said it was easier to 
find a god than a man there. Yet philosophy had 
affirmed the merely symbolical meaning of idols. 
We must remember that St. Paul's discourse was 
addressed to philosophers. 

The apostle Paul recognised a spiritual meaning 
behind idolatry. Anything wh. becomes so absorb- 





Clay Statuettes of Assyrian Deities 

ing that it hinders the love and service of God is 
regarded as idolatry (Col. 3. 5 ). Such devotion to 
any enterprise as excludes or limits the devotion 
due to God : the pursuit of pleasure, wealth, even 
of knowledge, when carried to excess, becomes in 
its essence idolatry. 

IDUM^A. See Edom. 

77 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ind 



IJON, a town in N. Naphtali named with Dan 
and Abel-beth-maachah (i K. 15. 20 ), taken by the 
Syr., and later (2 K. 15. 29 ) by Tiglath-pileser : 
unidentd. The name lingers in Msrj A'yun, the 
plain N. of Tell el-Qady (Dan). It may be repre- 
sented by the mod. Khiydm, 5 miles N. of AMI, or 
by the considerable ruin at Tell Dibbin, 3 miles NW. 
of Khiydm. 

ILLYRICUM (Rm. 15. 19 ), the W. limit of the 
sphere in wh. Paul had hitherto preached. The 
district lay on the E. shore of the Adriatic, S. of 
Italy and N. of Epirus, with Mcesia and Macedonia 
on the E. The name Dalmatia applied to the S. 
'part of I., but fm. the time of the Flavian emperors 
it covered the whole province. 

IMAGE. Among all creatures the unique dis- 
tinction belongs to man of being made in the image 
of the Creator (Gn. I. 26L ) ; that is, in His likeness 
(Gn. 5. 1 ). In view of the spiritual nature of God, 
this cannot refer to any material or formal resem- 
blance. We must find the divine reflected in the 
mental, moral, and spiritual nature of man : in the 
elements of personality, self-conscious thought, the 
power of distinguishing good from evil, freedom 
to choose and to pursue ends that are approved. 
That the image may be complete these powers 
must be exercised under the influence of a true 
conception of God and human destiny, and in 
harmony with the divine will. The Fall, setting 
the human will in opposition to God's will, ob- 
scured the true knowledge of God, and shattered 
the divine image in man. But the lost image may 
be restored (Rm. 8. 29 ). Unmarred in its perfection 
it is found in Jesus Christ (Col. I. 15 ; He. I. 3 , &c). 
By the agency of the Spirit believing men are 
changed into His image (2 Cor. 3. 18 ; Col. 3. 10 ), and 
therefore again into that of the Creator. For 
image as an obj. of worship see Idol. 

IMMANUEL (" God with us "), in NT. Em- 
manuel. The name given to the promised s. of 
the " virgin " ('almdk, Is. 7. 14 ). In the following 
chap, the prophet assumes I. to be in possession of 
the land of Judah (Is. 8. 8 ). By Matthew the former 
passage is quoted and referred to Christ (i. 23 ). 

IMMORTALITY. See Eschatology. 
IMPRISONMENT. See Crimes and Penalties. 
INCENSE (Heb. qetoreth), ALTAR OF IN- 
CENSE. Taking into account the Oriental de- 
light in perfumes, and the fact that alike in Assyria, 
whence Isr. had sprung, and in Egp. where they had 
sojourned so long, the burning of incense was an 
act of worship, it seems an anachronism to postpone 
the introduction of this practice till after the days 
of Ezra, as do Wellhausen, Nowack, and Benzinger. 
The materials of wh. the I. was to be compounded 
(Ex. 30. 34 ), Stacte, Onycha, Galbanum, and 
Frankincense, were all easily accessible even in the 
desert. The great increase in the number of the 

2 



ingredients of I. in later times indicates the primi- 
tive nature of the Ex. narrative. The Altar of 
Incense was a double cube of shittim wood, two 
cubits high, overlaid with pure gold ; it was placed 
before the veil of the Holy of Holies. Offering I. 
on an altar does not seem to have been practised 
either in Asyr. or Egp. 

The cloud of incense that accompanied the High 
Priest when he entered the Holy of Holies, besides 
being the symbol of prayer (Rv. 8. 4 ), had also a 
psychological reason. The overwhelming sense of 
being alone with God, spirit with spirit, might 
have so crushed the sensitive that death might 
have ensued there before God. The pungent 
but pleasing odour of the incense kept the body 
always in evidence, thus preventing such fatal 
absorption. 

The burning of incense formed part of the 
regular morning and evening sacrifice (Ex. 3Q. 7f -). 




Incense 

In a regular order of rotation the priests burnt 
incense before the Lord (Lk. I. 9 ). This privilege, 
wh. was highly esteemed, was seldom enjoyed twice 
by one person. 

The golden " spoons " (Nu. 4. 7 , &c. ; Heb. kaf, 
" hollow of the hand ") were evidently vessels in 
wh. incense was kept. In use it was usual to cast 
the incense on the fire, but there is ample evidence 
that the Censer also was employed (Lv. io. 1 : 
Ek. 8. 11 , &c). 

INDIA. EV. so render hoddu, derived fm. 
Hondu, the name of the Indus and the country it 
drains. It marks the E. limit of Ahasuerus' empire 
(Est. i. 1 , 8. 9 ; cp. 1 M. 8. 8 ; Est. Ad. 13* 1 , 16. 1 ; 
I Es. 3. 2 ). While I. proper is not mentioned in 
Scrip., Isr. seems to have had relations with it by 
means of the Arabian merchants. Cert, products 
of I., brought by the Arab caravans, are named 
in Ek. 27. 15ff -, e.g. " horns of ivory and ebony," 
" cassia and calamus." Many of the things brought 
by the ships fm. Ophir and the navy of Tarshish 

78 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Isa 



seem to have been of Indian origin, almug (sandal- 
wood), apes, peacocks, &c. (i K. IO. 11 * 25 , &c). 

INGATHERING, FEAST OF. See Feasts. 

INHERITANCE is EV. tr. of heleq (Ps. 16. 5 ), 
lit. "portion," yerushdh (Jg. 21. 17 ; Jr. 32. 8 ), and 
mordshdh (Dt. 33*; Ek. 33- 24 ), lit. "possession." 
The usual word, nahaldh, denotes property that 
passes fm. holder to heir, but also quite commonly 
= " possession." The same is true of the Gr. 
kleronomia (Mw. 21. 38 ; Ac. 7. 5 , &c), and kleros 
(Ac. 26. 18 ; Col. I. 12 ). See Heir. 

INIQUITY. See Sin. 

INK, INKHORN. See Writing. 

INN. For Eastern views of travel and provision 
made for travellers see Hospitality. The I. as we 
know it does not appear in the OT. The mdlon 
(Gn. 42. 27 , &c.) was only a halting -place, not im- 
plying any bldg. In NT. times Inns, with the 
foreign name pandocheion = Arb. funduq (Lk. io. 34 ), 
were plentiful, and were resorted to by all kinds 
of people. The moral atmosphere was such that 
Christians deemed it prudent to shun them, and 
keep open door for the brethren (1 P. 4. 9 , &c). 
The bldgs. affording shelter and security on the 
main roads prob. resembled the mod. khan, a 
square court enclosed by a stout wall, with accom- 
modation for animals on the ground level, and for 
travellers in rooms above. The inn of Lk. io. 34 is 
gen. identd. with Khan Hadriir, c. eight miles E. 
of Jrs., on the descent to Jericho. 

In Lk. 2. 7 we shd. prob. tr. kataluma " guest- 
chamber," as in Mk. 14. 14 ; Lk. 22. 11 : i.e. a room 
in a private house placed at the disposal of guests. 
Joseph and Mary may have expected such quarters 
in a friend's house, and finding it full, had to be 
content with the shelter of the khan. 

There are now many hotels in Pal. patronised 
chiefly by tourists. 

INSTRUMENT (Heb. kelt) is applied to instru- 
ments of music as with ourselves (1 Ch. 15. 16 , &c). 
It is also employed where we should speak of 
" furniture " (Ex. 25. 9 RV., &c), " utensils " (Nu. 
31. 6 , &c), and " implements," e.g. implements of 
husbandry (2 S. 24. 22 ; I K. 19. 21 ) and of war (1 S. 
8. 12 , &c). Our bodies are " instruments " (Gr. 
o7rAa) with which righteousness or unrighteousness 
is wrought (Rm. 6. 13 ). The word also occurs in 
I M. 13. 42 in the mod. sense of a legal deed. 

INTERCESSION. See Prayer. 

IR-HA-HERES (RV.), City of Destruction 
(AV.). In his vision of the coming time Isaiah 
(19. 18 ) sees several cities in Egp. whose inhabitants 
speak the language of Canaan, and swear to ]" '. of 
Hosts, one of which is called " the city of destruc- 
tion." This may mean that they were occupied by 
Jewish colonists, or that the inhabitants were con- 
verts to the relg. of Isr., and naturally, in worship 
of J", of Hosts, they wd. make use of the sacred 



tongue. Possibly the name was Ir-ha-heres, " city 
of the sun," which a scribe, writing to dictation, 
might have mistaken for Ir-ha-heres. It is only in 
the late square characters that the Heb. h and h 
resemble each other. There may, however, be 
intended a play upon the two words wh. were 
so similar in sound : the city where the sun was 
worshipped under many emblems becomes a city 
where the zeal of those converted to J", finds ex- 
pression in the destruction of all objects of their 
former idolatrous worship. The LXX curiously 
reads polis asedek, " city of righteousness." 

The reading " city of the sun" is perhaps rendered sus- 
picious by the fact that it was in the nome of Heliopolis, 
"city of the sun," that Onias afterwards erected his temple. 

IRIJAH, the captain of the guard in Jerusalem 
who arrested Jeremiah at the gate of Benjamin, 
and on the false charge of falling away to the 
Chaldeans led him back to be smitten by " the 
princes " and cast into prison (Jr. 37- 13f -). 

IRON, a city in Naphtali (Jo. 19. 38 ), the mod. 
Tdrun, a vill. about nine miles N W. of Safed, with 
ruins, prob. all of Christian origin. 

IRON (Heb. barzel) was certainly known to the 
Egyptians, and used by them fm. c. B.C. 3800 to 
3000 (Budge, Hist, of Egp., ii. 135). The ore was 
found in considerable quantities in certain districts 
of Mt. Lebanon, and was worked there in ancient 
times. Recently steps have been taken for opening 
the old mines in the neighbourhood of Btughreen. 
The metal is frequently referred to in Scrip. (Gn. 
4. 22 ; Am. i. 3 ; Jb. 28. 2 , &c). It was used for tools 
and implements ; indeed so common was this use 
that the axe-head was called simply " the iron " 
(Dt. 19. 5 ; 2 K. 6. 5 ). Isaiah (44. 12 ) represents the 
smith as making the axe to cut down the tree with 
wh. an idol is to be made (adopting the reading 
of LXX). 

Og, king of Bashan, had a bedstead of iron (Dt. 3. 11 ). 
Some {e.g. Driver ad loc.) wd. translate "sarcophagus of 
basalt." While basalt contains a high percentage cf iron, 
there is no evidence that the Heb. barzel ever means basalt. 
Further, the present writer has seen many sarcophagi E. of 
Jordan made of limestone, wh. when weathered and darkened 
is often mistaken for basalt, but he has not seen any made 
of basalt. And it is questionable, to say the least, whether 
the Heb. 'eres, " a bed " or. " couch," could ever denote a 
sarcophagus. 

IRPEEL (" God heals "), a city in the territory of 
Benjamin (Jo. 18. 27 ). It may poss. be represented 
by the mod Rafdt, to the N. of el-Jib, the ancient 
Gibeon. 

IR SHEMESH. See Beth Shemesh. 

ISAAC, the long-promised s. of Abraham and 
Sarah (Gn. 17. 16 , P. ; 18. 10 , J.). Various occa- 
sions are suggested for the bestowal of the name 
Titzhaq, "he laughs" (17. 17 , 18. 12 , 2I. 6 ). His 
life was comparatively uneventful. His role as 
presented in the extant records was little more 
than that of a link in the patriarchal chain con- 
necting Abraham and Jacob. These were both 



279 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Isa 



far-travelled men, who had seen much of the world 
and life. . I.'s days were spent in a narrow cir- 
cuit, in the S. of Pal, in pastoral and agricultural 
occupations. 

Abraham's willing obedience, when called to sacri- 
fice the s. in whom all his hopes centred, was not 
more remarkable than the meek submission of I., 
who is therefore often cited as a type of Christ. 

Accdg. to a custom still largely prevailing, he 
had no choice as to whom he shd. marry. He 
accepted Rebekah, who had been brought by his 
fr.'s steward, without question (Gn. 24. 67 ). He 
was then 40 yrs. old. Twenty yrs. later Jacob and 
Tisau were born (25. 20 ' 26 ). Famine drove him to 
Gerar : fear led him to practise deception wh. 
involved him and Rebekah in grave peril (26. 1 " 11 ). 
Settled in the neighbourhood of Gerar, he pros- 
pered greatly. He first of the patriarchs is men- 
tioned as sowing (26. 12 ). He secured a good supply 
of water by digging wells. These became scenes of 
strife with the envious Phil, in wh. his peace-loving 
disposition was made manifest (26. 14ff -). He re- 
moved toBeersheba, and there made a treaty with 
Abimelech, who had followed him to entreat an 
alliance. In the scene where Jacob and his mr. win 
by guile the blessing designed for Esau, he figures as 
already a frail old man, his eyes dimmed with yrs. 
At Rebekah's sugg. he sends Jacob away to Padan- 
aram. He was still alive when Jacob returned (Gn. 
28. 1 , 3S- 27 ). At the age of 180 he died, and was 
buried by his sons in the cave of Machpelah (35. 28f# , 

■19- 31 ); 

It is evident that only fragments of his hist, have 

been preserved. An allusion in Amos 7. 9, 16 seems 
to sugg. that in some way he was more particularly 
associated with the tribes of N. Isr. 

ISAIAH (Heb. Tesha'yabu, " salvation of Yahu " ; 
Gr. Esaias ; Vlg. Isaias, whence the English form 
in the OT. is derived), traditional author of a col- 
lection of prophecies. The chapters in the Bks. of 
Kings in wh. this prophet's name occurs are practi- 
cally identical with three incorporated in his bk. 
(36.-39.), and the chronicler (2 Ch. 32. 32 ) attributes 
this portion of the Bk. of Kings, as well as that deal- 
ing with Uzziah (26. 22 ), to the prophet ; but our 
kge. of the origin and hist, of these works is not 
such as to enable us to state their relations with 
precision. It is now commonly supposed that the 
three chapters were taken from the historical bk. by 
the compiler of the Bk. of Isaiah ; against this is 
the fact that the latter bk. has preserved an ode by 
Hezekiah (38. 9 " 20 ) wh. is not found in the Kings. 
If the chapters were transferred fm. " Isaiah " by 
the compiler of the Bk. of Kings, the bk. bearing 
the name of the latter must be regarded as our sole 
source of information about him ; and it is observ- 
able that Ezra (i. 1 ) quotes Jeremiah and not Isaiah 
for the prophecy of the return under Cyrus ; and in 



Daniel (c;. 2 ), in a somewhat similar context, Jeremiah 
and not Isaiah is mentioned ; the first writer who 
characterises his prophecies being Ben-Sira, near 
the beginning of the second cent. B.C. (Sr. 48. 22 " 25 ). 
According to the bk. ascribed to him, wh. is written 
partly in the first, but more often in the third 
person in its narrative portions, and contains even 
secret details of its author's life, he was the son of 
Amos ('Amotz, not to be confused with 'Amos, the 
name of the Minor Prophet transliterated in the 
same way), received his call to the prophetic office 
in the yr. of King Uzziah's death (b.c 740), and 
held it during the reigns of Jotham (16 yrs.), Ahaz 
(16 yrs.), and Hezekiah, at any rate till 15 yrs. 
before that king's death. His residence appears 
to have been mainly, if not entirely, at Jrs. ; but 
there are passages wh. imply an acquaintance on 
his part with the topography of Pal., and even of 
the adjoining countries. Incidentally there is an 
allusion to his wife (called the prophetess), and two 
or perhaps three of his sons (Shear-Jashub, Mahar- 
shalal-hash-baz, and possibly Immanuel). The pro- 
phecies that are dated belong to the last yr. of 
Uzziah and the periods of Ahaz and Hezekiah ; 
and they contain references to the operations of 
various Asyr. kings, of whom Sargon (722-705) and 
Sennacherib (705-681) are mentioned by name 
(20. 1 , 36. 1 , &c). In the latter portion of the 
bk. there are references to Cyrus, king of Persia 
(ob. 529). His career seems to have been marked 
by many of the hardships associated with the pro- 
phetic office (20. 3 ), but the chaps. 36.-39. repre- 
sent him as court-prophet and physician to Hezekiah. 
Of the time of his death there is no record, though 
a tradition, wh. may have been known to the author 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, makes him suffer 
martyrdom under Manasseh, by the process of 
sawing asunder, a mode of torture wh. is attested 
by excavations in parts of Pal. 

Of the oracles collected in the bk. one (2. 2 " 4 ) is 
also attributed to Micah (4. 1 " 3 ), and portions of 
chaps. 15. and 16. are to be found in Jr. 48. 
In one case (16. 14 ) an oracle " spoken formerly " is 
confessedly utilised by the prophet. 

Division of the Book. — The bk. falls into two 
main divisions, chaps. 1.-39. and chaps. 40. to the 
end. It has been suggested that these at one time 
occupied separate rolls, and it has been argued that 
the chaps. 36.-39. were an appendix to the first 
collection of Isaiah's prophecies similar to the his- 
torical appendix to Jeremiah. This may or may 
not be correct. In the first division chaps. 13.-23. 
appear to constitute a collection of oracles deal- 
ing mainly with foreign countries ; whence (since 
36-39. constitute a section) the first division falls 
into four groups of chapters. The second division 
is sometimes thought to fall into two sections, the 
first ending with chap. 55. The arrangement of 
80 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Isa 



the first division appears to be in the main chrono- 
logical, since kings and other personages are men- 
tioned in order of time (Uzziah, chap. 6. ; Ahaz, 
chaps. 7., 14. ; Shebna, chap. 22. ; Hezekiah, 
chaps. 36.-39.). The principle, however, on wh. 
the various oracles are introduced into this chrono- 
logical framework is obscure. In part it seems to 
be artistic ; this wd. explain the reservation of the 
account of the prophetic call (chap. 6.) till the 
reader has some acquaintance with the prophet's 
message, and the regular alternation of threats with 
promises ; and esp. the preparation (beginning in 
chap. 2.), in oracles of gradually increasing length, 
for the subject wh. fills the most of the second 
division. 

Authorship of the Book. — The attitude adopted 
towards this subject depends largely on the view 
taken by individuals of the function and powers of 
a prophet. In Ecclesiasticus Isaiah is said to have 
foreseen the future to the end of time, and in the 
chapters common to the Bk. of Isaiah and the 
Kings he foretells the rout of Sennacherib and the 
prolongation of Hezekiah's life for 15 yrs. ; and 
the author of the latter half claims belief for his 
predictions on the ground that the " former things " 
have come to pass. The author of the first half 
appears otherwise as a miracle-worker of extra- 
ordinary power : he offers to produce any sign 
demanded of him in heaven or earth ; and though 
this offer was rejected by Ahaz, it was accepted by 
Hezekiah, and the prophet caused the sun to re- 
treat ; a miracle wh. was perhaps intended to 
exhibit a greater degree of power than that dis- 
played by Joshua, who made the sun stand still. 
To those who believe in the possibility of these 
powers the ordinary criteria for dating and esti- 
mating literary matter will seem inapplicable in 
such a case : the mention of Cyrus by a prophet 
who lived more than a cent, before his appearance 
cannot serve as evidence of imposture or mis- 
taken ascription. Nor cd. arguments drawn fm. 
environment or language have any weight. The 
general belief of the Jews, at any rate fm. the 
second cent. B.C., and the Christians till about the 
eighteenth cent., attributed these powers to the 
prophet, whence it was not unnatural that with the 
latter community many passages in the second half 
of the bk. and some in the first were thought to 
apply primarily to the Christian Saviour. 

To those who regard miraculous powers as incon- 
sistent with the order of nature, and the power of 
prediction as in conflict with the freedom of the 
human will, the traditional ascription of these 
prophecies is fraught with difficulty ; and many 
critics, abandoning the tradition, have attempted 
to locate them by processes resembling those 
employed in ordinary historical research. These 
studies have led to the division of the bk. between 



a great many authors, dating fm. the time of the 
traditional Isaiah to the beginning of the Greek 
period, i.e. somewhat after B.C. 300, or even later 
(b.c. 120). A theory wh., first made popular by 
Doderlein in the eighteenth cent., has found wide 
acceptance, assigns the second half in the main to 
a Second Isaiah (Deuteroisaias), contemporary of 
Cyrus and resident in Babylonia : attributing the 
inclusion of these oracles in Isaiah's bk. to mistake 
or the accidental juxtaposition of the two rolls. 
This hypothesis involves that of serious interpola- 
tion in the first half, and even the brilliant chaps. 
13., 14., and 35. come under this head, as they deal 
with the fall of Bab. and the fate of the Exiles. 
This results, therefore, in a highly complicated 
hypothesis, wh. is moreover seriously invalidated 
by (1) the fact already noticed, that the first half is 
presupposed by the second half, whence the notion 
that the two were accidentally attributed to the 
same prophet can scarcely be maintained ; and 
(2) the undeniable uniformity of the whole, at 
least to the extent that both parts are unequalled 
in Heb. literature for pathos and sublimity of 
expression. Endeavours that have been made to 
prove the language employed in different parts to 
differ in date have been unsuccessful ; whereas 
some curious coincidences have been noticed. 
Hence it has been suggested that the whole is one 
author's work, but belongs to the latest date wh. 
critics have tried to establish for any part of it, 
i.e. the Greek period. The author mainly re- 
sponsible for this suggestion supposes the nucleus 
of the bk. to be the chapters incorporated fm. the 
Kings, whence the fabricator obtained the name of 
Isaiah with his historical location, to base thereon 
this volume of oracles. Hitherto this theory has 
met with little acceptance, partly owing to the con- 
firmation by cuneiform inscriptions of the capture 
of Ashdod by Sargon mentioned in Is. 20. 1 , wh. is 
not recorded in the Kings, and wh. it seems in- 
credible that a forger of a later period cd. have 
known ; but still more by the improbability that 
the classical language of this bk. cd. have been 
written in the Greek period. Slightly less im- 
probability wd. attach to a theory wh. made the 
whole originate in the Captivity. An argument of 
some weight in favour of conflation of documents 
on a large scale may be drawn from the incorpora- 
tion in the bk. of oracles elsewhere assigned to 
Jeremiah and Micah. 

Structure of the Book according to Current 
Hypotheses. — The amount of Isaianic matter wh. 
modern criticism finds in the book is therefore 
small. The following is the list given by Stade 



(1 



: chaps. 1.-11. 5 , 17. 



-20., 22., 28.-31. 



(most of these chapters are, however, said to con- 
tain interpolations). The following is the list 
given by Cheyne (1895) : chap. I. (except vv. 
81 



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Isa 



1-4 and 27, 28), 2. 6 " 22 , 3. (parts), 5., 6., 7., 8. 
(mainly), 9. 7 -io. 4 (some other verses in 10.), 
IS. 1 -^. 6 , 20., 2i. 11 -23., 28. 1 " 22 , 29. 1 - 15 , 30. 1 - 17 , 31. 
According to the latter the latest oracle em- 
bodied in the bk. is 19. 16 - 25 , " not earlier than 
275 " : the former appears to regard the verses as 
the work of the genuine Isaiah. Hence it appears 
that critics of the same school may differ to the 
extent of over four hundred yrs. in the dates wh. 
they assign particular passages. In general the 
arguments by wh. they are located wd. be assigned 
little value in other fields of historical inquiry. 

Of the second part various divisions have been 
attempted, those chapters which speak of the Re- 
turn as in the future being referred to the period 
between the rise of Cyrus and the fall of Bab. (539), 
while others wh. call attention to definite abuses 
are referred to the period after the Return, inter- 
preted where possible from the scanty historical 
data of Ezra and Nehemiah, and located at various 
points in the fifth, fourth, and third centuries B.C. 
There is considerable difference of opinion as to the 
place where the prophet of the Return resided, 
most critics being probably in favour of Babylonia ; 
and indeed some acquaintance is displayed with 
Babylonian civilisation, though not more than wd. 
be matter of common kge. when that country was 
at the head of a world-empire. There is an almost 
total dearth of local and personal names wh. is very 
unlike the wealth in such specifications to be found 
in the first half of the bk. in connection with the 
Assyrian campaigns. The discourses, however, are 
even so too seditious to have been delivered with 
safety in public ; but if they were delivered in 
private (wh. the prophet declares was not the case, 
45. 19 , 48. 16 ), the reason for such vagueness is obscure. 

The prophets whose oracles are assigned to the 
period after the Return are supposed to have been 
resident at Jrs. 

Collection of these Works into a Volume 
bearing the Name of Isaiah. — It has been seen 
that the bk. is known to have existed in its present 
form (in the main) early in the second cent. B.C. 
According to the Jewish tradition Hezekiah col- 
lected the prophecies of Isaiah, and this, though a 
guess, wd. not be improbable, if that king is rightly 
connected with other literary enterprises (Pr. 25. 1 ). 
The prophecies themselves contain some allusions 
to their being written (at least in part, 30. 8 , 8. 1 ) and 
guarded in the prophet's school (8. 20 ) ; and the 
autobiographical matter (especially 6., 8.) cannot 
easily be thought of otherwise than as coming fm. 
memoirs written by the prophet, though Jr. 36. 18 
might seem to imply that the writing of oracles was 
an innovation in Jeremiah's time. In 59. 21 there 
appears to be a reference to an oral tradition of 
them in the prophet's family. Some have sup- 
posed that the Bk. of the Lord, mentioned 34. 18 , is 



to be interpreted of an original bk. of Isaiah, but 
this suggestion has little probability, the phrase 
being more probably poetical. The theory of the 
origin of the bk. that has been sketched above wd. 
imply that in the course of five centuries this 
nucleus of genuine oracles (whether first issued by 
Hezekiah or by the prophet himself) had been 
re-edited repeatedly, with fresh and ever fresh 
accretions. Suggestions that may be quoted are 
that the first part was at one time a collection 
resembling that of the twelve Minor Prophets ; 
and that the nucleus was purposely swollen by the 
addition of matter of doubtful authenticity in 
order that Isaiah might not sink to the rank of a 
Minor Prophet. Of the production of " editions " 
we have absolutely no record, nor indeed wd.' it 
be easy to state with precision what that process 
wd. mean ; but if the plurality of authorship be 
established, the collection was probably put together 
by combining survivals of written documents with 
oral tradition, wh. may indeed have been preserved 
in particular families, professing descent fm. Isaiah, 
or have been attributed to Isaiah on critical grounds. 
The tendency wh. led to both collection and attri- 
bution wd. be the same as produced the Bk. of 
Psalms. 

Chief Topics. — An analysis of the contents of 
the bk. wd. exceed the limits of the present article. 
The various styles represented may be classified as 
the oracular, the homiletic, the hymnodic, the 
apocalyptic, the narrative, and autobiographical : 
the first, fifth, and sixth are confined to the first 
half, the others spread over both halves. By 
oracles we mean messages delivered either in reply to 
consultation, or in reference to some definite situa- 
tion : such are found in the first half, in reference 
to the following countries (besides Judah and Israel) : 
Arabia or Kedar, 21. 13 ; Assyria, 7. 17 , &c. ; Babylon, 
especially 13., 14., 21.; Damascus, 17. 1 ; Dumah, 
21. u ; Edom, 34. ; Egypt, 19., 30. ; Ethiopia (with 
Egypt), 20. ; Moab, 15., 16.; Philistia, 14. 29 ; Silsal 
Kenafaim (unknown), 18. ; Tyre, 23. ; the Wilder- 
ness of the Sea (heading), 21. Some connection 
with Israelitish politics can be found in each case. 
The oracles dealing with political emergencies are 
given to Ahaz spontaneously, but to Hezekiah after 
consultation. It is not certain whether we are to 
think of the others as sent (like Jeremiah's) to the 
nations concerned or delivered to Jewish audiences. 
The homiletic style is represented by the first 
chapter, and numerous others, in which the sins of 
the people are denounced, esp. idolatry, and prac- 
tices connected therewith ; besides various vices 
and social evils. According to a practice observ- 
able in other prophecies, threat is made almost 
invariably to alternate with promise. In these 
" remonstrances " no class of the population is 
spared ; and there are two vigorous denunciations 



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of the women of the community. The hymns or that only archaeological discovery, continuing such 
songs show even less trace of metrical scheme than finds as have recently been made at Elephantine, 
can be found in the psalms, though their poetic can settle finally the direction in wh. the solution of 
merits are in no way inferior. The apocalyptic this problem is to be sought. 

passages are those in wh. the glories of the " new History of Interpretation. — The events re- 
heaven and new earth " are depicted ; they occur corded in the Gospels gave a new significance to a 
chiefly in the second half, but even the first two large portion of the bk., while at the same or per- 
chapters show the idea matured. haps an earlier period, attempts were made to 

Partly owing to difficulties of language, but still explain it by the aid of Greek philosophy. The 
more to the absence of any authoritative commen- Christian interpretation largely affected the Jewish, 
tary traceable to the author, the bk. is in numerous which, while adopting part of it, endeavoured in 
places obscure, and the ease with wh. the Christian various ways to evade the application of the oracles 
interpretation gained ground shows at least that to Jesus Christ. The results of modern criticism 
there was no generally recognised reference of such have, as has been seen, been more largely negative 
passages as 7. 14 , o,. 5 , wh. had to be refuted before or suggestive than positive and satisfactory. 
the NT. interpretation cd. be received. Even D. S. Margoliouth. 

where the oracles seem unusually clear, and the ISCARIOT. See Judas. 

persons to whom they refer are known, there is ISHBOSHETH, s. of Saul, who at Mahanaim 
usually some obscurity, e.g. 22. 15 threatens Shebna, was proclaimed k. over all Isr., except Judah, wh. 
the mayor of the palace, with exile, his place being had chosen David at Hebron. The original forn 
given to Eliakim, son of Hilkiah ; but in 37„ 2 , while of the name was Ishbaal (1 Ch. 8. 33 , 9- 39 ). In early 
Eliakim appears as mayor of the palace, Shebna times ]". was freely spoken of under the designation 
occupies the honourable position of state secretary, of Baal, " Lord." But the name came to be used 
To some oracles, e.g. chap. 18., the key appears to for the Phoenician deity as distinguished fm. \' '., 
be entirely lost. and in personal names this element was changed to 

In the latter portion the most interesting pro- hosheth, " shameful thing " (2 S. 2. 8 , &c. ; cp. Jg. 
blem is that connected with the import of the 6. 32 ; 2 S. n. 21 ; 2 S. 4 4 ; 1 Ch. 8. 34 , &c). His 
phrase, " Servant of the Lord," occurring especially army under Abner was defeated by the troops of 
42. 1 - 4 ' 18 ' 25 , 49., 50. 4 - 9 , 52. 13 — 53. 12 . The resem- David at Gibeon (2 S. 2. 12ff -). Abner, smarting 
blance of the function and career of the Servant, as under an insult (see Abner), went over to David 
described in these passages, to those of the Christian (3- 6fL )- This was the death-blow to the hopes of 
Messiah was found so striking that their effect both I. Soon after he was murdered by Rechab and 
on the development and propagation of Christian Baanah (4. lff- )5 wno brought his head to David, and 
doctrine cd. not be easily over-estimated ; but the were forthwith ordered to execution. Thus be- 
majority of modern critics have endeavoured to reaved, all the tribes rallied to David (5. lfl- )- 
find a less distant reference, not without some ISHMAEL (Heb. Tishma'el, " God hears," Gn. 
countenance fm. the text of the prophet, in wh. 16. 11 ). (1) S. of Abraham by Hacar, an Egyptian 
the title Servant is at times given to " Jacob " or handmaid of Sarah (Gn. 16. 15 ). Driven forth with 
" Israel," and the introduction of the word " Israel " her child by reason of Sarah's jealousy, Hagar went 
into 52. 13 is not wholly devoid of plausibility. On towards her native land. At Beer-lahai-roi, prob. 
the other hand, the functions ascribed to the Ser- the mod. Muzveilih, on the Egyptian highway, 25 
vant being such as cannot be reconciled with those miles N. of 'Ain Qadls, the angel of the Lord turned 
of the whole nation, it has often been held that the her back. The promise of great posterity for I. is 
name applies to the pious kernel of it, or even the followed by a characterisation wh. accurately de- 
members of the prophetic profession. As, how- scribes his descts. He is to be " a wild ass among 
ever, some of the texts seem to refer distinctly to men," capricious, intractable, dwelling in the open, 
an individual, another set of commentators have like the Bedawy tribes who brook no restriction of 
searched the hist, for a suitable identification ; and their freedom, over whom even their own chiefs 
among the names that have been suggested those have no absolute dominion, who regard as God- 
of Hezekiah, Jehoiachin, and Zerubbabel may be sent booty whatever they can take fm. caravan or 
mentioned. A yet older exegesis interpreted the traveller on the way. God confirmed to Abraham 
Servant as the prophet himself, and for this, too, the promise made to Hagar, and at the age of 
a plausible case may be made out. The passages 13 I. was circumcised (Gn. 17. 20 ' 24 ; cp. 16. 16 ). 
dealing with the Servant are by some critics Sarah's motherly interest in her own s. gave her 
separated fm. the rest of the Second Isaiah, and no peace while I. remained in the camp, so Hagar 
even assigned to different authors. Another theory and I. were finally dismissed by Abraham. They 
makes (at any rate portions of) them relics of older narrowly escaped death in the desert through the 
hymns, adapted to some new ideas. It seems clear intervention of an angel, who discovered to Hagar 

283 



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water near by, and spoke words of good cheer 
(2l. 9fL ). This nar. assumes that I. was still a child 
in arms (vv. 14, 15, 20), while chap. 16. 16 {cp. 17. 24 ) 
wd. make him now at least 16 yrs. old. The dif- 
ference is explained by the combining of different 
accounts, that in 16., 17., 21. 5 being fm. P., that 
in 2i. 8ff - fm. E. When I. "grew up" (21. 20 ) 
he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, married an 
Egyptian w., and became famous as an archer. 
I. met Isaac at their fr.'s burial (25. 9 ). He lived 
137 yrs. (25. 17 ). 

For the sons of I. who rank as ancestors of the 
tribes named after them, see separate articles (Gn. 
25. 13 ). See also Arabia. As his descts. increased 
they came to occupy the land to the E. of Pal. (25. 18 ). 
Esau married Mahalath (28. 9 ), or Basemath (36. 3 ), 
a dr. of I. 

Ishmaelites are mentioned as trading by caravan 
with Egp. (Gn. 37. 25 , J. = " Midianites," v. 36, E.). 
The name poss. denoted their occupation, not their 
race ; cp. Jg. 8. 24 . See also 1 Ch. 2. 1 ?, 27. 30 ; Ps. 83A 

(2) The murderer of Gedaliah, whom, after the 
fall of Jrs., Nebuchadnezzar had made governor, 
with his residence at Mizpeh. I., s. of Nethaniah, 
of Davidic stock, at first submitted to Gedaliah, 
but later, at the instance of the Ammonite k. 
Baalis, undertook to kill him. Gedaliah disbe- 
lieved reports of his design, and discouraged 
measures to prevent it. This confidence made 
easy for I. and his ten associates the treacherous 
murder of Gedaliah and his attendants. I. seems 
to have taken the town, into wh., two days later, he 
enticed 80 pilgrims bound for Jrs., and put them 
to death ; ten men promised to discover stores of 
provisions and were spared. I. attempted to carry 
away the inhabitants of Mizpeh and the k.'s drs., 
but was overtaken at Gibeon by Johanan ben- 
Kareah and his troops. He was unable to keep his 
prisoners, and escaped to Baalis with only eight men 
(2 K. 2t;. 23ff - ; Jr. 40., 41.). For others see 1 Ch. 
8. 38 , 9. 44 ; 2 Ch. 19. 11 , 23. 1 ; Ez. io. 22 . 

ISLAND, ISLE (Heb. 7, pi. 'Jyyim, Gr. ncsos, 
nesion). If Caphtor (Jr. 47.*, RV.) is Crete, we 
have one cert, use in OT. of " island " in the mod. 
sense. But almost always the word stands for land 
washed by the sea, coast-lands. Thus, e.g., " the 
isles of the Gentiles " (Gn. io. 5 ) are the lands on 
the W. Mediterranean seaboard. For islands named 
in NT. see separate articles. 

ISRAEL. The purpose of the present article 
is to sketch the hist, of Isr. fm. the entrance of 
Abraham into Pal. till the final fall of the nation 
before Rome. Under Abraham, Jacob, Moses, 
Samuel, Saul, David, &c, fuller information is 
given regarding the periods specially associated 
with these names. 

Palestine B.C. 2000. — The country was sparsely 
covered by a number of small cities surrounded 



with earthen walls strengthened by towers at inter- 
vals ; a larger tower or towers marked the gateways, 
in front of wh. markets were held ; within the Gate 
the Elders met in session as judges or legislators. 
A considerable territory round the walls was occu- 
pied by the citizens for purposes of agriculture. 
Notwithstanding, as at present, there were great 
open tracts claimed by no one as property, where 
nomadic tribes might pasture their flocks and herds. 
Those cities, while to a great extent independent, 
probably were united to each other in somewhat 
loose leagues. The head of each city generally 
assumed the title of king. It wd. seem that 
Hebron was a republic in the time of Abraham ; 
as also, a little later, Shechem, and still later, 
Gibeon. As at present, there were different races 
scattered in patches over the land. The powerful 
Hittite race, who contested with Asyr. and Egp. 
the supremacy of SW. Asia, abutted on Pal. in the 
N., but had an offshoot in the S. at Hebron. The 
Hivites appear to have had their possessions in the 
centre of the country ; tho' they seem also to have 
had territory between Lebanon and the Anti- 
Lebanon. The Canaanites inhabited the plain, 
and the Amorites and the Jebusites the mountains. 
The Amorites were early so prominent that at all 
events the hill portion of the country was known 
both to the Egyptians and the Assyrians as the 
" Land of the Amorite." Besides these there were 
fragments of primitive races, Emim, Zamzummim, 
and Horim ; and, connected with them, the Ana- 
kim, and Rephaim. These were not in so advanced 
a stage of civilisation as the other inhabitants. 
They do not seem at first to have had cities, tho' 
later the Anakim had migrated into Hebron. The 
language of the peoples seems to have been a tongue 
akin to Heb. In religion, if we are to be guided by 
the notices in Gn. (14. 18 , 20. llff -), they were wor- 
shippers of " the Most High God " (V/ 'eleyon), 
who had his shrine in Salem, whose priest was 
Melchizedek. 

There is light thrown on Melchizedek by the Tell el- 
Amarna tablets. Among the correspondents of Khu-n- 
Aten is Ebed-Tob, k. of Uru-Salim (Jerusalem — see Sayce, 
Patriarchal Palestine, 71, 72). 

As in Egypt, and in many savage nations of the 
present day, along with the supreme God many 
inferior deities were reverenced. 

Into this land came, entering by the N., a great 
tribe of nomads fm. the banks of the Euphrates. 
Their leader, or to call him by the modern name, 
" sheikh," was an old man who had come through 
many spiritual experiences. The original home of 
these wanderers had been the city of Ur, near the 
Persian Gulf. Thence they had migrated to Harran, 
near the fords of the Euphrates. After a stay of 
some time there, they crossed the Great River : 
wherefore they were called 'Ebiri, " Hebrews," 



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Isr 



" the men from beyond," i.e. beyond the river. 
Thence they journeyed S. and entered Pal. fm. 
Damascus. Along with the aged sheikh Abraham 
was his nephew Lot, who, travelling with his uncle, 
had yet an independent following. Their first stay 
was made near Sichem (Shechem), under the shadow 
of Mount Gerizim. There an altar was built, but 
they do not seem to have had any intercourse 
with the Shechemites. Their next halt was at a 
place between Bethel and Ai. They continued 
their S'ward journey, when a season of drought, 
followed by famine, led the nomads to take refuge 
in Egypt. The reigning dynasty was Hyksos, and 
the Hebrews, as kindred Semites, were received with 
a disturbing amount of cordiality ; the k., regarding 
Sarai as Abraham's sister, took her into his harem 
as a pledge of their alliance. The danger thus 
threatened was averted by Divine interposition (Gn. 
I2. 10ff -). After a short stay in Egp. the nomads 
returned to Pal. and reoccupied their former dis- 
trict between Bethel and Ai. Their wealth had 
been increased by their residence in Egp., so that 
Abraham and his nephew cd. not pasture their 
flocks together. They agreed to separate. Lot 
went to the rich plain of Jordan, but Abraham re- 
mained in the hill-country, and moved S. to Hebron. 
In Hebron he made an alliance with the Amorite 
and Hittite inhabitants. Not long after this 
Chedor-laomer, the Elamite suzerain of Babylonia, 
and his allies invaded Pal. to recall to their allegiance 
those who had rebelled after their previous sub- 
mission. The kings of the plain of Jordan were 
defeated and their cities plundered. Among the 
captives was Lot. This led Abraham to arm his 
followers and call upon his allies to assist him in 
pursuit of the conquerors. Surprising them by 
night, he released the captives and regained what 
had been taken. 

After this overthrow the suzerainty pased fm. the Elamites 
to Amraphel (Hammurabi). 

The destruction of the Cities of the Plain appears 
to have happened shortly after Abraham's return to 
Hebron fm. this expedition. At this point in the 
hist, is introduced the nar. explaining the descent 
fm. Lot of the Moabites and Ammonites. The re- 
lationship between Isr. and the Arab tribes is ex- 
hibited in the story of Ishmael. Isaac, the son of 
Abraham's old age, is the progenitor of Isr. After 
his father's death Isaac became the leader of the 
clan. His marriage with Rebecca indicates at 
once a maintaining of relations with Assyria and a 
break off fm. the inhabitants of the land. Con- 
.nected with this, if not the occasion of it, mt. be 
the growing density of the population and the 
consequent limitation of spaces free for pasture. 
Altho' dwelling at the edge of the desert, away fm. 
the centres of population, Isaac is involved in con- 
tinuous contests about wells. This same cause may 



have led Isaac to supplement his care for his sheep 
with cultivation of the ground (Gn. 26. 12 ). In 
consequence of a quarrel between Isaac's two sons, 
Jacob, the younger, fled to Padan-aram. His br. 
Esau allied himself with the neighbouring clans and 
left his blind fr. After 20 years Jacob returned with 
a new Semite clan wh. he had gathered together. 
As Jacob was manifesting a desire to give Joseph the 
place of " first-born," so ousting Reuben fm. his 
right, the rest of the sons conspired agst. Joseph, and 
he was sold into slavery. Time rolls on and the 
slave becomes prime minister of Pharaoh, the last of 
the Hyksos rulers of Egp. He induces his fr. and 
the clans that had gathered round his brethren to 
come down to Egp. In order at once to supply the 
country with a defence agst. raids, and to have a 
means at hand for retaliation, he placed his kinsfolk 
in the border territory of Goshen. At the death 
of their fr. the sons of Joseph seem to have united 
themselves and their followers to the clans of Isr. 
There is a reference to a counter-raid by the 
Ephraimites agst. the S. of Pal. (1 Ch. 7. 21 ). 

While it is not impossible, and not at all derogatory to 
Scrip, to regard the Patriarchs as impersonations of tribes, 
since in Gn. 10. tribes are declared to be the sons of in- 
dividuals (vv. 15-18) ; yet the intense personality of the 
leading Patriarchs, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, and the 
minute accuracy as to habits, render it impossible to regard 
them as other than historical persons. 

The discovery of Dr. Pinches that the four Eastern con- 
federate kings of Gn. 14. were really kings in Babylonia, and 
contemporaries, heightens the probability that the whole nar- 
rative is historical. The utter carelessness as to mere fact 
congenital to the Jew renders it improbable in the highest 
degree that, in inventing a victory for Abraham, he wd. 
search the Babylonian records for four kings contemporary 
with each other. Their names conveyed no idea to his im- 
mediate public. In Jewish and Mohammedan tradition 
Nimrod is made the opponent of Abraham. Corniil(/^/r0- 
duction to the Canonical Bks. of the OT., p. 128) says that 
a Jew with literary instincts cd. obtain names and dates fm. 
the old Mesopotamian hist, in abundance. He wd. be a 
marvellous Jew who wd. search for such historical person- 
ages, merely for a Midrash. The purpose of the Midrash 
was moral, and historic accuracy was of little value, as 
every student of the Tim. knows. Cornill himself doubts 
Zimmern's unproved assertion to 'the effect that an epos 
involving Hammurai was extant in the time of the Seleucids. 
Mere abstract possibility is no proof of actuality. 

The fall of the Hyksos dynasty and the rise of the 
native kings was naturally adverse to Isr. What 
was the dynasty of the oppression and what was the 
duration of Isr.'s stay in Egp. are questions difficult 
to answer. The fact of a lengthened residence in 
Egp. may be regarded as indubitable. 

That there was a Musr. (Egypt) in Arabia may be taken 
for granted; it probably was a name given to the Egyptian 
possessions in the Sinaitic peninsula. It does not follow that 
Isr. was only in this, and not in the greater Musr. — Egp. 
proper. As well mt. it be regarded as valid reasoning to argue 
that because there was adjoining Normandy a " Bretagne" 
much more accessible than " la Grande Bretagne " across the 
sea, it was the former, not the latter, wh. was conquered by 
William Duke of Normandy in the eleventh cent. 

Oppressed and enslaved in Egp. they called to 
God and were led out fm. the land of bondage by 



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Moses, who opened a way for them through the 
Red Sea. He led them to the foot of Mt. Sinai, 
where he delivered to them " the Law of Jehovah 
(JHVH)," and united the people in a covenant 
relation to Him. Here also he erected the Taber- 
nacle. The people were miraculously sustained by 
manna fm. heaven, water fm. the rock, and quails 
brought by the wind. 

To those who believe in revelation the presence of miracle 
in a nar. dees hot prove it to be unhistorical. This does 
not mean that we are to multiply marvels. One of the 
greatest difficulties is the great number of Isr. when they left 
Egp. This applies not only to the Exodus and the journey 
through the wilderness, but also to the conquest of Canaan. 
A huge army of more than 6oo,ooo, under one leader, wd. 
have subdued in a single campaign a small country like Pal. , 
inhabited by differing races dwelling in small independent 
cities. A suggestion of Dr. Petrie is worthy of considera- 
tion ; that 'eleph (EV. "a thousand") shd. be rendered 
" family," as it is in Jg. 6. 15 ; so instead of reading (Nu. i. 21 ) 
"of the tribe of Reuben were forty-six thousand five hundred," 
it ought to be " forty-six families, five hundred men." Mrs. 
Gibson suggests that 'eleph is an interpolation, and we shd. 
read "of the tribe of Reuben five hundred and forty-six." 
Both schemes imply that the summations of the camps and 
of the people have been added inNu., both in chaps, i. and 2. 
and in chap. 26. They wd. both necessitate a modification 
of the numbers in Jo. 7. 4 , 8. 3 . 12 > 25 also. In both schemes 
the number of warriors wd. be about 6000 ; and the whole 
of the men, women, and children about 30,000. When they 
encamped in the wilderness, it was probably not in four 
large camps, but in relatively small groups of tents em- 
bracing only a " family" each. The " forty years" in the 
wilderness may be taken as a round number indicating any 
space of time fm. 25 to 60 yrs. 

After a long period of journeying Isr. arrived in 
the plains of Moab. There they encountered and 
conquered the Amorite kings Sihon and Og. In 
acknowledgment of kinship Isr. did not assault or 
dispossess Edom, Moab, or Ammon. Before he was 
taken fm. them Moses addressed the assembled 
tribes and re-enacted the " Law " with modifica- 
tions (Deuteronomy). Having renewed his ex- 
hortations to the tribes of Isr., Moses ascended Mt. 
Nebo to die. He was succeeded by Joshua, who had 
been his servant, and had acted as military leader 
during the march through the wilderness. Under 
him Isr. crossed the Jordan, wh. was dried up before 
them. The walls of Jericho fell down before the 
simple blast of their trumpets. City after city was 
then besieged and taken ; and merciless slaughter 
was meted out to the inhabitants. 

In considering this we must bear in mind (a) that Isr. cd. 
not be lifted violently out of the moral atmosphere of their 
time, nor follow a different practice in warfare fm. that wh. 
was customary, (b) We must also not forget that our own 
colonists have a way cf killing out the aborigines in any 
land where they settle ; they can neither claim the sanction 
of Divine command, nor excuse themselves by the practice 
of modern warfare, (c) There was the necessity, for the 
ultimate benefit of humanity, that Isr. be kept pure fm. 
idolatry and its attendant pollutions. 

During the lifetime of Joshua thirty-one cities 
and their territories seem to sum up the con- 
quests of Isr. These cities were scattered over the 
country ; thus there was an excuse for the division 
of Western Pal. into ten portions by Joshua and 



Eleazar. The. conquest was continued by the dif- 
ferent tribes in the spheres thus allotted to them. 
During the lifetime of Joshua the central authority 
was represented, not only by the leader, but also 
by the " Elders of Isr." The allotment of separate 
provinces to the different tribes made the govern- 
ment tribal ; so it appears to be throughout the 
period of the Judges (Judges). That Isr. became 
now a loose confederacy laid them more open to 
assaults fm. without ; hence foreign invaders were 
so often the instruments of Divine chastisement on 
them for their lapses into idolatry. When the op- 
pression had served its purpose God raised up for 
Isr. a deliverer, a Judge. How far these oppres- 
sions were successive, and how far they overlapped, 
it is impossible to say. As indefinite is our kge. of 
the char, and extent of the authority exercised by 
the Judges. The struggle with the Phil.- forced 
upon Isr. the need of greater unity ; and this feeling 
found its exponent in Samuel. He endeavoured 
to regularise the government by arranging a system 
of circuits, and appointed his sons as Judges under 
himself. The people wished to go further than 
Samuel desired ; he wished as the principal magis- 
trate, the divinely appointed Judge, raised and 
inspired by God for a special emergency ; but 
the people desired a king to be their permanent 
generalissimo. In the choice of Saul by lot JHVH 
was acknowledged as the true k. of Isr. The king- 
ship of Saul was limited ; he was expected to be 
guided by Samuel the prophet. He, however, wd. 
not yield to this, and so alienated the prophetic 
order. His massacre of the priests at Nob naturally 
put him at enmity with the priests. A man re- 
ligious even to superstition, Saul was now isolated. 
By his defeat and death on Gilboa the way was 
opened for the accession of David, who had, even 
during the lifetime of Saul, gained the favour of the 
Prophetic and the Priestly parties. 

David's kdm. at first consisted only of Judah, but 
gradually it embraced all Isr. He conquered Moab 
and Ammon on the E., Edom on the S., Philistia 
on the W., and Syria on the N. His rule was really 
imperial on a small scale. Solomon succeeded to 
this extensive kdm., and at first maintained it ; but 
causes of discontent and consequent disintegration 
appeared. The erection of his splendid Temple 
appeared to consolidate the national unity, by thus 
glorifying the national hearth. His magnificence 
was costly ; the philosophic indifference wh. led 
him to permit the worship of heathen deities in 
rival shrines over against the Temple alienated pro- 
phets and priests. 

At the death of Solomon and the accession of his 
s., Rehoboam, the Northern tribes revolted. There 
had alv/ays been a tendency on the side of Judah 
and Simeon, whose tribe had been absorbed in 
Judah, to segregate themselves ; now Benjamin 
86 



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Isr 



stayed by the House of David ; the Temple made it had, in the weakness of Assyria, resumed royal 
natural that the Levites as a whole shd. follow the power over the Northern Kdm. He resented and 
Southern tribes. The Northern tribes, joined by attempted to resist the passage of the Egyptian 
those E. of Jordan, chose Jeroboam as their k. He army. He was defeated and slain at Megiddo, and 
had returned fm. a lengthened exile in Egp. whither Necho put Jehoiakim on the throne. Necho him- 
he had fled fm. Solomon. He introduced the wor- self was overthrown at Carchemish by Nebuchad- 
ship of the Calves at Bethel and at Dan ; probably nezzar. The young conqueror followed up his 
the Egyptian Apis -worship suggested to Jeroboam victory, receiving the submission of the various 
the calf as the symbol of JHVH. There was little tributaries of Egp., among the rest that of Jehoiakim, 
stability in the Northern Kdm. ; the dynasties of apparently after a siege (Dn. I. 1 ). Jehoiakim re- 
Jeroboam, Baasha, and Omri flit across the stage ; belled, and in the reign of his s., Jeconiah, Jrs. was 
only the last seeing the third generation. Ahab, taken, and the king carried captive to Bab. His 
the s. of Omri, endeavoured to introduce the wor- uncle, Zedekiah, set on the throne, also rebelled ; 
ship of Baal alongside of that of JHVH. It is to be again the city was captured, the Temple was ruined, 
noted that all the sons of Ahab whose names are and the whole city made a desolation. Nebuchad- 
recorded have JHVH as an element in the name — t nezzar deported all the inhabitants likely to be 
Joash, Ahaziah, Jehoram. Against the impure cult centres of rebellion and brought them to Bab. 
of Baal the prophets Elijah and Elisha set them- If reckoned fm. the capture of Jrs. the Babylonian 
selves. Finally they overthrew the house of Omri captivity lasted about fifty years. The residence of 
and replaced it by that of Jehu. The new dynasty the Jews in Bab. did not result in their absorption in 
seemed to endeavour to keep on friendly terms with the mass of the population, as seems to have been the 
the prophets ; under Jeroboam II. the Northern case with the deported of the ten tribes. While 
Kdm. attained its greatest extent and power. After they maintained their religious isolation they seem 
this the descent was rapid ; in less than a generation otherwise to have made themselves at home in the 
Samaria was taken, and the Northern Kdm. ceased city of their exile, as may be seen by the relatively 
to be. small number that returned when the decree of 
Although, if we sum up the reigns of the successive kings Cyrus gave them permission. As the Temple ser- 
fm. the death of Jeroboam II we have 41 years ; yet between vices were not open to them in Bab., the worship of 
the accession of Tiglath-pileser, who exacted tribute fm. , • n 1 • 
Menahem, and the fall of Samaria, there are, accdg. to the tne synagogue came into all the greater prominence. 
Assyrian records, only 23 years ; hence we cannot regard The exiles that returned to Pal. found themselves 

the time between the death of Jeroboam II. and the end of • „ 1 ot1 j ....„ i:rr ara „ + r„, 4.1, „ + „jl „ + r ■ r 

the kdm. of Isr. as more than 31 years. Kautzsch supposes f * f nd YeT Y deferent fm. that whence their frs. 
that Pekah's reign shd. only be 6 instead of 20 years. had been carried captive. Intruders fm. neigh- 
There was much greater stability in the Southern bouring countries had taken possession of the land 
Kdm. With the exception of the six yrs. of Atha- oi Isr. The. Jews who had been left had in many 
liah's usurpation the House of David held the cases intermarried with these strangers. Although 
throne. Though the Temple was the principal Heb. was known in Jewish families, the language of 
seat of worship, yet until the accession of Hezekiah, ordinary intercourse was Aramaic. When they had 
who saw the fall of Samaria, the people still sacri- arrived, they set up an altar to the Lord ; and, 
need in the High Places. He began a puritan fart passu with dwellings for themselves, they began 
reformation on Deuteronomic lines. Sennacherib, to erect the Temple again. When it was dedicated 
the s. of the conqueror of Samaria, invaded Judah those who remembered the former Temple wept at 
but did not take Jrs. Hezekiah's reformation did the sight of the relatively mean aspect of the newly 
not sink into the heart of the people, for under his built edifice. Various bands of the exiles returned ; 
successor, Manasseh, idolatrous worship was set up notably one under Ezra. They now began to think 
and the prophets of JHVH put to death. Though of rebuilding the walls of Jrs., but met with many 
Amon was, like his fr., an idolater, Josiah, who hindrances, to a large extent fm. the envy of the 
followed him on the throne, pursued the same Samaritans whom they had refused to allow to 
religious policy as Hezekiah. take part in the rebuilding of the Temple. 

It was during his reign that "the Book of the Law" was After the departure of Nehemiah a veil falls on 

found in " the House of the Lord." It is assumed without the hist, of Isr. till the conquest of Alexander. A 
evidence that this was Deuteronomy. There is nothing 1 . 1 ■ , ,tt . . ^ , 

in the narrative to prevent it containing the whole enact- n T element entered now into SW. Asia. Greek 

ments of the Pentateuch. In 2 K. 23.2 the bk. is called cities sprang up everywhere, in Pal. as well as else- 

" th e Book of the Covenant " ; this phrase is found in Ex. w here ; the Greek language began to supersede 

24. 7 (J. : Addis attributes this v. to E.); some portion of the . . , ,. b b , . ° r ^ , 

Torah, not Deuteronomy, must be understood by this Aramaic as the medium of intercourse ; Greek 

designation. culture had a fascination for the Jew. At first Pal. 

The weakening of the Assyrian Empire was taken formed part of the Lagid dominion ; and under 

advantage of by Necho, k. of Egp., to endeavour to the Ptolemies the Jews enjoyed much freedom of 

restore the dominion of Egp. over W. Asia. Josiah worship. In these circumstances the process of 

287 



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Itu 



Hellenisation went on peaceably. When Pal. 
passed into the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes there 
was an attempt made to hasten the process, and put 
down Judaism by force. This produced the revolt 
of the Jewish people under the leadership of Mat- 
tathias, the priest of Modin, and his heroic sons. 
The conflict was maintained agst. great odds. The 
Maccabean brothers fell one by one, but the people 
fought on, till at last the Seleucids had to acknow- 
ledge the independence of the Jews under John 
Hyrcanus. He conquered Galilee, the E. of Jordan, 
and invaded Samaria and burned the Temple on 
Mt. Gerizim. Edom he also conquered, and com- 
pelled the people to be circumcised and become 
Jews. He ruled only with the title High Priest, but 
his s., Aristobulus I., assumed the title King. He 
was succeeded by his br., Alexander Jannseus. On 
his death there was a conflict between his sons, John 
Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus II., for the supreme 
power. This occasioned the intervention of the 
Romans under Pompey, who took Aristobulus cap- 
tive to Rome and declared Hyrcanus High Priest 
and Ethnarch, while the Idumsean Antipater, his 
major-domo, was appointed Roman Procurator. 
Antigonus, s. of Aristobulus, by the help of the 
Parthians, snatched a momentary victory, and for a 
short while held Jrs. By the Parthians Hyrcanus 
was taken prisoner and mutilated so that he cd. not 
be High Priest. Antigonus was soon dispossessed, 
and after various vicissitudes Herod the s. of Anti- 
pater, who had married the grand-dr. of Hyrcanus, 
secured the throne (Herodians). His s. Arche- 
laus, who succeeded with the title of Ethnarch, was 
deposed, and Judea became a Roman province. So 
it remained with the exception of a short period, 
when the first Agrippa received the territory of his 
grandfr. During the rule of the Roman Procu- 
rators the alienation of the Jews fm. their Roman 
masters became more and more acute, till they 
definitely rebelled agst. Gessius Florus and Cestius 
Gallus. The latter made an attempt to take Jrs. 
but had to make a disastrous retreat. Vespasian 
was appointed to the command in the war agst. the 
Jews. He began his operations in Galilee, and took 
city after city. Before he carried the conflict into 
Judea the death of Nero occurred, and the struggle 
for the Empire began. While prosecuting his 
claim to the throne Vespasian left the conduct of 
the campaign to his s. Titus. After a heroic de- 
fence Jrs. was taken by assault, and the slave-market 
was glutted with Jewish captives. Two generations 
later the attempt of Barcochba to restore the sacred 
kdm. excited the hopes of the Jews ; but it was 
quenched in blood. While Isr. ceased as a state it 
lived on as a religion, having its synagogues in every 
city of the Roman Empire. The Sanhedrin still 
continued, no longer as council of state but as an 
assembly of scholars ; it was moved fm. Jrs. to Jabne, 



to Sepphoris, to Tiberias. There was no longer 
Israel, but Judaism. 

ISSACHAR (Tissdkhar [pointed in MT. "1}B>&>?]; 
some tr. as Hsh sdkbdr, " a hired worker "). (i) 
Ninth s. of Jacob, the fifth by Leah (Gn. 30. 18 , 
35. 23 ). Of his life no details are given. For 
strength of the tribe see Numbers. The boundaries 
of the " lot " of I. cannot be certainly traced (Jo. 
17. 10 , i9. 17fL ). On the E. was Jordan, on the N. 
Zebulun and Naphtali, on the S. Manasseh, and on 
the W. Manasseh, and poss. Asher. It does not 
seem to have touched the sea. It included Tabor 
and-Moreh, and the great plain (see Jezreel). 
Manasseh held cert, towns in I. (Jo. 17. 11 ). I. 
played a heroic part in the battle with Sisera (Jg. 
5. 15 ). They did not then deserve the reproach im- 
plied in Gn. 49. 14f - Enjoyment of their rich land 
may have induced a softer mood. Dt. 33. 18 poss. 
refers to a sanctuary on Tabor to wh. people were 
attracted fm. afar. A market connected with this, 
such as till recently was held under the shadow of 
the mountain at Khan ct-Tujjdr, wd. prove a source 
of enrichment. (2) S. of Obed-edom (1 Ch. 26. 5 ). 

ISSUE. See Diseases and Remedies. 

ITALIAN BAND. See Augustus' Band. 

ITALY originally applied to the SW. corner, but 
fm. Caesar's time it covered the whole of the penin- 
sula now called by that name, reaching to the foot of 
the Alps. In Ac. 18. 2 I. is poss. = Rome. Many 
Jews were attracted to I. as the home of the world's 
masters (Ac. 2. 10 ), and Christianity was early intro- 
duced there (He. 13. 24 ). 

ITCH. Sec Diseases and Remedies. 

ITHAMAR, youngest s. of Aaron (Ex. 6. 23 ), pay- 
master at the erection of the Tabernacle (Ex. 38. 21 ). 
He superintended the service of the sons of Gershon 
and Merari in removing the Tabernacle. Fm. Eli 
to Abiathar the High Priesthood was in the house 
of I. 

ITHRA, the husband of David's sister Abigail, 
and father of Amasa (2 S. 17. 25 ). In this passage he 
is called an " Israelite." But the reason for stating 
his nationality at all would prob. be that he was not 
an Israelite. Most likely, therefore, the reading of 
1 Ch. 2. 17 is correct, viz., " Jether the Ishmaelite." 

ITTAI. (1) A Phil. fm. Gath, who came to Jrs. 
with 600 men, poss. as hostages (2 S. I5. 18ff - : I.'s 
name has dropped out in v. 18), and became devoted 
to the service of David. He commanded the third 
division of the army sent agst. Absalom (i8. 2fL ). 
There may be a refce. to I. and his 600 in the titles 
of Ps. 8., 81., 84., wh. Delitzsch, agreeing with 
Hitzig, thinks may mean " a joyous melody ... a 
march of the Gittite guard." (2) One of David's 
heroes (2 S. 23. 29 ; 1 Ch. II. 31 ). 

ITURvEA (Lk. 3. 1 ). Accdg. to Prof. Ramsay 
(Expositor, 1894, ix. 5 iff., 1436% 286ft\), the word 
must be taken as an adj., denoting the country of the 



288 



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Jab 



Iturseans, the descts. of Jetur (Gn. 25. 15 ; 1 Ch. 
I. 31 ). Eusebius {Prcep. Evang. ix. 30) quotes 
Eupolemus (c. b.c. 150) to the effect that they were 
among the tribes E. of Jordan agst. wh. David 
warred. Aristobulus I. (b.c. 105-104) obtained 
some success agst. them {Ant. XIII. xi. 3). They 
are frequently mentioned in classical writers {see 
Lit. in Schiirer, HJP. I. ii. 325m). They appear 
now as Syrians, now as Arabians. They were 
famous as horsemen. They seem to have resided 
mainly in the Lebanons and the broad vale between 
them; but prob. held also the uplands SE. of 
Hermon, the mod. Jedur. In b.c 20 Augustus 
gave to Herod Ulatha and Panias, wh. prob. had 
been part of Ituraean territory (Schiirer, op. cit. 
333). This district, at the death of Herod, was 
given to the tetrarch Philip {Ant. XVII. xi. 4 ; 
BJ. II. vi. 3) ; doubtless this was meant by the 
" Ituraean country " in Lk. 3. 1 . 

IVORY (Heb. shen, " tooth," shenhabblm, " ele- 
phant's teeth "). The Heb. name shows that the 
Jews knew the nat. of I. Brought by ships of Tar- 
shish to Solomon (1 K. io. 22 ), who made a throne of 
I. (1 K. io. 18 ). Ahab made a palace of I. ; prob. 
so called because adorned with inlaid wk. of I. 
(1 K. 22. 39 ). It was prob. brought fm. Africa. 

IWAH, a town, prob. in Syr., named with Hena 
and Sepharvaim (2 K. 18. 34 , &c). In an interesting 



article in Expository Times, April 1898, 330, Prof. 
Hommel suggests that Hena and I. are intended to 




Ivories. (From Layard's Nineveh) 

designate the two chief gods of the three Syr. cities 
just named. 

IYE ABARIM, IYYIM. See Abarim. 



JAAR (Heb. ya'ar), commonly rendered " forest " 
or " wood," is taken as a proper name in Ps. 132. 6 , 
RVm. It is prob. a shortened form of the name of 
Kirjath-jearim, where the ark rested so long — " the 




Ford of the Jabbok 

town of the woods," Qiryat Ye'drlm, ye'arlm being 
the pi. of ya'ar. 

JAARE-OREGIM (2 S. 21."). The name is 
prob. " Jair." " Oregim " has slipped into the 
text by mistake fm. the following line. 



JAAZER. See Jazer. 

JABAL, son of Lamech and Adah, described as 
" the father of such as dwell in tents " (Gn. 4. 20 ), 
i.e. the first who followed the nomadic life. 

JABBOK, a stream in E. Pal. crossed by Jacob 
at a ford near Peniel on his way fm. Mahanaim 
(Gn. 32. 22fL ). It is named as the N. border of 
Sihon's kdm. (Nu. 21. 24 ) and as the boundary of 
Ammon(Dt. 3. 16 ). It is the mod. Nabrez-Zerqd,wh.. 
rises near ' Amman ( = Rabbath Ammon). Taking 
first a north-easterly direction, with many windings 
it turns W'ward, and flows through a deep valley 
with high precipitous banks in many places, reach- 
ing the Jordan at ed-Ddmieh. It is the most im- 
portant stream S. of the Yarmuk. The rich soil 
in the bed of the valley is covered with luxuriant 
tropical vegetation. 

JABESH-GILEAD, a city in Gad the inhabitants 
of wh. failed in religious duty, and were terribly 
punished (Jg. 2i. 5ff -). It was rescued by Saul fm. 
the Ammonite Nahash (1 S. n. lff ), and the people 
showed their gratitude in the hour of his fall (1 S. 
3 1. 11 , &c). The city has utterly disappeared, but 
the name lingers in Wddy Yabis, wh. breaks down 
through Gilead almost due E. of Beisdn. 

JABEZ. (1) An unidentd. town inhabited by 
o K 



Jab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jac 



scribes (i Ch. 2. 55 ). (2) A desct. of Judah (1 Ch. 
4. 9 ). The name Ya'betz is interpreted as if it were 
YaHzeb, " he causes pain." See also play on the 
word, v. 10. 

JABIN. (1) K. of Hazor, defeated and slain by 
Joshua at the Waters of Merom (u. lfl -). (2) K. of 
Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, whose army under 
Sisera was destroyed on the banks of the Kishon 
(Jg. 4., 5.). Critics suspect a mingling of tradition 
in these two nars., but there are no materials for 
the reconstruction of the hist. 

JABNEEL (Jo. 15. 11 ), or JABNEH (2 Ch. 26. 6 ). 
-(1) A town on the N. border of Judah, near the sea, 
taken fm. the Phil., along with Gath and Ashdod, 
by Uzziah (cp. Ant. V. 1. 22 ; XIV. iv. 4 ; BJ. I. 
vii. 7). As Jamnia it figures in the wars of Judas 
(1 M. 4. 15 , &c), who burned its port and navy 
(2 M. 12. 8 , &c). Strabo (XVI. p. js) says J. and 
its district furnished 40,000 fighting men. Under 
Jannaeus it had passed to the Jews {Ant. XIII. xv. 4), 
and while it changed hands under Pompey, Gabinius, 
and Herod, becoming the private property of 




PEF. Photo 



Yebneh: View of Fortress 



Tiberius, it still contained a considerable Jewish 
population. After the destruction of Jrs. it be- 
came for a time the seat of the Sanhedrin, and here 
tradition says the great Gamaliel was buried. It is 
identd. with Yebneh, a vill. with anct. fortress 
crowning a hill, 13 miles S. of Jaffa, four miles fm. 
the coast, with ruins dating fm. Crusading times. 
The port was at the mouth of Nahr Rubin, affording 
good protection for ancient shipping (for Lit. see 
Schurer, HJP. II. i. 7SL). (2) A town in Naphtali 
named with Adami-nekeb and Lakkum (Jo. 19. 33 ). 
It may be = " Jamneia " (Jos. Fit. 37) or " Jamnith " 
(BJ. II. xx. 6). Conder suggests Yemma, seven 
miles E. of Tabor. 

JACHIN (Heb. yakin, « He [God] establishes "). 
(1) S. of Simeon (Gn. 46. 10 ). (2) Head of 21st 
division of priests (1 Ch. 24. 17 ). (3) The right 
hand of the two brazen pillars moulded by Hiram 
for the entrance of the Temple. See Boaz. 

JACINTH (Gr. hyakinthos, Rv. 9. 17 , 21. 20 ), a 
precious stone ; it is uncertain what mineral is 
meant. It may be identical with the mod. sapphire, 
known to science as zircon. It was found in Syene, 
in Egp. 



JACKAL. This animal is never named in AV., 
but it is often referred to in OT. {see Fox). (1) The 
Heb. shu'dl, wh. AV. uniformly renders " fox," 
certainly denotes the jackal in Jg. 15. 4 . Jackals go 
in packs, often in great numbers, while the fox is 
solitary in its habits. A fox may be intended in 
Ne. 4A In Ps. 63. 10 we must read " a portion for 
jackals." Their main food is carrion. Either foxes 
or jackals may be meant in SS. 2. 15 , as both are very 
fond of grapes, and are cordially hated by the vine- 
dressers. The jackal's haunts in the daytime are 
ruins and waste places (La. 5. 18 ; Ek. 13. 4 ). (2) Tan- 
nim. For AV. " dragons " (Jb. 30. 29 , &c), RV. 
gives " jackals." In Ek. 2. 2 we shd. prob. read 
tannin, as apparently the crocodile is intended. In 
all other cases " wolves " would poss. be the correct 
translation. (3) 'Iyytm, AV. " wild beasts," RV. 
"wolves" (Is. 13. 22 , 34. 14 ; Jr. 50. 39 ). _ Cheyne 
(Isaiah, ad loc.) renders " hyaenas." '/. is lit. 
" howler," and corresponds to the Arb. ibn \awa, 
the common jackal. The howling of the jackals 
round the city walls is among the most dismal 
sounds of an Oriental night. (4) l Ohim, " doleful 
creatures " (EV. Is. 13. 21 ), Cheyne (ad loc.) renders 
" jackals." 

Living chiefly upon carrion, the jackal, save when 
present in considerable numbers, is not apt to attack 
men. It issues from its haunts at nightfall. When 
the challenge of the jackals without is answered by 
the dogs within the walls, the earlier hours of dark- 
ness especially are often made hideous. 

JACOB (Ya'aqob), " one who takes by the heel " 
(Gn. 25. 26 )., or " one who outwits " (27. 36 ; cp. Ho. 
I2. 3f -), the younger twin s. of Isaac and Rebekah. 
The rivalry between him and his br. Esau began 
before they were born (25. 22 ). In this was fore- 
shadowed the strife between their descendants, 
the nations of Edom and Isr. (v. 23). Their con- 
trasted chars, led to a division of parental regard, 
Rebekah loving J., the " quiet " lad about the 
tents, engaged in peaceful pastoral work, while 
Isaac's heart was drawn to Esau, the " man of the 
field," prob. following agricultural pursuits, and 
at the same time a bold and skilful hunter. In 
open conflict J. wd. have been no match for the 
brave and free son of the wilds ; but what he lacked 
in strength and courage he more than made up in 
guile. In the contest of wits Esau was easily 
vanquished. His frank, generous nat. unfitted him 
to use the weapons that came readily to the hand of 
J. Even apart fm. the influence of his son's venison 
on the old man's palate, it is not difficult to under- 
stand and sympathise with Isaac's preference. But 
the crafty schemer had the truer estimate of real 
values. With Esau the supply of present need was 
all-important. In his own exaggerated way he 
was " ready to die " of hunger ; and he " despised " 
a birthright, the true worth of wh. he cd. not 



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Jac 



appreciate. All this favoured J.'s designs (Gn. able to the older man. J. cleverly turned them to 
25. 27ff> ). J. purchased the birthright easily enough ; his own advantage, and his flocks and herds rapidly 
to secure it was another matter. Like most im- increased. From the envy and ill-will of Laban 
provident persons, when the pinch of the moment thus excited J. determined to escape. In his 
was past, Esau was in no way ready to accept the uncle's temporary absence he gathered together his 
consequences of his folly. To make sure of the possessions and " passed over the river " (Euphrates) 
blessing wh. the birthright carried J. resorted to on his homeward journey. Rachel, prob. to secure 
congenial methods, with the assistance of his mr. the blessing of the family gods, stole her fr.'s tera- 
practising upon the infirmities of his aged fr. The phim. Hearing of the flight, Laban took his 
trick, complete in its immediate success, brought brethren, pursued, and overtook the fugitive in 
an undreamed-of entail of sorrow upon the de- Mt. Gilead. With something of her fr.'s guile 
ceivers. Regard for his fr.'s feelings alone prevented Rachel saved herself fm. grave peril. The inter- 
Esau fm. slaying the " supplanter " at once. In view, wh. threatened to be stormy, ended in recon- 
the hope that the gusty wrath of the inconstant ciliation. A heap of stones was made (see Gilead), 
huntsman wd. soon blow over, J. was sent to his and each vowed not to pass it with hostile intent 
kinsmen in the far N., ostensibly to seek a wife. agst. the other. The treaty was sealed in a common 
He and his mr. met no more on earth. One meal (see Hospitality). 

episode in his journey is recorded, his never-to- At Mahanaim (" two camps "), J. was cheered 

be-forgotten experience at Bethel. Prob. in the by a vision of angels (Gn. 32. lf -) ; but on the bank 

" place " consecrated by Abraham's sacrifice (Gn. of the Jabbok came the remembrance of Esau, and 

12. 8 ) he saw the vision of the ladder or flight of fear of his vengeance. With something like panic he 

steps reaching to heaven. The form of the dream heard of his br.'s approach. Fear, however, did not 

may have been suggested by the appearance of the paralyse his wit. He divides his company into two, 

rocky terraces on the adjoining hill. Angelic mes- so that if one is attacked, the other may escape, 

sengers come and go between heaven and earth, He arranges a present for Esau, skilfully designed 

and J". Himself bends over the slumberer with to appease him. The cavalcades move forward, and 

words of kindly interest and inspiring promise, he is left alone for the night by the stream. Sud- 

He is assured of a great posterity, who shall possess denly he finds himself sore beset by one whom he 

the land, and of the guidance and protection of J", may have thought an emissary of Esau come to slay 

in his own life. The vision further suggests the him. They wrestle till morning, when, discovering 

thought of a Divine Providence presiding over and through a disabling touch who his adversary is, he 

directing all human affairs. While J. on awaking entreats and obtains a blessing, the sign of wh. is a 

had the grace to feel " how dreadful is this place," new name. This appears as the turning-point in 

he yet accepted the promises in the spirit of a J.'s life. Hitherto he has been self-reliant, trusting 

huckster. " Nothing for nothing " was his motto, in his own craft and cunning : henceforth he trusts 

If J", fulfilled His promises then J. wd. do certain in God. The change of name signifies a change of 

things for Him ! J. shared the conviction of his char. With the " supplanter " or " over-reacher " 

day that deity cd. choose any time and place for what good end cd. be attained ? With Israel, " the 

self-manifestation ; but where a god had once been perseverer with God," all things were possible, 

seen men mt. reasonably expect to see him again. When the sun rose upon him halting on his thigh 

The " pillow " of stone associated with the vision over Peniel, it was truly the dawn of a new day 

was regarded as a beth-el, " house of God." It for a new man. 



was set up and anointed, and in future times 
became the centre of a famous sanctuary. 

Arriving at Haran, J. found that he had no mono- 
poly of craftiness. At first he cd. not even hold his 



Rebekah's estimate of Esau was justified. He 
had ceased to desire revenge, and evidently re- 
garded the erewhile " supplanter " with nothing 
but brotherly feelings, reinforced no doubt by 



own in artifice with his uncle Laban, who palmed off kindly recollections of old boyhood's days. He was 
on him Leah instead of Rachel, and secured in re- unwilling even to accept J.'s present. The recon- 
turn for his two drs. 14 yrs. faithful service of an ciliation was as complete as the anxiety of the re- 



accomplished shepherd. All J.'s children except 
Benjamin were born in Haran, in the following 
order : Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, of Leah ; 
Dan and Naphtali, of Bilhah, Rachel's maid ; Gad 
and Asher, of Zilpah, Leah's maid ; Issachar and 
Zebulun, of Leah ; and Joseph, of Rachel. 

When J. proposed to return home with his 



turning exile had been deep. Esau returned to 
Edom, and J., crossing the Jordan near Succoth, 
ascended to Shechem, and pitched his tent E. of the 
town, doubtless in the plot of land wh. he bought 
fm. the children of Hamor (Gn. 33. 19 ), where in 
later days the body of Joseph was laid (Jo. 2^. 32 ). 
The seduction of Dinah by Shechem, Hamor'sson, 



family, Laban prevailed on him to serve another led to complications. In his desire to secure Dinah 
seven yrs., on terms that seemed specially favour- as a w. for his s., and to establish social and com- 

291 



Jac 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jac 



mercial relations with J.'s people, Hamor accepted 
the guileful proposal of Dinah's brs. The men of 
the city fell into the snare, and while they were 
suffering and unable to defend themselves, J.'s sons 
took terrible revenge for the outrage upon their 
sister (Gn. 34.). The horror of this deed seems to 
have paralysed the surrounding peoples, and J., un- 
molested, journeyed to Bethel. He buried under 
" the oak wh. was by Shechem " everything asso- 
ciated with idolatry among his people ; Rachel's 
stolen teraphim, ear-rings (amulets), &c. At 
Bethel he renewed his homage to J"., and received 
fresh promises of blessing. 

On the further journey towards Hebron Rachel 
died in childbirth, not far fm. Ephrath. With her 
last breath she called her s. Benoni, " son of my 
sorrow," but J. called him Benjamin, " son of the 
right hand " {see Rachel). By way of the tower of 
Eder — not otherwise known — he came to Hebron, 
where he was present at his fr.'s death, and 
met Esau, apparently for the last time, at the 
funeral. 

J. continued to reside near Hebron, but his flocks 
in charge of his sons grazed over a wide circuit 
(Gn. 37.). The remaining recorded episodes of his 
life are closely associated with the hist, of Joseph. 
In his sorrow for the loss of his favourite son, his 
heart turned to the youngest, Benjamin. The 
famine, and the incidents leading to the settlement 
in Egp., are recorded under Joseph. On the journey 
God spoke to him in a vision at Beersheba words of 
encouragement and hope. Accdg. to Gn. 46. 26 the 
company of his descendants going down with him 
numbered 66, besides his sons' wives. Kindly 
received by Pharaoh for Joseph's sake, the rich 
pasture-land of Goshen was assigned to them, and 
there, in peace and tranquillity, the evening of J.'s 
life was spent. Before his death he blessed the sons 
of Joseph, discerning the superiority of Ephraim to 
his elder br. To Joseph he promised one portion 
(Heb. shechem, " shoulder " or " mountain slope "), 
referring doubtless to the spot where Joseph's bones 
were laid (see Shechem). 

The Blessing of J. (Gn. 49.) is a poetical com- 
position attributed to J., dealing with the leading 
characteristics of the tribes, or of their respective 
territories ; see separate articles. It received its 
present form at a later time, poss. that of David. 

In accordance with a solemn charge to his sons, 
J.'s body was embalmed. With great pomp it was 
carried up to Hebron, and laid in the cave of 
Machpelah. 

As fr. of the 12 patriarchs J. is represented as 
the great ancestor of the people called by his name, 
Israel. 

In literature of such antiquity, subjected to so 
many vicissitudes, there are, naturally, many diffi- 
culties in the nars. Fm. the extant records, e.g.. 



it is impossible to construct a consistent chrono- 
logical scheme. 

Whether, and if so how far, the patriarchal nars. 
are historical, are questions on wh. opinions differ. 
Dr. Cheyne (EB. s.v. Jacob) frankly accepts the 
view that the patriarchs are not historical persons, 
but impersonations of the clans and tribes called by 
these names. To these imaginary ancestors are 
attributed the characteristics of their presumed 
descts., and in their life hist, are reflected the move- 
ments and experiences of peoples in an age long 
posterior to that assumed for the patriarchs. Dr. 
Driver (HDB. s.v) cannot go so far, ^hindered by 
" the amount of personal incident and detail " in 
the nars. For him Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are 
historical persons, and the acts, given of them are, 
in outline, historically true ; but " their chars, are 
idealised, and their biographies in many respects 
coloured by the feelings and associations of a later 
age." 

Dr. Robertson's trenchant and effective criti- 
cisms {Early Relg. of 1st. I20ff.) of Wellhausen's 
view — practically that of Dr. Cheyne — Dr. Driver 
describes as " contemptuous," showing " little in- 
sight," and " anything but conclusive." This may 
not be contemptuous : it certainly is an easy but 
inconclusive way of dealing with a hostile critic. 
What must the writer of Jacob in EB. think of 
Dr. Driver's own position ? 

There is no convincing reason why the nar. shd. 
not be regarded as in the main a firm outline of 
the life of the man Jacob. 

JACOB'S WELL (Jn. 4.6) is not mentioned in 
OT. Anct. tradition unanimously idents. it with 
Bar Ta^qub, just under Mt. Gerizim — " this moun- 
tain " — where the vale of Shechem opens E'ward 
into the plain of el-Mukhneh. Here Jacob must 
have pitched his tent " before," i.e. to the E. of 
Shechem (Gn. 33. 20 ). There is a copious spring 
not far off, at Askar, on the N. edge of the vale. 
But it wd. make for independence and peace with 
his neighbours if Jacob had his own water-supply. 
For this reason, doubtless, the we]l was dug. A 
church reared over it was destroyed after the 
Crusades. The well was prob. of great depth, to 
secure a constant supply of water by percolation. 
There is no evidence of a spring in it, wh. wd. have 
yielded " living water." Owing to accumulated 
rubbish in the bottom the depth is not now more 
than 75 ft. On the mouth is a large stone with 
circular aperture through wh. vessels were lowered 
to draw water, in the sides of wh. the ropes have 
worn grooves. Water is now found in the well only 
in the rainy season. The natives esteem it " light 
as compared with the " hard " water fm. the 
springs (PEFQ. 1897, pp. 6j, 149, 196). The well 
was hard by the road to Galilee, whether one 
turned W. through the vale, or turned N'ward to 



292 



Jad 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jam 



Jenin (Jn. 4.) ; see Sychar. For act. of the ruins, 
&c, see PEFM. ii. 1728. 

JADDUA. (1) One who sealed the covenant 
(Ne. io. 22 ). (2) S. and successor of Johanan, 
High Priest, and contemporary of Alexander the 
Great (Ant. XI. vii. 2). 



RUINED VAULT OVER 
JACOB'S WELL. 




=§ Flan of Church 

Sis luilC over Jacob'* Well 
|S j| cleserilttlluJlrculpliua 



PEF. 

JAEL (Yd'el, " mountain goat "), w. of Heber 
the Kenite (Jg. 4. 17 ), who had alliance with Jabin. 
After the battle on the Kishon (see Deborah, Barak) 
Sisera fled, and at J.'s invitation took shelter in her 
tent, where she treacherously slew him. The prose 
act. does not agree with the song (Jg. 4. 17ff# , 5. 24ff> )- 
The latter, wh. bears marks of greater antiquity, 
represents him as struck down when unsuspectingly 
drinking at the tent door (v. 27) ; the former gives 
details of his murder while asleep in the tent, a peg, 
by no means " blunt " (Moore, Judges, p. 124), 
being driven through his temples. The language 
of the song is obscure, and courageous conjectures 
have been made as to its meaning (EB. s.v). But 
we may assume that the writer of chap. 4. had the 
song before him, and was as likely to understand it 
as modern scholars. In any case J.'s blow was 



treacherous, and her deed was an outrage upon 
Hospitality. It could not have been justified 
even then save in the fervour of patriotic fanaticism. 

JAH, a contraction for J". Altho' it only ap- 
pears inPs. 68. 4 (EV.), about 50 times it is the Heb. 
word translated ''Lord." It occurs mostly in the 
bk. of Psalms. J. is the form of the Divine Name 
wh. appears in composition, e.g. Jeremiah : it is to 
be noted that in Heb. this termination is most 
frequently yahu, as Yeremiahu. This supports the 
conjecture of a connection of J", with Asyr. Yahu. 

JAHAZ, an unidentd. city, the scene of Sihon's 
defeat (Nu. 21. 23 ; Dt. 2. 32 ; Jg. n. 20 ) on the 
plateau (Jr. 48. 21 , " Jahazah "), poss. near the main 
road N. of Arnon and S. of Heshbon. Given to 
the Merarite Levites in the lot of Reuben (Jo. 13. 18 , 
2 1. 36 ), it is mentioned on the Moabite Stone (lines 
ioi.) as taken by Mesha fm. the k. of Isr. 

JAHAZIAH, RV. JAHZEIAH, was one of those 
" who were employed about " the matter of the 
men who had married foreign wives. This has been 
taken to mean that they assisted Ezra (Ez. io. 15 ). 
RV. makes them his opponents. This is in accord- 
ance with the meaning of the Heb. phrase in other 
places (2 Ch.; 20. 23 , &c), but the LXX, /zeT' ifiov, 
favours the rendering of AV. 

JAIR (Yd'lr, " he enlightens "). (1) A desct. of 
Manasseh, contemporary of Moses, under whom a. 
district E. of Jordan, variously described, was con- 
quered (Nu. 32. 41 ; Jo. 13. 30 , &c). (2) A judge' 
(Jg. io. 3 ), by some identd. with (1). If this is right, 
J.'s exploits came after the settlement in W. Pal., 
and the act. of them in the earlier nar. may have 
been introduced to give completeness to the story 
of the conquest. (3) Fr. of Elhanan (1 Ch. 20. 5 , 
Yd'7r, " he awakens "). (4) Fr. of Mordecai (Est. 
2. 5 ; cp. Ad. Est. n. 2 ). 

JAIRUS, the ruler of the synagogue whose little 
dr. Jesus raised fm. the dead (Mk. 5. 22 , &c.), prob. 
in Capernaum. 

JAMBRES. See Jannes and Jambres. 

JAMES (Gr. Jakobos), the name of at least three 
men of note in the early days of Christianity. 
(1) The fisherman, s. of Zebedee, prob. elder br. 
of John, as he is always named first (Mw. 4. 21 ; Mk. 
I. 19 , &c), one of the Twelve and a member with 
Peter and John of the inmost group. He is not 
named by John. He and his br. were called 
Boanerges. They were ambitious, their mr., 
Salome (cp. Mw. 27.™ ; Mk. 15. 40 ), the aunt of 
Jesus (Jn. 19. 25 ), interceding with Him for the 
advancement of His cousins (Mw. 2O. 20f -, cp. Mk. 
lo. 35f -). Of J.'s work in the first days nothing in- 
dividual is recorded, but his zeal was rewarded with 
the martyr's crown under Herod Agrippa, a.d. 44. 
He was the first of the apostles to die (Ac. I2. lf -). 
Accdg. to anct. tradition the brave bearing of the 
apostle led to the conversion of his accuser, who 

■93 



Jam 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jam 



therefore perished with him. There is no truth in 
the marvellous story of his visit to Spain (Mrs. 
Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, i. 23off.). 
(2) S. of Alphas, prob. br. of Levi (Mk. 3. 18 , 
2. 14 , &c.), one of the Twelve, poss. = James the 
Less, lit. "the little" (Mk. 15. 40 ; cp. Mw. 27.™). 
There is no record of his life {see Brethren of the 
Lord). (3) The Lord's br. (see Brethren of the 
Lord), to whom Jesus appeared after the resurrec- 
tion (1 Cor. 15. 7 ). Poss. this led to his conversion, 
as we find him at once numbered with the believers 
(Ac. I. 13 ). Close relationship to Jesus may have 
favoured his promotion, but that he was a man of 
commanding char, and ability need not be doubted. 
He soon took a leading position in the Church, as 
appears fm. Gal. i. 18f - ; holding it still 14 yrs. later 
(Gal. 2. 9 ). As president of the Council J. delivers 
its decision on the relation of the Gentile Chris- 
tians to the Jewish law. He was evidently himself 
associated with its stricter application to Jewish 
Christians (Gal. 2. 12 ). This may act. for his sur- 
name, " the just." Hegesippus (quoted by Euse- 
bius, HE. ii. 23) represents J. as a Nazirite, called 
" just " fm. the first. His knees were as hard as a 
camel's from perpetual kneeling to pray for the 
people. For his fearless testimony to Jesus as 
Saviour the Scribes and Pharisees had him hurled 
fm. the pinnacle of the Temple into the valley, 
where he was despatched by a blow with a fuller's 
club, praying that his murderers mt. be forgiven. 
Josephus with more probability attributes his death 
to the " bold " and " insolent " High Priest, 
Ananus the younger, between the death of Festus 
and the arrival of Albinus, his successor. For this 
he was deprived of office {Ant. XX. ix. 1). The 
passage referred to by Eusebius {HE. ii. 23), in wh. 
Josephus describes the horrors of the siege of Jrs. 
as vengeance for this crime, has disappeared fm. his 
works. J. was author of the epistle bearing his 
name. The Protevangelium Jacobi and the Liturgy 
of St. James are also attributed to him. 

JAMES, EPISTLE OF. The first of the 
" Catholic " Epistles. 

Contents. — It consists mainly of a series of ex- 
hortations as to Christian conduct, wh. follow each 
other without much logical connection. Some- 
times a word suggests a thought wh. leads the 
writer off at a tangent ; thus the word leipomenoi, 
" lacking " (RV.), in the 4th verse suggests the 5 th 
verse, " If any man lack wisdom " ; again the word 
aiteito, " ask," in the 5 th verse suggests the next, 
" but let him ask in faith." He returns in v. 12 
to " patience under temptation," with wh. he 
began ; but some one, he fancies, mt. excuse him- 
self in falling before temptation by saying he was 
" tempted of God," so he turns aside to denounce 
this error and show the source of temptation in 
" lust " ; this, again, leads him to follow " lust " to 



its consequences. Space fails to follow step by step 
the windings of his thought. At times the writer 
does carry on a consecutive argument ; as where, 
meeting the case of one who wd. excuse his slackness 
in practical beneficence by claiming orthodoxy of 
belief, he shows by instance after instance that 
" faith " to be worth anything must express itself 
in action. The whole manner of thought has a 
striking resemblance to what we find in the 
" Sermon on the Mount." 

Audience Contemplated. — By its introduc- 
tion it is addressed " to the twelve tribes wh. are 
scattered abroad," i.e. only to Israelites and to all 
Israelites outside Pal. While the writer does not 
conceal his own Christianity he addresses a wider 
audience ; in the same way that a Baptist mt. 
address Protestants as a whole, without noticing 
the differences between difft. sections of Protes- 
tants ; to him all Jews are rightfully, like himself, 
" servants of Jesus Christ." He uses sunagoge for 
the place where he expects his readers to meet for 
worship ; he does not exalt Jesus as do Paul, Peter, 
and John, in obvious statement. Certainly the 
writer calls upon his readers not to have " the faith 
of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Lord) of Glory with 
respect of persons," but this does not necessarily 
and obviously mean more than a belief in His 
Messiahship ; though implicitly it contains more. 
While he addresses all Jews, his primary message is 
for those who, like himself, are Christians. 

Date. — External evidence is not very early, yet 
although it is not quoted there are traces of ac- 
quaintance with this epistle in Clement of Rome, 
Hermas, and Justin Martyr. It is, however, in the 
Peshitta, wh. omits 2 P., 2 and 3 J., and Rv. : it 
is quoted repeatedly by Irenaeus and Tertullian. 
The internal evidence points to an early date. The 
separation between Church and Synagogue had 
not become prominent ; there is no hint of perse- 
cution, except the oppression of the poor by the 
rich ; no reference to the episcopate, nor indeed to 
the apostolate. Elders are mentioned, but every 
Jewish community had of necessity its Elders. The 
use of the term " Synagogue " is also evidence of 
primitive conditions. 

In Safed there were 62 synagogues, but only six com- 
munities (congregations) named according to their origin, or 
their tenets: each of these had a certain internal government. 

While the resemblance between J. and Paul is 
too close to be accidental, it is not to be assumed 
that J. is the later. A close study of the passages 
in question proves the opposite. From there being 
no reference to believing Gentiles we may deduce 
that the Epistle of James was written before the 
Council of Jrs. (a.d. 48, Lewin). It may prob. be 
dated a.d. 40-45. 

Authorship. — The epistle claims to be written 
by " James, a servant of God and our Lord Jesus 



294 



Jan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jav 



Christ." James (Jacob) was a name common in 
the opening cent, of our era ; it was borne by three 
men prominent in the early hist, of the Church. 
Two were apostles, viz., James, s. of Zebedee, and 
James, s. of Alphaeus. There was also James, the br. 
of our Lord. The epistle has never been ascribed 
to the second of these save when he has been re- 
garded as identical with the third. The choice 
really lies between James, son of Zebedee, and our 
Lord's br. We have seen that the epistle may have 
been written before a.d. 44, when James, the son of 
Zebedee, was put to death. On the other hand, in 
beginning his letter, the author does not, like Peter, 
announce his apostleship. Further, we find in style 
and vocabulary a striking resemblance between the 
epistle and the speech recorded in Ac. 15. 13 " 21 . 
These facts strengthen the probability that James 
the br. of our Lord was the writer. 

Canonicity. — Eusebius (HE. ii. 23, iii. 25) says 
that the Epistle of James was rejected by some 
churches, but received by most. It was not in the 
Muratorian catalogue ; but it was in the Canon of 
the Syrian Church. It was accepted as Scrip, by 
Origen, Athanasius, and Gregory, and is placed in 
the Canon by the Council of Carthage (397). It 
did not claim to be written by an apostle, and it 
seemed to controvert the teaching of St. Paul. 
This sufficiently explains the hesitation of some in 
accepting it as canonical. 

JANNES and JAMBRES (2 Tm. 3. 8 ). The tra- 
ditional names of two of the Egyptian magicians 
who opposed Moses (see Tg. Jrs. ; Ex. 7. 11 ). An 
Apocryphal bk. under their name is referred to, but 
not preserved. 

JANOAH. (1) A town near Kedesh Naphtali 
(2 K. 15. 29 ). The name is found in Tdnuh, a vill. 
six miles E. of Tyre ; but this seems too far to the 
W. (2) On the NE. border of Ephraim Qo. i6. 6L ). 
OEJ. s.v. " Jano," points to Tdnun, eight miles 
SE. of Nablus. 

JANUM, RV. JANIM, a town in the territory of 
Judah, in the mountain near Beth-Tappuah (Jo. 
15. 53 ) ; not identd. 

JAPHETH, the eldest s. of Noah (Gn. io. 21 ), 
ancestor of the Greeks, the Medes, and Aryan races 
generally (Gn. io. 2 " 4 ). 

JAPHIA. (1) K. of Lachish, who, after the 
defeat at Beth-horon, was slain at Makkedah (Jo. 
io. 3ff -). (2) A s. of David (2 S. 5. 14 ' 15 , &c). 

JAPHIA, a town on the E. border of Zebulun 
(Jo. 19. 12 ). If the places are here named in order, 
the identn. with Tdfd, two miles SW. of Nazareth, 
is precarious (cp. BJ. II. xx. 6; III. vii. 31 ; Fit. 

37, 45, 52). 

JAPHO. See Joppa. 

JAREB, " King Jareb " (Ho. 5. 13 , io. 6 ), appa- 
rently the name of an otherwise unknown Asyr. k. 
It is poss. that the prophet here modifies the title. 



" the Great King " (Asyr. Sharru Rabbu), to make 
it describe the char, of the man — " king quarrel- 
some." 

JARMUTH. (1) A royal city of the Can. in 
the Judaean Shephelah (Jo. io. 3 , 12. 11 , 15. 35 ; Ne. 
II. 29 ). It is the mod. Khirbet el-Yarmuk, eight 
miles N. of Beit Jibrln. The ruins crown a hill, 
and bear many marks of anct. strength. (2) An 
anct. city in Issachar (Jo. 21. 29 ). In 1 Ch. 6. 73 it 
is called Ramoth, wh. resembles " Remeth " of Jo. 
19. 21 . It may be er-Rdmeb, c. II miles SW. of 
Jeriin. 

JASHER (RV. JASHAR), THE BOOK OF, 
is referred to, Jo. io. 13 (not in LXX), 2 S. I. 18 . 
Jasher may mean " the Just " ; in the Psh. it is 
rendered " praise " ; in Tg. Jn. " the Law." 
Judging by the two references it was a collection 
of ballads, but the facts available are too few to 
permit an absolute decision. 

JASHOBEAM, the first of David's mighty men 
(1 Ch. II. 11 ), " the son of a Hachmonite " (RV.), 
" the son of Zabdiel " (1 Ch. 27. 2 ). He was one of 
the three who broke through the ranks of the Phil, 
to draw water fm. the well of Bethlehem. 

In 2 S. 23.8 the text is corrupt. Jashobeam is changed 
into josheb basshebeth, "that sat in the seat" (AV.). RV. 
takes it as a prop, name, Josheb-basshebeth. LXX reads 
Jebosthe ; the true reading was therefore prob. Jeshabbosheth, 
wh., according to the analogy of Ishbosheth, wd. imply 
Jashabbaal. The chronicler changed " 1 " into " m," to avoid 
writing "Baal." "Tachmonite" for "Hachmonite" is a 
scribal error, taking ]"1 for n, so late that the square 
character must have been in use. " Adino" is a form also 
due to scribal error. Confusing -) with "j, the copyist took 
the phrase, " raising up his spear," as a proper name, with 
ethnic determinative. 

JASON was Paul's host in Thessalonica, and his 
surety with the magistrates (Ac. I7. 5ff -). He may 
have been a Jew, J. being a favourite equivalent of 
Heb. Joshua. The " kinsman " (Rm. 16. 21 ) was 
poss. the same man. 

JASPER (Heb. yashepbeb, LXX taspis), a precious 
stone appearing in the High Priest's breastplate 
(Ex. 28. 20 ), among the jewels of the k. of Tyre 
(Ek. 28. 13 ), and as the first foundation of the new 
Jrs. (Rv. 21. 19 ). Some wd. identify it with the 
Opal (Cheyne), or Chalcedony (King), or Diamond 
(Ebrard). It is impossible to decide what stone is 
intended. It is certainly not the mod. J. Iaspis 
seems to have denoted stones of various colours 
(Pliny, NH. xxxvii. 37). 

JATTIR, a town in the highlands of Judah (Jo. 
15. 48 ), given to the priests (21. 14 ), associated with 
the adventures of David (1 S. 30. 27 ). It is = 
Khirbet 'Atiir, a place with caves and traces of anct. 
bldgs., 13 miles S. of Hebron. 

JAV AN, fourth s. of Japheth (Gn. io. 2 ), is the 
representative of the Greek race, esp. of the Ionians 
on the coast of Asia Minor. J. thus appears in 
connection with " the islands far off " ; i.e. those of 



2 95 



Jav 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jeh 



the Archipelago (Is. 66P). J. is a nation of mer- in a box with a hole in the lid, placed for their re- 
chants and slave-dealers (Ek. 27. 13 ; Jl. 3. 6 ). J. is ception. After Jehoiada's death J. seems to have 
mentioned again in Ek. 27. 13 , where the text is prob. deteriorated, and the murder of Zechariah is a dark 
corrupt. The references in Daniel (8. 21 , io. 20 , blot on his record. He bought immunity fm. a 
II. 2 ), where Javan is translated "Greece" (RV. ; Syrian attack with a costly bribe, poss. after the 
" Grecia," AV.), are to the empire of Alexander, defeat recorded by the chronicler (2 K. I2. 17ff - ; 
Sargon campaigned agst. Javan. Among the allies 2 Ch. 2\P n -). He was murdered by his servants 
of the Hittites agst. Ramses II. are Tevana. All Jozacar and Jehozabad, having reigned 40 yrs., and 
over SW. Asia the name is the same. ■ was buried in the city of David, but not in the 
JAVELIN. See Arms. royal sepulchres (2 Ch. 24. 25 ). (2) S. and suc- 
JAZER, an Amorite town taken by Isr. (Nu. cessor of Jehoahaz, k. of Isr. (2 K. 13. 10 ). Idolatry 
2 1. 32 ) in the lot of Gad, assigned to the priests (Jo. flourished in his reign of 16 yrs. The Syrians, 
1-3. 25 , 21. 31 ). It is mentioned in connection with weakened by attacks of Asyr. (Winckler, Geschichte 
David's Census (2 S. 24. 5 )„ The district was very Isr. i. 154), he thrice defeated (2 K. I3. 14ff -). 
fertile. J. was captured by Judas {Ant. XII. Amaziah, elated by success over Edom, forced J. 
viii. 1). It is prob. = Kb. Sdr, five miles W. of into conflict, to his own decisive discomfiture 
i Amman. This corrsps. with the position indicated (2 K. I4. 8ff -). He seems to have been a brave 



by OEJ. ; the perennial stream, Wddy Sir, near by, and capable soldier, 
being doubtless the " river " referred to as " flow- 
ing to the Jordan." 

JEBUS. See Jerusalem. 

JECONIAH. See Jehoiakim. 

JEDIDIAH. See Solomon. 

JEDUTHUN, apparently the same as Ethan ; 



JEHOIACHIN (Jeconiah, Jr. 27. 20 , &c. ; 

Coniah, Jr. 22. 24 , &c. ; Jechoniah, Mw. i. 11 ), s. 

of Jehoiakim, k. of Judah. He succeeded his fr. at 

18 (2 K. 24. 8 : " eight " in 2 Ch. ^6. 9 arises fm. 

displacement of the " ten," added as days to the 

length of his reign). The Chaldeans were already 

head of a guild of singers (1 Ch. 16. 38 ) : fm. the in the country, and on the arrival of Nebuchad- 

use of the name in the titles of certain psalms nezzar J. surrendered at discretion. Nebuchad- 

(39., 62., yy.) Jeduthun seems to have been either a nezzar sacked the Temple, carrying away the 

musical instrument or a tune. treasure and sacred vessels, and took captive to Bab. 

JEGAR SAHADUTHA (" cairn of stones "), the J., his mr., the nobles, and men of war, together 

Aram, name given by Laban to the heap of stones with the craftsmen, leaving only the poorest of the 



called by Jacob Galeed (Gn. 31. 47 ). 



people (2 K. 24. nff - ; Jr. 52. 28 ). Among the exiles 



JEHOAHAZ. (1) S. and successor of Jehu, k. was Ezekiel. Evil-Merodach dealt kindly with J. 

of Isr. (2 K. io. 35 ). He reigned 17 yrs. He failed (2 K. 25. 27ff - ; Jr. 52. 31ff -). Scrip, condemns J. as 

to free Isr. fm. the dominion of Syr., Benhadad III. an evil-doer : for a more favourable estimate see 

being esp. oppressive. Idolatry flourished in his Ant. X. vii. I. 

reign (2 K. 13. 1 - 9 , 22.). The "saviour" (13. 5 ) JEHOIADA, the High Priest, related to the 

prob. indicates J.'s grandson, Jeroboam II. The royal house by marriage (2 Ch. 22. 11 ), who brought 

figures in vv. 1, 10 require adjustment. (2) S. and up Jehoash, and secured his coronation at seven yrs. 

successor of Josiah, k. of Judah. After a brief and of age {see Athaliah). His influence over the boy 

inglorious reign of three months, he was deposed by king prob. continued till his death, so that he was 

Pharaoh Necho and carried into Egp., where he in fact ruler (2 Ch. 24. 2 ). To his initiative was 

died. His name, Shallum, was changed to J. at his due the renewing of the covenant, the destruction 

coronation (2 K. 23. 30 ; 2 Ch. 36. 1 ; Jr. 22. 10ff - ; of the temple and slaughter of the priests of Baal, 

Ek. I9. 2ff -). (3) A name of Ahaziah, k. of Judah the re-ordering of the Temple service, and, along 

(2 Ch. 21. 17 , 22. 1 ). with the k., the placing of the box to receive the 

JEHOASH, JOASH. (1) Youngest s. of Jeho- money for Temple repair, &c. At his death he was 
ram, k. of Judah, who alone escaped the massacre buried among the kings, an honour due prob. to 
planned by Athaliah his grandmr. Hidden by his his royal connection as well as to his good deeds in 
aunt Jehosheba, he was brought out and crowned Isr. (2 K. n. 17ff -, I2. lff - ; 2 Ch. 23. 16fL , 24. 1 " 16 ). 
in his seventh yr. {see Jehoiada) (2 Ch. 22. 10f -, 23.). Several other men bore this name. 
A covenant was made between God, the k., and the JEHOIAKIM, s. of Josiah, whom Pharaoh 
people. The temple of Baal was destroyed, and Necho made k. instead of his half-br. Jehoahaz, 
the Temple service reorganised. The revenue fm. changing his name fm. Eliakim to J. (2 K. 23. 34 , &c). 
gifts and offerings was given to the priests on con- He was then 25 yrs. old. He reigned 1 1 yrs., 
dition that they shd. keep the Temple bldgs. in during three of wh„ he was sub j. to Nebuchadnezzar, 
repair. This they failed to do, and part of the the power of Egp. being broken (24.^-). Of the 
income was withdrawn fm. them, ample funds for evil wh. he did there are illustrations in the pro- 
repair and furnishing of the Temple being collected phets Jeremiah and Habakkuk. The former pre- 

296 



Jeh 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jeh 



sents a picture of the general degradation of the (v. 6, but cp. I K. 22. 43 ), and made provision for 

country. ( The old idolatries nourish; loathsome teaching the people the law. The Phil, and the 

heathen rites are practised ; princes, priests, and Arabians brought him presents : he built store 

people are sunk in regardlessness and vice (chaps, cities, and raised a very great army (2 Ch. 17.). He 

7.-9., &c). In 22. 13 " 19 a fierce denunciation is then made friendship with Ahab of Isr., whose dr. 

launched at J. (cp. Hb. 2. 9 " 11 ). His cruel murder Athaliah his s. Jehoram married — a step fraught 

of Uriah (Jr. 26. 20ff -), the despite done to the law with dire consequences to his house. Despite the 

(36. 22 ), and his desire to be rid of Jeremiah and warning of Micaiah he went with Ahab agst. 

Baruch (36. 26 ), shed lurid light upon his char. Ramoth Gilead, and narrowly escaped death, while 

How he died we know not ; it may have been by Ahab fell (1 K. 22. 1 " 38 ; 2 Ch. 18.). 2 Ch. 19 

the hand of some victim of his oppression. His describes his arrangements for administration of 

dishonoured corpse was buried " with the burial of justice, &c. Chap. 20. narrates an invasion by the 

an ass," drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of men of Moab, Ammon, and Mt. Seir, with nothing 

Jrs. (Jr. 22. 19 ; but see LXX, 2 Ch. 36. 8 ). The fall to show whether before or after the attack on 

of the city, B.C. 597, properly marked the beginning Mesha with Jehoram. The enemy slaughtered 

of the Captivity. each other, and great spoil fell to Judah in the 

JEHONADAB (Jonadab, Jr. 35. 6 , &c), s. of Vale of Beracah, prob. Wady Bereikut, SW. of 

Rechab (2 K. 10. 15 , &c), the founder of the Tekoah. The destruction of J.'s ships at Ezion- 



Rechabites (Jr. 35. 6 , &c.) 

JEHORAM, JORAM. (1) S. of Jehoshaphat, 
k. of Judah. Crowned at the age of 32, he reigned 
eight yrs. He married Athaliah, dr. of Ahab 



geber quenched Isr.'s sea-ward aspirations (1 K. 
22. 48ff - ; 2 Ch. 20. 35ff -). For others called J. see 
2 S. 8. 16 , &c. ; I K. 4. 17 ; 2 K. 9 . 2 . 
JEHOSHAPHAT, VALLEY OF (Jl. 3 .»."). 



poss. for diplomatic reasons. To her influence This valley is not mentioned by this name else- 

perhaps we may trace the murder of his brs. (2 Ch. where in Scrip., and Josephus does not refer to it. 

2 1. 4 ) and the revival of idolatry. Under him Edom Some would connect it with the name of King 

rebelled. Fm. an ill-starred expedition to subdue Jehoshaphat, and the great victory recorded 



it he escaped with difficulty, and Edom regained 
freedom (2 K. 8. 21 ; 2 Ch. 2i. 8fL ). At the same 
time Libnah revolted (2 K. 8. 22 ; 2 Ch. 21. 10 ). 
In 2 Ch. 2 1. 12 we shd. prob. read " Elisha " (but 
see Elijah) for " Elijah," the latter being then 
long dead. The Arabians and Phil, invaded Judah, 
sacked the k.'s house, and carried off the k.'s wives, 
and all his sons save Jehoahaz. He died of a loath- 
some disease, and was refused burial in the royal 
sepulchres. (2) S. of Ahab, who succeeded his br. 
Ahaziah as k. of Isr. He modified but did not abolish 
the worship of Baal (2 K. 3. 1 " 3 ). Mesha, k. of Moab, 
revolted fm. J. Gaining the help of Jehoshaphat, 
k. of Judah, and the k. of Edom, i.e. Jehoshaphat's 
vassal, he marched agst. Moab fm. the S., passing 
through a waterless district, where only a miracle 
by Elisha saved their army fm. death by thirst. 
The Moabites were vanquished and Mesha be- in reading for the sacred name, wh. it was not per- 
leaguered in Kir-hareseth. In desperation he sacri- missible to utter. 

need his first-born on the wall. For what reason JEHOVAH JIREH (" J", seeth," or " will see," 
we know not, Isr. returned home. or " provide "). Abraham so named the spot 

J. may be the k. of Isr. associated with the deeds where God provided the animal for sacrifice instead 
of Elisha (2 K. 4.-8.) (see Elisha). Wounded in of Isaac (Gn. 22. 14 ). 

battle at Ramoth Gilead, J. returned to Jezreel. JEHOVAH NISSI (" J", is my banner "). So 
Jehu, his general, followed, and slew him in the field Moses called the altar built to signalise the defeat 
of Naboth (2 K. 8. 28 ~9. 26 ). of Amalek (Ex. 17. 15 ). As men gather round a 

JEHOSHAPHAT (" J", hath judged "), s. and banner in war, so shd. men gather round J". 
successor of Asa, k. of Judah (1 K. 22. 41f - ; 2 Ch. JEHOVAH SHALOM (" ]". is peace "), the 
20. 31 ). Thirty-five yrs. old at his accession, he name of the altar Gideon built in Ophra (Jg. 6. 24 ), 
reigned 25 yrs. At first he strengthened himself referring to the salutation " peace be unto thee " 
agst. Isr. (2 Ch. 17. 1 ). He sought to abolish (v. 23). 

idolatry, removed the high places and Asherim JEHOVAH SHAMMAH (" J", is there "), the 

297 K2 



2 Ch. 20. This might point to the valley there 
called Berachah. A late tradition (4th cent.) 
identifies the Valley of Jehoshaphat with that wh., 
on the E., cuts Jrs. off fm. the Mt. of Olives (see 
Kidron). Since then this has figured in most 
narratives of pilgrims and travellers. There is, 
however, nothing to support it ; and the name, 
t emeq, wh. signifies a wide vale, wd. not be applied 
to such a valley as the Kidron. If the name pointed 
to a literal valley, wh. is prob., there is now no clue 
to its identity. 

JEHOSHEBA (Jehoshabeath, 2 Ch. 22."), sr. 
of Ahaziah, w. of Jehoiada, and aunt of Jehoash 
(2K. II. 2 ). 

JEHOSHUA. 5^ Joshua. 

JEHOVAH (God), sacred name JHWH with 
vocalisation of adonai. The latter was substituted 



Jeh 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



symbolic name of Jrs. renewed and beautified, 
wherein J", shd. abide (Ek. 48. 35 ). 

JEHOVAH TZIDKENU (" J", is our righteous- 
ness "), the symbolic name of the k. who is to reign 
over Isr. when restored to their own land (Jr. 
23. 6 , &c). 

JEHU (poss. " ]". is he "). (i) S. of Jeho- 
shaphat, s. of Nimshi, founder of the 5th dyn. in 
Isr. J. belonged to Ahab's guard (2 K. g. 25 ), and 
rose under Jehoram to the rank of General. This 
k., when defending Ramoth Gilead agst. the 
Syrians, was wounded, and returned to Jezreel, 
leaving J. in command. A messenger fm. Elisha 
visited him in his tent and anointed him. He at 
once secured his acclamation as k. by the army, and 
set out for Jezreel. The story of his impetuous 
drive, his slaughter of Jehoram in the field of 
Naboth, the pursuit and death of Amaziah, and the 
fate of Jezebel, is vividly told in 2 K. 9. Seventy 
sons of Ahab's house in Samaria were done to death 
by J.'s order, and their heads, brought to Jezreel, 
made two ghastly heaps by the gate. All, great or 
small, who might be suspected of friendship for 
Ahab's family, were slain. The like fate overtook 
42 princes, " brethren " of Ahaziah, k. of Judah. 
All poss. rivals to the throne were thus cut off 
(2 K. io. 1 " 14 ). Coming to Samaria accompanied by 
Jonadab, J. guilefully ensnared the priests of Baal, 
and his worshippers. Having shut them up in his 
great temple, he sent his soldiers, who slew them to 
a man. The temple and its furniture were utterly 
destroyed. 

Personal ambition was doubtless the chief motive 
in J.'s career. His designs were assisted by the 
action of Elisha, who found in him an instrument 
for the overthrow of Baal-worship, and the baneful 
influence of Phoenicia in Isr. Resentment, deep 
and widespread, at the shameful murder of Naboth 
furnished occasion for successful appeal to popular 
passion agst. the house of Ahab. There is no reason 
to think that J. was much of a J". -worshipper him- 
self (2 K. io. 29 ), or that the murder of Naboth was 
to him more than a useful pretext for the further- 
ance of his views. 

That J. was cruel and unscrupulous is plain to see. 
A man of fierce energy ; swift and decisive in action; 
an able soldier and capable ruler ; his career is re- 
deemed by no touch of chivalry, nor by the more 
humane and generous elements wh. win affection. 

Friendly relations with Phoenicia being ruptured, 
it was necessary to seek some means of security agst. 
the Syrians. This J. found in alliance with the 
growing Asyr. power. The tribute he sent to 
Shalmaneser II. is figured on the black obelisk of 
that monarch (see pp. 300-1). Repeated invasions 
of the Asyr. brought the Syrians very low, leaving J. 
in peace and security. After b.c 839, however, 
these attacks fm. the N. ceased, and the Svrians, 



swiftly gathering strength, avenged themselves on 
Isr. by conquering the land E. of Jordan (2 K. 
io. 32ff -). J. reigned for 28 yrs. At his death he 
was buried in Samaria. 

JEHUD, a town named between Baalath and 
Bene-berak (Jo. 19. 45 ), prob. = el-Yehudiyeh, eight 
miles E. of Jaffa. 

JEHUDI (Heb. yehuil, " a Jew ") is the name of 
the princes' messenger who brought Baruch with 
the roll in wh. he had written Jeremiah's prophecies, 
to read to them (Jr. 36. 14 ). Afterwards, at the 
royal command, Jehudi read the roll before the 
king and the princes ; whereupon the king cut the 
roll in pieces and burned it (vv. 2iff.). 

JEPHTHAH, an illegitimate s. of Gilead. 
Driven fm. home by his brs., he went to the " land 
of Tob," and there, as leader of a guerilla band, 
gained the experience and repute wh. fitted him 
for the great part he was called on to play. The 
Gileadites, fearing an Ammonite invasion, having 
no capable leader, asked him to take command. 
Having bound them by oath to make him their 
" head and chief," he consented. In a remon- 
strance wh., curiously, refers more to Moab than to 
Ammon, he tried in vain to make the enemy with- 
draw. Battle being inevitable, J. vowed to sacrifice 
to J". " whoever " shd. come first fm. his door to 
meet him if he returned victorious. He triumphed 
completely, somewhere near Rabbath Ammon, and, 
returning, was stunned at the sight of his dr., his 
only, child, first issuing fm. the door to welcome the 
victor " with timbrels and dances." Infinitely 
pathetic is the brave acceptance of her fate by that 
heroic maiden. Two months were granted for 
bewailing her virginity. To die unwed and child- 
less was heavy grief. Then she died by her fr.'s 
hand. 

It is quite futile to argue that she was only con- 
demned to perpetual virginity. The lang. of the 
vow shows that J. contemplated a human sacrifice. 
Such offerings were known among the Hebs. (2 K. 
16. 3 ; Ek. 20. 26 , &c), as among other peoples (2 K. 
3. 27 ; cf. Wellhausen, Sktzzen, hi. H2f.). 

The Ephraimites' discontent and threat were 
met as we wd. expect by J. (Jg. 12. 1_8 ). Their in- 
ability to pronounce " sh " betrayed them to the 
swords of Gilead. Having ruled six yrs., J. died 
and was buried " in the cities of Gilead " — we shd. 
prob. tr. " in Ary of Gilead." 

Critics maintain the composite char, of the nar. ; 
but no satisfactory analysis is proposed. For Dr. 
Cheyne's interesting reconstruction see EB. s.v. 

JERAH, fourth s. of Joktan (Gn. io. 26 ). The 
Joktanites represent the S. Arabian tribes ; J. may 
be represented by Turilkh in Yemen. 

JERAHMEEL. (1) S. of Hezron (i Ch. 2. 9f -) ; 
his descendants, the Jerahmeelites, inhabited S. of 
Judah (i S. 27. 10 ). (2) A Levite, desct. of Merari. 



298 



Jer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



(3) S. of Hammelech (or " of the King ") sent to 
arrest Jeremiah (Jr. 36. 26 ). 

JEREMIAH, the most interesting personality in 
the hist, of Isr., nourished during the stirring times 
wh. preceded the fall of Jrs. and the captivity of the 
Jews. The bk. of J., wh. is made up of history, 
biography, and prophecy, reveals much of thepublic 
and private life of the prophet, and his life is conse- 
quently better known than that of any other prophet. 
The story of his chequered life is narrated fm. his 
call to the prophetic office to his sojourn in Egp. 
after the destruction of Jrs. We are impressed by 
the strong, unflinching attitude agst. evil wh. he 
everywhere displays, and all the more when we con- 
sider the fears and trembling with wh. he under- 
took the office imposed upon him, and his profound 
dislike of a position and a kge. wh. continually 
caused him to appear as the enemy of his own 
people, whom he deeply loved. When the " call " 
came, he shrank fm. it, saying, " Ah, Lord God, I 
cannot speak, for I am a child," but he obeyed the 
heavenly vision ; and though, again and again, he 
felt -a deep longing to be allowed to remain hidden 
and silent, he never failed to speak out his message 
when the strong word was needed. His own per- 
sonal experience gave the form to his teaching, and 
his continual introspection and examination of the 
workings of his own heart led him, the first of all the 
prophets, to give the heart of man its true pro- 
minence in religion. " ' Cast your idols of gold and 
your idols of silver to the moles and to the bats,' 
cried Isaiah. ' Cast your ark of the covenant, your 
Temple made with hands, your holy sacrifices, your 
sacred utensils and machinery — cast them all into 
the same dust-hole,' cried J." (A. B. Davidson). 

J. came of a priestly house, and belonged to 
Anathoth, a vill. a few miles north-east of Jrs. His 
call came in 626, a few yrs. before the reformation 
under k. Josiah, and the discovery of the Bk. of the 
Law in the Temple. J. had no illusions as to the nat. 
of this reformation, but he realised the danger of the 
people concentrating all their thoughts upon the one 
true Temple, thereby giving it a sanctity wh. was 
hurtful to the true religious spirit. He felt that the 
reformation did not go beyond externals. It was 
only a sowing among thorns, there was no deep 
ploughing of the ground (4~ 3 ). When Josiah fell in 
battle agst. Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo, in b.c 608, 
there was a speedy end of all the hopes of Judah. 
The event bewildered the people, for they thought 
they had been faithful to ]"., and yet He had not 
defended them agst. their enemies. J. declared 
that they had not been faithful to J", at all. They 
had trusted in lying words instead of amending their 
ways, and, in answer to their superstitious confi- 
dence in the Temple of the Lord, he prophesied 
that it wd. become desolate, even as Shiloh. 

Jehoiakim, who was made k. by Necho, after the 



death of Josiah, his fr., followed in the footsteps of 
Manasseh, and aroused the hostility of the fearless 
prophet. But the people were full of high hopes, 
secure under the protection of Egp., and proud of 
their young king. So long as the Temple stood they 
considered themselves safe, and they manifested 
their devotion by greater diligence in worship and 
in the keeping of fasts (36. 6 " 9 ). Soon, however, the 
supremacy of Egp. came to an end, and in the battle 
of Carchemish in b.c. 605, one of the decisive 
battles of the world, Nebuchadnezzar, son of the 
k. of Bab., defeated Pharaoh Necho, and gained the 
mastery over Syria and Judah. Jehoiakim now 
came under the Chaldean power, and paid tribute 
peacefully for three yrs. Jeremiah proclaimed 
Nebuchadnezzar to be the minister of J"., sent to 
punish the nation for sin, beginning with Jrs. His 
previous prophecies of evil had been fully justified, 
and the prophet now received the Divine command 
to write down what he had been declaring during 
the past yrs. His spoken word had seemed to all 
others the declaration of things wh. were wildly 
imposs., but now the fulfilment was at hand. For 
long he had believed that the instrument of Divine 
vengeance wd. come fm. the north, perhaps by the 
inroads of the wild Scythians, but now he saw that 
J".'s avengers were Nebuchadnezzar and the Chal- 
deans. J. hated the office of a prophet of evil upon 
the land he loved, but there was no escape. " I 
cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, 
O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of 
war " (4. 19 ). Yet he hoped that, if his words were 
now heard by the people with the light of their 
new experience upon them, they mt. listen and re- 
pent (36. 2, 3 ). The story is told in chap. 36. how 
the king destroyed the roll of his prophecies, and 
immediately ordered the arrest of J. and Baruch. 
They were not to be found, but J. dictated his 
prophecies once more to Baruch, " and there were 
added besides unto them many like words." These 
doubtless contained additions, made in the light of 
subsequent events, and this second edition forms 
the basis of the present Bk. of J. 

Jehoiakim, after three yrs., refused to pay tribute 
to the Chaldeans, trusting to the support of Egp., 
and in b.c 597 Nebuchadnezzar advanced in person 
agst. Jrs. Jehoiakim had died in the meantime, 
though we have no details of his death (but cp. 36. 30 ), 
and his son Jehoiachin had soon to surrender to the 
enemy. The young k. and 10,000 men, the best of 
the people, were carried off into Bab., and Zedekiah, 
the third son of Josiah, was set on the throne. 
Chap. 24. is addressed to these exiles, to encourage 
them to wait with patience. The Lord will re- 
member them in exile, and after seventy yrs. they 
shall return (25. 12 ). J. urged the king to submit 
quietly to the Chaldeans, but was fiercely opposed 
by the k.'s advisers, who considered his attitude 



299 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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300 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 




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The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser 
The second panel from the top on each of the sides represents the tribute of Jehu 

301 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



unpatriotic. Early in Zedekiah's reign there was a 
widespread rebellion agst. the k. of Bab., but under 
the influence of J. the k. refrained fm. participating 
in it. He opposed the false prophets, esp. one 
Hananiah, who encouraged rebellion, and he con- 
tinued to maintain that the fall of Bab., though 
cert., was yet far off (27., 28.). He continued to 
reiterate that, though Jrs. wd. be taken by the 
Chaldeans, God's gracious purposes with His people 
wd. not be ended. The days wd. come when the 
Lord wd. make a new covenant with Isr. and with 
Judah, a covenant written in their hearts (31. 31 " 40 ). 
As a sign of his confidence the prophet bought a 
field in his native vill. and took out all the legal in- 
struments to make it secure agst. the future (32. 6 " 15 ). 
Zedekiah, notwithstanding his adherence to 
Nebuchadnezzar, had to send messengers to Bab. 
to allay all suspicion, and J. took the opportunity of 
sending a letter to the captives in Bab., urging them 
to remain quiet and to distrust their false advisers 
(29.). Zedekiah was weak and shifty in char., and, 
though secretly inclined to favour J. and to believe 
in him, he allowed himself to be swayed by his 
opponents. On difft. occasions the k. consulted 
the prophet privately, but lacked resolution to act 
on his advice. He asked J. to pray for him (37- 3 ), 
and secretly inquired of the Lord through him 
(37. 17 ). At last, urged by his evil advisers and by 
the promises of help fm. Egp., Zedekiah rebelled 
agst. his over-lord. Jrs. was besieged by the 
Chaldeans for a yr. and a half, and during most of 
this time J. was subjected to the greatest indig- 
nities. Formerly he had been put in the stocks 
because of his prophecies of evil (20. 2 ), and narrowly 
escaped death (26. n ). For a time, at the beginning 
of the siege, some respect was paid to his utter- 
ances, but soon a new situation arose. An army 
came fm. Egp. to the help of Jrs., and the Chaldeans 
left the city to meet the new enemy (37- 5 ). All ex- 
cept J. looked upon this intervention as a deliver- 
ance by the Lord ; but the prophet knew there was 
no respite. While the besiegers were absent he set 
out for his native vill., but he was captured and 
accused of escaping to the Chaldeans. Though he 
repudiated the charge he was scourged and cast into 
prison, where he remained many days, afterwards 
being granted by the k. a milder imprisonment in 
the " court of the prison " (37.). Here he had 
access to the people, to whom he declared that 
their only safety was to be found in yielding to 
the Chaldeans. He was accused of treason by the 
princes, and the k., too weak to defend him, de- 
livered him into their hands. He was cast into a 
miry dungeon, where he wd. have perished but for 
the intervention of a negro servant of the court, 
who obtained permission fm. the k. to rescue him. 
He was again put in the court of the prison, where 
he remained till the city fell (38. 1-13 ). 



On the repulse of the Egyptians the siege had 
been renewed with fresh vigour. Zedekiah still 
sought private interviews with J., but saved him 
fm. the malice of the princes, by concealing fm. 
them the answers of the prophet, who reiterated his 
advice to the k. to make his peace with the enemy. 
Zedekiah was afraid to act upon the prophet's ad- 
vice, and in the end the city fell in B.C. 586, and the 
k. was taken captive and cruelly treated by the con- 
querors. J. was also taken prisoner and carried in 
chains to Ramah, but his attitude during the siege 
had become known to the Chaldeans, and he was 
given the choice of going with the exiles to Bab., or 
of remaining in the ruined city. He chose to re- 
main, and returned to Mizpah, to Gedaliah, the 
new governor. But the end of his troubles had 
not come. Gedaliah was assassinated by a band of 
adventurers, and though the party of the governor 
regained the upper hand, they were afraid to re- 
main in Jrs. to answer to the Chaldeans for their 
failure to preserve peace, and resolved to flee into 
Egp. They consulted J. as to their course, pro- 
mising to follow his decision, but when he advised 
them to remain they refused to obey, and, denying 
that he spoke in the name of J", at all, they carried 
him, sorely agst. his will, along with them (43. 2 ). 
This was " the most unkindest cut of all." From 
first to last the word of the prophet was discredited 
and despised, and the declaration of the will of ]"., 
wh. it cost his tender heart such intense agony to 
deliver, was looked upon as mere disloyalty to Judah, 
or as the false utterance of a godless prophet. In 
Egp. he had the misery of seeing his fellow country- 
men return openly to idolatry, and, on his remon- 
strating with them, they roundly declared that ]'' ' . 
had not been a Helper in the past, and now they 
wd. seek help fm. the " queen of heaven " (44. 16 " 19 ). 
Here he delivered his last message, declaring that 
the hand of J", wd. yet reach them even in this 
new land. Tradition says that he was stoned to 
death by his own people, who were enraged at his 
continued condemnation of their doings. 

" Like many of the world's greatest children, J. 
was little esteemed in his life, but when dead his spt. 
breathed out upon men, and they felt its beauty 
and greatness. The oppressed people saw for ages 
in his sufferings a type of itself, and drew fm. his 
constancy courage to endure and be true. Imagery 
fm. the scenes of his life and echoes of his words fill 
many of the psalms, the authors of wh. were like 
him in his sorrows, and strove to be like him in his 
faith. Fm. being of no account as a prophet he 
came to be considered the greatest of them all, and 
was spoken of as ' the prophet ' (Jn. I. 21, 25 ) ; and 
it was told of him how in after days he appeared 
in visions to those contending for the faith like 
an angel fm. heaven strengthening them " (A. B. 
Davidson). 



302 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



The Bk. of J. differs fm. the other prophetical 
bks. in the amount of biographical matter wh. it 
contains, a fact partly to be explained by the char, 
of the prophet himself, who makes known his own 
personal experiences, both in the inception and the 
delivery of his message. The bk. is the longest in 
the Bible, and is arranged without apparent plan. 
In the LXX we find a very difft. arrangement of the 
chaps., and many passages and phrases of the Heb. 
text are omitted altogether. The basis of the bk. 
is the collection of prophecies wh. J. dictated to 
Baruch in the yr. b.c 605. The prophet's descrip- 
tion of this collection shows that it contained a 
denunciation of the sins of Isr. and Judah, and pro- 
phecies agst. the nations ; and, in view of the known 
date at wh. the collection was made, the attempt is 
usually made to reconstruct it in its main features. 
It is quite evident, however, that the original roll 
has not come down to us as it was dictated to 
Baruch, but has been arranged by later hands. 
Therefore a chap., or a series of chaps., wh. is as- 
signed to a special date, may yet contain passages 
wh. break the connection, but wh. have been in- 
serted or rearranged for reasons wh. are no longer 
known. The original roll, wh. contains the pro- 
phecies belonging to the time of Josiah and Je- 
hoiakim, will be found in chaps. 1.-20., 25., 45. 
Chaps. 2 1. -29., with reservations, belong to the 
reign of Zedekiah. Chaps. 30.-33. seem to contain 
a separate prophecy of the restoration of Judah and 
Isr., placed by some after the fall of Jrs. Chaps. 
34.-45. are mainly biographical, and 46.-5 1. are 
concerned with the denunciations of the foreign 
peoples, Egp., the Phil., Moab, Ammon, Edom, 
Damascus, Kedar, Elam, Bab. The last chap, of 
the bk. is a historical appendix wh. seems to be 
taken fm. 2 K. 24. 18 -25. 30 . John Davidson. 

JERICHO, a Can. royal city about the site of wh. 
there has never been any doubt. It was on the border 
of Judah and Benjamin, belonging to the latter (Jo. 
16. 1 , 18. 12 , &c). Anct. J. stood by the fountain, 
l Ain es-Sultdn. Its position is marked by a mound 
with remains dating fm. Can. days, ij miles fm. 
mod. Eriha. It lay 900 ft. below the level of the 
Mediterranean, in a district wh., with ample irriga- 
tion, must have been a very garden of God. To 
the humble husbandry of to-day it responds v/ith 
singular generosity. 

J. was the first stronghold W. of Jordan taken by 
Joshua (Jo. 6.). Every living thing within was put 
to death, save the household of Rahab, who had be- 
friended the spies. The city was utterly destroyed, 
and a curse pronounced agst. the man who shd. re- 
store it. Fm. the spoil taken it must have been 
wealthy. It stood on the great avenue of com- 
merce, &c, fm. the E., wh. here entered the western 
uplands. It seems soon to have revived, although 
perhaps unfortified. It was known as " the city of 



palm trees," and was taken by Eglon of Moab (Jg. 
3. 13 ). It is mentioned as inhabited in 2 S. io. 5 . 
In Ahab's time Hiel rebuilt it, and endured the 
curse (1 K. 16. 34 ). Here dwelt a company of the 
" sons of the prophets " (2 K. 2. 5 ). The spring 
(v. 21) prob. denotes t Ain es-Sultdn, popularly 
known as the fountain of Elisha. Hither the cap- 
tives of Judah taken by Pekah of Samaria were sent 
back and kindly treated (2 Ch. 28. 15 ). Hard by 
the fugitive Zedekiah was captured (2 K. 25. 5 , &c). 
It was reoccupied after the Exile (Ez. 2. 34 ; Ne. 
7- 36 ), and the inhabitants took part in building the 
walls of Jrs. (Ne. 3. 2 ). In the Maccabaean war J. 
was fortified by Bacchides (1 M. 9. 50 ). Visited by 
Pompey, b.c 63 {Ant. XIV. iv. 1 ; BJ. I. vi. 6), it 
was honoured by Gabinius, who (b.c 57) made it 



■1 


^m 




- >-;----- /.■■■;•— .*![•->»«*•■ 




:/*•:.*- ■-.•c-" : - '•'"-- * 





Site of Ancient Jericho: Mound at 'Ain es-Sultan 

the place of assembly — i.e. the chief city — in the dis- 
trict, and the seat of one of the five councils wh. he 
set over the people {Ant. XIV. v. 4 ; BJ. I. viii. 5). 
When Antony gave the country to Cleopatra, Herod 
farmed fm. her the revenues of Jericho {Ant. XV. 
iv. 1,2). Later he greatly enlarged and beautified 
the city, building theatre, hippodrome, and amphi- 
theatre {Ant. XVII. vi. 3,5; BJ. I. xxxiii. 8). 
Traces of this city are still found between Eriha 
and the mountain S. of Wddy el-Qelt. 

Here Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus (Mk. io. 46 ; 
Lk. 18. 35 ; cp. Mw. 20. 29 ) and visited Zacchaeus 
(Lk. i 9 . lff -). 

Records of J. in subsequent times are meagre. 
Justinian built a church here and a hospice. Under 
the Arabs J. was a place of consequence (Guy le 
Strange, Pal. under the Moslems, index). The 
Crusaders assigned the revenues of the district to 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jrs., and, later, 
to support a convent in Bethany (Will, of Tyre, 
xi. 15, xv. 26). In these times the plain was rich in 
sugar-cane, palms, and bananas. Indigo also, and 
balsam {see Balm), were profitable articles of com- 
merce. 

Mod. Eriha is a squalid vill. on the N. lip of Wddy 



3°3 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



el-Qelt, about a mile fm. the foot of the mountain, 
consisting mainly of frail mud huts. There are 
several hotels for the accommodation of tourists, 
and a large hospice wh. shelters pilgrims of the 
Greek Church. An old tower hard by dates, prob., 
fm. Crusading times. The road to Jrs. enters the 
mountain by the gorge of Wddy el-Qelt, and passes 
upward through scenes of utter loneliness and deso- 
lation (Lk. io. 30 ). Along the edge of the plain are 
the ruins of old sugar-mills, and remains of anct. 
aqueducts. Jebel Quruntul, the traditional Mt. of 
Temptation, frowns over it fm. the W., pierced by 



He fortified Shechem and Penuel. To the latter he 
may have retired at Shishak's invasion (i K. 14. 28 , 
Karnak inscr.). To counteract the influence of Jrs. 
as the religious centre of the whole nation, he re- 
consecrated the anct. sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel, 
setting in each a golden calf (i.e. a representation of 
}". as a gilded bull), and instituted attractive re- 
ligious ritual. This it is that brands him with the 
infamy of having made Isr. to sin. 1 K. 13. tells of 
J.'s encounter with the prophet whose denunciation 
of the altar at Bethel, with its significance for his 
own house, failed to turn J. fm. his evil ways. 




Modern Jericho: Looking to the North 



many caves, still the haunts of eremites. E'ward, 
across the flat lands, and beyond the Jordan, rises 
the steep wall of Moab, while away to the S., in the 
mighty hollow between the mountains, is seen the 
haze that hangs over the Dead Sea. 

JEROBOAM. (1) S. of Nebat (1 K. n. 26 ). 
His industry commended him to Solomon, who 
made him overseer of the forced labour in Ephraim. 
The people were restless under the despotism of 
Solomon, and, incited by a prophecy of Ahijah 
(ll. 29ff -) J. attempted an uprising wh. failed, and he 
fled to Egp. The folly of Rehoboam produced 
popular exasperation wh. furnished J. his oppor- 
tunity. Returning fm. Egp., he was chosen k. with 
the consent of every tribe but Judah (chap. 12.). 



Ahijah foretold the doom of J.'s children, fm. wh. 
his s. Abijah was mercifully delivered by an early 
death (14. 1 " 18 ). Continually at war with Judah, J. 
does not seem to have achieved any great military 
success. He failed to establish a dyn., his s. Nadab 
being slain and succeeded by Baasha after a two 
years' reign. (2) S. of Joash k. of Isr., the fourth 
of Jehu's dyn. (2 K. 14. 23 ). A skilful warrior; 
under him Isr. attained its greatest success. Syr., 
weakened by repeated Asyr. invasions, he brought 
low, restoring the border of Isr. fm. the entering in 
of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah (2 K. 14. 25 ). 
This seems also to imply the conquest of Moab. 
Amos describes the conditions that flourished 
amid the prevailing peace and security — the gross 



3°4 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



idolatries, the wealth and luxury, the moral de- 
pravity and corruption, the oppression of the poor, 
and perversion of justice, in wh. his prophetic eye 
saw the heralds of swiftlv approaching doom (2. 6ff -, 
&c, <;. 27 , 6. 14 ; cp. Ho. 1.-3.). 

JERUBBAAL. See Gideon. 

JERUEL (2 Gh. 20. 16 ), the scene of the discom- 
fiture of Judah's foes. It is prob. the district NW. 
of En-gedi, in the direction of Tekoa. 

JERUSALEM. I. Name.— In later Heb. Teru- 
shalayim, perhaps originally Terushalem ; from 
Terush-shalem, " possession of Shalem." Shorter 
form Shalem, only in Ps. j6. 3 , Gn. 14. 18 . Whether 
Jebus (Jg. 19. 10 ; I Ch. 11. 4 ) really was its ancient 
name is doubtful. 

II. General Situation. — Jrs. is situated on the S. 
Palestinian plateau, at a point where the watershed 
curves to westward, itself belonging to the hydro- 
graphic sphere of the Dead Sea. Part of the 
higher land here sloped to the E., and the drainage 
flowed in that direction, breaking an opening thro' 
the spur of Olivet, not far SE. of Jrs. This 
hollowed out the valleys, wh. increasing in depth 
and steepness as they approach their common issue 
at the opening mentioned above (originally 1 929 
ft., now 1979 ft.), left between them the long and 
comparatively narrow spurs on wh. the city is built. 
The southern extremities of these low ridges, 
between the valleys, offered strong positions for 
human habitations, lacking in strength only on the 
N. In this direction they rise slowly, and finally 
unite in a slope which comes down fm. the western 
range (2717.2 ft.), higher than the Mt. of Olives. 

The surrounding country afforded sufficient 
ground for the cultivation of grain and fruit trees. 
Water was provided by the Gihon, a somewhat poor 
spring rising under theE. slope of the spur next to the 
Mt. of Olives, the mod. 'A in umm ed-Daraj. Water 
percolating thro' the soil, fm. the natural drainage 
of the whole area, was collected by En-rogel, mod. 
B~ir Eyub, at the issue of the system (see also 
Kidron). The position of the spring and the well 
pointed out the hill nearest them, i.e. the S. end 
of the spur W. of the spring and N. of the well, as 
suitable for human dwellings. There was on the 
top ample room for one of the small cities of 
Pal. at the time of the Israelite immigration. A 
larger population wd., however, find accommoda- 
tion on the S. end of the next spur to the W. This 
was further fm. the spring and the well ; but it had 
the advantage of stronger natural defences, having 
deep valleys on all sides, and being connected with 
the N. slope only by a narrow neck, wh. cd. be 
easily guarded. Further, the great highway fm. N. 
to S. passed here ; and the roads from E. to W. were 
more easily accessible fm. the South-west Hill than 
fm. the remote corner of the South-east Hill. The 
latter might become a local centre, and, perhaps, a 



fortress ; the former was fitted to be a market-place 
and political centre for a larger district. The con- 
nections with the N., S.,and W. were excellent; and 
it is important to note that, N. of the great barrier 
of the Dead Sea, the first possible road crossing fm. 
the fertile pains of Moab to the coast came this 
way. On the other hand it is true that a town on 
this site was too far S. to dominate the whole of 
Pal. ; and this Jrs. did only for a very short time. 
None of the great lines of commerce of the old 
world passed through her. On these stony moun- 
tains bordering the wilderness, neither trade nor 
agriculture cd. create a centre of culture like 
Damascus, capable of subjecting vast surroundings 
to its influence. Not the natural flow of history 
but the influence of great personalities, under 
Divine guidance, could have given to a city in such 
a position an importance, not for Pal. alone, but 
for the whole world. 

III. The Situation in Detail. — (a) The Valleys. — 
The main artery of natural drainage near Jrs. is the 
Kidron valley, on the E. It receives three tribu- 
taries fm. the W. : (1) a short valley in the N. 
coming fm. the NW., wh. may be called the Valley 
of Bezatha (see Bethesda) ; (2) a much longer 
valley, running at first parallel to the Valley of 
Bezatha, then bending to the S., with a slight 
deviation towards the W., called by Jos. the Cheese- 
makers' Valley * (by mod. writers, incorrectly, " the 
Tyropceon"). In the wide depression wh. forms 
the head of this valley Jos. (Ant. VII. x. 3 ; cp. I. 
x. 2) places the vale (or lowland) of the king 
(Gn. 14. 17 ; 2 S. 18. 18 ) ; prob. also the vale (or 
lowland) of Jehoshaphat (Jl. 3. 2 ' 12 ). It was 
the place where foreign hosts approached Jrs. fm. 
the N. ; hence the last gathering of her enemies 
is expected in this vale {cp. Is. 22. 7 ; Jr. 31. 40 ). 
The Cheesemakers' Valley receives, near the middle, 
a tributary fm. the W. wh. may be called the Valley 
of the Upper Pool (see below), because the 
biblical pool of this name marked its head. 
(3) Deeper than these two, further to the W., 
is a third valley, wh. runs at first fm. NE. to 
SW., then due S., and finally eastward again 
to join the Kidron immediately S. of the issue 
of the Cheesemakers' Valley. The Bible calls it the 
Valley of (the son of) Hinnom. The name prob. 
applied only to the southern part, now called Wady 
er-Rabbabi. Like many Palestinian valleys, it has 
at its head a wide depression, which collects the 
natural surface water, now gathered in Birket 
Mamilla. The Fuller's Field (Is. 7?, 36.2 = 2 K. 

* The name is suspicious. We shd. more likely find 
cheesemongers than cheesemakers in a city like Jrs. Accdg. 
to Sabb. 15a, it was a dwelling-place of weavers. Perhaps 
the real name was " Dung Valley," corresponding with that 
of the gate at the end, because refuse was thrown into it fm. 
both sides. Jos. may have felt warranted by 2 S. 17. 29 to 
translate shpoth (lit. " refuse" ) " cheese." 



3°5 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



18. 17 ) would be in this neighbourhood. At the 
confluence of the last two valleys with the Kidron, 
a great natural basin caused the accumulation of 
humus on a large scale, wh., with the water from 
the Gihon, formed admirable gardens for the culti- 
vation of vegetables. This unique garden-land, 
belonging at first to the Jebusite owners of the 
eastern spur and the spring, afterwards became 
royal property as " the king's gardens " (2 K. 25. 4 ; 
Jr. 39.*, 52. 7 ; Ne. 3. 15 ). Not far off to westward, 
at the exit of the Hinnom valley, the Tophet must 
have been, and southward, near En-rogel, the stone 

Of ZOHELETH. 

(b) The Hills. — Of the hill between the Kidron 
and the Valley of Bezatha, only in the latest times of 
old Jrs. was a small part included within the pre- 
cinct. In the days of Jos. it was the hill of " the 
Fuller's Monument " (BJ. V. iv. 2) . Of the highest 



hill, though even then much lower than the central 
eminence to the N. It may be called the South- 
east Hill. In ancient times the name Zion covered 
all the spur S. of Bezatha. The central part alone 
was called Ophel, " mound " (Mi. 4. 8 ), a name wh. 
later was confined to the southern end, outside the 
Sanctuary (Ne. 3. 26f -, II. 21 ; 2 Ch. 27?, 33.1 4 ). It 
was identified with Moriah (2 Ch. 3. 1 ). 

A second spur rising between the Cheesemakers' 
Valley and the head of the Vale of Hinnom also 
runs at first fm. NW. to SE., and then to the S. In 
the N. it resembles a long slope rather than a hill, 
falling fm. a height of 2630 ft. to 2510 ft. On the 
E. it drops into the Cheesemakers' Valley at its 
confluence with the Valley of the " Upper Pool." 
If, as we think, the North-east Hill was " the hill 
Gareb," then "Goa" (Jr. 31. 39 , RV. " Goah ") 
must have been the northern end of the western 




Jerusalem from Roof of Convent of the Sisters of Zion: Dome of the Rock and Mount of Olives to the Left 



importance, however, was the spur between the 
Cheesemakers' Valley and the king's vale on the one 
side, and the Valleys of Bezatha and Kidron on the 
other. It starts in the N. with the mod. hill of 
es-sahira (2549 ft.), now cut off fm. its southern 
continuation by a broad ditch. This ditch is the 
result of quarrying, wh. was carried into the in- 
terior of the hill to the S., forming a large grotto 
called by Jos. (BJ. V. iv. 2) " the royal caverns," or, 
as we shd. say, " the royal quarries " : a royal pro- 
perty, as might be expected, by the side of the king's 
vale. The continuation of the spur southward 
gradually sloped from a height of 2529 ft. to 2409 ft., 
where it was so narrowed by a western extension of 
the Valley of Bezatha that this part looked like an 
independent hill. It may be called the North-east 
Hill of Jrs. At the time of Jos. it was named 
Bezetha or Bezatha (see below) ; formerly, perhaps, 
it was the hill Gareb (Jr. 31. 39 ). S. of this con- 
striction lies the central part of the eastern spur, 
with a flat and almost even top (2419-2440 ft.), 
terminating at the edge of the Kidron valley in a 
steep declivity. To the SWS. it runs out in a long 
narrow slope, fm. 2300 ft. to 2100 ft., where it sinks 
into the deep valley of the Kidron. Accdg. to Jos. 
{Ant. XIII. vi. 6 ; BJ. V. iv. 1) this slope had once 
a summit of its own, appearing like an independent 



spur — the North-west Hill. Jos. (BJ. V. vii. 3, 
xii. 2) calls it " the camp of the Assyrians." Chris- 
tian tradition gives the special name of Golgotha 
to its western declivity. The southern part of this 
spur, the South-west Hill (2502), is more isolated 
than any other eminence of the two spurs. The 
broad area on its summit afforded ample room for 
a city. It was, we believe, the old site of Jrs., and 
had no other name. 

Of the mountains round Jrs. the most prominent, 
although not the highest, was the Mount of 
Olives (2664.8 ft.) on the E. It was not a single 
mountain, but only a lower summit of an extensive 
range, beginning at the watershed in the N. with 
a summit of 2735 ft. An outrunner to the W. 
(2686 ft.) was renowned as the spot whence the 
traveller fm. the N. obtained the first good view of 
Jrs. Jos. calls it Scopos, " look-out," " watchman " 
{Ant. XI. viii. 5 ; BJ. II. xix. 4, 7, v. 2, 3). In 
Heb. the name was bar batz-tzophim, " mount of 
the watchmen " (B. Makkotb, 24 15 , J. Moed Qatan, 
83 b , Siphre, ed. Friedmann, 8i a ). Gethsemane lay at 
the western base, and the mountain terminated to 
the S. in the low summit of Baten el-Hazva (241 1.4 
ft.) ; see Mount of Olives. The mountains to the 
W. belong to the range on the eastern spurs of wh. 
Jrs. is built. The range attains a height of 2717.2 ft. 



306 



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The spur running out to the S. bounding the upper 
part of the Valley of Hinnom on the W. falls to 
2647 ft. In the time of Christ the monument of 
Herod (i.e. the sepulchre of his family) was seen on 
the eastern slope of this spur (BJ. V. iii. 2, xii. 2). 
It was prob. the tomb, with remarkable rock-bases 
for monuments, wh. is now shown under this name. 
No name for this hill has come down to us. Jo. 15. 8 
refers to it as " the mountain that lieth before the 
Valley of Hinnom westward, wh. is at the uttermost 
part of the Vale of Rephaim northward." The 
watershed follows the spur, and then turns east- 
ward. A vill. stood here in the time of Christ called 
" the place of chickpeas " (Heb. Beth-aphuriim), 
prob. because the adjoining plain of Rephaim was 
the only place near Jrs. where that legumen was 
grown to advantage. S. of the lower part of the 
Valley of Hinnom the watershed rises to a point 
2548.9 ft. high, now called Jebel Deir Abu Thor. In 
Josephus' time it was known as " the camp of 
Pompey " (BJ. V. xii. 2). On its N. slope towards 
the Kidron was shown " the field of blood " (see 
Akeldama), and, lower down, the tomb of the High 
Priest Ananos (BJ. ib.), prob. the Annas of Lk. 3. 2 ; 
Jn. 18. 33 ; Ac. 4A The mountains around Jrs. 
were thus on three sides higher than the hills on wh. 
the city stood ; that on the S. being only of equal 
height. Through the great opening between the 
Mt.of Olives and Jebel Deir Abu Thor afar-reaching 
view is obtained over the Wilderness of Judaea, with 
the mountains of Moab, beyond the Dead Sea, on 
the distant horizon. 

IV. History. — When the Isr. entered Pal., Jrs. 
was the centre of a small kdm. (Jo. io. 1 ). Its sphere 
of influence apparently extended more to the S. and 
SW. than to the N. It was inhabited by Jebusites, 
who were subdued, but not driven out by the Isr. 
(Jg. I. 21 ). In Jo. i8. 16ff - (cp. Dt. 33. 12 ; Ne. II. 30 ) 
its territory is reckoned as part of the lot of Ben- 
jamin, the S. frontier of wh. made a circuit to in- 
clude it. Accdg. to Rabbinical tradition (B. Joma, 
I2 a ) the Sanctuary, excluding only the Temple 
house, was Judaean. For reasons already stated, the 
main portion of Jrs. must, at this time, be located 
on the SW. Hill. If the Jebusites dwelt here along 
with the Israelite rulers of the country, the SE. 
Hill was still in their exclusive possession. Had 
the city covered the whole of the SW. Hill to the 
bottom of the Cheesemakers' Valley, this small 
place, in its relatively low position, mt. have been 
called a suburb of Jrs. But at that time the city 
was confined to the summit of the SW. Hill ; and 
the SE. Hill was strong enough to bear a castle 
independently of Jrs. The supposition that this 
castle, " the stronghold of Zion " (2 S. 5. 7 ), might 
dominate Jrs., is without sufficient ground. Near- 
ness to the Gihon and to En-rogel was an advantage, 
but long ere this the Jerusalemites had certainly 



provided for water supply by means of cisterns and 
pools. In Maccabasan times foreigners who held 
the stronghold of Zion were able to molest visitors 
to the Temple ; but they never seriously threatened 
the owners of the city. 

David conquered the castle of Zion and made it 
his own city (2 S. 5. 7, 9 ) without entirely driving out 
the Jebusites (2 S. 5. 8 , corrected text,* 24. 16ff -). 

What he wanted was a fortress as a support for his 
kdm. further north than Hebron, and not too far fm. 
his own tribe. Jrs. was too large and populous to 
become a safe residence and military store-house for 
the new king. But the Jebusite castle, while not 
too strong to be captured, was strong enough to 
become the solid base of an intertribal kdm. 
David fortified it by a new wall (2 S. 5. 9 ), had a 
house built for himself (v. 11), and prob. also the 
" house for the mighty men " (Ne. 3. 16 ) — the bar- 
racks for his guards. At the S. declivity, within the 
city (2 K. 2. 10 ), " the sepulchres of David " (Ne. 
3. 16 ) were hewn in the rock ; prob. very plain rock 
chambers. At their entrance Herod erected a 
monument (Ant. XVI. vii. 1) wh. suddenly decayed, 
c. a.d. 132 (Dio Cassius, lix. 14). The place, well 
known in the time of the apostles (Ac. 2. 29 ), was 
afterwards forgotten. When Solomon built a new 
residence on the central summit of the Eastern Hill 
it was not owing to disregard of his fr.'s stronghold, 
for he strengthened it at a point wh. David had not 
sufficiently fortified, by building the Millo (2 S. 5. 9 ; 
I K. 9. 15 , II. 27 ; 2 Ch. 32. 5 ). This must have been 
a strong fort at the N. end of David's city, to wh. 
prob. even the harlm of David's palace had to give 
way (1 K. 9- 24 ). The new castle was intended to 
protect the new residence fm. the S., and to furnish 
a place of refuge in case of imminent danger. 

In David's time the central summit of the 
Eastern Hill was still used as a threshing-floor (2 S. 
24. 25 ). The wide space furnished ample room for 
a palace and a sanctuary, surrounded by spacious 
courts, as Phoenician architecture and royal splen- 
dour required. Here, higher up than the City 
of David (1 K. 9- 24 ), in seven yrs. Solomon com- 
pleted the building of the new Sanctuary, more 
glorious than the tent of the ark in David's City 
(2 S. 6. 17 ), over the spot already consecrated by 
David's altar (2 S. 24. 25 ). At a later time the place 
was associated with the offering of Isaac (Gn. 22. 14 ; 
cp. 2 Ch. 3. 1 ). Great artificial substructions were 
necessary to provide level areas for the various plat- 
forms required. In the days of Josephus it was 
believed that the central part of the eastern sub- 
structions, supporting the Sanctuary of that time, 
was the work of Solomon (Ant. VIII. iii. 9 ; XV. 

* " David said : Whosoever smiteth a Jebusite, toucheth 
his own neck ; the lame and the blind [as they pretend to 
be] are not hated of David's soul ; wherefore they say the 
blind and the lame [not being dangerous] may come into the 
house." 



3°7 



Jer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



xi. 3 ; XX. ix. 7 ; BJ. V. v. I ; Ac. 5. 12 ). If this be 
true, then traces of it are still to be seen here. 
Stones of ten cubits and eight cubits were used 
(* K. 7. 10 ). For the Temple itself and its history 
see Temple. Here it need only be said that it had 
an inner court of its own (1 K. 7. 17 ), and a great 
court in common with the royal residence (v. 12). 
Subsequently part of this latter was set apart as an 
" outer " (Ek. io. 5 ), or " new " (2 Ch. 20. 5 ) court of 
the Sanctuary. The inner court included the 
highest platform of the area ; the great court, widest 
towards the E., surrounded it ; containing also to 
the S. the royal residence. This was completed in 
13 yrs. (1 K. 7. 1 ), including the time occupied in 
building the great court and substructions. The 
residence consisted of an inner court called (1 K. 
y. 8 ) " the other court " (2 K. 20. 4 , correct text, 




Solomon's Stables 

" the middle court"), wh. contained the house of 
the king and the house of Pharaoh's dr. (1 K. 7. 8 ), 
i.e. the harlm of the palace. This court must have 
been to the S. of the Sanctuary, so that " there was 
but the wall " between them (Ek. 43. 8 ). At the 
entrance stood the throne-room, with the judgment- 
seat of the king (1 K. J. 1 ). This was approached 
thro' a larger pillared hall, of 50 to 30 cubits, with a 
porch (v. 6), evidently the waiting-room for the 
people who came to see the king, and for the 
watchmen of the royal guard. In the outer court 
the most conspicuous building was the House of the 
Forest of Lebanon, equal in size to the Temple, 
100 cubits long, 50 broad, and 30 high (1 K. 7- 2 " 5 ). 
The name was taken fm. the ground-storey, the 
ceiling of wh. rested upon 45 pillars of cedar in 
three rows. Above this were three storeys of store- 
rooms, prob. 64 in each storey, the rooms measuring 
fm. 6 to 12 cubits each. The Temple store-rooms 
were 5 cubits high (1 K. 6. 10 ). We may assume 
that these were of equal height. This leaves 15 
cubits as the height of the pillar hall. The whole 
building was designed as an armoury (1 K. io. 17 ; 
Is. 22. 8 ), the hall on the ground-floor being the 



show-room, where costly weapons were exhibited. 
Here also, perhaps, the soldiers assembled to receive 
their arms. Naturally only the most important 
parts of the residence are specified. We must con- 
ceive the whole as a bewildering complex of small 
rooms, galleries, and courts, grouped around the 
great courts. In the outer court there certainly 
were numerous store-houses, stables, offices, and 
other apartments. The enclosing walls of the great 
court consisted of three rows of hewn stones and one 
row of cedar beams. This means, not that the 
walls were only four rows in height, but that above 
every third row of stones there was laid a row of 
cedar beams, accdg. to an anct. method of strength- 
ening high walls. The new royal residence, includ- 
ing the Sanctuary, might be called a fortress. Its 
weakest point was in the N., although the Valley 
of Bezatha was a natural protection. The higher 
platform of the present Sanctuary (Haram) is more 
than large enough to accommodate Solomon's 
Temple and court ; while the area on the E. and 
towards the S. to a line drawn through the N. wall 
of the so-called Stables of Solomon, wd. afford 
ample room for the royal residence. One gate, 
" the gate of the footmen " (" runners," 2 K. 1 1. 19 ), 
or the " upper gate " (2 Ch. 23. 20 ), furnished direct 
communication between the residence and the 
Sanctuary. The " gate of the horses " (2 K. II. 16 ; 
Ne. 3. 28 ) was an entrance fm. without in the SE. 
The "gate of the guard" (Ne. 3. 31 , 12. 39 — the 
phrases are different) was in the N., while " the 
court of the guard," i.e. the prison (Jr. 32. 2 ' 8 * 12 , 
33. 1 , 37. 21 , 38. 6> 13 - 28 , 39- 14L ), was at the SE. corner 
of the outer court, near the gate of the horses (Ne. 
3. 25 ). " The gate Sur " (2 K. 19. 6 ), or " the gate of 
the foundation " (2 Ch. 23. 5 ), is perhaps only a 
mistake for " horse-gate." " The middle gate " 
(Jr. 39. 3 ) was perhaps the least gate of the inner 
Sanctuary (c-p. Ant. X. viii. 2). 

Another work of Solomon was the wall of Jrs. 
(1 K. 3. 1 , 9. 15 ). This might refer to the fortifica- 
tion of the city on the SW. Hill. But the chronicler 
makes Joab restore the rest of the city (1 Ch. II. 8 ). 
If he assumes, as does Josephus later (Ant. VII. iii. 
I, 2 ; BJ. V. iv. 2), that the wall uniting the SW. 
and SE. Hills was already in existence, it is not im- 
possible that it was Solomon who, by means of his 
wall, accomplished this union of Jrs. with the two 
royal residences on the Eastern Hill, and thus 
created Greater Jrs., wh. was his city. The new 
wall left the old city open and defenceless on the 
side towards the Eastern Hill with its two castles, in 
full accord with the line of inner politics followed 
by Solomon. The track of the wall described 
by Josephus as the first and oldest (BJ. V. iv. 2) 
will therefore follow the wall of Solomon. It is 
doubtful, however, if any of the remains excavated 
by Dr. F. J. Bliss (1894-97) really belong to it. 



308 



Jo- 



temple DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



According to the description of Josephus, and the 
remains found by Wilson, this wall started fm. the 
East Hill, exactly where the royal residence must 
have had its N. wall, towards the Sanctuary. It 
crossed the Cheesemakers' Valley, and ran almost 
straight westward, to the upper part of the Valley of 
Hinnom, leaving the Valley of the Upper Pool out- 
side. Here it bent sharply to the S., followed the 
edge of the valley to the point where it curves east- 
ward, descended the slope towards the issue of the 
Cheesemakers' Valley, and then turned northward 
to join the southern extremity of the wall of the 
City of David. In what way the E. wall of this 
stronghold was connected with the E. wall of the 
new residence we do not know. Some details of 
this " first " wall of Jrs. are known to us fm. the Bks. 
of the Kings and Nehemiah ; some of them, how- 
ever, may belong to later alterations in the time of 
the kings of Judah. The main N. gate wd. be that of 
Ephraim (Ne. 8. 16 , 12. 39 ), 400 cubits fm. the corner 
gate (2 K. I4_. 13 ),and consequently not farE. of "the 
pool of the patriarch's bath " in mod. Jrs. The wall 
between these gates was called " the broad wall " 
(Ne. 3. 8 , 12. 38 ), because it was more strongly built 
than the rest. This is easily understood. It had to 
protect the weakest point in the whole line of fortifi- 
cation. The corner was defended by the tower of 
the baking-ovens (Ne. 3. 11 , 12. 38 ), the predecessor of 
Herod's Hippicus. The baking-ovens of old Jrs. 
were in this vicinity. Here also must have been 
" the gate of the corner " (2 K. 14. 13 ; Jr. 31. 38 ; 
Zc. 14. 10 — not mentioned by Ne.), the west gate of 
the anct city. On the S. three gates are mentioned. 
" The gate of the valley " (Ne. 2. 13 - 15 , 3. 13 ) was the 
S. gate of oldest Jrs., but not so important as the 
W. gate, since, owing to the depth of the southern 
valley, the great road to the S. started fm. the latter. 
" The dung-gate " — better, " the gate of refuse " 
(Ne. 2. 13 , 3. 13f -, 12. 31 ), perhaps also called " the gate 
of potsherds " (Jr. 19. 2 ) — answered to the Cheese- 
makers' Valley, and gave the city on the SW. Hill 
an outlet towards En-rogel and the Wilderness of 
Judah. " The fountain gate " (Ne. 2. 14 , 3. 15 , 12. 37 ), 
not far fm. the last, led in the same direction, but 
belonged to the City of David. It was also called 
" the gate betwixt the two walls " (Jr. 39.*, 52. 7 ; 
2 K. 25. 4 ), prob. because a double wall here closed 
the Cheesemakers' Valley. The " stairs of the City 
of David " (Ne. 3. 15 , 12. 37 ) must have led up fm. 
this gate. Lower down, the royal wine-presses (Zc. 
14. 10 ) may have had their place. 

A suburb {mishne) is mentioned (2 K. 22. 14 ; Ne. 
II. 9 ; Zp. I. 10 ) as existing at least in the last days of 
pre-exilic Jrs. Part of it seems to have been called 
" the mortar," showing that it did not cover the 
hills N. of the old town ; although, as Jr. 3 1. 39 pre- 
supposes, extension was possible only in that direc- 
tion. " Another wall without " is referred to in 



the time of Hezekiah (2 Ch. 32. 5 ), and Manasseh 
" built an outer wall to the City of David on the W. 
side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in 
at the fish-gate ; and he compassed about Ophel " 
(2 Ch. 33. 14 ). Hezekiah's outer wall prob. protected 
the " suburb " in the N. corresponding to part of 
Nehemiah's N. wall (Ne. 3- lff -), and to the " second 
wall " of Jos. (BJ. V. iv. 2). Jos. says it began at 
the gate Gennath in the old wall, and ended at the 
castle of Antonia. We can best understand the 
clear distinction between the northern and southern 
parts of this wall if we take it as running fm. the first 
wall to the N., then turning sharply to the W. Fm. 
BJ. V. vi. 2, xi. 4 it appears that the point of de- 
parture in the W. was to the E. of the Upper Pool 
and not too near Herod's three greatt owers (see 
below). The anct. wall found N. of Herod's second, 
tower cannot, therefore, belong to the " second 
wall," wh. did not start fm. this tower. More pro- 
bably it is part of the " third wall," or it belongs to 
^Elia Capitolina. The direct object of the " second 
wall " was not to protect old Jrs. agst. assault fm. 
the N., but to secure the " suburb " in the middle 
part of the Cheesemakers' Valley, and to improve 
the connection of the city with the Sanctuary and 
the royal residence. Naturally, however, the W. 
wall of the suburb made it dangerous for an enemy 
to approach the N. wall of the city, and so added to 
its security. Manasseh's wall seems to have been a 
continuation of that existing in Hezekiah's time, in 
the interest of the royal residence. Solomon's wall 
was no longer deemed sufficiently strong. A second 
wall was therefore built lower down, perhaps be- 
ginning at David's city above the Gihon, following 
the valley, and crossing the narrow neck between 
the NE. Hill and the Hill of the Sanctuary, to join 
Hezekiah's wall. Here, at the NE. corner, near an 
important entrance to the Temple, there seems to 
have been another small suburb wh. required pro- 
tection. That the wall shd. end near the fish-gate 
is surprising, as no older wall cd. have terminated 
here. If the act. in Chronicles is correct, the wall of 
the suburb may originally have taken a curve, reach- 
ing the E. Hill further S. than Manasseh's wall. 
Nehemiah's restoration seems to have followed the 
line of Hezekiah and Manasseh. His description 
(Ne. 3. lff -) points to this outer wall. It would begin 
ontheE. with the water-gate (Ne. 8. 26ff -, I2. 37 )leading 
down to the Gihon. It was necessary to make two 
inward curves and one outward corner in order to 
surround the southern end of Ophel and join the E. 
wall. At the corner a tower projecting fm. the 
royal residence strengthened the position. The 
road fm. the horse-gate, wh. already belonged to the 
residence {see above), joined that fm. the water-gate, 
and crossed the Kidron to the NE. towards the Mt. 
of Olives and the Jordan. The east gate (Ne. 3. 29 ) 
prob. only belonged to the Sanctuary. The E. wall 



3°9 



Jer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



of Ophel ended towards the N. in a corner provided 
with an upper chamber (Ne. 3. 31 ) — a kind of tower. 
Here, at the Valley of Bezatha, it turned to the W. 
or NW., ascending the E. spur. The sheep-gate 
(Ne. 3. 1 ' 32 , 12. 39 ), wh. may be identd. with the gate 
of Benjamin (Jr. 37. 13 , 38.? ; Zc. 14. 10 ), was the N. 
outlet of the E. Hill, with roads leading to the N. 
and to the E. The towers of Hammeah, " the 
hundred " (perhaps permanently occupied by a 
guard), and Hananeel (Ne. 3. 1 , I2. 39 ; Jr. 31. 38 ; 
Zc. I4. i0 ), strengthened the wall at its weakest 
point, where it was overlooked by the ascent of the 
NE. Hill. Then came the fish-gate (Ne. 3. 3 , 12. 39 ; 
Zp. i. 10 ; 2 Ch. 33. 14 ), evidently the N. gate of the 
suburb, whence issued important roads to the N. 
and NW. We shd. prob. look for it at the point 
where the wall crossed the Cheesemakers' Valley. 
Some believe that the W. gate of the suburb was 
" the gate of the old [wall] " (Ne. 3. 6 , 12. 39 , where 
prob. we shd. supply " wall "), poss. also called the 
former gate (Zc. 14. 10 ). The name wd. be most 
appropriate for a gate in the N. wall of oldest Jrs., 
called by Jos. " the old wall" (BJ. V. iv. 2, 4). 
This gate wd. then be ident. with the " gate of 
Ephraim " mentioned in Ne. T2. 39 as beside " the 
gate of the old," one or other of wh. wd. therefore 
require to be cancelled. In any case the gate of 
Ephraim, wh. must have been the N. gate of the old 
city, wd. be the point at wh. Hezekiah's " outer 
wall " started fm. the old wall, and must be identd. 
with Josephus' gate Gennath (BJ. V. iv. 2), 

In the time of Nehemiah at least, there were 
open spaces within the walls near the gate of 
Ephraim (Ne. 8. 6 ) and at the water-gate (Ne. 8. 1 , 
3. 16 : this place may be intended by beth merhaq — 
read beth merhab — in 2 S. 15. 17 ) ; that is, near the 
principal gates of both parts of the city. Market 
streets cd. not be wanting. A bakers' street is 
mentioned (Jr. 37. 21 ). But also the craftsmen and 
the locksmiths (2 K. 24. 16 ), even the potters (Jr. 
18. 2 ), the perfumers (Ne. 3. 8 ), and fullers (Is. J. 2 ), 
wd. have their own streets. The foreign merchants 
and the goldsmiths had their quarters in the suburb 
(Zp. I. 11 ) ; later, near the sheep-gate (Ne. 3. 31ff -)« 
It is very prob. that one street connected the gate of 
the valley with the gate of Ephraim, another the 
dung-gate with the fish-gate, both crossed by a 
street running from the gate of the corner, over the 
open place at the gate of Ephraim, towards the 
Sanctuary and the royal residence. In mod. Jrs. 
there are streets corresponding with these, although 
not always in the same positions. In the time of 
the kings the whole city, except the residence, was 
under one governor (2 K. 23. 8 ; 2 Ch. 34. 8 ) : in 
Nehemiah's time it was divided into two districts 
(Ne. 3. 9 - 12 ). 

Fm. Jo. i8. 16ff - we may infer that the territory of 
Jrs. was limited in the S. to the Valley of Hinnom. 

3 



Its chief olive and fig land must have been to the N. 
as Jos. (BJ. V. ii. 2, hi. 2) assumes, round the king's 
vale. Here was Absalom's monument (2 S. 18. 18 ). 
In this direction also may have lain Uzza's garden 
with Manasseh's tomb (2 K. 21. 18 ). 

The City of David and Solomon was destroyed, 
B.C. 587, by Nebuchadnezzar. All houses were 
burned, and the walls broken down (2 K. 2^. 9S -). 
Zerubbabel and Joshua, B.C. 519-515, restored the 
Sanctuary (Hg. I. 12 ; Zc. 4.° ; Ez. 5. 6 ), and Nehe- 
miah, B.C. 445, the outer wall in 52 days (Ne. 3.*, 
6. 15 ). The mention of the house of the mighty 
men, the armoury, the upper house of the king, and 
the court of the guard (Ne. 3. 16 ' 19 * 25 ) shows that, 
of the old buildings in David's City and Solomon's 
residence, much had been preserved, and prob. re- 
stored, before Nehemiah came. When the N. wall 
of the SW. Hill was restored is unknown. It may 
have been done by the High Priest, Simon II. (died 
B.C. 198), who also fortified the Sanctuary anew 
(Sir. I. 3 ; cp. Ant. XII. iii. 3). At the same time 
the Egyptians occupied a castle in Jrs. In 168 b.c 
the Syrians strengthened it with a new wall, and 
held it until 142. 1 M. I. 33 , 7. 32 , 14. 36 leave no 
doubt that the Akra (Heb. haqrd [Meg. Taan.] ), a 
stronghold used agst. the Jews, was the old City of 
David. This was the reason for completely forti- 
fying the Sanctuary (i M. 4. 60f> , 6. 7 , io. 11 , 12. 37 , 
13. 52 ). At this time prob. the remains of Solomon's 
residence disappeared. A wall was built on the E. 
of the SW. Hill to protect it agst. the Syrian castle 
(1 M. 12. 36 ). To this wall prob. belonged the gate 
at the bridge wh. connected the upper city with the 
Temple (BJ. VI. vi. 2). It may not have been the 
Hasmonaean Simon, as Jos. pretends (Ant. XIII. 
vi. 7 ; BJ. I. ii. 2, iv. 1 ; but cp. 1 M. I3. 50L ), but 
his s., John Hyrcanus I. (135-105), who found it 
necessary not only to destroy the Akra, but to lower 
the hill, so that it mt. no longer, in foreign hands, 
prove a danger to Jrs. The top of the hill was cut 
away, the Cheesemakers' Valley being filled with the 
debris. Simon had already made the Sanctuary his 
residence (1 M. 13. 52 ). His son replaced the towers 
Hammeah and Hananeel in the N. by a new castle, 
called Baris (Ant. XIII. xi. 2, xvi. '5 ; XIV. i. 2, 
iv. 2; XV. xi. 4; XVIII. iv. 3 ; BJ. I. iii. 3, v. 4), wh. 
Aristeas describes as garrisoned by 500 men ; and 
here the vestments of the High Priest were usually 
kept (Ant. XV. xi. 4). . The castle was an annex of 
the Sanctuary, secured on the E. by the Valley of 
Bezatha, and severed fm. the NE. Hill by a broad 
ditch (Ant. XIV. iv. 2 ; BJ. V. iv. 2), wh. is still in 
existence, although not so deep as was formerly 
supposed. It served also as an approach to the 
sheep-gate. Another ditch, supposed to run be- 
tween the castle and the Sanctuary, is doubtful. 
The royal residence proper, however, was not here, 
but on the E. edge of the SW. Hill, connected with 



Jer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



the Sanctuary by a bridge (see above) wh. spanned 
the Cheesemakers' Valley {Ant. XIV. iv. 2 ; BJ. I. 
vii. 2). Fm. the palace, wh. was on a level with the 
highest part of the Sanctuary, a good view was ob- 
tained of all that was going on there {Ant. XX. 
viii. II ; BJ. II. xvi. 4). Its position also secured 
control of the old city. It is first mentioned in the 
time of John Hyrcanus II., B.C. 6j {Ant. XIV. i. 2 ; 
BJ. I. vi. 1), but it may have been the work of John 
Hyrcanus I. This palace was afterwards given to 
the Herodian family, when their own royal seats 
were taken by the Romans. Herod Antipas resided 
here when Jesus was sent to him by Pilate (Lk. 
23. 6ff -) ; Agrippa I. when he killed James, and put 
Peter in prison (Ac. 12. 2 " 4 ) ; and Agrippa II. when 
he tried to prevent the Jewish rebellion {BJ. II. 
xvi. 3). It was destroyed by the insurgents, a.d. 66 



fore, naturally detested (Ant. XVII. vi. 2 ; BJ. I. 
xxxiii. 2). The Sanctuary was not only enlarged by 
Herod, but also adapted to Hellenic taste. Hellenic 
art and comfort were introduced in his palace, 
castles, and towers ; while the old Phoenician style 
of building with huge stones was retained in the 
substructions. 

Herod's first great work was the construction of a 
new castle wh. he called Antonia {Ant. XV. viii. 5, 
xi. 4, 7 ; XVIII. iv. 3 ; BJ. I. xxi. 1 ; V. v. 8), on the 
site of the Baris. It was square, with towers at the 
corners, of wh. those nearest to the Sanctuary were 
highest. The castle, wh. projected into the NW. 
corner of the sacred enclosure {BJ. V. v. 2; VI. v. 4 ; 
cp. VI. ii. 7), stood in immediate connection with 
the outer cloisters, making it easy to line them with 
soldiers ; but it was not easily accessible fm. the 




Jerusalem from S.E. Angle of City Wall, showing Temple Area : Mosque of Aqsa on the Left, Dome 
of the Rock in Centre, and Kidron Valley with Road to Jericho to the Right 



{BJ. II. xvii. 2). In the time of the High Priest 
Jason (b.c 174-171), a gymnasium (1 M. I. 14 ) was 
built just " below the castle," in the Cheesemakers' 
Valley (2 M. 4. 12 ). The statement as to the position 
seems incorrect, as we afterwards find a " Xystos " — 
the designation of covered halls connected with a 
gymnasium — higher up in the same valley, just 
below the crossing of the " old wall," at the bridge 
leading to the Sanctuary {Ant. XX. viii. II ; BJ. 
II. xvi. 3 ; V. vi. 2 ; VI. iii. 2, vi. 2, viii. 1). This 
place was certainly no longer used for gymnastics, 
but rather resembled a forum, having on the W. 
the palace of the Hasmonaeans, and on the E. the 
Council Hall {BJ. V. iv. 2 ; VI. vi. 3), where it was 
resolved to deliver Jesus to Pilate (Mw. 27. 1 ; Mk. 
15. 1 ; Lk. 22. 66ff -) ; where Peter and John (Ac. 4. 5 ), 
Stephen (Ac. 6. 7 ), and Paul (Ac. 23.) were examined. 
Stairs led fm. the Xystos up to the Sanctuary {BJ. 
II. xvi. 3). The public archives probably were in 
the neighbourhood (BJ. II. xvii. 6 ; VI. vi. 3). 

Even before the time of the Hasmonaeans, the 
influence of Hellenic art must have been very visible 
in Jrs. Herod lent himself to its promotion. Re- 
presentations of the human figure were avoided, but 
those of animals were common (Tos. Ab. Z., V. 2 ; 
J. Ab. Z., 42°). The golden eagle placed by Herod 
in the Temple was an idolatrous symbol, and, there- 

3 



Sanctuary. The Jews set fire to it at the outbreak 
of the insurrection {BJ. II. xvii. 7). This Jos. re- 
gards as a bad omen {BJ. VI. v. 4), poss. referring 
to Dn. c;. 27 , and interpreting it " and on a corner 
one destroys abominations " (AV. " for the over- 
spreading of abominations he shall make it deso- 
late "). It was finally demolished by the Romans 
(BJ. VI. ii. 1, 7 ; VII. i. 1). In this castle the 
apostle Paul was a prisoner (Ac. 21. 34 , 22. 24 , 23. 26 ). 
Another castle was built by Herod at the weak 
point in the defence of old Jrs. in the NW. The 
tower of the furnaces (or " bakers' ovens " — see 
above) was replaced by a row of three unusually 
strong and high towers, Hippicus, Phasael, and 
Mariamne {BJ. V. iv. 3, 4). Hippicus, also men- 
tioned in Tg. Jn. 31. 37 ; Zc. 14. 10 , stood at the 
corner of the city (BJ. V. iii. 5) ; but Phasael was 
the strongest, resting on a solid cube of masonry of 
40 cubits, wh. is poss. still preserved in the substruc- 
tion of the so-called Tower of David, a solid block 
measuring 68 ft. by 56 ft., and 56 ft. high. These 
towers, built in the city wall, also protected a 
palace, finished B.C. 23, designed as the residence of 
the king ; the dwelling-houses, gardens, ponds, &c, 
were enclosed by a special wall with towers, and 
connected with barracks (Ant. XV. ix. 3 ; BJ. II. 
xv. 5, xvii. 8 ; V. iv. 4). The old gate of the corner 
11 



Jer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



was replaced by one near Hippicus (BJ. V. vi. 5), 
prob : the same by wh. an aqueduct entered the city 
(ib. vii. 3). How this gate was made accessible fm. 
the town is not known. At the W. front of this 
castle was an open space, where Gessius Florus, 
the Rm. Procurator, erected his judgment-seat 
(BJ. II. xiv. 8). Prob. here also the judgment- 
seat of Pilate was placed (BJ. II. ix. 4 ; Mw. 27. 19 ; 
Jn. 19. 13 ) ; see Gabbatha. Herod's palace wd. 
therefore be Pilate's praetorium, where Christ spent 
the morning before His crucifixion (Mw. 27. , 27 ; Mk. 
15. 16 ; Jn. 18. 28 ). As a Hellenistic town cd. not be 
without places of amusement, Herod built a theatre 
(Ant. XV. viii. 1), intended also for athletic com- 
bats and wild beast fights (alluded to, Tos. Eduj. 
iii. 2 ; J. Shek. 51*; B. Men. I03 b ), and therefore 
more a circus than a theatre. The same edifice 
may be meant by the Hippodrome (Ant. XVII. x. 
2 ; BJ. II. iii. 1, ix. 3), S. of the Sanctuary, prob. 
in the Cheesemakers' Valley ; while " the amphi- 
theatre in the plain " (Ant. XVII. x. 2) is evidently 
the Hippodrome at Jericho (Ant. XVII. vi. 5, viii. 2 ; 
B.J. I. xxxiii. 6 ; cp. xxxiii. 8). 

For Herod's restoration of the Temple, b.c. 19-12, 
see Temple. Here we need only note that he added 
considerably to the strength of its fortifications. 
The extension of its substructions to the S. and to 
the N. made an assault fm. these sides very difficult. 
In its last days, John of Gischala built four towers ; 
one at the NE. corner, another at the gate in the W. 
leading to the bridge, a third at the SE. corner, and 
a fourth over the " store-rooms," wh. must have 
been near the SW. corner, as fm. this place the 
Sabbath was announced to the inhabitants of Jrs. 
(BJ. IV. ix. 12). The NW. corner was already 
fortified by the Antonia. At the NE. corner of 
the upper town a tower was erected by Simon Bar 
Giora (BJ. VI. viii. 1). 

Greater Jrs., before its destruction, consisted of 
four parts. The Upper Town, usually called the 
Upper Market (Heb. hash-shuq hd-'elyon : Shek. 
viii. 1 ; Tos. Sank. xi. 14), was oldest Jrs. (BJ. V. 
iv. 1) : the Lower Town, or Akra, was the former 
City of David (BJ. I. i. 4; II. xvii. 5 ; ; IV. ix. 12; V. 
iv. I, vi. 1 ; VI. vi. 3, vii. 2, viii. 1), still at that time a 
noble quarter, with the palaces of the royal family of 
Adiabene (BJ. IV. ix. II; V vi. I; VI. vi. 3). Even 
after the destruction of the castle, the name Akra 
remained in use. The New City evidently means 
the quarter between the old and the second wall 
(BJ. II. xix. 4 ; V. viii. i, xii. 2), and wd. be the 
Lower Market (Heb. hash-shuq hat-tahton : Tos. 
Sanh. xi. 14), altho' not so called by Jos., because 
the bazaars of the wool-dealers, and blacksmiths, 
and the clothes stores (BJ. V. viii. 1), prob. also the 
timber merchants (BJ. II. xix. 4), were there. 
Markets of the wool-dealers and of the perfumers 
are mentioned in Tim. B. Erub, I0l b . The fourth 



part of Jrs. was called Bezetha, a name wh. originally 
applied only to the quarter on the NE. Hill (BJ. II. 
xv. 5, xix. 4 ; V. iv. 2, v. 8). Jos. says (BJ. V. iv. 2) 
that " Bezetha " may be trd. " New City " ; and 
calls this quarter a portion of the New City (BJ. V. 
v. 8), and that in the north part of the Cheese- 
makers' Valley the Lower New City (BJ. V. xii. 2). 
He even extends the name New City to a place W. 
of the second wall, on wh. there were only scattered 
buildings. 

Josephus' trn. of Bezetha (other rdgs. " Bezatha," 
" Bethaza ") is imposs. It is = either bezetha, 
" place of olives," or beza'ta, " section." Jewish 
tradition (Tim. J. Sanh. 19*; Tos. Sanh. iii. 4 ; B. 
Shebu. l6 a ) speaks of two " sections " (Heb. hi fin) 
in Jrs., the lower of them being sanctified before the 
Exile ; the other (the higher), at the weak point of 
Jrs., after it. The sing, of bis' in wd. be bis'd, Aram, 
det. beza'td or bezeHa. The lower beza'td wd. 
be the pre-exilic " suburb " ; the higher, Josephus' 
Bezetha. To protect the new, wh. was also the 
weakest part of Jrs., Agrippa I. (a.d. 41-44) began to 
build a wall (Ant. XIX. vii. 2 ; BJ. II. xi. 6 ; V. iv. 2) 
wh. was finished by the insurgents, a.d. 66-69 (BJ- 
V. iv. 2). This wall, fm. the NW. corner of the 
Upper Market, ran northward to the high octa- 
gonal tower, Psephinus, where it turned to the W. 
Crossingthe royal caverns, prob. = themod. "cotton 
grotto " (more correctly " linen-dealers' grotto " — 
see above), it turned again at another tower, and 
joined the old wall, evidently at the NE. corner of 
the Sanctuary (BJ. V. iii. 5, iv. 2, 3). Of the 
various theories as to the course of this wall the 
most prob. is that, on the whole, it followed the line 
of the N. wall of mod. Jrs. The Psephinus must 
then be sought at the NW. corner of the present 
city ; and the Fuller's Monument, wh. Jos. places 
at the opposite corner, perhaps at Bnrj Laqlaq, 
within the walls. The two Towers of the Women 
protected the principal gate to the N. (BJ. V. ii. 2, 
iii. 3), to wh. the present Damascus gate must 
correspond. On the Western Hill, as far as it was 
included, there were perhaps more olive gardens 
than houses. This is why the N. gate of the old 
city was called " Gennath " (BJ. V. iv. 2), wh. can 
be explained only by the Heb. ginnd, pi. ginnotb, 
appearing in Aram, as ginndth, " the garden gate." 
Here, opposite the old city, naturally part of the 
necropolis of Jrs. was found. The tomb of King 
Alexander Jannaeus in the N., and that of the High 
Priest John (prob. not Hyrcanus) in the W., were 
the most prominent monuments. The refuse of 
Jrs. cd. no longer be thrown into the Cheesemakers' 
Valley, adorned as it was with important buildings. 
Jos. speaks of a place at the SE. corner of the old 
city wall, called Bethso, or Besou, wh. means " place 
of filth " (Heb. bet tzod : BJ. V. iv. 2). That near 
by the S. gate of the old city was now called the 



312 



Jer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



gate of the Essenes (BJ. V. iv. 2), prob. because 
their haunts were in the southern wilderness. The 
priests' gate, E. of the Sanctuary {Cant. R. 2, 9), 
would be the predecessor of the present Golden 
Gate. A synagogue of the Alexandrians is men- 
tioned in Tos. Meg. 3 b ; Tim. J. Meg. 73 d ; cp. 
Ac. 6. 9 . The synagogue of the Tarsians (Tim. B. 
Meg. 26 a ) reminds us of the apostle Paul. The 
house of John Mark (Ac. 12. 12 ), as the first Christian 
church, was believed to have survived the destruc- 
tion of Titus. It was shown on the site of the 
present Ccenaculum, in the Upper Town of old 
Jrs., and the rose garden within the town was re- 
garded as a singular curiosity (Maaser. ii. 5 ; Tim. 
B. Bab. k. 82 b ). 

Jos. exaggerates the population of the city de- 
stroyed by the Romans : 1,100,000 souls are said to 
have perished during the siege, 40,000 retained their 
freedom, and, of the captives, 18,000 died (BJ. VI. 
viii. 2, ix. 2, 3). This points to a population of over 
1,200,000. If we compare this with the present 
population of Jrs., we have within the walls, at most, 
40,000 ; adding about half that number for the 
district now outside the walls, we get somewhere 
near 55,000 souls for a very crowded area. As 
old Jrs. was not densely occupied in all parts, a 
fair estimate for its later days wd. be 45,000 to 
50,000 : perhaps 30,000 more than in the time of 
Solomon. 

After the destruction, Titus stationed the tenth 
legion in the NW. part of the old city (BJ. VII. 
i. 1, 2). As military encampments were square, we 
may assume that it occupied the site of the SW. 
quarter of mod. Jrs., cut off by a line from the Jaffa 
gate to the first market street, and following its 
prolongation southward. JElia. Capitolina, built 
by Hadrian after a.d. 135, covered the whole area of 
the present city. The camp of the tenth legion 
became one of the seven quarters of the new city. 
The Cardo (principal street) ran fm. the Damascus 
gate to the site of the mediaeval south gate. The 
two Decumani corresponded to the street fm. the 
Jaffa gate to the Sanctuary, and fm. the mediaeval 
gate near the NW. corner, to the present Gate of the 
Tribes. The NE. corner of the city formed the 
seventh quarter. 

The main buildings were two public baths, a 
theatre, a triple arch (prob. the present Arch of 
Ecce Homo), a four-sided Nymphaeum, with foun- 
tains, perhaps at one of the principal street cross- 
ings ; a place with twelve gates, formerly called 
" stairs," wh. prob. means the area of the Temple 
with the stairs to the inner Sanctuary ; and a square 
(kodra), perhaps the higher platform of the Sanc- 
tuary. All this we know fm. the Chronic on P as c hale, 
wh., however, does not mention the temple of Jupi- 
ter, on the site of the old Temple (Dio. Cass.), nor 
the temple of Venus over against it, W. of the Cardo, 



between the two Decumani (Eusebius, Fit. Const.), 
nor the praetorium (Hieron.). 

For water supply Jrs. must at first have depended 
solely on the Gihon and En-rogel. Various at- 
tempts were made to render these waters more ap- 
proachable by artificial means (see Gihon, Shiloah, 
En-rogel). As the population increased, it became 
necessary to collect the rain-water in cisterns and 
pools. For this purpose the City of David had 
" the pool that was made " (Ne. 3. 16 ) with a very 
doubtful name, wh. shd. prob. be corrected to " the 
pool of Asaiah." In Hezekiah's time, besides the 
conduit of Shiloah, special efforts were made to 
have water stored up within the walls. A pool was 
constructed between the two walls for the water of 
the " old pool," wh. is also called the " lower pool " 
(Is. 22. 9 ; 2 K. 21. 20 ); see Shiloah. Hezekiah's 
new pool, called " the king's pool " (Ne. 2. 4 ), " the 
pool of Shiloah " (Ne. 3. 5 , correct text), "the pool of 
Solomon " (BJ. V. iv. 2), was at the southern issue 
of the Cheesemakers' Valley : the " old," or " lower 
pool," prob. a little higher up in the same valley. 
" The upper pool " (Is. J. z , 36.2), wh. was perhaps 
connected with the lower pool by a conduit, may be 
found at the head of the side branch of the Cheese- 
makers' Valley, N. of the old city, in the pool 
Amygdalon of Jos. (BJ. V. xi. 4) — prob. Heb. 
berekath hammigdal, " pool of the tower," because 
of its nearness to one of Herod's great towers 
(Mariamne) ; perhaps also intended by the " pool 
of the heifer " (Tg. Jr. 33. 38 ) ; the present " pool of 
the patriarch's bath." We can hardly conceive 
this pool without a conduit such as now feeds it fm. 
Birket Mamilla on the W. This latter is not old in 
its present shape ; but its predecessor may have 
been the " end of the conduit of the upper pool " 
(Is. 7. 3 ), and perhaps the serpent pool of Jos. (BJ. 
V. iii. 2) ; if indeed this last is not to be identd. 
with the much smaller predecessor of the present 
Birket es Sultan, W. of the old city. 

The Sanctuary was provided with many cisterns. 
The large pool sunk by Simon (Sir. 50. 3 ) was poss. 
one of the largest. The present Birket Israin, N. 
of the Sanctuary, belonged to iElia Capitolina. 
Of greater antiquity, prob., is the pool further to 
the N., part of wh. has been found again. Useful 
to the inhabitants of the quarter Bezetha, it mt. 
prob. be called the pool of Bezatha — prob. the 
correct rdg. in Jn. 5. 2 (see Bethesda). Baris and 
Antonia were supplied fm. the pool, now changed 
into a double cistern, below the house of the Sisters 
of Zion, wh. must have been the strouthion, or 
sparrow-pool of Jos. (BJ. V. xi. 4). It is connected 
with a conduit coming fm. the moat, E. of the 
present Damascus gate ; a second conduit carried 
the overflow towards the Sanctuary. The letter of 
Aristeas distinctly mentions a conduit leading water 
to the Sanctuary. 



313 



jes 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jes 



Pilate was prob. the first to lead spring water into 
the city, making use of works begun by Herod to 
bring water to his castle, Herodium {Ant. XV. 
ix. 4). The length of the conduit Jos. gives in Ant. 
XVIII. iii. 2 as 200 stadia ; in BJ. II. ix. 4 as 400 
stadia. He was either ignorant of the exact length, 
or he purposely exaggerated. Jewish tradition 
says that the conduit wh. conveyed water to the 
Temple came fm. Etam (Tim. J. Tom. 41 . 9 ; B. 
Tom. 3i a ; Seb. 54 b ). There, about 65 stadia S. 
of Jrs., a conduit of earthenware pipes still begins, 
wh., following the contours of the hills in many 
windings, may have an actual length of 150 stadia. 
It collects the water of four springs. It might be 
strengthened by two great tanks, wh. stored the 
overflow of water in the winter. Prob. in the 
Middle Ages a third tank was constructed, and the 
water supply increased by a new conduit coming 
fm. Wady el-Arrub, c. 100 stadia S. of Jrs. An- 
other conduit, partially constructed of hermetically 
joined stone pipes, brought the water of the upper 
springs near Etam, increased by the springs in Wady 
el-Biydr, in a straight line to Jrs. The first conduit 
reached Jrs. at the level of the Sanctuary. Was it 
possible for the last to keep a higher level ? In- 
scriptions prove that it belonged to JElia. Capito- 
lina. It would furnish water for the two public 
baths, and for the Nymphasum. The first conduit 
was repaired at intervals fm. the Middle Ages, but 
in 1902 it was replaced by a system of iron pipes. 
The perforated " water-trough of Jehu," where all 
legal purifications were performed (Mikiv. IV. 59 ; 
Tim. B. Teb. I5 a ), may have been connected with 
Pilate's conduit, prob. near the bridge (see above) 
on wh. it crossed the Cheesemakers' Valley to reach 
the Sanctuary. G. H. Dalman. 

JESHANAH (2 Ch. 13. 19 ), a town taken along 
with Bethel by Abijah fm. Jeroboam, prob. = l Ain 
Sinia, a vill. \\ miles N. of Beitin. 

JESHIMON (Nu. 21. 20 ; 1 S. 23. 19 , &c). We 
shd. read with RV. in each case " desert." The 
desolate stretch along the E. shore of the Dead Sea 
and N'wards is referred to in Numbers, that E. of 
Hachilah in I Sam. 

JESHUA, a name once applied to Joshua, the s. 
of Nun (Ne. 8. 17 ), borne by several men, the most 
important of whom was the High Priest, also called 
Joshua (Hg. i. 1 , &c), who returned with Zerub- 
babel (Ez. 2. 2 ) and took charge of building the 
altar and restoring the offerings (3. 2ffl ). He also 
assisted in laying the foundation of the Temple 
(Hg. I. 1 , &c). Zechariah makes use of him in a 
striking fig. (3- lfl, )> and in a fig. crowns him (6. 11 ). 

JESHURUN, a poetic name for the people of 
Israel (Dt. 32. 15 , 33. 5 ; Is. 44.2). 

JESSE, apparently a well-to-do sheep farmer in 
the town of Bethlehem, a desct. of Boaz (Ru. 4. 17 ), 
fr. of David (1 S. 16. 1 , &c). His importance is due 



entirely to his relationship to his distinguished son, 
and to his place in the genealogy of Christ (Is. 
II. 1 - 10 ; Ps. 72. 20 ; Mw. 1 .«■ ; Lk. 3 . 32 ; Ac. 13. 22 ). 
At the time of David's exploit with Goliath J. was 
already an old man. This explains David's care of 
his parents in the days of his persecution (1 S. 17. 12 , 
22. 2f -). This is the last we hear of J., although 22. 4 
implies his return fm. Moab. 

JESUS CHRIST. Every human life may be 
said to have for its presupposition all the antece- 
dent hist, of the race and to transmit its conse- 
quences into all subsequent hist., for it can never be 
told with certainty either from what distance some 
influences wh. have modified it may have travelled 
or to what distance influences originated by it may 
reach. The more important the life, however, the 
more solemn become such considerations ; and this 
solemnity reaches its height in the life of Christ. 
All preceding hist, culminates in Him, and from 
Him all subsequent hist, flows. The histories of 
the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans may be 
studied as providential preparations for His ad- 
vent ; and, in modern hist., we see His influence 
affecting, first, the races round the basin of the 
Mediterranean, then, from the fourth cent, on- 
wards, it extends to the conquering races wh. 
swarm forth, to occupy Europe, from the basin of 
the Baltic ; while, in our own day, we see Africa, 
China, and Japan coming within its sweep. 

The nearest formative influence is that of the 
home ; and, in this respect, the circumstances in wh. 
Jesus was brought up resembled many other aspects 
of His life in their combination of lowliness with 
loftiness. His parents were poor, yet of royal 
descent ; they were working people in the village 
of Nazareth, yet they belonged to the excellent of 
the earth. In them, as in a few others, scattered as 
a seed of godliness throughout the land, the results 
aimed at in the past hist, of the people of God had 
been fulfilled : they feared the Lord, fed their 
piety on His Word, and sighed and prayed for a 
better time. In this home the language spoken 
would be Aramaic, a kind of degenerate Hebrew ; 
but He would know Greek also, wh. was exten- 
sively spoken in " Galilee of the Gentiles," and it 
is not impossible that He may have been master of 
Hebrew, the language in which the Scriptures were 
read in the synagogue. He seems to have learned 
the trade of Joseph — that of village carpenter — and 
to have practised it for many years. The great 
source of ideas for Him would be the Old Testa- 
ment, read and commented on in the synagogue ; 
but nature also proved a school to Him, and He 
never wearied of considering the lilies, how they 
grow, or the sparrows, how they are fed. When He 
was taken to Jerusalem to the feasts, the history of 
His race spoke to His heart out of the fields and 
cities through which He passed. Palestine is so 



3H 



Jes 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jes 



small a country that His eye could almost sweep over 
its whole extent as He stood on the hill behind the 
town of His abode, and the love of it sank deep into 
His affections, as it had into those of its children 
from century to century. But He could not love 
the Roman rule, which then held it in a grasp 
of iron, or the degenerate native sovereignty, the 
rumour of whose frivolity and crimes was poisoning 
the air. Closely as Jesus loved and studied nature, 
He studied human nature more closely still, and, in 
the silent years of Nazareth, the observations and 
convictions that were subsequently to flow from His 



latent powers of His nature ; and the voice from 
heaven, while a testimony to the Father's love, was, 
at the same time, a summons to a Messianic career. 
The flight of Jesus into the wilderness, which im- 
mediately ensued, undoubtedly betokens internal 
excitement, from which relief was sought in soli- 
tude, where the mastery might be obtained of the 
multitude of thoughts fighting in His heart, His 
mind grasping the great vocation which had been 
divinely imposed upon Him and determining the 
methods by which it was to be carried out. Of 
this conflict a record has come down to us in what 





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Traditional Mount of Temptation (Jebel Qarantal) 



lips in terms of grace and truth were unconsciously 
yet incessantly collecting in His mind. 

A religious movement, which filled the whole 
land with excitement and sharply divided the 
spirits, preceded that of which Jesus was the 
centre ; and it may be said to have been through 
the Baptist that Jesus was induced to part from His 
employment in the Galilean village and turn His 
thoughts towards another vocation. How far in 
the incidents accompanying the baptism there may 
have been for Jesus an element of surprise, it is im- 
possible to tell ; but, at all events, these formed a 
crisis, which must have been accompanied by a 
remarkable development within Himself. As the 
dove, brooding on the nest, evokes life, so the de- 
scent of the Holy Spirit stirred and called forth the 



is called our Lord's Temptation in the Wilderness, 
which is full of suggestive hints on temptation in 
general, but unfolds its deepest meaning when inter- 
preted in its special application to Him at the crisis 
which His life had then reached. In these dramatic 
scenes we discern, negatively, how Jesus resolved 
not to act ; but we should give much to learn, with 
the same clearness, positively, how He did resolve 
to carry out His Messianic calling. As this, how- 
ever, has not been vouchsafed, we must trust to 
subsequent events to reveal the secret ; for doubt- 
less the way in which He actually discharged His 
vocation corresponded with the vision of it which 
He saw from its commencement. The nearest ap- 
proach we possess to an accurate summary of the 
purposes which were thronging in His soul at this 

i5 



Jes 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jes 



time may, however, be found in the prophetic 
words from the Book of Isaiah which He read aloud 
in the synagogue at Nazareth, adding, " To-day is 
this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." The passage 
is instinct with the consciousness of Divine inspira- 
tion, a high calling, and an ability to comfort and 
to bless ; and this must have been the mood in 
which He entered on His career. 

For a few months, indeed, we hear very little of 
what Jesus was doing, the information of the Synop- 
tists having not yet commenced, and John, who had 
been brought into close contact with Jesus during 
those opening scenes of His ministry, not being yet 
copious in his communications. The imprison- 
ment of the Baptist seems to have been the signal 
for a more public and systematic beginning ; and 
this was in the line of the work which had dropped 
from the hands of the forerunner. Like John, 
Jesus commenced with the message that the king- 
dom of God was at hand, and with the summons, 
therefore, to repent and believe the Gospel. But 
it was not long before, instead of saying that the 
kingdom was at hand, He intimated that it had 
already come ; and, although, for reasons which 
were to be found in the moral and spiritual unpre- 
paredness of His hearers, He refrained from inti- 
mating that He was the Messiah, this was the in- 
ference implied in the attitude taken up by Him ; 
nor were voices of various kinds long lacking to 
demonstrate that by some, at least, this inference 
had been drawn. 

Like John the Baptist and the other prophets 
who had gone before, Jesus wielded, as His first and 
chief instrument, the word. His word was with 
power ; He spake as one having authority and not as 
the scribes ; never man spake like this man — such 
were the rumours of His preaching which soon 
spread from one end of the land to the other, and 
brought people in thousands to hang upon His 
lips. Even in the form of His words there lurked 
a grace and charm, which might by themselves 
have accounted for the popularity of the speaker. 
Everything was simple, homely, and practical. So 
pointed and weighty were the sentences that they 
could not be forgotten. Besides, He made use of 
illustrations, which He drew with perfect facility 
from the commonest aspects of nature and the 
commonest experiences of human life. These cul- 
minated in His parables — a literary form which 
none had ever with any considerable success culti- 
vated before, and none have successfully imitated 
since. Yet it was not in the form of His words 
that their compelling power lay, but in the sub- 
stance. He spoke of the spiritual world as one who 
was native to it and before whom all its secrets 
lay naked and open. Of God He spoke as the 
Heavenly Father, without whose knowledge not a 
sparrow falls to the ground, but whose delights are 



with the sons of men. He honoured woman, and 
blessed the little children, and declared the soul of 
man to be more precious than all the world. Yet 
He did not flatter human nature : He detected sin 
not only in the outward conduct, but in the most 
secret movements of the heart and fancy ; and, 
while He received with unbounded compassion the 
penitent, He scourged with unsparing severity the 
sin that was unconscious of itself. The keynote of 
the Sermon on the Mount, the best example which 
has come down to us of His popular method, is 
Blessedness ; but, after ringing out this watchword 
a number of times, He goes on to show that blessed- 
ness consists in righteousness, which to Him is a 
far higher and rarer attainment than His hearers 
were thinking of. With the skill of a born teacher, 
He brings out its qualities one by one by comparing 
it with the ideals to which they were accustomed — 
first in the sermons of the scribes, and then in the 
practices of the Pharisees — and then He contrasts 
it with the selfishness and worldliness of men in 
general, who spend their days asking, What shall we 
eat ? and What shall we drink ? and forget whence 
they have come and whither they are going. Those 
who are not willing to be condemned with the 
wicked must strive to enter in by the strait gate. 
The commonest phrase in all the preaching of Jesus 
was " the kingdom of God " or " the kingdom of 
heaven." This may seem to mean the other world. 
And so it does ; Jesus saw everything in the light of 
eternity. But, at the same time, it is here and now ; 
He Himself was in the world for the very purpose 
of making the will of God to be done there as it is 
in heaven ; and for this He taught all who listened 
to Him not only to pray, but to labour and to 
agonise. This had been the goal of the prayers of 
the saints and the labours of the prophets of old, 
into whose aspirations He entered ; and this was 
the Messianic kingdom of which He was to be King. 
Unlike John the Baptist, Jesus used as a second 
method for accomplishing His life-work the per- 
forming of miracles. In this He had been preceded 
by some of the greatest of the prophets, and the 
Jewish people, with whom He had to do, had been 
accustomed to this mode of authenticating a Divine 
message. Indeed, they were excessively fond of 
the supernatural ; and one of the temptations 
which Jesus had to meet and overcome in the 
wilderness was to seek popularity by gratifying 
their taste for wonders. He never yielded to their 
demands that He should perform miracles of this 
type. His were all reasonable, consistent with His 
own character, and illustrative of His doctrine. 
When He gave sight to the blind, it was to prove 
that He brought the light of revelation to a dark 
world ; and, when He cured the leper, it was to 
hint that He had a remedy for the worse leprosy of 
sin. Yet His miracles did not fail on occasion to 



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touch the utmost limits of wonder ; for He fed the employing them with perfect freedom, and meeting 

multitudes, stilled the storm, and even raised the every occasion, as it arose, with the naturalness of 

dead. They produced an overpowering sense of one always equal to the demands of His vocation, 

the immediate presence of the holy God, as we see Many of the most exquisite touches in the Gospel 

in the effect on Peter of the miracle in his boat, narratives must have been inspirations of the 

They made the journeyings of Jesus like the flowing moment ; He displayed the utmost readiness and 

of a river of mercy through the country, as the sick mother-wit in answering the objections of oppo- 

and tormented flocked or were carried to the places nents on the spot ; and the remarks He dropped 

where He was ; and there is no reason to doubt that in casual conversation or table talk were no less 

a large proportion of those who believed in Him redolent of wisdom than His deliberate discourses, 

consisted of persons who had been healed or had had He was ever the child of nature, notwithstanding 

their relatives healed at His hands. the clearly conceived purpose which went through 

What may be truly looked upon as a third method all His life, 
by which Jesus accomplished His life-work was the For a time it seemed as if He were to carry every- 
training of the Twelve. In this it cannot be thing before Him, so enormous were the crowds that 
claimed that He was entirely original ; for some- gathered round Him and followed Him wherever 
thing of the same kind had been attempted by the He went, and so overwhelming the enthusiasm 
prophets in the same country in the " schools of excited by His miracles. After the feeding of the 
the prophets," and " those about " Socrates and the five thousand the multitude tried to take Him by 
other philosophers of Greece propagated to the force and make Him a king ; and the king intended 
generations coming after them the views of the was, no doubt, the Messianic King of the Jews, 
masters. But none had ever seen with the same Nevertheless, His ministry had not lasted long 
clearness of insight what are the possibilities of an before, in influential quarters, a disposition began to 
intense and concentrated influence on a chosen few ; manifest itself of a contrary character. The scribes, 
none ever stuck to the work with the same assiduity who were the public teachers in the synagogues, 
amidst constant temptations to neglect it in favour and the Pharisees, who were the popular models of 
of work that seemed more pressing ; and none ever piety, stood in doubt or proceeded to open oppo- 
received more ample justification in the ultimate sition, while He never could visit the Holy City 
success of the method. From an early period of without, in one form or another, coming into col- 
His ministry Jesus chose twelve of His disciples to be lision with the party of the High Priests and the 
apostles. These were to be with Him, surrendering Sadducees, which was all-powerful there. These 
their earthly callings for this purpose and accom- various authorities were offended by the lowliness 
panying Him wherever He went, so that they were of His origin, and by the fact that He " had never 
constantly under His personal influence. Not only learned." He gave offence by His refusal to be 
did they witness all His miracles and hear all His bound by the strict rules of Sabbath-observance 
discourses, but they enjoyed, besides, the inesti- current in the country, and by His want of respect 
mable privilege of questioning Him in private as to < for other points in " the tradition of the elders," 
points in His discourses which they had not under- such as fasting and the washing of hands before 
stood, or as to doubts which had arisen in their eating bread. Jesus not only turned into ridicule 
minds. After they had reached some degree of a whole circle of observances invented by the pre- 
maturity, they were sent forth, two and two, to tenders of piety and supposed to be pleasing to God, 
heal and evangelise on their own account in places but swept away the distinction between things 
which He had not time to visit, or to prepare the clean and things unclean, as this had been laid down 
way for visits which He intended to make. They in the Jewish law, and intimated not obscurely that 
were of diverse character and occupation ; some the whole worship of the Temple was to come to an 
attained to greater nearness and familiarity with the end, giving way to a worship in spirit and truth, 
Master than others ; but the position they were which should know nothing of sacred places, but 
able to take in guiding the Christian enterprise should be as extensive as humanity and appropriate 
after Jesus had been taken from the world is the in any corner of the wide world. By this contrast, 
most eloquent testimony to their Master's wisdom which became ever more marked, between the 
and greatness. They became the nucleus of the traditional opinions and the message of Jesus, there 
Christian Church, and they now rank among the was created throughout the country a great fer- 
foremost instructors of mankind. In spite of the mentation of clashing opinions. Some thought Him 
natural talents which some of them possessed, they a good man, while others considered Him a deceiver 
were at first insignificant and seemed destined to of the people ; many were clear that He was a pro- 
obscurity ; but the influence of Jesus made them phet, others allowed Him to be a forerunner of the 
" the glorious company of the apostles." Messiah ; but the voices were not numerous that 

Such were the means with which Jesus operated, pronounced Him to be the Messiah Himself. 

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For a time Jesus simply went on with His work, 
leaving the people free to make up their own minds. 
And this was a golden season, when He revelled in 
the bliss of doing good, in the gratitude of those 
who had benefited from His beneficence, and in the 
friendship and enthusiasm of His disciples. The 
principal scene of His labours was the Lake of 
Galilee ; and there He went, preaching and heal- 
ing, from town to town round the shore or retired 
with the Twelve to the bosom of the deep. Some- 
times He would strike away to the north or the 
south, the east or the west ; sometimes He would 
make a wide circuit in Galilee, preaching in the 
synagogues ; sometimes He would have the Twelve 
scouring the country far and near ; at the feasts He 
would go up to Jerusalem with the pilgrims, and 
come back with exciting memories of adventures 
there ; but ever the blue and sunny lake in the 
north drew Him back, to mingle with the people 
with whom He felt most at home and to reiterate 
the good news of eternal life. But by degrees 
the tide of popularity ebbed. The authoritative 
classes became more and more hostile. This could 
not be the hero they were expecting to come and 
redeem their country from bondage to the Roman ; 
He had none of the grandeur which surrounded the 
Messiah in Old Testament prophecy ; this was a 
feeble dreamer and a false Messiah. Such grew to 
be their settled conviction. Wherever He turned, 
He met this frowning aspect on the face of autho- 
rity. From headquarters deputations were sent 
down to Galilee to watch and test Him, and to take 
counsel with the local authorities. But one who 
made Messianic claims, or allowed them to be made 
for Him, without being able to fill the role, excited, 
not only disappointment, but the keenest resent- 
ment ; for He was defacing the proudest hope of 
a nation and blaspheming the name of God ; and 
at an early stage of His career there began to be 
whispers about cutting Him off, when an oppor- 
tunity should arise. 

Such sentiments in high places could not fail, in 
the long run, to tell on the multitude. As time 
went by, the crowds waiting on His preaching 
dwindled, and His miracles no longer created the 
boundless wonder they had at first excited. He 
Himself lost the sympathetic touch with the multi- 
tude which had gladdened His earlier ministry, and 
fell back on the chosen few who believed entirely 
in Him, and especially on the Twelve. With the 
latter He made long circuits, at a distance from the 
region which had hitherto been the centre of His 
activity, sometimes plunging into natural solitudes, 
sometimes even going across the confines of the 
Holy Land in order to devote Himself to the deeper 
instruction of the apostles in the truth for which 
they were to be His witnesses. 

On one such journey, which carried Him and 

3 



them to Caesarea Philippi, on the north-eastern 
frontier, at the foot of Mount Hermon, having 
gently drawn from them what were the opinions of 
the people at large about Himself, He asked what 
was their own opinion ; whereupon Peter, in the 
name of all, confessed Him to be the Messiah, the 
Son of the living God. This noble confession of 
religious conviction He hailed with delight as the 
work of God, and proceeded to indicate that now 
He had the nucleus of that body which would pro- 
pagate His views and spirit, and would survive all 
the changes and chances of time. It was not long 
after this till the faith of the chosen Three was still 
further confirmed by the sight of the Transfigura- 
tion, when, on the top of a mountain, to which they 
had accompanied Him, Moses and Elias appeared 
talking with Him about His destiny, and God again, 
as at the Baptism, acknowledged Him as His be- 
loved Son. But, as if He had been waiting for 
the moment when their faith should be mature 
enough to stand it, Jesus made these happy and 
exalted experiences the signals for communicating 
to them the prediction, now become a clear con- 
viction in His own mind, that He would fall a 
victim to the zeal of His adversaries ; and, return- 
ing again and again to the subject, He disclosed 
more and more of the details of the sad future. 
But He did so to ears that could not take in what 
He was trying to instil ; for, sharing the concep- 
tions of the Messiah entertained by His enemies, 
they were certain that He could not die. 

At length, quitting Galilee for ever, He turned 
His face towards Jerusalem, where, He was con- 
scious, the final judgment of the nation, whether 
for or against Him, must be pronounced. Yet He 
did not hasten thither ; because He owed it to the 
parts of the country He had not yet visited to make 
them also partakers of His Gospel, if they would 
accept it. Accordingly He lingered in the regions 
between Galilee and Samaria, and in the country 
beyond Jordan, unfolding all the activities of which 
He had made use in Galilee, and awakening so much 
of the enthusiasm which had at first risen around 
Him in the north that it seemed not impossible 
that, on the crest of this wave, He might advance 
with irresistible prestige on Jerusalem. 

It was a week before the ceremonies of the great 
annual feast of the Passover commenced, in the 
spring of the year, that He reached Jericho, the 
City of Palm Trees, in the basin of the Jordan, and 
from there entered on the ascent towards the Holy 
City along a road thronged with pilgrims from 
Galilee and those parts in which He had been 
recently evangelising. It was no wonder that He 
became the centre of the advancing crowd, or that 
the pilgrims soon became fervent with Messianic 
excitement. And, at last, He who had, at earlier 
stages, resisted all such attempts, yielded to the 

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popular tide ; for the time had. come for giving 
to the country an unmistakable indication of the 
claims made by Him, and to challenge on these a 
final decision. Seated, therefore, on an ass, over 
which some gay garment had been spread, and borne 
along by the multitude, who cut down branches 
and strewed them in His path, whilst they shouted 
" Hosanna to the Son of David ! " He entered 
the city and proceeded through the streets to the 
Temple. But the inhabitants of the capital looked 
coldly on, and the authorities ordered Him to call 
upon His followers to hold their peace. Giving 
them an answer which revealed the exuberance of 
His spirit at the moment, He entered the Temple 
and drove thence the traders, who were turning, He 
said, the place which His Father had intended as a 
house of prayer for all nations into a den of thieves. 
This might have been the signal for an outbreak 
of reformatory zeal against those institutions with 
which the city abounded and in which the power 
of His enemies was entrenched ; but He took 
no further advantage of the opportunity; the 
multitude, which was of provincial complexion, 
dispersed ; Jerusalem went about its ordinary 
concerns ; and He retired for the night to the 
Mount of Olives. 

The authorities could hardly be expected, how- 
ever, to let such a demonstration take place without 
some rejoinder on their part ; and they resolved 
upon His death, waiting only for an opportunity of 
putting this purpose into execution without re- 
awakening the enthusiasm on His behalf of which 
He had failed to take advantage. The opportunity 
came to them from an unexpected quarter, one of 
His nearest followers offering to betray Him for an 
insignificant reward. Some have thought that the 
purpose of Judas was to compel Jesus to take the 
prompt and decisive action which He had failed to 
do on the day of the triumphal entry ; but it is 
more probable that, as the Gospels seem unani- 
mously to say, his treachery was the revenge of 
a disappointed man. At all events, it facilitated 
the operations of the authorities and hastened the 
inevitable end. 

Meanwhile Jesus, going day by day into the city, 
continued His usual ministrations as preacher and 
healer. The sentiments of the growing pilgrim- 
multitudes was favourable ; but the authorities, 
encountering Him publicly in argument, endea- 
voured to expose Him before His sympathisers. 
Out of these dialectical encounters He rescued 
Himself with the utmost brilliancy, and, carrying 
the war into the enemy's camp, overwhelmed the 
authorities with ridicule. The flood-gates of His 
anger and contempt for them being opened, He 
assailed them with a philippic of accusation which 
has the rhythmic perfection of a poem in its concen- 
trated truth and scorn. It could not, however, be 



doubtful whither such violent division between 
them and Him must tend ; and, on the night when 
the ceremonies of the festival commenced in the 
slaying of the paschal lamb, He took farewell of the 
Twelve in words which have been called the Holy 
of Holies of His biography, while He transmuted 
the Old Testament feast of the Passover into the 
New Testament Lord's Supper, ordaining it to 
remain for all time His memorial. That night 
He was betrayed by Judas at the gate of the 
Garden of Gethsemane, to which He had retired 
for prayer. 

His captors led Him into the presence of the 
Jewish authorities, who condemned Him to death 
for blasphemy. But it was not in their power to 
execute Him without the confirmation of their 
sentence by the Roman governor ; and this they 
had no small difficulty in obtaining from Pontius 
Pilate. They extorted it, however, by the use of 
threats ; and Jesus, being handed over to the 
executioners, was, without delay, put to death by 
crucifixion. 

At the critical moment all His disciples forsook 
Him and fled ; and Peter, the foremost of them all, 
denied, with oaths and curses, that he knew Him. 
This looked like the breaking up of the whole 
Messianic enterprise ; politico-religious illusions 
have been far from rare in the history of mankind ; 
and this appeared to be one which had come to an 
ignominious end. But, from the time when He 
had begun to foretell that He was to suffer and 
die, Jesus had likewise foretold that He would rise 
again from the dead the third day. A thing so un- 
likely, however, had taken no hold of the disciples, 
who probably gave to the words some figurative 
sense, so far as they observed them at all. On the 
morning, however, of the third day, certain women, 
who went to the sepulchre in which He had been 
buried, found it empty ; and to one of them Jesus 
appeared, telling her to go and spread the news 
amongst His followers that He had risen. To Peter 
He likewise appeared, and to His own brother 
James, who had not, till this point, been a disciple. 
He appeared to two on the way to Emmaus, and 
then to larger numbers, till at last he was seen by 
five hundred at once in Galilee. For forty days He 
lingered among His disciples ; and then, in the 
sight of the Eleven, whom He had led out as far as 
the Mount of Olivet, He was taken up, and a cloud 
received Him out of their sight. Under the influ- 
ence of these experiences the meanness and failure 
of the last stages of the career of Jesus were for- 
gotten ; the grandeur of His character, the loftiness 
of His aims, and the wisdom of His teaching were 
revived in the memory of the disciples ; and they 
returned to Jerusalem with jubilation, to wait for 
the descent of the Spirit, which He had promised to 
them at parting. This endowment came on the 



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Day of Pentecost ; and then they appeared in public 
as His witnesses, testifying to small and great that 
Christ was risen and alive for evermore. 

The Problems of the Life of Christ 

There is no other portion of human knowledge 
on which the same amount of inquiry has been con- 
centrated as on the life of Christ. Every incident 
has been scrutinised with microscopical closeness ; 
every line and every word have been weighed ; 
every conceivable way of accounting for the 
phenomena has been tried. There has been so 
much arbitrariness of criticism as to call forth the 
not unnatural resentment of those to whom the 
Lord is precious ; but it ought to be remembered 
that the very excess of doubt or scepticism is a 
tribute to the immeasurable value of the facts : if 
these did not matter so much, it would not be 
worth while to make so much noise about them ; 
and, the more precious any kind, of truth is, the 
more hot must the fires be by which it is tried. 

(i) The Sources. — In two directions the at- 
tempt has recently been made to enlarge the 
literary sources from which our knowledge of Jesus 
must be derived — on the one hand, by the collec- 
tion of Agrapha, as they are called, that is, sayings 
of Jesus not recorded in the Gospels but preserved 
in early documents, something like a score of these 
having been ascertained with more or less of confi- 
dence ; on the other hand, by the unearthing and 
study of books which may have influenced our Lord 
and His apostles (to borrow the happy title of one 
of the books on the subject), these being products of 
the period between the Old Testament and the 
New, and being now ransacked for ideas or phrases 
which may have modified the thinking or the lan- 
guage of our Lord. A recent writer of a life of 
Christ has made use, wherever possible, of the frag- 
ments which have come down to us of a Gospel to 
the Hebrews, but without adding to our knowledge 
anything substantial. The four Gospels still assert 
their position as practically the sole sources on 
which we can draw with security. The three first 
are called the Synoptists, because they look at the 
history from the same point of view. But it is one 
of the most intricate of all literary problems to ac- 
count for their resemblances on the one hand and 
their differences on the other. The favourite ex- 
planation at present is what is called the Two- 
source Theory, which assumes that St. Mark was 
first, and that St. Matthew and St. Luke borrowed 
from him, while the two latter, and perhaps all 
three, borrowed from an older collection attributed 
in tradition to the apostle Matthew, who may or 
may not have been the author of our present St. 
Matthew. Extraordinary attempts are being made 
to reconstruct this older document by piecing to- 
gether the fragments of it scattered through our 

32 



present Gospels, and some are confident they may 
be able in this way to educe a simpler and more 
primitive life of Christ. It is too readily, however, 
taken for granted that priority in time must neces- 
sarily imply superiority in quality. No portions of 
our Gospels bear more incontestably on their face 
the signature of trustworthiness than some passages, 
like the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, 
which we owe entirely to St. Luke, although this 
Evangelist is generally believed to be later than the 
others. The truth would appear to be, that each 
of the Evangelists had an affinity for certain aspects 
of the life, and each is superior in his own direc- 
tion. In St. Mark we have the rush and move- 
ment of Christ's life, the wonder it created, and 
the rumour it diffused ; to St. Matthew we are 
indebted for our Lord's sayings and discourses, 
preserved with manifest fidelity and arranged in 
excellent order ; while St. Luke has an affinity for 
the more human and catholic aspects of the Lord's 
ministry. 

The fourth Gospel has a point of view of its own. 
In very early times it was called the " spiritual " 
Gospel ; it might be called the interior Gospel, 
depicting its subject as He moved among His own 
in private, whereas the Synoptists portray rather 
His public life ; and it cleaves largely to His life in 
Judaea, whereas they attach themselves mostly to 
Galilee. The tradition is, that it was written in- 
tentionally to supplement the others. But opinion 
as to its date, authorship, and value has passed 
through extraordinary changes, swaying, on both 
sides, to the extreme reach of the pendulum. Many 
have considered it the gem among the four ; others 
have questioned its value altogether. It cannot be 
denied that there is a remarkable contrast between 
the traits and the words of the Figure who moves 
in a guise so simple through the first three Gospels 
and those of the Christ of the fourth. But this is 
not without analogy in literature, the Socrates of 
Xenophon bearing a striking resemblance to the 
Jesus of the Synoptists, while the Socrates of Plato, 
with his subtle arguments and lofty speculations, 
bears an undoubted resemblance to the Christ of 
St. John. Invaluable as is the portrait of Jesus we 
owe to the Evangelists of the first three Gospels, it 
hardly brings out the full stature of Him who towers 
at the commencement of Christian history ; and as 
one of the ablest representatives of a school of 
pretty negative criticism has proved, in a work on 
the teaching of Jesus, the ideas of Christ in St. John, 
when stripped of a superficial mannerism, perhaps 
due to the peculiar mental constitution of the 
Evangelist, are, in their essence, identical with the 
doctrines of Jesus as reported by the other Evan- 
gelists. Scholarship has its own rights, which some 
of its representatives proclaim from the house- 
tops ; but the experience and the instincts of the 



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Christian mind have also something to say ; and it 
will not be easy to take from the Church of God the 
conviction, that in this Gospel it possesses a price- 
less and faithful picture from the hand of the 
disciple whom Jesus loved. Idealised it may be ; 
but, if so, only in the sense in which the products 
of the loftiest genius are all idealised. 

(2) The Events. — When we turn from the 
records to the events, we are confronted by a great 
profusion of problems. Chronological problems, 
for example, abound ; and it may even be said to 
be a problem, how far the attempt should be made 
to identify a chronology at all. The most interest- 
ing, however, of these inquiries relates to the dura- 
tion of the public ministry. From the indications 
supplied in the fourth Gospel of the feasts at 
Jerusalem attended by Jesus, the conclusion has 
been drawn that it lasted three years, each of which 
had its own character, the first being a year of 
comparative obscurity, the second one of marked 
success and popularity, while the third deepened 
into eclipse and disaster. But, in consequence of 
the disposition in certain quarters to drop the 
fourth Gospel from the list of authoritative sources, 
there has arisen a tendency to suppose the public 
ministry to have been very brief, not lasting longer 
than a single year. But not only would this de- 
tract from the dignity of the drama, the different 
acts not having room to unfold themselves, but there 
are indications even in the Synoptists — such, for ex- 
ample, as the lament over Jerusalem — " How often 
would I have gathered thee " — which point to a 
more frequent activity in the capital than this 
theory could make room for. Another interesting 
question of the same kind is the day on which the 
Lord's Supper was instituted. By many St. John 
is supposed to correct the chronology of his prede- 
cessors, and to represent the farewell scenes as having 
taken place four-and-twenty hours earlier than the 
others assume. Not only, however, would this 
seriously interfere with the connection between the 
old and the new ordinance stamped on the Synoptic 
records, but such an obvious mistake is a thing very 
unlikely in itself. 

Of course, however, it is in the sphere of the 
miraculous that problems most abound. Against 
the very idea of miracle there is a strong prejudice 
in the minds of many, who believe either that it 
is impossible for a miracle ever to have happened 
or at least that such an occurrence can never be 
proved ; and against particular miracles objections 
may at any time be raised owing to these having 
accidentally been made prominent in controversy. 
Thus, not long ago, fierce controversy raged, in this 
country, round the casting out of the devils from 
the demoniac of Gadara, and, at an earlier date in 
other countries, the raising of Lazarus was made 
for long a burning centre of attack. At present 



321 



there is a disposition to divide the miracles attri- 
buted to our Lord into two classes — such as might 
possibly admit of a natural explanation and such as 
could by no possibility be explained in this way. 
The area of the former class is widened as much 
as possible ; it is acknowledged that the working 
of such marvels, which were accepted by His 
unscientific contemporaries as miracles, formed a 
conspicuous element in His activity ; and all kinds 
of modern marvels, such as those of hypnotism and 
faith-healing, are cited as suggestions to account 
for His performance of them, while much is made 
of the instances wherein He made use of means, 
such as His own spittle, and special interest is ex- 
hibited in any cases which seem to show that either 
He or His disciples sometimes failed in their at- 
tempts. The other class of miracles, comprising 
the turning of water into wine, the stilling of the 
storm and the like, would be rejected as unhis- 
torical. But these are related by the Evangelists, 
side by side with the others, with the utmost tran- 
quillity ; and the accounts of some of them are 
of the most incontrovertible kind ; thus the feeding 
of the five thousand is attested by all the four wit- 
nesses. Not a few of them are authenticated by 
striking sayings of Jesus, so woven into the texture 
of the narrative that, if the saying be His, the 
miracle must have taken place also. The message of 
Jesus to the Baptist carries exceptional force : " Go 
and show John again those things which ye do hear 
and see : the blind receive their sight and the lame 
walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the 
dead are raised, and the poor have the Gospel 
preached unto them." Here it will be observed 
how quietly the cleansing of lepers and the raising 
of the dead are ranged side by side with the other 
works of a less extraordinary character ; and it is 
worth observing also how much apologetic value 
Jesus Himself ascribes to His miracles. The same 
line of argument was obviously in His mind on 
other occasions ; and it is no contradiction of it — 
although it has been so interpreted — that He re- 
proved the Jews for their greed of signs, for the 
highest value may be justly placed on marvels of 
one type while it is wholly refused to those of 
another. 

(3) The Sayings. — The study of the words of 
Jesus has lagged behind that of His acts ; but lost 
time is now being rapidly made up, and it is not un- 
likely that works on the words or teachings of Jesus 
may pour from the press as copiously during the 
next half-century as books on His life have done in 
the half-century just past. In this region, at all 
events, problems already abound, and they will grow 
more numerous as the attention of scholarship is 
more drawn in this direction. 

The remark made above about single miracles may 
be here repeated about single sayings of Jesus, that 

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circumstances may, as if by accident, at any time 
make one of them a theme of keen controversy. 
Thus, the saying attributed to Jesus about His 
parables, that He uttered them, in order that they 
who heard might hear but not understand, but 
have their hearts hardened, has of late been vio- 
lently assailed as a sentiment which the loving 
Saviour can never have uttered : on the contrary, 
the purpose of His parables was to make the truth 
intelligible and acceptable. It is, however, the re- 
verse of probable that even an Evangelist can have 
been ignorant that the latter was the obvious use of 
parables ; and the question is whether they may 
also have had a use which was not obvious : many a 
preacher popular with the multitude has had to 
make the experience that, after an audience has been 
drawn and gratified with the aesthetic virtues of the 
preaching, nothing has been done for the real ends 
of the Gospel. The passage in the Sermon on the 
Mount in which Jesus is made to say that, till 
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in 
no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled, has 
been objected to as a total misrepresentation of the 
attitude of Jesus to the dispensation which went 
before, one zealous critic remarking that it is just 
as likely that Jesus said this as it would be to read 
that Luther had bought an indulgence after nailing 
his theses to the church at Wittenberg. The re- 
lation, however, of Jesus to the Old Testament Law 
is a topic of great difficulty and complexity ; and a 
thorough exposition of it will not be able to dis- 
pense with this verse for its completion. At least 
one entire book has recently been written on the 
question whether or not our Lord's farewell words 
to the Eleven, reported in the last three verses of the 
Gospel of St. Matthew, are authentic. Of course 
to those who disbelieve that there was any resur- 
rection, any words attributed to the risen Saviour 
must be spurious, and there is a disposition in cer- 
tain quarters to empty all the greatest sayings of our 
Lord of the major part of their meaning ; but, 
assuming the situation to be real, we cannot but 
recognise that the words exactly fit it ; and none 
speak more powerfully to the heart of Christendom. 
There are certain sections of the words of Jesus 
which have given rise to serious problems. For 
instance, His references to the Old Testament are 
extremely numerous ; and it is allowed by all com- 
petent to judge that in many cases He has shed a 
marvellous light on the passages which He quotes ; 
but the question has been acutely raised, especi- 
ally in England, whether His references to certain 
events, such as the case of Jonah, and to the author- 
ship of certain portions, such as the noth Psalm, 
imply authoritative decisions on questions which 
criticism is apt to raise at these very points. This, 
however, resolves itself into a far wider question as 
to the limits of Jesus' knowledge. On one topic, 



we know from His own lips, He was ignorant ; and 
the question may be asked, whether this was the 
only one, or only a specimen of others of the same 
kind. The attempt to deal with such difficulties 
has given rise to what are called the Kenotic 
Theories in modern theology. These it is far from 
easy either to state briefly in an intelligible form, or 
to apply in detail to the phenomena of our Lord's 
earthly life ; but it is surely wise to keep His name 
as much as possible out of the investigations and 
conflicts of science. Not less perplexing are the 
difficulties connected with another section of our 
Lord's words — that, namely, which may be called 
eschatological. Many of His sayings related to the 
future ; and, although, as has just been stated, He 
acknowledged there was at least one future event 
which the Father had kept in His own power, He 
uttered many predictions, in some of which, as in 
those relating to the Last Judgment, His glory was 
conspicuously revealed. Yet there are other things 
which, it must be admitted, are hard to be under- 
stood. Such, for example, are the sayings which 
seem to imply that He was to return to the world in 
the lifetime of the generation then living. These 
are the more strange because they appear to be in 
conflict with others wherein He anticipated such a 
lengthy development of His kingdom as history 
since then has actually exhibited. Some think that 
the conditions can be met by assuming that He was 
referring to such a return to the world on His part 
as took place at the destruction of Jerusalem ; but 
there may be a deeper secret : this may have been 
a way of intimating that the proper attitude of His 
followers in all generations is to be on the watch, 
as if He might appear at any moment. 

Interesting, however, as the problems indicated or 
others that might be mentioned may be, the point 
round which the discussion of the teaching of Jesus 
has centred, during the last ten or twenty years, has 
been what is called the Self-consciousness of Jesus — 
that is, His teaching about Himself, His own person 
and His work. 

Here fall to be considered the titles by which 
He was known ; and the first of these is His own 
favourite name for Himself — the Son of man. 
Most people are tolerably satisfied that they know 
what this sweet and tender title signifies, but, in 
the realm of scholarship, there prevails extraordi- 
nary variety of opinion on the subject, one in- 
vestigator quoting, a few years ago, a perfectly 
bewildering number of shades of difference in the 
views of various authors. Since then the learned 
world has been extraordinarily agitated by a sug- 
gestion that it means no more than " any one." 
The contention is, that the language spoken by 
Jesus was Aramaic, and that in this language the 
phrase which He must have used signifies no more 
than this. In point of fact, this suggestion is not 



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by any means new, and the wonder it has excited 
will not last long ; for " the son of man " in the 
vague sense of man in general frequently occurs 
both in the LXX and the New Testament, evi- 
dently as the translation into Greek of a Semitic 
idea, but the phrase in which, in such cases, it is 
rendered is never identical with that employed 
by Jesus when speaking of Himself. The investi- 
gations of recent scholarship leave practically no 
doubt that the source of the phrase as used by Jesus 
was the passage in Daniel where the prophet saw 
one like unto the Son of man coming in the clouds 
of heaven ; and, therefore, its primary meaning is 
not that attributed to it by the common mind, 
but Messianic ; and there is strong reason to think 
that Jesus employed it partly because it concealed 
His pretensions from the crowd, while it suggested 
them to those to whom He wished to reveal His 
secret mind. Another title, " the Son of God," 
occupies in St. John the same place as " the Son of 
man " does in the Synoptists, though it is not absent 
from the latter any more than " the Son of man " 
is from St. John ; and it was more a name bestowed 
on Him by others than one He of His own accord 
applied to Himself. In the common mind it de- 
signates His deity, as " the Son of man " does His 
humanity ; and St. John distinctly states that the 
Jews accused Him of making Himself equal with 
God because He made claim to this title. Never- 
theless, it is maintained by many that, in the 
Synoptists at least, it is no more than a Messianic 
title ; and, if it be observed that in Scripture not 
only angels but many human beings are called " sons 
of God," it will be easily perceived that the mere 
application of this name to Jesus does not, as a 
matter of course, imply divinity ; it may do so, but, 
if it does, this must be proved by further evidence. 
These two designations — " the Son of man " and 
" the Son of God " — may be called the two more 
intimate titles of Christ ; but there corresponded 
with them two more public — " the Son of David " 
and " the Messiah " or " the Christ." In one of 
the closing days of His ministry Jesus, after silencing 
those opponents who were trying to puzzle Him, 
carried the war into the enemies' country by 
puzzling them with the question how the Messiah 
could be the son of David, when, in the I loth Psalm, 
David called Him Lord. This is confidently in- 
terpreted by some to mean that Jesus admitted He 
was not entitled to the name of " the Son of David," 
but wanted to prove that He might be the Messiah 
nevertheless. There is, however, no evidence what- 
ever that it was ever charged against Him that He 
did not stand in the Davidic line ; and the con- 
sensus of the New Testament to the opposite effect 
is too unanimous to leave any doubt on the subject. 
The intention of Jesus in voluntarily raising the 
question, as He did on this occasion, was very 



different. He wanted to suggest that, though 
David's son, as the Messiah must be by common 
consent, He was yet far above David ; just as He 
said, on another occasion, " A greater than Solomon 
is here." For reasons already hinted at, Jesus did 
not readily apply the other popular title, " the 
Messiah " or " the Christ," to Himself ; but voices 
around Him were doing so, from time to time, 
all through His ministry ; and when the Twelve, 
through the lips of St. Peter, did so at Caesarea 
Philippi, we have already seen how He accepted 
the confession. The nearest equivalent to " Mes- 
siah " in English would be " King " ; and closely 
connected with the claim of Jesus to this name is 
His employment of the phrase " the kingdom of 
God " or " of heaven " (" heaven " being, perhaps, 
only another name for God, as in the phrase, " I 
have sinned against heaven "), as a general name for 
His teaching as a whole. To determine what ex- 
actly this phrase meant has engaged the most earnest 
labour of interpreters ; and systematic theologians 
have displayed their skill in bringing all the details 
of the teaching of Jesus within the scope of this 
single conception. Some believe devoutly that it 
was intended by Him to be the framework within 
which Christian thought should, in all ages, be 
gathered ; but others regard it with less favour, 
asserting that it was imposed on Jesus by circum- 
stances rather than chosen by Himself ; that it was 
sloughed off by Christian thought even before the 
close of the New Testament ; and that the revival 
of its use could only have the effect of imposing 
fetters on theology. 

(4) The Virgin Birth and the Bodily Besur- 
rection. — Mention has been made above of the 
problems connected with the miracles wrought 
by Jesus ; but problems still more vital surround 
the miracles wrought on Him. These comprise the 
voices from heaven which acknowledged Him as the 
object of the Divine good pleasure, the Transfigura- 
tion, which was a foretaste of the Ascension, and the 
Ascension itself ; but those of greatest moment were 
the Virgin Birth and the bodily Resurrection. Both 
of these are included in the Apostles' Creed, which 
forms a part of the regular liturgy of the Lutheran 
Church; but, in 1 892, a preacher in South Germany, 
of the name of Schrempf, began to recite the liturgy 
with these two clauses left out. For this he was 
challenged by his parishioners and ultimately de- 
posed by the ecclesiastical authorities. His situa- 
tion being, thereupon, sympathetically referred to 
by Professor Harnack and other like-minded theo- 
logians of Germany, there broke out a perfect tem- 
pest of controversy on these two points, which has 
extended far beyond the limits of Germany, and 
may be said to be raging still ; although nothing 
substantially new on either topic has come to light. 

The supernatural birth must have presented as 



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grave difficulties to the first who heard it as it does 
to us ; for the Jews of that time were violent mono- 
theists, who treated the heathen fables of the birth 
of heroes from the gods with horror and disdain. 
It is charged against the fact that it is not oftener 
referred to in the New Testament ; but it is of such 
a nature that it was not likely to be often referred 
to ; and the poetic drapery in which the details are 
veiled are precisely such as became a fact so delicate 
and mysterious. The narratives in St. Matthew 
and St. Luke present, it must be acknowledged, 
some divergences, but these are not irreconcilable, 
nor is some diversity unnatural in such a case. 
Wellhausen has simply dropped both narratives out 
of his edition of the Gospels ; but such a procedure 
is wholly unscientific, there being not a particle of 
evidence that either Gospel ever existed minus this 
portion. It may be confessed, however, that the 
credit of no fragment of ancient literature could 
survive if it were submitted to the torture to which 
these have been subjected — that is, if they were 
isolated from their surroundings and searched as 
with microscopes for signs of untrustworthiness. 
These narratives are entitled to be studied as part 
of the whole life of Christ, and particularly in con- 
nection with His sinlessness ; and, when so studied, 
the fact they narrate will be perceived to be not 
unnatural but necessary, although there is no sign 
in these primitive and idyllic stories that they were 
invented for a dogmatic purpose. 

The other miracle wrought on Jesus, His bodily 
resurrection, enters even further into the essence of 
Christianity. The theory of those who reject the 
evidence of this fact is that the disciples believed 
the Lord had risen because they were eagerly ex- 
pecting Him to rise. This is the point of view still 
met with in the latest life of Christ of the natu- 
ralistic type — that of Otto Holtzmann. But no 
assumption can be more utterly at variance with the 
situation, or with the testimony of those who were 
most immediately concerned. The holy women 
went to the sepulchre not to see whether their Lord 
had risen but to anoint His corpse ; and, when they 
reported to the disciples what they had seen, their 
words seemed to them as idle tales and they be- 
lieved them not. The two on the way to Emmaus 
placed no faith whatever in the women's testimony ; 
it is well known how obstinate was the unbelief of 
Thomas ; and even among the five hundred who 
saw the risen Lord in Galilee " some doubted." 
So far from eagerly expecting Him to rise, they were 
as certain that He had disappeared for ever as were 
the Jews who had crucified Him, and their scepti- 
cism could only be overcome by many infallible 
proofs. The number and variety of the appearances 
count for much ; and in some of them, as in those 
to Mary Magdalene and to Thomas, there are 
touches of nature incapable of being invented. 



Indeed, so lifelike and impressive are these narra- 
tives that Keim, a scholar strongly disposed to take 
a naturalistic view, invented the theory that, by the 
special providence of God, it was arranged that 
visions of Jesus should appear to the different dis- 
ciples for the purpose of convincing them that He 
was alive. But it is difficult to perceive wherein this 
is easier to believe than the miracle itself. 

Even these evidences, however, for this cardinal 
fact of the Christian religion are not by any means 
the strongest. The overwhelming proof of the 
resurrection of Christ is what may be called the 
resurrection of Christianity. When Jesus was lying 
dead in the grave, His cause may be truly said to 
have been lying in a grave as deep. It was then the 
cause of a Messiah proved false by the irresistible 
logic of events ; His enemies were glorying that 
Providence had decided the controversy between 
Him and them in their favour ; and what could His 
adherents say, seeing that they shared the presup- 
positions of His enemies about the necessary course 
of the career of a true Messiah ? They were in 
despair, and the enterprise in which they had been 
engaged was ended. But from the nadir of de- 
pression the cause of the Messiah swept back at a 
bound to the opposite extreme. At the Passover the 
situation was such as we have seen ; but at Pentecost 
the apostles were witnessing to a cause newborn, and 
born to a vigorous and enduring vitality. They 
were filled with enthusiasm ; they were ready to 
live and to die for it ; and, in point of fact, many of 
them did die for it. What was the reason for this 
transformation ? The subjects of it alleged that 
they had seen the Saviour alive ; and this would 
adequately account for the facts ; but the wit of 
man has never invented, and never can invent, any 
other explanation that has even the semblance of 
being sufficient. 

The resurrection may be said to have transfigured 
the Twelve : they had been earthly, limited, am- 
bitious, now they were intrepid, magnanimous, 
and wise. It transfigured Christ and Christianity. 
Jesus had missed the Messianic crown, but, through 
the providence of Him who is wonderful in counsel 
and excellent in working, He had thereby attained 
a throne universal and everlasting. But strangest 
and most solemn of all was the transformation which 
had taken place on His death. That had been the 
defeat of His enterprise, the despair of His friends, 
the triumph of His foes ; but now, as the apostles 
pondered the mystery, guided by the Scriptures of 
the Old Testament, interpreted to them by the 
Risen One Himself, it turned into the ransom paid 
for the redemption of the world. Thenceforth 
they knew Him after the Spirit, and, though they 
had known Him after the flesh, they knew Him so 
no more. The Christianity of the resurrection is 
the true Christianity ; but to dispense with this 
24 



Jet 



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Jew 



fact is to return to the position of the disciples in 
the days of their ignorance, if not to that of the 
enemies who believed that the life of Christ had 
terminated at the mouth of the sepulchre. 

Lit. : Of the larger books in English on the Life 
of Christ those of Farrar, Edersheim and Cunning- 
ham Geikie are all good ; of foreign books, accessible 
in translation, those of Neander, Lange, Pressense 
and Weiss are worthy of mention. Those who can 
read German will find a remarkable resume of the 
whole literature in Schweitzer's Von Reimarus zu 
Wrede. On the problems great assistance will be 
found in Andrews' Life of Our Lord. Dr. Orr has 
a book on the Supernatural Birth and another on 
the Resurrection. On the Teaching of Jesus see 
Wendt's work so entitled and Bruce's The Kingdom 
of God. James Stalker. 

JETHER. (i) The father-in-law of Moses is so 
called, prob. in mistake for Jethro (Ex. 4. 18 , Heb.). 
(2) The eldest son of Gideon. He was evidently 
still a tender youth when he first tasted the excite- 
ments of war. His father ordered him to slay Zebah 
and Zalmunna, in revenge for the slaughter of his 
kinsmen. " But the youth drew not his sword ; 
for he feared, because he was yet a youth " (Jg. 8. 20 ). 
He was slain, with all his brothers, save Jotham, by 
Abimelech (c;. 5 ). (3) The father of Amasa = Ithra 
(1 K. 2. 5 , &c.) . (4) Eldest son of Jada, of the family 
of Hezron. He died childless ; so the birthright 
passed to his younger brother (1 Ch. 2. 32 ). (5) Son 
of Ezrah, a man of Judah (1 Ch. 4. 17 ). (6) Father 
of Jephunneh, named in the record of mighty men, 
as belonging to Asher (1 Ch. 7- 38 ), perhaps identical 
with " Ithran " of v. 37. 

JETHRO, also JETHER, REUEL, RAGUEL, 
father-in-law of Moses, priest of Midian (Ex. 
3. 1 , 18. 1 , &c.). In cuneiform script, the names 
" Jethro " and " Reuel " closely resemble each 
other (Conder, Earliest Bible). Moses was acting 
as shepherd to J. when he had the vision of the 
" Burning Bush." J. visited the camp of Isr. and 
gave Moses valuable counsel, propounding a scheme 
of administration wh. the latter adopted. In his 
capacity as priest he offered a sacrifice in wh. Aaron 
and the elders of Isr. felt justified in taking part 
(Ex. 18. 12 ) — an acknowledgment of community in 
faith and worship. 

JETUR. See Itur^ea. 

JEUSH. (1) Esau's son by Aholibamah, reputed 
ancestor of an Edomite clan (Gn. 36. 5 , &c). (2) Son 
of Bilhan, " head " of a house in Benjamin (1 Ch„ 
7. 10 ). (3) A descendant in the eleventh genera- 
tion fm. Saul (1 Ch. 8. 39 , AV. Jehush). (4) Head 
of a Gershonite family (1 Ch. 23. 10L ). (5) Son of 
Rehoboam by Abihail. 

JEW. The name is derived fm. " Judah," and 
applied in the first instance to inhabitants of the 
Southern Kdm. (2 K. 16. 6 ; Jr. 32. 12 , 38. 19 , 40. 11 ). 



The fall of the Northern Kdm. left Jrs. the one 
centre of national and religious feeling ; and at 
the end of the Captivity it was the scene of the 
reorganisation of the national and religious life of 
Israel. The name "Jew " thus easily gained a wider 
significance, and became practically synonymous 
with " Israelite." This meaning it bears in NT. 
Saul of Tarsus, altho' a Benjamite, claims to be a 
Jew (Ac. 2 1. 39 ). He also, however, uses the term 
to denote an adherent of the Jewish faith, as dis- 
tinguished from the Christian (1 Cor. 9. 20 , &c). 

In Mw. 2. 2 , and in the title on the cross, " Jews " 
undoubtedly means the Jewish nation. St. Mark 
names them once in connection with ritual washing 
(7. 3 ), and St. Luke speaks of the Elders of the Jews 
(7. 3 ). In the Gospel of St. John they appear fre- 




Traditional Tomb of Jethro 

quently as the critics and antagonists of Jesus. What 
is called " the Dispersion " was not then a thing of 
recent date. Colonies of Jews were already long 
settled in practically all the main trading centres of 
the world. Their presence in newly-founded cities 
was especially valued by many rulers, by reason of 
the prosperity which by their skill in commerce they 
assured ; only a small fraction of the nation then 
found its home in Palestine. Jews in various parts 
of the world have often been persecuted by Chris- 
tians, by way of avenging the murder of Jesus by the 
forefathers of their victims. The latter justly claim 
that, whoever was responsible, their forefathers were 
innocent, having settled in the lands of the Disper- 
sion long before the days of Jesus. This enables us 
to understand the part played by the Jews in the 
Acts of the Apostles. Wherever a Jewish colony 
was founded, a synagogue was established, in which 
the community assembled for worship, preserving in 
the midst of heathendom the faith of their fathers, 
and cherishing the Messianic hope. To them natu- 
rally the missionaries of the Gospel went first, with 
the good news that this hope was fulfilled ; and the 



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Jew 



converts won among them formed centres of mis- 
sionary influence in the Gentile world. 

What is called the Jewish or Judaising party in 
the Christian Church exercised great influence in 
the early days of Christianity. Their deep loyalty 
to the old order, and their inability to believe that 
anything once ordained of God could have fulfilled 
its purpose and cease to claim observance, led them 
to protest against the freedom from the ritual obliga- 
tions of the old law, which, in the spirit of Christ's 
teaching, was asserted by St. Paul. The new faith, 











DCHILD 



they maintained, was only the completion of the 
faith of their fathers. The Gospel could be ap- 
proached, therefore, only by way of the law. Juda- 
ism was, so to speak, the vestibule through which 
alone either Jew or Gentile could enter the temple 
of Christianity. They laid upon all alike the burden 
of the ancient requirements, laying especial emphasis 
upon the necessity for the characteristic rite of Cir- 
cumcision. They were a sore trial to St. Paul, 
whose claim to apostleship they impugned, even 
casting aspersions on his character ; and by their 
zealous propaganda they succeeded in leading many 
of his converts into what he calls the " bondage " of 
the law. The question was submitted by St. Paul 
to an assembly of Church leaders in Jerusalem. 
There he fought successfully the battle for liberty 



on behalf of them who " from among the Gentiles 
turn to God " (Ac. 15. ; Gal. I., 2., &c). It is in- 
teresting in this connection to note that to this day 
there are many Christians of Jewish blood, who, 
while regarding the Gentiles as entirely free, hold 
themselves bound to observe the ritual requirements 
of the ancient law. 

During the War of Independence, so graphically 
described by Josephus, the Jews manifested splendid 
heroism, and the powers of endurance they dis- 
played during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus were 
almost incredible. But lack of internal unity had 
foredoomed their enterprise to failure, even against 
a less powerful enemy than Rome. The destruc- 
tion of the Temple was a severe blow to the pride, 
but it hardly endangered the existence, of Judaism. 
Its position had long been secured as a religion asso- 
ciated with a book, and its life was nourished in the 
worship of the synagogue. Jerusalem, with the 
Temple and great annual feasts, ceased to be the 
rallying ground of the scattered nation ; but it is 
not merely fanciful to suggest that the sacrificial 
ritual, in the hands of the unspiritual and avaricious 
Sadducees, had already been largely discredited in 
the minds of the truly pious in Israel (the sect of 
the Essenes entirely avoided the Temple sacrifices). 
These men were driven to seek sustenance for their 
faith along other lines : in the more earnest study 
and observance of the law, and in prayer. The way 
was thus prepared for the transition ; and the world 
witnesses the strange spectacle of a religion, the very 
essence of which was sacrifice, reorganised on a non- 
sacrificial basis, and proving an unfailing bond of 
unity and inspiration among a people who are broken 
in fragments, and scattered to the ends of the earth. 

When the last embers of revolt under Bar Cochba 
had been quenched in Jewish blood (a.d. 1 35), the 
Jews were driven from Palestine, and for centuries 
were strangers to their ancestral haunts. In later 
centuries, under Mohammedan rule, small companies 
found their way again into the country ; but not 
until recent years have the numbers been consider- 
able. During the latter half of the 19th cent, im- 
migration took place on a larger scale, settlements 
being made at Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and 
Safed. Schemes of colonisation have also been pro- 
moted by various agencies, and large tracts of the 
best land on both sides of the Jordan are now again 
being tilled by the children of Abraham. The most 
important movement of recent days is that called 
Zionism, the history of wh. hardly lies within the 
scope of this Dictionary. 

JEWEL. This in EV. represents various Heb. wds. 
wh. refer to ornaments ; the meaning being usually 
clear from the context. Oriental love of display led 
to lavish use of the precious metals in articles of 
personal adornment. Of gold and silver were made 
chains, rings for finger, nose, and ear ; bracelets, 
26 



Jew 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jez 



armlets, crescents, anklets, &c. (see Amulet). In 
mod. use " jewels " signify precious stones. These 
are treated under their own names (Amethyst, &c). 

JEWRY. This stands in AV. for Gr. TovScu'a, 
in Lk. 23. 5 ; Jn. 7. 1 . Elsewhere AV. renders 
" Judea " ; RV. uniformly " Judcea." 

JEZANIAH, one of the " captains of the forces 
that were in the fields " (Jr. 40. 7L ), who had escaped 
from Jerusalem at the time of the siege by the " king 
of Babylon." He joined Gedaliah, who had been 
made " governor of the land " at Mizpah. After 
the murder of Gedaliah, the pursuit of Ishmael, and 
the consequent unsettlement in the country, he was 
one of those who at Geruth Chimcham pressed for 
migration to Egypt, thus coming into wordy con- 
flict with Jeremiah (42. lff -). He seems to have as- 
sumed the role of leader in this movement (43 . 2 ). 
Here he is called Azariah, a form wh. may have 
arisen from Jaazaniah, the name given him in 
2 K. 25. 23 . 

JEZEBEL, dr. of Ethbaal, k. of Tyre, w. of Ahab, 
k. of Isr., mr. of Ahaziah and Jehoram, ks. of Isr., 
and of Athaliah, w. of Jehoram, k. of Judah (1 K. 

16. 31 , &c). She was a woman imperious, resolute, 
unscrupulous. She set her heart upon supplanting 
in Isr. the worship of J", by that of Baal, and Ahab 
became practically her tool. He built a great 
temple to Baal in Samaria. Her propaganda was 
enforced by slaughter of the prophets of J". (1 K. 

16. 32 , 18. 4 ). Her chief antagonist was Elijah, by 
whose agency the triumph of J", at Carmel was 
achieved (1 K. i8. 1:ff -) ; but even he fled before th^ 
wrath of J. thus aroused. By a process of peculiar 
infamy she compassed the death of Naboth, whose 
patrimony Ahab was thus enabled to secure (21.), 
drawing upon himself and his house the curse of 
Elijah. The crime also excited deep and abiding 
popular detestation (2 K. c;. 21 ' 25 *-). About B.C. 
853 Ahab was slain. J. lived ten yrs. longer. In 
all the pride of her fierce nat. she prepared her- 
self for the end. It was a queenly figure that 
greeted Jehu the regicide with such disdain. It is 
impossible to justify that coarse plebeian in his brutal 
treatment of the aged princess of Tyre (g. 3m -). 

JEZIEL, a Benjamite archer or slinger, who went 
to David at Ziklag (1 Ch. 12. 3 ). He was son of 
Azmaveth, prob. identical with Azmaveth of 
Bahurim, David's hero (1 S. 23. 31 ). 

JEZREEL (" God soweth "). (1) The Valley 
of J. (Jo. 17. 16 ). While the city J. overlooks both, 
the name l emeq applies more suitably to the depres- 
sion between Moreh and Gilboa than to the wide 
plain wh. runs W'ward to Carmel. But the larger 
vale is also so designated (Jg. 5. 15 ). Elsewhere it is 
called by the more appropriate name, used of wide 
plains, biq'ab, and associated with Megiddo (2 Ch. 
35« 22 ; Zc. 12. 11 ). In later times it takes the Gr. 
form of Esdraelon (Jth. i. 8 , &c). The mod. 



name is Merj ibn 'Amr. It is almost a right-angled 
triangle in shape, the base, 20 miles, stretching fm. 
Carmel to Jeriin, with the apex at Tabor. The 
soil is very rich, partly basaltic fm. the crater of 
Little Hermon. The Kishon winds in its deep bed 
through the plain to the gorge at Carmel, whence it 
escapes to the sea. The Canaanites long held the 
plain by means of their iron chariots (Jo. 17. 16 ). 
Its fruitfulness attracted the nomads fm. the E., to 
whose attack it lay easily open (Jg. 6. 33 ). Until 
comparatively recent times Arab raids were a 
source of terror to the people on the plain. 




Ford at Jezreel 



It was a great battlefield of the old world (Jg. 
5. 15 , 6. 33 , 7. 1 ; 1 S. 29. 1 , 31. ; 2 K. 23. 29 , &c). In 
what more fitting scene could be imagined the 
gathering of the peoples to war in the great day of 
the Lord (Rv. 16. 14 ' 16 ) ? (2) A city in Issachar 
(Jo. 19. 18 ) wh., with its district, adhered to the 
house of Saul (2 S. 2. 9 ). It was the northern resi- 
dence of Ahab and Jezebel (1 K. 18. 45 , 21. 1 , &c), 
the scene of the dastard crime upon Naboth, and of 
the tragedy enacted by Jehu (2 K. g. 20t -). It occu- 
pied the site of the mod. Zer'Jn on the NW. spur 
of Gilboa. It is a position of great charm, com- 
manding a varied and interesting prospect over the 
surroundings of the great plain, down the vale to 
Beisdn, and the hills beyond Jordan. Rock-cut 
wine-presses hard by attest the anct. vine culture. 
The ruined tower in the vill. is of no great antiquity. 
There is a good supply of water at i Ain el-Mei- 
yiteh, E. of the vill., and also at ' A in Jalud (see 
Harod, Well of). With the fall of Ahab's dyn. 
the town passed into obscurity. (3) An unidentd. 



327 



Jip 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Job 



town near Carmel in Judah (Jo. 15. 56 ) whence came 
Ahinoam the Jezreelitess (1 S. 25. 43 , &c). 

JIPHTAH, RV. IPHTAH, an unidentd. town 
in the Judaean Shephelah (Jo. 15. 43 ). The neigh- 
bourhood is indicated by Nezib and Mareshah, wh. 
are mentioned in the context. 

JIPHTHAH-EL. The ga? ("ravine" or " glen") 
of Jiphthah-el lay on the W. border of Zebulun (Jo. 
io,. 14 * 27 ). It is named before Cabul, travelling 
from the S. Since the days of Robinson (BRP. hi. 
107) it has been usual to identify the valley with that 
of 'dbilin, which sweeps round the S. of Jebel Kau- 
kdb, and breaks out westward through the plain. It 
takes its rise at Jafdt, the Jotopata of Josephus, in 
wh. we may detect an echo of the ancient name. 
Nomore probable identification has been suggested. 

JOAB (" J", is father "), s. of David's sr. Zeruiah 
(2 S. 2. 32 , &c), first mentioned as Abishai's br. 
(1 S. 26. 6 ). He led David's men with entire suc- 
cess agst. Abner at Gibeon (2 S. 2. 13 ). When the 
latter came over to David's side, seeing in him a 
poss. rival, and in revenge for his br. Asahel's death, 
J. treacherously murdered him (3. 27fL ), incurring 
thereby the curse of David. His value to the k. 
was soon illustrated by his capture of the strong- 
hold of Jebus (1 Ch. 11. 6 ). After an act. of David's 
victories over the Phil., Moab, Zobah, Syr., and 
Edom, J. is named as " over the host " (2 S. 8. 16 ). 
That he bore a part in these campaigns we may 
infer fm. the later notice of his share in subduing 
Edom, wh. won for him a name of dread (1 K. 
i Ia i4ff.. 21) # Along with Abishai he inflicted heavy 
defeat upon the Ammonite Hanun and his Syrian 
allies (2 S. io. 1 ' 14 ). At the siege of Rabbah he 
secretly arranged for the death of Uriah (11.). 
With magnanimous regard for the k.'s honour, he 
summoned David to complete the capture of Rab- 
bah (i2. 26fL ). He secured for Absalom return fm. 
exile and reconciliation with the k. (i4. lff - 33 ). 
Adhering to David in Absalom's rebellion, J. com- 
manded a division agst. the latter. Contrary to 
the k.'s orders, but clearly in the interests of peace 
and security, he slew the young prince (i8. 2ff -). 
He rebuked David's excessive grief, wh. was dis- 
heartening the troops, and, recalling the k. to a 
saner mood, saved the situation wh. was becoming 
perilous (i9. lfL ). David's displeasure, however, was 
marked by transference of J.'s command to Amasa 
(v. 13). Deficient, apparently, in energy and de- 
cision, Amasa was slain by his cousin J., on the 
expedition agst. Sheba. Although Abishai was 
nominally in command, J. was the real leader. 
Having stamped out the revolt (20. 1 " 22 ), he thence- 
forward securely held his position. He wisely re- 
sisted David's wish to number the people, and, 
although overborne by the royal will, the chronicler 
says that he did not complete the work (1 Ch. 27. 24 ). 
Prob. with perfect loyalty to David, J. accepted 



Adonijah as his successor (1 K. I. 7,19 ), unaware of 
Bathsheba's intrigue on behalf of Solomon. This 
furnished Solomon with a pretext for his execution 
(2. 28ff -). It was a pitiful end to a great career. 
When full allowance is made for his selfish ambition, 
his vindictiveness and treachery, he yet stands out 
as a heroic warrior and loyal patriot, to whose 
soldierly abilities, there can be no doubt, the con- 
solidation of David's power was largely due. 

It has been attempted to show that David's in- 
junction to Solomon (1 K. 2. 5f -) is a late addition. 
The passage appears to be certainly ancient, and 
there is no convincing reason to doubt its his- 
toricity. 

Several others bore this name (1 Ch. 2. 54 , 4. 14 ; 
Ez. 2. 6 , 8. 9 ). 

JOAH. (1) Son of Asaph, " recorder " in the 
court of Hezekiah (2 K. i8. 18 » 26 ; Is. 36** n - 22 ), 
one of the deputation sent to interview Rabshakeh 
at the conduit of the upper pool. (2) Son of 
Zimmah, a Gershonite (1 Ch. 6. 21 ), apparently 
identical with Ethan of v. 42. (3) Son of Obed- 
edom (1 Ch. 26. 4 ) of the family of Korah. He and 
his brothers were noted as " able men in strength 
for the service." To their care was entrusted the 
south gate of the Temple, and the storehouse (vv. 8, 
15). (4) Son of Joahaz, " recorder " in the court of 
Josiah. He had oversight of the work of repairing 
the Temple, which had suffered from neglect under 
Manasseh and Amon (2 Ch. 34- 8 ). 

JOANNA. (1) An ancestor of our Lord (Lk. 
3. 27 ). (2) Wife of Chuza, steward of Herod Anti- 
pas ; she ministered to Christ of her substance 
(Lk. 8. 3 ). She was one of those who prepared 
spices and ointments, and took them to the 
sepulchre, on the morning of the resurrection 
{Lk. 23. 56 , 24. 1 ' 10 ). 

JOASH. (1) Fr. of Gideon (Jg. 6. 11 , &c). 
(2) S. of Ahab (1 K. -22. 26 , &c), if indeed " k.'s 
son " be not an official title. See Jehoash. 

JOB, THE BOOK OF. It is one of the 
Kethubim (Hagiographa), and in our English Bibles, 
as in Luther's, is placed first among these books ; in 
the ordinary Hebrew Bibles J. usually stands third. 
With singular unanimity the literary excellence of 
J. has been acknowledged. 

Contents. — J. begins with a prose prologue in 
five scenes ; three are on the earth and two in 
heaven. The first of these shows us J., a wealthy 
village sheikh, pious, beneficent, and universally 
respected. He has seven sons and three daughters, 
for whom he daily intercedes. The next scene is in 
heaven, in the presence of God. Among the " sons 
of God " Satan appears ; God demands of him if he 
has observed the character of J. This abrupt in- 
troduction seems to imply that we are admitted to 
be auditors in the middle of a controversy, in the 
earlier part of wh. Satan has maintained that all 



328 



Job 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Job 



men are irremediably bad, incapable of disinte- 
rested love of God. In such a case the question 
arises, Why is Satan so anxious to prove men wholly 
bad ? It wd. seem that a plausible case mt. be 
made out that mankind were receiving more favour 
than they had a claim to. Satan asserts that Job's 
prosperity is the reason for his integrity ; in conse- 
quence he is allowed to test J. by the destruction of 
his property. The third scene is on earth. Job, 
it may be, has just completed the sacrifice for his 
children, when messenger after messenger comes, 
each treading on the other's heels, and declares to 
him that flocks and herds, servants and sons, have 
been destroyed by successive catastrophes. Job yet 
maintains his integrity ; he says, " The Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name 
of the Lord." The fourth scene is in heaven ; 
again Satan appears, and on being challenged, 
■asserts that it is on account of his immunity fm. 
personal suffering that Job still trusts God. In 
consequence he is allowed to afflict Job with dis- 
ease ; apparently elephantiasis. The last scene in 
the prologue is upon the earth ; Job is seen sitting 
in ashes scraping himself. Now his wife wd. tempt 
him to take leave of God ; friends come, but they 
misjudge him. Still Job maintains his integrity. 

Now begins the poem proper. Eliphaz the 
Temanite, an old man, claiming indeed to be older 
than Job's father ; Bildad the Shuhite, possibly a 
coeval of Job's ; and Zophar the Naamathite, 
possibly a young man compared with the others : 
these three friends of Job, when they see him, sit 
astonished and silent for seven days. The pent-up 
sorrow of Job's heart now expresses itself ; he curses 
his day ; the day of his birth becomes personified 
before him and he pours maledictions upon it. 
There is no word of blame uttered agst. God. 
Eliphaz, in virtue of his seniority, answers Job. 
Without distinctly saying so, Eliphaz assumes that 
there must have been special guilt on Job's part wh. 
has brought down on him such special punishment. 
Job answers ; charges his friends with failing to 
realise the depth of his misery ; the pain of wh. is 
enhanced by the thought that God has done it. 
Bildad now joins in the discussion, and blames Job 
for charging God foolishly ; he must be wicked 
since God has punished him so sorely. His duty 
is to acknowledge his sin and God will restore him 
to favour. Job in answer acknowledges that the 
Divine standard of holiness must be far higher than 
that of men ; yet God has condemned him without 
showing him why He has so afflicted him. If there 
were a Mediator between God and man it wd. be 
different. Zophar answers. Divine Wisdom is his 
theme ; it is our place to submit, not to ask ex- 
planations. Job answers by pouring contempt upon 
the platitudes that have been addressed to him. 
This may be regarded as the end of the first Act. 



The second Act is opened by Job's new argu- 
ment ; man is of so few days that God need not be 
so strict with him ; misery has a more painful 
meaning when life is so short. Eliphaz assails Job 
for daring to maintain his righteousness agst. God. 
If we exclude a sarcastic protest agst. platitude, 
Job's answer is an appeal fm. man to God. In his 
turn Bildad intervenes ; he endeavours, by portray- 
ing the fate of the wicked, to insinuate that Job 
must be wicked when he has suffered such things. 
In answering, Job complains of his friends having 
turned agst. him ; he ends with a confident appeal 
to God, who will be his Avenger. Zophar reiterates 
the charge of hypocrisy agst. Job. Job's answer, in 
wh. he shows that the wicked may be prosperous to 
the day of his death, may be regarded as the transi- 
tion between the second and third Acts. 

Eliphaz opens the third cycle of speeches by 
reasoning that Job must be guilty because it can be 
no profit to the Almighty to afflict. In his answer 
Job passes his opponents on one side, but declaims 
on the impossibility of seeing God and so having 
the mystery cleared up, how he is suffering while 
some who are flagrantly unjust prosper. Bildad 
interposes a short speech ; it is a repetition of his 
former speeches on the impossibility of a man being 
justified with God. The chapters that follow con- 
tain Job's answer, wh. is an unswerving declaration 
of his own relative righteousness. It wd. seem not 
impossible that the greater part of chap. 27. is the 
missing speech of Zophar ; it inveighs agst. the 
rich. The position of chap 28. can only be under- 
stood if it is regarded as a chorus,in the Greek sense, 
in praise of the infinite kge. and wisdom of God 
compared with man's kge., however extensive it 
may seem. It concludes with the Divine sentence 
summing up the whole matter, " The fear of the 
Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart fm. evil is 
understanding." This is the practical solution of 
the problem ; it is implied that the theoretic is 
beyond the power of man's apprehension. 

In what may be regarded as the fourth Act Job 
indulges in a monologue wh. occupies the three 
following chaps. It consists of reminiscences of his 
prosperity, of his conduct, esp. to the poor, during 
that period, and contrast with his present evil case. 
Then follow the Elihu speeches. The speaker is 
represented as a spectator and auditor who has 
followed the discussion with interest, but at the 
same time with disappointment. He intervenes, 
but it is difficult to see what his argument adds to 
the elucidation of the question at issue. There is a 
faint suggestion of benefit to the sufferer, a view not 
wholly absent fm. the thought of the earlier speakers : 
this may be taken as Elihu's contribution. When 
the last human speaker has become silent God Him- 
self appears. A dark cloud gathers and covers the 
whole heaven, blinding flash upon blinding flash is 

29 L2. 



Job 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Job 



followed by the long roll of the thunder ; and on 
the group round the patriarch bursts the hurricane. 
Jehovah answers out of the tempest. God's first 
speech is an emphasising of the conclusion of chap. 
28. Job replies by submission. God's second 
speech deepens the effect of the former, restrict- 
ing attention to two of God's creatures, Behemoth 
(the hippopotamus), and Leviathan (the crocodile). 
Job replies with deeper reverence. On this follows 
the Epilogue, the justification of Job, his sacrifice in 
order that his friends may be forgiven, and the 
restoration of Job to more than all his previous 
prosperity. One feels that in order to full, rounded- 
off, poetic completeness there shd. be added to the 
Epilogue on earth an Epilogue in heaven, wh. shd. 
tell of the utter discomfiture of Satan, and the 
blessedness bestowed upon Job in the other world. 
To those who believe in the special inspiration of 
Scrip, the reason will be clear, " the way into the 
holiest of all was not yet made manifest." 

Text. — In many passages there is evidence that 
the MT. has suffered some corruption. As the 
earliest MS. is separated fm. the date of the compo- 
sition of J. by more than a millennium at the latest 
date assignable, it is only fm. W. that we can derive 
any help. The use of them is complicated by the 
fact that the text of the oldest of them, the LXX, is 
in such a confused condition. Until the text of the 
LXX is adjusted with some degree of finality we 
cannot adventure with any security on textual 
emendations, however suspicious we may be of 
the MT. 

Literary Form. — It is a mistake to expect in 
any ancient Semitic writing examples of the literary 
forms that were evolved by the Greeks. The book 
of J. has characteristics wh. ally it in form at once to 
elegiac and didactic poems, to epic and the drama. 
At the same time there are highly wrought lyrical 
passages. The idea of poetic form had not ad- 
vanced far enough for these distinctions to be fixed. 
Neglecting less important elements, we may say 
that J. is a series of didactic poems arranged 
dramatically for the elucidation of a great practical 
problem, and placed in a narrative setting. The 
action of J. is stated in the Prologue in heaven ; the 
problem before Job and his friends is to explain 
what has happened without having the clue. Even 
the practical solution is attained only by Divine 
intervention. 

Date and Authorship. — It is impossible to 
decide either of these with even approximate cer- 
tainty. Every age fm. that of Moses to that of 
Ezra has been assigned. A late and worthless 
tradition declares Moses to be the author. Al- 
though the tradition is valueless as a tradition, yet 
there is nothing impossible in the view in itself. 
There is certainly a patriarchal atmosphere wh. wd. 
suit the desert of Sinai and the tents of Jethro, and 



a knowledge of Egp. suitable to one brought up in it. 
It is urged that this is artistic, and that references to 
city life and other signs of more advanced civilisa- 
tion show J. to be the composition of a much later 
age. But we now learn that civilisation is older 
than was formerly thought. At the same time bare 
possibility is no argument for actuality. Had there 
been any excuse for assigning the authorship to 
Moses, the attraction of his name wd. have led to its 
being declared by tradition a certainty. The Solo- 
monic period has also been suggested. It was one of 
great literary activity, accdg. to tradition ; psalmists 
and prophets were named as writing ; the king's de- 
votion to wisdom wd. necessarily give an impetus to 
Hokmah or Wisdom literature, of wh. J. is the most 
important example. The intercourse maintained 
with Egp. wd. explain the Egyptian colouring, while 
Solomon's interest in natural history wd. explain 
the careful description wh. is given of the crocodile 
and hippopotamus. The patriarchal atmosphere, 
then as now, cd. be supplied fm. the nomads of the 
desert. Again, however, possibility is not even 
probability. What has been said of the Solomonic 
period applies with little change to that of Hezekiah, 
though with somewhat lessened emphasis. Much 
the same might be said of the idea that J. was the 
work of one of those who entered Egp. with Jere- 
miah after the murder of Gedaliah. There are 
many points of similarity between Jeremiah and J., 
and the circumstances were fitted to raise the pro- 
blem of J. Less likely, though not impossible, is the 
time of Ezra ; we know now that there was inter- 
course between the Israelitish colony in Upper Egp. 
and their brethren in Pal. Nothing can be proved 
fm. language ; it is certain that words peculiar to J. 
are numerous, wh. may as well be due to antiquity 
as to recency ; alleged Aramaisms and Arabisms 
may as well prove J. to have originated at a time so 
early that Heb. had not yet been fully differen- 
tiated fm. its cognates. In the case of similar pas- 
sages in different authors it is difficult to determine 
by internal evidence wh. has the priority. Yet 
more hazardous is it to attempt to fix the date of a 
document by the chronology of moral problems. 
As old as goodness and suffering must the problem 
of Job have been ; and that is as old as the human 
race. The reference to J. in Ezekiel (14. 14 ' 20 ) is 
more important, as it implies in the audience of the 
prophet as great a familiarity with the history of J. 
as with that of Noah ; that cd. scarcely be unless 
the book were already extant. The case of Daniel 
is not an objection, as he was a contemporary. 
This wd. restrict our choice to the ages of Hezekiah 
and of Solomon. The prominence given to the 
habits of animals, and esp.to the horse,points rather 
to the age of Solomon. 

JOBAB. (1) A son of Joktan (Gn. io. 29 ; 1 Ch. 
1 . 23 ), the reputed ancestor of an Arabian tribe. The 



33o 



Joe 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Joe 



name cannot be located with any certainty. Dill- 
mann (Genesis, ad loc.) compares the name with that 
of the tribe Yubaibab, found in a Sabaean inscrip- 
tion. Sprenger thinks it may correspond to the Arb. 
Wabar, attached to a large part of el-Yemen. In 
one recension the LXX has 3 Io/36p. (2) Son of 
Zerah, who reigned over Edom in Bozrah, before 
the days of kings in Israel (Gn. 36. 33f - ; 1 Ch. 1 44f -). 
In an apocryphal addition to the LXX version of 
the book of Job, the patriarch is identified with 
Jobab. He is said to be the son of Zerah, the son of 
Esau, his mother being Bossora, in wh. name we see 
clearly the Bozrah of the original text. (3) One of 
Jabin's allies, k. of Madon (Jo. II. 1 ). See also 
1 Ch. 8. 9 - 18 . 

JOCHEBED (" J", is glorious "), dr. of Levi, wife 
of Amram, mr. of Moses and Aaron (Ex. 6. 20 ). 

JOEL. (1) Eldest s. of Samuel (i S. 8. 2 ). 
(2) The prophet, s. of Pethuel, of whom nothing 
further is known. This name was borne by several 
persons in the lists in I Ch., Ez., and Ne. 

JOEL, BOOK OF, the second of the bks. of the 
Minor Prophets (fourth in LXX). Contents. — 
J. opens with a description of the devastation 
wrought by locusts (i. 2 " 13 ) ; then follows a call to a 
general fast (i. 14 " 20 ). The 2nd chap, gives a de- 
scription of the coming of a swarm of locusts (2. 1 " 11 ) ; 
then there is a call for repentance, and a general 
fast (2. 12 ' 17 ) ; J. now promises to the people a res- 
toration of their prosperity (2. 18 " 27 ). From this 
point to the end of the prophecy J. becomes to 
a limited degree Apocalyptic. The Day of the 
Lord is the theme (2. 28 -3. 21 ), in wh. there shall be 

(a) a spiritual outpouring on the Jewish people ; 

(b) judgment executed on the enemies of Judah 
assembled in the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and (c) 
peace and prosperity to Judah. 

Date. — There has been great diversity of critical 
opinion as to this ; some with Credner making J. 
the earliest of literary prophets, others with Vatke 
declaring him to be among the latest. As there is 
no historical event referred to wh. can be recognised, 
it is only by considering the general conditions of 
life implied, or signs of literary dependence, that any 
idea can be formed of the date. In favour of an 
early date is the fact that there is no mention of 
Assyria — the oppressions suffered by the people are 
fm. the neighbouring peoples, Phil., Edomites, 
Egyptians, and Phoenicians ; there is no reference to 
alien communities being established among the 
people, as was the case after the return fm. the 
Babylonian captivity. For a late date the fact 
that, while priests and elders are mentioned, there 
is no notice of king or princes ; that among the 
neighbouring peoples neither Syria nor Israel are 
named, while on the other hand there is mention of 
the " Greeks." It is noted also that there is no con- 
demnation of worship at the high places, or of the 



service of " other gods." The literary question is 
also difficult to decide : there are certainly, in pro- 
portion to its length, more passages in J. wh. find 
parallels in other prophetic writings than is the case 
with any other prophet ; but only on examination 
can one decide on wh. side the dependence is. 
Historically the complete disappearance of the Phil, 
fm. notice after the Babylonian conquest is an im- 
portant testimony to the early date. The want of 
any reference to king or princes is not conclusive : 
neither in Nahum nor Habakkuk is either men- 
tioned. Elders are certainly mentioned, but as old 
men, not as members of a senate, as in 2. 16 they are 
put in parallelism with " children and those that 
suck the breast " : though " priests " are mentioned 
there is no reference to the High Priest, who was 
the national head of the Jews during the time of 
their subjection to foreign powers. As for the 
Greeks, they were certainly combated by Sargon, if 
not also by Ramses II. In regard to the question | 
of literary dependence ; in certain cases the passages 
seem to fit either setting, e.g. Am. I. 2 and Jl. 3. 16 , 
though even here that of Joel is the more natural ; 
it seems more cognate to the utterance of the voice 
of ]". that " the heavens and the earth shall shake," 
than that " the habitations of the shepherds shall 
mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither," a thing 
that wd. happen in due course every summer. In 
the case of Zp. I. 15 and Jl. 2. 2 , the latter is clearly 
the primary because it is part of the picture of 
the approaching swarm of locusts, whereas the 
former is merely a rhetorical heaping up of epithets 
regarding the day of the Lord. An interesting case 
is Jl. 3. 10 ; cp. Mi. 4- 3 , and Is. 2. 4 ; here there is a 
contrast. In Mi. and Is. J", was to compel the 
nations to be at peace ; in Jl. the nations are invad- 
ing Judah and every one who can bear arms rushes 
to them, and, failing regular weapons, improvises 
them from the implements of husbandry. Again, 
the latter must be the primary; the actual always 
precedes the ideal ; the raids of the Phil, and the 
Midianites had made the extemporising of weapons 
a not unfamiliar occupation to the Judaean peasant. 
Hence the early date seems on the whole preferable. 
Interpretation. — The main question of the 
exegesis of J. is whether the locust swarm is to be 
taken literally or as the symbol of an invading army. 
It is difficult to appreciate the allegorical view ; the 
prophet describes the plague of locusts under the 
figure of an army ; it seems an awkward suggestion 
that this swarm is a figurative description of an 
army. Further, I. 4 seems to be a description of the 
devastation wrought the second year by the grubs 
fm. the eggs of the original swarm ; this wd. have 
no meaning on the allegorical interpretation. The 
reference to the " Northerner " (AV. " the northern 
army ") is the only difficulty ; but though it is 
mainly fm. the E. that locusts invade Pal., yet a 



33 l 



Jog 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Joh 



NE. wind mt. easily deflect a swarm. The latter 

half of the prophecy was literal before the mind of 

the prophet ; yet we may be at liberty to spiritualise 

it, as the prophets did not necessarily know the 

full meaning of the message committed to them 

(I P. I. 11 ). 

JOGBEHAH, a Gadite town in Gilead (Nu. 

32. 35 ). Its place in the record of Gideon's pursuit 

points definitely to el-Jubeihah (or el-Jubeihdi), a 

group of ruins seven miles NW. of { Amman. 

JOHANAN. Several men of this name are 

mentioned in Scrip. Here we need refer only to 

.the s. of Kareah, chief of the Jewish forces in the 

field after the fall of Jrs. ; he joined Gedaliah, and 

warned him of the treachery of Ishmael, but in vain. 

After the murder of Gedaliah J., agst. the advice 

of Jeremiah, went down to Egp., taking with him 

all the little community of Mizpah (Jr. 40. 8 ~43.). 

JOHN, (i) The Baptist, s. of the priest 

Zacharias and his w. Elizabeth, a kinswoman of the 

Virgin, born to them in their old 

age, accdg. to the promise of an 

angel (Lk. i. 5fl -). His birthplace 

is unknown. It was a town in 

the hill country of Judah (v. 39). 

Juttah has been suggested, but 

without good reason. J. was 

consecrated a Nazirite fm. his 

birth. He lived apart fm. the 

haunts of men (i. 80 , 3- 2 ), until, 

prob. 30 yrs. of age, he appeared 

in the wilderness, and the district 

of the lower Jordan, as a preacher 

of righteousness and repentance. 

His must have been a striking 

personality; his rough dress and 

ascetic ways formed a fit setting 

for his resolute and fearless 

courage. But, unknown as he 

was to the multitude, he was so 
Locusts for Food . ' 

thoroughly identified with his 

message that all the evangelists describe him, in 




the words of Is. 40. 3 , as " a 



(Mw. 3. lff - 



&c). He denounced the sins and sinners of the 
time, without respect of persons, summoning men 
to repent and to pursue nobler ways. Such as 
came to him confessing and penitent he baptized, 
his baptism being the sign and seal of inward 
cleansing, and the beginning of a new life (Ant. 
XVIII. v. 2). Only once (Mw. 3. 2 ) is he said 
to have announced the nearness of the kdm. of 
heaven. But he regarded his work as preparatory, 
and himself as merely the forerunner of a greater 
than he, in whom undoubtedly he expected the 
Messiah (Mw. 3. 11 , &c. ; Jn. i. 29ff -). To bear 
witness to Him was, indeed, the main obj. of his 
coming (Jn. I. 7 ). His preaching created a great 
stir, and people fm. all parts of the country crowded 



to hear him. Men consulted him who wished to 
reform their lives, and he gave them advice suited 
to each case (Lk. 3. 10fL ). So deeply did he impress 
the people that many wondered if he might not 
himself be Messiah (Lk. 3. 15 ; Jn. i. 19f -). With 
deeper insight, he recognised the expected Deliverer 
in Jesus of Nazareth, and pointed his disciples to 
Him (Jn. I. 29, 36 ). But in spirit he yet belonged to 
the old dispensation. He cd. think of Messiah 
gaining His ends only by forceful methods, by axe, 
fan, and unquenchable fire (Mw. 3- 10ff *, &c). The 
request of Jesus for baptism at first staggered J. ; 
but the recognition of him as God's Prophet (Mw. 
il. 9ff - ; Lk. 7. 26ff -) carried with it the obligation to 
obey God's will as revealed by him. To the baptism 
required, therefore, he must submit who wished to 
" fulfil all righteousness " (Mw. 3. 13fL ). On ascend- 
ing fm. the water J.'s sptl. intuition was confirmed 
by the heavenly vision and voice (vv. i6f., &c). 

When Jesus began His public ministry the com- 
pany attending J. grew smaller. But there was no 
place for envy or jealousy in the great heart of the 
Baptist. He rejoiced when news of Jesus' success 
was brought him at ^Enon. It was for this he had 
wrought : and heroic unselfishness never found 
more touching expression than in his words, " He 
must increase, but I must decrease " (Jn. 3. 22ff -). 

J. did no miracle (Jn. io. 41 ) ; but his form, his 
manner of life, his intrepid rebuke of wickedness in 
high places, recalled the most striking prophetic 
figures of OT. times. He truly fulfilled the pre- 
diction of Ml. 4. 5f# , coming in the spt. and power 
of Elijah (Mw. II. 14 ; Lk. I. 17 ). The tetrarch, 
Herod Antipas, in whose territory J. preached, 
watched the popular movement with uneasy 
suspicion {Ant. XVIII. v. 2). J.'s denunciation of 
Herod's sin furnished the pretext for his imprison- 
ment, while it incurred the deadly hatred of his 
partner in guilt ; and in due course the tragedy of 
the prison followed (Mw. i4- 3fL , &c). Josephus 
lays the scene of J.'s murder in Machaerus, the great 
fortress E. of the Dead Sea. But this stronghold 
appears then to have been in the hands of Herod's 
enemy, Aretas. Possibly Tiberias witnessed the 
prophet's death. The ruin of Herod's palace there 
is called Qasr bint el-Melek, " Fortress of the k.'s 
dr.," wherein there may be a reminiscence of the 
fair dancer,, Tradition says that J.'s body was 
buried at Samaria, the mod. Sebastieh, where the 
Crusaders erected the church of St. J., now a 
Moslem mosque. The head is said to have been 
finally buried in Damascus. 

One pathetic incident during his imprisonment is 
related (Mw. II. 2 ; Lk. 7. 19 ). There is no good 
reason to omit with Dr. Cheyne (EB. s.v.), " in the 
prison," in the former passage. The disciples wd. 
have much freer access to their master than a prison 
suggests to us. But the change, for one who had 



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ever been a child of the sun and the free air of the 
wilds, cd. hardly fail to be depressing. Doubts wh. 
cd. not touch him by the Jordan might seem natural 
in prison. Still more may he have been troubled by 
the diffc. between the Messiah of his anticipation, 
with axe, fan, and unquenchable fire, and this Man 
with His quiet ways. What cd. He hope to effect 
agst. prevailing wickedness ? The Master's answer 
sent by J.'s messengers must have comforted the 
herald's heart. 

The impression made by J. on his own time was 
very great. When Jesus was at the height of His 
fame, others besides Herod (Mw. 14. 2 ; Mk. 8. 28 , 
&c), ignorant of His early life, thought Him the 
Baptist risen fm. the dead. Some, knowing only 
the baptism of J., and unaware of the marvels of 
Pentecost, were found later at Ephesus, and doubt- 
less elsewhere. They may have been instructed by 
disciples of J. who had left Pal. before the manifesta- 
tion of the Messiah. Their position illustrates the 
result of the Baptist's preaching. They swiftly 
saw it to be only a stage on the way to the Christian 
faith (Ac. 18. 25 , ic.. lff -). 

J.'s greatest success was found among the common 
people (Mw. 21. 26 , &c). Herod "knew that he 
was a righteous man and a holy " (Mk. 6. 20 ). 
The testimony of Jesus is clear and emphatic to 
the supremacy of J. in the prophetic succession, 
and to the value of his witness (Mw. II. 11 ; Lk. J. 28 ; 
Jn. 5. 33 ). Himself the greatest man of the old 
order, he had the insight to anticipate, and the 
grace to rejoice in the advent of better things 
than the old had ever known (Jn. I. 15 ' 29 , 3. 27fl -)> 
who shd. raise men to higher levels than even 
his aspiring soul cd. yet attain (Mw. II. 11 ; 
Lk. 7. 28 ). 

(2) The Apostle, s. of Zebedee and Salome, 
the sr. of the Virgin Mary (Mw. 2J. 5Q ; Mk. 15. 40 ; 
Jn. 19. 25 ), who, with his br. James, was among the 
first followers of Jesus. They were members of a 
fishing company on the Sea of Galilee (Lk. 5. 10 ), and 
appear to have been fairly well-to-do. They were 
able to hire assistance (Mk. I. 20 ), and Salome was 
one of those who ministered to Jesus of their sub- 
stance (Lk. 8. 3 ). Whether he was a native of 
Capernaum or Bethsaida is not clear. The latter, 
the home of his partners (Jn. I. 44 ), must have been 
close to Capernaum (Mk. I. 29 ) : it may have been 
the fisher vill. of the larger town. He was prob. 
the youngest of the apostolic group. If he be 
identical with the disciple whom Jesus loved, this 
will explain his outrunning of the older man, Peter 
(Jn. 20. 4 ). Poss. J. was the companion of Peter, 
who, being a disciple of the Baptist, became a 
follower of Jesus (Jn. I. 35fl -). Having returned to 
his work, he was soon after called with his br. to 
be continuously with the Master (Mw. 4. 21 , &c). 
Chosen to be an "apostle," he belonged to the 



inmost group who enjoyed the special confidence of 
Jesus (Mk. 3„ 13ff -, &c). That we may ident. him 
with the disciple whom Jesus loved, to whom a 
peculiar degree of intimate fellowship wd. be 
granted, the following considerations make prob. 

(a) This disciple must have been one of the Twelve. 

(b) He cd. not have been excluded fm. the inmost 
group of three — Peter, James, and J. (c) He was 
not Peter, fm. whom he is frequently distinguished. 
(d) The saying that he shd. not die cd. not attach 
to James, who was the first of them all to die. 
John seems to be quite clearly indicated. 

Some touch of fire and passion in them secured 
for him and his br. the title Boanerges. He was 
not free fm. jealousy (Lk. 9- 49 ), and he responded to 
the spur of personal ambition (Mk. io. 35ff -, &c). 
He kept closest to Jesus in the hour of His adversity, 
and received fm. the dying Saviour the sacred 
charge of His mr. (Jn. 19. 26 ). 

After Pentecost J. appears with Peter in the 
Temple (Ac. 3. 1 ), and again evangelising in Samaria 
(8. 14fE -). Paul did not see J. when first as a Christian 
he visited Jrs. (Gal. i. 18L ), but 14 yrs. later he is 
named as one of the pillars of the church (Gal. 2. 9 ; 
cp. Ac. 15.). 

Accdg. to cert, early Christian writings J. sub- 
sequently took up his residence in Ephesus. During 
the persecution of Domitian he was banished to the 
isle of Patmos, and at the death of that emperor 
returned to Ephesus, where he lived till the reign 
of Trajan (see John, Gospel of ; Epistles ; and 
Revelation). Tertullian is the first to speak of a 
visit to Rm., where J. was plunged in a cauldron of 
boiling oil, suffering no harm (De Prcesc. Hcer. 36). 

Some of the traditions regarding J. are quite in 
harmony with what we know of him fm. the 
Gospels. Irenaeus (Adv. Hcer. III. iii. 4) tells how 
his wrath blazed at Cerinthus, how he retreated fm. 
the bath when he saw that heretic, crying, " Let us 
go, lest the house fall " (cp. Lk. 9. 51ff -)„ Clement of 
Alexandria (Quis Dives Salvus, 42) tells of a youth to 
whom the apostle was attracted, who became a 
convert, but, neglected thereafter by the bishop to 
whose care J. had commended him, fell away, and 
became the leader of a band of brigands. The aged 
apostle penetrated the robber haunts, and in the end 
won the wanderer back to faith and righteousness — 
conduct worthy of the disciple whom Jesus loved. 
He was wont to play with a pet partridge. " The 
bow," he said, " cannot be always bent." Very 
beautiful is the story of his extreme old age, when, 
no longer able to walk, he was carried into church, 
where he often repeated the command, " Little 
children, love one another," declaring that this was 
the sum of Christian duty (Jerome, Com. in Gal. 
6. 10 ). Last of the apostles, he died prob. 100 yrs. 
of age. An old tradition says he was killed by the 
Jews : but there is no certy. In the early Christian 



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cents, his tomb was shown in Ephesus (Eusebius, 
HE. vii. 25 ; Jerome, De Vir. Illust. 9). 
JOHN, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. 

When one thinks of writing a short article on the 
fourth Gospel, he is overwhelmed with the thought 
of the vast and multitudinous Lit. he has to make 
himself acquainted with. There is the Lit. of 
attack and defence, extending over more than a 
hundred yrs. If we begin with the first attack on 
the genuineness and authenticity of the fourth 
Gospel, we should start with The Dissonance of the 
Four Generally Received Evangelists, Evanson, 1792, 
who ascribed the work to a convert of the Platonic 
school in the second cent. But the controversy 
broke forth in all its strength in the publication 
of Bretschneider's Probabilia de Evang. et Epist. 
Joannis Apost. indole et origine. Of this book Weiss 
says, " In all mod. criticism of the Gospel there has 
hardly been one important suspicion advanced agst. 
its genuineness that was not here discussed " (Intro- 
duction, Eng. Translation, vol. ii. p. 389). Into the 
hist, of the criticism of the fourth Gospel it is not 
possible to enter within our limits. It is sufficient 
to say that it has gone on without intermission fm. 
1820 to the present hour, and there are no signs of 
its abatement. Nor can it be said that learning and 
scholarship have been on one side more than on the 
other. Great names appear on both sides. Fm. 
Baur down to Schmiedel the attack has been per- 
sistently pushed, and the defence has been quite as 
strenuous. On the one hand Pfleiderer, Wrede, 
Schmiedel, and Bacon in America, have set forth 
the case agst. the apostolic author of the Gospel, 
and men like Lightfoot, Ezra Abbott, Westcott, 
Drummond, Matthew Arnold, Sanday, and others, 
have strenuously maintained that the Gospel is the 
work of an eye-witness. Many bks. on each side 
have been published during the present cent. We 
may refer to the multitudinous books of Loisy, and 
the contribution of Schmiedel, now trd. into Eng., 
on " the Johannine writings." As far as learning 
and scholarship are concerned there is abundance of 
both on either side. The names of men on the de- 
fence are as great as are those on the attack. Nor is 
there any sign of the cessation of the controversy. 
In truth the presuppositions on either side are in- 
compatible. There is the presupposition of the 
attack, wh. is common to all attacks on the Gospels, 
that we must take for granted that all the accounts 
of Jesus are so far untrustworthy because they 
emanate fm. men who trusted Jesus, who wor- 
shipped Him, and who, therefore, magnified Him. 
They take for granted that the Jesus set forth in 
the Gospel cannot be the Jesus of hist., because He 
transcends the stature of ordinary men. Fm. this 
point of view Schmiedel gets his foundation pillars, 
because these seem to indicate that Jesus was not 
perfect. If this is applied to the Synoptic Gospels, 



it applies a fortiori to the fourth Gospel. With this 
presupposition the question is settled before the 
historical investigation has properly begun. 

It is imposs. for us to get back to the historical 
Jesus, for we are told that the Jesus of the Gospels 
is the Jesus who has been fashioned in the reflection 
of the Church, and He does not represent reality, 
but represents what the needs of the Church de- 
manded. It is clear that on these terms no his- 
torical investigation is required. But what if the 
Jesus of the Gospels is real ? Well, that question is 
not even considered by the attack. It is too large 
a question to be discussed here ; we simply point 
out that there is such a question. 

As to the external evidence of the fourth Gospel, 
we may say that it really brings us nearer to the 
prob. time of its appearance than is the case with 
regard to the other Gospels. It really brings us to 
the confines of the first cent. We know that the 
number of authoritative Gospels, that is, Gospels 
recognised by all the churches, read in the public 
assemblies of the churches, cited and regarded as 
Scrip., were four. We know this fm. many wit- 
nesses, fm. Irenseus, from Clement of Alexandria, 
and fm. Tertullian. In all the churches in Egp., in 
Asia Minor, in Rome, in Gaul, and in North Africa 
these Gospels were sacred bks. The Diatessaron of 
Tatian is based on these four ; Justin knew them as 
Memoirs of the Apostles ; the Epistles of Ignatius 
are steeped in the imagery, and echo the thoughts, 
of the fourth Gospel in particular. Then, again, 
we find that the fourth Gospel is a book honoured 
by the Church, and by the Gnostics without the 
Church. At all events the bk. seems to be quoted 
by the Gnostics in the first half of the second cent. 
There are quotations from the fourth Gospel in 
Basilides, in the Clementine Homilies, in Valen- 
tinian. See NicolPs Baird Lectures, The Gospels in 
Early Church History, for an excellent presentation 
of the evidence. Recent investigation into the 
Epistles of Ignatius has shown that the Ignatian 
letters are full of the spirit of the fourth Gospel. 
That they are closely connected together is without 
doubt. Some, indeed, have gone so far as to say that 
the Ignatian Epistles are first, or at all events they 
breathe the same atmosphere as that in wh. the 
fourth Gospel was produced. This is so improbable 
that we need not consider it. 

It is admitted that the fourth Gospel made its 
appearance in Ephesus some time in the second cent. 
Extreme men will not allow it an appearance before 
the yr. 140. Others speak of it as appearing in the 
first part of the cent., say between 100 and 115. 
But this concession, demanded by the facts of the 
case, does not lead them to a concession of the 
Johannine authorship. In fact they mostly agree 
in affirming that the anct. tradition of the residence 
of John at Ephesus is baseless. This has become a 

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commonplace with those who deny the Johannine 
authorship. Schmiedel heads one of his sections 
thus : " The Apostle John not in Ephesus." The 
main reason for his disregard of the persistent 
tradition of the early Church is the following: 
" We will point to one fact only. When Paul took 
farewell of those who presided over the community 
at Ephesus, he prophesied that after his departure 
fierce wolves wd. force a way in and wd. not spare 
the flock. This farewell address was not actually so 
delivered by Paul, but was composed by the author 
of the Acts (between c. 105 and 130), in accordance 
with his own views — a liberty wh. every anct. his- 
torian took with the speeches of his heroes, and wh. 
no one thought wrong, seeing that the most famous 
of the Gr. historians, Thucydides {c. B.C. 400), ex- 
pressly declares that he followed this plan in his 
work because it wd. have been an impossibility to 
have reported the exact words of the speeches as 
delivered. But how cd. the author of the Acts of 
the Apostles, who was as full of a feeling of venera- 
tion for the original apostles as he was for Paul, have 
introduced into Paul's speech so unfriendly an utter- 
ance about his successors, if he had any idea that the 
most important of these was the apostle John ? 
But, further, if it be supposed that Paul actually 
made the utterance, without, of course, having any 
idea of the person of his successor, how could he 
incorporate it in his bk., and thus seriously impede 
his main purpose — that of showing that unanimity 
was subsisting between Paul and the original dis- 
ciples, instead of quietly ignoring it, as he does so 
much that is unfavourable to the original apostles 
and their adherents ? " (The Johannine Writings, 
p. I74f.). 

This is a good specimen of the method and prac- 
tice of Schmiedel. Nor is it his alone. His ques- 
tions are relevant only on the supposition of the late 
date of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke gave his 
summary of the speech to the elders of Ephesus, 
because he believed that Paul really made it. If 
Paul made it in the late fifties, why ahd. he refer to 
John's residence at Ephesus in the eighties ? Even 
supposing that Acts was written in the first quarter 
of the second cent., why should the author introduce 
into it a refc. alien to the spirit of the time wh. he 
sought to set forth in his bk. ? The Acts of the 
Apostles represent a time when the distinction 
between Christian and Jew was unknown to the 
Roman Government, and the author was artistic 
enough to keep to the spirit of the time of wh. he 
wrote. The main purpose was not to show the 
unanimity between Paul and the original apostles, 
but to set forth the hist, of the spread of the king- 
dom of God fm. Jerusalem to Rome. The reasons 
for denying the Ephesian residence of John depend 
on considerations such as are set forth by Schmiedel 
in the foregoing passage ; and we submit that such 



reasons are not sufficient to set aside the consistent 
and persistent tradition of the early Church. 

The external evidence is sufficient to prove that 
there was in existence a bk. containing thoughts and 
teachings like those we have in the fourth Gospel, 
and that this bk. was in existence in the very be- 
ginning of the second cent. The internal evidence 
is equally cogent. It has been set forth with clear- 
ness again and again. Indeed, the striking diffcs. 
between the fourth and the Synoptic Gospels make 
it highly improbable that it shd. have obtained the 
place it had in the reverence of the Church, had it 
not been introduced by an authority wh. all the 
churches cd. recognise as adequate and sufficient. 
We need not enumerate these diffcs. here. They 
are many. There is the diffc. as to the time of the 
ministry of our Lord ; and there is the diffc. as to 
the place. The Synoptic Gospels relate only a 
Galilean ministry, and they do not bring our Lord 
to Jrs. until the very end. John tells us of a 
ministry in Jrs. at the very beginning, and of a pro- 
longed ministry in Judaea ere the ministry in Galilee 
began. The Synoptics date His public ministry 
fm. the time when John was cast into prison, the 
fourth Gospel speaks of a ministry of Jesus con- 
temporaneous with that of John the Baptist. 
Other striking diffcs. appear. And these are ob- 
vious to every reader. Our contention is that these 
striking diffcs. wd. lead the readers of the Synoptics 
to reject the fourth Gospel, unless the latter came 
to them fm. an authority wh. they must have re- 
cognised as trustworthy. 

As - to the trustworthiness of the writer of the 
fourth Gospel, it may be said that those geogra- 
phical references wh. were formerly used to con- 
vince the writer of blunders are now known to be 
accurate. It has been shown that the writer was a 
Jew, that He was a Jew of Pal., that he professes to 
have been an eye-witness, and that there is nothing 
to disprove that claim. It has been shown also 
that all refcs. to local hist, are correct ; that allu- 
sions to Jewish customs, laws, and observances are 
accurate. It is not possible to enter into detail. 
But stress is laid by the attack on one passage, or 
a series of passages, wh. are said to convince the 
writer of ignorance so gross that he cannot be trusted 
anywhere when he speaks of Jewish laws and cus- 
toms. These passages are John 2. 49 " 52 and 18. 14 . 
The refc. is to the statement that Caiaphas was 
High Priest that yr. On this Schmiedel speaks as 
follows : " One who writes under an assumed name 
often betrays himself by having false ideas of the 
places or institutions of the country in wh. he 
claims to be living. As far as places are concerned 
it cannot be shown with success that John does this. 
But, as regards institutions, he has been led to make 
as great a mistake as it is possible to imagine. By 
telling us twice that Caiaphas was ' High Priest 



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that yr.' he assumes that the office changed hands 
every yr. As a matter of fact, the High Priest held 
the office for life, and, although it happened not in- 
frequently that one was deposed, there was never 
any question of a yearly vacation of office. This of 
course is a fact wh. wd. have been as well known to a 
contemporary of Jesus in Pal. as the fact that the 
office of Emperor is hereditary is to a German of 
to-day. In face of a mistake on such a matter, how 
can we attach importance to a kge. of places in the 
country, wh. cd. easily be acquired even one hun- 
dred yrs. after the events with wh. they are asso- 
ciated ? " (pp. 188-9). ^ n contrast we may place 
a" quotation fm. Weiss. " As a native of Pal. he 
invariably reckons accdg. to Jewish time, wh. alone 
answers to all his dates : he knows and names the 
Jewish festival times and customs, even the time 
occupied in building the Temple : the ritual prac- 
tice regarding circumcision : the domestic customs 
at marriage and burial ; and the relations between 
Jews and Samaritans. It is through him that we 
first learn the relationship between Annas and 
Caiaphas, the limits of the power of the Sanhedrin, 
and the part wh. the Scribes, with their conceit 
of learning, and the Pharisees played in it; the 
priests with their Levitical attendants, and the 
punishment of excommunication fm. the syna- 
gogue. In face of all this, the attempt to prove 
that when the evangelist describes Caiaphas as High 
Priest in the yr. of Christ's death, he meant that the 
High Priest was changed every yr., cannot be taken 
seriously " (Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 359-360). Thus 
the passages wh. to Schmiedel are decisive, and are 
considered by him to be sufficient to destroy our 
confidence in the accuracy of the writer of the fourth 
Gospel, by Weiss " cannot be taken seriously." 
Weiss comes to the study of them, after having 
verified the statements of the writer in many con- 
nections, and Schmiedel considers that he is dis- 
charged fm. the consideration of these accurate 
statements by this statement about the High Priest. 
Might he not have sought for another interpreta- 
tion ? Does the writer affirm or intend to affirm 
anything regarding the tenure of office by the High 
Priest ? Here is an accurate statement : So and so, 
being Lord Provost for the yr. when the university 
buildings were opened, was knighted by the king. 
This is a statement of fact, but it says nothing about 
the tenure of office by the Lord Provost. Every 
Scotchman knows that a Lord Provost is elected for 
three yrs., and yet we may refer to any yr. of his 
reign as a yr. in wh. he was Provost. The writer 
seems to refer not to the High Priest's tenure of 
office, but to the fact that Caiaphas was High Priest 
in that fateful and eventful yr. Nay, he seems to 
lay stress on the connection between his official 
position and the prophecy wh. he uttered, being 
High Priest the yr. he prophesied, as if there was a 



sort of official inspiration attaching to the office. 
But Schmiedel seems to think that his interpre- 
tation is the only possible interpretation ; and, 
indeed, it has been repeated often enough since 
Baur first made it, for some people to believe it, if 
only by dint of repetition. 

But then we are told that the Jesus of the Synoptic 
Gospels is a very different figure from Him whom 
we meet in the fourth Gospel. It was wont to be 
said that the fourth Gospel was theological, and the 
three were historical. This is no longer said, for 
the contention is that all the Gospels are theolo- 
gical, or at least homiletical. It was found that the 
supernatural Jesus was so deeply imbedded in the 
structure of the Synoptics, that He cd. be removed 
fm. it only by disintegrating them. Taking the 
Synoptic Gospels as they stand, we have a figure of 
the same majesty, one who speaks with the same 
authority, one who goes about doing good, as we 
have in the fourth Gospel. Not to dwell on this 
at present, we listen while men tell us that in the 
fourth Gospel Jesus is the same fm. the first public 
appearance to the last, that He claims authority fm. 
the beginning, and that there is no progress, no 
change. They speak with emphasis on what they call 
the autonomy of Jesus. In short, they say that there 
are hardly any traces of humanity left in Him. This 
is so often repeated that it may be well to look at it. 

We read in the fourth chapter, " Jesus therefore, 
being wearied with His journey, sat thus by the 
well." It is a commonplace statement, but those 
who contend that human traits are removed fm. the 
fig. set forth in the Gospel must read it with some 
surprise. It tells us that He cd. be wearied as other 
men were wearied, that He cd. suffer fatigue, and 
that He needed rest as other men do. We see Him 
seated by the well, wearied with His journey, and 
as we read the story we find other human traits. 
We find Him interested in the talk with the woman, 
gradually becoming more and more interested, 
until His weariness is quite forgotten. When His 
disciples returned they found him alert, interested, 
and refreshed, so that He could say, " I have meat 
to eat that ye know not of." This is an experience 
true in itself, and easily verified in common life — 
weariness forgotten, fatigue vanishing when the 
attention is awakened, and mind and heart are en- 
listed in some event or happening that has aroused 
us. There cd. be no greater testimony to the 
humanity of our Lord, and to the fact that He 
is really one with us. 

Take, again, the words "Jesus wept," and consider 
the interpretations of it wh. are abroad. We take 
one fm. the interesting bk. of Dr. Ernest F. Scott, 
The Fourth Gospel, its Pur-pose and Theology. " The 
sympathy and compassion of Jesus, wh. are evident 
in every chapter of the Synoptic narratives, fall out 
of sight in the fourth Gospel. We have seen that, 



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in the case of the miracles, mere pity for human 
suffering ceases to be a prominent motive : and 
little stress is laid on it in the portrait of Jesus as a 
whole. He stands separate fm. the world in the 
majesty of His Divine nature. He does not par- 
ticipate in human weaknesses and distresses, and 
looks down upon them fm. a tranquil height at wh. 
they cannot reach Him. The famous verse (n. 35 ), 
' Jesus wept,' might seem for a moment to disturb 
this picture, but does so only in appearance. The 
feeling expressed in that verse is not human com- 
passion as of a man with his fellow-sufferers, but 
the sorrow of a Divine being who stands apart and 
contemplates the earthly tragedy. The Jews mis- 
interpret the tears as a sign of unavailing regret 
over a lost friend, but we are meant in the light of 
the approaching miracle to understand them better. 
They do not mark the humanity of Jesus, but rather 
His Divine exaltation. Fm. His own untroubled 
height He surveyed the misery of our mortal lot, and 
wept " (pp. 167-8). It is rather a curious interpre- 
tation, yet it is the interpretation of those who in- 
sist that John shd. have written throughout fm. the 
standpoint of the Logos doctrine. But John has 
not written as they think he ought to have done. 
Jesus is not the impassive being who stands aloof fm. 
the sorrows of men, nor is He one who does not 
share the ordinary lot of men. We saw that He 
became wearied with His journey; we see in this 
passage that " He was moved with indignation in 
the spirit and was troubled (or troubled Himself)," 
and that He wept. Why should He have wept, on 
the theory of Dr. Scott ? Tears are a sign of sorrow, 
of sympathy, of grief, and why shd. they not mean 
that here ? We do not ask why He was moved with 
indignation, or why He troubled Himself. That 
wd. lead us too far afield. But we do ask why He 
wept ? and we answer without hesitation that he 
wept in sympathy with those who wept, and that 
He felt with them the agony of sorrow, and the 
pang wh. comes fm. bereavement. Further on, 
when the Greeks came, seeking to see Him, we find 
again that His soul was troubled, and that He en- 
tered into an agony similar to that at Gethsemane. 
Further we find that this " Divine being who 
stands apart and contemplates the earthly tragedy " 
so entered into that tragedy as to die as other men 
die, and to be slain as other men were slain. The 
very fact of the death on the cross, so vividly set 
forth in this Gospel, is sufficient of itself to set aside 
the contention of Dr. Scott, that this is only the 
sorrow of a Divine being who stands apart fm. the 
human tragedy. He entered into and He shared 
that human tragedy, and all through the Gospel He 
is not far apart fm. men, not unsympathetic, nor 
impassive. Nay, we are not far away fm. the strong 
crying and tears on wh. the Epistle to the Hebrews 
lays stress. 



Another difficulty presented by the attack, and 
on which great stress is laid, is what they call 
the autonomy of Jesus, or His self-determination. 
" The evangelist starts fm. the assumption that He 
who submitted Himself for a time to earthly limita- 
tions was possessed of a Divine dignity. Even while 
submitting He vindicated His authority by acting in 
everything on His own sovereign will, without com- 
pulsion fm. without" (Scott, p. 169). The proof 
of this statement is limited to those instances in wh. 
Jesus acts in relation to man. Jesus does not allow 
men to dictate to Him His course of action, and in 
this respect the fourth Gospel is absolutely at one 
with the Synoptics. In the Synoptics He speaks 
as one having authority, He does not allow His mr. 
and His brethren to intermeddle : other instances 
abound. 

When, however, we inquire into the matter fully 
we find that the autonomy, or the self-determina- 
tion of Jesus, assumes another form. It is not self- 
determination, it is obedience to the Father. This 
is the constant refc. He is sent by the Father, He 
speaks the Father's words, He does the Father's 
works : " The Father is greater than I." To set 
forth this in fulness wd. be to quote a large part of 
the Gospel. Even in that great passage where He 
speaks of having the power of laying down His life, 
the refc. to the Father occurs. " Therefore doth 
My Father love me, because I lay down My life 
that I may take it again. I have power to lay it 
down, and I have power to take it again. This 
commandment have I received from My Father " 
(io. 17f -). In relation to the Father Jesus was the 
one whom the Father sent into the world ; He 
directed His action and His work in absolute 
dependence on the Father. The words He spoke 
and the works He did were done in such absolute 
obedience that they were the very words and deeds 
of the Father. This obedience to the Father is 
as absolute in the fourth Gospel as it is in the 
three. 

Dr. Scott says : " There can be little doubt that, 
by thus importing the doctrine of the Logos into 
the Gospel record, John is not only compelled to do 
violence to historical fact, but empties the life of 
Christ of much of its real worth and grandeur while 
seeming to enhance it. The moral attributes, 
trust, pity, infinite sympathy, are replaced by 
certain metaphysical attributes, wh. are supposed 
to belong more essentially to the Divine nature " 
(p. 173). Dr. Scott can only make good this state- 
ment by such forced exegesis as we have already 
noticed. The real Jesus of the fourth Gospel really 
manifests trust, pity, forgiveness, and sympathy. 
But we come to the very crux of the matter when we 
read that the fourth Gospel is metaphysical. We 
just say, on the contrary,that there is no metaphysics 
in the fourth Gospel. It is concrete through and 



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through. There is no speculation in it. Even in we place it for ourselves into an appropriate setting 
the prologue there is nothing to be compared with in the personal life of Jesus. 

the speculative systems of Greece, or with the But what about the style in wh. John writes? 
notions of the Gnostics. When we pass fm. the Well, it wd. appear that the Jesus of the Synoptics 
prologue, what we have in the Gospel is the attempt sometimes spoke in the Johannine fashion. See the 
to depict the story of a personal life, lived out in passages in Mw. II. 25 " 30 , and Lk. io. 21ff -, where He- 
relation to God, to man, and to the world. We see speaks of the Father and the Son in the same 
that life in these relations. In relation to God He absolute way so familiar to us in the fourth Gospel, 
is the Sent of God for the great work of redemption. My own view is that this was one of the ways in wh. 
He is in the world because the Father loves the the Master was wont to speak. John, being young 
world. He is the proof to man of the love of God. and impressionable, receptive of impressions made on 
He is sent, not to condemn the world, but that the him by Jesus in an extraordinary degree, fell into the 
world mt. be saved. Nor does He ever forget that Master's way of speech, thought in it, spoke it till it 
He is sent to do the Father's will, and to finish the became his own way of speech, and he cd. speak and 
Father's work. This relation of dependence on the think in no other way. Instead, therefore, of John 
Father and of obedience to Him is never lost sight translating the Master's speech into his own modes 
of. In relation to man He comes to reveal the of speech, it is rather the Master who has dominated 
Father unto man. He is the light wh. lighteneth the life, thought, and speech of John, until he cd. 
every man that cometh into the world. The light only speak and write in the Master's way. 
of the world, the living bread, the good shepherd. James Iverach. 

the way, the truth, and the life, and so on, in ever JOHN, THE FIRST EPISTLE OF. This 
varied phrase, His relation to man is described. He epistle, in contrast to almost every other epistle 
is one with the Father, and He is one with man, in the NT., has not the name of the writer in 



but all the attributes ascribed to the Son are 
consistent with the view that He is Divine and 
human. 

It is not possible in our limits to speak of the dis- 
tinctive theology of the fourth Gospel. Nor can we 
give even an outline of its contents. Nor is this 
necessary in a short article like the present. The 
Commentaries, like those written by Westcott, 
Godet, Moulton and Milligan, Meyer, the Hand- 
Commentar, and many others, provide for the 
reader accounts of the theology and expositions of 



the forefront, has no salutation to the people 
to whom it is addressed, and no formal, friendly 
greeting at the end. In these respects it re- 
sembles the Epistle to the Hebrews, and differs 
fm. all other epistles. It seems simply to assume 
that the writer wd. be well known to his readers, and 
that they wd. readily recognise the voice that speaks 
to them in tones of authority. Another contrast 
strikes the reader of this epistle. It is wholly 
directed towards the deepening and the unfolding 
of the Christian life. It presupposes that those 



the contents, sufficiently good. It seemed best to who read it are already Christian ; it does not again 
us, and also most profitable for the reader, to pass lay the foundations, it proceeds to the building of 



in rapid review the main strands of the argument 
by wh. men have sought to disprove the Johannine 
authorship. Much more mt. have been said had 
we time and space. But it seems to us that all the 
phenomena of the Gospel are consistent with the 
supposition that it was written by the Apostle John 
in his old age, at the close of the first cent., and that 
the Gospel contains the reminiscences of an eye- 
witness, together with his reflection on what he had 
seen and heard. Brooding over all these things 



the superstructure. The Pauline Epistles show the 
apostle, in the exercise of his apostolic function, 
laying the foundation of the Christian society and 
organising it. They are full of active, aggressive, 
missionary enterprise. This aspect of laying the 
foundations, organising the Christian community, is 
here in the background, even if it appears at all. 
John is concerned with sustaining, nourishing, and 
building up the Christian and the Christian Church. 
John is always reminding his readers of what they 



throughout the yrs., he sent forth this Gospel as the have received, of what they are, and of what they 

fit representation of what he had seen the life and are bound to be if they realise the fact and the 

work of his Lord to mean. This is his record of the meaning of the Christian life. 

personal life, this is his representation of its meaning, Corresponding to this upbuilding aim is the en- 

and it has commended itself to many generations as vironment in wh. they live. They are in the world, 

a fit and adequate rendering of the life of our Lord, and the world has taken on a new aspect, corre- 

Even those who deny that he had any share in its sponding to the stage of Christian life to wh. 

production attach a high value to its thought and they had attained. Formerly the environment was 

theology. They call it a pearl of great price, they either Jewish or Gentile, and there was a great diffc. 

say that through it the Gospel made a conquest of between the two. To the original disciples Judaism 

the Greek mind, and many other things of like sort was the anct. kdm. of God, and it was opposed to 

do they say. All of wh. we may welcome, if only Christ because there was a veil over their faces. 

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There was always the hope that it wd. turn to 
Christ, and the veil wd. be torn away. That period 
is past. Judaism had organised itself in hostility 
towards Christ. The distinction between Jew and 
Gentile had passed away. They were one in 
another sense than that of wh. Paul had spoken. 
To Paul the distinction had been done away in 
Christ. To John the distinction had been done 
away by the common opposition to Christ. So 
for him the great distinction was that between 
the Church and the cosmos. To him Judaism is 
simply a power entirely opposed to Christ. Hence 
the way in wh. in the Gospel he speaks of the Jews. 
Looking back, fm. the standpoint at the end of the 
first cent., to the scenes and memories of his youth, 
and regarding the Jews fm. the point of view of 
their determined opposition to Christ, he simply in 
the Gospel speaks of them as " Jews," or " the 
Jews." With this the epistle agrees. Jew and 
Gentile are part of the cosmos, and the cosmos is 
defined in terms of its opposition to Christ. 

These things give us a clue to the date of the 
epistle. The first generation of Christians are 
passed away. The Church is so far organised, the 
world also is organised in its opposition to Christ. 
But the supreme danger to the Church is not fm. 
without but fm. within. Antichrist is within the 
Church, and there are some who endanger the faith 
by denying or ignoring its fundamental presup- 
position. This is in harmony with the prevision of 
Paul in his address to the Ephesian elders, and with 
the address to Ephesus in the Epistles to the Seven 
Churches. Thus if we date the epistle fm. John's 
residence at Ephesus, we reach a conclusion in 
harmony with all the facts. 

As to the authorship it is not necessary to dwell 
much on that question. This we say though we are 
aware of contentions to the contrary on the part of 
many. The coincidences in lang., thought, style, 
and also in aim are so marked between the Gospel 
and this epistle that they can only be explained 
either by identity of authorship, or by deliberate 
imitation of the one by the other. It seems to us 
that imitation is out of the question. The external 
evidence is also satisfactory, so we simply take for 
granted that the Gospel and the epistle proceed fm. 
the same mind. 

The epistle is so rich, so full, so plain in its teach- 
ing, yet so subtle ; so massive, and yet so simple in 
its thought, that we despair as we attempt to out- 
line its meaning. To us it is the greatest document 
in existence. In these five chapters there is a 
notable addition to the thought of the world. 
Nor are its literary features less remarkable than its 
thought. The manifold relations between section 
and section, the relations between each section and 
the whole, the marvellous way in wh. each verse 
contributes to the harmony of the whole organic 



unity, reminds us more of the massive march of 
nature than of the work of man. Yet the thought 
is never far fm. life, never becomes metaphysical, 
never loses touch of the ethical values, and never 
loses sight of its main purpose, which is to make the 
joy of the Christian full and perfect. 

The keynote is struck in the first section. It 
touches the note of personal experience, and bears 
the witness of personal testimony. " That wh. was 
fm. the beginning, that wh. we have heard, that wh. 
we have seen with our eyes, that wh. we beheld, and 
our hands handled, concerning the Word of life 
(and the life was manifested, and we have seen and 
bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the 
eternal life wh. was with the Father, and was 
manifested unto us) : that wh. we have seen and 
heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may 
have fellowship with us : yea, and our fellowship is 
with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ : 
and these things we write, that our joy may be 
fulfilled" (i Jn. I. 1 " 4 ). So with solemn emphasis, 
with stately dignity, and with a fervent desire to 
comfort and bless the readers, the apostle begins his 
treatise. As he nears the end of his epistle he writes 
again, " These things have I written unto you, that 
ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto 
you that believe on the name of the Son of God " 
(5. 13 ). Looking forward he writes that their joy 
may be fulfilled; as he completes his writing he 
again declares his aim, that they may know that 
they have eternal life. So throughout he writes to 
warn, to comfort, to deepen their life, and to guide 
them to fulness of joy. 

It is characteristic that the apostle, having set 
forth his aim and purpose in the verse quoted above, 
shd. begin with a statement wh. at first sight seems 
to have little connection with the introductory 
section. " This is the message, wh. we have heard 
fm. Him, and announce unto you, that God is light, 
and in Him is no darkness at all." Why does the 
apostle go back beyond the beginning, beyond the 
historical manifestation of the Word of Life, and 
announce as the essential meaning of the message of 
the Word, that God is light, and in Him is no dark- 
ness at all ? Referring to the commentaries for a 
full discussion, we may here briefly say that the full 
meaning of God has been revealed by the Word 
of Life, and that meaning is summed up for John 
in the phrase " God is light." In the Gospel he 
had recorded that " No man hath seen God at any 
time : the only begotten Son, wh. is in the bosom 
of the Father, He hath declared Him " (i. 18 ). So 
here the message of the Son regarding the Father is, 
God is light. The fulness of meaning in the phrase 
cannot be set forth here. But theologically and 
ethically it is of the highest significance. The 
ethical and spiritual meaning is drawn out in the 
following verses. For God is light, and in Him is 



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no darkness at all. Fellowship with the light is not the world. We have also triumphant activity, the 
consistent with a walk in darkness. This is drawn boldness and the courage of the men who are in 
out positively and negatively in the following possession of the Christian life. Such is a very 
verses. Then he passes on to the remedy for sin, rough outline of this great epistle. It is possible to 
and the way by wh. we may be assured that sin is. look at it fm. many points of view. We mt. look at 
forgiven (2. 1 " 6 ). Obedience in love and light as it fm. the point of view of theology, and ask what it 
realised in actual life is set forth, and then (2. 12 ' 17 ) teaches regarding God, regarding man, regarding 
the great contrast between the world and the Church, the world; we might ask what it teaches of re- 
or the temporal and the eternal, is described and en- demption, of atonement, of the great doctrines of 
forced. At this point a new section begins, and a Christianity ; we mt. ask what is its outlook into the 
new theme is elaborated. The great contrasts in this future for the present world and for the world to 
part are truth and error. Truth has been manifested, come; and we cd. easily gather answers to all of 
and also falsehood. These have been manifested these questions. To do so here wd. far transcend 
within the Church and without. In the Church it our limits. Even to regard it as a literary compo- 
has taken the form of Antichrist. Not merely the sition, and to endeavour to trace the correspon- 
Pseudo-christs of wh. the Gospels spoke, but some- dences part to part, and of each part to the whole, 
thing within the Church wh. has usurped the place wd. be an enormous task. It seems to us the more 
of Christ and is in opposition to Him. See Anti- we study it the more it resembles a living organism. 
christ for a full exposition of the term. The A living organism is one, but it takes many sciences 
emphasis is laid on the reality of Christ, on the fact to describe its functions and relations. Think of 
that Jesus is the Christ, that the eternal Son has come the many systems, embodied in our scientific bks., 
in the flesh ; and fm. these emphatic sayings we may wh. are needed to describe the human body, and all 
gather that the falsehood is in those statements wh. of them together fail just because they are abstract, 
affirmed that the incarnation was only seeming, that This epistle is like the human organism. Every 
the Christ descended on Jesus at His baptism, and part gives the whole, and gives it in its concrete 
so on. But John affirms the reality of Jesus, His reality. To appreciate this epistle we must live it, 
real incarnation. The section is very rich and full of dwell on it bit by bit, part by part, and yet bring 
meaning, with regard to the Father, with regard to the spt. of the whole into every part. 
Christ, with regard to the Holy Spirit, and also Fellowship with the Father and with His Son, 
with regard to the life of the believer in relation Jesus Christ, fellowship with one another, opposi- 
to the truth in all these relations. Passing to the tion to every tendency wh. wd. mar that fellow- 
third chap, we find in the first twelve verses a con- ship, is the summary of the meaning of the epistle, 
trast between the children of light and the children This also is its triumphant close. " We know that 
of darkness — or as John in his concrete fashion the Son of God is come and hath given us an under- 
calls it, the children of God and the children of the standing, that we know him that is true, and we are 
devil. Then the transition is easily made to the in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ, 
fact that the children of light are the children of This is the true God and eternal life." 
love. And the meaning of love is drawn out in James Iverach. 
itself and in its practical consequences. Brother- JOHN, THE SECOND EPISTLE OF. There 
hood in Christ and the hatred of the world (3. 1 " 24 ) are interesting questions regarding this epistle, both 
are set forth. " This is His commandment, that with respect to its authorship, and to its contents, 
we shd. believe in the name of the Son Jesus Christ, wh. we cannot discuss within our limits. They are 
and love one another, even as He gave us command- more curious than important. We shall perhaps 
ment. And he that keepeth His commandment best fulfil the purpose of this dictionary by sketch- 
abideth in Him and He in him. And hereby we ing its contents. The author does not mention his 
know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit wh. He name, but describes himself as the Elder, the last 
gave us" (3- 23, 24 ). In the first six verses of the representative of an older generation, around whom 
fourth chap, we have a graphic description of the a new generation has grown up. There is no per- 
spirits of truth and error, in themselves and in their fectly satisfactory explanation of the title " elect 
consequences, and then we come to a description lady." Perhaps the best solution is to think of her 
of the Christian life. The spt. of Christianity is as meaning here what is meant in the first Epistle 
God and love. Read the passage, vv. 7-12, and of Peter, " She that is in Babylon, elect together 
note how rich and manifold is its delineation of love, with you, saluteth you " (1 P. 5. 13 ). We shall have 
How he sets it in this relation and in that, draws it a sufficient meaning if we think of a congregation 
out, unfolds it, passes fm. the nature of God to the wh. may be addressed as a unity or as a plurality 
service of man, and finds love triumphant every- accdg. to the point of view. The apostle loves her, 
where. Finally, in the fifth chap., we have the but so do all that love the truth. He and they are' 
power of the Christian faith, and its victory over in possession of the truth. He has great joy in the 

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thought that her children are walking in the truth. 
This is the Father's commandment. Truth shd. 
manifest itself in love, and to love is no new 
commandment, it is fm. the beginning. Still it 
is an emphatic commandment. The mind of the 
apostle, being full of love, full also of the command- 
ment to love, turns to that wh. may hinder and 
thwart love. All that tends to disparage Jesus 
Christ tends to destroy love. But there are some 
who do not confess or understand Jesus Christ. 
They do not confess that Jesus Christ cometh in the 
flesh. This is the deceiver and Antichrist. It is 
implied that without Christ there is no life, no love. 
" Look to yourselves that ye lose not the things wh. 
ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward." 
It wd. be sad to miss the reward, for he that reapeth 
receiveth wages. These wages are great, full, and 
complete. Others laboured, and they may enter 
into their labours. The children of the elect lady 
may obtain wages if they enter into the labours of 
the apostles. 

Apparently there were some who called on the 
children to go forward. They call on them to go 
forward, to take the lead; such is the meaning of the 
word " Whosoever goeth onward " in the ninth 
verse. But there is a going forward wh. may 
separate fm. the foundation. In the world of life 
departure fm. the true type of growth is fatal, and 
is rewarded by elimination and extinction. Growth 
must be accdg. to type. So a going forward wh. 
separates fm. Christ is not an advance, it is a de- 
parture fm. life. " Whosoever goeth onward and 
abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God : 
He that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both 
the Father and the Son." Nothing but the true 
doctrine, and the abiding in it, can have possession 
of the Father and the Son. John commands separa- 
tion fm. them lest they shd. be partakers of their 
evil works. Such is the outline of this brief and 
significant letter, wh. has all the characteristics of 
the apostle. It is of permanent worth, specially 
because of the light wh. it throws on the true idea 
of progress. True progress does not break with the 
past, does not become revolutionary, it is the un- 
folding of the true into its higher completeness. 
It is not the spt. of denial, it conserves what is true 
and good, and in particular the true progress of 
Christianity will never minimise Christ and His 
significance. He that abideth in the teaching hath 
the Father and the Son. James Iverach. 

JOHN, THE THIRD EPISTLE OF. The 
Third Epistle is full of life and char. The greeting 
to Gaius, " the beloved, whom I love in the truth," 
with the good wishes regarding him on the part of 
the Elder, is full of interest. It is so plain that it 
need not be paraphrased, but it may be quoted. 
" Beloved, I pray that in all things thou mayest 
prosper and be in health; even as thy soul prospereth. 



For I rejoiced greatly, when brethren came and bare 
witness unto thy truth, even as thou walkest in 
truth. Greater joy have I none than this, to hear 
of my children walking in the truth." As we read 
through the epistle, we earnestly wish for some 
further kge. of this particular church, and of the 
three men who stand out so prominently and 
dramatically in it. We have first the man to whom 
it is addressed, Gaius, whose characteristics stand 
out in the opening verses. He is of such a char, as 
to justify the love and confidence reposed in him 
by " the Elder." Then there is Diotrephes, who 
loveth to have the pre-eminence, and who had such 
influence over that church as to be able to resist 
even apostolic authority. He wd. not receive what 
the apostle had written. The churches had made 
such progress that when the epistle was written, 
leadership in them was evidently an obj. of ambi- 
tion. Churches, also, had evidently some measure 
of independence. The central authority had not 
yet asserted itself, and the churches had a great 
measure of self-guidance. Diotrephes cd. resist the 
apostle. But calmly John asserts his authority, and 
calmly affirms, " Therefore, if I come, I will bring to 
remembrance his works wh. he doeth, prating agst. 
us with wicked words : and not content therewith, 
neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and 
them that wd. he forbiddeth, and casteth them out 
of the church." It is a lively ecclesiastical situa- 
tion — Diotrephes refusing to receive the brethren, 
coercing others also not to receive them, prating 
agst. the apostle, and excommunicating those who 
do not agree with him. We shd. like to have heard 
more of the matter — more also about Demetrius 
and the issue of the whole matter. But perhaps 
we may imagine the situation, for it has not been 
without many parallels in the hist, of the Church. 

James Iverach. 
JOIADA. (i) One of the men who repaired the 
" old gate " (Ne. 3. 6 RV.). (2) Son of Eliashib, 
High Priest in the time of Nehemiah (12. 11 , &c, 
13. 28 ). He married a daughter of Sanballat the 
Horonite. 

JOIAKIM, son of the famous Jeshua, the High 
Priest, colleague of Zerubbabel in leading the first 
contingent who returned from Babylon. He was 
father of Eliashib, who succeeded him as High 
Priest (Ne. 12. 10 , &c). The name is a contraction 
from Jehoiakim. 

JOIARIB, a short form of Jehoiarib. (i) One 
of the " men of understanding " (RV. " wh. were 
teachers "), whom Ezra sent to secure Levites, who 
might be " ministers for the house of our God " 
(Ez. 8. 17 ), no Levites being found among the com- 
pany of returning exiles who halted by " the river 
that runneth to Ahava." (2) One of the " princes 
of the people," who in Nehemiah's time dwelt in 
Jerusalem. They are called " chiefs of the pro- 



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vince," but their special function is not defined 
(Ne. ii. 5 ). (3) The founder of a course of priests 
(Ne. ii. 10 ; cp. I2. 6 - 19 ). 

JOKDEAM, a city of Judah (Jo. 15. 56 ) named 
along with Maon, Carmel and Ziph. It is not 
mentioned in OEJ. It is prob. to be sought to 
S. of Hebron. 

JOKNEAM, a Can. royal city " in Carmel " (Jo. 
12. 22 ), on the border of Zebulun (19. 11 ). It was 
allotted to the Merarite Levites (21. 34 , &c). OEJ. 
places it six Rm. miles N. of Legio, on the way to 
Ptolemais. It is identd. with Tell Qaimun, a 
shapely hill or mound, with ruins, on the E. slope 
of Carmel. The district is well watered. On the 
E. is the torrent bed of Kishon (19. 11 ). 

JOKSHAN, son of Ketura, father of Sheba and 
Dedan (Gn. 25.2 ; 1 Ch. I. 32 ). No trace of this 
name has been found in connection with the 
Arabian tribes, and it is generally suspected that 
Jokshan here stands for Joktan. The change of 
" t " into " sh," however, is a difficulty. 

JOKTAN, s. of Eber and br. of Peleg, the re- 
puted ancestor of many S. Arabian tribes. Of his 
thirteen sons not all have been identified, but most 
of them are found in tribes or villages in el-Vemen. 
Of Joktan nothing further is known, and no satis- 
factory account of his name has been suggested 
(Gn. io. 26 , &c). 

JOKTEEL. (1) An unidentd. city in the 
Shephelah of Judah (Jo. 15. 38 ). (2) Sela t in 
Edom, taken and named J. by Amaziah, k. of 
Judah (2 K. 14. 7 ). 

JONADAB, JEHONADAB, " J", hath incited." 
(1) The son of David's br. Shimeah, and so cousin 
to Amnon. He was reputed a very " subtil " or 
" wise " man. Perhaps, in the light of the counsel 
he gave his cousin in the matter of Tamar, hdkhdm 
might best be rendered here by our word " know- 
ing." As Dean Stanley put it, he " was one of those 
characters who, in the midst of great or royal 
families, pride themselves, and are renowned, for 
being acquainted with the secrets of the whole 
circle in wh. they move. His age naturally made 
him the friend of his cousin Amnon, heir to the 
throne (2 S. 13. 3 ). He perceived from the prince's 
altered appearance that there was some un- 
known grief — ' Why art thou, the king's son, 
so lean ? ' — and, when he had wormed it out, he 
gave him the fatal advice for ensnaring his sister 
Tamar (vv. 5, 6)." His intimate knowledge of the 
situation enabled him to correct the report of 
wholesale slaughter brought to the king from Baal- 
Hazor. " Let not my lord suppose that they have 
killed all the young men, the king's sons ; for Amnon 
only is dead ; for by the appointment of Absalom 
this hath been determined from the day that he 
forced his sister Tamar" (2 S. 13. 32 ). (2) Son of 
Rechab (" rider "), the son of Hammath, of the 



Kenite family which had settled near Jabez, a city of 
Judah (2 K. io. 15 ; 1 Ch. 2. 55 ). This division of the 
tribe, like their kinsmen in the north under Heber, 
would of course be dwelling in tents. This is in- 
deed plain from the commands laid upon the tribes- 
men by Jonadab, wh. they most zealously observed : 
" You shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons 
for ever ; neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, 
nor plant vineyard, but all your days ye shall dwell 
in tents " (Jr. 35. 6f> ). These prohibitions seem to 
have been dictated by the hot heart of the nomad, 
over against the settled people with whom his tribe 
was brought into such close contact. They concern 
the very points which emphasised the difference be- 
tween them : the vine, in especial, being the recog- 
mised symbol of the settled life. That J. was a man 
of impressive personality is obvious, and it may be 
taken as certain that his precepts were enforced by 
the sanctions of religion. He may be regarded as 
one of the men thrown up at intervals by Arabian 
peoples, whose zeal for the purity of religion as they 
understand it may be described as fierce. Long 
after he was gone his rule was punctiliously observed. 
The tribesmen took shelter within the walls of Jeru- 
salem at the approach of the Chaldean army, but 
they were incorruptible in their adherence to their 
time-honoured practices. For this fidelity they are 
praised. " Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, 
Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to 
stand before Me for ever " (Jr. 35.). 

Jonadab had doubtless heard of the reforming zeal 
of Jehu, and the heart of the Arab zealot was drawn 
to that dashing soldier with his thoroughgoing ways. 
He set out therefore to meet him (2 K. io. 15 ), and a 
congenial companion Jehu found him in the work of 
slaughter (v. 23). Jehu clearly understood the stern 
soul of the man. " Come with me," said he, " and 
see my zeal for the Lord " (2 K. io. 16 ). The rough 
usurper covered with a cloak of religious zeal the 
massacres to which his political ambitions urged 
him. No doubt he was thankful for the sup- 
port of one whose religious convictions were as 
sincere as his own were hypocritical. See Recha- 
bites. 

JONAH, s. of Amittai of Gath-Hepher (Gittah- 
Hepher, Jo. 19. 13 ), prophesied the restoration of the 
coasts of Isr. by Jeroboam II. (2 K. 14. 25 ). 

JONAH, BOOK OF. Contents.— J. is sent to 
preach repentance to the Ninevites ; to escape that 
command he takes ship for Tarshish : a storm 
strikes the vessel, wh. is like to be overwhelmed ; 
the sailors cast lots and find that it is on account of 
J. that this storm has fallen upon them ; on his 
advice, after making an effort to save him, they 
cast J. into the sea. God provides a great fish to 
swallow J., and after three days and three nights the 
fish deposits him on the shore. We have then a 
" prayer " of J. in the belly of the fish. 



342 



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Jon 



Although there are many echoes in it of the Psalms, 
there are also many strong and original expressions, full of 
picturesque vitality. It is a banal criticism that J. cd. not 
poetise in his circumstances ; the suggestion wd. be satisfied 
if after he had reached safety J. put into verse the feelings 
of his time of trial. 

In the third chap. J. goes to Nineveh and pro- 
claims its impending destruction. As a result all 
the people repent with fasting. The fourth chap, 
relates how J. was angry at J".'s mercy being ex- 
tended to the Ninevites, and building a booth, 
waited outside the walls in the hope of the fulfil- 
ment of his prophecy. J", brings him to a better 
understanding by means of a gourd wh. withered 
when smitten by a worm. 

Historicity. — Many of the symbolical actions 
of the prophets are, if taken literally, difficult of 
comprehension. Thus Jeremiah going a month's 
journey to hide his girdle in a cleft of a rock beside 
the river Euphrates merely to show how valueless 
such a thing became when contaminated by damp, 
seems scarcely possible to have been done literally. 
This journey must almost necessarily have been ac- 
complished in some symbolic way. The like holds 
of not a few other occurrences. May not the 
episode of J. and " the great fish " be explicable on 
somewhat similar lines ? At the same time, when 
we enter the sphere of the miraculous, we can only 
under limitations argue as to possible and im- 
possible. On the not uncommon idea that J. is a 
" midrash," one thing strikes the student ; the 
extraordinarily exact suitability of the period 
chosen for its purpose. By hypothesis Assyria must 
have been very weak when the declaration of the 
impending overthrow of the city within forty days 
struck terror into the hearts of the whole popula- 
tion. Although the immediate successor of Shal- 
maneser II., Adadnirari, was a vigorous monarch, 
his successors Shalmaneser III., Ashurdan III., and 
Ashurnirari II., reigning for a period of about 
forty years, seem to have been rois faineants. This 
period coincided with the reign of Jeroboam II., 
the time of the prophetic activity of J. As a rule 
the Jewish " midrash " was utterly independent of 
history, as all readers of the Talmud know. It wd. 
be impossible for a Palestinian Jew, without an 
amount of research repugnant to a maker of 
" midrashim " in the age of Ezra, to find out the 
forty years of feebleness in the Ninevite Empire in 
wh. to place his tale ; all the more wd. the inquiry 
be repugnant to him that it wd. lower rather than 
heighten the moral point of the " midrash " to 
know that it was a time of Assyrian weakness when 
king and people yielded to the proclamation of J. 
Why was J., not Elijah, chosen as the messenger of 
Y '. ? He was a much more imposing figure than 
the obscure " s. of Amittai " ; he too had fled fm. 
the work J", assigned him ; he too had messages for 
foreign potentates (i K. 19.). 



It seems necessary to regard the mission to 
Nineveh as historical. With the syncretist notions 
common to polytheism, the idea may have been 
entertained that J", might require to be propitiated 
lest, in the weakened state of the gods of Asshur, 
He might overthrow the state and city. Even if 
such a thing were at all likely to be recorded we 
have practically nothing of the Annals of this period. 

Date. — Konig thinks that the preterite of the 
substantive verb in the phrase, " Now Nineveh was 
an exceeding great city," is equivalent to fuit in 
" Troja fuit" and consequently wd. regard it as 
evidence that Nineveh had ceased to be ; but there 
are scores of cases in the prophets where such a 
rendering wd. make nonsense, e.g. Is. 50. 11 ; Jer. 
15. 18 . The connection does not require this sense ; 
J.'s audience wd. not be familiar with the size of 
Nineveh, a city distant fm. them by 500 miles ; 
further, when one considers means of communica- 
cation, than London is fm. Tokio ; so information 
as to its size was natural if not necessary. The short 
relative wh. is regarded as evidence of lateness is 
really, since it is found in the " song of Deborah," 
evidence of a northern origin. The use of the short 
form of 1st person is really a question of emphasis, 
not of date. The presence of Aramaisms is no evi- 
dence of late date ; Aram, is as old as Heb. ; the in- 
scription of Mesha has many Aramaisms. Some of 
the Aram, words are technical, as sepbinab and 
fa' am, much as xebec and ukase are with ourselves. 
In identifying the sense in wh. manab is used in J. 
with its sense in Dn. I. 11 , and identifying it with the 
Aram, manni (Dn. 2. 49 ), Drs. Konig and Driver have 
fallen into a mistake : there surely is a great differ- 
ence between " appointing " and " preparing " ; it 
savours of the ludicrous to think of a whale having 
an appointment to swallow a prophet, or of 
Nebuchadnezzar " preparing " the food of the 
Heb. hostages. As to the alleged identity of J.'s 
meaning with the Aram, it is convincing evidence of 
the contrary that neither in the Peshitta (E. Aram.) 
version of J., nor in the Tg. (W. Aram.), is the word 
transferred. There is nothing in the linguistic 
evidence pointing to any later date than that of the 
son of Amittai. The accurate historical setting 
above referred to points to the same conclusion. 

Aim. — While several subordinate lessons are 
taught, the fact is made plain that J", regards even 
the heathen as objects of His care. We can under- 
stand Jonah's fleeing fm. the presence of ]* '. if he 
foresaw that Asshur wd. revive and eventually 
crush Isr. He would be in no way anxious to carry 
a message of warning to Nineveh, since he did not 
wish the Ninevites to repent. Jonah's mind is 
therefore gradually prepared to receive the truth. 
He is shown the better side of the heathen sailors, 
who generously strive to save him : and his interest 
is drawn out by the fate of the gourd. 



343 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jor 



For the use made by our Lord of Jonah's experi- 
ence see Mw. 12. 39 . 

JONATH ELEM REHOKIM. See Psalms. 

JONATHAN. (1) S. of Gershom, grandson of 
Moses (Jg. 18. 30 ). The latter name was changed to 
" Manasseh " by inserting " n," prob. to prevent it 
fm. appearing that Moses had such a degenerate 
desct. He was the Levite who became priest to 
the Ephraimite Micah, was carried away by the 
Danites to Dan, and became priest in the idolatrous 
temple there (Jg. 17., 18.). (2) S. of Saul, k. of Isr. 
(1 S 14. 49 ), perhaps the most chivalrous and win- 
some figure in the OT., who carried his friendship 
to David to the verge of Quixotism. The mon- 
archy, but newly established, was of course not 
acknowledged as hereditary. Yet the eldest son of 
the reigning k., with J.'s qualities and popularity, 
might well have hoped for the succession. J. laid 
aside his own claims in the interest of his friend, 



At the Isr. invasion it was a Phil. town. In Solo- 
mon's time it was prob. in the hands of the Phoe- 
nicians. J. next appears in the hist, of the Macca- 
bees. In revenge for an outrage by the inhabitants 
Judas destroyed the haven and the shipping with 
fire (2 M. 12. 3 ' 7 ). Jonathan forced an entrance 
into the town, wh. was held in the interest of the 
Syrians (1 M. io. 74 ). Simon drove out the in- 
habitants, placed in it a Jewish garrison, completed 
the harbour, and fortified the town (1 M. I2. 33f \, 
13. 11 , 14. 5 - 34 ). Taken fm. the Jews by Pompey 
(Ant. XIV. iv. 4 ; B J. I. vii. 7), it was restored to 
them by Caesar (Ant. XIV. x. 6). Given to Cleo- 
patra by Antony (ib. XV. iv. 1), Caesar afterwards 
bestowed it upon Herod (ib. XV. vii. 3 ; BJ. I. 
xx. 3). In the division of Herod's kdm. it fell to 
Archelaus (Ant. XVII. xi. 4 ; BJ. II. vi. 3). By 
the soldiers of Cestius Gallus it was taken with great 
slaughter (BJ. II. xviii. 10) and left desolate. It 




Jaffa 



whom he assisted and defended at the risk of his 
life (1 S. 18. 1 - 4 , 19. 1 - 7 , 20., 23. 16ff -). He was also 
a skilful and intrepid soldier, whose manly char, 
endeared him to the people (1 S. I4. lff- )- His fall 
on Gilboa with his fr. became the subj. of one of 
the most beautiful and pathetic elegies in all Lit. 
(2 S. i. 17fL ). His body was exposed on the walls 
of Beth-shan, whence it was rescued and buried by 
the men of Jabesh Gilead. David, at a later time, 
brought the bones of his friend, and laid them with 
the dust of his frs. at Zela in Benjamin (2 S. 2i. 12fl -). 
J. left a son, Mephibosheth, whom David kindly 
entreated for his fr.'s sake (2 S. 21. 7 , &c). 

No fewer than 13 J.'s are mentioned in Scrip. 
See also Apocrypha, Maccabefs. 

JOPPA (Japho, Jo. 19. 46 ), a city of the Phil, on 
the border of Dan, the anct. seaport to wh. the 
wood fm. Lebanon was brought in floats for trans- 
port to Jrs. (2 Ch. 2. 16 ; Ez. 3. 7 ; Heb. Tap ho'). 
Here Jonah found a ship going to Tarshish (i. 3 ). 
In J. Peter raised Dorcas fm. the dead (Ac. 9. 36fL ). 
Hence fm. the house of Simon the tanner he was 
called to Caesarea (Ac. lo. lff -). 

On a rock hard by Perseus is said to have rescued 
the chained Andromeda fm. the monster. J. is 
mentioned as a Can. town in the Egyptian inscrs. of 
the 1 8th dyn., and in the Travels of the Mohar. In 
Asyr. inscrs. it is named Ta-ap-pu-u (COT. 2 i. i6of.). 



became a resort of such as escaped fm. the cities 
destroyed by the Romans, who, reduced to great 
straits, turned pirates, and preyed upon the shipping 
in the neighbouring waters. Driven to their boats 
by the troops of Vespasian, a fearful storm came 
down upon them, hurling their vessels upon the 
rocks, so that vast numbers perished. The city 
was taken and utterly destroyed. Its usefulness as 
a seaport insured its restoration, and in the fourth 
cent, it was the seat of a bishop. It is represented 
by the mod. Tdfd, built upon a rocky hump on the 
edge of the sea. A little way fm. the shore is a reef 
of rocks wh. may be rounded in calm weather by 
light craft, affording indifferent shelter. Rowing- 
boats meeting the steamers pass to and fro through 
a gap in the reef. In high storms, however, the 
passage is perilous. Figures as to population are 
in a state of chaos (HDB., 8000 ; Baedeker, 15,000 ; 
HarmszuortFs Ency., 23,000 ; EB., 35,000 ; KB., 
40,000). No trustworthy authority is available ; 
but the smaller figures are prob. nearer the truth. 
It is now an important centre of trade, and it draws 
large revenues fm. the annual streams of pilgrims. It 
is famous for its beautiful and fruitful orange groves. 
JORAH. One of the men who returned with 
Ezra (2. 18 ), the ancestor of a family of 112. His 
name is given in Ne. J. 2i as Hariph. The latter is 
poss. correct. 



344 



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Jor 



JORAM. (i) The son and successor of Ahab on 
the throne of Israel (2 K. 8. 16 , &c.) ; see Jehoram. 

(2) The son and successor of Jehoshaphat on the 
throne of Judah (2 K. 8. 21 , &c.) ; see Jehoram. 

(3) One of the priests who, under Jehoshaphat, 
carried round a copy of the law and taught the 
people in the cities of Judah (2 Ch. 17. 8 , " Jeho- 
ram "). (4) The son of T01, king of Zobah, whom 
his father sent to felicitate David on the defeat of 
Hadadezer (2 S. 8. 10 ). (5) A Levite in the days of 
David (1 Ch. 26. 25 ). 

JORDAN (Heb. Tarden, gen. with the art., 
ha-Tarden). The J. is the main river of Pal. The 
name may be derived fm. ydrdan, " to descend." 
The Arabs now call it esh-Shari'ab, " the watering 
place," or Nahr el-Urdunn. The Heb. name may 



across the mouth, by wh. it is easily forded, and here 
an anct. caravan road passed over it. In quiet 
weather the current may be traced far out on the 
calm surface of the sea : hence the belief, held 
firmly by the local Jews, that its waters never mingle 
with those of the lake. 

Fm. the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, a dis- 
tance of 60 miles, the J. follows a sinuous course, 
covering no less than about 200 miles. Some six 
miles below the Sea of Galilee it is spanned by a 
bridge, Jisr el-Majdmi'a, beside wh. is now the 
graceful new bridge of the Haifa-Damascus Rail- 
way. The J. has hollowed out a lower vale in the 
floor of the valley, in the bottom of wh. the bed of 
the river lies. This is called the Zor. It varies in 
width fm. half a mile to two miles, and in depth fm. 




Jordan: The Fountain at Banias 



poss. be connected with the Arb. warada, " to go 
with one to water." 

The sources of J. lie in the district SW. of Mt. 
Hermon. The longest tributary is the Hasbdny, 
rising near Hasbeiyah ; the largest is the Ledddn, 
wh. rises at Tell el-Qddy {see Dan) ; and the most 
picturesque is Nahr Bdnids, wh. rises under the cave, 
sacred to Pan in olden times (see C^sarea Philippi). 
Those streams unite to form the J., five miles S. of 
Tell el-Qddy. Through mud flats the river pursues 
a sluggish course, winding among cane and reed 
thickets, to the little lake el-Huleh (see Waters of 
Merom). Many smaller tributaries discharge their 
waters into these streams, draining all the great 
hollow between the S. slopes of Hermon and the 
W. uplands. 

At its exit fm. el-Huleb the J. is 60 ft. broad, and 
about 15 ft. deep. Some two miles lower down the 
old road by way of Quneitera, between Damascus 
and the sea at Acre, crosses by a bridge, Jisr bendt 
Ta'qub. Fm. this point the river descends rapidly, 
in a narrow rocky bed, between steep banks, until it 
reaches el-Bateihah, the fertile plain through wh. 
it flows, with an average width of about 60 ft., into 
the Sea of Galilee. A wide sandbank stretches 



20 ft. in the No to 200 ft. in the S. The bed of the 
river also varies in width fm. 30 to 70 yds., being 
narrowest where the current flows swiftly. The 
soil of the Zor is very rich, and is covered, esp. in the 
lower reaches, by a dense jungle of tropical plants, 
cane, and tamarisk, referred to as the " swelling " or 
" pride " of J. (Jr. 12. 5 , &c). This continues to 
within a couple of miles of the Dead Sea, where all 
vegetation ceases. During the heavy rains, and at 
the time of the melting snows, the river overflows 
its banks, covering all the bed of the Zor, and be- 
comes, indeed, a formidable stream (Jo. 3. 15 ). A 
sudden spate at times carries away unwarily placed 
tents and their occupants. 

Receiving the waters fm. Mt. Gilead, and fm. the 
E. slopes of Ephraim and Benjamin, the main tribu- 
taries of the J. are, on the E., Nahr Tarmuk, Wddy 
Tdbis, Wddy 'Ajlun, Nahr ez,-Zerqd (Jabbok), Wddy 
Nimrln, and Wddy el- Kef rain : on the W., Wddy 
Fejjds, Wddy el-Bireh, Nahr Jalud, Wddy el- 
Jozeleb, and Wddy el-Qelt. 

The total length of J. fm. Hasbeiyah to the Dead 
Sea as the crow flies is 113 miles. The source at 
Hasbeiyah is 1700 ft., that at Bdnids 1100 ft., and 
that at Tell el-Qddy 505 ft. above, while the Dead 



345 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jos 



Sea is 1292 ft. below, the level of the Mediter- 
ranean. The most rapid descent of the full river is 
between el-Huleh, 7 ft. above, to the Sea of Galilee, 
682 ft. below sea level. 

Save in times of flood, the J. may be crossed by 




Where Jordan leaves Sea of Galilee 

many fords. Fm. el-Huleh to the Dead Sea there 
are some 60 fords, at wh., for the greater part of the 
yr., the passage may be made without danger. Fm. 
the mouth of the jabbok, however, until we come 
over agst. Jericho, the river is practically unfordable. 
In 1 K. 7. 46 ; 2 Ch. 4. 17 , the ford at Tell ed-Damieh 
is intended : in this neighbourhood were the fords 
of Jg. I2. 5ff - ; those E. of Jericho are referred to in 
Jo. 2. 7 ; Jg. 3. 28 ; 2 S. 19. 17 , &c. See Bethabara. 

The Jordan Valley {see Palestine) is a feature 
unique upon the planet. The river, flowing in the 
bottom of this mighty gorge, formed the natural 
boundary between E. and W., but, as we have seen, 
it offered no serious barrier to frequent intercourse. 

The construction of dams, wh. shd. not be diffi- 
cult, wd. make much of the water of J. available for 
irrigation, and the rich land on either side might 
become a dream of beauty and fertility. The river 
is stocked with many kinds of fish : birds of bright 
plumage flash over its surface : the leopard, the 
hyaena, the jackal, and other beasts of prey, are 
found in the jungle through wh. it flows. 

The water in the Sea of Galilee is valued as 
" light " and wholesome, but the natives, save in 
extremity, will not drink fm. the river, their reason 
being that " he who drinks Jordan drinks fever." 

The stoppage of J. for the crossing of Isr. at a 
time when, the river being in full flood, the passage 
wd. have been otherwise imposs. (Jo. 3., 4.), was 
paralleled in a.d. 1267, when, by the fall of over- 
hanging marl-cliffs wh. had been undermined by the 
stream, the waters were dammed back to the N. of 
Tell ed-Damieh for some ten hours, greatly facili- 
tating the repair of the bridge at Ddmieb, built the 
previous yr. by Sultan Beybars I. of Egp. (PEFQ. 
1895, 253ff.)- 



Lit. : Macgregor, Rob Roy on the Jordan ; Lynch, 
Nar. of the US. Exfed. ; PEFM. index ; Smith, 
HGHL. index. 

JORKOAM, RV. JORKEAM, a Calebite, great- 
grandson of Hebron (1 Ch. 2. 44 ). It should perhaps 
be taken as the name of a city in Judah, in the dis- 
trict of Hebron, and may be identical with Jokdeam 
(Jo. IS- 56 ), site unknown. 

JOSAPHAT = JEHOSHAPHAT, king of Judah 
(Mw. i. 8 ). 

JOSEDECH (Hg. i. 1 , &c), JEHOZADAK (1 Ch. 
6. 14f -). Son of Seraiah, who was High Priest in the 
time of Zedekiah. His father was slain at Riblah 
(2 K. 25. 18> 21 ) and J. was taken captive to Babylon, 
where he seems to have remained for the rest of his 
life. He was the son of one High Priest, and father 
of another (Jeshua), but never enjoyed that honour 
himself (Zc. 6. 11 ). 

JOSEPH ("Let him," i.e. God, "add"). 
(1) Elder s. of Jacob and Rachel, born in Mesopo- 
tamia (Gn. 30. 23L ). Jacob loved J. as a son of his 
old age, and as a token of affection gave him a long 
coat with sleeves, wh. prob. indicated the fr.'s 
belief that he was marked for future distinction. 
J. seems to have accepted the omen, and, if he posed 
somewhat in consequence, it wd. not endear him to 
his brs. His boyish tactlessness in publishing his 
self-magnifying dreams came near to costing him 
even his fr.'s favour (Gn. 37. 10 ). He had already 




Jordan looking South, near Dead Sea 

angered his brs. by carrying home discreditable 
tales about them (v. 2). Fm. Hebron Jacob sent J. 
to see how it fared with his brs. who were tending 
the flocks. He found them at Dothan. They 



346 



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Jos 



proposed forthwith to kill him. Fm. this Reuben 
dissuaded them, and had him put into one of the 
dry, bottle-shaped cisterns in the neighbourhood, 
intending to set him free. On the advice of Judah 
he was drawn up and sold to a caravan of Eastern 
merchantmen, who passed on their way to Egp. 
His coat, dabbled in blood, was taken to Jacob, who 
sorrowfully drew the natural inference. The mer- 
chants sold him in Egp. to Potiphar, a high officer 
of Pharaoh, in whose household faithfulness and 
ability won for him the first place. The Lord 
was with J., and he was a prosperous man. Swift 
reverse of fortune followed a false accusation by his 
master's w. ; but, committed to prison, he so gained 
the confidence of the governor that he was en- 
trusted with the oversight of the other prisoners. 
He was thus brought into contact with the chief 
butler and baker of Pharaoh in their misfortune, 
and his interpretation of their dreams received 
immediate vindication (Gn. 40.). 

Two yrs. later, dreams of the k. wh. the sages of 
Egp. cd. not interpret brought J. his opportunity, 
and the wisdom of his counsel in view of the pre- 
dicted famine so impressed the monarch that J. 
was entrusted with the carrying out of the great 
scheme proposed for the preservation of the people. 
He was raised to the second place in the empire, 
and, girt with the insignia of authority, he moved 
in a state only less than royal. He received the 
Egyptian name Zaphenath-Paneah (poss. " God 
spake and he came into life "), and married 
Asenath (poss. " belonging to Neith "), dr. of the 
priest of On = Heliopolis of the Greeks. During the 
seven yrs. of plenty a host of overseers under his 
direction collected a fifth part of the produce in 
each yr., and stored it at convenient centres 
throughout the country. His great powers now 
found a congenial sphere. Occupied in a task 
mighty in itself, and beneficent in its effects, he had 
the joy of making " the rough, stubborn current of 
events move to the rhythm of his own thoughts." 
Happy, too, in his domestic life, at the birth of 
a son he appears suddenly to have realised how 
utterly the old life of bitterness and repression was 
left behind him, and he calls his son Manasseb, 
" forgetting " (Gn. 41. 51 ). A second son he calls 
Ephraim, " For God hath made me fruitful in the 
land of my affliction." 

The famine, for wh. provision had been made, 
affected the neighbouring countries, and Jacob, 
hearing that there was corn in Egp., sent his sons 
thither fm. Can. to buy. Joseph alone cd. autho- 
rise the sale, so they had to appear before him. He 
knew his brs. at once, but they failed to recognise 
in this great Egyptian officer the poor lad whom 
they had maltreated. He used the opportunity to 
subject their char, to the most searching tests ; 
and also to prove the sincerity of their affection for 



their aged fr. and Benj. his br. This involved an 
hour of anguish for Jacob, when Benj. must needs 
be taken and presented to " the lord of the land." 
But when satisfied upon these points, J.'s magna- 
nimity was strikingly shown in the interview when 
he made himself known, and in the ample pro- 
vision he made for them and his fr. in the land of 
his adoption. With the good-will of Pharaoh he 
sent and brought down his fr. and brs. to Egp. 
The land of Goshen, a district suited to their 
pastoral calling, was assigned to them, and there, 
for 17 yrs., Jacob spent an honoured and tranquil 
evening of life. 

In the earlier stages of the famine the money of 
the Egyptians passed into the royal treasury in the 
purchase of corn : next their cattle — horses, flocks, 
herds, and asses — were given up : finally the people 
themselves and their land became the property of 
the Pharaoh. An allowance from the k. supported 
the priests, so their land did not need to be sold. 
The people thus became the serfs of Pharaoh, and 
tilled his land on terms specified by J. At the 
ingatherings, they were to give " a fifth unto 
Pharaoh," a proportion wh., in the light of Oriental 
practice, seems eminently reasonable. 

J. undertook to bury his fr. in Pal. (Gn. 47. 2917 -), 
and presented his sons for the blessing of the dying 
Jacob (48.), who bestowed upon J. the " shoulder " 
or " mountain slope " wh. he had conquered for 
himself fm. the Amorites — doubtless Shechem is 
intended. 

Jacob's funeral was conducted with great pomp 
to the cave of Machpelah (Gn. 50. lff -). J.'s brs. 
feared lest, the restraint of his fr.'s presence being 
removed, he might now avenge himself upon them ; 
but they were reassured by J., who saw the hand of 
God, and His purpose of good, in the evil wh. by 
them had befallen him. J. lived to see his children's 
children, to the third generation. Full of faith in 
his people's destiny, he directed his bones to be 
taken with them on their return to Pal. Then he 
died, being " an hundred and ten yrs. old." The 
fulfilment of his direction is recorded in Ex. 13. 19 ; 
Jo. 24. 32 . Tradition points out his tomb in the 
opening of the valley E. of Nablus. 

The supremacy of Ephraim in later days led to 
" Joseph " being used as an appellation of the tribes 
forming the Northern Kdm. (Am. 5« 6 ; Zc. io. 6 , &c). 

There is no good reason to doubt that the story of 
J. is in the main strictly historical. As the work of 
a Heb. writer at a long subsequent time, it naturally 
lacks details wh. a contemporary author wd. have 
supplied, e.g. the personal name of the Pharaoh. 
The colouring of the story is clearly Egyptian, 
altho' there is nothing sufficiently distinctive of 
any time, to fix definitely a particular date. The 
Pharaoh of the oppression is usually identd. with 
Ramses II., of the 19th dyn. (b.c. 1275-1208). If 



347 



Jos 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jos 



we accept Petrie's date for the Exodus, b.c. 1204, banished poisonous reptiles fm. Ireland (Ussher, 
and add the 430 yrs. of Ex. 12. 40 , this carries us back Antiq. Eccl. Brit. 16). 

to the reign of the Hyksos k., Apepa II., c. b.c. 1634, (4) Joseph Barsabas (prop. " Barsabbas "), one 
a date wh. there is nothing to contradict. of the early followers of Jesus, nominated with 

Famines of long duration are not unknown in Matthias for Judas' place among the apostles (Ac. 
Egp., owing to failure fm. various causes of the I. 23 ), surnamed Justus ; poss. br. of Judas Barsabbas 
Nile overflow. Such a dearth prevailed in the yrs. (Ac. 15. 22 ). He is said to have been one of the 
a.d. 1064-1071. But it is of special interest to note Seventy (Euseb. HE. I. xii. 2). Eusebius quotes 
that an inscr. found at el-Kab, in Upper Egp., Papias to the effect that J. Barsabbas drank a deadly 
dating fm. almost J.'s time, records a famine wh. poison and suffered no injury {HE. III. xl. 11). 
may have been identl. with that of Gn. 41. JOSES. (1) One of Jesus' brs. (Mw. 13. 55 ; 

Critical analysis recognises two strands in the nar., Mk. 6. 3 ). (2) Br. of James the Less (Mw. 2J. 5G ; 
E. and J., wh., with additions fm. P., are woven Mk. 15. 40 ). (3) J., prop. Joseph (see Barnabas, 
together in the story of Joseph (for details of Ac. 4. 36 ). 

analysis see Driver, LOT. 166). The act. given JOSHAH, one of the " princes in their families " 
in the two sources was practically identical, with of the tribe of Simeon, who, in the time of Hezekiah, 
variations in minor points : e.g. in J. Judah, in raided the peaceful shepherd people in the neigh- 
E. Reuben, plays the leading part. In J. Joseph is bourhood of Gerar, children of Ham, and utterly 
sold to the Ishmaelites ; in E. he is stolen by the destroyed them, taking possession of their pastures 
Midianites, &c. (1 Ch. 4- 34fl -). 

Lit. : Petrie, Hist, of Egp., index ; Sayce, Higher JOSHAPHAT. (1) The Mithnite (1 Ch. II. 43 ) 



Criticism and the Monuments, 208ff. ; Driver, 
HDB. ; Cheyne, EB. ; Ewald, Hist, of Isr., i. 
3 86ff. 
(2) The husband of Mary the mr. of Jesus, a 



one of David's mighty men. (2) One of the 
Levites who blew " with the trumpets before the 
Ark of God" (1 Ch. I5. 24 -RV.). 

JOSHBEKASHAH, one of the sons of Heman, 



native of Bethlehem in Judah, settled as a carpenter who were set" under the hand of their father for 

in Nazareth (Lk. I. 27 , 2. 4 ; Mw. i. 18fL , 13. 55 ) ; see song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psal- 

Genealogy. He appears in the journey to teries, and harps, for the service of the house of 

Bethlehem, in the Temple at the presentation, in God " (1 Ch. 25. 4 ). 

the flight to Egp., and the return to Nazareth. JOSHEB-BASSHEBETH. Instead of the AV. 
After 12 yrs. he goes to Jrs. with Jesus and Mary, rendering, "that sat in the seat," to wh. no meaning- 
There is no reason to think that his influence and can be attached, RV. gives the proper name (2 S. 
protection were soon removed fm. the home. He 23. 8 ). The text is in disorder. The parallel pas- 
and Mary seem to have brought up a large family sage in 1 Ch. II. 11 reads " Jashobeam the son of a 
(see Brethren of the Lord). There is no act. of Hachmonite " (RV.). This may prob. be taken as 
his death, wh. may have taken place before Jesus correct. 

began His public ministry (cp. Jn. i 9 . 26f -). The JOSHUA, BOOK OF. The canonical books of 

apocryphal Gospels contain nothing of value con- the OT. have been handed down by the Jews 

cerning J. The motive of the tradition wh. de- in three great divisions : Law, Prophets, and 



scribes him as a very old man at the time of his 
marriage to Mary is sufficiently obvious. 

(3) Joseph of Arimathsea, a rich man (Mw. 
27. 57 ) and honourable (Mk. 15. 43 ), a member of the 
Sanhedrin (Lk. 23. 50 ), and a secret disciple of Jesus 



" Writings " (or Hagiographa). The first division 
is the Pentateuch. The second is twofold ; the 
books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, 
wh. are of a historical char., being called the 
" Former " Prophets, the " Latter " being the 



(Jn. 1 9. 38 ) who, poss. owing to the fear mentioned by prophetical books properly so called, viz. Isaiah, 

John, either was absent fm., or did not vote at the Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Minor Prophets, 

trial of Jesus. The crucifixion seems to have roused The terms " former " and " latter " simply indicate 

his courage ; taking all the risks involved in such an the order in which the books stand in the collection, 

act, he begged the body of Jesus fm. Pilate, and, and not the order of date or composition ; yet the 

with Nicodemus (Lk. 23. 50 , &c), prepared it hastily, designation of the historical books as prophets is a 

and laid it to rest in his own, as yet, unused tomb, significant reminder that the collectors of the Canon 

Nothing further is known of J. An anct. legend regarded them as the work of prophetic men who 

says he was sent to Britain by St. Philip, and settled were not mere annalists, but writers of hist. fm. a 

on a small island in the river Brue, where Glaston- theocratic point of view. The Book of Joshua 

bury now stands. A later tradition makes hirn covers the period fm. the death of Moses to the 

bring the Holy Grail (see William of Malmesbury, death of Joshua. It is complete in itself, and falls 

De Ant. Glastonburgs. Eccl. i. ; Nutt, Studies on the into two main parts, the first relating the invasion 

Legend of the Holy Grail). He is also said to have and conquest of Pal., and the second the partition 

348 



Jos 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jos 



and allotment of the territory to the several tribes. 
In the first part (chaps. 1.-12.) we have the sending 
of the spies to Jericho, the miraculous passage of 
the Jordan, the capture of Jericho, the sin and 
punishment of Achan, the taking of Ai, and the 
confirming of the Covenant at Ebal and Gerizim. 
Then follows an account of the craft of the 
Gibeonites and the league of the southern kings, 
wh. is broken up by the great battle of Bethhoron. 
Another battle near the waters of Merom breaks a 
similar confederacy of northern kings. With this 
the subjugation of the whole country is practically 
assured, and a list is given of the conquered kings. 
In the second part (fm. chap. 13. onwards) the 
extent of the land to be divided being indicated, 
and particulars being given of the territory already 
assigned to the tribes to the East of Jordan, Joshua 
and Eleazar proceed to the allotment of the Wes- 
tern territory, the Tabernacle being meanwhile 
erected at Shiloh. The cities of refuge and the 
Levitical cities are designated, and the two tribes 
and a half are sent home to their inheritance. 
The last two chaps, contain Joshua's solemn fare- 
well addresses to the people, the renewal of the 
Covenant, and a brief account of the death and 
burial of Joshua and of Eleazar. 

Although self-contained, the book of J. links 
itself closely to the series of books wh. precede, 
especially to Deut., as is implicitly stated in the 
opening verses. It also forms a natural introduc- 
tion to the historical books wh. follow, beginning 
with Judges, when the Israelites had to secure the 
occupation of the conquered country, and con- 
tinuing, through Samuel and Kings, the hist, of the 
nation to the Exile. Accordingly, as might have 
been expected, it exhibits literary features of com- 
position similar to those found elsewhere ; and it is 
to be noted that, while in the canonical arrange- 
ment it heads a new series of historical works, it has 
closer literary affinities with the five books wh. 
precede. The same " sources " wh. critics dis- 
criminate in the Pnt. are found here ; so that it is 
now customary to speak of the Hexateuch, or six- 
fold work, as a more exact designation than Penta- 
teuch. There is nothing, however, to indicate 
that J. ever formed an integral part of such a com- 
posite work. On the other hand, critics are agreed 
that, though the " sources " out of wh. it is com- 
posed are the same, the disposal and relation of 
these are not the same as in the Pnt. For, whereas 
in the Pnt. the priestly source P. constitutes the 
final framework, in J. it is D. that controls and 
colours the presentation of the matter. It is, 
however, well to observe that what is called the 
Deuteronomic style is more than a merely literary 
feature, and that it belongs more to the matter 
itself than to its presentation. If we admit, what 
seems most credible even if it were not actually 



stated, that Moses delivered addresses in the sense 
of those contained in the book of Deut., there is no 
other style in which he could have done so than the 
Deuteronomic. Now Joshua, who had been closely 
associated with Moses, had the task assigned him of 
carrying out the work sketched by his predecessor. 
Consequently, in the earlier part of the book, where 
the situation and outlook are the same, the style and 
tone of Deut. are most observable. In the middle 
chaps., where the work to be done is of a statistical 
and administrative kind, and Eleazar the priest is 
associated with Joshua, the formal priestly style 
and phraseology appear ; while, again, the closing 
address of Joshua is precisely after the manner of 
Moses in Deut. 

The book does not profess to come fm. the hand 
of Joshua, but, like so many other OT. works, is 
anonymous. The great events it records, how- 
ever, would make a deep and lasting impression on 
the national memory, and wd. be often rehearsed 
during " all the days of the elders that outlived 
Joshua, and had known all the work of the Lord, 
that He had wrought for Isr." (24. 31 ). Nor is it 
conceivable that the weighty words of the dying 
leaders, Moses and Joshua, shd. be dissipated into 
air, and find no echo till the reign of king Josiah. 
The book is far fm. complete as a record of the yrs. 
wh. it covers. The conquest is narrated in a brief 
and general fashion, as if the whole was accom- 
plished in a few great battles, although it was the 
work of several yrs., and much remained to be done 
after Joshua's death (11. 8 , 14. 7 ' 10 ). It is remark- 
able that the subjugation of the great central 
division of the country is only mentioned in very 
general terms, although it must have been an 
arduous and continued operation (17. 14 " 18 ). On the 
other hand, the boundaries of the tribes are drawn 
with such a regard to the natural features of the 
country, and the lists and order of the towns are so 
exact, that the chaps, containing these details have 
been called the Domesday-book of Isr., and have 
.been of material assistance to mod. explorers in the 
identification and situation of anct. sites. 

James Robertson. 

JOSIAH ("J", supports"). (1) S. of Amon, 
who succeeded his fr. on the throne of Judah at 
the age of eight, c. b.c. 639. A reaction under 
Manasseh and Amon followed Hezekiah's attempt 
at reformation, and idolatry was once more rampant 
in the land. His fr.'s early death was a blessing in 
disguise to the youthful king. It placed him in 
his tender yrs. under more wholesome influences. 
The weakening of Asyr. freed Judah fm. anxiety, 
and the opening period of his reign is passed over in 
silence. The Scythian invasion of Syr., c. b.c. 630 
(Herod, i. iooff.), in wh. the prophets (Jr. 6. 1 ; 
Zp. I. 14ff -) saw a threat of Divine vengeance upon 
faithless Judah, prob. roused J. to reforming zeal. 



349 



Jos 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Joz 



In his 1 8th yr., while repairs were being executed 
on the Temple, the bk. of the law was found, 
brought, and read before him. Its contents show 
it to have been practically identl. with our bk. of 
Deuteronomy. The k.'s fears were excited by 
its threats agst. disobedience of its requirements. 
These were confirmed by the prophetess Huldah, 
who predicted disaster to Jrs., not, however, in J.'s 
time (2 K. 22.). Measures were at once adopted 
for thoroughly cleansing the Temple, the high 
places, and the whole land fm. idolatry. Worship 
was centralised in the Temple, and a great Passover 
.was celebrated, the k. and people entering into a 
solemn covenant with God. Fm. this time forward 
the Heb. relg. is definitely associated with a sacred 
bk. Then, poss., the first step was taken towards 
the formation of a Canon of Scrip. J. seems to have 
availed himself of the Assyrian weakness to establish 
his authority over the province of Samaria (2 K. 
23. 15 ' 19 ). Thirteen yrs. of peace and prosperity 
followed. Then, B.C. 608, Pharaoh Necho marched 
agst. Syr., apparently intending to secure his posi- 
tion first in the N. Prob. fearing lest Egyptian 
success might ultimately mean the loss of Judah's 
independence, J. sallied forth to intercept the 
forces of Necho. He attacked them at Megiddo, 
and was defeated and slain. 

The Chronicler varies somewhat the order of 
events. He records Necho's unwillingness to fight 
J., and also the great lamentation caused by J.'s 
death (2 Ch. 34., 35.). 

(2) S. of Zephaniah, contemporary of Zechariah 
(Zc. 6. 10 ). The text is corrupt. 

JOSIPHIAH, the father, or perhaps rather the 
grandfather of Shelomith, one of Ezra's companions 
in the return (Ez. 8. 10 ). In MT. a name has evi- 
dently fallen out before Shelomith. LXX (A) 
reads " and of the sons of Bani, Shelomith." This 
supplies the transliteration of the Heb. ^3, wh. 
when written without the vowels is exactly the 
same in form as M3, " sons." It might thus have 
been easily passed over in transcription. 

JOT, a transcription of icora, the name of the 
ninth and smallest letter of the Gr. alphabet. It is 
used by our Lord to indicate the very smallest thing 
(Mw. 5. 18 ). More emphatically is yod, the corre- 
sponding letter of the Heb. square character, the 
smallest. Consonantally the word means " hand," 
and in the earlier scripts, e.g. in that of the Moabite 
Stone and of the Siloam Insc, it assumes the form 
of a roughly drawn conventionalised hieroglyph of 
a " hand." Even in later scripts as that of the 
Nablus roll, and that of the Maccabean and Hero- 
dian coins, the resemblance is not lost. 

As a subsidiary evidence of the meaning of the word we 
may refer to the fact that the corresponding letter in Ethiopic 
is called yaman, ' ' right hand.' 

In Egypt the small form of yod first appears on 



ostraca and on papyri. The fact that our Lord 
mentions in this connection, " tittle " (keraia), 
makes it almost certain that He referred to the 
Heb. letter; but this cannot in fairness be urged 
as a proof that He spoke ordinarily Aramaic. The 
phrase was a proverbial one taken over fm. Heb. 
much as it has come to be used in English. There is 
more plausibility in producing it as evidence that 
the " square character " was in use in the days of 
our Lord, that is, two centuries earlier than the 
Kefr BirHm inscription. Even this conclusion is 
rendered insecure by the fact, mentioned above, 
that in the Heb. and Aram, script in Egp., yod is 
small. See Tittle. 

JOTBAH was the native place of Meshullemeth, 
daughter of Haruz and mother of Manasseh's son 
and successor Amon (2 K. 21. 19 ). There is nothing 
to show that it was in Judah. It may be identical 
with Jotbathah (which is just the same name with 
locative ending), one of the stations in the wander- 
ings described as " a land of rivers of waters " (Dt. 
io. 7 ), to the N. or NW. of Ezion-geber (Nu. 
33. 33f -). Cheyne (EB. s.v.) would regard J. as a 
popular corruption of Jiftah " (God) opens (the 
womb)," Jiftah being a place in the Shephelah. 

JOTHAM ("J", is perfect"). (1) Gideon's 
youngest son, who alone escaped the massacre by 
Abimelech (Jg. 9- lff- ), who warned the Shechemites 
agst. the usurper and fratricide, by the fable of the 
trees of the wood choosing a king. The fable em- 
phasises the folly of the Shechemites in rejecting 
the legitimate sons of Gideon, and submitting to 
Abimelech. Incapable of protecting them, he cd. 
only work them harm. And so the event proved 
(Jg. cj. 22ff -). (2) S. of Uzziah, who acted as regent 
during his fr.'s sickness (2 K. 15. 5 ), and then suc- 
ceeded him on the throne of Judah. He built the 
upper gate of the Temple. He strengthened the 
country's defences, and made tributary the children 
of Ammon (2 Ch. 27. , lfL ). The historians praise 
him, but recount few of his deeds. He reigned fm. 
751 to 735 bx. In his time the combination of Syr. 
and Samaria agst. Judah first showed itself (2 K. 

I5- 37 ). 

JOZABAD. (1, 2) Two men of Manasseh who, 
before battle was joined at Gilboa, left Saul and 
went over to David, going with him to Ziklag, and 
helping him in the pursuit and punishment of the 
raiding Amalekites (1 Ch. I2. 20f -). (3) The Geder- 
athite, who also came to David at Ziklag (1 Ch. 12. 4 ). 

(4) A Levite who prepared and supervised store- 
houses in the Temple, under Hezekiah, for the obla- 
tions, tithes, and dedicated things (2 Ch. 31. 13 , 35- 9 ). 

(5) The son of Jeshua, one of the Levites who took 
an inventory of the vessels of silver and gold in the 
Temple, wh. they had brought from Babylon, 
noting both number and weight (Ez. 8. 33L ). (6) A 
priest who had married a foreign wife (Ez. io. 22 ). 



35° 



Joz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jud 



(7) One of those who explained the law as read by 
Ezra (Ne. 8. 7 ). (8) One of the Levites in Jerusalem 
after the Exile, who had charge of the outside busi- 
ness affecting the Temple (Ne. II. 16 ). The longer 
form Jehozabad occurs in 2 K. 12. 21 , &c, of one of 
the servants of Joash, who conspired against and 
murdered their master : also in 2 Ch. 17. 18 , 26A 

JOZACHAR, RV. JOZACAR ("J"- remem- 
bers "), one of the murderers of Joash of Jrs. (2 K. 
12. 21 ). He is called Zabad in 2 Ch. 24. 26 . There 
seems to be some confusion in the text. 

JOZADAK = JOSEDECH (Ez. 3. 2 ; Ne. 12. 26 ). 

JUBAL, son of Lamech and Ada, described as 
" the father of all such as handle the harp and the 
organ" (RV. "pipe," Gn. 4. 21 ). The name is 
from the same root as yob el, " ram's horn," wh. gave 
the title to the Jubilee. The ascription of the in- 
vention of harp and pipe to one whose brother was 
the first to follow the nomad life {see Jabal) is in 



was possible wd. be spent in adjusting ownership. 
The case of houses in a walled town was different ; 
they became the absolute property of their pur- 
chaser unless redeemed within a year. To that ex- 
ception there was an exception — nouses in aLevitical 
city. They returned to their original owners at the 
J. That there is no mention of the J. in pre-Exilic 
literature till Ezekiel is not conclusive agst. its being 
in force ; one wd. learn little of the laws of inheri- 
tance in England fm. Goldsmith's History. The 
fact that Isaiah and Micah denounce those who 
" lay field to field " (Is. 5. 8 ) only proves that the 
law was evaded ; while the comparative rarity of 
the references to that form of oppression indicates 
that some process not unlike the restoration of 
lands at the J. had real existence. The relation of 
the J. to the Sabbatic Year will be treated under 
that head. The account of the J. in Lv. 25. is 
attributed to H. (" the Law of Holiness "), sup- 




Wilderness OF JUD^A 



harmony with the thought of the ancient world, 
wh. associated their origin with the shepherd life. 
With the Greeks, Pan was the inventor of the pipe, 
Apollo of the lyre, both being devoted to pastoral 
occupations. 

JUBILEE (Heb. yobel, " the sound of a trum- 
pet " [Ges.], " a ram " [Fuerst, following Aqiba] ). 
After the seventh Sabbatic year, another year wh. 
had all the characteristics of that wh. had preceded 
it was added. By this additional year the septennial 
system was brought into harmony with the cen- 
tennial, as the J. was half a century. The J. was 
inaugurated on the Day of Atonement, the 10th 
of Tishri, by the blowing of a trumpet. While 
Tishri, as the 7th month, fitted into the septenary 
idea that permeated Jewish chronology, it was also 
the month when the ploughing and sowing for the 
following year's harvest had to be accomplished ; 
hence the blowing of the trumpet of J. forestalled 
the beginning of tillage : the J. thus was really the 
latter half of the 49th year and the 1st of the 50th. 
Ewald thinks that the purpose of the J. was 
primarily to prevent the accumulation of the land 
in the hands of a few. If the Isr. sold his field he 
cd. not alienate it absolutely ; it returned at the 
J. ; hence the six months during wh. agriculture 



posed to date fm. the time of Ezekiel ; but his 
references (Ek. 7. 12 ' 13 ) imply the restoration at the 
J. to be a usage well known. Sabbatic Year. — 
The land was to be tilled six years, but on the 
seventh it was to lie fallow. This rest-year is 
brought into close relationship with the weekly 
Sabbath (Ex. 23. 10 ' 11 ). While it is a possible, it is 
by no means a necessary interpretation, that every 
seven years the whole country wd. remain untilled : 
the absence of the phrase in the account of the 
Sabbatic Year " throughout all your land," wh. is 
used in regard to the J., is to be noted. Its rela- 
tion to the service of the Heb. who sold himself 
confirms this view (Dt. 15. 12 ) ; after he had served 
six years, " then in the seventh year thou shalt let 
him go free fm. thee " : the seventh year of release 
was individual in its application, not general. The 
fact that " seven sabbaths of years " were to be 
numbered for the J. at first implies that the Sab- 
batic Year was general, but it really is to be taken 
as " weeks of years " (cp. Lv. 23. 15 ). 

JUDyEA was the name given to the land re- 
occupied by the Jews after the Exile {Ant. XI. v. 6, 
&c. ; 1 M. io. 38 , &c). The boundaries varied fm. 
time to time. It may be said genly. that the pro- 
vince extended fm. Samaria in the N. to Arabia 



35i 



Jud 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jud 



Petraea in the S. ; and fm. the Mediterranean in 
the W. to the Jordan in the E. (BJ. III. iii. 5). To 
it belonged cert, cities on the sea coast, including 
Ptolemais. It was divided into II toparchies, Jrs. 
forming a district by itself, and presiding over the 
others. In NT. the name usually indicates the 
most southerly of the three great divisions of 
western Pal. (Lk. 4.**, RVm. ; Ac. io. 37 , &c). It 
formed part of Herod's kdm. given to Archelaus. 
When he was deposed it was attached to the pro- 
vince of Syria. The wilderness of J. (Mw. 3. 1 ) 
prob. indicates the " Jeshimon " or desert W. of 
■the Dead Sea. 



nated to act for Judah at the future allocation of the 
land of promise (Nu. 34. 19 ). To this tribe belonged 
Achan, whose sin brought the first discomfiture to 
the army of Isr. (Jo. 7.). 

As the records stand it is not easy to construct 
a self-consistent narrative of the capture of the 
territory occupied by J. Jo. 1 1 . 21fE - attributes the 
conquest to Joshua. In Jo. i4-. 6fl -, I5. 13fl -, this 
honour is, in part at least, assigned to Caleb. 
Again (Jg. I. 3ff -) this part of the country is said to 
have been conquered by Judah, with the assistance 
of Simeon. The conquest of the Phil, cities named 
in the nar. proved only temporary ; that of Jrs. 




Uplands of Judah near Hebron 



JUDAH (Heb. Tehudah, " praised "), fourth son 
of Jacob and Leah (Gn. 29. 35 ), born at Padan Aram. 
The part he played in the experience of Joseph at 
Dothan compared favourably with that of his brs. 
(Gn. 37- 26f ', &c). A story greatly to his discredit is 
told in Gn. 38. He appears early to have taken a 
leading position among his brethren. It is not 
darkly indicated that on account of Reuben's in- 
famy, and the crime of Simeon and Levi, he was 
promoted to the place and honours of the first-born 
(Gn. 34., 35. 22 , 49. 5ff '). In the Blessing of Jacob he 
is compared to " a lion's whelp " (Gn. 49. 9 ), and a 
long supremacy is promised him (v. 10 ; see Shiloh). 
The children of Joseph clearly felt that they had 
strong claims to the leadership (Gn. 49. 22ff - ; 1 Ch. 
5. 2 ). Thus were planted the seeds of discord and 
rivalry wh. were destined later to bring forth such 
bitter fruit. J. died, and appears to have been 
buried in Egp. (Ex. I. 6 ). 

For the strength of the tribe of Judah at the two 
numberings in the Wilderness, see Numbers. The 
standard of the camp of J. was on the east side of 
the Tabernacle, toward the sunrising. The " prince 
of the children of J." was Nahshon, s. of Ammina- 
dab. Along with J. were the tribes of Issachar and 
Zebulun (Nu. 2. 3 , &c, io. 14 , &c). Among the 
spies J. was represented by Caleb, the s. of Jephun- 
neh (Nu. 13. 6 ). The same "prince" was desig- 



Qg. i. 8 ) did not include the fortress of Jebus ; and 
the city was assigned to the Benjamites (v. 21). 

The actual boundaries of the territory occupied 
by Judah, part of it being assigned to Simeon (Jo. 
I9. lff -),. cannot be traced with certainty. Accord- 
ing to Jo. 15. it lay between the Dead Sea on the E. 
and the Mediterranean on the W. It marched on 
the N. with the S. frontier of Benjamin fm. the 
Jordan to Kirjath-jearim ; thence it ran westward 
to the sea. On the S. it reached to a line drawn 
fm. the S. end of the Dead Sea. Thro' the 
Ascent of Akrabbim, Zin, Kadesh-barnea, Hez- 
ron, Adar (RV. Addar), Karka, and Azmon, to the 
River of Egypt, Wddy el-Arlsh. This comprised 
the southern end of the central range, sloping away 
into the desert, the Shephelah, and the Phil, plain. 
Of this last, however, Judah never became the 
acknowledged master. Much of the mountain land 
was rocky and barren. The hills W. of the Dead 
Sea formed a dreary and forbidding wilderness. 
There were many fertile tracts, however, and the 
vales were fruitful. The traces of ancient terraces 
show with what industry the inhabitants must have 
improved such opportunities as there were for the 
cultivation of vines and other produce. Withal, 
the country was better adapted for pastoral than for 
agricultural pursuits. 

The poverty of the land may be said to have con- 



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stituted its safety. It might be approached along 
the line of the main road fm. the N. The valleys 
running into the mountains fm. E. and W. were 
possible avenues of attack. The country was also 
accessible fm. the S. But the approach was in 
every case beset with difficulties ; and involved 
perilous enterprise, wh. even in the case of complete 
victory, there was little to reward. 

While owning a common ancestry, and dwelling 
in the same land, the relations between the various 
tribes seem to have been loose. Judah furnished no 
Judge to Isr., and does not appear in the song of 
Deborah. Judah acquiesced in the choice of Saul 
as king, the more easily no doubt, as he did not 
spring fm. Ephraim ; and the hist, of David affords 
evidence of Judaea n loyalty to the son of Kish. 
Judah, however, gave to Isr. her greatest kings, 
David and Solomon, in whose line He was destined 
to come, who should be the glory of Isr. and the 
Saviour of the world. 

From the point of union under Saul, the story 
of the tribe passes into that of Israel. Details of 
the hist, will be found in the articles dealing with 
the kings of Judah. 

JUDAH. (i) A town marking the E. end of the 
N. boundary of Naphtali (Jo. 19. 34 ), called " Judah 
upon (or " at," RV.) Jordan, toward the sunrising." 
Many scholars think that the text is corrupt. 
Thomson (LB. ii. 466) wd. ident. it with Seiyid 
Yehuda, lit. " Lord Judah," a small white-domed 
sanctuary, c. three miles S.E. of Tell el-Oddy. 
(2) A city of Juda (RV. "Judah"), the home' of 
Elizabeth and Zacharias (Lk. 1. 39 ), prob. ident. 
with Jutah. 

JUDAS. In the NT. six men bear this name. 
(1) Judas of Damascus. — All we know for cer- 
tain about him is contained in Ac. 9. 11 . To him 
belongs the honour of having sheltered Saul under 
his roof, while the latter was passing through a 
great spiritual crisis. 

(2) Judas Barsabbas, referred to in Ac. 
j ^22, 27, 32, 33 _ Though not an apostle he ranked 
as a chief man among the brethren and, along with 
Silas, was the bearer of letters fm. the Jrs. Church 
to the Church in Antioch, relating to certain diffi- 
cult points of conduct wh. had emerged. He ex- 
horted the wavering Christians and helped to con- 
firm them in the faith. 

(3) Judas of Galilee, mentioned in Ac. 5. 37 . 
He figured as leader of a popular revolt agst. a tax 
imposed by the governor of Syria. The movement 
ended in disaster, and it is believed that Judas 
perished. To this rebellion some have attributed 
the formation of the party called Zealots. 

(4) Judas, not Iscariot. — The only word as- 
cribed to him in the Gospels is found in Jn. 14. 22 , 
" Lord how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself 
unto us and not unto the world ? " He is generally 



identified with Thaddasus (Mk. 3. 18 ), and with 
Lebbaeus (Mw. io. 3 ), and is therefore known as 
the three-named apostle. 

In Lk. 6. 16 and Ac. I. 13 we find the words, 
" Judas of James." This means son of James, not 
brother, as in AV. 

(5) Jude, the Lord's brother (Mw. 13. 55 ; 
Mk. 6. 3 ), author of Epistle of Jude. In v. I he 
calls himself br. of James. This is explained by the 
fact that in his view the spiritual relationship took 
precedence of the physical : and James was then 
so well known that to be styled his brother was 
a sufficient identification. Verse 17 leads us to 
believe he was not an apostle. Though, like the 
rest of his brethren, he may not have been in 
sympathy with Christ at the first (Jn. J. 5 ), he was 
among the believers immediately after the resurrec- 
tion (Ac. i. 13 ). 

(6) Judas Iscariot, the chief facts of whose 
history, as recorded in NT., are these. He was the 
only Judaean among the twelve — the other eleven 
hailing fm. Galilee — and came fm. Kerioth, a town 
on the south border of the tribe of Judah ; hence 
the surname Iscariot, or man of Kerioth. In the 
lists of apostles he is always mentioned last in the 
last group of four (Mw. io. 4 ; Mk. 3. 19 ; Lk. 6. 16 ). 
He was made purser of the little band, no doubt on 
the ground of fitness and trustworthiness (Jn. 12. 6 ; 
13. 29 ). When Mary anointed the Saviour's feet 
he voiced the displeasure felt by himself and others 
at the waste of ointment (Jn. 12. 4 ). He went forth 
to cast out demons and heal diseases (Mw. io. 1 ; 
Lk. 9. 1 ), and it is thought he even partook of the 
Last Supper. For thirty pieces of silver he sold his 
Master, and afterwards, in a fit of remorse and self- 
loathing, destroyed himself. He has come down 
through history as " Judas, who also betrayed 
Him "— 

" The base Judaean, who sold a pearl 
Richer than all his tribe." 

Choice of Judas. — Why did Christ admit him 
to the inner circle ? He did so, say some, in order 
that he might be the instrument of His betrayal, 
and so lead to the fulfilment of Scrip. Agst. this 
our moral sense revolts. It is Christ's way to give 
every man a chance. There were elements in 
Judas that developed into a traitor, but there 
were also elements in virtue of wh. he might have 
become a great apostle. By introducing him to the 
circle of His influence Christ gave him a magnificent 
opportunity. He gambled it away, but the fault 
was all his own. He went out into the night and 
his own hand opened the door. 

Motive of Betrayal. — One theory is that he 
meant well. Christ seemed lacking in the power of 
self-assertion, and the betrayal was a tactical move 
for the purpose of forcing His hand and hastening 
His triumph. This opinion is ingenious but, while 



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more than just to Judas, it is much less than, just 
to Scrip. A mere tactical blunder wd. never be 
ascribed to possession by Satan (Jn. 13. 27 ). Nor 
wd. Christ have spoken as He did speak, of the man 
who made the blunder (Mw. 26. , 24 ). The following 
points shd. be noted : — : 

(1) Judas was the only Judaean in the band. In 
this, human nature being what it is, lay the materials 
of friction between him and his fellow-disciples — a 
little thing, but sufficient, in an aggravated situa- 
tion, to turn the balance to the wrong side. 
(2) Judas was avaricious and a thief (Jn. 12. 6 ). It 
has been argued that had greed been a factor he wd. 
have bargained for a larger sum. Agst. this may be 
set the thought that a man free fm. avarice wd. 
have made no bargain at all. (3) Judas was a 
disappointed man. His aspirations had not been 
realised. And as the days went by, and Christ 
refused to pander to the popular desire (Jn. 6. 15 ), he 
became more sullen and restless. Add to this the 
fact that Christ saw through Judas, and that Judas 
knew he was seen through. These things, when put 
together — his position as an alien, his avarice, his 
disappointed ambition, his uneasiness under the 
penetrating glance of Christ — make the crime at 
least intelligible. 

Two accounts of his end, difficult to harmonise, 
are given in Mw. 27. 3 " 10 ; Ac. I. 16-20 . The one 
clear thing is that he was urged on to a violent 
death by despair. There was grace enough in him 
to make life intolerable. And one lesson fm. his 
career is that a favourable environment does not, 
of itself, ensure goodness. S. M. Riddick. 

JUDE, EPISTLE OF. This epistle, " full of 
strong words and heavenly grace, tho' it be but a 
few lines in length " (Origen), found very general 
acceptance by the end of the second cent., and by 
the end of the third, notwithstanding its use of 
apocryphal books, wh. was a stumbling-block to 
many, it found its way into the Canon. That Jude 
the br. of the Lord was the author, was also ad- 
mitted, and the majority of writers who accept the 
book as belonging to the apostolic age accept the 
tradition, without, however, identifying the author 
with Judas the apostle, as was done by earlier 
writers fm. a misreading of Lk. 6. 16 (the RV. reads 
" son," not " brother "). If Jude the br. of the 
Lord was the author, the epistle could not be later 
than a.d. 80, for we know fm. the incident of Jude's 
grandchildren being brought before Domitian that 
Jude was dead by that time, and on the other hand 
it cd. not be earlier than about a.d. 70, for it is the 
last time — apostolic prophecies are being fulfilled 
and apostolic teaching is a memory. The proba- 
bility is that it was written about a.d. 70-75, and 
fm. Palestine. The occasion was an outbreak of 
Antinomianism in some of the churches that had 
enjoyed apostolic teaching — where we cannot say, 



but it is likely fm. v. 5 to have been a Gentile 
church or churches, not Jewish, as has been com- 
monly held. The epistle has literary affinities wh. 
are important and interesting. The author is 
familiar with the LXX, and with the apocryphal 
writings, also with Paul, while his resemblance to 
the Didache is so strong as to suggest the same 
author. But most interesting of all is his relation to 
2 Peter. Wh. of the two is the original will probably 
never be settled, but at the present time the ten- 
dency is to give the priority to Jude — his epistle is 
so much of a piece, and it is difficult to see why he 
shd. so alter Peter's words if (as some say) he quoted 
him for authority ; while on the other hand it is 
quite intelligible that Peter, quoting fm. memory, 
shd. make many changes. 

Summary. — Salutation. — He greets his readers as 
called and kept, and as for himself, he is the servant 
of Jesus Christ (" reverential awe," says Clement 
of Alexandria, keeps him fm. writing " brother ") ; 
but when he adds " and br. of James," his relation 
to the Lord will be seen at once, for James was 
universally known as the Lord's br. (vv. I, 2). 

His -purpose. — He was to have written at any rate 
about the " common salvation " (a Greek phrase, 
" the safety of the state," pressed into Christ's 
service), but this outbreak of Antinomianism makes 
him all the more insistent that they should contend 
earnestly for the faith (as embodying the principles 
of morality and religion), wh. was once for all 
delivered to the saints, and to reject the plausible 
sophistries of men who turn the grace of God into 
lasciviousness (vv. 3, 4). 

The Antinomians described ; their moral affinity, 
their genealogy, and their impending doom. — These 
men who deny the Lord that bought them are 
like the backsliding Israelites who perished in the 
wilderness ; like the angels who kept not their own 
principality, and who are kept under darkness unto 
the judgment of the great day (founded on Gn. 
6. 1 " 4 as amplified in The Book of Enoch, a collection 
of apocalypses written between B.C. 95 and a.d. 70) ; 
like the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, who went to 
shameful excess in fleshly lust and perished with 
their cities. Insolent also in their wickedness, 
these men rail at constituted Church authority, 
following the example, not of the archangel Michael, 
who restrained himself even in argument with the 
devil (quoted fm. the Jewish apocalypse, The As- 
sumption of Moses), but of Cain, who killed his br., 
from whom he differed in religious worship ; of 
Balaam, who cursed God's people and then enticed 
them into sin, for money ; of Korah, who had the 
hardihood to gainsay Moses and Aaron ; and as all 
those sinners perished so will they (vv. 5-1 1). Then 
in vv. 12, 13, he reveals in detail their true char. ; 
they are hidden rocks (Peter has " spots "), greedy, 
neglectful shepherds, clouds without water, dis- 



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appointing hope, autumn trees twice dead, not only 
for the winter but for ever, wild waves of the sea 
foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, 
comets wh. leave their course and disappear for ever 
in the darkness. The doom of such was foretold (vv. 
14-17), even so long ago as by Enoch, the seventh 
fm. Adam (quoted fm. The Book of Enoch) ; the 
apostles also, in later ages, foresaw it, and now the 
time has come. They need not think that they 
will escape. They may deceive men by their 
blustering and their cringing, but they will not de- 
ceive God. They will assuredly perish ; but as for 
the saints they need have no fear (vv. 17-23), only let 
them persevere in holiness, keeping themselves in 
the love of God. And as for any who have fallen 
they are not at once to be given up as hopeless ; 
some may be rescued, esp. at the earlier stages — 
let them discriminate. 

Doxology. — There is no need for falling, Christ 
can keep them — to Him be glory ! (vv. 24, 25). 

D. Ross. 

JUDGES, THE BOOK OF. The book of 
Judges, though not history in the proper sense of the 
word, is, nevertheless, one of the most important 
books in the Bible for the right understanding of 
the early history and religion of Israel. The word 
" Judges," as the title of this book, is not used in its 
modern sense. The Hebrew judges were men of 
war, not men of peace ; men of the sword, not men 
of the wig and gown. The conclusion to which 
this title might lead an ordinary reader, viz., that 
these Hebrew judges held some judicial office, is 
erroneous. In point of fact, with few exceptions, 
they were all men of such martial prowess as to be 
able not only to lead the Israelites in war but to lead 
them successfully. The judges belonged to various 
tribes ; and for the time, at least, the tribe of which 
the judge was himself a member generally exercised 
a kind of hegemony over the other tribes. This 
fact points to a most striking characteristic of the 
period. It was a time of great political division. 

This book practically covers the period during 
which the loosely confederated tribes of Israel were 
being gradually welded into a political and religious 
unity. It fills up the gap between the books of 
Joshua and Samuel, Samuel being regarded as the 
founder of the monarchy. The period of the 
judges is in the history of Israel precisely what the 
Heptarchy is in the history of England. When the 
reins of power fell from the strong hands of Joshua, 
the disruptive tendencies, which neither the forty 
years' wandering in the desert nor the legislative 
enactments of Moses had eradicated, were not long 
in manifesting themselves. Indeed, the very variety 
of fortune which attended the several tribes in their 
attempts to gain a firm hold over the parts of the 
Promised Land assigned them, tended to perpetuate 
and increase tribal jealousies ; but, had it not been 



for the book of Judges, we should not have been 
able to realise the bitterness of feeling that some- 
times arose between kindred tribes worshipping the 
same God. The level of the social, moral, and re- 
ligious life so graphically described in this book 
cannot be said to be high. 

The book itself naturally divides into three very 
unequal parts. The first part extends only to the 
fifth verse of chap. 2., and is historically of quite a 
different character from the other two parts. The 
second forms the main body of the work, and con- 
sists of chaps. 2. 6 -i6. This is " The Book of Judges 
proper." The third part consists of chaps. 17.-21., 
and is made up of two unconnected episodes, intro- 
duced without any regard to chronological order, 
but intended to illustrate the moral and social, the 
political and religious characteristics of the age. Had 
such dark incidents not been narrated, it would 
have been difficult to believe that a people, specially 
chosen to hand on to coming generations of man- 
kind the knowledge of the true God, could have 
remained, long after they were thus chosen by 
Jehovah, so very low in the scale both of personal 
and of national morality as these incidents prove 
that the Israelites did remain. That the descen- 
dants of such men as we find depicted here were 
able to learn the Divine lessons at all ought to con- 
vince us that the days of progress are not yet ended. 
Surely a generation like our own, which realises so 
much more clearly than any previous generation the 
sins and imperfections of its own time, should be 
capable of advancing at once further and more 
rapidly than any of those that have preceded. Any 
one inclined to doubt whether the world is really 
becoming better, camrot do anything more likely to 
dispel such doubts than turn to this took of Scrip- 
ture and thus learn how far the world has travelled 
towards the light of Divine righteousness since 
those old days when " every man did that which 
was right in his own eyes." 

The first section, chap. I.-2. 5 , appears, at first 
sight, to be an introduction intended to connect the 
book of Judges with that of Joshua. But, on closer 
examination, this section is found to be written 
from quite a different standpoint. For instance, it 
represents the tribe of Judah as assuming, immedi- 
ately after Joshua's death, the leadership of the other 
tribes, or at any rate as the tribe which showed the 
others how to conquer the Canaanites. Yet in the 
chief section of the book, which we have called " The 
Book of Judges proper," there is not a single instance 
of this premier tribe doing anything at all except 
tamely surrendering Samson to the Philistines (Jg. 
15. 13 ), after having humbly acknowledged that the 
Philistines were their suzerain lords : " Knowest 
thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us " 
(15. 11 ). Judah is indeed commanded to go up first 
against the children of Benjamin (20. 18 ). But this is 



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in the third section, and is just one of the statements 
which prove that this third section likewise pos- 
sesses a distinct character of its own. This first 
section of Judges shows us how we must interpret 
passages in Joshua which, if taken by themselves, 
would mean that the whole of Palestine had been 
conquered by the Israelites in the time of Joshua, 
and that " there had not stood a man of all their 
enemies before them " (Jo. 21. 43 " 45 ). So far from 
that being literally true, this section tells us that 
tribe after tribe was unable to drive out the idola- 
trous inhabitants of the districts of Canaan assigned 
it" by Jehovah. In fact, of the tribes of Asher, 
Naphtali, and Dan, it is here explicitly said that they 
dwelt among the Canaanites (i. 31, 33 « 34 ), and not, as 
in the case of the other tribes, that the Canaanites 
dwelt among them (e.g. I. 29 ' 30 ). Hence this sec- 
tion clearly proves that in many districts the 
Canaanites had not been so utterly vanquished as 
is stated in Joshua. 

The second section is the most characteristic part 
of Judges, and practically covers the period during 
which the often more than semi-independent tribes 
of Israel were being gradually welded into a com- 
pact and homogeneous whole, and it also contains 
the religious philosophy of Israel, which the author 
desired to commend to all pious and patriotic 
readers. For this purpose the author set the main 
events of his narrative in a religious framework, if 
we may so speak, which is indicated by the constantly 
recurring formula : " The Israelites did that which 
was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the 
Baalim and the Asheroth. So the Israelites pro- 
voked Jehovah, their God, to anger, and He sold 
them into the hands of their enemies. Then when 
they cried unto Jehovah He raised up for the Israel- 
ites a saviour who saved them from the hand of 
their enemies ; and the land had peace for many 
years." This religious interpretation of Israel's 
history is seen most distinctly in chaps. 2. 6 -3. 6 , and 
must unquestionably be much later than the his- 
tories of the individual judges. It has quite a 
Deuteronomic colouring, whereas the histories of 
the several judges bear distinct traces of their local 
or tribal origin, and are beyond a doubt very early. 
They may indeed, in some cases, have been origi- 
nally handed down by oral tradition, sometimes in 
poetry, sometimes in prose, and sometimes even in 
both forms, and may well enough have been put into 
their present literary form about the beginning of 
the monarchy. On the other hand, the religious 
framework into which these separate stories were 
subsequently set, is in all probability as late as the 
end of the kingdom of Judah itself, when Jehovah's 
plan was most clearly revealed by the events of his- 
tory. The late Professor A. B. Davidson affirms 
that " to bring this reading of history down to our 
own level, we must read second causes into the 



movements and the operations of the people's mind. 
The author speaks of Israel as an ideal unity, and 
attributes to this unity defections which no doubt 
characterised only fragments of the whole ; for a 
falling away of a whole people to Baal and then a 
conversion of it to Jehovah, to be followed by a 
similar falling away again 20 or 40 years later, is not 
after the manner of history nor in accordance with the 
operations of the human mind or heart." The book 
is not simply history, restricted to an exact statement 
of facts, but is written for the purpose of showing 
that the lives of all the judges teach one and the 
same lesson — the lesson, namely, that Israel's apos- 
tasy from Jehovah invariably resulted not merely in 
spiritual loss but in temporal misfortune. The 
regularity with which this lesson is drawn in almost 
the same words from occurrences of the most diverse 
kind, is conclusive proof that the author's object was 
not to describe historical facts but to impress his 
readers with his own interpretation of such facts. It 
was not without good reason,therefore, that the Jews 
included this book among " the earlier prophets," 
for, although the historical garb has been donned 
with such skill that it is often the only thing that 
attracts attention, no intelligent reader has difficulty 
indetectingunderneaththatgarbthe same spiritthat 
animated the prophets of Israel. There are six prin- 
cipal judges and six minor judges, the number 12 be- 
ing doubtless chosen to correspond with the number 
of the tribes. But the times of declension and de- 
liverance are to be regarded as six, not twelve, being 
determined by the principal judges only. These 
are Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and 
Samson. It is noteworthy that five of the minor 
judges arose before and after Jephthah, Tola and 
Jair before him (io. 1 " 5 ), and Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon 
after him. It is still more noteworthy that Abime- 
lech is never called " judge," but king (c;. 6 ) or prince 
(c;. 22 ). Moreover it was after Abimelech's corona- 
tion as king that Jotham, standing on the top of Mt. 
Gerizim, shouted aloud to the men of Shechem the 
exquisite parable of the trees desiring to anoint 
a king over them (9. 7 * 21 ). From io. 1 it might 
be plausibly argued that Abimelech is nevertheless 
regarded as a judge, thus making the needed 
twelfth. On the other hand, it has been argued 
with still greater plausibility that the shadowy 
Shamgar of 3. 31 has been brought into being for the 
purpose of taking the place of Abimelech, whose 
death by the hand cf a woman unfitted him, in the 
estimation of this redactor, for being reckoned as 
one of the twelve. It is certainly a strange coinci- 
dence that in one Greek version this verse about 
Shamgar should stand as the final verse of the second 
section, viz. after 16. 31 . 

It is fortunate that, in this book, we find one re- 
markable instance of the same historical event being 
recorded both in prose and poetry, viz. the victory 



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of Deborah and Barak over Sisera. A careful com- 
parison of this double narrative leads to the conclu- 
sion that, despite the license both in thought and 
language allowed to the more vivid imagination of a 
poet, the poem is more trustworthy even in details 
than the prose narrative. Yet this is exactly what 
the laws of criticism wd. lead us to expect. The 
culture and civilisation of Israel, during this stormy 
transition period, when it was slowly changing 
from a nomadic life to that of a settled, agricultural 
people, were not such that we could reasonably ex- 
pect any Literature except poetry, which would at 
first be handed down by successive generations of 
travelling minstrels,* whose profession was the sing- 
ing of national songs and the telling of folk-lore 
stories, both secular and religious, in the market- 
squares of the larger towns, by the cross-ways where 
the village fathers met in council, and in the 
scattered homes of a hospitable, intelligent, but as 
yet illiterate peasantry. In this way the Song of 
Deborah may have been handed down through 
several generations before it was ever committed to 
writing. Now, according to the prose narrative of 
chap. 4., who was suzerain lord of the land ? Jabin, 
described as sole " King of Canaan," whose com- 
mander-in-chief was Sisera . In the poem, however, 
there are several kings of Canaan, of whom Sisera 
was the chief. Again, from 4. 6, 10 it is clear that the 
10,000 picked men who defeated Sisera, Jabin's 
commander-in-chief, were drawn from only two 
tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali. But in the poem no 
less than six of the tribes are praised for the part they 
played in the decisive struggle (5. 14 " 18 ) — Ephraim, 
Benjamin, Manasseh, Zebulun, Issachar, and Naph- 
tali. From v. 15 the inference might be legiti- 
mately drawn that both Deborah and Barak belonged 
to the tribe of Issachar, and that to the impetuous 
onset of Issachar's princes, with Barak at their head, 
the victory was mainly due. It is, however, to be 
noted that Zebulun alone is mentioned twice, and 
that the emphatic praise given to Zebulun and 
Naphtali for their reckless bravery in the high places 
of the field would entitle us, especially as they are 
named last, to infer that the author regarded them 
as the bravest of the brave, by whose prowess, at the 
critical moment, victory was snatched as it were 
from the very jaws of defeat. Notice, also, which 
tribes the poet satirises for their refusal to fight the 
battles of Jehovah : Reuben, Jacob's first-born, 
Gilead, or the tribes on the E. of Jordan, and those 
dwelling by the Western Sea, Dan and Asher. But 
the most remarkable fact of all is that Judah is not 
even mentioned. It does not seem a far-fetched 
inference that this foreshadows the cleavage which 

* The Tel el- Amarna tablets show, however, that writing 
was then well known, although its use may have been con- 
fined mainly to correspondence, wh., while not "Litera- 
ture," suggests possibilities. 



eventually resulted in the disruption of the Davidic 
kingdom. Benjamin is indeed mentioned as an en- 
thusiastic member of the Northern Confederacy; 
and though its fortunes were ultimately identified 
with those of Judah, the fact that Benjamin at this 
juncture separated itself from Judah, its most 
powerful neighbour and also its natural ally and 
protector, is the strongest testimony to the strength 
of the patriotic enthusiasm aroused by Deborah's 
resolve to overthrow the tyranny of the Canaanite 
over-lords, despite their having succeeded in dis- 
arming all the able-bodied men of war in Israel. 
The most illuminating verse in this whole poem, 
and indeed in the whole book of Judges, is that 
which gives us the " contemporary " estimate of the 
number of fighting men Israel cd. put into the field : 

Was there a spear or a shield seen 

Among Israel's forty thousand fighting men? (5.8) 

What a contrast this estimate is from the figures 
given in Numbers, viz. 600,000 men of war. We 
do not need the acumen of a practised statistician to 
tell which estimate must come nearest the historical 
fact. See Numbers. 

The outstanding religious characteristic of this 
poem is that the author had a firm conviction that 
Jehovah and Israel were indissolubly connected, 
that there was an ideal Israel that belonged to 
Jehovah and was assured of victory. Jehovah was 
the God of Israel and Israel the people of Jehovah. 
That this intense consciousness of the ideal unity of 
Israel being due to Israel's worship of Jehovah is 
found in the very earliest of Hebrew poems is surely 
the best possible proof that Israel's religion was, 
from the first, the ruling factor in Israel's national 
life, a factor which continued to dominate its 
national development till it ceased to have a land 
which it could call its own. The poem begins and 
ends by extolling Jehovah, the God of Israel, who 
destroys His enemies and blesses all who love Him. 
This beautiful and artistic poem, though predomi- 
nantly lyrical, contains the germ, and indeed more 
than the germ, of dramatic poetry, for this psean of 
victory could with the utmost ease be expanded 
into a drama. This is obvious from the two final 
stanzas or " scenes," as these stanzas might well be 
called. In the first we are transported in fancy to a 
solitary tent in the desert plain, where we see Jael 
standing erect with Sisera dead at her feet. The 
next takes us, with lightning speed, to the royal 
palace in Harosheth Haggoyim, from the lighted 
windows of which we see the face of Sisera's mother 
peering out into the darkness of the night as she 
sleeplessly watches for her son's return, ever and 
anon anxiously saying to her attendant maidens : 
" Why is his chariot so long in coming ? Why 
tarry the wheels of his chariots ? " Then, with con- 
summate irony, this great poet of Israel lets us hear 
the answer of the wisest ladies of Sisera's court, an 



357 



Jud 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jud 



answer characteristic of that age : " Have they not 
found ? Have they not divided the spoil ? A 
damsel or two for every man : for Sisera a spoil 
of divers colours, a spoil of divers colours of em- 
broidery fit for the neck of his queen." What irony 
to make words like these be heard by the victorious 
Israelites at the very moment they are themselves 
dividing the spoils of Sisera and his vanquished host! 

It is quite safe to infer from the artistic finish of 
this " gem of Hebrew poetry " as Reuss calls it, 
that the literary sense of the Hebrew people had 
already become well developed ; otherwise such a 
poet as the author of this song could not have found 
a suitable environment for the development and 
exercise of his poetic genius. Though there may 
not have been much writing, if any, there must 
certainly have been much reciting and singing of 
poetry. As there was not .as yet even the beginning 
of a prose Literature among the Israelites, it is the 
retentiveness of the Oriental memory that we have 
to thank for having preserved to us this splendid 
specimen of early Hebrew poetry. 

From the moral point of view, this poem is 
equally interesting, giving, as it does, a true picture 
of the moral character of the people in that rough 
and barbarous age. Note the ferocity of the curses 
hurled against the inhabitants of Meroz for failing 
to come to the help of Jehovah against the mighty, 
and the delight with which the ruthless treachery of 
Jael is lauded, so that she is even declared to be 
'" blessed above women." Nay more, though she 
had been guilty of breaking the law of hospitality, 
a law regarded with special reverence by all who 
" dwell in tents," the poet actually emphasises this 
blessing by adding : " Blessed shall she be above 
women in the tent." The poet therefore can hardly 
have been himself " a dweller in tents." It was only 
because Israel had already left the age of tents 
behind it that this benediction of Jael was possible.* 
This poet stood, as it were, where the two streams of 
nomad life and of settled life had for a while com- 
mingled. The process of transition may still be 
seen in the borderland between the settled districts 
and the " circuits " of the nomads. Jael's tent had 
often been pitched in places where the dwellers in 
houses far outnumbered the dwellers in tents. De- 
spite these blemishes, however, this poem is a worthy 
monument of a crisis in Israel's history that was 
never forgotten. As Konig so happily puts it, in 
alluding to the artifice of Epanaphora which so 
frequently occurs, " Its verses go tumbling on, 
foaming like the waves of the Kishon on whose 
banks the victory was won." 

* There are, however, certain Arabs who, for what seems 
to them sufficient reason, do not hesitate to slay the guest. 
If the deed were done in a popular cause, it would un- 
doubtedly find laudators. To this day the settled peoples 
in Pal. reverence the laws of hospitality. The text does not, 
of course, suggest that Deborah and Barak were nomads. 



Though the song is universally called the Song of 
Deborah, the phrase is not to be taken to mean that 
Deborah herself was the author. No doubt the 
redactor to whom is due 5. 1 followed the tradition 
that Deborah had not only sung it but written it, a 
tradition strengthened by the mistranslation of v. 7, 
" Until that /, Deborah, arose," which ought to be 
translated, " Until that thou, O Deborah, didst 
arise : until that thou didst arise, a mother in 
Israel," exactly as in v. 12, " Awake, awake, O 
Deborah." The very awkwardness of the construc- 
tion in the original of 5 - 1 shows us that this verse is 
the work of a redactor, for it states that the Song 
was sung not only by Deborah, but by Barak, and 
that, too, on the very day of the battle, a literary 
feat infinitely more difficult of accomplishment than 
the winning of the victory itself. Could this mag- 
nificent poem have been composed the very day the 
momentous events it celebrates took place ? To 
put the question is to answer it.* 

Thepoetevidently belonged tooneof the Northern 
tribes, probably to Barak's own tribe, Naphtali, 
the most northern of all, and the tribe, therefore, 
that could deservedly claim the greatest eclat from 
Barak's triumph, and among whose members that 
triumph would create the wildest enthusiasm. The 
author may have been not merely a contemporary of 
the events he describes so well. He may have been 
an actual eye-witness of them, or at all events have 
heard these events described by those who were 
themselves eye-witnesses of them. The poem has 
all the freshness and vivid local colouring which a 
recent personal experience might be expected to 
give to the poet's words. It is impossible to believe 
that a poem so exquisite in its finish should be the 
only one of its kind in Israel ; and the very per- 
fection of the sole survivor deepens our regret at 
the greatness of the loss, both historical and lite- 
rary, which subsequent generations have sustained 
through the disappearance of all the rest of these 
early oral Hebrew poems. 

Though this book, therefore, contains the earliest 
Hebrew poem we possess, nevertheless it was put 
into its present form by redactors, some of whom 
were actually post-exilic. This is proved by the 
traces of the Priestly Code contained in chaps. 20. 
and 21., e.g. the 400,000 foot soldiers that as- 
sembled at Mizpeh to punish the Benjamites for 

* The nucleus of the song may have been composed by 
an eye-witness, Deborah, or another. Additions would be 
made as it passed from lip to lip, the name of the original 
composer being retained. So it happens in Pal. still. 
E.g. a Syrian youth was drowned in the Sea of Galilee. 
His sister, Miriam, on hearing the sad news, at once com- 
posed two or three verses of mournful song. These, 
wedded to appropriate music, floated over the whole 
country. Wherever it came local singers added verses of 
their own, many of which were accepted as parts of the 
song, which, nevertheless, as a whole, continued to be 
known as " Miriam's Elegy." The Scottish ballads furnish 
illustrations of the same process. 



358 



Jud 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jus 



their treatment of a Levite. Hence most scholars worship. This may be seen in the Hymn of Clean- 
have now come to the conclusion that in Judges we thes quoted by St. Paul, Ac. 17. 28 . It has to be 
have the same four great strata that exist in the observed that in the tongue of Lycaonia the names of 
Hexateuch — viz. narratives from E., the prophetic the deities wd. probably be very different from the 
school of writers belonging to the Northern tribes ; Hellenic designations used by Luke, and not impro- 
from J., the prophetic school of writers belonging to bably their attributes differed to at least as great an 
the Southern tribes ; from D., writers belonging to extent. The Greeks, as will be acknowledged by all 
the Deuteronomic school ; and from P., the school 
of priestly writers to whom are due the parts dealing 
with the details of religious ritual. 

J. A. Paterson. 

JUDGMENT HALL. See Prjetorium. 

JUDGMENT SEAT. The word usually so trd. 
in the NT. is bema (Mw. 27. 19 , &c), lit. a " raised 
place " or " tribune," from wh. one spoke in a public 
assembly. In the Greek law courts there were two 
bemata, one for accuser, and one for defendant. In 
Js. 2. 6 the word is. kriterion, " a means for trying," 
or " a court of judgment." In I Cor. 6. 2> 4 RV. 
trs. this word " tribunal." 

JULIA, a female Christian in Rome saluted by 
Paul (Rm. 16. 15 ), along with Philologus, perhaps her 
husband. 

JULIUS, " a centurion of Augustus' Band " 
(Ac. 27. 1 ), to whose custody Paul was committed. 
He showed kindness to Paul in many ways during 
the voyage, and at the shipwreck. 

JUNIA, or JUNIAS (RV.), saluted by Paul (Rm. 
16. 7 ), along with Andronicus. It is not certain 
whether J. is a masc. or fern, name ; altho' the latter 
is favoured by Chrysostom and Jowett, yet " of 
note among the apostles," taken in its natural 
meaning, implies that both were in some sense 
" apostles." They were kinsmen of Paul, and had 
become Christians before him. 

JUNIPER (1 K. 19. 4 , &c, RVm. " broom "). 
" Juniper " is wrong, and " broom " is misleading. 
The plant is the Arb. ratam (Heb. rotem), a white 
flowering shrub growing in the desert, affording a 
scanty, but often the only available shade. Char- 
coal is made of its roots (Ps. 120. 4 ). 

JUPITER, name of the principal deity of the 
Romans, used to translate Zeus in Ac. 14. 12 * 13 , 
EV. following in this not only the Vlg. but common 
usage. The inhabitants of Lystra, awestruck by the 
healing of the lame man, had come to the conclusion 
that, as in the old myth, " the gods had come down in 
the likeness of men," and Barnabas they called J. 
and Paul Mercurius. The Roman identification in 
this instance had more justification than that of 
Hermes with Mercurius. Both primarily repre- readers of Herodotus, were wont to parallel the 
sent the extended heavens ; both are etymologically deities of every foreign pantheon with their own 
connected with Dyaus of the Vedic Aryans ; both gods sometimes on a purely superficial resemblance, 
unite with the function of sky-god that of god of Hence we are told that the Tyrians worshipped 
thunder. Among the philosophers, especially the Herakles (Hercules) under the name " Melkarth," 
Stoics, there was a tendency to identify Zeus with the full name of the deity being Baal-Melek-Kerioth, 
the Supreme God whom the Greeks recognised as " Baal, king of the city." 
behind all the lesser and limited deities of popular JUSTUS. (1) See Joseph Barsabbas. (2) A 

359 




Jupiter 



Jut 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Kar 



Corinthian convert, whose name varies in the MS S., uplands of Judah, named with Carmel and Ziph, 
e.g. " Titius Justus " (B.), " Titus J." («, E.) ; assigned with its " suburbs " to the priests (21. 16 ). 
prob. a Rm. citizen (Ac. 18. 7 ). (3) A Jewish con- It is prob. identl. with Tatta, a large vill. with anct. 



vert and fellow-worker of Paul (Col. 4.)- 



cisterns, tombs, and rock-cut wine-presses, 16 miles 



JUTAH, or JUTTAH (Jo. 15. 55 ), a city in the SE. of Beit Jibrln. 



KABZEEL, an unidentd. town on the border of 
Edom, S. of Judah (Jo. 15. 21 ), the birthplace of 
Benaiah (2 S. 23. 20 , &c.) = Jekabzeel in Ne. n. 25 . 

KADESH, " holy." (1) K. Barnea is named 
in the story of Abraham (Gn. 14. 7 , En Mishpat, 
" spring of judgment," 16. 14 ). Here the camp of 
Isr. stood for a time (Nu. 20. 1 , &c). Hence the 
spies were sent (13. 26 , &c). Here Korah headed 
the revolt agst. Moses (16.), Miriam died (20. 1 ), and 
the water wh. had failed was miraculously restored 
(20. 2ff -). Fm. K. also went the messengers to the 
k. of Edom (2C 14ff -). 

On the border between Edom and the Amorites 



building of the Temple, who also directed the ser- 
vice of thanksgiving when the foundation was laid 
(Ez. 3. 9ff- ). He took a leading part in the service on 
the day when " the children of Israel were assembled 
with fasting, and with sackcloth and earth upon 
them," confessing their sins (Ne. 9- 4f: )- He was 
also among those who sealed the covenant (io. 9 ). 
See also I2> 24 . 

KADMONITES (Heb. Qadmoni). A tribe 
mentioned in Gn. 15. 19 as inhabitants of Canaan 
when Abraham sojourned there ; they are associ- 
ated with the Kenites and Kenizzites, nomadic 
tribes, fm. wh. it may be deduced that they too 




PEF. Dyawi;: 



Wady QadIs 



(Nu. 20. 16 ; Dt. I. 19 ), the S. limit of Joshua's con- 
quests (Jo. io. 41 ), it is named on the S. frontier of 
Can. (Nu. 34. 4 , &c. ; cp. Gn. 20. 1 , &c). 'Jin 
Qadh, c. 50 miles S. of Beersheba, meets all the re- 
quirements of the nar. The waters rise at the base 
of a limestone cliff, and, by their magic, form a little 
paradise amid the desert. It must always have been 
a centre of meeting for the tribes wandering over 
the wide wilderness pastures ; and here of old, we 
may be sure, the elders sat to hear and give judg- 
ment in disputes. 

Lit. : Trumbull, Kadesh Barnea ; Driver, 
Genesis, p. 161. 

(2) K. on the Orontes. Some think this = 
Tahtim Hodshi (2 S. 24. 6 ), but, not to speak of geo- 
graphical difficulties, it is not easy to see how Qadesh 
ha-Hittlm could be changed to Tahtim Hodshi. 

KADMIEL, a Levite who, with his family, re- 
turned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 40 ; 
Ne. 7 43 ). He was one of the overseers at the re- 



were nomads. The K. were identified by Ewald 
with bene Qedem, " the children of the East " 
(Jg-6- 3 ). 

KAIN, RV. See Cain (2). 

KAMON (Jg. io. 5 , AV. Camon), the burial- 
place of Jair : unidentd. 

KAN AH (Heb. Qanah), a wady (nahal) between 
Manasseh and Ephraim (Jo. 16. 8 , 17. 9 ), prob. ident. 
with Wady Kdna, a stream rising near Nablus, and 
flowing SW. through Wady Ishkar into the 'Jujeh, 
wh. enters the sea N. of Jaffa. 

KANAH, a place on the NE. border of Asher (Jo. 
19. 28 ). The boundary stretches to " great Zidon," 
somewhere south of wh. Kanah must be sought. It 
is perhaps ident. with the village of Kana, c. 6 miles 
SE. of Tyre. 

KAREAH, the father of Johanan and Jonathan, 
supporters of Gedaliah, who took part in the pursuit 
of Ishmael his assassin (Jr. 40. 8 , &c). 

KARKAA, a place on the S. border of Judah, be- 



360 



Kar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ken 



tween Addar and Wddy el-Arish (Jo. 15. 3 ). It is 
not again mentioned in Scrip., and no identification 
is possible. OEJ. knows it as a village lying towards 
the wilderness {s.v. Akarka), in the tribe of Judah. 
Symmachus renders it to e'Sa^o?, " the pavement " 
or " ground floor." 

KARKOR, a place wh. Gideon approached 
" by the way of them that dwell in tents, on the 
east of Nobah and Jogbehah." Hither came Zebah 
and Zalmunna with the broken remnants of their 
host. Apparently thinking none would venture to 
follow them into the wastes beyond the settled land, 
they relaxed their vigilance, and were surprised and 
overwhelmed by Gideon (Jg. 8. 10fl -). No name re- 
sembling this has been recovered ; but the district 
prob. lay to the east of Rabbath Ammon, in the 
desert. The identification of OEJ. with Karkaria, 
about a day's journey from Petra, is out of the 
question. 

KARTAH. See Kattath. 

KARTAN, a Gershonite Levite city in the terri- 
tory of Naphtali (Jo. 21. 32 ), called Kiriathaim in 
I Ch. 6. 76 . Of this Kartan is prob. a contraction. 

KATTATH, an unidentd. city in Zebulun (Jo. 
19. 15 ), poss. ident. with Kartah (Jo. 21. 34 ) or 
Kitron (Jg. I. 30 ). Some ident. it with Seffurieb, 
N. of Nazareth, making Kitron = Sepphoris (Tim. 
Bab. Megillak, 6a). 

KEDAR, s. of Ishmael (Gn. 25. 13 ; 1 Ch. i. 29 ), 
was reputed ancestor of the Arb. tribe bearing this 




PEF. Photo 

Arab Encampment (Tents of Kedar) 

name. That they were an important tribe is clear 
fm. Is. 2 1. 16 , &c. They were great flockmasters 
(60. 7 ). The name, however, was often used 
generally for the nomadic peoples of Arabia, e.g. 
Ek. 27. 21 ; Ps. 120. 5 ; SS. I. 5 ; where the black 
tents of the nomads are referred to. Fm. the 
Cuneiform Inscrs. we gather that they reverenced 
Syrian deities (Glazer, Skizze der Geschichte des alt. 
Arb. ii. 267fL). For an interesting discussion see 
Margoliouth, HDB., s.v. 

KEDEMOTH, a town apparently on the north 
bank of the Upper Arnon, included in the territory 
of Reuben, and given to the Merarite Levites (Jo. 
13. 18 , &c). From the wilderness of K., where 
Israel was encamped, Moses sent messengers to 
Sihon, king of the Amorites (Dt. 2. 26 ). If the name 
is derived from qedem, " east," it may denote the 
most easterly boundary of the settled land. 

KEDESH. (1) Poss. = Kadesh Barnea (Jo. 15. 23 ). 



(2) A city of Issachar, assigned to the Levites (1 Ch. 
6. 72 ) ; see Kishion. (3) K.-Naphtali (Jg. 4- 6 , 
&c), K. in Galilee (Jo. 20. 7 , &c), Kedesh (Jo. 
12. 22 , 19. 37 , &c), an old Canaanite sanctuary, as the 
name " holy " indicates, and so an asylum. With 
peculiar fitness, therefore, it was chosen as one of 
the Cities of Refuge (Jo. 20. 7 , &c). K. was the 
home of Barak, and the gathering-point of his army. 
It was taken by Tiglath-Pileser (2 K. 15. 29 ). Here 
Demetrius was defeated by Jonathan (1 M. ii. 63, 73 ). 
It lay between Hazor and Edrei (Jo. 19. 37 ), N. of the 
plain of Asor (1 M. II. 63 * 67 » 73 ; cp. Ant. V. i. 24 ; 
XIII. v. 6 ; IX. xi. 1 ; BJ. IV. ii. 3). The mod. 
vill., Qedes, lies on the height W. of el-Huleh, with a 
spring and cistern. The extensive ruins date fm. 
Rm. times. There are many fine sarcophagi. The 
country around is fertile, diversified with wooded 
knolls. Fm. its elevated position K. commands a 
wide prospect. 

KEILAH, a city in the Shephelah of Judah (Jo. 
15. 44 ), the people of wh. were ready to betray David 
to Saul (1 S. 23. lff -) ; occupied after the Exile (Ne. 
3. 17f -) : prob. = Khirbet Kild, c. seven miles E. of 
Beit Jibrin. 

KELAIAH, known also as Kelita (Ez. io. 23 ), was 
one of the company who returned from exile with 
Ezra, who married a foreign wife. He helped in ex- 
plaining the law as read by Ezra (Ne. 8. 7 ), and was 
one of those who sealed the solemn covenant (io. 10 ). 

KELITA. See preceding article. 

KEMUEL. (1) Son of Nahor and Milcah, and 
father of Aram (Gn. 22. 21 ). In Gn. io. 22 , Aram is 
named among the sons of Shem. (2) The son of 
Shiphtan, who represented Ephraim at the casting 
of lots for the division of the land (Nu. 34- 24 ). 

(3) Father of Hashabiah, and prince of the Levites 
during David's reign (1 Ch. 27. 17 ). 

KENATH, a city E. of Jordan, with a chequered 
hist. (Nu. 32. 42 ; Dt. 3. 14 ; Jo. 13. 30 ; 1 Ch. 2. 23 ). 
It is prob. = mod. Qanawdt, a vill. with extensive 
and beautiful ruins fm. Grgeco-Rm. times, c. 16 
miles N. of Bozrah. It stands on the brow of a 
hill, on the W. slope of Jebel ed-Druze, commanding 
a magnificent view of the great breadths of the 
Haurdn, the Jauldn, and Mt. Hermon. See Arab 
and Druze at Home, 6^\S. See also Nobah. 

KENITES (Heb. Qent), a nomadic tribe men- 
tioned along with the Kadmonites and Kenizzites 
as dwelling in Canaan in the time of Abraham, 
whose land was promised to him. Their tents are 
visible to Balaam fm. the mountains of Moab (Nu. 
24. 22 ) ; they are regarded then as inhabiting the 
highlands of what was afterwards southern Judea. 
They appear to be associated with the Midianites ; 
for Jethro, fr. -in-law of Moses, who is called in 
Ex. 3. 1 , 18. 1 " the priest of Midian," is in Jg. I. 16 
called a Kenite. They were afterwards associated 
with the Amalekites. When Saul made his expedi- 



361 



M 2 



Ken 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Kid 



tion agst. Amalek he warned the K. to come out fm. 
among them, and they did so (i S. 15. 6 ). While in 
the references already considered the K. seem to be 
dwelling in the S. of Pal., in Jg. they appear in 
Galilee ; Jael, the murderess of .Sisera, was the 
wife of Heber the K. (Jg. 4. 17 ). The treachery of 
her deed was made all the more heinous that there 
was a special treaty of friendship between the family 
of her husband and Jabin, whose general Sisera was. 
Dr. Sayce suggests that the K. were a tribe of 
smiths ; a view that suits their association with 
different tribes. In I Ch. 2. 55 the Rechabites are 
called K. Latterly the K. were absorbed among 
the Jews. 

KENIZZITE (Heb. Qenizzi) . A tribe inhabit- 
ing the S. of Pal. whose land was promised to 
Abraham. The Gentile name given to Caleb, " the 
Kenezite," is in Heb. the same word (Nu. 32. 12 ; 
Jo. 14. 6 ' 14 ). The K. may have joined Jacob's cara 
van when he went down to Egp. and been absorbed 
in the tribe of Judah. 

KERCHIEFS. The word occurs in a passage of 
great difficulty, referring to the equipment required 
for the practice of certain " black arts " (Ek. 
13. 18 * 21 ). They were intended to cover the head, 
and must also have hung down over the person, as 
they were made to suit the stature of the wearer 
(v. 18). It is impossible to determine either their 
exact shape or use ; but something like a long veil 
of ample folds seems to be intended. 

KEREN-HAPPUCH, the name of the third of 
Job's daughters born to him in the time of pros- 
perity after his proving (Jb. 42. 14 ). It denotes lit. 
" horn of antimony," the dye with wh. eastern 
ladies colour the eyelashes. The name wd. draw 
special attention to her eyes, wh. it may be pre- 
sumed were of unusual beauty. 

KERIOTH. (1) A city of Moab named be- 
tween Beth-maon and Bozrah (Jr. 48. 24 ' 41 ). Here 
was a sanctuary of Chemosh (Moab. Stone, line 
13): prob. = mod. Qureiydt, between Diban and 
'Jttdrus. (2) A city in the extreme S. of Judah, 
K.-Hezron (Jo. 15. 25 , RV.) : poss. = el-Quryatain, 
NE. of Tell l Ardd. It may be the birthplace of 
Judas Iscariot — " the man of Kerioth." 

KETTLE. This word appears in EV. only in 
I S. 2. 14 . It trs. Heb. dud, which elsewhere is ren- 
dered " basket " (2 K. io. 7 ), " caldron " (2 Ch. 
35. 13 ), " pot " (Jb. 41. 20 ). It is a vessel that may 
be used for sacrificial or culinary purposes. 

KETURAH (" incense "), second w. of Abra- 
ham (Gn. 25. 1 ' 4 ), fm. whose sons many Arb. tribes 
traced their descent (1 Ch. i. 32f -) : of these little is 
known. 

KEY. The ancient Eastern lock as seen in 
Egyptian remains, and in some survivals, e.g. in 
Lebanon, was essentially a wooden bolt held in its 
place by small pins or tumblers that fell into holes 

36 



that had been cut in the bolt. The K. was gene- 
rally a piece of wood with upright pins set in it so 
arranged that they exactly fitted the holes in the 
bolt, so the tumblers were forced up and the bolt 
set free to be moved back by the K. Sometimes 
the K. was made of iron, but the principle of its 
construction was the same. It is the symbol of 
authority (Rv. I. 18 ) ; it appears sometimes to have 
been borne on the shoulder as the insignia of office 
(Is. 22. 22 ). 



sf 



nrf 



© © © © ® 




2tze 



jasp 



*Wr- 



Wooden Lock 

KEZIA, elder sister of Keren-Happuch (Jb. 
42. 14 ). Her name signifies " cassia." 

KEZIZ, VALLEY OF, RV. EMEK-KEZIZ, a 
valley on the eastern border of Benjamin, apparently 
in the neighbourhood of Jericho (Jo. 18. 21 ) ; unident. 

KIBROTH HATTAAVAH ("the graves of 
lust"), where so many died of plague and were 
buried (Nu. II. 34 ). It was a day's journey fm. 
Sinai (33. 16 ). It is usually placed to the N. of 
Naqb el-Hawa (" mountain path of the wind "), a 
pass called by Palmer " the gate of the Sinai dis- 
trict " t (Desert of the Exodus, p. 160), leading to the 
plain of er-Rdhah, before the traditional Sinai. 

KID. See Goat. 

KIDNEYS (Heb. kelayoth). The word is used 
lit. of animals slain in sacrifice : the K. and the fat 
about them were burnt on the Altar (Ex. 29. 13 ; 
Lv. 3. 10 , &c). As the fat about the K. was re- 
garded as the most delicate it is applied to the 
finest of the wheat (Dt. 32. 14 ). To the Jews all the 
bodily organs were associated with mental acts ; 
with the K., or Reins, feelings of joy (Pr. 23. 16 ) or of 
grief (Ps. 73. 21 ). Hence God, as knowing and esti- 
mating the real source of a person's joy or sorrow, is 
said to " try the reins " (Ps. J. 9 ). 

KIDRON. The " brook " K. is mentioned (2 S. 
15. 23 ; Jn. 18. 1 ; BJ. V. ii. 3) as separating Jrs. fm. 
the Mt. of Olives. There Asa burned his mother's 
idol (1 K. 15. 13 ; 2 Ch. 15. 16 ), and Josiah the 
Asherah, the idolatrous vessels of the Temple 
(2 K. 23. 4 ' 6 ) ; there also was thrown the dust of 



Kin 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Kin 



the idolatrous altars in the Sanctuary (2 K. 23. 12 ). 
Similar acts are attributed to Hezekiah (2 Ch. 29. 16 , 
30. 14 ). The valley, wh. was not without cultivated 
fields, was regarded as unclean (2 K. 23. 12 ; Jr. 3 1. 40 ), 
and had near to it, prob. on the slope below the 
S. end of the Mt. of Olives, the " graves of the 
common people " (2 K. 23. 6 ). The Bible, and also 
Josephus, apply the name K. only to the valley E. of 
Jrs. The continuation of it at Enrogel Jos. calls 
the " valley of the spring " (BJ. V. xii. 2) ; and 
further down, " the big valley " {Ant. X. viii. 2). 
It seems strange that the Hebrews shd. speak of the 
" brook " K., since, before the time of Josephus 
at least, the valley contained no stream. At the 
present day, only in a winter with abundant rain, a 
small rivulet rises below Job's Well (Enrogel), and 
may run for some weeks, But En. 2j. 3t seems to 
regard just this lower part of the valley as dry, and 
that between the Sanctuary and the Mt. of Olives 
as provided with a stream, wh. cd. not be the out- 
flow of the Gihon. Job's Well furnishes proof that 
water flows underground, in the bottom of the K. 
valley. It is therefore not imposs. that, at a time 
when less debris and alluvium had accumulated in 
the valley, a small stream might occasionally be seen 
in winter, especially below the flat ground E. of the 
Sanctuary. It may have been thought that a 
brook ran underground the whole length of the 
valley, becoming visible at Enrogel. This might 
account for the name Kidron, " the dark one," and 
might also explain the phrase, " the brook that 
flowed through the midst of the land " (2 Ch. 32. 4 ). 
The winter spring, i Ain es-Suzvdn, sending its 
waters fm. the ridge N. of the Mt. of Olives down 
to the bottom of the K. valley, may have been re- 
garded as the real spring of the brook. This is poss. 
= En Shemesh, " the spring of the sun," mentioned 
(Jo. 15. 7 , 18. 17 ) as N. of Enrogel. The name wd. 
suit the situation, as, fm. Jrs., the rising sun may be 
said to have its most northerly position over this 
spring {cp. Jn. 18. 1 , yeiiiappov rwv Keo/xov, "winter 
torrent of the Kidron "). G. H. Dalman. 

KIN, KINSHIP, KINSMAN. Among the 
anct. Semites kinship rested upon affinities of blood. 
All who counted descent fm. a common ancestor — 
or, as seems prob. at one time, fm. a common an- 
cestress — were regarded as sharers in one life, par- 
ticipation in wh. constituted the bond of kinship. 
The kin was thus a much wider organisation than 
the family. One belonged to the kin by right of 
heredity. But beyond this, membership of the kin 
might be acquired by one born of other ancestry. 
Temporary membership was secured by eating food 
with any member of the kin. If two ate together, 
their life was nourished fm. a common source, and 
for the time each became inviolate to the other. 
By frequent repetition, this relation became per- 
manent, and the new-comer was bound to every 



member of the kin in exactly the same way as to the 
one with whom it was his custom to eat. Among 
the Arabian tribes many Nubians are to be found 
enjoying full tribal rights and privileges, who were 
bought as slaves in their childhood. The conces- 
sion of freedom and perfect equality to one sharing 
the common life, and eating from the one dish 
(dbabihdb, " sacrifice "), seems to be taken as the 
natural course. Within the sacred circle of the kin, 
mutual rights and duties were recognised ; beyond 
it, right and duty had no meaning. Individual in- 
terests are merged in those of the kin. Insult or 
injury to one is resented, not as personal, but as 
wrong done to the kin, wh. every member is under 
equal obligation to avenge. It is thus a close 
society organised for offence and defence over against 
the world. The conditions here sketched are those 
that prevail practically throughout Arabia to this 
day. See Hospitality. 

In Isr. degrees of nearness within the kin were re- 
cognised, involving correspdg. degrees of obligation. 
Within certain degrees marriage was forbidden (Lv. 
18. 6 , &c). If a man fell on evil days and was forced 
to sell his patrimony, it was the duty of his nearest 
kinsman to buy, if he were able (Jr. 32. 8ff -). Of 
land that had been sold, the right of redemption lay 
with the nearest kinsman of the former owner (Lv. 
25. 25 , &c.) : the object being to prevent the pro- 
perty falling away to others outside the kin. In the 
case of a man who died childless, failing his brother, 
it appears that his next of kin was called on to 
marry his widow, as well as to buy back the 
property he might have parted with (Ru. 4.). For 
an unfortunate man who had sold himself as a 
slave, freedom might be purchased by any near 
kinsman (Lv. 25. 47ff -). 

In the Arabian kin we have seen that the duty of 
avenging injury rests equally upon every member of 
the kin to wh. the injured, or slain, man belonged. 
In Isr. this duty is laid explicitly upon the nearest 
kinsman, the Avenger of Blood. It was his busi- 
ness, as representing the kin, to secure blood for 
blood. But on occasion all the members of the 
circle might join in the demand for vengeance (2 S. 
14. 7 ). It is clear that in old time, if the actual 
offender could not be found, justice was satisfied 
by the slaughter of any member of his family or 
clan. This is the law still, among certain Arabian 
peoples, and the sacred duty of bloody reprisal 
is transmitted from fathers to children for many 
generations. 

The Deuteronomic law limited the infliction of 
vengeance to the guilty person (Dt. 24. 16 ). Ar- 
rangements were made whereby one who slew his 
neighbour unintentionally might be protected fm. 
the extreme penalty (see Cities of Refuge, Hospi- 
tality). But the deliberate manslayer was to be 
slain by the Avenger of Blood (Nu. 35. 19 , &c). At 



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limes, among the Arabs, a payment in money or 
kind is taken as settling claims to blood-vengeance. 
Such, ransom was not permitted in Israel (v. 31). 

We have seen that kinship in the OT. depends on 
physical affinities. Jesus came to reorganise society 
on a new basis. In virtue of his spiritual nature, 
man is made in the image of God. Faith enables 
men to realise this Divine sonship (Jn. I. 12 ), and 
obliterates all the distinctions and barriers that 
separate men on earth. In other words, in the new 
society, kinship rests on spiritual, not on physical, 
affinities ; and its manifestation is found in personal 
-obedience to the will of God (Mw. I2. 48ff -). 

KINAH lay upon the extreme southern boun- 
dary of the territory of Judah, bordering upon 
Edom (Jo. 15. 22 ). OEJ. knows no more than that 
it was " in the tribe of Judah." There is yet no 
guide as to its position. 

KING. The Heb. word for king (melek) is de- 
rived from a root implying 
wisdom as well as authority. 
This harmonises with the main 
functions assigned to the king, 
as supreme judge and genera- 
lissimo. 

From the earliest times we 
meet with great and powerful 
kings in the valleys of the Nile 
and the Euphrates. Kings are 
also found in the countries 
surrounding Pal., ruling over 
fairly extensive territories. In 
Pal. itself at the time of Joshua 
the kings were numerous. We need not be misled 
by the name. Each king controlled a " city " with 
its adjoining land. But recent investigation has 
shown that these " cities " were little more than 
fortified villages. The circumstances then attached 
more of dignity and responsibility to their position 
than belongs to that of the modern village sheikh : 
but they were far from realising our conceptions of 
royalty. 

In early Israel the king is unknown. Moses, 
indeed, is described as " king in Jeshurun " (Dt. 
33. 5 ) ; but this is rhetorical, to exhibit his great- 
ness. During the march through the wilderness a 
" prince " had exercised authority over each tribe. 
After the settlement in Pal. the tribal prince dis- 
appears, and the people seem to fall into a series of 
loosely confederated republics, in which an uncer- 
tain authority is wielded by the " Elders " (ze- 
qenim) . Each tribe apparently comprised a number 
of associated townships, each township being ruled 
by a bench of Elders. When a Judge arose claiming 
a Divine commission, like the successive Mahdis in 
the Sudan, he drew after him a following of the 
tribes proportioned to his own character and in- 
fluence. A later writer implicitly contrasts the 




A King's Dress 
(Egyptian) 



anarchy and insecurity of these days, when " there 
was no king in Israel " (Jg. 17. 6 , &c), with the 
happier conditions prevailing under kingly rule. 

The lack of coherence, and anything like an ac- 
knowledged national leadership, necessarily exposed 
Israel to the attacks of such a warlike people as the 
Philistines, organised and disciplined under the 
sway of their king. The disadvantage was felt, and 
an offer of the supreme place was made to Gideon 
(Jg. 8. 22 ), who, however, declined it, both for him- 
self and for his children ; maintaining that the 
Lord was Israel's true King. Abimelech his son 
was not so scrupulous : but while he is described as 
" prince over Israel three years " (9- 22 ), his attempt 
to establish a monarchy failed. Samuel seems to 
have recognised that this state of things contained 
the elements of national dissolution. He endea- 
voured to introduce greater stability by the ap- 
pointment of his sons as under-judges : perhaps in 
the hope that they might succeed to his position 
and influence. But the people were now fully per- 
suaded that the interests of national security de- 
manded a king. If " the thing was evil in the eyes 
of Samuel " we must remember that he was human, 
and felt like other men the disappointment of his 
hopes. 

Acting under Divine guidance, Samuel declared 
to the people " the manner of the kingdom " (1 S. 
8. 9ff -, io. 25 ), wrote it in a book, and laid it up before 
the Lord. The powers of the king over his sub- 
jects in relation to the army and measures necessary 
for defence of the country, and in relation to the 
service and maintenance of the royal household, are- 
set forth in 1 S. 8. 10ff - What further this docu- 
ment contained as to the constitution of the king- 
dom we cannot say with certainty ; but it pro- 
bably embodied the provisions found in Dt. 17. 14 ' 20 . 

If we may venture to consider it not absolutely certain 
that the " Book of the Law" found in the reign cf Josiah 
contained only "Deuteronomy," and hold that the de- 
nunciations of Hosea and Amos against worship at Bethel 
and Gilgal imply a knowledge of that code, then we may 
regard it as not impossible that Samuel added those verses 
to the code and laid it up before the Lord. Such an addition 
wd. not, according to Eastern ideas, militate against the 
claim of the whole book to Mosaic authorship. 

The king must be the choice of Jehovah : he must 
not be a foreigner : he is prohibited from multiply- 
ing horses, wives, and silver and gold : he is required 
to write a copy of this (i.e. the Deuteronomic) law, 
and preserve it by him for daily study, that he may 
learn to " fear the Lord," and be preserved from 
arrogance in dealing with " his brethren " : the 
hereditary principle seems to be recognised. 

Israel was a theocratic State : the king was only 
God's vicegerent : his appointment therefore must 
have the Divine sanction. Of Saul and David it is 
explicitly stated that they were chosen of God (1 S. 
9. 15ff -, i6. lff -). A foreigner would lack national feel- 
ing, and might be tempted to arrogance and tyranny. 



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He might imperil the land and its inhabitants 
by introducing heathen deities and their worship. 
Probably this last furnished the main reason for the 
prohibition. While there is no case recorded of an 
attempt to crown a foreigner, the episode of Abime- 
lech's reign showed the possibility. He was half a 
Shechemite — he got his power by hiringmercenaries, 
and his authority was apparently pretty widely ac- 
knowledged. One who belonged wholly to the 
" strangers " that were still left in the land by a 
similar process mt. secure some hold on a few cities, 
and in a time of distress might be chosen, as Jephthah 
was, leader even of all Israel. The peoples in the 
plains depended greatly upon their cavalry and 
chariots : but altho' in later times these were 
regular features of Israel's armies, they were not 
essential to her safety, her mountain lands being 
ill-suited for their evolutions. Egypt was especi- 
ally strong in chariots and horsemen. Traffic in 
horses must inevitably lead to close relations with 
that country which, in the interests alike of faith 
and freedom, it was necessary to avoid. The 
disastrous influence of sensuality and worldliness 
is strikingly illustrated in the cases of David and 
Solomon. The Oriental harem has been the hot- 
bed of mischief from time immemorial. It was no 
doubt thought congruous with the magnificence 
and luxury in which these two monarchs indulged. 
Saul's absorption in the defence and consolidation of 
his kingdom probably saved him from the tempta- 
tions to which they succumbed. 

The king was set apart to his office by anointing. 
This might be done by a prophet (i S. 9. 16 ; I K. 
19. 15 , &c), or by a priest (1 K. I. 39 ; 2 Ch. 23. 11 , 
&c). Hence the king is frequently called " the 
Lord's anointed." From the ceremony recorded in 
2 Ch. 23. 11 we gather that a crown was placed on 
the king's head, and a copy of the law (the testi- 
mony) put in his hand. The bracelet taken from 
the arm of Saul (2 S. I. 10 ) probably formed part of 
the royal insignia. No king of Israel is said to 
have wielded a Sceptre, but probably, as in the 
surrounding countries (Am. I. 5 ' 8 , &c), something 
of the kind was used. The spear held by Saul may 
have been the symbol of authority (1 S. 22. 6 ). 
Solomon's costly throne is described in I K. io. 18ff « 
The example of splendour in buildings and royal 
establishment set by David and Solomon must at 
times have pressed heavily on the national resources. 

It was much in the king's favour to be of com- 
manding personal presence (1 S. io. 23 ). His success 
as supreme judge depended on his natural shrewd- 
ness and practical wisdom (1 K. 3.). To lead and 
inspire the men of war composing his armies he must 
be a brave and skilful soldier. These were the 
principal functions of the king in Israel. Govern- 
ment, or administration, in the modern sense, was 
not associated with the office. It was the king's 



business to see justice done among his subjects, 
and, especially, to take the necessary measures to 
secure the safety of his kingdom against all enemies. 
He was generalissimo ; the officers, from the com- 
mander-in-chief downwards, holding their positions 
by his favour, and acting in subordination to him if 
he were in the field (2 S. I2. 26ff -, &c). In the 
neighbouring countries the regal and sacerdotal 
offices seem to have been conjoined in the person of 
the king. In Israel also the first kings, Saul, David, 
and Solomon, offered 
sacrifices. When the 
kingly and priestly 
functions were more 
distinctly separated, the 
king still remained the 
fountain of authority ; 
he appointed and de- 
posed the High Priest 
at will. David's gener- 
ous attentions attached 
the growing power,, of 
the priesthood to his 
house with a devotion 
which even the favour 
shown by Solomon to 
heathen superstitions 
did not alienate. The 
definite adhesion of the 
Levites at the disrup- 
tion of the kingdom 
contributed materially 
to the permanence of 
his dynasty. The rela- 
tions of the king with 
the prophetic order are 
less definite, but it is 
clear that in both the 
Southern and Northern 
Kingdoms these men, 
acknowledged as speak- 
ing under Divine in- 
spiration, exercised a 
powerful influence upon the policy and destiny 
of kings. There were thus both prophetic and 
priestly limitations upon the royal authority. Un- 
less he were a man of exceptional ability and force of 
character, a king's success depended greatly upon 
the maintenance of good relations with each order, 
the one representing mainly the spiritual, the other 
the ceremonial aspect of the religion of Israel. Saul 
alienated the prophets by his neglect of Samuel, and 
the priests by his murder of the community at Nob. 
In consequence his position in the later years of his 
life may be compared with that of a mediaeval 
monarch who had been excommunicated by the 
Pope. 

Another limitation arose from the theocratic 




Statue of King, showing 
Sceptre in Right Hand 



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constitution of the State. The king might not act 
tyrannically, or oppress the heritage of Jehovah. 
The people were his " brethren," not his " sub- 
jects," and must be ruled with brotherly con- 
sideration. 

In succession to the throne the principle of here- 
dity was recognised ; but the law of primogeniture 
did not hold. The succession was in the gift of the 
reigning sovereign, as it frequently is in the East 
to-day, and as it was in mediaeval times. As 
William the Conqueror selected his second son, so 
, King David chose as his successor Solomon, one of 
his younger sons. But the principle of heredity 
was liable to suspension. The weakness of Ish- 
bosheth and Mephibosheth made easy the advance- 
ment of the brave and accomplished warrior chief 
anointed by Samuel. The Northern tribes seem 
always to have retained something of the republican 
feeling. They acknowledged no absolute heredi- 
tary right. To be lawful king of Israel the son of 
Solomon must be accepted by the whole congrega- 
tion of the sons of Israel (i K. I2. lfl -). In later days, 
an insurgent chief who could secure the favour of 
the army had no difficulty in disposing of the king, 
and reigning in his stead. The value of prophetic 
support is well illustrated in the history of Jehu's 
dynasty. In the Southern Kingdom there were no 
revolutions ; the sceptre remained in the house of 
David till the captivity : but in Jerusalem " the 
princes," that is, the great officers of State, came to 
exercise weighty influence, and, with some of the 
weaker monarchs on the throne, were practically 
all powerful. 

In the NT. the title is applied to Herod the Great 
(Mw. 2. 1 ), Herod Antipas (14. 9 , &c), Agrippa I. 
(Ac. I2. 2 °. 23 ) and II. (25. 13 , &c), and Aretas the 
ruler of the Nabataeans (see Arabia). So far as the 
subject allies of Rome were concerned, rulers could 
use the title of " king " only on permission by the 
emperor. Thus, to take a modern parallel, the 
Rajah of Johor, when the permission of Queen Vic- 
toria was granted, assumed the title of " Sultan." 
Herod the Great received the title from Augustus. 
Herod Antipas, although called " king," was never 
more than tetrarch. Agrippa I. was made king by 
Gaius, and Agrippa II. by Claudius. It is probable 
that, although he was not a subject ally of Rome, the 
kingship of Aretas was acknowledged by Claudius. 
The Jews in their frenzy applied the title to the 
emperor : " we have no king but Caesar " (Jn. 19. 15 ). 
Jesus does not disdain the title " King of the Jews " 
(Mw. 27. 11 , &c.). Absolute kingship is ascribed to 
God (1 Tm. i. 17 , 6. 15 , &c). 

KINGDOM OF GOD, KINGDOM OF 
HEAVEN. Fm. Lk. 14. 15 we learn that among 
the Jews the glories and happiness of the days of. 
the Messiah were designated by this term. The 
prophets pictured in glowing colours the universal 



peace and joy that wd. illustrate those times. The 
ascendency of the Jew in the prophetic vision is 
mainly spiritual ; the material benefits of the time 
were to be shared by all mankind. Later Judaism 
exhausted the powers of imagination to picture the 
lordship over the Gentiles to be exercised by the 
Jew. The more the Jew was thrown into the back- 
ground by the might of the great world-Empires, 
the more he indemnified himself in thought by 
making more and more august the imperial glories 
of Jrs. when the Messiah shd. come and the K. of 
God be set up. Our Lord assumes the designation 
thus in common use, but deepens its meaning. 
While the Jews of His day had a less spiritual view of 
this hoped-for time than the prophets, His exposi- 
tion of it makes the K. of H. more spiritual than the 
prophets had guessed. The great conflict of Christ 
with Jewish rulers sprang largely fm. this. This 
spiritual conception of the K. of H. involved many 
conclusions, all unpalatable to the Jew. Mere 
descent fm. Abraham was not enough, spiritual 
congruity- to the aims of the Kdm. was essential ; 
they, Jews, children of the kdm. tho' they were, 
were to be thrust out, cast into the outer darkness. 
This was abhorrent to them, but worse that Gen- 
tiles fm. the East and fm. the West shd. occupy the 
places they shd. have filled. The pictures our Lord 
gives of the K. of H. in parables suit this idea and 
develop it. Here we may note that Matthew's 
designation of the Messianic kdm. as the K. of 
Heaven rather than K. of God, wh. is the usage of 
the other evangelists, is probably due to that feeling 
of reverence wh. leads the Jews to avoid pronounc- 
ing the sacred name. In His parabolic discourses 
our Lord exhibits the beginning of the kdm. as 
the sowing of seed ; in two aspects is this used : 
(a) each individual of the children of the kdm. is a 
good seed that transforms the dead mass around it 
into living replicas of itself ; (b) also the whole kdm. 
is a seed, small but living, cast into a dead world 
to grow. The great purpose is not accomplished 
until the whole human race shall be leavened, ab- 
sorbed in the Heavenly Kingdom. It is to be a 
spiritual state ; while permeating the kingdoms of 
this world, it is yet separate fm. them and inde- 
pendent of them. The designation, K. of God, is 
found in the Acts and the Pauline Epp., but the idea 
is not developed. When Christianity passed into 
the Greek world, to wh. the ideal constitution of 
society presented itself as a republic, what had 
before been he basileia tou Theou became he ekklesia 
tou Theou. The K. of G. may never be realised in 
this world, yet it holds up an ideal before men 
towards the attainment of wh. they are to strive. 
While it wd. tend to misunderstanding to identify 
the Church, split up into sects, and rent by contro- 
versies as it is, at once with the K. of G., yet we may 
say that the Church as Christ meant it to be cd. be 



366 



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so identified. The end is not here ; there is another 
world wh. shall see the realisation of God's pur- 
pose : " Our city is in heaven, whence we look for a 
Saviour." 

KING'S VALE, RV. See Dale, The King's. 

KINGS, THE BOOKS OF. These books are 
appropriately enough so named, as they contain a 
history of the kings of Israel and Judah, from the 
time of David to the Captivity. They are indeed 
but one book, the partition having been first made 
in copies of the LXX, where they are reckoned 
along with the books of Samuel in a series of four, 
which are called the four Books of the Kingdoms. 
This arrangement was followed by the Vulgate, and 
hence arose the alternative titles of these four books 
in our AV., where I Samuel is said to be " otherwise 
called the first book of the kings," and so forth. 
The history of the kings does indeed commence in 
the books of Samuel, and the narrative of David's 
reign, which is left unfinished at the end of 2 Samuel, 
is resumed and completed in I Kings. Neverthe- 
less, Samuel and Kings are independent composi- 
tions ; for, even if common material was drawn 
upon by both for the history of David, the literary 
form of the books is different, and the writer of 
Kings evidently lived at a much later time than the 
author of Samuel, for he brings down the history to 
the time of the exile, whereas in Samuel there is no 
reference even to the downfall of the Northern 
Kingdom. The time covered by Kings extends to 
about four centuries, from the accession of Solomon 
in b.c. 970 to the 37th year of the captivity of 
Jehoiachin, b.c. 562. It falls naturally into three 
parts. There is, first, the time of the undivided 
kingdom till the accession of Rehoboam, the son of 
Solomon, and the schism in his time of the Northern 
tribes under Jeroboam the son of Nebat. This 
period is treated of in 1 K. I.— II., and extends to 
about 37 years. Secondly, there is the time of the 
divided monarchy, lasting about two centuries, 
which occupies the remainder of the first book and 
17 chapters of the second. And, lastly, there is the 
time of the surviving kingdom of Judah, in the re- 
maining 8 chapters, from the fall of Samaria in 
b.c 722 till the date just mentioned, B.C. 562, a 
space of 160 years. 

As the aim of the book is to present an account of 
the successive reigns in both kingdoms, a formal 
method of treatment is adopted, which is very 
simple and stereotyped, especially in the period 
of the double monarchy. Up to the time of the 
schism, of course, the writer is less hampered ; and, 
after the opening section (1 K. I.-2. 11 ), which falls 
in the lifetime of David and greatly resembles in 
style the preceding narrative in 2 S., he describes 
with a free hand the magnificence and prosperity 
of Solomon's reign, dwelling particularly and with 
evident predilection on the building and dedication 



of the Temple ; not, however, without significant 
hints of impending trouble, and forebodings of the 
danger that lurked in the luxury and ease of the 
court. Then, after relating the events that led to 
the schism, he carries on the history of the con- 
temporaneous kings in the following manner. The 
accession of a king in the one kingdom is dated ac- 
cording to the year of the reign of the king in the 
other, the length of his reign is given, the notable 
events of the reign related or referred to, and a 
favourable or unfavourable judgment pronounced 
upon his character. In the case of the kings of 
Judah, the age of the king at his accession and the 
name of the queen-mother are also stated. Each 
king's reign is followed to its close, and the history is 
thus carried forward by taking the two kingdoms 
alternately. The treatment becomes again more free 
after the disappearance of the Northern Kingdom. 
The reign of Hezekiah occupies three chapters, a 
great part of which is found again in almost identical 
terms in the book of Isaiah. Two chapters are de- 
voted to the reign of Josiah and the reformation 
accomplished in his time. But it is remarkable that 
the last days of the monarchy, and the siege and de- 
struction of Jerusalem, in regard to which many 
details are given in the book of Jeremiah, are passed 
over in very few words. 

Owing to the wide extent of the period to be 
covered, it is plain that the writer could not, in the 
compass of the book before us, give a complete hist, 
of the time. At the same time it is evident, from 
the unequal space devoted to different reigns — some 
being described at length, while others, which we 
know to have been eventful, are dismissed in few 
words — that the book is designed to be something 
other than a mere chronicle of events, or political 
annals. Nor is it difficult to perceive what were the 
guiding ideas in the selection and presentation of 
details. First of all, this book, though possessing, 
more than other OT. works, the character of a 
formal history, is, like all the books of the OT., com- 
posed from the point of view of the religion. This 
appears in the prominence given to the Temple and 
its worship, in the space devoted to the doings of 
prophetic men, and in the manner in which the 
characters of the successive kings are described : 
" he did that which was right," or " that which was 
evil in the eyes of the Lord." It will be observed 
that the judgments on the kings of the Northern 
Kingdom are always unfavourable. The sin of 
" Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to 
sin," is echoed throughout the book, whereas it is 
said in praise of the better kings of Judah that they 
followed in the steps of David their father. Yet 
even in regard to these kings it is particularly to be 
observed that, in almost all cases, it is mentioned to 
their disparagement that the " high places " were 
not taken away ; for it is not till the reign of Heze- 



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kiah that a serious attempt seems to have been made 
to abolish that worship, an attempt which came to 
a successful issue in the time of Josiah. Accordingly, 
it is customary to speak of the books of Kings as 
written from the Deuteronomic standpoint, seeing 
that such emphasis is laid on the law of the central 
sanctuary prescribed in the book of Deut. The 
position of the author of our bk., as expressed in 
I K. 3. 2 , is that, till the erection of the Temple as a 
central sanctuary, worship at the high places (which 
he assumes may be genuine Jehovah worship) was 
excusable, but that thereafter it was illegitimate. 
One can understand, supposing the law of Deut. 
to have been of Mosaic date and authority, how 
national public sacrifice, if it was to be observed at 
all, especially after the destruction of Shiloh, must 
have been practised at different places, and how 
the custom, having gained long prescription, should 
have been found so difficult to eradicate. But it 
is always to be remembered that worship at high 
places, even when it was meant to be the worship of 
Jehovah, was liable to be contaminated, and was 
actually contaminated, with abuses borrowed from 
the local Baal-worship of the Canaanites. 

Although we speak of the " author " of Kings as 
if one person may have composed the book, it is 
evident that no one person could have had cogni- 
sance of the details of a history extending over so 
long a period ; and we have here a clearer example 
than in many of the OT. books of the literary prac- 
tice of Hebrew writers, which consisted in incor- 
porating in their works other compositions which 
lay to their hands. There are three written sources 
of this kind mentioned in the book. At the con- 
clusion of Solomon's reign it is said (i K. II. 41 ), 
" Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that 
he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the 
book of the acts of Solomon ? " The expression, 
" the rest of the acts," suggests that the acts which 
find a place in the book have been drawn from the 
same source. Similarly, for the reigns of the 
Northern Kingdom there is a reference to " the 
book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel," and, 
for the Southern Kingdom, to " the book of the 
chronicles of the kings of Judah." Such references 
occur at the end of almost every reign, being ap- 
parently only omitted when there was something 
exceptional in the close of the reign. Now, since 
among the court officials of several of the kings a 
" recorder " is mentioned, the conclusion is war- 
ranted that it was the function of such an official to 
keep a register or chronicle of important transac- 
tions, and that, from such archives, or from some 
kind of histories based upon them, the compiler of 
Kings obtained the particulars which he has incor- 
porated into his book. It is, however, much more 
than a mere state record, or chronicle of political 
events. As in other OT. books, there is no sharp 



distinction drawn between what we call secular and 
sacred, and the religious aspect is always prominent 
and primary. Accordingly, attention is pointedly 
directed to the activity and utterances of prophets 
and prophetic men, whose influence was so marked 
during the whole course of Hebrew history. The 
doings of Elijah and Elisha are related at length, 
and we are told not a little of those " schools of the 
prophets " with which these men were associated. 
The style of the portions dealing with these matters 
is such as to suggest that here also the author is 
drawing from written or oral accounts current in his 
day. In short, the author or editor of the bk. is a 
compiler ; and we may observe this in the manner 
in which he gives the dates of things recorded. The 
last date mentioned, which must be taken as the last 
possible date of the final redaction, is b.c. 562, or 24 
years after the destruction of Jerusalem in B.C. 586. 
Yet, in several places of the book, we find the ex- 
pression " unto this day," which must in some cases 
certainly refer to a time antecedent to the Baby- 
lonian captivity when the Temple was still standing 
{see 1 K. 8. 8 , 9. 21 , 12. 19 , &c). It would seem, there- 
fore, either that we have to assume two (at least) 
successive redactions to have taken place, or that the 
compiler transferred to his pages documents which 
bore an earlier date, without adapting them to the 
time at which he was writing. The general opinion 
of critics is that the book underwent successive 
redactions ; and, it may be observed, the LXX 
version gives reason to suppose that the Greek 
translators had before them a text which, in some 
particulars, did not coincide with the Hebrew text 
as it has been handed down to us. 

The chronology of the book of Kings is note- 
worthy. There are three factors that enter into the 
calculations. First of all, the length of the several 
reigns seems to be given with an attempt at strict 
accuracy ; and it is not unreasonable to suppose 
that the compiler may have derived the figures 
directly from the official archives. As, however, 
the reigns are given in years, and no account is taken 
of parts of a year, it remains uncertain whether the 
months of a year within which a new reign may have 
begun were reckoned to the new king or to his pre- 
decessor, or to both. Then there are the synchro- 
nisms of the reigns in the two kingdoms. These 
must have been based upon the former numbers ; 
but, owing to the relations that subsisted between 
the two kingdoms, they are less likely to have been 
found in the archives, and may therefore be as- 
cribed to one or other of the editors through whose 
hands the book passed. And, lastly, there are indi- 
cations of an attempt at a wider chronological 
scheme. It is stated in 1 K. 6. 1 that Solomon began 
to build the Temple in the 480th year after the 
Exodus. Now, if we take the sum of the reigns of 
the kings of Judah, beginning from the foundation 



368 



Kin 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Kin 



of the first Temple, we get 430 years, and if we add Northern Kingdom first falls before the power of 

50 years for the Exile (b.c. 586 to 536), we obtain Assyr a, and then the Southern in turn is broken 

another cycle of 48oyears, as the interval between the down by the Babylonians, the capitals are destroyed, 

first Temple and the second. This looks like an at- the peoples carried into captivity, and the territory, 

tempt at stating the figures in round numbers of 1 2 like that of the small contiguous States, is absorbed 

generations of 40 years. A similar predilection for into the great Empire of the East. To all human 

the number 40 is to be found in the chronological appearance, the people of these two kingdoms are 

statements of the book of Judges ; and the " genera- doomed to vanish from history like their neighbours. 

tions " in Mw. I. 17 are also periods of 40 years. That they lived on, a separate people, when these 

This scheme of Temple reckoning was probably smaller States disappeared, and when even the 

introduced after the Exile, when a survey was taken colossal Eastern Empires crumbled to ruins, and 

of the whole period of Israel's history. Though that their influence has been world-wide, is proof 

convenient as an aid to memory, very much as we that there were vital elements in their history 

reckon by centuries, this computation by genera- deeper than political forces, and that they were 

tions and round numbers can only be taken as destined to play a very special part in the Divine 

approximate. It will be found that the sum of 480 dealings with the human race, 
years does not agree with the figures given or im- In a sense it is true that their history, instead of 

plied in other passages for the interval between the reaching its culmination and decline in the period 

Exodus and the building of the Temple (comp. Jg. of the monarchy, was then only a preparation for a 

II. 26 ; Ac. 13. 20 ). Even the LXX in 1 K. 6. 1 gives larger and richer history that was to follow. It is 

the number 440, while Josephus makes the period therefore important to note what these elements 

590 years. Again, by adding the figures contained were which operated towards the persistence and 

in the book of Judges, with the necessary allowance coherence of the people and fitted them for their 

for the years preceding and succeeding the period of mission to the world. And, first of all, it is evident 

that book, we obtain a total of 498 years. But, that the long stretch of time and the organisation 

even if we regard this computation as merely ap- of the monarchy favoured the consolidation of the 

proximate, there are other perplexing discrepancies people and the growth of national feeling. The 

in the chronology, the complete solution of which tribal rivalries which appear before and at the time 

has not been discovered. For example, the total of of the establishment of the monarchy give place to 

the years of the kings of Israel up to the fall of a sense of national unity. The Northern Kingdom, 

Samaria is given as 242, while the number for the even while regarded as schismatical and heretical, is 

kings of Judah during the same period is 260, and still recognised as forming with the Southern one 

there are other differences. For the precise dates people. Then again, though we have no systematic 

of certain outstanding events the Assyrian monu- account of the general advance of the people in 

ments come to our aid ; and, on a comparison with civilisation, there are indications at various points of 

these, so far as data are available, " it may be said the history of progress in agriculture, commerce, 

that the examination is surprisingly favourable, so and wealth, sufficient to show that they had become 

far as the durations of the reigns are concerned, to fitted to take their place among the nations in the 

the soundness of the Hebrew tradition " (Skinner, cultivation of the arts of peace. It is specially to be 

Century Bible, I and 2 Kings. See also Burney, noted that, though little is said of education or a 

Notes on the Heb. Text of the Bk. of Kings, and Art. learned class, the people had before the Exile become 

Kings in HDB.). possessed of a varied and unique literature, which 

Thus, in the limited compass of this book, is con- not only formed a powerful bond of union when 

tained the history of the bloom period of the Jewish the Temple and State were ruined, but has come 

state. Looked at as a portion of political history it through them to be the world's inheritance. Above 

is no less remarkable for what is omitted or merely all, there are three features in the history which, in 

implied than for what is explicitly told. There is the mind of the author, are of prime importance, as 

little of the massive grandeur or military glory of shown by the prominence he gives them in his 

the great world-powers of the time. The kingdom narrative. (1) The dynasty of David is invested 

of Israel seems to be rather on a level with those with peculiar dignity. This had two aspects. It 

smaller States in its neighbourhood which have dis- pointed back to the Divine election of the nation 

appeared and left no record. What we see is a in the past, and gave the guarantee of indefinite 

series of 20 kings of the dynasty of David ruling at national perpetuity in the future. The promise of 

Jerusalem, and another series of as many kings, but " the sure mercies of David " was a powerful uniting 

of no fewer than nine different families or dynasties, influence in the Exile, drawing the heart of the 

in the Northern Kingdom ; and the annals of both nation back to their old home ; and it enkindled, 

as here recorded are for the most part uneventful, kept alive, and refined that Messianic hope, which 

some of them inglorious. In course of time the glowed ever brighter as time went on, and had 

369 



Kir 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Kir 



issues of a far-reaching character in the distant 
future. (2) The Temple and its service, for which 
the writer has such special regard, contributed 
greatly to the phase of national character of subse- 
quent times. With all the drawbacks and deface- 
ments of pure worship, there was the stated regular 
performance of sacred rites, the development and 
regulation of priestly order and ritual law, which 
stamped themselves so firmly on later Judaism. 
This, no doubt, tended to a hard legalism ; but it 
had this in its favour, that it held the people together 
as a religious community when their existence as a 
political State was no longer possible. Nor must 
we leave out of account the educative influence on 
pious souls of solemn ritual and sacred song. The 
exiles did not forget the Lord's song in a strange 
land ; and their first care, on their return, was to 
rebuild the Temple and to set in order the daily 
service. The Temple was the home of sacred 
psalmody, the place of resort to the devout who 
waited for the consolation of Israel. (3) Above all, 
this was the period of bloom of OT. prophecy. 
Though more is said of men like Elijah and Elisha, 
who have left no written words, we must not forget 
the series of pre-exilian prophets, whose writings 
have come down to us — men who, against the oppo- 
sition of rulers and the indifference of the people, 
testified to the moral foundation on which the 
nation was constituted,vindicated Divine righteous- 
ness, rebuked sin, and held up the ideal to which 
the nation was called. And thus, before the long 
winter of exile and subjection set in, there were 
implanted in this people those seeds of Divine truth 
which in the fulness of time were to spring up and 
be for salvation to the ends of the earth. 

James Robertson. 

KIR, the original home of the Aramaeans (Am. 
I. 5 ), the place to wh. they were carried captive 
(2 K. 16. 9 ), is named along with Elam (Is. 22. 6 ) ; 
may be = the plain N. of the Tigris, S. of 
Elam. 

KIR HARASETH, or HARESETH (2 K. 3. 25 ; 
Is. 16. 7 ), KIR HARESH, or HERES (Is. 16. 11 ; Jr. 
48. 31 ' 36 ), KIR OF MOAB (Is. 15. 1 ), all seem to 
indicate the one city. Tg. gives " Kerak " (Is. 
16. 11 ; Jr. 4 8. 31 - 36 ), and " Kerak in Moab " (Is. 15. 1 ). 
It was a strong position, evidently the capital, 
towards the S. border of Moab (2 K. 3- 25ff '), condi- 
tions that are well met by el-Kerak, c. eight miles E. 
of the Dead Sea, on the N. of the Wady of the same 
name, 3323 ft. above the Mediterranean. It is a 
position of great strength, surrounded by deep 
gorges, and, in anct. times, approached only by two 
tunnels cut in the rock. The ruined wall, with five 
towers and a strong castle to the S., date mostly 
fm. Crusading times, the substructions alone being 
ancient. For water it depended upon great cis- 
terns and deep wells. The mod. inhabitants are a 

37 



wild and fearless, half nomadic people, who, until 
1893, resisted all attempts to bring them in any 
effective way under Turkish rule. Estimates of 
population vary fm. 7000 (Meistermann, New 
Guide) to 22,000 (Cheyne, EB. s.v). A few Gr. 
and Latin Christians maintain themselves among 
the Moslems. 

Lit. : Burckhardt, Travels, 379^. ; Tristram, 
Land of Moab, 7off. ; esp. Musil, Arabia Petrcea. 

KIRJATH, RV. KIRIATH (Jo. 18. 28 ), the first 
part of a place name, the second having dropped out 
of the text. It is prob. = K.-Jearim (LXX). 

KIRJATHAIM, RV. KIRIATHAIM. (1) A 
city of Reuben, taken fm. Sihon (Nu. 32. 37 ; Jo. 
13. 19 ). Later it appears as Moabite (Jr. 48. 1 * 23 ; 
Ek. 25. 9 ; Moab. St., line 10, Kirjathen). OEJ. 
places it 10 Rm. miles W. of Madeba. Some wd. 
ident. it with Qareiyat, c. 11 miles SW. of Madeba, 
and 5 miles E. of Machaerus. But the site is quite 
uncertain. (2) An unidentd. Levite city in Naph- 
tali (1 Ch. 6. 76 ), called Kartan (Jo. 21. 32 ). 




Kerak, showing North Wall of Castle 

KIRJATH-ARBA. See Hebron. 

KIRJATH- ARIM (Ez. 2. 25 ) = Kirjath-Jearim. 

KIRJATH-BAAL. See Kirjath-Jearim. 

KIRJATH-HUZZOTH, between Ar of Moab 
and Bamoth-Baal (Nu. 22. 39 ) ; unidentd. 

KIRJATH-JEARIM, a city of the Gibeonite 
league (Jo. 9. 17 ), given to Judah (Jo. 15. 60 ). The 
ark rested here after its return by the Phil. (1 S. 
7, lf -), and hence David carried it to Jrs. (1 Ch. 
13. 5 ' 6 ; 2 Ch. I. 4 ). Here was born Micah the 
prophet (Jr. 26. 20 ). It was reoccupied after the 
Exile. It was known also as K.-Baal (Jo. 15. 60 , 
18. 14 ), and is poss. referred to in Ps. 132. 6 as " the 
field in the wood." 

The city lay on the border of Judah and Ben- 
jamin, to the E. of Mahaneh Dan (Jg. 18. 12 ), wh. 
was between Zorah and Eshtaol. It is prob. 
identical with Khirbet 'Arma, a ruin on the S. of 
Wady es-Sarar, 2^ miles SE. of Eshtaol. The ident. 
is not free fm. difficulties. It brings the border of 
Judah further S. than seems otherwise probable, 
o 



Kir 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Kno 



and it is a great distance fm. the other members of 
the Gibeonite league. 

Lit.: PEFM. iii. Sheet xvii. ; Buhl, GAP. 
index; HGHL. 2251!. 

KIRJATH-SANNAH. See Debir. 

KIRJATH-SEPHER. See Debir. 




Kite or Vulture 

From Wood's " Bible Animals'' by permission of Messrs. 

Longmans, Green & Co. 

KISH. A Benjamite, s. of Abiel and fr." of 
Saul. Owing to confusion in the text, Kish's br. 
Ner is called his fr. (i Ch. 8. 33 ). He seems to have 
been a prosperous farmer. The name may be com- 
pared with Arb. Qais. Others so named are men- 
tioned (i Ch. 8. 30 , 23. 21 ; Est. 2. 5 ). 

KISHION, a Levite town in Issachar (Jo. 19. 20 , 
21. 28 ). In 1 Ch. 6. 72 it is called Kedesh, poss. a 
scribal error for Kishion. The Kishon may be 
named fm. it. Conder suggests Tell Qedes, near 
Taanach. 

KISHON (Heb. nahal Qishon, " water-course of 
K."), on the banks of wh. Sisera was defeated (Jg. 
4. 7 , &c), and beside wh. the prophets of Baal were 
slain by Elijah (1 K. 18. 40 ), is the mod. el-Muqatta*. 
It drains all the plain of Esdraelon except what lies 
E. of a line drawn fm. Iksal to Nain, and thence by 
el-Fiileh. to Zer'in, the waters of wh. flow to the 
Jordan. The strong perennial spring at Jenin is 
entirely absorbed by irrigation in the dry season, 
and in the late summer there is no water in the deep 
torrent bed that winds through the soft soil of the 
plain to the foot of Carmel. It is doubtless " the 
brook that is before Jokneam " — Tell Keimun 
(Jo. 19. 11 ). Where it sweeps past the E. base of 
Carmel, and through the gorge N. of the mountain 
into the plain of Acre, it is seldom dry. It is joined 
by the waters fm. Sa'adiyeh, c. three miles E. of 
Haifa, and thence it flows in a sluggish stream 
through soft marsh-land to the sea. A fall of rain 
on the surrounding hills swiftly turns the K. into a 
rushing torrent, while the soil of the plain becomes 
soft, deep mud, in wh. chariots and horsemen wd. 
be at the mercy of active foot soldiers. What is 
meant by nahal qedumiriim (Jg. 5. 21 ; EV. " anct. 
river ") is quite uncert. Some think it denotes 
another stream : and Benjamin of Tudela (a.d. 
1 173) clearly identifies it with the Belus (Nahr 
Na'amein) in the plain of Acre. 



Lit. : PEFM. ii. 36, 96, &c. ; BRP. iii. 228, &c. ; 
HGHL. 1 382, 394 ; Macgregor, Rob Roy on Jordan. 

KISS. See Salutation. 

KITE (Heb. 'ayydb), an unclean bird (Lv. II. 14 ; 
Dt. 14. 13 ) ; the Heb. word is trd. Vulture in Jb. 
28. 7 : in every case RV. tr. " Falcon." The LXX 
tr. gryps, a fabulous bird mentioned as such by 
Pliny, HN. x. 49. There are three species of 
milvus, " kite," in Pal. 

KITHLISH, RV. CHITHLISH, a town in the 
Judsean Shephelah named with Eglon, Makkedah, 
&c. (Jo. 15. 40 ), not identified. 

KITRON, a town in Zebulun, from which the 
Canaanites were not driven out (Jg. I. 30 ). It 
stands next to Nahalol. It is not named in Jo. 
19. 15 , but there its place is taken by Kattath. 
The Talmud identifies it with Sepphoris, the mod. 
Safurieh, north of Nazareth. 

KNEE. The fr. or grandfr. seems to have ac- 
knowledged the legitimacy of a child by allowing it 
to be placed on his knees (Gn. 50. 23 ; cp. 30. 3 ). 
Weakness of body, e.g. fm. hunger (Ps. 109. 24 ) or 
fear (Ek. 7. 17 , 21. 7 ; Dn. 5. 6 ), &c, shows itself in the 
knees. The knees were liable to attack by a special 
disease (Dt. 28. 35 ), poss. " joint leprosy." To bow 
the K. is to worship (1 K. 19. 18 , &c). Kneeling is a 
frequent posture in prayer (Ez. g. 5 , &c). It is also 
an attitude of reverence and entreaty before a 
superior (2 K. I. 13 , &c). The suppliant will some- 
times kneel down and kiss the feet of his superior. 
In a court of law a man will often make his plea 
upon his knees. 

KNIFE (Heb. hereb, usually trd. "sword"; 
ma'akeleth\ " a K. for eating with "). The earliest 
occurrence of K. as tr. of hereb is in Jo. 5. 2, 3 , when 
Joshua was commanded to make " K. of flint " 
(RV.) to circumcise the Isr. In regard to Circum- 
cision the operation seems to have been originally 
performed with K. of flint, as we see fm. the action 
of Zipporah (Ex. 4- 25 ). The priests of Baal use K. 
to cut themselves (1 K. 18. 28 ). The 2nd Heb. word 
is used in the nar. of the sacrifice of Isaac (Gn. 
22.6. 10^ anc [ j n t ] ie nar _ f t } ]e Levite and his con- 
cubine (Jg. 19. 29 ). The natives of Pal. always have 
a K. ; they are also frequently delineated in the 




Flint Knives 

sculptures of Asyr. and the paintings of Egp. The 
"pen"-K. (Jr. 36. 23 ) is lit. "knife (ta'ar) of a 
scribe " ; the K. used by them for sharpening their 
reed pens. The Heb. word is elsewhere trd. 
" razor." 

KNOP, a word for an ornament ; it represents 



371 



Koa 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lab 



two Heb. words : (a) Kaphtor, used solely of 
the Golden Candlestick (Ex. 25. 31 - 36 , 37. 17 ' 22 ). 
Judging fm. the representation on the Arch of 
Titus, the knops were globular expansions of the 
stalk, &c. The Heb. word is also trd. "lintel" 
(Am. 9. 1 ; Zp. 2. 14 ). (b) Peqa'Jm (" gourds"), used 
of ornaments carved in cedar in the Temple of 
Solomon (i K. 6. 18 ), and of ornaments round the 
Brazen Sea (j. 2i ) ; probably gourd-like forms. 




Knops: Ornament from Nimroud. (Layard's Nineveh) 

KOA (Heb. Qo'a), name of a people mentioned 
in Ek. 23. 23 as subject to Bab. There is some diffi- 
culty in identifying the people intended, but the 
probability is that K. represents the Quti of the 
monuments, also called Guti. If Hilprecht's iden- 
tification of the river Chebar with the " canal " 
Shatt-el-Arab is correct, Ezekiel wd. be in the 
neighbourhood, not only of K., but also of the 
places he associates with it, Pekod and Shoa. 
It ought to be noted that Jerome renders K. as 
principes. 

KOHATH (Heb. Qehath), KOHATHITES. 
Kohath was the second s. of Levi (Ex. 6. 16 ) ; he had 
four sons — Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel 
(Ex. 6. 18 ). As the whole tribe of Levi were raised 
to a specially sacred position relatively to the other 
tribes of Isr., by the fact that fm. them sprang the 
priestly family of the Aaronites, so for a similar 
reason among the Levites the family of the K. was 
distinguished. Although K. was not the eldest s. 
his descendants took the precedence of the Ger- 
shonites, as to them, not the Gershonites, was en- 
trusted in the desert the conveyance of the sacred 
" vessels of the sanctuary, the ark, and the table, 



and the candlestick, and the altars," with the sacred 
hangings ; these they had to bear on their shoulders, 
while the other two families had wagons assigned 
them to enable them to convey along the pillars and 
curtains of the Tabernacle and its court (Nu. 3- 27 ' 32 , 
7. 9 ). Thirteen cities in the tribes of Benjamin, 
Judah, and Simeon are assigned to the Aaronites as 
sons of K. (Jo. 2 1. 4 ) ; and to the rest, ten cities in 
Dan, Ephraim, and Manasseh (vv. 2ofL). In the 
Temple Service the non-Aaronite families of the 
K. took a prominent place, especially in regard to 
Music. 

KOHELETH. See Ecclesiastes. 

KORAH (Heb. Qorab, Ex. 6. 24 ), KORHITES, 
KORATHITES (Nu. 2 6. 58 ). Korah was the s. of 
Izhar and therefore cousin of Moses and Aaron. 
In Nu. 16. and 17. K. appears as heading a rebellion 
against Moses, and as joined in this by the leaders of 
the Reubenites. Yet it seems clear that the interest 
of K. must have been divergent fm. that of Dathan 
and Abiram. As Reuben was the first-born his 
tribe claimed the precedence at once in rule and 
worship ; a Reubenite ought to be leader instead of 
Moses, and Priest instead of Aaron. But K. wd., 
if the Reubenites succeeded, lose the sacerdotal 
distinction wh. as a Levite and a Kohathite he had. 
What K. seems to have resented was the restriction 
of the priesthood to the Aaronites ; hence " K. and 
his company " are required to bring their censers 
(Nu. 16. 6 ). Along with these questions of prece- 
dence they murmured also at the privations they 
were called upon to endure. It might be that, 
taking advantage of this general discontent, K. 
hoped not only to wrest the leadership fm. Moses, 
but by dint of clever manoeuvring to gain the 
supremacy for himself. There have been instances 
both in France and Britain in wh. parties diametri- 
cally opposed have united to upset a government. 
The rebellion of K. and that of Dathan may have 
been separated fm. each other by a considerable 
space of time, but are put together in the nar. for 
the sake of brevity. The fates of the two sets of 
rebels is different : Dathan and Abiram and all 
their households were swallowed up ; whereas K. 
and those with him were burnt up. The descen- 
dants of K. form a guild of Temple singers. In the 
Psalter, Ps. 42.-49., 84., 85., 87., and 88., are attri- 
buted to the " Sons of Korah." 



LAB AN. (1) S. of Bethuel, br. of Rebekah, and He appears first as bargaining about his sister's 

so maternal uncle of Jacob, fr. of Leah and Rachel marriage (see Rebekah, Gn. 24.), when his own 

(Gn. 28. 5 , &c). He dwelt in Haran, the city of his interests were attended to. What further is re- 

grandfr. Nahor (Gn. II. 31 , I2. 4L ), in " Aram of the corded of him concerns his dealings with his son-in- 

two rivers " (Gn. 24. 10 , Heb.), therefore he is law (see Jacob). Avaricious and crafty by nat., at 



called an Aramaean (AV. " Syrian," Gn. 25. 



&c). first he overreached and deceived Jacob, but in the 
372 



Lac 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lam 



later stages of the battle of wits and guile the 
younger man bore off the palm. As a fr. he seems 
to have inspired no deep affection in his children 
(Gn. 3i. J4fL ). (2) An unidentd. place in the desert 
wanderings, apparently between Horeb and Kadesh 
(Dt. I. lf -). 




Sennacherib on his Throne before Lachish 

LACHISH, a royal city of the Can. taken by 
Joshua and assigned to Judah (Jo. io. 3 ' 31fL , &c, 
15. 39 ). It was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. n. 9 ). 
Here Amaziah was murdered (2 K. 14. 19 , &c). It 
was denounced by Micah (i. 13 ). In B.C. 701 L. 
was besieged by Sennacherib, and hence he sent his 
messengers to Hezekiah (2 K. 18. 13 ' 17 , &c). Hither 
Hezekiah sent his tribute to the Asyr. (i8. 14ff -, &c). 
It was captured by the army of Nebuchadnezzar 
(Jr. 34. 7 ). It was occupied after the Exile (Ne. 
II. 30 ) and then disappears fm. history. 

Since the excavations of Prof. Petrie and Dr. J. F. 
Bliss at Tell el-Hesy, this mound is generally ac- 
cepted as the site of L. Ruins were found of eight 
successive cities, dating fm. Can. times to about 
B.C. 500-400. This agrees well enough with what 
we know of the hist, of L. (see Bliss, A Mound of 
Many Cities). OEJ. places L. 7 Rm. miles S. of 
Eleutheropolis — Beit Jibrin. Tell el-Hesy is 11J 
Rm. miles SW. of Beit Jibrin, on the S. bank of 
Wady el-Hesy. Umm Laqis, a ruin c. 2I miles to 
the NW., was formerly identd. with L. ; but the 
remains are insignificant, and the q of the name is a 
difficulty. There is no serious rival to Tell el-Hesy. 



It was a position of considerable strength. The 
last city was c. 120 ft. above the bed of the Wady, 
and ridges to the W. made it easy of defence. 

LAHAI-ROI. See Beer. 

LAHMAM, poss. textual error for " Lahmas " 
(RVm.), a town of Judah in the Shephelah (Jo. 
15. 40 ) : prob. = el-Lahm, i\ miles S. of Beit Jibrin. 

LAHMI. Accdg. to 1 Ch. 20. 5 , L. was the br. of 
Goliath of Gath slain by Elhanan, son of Jair. In 
2 S. 2 1. 19 the text is in some confusion. Elhanan, 
son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite, slays Goliath. 
Oregim (" weavers ") has evidently slipped into this 
line from the line below. Lahmi appears as part of 
the name Bethlehemite. The text in I Ch. prob. 
represents the original, but there is no certainty. 
It may be the result of harmonistic effort. 

LAISH. (1) See Dan. (2) The father of Palti, 
to whom Saul gave David's wife, Michal, his 
younger daughter (1 S. 25. 44 ), called Paltiel in 2 S. 
3. 15 . He is described as a native of Gallim. 

LAISHAH. A place named along with Gallim 
(Is. io. 30 ). The latter appears to be north of Jeru- 
salem. It may, however, be identified with Beit 
Jala, not far from Bethlehem. But there is no 
trace of any name here resembling Laishah. 

LAKUM, RV. LAKKUM, a town on the border 
of Naphtali, apparently between Jabneel and the 
Jordan (Jo. 19. 33 ) ; unidentd. 

LAMB. The usual word in Heb. is kebes for 
the male, and kibsah for the female (Ex. 2Q,. 38 ; 
Gn. 21. 28 , &c), from wh., by transposition of the 
letters, we have keseb and kisbdh (Gn. 30 40 ; Lv. 
5. 6 ). These are the words commonly used for the 
lambs offered in the various sacrifices. Seh is lit. 
" a head of small cattle," and applies equally to 
sheep or goats, e.g. in Dt. 14. 4 we have seh kesdblm 
zve-seh 'izzim. This is the word used in Gn. 22. 7f - ; 




Jewish Captives from Lachish 

Ex. 12. 3 , &c. Kar is a well-fed he-lamb, wh. 
ayil, " ram " (Dt. 32. 14 



cannot yet be described as ''ayil, " ram 

&c). The LXX renders kebes by amnos, the word 

wh. appears in NT. in Jn. 1.29.36. a^ c# g32 . l p 



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Lam 



I. 19 . In Rv. the word used is arnion, lit. " little 
lamb." The playful frisking of the lamb (Ws. 19. 9 ), 
its innocence and gentleness (Is. 53. 7 ; Jr. u. 19 , 
&c), furnished the Hebrew writers with striking 
.figures. The lambs are to be the special care of the 
Messianic shepherd of Israel (Is. 40. 11 ; cp. Jn. 21. 15 ). 
The title, Lamb of God, applied by the Baptist to 
Jesus (Jn. I. 29 ' 36 ), probably glances back to the 
lamb wh. J", was to provide (Gn. 22. 8 ). Doubtless 
here also we may trace the influence of Is. 53- 7 , 
which Philip (Ac. 8. 32 ) interprets of Christ. St. 
Peter speaks of Jesus as " a lamb, without blemish 
and without spot " (1 P. I. 19 ). St. Paul regards 
Christ as " our Passover " (1 Cor. 5. 7 ) ; and in the 
fourth Gospel a rule regarding the paschal lamb 
(Ex. 12. 46 ) is applied to Jesus (Jn. 19. 36 ). The 
Lamb of God's providing, an innocent and willing 
Victim, shd. complete the redemption symbolised 
by the system of sacrifice in wh. the lamb was the 
most prominent victim. In the book of Revelation 
the Redeemer is frequently spoken of as the Lamb. 
He is described as " a Lamb standing as though it had 
been slain" (Rv. 5« 6 , RV.), "the Lamb that hath 
been slain " (v. 12), in whose blood the garments of 
the saints have been washed and made white (7. 14 ). 
The symbolism is clearly drawn from the signifi- 
cance of the lamb in the sacrificial ritual of Israel. 

LAMECH, the name of two men. (1) The fifth 
in descent from Cain, son of Methusael, and fr. of 
Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain (Gn. 4. 18 , &c). To 
his two wives, Adah and Zillah, he addressed the 
oldest fragment of poetry preserved in the OT. 
(Gn. 4. 23f -). It is difficult to determine the purport 
of this poem. Very probably it is a " sword song." 
(2) The seventh in descent from Seth, son of 
Methuselah, and fr. of Noah (Gn. S- 25 ' 30 ). Accdg. 
to MT. he lived JJJ yrs. (LXX 753 ; Sam. 653). 
Of him, as of his Cainite namesake, a saying is 
recorded ; he assigns a reason for calling his son 
" Noah " (5- 29 ). The resemblance of the names in 
the Cainite and in the Sethite genealogies has led 
to the suggestion that they were originally the same. 

LAMENTATIONS (Heb. 'ebdh, sometimes 
qinoth : the first is the word with which the book 
opens, while the second is like the English title 
descriptive of its contents), the third of the five 
megillotb, or " rolls." Each of these is read on a 
special occasion, as Esther on the feast of Purim ; 
L. is read by the Jews, barefoot, sitting on the 
ground, on the 9th of Ab (August) , the anniversary 
of the two captures of Jerusalem, that by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and that by Titus. It .consists of five 
elegiac poems ; four of these are alphabetic, i.e. 
each verse begins with a different letter, the order of 
the alphabet being followed. There is, however, a 
peculiarity to be noted. In the first of these the 
verses succeed each other according to present order 
of the Hebrew alphabet ; but the second, third, and 



fourth transpose the 16th and 17th letters. The 
fact that most of the Alphabetic Psalms have some 
irregularity has been taken to prove that in early 
days the order of the letters was not fixed with pre- 
cision. The 1st, 2nd, and 4th poems begin with 
the word 'ebdb, " how." Although the 5th has 
22 vv. — the number of the letters in the Hebrew 
alphabet — it is not alphabetic. The third is 
arranged in stanzas of three verses each, and, as 
in Ps. 119., each verse in the stanza begins with 
the same letter. This elegy has an additional 
peculiarity, that while the others are national, con- 
cerning Judah and Jerusalem, this is personal, ex- 
pressing the author's feelings. The first pictures 
the desolation of Judah from the ravages of the 
Chaldean army ; all the cities of Judah are cap- 
tured ; Jerusalem sits solitary ; the wasted fields 
mean distress in the city. Jerusalem is introduced 
as making her plaint : " Behold and see if there 
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow " (i. 12 ). In the 
second the siege appears to have begun, and famine 
is doing its deadly work : " The sucklings swoon in 
the streets of the city." The enemy has secured the 
gates of the city : " Her gates are sunk into the 
ground ; " there is warfare in the streets, Jeru- 
salem says : " My virgins and my young men are 
fallen by the sword " (2. 21 ). The third, as we have 
said, is personal ; it is to some extent autobio- 
graphical. In the beginning the poet seems to be 
suffering under some sickness : " My flesh and my 
skin hath He made old, He hath broken my bones " 
(3. 4 ). Then his neighbours mock him : " I was a 
derision to all my people, and their song all the 
day " (v. 14). There is a momentary gleam of 
comfort : " It is of the Lord's mercies that we are 
not consumed " (v. 22). Then he contemplates 
the destruction of his people : " Mine eye runneth 
down with rivers of water for the destruction of 
the daughter of my people " (v. 48). The fourth 
exhibits the feelings of the fugitives from the cap- 
tured city, recalling the terrible experiences of the 
siege, the horror of the famine when " the hands of 
pitiful women have sodden their own children." 
They feel themselves hunted : " Our persecutors are 
swifter than the eagles of heaven, they pursue us on 
the mountains, they lay wait for us in the wilderness." 

We translate here present although it is preterite in the 
Hebrew because the Hebrew verb has no present tense, and 
in such a connection an English poet wd. use the present. 

The fifth is an expostulation with J", for His re- 
jection of Zion ; he attributes their distress to a 
heritage of guilt : " Our fathers have sinned and 
are not, and we have borne their iniquities " (5- 7 ). 
He pictures the desolation of Judah : " The moun- 
tain of Zion is desolate, foxes walk upon it " (v. 18). 
Yet after all he has confidence in God : " Thou, O 
Lord, remainest for ever, Thy throne from genera- 
tion to generation " (v. 19). 



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Lan 



Date and Author. — An old tradition ascribes L. 
to the prophet Jeremiah. In 2 Ch. 35. 25 we are 
told that " Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the 
singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in 
their lamentations unto this day, and made them an 
ordinance in Israel ; and behold they are written in 
the Lamentations " (Qlnotb). The meaning of this 
seems to be that Jeremiah wrote a dirge over the 
death of Josiah, and that this was adopted by the 
Temple choir in Jerusalem. The difficulty is that 
this wd. apply only to the fourth chapter, indeed 
only to one verse — v. 20. The body of the book 
pictures more serious calamities than even the 
death of Josiah. Although L. is separated from the 
prophecies of Jeremiah in the MT., in the time of 
Josephus it must have been conjoined to it, other- 
wise the " books " wd. run to more than 22. Even 
if L. were separate from the Prophecies from the 
first it does not follow that it was regarded as by a 
different author ; the Jews believed that Solomon 
wrote the Song of Songs, yet they did not conjoin 
it to Proverbs. The main reason against attributing 
to Jeremiah the authorship of L. is the tendency of 
great names to attract to themselves anonymous 
works that are at all in their style or suit their cir- 
cumstances. It is clear the book describes Jeru- 
salem being besieged ; and the siege is so prolonged 
that in the extremity of hunger mothers devour 
their own children. We only know of two such 
sieges : that wh. resulted in Nebuchadnezzar's 
capture of the city, and that conducted by the 
Romans. We have no hint of any siege or any 
occasion for a siege during the Persian period. 
That being so, it seems most natural to ascribe it 
to the Chaldean siege, as it cannot have been the 
Roman. Hence if L. were not written by Jeremiah 
it must have been written by a contemporary of his. 
The fact that the first elegy follows a different order 
of the letters from the next three makes the sugges- 
tion of a different author at least plausible ; if the 
order, however, was yet somewhat indefinite in early 
times, this has less probative value. The linguistic 
arguments to the same purport do not seem to be 
weighty. 

LAMP. The Heb. lappU (Gn. 15. 17 ; Jg. 7. 16 , 
&c). is lit. " torch," or " name." In every case 
" torch " best agrees with the context, but RV. 
retains " lamp " in Is. 62. 1 ; Dn. io. 6 . The Heb. 
ner (Ex. 25. 37 , &c), and Gr. lampas (Mw. 25. 1 , &c.) 
and luchnos (Lk. 15. 8 ), stand for an essential article 
of household furniture (see Candle). It was neces- 
sary not only to give light, but also to preserve fire, 
which, in ancient times, was not easily produced. 
Thus it becomes a symbol of human life (Pr. 20. 20 ). 
Of the shape and material of wh. lamps were made 
there is no account in Scrip . In the course of recent 
excavations in Palestine, however, the tombs have 
yielded an enormous number of lamps, of all periods. 



These are chiefly of clay ; but occasionally they are 
found in bronze. Their development can be traced 
through all its stages. The earliest were in the 
form of an open saucer, or shell. Part of the edge 
was pinched, to afford a steady rest for the wick. 
Later, the lips of the part pinched were pressed 
more closely together, to form a sort of spout from 
which the wick projected. Then the base was 
made flat, for greater security in position. This 
form of open lamp may at times be seen in Pal. 
to-day. The next step was to cover the top, leaving 
a hole in the centre through which oil might be 
poured into the lamp, with a definite spout for the 
wick. Later still a grip or handle was added, at the 
side opposite to the spout. Artistic designs were 
stamped upon the clay, many of them ingenious and 
intricate. At times lamps are met with in the shape 




Chaldean Lamps 



of animals or birds, although the resemblance is so 
rough that the potter can hardly be said to have 
broken the second commandment. Olive oil was 
generally used, and the ordinary wick was made of 
twisted fibres of flax (Is. 42 . 3 ). 

The lamps used by the peasantry in Palestine 
to-day are mostly made of tin. The material is 
supplied by the tins in which petroleum is imported 
from Russia, and the lamps are made mainly by 
Jewish travelling tinkers. They are conical in 
shape, with an orifice for the wick at the apex. 
These are set, as the ancient lamps were, in a niche 
in the wall. The Candlestick of AV. should always 
be " lampstand." It might be of stone. Nothing 
like our Candle was known in ancient times : but 
it and the tin candlestick are familiar sights now in 
Palestine. For lamps of more elaborate structure 
see Tabernacle, Temple. For discussion with 
illustrations see Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in 
Palestine, esp. Plates 62, 63, 66. 

LANCE. See Spear. 

LANCET (Heb. romah, "spear"). Only in 
1 K. 18. 28 (AV.) is the word rendered " lancet," 
referring to the instruments with wh. the priests of 
Baal cut themselves. " Lancers," an old form of 
" lances," appears in the ed. of 161 1. " Lancets " 
of later editions was intended as a correction. 
RV. reverts to " lances." 



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LAND-CROCODILE is the RV. rendering for " Syro-Arabian," but that suggestion has not met 

AV. Chameleon (Lv. ii. 30 ). with much approval ; and the title " Semitic," to 

LANDMARK (Dt. 19. 14 ). In a land without use the French spelling of the term introduced by 

fences or dykes boundaries were indicated by stones, the German scholar Eichhorn, may now be regarded 



heaps of stones, trees, &c. The Heb. word in the 
passage cited, and elsewhere, however, is gebul, lit. 
" border " or " boundary." Instead, therefore, of 



as permanently established, despite the fact that it is 
by no means historically correct ; for, on the one 
hand, all peoples of Semitic speech have not had in 



Thou shalt not remove the landmark, &c," we their veins the blood of Shem, and, on the other, 
should tr. " Thou shalt not move the boundary of all the descendants of Shem have not spoken a 
thy neighbour fixed by the ancients," i.e. in order to Semitic tongue. 

add to thy portion what properly belongs to thy Semitic-speaking nations spread themselves at 
neighbour. In arable land, which is mainly im- various times over Hither-Asia and a great part of 
portant, the usual boundary line is a furrow of Africa, thus covering those vast areas of country 
double width, with a stone set up at either end. In known in history as Assyria, Babylonia, Mesopo- 
this way the cultivated land is marked as between tamia, Syria, Phcenicia, Palestine, and Arabia, 
adjoining farmers in Pal. to this day : and the re- Hence the Semitic languages may be most con- 
moval of such marks is often the occasion of great veniently classified into three great groups, corre- 
strife. There seems to have been special need for sponding to the geographical situation of those who 
stringent regulations on this subject in old Israel spoke them— viz. North-Semitic, Mid-Semitic, and 
(c-p. Dt. 27. 17 • Tb. 2/L 2 ; Pr. 22. 28 , 23. 10 ; Ho. 5. 10 ). South-Semitic. The three main languages of the 
Among other nations also boundaries were treated North-Semitic group are Assyrian, Aramaic, and 
as inviolable. Among the Greeks they were under Syriac ; the two divisions of the Mid-Semitic are 

Phoenician and Hebrew, both of which are termed 
by some scholars Palestinian Aramaic ; while the 
three main divisions of South-Semitic are Arabic, 



the protection of Zeus opios. The Romans even 
deemed it allowable to slay those who attempted to 
move them (Dion. Hal. ii. 74 ; Plutarch, Numa 16), 
and celebrated the annual festival of the Terminalia Ethiopic, and Amharic. Consequently of the two 



in honour of the god Terminus (Ovid, Fasti, ii. 
639ft-) [Driver, Deuteronomy, 234^]. 

Driver thinks that " the law, in its present wording, pre- 



Semitic languages found in the OT. one belongs to 
the North-Semitic group, viz. Aramaic, whereas 
Hebrew itself belongs to the Mid-Semitic, and is 
supposes the "occupation of Canaan by the Israelites, *the thus seen to be much more closely allied as a 
D*3BW1 being evidently not the Canaanite predecessors of language to the Phoenician than it is to the real 
the Israelites, but the Israelite ancestors of the present a • 

possessors." Too much stress should not belaid on this. Aramaic. 

The Heb. word here used corresponds in meaning to the The outstanding characteristic of the Semitic 
'awwalan of the Arabs The present writer inquired of famil of l anguages is that they have all retained, in 
certain Arabs in the Jaulun as to the popular view of the r i n i i r <• i • 

origin and use of the dolmens which abound there, and a perfectly marvellous degree, the features of their 
was told that they were the graves of the 'awwaten— original mother-tongue. In fact, when one com- 
quiur el-awwalin. In response to further inquiry they f i differences between anv two Semitic 

explained that the 'awwalan were the bene Israil. They P ares me differences Detween any two Semitic 
did not consider the ' ' ancients " as in any way related to languages with the differences between any two 
themselves save as predecessors in occupancy of the land. Indo-European languages, one is all but driven to 
LANGUAGES OF THE OT., THE. Although the conclusion that the differences in the former 
for all practical purposes it is correct to speak of the case are really so slight as almost to warrant the con- 
OT. as the Hebrew Bible, nevertheless there are elusion that such languages should be regarded as 
some parts of it which are written not in Hebrew mere dialects of the one original Semitic tongue, 
but in another language, which scholars have now Indeed it may be said that the original Semitic 
agreed to call Aramaic, but which was in former tongue practically survives to this day, not merely in 
days erroneously called Chaldee. These parts of the the classical Arabic of the Qoran but also in the 
OT. are Jr. io. 11 ; Dn. 2. 4 ~7. 28 ; Ez. 4. 8 -6. 18 , 7. 12 " 26 , modern Arabic still spoken by a great variety of 
and, further, in the first clause of Gn. 3 1. 47 we find tribes and peoples both in South-western Asia and 
two purely Aramaic words, of which the Hebrew in North Africa. This is just another way of stating 
equivalents are given in the second clause of that the theory of Professor Margoliouth of Oxford, who, 
verse. following Olshausen, maintains that " the relation 

These two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, are between Hebrew and Arabic is that of daughter and 
both branches of the great Semitic family (Gen. mother. The apparent absurdity of deriving so 
io. 21 " 31 ), as philologists now call that family in con- ancient a language as Hebrew from one of which the 
tradistinction to the Aryan or Indo-European, to earliest specimens in our possession are so recent as 
which our own English language belongs. Renan the sixth cent. a.d. disappears in the face of the 
proposed to balance the compound title " Indo- overwhelming evidence which comparative philo- 
European " by the similarly constructed term logy and grammar can produce." This simply 

376 



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Lan 



means that, instead of postulating an original 
Semitic tongue which has not come down to us, but 
from which all the existing Semitic languages have 
sprung, and regarding Arabic as the daughter- 
language which most resembles its mother, Professor 
Margoliouth considers the existing language, which 
has, in his opinion, retained the greatest number 
of original characteristics, as being not the eldest 
daughter but the mother herself. Zschokke, on 
the other hand, points out that Aramaic is the sim- 
plest of the Semitic languages, and therefore infers 
that Aramaic is nearest to the original tongue. 
This, he thinks, is due to the fact that the Ara- 
maeans remained in their original home, and thus, 
not having changed their sky, they did not change 
their tongue either. 

The term " Hebrew language " is not found in 
the OT. It occurs first in the Mishna, the 
Jewish commentary on the OT. In Is. 19. 18 we 
find the phrase " tongue of Canaan " used ; but 
in 2 K. 18. 26 ' 28 Eliakim and Shebna are represented 
as requesting the Rabshakeh to speak Aramaic to 
them and not Jewish, for they could understand 
Aramaic but the common people could not — a 
passage of the utmost importance, as proving that 
the educated Assyrians and Israelites of Isaiah's day 
were at least bilingual, and could, in conversation 
with each other, employ either language at will with 
the full certainty of being understood. Jeremiah 
also expected (27?) that his message, given in 
Hebrew, would be quite intelligible to the Edomite, 
Moabite, Ammonite, Tyrian, and Zidonian mes- 
sengers who had been sent by their respective 
masters to king Zedekiah. 

In post-Biblical Jewish literature the Hebrew of 
the Bible is spoken of as " the sacred tongue," or 
" the language of the sanctuary." It is Greek 
writers like Josephus who speak of the Hebrew 
dialect ('E/^ous StdXeKros, or kfipaio-TL), including 
therein not only the Hebrew of the OT. itself but 
also the later Aramaic, commonly used in Palestine 
in the days of our Lord. It is to be remembered 
that it was by themselves that Jehovah's peculiar 
people were spoken of as Israelites or Jews, whereas 
by foreigners such as the Egyptians and Canaanites, 
the Greeks and Romans, they were called Hebrews. 

The Hebrew language is by no means rich in in- 
dependent roots. Arabic is in this respect infinitely 
richer. Bottcher has calculated that while in Greek 
there are only some 1800 roots, yet that language 
has more than 100,000 distinct words, simple and 
composite. "On the other hand, Biblical Hebrew, 
with some^looo roots, has only some 10,000 words. 
These roots are all but invariably triliteral, the 
biliteral being generally explicable as contractions 
from an original triliteral root by the omission of 
one or other of the so-called "weak letters," K> PI. 1. *, 
letters which are, from another point of view, de- 

37 



scribed as vowel-letters. The whole Semitic group 
of languages is formed on quite a different plan 
from the Indo-European. Only the consonants 
were written, no vowels being used at all, though 
by-and-by the so-called vowel-letters were some- 
times inserted to indicate theclass of vowel intended, 
but not the particular vowel of that particular class. 
A great deal was therefore necessarily left to the 
linguistic acumen of the individual reader. This one 
fact, therefore, that in the original Hebrew MSS. 
there were no vowels, may reasonably be regarded as 
the best possible proof that, in the providence of 
God, the greatest precautions had been taken to 
guard against the natural desire of men to shelter 
themselves behind some external authority rather 
than trust to the enlightening influences of the 
Divine Spirit on their own hearts and minds. 
Hence in the process of the ages it came to be ac- 
cepted as an indisputable dogma that not only did 
the Bible contain a Divine revelation to man, but 
that every consonant, vowel-point, and accent in it 
were equally sacred, the result of a special, direct 
revelation from God Himself to the original author. 
Yet it can be proved, from ancient monuments and 
coins still in existence, that there were no such signs 
as vowels or accents in the original MSS. Indeed 
the Massoretic system of vowel-points was not finally 
elaborated till some five centuries after Christ. As 
to the date of the OT. writings themselves it is 
sufficient here to quote the memorable sentence of 
Margoliouth, that " while neither the earliest nor 
the latest verse in the OT. can be named with cer- 
tainty, there is probably none either earlier than 
B.C. 1 100 or later than B.C. 100." 

It is likewise worth noticing that in the Scriptures 
of the Old and the New Testaments we have pre- 
sented to us the highest religious thought of the 
Semitic and the Aryan races, the two races of man- 
kind that are intellectually and spiritually far ahead 
of all the others. In the OT. we have the quint- 
essence of Semitic religious thought given us in 
Semitic speech ; in the NT. we have the quintes- 
sence of both Semitic and Aryan religious thought 
presented to us in an Aryan language. Hence the 
world-embracing power of a religion based on the 
spiritual doctrines of a book with such a complex 
origin and history as the Bible. Hence also the 
necessity for European scholars acquiring a first- 
hand knowledge of the languages in which the OT. 
was originally written. For it is a truism to say 
that no translation, however good, can by any possi- 
bility equal the original. 

Now Hebrew is not a difficult language to acquire 
if the initial difficulties be boldly faced and reso- 
lutely tackled. Hebrew is, in reality, so. easy that, 
were it not that the Hebrew letters are so different 
in form from our own that many are repelled by 
their uncouthness from even beginning the syste- 

7 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lao 



matic stud/ of the language, I am convinced that a this particular point of time, all the succeeding 

knowledge of this uniquely important tongue would tenses in the narrative are imperfects with vav 

be much more general among European Christians conversive (or vav consecutive as it has been more 

than it is. In its brevity and directness, in its logically termed) prefixed. 

freedom from abstractions and abstruseness as well Finally, as an encouragement to study one Semitic 

as from the intricate syntactical involutions of such language thoroughly in order to have a key with 

languages as Greek and German, the Hebrew which to unlock the treasures of Semitic thought, it 

language corresponds, as might have been expected, may be stated that, were it not the unfortunate fact 

with the simplicity and naturalness of the un- that Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac are all written in 

sophisticated life in which it was gradually evolved, different alphabets, even the tyro would see that all 

Owing to the multitude of suffixes and prefixes these languages do not really differ from each other 

which it possesses, it is characterised by extreme more than many dialects of the same Indo-European 



terseness. A whole sentence in English is not un- 
frequently represented in Hebrew by a single dis- 
syllable, e.g. " thou earnest them away as with a 
flood " (Ps. 90. 5 ), Dnpif. This is due to the fact 
that though Hebrew has separate words for all per- 



language do. For instance, there are many Scottish 
words that would be far more unintelligible to an 
English eye, and still more to an English ear when 
spoken by a Scottish tongue, than most kindred 
words in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, or Arabic would 



sonal pronouns, still, when these pronouns are either sound to any Semite who knew only one of these 

subjects or objects of verbs, they do not, as a rule, four languages. Once the genius of a single Semitic 

retain their independence as separate words, as they language has been properly seized and mastered, a 

always do in English, but are changed into mere disciplined intelligence has, apart from the trouble 

prefixes or suffixes, as the case may be. In the of learning a new alphabet, little or no difficulty in 



perfect, the pronouns, when nominatives, are in- 
variably suffixes ; in the imperfect they are some- 
times only prefixes, and sometimes both prefixes and 
suffixes. When direct objects of verbs, pronouns, 
if not compounded with the sign of the accusative, 
are always suffixes, no matter with what part of the 
verb they are employed. The possessive pronouns 
are invariably used as suffixes to nouns, and these 
vary in form according as the noun is sing, or plur. 
The gender of the noun, which frequently deter- 



acquiring any other language of the Semitic group. 
And for any one who is a Christian, Hebrew is 
obviously the language with which it is advisable to 
begin. J. A. Paterson. 

LANTERN (Gr. phanos) . The word is used only 
in Jn. 18. 3 . It may stand for " lantern " as in EV. ; 
but it seems more likely that torches of various 
kinds were used on that occasion. 

LAODICEA. The NT. L., one of the eight 
cities of the same name, was built by Antiochus II. 



mines its termination, has also an influence on Theos (b.c. 261-246) on the site of a former city 
the method of adding those pronominal suffixes, named Diospolis and Rhoas. It was named after 
Hebrew nouns and verbs undergo far more internal his wife, Laodice, and was meant to be a centre of 
changes than the same parts of speech do in Indo- Greek influence and Seleucid power. It was built 
European languages ; but these changes can only be on low hills of alluvial formation between the Lycus 
ascertained by a systematic study of the language, and the Asopus, tributaries of the Meander, a few 
and cannot be described within the compass of a miles W. of Colosse and six miles S. of Hierapolis. 
brief article. Its lands were well watered and fertile, and it ac- 

Another fundamental difference between Aryan quired great wealth fm. the beautiful soft raven- 
and Semitic languages is their entirely different idea black wool of its world-renowned breed of sheep, 
of tense-formation. The Aryans indicate by their and fm. its trade with E. and W. The main routes 
system of tenses the difference between actions of Asia Minor met here. One great highway led 
happening in time, present, past, and future. The E'ward through Apamea to Mesopotamia, and a 
Semites have no such conception of time, but regard branch of it passed through the " Syrian Gate." 
the action simply as being complete or incomplete. W'ward one highway passed down the Meander 
And in Hebrew, by a very peculiar effort of the valley to Magnesia and Ephesus, a distance of 
imagination, writers employ a special idiom in con- 90 miles, while another led over the mountains 
nection with the inseparable Hebrew particle mean- to Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira, and Pergamus. 
ing " and " to transport the reader in imagination After suffering in the Mithridatic war, it recovered 
to the very point in time at which the first of a series and reached a position of eminent prosperity just 



of actions, of which the second is a direct result of 
the first, and the third of the second, and so on, has 
just been completed, and at which, therefore, all the 
other actions in the series are still in the future and 
therefore still incomplete. Thus, in consequence 
of this imaginative transportation of the reader to sophers. 

378 



before the Christian era. It was well known for its 
money transactions, and Cicero, travelling in Asia, 
arranged to get supplies here. It became the seat 
of a Rm. " conventus " ; art and science flourished, 
and the city produced some famous sceptic philo- 
Near at hand was the temple of Men 



Lap 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lat 



Karou with its renowned medical school. De- 
stroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Nero, it 
was restored without receiving the imperial subsidy 
usl. in such cases. It had " need of nothing " (Rv. 
3. 17 ). It became the mother church of 12 bishop- 
rics, and church councils were held here in 363, 
when a decree on the canon was issued, and in 476, 
when the Eutychians were condemned. Under 
Byzantium it retained its greatness ; but Turkish 
conquest brought decay and destruction, and to-day 
its ruins (Eski Hissar, " old castle ") are solitary 
and deserted, monotonous and miserable in their 
dulness. Their extent, however, agrees with all 
the ancts. tell us. There are remains of an im- 
mense circus for 30,000 spectators, two theatres, 
a gymnasium, an amphitheatre, a necropolis with 
many sarcophagi, a colonnaded street, and an aque- 
duct with an inverted siphon of stone pipes to carry 
the water over the valley. 

The Gospel was not introduced directly by Paul. When 
writing to Colosse he had not even been in the district. 
It had doubtless made its way along the trade route from 
Ephesus. The angel of the church was prob. Archippus 
whom Paul counselled (Col. 4. 17 ), but any fruits of his 
ministry were undermined by the wealth, luxury, and pride 
of his people. After NT. times no name of note is con- 
nected with the church, and of its annals we know nothing. 
Paul had counselled this people, rich in worldly wealth, 
where they might find ' ' all the treasures of wisdom and 
lege." (Col. 2. 3 ) ; and later John, whose arrangement of 
the names of the churches shows that he knew the district 
well, seeks to appeal to them through the familiar circum- 
stances of their daily life. He wd. persuade them to 
purchase "gold tried in the fire"; from their own oint- 
ments he wd. lead them to the true "eye salve" ; while in 
contrast to their own beautiful black wool, he wd. have 
them clothed in "white raiment" (Rv. 3. 18 ). The word 
"lukewarm" (Rv. 3. 16 ) may have been suggested by the 
hot springs of Hierapolis and the cooling fountains of 
L. ; or they may have carried the apostle's thoughts back 
to his native lake with its springs of all degrees of heat, 
wh. also were used for medicinal purposes (Jos. BJ. II. 
xxi. 6). 

The question of Paul's letter to L. (Col. 4. 16 ) has given rise 
to many theories, but the most likely and most accepted 
is that suggested by Ussher long ago — that it was the 
Epistle to the Ephesians, wh. was in reality a circular 
letter to the churches of Asia, and to this opinion the 
absence of the words "in Ephesus" (Eph. i. 1 ) from some 
important MSS. adds weight. The apocryphal "Epistle 
to the Laodiceans " is a late and stupid forgery. 

Wm. M. Christie. 

LAPPIDOTH (" flames " or " lightning flashes "), 
the h. of Deborah (Jg. 4- 4 ). Some wd. ident. L. 
with Barak ("lightning"), but quite unwarrantably. 
Cert. Jewish commentators explain it figuratively, 
as meaning that Deborah was a " woman of torches," 
i.e. that she trimmed the lamps in the sanctuary, 
or was one of a fiery disposition. 

LAPWING (Heb. duklphath). The Hebrews 
were forbidden to eat this bird, as unclean (Lv. 
11. 19 ; Dt. 14. 18 ). LXX render efofa, and Vlg. 
upupa, the Gr. and Latin names of the hoopoe. 
This bird is well known in Egp. by the name 
kekuphahy wh., like the Heb., is an imitation of its 
cry. RV. rightly adopts this tr. The hoopoe is 



about the size of a thrush. Its plumage is strikingly 
barred with white, and it is distinguished by a tall 
crest, which it raises and lowers at will. It is a 
regular summer visitor in Pal. Its peculiar cry, 
grotesque movements, and fearless bearing in 
presence of men make it the centre of much at- 
tention. It figures largely in the folklore of the 
country. A frequenter of dunghills and rubbish- 
heaps, it is by no means a clean liver ; but it is 
eaten by the natives to-day. 




Lapwing (Hoopoe 



LASEA, a town on the S. coast of Crete, not far 
fm. Fair Havens (Ac. 27.®). The ruins lie five miles 
E. of the Havens, one mile E. of Cape Leonda. 

LASHA, an unidentd. town E. of Jordan, on the 
SE. border of the Canaanites (Gn. io. 19 ). Jerome 
placed it at Callirrhoe in Wddy Zerqd Ma l 7n. 

LASSHARON. LXX B. is prob. correct in 
reading " the k. of Aphek in Sharon " for " the k. of 
L." (Jo. 12. 18 ). If, however, L. was the name of a 
Can. city Conder thinks it may be found in Sarona, 
on the plateau SW. of Tiberias. 

LATCHET, a thong of leather with which the 
sandal is attached to the foot (Gn. 14. 23 , &c). To 
unloose the soiled L., and remove the sandal, is a 
service wh. the very humblest may render to the 
traveller (Mk. i. 7 , &c). 

LATIN, the language of the Roman masters of 
Pal., took, in the time of Christ, nearly the same 
place as Turkish does to-day. Greek, like French 
now, was known to the educated classes, and was 
the language of diplomacy and international inter- 
course, Aramaic (" Hebrew ") being the domestic 
language of the natives as Arabic is in mod. times. 



379 



Lat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Law 



While the great officers of state would be familiar 11. In NT. (i) In teaching of Jesus ; (2) in the 

with Greek, Latin was the language of the Roman Christian Church. 

courts, and proceedings before them were con- I. (1) The Hebrew word for law, tor ah, from root 
ducted in that tongue : altho' by favour of the " to point out," means originally oral direction, and 
court Greek might be employed. The situation especially direction given in the name of Jehovah, 
described explains why the superscription on the generally by priests. The use of the word in Ex. 
Cross was written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew 18. 16 shows how the Torah took its rise from the 
(Aramaic) It was not unusual to hang a tablet decisions given on disputes by judges. Thus Moses 
round the neck of a condemned criminal on which says to Jethro, " When they have a matter they 
was written a statement of his offence. It may also come unto me and I judge between one and another, 
have been the practice to place such a placard over and I do make them know the statutes of God and 
the crucified ; but we cannot say with certainty. His laws (toroth)." These decisions were, no doubt, 
LATTICE occurs three times in EV., each time based on the customary usages of the people, modi- 
representing a different Heb. word. (1) 'Esbnab ned by the judge's sense of fairness. The people, 



(Jg 5 28 ; Pr - 7- 6 > "casement"). (2) HarakkJm however, came to their superiors not only for direc- 
ts. 2. 9 )' "netwo'rk," may signify the wooden tion in matters of civil dispute, but ^^instruction 
trellis which so often fills the Oriental window- in questions of a 



frame. (3) Sebakah (2 K. I. 2 ) is rendered "net- 
work " in 1 K. 7. 18 , &c. It corresponds to the Arb. 
sbubbak, "window," wh. also refers to the trellis 
(cp. Arb. shabakeh, " net "). 



moral and ceremonial nature. 
Thus the law deals not only with purely civil 
questions but also with moral duties and responsi- 
bilities, as well as with ritual and ceremonial arrange- 
ments. To the prophets the torah was all teach- 
ing given in God's name, more especially of a moral 
and religious nature. When Amos (2. 4 ) condemns 
Judah for despising the law of Jehovah he refers to 
the general neglect of all moral and spiritual teach- 
ing. The " law " commended in the book of Pro- 
verbs (i. 8 , 6. 20 , 3. 1 , 4- 2 , 7- 2 , Sec.) ought to be trans- 
lated " instruction." This usage goes back to the 
original idea of the term, so in a great many instances 
in the English Version of the OT. the word " law " 
is used when " direction " or " guidance " would be 
preferable. This " direction " or " guidance " was 
supposed to belong specially to the priests as the re- 
presentatives of God, and as the priests- were natu- 
rally interested in their ritual, the ceremonial aspect 
of the law came to predominate. In post-exilic 
on a base of the same metal, placed " between the times the term was applied to the whole of the 
tent of meeting and the altar " (Ex. 30. 18 , &c.) and Pentateuch, which contained the whole body of 
filled with water. Here the priests were required, legislation, in contrast to the prophetic books. 




Bath in iemple at Baalbek' 



LAVER (Heb. kiyc-r), a vessel of bronze or copper, 



on pain of death, to wash their hands and feet before 

drawing near to make the burnt offerings. The 

lavers in Solomon's Temple were large basins resting 

upon bases. Each base consisted of an elaborately 

ornamented framework of bronze, set upon four 

wheels. These were placed five on each side of the summarised. 

Temple. As to their use the Chronicler (2 Ch. 4.°) (b) The Book of the Covenant (Ex. 

says " such things as belonged to the burnt offering so called from 2/\.. 7 . The laws here laid down concern 

they washed in them." Their height would make the relations of a people chiefly engaged in agri- 

this difficult. They probably served some sym- cultural pursuits, and deal with questions relating 



(2) In the Pentateuch we have various legal codes 
belonging to different periods and stages in the his- 
tory. The first of these is — 

(a) The Decalogue (Ex. 20. 2 " 17 ), in which the 
duties of the Israelite to God and man are briefly 



2O. 20 -23. 



bolical purpose. " The borders of the bases " were to civil and criminal cases, such as rights of slaves 

(21. 1 - 11 ), murder (21. 12 ), manstealing (21. 16 ), theft 
(22. 1 - 4 ), &c. ; also with moral and ceremonial enact- 
ments, such as nature of altars (20. 24 " 26 ), sorcery 
(22. 18 ), first fruits (22. 29 ), &c. &c. The Book of the 
it is the type of Covenant is the oldest code of Hebrew law, and con- 
tains the principles generally accepted in the earlier 



removed by Ahaz, and the lavers removed (2 K. 
16. 17 ). The lavers do not appear in the second 
Temple, nor in the ideal picture of Ezekiel. 

The spiritual significance of the priestly washing 
is indicated in He. 10. 22 . In Tt. 3/ 
" the washing of regeneration." 



LAW. I. In OT. (1) Term torah, meaning days of the settlement in Canaan, with the legal 
and history ; (2) Codes of law ; (3) Effect of law. decisions which had been collected up to that date. 

380 



Law 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Law 



(c) The Law of Deuteronomy. This book con- 
sists of a code of law put into the form of hortatory 
addresses. The laws here are designed for a more 
advanced stage of civilisation, and while most of the 
enactments of the Book of the Covenant are in- 
cluded we have many new regulations. The code 
deals with religious observances, such as the law of 
the central sanctuary (i 2. lff -), on which special em- 
phasis is laid, laws regarding vows, offerings, clean 
and unclean animals, observance of festivals, &c. A 
special place is given to the officials of the kingdom. 
Duties of the judge (16. 18 - 20 ), the king (17. 14 - 20 ), 
the priest (18. 1 - 8 ), the prophet (18. 9 - 22 ) are specified, 
while we have a great body of legislation dealing 
with criminal cases, as also with questions of a civil 
and domestic nature. 

(d) We have in the next place the so-called Law 
of Holiness (Lv. 17.-26.). This body of law deals 
much more fully with moral and ceremonial ques- 
tions than with criminal cases. We have laws re- 
lating to offerings, sacrificial animals, first fruits, 
marriage, feasts, &c. The characteristic of these 
enactments is the emphasis laid on moral and 
ceremonial holiness, a feature perhaps due to the 
compiler. 

(e) Lastly we have the legislation in the so-called 
Priests' Code, which is generally accepted as one of 
the original documents used in the compilation of 
the Pentateuch. The laws contained in this code 
relate almost exclusively to ceremonial observances, 
especially those of purification and sacrifice. Regu- 
lations are laid down for the rites connected with 
circumcision (Gn. 17.) ; the Passover (Ex. 12. 1 " 13 ), 
the Sabbath (Ex. 31. 12 - 17 ), offerings (Lv. I -3.), 
priests and vestments (Lv. 6. 8 " 18 ), leprosy (Lv. 
13., 14.), Day of Atonement (Lv. 16.), Nazirites 
(Nu. 6. 1 - 21 ), Levites (Nu. 8. 5 - 26 ), and in general 
everything belonging to the complicated ritual of 
the Jewish Church. While the various enactments 
of this code undoubtedly go back to a very early 
period, their present form belongs to post-exilic 
times, when the attempt was made to separate 
Israel sharply from the surrounding peoples. 

(3) This system of law performed an important 
function in the religious and moral education of the 
Jewish people. The earlier laws were fitted to 
create a righteous, God-fearing nation ; the later 
laws of ceremonial exclusiveness enabled the nation 
to survive and retain the special truths committed to 
it even after the national independence had been 
lost. The constant proclamation of the need of 
purification deepened in the hearts of the people the 
sense of sin, and prevented the national life from 
being assimilated to surrounding heathenism. The 
law marked Israel off from all other peoples, and the 
pious Jew gloried in this sign of their separation. 
The piety of the Psalmist regarded the law as the 
revelation of God's grace and love to His chosen 



people, and we find constant references to the 
blessings the law conferred ; cp. Ps. 119., &c. The 
stress laid on ritual and ceremonial in the later codes 
rendered the growth of formalism and hypocrisy 
very easy, and in later Judaism the law, as expanded 
and defined by the scribes, became a heartless and 
intolerable burden, which enabled the few to pre- 
tend to the possession of a higher form of religion 
than was possible for the mass of the people. The 
law remained external, and its hard and exacting 
discipline led the noblest minds to look for a New 
Covenant, a law written in the heart which men 
would gladly obey (cp. Jr. 31. 31 " 34 ). In the words 
of St. Paul the law was a schoolmaster leading to 
Christ (Gal. 3. 24 ). 

II. Law in NT. (1) In the teaching and prac- 
tice of Jesus. The main feature in the relation of 
Jesus to the OT. law was the independent attitude 
He adopted towards its enactments. He claimed to 
be greater than the Temple and greater than Moses, 
and, unlike the scribes, He spoke with direct personal 
authority : " I say unto you." At the same time He 
declared, " I came not to destroy the law or the 
prophets but to fulfil " (Mw. 5. 17 ). All that the law 
stood for, the whole of the OT. revelation, found its 
fulfilment in Him. He Himself in His person and 
work was the fulfilment of the law, the crown and 
completion of the Old Testament revelation. Jesus 
went behind the various enactments of the law to the 
principles on which they were based. He regarded 
as the first of all the commandments : " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God . . . and thy neighbour as 
thyself " (Mk. 12. 30 ' 31 ). He distinguished between 
the weightier matters of the law — justice, mercy, 
truth — and the lighter, of washings, purifications, 
tithes ; and this distinction was revolutionary. In 
the Sermon on the Mount all mere traditional 
modifications and false applications are set aside, and 
the essential principles revealed, showing the law 
was spiritual, demanding not merely action but a 
state of the heart. He and His disciples were often 
criticised for failure to observe the laws of cere- 
monial. They ate without previous washings, and 
the law of the Sabbath was not so scrupulously 
observed by them as it was by the scribes. In this 
connection Jesus laid down the principle which de- 
termined His action in regard to all institutions of 
the Mosaic law : " The Sabbath was made for man, 
not man for the Sabbath" (Mk. 2. 27ff -). The 
Sabbath, and by implication all other institutions, 
human and Divine, are appointed for the true well- 
being of men. Men were not made for institutions, 
but institutions are made for the making of men. 
Unless these institutions fulfil their higher pur- 
pose of making men, of bringing blessing to them 
physically, morally, religiously, then they are more 
honoured in the breach than in the observance. 
Deeds of mercy have a prior claim on the human 



381 



Law 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Law 



soul to any demand of external ritual. Beyond that, 
Jesus claims authority over the Sabbath, and pro- 
fesses to work on that day even as His Father works 
(Jn. 5. 17 " 20 ). This claim led to His condemnation 
by the Sanhedrin (Mk. 14. 61 ). 

On the subject of the ritual law of the OT. Jesus 
says little. He prophesied the fall of the Temple 
and the consequent end of the ceremonial system it 
embodied, but at the same time He gave obedience 
to many of its commands, as part of a dispensation 
whose end was not yet. Thus He paid the Temple 
tax (Mw. 17. 24 " 27 ) and ordered the cleansed leper to 
present himself to the priest (Mw. 8. 1 ' 4 ). But the 
ritual aspect of the OT. law received in Him its ful- 
filment. He spoke of His death as the basis of the 
New Covenant, which promised remission of sins. 
Thus His death was sacrificial. It remained, how- 
ever, for the apostles to expound more fully after the 
event the relation of the death of the cross to the 
old law. 

(2) In the Christian Church the meaning and the 
place occupied by law in the Christian dispensation 
was one of the first problems which had to be 
wrought out. When the Gentiles who were un- 
circumcised were admitted to the Church the ques- 
tion at once arose : Must these be circumcised and 
keep the law of Moses ? We cannot enter into the 
history of this conflict here. But two parties were 
gradually evolved, a Gentile and a Jewish party, the 
latter insisting that believers must keep the law of 
Moses. The teaching and influence of St. Paul 
prevented this opinion from prevailing. Paul, with 
his keen insight into human nature, and his intimate 
acquaintance with the non- Jewish mind, clearly saw 
that if Judaism was to be regarded as the only means 
of entrance to Christianity, then his Gospel would 
never be accepted by the Gentile world as a whole. 
All his energy was thrown into the struggle, and he 
maintained with unwavering persistence the free- 
dom of his Gospel from the law. Legalism and the 
Gospel are eternally opposed. The law had its 
place and its uses, but it could not be substituted 
for the Gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. 
Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is 
nothing, but a new creature (Gal. 6. 15 ), faith 
working by love (Gal. 5. 6 ), keeping the command- 
ments of God (1 Cor. 7. 19 ). 

The place of the law in Christian experience 
occupies a prominent place in Paul's theology. In 
speaking of " the law " or " law " he means now the 
Mosaic system, again simply statutory enactments 
in general. St. Paul had as a Pharisee sought to win 
the Divine favour and approval by obedience to the 
law, and his experience led him to the conclusion 
that there was no road that way. By the works of 
the law no flesh living is justified (cp. Rm. 3. 20 ; 
Gal. 2. 16 ). But by identifying himself with Christ, 
by acceptance of His obedience as the only obedience 

38 



satisfying to God, Paul had found peace, and thus 
was led to formulate his doctrine that Christ is the 
end of the law for righteousness (Rm. io. 4 ). The 
law could not save men. It brought the know- 
ledge of sin. It even tended to increase sin, and is 
thus an indirect preparation for the Gospel. It 
brings men under condemnation of death. This 
again connects the law with the Gospel, for this 
sentence of the law was borne by Christ. Christ 
honoured the law in freely submitting to that death 
in which the sentence of the law on mankind is ex- 
pressed. Christ bore the curse of the law. Thus 
those united to Him have no law except the law of 
the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ. 

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find a different 
way of viewing law. The law referred to is gene- 
rally the law of Moses regarded more in its ritual 
aspect as laying down rules for worship. The old 
law is the religious constitution under which atone- 
ment was made by a Levitical priesthood. With 
the change in the priesthood there comes in a change 
of law. The New Covenant is the perfect comple- 
tion of what was dimly foreshadowed in the old 
law. While St. Paul thinks of law as chiefly moral, 
the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews thinks of it 
as a system of ritual, as the constitution under which 
God is worshipped. 

In the other books of the NT. there is compara- 
tively little on the subject of law. The Apocalypse 
reflects the conflict between Law and Gospel, but 
the claim that legalism is taught is unfounded. The 
works enjoined are the works of Christ (2. 26 ), and the 
conception of rewards (2. 17 ' 26 , 22. 12 ) is common to 
the whole of the New Testament. The Epistle of 
James lays great stress on works as the proof and out- 
come of true faith, and contrasts these works with 
mere intellectual belief, but the works enjoined are 
not what St. Paul would call works of the law but 
rather fruits of the Spirit. The law which is to 
guide the lives of men is the " law of liberty " 
(i. 25 , 2. 12 ), and is summed up in the " royal law " 
of love (2. 8 ). To the enlightened Christian law could 
never become a means of meriting Divine favour, 
but on the other hand the Christian, inspired by the 
love of Christ, kept the law as the expression of the 
will of God, which he strove to make his own. In 
the love of Christ the statutes of God become the 
Christian's songs in the house of his pilgrimage. 

Lit. : OT. : Robertson Smith, OT. in Jewish 
Church ; Kuenen, Religion of Israel ; Wellhausen, 
History ; Bruce, Apologetics ; Schultz, OT. Theo- 
logy ; Davidson, OT. Theology ; Driver, Introduc- 
tion to OT. ; Articles in Hastings' DB., Enc. Bib., 
and Hastings' Smaller DB. NT. : NT. Theologies of 
Stevens, Weiss, Beyschlag, &c; Bruce, The Kingdom 
of God, St. Paul's Conception of Christianity; Wendt, 
Teaching of Jesus ; Stevens, Teaching of Jesus ; also 
arts, in the above Dictionaries. W. F. Boyd. 



Law 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lea 



LAWGIVER (Heb. mehoqeq) is derived fm. the 
verb baqaq, " to engrave." It was customary to 
engrave decrees upon tablets, and so the word came 
to mean " to decree," or " command." The ruler 
was the chief fountain of law, combining in himself 
the functions of leader (Jg. 5. 9 » 14 , &c.) and law- 
giver (Is. 33. 22 , AVm. " statemaker "). In Gn. 
49. 10 RV. translates " ruler's staff." This seems to 
be required by parallelism with " sceptre." The 
phrase " between his feet " refers to the position of 
the long staff or symbol of royalty, which, when the 
monarch sat, rested between his feet (Ball, Sacred 
Books of the OT., on Gn. 49. 10 ). 

In NT. nomothetes occurs only once (Js. 4. 12 ), and 
there it is applied to God as the supreme fountain of 
law. The verb nomotheteo (He. 7. 11 ) and the noun 
nomothesia (Rm. o,. 4 ) refer to the ancient law of 
Israel. 

LAWYER (Gr. nomikos) in NT. is apparently 
identical with Scribe (grammateus), and doctor of 
the law (nomodidaskalos). After the return from 
Babylon, it was necessary to explain the law to the 
people. So much depended upon their faithful 
observance of its precepts, that they could not afford 
to be in ignorance of even the least of its require- 
ments. A class of men therefore arose who devoted 
themselves to its study, in order to give the neces- 
sary instruction and guidance. It is possible that 
some attended specially to particular aspects of the 
subject, and this may have led to the use of different 
names : but there are no available data on which to 
base a distinction. See Scribes. 

LAYING ON OF HANDS. In OT. hands were 
laid on the head in the act of blessing (Gn. 48. 14ff -). 
It plays an important part in the ritual of sacrifice 
(Ex. 29. 10 , &c). Robertson Smith (RS. 2 422Q 
holds that this signified identification of the parties 
by physical contact, and also, though " not speci- 
ally," the transfer of guilt. It clearly meant this, 
however, in the case of the scapegoat. Laying the 
witnesses' hands on the head of the blasphemer 
may have indicated conveyance of judgment (Lv. 
24. 14 ). In the case of Levi, the ceremony by repre- 
sentatives of the tribes symbolised the giving of 
authority to act for them (Nu. 8. 10 ). In the same 
way Moses marked the transfer of the status and 
power of leader to Joshua (Nu. 2J. 18 ' 23 ; Dt. 34- 9 ). 

In NT. Jesus lays on His hands in the act of 



blessing (M^ 



&c). He and His disciples did 



the same in acts of healing (Mw. 9. 18 ; Mk. 16. 18 ; 
Ac. 9. 12 , &c). In imparting the Holy Ghost whom 
they had received fm. Jesus (Jn. 20. 22 ), the apostles 
laid hands on the baptized (Ac. 8. 17 , &c). By 
laying on of hands also, men were set apart for 
special service (Ac. 6. 6 , &c). I Tm. 5. 22 prob. 
refers to the ordination of presbyters. The Chris- 
tian practice was doubtless derived fm. the Jewish. 
Admission to the office of Rabbi was symbolised 



by the laying on of hands (Edersheim, LTJC. 
ii. 382). 

LAZARUS. (1) L. of Bethany, br. of Martha 
and Mary, the friend of Jesus, whom He raised fm. 
the dead (Jn. n. lft -). This chap, relates all that is 
known of L. personally. Jesus was accustomed to 
lodge in Bethany, doubtless in the house of His 
friends (Mk. n. 11 ; Lk. io. 38ff -). The raising of L., 
after four days in the grave, when all doubt of his 
death had become impossible, was the crowning 
display of Divine power by Jesus. It was the im- 
mediate cause of His enemies' haste in condemning 
Him. They feared that if left alone all men might 
follow Him. In a true sense, therefore, Jesus laid 
down His life for L. (2) L. is the only char, with 
a personal name in all the parables of Jesus. In the 
parable of the rich man and L. (Lk. i6. 20fl -), he is 
commended and rewarded, not because of his 
poverty, but because he is patient and uncom- 
plaining. He stands for the opportunities at life's 
highway side, for the deliberate neglect of wh. rich 
men, men with ability, are punished. 

LEAD. This metal was familiar to the Egyp- 
tians in very early times, and was used by fishermen 
to make sinkers for their nets. There the Hebrews 
would become acquainted with it, and in the Song 
of Moses (Ex. 15. 10 ) it is said that the Egyptians 
" sank as lead in the mighty waters." They knew 
it was found in the dross of silver (Jr. 6. 29 ; Ek. 
22.I8. 20) . anc [ [ t [ s mentioned as an article of com- 
merce (Ek. 27. 12 ). The phrase in Jb. 19. 24 refers to 
the ancient custom of filling in with lead the letters 
of an inscription cut in rock, with a view of securing 
greater durability. 

LEAH, elder dr. of Laban, sr. of Rachel, whom 
her fr. married to Jacob by guile (Gn. 29. 23 ), the 
bride being, according to Oriental usage, introduced 
to her husband veiled. Not so well favoured as her 
sr., she had weak eyes. L. bore six sons and one dr. 
to Jacob. She accompanied him on his homeward 
journey, and when she died she was buried in the 
Cave of Machpelah (Gn. 49. 31 ). The name may 
mean " mistress " (cp. Assyrian Wat), or " wild 
cow " (cp. Arabic la? a [la'ah'J). 

LEASING. The word, meaning " a lie," or 
" deceit," occurs only in AV. in Ps. 4. 2 (RV. " false- 
hood ") and Ps. 5. 6 (RV. " lies ") ; cp. 2 Es. 14. 18 . 

LEATHER, the dressed and tanned skin of 
animals used for girdles (2 K. i. 8 , &c). Tanning 
was practised by the Jews (Ac. 9- 43 ), and L. was used 
for shoes, Bottles, Skins, &c. 

LEAVEN is a generic term, covering anything 
wh. sets up fermentation, and causes dough to rise 
in the baking. In the E. it is usually applied to 
dough wh. is thoroughly leavened, a piece of wh. is 
kept after baking to mingle with the fresh dough 
for the next time. The leavening process is some- 
what slow. Bread baked hastily is therefore with- 



383 



Leb 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Leb 



out L. (Ex. 12. 34 , &c). This applies to most of the 
bread eaten in the E. 

It is agreed that the shewbread was leavened : 
so might be the offerings to be eaten by the priests 
(Lv. 7. 13 , 23. 17 , &c). The bread used at the Pass- 
over, and all offerings laid on the altar, must be 
free fm. L. To this day, at the season, in Jewish 
houses the most thorough search is made, that they 
may be cleansed of everything that might be used 
to set up fermentation. 

The Mishna contains curious directions how to 
recognise the beginning of the leavening process. 
" When the surface of the dough shows two small 



northwards to the Eleutherus beyond Tripoli ; 
while the latter, starting from Mt. Hermon, " the 
tower of L." (SS. 7- 4 ), extends about 70 miles north- 
wards to near Riblah. The two ranges are separated 
by el-Buqct or Coele-Syria, a valley four to six miles 
broad, wh. is well watered by the Leontes (Litany), 
and wh., at its N. end, opens out into the plain of 
Emessa — " the entering in of Hamath " (Nu. 34. 8 ). 
The two ranges resemble each other in that the S. 
end of each is less arid and barren than the northern ; 
the western valleys in each are better watered and 
more fertile than the eastern ; and the main peaks in 
each are opposite one another. In form the hills 




Lebanon Mountain as seen from Baalbek 



cracks like the antennae of locusts running in 
different directions," or " when the surface has 
become pale like (the face of) one whose hair stands 
on end (through fear)" (Pesah 3- 5 ). 

The reason for excluding L. as above un- 
doubtedly was that the process of leavening was 
regarded as corruption. This, together with its 
pervasive char., supplies the point in the figure of 
Jesus (Mw. 13. 33 , &c). 

LEBANON. The name of L. is derived from 
the Heb. root meaning " white," and the word has 
been connected by some with its snow-clad peaks, 
while others refer it to the white walls of chalk and 
limestone which are its chief characteristic. It is 
not at all a single mountain, as some references of 
Scrip, might lead us to think (Dt. 3. 25 ; Jg. 3. 3 ), but 
rather two lofty parallel ranges, the western named 
Jebel Libndn, or Lebanon proper, and the eastern 
Jebel-esh-Sharqi, or Anti-lebanon — " L. toward the 
sun-rising" (Jo. 13. 5 ). The former rises from the 
rounded hills of Upper Galilee, and extends from 
the Leontes (Qasimlye) beside Tyre, 1 00 miles 



are on the whole monotonous ; but what is wanting 
in rugged grandeur is amply made up for by the 
variety of colouring ; and when covered by the 
winter's snows and seen either from Pal. in the S. 
or from the western sea the appearance is mag- 
nificent ; while at other seasons the landscape is 
scarcely less entrancing. The valleys, through 
which perennial streams flow, contrast beautifully 
with their belts of green and blooming oleander 
agst. the brown and yellow hillsides. L. attracts to 
itself the moist winds of the Mediterranean in the 
winter and the balmy breezes of the S. in the early 
spring. During half the year it has abundant rains, 
and the snows, preserved on the hilltops and in the 
ravines throughout the year, cool the air and supply 
the gushing fountains. In addition to the rivers 
already named there are many perennial streams, 
among which the Lycus and the Adonis are of 
historical interest. The former (Nahr el-Kelb, 
" Dog River ") is famous for its caves and its 
Assyrian and Egyptian rock-cut records of mili- 
tary expeditions in anct. times. The latter (Nahr 



384 



Leb 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY GF THE BIBLE 



Leg 



Ibrahim) " springs full born from a cavern in a per- 
pendicular rock more than iooo feet in height," 
near the temple of Venus, " in the most romantic 
place in L.," and enters the sea S. of Gebal (Ps. 83« 7 ) 
— mod. Jubeil, the Byblos of the Greeks. Although 
Anti-lebanon has fewer streams and a greater 
amount of bare rock and crag, it possesses never- 
theless many a grassy ravine, and fm. it spring the 
Barada and the Zebedani. 

The chief peaks vary fm. 5600 feet to the E. of Sidon 
up to 10,000 feet above Tripoli; but the best known is 
Jebel Sunnin (8780), NE. of Beyrout, which many have 
sought to ident. with Mt. Hor of Nu. 34. 7 . 8 . Minerals, 
mostly unworked, are abundant. They consist mainly 
of mineral oil, bitumen, asphalt, ccal, and iron. The 
cretaceous limestone, the chief constituent of the rocks, is 
mixed with enough friable limestone and volcanic products 
to make the soil fruitful. Pasture land and grass are 
scarce except in the Buqd', and some of the broader 




Lebanon Mountain as seen from Shtora 



valleys ; but by terracing all may be rendered fruitful, 
even to the hilltops. Wine, grape-honey, raisins, and 
olive oil are produced in large quantities. The walnut, fig, 
and mulberry are plentiful, silk culture is profitable, and 
cattle, sheep, and goats glean sufficient pasturage among 
the low brushwood. The western valleys have the flora 
of the Mediterranean, while the eastern toward the desert 
is poorer. Up to 1600 feet the products are those of 
Syria generally, including the carob and the pine ; then 
we have dwarf oak till 3200 is reached, and thence till 
6200 cedars and cypresses, above wh. there are Alpine 
plants. The once famous cedars are now found almost 
exclusively in the Qadisha and Barook valleys. 

Wild animals are still abundant, the bear, hyaena, wolf, 
fox, jackal, gazelle, and hog being found. The eagle, 
vulture, partridge, and pigeon are plentiful, and gay birds 
chirp cheerily on every tree. The Arabs sum up all we 
have said in their declaration that ' ' L. bears winter on 
its head, spring on its shoulders, autumn in its lap, while 
summer lies at its feet." It well deserved to be called a 
"goodly mountain" (Dt. s. 25 ), and that not only in com- 
parison to the desert fm. which Israel was coming but 
even in contrast to the brightest spots in Judaea. 

It is first mentioned in the OT. as the N. 
boundary of the land (Dt. I. 7 , II. 24 ; Jo. I. 4 ) and 
sometimes as having been given to Isr., but they 
never so far overcame its people — the Hivites and 
Giblites — as to gain possession (Jo. 13. 5 ' 6 ; Jg. 3. 1 " 3 ). 
During the days of the Kings it was subject to Tyre 
and Sidon, and to their rulers the Israelites were 
indebted for the cedars wh. formed the woodwork 
of the first-and second temples (1 K. 5. 6 ; Ez. 3. 7 ), 



and the House of the Forest of L. (1 K. 7. 2ff -)> wh. 
last received its name either from this fact or from 
its being built in N. Syrian style. Thenceforward 
L. is well known in Heb. Lit. Its woods are men- 
tioned (SS. 3. 9 ) ; the strength, beauty, and luxuri- 
ance of its firs and cedars are spoken of in terms 
of praise (Ps. 2C;. 5 , 92. 12 ; Is. 14. 8 ; Hb. 2. 17 ). Its 
animals seem to have been regarded as of special 
excellence (Is. 40. 16 ). At the present time the 
population numbers about 275,000, and their men 
are on the whole strong, energetic, and patriotic. 

Wm. M. Christie. 

LEBBvEUS. See Judas (4). 

LEBONAH, N. of Shiloh (Jg. 2iP) = Khan el~ 
Lubban, three miles WNW. of Seilun, on the road 
to Nablus. 

LEECH. See Horseleech. 

LEEKS (Heb. hatzir, " grass "), trd. L. in Nu. 
11. 5 . This is supported by all the W., and by the 
mention along with it of onions and garlic, wh. were 
all common articles of diet in anct. Egp. 

LEES. The word is used only in a figurative 
sense in OT. (Is. 25. 6 , &c). It denotes lit. the 
sediment settled at the bottom of the vessel holding 
Wine. 

LEG stands for several Heb. words. (1) Kera i - 
ayim, a fern, dual from an unused sing. kera'. It 
signifies a pair of bending legs. Used of those of 
animals for sacrifice, " his head with his legs " (Ex. 
12. 9 , &c). It is used also of the long, bending hind 
legs of the locust, the cricket, and the grasshopper 
(Lv. II. 21 ). (2) Re gel, lit. " foot." It is applied to 
the feet (a) of men (Gn. 18. 4 , &c), often figura- 
tively, e.g. " foot of pride " (Ps. 36. 12 ) ; (b) of God, 
conceived as in the form of man (Ex. 24. 10 , &c.) ; 
(c) of angels (Is. 6. 2 , &c.) ; (d) of birds (Gn. 8. 9 , &c.) ; 
(e) of beasts (Ek. I. 7 , &c.) ; (/) of articles of furniture 
(Ex. 25. 26 , &c). It is used also of the pace at which 
one travels (Gn. 33. 14 ). In four cases it is used in 
the plural, in the sense of " times," each case in the 
phrase "three times" (Ex. 23. 14 ; Nu. 22. 28 » 32f -). 
Like the Arabic rijl, " foot," it may also mean 
" leg " (1 S. 17. 6 ). (3) Shoq seems to be distin- 
guished as the lower leg from the thigh in the phrase 
" hip and thigh," wh. is literally " leg upon thigh " 
(Jg. 1 5. 8 ), which points to the ground strewn with 
hacked and severed limbs. In other cases (Ex. 
2Cj. 22 , &c), it stands definitely for the upper leg or 
thigh (AV. trs. " shoulder," RV. rightly " thigh "). 
The phrase in Ps. 147 . 10 , " the legs of the man " 
(Heb.), may possibly denote foot soldiers. (4) Shobel 
(Is. 47 . 2 ) denotes not leg (AV.) but " train " (RV.), 
a flowing skirt. In NT. the Greek word is skelos. 
It occurs only in Jn. ig. zm - If it was desired for 
any reason to hasten the death of the crucified, it 
was customary, with a wooden mallet, to smash the 
bones in the legs of the victims. 

LEGION, a body of troops in the Roman army, 



385 



Leh 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lev 



numbering at first from 3000 to 4000, but under the 
Empire from 6000 to 7000. The legion consisted 
mainly of infantry, of whom 
latterly there were 6000, divided 
into ten cohorts of 600 each, over 
which were tribunes. The co- 
hort, again, contained six cen- 
turies, commanded by centurions. 
The word occurs in NT. only in 
connection with the demoniac 
(Mw. 26. 53 , &c). But while no 
occasion for the further use of 
the name arose, the legion itself 
Legionary Soldier may have been familiar enough 
(Foot) t0 dwellers in Pal. in the time of 

our Lord, owing to the various incursions of the 
Roman armies. This familiarity may be taken as 
proved by the use of " legion " as a symbol of mul- 
titude. In later NT. times we know that a legion 
proper was stationed in Palestine. 





Legionary Soldier (Horseman) 

LEHABIM. See Libya. 

LEHI, " jawbone," the scene of Samson's exploit 
agst. the Phil. (Jg. I5. 9 - 14 , " Ramath L.," i.e. " Hill 
of L.," v. 17), a place prob. deriving its name fm. 
,some resemblance to a jawbone, prob. in Wddy es 
Sardr, near Zorah and Timnath. No satisfactory 
identification has been proposed. 

LEMUEL. The 31st chap, of Proverbs pur- 
ports to be an " oracle " taught by his mr. to King 
Lemuel. Taking massa, the word translated " pro- 
phecy " (AV.) or " oracle " (RV.), as a proper name, 
we may read " Lemuel, king of Massa " (RVm.). 
In that case his kdm. might be sought in Arabia, 
where the children of Massa, son of Ishmael, found 
their home (Gn. 25. 14 ; I Ch. I. 30 ). Some think 
the name (" belonging (?) to God ") might be applied 
to a wise and virtuous king, such as Hezekiah. But 
here we are in the region of pure conjecture. 

LENTILS (Heb. i addshlm = Arb. ^adas) form an 
important part of the food of the common people 
in Pal. (Gn. 25. 34 ). The usual " pottage " is dark 
brown in colour. With the L. are stewed pieces of 
meat, onions, rice, oil, &c. 

LEOPARD (Heb. namer, "spotted," Aram. 
nemar = Arb. nimr), the well-known predaceous 
animal of the cat tribe. In former times the L. was 
common in Mt. Lebanon. It is still found not in- 
frequently in the Hermon and Anti-lebanon range 
(SS. 4. 8 ). In 1892 a leopard established a reign of 



terror in the central district of Upper Galilee, and 
wrought great havoc among the cattle before he 
was shot by a young engineer. His body measured 
over four feet in length. The L. is fond of the 
flesh of goats, and is therefore specially feared and 
hated by the shepherds in Sinai, whose flocks are 
mainly goats (Is. n. 6 ). The habits of the creature 
are referred to in Jr. 5. 6 and Ho. 13. 7 . It lies in 
ambush, observing the movements of its prey, 
springing with certain aim when the opportunity 
comes. It is graceful in form and swift in motion 
(Hb. I. 8 ) ; its beautiful skin, with dark spots on the 
tawny fur, is highly prized. 

The L. figures in several place-names in Scrip., 
e.g. Nimrah (Nu. 32. 3 > 36 ), Nimrim (Is. 15. 6 ), &c. 
It was probably once much more common than 
it is now ; but in the southern reaches of the 
Arabah and the mountains on the east still the 
cheetah (Felts jubata) is a not unfamiliar sight. 
It is sometimes tamed by the Arabs and used in 
hunting. 

The L. was thought to be a different animal from the 
panther, or pard, and to be a hybrid between the lioness 
and the pard: hence the name leopardus, "lion-pard." 

LEPROSY. See Diseases and Remedies. 

LESHEM. See Laish. 

LET. In AV. this verb sometimes occurs in a 
sense the exact opposite of its modern meaning, " to 
allow." In Ex. 5*; Nu. 22. 16ff - ; Is. 43. 13 ; Rm. 
I. 13 ; 2 Th. 2. 7 it means "to hinder," or to 
" restrain." 

LETTECH is EVm. transliteration of the word 
trd. in EV. " an half homer " (Ho. 3. 2 ). " An 
homer of barley and an half homer of barley " 
would together be worth about 15 silver shekels. 
This with the 15 shekels in money make up 30 
shekels, wh. are specified (Ex. 21. 32 ) as the price of 
a slave. See Weights and Measures. 

LETTER. See Writing. 

LETUSHIM and LEUMMIM are named as 
sons of Dedan (Gn. 25. 3 ), grandson of Abraham by 
Keturah. The plural form suggests that they are 
names of peoples, whom, however, it is still impossible 
to trace. The former may be connected with the 
verb Idtasb, " to forge," " to sharpen " ; in which 
case the names might stand for trades. They are, 
however, generally regarded as proper names ; and 
names bearing some resemblance to them have been 
found in Nabataean and Sabasan inscriptions. But 
do certain conclusion can be reached. 

LEVI, LEVITES, PRIESTS. The plain Scrip, 
nar. mentions Levi as the third s. of Jacob and 
Leah (Gn. 2c;. 34 ), and connects the name with the 
Heb. root lavah, to adhere ; a word found in the 
mother's expression of a desire for a more affec- 
tionate relationship with her husband, for Jacob 
" loved Rachel more than Leah." After his birth 
nothing is recorded of him till the family of Jacob is 



386 



Lev 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lev 



settled in the land of Can. Along with his br. bility save that of supervision at the age of 50 (Nu. 

Simeon he took upon himself the avenging of the 8. 25 ). These age limits reduced the numbers at 

insulted family honour and the injury to his sr. command in the three families derived fm. Levi's 

Dinah (Gn. 34.)- Such seems to have been the duty sons to 2750 Kohathites, 2630 Gershonites, and 

of the brs. rather than of the fr. (cp. 2 S. 13. 22 ) ; but 3260 Merarites (Nu. 4.) ; and to these three fami- 

in the present instance, instead of being satisfied lies were assigned the following duties during the 

with the demands of the lex talionis and confin- desert pilgrimage. The Kohathites were required 

ing their vengeance to the guilty individual, they to bear the sacred vessels, and the ark itself, after it 

allowed their anger to carry them to extremes, and had been covered even fm. their view by the priests ; 

by means of cowardice and treachery they accom- the Gershonites were the bearers of the curtains and 

plished a gen. massacre of the Shechemites (Gn. hangings of the tabernacle ; while the boards, bars, 

34. 25 ). In nothing else do we hear of Levi taking and pillars were borne by the Merarites (Nu. 3., 4.). 

a prominent part. Like his brethren, he hated When the desert wanderings were over, and the 

Joseph and shared in their action (Gn. 37.), while tabernacle was setup at a fixed centre, a great part 

later L. is mentioned with his three sons, Gershon, of the duties then imposed upon these families came 

Kohath, and Merari, as of the party when Jacob to an end, and, besides, they were also considerably 

migrated to Egp. Jacob, who at the time of the relieved of their more burdensome duties in being 

massacre of the Shechemites had remonstrated but assisted by the Gibeonites (Jo. o,. 27 ) (see Nethinim). 

feebly, and who was apparently then silenced by the Arrangements were consequently made wh. did not 

answer of the sons, brought up the subject again for necessitate their continual presence at the sanctuary, 

condemnation in his deathbed song (Gn. 49. 5 " 7 ), and but in these, the more effectively to separate them 

prophesied the scattering of Simeon and Levi in Isr. fm. the common pursuits of life, no territorial pos- 

While his words were literally fulfilled in the de- session was assigned to them as a tribe. The Lord 

scendants of Simeon, the scattering in the case of the was to be their inheritance (Nu. 18. 20 ; Dt. 10. 9 ). 

tribe of Levi was, on account of subsequent loyalty The Levites were distributed through the other 

(Ex. 32. 26 ' 28 ), changed into a blessing. It is to be tribes, in whose possession they received 48 towns, 

noted that the action condemned by Jacob is in with their suburbs as pasture lands (Nu. 35. 3 ). In 

later Lit. (Jth. g. 2 ; Bk. Ju. 30. 18 ) commented on addition there was assigned to them a tithe fm. all 

with approval. the produce of the other tribes, but of this they 

Levites. — Sometimes this word is used, on the had themselves to give a tithe to the priests (Nu. 

analogy of the other tribal names, of all the descts. 18. 21 ' 24 « 26 ; Ne. io. 38 ). Every third yr. again they 

of Levi (Ex. 6. 25 ; Nu. 35. 2 ; Dt. io. 8 ) ; but as the were to receive an additional share in the produce 

" sons of Aaron " were specially appointed to the of the land (Dt. I4. 28f -, 26. 12 ). 

higher office of the priesthood, and were not usually No sooner had the work of conquest been carried' 

designated Levites (1 K. 8. 4 ; Ez. 2. 70 ; Jn. I. 19 ), it to the centre of the land than Joshua, in the settling 

came about that all the members of the tribe, with of the tribes, assigned also to the L. their cities, 

their exception, were known by this name. The How they fulfilled their duties during the days of 

dedication of this whole tribe to the service of the Judges we can only conjecture. Like the tribes 

religion is thus related in Scrip. From the time of amongst whom they dwelt, they lived alongside of 

Isr.'s redemption (Ex. 13.) the first-born males of the old inhabitants of the land (Jg. 1.) ; and on the 

man and beast were to be dedicated to the Lord, but whole we are led to believe that this was among 

instead of the first-born of all Isr. the tribe of Levi them a period of declension, in testimony of wh. we 

was taken (Nu. 8. 16 ), and instead of the first-born may cite the almost incredible cowardice and low 

of all cattle, those of the Levites (Nu. 3- 45 ). The morality of the Levite of Mt. Ephraim (Jg. 19.), and 

numerical correspondence (Nu. 3- 43 ) of the conse- the conduct permitted around the tabernacle in the 

crated tribe with those they represented was so time of Eli ; a state of matters that cd. only be the 

close as to be fitted to impress upon the people the result of a long period of moral decay. Samuel, 

idea of substitution. himself a L., seems to have set himself the task of 

The service required of them was arranged in the reforming the order, and tradition has it that he was 

wilderness. The organisation was on martial lines, the founder of the " schools of the prophets," wh. 

and it was designated military service, and described prob. were for the most part composed of Levites. 

as keeping charge of the sanctuary, i.e. the Levites The absence of the ark in Phil, territory, and 

were a kind of royal guard waiting exclusively on later at Kirjath-jearim, though in many ways pro- 

the theocratic King of Isr., whose presence among ducing anomalous circumstances, did not altogether 

the people was signified by the tabernacle. They prevent the ministrations of the Levites ; for during 

entered on active service at the age of 30 (Nu. 4. 23 ), that period we find them serving at Shiloh (1 S. 14. 3 ), 

but Nu. 8. 24 seems to imply a period of preparatory Nob (1 S. 22. 11 ), and Gibeon (1 K. 3* ; 1 Ch. 16. 39 ) ; 

service ; and they were relieved of all responsi- and on its recovery the position of the Levites was 

387 



Lev 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lev 



fully recognised. The paramount position of the 
L. during the long judgeship of Samuel was prob. 
one of the causes of reaction that led to the demand 
for a king ; and the troubles of Saul's reign may in 
some sense be looked upon as arising out of a claim 
of the " divine right of kings " agst. the ecclesiastical 
order. Down to the days of David the organisation 
had remained practically that of the desert ; but 
with his settling of the tabernacle service, more 
elaborate arrangements were introduced, and the 
duties of the L. thenceforward included all the 
services of the House of the Lord, save mediatorial 
functions (i Ch. 23. 24 ' 32 ). To such pertained the 
offering of praise to the Lord morning and evening 
— a duty that seems to have led to the cultivation 
of music ; and in this art we are told that the most 
skilled were the sons of Heman, Asaph and Jedu- 
thun. The numbers qualified for active service at 
this time are given as 24,000 for the work of the 
sanctuary, 6000 officers and judges, 4000 porters, 
and 4000 musicians (1 Ch. c;. 192 - ; 2 Ch. 20. 19 ). 
They resided during the greater part of the yr. in 
their cities, and went up for service at fixed times, 
prob. corresponding to the courses of the priests ; 
for we find the skilled musicians, like them, divided 
into 24 courses of 12 each. 

When Jeroboam introduced his schismatic cult 
he had, with prob. rare exceptions, to find other 
ministers of religion, for the L. and priests, loyal 
to the house of David and the Temple worship, 
gathered round Jrs. (2 Ch. II. 13, 14 ), where they 
became influential in the preservation and restora- 
tion of true religion, as in the days of Jehoshaphat 
(2 Ch. 19. 8 - 10 ), Joash (2 Ch. 23.), Hezekiah (2 Ch. 
29. 12 - 15 ), and Josiah (2 Ch. 34., 35.) ; while in the 
days of the apostate kings they suffered rejection 
and prob. persecution ; as during the reigns of 
Ahaz (2 Ch. 28. 24 ) and Manasseh. Under the later 
kings — vassals of Egp. and Bab. — the L. them- 
selves did not preserve their fidelity, and so with the 
rest of the nation they had to submit to the loss of 
the Temple, and to captivity. 

There seems to have been a momentary enthu- 
siasm when the return was mentioned, for the chiefs 
of the L. also arose (Ez. I. 5 ). The actual number 
that returned, however, on the first occasion (Ez. 
2. 36 " 42 ) was small, but these were given their old 
duties at the dedication of the second Temple (Ez. 
3. 10 ' 6. 18 ). On the second return only 38 cd. be got 
together, and being insufficient for the service re- 
quired of them, it was in part given to the Nethinim. 
Such as returned took their old places as teachers, 
interpreters (Ne. 8. 7 ), and musicians (Ne. 9.). 
Their right to tithes was secured to them (Ne. 
io. 37 " 39 ), and they dwelt, as prob. since the days of 
the schism, in the villages of Judah (Ne. i2. 28fL ). 
They were represented at the dedication of the wall 
of Jrs. Their genealogies were carefully looked into, 



and measures taken to preserve them as well as the 
priests from contamination by mixed marriages 
(Ez. io. 23 ). They were the special guardians of the 
Sabbath (Ne. 13. 22 ), and at the close of OT. pro- 
phecy Malachi's vision of the latter days includes 
also the purification of the sons of Levi (Ml. 3. 3 ). 

Thereafter till NT. times the L. are practically 
unmentioned. The incidental refc. in the parable 
of the Good Samaritan shows the L. to be as heart- 
less and as callous as the priest, and we may fairly 
infer that, as in the case of the priests, their religion 
had degenerated into a lifeless Sadduceeism. As 
often occurs when vital religion decays, a fondness 
for display took hold on the L., and in the reign of 
Agrippa II. the singers begged that they mt. have 
permission fm. the king and the Sanhedrin to wear 




Dress of the Priests (Egyptian) 



garments similar to the priests {Ant. XX. ix. 6). 
By their urging that such an arrangement wd. be 
worthy of Agrippa's government and a memorial of 
his reign, they obtained their desire. Thereupon 
those who ministered in other things claimed the 
right also to be singers, and this too was conceded ; 
but immediately thereafter, with the fall of Jrs. 
and the destruction of the Temple, their power and 
ostentation passed away. 

Priests. — The idea of priesthood is always asso- 
ciated with the thought of the inability of man to 
approach God on account of sin and the need of a 
mediator more acceptable than the common man, 
that intercession may be made and offended justice 
satisfied. The Heb. word kohen gen. represents 
such a priest, but judging fm. the usage of the word 
in Arabic it wd. seem to have been connected 
originally with soothsaying or the giving of oracles — 
a duty also of the Israelitish priests in connection 
with the Urim and Thummim — whence it naturally 
came to mean the deliverer of a Divine message, or 
one who stands between God and man representing 



388 



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each to the other ; and as sacrifice was usually 
connected with divination, this remained ever an 
essential duty of the priestly class. 

Before the time of Moses the priesthood was 
patriarchal, i.e. the father made offering as medi- 
ator for his family, as in the case of Abraham (cp. 
also Jb. i. 5 ) ; the prince for his people, as Melchi- 
zedek (Gn. 14. 18 ) ; and the sheikh for his tribe, as 
Jethro (Ex. 2. 16 ) ; and such priesthood seems to 
have been the hereditary right of the first-born (cp. 
Mishna, Zeb. xiv. 4). In Egp. Isr. first came into 
contact with the priests as a caste, and in some ways 
the connection was very close. Joseph was married 
to the dr. of the priest of On (Gn. 41 , 45 ), and that 
prob. accounts for the special favour he showed to 
the priests during the seven yrs. of famine (Gn. 
47. 26 ). Further, there can be little doubt that 
Moses got his teaching in the wisdom of the 
Egyptians (Ac. jP) fm. the priests. The Israelite 
priesthood, however, was not in any sense derived 
fm. the Egyptian, but the points of contact we have 
indicated, and others unrecorded, may have had 
an influence on details of the new system. The 
sacrifices mentioned in Ex. 5. 1 " 3 imply, of course, the 
services of the patriarchal or household priests ; 
and those mentioned in Ex. 19. 22 also belong to the 
same class. 

The priestly dignity in Isr. was limited to Aaron 
and his descts., even the family of Moses remaining 
simple Levites; but as two of Aaron's sons died (Lv. 
10.), leaving no male heir, the succession was con- 
fined to the lines of Eleazar and Ithamar. The 
establishment in the house of Aaron was not, 
however, settled without opposition. Dathan and 
Abiram, as representing the tribe of Reuben, the 
first-born and heir to the patriarchal priesthood, 
together with Korah and a company of L., claiming 
a share as being of those substituted for the first- 
born, rebelled (Nu. 16.). The office was then re- 
confirmed, but there seems to have been a strong 
tendency to revert to the older system (Jg. 17.), and 
many of the irregularities in places of sacrifice and 
persons offering may be explained as returns to the 
not yet obsolete system. The early events in the 
hist, of the Aaronic priesthood, as recorded, were 
their taking the lead in the passage of the Jordan 
(Jo. 3. 14, 15 ), and in the overthrow of Jericho (Jo. 
6. 12 " 16 ). Then on the division of the land they 
received in the S. of Canaan thirteen cities with 
their suburbs as pasture lands (Jo. 2i. 13 " 19 ). 

Thenceforward, till the close of the period of the 
Judges, there is little recorded of their hist. Shiloh 
in its seclusion prob. escaped many of the ruinous 
effects of the wars of the period ; and in none of 
them, nor in any other national act, are the priests 
recorded as taking a part. The evil lives of the sons 
of Eli, followed by the capture of the ark and the 
destruction of Shiloh (Jr. 7. 12 ), threw the whole 



organisation into confusion, and the functions of the 
office were for a time exercised by Samuel, a simple 
L. (1 S. 7. 17 ), but admitted by a kind of adoption 
and special consecration into the priestly office. 
The chief centre for a time was at Nob, but this 
also was brought to an end by the attack on and 
massacre of the priests at the instigation of Saul 

(I S. 22. 19 ). 

Only when David came into full power was order 
restored. When the ark was taken to Jrs. (1 Ch. 
I 5- 4ff ')? ne summoned the priests fm. their cities, and 
although Gibeon continued also for a time to be a 
holy place (1 Ch. l6. 37 " 39 , 21. 29 ; 2 Ch. I. 3 ), Jrs. 
gradually became the one central sanctuary. It 
was now, too, that the priests were divided into 24 
courses, serving each a week in turn, and returning 
to their cities during the intervening periods (1 Ch. 
24.). At such times of leisure some of them became 
teachers or interpreters of the Law (2 Ch. 15. 3 ). 
Some devoted themselves to the deeper study of 
divine things, and received in addition the prophetic 
call, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah ; while on 
the other hand many shared in the general corrup- 
tion of the times (Jr. 5. 31 ; Zp. 3. 4 ), and became 
themselves degenerate (Is. 28. 7 * 8 , 56. 10 ' 12 ). Many 
remained in the lands of captivity, but such as did 
return threw themselves into the work of restora- 
tion and reformation, and at least during the time 
of the early Persian rulers they were granted im- 
munity fm. taxation (Ez. 6. 8 ' 9 , 7- 24 ). By means of 
the deputation of priests and citizens (Ant. XI. 
viii. 5) to Alexander at Sapha, his favour was 
secured and the services left in peace for a time. 
The persecutions wh. led to the wars of the 
Maccabees and the gallant work done by that 
priestly family naturally raised the whole class in the 
estimate of the people, and they gradually came to 
take a leading place in the Sanhedrin. During NT. 
times the division into 24 courses was still nominally 
preserved (Lk. I. 5 ), and by that time the leading 
priests belonged to the sect of the Sadducees, 
though we can scarcely think of the multitude that 
accepted the Gospel (Ac. 6. 7 ) as being affected by 
such teaching. With the fall of the Holy City 
their power and influence passed away. The rabbis 
became the authoritative teachers of Judaism, and 
even in cases where priestly descent is acknow- 
ledged among later Jews, the special privileges of 
the caste have become limited to the pronouncing of 
the " Priestly Blessing " (Nu. 6. 24 * 26 ) ; while in the 
NT. Church there is nothing at all like the sacer- 
dotal office attached to the ministry of the word, all 
functions of the priesthood, whether patriarchal or 
Aaronic, being summed up and fulfilled in Christ 
alone, as set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

High Priest. — At the head of the whole hie- 
rarchy was the High Priest, hakkohen hag-gddol (Lv. 
21. 10 ), otherwise known by the names of hakkohen 



389 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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hd-rosh, the chief priest (2 K. 25. 18 ), hakkohen 
bam-mdshik, the anointed priest (Lv. 4. 16 ), and 
sometimes simply as " the priest " (2 K. 23. 24 ). 
There seems to have been also a second priest with 
the designation of kohen mishneh (2 K. 25. 18 ), and a 
kind of committee of priests designated ziqne bak- 
kohdnim (2 K. 19. 2 ; Jr. 19. 1 ). The succession was 
hereditary in the family of Aaron, and is understood 
to have been on the lines of primogeniture (cp. 
Rashi on I Ch. 24.2) . In this way the succession 
began. Nadab and Abihu having died during the 
lifetime of Aaron, he was succeeded by Eleazar in 
preference to Ithamar, the younger surviving s. 
He in turn was succeeded by his s., Phineas, but how 
many more of the line of Eleazar as given in I Ch. 
6. 4 " 7 occupied the high-priestly office we cannot tell. 
Josephus declares that Abishua, Bukki, and Uzzi 
succeeded {Ant. V. xi. 5), and that the transference 
then took place to the family of Ithamar in the 
person of Eli ; but for what reason he does not tell. 
In this line the office remained till the time of 
Solomon, the High Priests being Eli, Ahitub, 
Ahiah, Ahimelech, and Abiathar (1 Ch. 9. 11 ; Ne. 
II. 11 ; I S. 14. 3 ). In the reign of David we meet 
with the fact, anomalous in the OT., of two con- 
temporaneous High Priests, Ahimelech and Zadok 
(2 S. 8. 17 ; I Ch. 18. 16 ). We can only conjecture 
that the arrangement had come about through 
some attempt either on the part of Saul or David to 
conciliate the heads of the two lines, and that to 
avoid offence both had been allowed to remain in 
office. After the death of David, however, Solomon 
deposed Abiathar, and the line of Eleazar remained 
in sole possession till the time of the Maccabees. 
Zadok was the High Priest when Solomon began 
his reign, but he seems to have been succeeded by 
his grandson Azariah before the dedication of the 
Temple (1 K. 4.2 ; I Ch. 6. 10 ). Several difficulties 
meet us when we seek to trace the succession of 
priests during the period of the Judean kings. The 
historical bks. refer to several whose names do not 
occur in the genealogical list of I Ch. 6. 8 " 15 , and 
diffcs. again are found in Jos. (Ant. X. viii. 6). A 
comparison, however, of these three sources gives 
the following as the most prob. succession fm. 
Azariah till the time of the Captivity : Johanan, 
Azariah, Amariah, Ahitub (1 Ch. 6. 9 " 11 ), Jehoiada 
(2 Ch. 23.), Zechariah (2 Ch. 24. 20 ), Zadok (1 Ch. 
6. 12 ), Azariah (2 Ch. 31. 10 ), Urijah (2 K. l6. 10 ' 16 ), 
Azariah (2 Ch. 26. 16 " 21 ), Iddo {Ant. X. viii. 6), 
Shallum, Hilkiah, Azariah, Seraiah (1 Ch. 6. 12 ' u ). 
The chief incidents in wh. the priests took an active 
part during this period were the establishment of 
the Temple service and the organisation of the 
caste under the direction of the High Priest ; the 
revolution by which Athaliah was deposed and 
Joash placed on the throne (2 Ch. 23.) ; the effective 
resistance offered to Uzziah when he attempted to 



usurp priestly functions (2 Ch. 26.) ; the repair of 
the Temple and the restoration of the services 
(2 Ch. 30.) ; the discovery of Deuteronomy in 
the Temple and the Reformation that followed it 
(2 Ch. 34.). 

After the Temple was plundered and destroyed in 
B.C. 586, Seraiah the High Priest, along with others, 
was put to death at Riblah (2 K. 25. 21 ), while his son, 
Jehozadak, was carried into captivity (1 Ch. 6. 15 ), 
and died there, leaving, however, a son, Jeshua, who 
recovered the hereditary office and took an active 
and honourable part with Zerubbabel in the res- 
toration of the Temple and the commonwealth 
of Isr. (Ez. 5.). After the return fm. exile the 
Chronicler gives the priestly line till the time of 
Alexander the Great (b.c. 332) as, Jeshua, Joiakim, 
Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan, and Jaddua. Little is 
known of the history of this period, except that it 
was through the marriage and secession of Manasseh, 
son of Joiada, that the rival worship was set up on 
Gerizim (Ne. I3. 28 ), an event wh. Josephus places 
much later {Ant. XI. viii. 2) ; see Samaritans. 
A copper coin — the earliest in Jewish Hist. — of 
Eliashib is said to exist in the Cabinet du Roi at 
Paris, while one more fact is recorded of this period, 
viz. that the br. of Jonathan entered into an in- 
trigue to obtain the priesthood, and was in that 
connection slain in the Temple court {Ant. XI. 
vii. 1). As a punishment for this offence the 
Persian governor Bagoses imposed a tax of fifty 
shekels during a period of seven yrs. on every lamb 
for the daily sacrifice. 

It was Jaddua and his attendant priests who 
made up the picturesque procession fm. Jrs. to 
Sapha {Ant. XI. viii. 5), to meet Alexander the 
Great, who was so favourably impressed by the 
reception he got that the city and people were not 
only spared, but their requests were fully granted. 
His line continued in office till the yr. b.c. 170, and 
the most noteworthy members of the family were 
Simon the Just, the last member of the Great 
Synagogue ; Eleazar, during whose term of office 
the beginning of the LXX translation was made 
{Letter of Aristeas, § 33) ; and Onias, who fled to 
Egp., and built a temple at Heliopolis, wh. the Jews 
did not regard as schismatic, but as fulfilling the 
prophecy of Is. 19. 19 {Ant. XIII. hi. 3). The line 
closed in troublous times, caused by the persecutions 
of Antiochus Epiphanes, and the state of degrada- 
tion to wh. its last representative, Menelaus, re- 
duced the priesthood, wh., after a vacancy of seven 
yrs., was continued by his successor Alcimus. A 
religious and patriotic revolution, however, soon 
occurred. It was guided by the Asmoneans or 
Maccabees, a family of the course of Joarib (1 Ch. 
24. 7 ), who was prob. of the line of Eleazar. It gave 
to Isr. eight hereditary High Priests, who likewise 
exercised civil functions and became for a time 



390 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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independent rulers. The last of the line was 
murdered by his brother-in-law Herod, in the yr. 
b.c. 35. Thereafter no fewer than twenty-eight 
High Priests, appointed by the Herods or the 
Roman governors of Judea, directed the Temple 
services during a period of 105 yrs., till their place 
and nation were taken away by the fall of Jrs. in 
a.d. 70. The most important of these are, of course, 
those we meet with in the NT. — Annas, whose four 
sons and son-in-law, Joseph Caiaphas, filled the 
high-priestly office, and whose family are designated 
in the Tim. " Hanan's viper brood." A kind of 
parallel to this description meets us in two other 
phrases in the Tim., the one of wh. states that the 
priests were wont to go to Lydda for marriage, 
while the other says that Lydda was nine times 
more wicked than all the rest of the world together. 
Jos. (Ant. XVII. vi. 4) records the interesting fact, 
attested also by the Mishna and Gemara, that the 
High Priest in the yr. of the Nativity was precluded 
from acting at one of the fasts on account of having 
contracted ceremonial impurity, and as a conse- 
quence a substitute had to be found. Another 
interesting case of ceremonial impurity is that of 
the High Priest who was the friend of Aretas (2 Cor. 
II. 32 ), who became unclean by the spittle of the 
king falling on his robe. It tells us of the friend- 
ship of the two, and explains how the High Priest 
cd. give Saul letters to Damascus (Ac. cj. 2 ). 

Consecration. — The dedication of the Levites is 
described in Nu. 8. 5 " 22 . The aim of the various 
ceremonies may be summed up in the word " puri- 
fication " (vv. 6, 21). Bodily purification was ac- 
complished by the three actions of sprinkling with 
the water of purifying, shaving the whole body, and 
washing the clothes. The Levite was now fit to be 
given over to the Lord, as a substitute for the whole 
people, who were to accept this substitution by 
laying their hands on the L. (v. 10). Then the sin- 
offering and burnt-offering were offered on behalf 
of the L., who had to signify their relationship to 
them by laying their hands upon the victims. This 
ceremonial was meant to show that men chosen even 
by God to enter the sanctuary had to be atoned for. 
In the case of the dedication of the priests the word 
used is not " purify " but " sanctify." The cere- 
monial is described in Ex. 29. and Lv. 8. It con- 
sisted of washing at the door of the tabernacle, in- 
vesting or clothing with four articles of dress — 
breeches, coat, bonnet, and girdle ; the three first- 
named of white, shining linen, as a symbol of purity ; 
the girdle adorned with coloured embroidery. The 
anointing, a symbol of the giving of the Divine 
Spirit, was accomplished by the application to the 
forehead of an oil specially x repared by having 
four sweet-smelling substances mixed with it. 
Sacrificeswere then offered — a bullock as a sin-offer- 
ing for the purification of priests and altar, a ram 




as a whole burnt-offering by the purified priests, 
and finally a thank-offering. The right ear, right 
thumb, and big toe of the right foot were touched 
by the blood of the ram as indicating the priests' 
hearing, acting, walking in holiness. The ceremony 
was repeated on seven successive days, during wh. 
the priests abode in the tabernacle. The consecra- 
tion of the High Priest differed fm. that of the 
common priests in the matter of investiture and 
anointing. Over the clothing of the ordinary 
priest he was clothed with a woven upper dress of 
blue cotton — the me^'il — wh. had bound on its lower 
hem a fringe, to wh. were 
attached pomegranates of 
cotton and golden bells ; 
the sound of the latter 
serving the people as a 
guide during the ser- 
vices. Over the me^'il was 
the Ephod, and to this 
the breastplate with the 
Urim and Thummim was 
attached. As a covering 
for the head he had a 
mitre, to wh.wasattached 
a plate of gold with the 
inscription, " Holiness to 
the Lord." The peculi- 
arity in the case of his 
anointing was that the 
oil was poured on his head 
in abundance (Ex. 29. 7 ; cp 
fact he was designated " the Anointed Priest." 

Services. — The duties of the Levites after the 
toils of the desert were over were generally " to 
wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the 
House of the Lord, in the courts and the chambers, 
and the purifying of all holy things " (1 Ch. 23. 28 ). 
This included preparing the shewbread and the 
fine flour for the meat-offering, as also for the un- 
leavened bread. They were also to assist the priests 
in the offering of all burnt sacrifices on the Sabbaths 
and on the set feasts, and, besides, they acted as gate- 
keepers, attendants, and general servants in and 
about the sanctuary. The duties of the priests, on 
the other hand, are described as " coming near." 
Their fixed and invariable duties were to keep 
watch over the fire on the altar of burnt-offerings, 
and to keep it burning night and day (Lv. 6. 12 ; 
2 Ch. 13. 11 ), to supply the golden candlestick with 
oil (Ex. 27. 20 « 21 ; Lv. 24. 2 ), and to offer the daily 
sacrifices (Ex. 2g. 38 ' M ). To the High Priest be- 
longed the government of the priests, Levites, 
and sanctuary. He guided all the functions of the 
common priests, but whether he took an active part 
in ordinary circumstances we cannot say. Josephus 
says that his duties were limited to the Sabbaths, 
the new moons, and the feasts (BJ. V. v. 7). The 



Dress of High Priest 
(Egyptian) 

Ps. 133. 2 ), andfm. this 



39 1 



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Lev 



service on the Day of Atonement was specially his, 
as he alone cd. enter within the veil to sprinkle the 
blood of the sin offering on the Mercy-seat, and 
offer incense there (Lv. 16.). The delivery of 
oracular responses by means of the " Urim and 
Thummim " was also a function of the High 
Priest ; but of its use we never hear after the estab- 
lishment of Solomon's Temple. It wd. appear that 
the prophets took its place after that time. (See 
also the various Feasts and Sacrifices.) 

Modern Critical Theory. — Many modern 
scholars, recognising various strata in the literary 
growth of the Pentateuch, and the development of 
its institutions, have sought to reconstruct the 
history of Israel by comparison with that of other 
nations and deductions f m. the literary materials in 
hand. Generally there is hesitancy on the part of 
such to accept Levi as the eponymous ancestor of 
the priestly caste, and he is looked upon as at the 
most an ideal person. It is said that just as Simeon 
and Levi are communities in Gn. 49. 7 , so they are 
in Gn. 34. allied or brother tribes, and then the 
name Levi is explained as a nomen gentile, derived 
fm. the root mentioned, but with the meaning of 
" attaching one's self to," this name indicating that 
the Leah tribes attached themselves to the Rachel 
tribes at Kadesh Barnea. It was only after the 
entry into Canaan, but before the people had 
passed into settled life, that the events of Gn. 34. 
took place, on account of wh. Simeon was reduced 
to a small clan and driven South, while Levi was 
scattered throughout Isr. Some seek to trace the 
priesthood in its origin and succession to Moses and 
his family (Jg. 17., 18. ; 1 S. 2. 27 ), and tell us that 
the story of its connection with Aaron is a late and 
abnormal theory. In E. Moses is the head of the 
sanctuary, and Joshua is his attendant (Ex. 33. 7 " 11 ), 
while it is doubtful if J. knew originally anything at 
all of Aaron. The name Levite is to be regarded as 
equivalent to " professional priest," but as there 
was in prehistoric times a tribe of the name, it may 
be supposed that Moses belonged to this tribe, and 
that in this way the name was passed on. Stade 
writes : " One circumstance prevented the com- 
plete disappearance of the Levites among the other 
tribes — their past history. Moses, the founder of 
Israel's religion and its first priest, belonged to this 
tribe, and the memory of that still lived. It was 
naturally to be expected that Levi wd. be acquainted 
with sacred usages, i.e. things oracular, and so it 
came about that the members of this tribe were 
willingly accepted as priests, while on their part 
their want of possessions caused them to devote 
themselves to the service of the Holy Places." 
Wellhausen declares that a connection between the 
later priestly caste of the Levites and the earlier 
tribe of the name cannot be proved, and that there 
can be only a supposition that Moses belonged to it. 



He recognises the word Levite to have been used of 
the priests serving at some of the leading sanctu- 
aries, and thinks that other priestly families sought 
to increase their dignity by the fiction of a common 
descent. Notwithstanding this "fiction," how- 
ever, the Levitical succession was hereditary. 

In connection with the development of the idea 
of priestly functions it is noted that P. knows nothing 
of either pre-Mosaic priest or sacrifice. J. and 
E., while they know of sacrifice, mention no priest, 
and that because it was the duty of the individual 
himself to present his offering. In each case the 
meaning is the same — the priestly caste begins with 
Moses. 

Then in the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, 
we search in vain for the organised system of P. 
Only at a temple or its substitute does a priest 
appear. In Judges, private persons, as Gideon 
and Manoah, offer sacrifice. In Samuel, the Eph- 
raimite Samuel, the Benjamite Saul, and the Judean 
David, each offer sacrifice with their own hands. 
Whoever would, might kill and offer (1 S. I4. 34fl -). 
The law in practice was that of the Bk. of the Cove- 
nant (Ex. 20. 24 ) : " An altar of earth thou shalt make 
unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt- 
offerings." Only by later editors of these bks. are 
priests and Levites brought upon the scene (1 S. 

6. 14ff -)- 

From the circumstances it is explained that the 
origin of the priestly caste is not to be traced to the 
need of a mediator to present the offerings of others 
to God. That may have come to be the chief duty 
of the later Hebrew priest, but in earlier times it 
was neither more nor less his duty than it was that 
of every head of a family in Isr. The case of Micah 
(Jg. 17., 18.) shows that he desired a priest because 
he had set up a " house of God," i.e. a house with 
an image, wh. had to be served and guarded ; and 
further, that the oracle mt. be consulted. It is to 
be noted that duties at such places are regularly 
designated by the words shereth, " to serve," and 
sbamdr, " to guard " (1 S. 7. 1 , 14. 18 , 23. 9 ). The 
legitimate oracle in Israel was the " Urim and 
Thummim," and of course its service cd. not belong 
to every one. Its use was complicated, esp. when a 
number of questions had to be asked (1 S-: lo. 20ff -, 
14. 19 ), and so it became necessary that even Saul 
and David shd. consult it through one of the 
initiated (1 S. 14. 18 , 23. 9 , 30. 7 ). This was the work 
in wh. the Levites were proficient, and it was one of 
their earliest duties (Jg. I7. 7ff - ; Dt. 33- 8 ). 

It was, however, natural that those who came to 
the Levites, and received oracles fm. God through 
their mediation, shd. look upon the mediators as 
beloved of God, and shd. seek for their mediation 
also in the presenting of sacrifices. 

As the giving of oracles implied a secret know- 
ledge, and as the offering of sacrifice became more 



39 2 



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and more technical, it was not only natural but neces- 
sary that such offices should become hereditary. We 
can understand how the possessor of an image wd. 
pass it on to his son, and we find that the priesthood 
and oracle at Dan were hereditary for several cen- 
turies (Jg. 18. 30 ). In Eli's lifetime his sons took 
over the office of their fr. (i S. 2. llff -). The heredi- 
tary holder of the office at Nob traced his descent 
fm. the house of Eli. It is not to be thought, how- 
ever, that the caste was exclusive. Samuel was ad- 
mitted into it, and the kings appointed priests as 
they would (2 S. 20. 25 ; I K. 12. 31 ). 

With the establishment of the kdm. there came 
also the royal priests at the royal sanctuary, who 
were, of course, regarded as of greater dignity than 
the priests at the local sanctuaries. When Isr. re- 
volted there was really no sanctuary left in the kdm. 
of Judah that cd. in any way rival the Temple, and 
so it came about that they as priests were para- 
mount. In Jrs., however, they gradually lost in a 
different way the independence they had enjoyed 
at Shiloh and Nob, and became more and more 
officers of the court, or servants of the kings, who 
ruled over them and dictated in the affairs of the 
sanctuary without contradiction. Thus David 
appointed, alongside of Abiathar, Zadok and Ira 
as priests, and also gave his sons the same rank 
(2 S. 8. 18 RV.). Solomon did not hesitate to re- 
move the aged Abiathar for a political offence, and 
that notwithstanding his belonging to the family of 
Eli, and accdg. to the Deuteronomic outlook (1 S. 
2. 27ff -) the only legitimate priest. Later on, too, 
we read of Uriah obeying without objection the 
order of the king, Ahaz, in the imitating of the 
altar in use at Damascus (2 K. i6. 10ff *). 

Zadok's descts. then followed, accdg. to all ac- 
counts, hereditarily till the time of the Exile. 

In the Northern Kdm. the relationship between 
king and priests was similar to that in Judah. They 
were the royal servants (Am. 7. 10 ), and shared the 
fate of the royal houses (2 K. IO. 11 ), while each king 
claimed to appoint whom he would (1 K. 12. 31 , 
13. 33 ). 

But although the force of circumstances gave to 
the families of Eli and Zadok a superior rank, it is to 
be noted that the older documents know nothing of 
an essential distinction between priests and Levites. 
In Dt. i8. la , all Levites can be priests, and pro- 
vision is made for country Levites coming to the 
central sanctuary and claiming to serve as priests 
(Dt. 18. 6 - 8 ). In P. (Lv. and Nu.), however, the dis- 
tinction between the two orders is clear, and no 
common Levite dare assume priestly functions. 
The explanation that is usually given is that the 
centralisation of the worship in the Temple natu- 
rally carried with it the idea that the priesthood 
there was the only legitimate one. D. in arranging 
the matters of the central sanctuary makes provision 



for local Levites coming up to it, but by the time 
of Ezekiel all such were rigidly excluded fm. the 
priestly office ; while to bring matters into line it is 
explained that they, having served the local sanctu- 
aries, wh. were illegitimate, are degraded, and as- 
signed the lower office wh. their name henceforth 
denotes (Ek. 44. 6-16 ). P. in his code then carries 
the distinction back to the time of Moses. 

The small number of Levites returning fm. the 
Exile is accounted for by their dissatisfaction with 
their position and duties as degraded priests. 

In all these inferences, however, one feels more 
and more that the endless series of deductions fm. 
insufficient premises is overdone, and that the 
Bible's own theory of its origin, its hist., and the 
development of its institutions, is eminently rea- 
sonable. Allowance for editorial work in different 
centuries must be made. The existence of different 
codes may be admitted and their limits, as generally 
accepted, conceded ; but we must take into account 
the different aim of each. When we examine Dt., 
the key to the whole question, we find that while 
the manifest editorial work implies a writer in 
Western Pal. (Dt. I. 1 , 4. 46 , &c), the speeches them- 
selves imply a speaker in Eastern Pal. (Dt. n. 30 , 
I2. 8 « 9 , 26. 1 ). The settlement of the land and the 
application of this code was not so early accom- 
plished as was hoped for, and during the periods 
of confusion, of conquests and reconquests in the 
days of the judges and early kings, the older practice 
of patriarchal priesthood was the one that con- 
tinued in use ; only modified from time to time 
by the attempts of the Aaronic priesthood to at- 
tain its legalised status. The loss of Deuteronomy 
before the establishment of its conditions accounts 
for the want of conformity to it under the estab- 
lished monarchy. The term " the priests, the 
Levites " may not imply that all Levites are priests, 
but be a contrast between the older family, or 
patriarchal priests, and the new " Levitical priests." 
Difficulties are too often created by reading into the 
text what it does not contain. 

Wm. M. Christie. 

LEVI. See Matthew. 

LEVIATHAN in Jb. 41. is evidently the croco- 
dile. So also in Ps. 74. 14 , where he is the symbol 
of Egypt (cf. Is. 27. 1 ; Ek. 19. 3 , &c.) ; see Dragon. 
The crocodile, abounding in the Nile, appropriately 
represents Egypt. Only in recent times has it dis- 
appeared from Lower Egp. It may still, although 
very rarely, be seen in Palestine, in Nahr ez-Zerqd, 
popularly called the Crocodile Fiver, or in the 
Kishon, in the sluggish waters near the sea. 

In Ps. 104. 25 the reference to " the great and 
wide sea " points definitely to the Mediterranean. 
Here, therefore, some large cetacean is intended, 
perhaps the grampus or rorqual. These are occa- 
sionally seen in the Eastern Mediterranean, and 



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two rorqual skeletons have been found en the 
Phoenician shore. 

With Behemoth Leviathan shared the honour, 
in Jewish fables, of being slain to afford mate- 
rials for the great feast of Messianic times (see 
Jw. En. s.v. Leviathan ; Eisinmenger, Entdecktes 
Judenthum). 

LEVITICUS. From the nature of its contents, 
Leviticus is probably the most neglected book in the 
whole Bible, for nothing could well be more remote 
from the modern standpoint than its detailed ac- 
count of the ritual connected with animal and cereal 
sacrifices, as practised by the ancient Jews. Yet 
Leviticus is, as a matter of fact, the central mass 
around which the Pentateuch was gradually formed ; 
and the influence of the Pentateuch on the Jewish 
character it is impossible to over-estimate. Clearly, 
therefore, Leviticus deserves careful study. This 
book belongs wholly to the Priestly Code, each 
section of it being definitely assignable to one or 



Aaron and his sons and an unhappy incident con- 
nected therewith, chaps. 8.-10. 

(3) Laws of Ceremonial Purity and Impurity, 
chaps. 11.-15. 

(4) The Great Day of Atonement and its detailed 
ritual, chap. 16. 

(5) The Law of Holiness, chaps. 17.-26. 

(6) Appendix on Vows and Tithes, chap. Tj a 
That Biblical critics are left perfectly free to de- 
termine, from the data supplied by internal and 
historical evidence, the relative age of the various 
laws given in Leviticus must be admitted by all 
reasonable men, for in the book itself there is not the 
slightest allusion made as to the time when these 
laws were first reduced to writing. We never read 
anywhere in Leviticus " And Jehovah said to Moses, 
Write," but invariably "And Jehovah said to Moses, 
Speak unto Aaron," or " Speak unto the Israelites." 
The inference, therefore, is inevitable that these laws 
were not originally committed to writing, but were, 




Leviathan (Crocodilus vulgaris) 



other of P.'s three strata. The Priestly Code, it is 
now acknowledged by most scholars, cannot possibly 
have been the work of a single author. It is the 
conjoint work of a long succession of writers, all of 
whom belonged to the priestly class. It contains 
three distinctly marked stages of legislation, the 
earliest of which is called " The Law of Holiness." 
Hence the symbol P H . Next in order of time comes 
what is called the groundwork or historical setting 
of the Priestly Narrative, which, together with its 
contemporary legislation, may be called P G . The 
latest stratum includes whatever legislative addi- 
tions are manifestly amendments of or develop- 
ments from the earlier enactments of P H or P G . 
These secondary or supplementary legislative de- 
velopments may be styled P s . 

The legislative parts of Leviticus fall naturally 
into three main divisions — chaps. I .-7., II.-15., 
1 7.-26. Thus the whole book is best divided, like 
the Hexateuch itself, into six parts, four of which 
are purely legislative, and two, partly at least, nar- 
rative, viz. chaps. 8.-IO., and 16. These parts are 
very unequal in size and quite as unequal in impor- 
tance, the fourth and sixth consisting of only one 
chapter each, whereas the fifth consists of no fewer 
than ten chapters. Taking the book, then, as it 
stands, we divide it thus — 

(1) The Ritual of Sacrifice, chaps. 1.-7. 

(2) The Consecration and Installation to office of 



for a longer or shorter time, handed down from one 
generation to another by oral tradition. Conse- 
quently such laws would, in most cases, be actually 
in force long before they were put into a written 
form, and longer still before they were admitted 
into any recognised civil or ecclesiastical code. 
Moreover, this interval must, in the case of some 
laws, have been much longer than in the case of 
others. Hence the conclusion that the written 
form of a law is late does not necessarily involve the 
further conclusion that the law itself is late. Indeed 
it is quite possible that a law may have originally 
belonged to an early age, though the written form in 
which it has come down to us may be comparatively 
late. 

In the first section, " The Ritual of Sacrifice," 
there are two subdivisions. (1) A manual on the 
ritual of sacrifice for the use of the laity, chaps. 
I.-6. 7 (in Heb. Bible, chaps. 1.-5.). Hence the 
headings, " And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 
Speak to the Israelites," &c. {cp. I. 2 , 4« 2 ). (2) A 
manual on the ritual of sacrifice for the use of the 
priests, chaps. 6. 8 -J. 7 . Hence the headings, " And 
Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Command Aaron 
and his sons, saying " (cp. 6. 9, 24 ). Moses, however, 
again addresses the people in chap. J. 22 ~ 3i . 

The part which sacrifice played in Jewish life, 
whether public or private, cannot well be exagge- 
rated. In early times it mattered little what the 



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sacrifice itself consisted of, or how it was presented. 
The all-important point was, To whom was it 
offered ? If presented in a proper spirit to Jehovah, 
the only true God, then whatever the offering, or 
however simple the ritual, the sacrifice was accept- 
able to Israel's God. 

Sacrifices were, in the earliest days, purely spon- 
taneous acts, due to the offerer's gratitude for some 
signal proof of. the Divine favour ; afterwards they 
were prescribed by definite statute, as this manual 
for the laity proves. Accordingly, sacrifices were at 
first very various in character, being offered any- 
where and anyhow by any one ; and this variety de- 
pended on the nature of the favour received and the 
circumstances in which the sacrifice was offered : 
cp. Jacob at Bethel, Gideon at Ophrah, and Hannah 
at Shiloh. The original conception of sacrifice was 
that God required, or at any rate enjoyed, a sacrifice, 
just as man requires and enjoys his food. Primitive 
man thought that the God in whose honour he slew 
the victim ate its flesh and drank its blood ; and 
even when civilisation had advanced so far that men 
knew how to obtain for their own use and enjoy- 
ment oil and wine, they still considered that their 
God enjoyed the wine of a drink-offering, and that 
the oil which they mixed with every cereal-offering 
they presented made the flour and the cakes more 
palatable to their God. But such ideas were by- 
and-by felt to be too grossly materialistic, and at last 
it was only the fragrant smoke of the burnt-offering, 
as it curled slowly heavenward, that was held to be 
specially pleasing to the Divine Being. 

Animal flesh has always been considered the most 
important part of a feast. In primitive days, every 
meal at which flesh was eaten was regarded as a 
sacrificial feast. Not till the God of the host had 
received his due portion (and that was always the 
best or fattest part) could the family or the guests 
begin to eat. The blood, being considered the 
seat of life, belonged in a very special sense to God, 
the Giver of life. The victim's blood was, therefore, 
either poured out on the ground or flung from 
the sacrificial bowl against the altar. Indeed the 
blood was so peculiarly what belonged to God that 
flesh with any blood in it was never on any account 
to be eaten by an Israelite. Even in Lv. we find a 
sacrifice spoken of as the bread of God (3. 11 ' 16 , 
21. 6 ' 22 , &c). In these passages, however, it is 
possible that the Hebrew word for " bread " may be 
used in its Arabic sense, " flesh." If so, then this is 
a very striking illustration of the persistence with 
which ceremonial words retain their original signifi- 
cation ; for, on this supposition, this word, which in 
ordinary Hebrew had long since ceased to mean 
anything but " bread," still retained in sacrificial 
terminology its original signification, " flesh." 

Now, in ritual as in every department of human 
thought and practice, the more developed must be 



later than the less developed, out of which, on the 
principle of Evolution, the more developed has 
gradually grown. The progress of Biblical Criti- 
cism, especially in recent years, has really been due 
to the application of the Evolution Theory to the 
problem of Israel's development. The effects of 
Darwinism have been by no means confined to the 
realm of Natural Science. It may safely be averred 
that Darwin's theory has contributed as much to 
the progress of intelligent study in the departments 
both of History and of Religion as it has to the 
advancement of the various branches of Natural 
Science. There are a thousand and one facts which 
go to prove that Jewish ritual did change from age 
to age ; but to establish this statement it is sufficient 
to compare Ek. 46. 11 with Nu. 28. 11 - 14 , both of 
which passages treat of the sacrifices offered on the 
stated feast-days. In Ezekiel the very same cereal- 
offering is prescribed for a bullock as for a ram, viz. 
an ephah of fine flour ; while for a lamb each wor- 
shipper has to give a cereal-offering according to his 
means. In Numbers, however, the cereal-offering 
for a bullock is -^ of an ephah, for a ram -j^-, for a 
lamb yq. Furthermore, while in Ezekiel no men- 
tion is made of any accompanying drink-offering or 
libation, according to Numbers the drink-offering 
presented with each bullock was \ hin of wine, with 
each ram ^, and with each lamb ^ of a hin. It is 
evident, therefore, that the ritual in Numbers is 
much more precise in details than that in Ezekiel, 
and therefore it is undeniably the more developed. 
Consequently, it must be the later. The further 
conclusion is, therefore, inevitable that the book 
which prescribes the later ritual must have been 
written after Ezekiel's time. No wonder, therefore, 
that the Jewish rabbis, accomplished casuists as they 
were, could not reconcile such a conclusion with 
their belief in the Mosaic authorship of the Pen- 
tateuch, and were at their wits' end to explain such 
discrepancies as these between Ezekiel and the re- 
cognised Law-book of their nation. 

Sacrifices, though originally offered anywhere, 
were gradually restricted to sacred places ; and 
finally, in the case of Israel, to one sacred place. 

According to Lv. i7- 3 ' 5 ? in the form in which it 
now stands, no animal could be killed even for food 
except at the one sanctuary. Small as the land of 
Canaan was, it was nevertheless far too large to 
admit of such a law being actually put in force. 
Indeed this law cd. not have been even thought of 
until after the return from the Exile, when the High 
Priest was practically the head not only of the 
Church but of the State, and when the territory 
over which he exercised spiritual and temporal 
authority alike was limited to a very small area 
round about Jerusalem. 

In the People's Manual there are five kinds of sac- 
rifices described. (1) Burnt-offerings ; (2) cereal- 



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offerings ; (3) peace-offerings ; (4) sin-offerings ; from Ek. 40. 1 , where " the head of the year " must 

(5) guilt-offerings. In the Priests' Manual the mean New Year's Day, and also from Lv. 25. 9L , 

same five classes are enumerated but in a different where the Jubilee Year, the 50th year, is said to 

order, peace-offerings being placed not third in the begin on the tenth day of the seventh month, as 

list, but last. From the historical point of view the soon as ever the trumpet was blown, 

first order is the most natural, the first three kinds In this chapter a wider and deeper meaning seems 

being mentioned in the earliest books, while neither to be given to the word " atonement " than it 

the sin-offering nor the guilt-offering is mentioned usually has in the Levitical system. Sin-offerings 

till the time of Ezekiel. In early days peace-offer- did not atone for all sins, but only for those done in 

ings were by far the most common, for in offerings ignorance, and therefore unwittingly. But here 

of this kind most of the victim's flesh was eaten by atonement is said to be made for all the iniquities 

the worshipper and his friends, and as the priests of the Israelites and all their transgressions, even all 

had less interest in this class of sacrifice it is only their sins (vv '. 16,21). Hence the Day of Atonement 

natural that it should stand last in the Priests' is also a day of repentance in the fullest sense of that 

Manual. word. The people were " to afflict their souls," the 

In the fully-developed ritual of P. there are five technical word for " fast," but they were to do so 

distinct acts in connection with an animal sacrifice not merely in outward form but with penitent, con- 

which must all be duly performed : — trite hearts. For sins committed " with a high 

(1) The animal had to be brought before the hand," or intentionally and presumptuously, and 
altar and formally presented to Jehovah. without being repented of, no sin-offering could 

(2) The offerer then laid his' hand solemnly on atone. But even for such sins, once they were re- 
the victim's head and pressed it heavily down, thus pented of, and when the doers had really " afflicted 
identifying himself with the animal whose blood their souls," the Great Day of Atonement could 
was about to be shed, and so symbolically trans- bring forgiveness from Jehovah, the merciful and 
ferring his guilt to it. According to the Mishna, gracious. 

no woman or slave, nor any person blind, deaf, or On the Day of Atonement the High Priest enters 

dumb, or imbecile, or a minor could perform this the Holy of Holies not once but thrice — the first 

solemn act. time when he carries into it a censer full of live coals 

(3) The animal was then slaughtered by the taken from off the altar of burnt-offering (v. 12), 
offerer, or, more probably, by a temple-attendant, and sets the incense alight that the smoke from it 
No stress, however, is laid on the act or mode of may protect him from the unbearable effulgence of 
killing. t Jehovah's glory, " that he die not ; " the second 

(4) The act of applying the blood. This act time when he goes in to sprinkle the blood of the 
could be performed by no one but a duly qualified bullock for himself ; and the third time when he 
priest ; and the ritual varied according to the kind takes in the blood of the goat to sprinkle it in the 
of sacrifice, the position of the offerer, and the same way for the people. Hence " once every year " 
nature of the occasion. in He. o,. 7 must mean " on one day every year," but 

(5) The final act is the disposal of the flesh. The not only once on that one day. 

various details as to the different kinds of sacrifice The fifth section (chaps. 1 7.-26.) is not only the 

cannot be enumerated here. largest but the most important of the book, especi- 

We may now pass on to the first of the two ally as it raises the most interesting problems in 

sections consisting of a single chap., viz. chap. 16., connection with Pentateuchal Criticism. These 

which describes the ritual on the Great Day of ten chapters form the main body of what is now 

Atonement. The sins of Jehovah's people could called " The Law of Holiness," a name first given to 

not but pollute even Jehovah's Sanctuary. Hence it by Klostermann because of the constant refrain, 

not only the Holy of Holies, but the Tent of Meet- " Ye shall be holy, for I, your God, am holy." All 

ing and the very altar on which Jehovah's sacrifices the laws in it are given that the Israelites may not 

were offered, all required to be periodically sancti- merely obtain but maintain the special holiness 

fied. Ezekiel enacted that this should be done required of Jehovah's peculiar people. The ideal 

twice a year, on New Year's Day and on the first day this code aimed at was a holy people for a holy God 

of the seventh month. But P. makes the ceremony in a holy land. 

annual, and assigns it to the tenth day of the seventh This code is the earliest stratum in the whole 
month. The choice of the seventh month is due to Priestly Narrative, and must have existed as an inde- 
the fact that this was the chief sacrificial month ; pendent code before the Priestly School of Writers 
and the tenth day of this month may therefore be had even conceived the idea which eventually re- 
regarded as the very central point of the whole suited in the formation of the Pentateuch. It con- 
sacrificial system. Besides, this day had once been sists mainly of laws concerning sacrifices, priests, 
New Year's Day. This seems a necessary inference sacred festivals, and other matters, such as cere- 

39 6 



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monial or Levitical purity. To such an extent 
does it carry the idea that everything must be done 
in strict accordance with the regular laws of worship 
that it actually declares a man to be worthy of death 
if he kill an animal for food without first bringing it 
to the Sanctuary. 

The life which the laws of this code presuppose is 
that of a settled agricultural community, very simple 
in its habits and requirements (cp. 19. 10 ' 13, 19 , 
25 , 35 " 37 ). Probably also the name of Aaron never 
occurred in the original Law of Holiness. The ex- 
pression, " the High Priest among his brethren," or 
better, " the priest greater than his brethren," cd. 
not properly be applied to Aaron, for the other 
priests are, in reference to Aaron, always described 
as his sons, not his brothers. In other words, the 
High Priest, being alone anointed, was regarded as 
on an altogether different level from the other 
priests, who were never anointed. Hence " the 
priest " seems to be used all through P H in a generic 
sense = the priesthood or a member of the priest- 
hood. It is certainly a confirmation of this theory 
that in the superscriptions and colophons we find 
the ordinary phrase, " the sons of Aaron," whereas 
in the laws themselves it is " thy seed " that is 
used, not " thy sons " or " thy son." 

The Law of Holiness has much affinity with 
Deuteronomy. It insists with the same emphasis 
on one Sanctuary. But the similarity is best seen 
by comparing chap 26. of Lv. with chap. 28. of Dt. 
Both codes have a hortatory element running 
through them ; and it is from an examination of 
this hortatory element in the Law of Holiness that 
we are most likely to get a clue to the date of its 
codification. Since most of the sections begin or 
end with language of a hortatory character, these 
portions are evidently the work of the author or 
authors who gave the code its final form. For 
though the laws were doubtless in existence before 
they were codified, it is impossible to believe that 
these hortatory passages could be. In consequence 
of the peculiar beauty that characterises both the 
thought and the diction of chap. 26., the inference 
may well be drawn that this collection of laws was 
put into its present form by the very hand that 
wrote its closing chapters. The verses, therefore, 
which bear most conclusively on the date of codi- 
fication are 26. 27 * 45 . Are these verses best inter- 
preted as due to the fear of an approaching exile or 
to the hope that the close of an actual exile is near at 
hand ? Surely the language is so vivid that it is 
better to regard it as the description of woes actually 
endured in the hated land of exile rather than an 
imaginative description of what was merely antici- 
pated. The woes of exile depicted with such depth of 
feeling have been already experienced by the author 
himself, but he is now joyously confident that the 
dawn of a- new day is at last brightening the horizon. 



The Exile that produced such an impression must 
have been the Babylonian Exile. Hence the Law 
of Holiness must have been just a little later than 
Ezekiel. This conclusion is confirmed in a very re- 
markable way by the linguistic data obtained from a 
careful comparison of the book of Ezekiel with the 
chapters under consideration. 

This Law of Holiness, though compiled by a 
Priestly author, differs in many respects from P. 
There are in it many passages of pathetic beauty 
which are utterly foreign to the matter-of-fact 
character of P., but which closely resemble in spirit 
and diction the most graphic passages that are to be 
found in the great prophets, e.g. 26. 36 , " The sound 
of a driven leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee 
as one fleeth from the sword, and they shall fall 
when none pursueth." Moreover, in spite of the 
externalism that necessarily predominates in a work 
dealing so largely with matters of ritual, there are 
so many traces of the humane spirit that breathes 
throughout Deuteronomy as to constitute a marked 
contrast with the purely ceremonial spirit of the 
later Priestly School. 

Although the central idea in the Law of Holiness 
was current coin in Israel's pre-exilic days, neverthe- 
less, after the Temple had been destroyed and the 
people had been carried away to Babylon, their con- 
viction as to the necessity of Holiness, both national 
and personal, became infinitely stronger. Had not 
the Holy Land vomited out the Israelites, as it had 
formerly vomited out the Canaanites, just because 
they had not continued to be a Holy People, as their 
Holy God required, but had, on the contrary, 
neglected their Sanctuary duties ? Jehovah had 
abandoned to the heathen conqueror His holy city, 
because His people had not kept their covenant with 
Him, but had neglected to offer the sacrifices He 
had demanded of them. Hence the exiles devoted 
themselves, heart and soul, to perfecting the ritual 
by means of which Holiness might be attained. On 
this task these Jewish exiles concentrated all their 
energies — on the task, that is, of making a holy people 
for a Holy God ; and the result of their consecrated 
zeal, guided by the Divine Spirit, was " The Law of 
Holiness." J. A. Paterson. 

LIBERTINES are mentioned among the adver- 
saries of Stephen (Ac. 6. 9 ). The multiplying of 
synagogues for small communities in Jewish cities 
to-day, makes it probable that the L. had a syna- 
gogue of their own in Jrs. It appears certain 
that they were Libertini in the Roman sense, i.e. 
freedmen. Many Jews were carried captive to 
Rome by Pompey. Jews must always have been 
somewhat " difficult " as slaves, owing to their 
tenacious adherence to their religious observances. 
Many of them were set free, and their descendants 
formed the bulk of the Jewish community in Rome 
(Philo, Leg. ad Gaium, 23 ; Tacitus, Ann. ii. 85). 



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The .home -sickness of their people no doubt drew 
many of them tojerusalem, where they distinguished 
themselves by their opposition to the new faith. 

LIBNAH. (i) A station in the wanderings (Nu. 
33- 20f ') j poss. = Laban (2) : unidentd. (2) A royal 
Can. city taken by Joshua (io. 29f -), in the Shephelah, 
allotted to Judah (15. 42 ). It revolted under Joram 
(2 K. 8. 22 , &c.) and was besieged by Sennacherib 
(2 K. 19. 8 ; Is. 37- 8 ). It was the home of Josiah's 
mr. (2 K. 23. 31 ). It lay between Makkedah and 
Lachish (Jo. io. 29,31 ). OEJ. places it in the dis- 
trict of Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin). Two sites 
have been suggested — Tell es Sdfiyeh, 7 J- miles N. of 
Beit Jibrin, and el-Benawy, six miles SE. of Tell 
el-He sy. 

LIBYA, LYBIANS. In AV. the Heb. Put is 
rendered " Libyans " in Jr. ^.6. 9 , and " Libya " in 
Ek. 30. 5 . RV. invariably renders " Put " (see Phut). 
The Libyans figure as allies of Egypt in the pro- 
phetic Lit. of OT. (Lubim, 2 Ch. 12. 3 , 16. 8 ; Na. 3.°, 
AV. Lubims ; Lubbim, Dn. n. 43 , EV. " Libyans "). 
A fair-haired, blue-eyed race appears on the Egyp- 
tian monuments, called " Lebu." This people 
were probably the original inhabitants of the land 
adjoining Egp. on the West. They seem to have 
furnished mercenaries in considerable numbers to 
the Egyptian armies. From the time of the 19th 
dynasty many of them settled in the Nile valley. 
Under the leadership of Shishak they finally con- 
quered Egp., and to them may be reckoned the 
22nd, 26th, and 28th dynasties. Lehabim (Gn. 
io. 13 ; I Ch. I. 11 ), a race related to Mizraim (Egypt), 
may be the same people. Ludim, mentioned as 
son of Mizraim (loc. cit.), and in connection with 
North African peoples (Ek. 27. 10 ), may have been 
the name of another Libyan tribe (see Ludim). 
Libya is the Greek name for the Roman province 
of Africa ; i.e. for the north of Africa, exclusive 
of Egypt (Ac. 2. 10 ). 

LICE (Heb. kinmm, LXX crKvi<£es), the crea- 
tures who formed the third plague of Egypt. 
Some would tr. " gnats," or even a species of worms 
(RVm. " sand-flies," or " fleas "). The Gr. o-Kvtf 
means " a kind of emmet " (Liddell and Scott). This 
would favour the rendering " fleas." Gnats rise 
fm. the water, not fm. " the dust of the earth " 
(Ex. 8. 16fl -) as Hce and fleas seem to do. Both are 
found plentifully in Egypt. When we remember 
the Egyptian instinct for personal cleanliness, the 
priests shaving all hair off their bodies to afford no 
harbour for vermin, we can understand how utterly 
loathsome it wd. be for them to be covered with 
such disgusting creatures as lice. 

LIEUTENANT. See Satrap. 

LIFE is nowhere defined in Scrip., but it is re- 
presented as the exclusive possession of organic 
creatures (Gn. I. 20 ; Pr. 12. 10 ; I Cor. 14. 7 ). God 
is the fountain whence all life flows (Ps. 36. 9 ; Jn. 



5. 26 , &c), and human life is His gift (Gn. 2. 7 , &c). 
It is conveyed by the breath of God (Gn. 2. 7 ). It is 
identified with breath (Gn. 6. 17 , &c.) or wind (Jb. 
7. 7 ). It is illusive and transient as a vapour (Js.4. 14 ). 
It was observed that the life left the body with the 
blood. The latter was in fact identified with the 
life, and a peculiar sacredness attached to it. To 
eat the blood of an animal was held sacrilege (Dt. 
12. 23 , &c), as it is to this day alike among Jews and 
Arabs. Nothing is so precious to a man as life 
(Jb. 2. 4 ). It is the supreme good, as over against 
Death, the supreme evil. No greater proof of 
loyalty and devotion to a cause cd. be given than 
that one should adventure his life in its interest 
Qg. 5. 18 , 12. 3 , &c.). "As I live" is a form of 
asseveration put into the mouth of the Lord (Nu. 
14. 21 , &c). " As the Lord liveth " (Jg. 8. 19 : lit. 
J", is living) is a common oath, and is practically 
equivalent to " by the life of J"." Men also swear 
by the life of the king (Gn. 42. 15 , &c). " As thy 
soul liveth" (1 S. I. 26 , &c.) may be compared 
with the mod. Arb. wa haydtak, " by thy life." 
Precious and sacred as it was, the worth of life cd. be 
estimated in no other medium. For life taken only 
life could pay (Ex. 21. 23 ; Nu. 35. 31 ; Dt. 19. 21 ). 

The term is sometimes applied to the ground of 
life's continuance (Dt. 32. 47 ), and to that which 
makes for fulness and effectiveness of life. Again it 
signifies the sum of a man's earthly years (Gn. 7. 11 , 
&c). In NT. once and again " this life " means 
human existence here and now, with all its material 
conditions and limitations, as contrasted with " that 
which is to come " (1 Cor. 15. 19 ; 1 Tm. 4. 8 , &c). 
Corresponding to the mod. usage in wh. " life " is 
practically equal to" conduct " — e.g. " a good life," 
&c. — we have such phrases as " a peaceable life " 
(1 Tm. 2. 2 ), " manner of life " (Ac. 26. 4 , &c). 

As men desire life above all things, so God's gift 
to men in Christ Jesus is life in undreamed of 
amplitude (Jn. io. 10 ). It is life to which there is no 
limit, over which death has no power (Jn. io. 28 , 
1 1 . 25f *, &c.) . Life lost in the service of Christ is life 
saved : the divinely bestowed crown of a victorious 
life is itself life, greater and more glorious (Rv. 2. 10 ). 
Eternal life is the present possession of believers 
(Jn. 3. 16 ' 36 , &c). The distinction in AV. between 
" everlasting " and " eternal " as applied to life is 
unreal. The adjective is the same in every case 
(aionios), and RV. uniformly renders " eternal." 
" Eternal life " is not simply " endless " ; it is 
rather to be conceived under the aspect of time- 
lessness. It is life which is " hid with Christ in 
God " (Col. 3. 3 ) ; its very essence is found in 
union and communion with God. 

We are often reminded that to the OT. saints no 
clear vision of the life to come was vouchsafed. 
They do not seem to have thought much about it. 
Of course full expression of all their religious hopes 



398 



Lig 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lim 



and beliefs need not be sought for in the extant 
literature. And we must remember that their 
deepest aspiration was after union and fellowship 
with God ; and this carried in it the satisfaction of 
every legitimate human desire. On this subject, 
therefore, Old and New Testaments are in funda- 
mental agreement. In the NT., however, there is 
granted to us a glimpse of the life beyond the grave, 
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His life is the 
pledge and guarantee of ours (Jn. 14. 19 ). 

LIGHTNING represents several Heb. and 
one Gr. word : (1) V, lit. " light " (Jb. 37. 3 ) ; 
(2) bdzdq, wh. is probably an error for bdrdq (Ek. 
I. 14 ) ; (3) bdrdq, the most common term (Ex. 19. 16 , 
&c.) ; (4) hdziz, wh. Ges. derives fm. hdzaz, and 
defines as " properly an arrow." But the mean- 
ing is uncertain. We shd. possibly tr. " thunder- 
cloud." (5) Lap fid, lit. " torch " or " flame." It 
is used in the plural for the lightnings on Sinai (Ex. 
20. 18 ). In several cases where " fire " is spoken of 
as falling fm. heaven probably L. is meant (Gn. 
19. 24 ; I K. 18. 38 ). Where it is mentioned with a 
hailstorm (Ex. c). 24 ) certainly lightning is meant. 
The NT. word is astrape. God is master of the 
lightnings (Jb. 38. 35 , &c). They are as weapons in 
His hand, arrows with wh. He destroys His enemies 
(2 S. 22. 15 ; Ps. 144. 6 ). "My glittering sword" 
(Dt. 32. 41 ; cp. Na. 3. 3 , &c.) is lit. " the lightning of 
My sword " ; and in Jb. 20. 25 the lightning is the 
sword itself. The speed of chariots, or perhaps the 
flashing of the wheels in the sun, is compared to 
lightning (Na. 2. 4 ). A glorious countenance is like 
L. (Dn. io. 6 ; cp. Mw. 28. 3 ). Like L. Satan falls 
from heaven (Lk. io. 18 ). The name " Barak " is 
lit. " lightning." Some wd., therefore, identify 
Barak with Lappidoth (Jg. 4 4 ) 

LIGN-ALOES. See Aloes. 

LIGURE, the first stone in the third row on the 
breastplate of the High Priest (Ex. 28. 19 ). For the 
Heb. leshem LXX gives ligurion. Various identi- 
fications have been suggested : " jacinth " (RV.), 
"amber" (RVm.), " yellow agate" (Flinders Petrie). 

LILITH. This name is trd. in Is. 34. 14 AV. 
" screech owl " ; in AVm. and RV. " night mon- 
ster." It is really the name of a female demon 
of Hebrew folk-lore. She is said to have been 
Adam's first wife. She refused to be subject, or to 
yield obedience to him, and flew away from him. 
Thereafter she became a demon. The superstition 
is connected with that of the Babylonian and 
Assyrian Lil and Lilit. " The Sumerian lilla or 
lil meant a ' ghost,' ' spirit,' or ' spark,' and was 
borrowed by the Semites under the form of lilu, 
from which the feminine lilitu was formed in order 
to represent the female lil whom the Sumerians 
called kiel lilla, ' handmaid of (the male) lil. 9 
Lilitu is the Hebrew Lilith " (Sayce, The Religion of 
Anct. Egp, and Bab. 261). The lil had properly no 



relationship to humankind. It had a separate and 
independent existence of its own, dwelling under 
the earth among the dead, but visiting the upper 
world by night, or haunting desert places where 
no living thing appeared. Essentially a spirit of 
darkness, it was known as the " light-despoiler." 
It travelled in the dust-cloud and the whirlwind. 
" The lil, in fact, was essentially a demon," without 
husband or wife, " one of those evil spirits who 
tormented and perplexed mankind." The " hand- 
maid of the lil " was the female attendant of the 
sexless lil. " Under the cover of night she enticed 
men to their destruction, or seduced them in their 
dreams. She was a veritable vampire, providing 
the lil she served with its human food." To the 
Semite mind she ceased to be a serving-maid and 
became a lil herself, carrying over all her repulsive 
and gruesome characteristics. For the Hebrew 
these were embodied in the conception of Lilith, a 
single individual spirit. It was in accordance with 
the popular notions that she should haunt the deso- 
late ruins of Edom (Is. 34. 14 ), finding among them 
" a place of rest." The later rabbis have much to 
say regarding this vampire, who, in the form of a 
beautiful woman, was wont to suck the blood of 
children whom she slew at night. She was also 
especially dangerous to men who slept alone (Sayce, 
op. cit. 281I). The Targum on Jb. I. 15 identifies 
Lilith with the Queen of Sheba. This superstition 
was active among the Jews in Mesopotamia until 
the seventh cent, of our era, and in some quarters it 
is not yet quite extinct. For the Rabbinical stories 
see Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. s.v., and Eisenmenger, 
Entdecktes Judenthum, ii. chap. 8. 

LILY. The word (Heb. shush an, Gr. krinon) 
cannot be taken as indicating any particular flower. 
The lilies of 1 K. J 22 , &c, may be the lotus flowers 
wh. often appear in Egyptian decorations. But the 
Heb., like the mod. Arb. susan, applies to many 
brightly coloured flowers, including the anemone, 
iris, gladiolus, &c. One who has seen the glory of 
these flowers in a Galilean spring, glowing over the 
fields in the splendours of scarlet, pink, purple, and 
blue, must feel that the Saviour's reference wd. lose 
much of its effect if limited to any single species 
(Mw. 6. 28f -, &c. ; cp. SS. 2. 16 , &c). 

LIME (Heb. sid), the common alkaline earth 
used as mortar. The Heb. word occurs four times 
in the OT. ; in Dt. 2/. 2 > 4 it is trd. " plaister." It 
was to cover over the stones that were to be set up 
on Mt. Ebal, either to afford a convenient surface on 
wh. to impress, possibly in cuneiform, certain por- 
tions of the Deuteronomic Law, or to protect the 
words fm. the weather after they had been engraven 
on the stones. If the latter be the meaning, it is 
difficult to understand the point of the instruction 
in v. 8. Is. 33. 12 and Am. 2. 1 refer to the burning 
of limestone to make into lime. The burnt lime- 



399 



Lin 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lin 



stone in the kiln is an apt emblem of the condition to 
which the peoples are doomed. Moab is denounced 
for burning " the bones of the king of Edom into 
lime " — i.e. phosphate of lime, the chief ingredient 
in bone ash. Such burning of the bones, involving 
the complete destruction of the bodily frame, was 
a gross indignity. It made impossible, also, the 
gathering of the man to his fathers. Possibly there 
was some thought that despite done to the corpse 
involved suffering for the spirit. The chalkstone 
of Is. 27.° is the unslaked " shell " of quicklime, 
which crumbles at the touch of water. 

LINE represents several Heb. words, (i) Rebel : 
this denotes " a cord," used for a variety of purposes, 
e.g. to lower men from a window (Jo. 2. 15 ), for tent- 
ropes (Is. 33. 20 ), for ships' tackling (Is. 33. 23 ), &c. ; 



In NT. " line " occurs only once in AV. (2 Cor. 
io. 16 ). Here we may tr. kanon with RV. " pro- 
vince," the apostle fig. conceiving his own sphere 
as having its limits determined by the kanon or 
measuring-rod. 

LINEN. EV. render many words by L., the 
meaning of wh. it is impossible always to distin- 
guish. In some instances not L. but cotton may be 
intended. Bad is used only of clothes (Gn. 41 . 42 ; 
Ex. 28. 42 , &c). Sbesh may be either the thread 
(Ex. 39- 28 ), the cloth (25 4 , &c), or the finished 
garment (28. 39 , &c). The mod. Arb. shash means 
" cotton gauze." The Gr. byssos, later used for 
" cotton " (Liddell and Scott, s.v.), fm. butz (Ek. 
27. 16 , &c), a word of Aram, origin, Josephus takes 
as equivalent to both bad and sbesh. Pishtim de- 




Preparing Flax, 



9 10 11 12 

AND MAKING TWINE AND CLOTH 



a, Steps leading to pits, bb, where flax was steeped ; cc, flax taken by 3 to dry before beating ; d, stalks fresh cut ; 1 brings water in 
earthen pots; 4, 5 beat flax with mallets, ee; 7, 8 strike yarn on stone, g; 9, 10 twist yarn into a rope; n, 12 show piece of cloth, 
i, made from yarn; 13, superintendent. 

then a measuring line (2 S. 8. 2 ; Ps. 78. 55 ; Am. 
7. 17 ; Mi. 2. 5 ; Zc. 2. 1 ). It is used fig. as of lines 
marking off the limits of a happy and favoured 
life. (2) Hut corresponds to the Arabic khait, " a 
thread " or thin cord, easily broken (Jg. 16. 12 ). It 
is used as a measure of length in 1 K. 7. 15 , " a line 
of twelve cubits." (3) Pdthtl, from pdthal, " to 
twist," variously trd. in EV., is primarily a cord 
(e.g. the cord from which the seal was hung : Gn. 
38.18, 25_ not « bracelet " AV.). In Ek. 40. 3 it is 
used for measuring line. (4) Qazv, from qdwah, 
" to wait for " (prob. originally " to twist " or 
stretch "), is used only of measuring line (1 K. 



7. 23 ), employed in marking off allotments in land 
(Is. 34. 17 ), in building (Jb. 38. 5 ), by the craftsman in 
designing the idol he is to carve (Is. 44. 13 ), in mark- 
ing off what is devoted to destruction (2 K. 21. 13 , 
&c). In Ps. 19. 5 instead L of DJj?, "their line," 
perhaps we should read B?p, " their voice," or 
" sound." (5) Sered. This word, which occurs 
only in Is. 44. 13 , does not mean " line " (AV.). 
RV. reads " pencil," and RVm. " red ochre." The 
context suggests a marking-tool for wood. (6) Tiq- 
weh, from the same root as qazv, in Jo. 2. 18 signifies 
the scarlet cord which Rahab bound in the window. 



notes flax and all its products (Jo. 2. 6 ; Jr. 13. 1 , 
&c). Sadin (Jg. I4. 12f - ; Pr. 31. 24 , &c), prob. = Gr. 
sindon (Mk. 14. 51 ; Mw. 27. 59 , &c), a linen sheet. 
'Eton, prob. = fine thread (Pr. 7. 16 ). Othone (Ac. 
io. 11 ) is a large sheet : othonia (Jn. 19. 40 , &c), the 
sheet torn into strips for bandages. Omolinon (Sr. 
40. 4 ) was unbleached flax. Sha'atnez (Lv. 19. 19 ) 
was prob. mingled cotton and linen. Miqweh 
(1 K. io. 28 ; 2 Ch. I. 16 ), AV. " linen yarn " ; RV., 
correctly, " drove." 

L. was early made and greatly appreciated in 
Egp. (Herod, ii. 182). It was an article of Egyp- 
tian commerce (Ek. 27. 7 , &c). In a hot climate 
it ministers to cleanliness and comfort. Egyptian 
priests wore L. (Herod, ii. 37; Wilk. Anct. Egyptians, 
iii. 117). L. only was used for the wrapping of 
mummies. L. is prominent in the furnishings of 
the Tabernacle, and is prescribed for the priestly 
garments (Ex. 25. 4 , 28. 15 , &c). It was worn 
largely by royal and wealthy persons (Gn. 41 . 42 ; 
Est. 8. 15 ; Lk. 16. 19 ). L. was worn by those en- 
gaging in religious service (1 S. 2. 18 , 22. 18 ; 2 S. 6. 14 ; 
2 Ch. 5. 12 ). It symbolises the righteousness of the 
saints (Rv. 19. 8 ; cp. 18. 16 ), and poss. signifies the 
purity of the warriors who wear it (ib. 19. 14 ). 



400 



Lin 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lio 



LINTEL, the horizontal stone or piece of tim- 
ber over the doorway, resting upon the doorposts. 
The Heb. 'ay it is the lintel of the Temple doorway 
(i K. 6. 31 ) ; mashqoph is the lintel of the Egyptian 
house, to be sprinkled with blood (Ex. I2. 22f -). 
Kaphtor (Am. 9. 1 ; 
of a column. 

LINUS (2 Tm. 



Zp. 2. 14 ) is properly the capital 

4. 21 ), a Roman Christian who 
unites with Eubulus and Claudia in sending greet- 
ings to Timothy. He is called by Eusebius (HE. 
iii. 2, 4, 13) the "first Bishop of Rome" after 



have been frequently encountered in OT. times. 
Samson slew a L. wh. had roared upon him (Jg. 
14. 5 ). David, when a shepherd, encountered and 
slew a L. (1 S. 17. 34 ) ; Benaiah, the s. of Jehoiada, 
slew a L. in the midst of a pit in the time of snow 
(2 S. 23. 20 ). When the prophet fm. Judah dis- 
obeyed God, a L. slew him (1 K. 13. 24 ) ; there is a 
similar case in I K. 20. 36 . Afterwards, when the 
land of Israel had been harried by the Assyrian 
campaigns and the deportations, lions multiplied 
(2 K. 17. 25 ). References to the lions are frequent 




A Lion Hunt (Assyrian) 



Peter ; Irenaeus also (III. iii. 3) makes a similar 
statement, only he attributes the ordination of L. to 
the apostles generally, not to Peter alone. On the 
other hand, Tertullian (Press. Hcer. 32) says, " The 
Church of Rome records that Clement was ordained 
over them by Peter." It is improbable that the 
government of the Roman Church had become 
definitely Episcopal during the lifetime of the 
apostle Peter. Clement in his epistle appears to 
contemplate only two orders (Clem. i. 40 ; cp. 36). 
The episcopate of L. is said to have continued 12 
years. For a full discussion of this whole question 
see Lightfoot's Dissertation on " The Early Roman 
Succession," Apostolic Fathers : Clement, vol. i. pp. 
201-345. 

LION, the strongest of the cat tribe, and the one 
wh. has most impressed the imagination fm. its 
majestic look. Though now extirpated fm. Pal., in- 
deed fm. the whole of South-western Asia, it must 



in the poetical books and the prophets. None of the 
wild animals is so frequently named in OT. as the L., 
and none is known by a greater variety of names. 
(1) 'art, the L. generically (Jg. 14. 8 ) ; (2) lab? 
(poetic), fm. roaring (Is. 5- 29 ), lab? yah, a lioness ; 
(3) layish, an old L. ; (4) kephlr, a young L. (Jr. 
2 5- 38 ) 5 (5) gWi a lion's whelp (Ek. 19. 2 ) ; (6) shahal 
(poetic), a roaring L. The L. was the symbol of 
strength (Jg. 14. 18 ), of cruelty (Ps. J. 2 ), of majesty of 
going (Pr. 30. 30 ). The L. was common as an orna- 
ment ; it was thus used by Solomon (1 K. 7- 29 ), and 
Dr. Thomson (LB.) repeatedly mentions seeing 
carvings of lions on the rocks. It was the symbol of 
the tribe of Judah (Gn. 49. 9 ) and of that of Dan 
(Dt. 33- 22 ). It is the symbol also of a monarch (Pr. 
19. 12 ; Ek. 19. 6 ). In the Apocalypse our Lord is 
called " the Lion of the Tribe of Judah " (Rv. 5. 5 ). 
It may be presumed that the lions in the den into 
wh. Daniel was cast were kept for amusement (Dn. 



401 



Lip 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Loa 



6. 7 ). Hunting the L. was a favourite amusement 
of the Ninevite kings. 

LIP, in OT., usually stands for the Heb. sdphdh. 
With few exceptions the references are to the lips as 
organs of speech. Such adjectives as " lying " (Ps. 




Egyptian Litter 

31. 18 ), " perverse " (Pr. 4. 24 ), &c, indicate the dis- 
position and aim of the speaker. " Swords are in 
their lips " (Ps. 59. 7 ), and " adders' poison is under 
their lips " (Ps. 140. 3 ), point to the injury done by 
wicked words. " The fruit of the lips " is praise 
(Is. 57. 19 ). Probably we shd. also read "fruit" 
instead of " calves," in Ho. 14. 2 — so LXX and Syr. 
The change in MT. is slight. A gesture in the 
worship of the heavenly bodies seems to have been 
to touch the lips with the hand (Jb. 3 1. 27 ). This is 
part of a common Oriental gesture in salutation. 
The ancient Assyrians put rings in the lips of their 
captives, to which cords were attached. These 
are often figured on the monuments. The Heb. 
sdphdm properly means beard and moustache, or the 
lower part of the face. It is not unusual in the East 
for one stricken with sorrow too deep for words to 
draw part of his raiment over his lips (Ek. 24. 17 ' 22 ; 
Mi. 3. 7 ). This also was the attitude to be assumed 
by the leper (Lv. 13. 45 ). In the NT. the usage of 
cheilos is the same as that of sdphdh in OT. It 
appears only in passages quoted fm. LXX. 

LITTER. The L., to wh. allusion may be made 
in Dt. 28. 56 , was known to the early Hebrews. The 
" camel's furniture " of Gn. 31. 34 may be the litter 
borne on a camel's back. " Wagons " of Nu. 7. 3 * 8 
prob. had shafts projecting before and behind, 
between wh. mules were yoked to carry them, like 
the mod. Arb. takht-rawdn, or palanquin ; so poss. 
also the litters of Is. 66. 20 , and the chariot of SS. 3. 9 
(RV. " palanquin "). The L. of SS. 3. 7 (RV.) prob. 
resembled the Arb. L., wh. is "charged like a 
houdah on a camel's back" (Doughty, Arabia 
Deserta, ii. 484) — a very comfortable mode of 
travel. 

LIVELY. This word appears in the AV. of NT. 
three times (Ac. jp, " lively oracles " ; 1 P. I. 3 , 



" lively hope " ; 1 P. 2. 5 , " lively stones "). In 
each case RV. correctly renders " living." The 
Greek word is the same as that used in 1 P. 2. 4 of 
" living stone " — " Unto whom coming as unto 
lithon zontd ... ye also as lithoi zontes" &c. 

LIVER (Heb. kdbed, "heavy," as being the 
heaviest of the viscera, Ges.). The L. does not 
seem itself to have been burnt in sacrifice, but the 
" caul " (Heb. yotereth) that was upon it ; pre- 
sumably the fat that is near it (Ex. 29. 13 ; Lv. 3. 4 ). 

It may be regarded as throwing some light on the 
special place occupied by the L. in sacrifice, and in 
heathen auspices, that, in celebrating their Passover, the 
Samaritans, after disembowelling the lambs, take the liver 
wh. they have just removed and skewer it into the carcase 
of the lamb before it is put into the pit wh. serves as 
an oven. 

Inspection of the L. of the sacrifice for omens 
was a Babylonian practice, as we learn fm. Ek. 21. 21 . 
All readers of Livy know that the L. was the 
organ most looked at by the Roman Haruspex, or 
more accurately Extispex ; indeed in Gr. this whole 
art was called hepata-skopia, " inspection of the L." 
The L. is the seat of emotion, especially of grief (La. 
2. 11 ). The common view of antiquity associated 
sensual desire with the L. ; Delitzsch (Biblical Psy- 
chology, p. 316) sees a reference to this in Pr. 7. 23 . 

LIVING CREATURE. See Beast. 

LIZARD (Heb. letd'ah). It is uncertain what 
species of L. is intended in Lv. 1 1 . 30 , wh. is the only 
passage in wh. the word occurs in the AV. ; the RV. 
again in Lv. II. 29 , trs. tzdb (AV. " tortoise "), as 
" great lizard " ; in v. 30 'andkdh (AV. " ferret "), 
RV. trs. " gecko," a kind of L. RVm. suggests that 
the other terms in that verse probably denote 
different kinds of lizards. The L. is certainly very 
common in Pal. 




Lizard 



LOAF. See Bread. 

LO-AMMI, the symbolical name given by Hosea 
to his second son by Gomer, denoting " not my 
people," and signifying the rejection of the kingdom 
of Israel by Jehovah (Ho. i. 9f -, 2. 23 ). This and the 



402 



Loa 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lod 



name Lo-ruhamah, given to his daughter (" not with many other insects, a time of quiescence ; they 

pitied "), may have been actually borne by the are always devouring. Strenuous efforts are made 

persons indicated ; but many scholars think them by the jellahln to stop, or at all events divert, the 

merely allegorical. devastating horde ; sometimes they form ranks of 

LOAN. See Debt. beaters, who with feet and brushwood destroy all 

LOCK. See Key. they can ; sometimes long, shallow ditches are 

LOCUST. Although there are many species of rapidly dug, filled with brushwood, and set on fire : 

L. in Pal. only those that are migratory are noticed then the air will soon be filled with the stench of 

the roasted L. and the fire it may be is quenched. 
Sometimes these efforts are successful, but often 
they fail. Even the devastation wrought by de- 
vouring every green thing is not all the damage 
the L. effect ; they fill the wells and cisterns and 
The Destructive Locust putrefy and pollute them, and pestilence results. 

When carried out to sea and drowned, their carcases 
in Scripture. Several names are given to the L. in are often was hed back on the shore, and lie there 
the OT. (i) 'Arbeh, the L. genetically ; Driver heaped up for miles along the edge of the sea 
thinks there is a special reference to Acridmm fere- put refying ; and again pestilence results. The L. 
grinum. (2) Eafil, tr. " caterpillar " (1 K. 8. 37 ; is used as the svm b l for multitude (Jg. 6. 5 , RV. ; 
Is. 33. 4 ; Jl. i. 4 ). This Driver thinks is the slightly AV . by mistake trs. " grasshopper "). They march 
larger and darker Pachytylus migratorius, wh., not \& e an arm y gp r# ^ Q p . j^ z iy In Ry ^3 ^ 




■f -■-'- 



uncommon in Pal., is indigenous in Belgium. mvst i ca l armv of Apollyon, wh. comes out of the 

(3) Gob (Am. 7. 1 ; Na. 3. 17 ), trd. "great grass- smo keof the Bottomless Pit (see Pit, Bottomless), 

hopper." From the description given in Nahum i s likened to L. The L. was reckoned clean, and it is 

of their halting benumbed in bushes Dr. Driver still eaten, but only by the poorest. It was the food 

concludes that this may represent the newly hatched of j olm tlie Baptist, along with wild honey (Driver, 

L., including the pupa and semi-pupa stage, when j od and j moSj Cam , Bib ^ j or Schools, p. 821. ; 

the L. runs and leaps but does not fly ; this suits Thomson LB. ii. 2015-302). 

also the cognate geblm (Is. 33.*), wh. are spoken of as L0 D, LYDDA, a city built by the Benjamite 

" running to and fro." (4) Sol* am, « the bald L." Shemed (1 Ch. 8. 12 ), and reoccupied after the Exile 

(Lv. ii. 22 ) : this may be some species of tryxalis, ( Ne . y?\ n.35 ? &c> ). L. was ceded to the Jews by 

the tapering head of wh. may have suggested the Demetrius Nicator, b.c. 145 (1 M. n. 34 ; Jos. Ant. 

Rabbinic translation " bald " wh. has been adopted XIII. iv. 9). The privileges of the city, wh. 

in the AV. (5) Teleq, probably the L. in the last p om pey had taken away, were restored and con- 

pupa stage (Na. 3. 16 ) ; it " strippeth and fleeth firmed 'by C^sar (Ant. XIV. x. 6). It suffered 

away." In AV. this is rendered in Ps. 105 . 34 , and 

Jr. 51. 14 ' 27 , "caterpillar"; but in Jl. and Na. 

" cankerworm," a rendering preferred by RV. 

throughout. (6) Hdgdb, trd. " grasshopper " in 

four of the five cases where it occurs. Fm. its 

meaning, " the concealer," it may be given to the 

female because it deposits its eggs below the ground. 

The other terms, gdzdm (Jl. I. 4 , &c), bargol (Lv. 

ii. 22 ), and tzeldtzol (Dt. 28. 42 ), are rarer and more 

obscure. It is impossible to fix with any precision 

the meanings of these various terms ; suggestions 

given above are to be taken only as such. In the 

first two chapters of Joel we have a vivid description 

of an incursion of L. In the beginning of March, 

if there is a prolonged sirocco, accompanied by a 

coppery haze along the horizon, the natives begin to grievously at the hands of Cassius (Ant. XIV. xi. 2 ; 

be apprehensive. Then the swarm of flying locusts BJ. I. xi. 2), was favoured by Antony (Ant. XIV. 

begins to arrive and devour the green wheat and xii. 2 ff -), and destroyed by Cestius Gallus (BJ. II. 

barley. But the main damage is not that wrought xix. 1). Having been rebuilt, it surrendered to 

by the winged L. The females lay their eggs under Vespasian (BJ. IV. viii. 1). Here Peter healed 

the ground : in a few weeks or months, according to ^Eneas (Ac. 9- 32ff -). The mod. town, Lucid, in the 

species, they are hatched, and at once begin their plain, 11 miles fm. Jaffa, is a station on the Jaffa -Jrs. 

destructive 'work. The pupa is not with them, as Railway, with fine gardens. It is the reputed birth 

403 




Church of St. George, Lydda 



Lod 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Loo 



and burying place of St. George, whose memory is 
perpetuated by a beautiful Crusading church, now 
in ruins. The inhabitants are Moslems and Greek 
Christians. 

LO-DEBAR, the home of Machir, the son of 
Ammiel, with whom Mephibosheth, the son of 



is 'afiydb, " upper room," and corresponds to the 
Arabic i aliyeb, the chamber, approached by an 
outer stair, often erected on the roof of the house. 




Ancient Looking-Glasses 

Jonathan, found refuge after the downfall of the 
house of Saul, until sent for by David (2 S. 9. 4f -, 
17. 27 ). The place was in Gilead, prob. to the E. of 
Mahanaim. The site has not been recovered. 

LODGE, TO, with but one exception (Is. 2. 1 , 
where the word is shdkab, " to lie "), in AV. of OT. 
represents the verb lun or tin (connected with 
laildby " night," through the usual exchange of " 1 " 
for " n "), which means lit. " to pass the night." 
Thus Elijah " passes the night " in the cave at 
Horeb (1 K. 19. 9 ) ; those in charge of the store- 
houses and treasuries " passed the night " around 
the house of God (1 Ch. c;. 27 ) ; the builders and 
their servants " passed the night " in Jerusalem, to 
act as a guard (Ne. 4. 22 ) ; the merchants who pro- 
faned the Sabbath, being shut out of the city, 
" passed the night " about the walls (i3. 20f -) ; the 
naked " passed the night " without clothing (Jb. 
24. 7 ) ; the stranger was not permitted to " pass the 
night " in the street (3 1 , 32 ) ; the Assyrian army is 
pictured as making bivouac for the night at Geba 
(Is. io. 29 ). The same word is trd. to " tarry all 
night " (Gn. 19. 2 ; Jg. 19. 6 , &c), he " lay all night " 
(2 S. 12. 16 ). In Ps. 30. 5 we shd. read " at evening 
weeping may come to pass the night." 

Mdlon, from this verb, is simply the place in 
which the night is passed, and does not necessarily 
involve a building of any kind (Gn. 42. 27 , &c, AV. 
" inn "). It is the place where Israel encamped for 
the night (Jo. 4. 3 ). Melondh is used for the night 
shelter of the watcher in a garden of cucumbers (Is. 
I. 8 , EV. " lodge ") ; and as a symbol of what is 
frail and insecure (Is. 24. 20 , AV. " cottage," RV. 
"hut"). In NT. kataluo is "to ungird " (Lk. 
9. 12 ) ; kataskenoo is " to rest as in a tent " (Mw. 
13. 32 , &c.) ; chenizo is to take quarters, more in our 
sense of the word " to lodge " (Ac. io. 6 , &c). 

LOFT. The word occurs but once in Scrip. 
(I K. 17. 19 ), where RV. trs. " chamber." The Heb. 



used for oil (Lv. I4. 10L ), 
See Weights and 



LOG, fluid measure 
y 1 ^ of a Hin, about § of a pint. 
Measures. 

LOIS (2 Tm. I. 5 ), the grandmother of Timothy, 
from whom, as from his mother Eunice, he had in- 
herited his " unfeigned faith." If not a native of 
Lystra she at all events had been long resident there. 
Though a Jewess, her family must have been Hel- 
lenistic for a considerable time, as shown by the 
fact that her own name and that of her daughter 
are Gr. At the same time it seems certain that her 
grandson's knowledge of the Scripture was due in 
some measure to her teaching and example. From 
the way in wh. Paul refers to her it wd. seem that he 
had known her, and that she had become a Chris- 
tian. Her " faith " even as a Jewess must have been 
free fm. racial prejudice, since she allowed her 
daughter to marry a Greek. 

LOOKING-GLASS. This word occurs twice 
in AV., representing two different Heb. words. 
(1) Mar'ah (Ex. 38. 8 ), of the mirrors wh. the women 
of Israel gave up in order to supply brass for the 
Laver of the Tabernacle (RV. " mirror "). The 
Heb. is used for " vision " in Gn. 46. 2 ; Ek. I. 1 ; 
Dn. io. 7 . (2) Re't (Jb. 37. 18 ), a comparison for the 
sky ; here, too, the reference is to a metal mirror, as 
proved by the adj. " molten." In Is. 3. 23 the word 
trd. " glasses " (gilldyon) is evidently also " mirrors " 
of metal (so RV.) ; it is trd. " roll " in Is. 8. 1 , a mis- 
translation due to a false etymology (RV. " tablet "). 
In NT. the word Glass (Gr. esoptron) occurs twice 
in the sense of " mirror " ; in one of these cases 
(1 Cor. 13. 12 ), through a mistranslation of the prep, 
a false idea is conveyed. Pliny tells (HN. xxxiii. 
9) that L.-G. were usually made of bronze, but 
sometimes of silver ; he also mentions that in Sidon 
mirrors of glass were manufactured (HN. xxxv. 




Mirrors of Polished Meta:, 

26). In a work attributed to Alexander of Aphro- 
disias the statement is made that such mirrors were 
backed with tin instead of quicksilver. 

LOOPS were used for uniting the curtains. See 
Tabernacle. 



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LORD. The word, according as it is printed, 
represents three different Heb. terms. When in 
capitals it stands for JHWH, the covenant name of 
the God of Israel, wh. we commonly, but incorrectly, 
pronounce " Jehovah." The reason for this is that 
the reverence of the Jews led them to avoid pro- 
nouncing the sacred name, for which, in reading, 
they substituted \4dondi, " Lord " ; and when 
vowel points were introduced the vowels of 'Adondi 
were placed beneath the consonants of JHWH. 
This reverential avoidance of the sacred name is at 
least as old as the LXX, which in every case renders 
JHWH by kurios. When " Lord " is printed with 
only the initial capital, like other proper names, it 
trs. ' Jdondi. When \4dondi occurs along with 
JHWH, then the latter receives the vowels of 
'Elohlm, and is represented by " GOD," printed in 
capitals. Sometimes " lord " is a common noun, as 
in Gn. 42 . 33 , " The man who is lord of the country 
said unto us." This represents 9 ddon 9 wh. is also trd. 
" master " (Gn. 24. 12 ). Here attention is directed 
only to the first of these. 

The meaning of the sacred name appears to be 
"The Existent One." The French W. alone, 
however, attempt to translate JHWH (TEternel) ; 
all the others treat it as a name. The common 
statement that JHWH was merely the tribal god of 
the bene Tisra'el, who was universalised into the 
Supreme, has little evidence to support it. The 
whole trend of mod. archaeological discovery points 
to Monotheism being the primitive religion. There 
is, further, no hint that JHWH was ever regarded 
as the ancestor of the Israelites, or that He was even 
of kin with Isr. All the analogy of history shows in 
mankind a tendency, not to rise fm. a fetish or 
ghostly ancestor to a Supreme God, but rather the 
reverse. Thus in Roman Catholic countries the 
Virgin has practically been split up into Virgins of 
different places with different powers and attributes. 

In pre-Mosaic times the names involving JHWH 
as an element were very few. • From Leah's words 
in naming her son (Gn. 2c;. 35 ) we gather that 
" Judah " stands for " Jehudah " (a form, it may be 
remarked, which the name frequently assumes in 
later Judaism, e.g., that of Jehuda haq-Qodesh, who 
reduced the Mishna to writing). The sacred name 
appears in that of Joseph, as Rachel's words show 
(Gn. 30. 24 ) ; and also in that of Moses' mother, 
Jochebed. It was therefore known to the patriarchs, 
and we find that it was occasionally used by them. 
Abraham says (Gn. 14. 22 ), " I have lift up my hand 
to the Lord (JHWH) God Most High (El-Ely on)." 

Ball [Polychrome Bible) wd. ascribe JHWH to P., leaving 
the preposition of the original document without an object. 
The clause is omitted in the Psh. , but is found in the LXX 
(Vat.) and the Tgg. 

In the following chap. Abraham addresses God 
(v. 8) as Lord. God (JHWH). So too Eliezer (24. 12 ), 



Isaac (26. 25 , 27. 27 ), Abimelech (26. 28 ), and Laban 

(3i- 49 ). 

All these are ascribed by Ball [op. cit. ) to J. : in the 
last case three verses are divided into snippets of nearly 
equal proportions between J., E., and P. Ball also omits 
the difficult "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord" 
(JHWH, Gn. 49. 18 ), although it is in all the VV., the 
Sam. and the Tgg. It would ease matters considerably 
if we cd. regard all these passages as due to the man- 
nerism of J. 

The cases referred to must be taken account of in 
considering what God says to Moses (Ex. 6. 3 ) : " I 
appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the 
name God Almighty ; but by My name JHWH 
was I not known." We must remember the force 
of the word " name." To an Oriental it conveys 
the idea of essence : hence to know the name meant 
to understand all that was implied in it. The 
phrase, therefore, does not necessarily signify more 
than that the meaning and relationship implied in 
the name JHWH had not been revealed to the 
Patriarchs. That is to say, the " name " does not 
consist in the mere word, but in the significance it 
bears. 

If it be true, as scholars seem to be agreed (for 
interesting discussions see Expository Times, vols, 
xvii. and xviii., by index), that the Babylonian 
equivalent of JHWH is found in the cuneiform in- 
scriptions of the time of Hammurabi, this only 
supports the view that JHWH is a primitive form ; 
it takes nothing fm. the originality of the name 
revealed to Moses. 

In the NT. Lord stands for kurios, with few ex- 
ceptions (Eph. 6. 9 ; Col. 4. 1 , &c, where it is ren- 
dered " Master "), when it refers to God or Christ. 
With a similar reference despotes is also rendered 
Lord (in 2 P. 2. 1 ; Ju. 4 ; Rv. 6. 10 , RV. renders 
" Master "). 

LORD OF HOSTS. This name of God is found 
chiefly in prophetic Lit. What meaning attaches 
to " Hosts " is the question of main interest. The 
name is first used in a narrative (1 S. I. 3 , 4 4 , &c), 
where the Lord of Hosts is closely associated with 
the ark, as the symbol of His presence who was able 
to give victory to His people. It is natural to sup- 
pose that " Hosts " for them meant the armies of 
Isr. It is true, as Delitzsch says, that the name does 
not occur in the history where most we should ex- 
pect it — that of the Desert Wanderings. But we 
must remember that the correlative " hosts of the 
Lord " is the phrase used to describe Israel on 
leaving Egp. Such passages, however, as Jg. 5. 20 ; 
1 K. 22. 19 ; and 2 K. 6. 17 , show a conception of 
other " hosts " who were subject to His obedience. 
The significance of the term was greatly developed. 
For the prophets the Lord of Hosts is the Supreme 
Master of all powers in heaven and on earth (cp. 
Mw. 26. 53 ; He. I. 14 ). 

LORD'S DAY, THE. 1. The Title.— Lord's 
Day is the name given by Christians to the first 



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day of the week. Our only written authority 
for it is Rv. I. 10 . The place of John's vision was 
Patmos, and the time of it is generally believed to 
have corresponded to our Sabbath. All days are 
the Lord's, and the apartness of one portion of time 
does not rob the remaining portions of their sacred- 
ness. But, as the little leaven leavens the whole 
lump, the dedication of the first day to high 
spiritual ends lifts the other six to a loftier plane, 
and infuses them with a finer spirit. 

2. Its Relation to the Jewish Sabbath. — 
Under this head many nice points arise wh. cannot 
be discussed here. Some deny any connection 
between the two days. Others base the obligation 
of the Christian Sabbath on the Fourth Command- 
ment, and invest it with the sanction pertaining to 
the other commandments. The truth lies between 
these extremes. The one day grew out of the 
other, and has its highest sanction in man's own 
nature. It is not right because it is commanded ; 
it is commanded because it is right. When Christ 
uttered the words, " It is finished," the death-knell 
of the Jewish Sabbath was sounded. Shadow and 
type as it was, it was doomed to disappear. The 
Great Fulfiller having come, something better must 
take its place. That something better was the 
Lord's Day, and while the two are in some respects 
dissimilar, there is common to both a moral prin- 
ciple wh. expresses permanent obligation. 

3. How the Change came about. — We pos- 
sess no written command authorising the substitu- 
tion of the first day for the seventh. To many 
this constitutes a real difficulty. Such shd. re- 
member that God guides us with the glance of His 
eye, and that events and providences, no less than 
spoken words and written decrees, are expressions 
of His will for us. The change is not hard to ex- 
plain. For a long time Jewish Christians observed 
both days. They naturally clung to the old while 
making place for the new. This dual arrangement 
cd. not last. One of the days must, in time, take 
pre-eminence over the other. There were strong 
reasons why that day shd. be the first. On the first 
day of the week our Lord rose fm. the dead, thereby 
putting the seal on His Messiahship ; on the same 
day He revealed Himself in His resurrection life 
more than once to the apostles ; on it also He shed 
down the Pentecostal Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 
The day was thus sanctified by Christ's resurrec- 
tion ; it was the birthday of the Christian Church 
and the beginning of the New Creation. These 
things inevitably made a deep impression on the 
first Christians, and so, guided by a Divine instinct, 
they stepped out of bondage to the Jewish Sabbath, 
and entered into the glorious liberty and hope for 
wh. the Lord's Day stands. 

4. The Purpose of the Day.— Much may be 
learned fm. the practice of the first Christians as re- 



corded in Acts. Times change, however, and the 
question is often asked : " How shd. the day be 
spent ? What is, and what is not, lawful ? " Gene- 
rally speaking, this question will answer itself pro- 
vided we grasp the true idea of the day. That man 
is on the wrong tack who regards it as a burden. 
It does not so much impose duty as confer privilege. 
Though called the Lord's Day, it is pre-eminently 
man's day. Christ's rebuke of the Jews who, by 
their accretions and superstitions, had largely 
frustrated the Divine idea of their Sabbath, fur- 
nishes the best clue to the wise observance of our 
own rest-day. " The Sabbath was made for man, 
and not man for the Sabbath." Get your defini- 
tion of man and the rest becomes luminous. Man 
has been well likened to a pyramid, with the body as 
base, the spirit as apex, and heart and brain packed 
in between. The body needs relief fm. toil. The 
bow must not be always bent. Regularly recurring 
periods of rest are necessary if man's wearied powers 
are to be restored and repaired. Experience has 
proved that Sabbath work is mistaken economy. 
Man is also a social and intellectual being. Absorp- 
tion in daily tasks leaves too little time for the 
cultivation of social and family ties. The Lord's 
Day gives the needed opportunity for making good 
this loss ; and the gladdest day of all the seven, the 
day to wh. the children shd. eagerly look forward, 
ought to be this day, wh. has been too often associ- 
ated with austerity and gloom. As an old writer 
remarks : " God is the Father of lights and ever- 
lasting glee." Man's crowning distinction, how- 
ever, is his spiritual nature. His soul cries out for 
God. There is in him a deep life that seeks for the 
nourishment wh. faith and hope and worship alone 
can give. If he is to be anything more than a 
highly civilised animal, these are indispensable. 
The Lord's Day allows him to escape to the moun- 
tain top where he can see his life in the calm, clear 
light of eternity, and refresh his nature in com- 
munion with God and his fellow-men. He best 
keeps it, therefore, who makes it minister to the 
growth of a complete manhood. To go back here 
is to go downward. To sum up — every Lord's Day 
is an Easter, telling of our risen Redeemer and the 
New Creation, of wh. His Person and Work are the 
foundation. It is an opportunity given to the sons 
of toil to refresh their exhausted natures, and re- 
mind themselves of their dignity and destiny as 
immortal beings. And it is a prophecy of the rest 
that remaineth for the people of God. The Sab- 
bath is thus its own sufficient justification, and, 
though always needed, is needed now more than 
ever. S. M. Riddick. 

LORD'S PRAYER, THE. This prayer was not 
used by Christ. One, at least, of its petitions wd. 
have been impossible on His lips. It derives its 
title fm. the fact that the Lord taught it to His 



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disciples. There are two accounts of it, in Mw. 6. 
and Lk. II. A comparison of these shows that, 
though to some extent verbally different, they are 
substantially the same. Questions have been raised 
as to wh. of the two is the original form, or whether 
both forms may not have been spoken by Christ on 
different occasions. Such questions only land us in 
the region of conjecture. According to Luke it 
was taught by Christ to the disciples in response to a 
definite request. It may be accepted as a form of 
prayer, the very words of wh. may be legitimately 
used ; as a summary gathering up in concise fashion 
the various things for wh. men may pray ; also as a 
pattern of the spirit, aims, and proportions of true 
prayer. 

Structure. — It is made up of six petitions. 
Some say seven, but if the last two be taken as 
negative and positive aspects of the same desire, 
there are six. Quaint and fanciful numerical cor- 
respondences have been pointed out between it and 
the Decalogue, but without being either quaint or 
fanciful we may lay stress on the following points. 
It begins with God and gives prominence to what 
is spiritual : Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will. 
Our first care is to be the Kingdom of God and 
not our own personal interests. The second half 
begins with man on the purely animal plane, and 
rises to the soul's needs and conflicts : our bread, 
our debts, our temptations and deliverances. The 
prayer is thus an object lesson, showing that we 
must put first things first, and not invert the 
spiritual order. 

The Various Steps. — In bidding us say 
" Father," Christ opens out to us a new concep- 
tion of God and our relation to Him. If He is our 
Father, we are not creatures only. A spark dis- 
turbs our clod, and we approach Him with a sense 
of kinship wh. summons us to be and do our best. 
Our Father. Even when we enter our closets and 
are alone we are to say Our. We thus link our- 
selves on to humankind : to those we love, to 
those we do not love, and to the whole company of 
the redeemed. Without the Fatherhood there can 
be no real Brotherhood. In Heaven, and therefore 
exempt fm. the limitation and caprice and inability 
by wh. the best human fatherhood is marred. The 
Name of God stands for His character, and for all 
the things and ways through wh. that character has 
been revealed. We ask that it be hallowed — in 
other words, that there be generated in us a mood of 
reverence and adoring wonder. The very scrub of 
the desert is to be seen by us as burning with a 
Divine fire. Thy Kingdom come. Men are not 
saved in bundles, but, when saved, they do not 
remain solitary units, but coalesce into a society. 
Within this society the laws of righteousness are to 
prevail. This is really a prayer for the better time 
about wh. men are now dreaming. But it must 



come inwardly before it can come outwardly. 
Personal regeneration must precede social regene- 
ration. " The golden age cannot be made out of 
leaden people." Thy Will be done. In the popular 
mind prayer is an attempt to bend God's will to 
ours. Its true purpose, however, is to bring our 
will into harmony with God's. We ask that this be 
done in ourselves and others, and that we may be 
active participators in its achievement. For God 
works through means and, among men, His means 
are men. 

The second part starts with a reference to our 
material wants. God fed the hungry prophet, and 
we are not surprised to find such a petition in the 
model prayer. It is like the Father, who cares even 
for oxen. The one puzzling word in the prayer is 
daily. Opinions differ as to its precise meaning. 
Some think it means needful, " just sufficient for the 
day ; " others, bread " for the coming day." In 
any case the word expresses limitation, and bids us 
throw our cares on God. It puts a curb on human 
greed and ambition. It warrants us in asking, not 
for luxuries, but only for enough to sustain life and 
keep us fit organs of God's purpose. If carried out 
it wd. put an end to the mad haste to be rich and to 
all shady ways of making money. Forgive us. The 
need for pardon as well as for bread is a daily need, 
but if we hope to be forgiven the 500 pence we owe 
to God, we must be ready to remit the small debt of 
50 pence due to ourselves by our brother. This 
petition, if uttered by any man with hatred lurking 
in his heart, is a prayer for his own condemnation. 
Lead us. God does not needlessly tempt any man, 
but opportunities are temptations. A chance to 
rise is also a chance to fall. Conscious of weakness, 
we desire that while God may not lead us round He 
will at least bring us through temptation, so that our 
souls may be strengthened and not weakened by 
the struggle. 

The doxology was introduced for liturgical pur- 
poses, and is not a part of the original. But it is 
in harmony with the mind of Christ, and forms 
a fitting close to this prayer — a prayer so simple 
that a child can lisp it, yet so profound and com- 
prehensive that the most expert scholar and the 
ripest saint cannot plumb its depths or exhaust its 
blessings. S. M. Riddick. 

LORD'S SUPPER, THE. Each of the first 
three Gospels contains an account of its Institu- 
tion, but the most detailed account is in 1 Cor. 11. 
The night in wh. He was betrayed Christ and His 
apostles met in an upper room in Jerusalem to keep 
the Passover. While so engaged our Lord took the 
bread and, instead of uttering the usual form of 
words, said : " Take, eat : this is My body, wh. is 
broken for you." In like manner He took the cup 
of blessing and gave to it a new significance : " This 
cup is the New Testament in My blood, wh. is shed 



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for you." In this simple way the Type was fulfilled 
in the Antitype, and the Passover, wh. commemo- 
rated a national deliverance, was supplanted by the 
Supper, wh. commemorates the greater deliverance 
of the soul fm. the bondage of sin. The Lord's 
Supper is thus not a device of man. Christ's action 
lifted it clear above the level of any human institu- 
tion, while the time, manner, and circumstances 
all conspired to invest it with a peculiar solemnity. 

Names. — These are varied, and are each de- 
scriptive of one or other of its features. The 
Scripture names are " the breaking of bread " 
•(Ac. 2. 42 ), the Communion (i Cor. io. 16 ), the 
Lord's Table (io. 21 ), and the Lord's Supper (n. 20 ). 
Early in the history of the Church it was called the 
Eucharist — a term wh. expresses the joyful gratitude 
cf the communicant. It is also widely known as the 
Sacrament. This last is misleading, as Baptism too 
is a Sacrament, and stands on the same level. It is 
a, but not the, Sacrament. 

Nature and Purpose. — Looked at broadly, it 
is an impressive representation of the Redeemer's 
sufferings and a vivid symbol of His wonderful love 
for man ; an appeal to the heart through the eye, 
as a sermon is an appeal to the heart through the ear. 
There may be a sermon without Christ in it, but 
there cannot be a Sacrament without Him. When 
few were able to write, seals were used bearing the 
owners' crests, and such a seal, when attached to 
a document, gave it validity. So this Sacrament 
seals the Word, assures us that Christ not only gave 
Himself for us, but is here and now actually giving 
Himself to us. It adds nothing to the Word, but it 
makes it surer, and helps us to take a firmer grip of 
the Unseen Saviour. 

More particularly it is (i) A Commemoration. 
Christ wrote no book, gave His name to no city, 
took none of the ordinary ways of perpetuating His 
memory. He simply appointed this feast, adding 
the words, " This do in remembrance of Me." 
Though a memorial of all Christ was and did, it 
is, in a special sense, a memorial of His death. It 
was not natural for Christ to die. Death did not 
naturally round off His sinless life. We can only 
explain it by saying, " He bore our sins." It is 
thought the early Christians showed forth His 
death in audible words. But speech or no speech, 
at the table we individualise ourselves and say, " He 
loved me and gave Himself for me." (2) A Com- 
munion. Though Christ died He is not now sleeping 
beneath the Syrian stars. He rose again, and is 
spiritually present in the Supper. The material 
elements serve their purpose only in proportion as 
they bring us into contact with Him. The robe 
wh. the woman touched derived all its healing 
virtue fm. the fact that Christ was the wearer of the 
robe, and a Sacrament is a channel of blessing only 
when it reveals Him to the soul. We have no inde- 



pendent life. Our action in the Supper implies 
that by faith we live in and through Him, even as we 
receive physical strength by eating bread and drink- 
ing wine. " He that eateth Me, even he shall live 
by Me." At the Table we have also fellowship 
with Christ's people. The communion of saints is a 
blessed reality. By eating of the same bread and 
drinking of the same cup, emphatic testimony is 
borne to the fact that in the midst of many differ- 
ences we are one. Because it is the Lord's Table, it 
is a place where all the Lord's people have a right to 
sit ; and it is sad and humiliating that what was 
meant to be a symbol of unity has often been a 
cause of strife and separation. (3) A Service of 
Consecration. God says, " I am your God ; " and 
our reply is, " We are Thy people." As the Roman 
soldier took the sacramentum or oath of loyalty to 
his emperor, so do we pledge ourselves in holy 
troth to be Christ's and only Christ's. (4) It is 
a Feast of Hope. " Till He come." If it points 
us hack to the Cross and up to the living Christ, 
it also points us forward to His glorious appearing, 
and to the time when hope shall pass into fruition 
and sacramental shadows be swallowed up in the 
heavenly substance. 

Attitude of the Communicant.— Many are 
kept back fm. the Lord's Table through groundless 
fears. Some of the words in 1 Cor. seem to bar 
their way. Let it be said for their encouragement 
that the word translated " damnation " means 
" judgment " or " chastisement," and the un- 
worthy communicating alluded to by St. Paul re- 
ferred to unseemly brawls wh. prevailed among the 
Corinthians at their love-feasts. The Lord's Table 
is not meant to be difficult of access. It is a means 
of grace ; not a mark of perfection but a help for 
pilgrims towards perfection. We are to come to it 
not because we are good but because we desire to be 
better. The most worthy communicant may be he 
who most feels his unworthiness. 

" All the fitness He requireth, 
Is to feel our need of Him." 

The flag of a nation, though only a piece of weather- 
beaten bunting, is a sacred thing. The Founder of 
our faith knew men, and His intention is that this 
simple symbolic rite shd. awaken thought, kindle 
imagination, express love, and draw His followers 
into a holy fellowship. S. M. Riddick. 

LO-RUHAMAH. See Lo-ammi. 

LOT, s. of Haran, nephew of Abraham (Gn. 
1 1 . 27 - 31 ) . His f r. being dead, he went with Abraham 
to Can. (i2. 4ff -). We next hear of him when, to 
avoid strife between the herdsmen of their over- 
grown flocks, Abraham proposed the division of the 
land, leaving to L. his choice (l3. lff *). Fm. some 
eminence E. of Bethel they surveyed the country, 
and L., attracted by the fertility and beauty of the 
great valley of the Jordan, selfishly chose it for him- 



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self. For himself and his descts. he thus abandoned 
all claim to the higher lands of Western Pal. Taking 
up his residence in Sodom, he was carried captive, 
along with others, by the victorious Chedorlaomer, 
fm. whom he was rescued by his uncle. See 
Abraham. 

Despite his evil surroundings, L. preserved the 
hospitable spirit, and handsomely entertained the 
angels who visited Sodom on their mission of de- 
struction. When the men of the city threatened 
them, he was ready to defend them at any cost, even 
to the sacrifice of his daughters. It is true that " he 
was bound to defend his guests at the risk of his own 
life, but not by the sacrifice of his daughters " 
(Speaker's Com. on v. 8), but there are perhaps few 
Arabs who wd. hesitate, in similar circumstances, to 
make the sacrifice to-day. Mocked by his sons-in- 
law when he urged them to flee, and lingering him- 
self by the home of many days, the angels hurried 
him forth, with his w. and two daughters, exhorting 
him to flee to the mountains. He begged leave to 
find easier refuge in Zoar, where he arrived about 
sunrise. His w., looking behind her, was turned 
into a pillar of salt. Witnessing the awful destruc- 
tion raging in the valley beneath him, L. at last fled 
to the mountains, and sought asylum in a cave. 
There, beguiled by his daughters, he became the fr. 
of Moab and Ammon (Gn. 19. ; cp. Dt. 2. 9 « 19 , &c). 
L. was selfish and worldly-minded, willing to expose 
his family to the contaminations of life in Sodom, 
for the sake of temporal advantage. His disaster 
and final disgrace are doubtless designed as warnings. 

Lot's Wife was punished because she had left 
her heart behind her in the burning city. How 
many since then, with their feet in the way to the 
mountains of freedom, have been turned to stony 
pillars by the petrifying power of backward dragging 
affections. 

Curious and fantastic pillars and blocks of 
crystallised rock-salt are found to the SW. of the 
Dead Sea. In former days travellers thought to 
see in one or other of these the veritable pillar 
of Gn. 19. 26 . But none of these lasts many yrs. 
They are perpetually changing and passing away, 
worn esp. by the rains. 

LOTS. See Divination, Urim and Thummim. 

LOTUS TREES. RV. thus correctly renders 
tze'elim (Jb. 40. 21f - ; AV. " shady trees "), named 
with the covert of the reed and the fen, as affording 
shelter to Behemoth (the hippopotamus). It prob. 
correspds. to a prickly shrub, Arb. dal, the " dom 
tree," and must be distinguished from the Egyptian 
water-lily. 

LOVE. The Heb. 'ahabah has practically the 
same variety of meanings as our English word 
" love," including the pure spiritual affection exist- 
ing between God and His people, and the mutual 
loves of human beings in the various family and 



friendly relationships. God's beneficence to Isr. is 
traced to its source in the Divine love (Dt. J. 1L ) ; 
and it is required of His people that they love Him 
(Dt. 6. 5 ). This pure love is incompatible with love 
of evil (Ps. 97. 10 ). It manifested itself towards God 
in reverence and glad obedience, and towards man 
in brotherly kindness and willing service. It was 
essential to the fulfilment of the ancient law. 
Jacob's love for Rachel made light his burdens (Gn. 
29. 20 ). The Song of Songs sets to music the trial 
and triumph of pure and faithful love. No friend- 
ship was ever consecrated by more beautiful and loyal 
love than that of David and Jonathan (2 S. 1 , 26 , &c.) . 

In the NT. the love of God attains its fullest ex- 
pression. It is the fountain whence all blessings 
have flowed to man (Jn. 3. 16 ; Rm. 5. 8 ; 1 Jn. 4-. 9L ). 
Love to God is the condition of obedience (Jn. 
14. 15 , RV.). Where love rules in the heart obedi- 
ence is ideally complete ; for " love is the fulfilling 
of the law " (Rm. 13. 10 ). This love is the response 
of man's nature to the appeal of God's love (1 Jn. 
4. 19 ), and when it exists ensures not only a pure 
devotion to God, but also a tender regard for all the 
objects of the Divine love, especially the brother- 
hood (Jn. 15. 12 ' 17 ; I Jn. 3. 14 , 4 . 7ff -)- This love is 
the inspiration of the lives redeemed by Jesus Christ, 
and it furnishes the guarantee that His great purpose 
of grace shall, through them, be promoted in the 
earth. 

In the NT. agape is the word commonly used for 
love, being free from the sensuous associations of 
eros. No absolute distinction can be drawn be- 
tween the verbs agapao and phileo. The former is 
far the more frequent, and leans to the pure and 
austere sense, while the latter implies perhaps an 
element of familiarity like that found between 
friend and friend, or in the intimacies of the family 
circle. 

LOVE-FEAST. RV. so renders agape in Ju. 12 
and in 2 P. 2. 13 , in the latter case correcting apatais 
to agapais. From old time in the East the common 
mea) has been the confirmation and seal of brother- 
hood. The early Christians met regularly for the 
" breaking of bread " ; and as these meals were 
open to every member of the community, they 
helped to meet the necessities of the poor (Ac. 2. 46 , 
6. lf> , &c). From this probably arose the agape, the 
" love-feast," which either began or ended with the 
celebration of the Lord's Supper. The account 
given by St. Paul (1 Cor. n. 17fL ) of the love-feast at 
Corinth * seems to show that there the Supper 

* In Sparta, which was regarded as the ideal Greek Re- 
public, the citizens were accustomed to eat together, at what 
was called the sussitia. Mention of the "love-feast" in 
connection with Corinth, suggests the possibility that this 
feast may have been taken over with the wcrd ecclesia, by 
which the assembly of the citizens in a Greek city state was 
known. In the NT. it denotes the community of believers ; 
and the love-feast may have been the mark of citizens of the 
spiritual commonwealth. 



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came last (vv. 2 if.). The same passage, taken with 
Ju. 12 and 2 P. 2. 13 , shows how soon abuses ap- 
peared, how scandalous persons found their way in 
and destroyed the character of the feast. This 
furnished the ground for charges of immoral ex- 
cesses brought against the Christian societies. It 
was deemed necessary to sever the celebration of 
the Lord's Supper from the feast, moving it to the 
early morning. This was the case in Bithynia, as 
Pliny reports to Trajan (Ep. 96) ; the meal which 
used to follow having been discontinued in conse- 
quence of Trajan's prohibition of societies (sodali- 
■ tates). The suspicion and jealousy excited by these 
secret feasts, and such internal troubles as are re- 
ferred to above, probably explain why the love- 
feast fell into desuetude. 

LUBIMS. See Libya. 

LUCAS = LUKE (Phm. 24 ). 

LUCIFER (Heb. helel, lit. " shining one "), de- 
fined as " son of the dawn " (ben shahar). The 
reference is clearly to the morning star. The name 
is applied to the king of Bab., possibly Esarhaddon, 
who took the title k. of Bab. to secure the loyalty of 
the Babylonians, who had rebelled so often agst. his 
father and grandfather. His pride and splendour, 
and the dazzling ambitions he cherished, throw into 
bolder relief the humiliation and wretchedness of 
his downfall. It has been supposed that in Lk. 
io. 18 , " I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from 
heaven," and in Rv. 9. 1 , " I saw a star from heaven 
fallen upon the earth," there is some reference to 
this passage in Isaiah. Jerome and the Christian 
Fathers therefore applied the name " Lucifer " to 
Satan. Woods (HDB.) thinks the imagery may 
have been suggested by a meteor. 

LUCIUS. (1) L. of Cyrene, named among 
" certain prophets and teachers " at Antioch (Ac. 
13. 1 ) to whom the Holy Ghost said, " Separate me 
Barnabas and Saul," &c. Without any reasonable 
ground he has been identified with St. Luke. 
(2) One of those named in Rm. 16. 21 , who send 
greetings to the Christians in Rome. He may be 
identical with (1), but there is no certainty. 

LUCRE is used in Old English without any evil 
connotation, simply signifying " gain," for example, 
in the phrase of Erasmus, " the lucre and encreace of 
godlynesse." In EV. it occurs only once without 
the adjective " filthy " (1 S. 8. 3 ), and there also 
it wd. be quite appropriate, as characterising ill- 
gotten gain. 

LUD, LUDIM. In Gn. ic. 22 Lud is named as 
a son of Shem (1 Ch. I. 17 repeats the statement). 
It is usual, following Jos., to take this as representing 
Lydia in Asia Minor. The identification is doubtful. 
The Lydians were certainly not Semites. The fact 
that they were for a time under Semitic rule — that 
of the Assyrians — might furnish a colourable reason 
for so describing them ; but there is no certainty. 

41 



" Ludim " of Gn. io. 13 ; I Ch. I. 11 , is mentioned 
among the sons of Mizraim (Egypt). In Ek. 27. 10 
Lud is associated with Persia and Phut as soldiers in 
the army of Tyre. In Ek. 30. 5 Lud appears with 
Ethiopia and Phut, both African peoples. In Is. 
66. 19 " Pul," named along with Lud, is probably 
an error for " Put " (Phut). In Jr. 4.6? Ludim 
(AV. " Lydians ") are mentioned with Cush and 
Phut among the auxiliaries of Egypt, as those who 
" handle and bend the bow." But there is no 
evidence that the Lydians were ever held in repute 
for archery. That some North African people is 
intended seems certain ; but they have left no mark 
on history, and archaeological research has so far 
furnished no clue by which they may be identified. 

LUHITH, a place unidentd., poss. on the road 
passing up through Wady Bene Hammdd to the E. 
uplands, fm. near Zoar (Is. 15. 5 ) ; " the ascent of 
L." or the " descent of Horonaim " (Jr. 48. 5 ). 

LUKE THE EVANGELIST. The name is a 
contraction of Lucanus. He was a physician (Col. 
4. 14 ), and may have been of servile origin, many 
slaves following that profession. In this passage he 
is distinguished from those " of the circumcision " 
(v. 11); he was therefore of Gentile birth, and not 
identical with St. Paul's kinsman Lucius (Rm. 16. 21 ). 
The Prcejatio Luces, a work not later than the third 
cent. (Harnack, Chronologie, p. 653), calls him " by 
nation a Syrian of Antioch," to which city his 
family belonged (Eusebius, HE. hi. 4). He is thrice 
mentioned by name in St. Paul's Epp. (Col. 4. 14 ; 
2 Tm. 4. 11 ; Phm. 24 ). From these passages we 
learn that he was associated with the apostle as a 
" fellow-labourer," and that he was with him during 
his sojourn in Rome. A later tradition identified 
him with the " brother whose praise is in all the 
churches " (2 Cor. 8. 18 ). 

To St. Luke is commonly attributed the author- 
ship of the Gospel bearing his name, and the Acts of 
the Apostles. The two books are admitted to be 
the work of the same hand. The reasons for be- 
lieving St. Luke to be the writer of the Acts of the 
Apostles are, briefly, these : — 

(1) Certain sections of the book — the so-called 
" we " sections — are written in the first person, 
with a fulness and accuracy possible only to an 
eye-witness. In character and style these sections 
cannot be distinguished from the rest of the book. 
The first " we " section * takes us from Troas to 
Philippi (16. 10 " 17 ). This can hardly have been the 
writer's native city — see an interesting discussion 
by Sir William Ramsay (St. Paul the Traveller, pp. 
20ofi\, 389!), who suggests the identity of St. Luke 

* The use of the first person in chap. 14. 22 suggests that 
St. Luke may have been one of the apostles' auditors, and 
that the connection of St. Luke's family was with Pisidian, 
not Syrian Antioch. Perhaps here St. Paul first met his 
future companion in travel and toil. They seem to start 
from Troas on terms of former acquaintance. 



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with the " man of Macedonia." The next section 
begins at Philippi (20. 5 ), and from that point to the 
end of the book the third person is used only when 
the subject matter does not personally concern the 
writer. From the beginning to chap. 16. 9 the 
author was dependent upon others for his informa- 
tion : from that point forward he writes of what 
he himself knows. (2) These circumstances sup- 
port a tradition, dating at latest from the end of the 
second cent., that the book was written by St. Luke, 
a companion of St. Paul. They apply to no other 
companion of the apostle. Had Timothy been the 
writer, the " we " would have appeared in chap. 17., 
when we know he was with St. Paul (v. 14). Had it 
been Titus, he had first-hand knowledge sooner 
(Gal. 2. 3 ). The like is true of Silas (Ac. 15. 22 ). 
(3) Accurate knowledge of details, such as the vary- 
ing titles borne by the magistrates in different cities, 
points to the hand of a contemporary ; while exact- 
ness in the use of medical terms (Ac. 28. 8 , &c.) is 
natural in a physician (Col. 4. 14 ). These considera- 
tions place St. Luke's claim practically beyond 
doubt. 

The universal admission that the same hand 
wrote the third Gospel rests on such facts as these : 
(1) The preface in each case is addressed to Theo- 
philus. (2) The identity of literary style. (3) The 
same sympathetic presentation of the freedom and 
universality of the Gospel. (4) Early tradition, 
nowhere contradicted, that the Gospel was written 
by St. Luke, a companion of St. Paul. 

Of the further activities of this gifted man we are 
left largely in ignorance. He is said by tradition to 
have laboured in Achaia and in Alexandria. Accdg. 
to the Prcejatio Lucte, he " served his Master blame- 
lessly till his confession. For having neither wife 
nor children he died in Bithynia at the age of 
seventy-four, filled with the Holy Ghost." 

LUKE, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. 
Tradition ascribes to St. Luke the authorship of the 
third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles. He 
was assumed to be the Luke who was the companion 
of St. Paul, who was with him on the voyage to 
Rome, and with him when he wrote the Epp. of the 
captivity. It was supposed that Luke wrote the 
Gospel in the sixties, and the Acts soon after the 
arrival at Rome, the last scene recorded in the Acts. 
With the rise of criticism all these positions were 
questioned. It was held that Luke was not the 
author of the one book or the other. Analysis of 
the Acts seemed to disintegrate the authorship, and 
literary criticism seemed to be triumphant. A few 
yrs. ago it was held as unquestioned in many circles 
in Germany that both books dated fm. the second 
century. English scholarship largely held that the 
traditional doctrine was the true one. But literary 
analysis seemed to have demonstrated the contrary. 
But in the event it turned out that it demonstrated 



only the limitations of literary criticism. If we are 
to arrive at trustworthy results literary criticism 
must be checked by objective reference. A change 
came over the scene when Sir William Ramsay 
began to publish his exhaustive studies on St. Paul. 
Other scholars had also been at work. But none 
had the same equipment. He approached the 
study of the question with an unequalled kge. of 
the Roman Empire in all its aspects. Its law, its 
government, its politics, its police, were all known 
to him. He was able to place documents and 
events in their proper historical environment. Then 
also he knew the geography and the social condi- 
tions of the Eastern provinces as few men knew 
them. Work after work proceeded fm. his pen, and 
the life and work of St. Paul became luminous. 
And the Acts of the Apostles, in particular, became 
a historical document of the first value. No doubt 
others had shown that Luke or the writer of the 
Acts was correct in his allusion to historical events ; 
that the titles he bestows on officials, such as the 
politarchs of Thessalonica, were correct. But Sir 
William Ramsay was successful in showing that the 
whole atmosphere of the Acts is of the first cent. 

Others have come to his help. And now we have 
three works fm. the pen of Harnack (two of these 
have been trd. into English, and the third will soon 
appear). Luke the Physician and The Sayings of 
Jesus are works of such a kind as we scarcely ex- 
pected fm. Germany. He confesses that he is 
largely indebted to British scholars. But his own 
work is worthy of him. He brings forth proof of 
various kinds to the effect that the third Gospel and 
the Acts are fm. the same pen. He believes also 
that the Acts were published about the yr. ad. 80. 
It is not necessary for us to trace the evolution of 
the criticism regarding these bks., nor to trace the 
hist, of the reaction agst. the extreme conclusions 
wh. were reached by some critics. There is now a 
presumption that these writings proceeded fm. the 
pen of this companion of Paul, whom Sir William 
calls one of the great historians of the world. 

As to the dates when this Gospel and the Acts 
were written, we see no reason why we shd. not date 
both of them in the sixties. The only reason alleged 
why the Gospel should be dated after that event is 
that certain sentences in theeschatological discourses 
in the Gospel seem to be a vaticinium 'post eventum 
of the destruction of Jrs. It does not seem to us a 
sufficient reason. But we do not intend to discuss 
the question in the space assigned to us. It is 
sufficient for us that the trend of recent criticism 
seems to be in the direction of a vindication of the 
Lucan authorship of these books, and a few yrs. 
earlier or later make little diffce. to the issue as to 
whether these documents are credible or not. 

The main question at present is as to the sources 
wh. Luke used in his composition of these bks. The 



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question of sources naturally rises in connection 
with his works. He raises the question himself, in 
the preface wh. prop, belongs both to the Gospel 
and to the Acts. He tells of many attempts to set 
forth the story of the Gospel. He tells also of his 
investigation of all things fm. the beginning. He 
himself was not an eye-witness. He belongs to the 
second generation. He belongs also to the Greek 
race. He was a Gentile Christian. With regard 
to the second Gospel the question of sources does 
not naturally arise, and if we raise it we have no 
sufficient data for its settlement. The sources of 
it seem to be the oral tradition, and the special 
testimony of Peter. The question of sources may 
well arise with regard to the first Gospel, though it 
is a matter of great critical delicacy to deal with 
them. 

There is a tendency towards universal agreement 
that the second Gospel is a source for the third. 
About three-fourths of the second Gospel is found 
in the third. That, at all events, is a fact, account 
for it as we may. There are some perplexities re- 
garding this hypothesis. One is, why Luke shd. 
have omitted all refce. to the incident of the Syro- 
Phoenician woman, an incident so illustrative of the 
particular ethos of his Gospel. Still the facts and 
incidents are so many, and the agreements are so 
conspicuous, that we may well suppose that he had 
the second Gospel before him while he wrote : 
unless, indeed, he had talked over the whole story 
with Mark while they were together with Paul at 
Rome (Col. 4. 10 « 14 ; Phm. 24 ). Suppose, then, that 
he had the second Gospel as one of his sources, what 
are the others ? In the Sayings of Jesus Harnack 
attempts to resuscitate this last source. And he is 
so far successful. But only so far. We cannot be 
sure that the last source consisted only of sayings, 
nor can we affirm that the common historical 
matter, common to the three, was drawn fm. Mark 
or fm. the tradition. The document Q may have 
been a Gospel like those we have, containing events 
and deeds as well as sayings and discourses. But 
Luke had other sources at his command in addition 
to Mark and Q. About half of his Gospel contains 
matter wh. we do not find anywhere else. The fore- 
hist. belongs to the third Gospel alone. It wd. be 
easy to enumerate the chapters and verses wh. are 
peculiar to the third Gospel. In fact this has been 
done more than once, and the result is easily acces- 
sible. We mention only the parable of the Good 
Samaritan, and the parables of the Lost Sheep, the 
Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. What does criticism 
make of these sources and of Luke's use of them ? 

On the supposition that the second Gospel is a 
source for the third, we may come to some con- 
clusions regarding the way in wh. Luke uses his 
authorities. We may look at the changes wh. he 
makes on Mark. Referring to the work of Harnack 



and to the Horce Synofticce of Sir John Hawkins for 
illustration of the changes wh. Luke makes, we quote 
from Sir William Ramsay, who himself had given 
some illustrations of the process. " A comparison 
like this might be carried out over the whole matter 
common to Mark and Luke. In some places there 
is distinctly more change than here. But even 
where there is most change, enough remains to 
show the char, of the source. Slight alterations to 
improve the Greek are frequent. Complete re- 
fashioning of the thought and expression is rare. 
Words and vocabulary wh. Luke rarely employs 
where he is writing freely are retained fm. the 
source. Luke recognised that a certain type of 
nar. style had been established for the Gospel, and 
he allowed this to remain. Esp. in the beginning 
and end of a borrowed paragraph he altered freely 
to suit the preceding narrative. Fm. some places 
it is clear that he did not translate verse by verse, 
but considered a paragraph or incident as a whole, 
and transferred touches fm. one point to another, 
where they seemed more effective. He studied 
effect more, perhaps, he pictured the scene to him- 
self more vividly than Mark did, and lit it up with 
more vivid forms of language " {Luke the Physician, 
pp. 41, 42). 

Fm. this statement and fm. others of the same 
kind, and fm. a comparison of the material in the 
second Gospel with similar material in the third, we 
may obtain a conception of the freedom wh. Luke 
allowed to himself in dealing with his authorities. 
He touched up the style, altered the arrangement 
sometimes, grouped things somewhat differently, 
but he seemed to think it unwarrantable to change 
the meaning. He regarded the material of the 
Gospel tradition as given to him, and his business 
was to arrange and set it forth as lucidly as possible, 
in order that Theophilus might know the certainty 
of the things in wh. he had been catechised. He 
dealt with all his sources in the way in wh. he dealt 
with Mark. We may be reasonably sure that he did 
not invent anything, that he never changed the 
meaning, but faithfully set down what he gathered 
fm. written sources, and fm. the tradition of the 
Churches with wh. he came into contact. 

If where we can test his procedure we see that we 
can trust him, surely we may trust him in his use of 
sources of wh. we have no kge. It may be well at 
this point to look at the fore-history. It is a most 
remarkable document, and is indeed unique. It is 
so unlike, in style, in setting, and in its whole out- 
look, to what we might expect in an introduction to 
an event wh. the writer estimates as the greatest in 
the world's history. We do not dwell on accounts of 
the appearance of famous heroes in the hist, of the 
world, or delineate the signs and wonders wh. were 
said to accompany their birth. Signs in the heavens 
above and wonders in the earth beneath signalise 



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the birth of the hero. Take Milton's " Ode to the 
Nativity," and note how he strives in his own majes- 
tic way to express his sense of the greatness of the 
Nativity. History, poetry, science, mythology, and 
every token of material greatness are used to en- 
hance the significance of the event. Milton was a 
Christian poet, and cd. appreciate sptl. greatness. 
Contrast, however, his treatment of the Nativity 
with the fore-history of Luke and of Matthew, and 
we are in worlds which measure greatness by alto- 
gether different standards. In Luke everything is 
quite simple, untouched by any token of material 
greatness. There is no shaking of the firm founda- 
tions of the earth, kings do not look with awful eye, 
the great ones of the earth are untroubled, the 
greatest event of hist, is ushered in by no outward 
greatness. In truth we must be educated in the 
higher values, and learn to know something of 
spiritual greatness ere we can appreciate the simple 
majesty of Luke's fore-history. The people who 
appear are notable only for simple piety, and for 
religious devotion. They are an aged priest and 
his wife, a maiden on whom was to fall a great 
destiny, a few shepherds, an old man and an old 
woman on the brink of the grave, all of them people 
heard of only in this place, and on this occasion. 
The world is unconscious of the appearance in it of 
the greatest person in its history. We submit that 
here there is no legend, no mythology. Legends 
and mythologies are made up of material of an 
altogether different sort. 

How did the wondrous story arise, and where did 
Luke find it ? That he did find it, and that he did 
not compose it, seems very obvious. The simplest 
explanation of the story is that it tells of things wh. 
had happened. For no one cd. have invented it. 
It is so unlike the products of human imagination, 
so different fm. them in its sptl. measurement of 
greatness. We read that Luke was with Paul at 
Jrs., and that he did not accompany Paul when 
Paul was hurried away to Caesarea. Likely he made 
his abode in Jrs. while Paul was in imprisonment at 
Caesarea. Is it assuming too much to say that he 
occupied his time in ascertaining all he cd. find out 
regarding the tradition of the Jrs. Church ? May 
we not imagine him making a pilgrimage to the 
hill country of Judea, and visiting the scenes of the 
Gospel story ? Very likely he had already formed 
the purpose of writing the Gospel, and the story of 
the spread of Christianity fm. Jrs. to Rome. In the 
innermost circles of the Jrs. Church he might well 
learn of what the mother of Jesus might have told to 
that circle when she dwelt in the house of John the 
beloved disciple. At all events the story, if it is 
true, cd. only have come fm. Mary. It is occupied 
all through with Mary, her feelings, her hopes, her 
aspirations. She is in the forefront all through. 
Joseph is in the background, or rather never appears 



on the scene. It bears all the marks of a woman's 
purity and graceful, tender imagination. May we 
not say that the source of the fore-history of Luke 
lies in the memories of the mother of Jesus ? 

We have written these paragraphs because the 
fore-history has been sadly misrepresented and mis- 
understood. It is a unique document, so unlike 
every other in the hist, of Lit. that we do not think 
any one cd. have invented or imagined it, and we 
repeat we have to be educated in the estimate of 
sptl. values to appreciate its unique greatness. Fm. 
Mary alone cd. have come also the story of the visit 
to the Temple, and of the scene when Jesus remained 
behind after the Galilean caravan had departed. 
For that note of Jesus as a boy of twelve we may be 
thankful, and for that note also that He increased in 
wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and 
with man. 

Luke's function in these books is that of a his- 
torian. His object is to set forth in lucid order and 
in intelligible fashion what had been handed down, 
to trace all things fm. the beginning, and to make 
his reader understand those things in wh. he had 
been catechised. He was not free to invent, nor did 
he think of setting forth an apology for the Chris- 
tian religion, or instituting a defence of it. He 
had no doubt of its truth and reality. He believed 
that its hist, was its best defence, and its highest 
vindication. The reader he had in view was a 
Christian already, who did not need to be con- 
vinced of the truth of Christianity. It seems to me 
that they make a sad mistake who are always ready 
to read the writings of the NT. fm. an apologetic 
point of view, as if the writers had in view a hostile 
world, or a world wh. was constantly employed in 
making attacks on Christianity. On the contrary, 
the writers of the Gospels had those in view who 
had already believed, and their aim was to deepen 
and confirm their faith. The writers of the Gospels 
made it their business to acquaint their readers with 
what Jesus did, with what He had said, and thus 
enable them to know Him, for in the kge. of Him 
was life. Nor can it be said of Luke in particular 
that he wrote in a dogmatic interest. In his record 
of Jesus, and in his description of the hist, of the 
early Church, there is a conspicuous lack of pure 
dogmatic teaching. It is, indeed, singular, that a 
companion of Paul shd. set forth in order the things 
wh. were believed in the Christian Church, and yet 
have none of those terms and words employed by 
Paul in setting forth the meaning of the Christian 
Revelation. 

It might be well, then, to take for granted that 
Luke means what he says as regards his aim in 
writing these bks. It is that Theophilus might 
know the certainty concerning the things wherein 
he had been instructed. Having traced the course 
of all things fm. the beginning, he now writes in 



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order. As we read what he has written, and com- 
pare what he has written with the other sources wh. 
we know, we find a great correspondence. There 
are touches in the portraiture of Jesus wh. we do not 
find in Matthew or in Mark, but there is no dis- 
crepancy in the great outline. There is no doubt 
regarding the attitude of reverence and devotion 
assumed by Luke while he is writing about Jesus. 
Nor is there any doubt regarding what Luke thinks 
of the relation of Jesus to the Father. Jesus is the 
Son, sent by the Father. In particular Luke lays 
stress on the need wh. the Son has of constant inter- 
course with the Father. Every new departure in 
the ministry of Jesus is taken after a night of prayer 
and fellowship with the Father. The majesty of 
Jesus in His relation towards men is paralleled by 
His need of refce. to the Father in all He says and in 
all He does. It may be safely said that as regards 
the estimate of Jesus and as regards faith in Him, 
the attitude of the three Synoptic Gospels is one. 

As far as the third Gospel is concerned it is a hist, 
of the doings and sayings of Jesus, a record of His 
relations to men, arranged in artistic form, and 
grouped so as to enable a reader to know what to 
think of Jesus. The writer is a historian, not an 
apologist or a theologian. He makes changes in 
lang., in order, in arrangement, but he seems to take 
care to make no change in the essential meaning of 
the facts. He may now and then soften the harsher 
lang. of Mark, he may now and again lay emphasis 
on some feature simply mentioned by the former 
evangelist, but the impression made by the two 
narratives are in essential agreement. As an illus- 
tration take the sentence descriptive of the agony at 
Gethsemane wh. is found in Luke alone : " And 
being in an agony He prayed more earnestly : and 
His sweat became as it were great drops of blood 
falling down upon the ground " (22. 44 ).* This 
enables a reader to feel the intensity of the agony. 
Hobart points out that the word for " sweat," 
and the phrase " drops of blood," both peculiar to 
Luke in the NT., are technical medical terms (The 
Medical Language of St. Luke, p. 82). In many 
other instances Luke uses his precise medical kge. to 
give his reader a more vivid and more adequate im- 
pression of the real state of the case he is describing. 
In this instance he enables us to know how sore was 
the agony of the Master. 

It is said by some that Luke persistently and con- 
stantly softens the lang. of his source, and mini- 
mises the phrases wh. imply weakness, infirmity, or 
blameworthiness on the part of the apostles. In 
this there is a measure of truth. He does omit 
some sentences ; he gives a more favourable turn to 
some of the Markan phrases ; he leaves out, e.g., the 
" Get thee behind Me, Satan " (Mk. 8. 33 ) addressed 

* As to the authenticity of this verse see Dr. Hort's note, 
The New Testament in Greek, vol. ii., appendix, p. 6Qf. 



to Peter. And there are other omissions like this 
one. It is perfectly intelligible that a writer of the 
second generation of Christians shd. reverence the 
apostles, on whom the foundations of the Church 
were laid, and shd. desire to speak of them as highly 
as possible. This may have been the motive of 
Luke in the changes wh. he has made on his source. 
It is not possible to look at these changes now. But 
we may safely say that while he speaks softly of the 
faults and failures of the disciples, the reader always 
knows that they were at fault, and had failed to rise 
to the height of their calling. 

As we read over these two works of Luke, and 
allow ourselves to receive the impression they are 
fitted to make on us, what an impression it is ! What 
a picture is here drawn of the Master — His compas- 
sion, His sympathy, His patience, His tenderness, 
alongside of His majesty, His wisdom, His endu- 
rance ! What tenderness in the Lucan parables, 
what sympathy and tact are shown to the two on 
the way to Emmaus ! How vividly Luke makes us 
feel the reality of the Resurrection, and the truth of 
the appearances of the Risen Lord. He tells of the 
Ascension twice, once as the closing scene of the 
Gospel, as the last chap, of a work done ; he tells us 
again in the Acts of the Apostles, and tells of it 
as the first work of the Risen Lord. The former 
treatise was written of all that Jesus began to do 
and teach ; the new treatise was written to tell of 
what the Risen Jesus continued to do and teach. 
But they are really one story. The Child born at 
Bethlehem, the Boy we meet at Jrs., is the Man 
Jesus who, being about thirty yrs. of age, came forth 
to work. He is the same in His Galilean work, in 
His wanderings round about the dominions of 
Herod. We are able to discern His identity in 
all the scenes and circumstances of His life, fm. 
Bethlehem to Calvary. It is a consistent figure 
that Luke is enabled to draw. But the picture is 
drawn fm. material given to the artist, not invented 
by him. After criticism has done its work, and 
investigation is pushed to the uttermost, out of it 
once more comes this gracious humane Figure, and 
claims His own. 

It ought to be noted that Luke had among his 
sources something that corresponds to the tradition 
wh. is embodied in the fourth Gospel. Space for- 
bids us to enter into detail, but a refce. to Harnack's 
note in Appendix IV. to Luke the Physician may be 
given. He points out that John and Luke have 
added narratives to the Gospel History ; that, 
among other things in common in Christology, Luke 
approaches to the Johannine type. It wd. be well 
that the reader shd. study Flarnack's learned and 
judicious note, inasmuch as it traces a significant 
link of connection between the four Gospels. 

James Iverach. 

LUNATICK (Gr. seleniazomai, lit. "moon- 

14 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lys 



struck ") is the term used to describe certain who 
were brought to Jesus for healing (Mw. 4. 24 ), and 
also of the boy brought by his father (Mw. 17. 15 ). 
In both cases RV. renders " epileptic." It was 
some form of disease which was popularly regarded 
as the result of possession. The symptoms de- 
scribed in the latter instance point to epilepsy. 
The term " moonstruck " was due to the belief 
among the ancients that diseases marked by 
paroxysms were affected by the changes of the 
moon. 

LUST is frequently used in Scripture in a sense 
quite free from the sinister significance which now 
attaches to it. It stood for strong and eager desire 
in a quite general way. Whatever one greatly 
wished, he was said to lust after ; so that it is 
possible to speak of a " lust " of the Spirit, as 
opposed to a " lust " of the flesh (Gal. 5. 16 ). 

LUTE stands in RV. for neb el (Is. 5. 12 , AV. 
" viol "). See Music. 

LUZ. (1) Gn. 28. 19 , &c, see Bethel. (2) An 
unidentd. city in the land of the Hittites, built by 
a Bethelite (Jg. I. 26 ). 

LYCAONIA, a district, rough and infertile, in 
the interior of Asia Minor, on the N. slopes of 
the Taurus mountains, reaching to the border of 
Galatia on the N., bounded on the W. by Phrygia 
and Pisidia, and on the E. by Cappadocia. The 
Lycaonian people were prob. related to the Pisi- 
dians. In b.c 36 Antony placed the whole region 
under Amyntas, k. of Pisidia, who further conquered 
Derbe and Laranda. At his death in b.c. 25, the 
districts incorporated in his kdm. became the Rm. 
province of Galatia. At the time of St. Paul's 
visit (Ac. 14. 6 ), the Lycaonian speech was still in 
use (v. 11). 

LYCIA, a country in the SW. of Asia Minor, 
cities in which, Patara (Ac. 21. x ) and Myra (2J. 5 ), 
are mentioned in connection with St. Paul's travels. 
Christianity made little headway in L. The 
country is mountainous, cut up by deep valleys. 
The people, who possessed an ancient culture of 
their own, were subject to the Seleucids till b.c 190. 
Taken by the Romans, it was given to Rhodes for a 
time, and in 168 it was made free. A colony of 
Jews had early settled in L. (1 M. 15. 23 ), attracted, 
no doubt, by the trade of its seaport towns. It 
was joined to the province of Pamphylia by the 
Emperor Claudius, a.d. 43. 

LYDDA. See Lod. 

LYDIA. The ancient and prosperous kdm. 
known by this name lay on the W. coast of Asia 
Minor. The last king was Croesus, whom the 
Persians conquered c. b.c 546. It fell in succes- 
sion to Alexander the Great (b.c 334) and to Per- 
gamum (b.c 190). By the will of the last king of 
Pergamum it passed to the Romans (b.c 133), and 
became part of the Roman province of Asia. By 



this latter name only it is known in the NT. Within 
it lay certain great cities closely associated with the 
early progress of Christianity — Ephesus, Sardis, 
Smyrna, &c. Possibly it is referred to in Ek. 30. 5 . 
See Lud. 

LYDIA, a seller of purple fm. the Lydian city 
Thyatira, prob. a Jewess, an early convert of St. 
Paul in Philippi, who extended hospitality to him 
and his companions (Ac. 16. 14 ). She seems to have 
been well-to-do, and may have represented in 
Philippi some Thyatiran firm for sale of the dyed 
garments for which her native country was famed. 
" As her husband is not mentioned, and she was a 
householder, she was prob. a widow ; and she may 
be taken as an ordinary example of the freedom 
with which women lived and worked in Asia Minor 
and in Macedonia " (Sir W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the 
Trav. p. 214). L. may have been her proper name, 
but prob. it is only the adjective, " the Lydian," by 
wh. she was known in Philippi. She does not again 
appear by that name in the NT. Some have 
sought to identify her with Euodia or Syntyche. 
Renan thinks that L. is the " true yoke-fellow " of 
Php. 4. 3 , and that she was married to St. Paul. For 
the last suggestion there is not even plausible 
evidence. 

LYSANIAS is named as tetrarch of Abilene at 
the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry (Lk. 3 . 1 ) . 
The only L. known to hist, was killed in b.c 34 
(Jos. Ant. XV. iv. 1 ; BJ. I. xiii. 1). It is some- 
times assumed, therefore, that Luke was in error. 
But it does not appear that Abila was given to 
Herod with the other possessions of L. {Ant. XV. 
x. 3), and it is mentioned apart as " Abila of L." 
(XIX. v. 1). It is not improbable, therefore, that 
Augustus gave Abila to a Lysanias, who may have 
been a son of the former, and that Luke refers to him. 




Ancient Sacrifice 



LYSTRA, a city of Lycaonia, visited by St. Paul 
on his first and second missionary journeys (Ac. 
I4. 6ff -, i6. lf -). Here he healed a lame man, and had 
to restrain the people fm. sacrificing to him as a god. 



415 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mac 



Agents of the hostile Jews in Antioch and Iconium The site is identd. beside Khatyn Serai, a vill. 

wrought a revulsion of feeling in the people : he 18 miles S. of Iconium. It was made a Rm. colony 

was stoned and dragged out of the city as dead, by Augustus, and in St. Paul's time the influential 

Fm.L. he took with him Timothy, prob. a native of part of the population wd. be the descts. of the 

this town. The common people spoke Lycaonian. old colonists. 



M 

MAACAH. Of many persons bearing this name Senate. Much of the missionary work of St. Paul 
only these call for mention : (i) Dr. of Talmai, k. of was done in the cities of M. ; see separate articles 
Geshur, w. of David and mr. of Absalom (2 S. 3. 3 ; 
I Ch. 3. 2 ). (2) Dr. of Absalom, w. of Rehoboam 
(1 K. 15. 2 ; 2 Ch. n. 20fL ). Poss. we shd. under- 
stand here " granddr." of Absalom, and identify her 
with Michaiah, dr. of Uriel, who may have married 
Tamar, Absalom's only dr. (2 Ch. 13. 2 ). M. was mr. 
of Abijah and Asa, kings of Judah (1 K. 15. 2 ' 10 - 13 ). 
Under Asa she was deposed because of idolatrous 
practices (1 K. 15. 13 , &c). (3) Fr. of Achish, k. of 
Gath (1 K. 2. 39 ), who may be referred to as " Maoch " 

(I S. 2 7 . 2 ). 

MAACHAH, RV. MAACAH, a small Aram. 




Coin of Macedonia (Roman) 

on the cities. His coming over to M. : 



bringing the 
i6. 9ff -), marks 



state between Hermon and Geshur, with the Sea of Gospel to the shores of Europe (Ac. 

Galilee and the upper Jordan as its W. boundary, an important new departure in his life. 

the inhabitants of wh. were called Maacathites MACHIR. (1) Eldest (Jo. 17. 1 ) and only s. (Nu. 

(Dt. 3. 14 , &c). It long maintained its indepen- 26. 29 ) of Manasseh. His descts., called Machirites 

dence (Jo. 13. 13 ). It joined with Ammon agst. (Nu. 26. 29 ), were warlike and enterprising (Jg. 5. 14 ). 

David (2 S. io. 6 ; 1 Ch. 19. 6 , Aram-Maacah). They tookGilead fm. the Amorites (Nu. 32_. 39 ; Jo. 



Poss. Abel-beth-maacah may have been built by 
men of M. (2 S. 20. 14 , &c). 

MAALEH AKRABBIM. See Akrabbim, As- 
cent OF. 

MAARATH, a town in the uplands of Judah, 
named with Beth-anoth and Eltekon (Jo. 15. 59 ) ; 
?. = mod. Beit 'Ummar. 

MAAREH GIBA. See Gibeah. 



13. 31 , &c). Fm. the mention of M. by Deborah 
among the tribes W. of Jordan, some suppose the 
conquest of Gilead must have fallen later. M. 
is called fr. of Gilead (Nu. 26. 29 , &c.) ; but the 
presence of the article (Jo. 17. 1 , &c, Heb. " the 
Gilead ") may indicate a locality. (2) S. of Ammiel 
of Lo-debar, a place E. of the Jordan, who befriended 
Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth, after the disaster 




I M. i. lfl - It was the 
kingdom of Philip, the 
home of Alexander the 
Gt. M. in NT. is the 
Rm. province of that 



MACEDONIA appears first in Jewish hist, in to the house of Saul (2 S. 9. lfL ). He also succoured 
T i\/T T iff. Tt woe th* David in his flight fm. Absalom (17. 27 ), and is 
described by Jos. {Ant. VII. ix. 8) as the chief man 
of that country. 

MACHPELAH was the name of a district that 
lay " before," i.e. " east," of Mamre, in wh. was the 
name." It was organised lot of Ephron, containing a cave (Gn. 23. 9 - 17 , &c). 
in B.C. 146, with its The cave Abraham bought fm. Ephron for a bury- 
capital at Thessalonica. ing place, and there the dust of Sarah was laid. In 
As definedby Augustus, this cave he himself was buried (25.°), as was Isaac, 
B.C. 27, when it became Rebekah, Leah (49. 30L ), and finally Jacob (50. 13 ). 
a senatorial province, it There is no reason to doubt the truth of the tradi- 
reached S. to Thessaly, tion wh. identifies this cave with that under the 
W. to the sea between great mosque at Hebron. It lies on the E. edge of 
the Aous and the Drilo. the mod. city, on the SW. slope of the mountain. 
It was bounded on the This land, inclining towards the ancient city (see 
N. by Moesia, and on Hebron), must have formed the district of M. Of 
the E. by the sea and the cave no recent reliable account is available. 
Coins of Macedonia (Greek) the riyer Nestm ( seg The latest is that of Benjamin of Tudela (a.d. 1 163), 

Achaia). In a.d. 15 it became an imperial province, who explains that any Jew giving an additional fee 
but in a.d. 44 it was restored by Claudius to the to the keeper of the cave wd. be admitted by an 

416 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mac 



iron door. Taking a candle in his hand, he passes 
through " the first cave, wh. is empty, traverses a 
second in the same state, and at last reaches a third, 
wh. contains six sepulchres, those of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, and of Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, 
one opposite the other." 

Ibrahim Pasha in 1834 had himself lowered into 
the cavern. But his Moslem soul suddenly shrank 
fm. the impiety of looking even upon the ashes of 
another man's wife, and he was drawn up forthwith, 
leaving the cave unexplored. 

The mosque is held in peculiar reverence by the 
Moslems. Certain favoured visitors, e.g. King 
Edward, when Prince of Wales, in 1862, and the 
Prince of Wales (George) in 1882, by imperial orders 
were permitted to enter. Members of other re- 
ligious communities are as a rule rigidly excluded. 




Mosoue at Hebron, Machpelah 

The space enclosed by the walls is 197 ft. in 
length by in ft. in breadth. The walls are sup- 
ported by buttresses 25 ft. high, resting on a base 
wall wh. is flush with their faces. The stones in 
walls and base have a draft of 4 inches wide round 
the edges, and a band of similar tooling, about 
4 inches wide, round the face, within the draft. 
The courses average 3 ft. 7 in. in height, one 
stone measuring 24 ft. 8 in. by 3 ft. 8 J in. The 
thickness of the walls between the buttresses is 
8J ft. In respect of buttresses, drafting, stones, 
thickness, and general structure these walls cor- 
respond with those of the Haram in Jerusalem, and 
may therefore, probably, be no later than the time 
of Herod. The wall on the west is crowned by a 
cornice. On the inner face the stones are plainly 
dressed. The inner court is 15 ft. above the level 
of the street on the W. The ancient wall, including 
the base, was thus about 40 ft. in height. On the 
top of this old masonry has been built a modern wall 
with battlements, plastered and whitewashed. A 
wall of comparatively recent construction surrounds 
the ancient enclosure on three sides, north, south, 
and east, with flights of steps on the N. and S. 
leading up to passages on a level with the floor 



within, by wh. the entrance to the enclosure is 
reached. This is a doorway in the E. side, 95 ft. 
7 in. from the SE. angle. The buildings within 
the enclosure are all of Christian or Moslem work- 
manship. The southern part is occupied by a 
mosque, originally a Christian church, built, pro- 
bably, in the latter half of the twelfth cent. The 
minbar, or pulpit, is a fine piece of work in wood, 
completed in a.d. 1091, and brought hither by 
Saladin after the capture of Ascalon, a.d. 1187. 
The six cenotaphs are believed by the Moslems 
to stand directly over the spots where the three 
patriarchs and their wives are buried. Those of 
Isaac and Rebekah are within the mosque. They 
are enclosed in shrines oblong in shape, built of 
masonry, with gabled roofs, the ridges being 12 
ft. above the floor. At the gable ends are brass 
crescents. In the sides and roofs are windows with 
heavy iron bars. The wooden doors are adorned 
with ornamental brass work. Richly embroidered 
hangings of silk cover the cenotaphs, under canopies 
of cloth. Manuscript copies of the Qor'an are 
placed around each. Silver plates bearing inscrip- 
tions in Arabic are attached to the doors and 
windows. The porch or narthex to the N. of the 
mosque includes two octagonal chapels, containing 
the cenotaphs of Abraham and Sarah. That of 
Abraham is 8 ft. by 4 ft., and 8 ft. high. The gates 
closing the entrance to the shrine are said to be iron 
plated with silver. The walls of the chapel are lined 
with marble, Arabic inscriptions in gilt letters run- 
ning round the top. The roof is domed. The 
shrine and cenotaph of Sarah are similar to these. 
To the NW. of the courtyard are the buildings en- 
closing the shrines of Jacob and Leah, wh. may be 
seen through open-barred gates from the passage 
between them. All the cenotaphs have hangings 
and coverings like those of Isaac and Rebekah 
described above. It is to be noted, however, that 
those covering the cenotaphs of the patriarchs are 
of deep green, the sacred Moslem colour, while in 
the case of their wives the colour is crimson. The 
inscriptions are embroidered in silver and gold. 
The so-called shrine of Joseph, wh. adjoins the en- 
closure in the NW., is entirely of Arab workman- 
ship. In the corner of a vaulted gallery leading to 
it is shown the print of Adam's foot (or " the foot- 
print of the prophet "), impressed on a stone slab 
said to have been brought from Mecca over 600 
years ago. 

The cave under the enclosure is, however, the 
main source of interest. The custodians describe it 
as double (cp. Gn. 23. 17 , LXX). It was known as 
" the double cave " in the Middle Ages — Spelunca 
Duplex. Whatever entrance there may formerly 
have been from lower levels has long been built up, 
so that it was possible to enter only through certain 
openings, three in number, in the floor of the en- 
17 o 



Mad 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mag 



closure above. Two of these have been closed. The 
third, inside the N. wall of the mosque, is covered 
by a stone like those over well-mouths in Pal. 
Through a hole about I ft. in diameter in this stone 
a light may be lowered, when a chamber will be 
seen, about 12 ft. square, the floor being about 15 ft. 
below that of the mosque. A doorway like those 
seen in ancient rock-cut tombs in Pal. opens off the 
chamber to the SE. The floor is covered with 
pieces of paper on which Moslems have written 
petitions, and thrown them into the cave, in the 
hope that the patriarchs will intercede for the 
writers and secure their requests. Although the 
descent of the Jews from their common ancestor 
Abraham is not denied, they are prohibited from 
entering the sacred enclosure. They are allowed, 
however, to stand and pray at a point in the SW. 
where a hole in the masonry of the base appears to 
communicate with the interior of the cave. 

An excellent account of the sacred enclosure and 
the cave is given by Warren, HDB. s.v. Mach- 
pelah ; and by Col. Conder in PEFM. iii. 333ft., 
to which the writer of this article is mainly in- 
debted. 

MADAI. See Medes. 

MADMANNAH, an unidentd. town in the S. of 
judah (Jo. 15. 31 ), wh. may be the same as Beth- 
marcaboth. (Jo. 19. 5 ; 1 Ch. 4. 31 ). Conder suggests, 
doubtfully, Umm Demineb, N. of Beersheba. 

MADMEN, a town in Moab (Jr. 48.2), named 
with Heshbon. It may be = mod. el-Medeineh, N. 
of Dibon. But poss. it may be an error in tran- 
scription for Dibon itself. 

MADMENAH, an unidentd. town N. of Jrs. 
(Is. io. 31 ). 

MADNESS. Various words are used in Scrip, for 
" madness " and " to be mad," indicating different 
mental conditions which are sufficiently defined by 
the context. Madness " is recognised as a derange- 
ment proceeding either from weakness and mis- 
direction of intellect, or fm. ungovernable violence 
of passion ; and in both cases it is spoken of, some- 
times as arising fm. the will and action of man 
himself, sometimes as inflicted judicially by the 
hand of God." The case of demonic possession is 
considered under Diseases. 

The prophets, acting under Divine inspiration, 
were sometimes regarded as madmen (2 K. 9. 11 ; 
Jr. 29. 26 , &c). As to the marks of the inspired 
mood we have no sure information. It could be 
induced by means of music ; and in some features 
it may have resembled the frenzy into wh. certain 
mod. devotees in the East work themselves by 
similar means. 

To this day in the Orient a certain sacredness 
attaches to the madman. If he be not a dangerous 
person, his whims and follies are met with easy 
indulgence. The air of half-contemptuous good 



nature assumed in dealing with him is only a cloak 
for a deeper feeling, of wh. the more intelligent are 
somewhat ashamed. David's feigning of madness 
was a sure means to secure immunity (1 S. 21. 13 ). 

MADON, a royal Can. city in Galilee, named 
with Hazor (Jo. II. 1 , 12. 19 ). We shd. pxob. read 
with LXX A. " Maron." It may be ident. with 
mod. Meiron, W. of Safed. 

MAGADAN. See Magdala. 

MAGDALA. This name occurs only in Mw. 
15. 39 AV. ; RV. Magadan. The letters " 1 " and 
" n "are frequently interchanged: e.g.Heb.nathan, 
" to give," is equivalent to Aram, nethal (Mk. 5. 41 ) : 
" Magadan " may therefore be simply the survival of 
a localism. In the parallel passage (Mk. 8. 10 ) stands 
Dalmanutha. Neither name can now be located. 
The place seems to have been on the W. shore of the 
Sea of Galilee, as Jesus set out hence for the E. side 
(Mk. 8. 13 ). The Tim. speaks of more than one Mig- 
dal (" tower ") in the neighbourhood of Tiberias 
(Neubauer, Geog. d. Tim. 2i6ff.), to one of wh., no 
doubt, Mary of Magdala (Magdalene) belonged. 
El-Mejdel, a few mud hovels amid traces of anct. 
buildings, with a comparatively mod. tower at the 
SW. corner of el-Ghazoeir (plain of Gennesaret), 
prob. represents one of the Heb. Migdals, and may 
be Magadan itself. 

MAGI. See Wise Men. 

MAGIC. See Divination. 

MAGISTRATE. In AV. the word first occurs 
in an obscure passage (Jg. 18. 7 ), where for AV. " no 
magistrate " RV. has " none possessing authority, 
&c." — a meaning wh. Moore (Judges, ad loc.) says 
" cannot be extorted from the Heb. text with a 
rack." The sense may be that owing to distance 
from the Zidonians Laish was exposed without 
restraint to the attack of the Danites. In Ez. J. 25 
the Aram, sho-phepm represents the Heb. shdphetim. 
From the Phoenician form of this word the Romans 
got their name for the magistrates in Carthage, 
sufetes. In NT. " magistrates " stands for archai 
(Lk. I2. 11 , AV.). RV. correctly renders " rulers," 
possibly the Gentile authorities as distinguished 
from those of the synagogue. In Lk. 12. 58 archon 
may be " a local authority of somewhat higher 
position than the judge (Kpirr\i) to whom he 
remits the case " (HDB. s.v) ; but it may be taken 
as applying to the judge himself. In Ac. 16. 20 , &c, 
the magistrates are strategoi (lit. " leaders "), the 
supreme authorities in the Roman colony. 

MAGOG is named between Gomer (the Cim- 
merians) and Madai (the Medes) as a son of Japheth 
(Gn. io. 2 ; 1 Ch. I. 5 ). Ezekiel (38.2) makes Gog of 
the land of Magog, prince of Rosh, or (RVm.) chief 
prince of Meshech and Tubal. Magog must there- 
fore be sought in the N. of Pal. It has been sug- 
gested that Gog may be identified with Gyges of 
classic story, and consequently Magog with Lydia. 



418 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mag 



With more probability Jos. identifies Magog with 
the Scythians. The impression made by incur- 
sions of this wild and warlike people was still fresh 
when Ezekiel wrote. We may infer from his words 
that they had conquered Meshech and Tubal. 
Gog and Magog play a great part in Apocalyptic 
Lit. They appear in Rv. 20. 8 as the peoples 
gathered by Satan to war against " the beloved 
city," who are destroyed by fire from heaven. 

MAGOR-MISSABIB (" Fear on every side "), 
a nickname applied by Jeremiah to Pashur (RV. 
" Pashhur "), son of Immer, " chief governor of the 
house of the Lord " (Jr. 20. 3 ), who had beaten the 



dunameis of God. S. did not in words claim to be 
the Philonian Logos ; indeed, if Irenaeus is to be 
believed, his claim was to be the supreme God. 
This title wh. was given him may be held to imply 
that the Samaritans regarded him as their expected 
Thaheb or Messiah. 

That the Samaritans expected a Messiah, whom they 
named Thaheb, " the one who returns," was proved by 
Merx's discovery of the Samaritan hymn to him. He was to 
ccnquer seven nations and bring back Judah to union with 
Israel, i.e. Samaria. He was not expected to be immortal, 
but was to live no years. (Hilgenfeld's Zeitsch. f. Wiss. 
Theol. 1894, 2tes H.) 

Philip's preaching, confirmed as it was by signs 




# ■ !■* ■, 



• 




Magdala and Plain of Gennesaret 



prophet and put him in stocks. Verse 4 explains : 
" Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will make thee a 
terror to thyself and to all thy friends." The word 
occurs elsewhere in the Heb., but not as a proper 
name ; e.g. Ps. 31. 13 ; Jr. 6. 25 . 

MAGUS, SIMON. When, in consequence 
of the persecution inaugurated by the death, of 
Stephen, the believers were scattered abroad, Philip 
the Evangelist proceeded to Samaria to preach the 
Gospel, he found there a sorcerer in great authority 
named Simon. He claimed to be some one great. 
Hiding the special sphere of his greatness, he seems 
to have added mystery to his other artifices. Pro- 
bably at his skilfully planned suggestion, the people 
declared him to be " that power of God wh. is 
called great " (Ac. 8. 9 ' 13 RV.). This term had a 
special meaning in the teaching of Philo Judseus ; 
the Logos had this title as the summation of all the 



following, was wonderfully successful ; multitudes 
of the Samaritans believed, abandoning not only 
Simon with his claim to Messiahship, but also all 
hope of a conquering Samaritan Messiah. Simon 
himself was impressed with the works done by 
Philip, and professed himself a believer in Jesus and 
was baptized. We may not assume that S. M. was 
merely a hypocrite ; he probably thought that Jesus 
was a clever goes who somehow had got in touch 
with higher powers than he had ever had to do 
with, and had taught His disciples the secret of 
His power. There is no sign of sorrow for sin or 
of joy in deliverance from it. 

The arrival of the apostles Peter and John fm. 
Jerusalem supplied the touchstone that revealed the 
man. He saw the apostles laying their hands on 
the heads of believers and they received the Holy 
Ghost ; presumably they had the gift of speaking 



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with tongues bestowed upon them. This was a 
power that passed into another region altogether 
fm. anything he had hitherto aimed at ; the power 
to give power. Hungry as he always was for power, 
Simon coveted this power also. He approached the 
apostles with the offer of money, saying, " Give me 
also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands 
he may receive the Holy Ghost." Here was belief 
in the reality of the spiritual power possessed by the 
apostles, combined with absolute ignorance as to its 
nature. His offer is met by scathing rebuke fm. 
Peter : " Thy money perish with thee, because thou 
Hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money. 
. . . Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and 
pray the Lord if perhaps the thought of thy heart 
shall be forgiven thee." Awestruck by the horror 
of the apostle, Simon entreats Peter to pray for 
him, " that none of those things wh. ye have spoken 
come upon me." This is the last we see of Simon in 
Scripture. 

Singularly, Professor Schmiedel makes it an objection 
against the authenticity of the narrative that nothing is said 
of the fate of the man thus cursed. If no manifest fate had 
overtaken him when the book was written nothing cd. be 
said on the matter ; further, to narrate anything of the ad- 
ventures that befell him wd. take the record too far fm. the 
matters of supreme importance. The fact that so little in- 
terest is manifested in what became of Simon proves, instead 
of disproving, that the narrative was approximately contem- 
porary with the events. 

Though the record of Scripture relates no more 
of Simon Magus, the Church Fathers tell us much ; 
most of it unlikely, some of it impossible, though 
something also of truth. With the exception of 
the apostle Peter no individual is more prominent 
in the literature of the second and third Christian 
centuries than Simon Magus. A good many of 
the statements made regarding him are founded, 
directly or indirectly, on the evidence of Justin 
Martyr, himself a native of Flavia Neapolis, the 
ancient Shechem and modern Nablus, a city of the 
province of Samaria. Justin may quite well have 
met old men who as youths had seen Simon and had 
conversed with converts of Philip. Not only does 
Justin refer to Simon in his two Apologies and 
give some particulars of his life, but in the treatise 
Against Heretics, wh. has not come down to us, 
he probably entered more fully into the life and 
opinions of this earliest of heretics ; and fm. this 
work not improbably was drawn much that we find 
in Irenaeus and Tertullian. Justin tells in his first 
Apology that Simon was born in Gitto, a village of 
Samaria, wh. may be Jit, a village six miles fm. 
Nablus and five SW. fm. Sebastieh (Samaria). He 
accuses him of having given himself out to be a god, 
a statement that is corroborated by the narrative 
in Acts. 

Justin further says that, having come to Rome in the reign 
of Claudius, Simon was worshipped as a god, and had a 
statue erected to him. Justin tells exactly where it was 
placed : "in the Tiber river between the two bridges " ; the 



inscription, he says, was Simoni Deo Sancto. Nearly three 
centuries and a half ago, a marble fragment was found wh. 
appeared to be a portion of the base of a statue ; the place in 
wh. it had been dug up, too, was very similar to that de- 
scribed by Justin ; it was in an island of the Tiber. The 
most striking thing was the inscription : Semoni Sanco 
DeoFidioSex. Pompeius. S.P.F. Col. Mussianus. This 
Semo Sancus was a deity of the Sabines, as we learn fm. 
Ovid's Fasti. The conclusion come to almost universally 
has been that Justin had, by mistake, read the dedication 
to the Sabine divinity as a dedication to his countryman. 
It is hard to imagine, as Dr. Burtcn [Bampton Lecture) 
contends, that Justin cd. make such a blunder ; yet it is 
also difficult to avoid recognising the striking resemblance 
between what Justin quotes and what is found on the marble. 
Another solution suggests itself as at least possible ; that 
Simon, taking advantage of the similarity of names, per- 
suaded the people that he was the Sabine deity come to 
earth, and so the statue mt. be erected to him in the char- 
acter of incarnation of Semo Sancus. 

The next authority is Irenaeus. As already re- 
marked, in all likelihood his information was drawn 
fm. Justin Martyr. He gives an account of the 
views of Simon wh. has the look of caricature ; he 
says that Simon found a beautiful young woman 
named Helena enslaved to a brothel-keeper and re- 
deemed her. That he shd. declare her to be a 
reincarnation of Helen of Troy was not unnatural, 
but he went further, as already noted ; he declared, 
so Irenaeus says, that he himself was the Supreme 
God, and that this Helena was an incarnation of his 
primitive ennoia or creative thought of the universe 
— equivalent to the ideal world of Plato ; that she, 
descending into the depth, created the angels, who 
in turn created the world and humanity. After 
this work was finished her creatures wd. not allow 
her to return to her father, but passed her through 
humiliation after humiliation, till this last degrada- 
tion of public prostitution was reached. She was 
the " lost sheep," and he, Simon, i.e. the Divine 
Father, came down to earth to seek her. This 
appears to be the travesty of a statement in parable 
of the effect of sin as degrading and destroying the 
world as God had meant it to be ; while the Divine 
effort towards the deliverance of the world fm. the 
power of sin is symbolised by the descent of the 
Supreme into the world, i.e. the appearance of 
Simon — an added lie necessitated by his claims. 
The evidence of Tertullian as to the teaching of 
Simon maybe neglected, as he seems to have derived 
his information fm. Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. 
The publication of the Philoso-phoumena of Hippo- 
lytus put all questions in regard to the opinions of 
Simon on a new footing, as in addition to acquaint- 
ance with what had been written previously on the 
matter he had studied The Great Announcement, 
the work in wh. Simon expounded his views. The 
quotation he gives fm. it exhibits at once Simon's 
opinions and his manner of exposition : " To you 
then I say what I say and write what I write. The 
writing is this : there are two offshoots of all the 
ages having neither beginning nor limit. This 
power is Sige (silence), invisible, incomprehensible. 



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Of these offshoots one is fm. above, a great power, 
the Reason (nous) of all things, managing everything ; 
it is male. The other fm. beneath is great Design, 
female, producing everything. Whence the others, 
arranged in opposing pairs, wh. each forms a con- 
jugal union (suzugia) ; these exhibit an intervening 
space (diastema), illimitable air, wh. has neither 
beginning nor limit. In this is the Father, sustain- 
ing and nourishing such things as have beginning 
and end. He it is who has stood, is standing, and 
will stand, a hermaphrodite (arsenothelus) power, 
wh. has neither beginning nor limit and is solitary. 
From this the Design (epinoia), proceeding forth in 
unity, became two. It was one, having unity in 
itself, isolated, but not primal : proceeding forth, 
an object of contemplation to itself, it became 
the second. Neither was he called ' father ' 
before this power named him so." Hippolytus 
elsewhere credits Simon with making " fire " the 
first principle of all things, as did Heraclitus ; and 
that from this proceeded three " suzugies," male 
and female ; Reason and Design, Voice and Name, 
Reckoning and Reflection. In this we can recog- 
nise how Simon was the originator of Gnosticism, 
wh. in some forms indulged far more extensively in 
the device of " suzugies." From these six results a 
seventh, wh. he seems to regard as the Holy Ghost 
who moved upon the waters. At other times it 
seems as if he himself were this seventh, this perfect 
man. It is difficult to reach an intelligible view 
of the doctrines wh. Simon actually held. He 
grounded his system partly on Scripture, hence 
Hippolytus gives us the interpretation he offers of 
the different books of the law. The relation in wh. 
he represents himself as standing to Christ has a 
great deal of interest in the light of the succeeding 
history of opinion. He regards Jesus as the Re- 
deemer. He says the Supreme Being, having been 
manifested to the Jews as Son, to the Samaritans as 
Father, to the Gentiles He appeared as Holy Ghost. 
He had a purely docetic view of our Lord's 
humanity. " Not being a man He appeared as a 
man to the Jews, and to suffer though not really 
suffering." S. M. thus inaugurated the long line of 
docetic speculation. We may omit sundry physio- 
logical speculations, in wh. Simon identifies the 
unfallen condition of our first parents with the 
condition of a child unborn. The later fathers, as 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and Epiphanius, do 
not add anything of real value. When we rid his 
doctrines of the symbolic and the accretions due to 
possible misunderstandings we may regard his system 
as an attempt to produce a philosophy of religion in 
the terms of Christianity. 

Another source of information of a sort has to be 
considered. Towards the very end of the second cen- 
tury, if not even later, there was published a religious 
novel of strongly Judaising tendency wh. purported 



to be the work of Clemens Romanus, and under 
cover of narrating his search for his father and 
mother, gives an account of the prolonged and re- 
peated contests of the apostle Peter with Simon. 
It appears in two main forms, The Recognitions and 
The Homilies ; along with these there are two 
Epitomes, wh. differ but little. It is a question wh. 
of these varying forms, if either, is to be looked 
upon as the primitive, or whether there was an earlier 
form, now lost, fm. wh. all that has come down to us 
has been derived. Not impossibly there was a col- 
lection of pseudo-Petrine discourses of a Judaising 
tendency ; to ensure for these a greater popularity 
the story of Clement is woven about them. There 
are many traces that Pauline doctrine is attributed 
to Simon in order that it shd. be refuted under his 
name. This led to the idea that Simon had no 
existence save as a nickname of the apostle Paul. 
Had it not been in the interest of a theory to main- 
tain the opposite, it wd. have been seen that the 
existence of Simon was as clearly proved as any 
truth of history. The narrative in the Acts must be 
admitted to be by a follower of St. Paul, although 
for the sake of argument we do not affirm the Lucan 
authorship. The admission of the Simon narrative 
into Acts proves him more and other than St. Paul 
under a nickname. The evidence of Justin Martyr 
itself wd. be conclusive. This view is maintained 
by Professor Schmiedel, who finds reason to doubt, 
as already mentioned, the historicity of the narrative 
in Acts — " that the story has no close ; we are not 
told what in the end became of Simon." Another 
difficulty has been made by some who, forgetful 
that Simon or Simeon was one of the commonest 
names in Judea — there are no less than nine men- 
tioned in the NT. — maintain that the Simon, the 
Cyprian Goes, who seduced Drusilla to leave her 
husband for Felix, was Simon Magus. It might as 
well be asserted that, because Iscariot was " the son 
of Simon," therefore Simon Peter was his father. 

There are varying accounts of how S. M. died. 
In the Apostolic Constitutions we are told that, 
having by magic ascended into the heavens in a fiery 
chariot, Peter prayed that he might be hurled to 
the ground but only his leg be broken : in answer to 
this petition he was so precipitated to the ground, 
and " had his hip and ankle-bones broken." The 
Acts of Peter and Paul add the influence of Paul 
to that of Peter ere the heresiarch falls, but add 
also that he died, " was divided into four parts, and 
so perished by an evil fate," wh. the Apost. Const. 
does not say. Arnobius supplements the account in 
the Const, by saying that he was carried to Brunda 
(Brindisi), and when filled with shame ascended 
a tower and, throwing himself down, died. The 
earlier account of Hippolytus is that, having come to 
Rome, he encountered the apostles, and fearing to be 
convicted by them, " he said that if he were buried 



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alive he wd. rise again on the third day. And 

having commanded a grave to be dug by his disciples 

he ordered them to bury him. They indeed did 

what was ordered, but he remains there till now " 

(Hippol. Philosofh. vi. 15). 

There is a reference in the Acts of Peter and Paul to 
a claim of Simon's that he had been beheaded and had 
risen on the third day. By a trick he had substituted a ram 
for himself. 

The Literature is extensive — all works on the 
Gnostic heresies, all Church Histories of any size 
that deal with the early Christian centuries, must 
take knowledge of S. M. Articles in various 
Biblical Cyclopaedias and Dictionaries, and Com- 
mentaries on the Acts may be consulted. For 
original sources the Ante-Nicene Library has trans- 
lations of all the Fathers of the first three cents., 
and all the Apocryphal writings the evidence of 
which is of any moment. 

MAHANAIM. Many scholars deny that this 
name is really a dual, maintaining that it is an old 
locative form, meaning " camp " not " two camps." 

M. is first mentioned in the hist, of Jacob (Gn. 
32. 2 ), where we find the parallel " Mahaneh " (v. 21, 
not " company," EV.). It was on the N. border of 
Gad (Jo. 13. 26 ' 30 ), and was given to the Merarite 
Levites (21. 38 ). M. was the capital of Ishbosheth's 
kdm. (2 S. 2. 8 , &c), and formed David's head- 
quarters in the war with Absalom (2 S. 17. 24 , &c). 
Later one of Solomon's commissariat officers was 
stationed here (1 K. 4. 14 ). 

There can be little doubt that M. was in the 
neighbourhood of Mahne, wh. stands on the N. 
bank of Wady Mahne, to the NE. of mod. 'Ajlun. 
Not far to the SW. rises the magnificent strength 
of Qal'at er-Rabad, where some scholars wd. place 
the anct. fortress of M. No cert, identn. is, how- 
ever, poss. 

MAHANEH DAN. See Dan. 

MAHLAH. (1) Dr. of Zelophehad (Nu. 26P, 
&c), who, with her sisters, claimed and received her 
father's inheritance, being bound to marry only in 
their own tribe, thus keeping intact the tribal 
property. (2) Dr. of Hammolecheth (1 Ch. 7. 18 ; 
AV., wrongly, " Mahalah "). 

MAHLI. (1) S.ofMerari(Ex.6. 19 ,&c). (2) S. 
of Mushi, the br. of M. (1) (1 Ch. 23. 23 , &c). The 
priestly clan descended fm. M. s. of Merari were 
known as Mahlites (Nu. 3. 33 , 26. 58 ). 

MAHLON (" sickly "), son of Elimelech and 
Naomi, br. of Chilion, a native of Bethlehem (Ru. 
l. lfL ). Going with his parents and br. to Moab, on 
account of famine, he married Ruth the Moabitess. 
How long he lived is not recorded, but he was dead 
before their ten years' sojourn in Moab (i. 4 ) was 
ended. 

MAHOL, the fr. of Heman, Calcol, and Darda, 
who must have been men celebrated for wisdom : 
that Solomon excelled them in this respect is men- 



tioned to his glory (1 K. 4. 31 ). The Heb. word 
mdhol, when it occurs elsewhere (Ps. 30. 11 , 149. 3 ' 4 ; 
Jr. 3 1. 4 ' 13 ; La. 5. 15 ), is rendered " dance." In Ps. 
149. 3 ' 4 AVm. gives " pipe." Poss. we shd. not take 
it as a proper name in 1 K. 4. 31 , but read " sons of 
dancing " or " music." They may have been skilful 
performers, who also distinguished themselves in 
original compositions. 

MAIL. See Armour. 

MAKAZ, a town, or poss. a district, in the NW. 
of Judah, wh. has not been identified. The LXX 
quite erroneously reads Michmash (1 K. 4. 9 ). 

MAKHELOTH, a station in the wanderings 
(Nu. 33. 25f -), not identd. 

MAKKEDAH, a royal Can. city taken by Joshua 
(io. 10 ' 28 ). Hither the confederate kings fled fm. 
the battle of Beth-horon, and. hid in a great cave, 
whence, at Joshua's command, they were led out 
and slain. It lay between Beth-horon and Libnah 
(Jo. IO. 10 ' 29 ), on the way leading down fm. Beth- 
horon (Beit 'Ur), by way of Amzvds, and across the 
plain. No sure ident. is poss., but it may be = mod. 
el-Mughdr, " the Cave," on the N. bank of Wady 
Qatra, the lower reach of Wady es Sardr, to the E. 
of Tebna. 

MAKTESH, " a mortar," is clearly part of Jrs., 
so called poss. fm. its resemblance to a mortar (Zp. 
I. 11 ). It may have been the upper part of the 
Tyropceon Valley. 

MALACHI, the last of the Minor Prophets, has 
left no traces of his individual life. If M. is a proper 
name, which is uncertain, it may be a shortened 
form for Malachiah, " messenger of Jah," or the 
word may simply mean " my messenger," as in 3. 1 . 

The prophecy belongs to the time after the Cap- 
tivity, when the Temple had been rebuilt, and the 
work of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah accom- 
plished. The situation is similar to that dealt with 
in the bks. of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the evils wh. 
M. deplores are of the same nat. as those agst. wh. 
they had to contend. There is an old tradition, 
accepted by Jerome, that Ezra was the author of 
this bk. ; but if it is anonymous it is almost certainly 
not his work. Such a tradition would readily grow 
up, owing to the similarity of the contents of the 
prophecy and the bk. of Ezra, and its prevalence 
needs no other explanation. The data are insuf- 
ficient to give more than a gen. indication of the 
date of M. The Temple was built in b.c 516, but 
it was not till 458 that Ezra came to Jrs., with the 
authority of the Persian k., and began the reforms 
recorded in the bk. bearing his name. Thirteen 
years later, Nehemiah appeared to correct the 
abuses wh. had grown up during the interval, and 
to induce the people to pledge themselves to keep 
the law. Again he visited Jrs. in 432, and found 
many of the old abuses still prevailing. The 
Levites were not receiving their dues, the Sabbath 



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was being profaned and the Temple desecrated, and 
marriage with foreign ws. was prevalent. M. pro- 
tested agst. all these evils, some scholars placing him 
before the coming of Ezra in 458, while others place 
him after the appearing of Nehemiah. 

The feeling of the people in the time of M. was 
one of disillusionment, and the enthusiasm of earlier 
days had given place to bitterness and despair. 
The promises made by the earlier prophets seemed 
unfulfilled, and the return fm. the Captivity had 
not been accompanied by the clear tokens of Divine 
approval or of material success wh. had been antici- 
pated. The Temple had been built, but the Mes- 
sianic Age had not come, and the hope that the 
nations wd. come and seek their good from Jrs. had 
been falsified. Both priests and people were for- 
saking the requirements of the ceremonial law of 
Moses, and a spt. of scepticism and indiffc. was 
abroad among the community. The earlier pro- 
phets had denounced the slavish adherence to 
ritual, as usurping the place of the true sptl. and 
ethical worship of J". ; but the circumstances were 
now entirely altered, and M. finds it necessary to 
insist upon the proper observance of the ceremonial 
law wh. had been imposed. He looks upon the 
ceremonial as the expression of reverence for J"., 
and carelessness on the part of the people with re- 
gard to it as indicative of their neglect of ]' '. Him- 
self. Not that M. teaches that the mere observance 
of ritual is sufficient in itself to please God, but he 
insists upon its value as the expression of worship, 
reverence, and obedience. Moreover, the Temple 
and its services had now a much more important 
place than formerly, for after the Captivity the life 
of the nation gathered round the sanctuary. Judah 
had lost its place as an independent nation, and the 
Temple took that place in the devout imagination 
wh. the chosen land had formerly held. 

M.'s style is prosaic, but it is forceful in expres- 
sion. His literary form is unusual in the OT., and 
individual questions are discussed in the form of 
dialogue. The prophet first states his own view, 
then considers the objns. wh. are offered to it, and 
finally gives his answer and defence. But this 
method, wh. M. was the first to adopt, was carried 
to great length by the later Jews. 

M. begins his bk. by urging the people to continue 
to believe in their own future. Edom is destroyed 
and shall never rise again, but with Isr. it is difft. 
J", loves Isr. (i. 2 ' 5 ), but Isr. has not been faithful. 
The priests have been careless about what was 
offered God, and have made the service of God 
contemptible. God has greater honour fm. the 
heathen who blindly worship, than in this mockery 
of worship given by His own people (i. 6 " 14 ). The 
priests are warned to amend their ways, lest J", send 
a curse upon them and disgrace them (2. 1 " 9 ). The 
people are condemned for divorcing their ws. and 



marrying foreigners. The cries of the divorced ws. 
rise to God, who will not regard any offering made 
by those who have sinned in this way, for He hateth 
putting away (2. 10 " 16 ). Some have been saying that 
J", has no interest in morality, but that evil-doers 
prosper. M. prophesies that a day of judgment 
will come suddenly, to deal first with the priests and 
afterwards with the people (2. 17 — 3. 6 ). The people 
have neglected the ordinances of J", and have robbed 
Him of His dues. They have brought a curse upon 
themselves ; but if they repent God will again bless 
them abundantly (3. 7 ' 12 ). The two classes of the 
nation are contrasted. The wicked say there is no 
distinction between good and evil and it is vain to 
serve God ; but the faithful meet together to en- 
courage each other in their faith. The day is 
coming when a clear distinction will be made, and 
then the evil workers shall perish (3. 13 ~4 3 ). The 
prophecy closes with an appeal to all to obey the 
law of Moses, and with a promise that Elijah will 
appear to prepare the way of the Lord. 

John Davidson. 

MALCHAM, RV. MALCAM. (1) Son of 
Shaharaim, after whom a family of Benjamites were 
named (1 Ch. 8. 9 ). (2) The consonants forming 
this name occur several times elsewhere in the Heb. 
text, and opinion varies as to how they should be 
pointed. If it be pointed Milcom, it is the name of 
an idol of the Ammonites, ident. with Molech : if 
Milcam, it may mean " their king." In 2 S. 12. 30 
EV. render " their king," where prob. we ought to 
read " Milcom." In Jr. 4c;. 3 , a passage borrowed 
from Amos I. 15 , AV. has " their king " in the text, 
and the proper name in the margin. RV. reverses 
this ; so also in v. I. In Am. I. 3 EV. read " their 
king." In all these cases the correct reading is 
prob. " Milcom." This is true also of Zp. I. 5 , 
where EV. have " Malcam " as a proper name, and 
RVm. " their king." See Molech. 

MALCHIAH (" J", is king"). (1) In Jr. 21. 1 , 
38. 1 M. is ident. with Malchijah, of 1 Ch. 9. 12 ; 
Ne. II. 12 . (2) The king's son (RV.), or son of 
Hammelech (AV.), in whose house was the dungeon 
where Jeremiah was confined (Jr. 38. 6 ). 

MALCHIJAH. Eleven persons in Scrip, seem 
to have borne this name. We need only mention 
here (1) one of those who stood at Ezra's left hand 
on the platform when he read the law to the people 
(Ne. 8. 4 ) ; (2) one of the nobles who sealed the 
covenant (Ne. io. 3 ). 

MALCHI-SHUA, Saul's third son (1 S. 14. 49 , 
&c), who fell in battle with the Phil, on Mt. Gilboa 
(1 S. 3 1. 2 , &c). The name is also written Melchi- 
shua. 

MALCHUS, a bondservant of the High Priest 
whose ear Peter cut off (Jn. 18. 10 ). He had a kins- 
man in the service. (v. 26). The other evangelists 
mention the incident (Mw. 26. 61 , &c), but John 



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alone gives the name. Luke, the physician, tells of 
the healing of the ear. 

MALLOWS (Heb. malluah), the food of the 
wretched creatures who had Job in derision (30. 4 , 
RV. " saltwort "). It is the Arb. mallukh, a shrub 
with whitish leaves, broader and softer than those 
of the olive — the sea orache. It is found in the salt 
marshes. The leaves, sour to the taste, are used by 
the very poor as pot herbs. 



(2) 'Aish, sometimes used for " mankind " as com- 
pared with God (Jb. 9. 32 ), but more generally where 
there is some contrast as between M. and woman 
(Gn. 4. 1 ), a " husband " (Gn. 3. 6 ). It is opposed to 
(1) as " a great man " (Is. 2. 9 ) ; as M. emphatic, 
" quit yourselves like men " (1 S. 4.°) ; " be a M." 
(1 K. 2. 2 ). It is frequently used indefinitely, like 
" man " in German. (3) 'Enosh, " man " in his weak- 
ness (but though this is so theoretically, see Gn. 6. 4 , 
" men of renown "), " common people " usually col- 
lective (Jb. 7. 17 ), though sometimes singular (Ps. 
55. 13 ) : fm. this form appears to come the pi. of 
'aish, 'anashim, a fact that implies that this form 
was primitive. (4) Gibbor and geber, " a warrior " 
(1 Ch. 9. 13 ; Ex. 10. 11 ). (5) Methim, « men " (Dt. 
2. 34 ), suggesting fewness (Dt. 4- 27 ). The Gr. words 
for M. are two, aner and anthropos ; the first is 
" man " in contradistinction to " woman " as in 
Mw. 14. 21 , and the second " mankind," " read of all 
men " (2 Cor. 3. 2 ). 

Christian Doctrine of Man. — Christianity as a 
scheme of redemption involves a theory of human 
nature, a doctrine of man. The origin it ascribes 
to M. is thus given in Genesis : " The Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became 
a living soul " (2. 7 ) ; " God created man in His own 
image, in the image of God created He him, male 
and female created He them" (i. 27 ). The reader 
at once sees that this is a symbolic account of crea- 
tion, not a scientific : the Divine source of the 
(or more correctly " mamon ") is personified, and process and the result are placed before us, not the 
set in opposition to God (Mw. 6. 24 ; Lk. 16. 13 ). various phenomena that presented themselves while 
The " mammon of unrighteousness," or " un- the process was being evolved. So, too, in the 
righteous mammon " (Lk. 16. 9 ' u ), is a phrase wh. creation of woman we have the same symbolic 
occurs in En. 63. 10 . The derivation of the word poetic representation : " The Lord caused a deep 
is uncertain. It was used by the Phoenicians for sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept ; and He took 
" gain " or " profit." It would therefore be a one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof ; and 
common word in the trade vocabulary, wh. did not the rib wh. the Lord God had taken fm. man made 




Jew's Mallow 

MAMMON represents the Aram. 

wealth," or " riches " (Lk. 16. 9 , &c). Mammon 



mamona, 



require to be translated. 



He a woman " (Gn. 2. 21 ' 22 ). This account of the 



MAMRE. (1) The place, by the oaks of wh. separation of the sexes is yet further removed fm. 
Abraham pitched his tent (Gn. 13. 18 , read always the scientific standpoint. If we regard this as 
with RV. " oaks of M."), identified with Hebron purely poetic and symbolic, wh. it certainly is, then 
(Gn. 23. 19 , 35- 27 ). The oaks prob. marked the anct. nothing in the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution 
sanctuary in the vicinity of the city. Where they really impugns it. If we consider the Darwinian 
stood cannot now be determined. Sozomen (HE. doctrine as applying merely to the phenomenology 
ii. 4) and OEJ. point to a position corresponding of the process of creation, and having nothing to 
to Ramat el- Kh alii, i-| mile N. of the mosque, say as to. the source or purpose of it, then the two 
Others suggest a large tree ij mile NWW. of the accounts may be perfectly harmonised. The "Lord 
mosque. This tree was broken by a storm in the God " may as really be said to have created man fm. 
winter of 1888-9, an ^ 1S now dead. In later times the " dust of the ground " although between the 
the oaks and neighbouring well were the scene of an dust and man millions of animated forms intervened, 
elaborate ritual, finally put down by the Christian as if by plastic fiat He had spoken, and the particles 
emperors (Reland, Palestina, 71 iff.). (2) Br. of gathered themselves together into a human form. 
Aner and Eshcol, an ally of Abraham (Gn. 14. 24 ). It seems more in accordancewith the Divine method, 

MAN stands for several Heb. words. (1) ''Adam, as we see it in other regions, that man shd. be the 
M.asmadefm." the dust of the ground " ' (' 'ad 'amah)-, result of some such gradual process, than that he 
M. as " vassal," or as it is in AV., " mean man." shd. be created by a word in a moment. It took 

424 



Man 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Man 



millions of years to fit the earth to be man's fetishism there is, in the case of the most degraded, 

dwelling-place ; is it not in accordance with analogy belief in a spiritual God who is above and before all 

that a similarly lengthened process wd. be employed these fetishes. This relationship to God is implied 

to fit man for dwelling in it ? The separation of in the image of God in wh. man was made ; his 

the sexes is also very striking. Darwin maintained sonship to God : for He who was the framer of our 

that " man " at the beginning was " unisexual," bodies is " the Father of our spirits." This leads 

i.e. hermaphrodite, each individual being both us to advert to the constitution of the nature of man 

male and female, as is the case in so many flowers, according to Scripture ; it is that man is formed 

but that it was for the advantage of the species that of body, soul, and spirit {see Soul and Spirit). 

the different sexual functions shd. be fulfilled by While M. had this relationship to God, he has fallen, 

different individuals. So individuals were evolved he has sinned ; he has lost the image of God ; the 

in wh. the characteristics of one sex or the other were spirit within is dead {see Sin). One branch of 

more and more strongly pronounced, until in each the subject may be merely indicated ; the unity of 

individual only one sex was potent and the other the race. What is implied throughout Scripture is 

was aborted. This is a statement in scientific expressly stated by St. Paul on Mars' Hill ; God 

language of the process wh. we find pictorially " hath made of one blood all nations of men." The 

exhibited in Genesis. supposed reference to two races in the two names 

It is to be noted that tzela does not mean primarily " rib " for M., or in the mysterious passage in regard to the 

so much as " side » If we render it so the pictorial and « SQns f God „ and h « daught ers of men," dis- 

scientific representations are brought into yet closer har- ° ' " 

mony : God took one side of man's being and completed it appears on closer Study. 

into " woman" ; and, closing up the flesh of the remaining Another art of this has to be i ooke d at, if only for a little. 

side, completed it into man. Plato has a similar specu- We haye km of the Qri in of the race . ^ of tfa 

lation in the Symposium ; but in his hands, artistic though individual ? Did the spiritual being of each individual exist 

they were, the picture becomes grotesque. ^ before the birth of the bcdy ? was it created by Gcd and in _ 

We have thus far considered the evolution of breathed into the body at birth ? or is the spirit as much a 

man's phvsical frame : there is, however, another heritage as the body? It was but natural that such specu- 

. r i .. i_i_ i lative questions as these shd. not be discussed in writings so 

element in his nature ; he has mental powers eminently practical as those wh. make up our Bible. Yet 

as well as those of body. Here, too, there is there are traces wh. seem to indicate a belief, if somewhat 

claimed to be evolution. Some of the more rudi- indefinite, in a previous existence Thus the Preacher 

^xaxin^u. tu ^^,vuuiw . u ^ speaks of the " spirit returning to God who gave it (Ec. 

mentary forms of animal life show the begin- I2 .7), a statement wh. seems plainly to imply a previous 

nings of choice, of recognition of danger, and of as well as a future existence. Further, this is clearly against 

the Traducian view, that the human spirit is in any sense 

2 the 



the means to avoid it. 



The higher we rise in the the product ofordinary generation. When in Jn. 9 . 

scale of animated being the more perfect becomes disciples ask the Master, "Who did sin, this man or his 

what may be called the mental equipment. Some parents, that he was born blind? " their first alternative im- 

r , /. . -11 r i plies a prenatal existence in wh. sin cd. be committed. 

of the higher animals have powers of adapting The spirit that has come forth fm. Gcd may, without undue 

fancifulness, be supposed to need an education to enable it 
to use a physical frame ; this mt. be accomplished by com- 



means to ends in unexpected circumstances that far 
exceed the possibilities of instinct. Darwin shows 
{Descent of Man, chap. 4) what he, with some 
plausibility, regards as the rudiments of a moral 
sense in some of the higher animals. Even this does 
not necessarily militate against the Mosaic account 
of the creation of the animals and man. This will 
be referred to below. 



mitting to it successive frames of growing complexity. This 
wd. explain what seem to be the dawnings cf conscience in 
the higher species of the lower animals. This view was 
shared by Plato, if we may take anamnesis in its natural 
meaning. There are several other doctrines wh. assume a 
new shape when looked at fm. this point of view. It is, 
however, merely speculation. 

There is, however, one point in wh. the Christian 



On one point, however, Darwin and the Biblical view of M. differed especially fm. Greek thought. 
account of man are at absolute variance. Darwin The body was not treated with contempt ; it is re- 
does not believe that man is naturally religious, that garded as an integral part of human nature, and the 
" he was aboriginally endowed with the ennobling " redemption of the body" is an essential part of the 
belief in the existence of an Omnipotent God," redemptive work of Christ. M. is promised not 
but that he rose to it by steps through fetishism, merely immortality of the soul but Resurrection. 
Against this the Mosaic account represents man as We are not merely to be unclothed, to live a purely 
enjoying communion with his Creator ; the repre- spiritual existence ; we shall be clothed upon with 
sentation of things in Ecclesiastes is in harmony with spiritual bodies, that " mortality may be swallowed 
this : " God made man upright " (Ec. jP). So, up of life." Man is considered as a social being, 
too, in Romans, speaking of the heathen, " that wh. hence the family is consecrated and enlarged in the 
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God Church. 



hath showed it unto them." It is now proved by 
archaeology that the further we go back the simpler 
and purer we find the worship of primitive peoples. 
Among savage races also it is found that behind the 

425 



Lit. : Laidlaw, Bible Doctrine of Man ; Dickson, 
Flesh and Spirit ; Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology ; 
Beck, Biblical Psychology ; besides articles in various 
Biblical Dictionaries. 



o 2 



Man 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Man 



MAN OF SIN. S^ Antichrist. 

MANAEN (Gr. form of Heb. Menahem, " com- 
forter "), one of the " prophets and teachers in 
Antioch " (Ac. 13. 1 ), the suntropbos of Herod the 
tetrarch, i.e. Antipas. This does not necessarily 
mean that he was " foster-brother " (RV.) of the 
tetrarch. It does mean that he was brought up at 
court, and enjoyed the prince's confidence. He 
may have been son of that Menahem (Manaen), 
who prophesied to Herod the Gt. that he wd. be 
king (Jos. Ant. XV. x. 5), who was therefore treated 
with special kindness. 

MANAHATH. (1) Son of Shobal, the son of 
Seir the Horite (Gn. 36. 23 ; 1 Ch. I. 40 ). (2) A 
place to which the Benjamite inhabitants of Geba 
were carried captive (1 Ch. 8. 6 ) — wManahethites. 
This is prob. ident. with Mavo\(o, added by LXX to 
the list of cities of Judah in Jo. 15. 59 . There it is 
named with Bether (Bittir), and may be repre- 
sented by the mod. Maliha, a considerable hill SW. 
of Jerusalem, not far from Bettir. The change of 
" 1 " to " n " is not uncommon. In Jg. 20. 43 , for 
AV. " with ease," and RV. " at their resting-place," 
RVm. gives " at Menuhah." If this is correct the 
same place may be intended. 

MANAHETHITES (1 Ch. 2. 52 - 54 ). In the first 
verse RVm. gives " Menuhoth," transliterating the 
Heb. word ; and in the second it gives " Mana- 
hathites." The latter is the preferable form in both 
cases. It is a gentilic noun formed from Manahath, 
prob. the chief town in the district occupied by the 
clan, half of which reckoned descent from Shobal 
(cp. 1 Ch. I. 40 ) and half from Salma. 

MANASSEH. This name in Jg. 18. 30 is the 
result of scribal interference with the text. Ger- 
shom was the son of Moses. It was thought incon- 
sistent with the dignity of that great man, and the 
respect due to him, to regard him as the ancestor 
of such a degenerate as Jonathan the priest. A 3 
(nun) was therefore inserted in the name " Moses ." 
to make it read " Manasseh." 

MANASSEH (" causing to forget "). (1) Elder son 
of Joseph (Gn. 41. 51 ), to whom Jacob, who adopted 
him, gave the second place (48. 5 « 14 , &c. ; cp. Dt. 
33. 17 ). With this agrees the position of his descts. 
in the host. For the strength assigned to M. at 
different times see Numbers. The position of M. 
in the desert march was between Ephraim and 
Benjamin, on the W. side of the Tabernacle (Nu. 
2. 20 ). The captain (RV. " prince ") of the tribe 
was Gamaliel, son of Padahzur (Nu. I. 10 , 2. 20 , &c). 
Gaddi, son of Susi, represented M. among the spies. 
Moses gave M. a portion E. of Jordan, including 
N. Gilead and Bashan, conquered by Jair, Machir, 
and Nobah — see also Hawoth-Jair (Nu. 32. 33 > 39ff -, 
34. 14 ; Dt. 3. 13f- )- The boundaries of this portion 
are not given. Mahanaim, however, was on the N. 
border of Gad (Jo. 13. 26 , cp. 13. 30 ), and the W. part 



of the Yarmuk must have marked the S. frontier of 
Geshur, wh., with Maacah, formed the W. boundary 
of Bashan. The half tribe, thus provided for, sent 
its fighting men across the Jordan to assist in the 
conquest of W. Pal. (Jo. I. 12 , 4. 12 ). The possession 
of Ephraim and M. on the W. of Jordan seems at 
first to have been undivided (Jo. i6. lff -, I7. 14ff -). 
When the division was made, the territory of the 
half tribe of M. marched on the S. with Ephraim, 
and on the N. with Asher and Issachar, stretching 
W'ward to the sea, and E'ward to the Jordan (ij. 7fi -). 
Although within the boundaries of Issachar and 
Asher, Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor, En-dor, Taanach, 
and Megiddo with their dependent villages, were 
assigned to M., but not possessed (vv. 1 iff.). This 
chain of hostile fortresses separated M. fm. his 
brethren on the N. Some of the finest soil in Pal. 
is found on the W. slope of the mountains within 
these limits. Golan, the city of refuge, was in 
E. Manasseh (20. 8 ). Ten cities in W. Manasseh 
were assigned to the Levites, and thirteen in the 
eastern portion (21. 5 ' 6 ). The E. half tribe, return- 
ing after the conquest, took part in building the 
altar in the Jordan valley, wh. so nearly led to a 
rupture (22.). Gideon and Jephthah are the two 
great soldiers of M., but the men of the tribe were 
capable and skilful warriors (1 Ch. 5. 18 , &c). They 
no doubt suffered much during the Syrian wars 
(b.c. 900-780), and were finally carried away by 
Tiglath-pileser III b.c. 733 (1 Ch. S. 26 ). 

(2) Son of Hezekiah, who succeeded him at 1 2 yrs. 
of age (2 K. 2 1. 1 ). He seems to have fallen into the 
power of the party of reaction agst. the reforms of 
his fr. The old superstitions, idolatries, and abomi- 
nations were restored with the royal sanction, M. 
himself practising the most horrible rites and perse- 
cuting the worshippers of ]". The cup of Jerusalem's 
iniquity was full. The sins of M. are assigned as 
the reason for her final overthrow (24- 3 ). Accdg. to 
2 Ch. 33. llff- , M. was taken captive by the Asyr. In 
captivity he repented, and, having prayed to God, 
was restored to Jrs. Of this neither the writer of 
Kings nor Jeremiah seems to know anything. But 
Shrader (RAT. 2 367^) gives reasons, based on the 
monumental records, for believing that the account 
given in 2 Ch. may be correct {see Driver, Authority 
and Archaeology, 1146^.). Later Judaism, however, 
speaks of M. only with reprobation. His long reign 
of 55 yrs. seems to have been uneventful — save in 
matters of religion — and we may infer that it was a 
period of prosperity. At his death he was buried in 
the garden of his own house (2 K. 21. 18 ). 

MANDRAKE (Heb. dudcTim, "love apples," 
Gn. 30. 14 , &c), the Mandr agora ficinarum = Arb. 
luffah. The root is often forked, and is manipu- 
lated during growth to resemble the human figure. 
Fm. the middle of a rosette of dark green leaves 
rises a bunch of purple flowers, greatly prized for 



426 



Man 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Man 



their perfume (SS. 7. 13 ). The fruit when ripe is in 
the form of small golden-coloured apples. These 
are popularly supposed to act as a love potion. 
Many believe that when eaten they bring about 
conception. Natives of Pal. think that possession 
of the root brings good luck. 




Mandrake 

MANEH (AV. Ek. 45 , 12 , in Heb. the word occurs 
1 K. io. 17 ; Ez. 2. 69 ; Ne. 7. 71 ' 72 ; in wh. cases it is 
translated "pound." The Gr. weight, mna, was 
derived fm. this, Lk. 19. 13 ' 16> 18 ' 20 ). The passage 
in wh. this word occurs in AV. is somewhat difficult : 
" twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, and fifteen 
shekels shall be your maneh." It was explained by 
Michaelis that there were three manehs in use, and 
their weight was hereby fixed. This is by no means 
improbable in itself. The main difficulty is that 
even the largest is so much less than it ought to be 
according to the symmetrical order of Babylonian 
weights, in wh. the maneh was sixty shekels and the 
sixtieth of a pound. This objection tells against 
Hitzig's explanation that the first was the gold, the 
second the silver, and the third the copper maneh. 
In itself this is not improbable. It is to be observed 
that the number of the shekels 20 + 25 + 15 are = 6c; 
the statement then might be regarded as referring 
to subordinate weights. Another view is suggested 
by Dr. Davidson, that we read according to LXX 
(A) : "The shekel shall be twenty gerahs : five shekels 
shall be five, and ten shekels shall be ten, and fifty 
shekels shall be your maneh." The fact that the 



latter estimate so accurately coincides with the Gr. 
(Attic) proportion shows that the didrachm was 
equal to the shekel. The Tafgum rendering is ob- 
viously an attempt at forcing an explanation fm. 
the MT. The fact that the M. is a Babylonian 
measure inclines us to regard the statement of the 
text as indicating that sixty shekels were the M. ; 
its weight wd. be a little over 2 lbs. 

MANGER (Gr. phatnej in LXX several Heb. 
words are so trd.). (1) 'Ebus, " a cattle stall " or 
" crib " fm. wh. food is eaten (Jb. 3c;. 9 ; Pr. 14. 4 ; 
Is. I. 3 ). (2) 'Urivdh, or 'urydh, " gathering place," 
or " gathered herd " (2 Ch. 32. 28 ) : poss. later it 
meant a cert, number of animals, " a pair," or 
" team " (1 K. 4. 26 , &c). (3) Refheth, " a stall " 
(Hb. 3. 17 ). (4) Marbeg, " tying-up place " (1 S. 
28. 24 , lit. " calf of the stall "). The mod. midhwad, 
or manger, in Pal. is often a little hollow in the edge 
of the raised part of the living room, out of wh. the 
animals in the lower part eat. It forms quite a 
comfortable resting-place for a small child. Tradi- 
tion says that Jesus was born in a cave near Beth- 
lehem. Many caves, usually under the houses, are 
used as stables in Pal. to-day. The " mangers " 
are cut out of the rock at the sides (Lk. 2. 7 , &c). 

MANNA, the food miraculously supplied to Isr. 
in the desert (Ex. 16. 15 , &c). It is described as a 
small round thing (" flake " RV.), that lay like hoar 
frost on the ground, like coriander seed, white, and 
tasting like wafers made with honey (16. 31 ), or like 
bdellium, with a taste like fresh oil (Nu. II. 8 ). 
There was sufficient to supply all the people during 
the wanderings. Gathered in the morning, it wd. 
not keep overnight, save only on Friday (Ex. i6. 19ff -). 
It cd. be ground in mill or mortar, seethed in a pot, 
or made into cakes (Nu. n. 8 ). The vegetable exu- 
dations, with wh. it has been sought to identify M., 
need not be discussed, as they fulfil none of these 
conditions. They can be found only part of the 
yr., and then in insufficient quantities. They can 
be kept indefinitely, but can be neither seethed nor 
baked. 

A golden pot of M. was placed " before the 
Testimony " (Ex. i6. 33f - ; He. 9*), not in the ark. 
M. is mentioned Ne. 9. 20 ; Ps. 78. 24 . It is symboli- 
cal of the true bread that came down fm. heaven 
(Jn. 6. 31 , &c). The hidden M. rewards the victor 
(Rv. 2. 17 ). 

MANOAH, a Danite of Zorah, fr. of Samson. 
An angel announced the coming birth of a son to his 
w., and at his request appeared a second time, and 
instructed them as to the child. M. was stunned 
at the ascent of the angel in the flame of a burnt- 
offering prepared at his direction (Jg. 13. 2 , &c). 
M. died before his son (16. 31 ) ; see Samson. The 
Manahathites of Zorah may have traced their 
descent fm. M. (1 Ch. 2. 54 ). 

MANSION occurs only in Jn. 14. 2 , " In my 



427 



Man 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mar 



Father's house are many mansions;," as the equiva- 
lent of the Gr. fjiovj, wh. means lit. " dwelling- 
place," or " abode." By this last it is rendered 
in v. 23. Here, therefore, it in no way suggests 
the dignity and grandeur now associated with the 
English word. The sense of the passage is simply 
an assurance that for all His brethren there is room 
enough in the Father's house. 

MANSLAYER. This term is used (Nu. 35.6' 12 ) 
for one who slays another by misadventure. In 
1 Tm. I. 9 androphonos mt. be trd. " murderer." 
See Kin. 

MANTELET (Heb. sokek, lit. "covering" 
[AVm.], AV. " defence," RV. " mantelet," Na. 2. 5 ). 
The word occurs only in this passage, where the 
prophet pictures the impending capture and de- 
struction of Nineveh. The mantelet is to be pre- 



writing, and inserts there (16. 22 ), between an impre- 
cation and a benediction, the Aramaean formula, 
maranatha. The Syriac translation takes it to re- 
present mar an atha, " Our Lord has come " : but it 
may equally well represent marana fa, " Our Lord, 
come ! " (cp. Dalman, Gramm. d. jud. palaestin. 
Aramaisch, 2 pp. 152, 357). This latter sense is the 
more natural at the end of the eucharistic prayer in 
the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, where also it 
occurs ; and it reminds us of the end of the Revela- 
tion (22. 20 ). The expression may possibly have been 
the refrain of a song well known among Oriental 
Christians ; or it may have been used as a watch- 
word, which would best explain why the apostle 
gives it in Aramaic. G. H. Dalman. 

MARBLE is limestone wh. by subjection to heat 
or pressure, or both, has become entirely crystalline, 




PEF. Photo 



The Village of Ma'an esh Shamieh 



pared by the besiegers. Probably a movable shed 
is intended, such as protected the men who worked 
the Battering Ram (see Illustration to Battering 
Ram) . 

MANTLE. See Dress. 

MAOCH, fr. of Achish, king of Gath (l S. 27. 2 ). 
This is evidently another form of the name Maacah 
(1 K. 2. 39 ). 

MAON. (1) A town in Judah named with 
Carmel and Ziph (Jo. 15. 55 ), the home of Nabal 
(1 S. 25. 2 ), prob. = mod. Khirbet Ma 1 in, seven miles 
SE. of Hebron, a vill. standing on a hill, with traces 
of anct. walls, cisterns, and tombs. (2) A city in 
Edom (Jg. io. 12 ), prob. = mod. Ma'an, on the great 
pilgrimage road SE. of Petra, whose inhabitants, 
Maonites, oppressed Isr. See Mahunites. 

MARAH (" bitter "). (1) The first station in the 
wanderings, after crossing the Red Sea, where Moses 
healed the bitter waters (Ex. 15. 23 , &c.) ; unidentd. 
(2) The name claimed by Naomi (Ru. I. 20 ), as ex- 
pressing the bitterness of her lot. 

MARALAH, an unidentd. town on the W. 
border of Zebulun (Jo. 19. 11 ), Psh. Ramath-ta'le'. 

MARANATHA. The Apostle Paul concludes 
his first Epistle to the Corinthians in his own hand- 



the hard substance taking a high polish. If the 
limestone is pure before conversion, the marble is 
white : but the presence of minerals in the lime- 
stone gives rise to the various colours and markings 
so familiar in different kinds of marble. Among 
the materials collected by David for the building of 
the Temple were " marble stones in abundance " 
(1 Ch. 2C;. 2 ). In the court of the king's garden at 
Shushan the palace, the many-coloured hangings 
were supported by pillars of marble, while the pave- 
ment was of marble, white, yellow, and black (Est. 
I. 6 ). The famous obelisk of Shalmaneser (see Il- 
lustration of Jehu) is of black marble. In SS. 5. 15 
the legs of the beloved are compared to pillars of 
marble. Marble also appears as one of the com- 
modities in which the mystical Babylon traded 
(Rv. 18. 12 ). Marble is greatly valued in buildings 
of any pretensions in the East to-day, not only for 
its beauty but also for its cleanliness and coolness. 

MARCUS. See Mark. 

MARESHAH. (1) A city of Judah in the 
Shephelah, named with Keilah and Achzib (Jo. 
15. 44 ), fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. n. 8 ), where 
Asa defeated Zerah the Ethiopian (\\. m -), the home 
of the prophet Eliezer (20. 37 ). It was burned by 



428 



Mar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mar 



Judas Maccabaeus (Jos. Ant. XII. viii. 6). It was 
taken by John Hyrcanus, who allowed the inhabi- 




PEF. Photo 



AT MARISSA 



eighth yr. of Nero, and was buried in Alexandria 
(Fir. III. 8). There is no mention of martyrdom in 
connection with M. till about the end of the fourth 
cent., in the Acti Marci, a work of fiction written 
in Alexandria about that time (Lipsius). 

MARK, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO. 
In a note on his commentary on St. Matthew's 
Gospel Mr. Willoughby C. Allen says : " By way of 
illustration of my own view, I will only say that I 
believe that the simple reader, who accepts the 
second Gospel as a nar. of literal fact, is nearer the 
truth than the critic who starts severely handi- 
capped by hard-and-fast conceptions of the limita- 
tions of human personality, and who distorts nars., 
wh. on all other evidence are proved to be early, 
into late and legendary growths, because they con- 
tain a record of facts wh. his theories will not allow 
him to credit as historical " (Intern. Crit. Com. 
p. 312, note). The verdict of so distinguished a 
scholar, who is versed in all the Lit. of NT. criti- 
cism, is reassuring. For the second Gospel has 
come within the last hundred yrs. to have the fore- 
most place among the Gospels. For many cents, it 
was comparatively neglected. The early Gentile 
Church did not appreciate its value. It preferred 
the first Gospel, wh. is more frequently quoted 
than any other. The second Gospel in the later 
Church was regarded as the epitome of the first and 
third. And so it continued to be until the rise of 
historical study in the beginning of last century. 
Gradually the originality and the freshness of this 
MARK, JOHN, one of the minor figures in Gospel were recognised, until now it is almost uni- 
apostolic times. John was his Jewish name : Mar- versally held to be the earliest acct. of our Lord's 
cus his Rm. pr^nomen. He is called John in Ac. ministry, and is looked on by many as a source for 
13. 5 ' 13 ; Mark in Ac. 15. 39 ; Col. 4. 10 ; Phm. 24 , the other two. It is well that the unique value of 
&c. ; while both names appear in Ac. 12. 25 , 15. 37 . the second Gospel has obtained such gen. recogni- 
He was son of Mary, a Christian woman in Jrs., and tion. The more it is studied the greater becomes 
cousin of Barnabas. It is just poss. that in Ac. 13. 5 its worth. Yet in it we have a picture of our Lord 
we shd. tr., not " J. as their attendant," but " J. the and His activity, of His life, death, and resurrection, 
synagogue minister," wh. wd. mean that he had an wh. as strictly binds the reader to recognise the 
official place in the synagogue. He accompanied impression made by Him on His contemporaries, 
his cousin and St. Paul on their first missionary and specially on His disciples, as any other acct. 
journey ; but, for reasons not stated, he turned does. Of this something will be said later, 
back fm. Perga, incurring the displeasure of St. It is not necessary to take up our limited space 
Paul. This led to the separation of St. Paul and with an acct. of the external evidence of this Gospel. 
Barnabas, the latter, with his cousin, sailing for his Such evidence is easily accessible, and is well pre- 
native island of Cyprus. M. appears again in com- sented in many bks. Nor is it necessary to speak of 
pany with Peter (1 P. 5. 13 ), whose acquaintance he the evangelist, except very briefly. We know that 
prob. made in his mother's house in Jrs. (cp. Ac. Mark dwelt in Jrs., and that his mother had a house 
12. 12 ). A reconciliation was effected with St. Paul, there (Ac. I2. 12 ). She filled a conspicuous place in 
and the apostle came to regard him with grateful the Christian community. It was in her house that 
affection (Col. 4. 10 ; 2 Tm. 4. 11 ). Peter found refuge on his release fm. prison. He 

Tradition fm. the time of Papias asserts that he was a nephew of Barnabas. He is closely associated 
acted as interpreter for St. Peter, and that he em- with Paul and Barnabas in their missionary work, 
bodied in the second Gospel the recollections of He was at Jrs. during the famine of 45-6, when 
that apostle. At a later time it was reported that Barnabas and Paul visited Jrs. bearing with them 
he had some deformity of the hand, being called the alms of the Church at Antioch. He accom- 
" stump-fingered." Jerome says M. died in the panied them on their return to Antioch, but left 

429 



tants to remain on condition of their being circum- 
cised (XIII. ix. 1 ; x. 2). Favoured by Pompey 
(XIV. iv. 4), it was destroyed by the Parthians (ib. 
xiii. 9). OEJ. places the ruins of M. two Rm. 
miles fm. Eleutheropolis. As a result of Dr. Bliss's 
work (Excavations in Pal., PEF.) M. is identd. with 
Tell Sandahannah, wh. " covers a small natural 
plateau," a mile S. of Beit Jibrln. This identifica- 
tion is confirmed by discoveries made in a series of 
tombs, the most remarkable yet found in Pal. (PEF., 
Painted Tombs at Marissa) . The anct. name lingers 
in Khirbet Mer'ash, j mile to the NW. 1 Ch. 2. 42 
poss. signifies that Hebron was colonised by M 
one 



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them when they ventured inland on their adven- 
turous journey into South Galatia. We find that 
his name occurs in Paul's Epistles, and also he is 
called in the first Epistle of Peter, " Marcus my 
son." Mark must have had a wide and varied ex- 
perience, and have been well equipped for the 
work of recording what he had learned in the early 
Church regarding the life and work of our Lord. 
He was in the inner circle of the Jrs. Church. He 
must have been often present at the weekly assem- 
blies, and have heard the apostles as they told of 
the life and work of the Master. Tradition calls 
him the interpreter of Peter, and affirms that he 
went with Peter on his missionary journeys. He 
must have been often present, also, at the meetings 
of the Church at Antioch, and have heard also the 
tradition recited in the weekly meetings. But 
tradition has fastened, not on these possible ways of 
knowing what had been said and done by our Lord, 
but on his companionship with Peter. What Mark 
has recorded was believed to have been the dis- 
tinctive testimony of Peter, as it was spoken by him 
in his apostolic work. In this way the Church be- 
lieved that they had a Gospel of distinct apostolic 
authorship, and they regarded it as of apostolic 
authority. At the same time the probability is 
that Mark made good use of the tradition as it had 
been gathered up into the oral teaching carried on 
in all the churches, and from the first in the Jrs. 
Church. It may be that he himself took part as a 
catechist in teaching the new converts to Chris- 
tianity in the Church in wh. his mr. was a member 
and his relative, Barnabas, was a leader. Apparently 
he had abundance of leisure, for his mr. appears to 
havebeen a lady of wealth, and his relative, Barnabas, 
had property wh. he gave as a free gift to the apostles 
for their work. At all events there is nothing im- 
probable in the supposition that he was an active 
worker, and a teacher in the early Church. The 
oral tradition may have been familiar to him ere he 
took pen in hand. He had abundant opportunities 
of knowing it in more churches than one. 

Still the main part of his Gospel may have been 
derived fm. Peter. We note that in the Gospel a 
greater fulness and precision appears when Peter 
is introduced on the scene. The opening part 
is condensed. The story of John the Baptist is 
shortened ; the Temptation, though picturesquely 
and graphically told, is told in the briefest terms. 
And up to the time when Jesus enters into Peter's 
house the story bears the marks of severe condensa- 
tion. Then, too, the style is not literary; it is a 
spoken style. It has not the severe simplicity of a 
literary style. It is emphatic, redundant, repeti- 
tive, the style of one who speaks so that he may 
make an impression on his hearers. For a hearer 
must catch the meaning as the speaker passes on in 
his talk. There is no time for him to look back and 

43< 



try to relate the present word with the words 
already spoken. A reader can look back, can pause 
and ponder, and lay his book down and reflect on 
what he has read. But a speaker must carry his 
audience with him, and keep the attention alive. 
The nar. of M., simple, direct, graphic, hurrying on 
fm. scene to scene and fm. incident to incident, is 
precisely what we shd. expect in oral tradition. It 
is easily remembered. 

The Gospel begins without a fore-history, and 
its opening scene is that of the ministry of John the 
Baptist. A brief acct. of John's ministry leads on to 
the baptism of Jesus, the Temptation, and the return 
of Jesus to Galilee. With M. the public ministry 
of Jesus begins after John was cast into prison. 
Then comes the calling of the four disciples, and 
their willing response to the call. Then we are 
hurried on fm. scene to scene, each told in the most 
vivid manner, with scarce a reflection or an explana- 
tion on the part of the evangelist. Surely the most 
vivid and objective nar. ever written by human pen. 
The evangelist is never in evidence — his pen is a 
transparent medium through wh. we see Jesus ; we 
see Him at work, we witness His gracious demeanour, 
we are allowed to see His emotions, His compassion, 
His patience, and His beneficence. The motto of 
Mark's Gospel mt. well be said to be that wh. Peter 
spoke to Cornelius, " Jesus of Nazareth, how that 
God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with 
power : who went about doing good and healing 
all that were oppressed of the devil : for God was 
with Him " (Ac. io. 38 ). The coincidence is re- 
markable, but need not be dwelt on here. 

Read this Gospel through consecutively, and note 
the progress of events as you follow Jesus fm. place 
to place. The development is simple ; the order 
followed is that of the journeys made by Jesus and 
His disciples fm. time to time, and fm. place to 
place. We are with Him first at Capernaum, and 
note what takes place in the synagogue. We pass 
with Him into the house of Peter, and " At evening 
when the sun was set " (how careful the writer is to 
note that the Sabbath was over, and the people mt. 
attend to things they cd. not attend to on the 
Sabbath), " all the people were gathered together 
at the door." Then away to a desert place whither 
He had gone for rest and prayer. Then away to 
other cities also, " for to this end am I come forth." 
He went about doing good, healing the leper, and 
then we find Him again at Capernaum. So the 
wondrous story goes on, in simple, natural fashion, 
without any reflection on the part of the writer. 
Sometimes we come on a marvellous sentence wh. is 
not appropriated by the other evangelists, as " The 
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the 
Sabbath," a sentence wh. carries its own authorship 
on its face. It is not poss. to enter into detail, but 
we may note that for a time He was popular, and 



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the impression made on the people was great. 
" They were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, 
We never saw it on this fashion " (2. 12 ). But His 
ideals were very difft. fm. those of the people, and 
quite difft. fm. those of the ruling classes. The 
rupture speedily came, and after the healing of the 
man with the withered hand, and the discussion wh. 
followed, it is said, " The Pharisees went out, and 
straightway with the Herodians took counsel agst. 
Him, how they might destroy Him " (3- 6 ). It is a 
decisive moment, and a really momentous event in 
the hist, of our Lord, and it is simply and quietly 
told. It is only on reflection and on close examina- 
tion that a reader perceives the significance of the 
alliance between the Pharisees and the Herodians, 
and its result on the work of Jesus. This is pointed 
out with great felicity and power by Professor 
Burkitt (The Gospel History, chap. c). This is one 
of the best chapters in his worthy work. In it he 
points out that here was the parting of the ways, 
that fm. this time Jesus began to organise His 
followers into an organisation wh. was destined to 
develop into the Christian Church. " He no longer 
preaches in the synagogues, save once (and that un- 
successfully), in His own home at Nazareth, and 
for the rest of His ministry His main efforts are 
directed towards preparing His disciples for the 
trials that are in store for Him and them " (p. 69). 
The whole chap, deserves and will reward careful 
study. Consistent with this concentration of His 
attention on His disciples and their training is the 
teaching in parables, of wh. teaching M. gives a 
sample in the fourth chap, of the Gospel : " Unto 
you is given the mystery of the kdm. of God : but 
unto them that are without, all things are done in 
parables : that seeing they may see and not per- 
ceive, and hearing they may hear and not under- 
stand ; lest haply they shd. turn again, and it shd. be 
forgiven them " (4-. llf ')- Leaving the exact exegesis 
of this statement without discussion at present, 
we call attention to the fact that it is coincident 
with the rupture with the ruling powers, civil and 
ecclesiastical, and with His determination to give 
Himself to the training of His disciples. 

The rupture grows more and more significant as 
we pass on to the immediately following chaps. 

The alliance between the Pharisees and the 
Herodians becomes something deeper and wider, 
and it grows until it brings together the civil and 
the religious powers of the tetrarchy of Herod. 
Jesus went round the villages teaching. And Herod 
heard of Him and His work, and of the work done 
by the disciples in their missionary tour. Here 
Mark pauses to tell us of Herod, and of the reason 
why he was disturbed at the news. He tells us of 
the death of John the Baptist, and of the share wh. 
Herod and others had in bringing it about. Herod 
asks in his. trouble what these things mt. mean, and 



the memory of his crime, working together with his 
native superstition, causes him to say, " John the 
Baptist is risen fm. the dead, and therefore do these 
powers work in him " (6. 14 ). It is not said by M. 
that Herod took any overt steps agst. Jesus. But 
that such was the case seems to be an assumption 
wh. underlies the whole story. For when the 
disciples returned fm. their missionary journey, 
Jesus took them apart for rest, and really took them 
outside of the dominions of Herod. We again re- 
fer to the masterly discussion of Professor Burkitt. 
We may refer also to the map of the journeyings of 
Jesus, in wh. it is clearly shown that in these journey- 
ings He strictly avoided the dominions of Herod. 
It was not safe for Jesus and His disciples to remain 
in the place over wh. Herod had power. We have 
not space to trace the outline of the journeyings, 
but we may express our thanks to Professor Burkitt 
for his demonstration of the historical char, of the 
second Gospel, and of how it is related to the hist. 
of the time. 

We call attention to another fact of great sig- 
nificance. Wellhausen, in his Introduction to the 
three first Gospels, has called attention to a section 
in Mark's Gospel wh. has a distinctive char, of its 
own. He refers to the section fm. chap. 8. 27 to 
chap. io. 45 . Most commentators have dwelt on the 
characteristic note of these chapters, but none with 
such emphasis as Wellhausen, and we may be grate- 
ful to him for his emphasis. No doubt he lays 
emphasis on these sections for purposes of his own. 
Yet the emphasis is just. These sections of the 
Gospel do lay stress on the person of Jesus, on 
His calling, on His work, on the near approach of 
sorrow, suffering, and death. It is the Christian 
Gospel, and because it contains just such a Gospel it 
cannot, says Wellhausen, be historical. What is re- 
flected here is not the historical situation of Jesus, 
it is the situation of the martyred Church. Jesus 
transports Himself into His own future and into the 
future of the Church, wh. presuppose His death and 
resurrection, and this He cannot have done. 

We may be grateful to Wellhausen for this em- 
phatic way of calling attention to the facts, because 
it enables us more completely to vindicate the his- 
torical char, of the Gospel. These sections of the 
Gospel represent the situation as it was while Jesus 
was a wanderer outside the dominions of Herod. 
He is an exile. He was conscious that His aims and 
purposes were in utter opposition to the aims and 
purposes of the ruling classes, and the people of His 
time. He was an exile, in fear of His life, and the 
feeling of martyrdom was in His heart, as it was in 
the heart of His persecuted Church at a later time. 
He foresaw the issue to that conflict. It was to end 
in Gethsemane and Calvary. Is it any wonder that 
in these wanderings outside the dominions of Herod, 
while He was an exile, He shd. set Himself to think 



43i 



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Mar 



out the situation, and see it as it was, and as it was 
bound to become, and set Himself to instruct His 
disciples accordingly ; and also more fully to pre- 
pare Himself for the imminent crisis .? 

It is appropriate that in this time of exile, and 
after He had elicited the confession of Peter, He 
shd. have begun " to teach them that the Son of 
Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by 
the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and 
be killed, and after three days rise again " (8. 31 ). 
From this time forth Jesus frequently warns His 
disciples of the decease wh. He should accomplish at 
J'rs. The refcs. to this are frequent in the Gospel. 
And the disciples did not understand or compre- 
hend His statements. That the Messiah shd. be a 
suffering Messiah was a conception in the mind of 
Jesus alone at that time. The disciples cd. not get 
rid of the popular conception of the Messiah, nor 
cd. they ever associate sorrow, suffering, or death 
with the coming One. Hence the despair wh. 
overtook them when the events happened wh. He 
had predicted. 

The tension of the situation increases, and on the 
last journey to Jrs. it becomes almost unsupport- 
able. It has its effect on Himself, and in an inferior 
degree on the disciples. At last He is in Jrs., He is 
betrayed, captured, tried, condemned and crucified. 
He is buried, and on the third day He arose fm. the 
dead. All these things are simply, graphically, and 
in terrible simplicity described. So also is the story 
of the resurrection and of His meetings with His 
disciples. The close of the story is lacking in the 
best MSS., and the present conclusion seems to be 
by a later hand. Enough remains to show that the 
resurrection was a fact, and that it had an unspeak- 
able influence on the disciples, raising them as it did 
fm. despair to hope, fm. despondence to courage and 
enterprise, and sending them forth on that amazing 
career wh. transformed the world, and presented to 
humanity a new ideal. These things may be learnt 
fm. this early Gospel. It wd. be well to read this 
Gospel by itself, and to repeat for ourselves the ex- 
periment made by Dr. Bennett in his excellent 
book, The Life of Christ according to St. Mark. It 
is a book of surprising freshness and power, and we 
rise fm. its perusal filled with gratitude to St. Mark. 
For one thing, it seems to bring our Lord nearer to 
us. It helps us to realise how true a man He was, 
how greatly He shared our nature. He was not 
impassive ; He was touched with a feeling of our 
infirmities ; He felt sorrow, disappointment, anger ; 
and He worked as other men work, and grew wearied 
as other men. Then, too, Mark enables us to see 
that the Lord cd. do His wondrous works, not in- 
stantaneously, but slowly and gradually, so that by 
the use of means He cd. quicken the man into a 
livelier faith. See in particular the two miracles 
peculiar to this Gospel, 7. 30 and 8. 22 . But, while 



the real humanity of our Lord is manifested so con- 
spicuously, we are never left with the impression 
that He was altogether like other men. While He is 
one with them, He is also apart. We are made to 
feel that He is in a relation to God altogether unique 
and peculiar. Jesus has a place in the religion of 
M. wh. cd. be held by no other. He is Himself the 
glad tidings wh. He proclaims. He is the obj. of 
religious faith. Throughout the Gospel we feel 
that the writer feels and is persuaded that the true 
way of saving men is to enable them to see Jesus as 
He lived, walked, and laboured among men. Nor 
can we forget that the Jesus about whom M. wrote, 
was to Him the risen and exalted Lord, who was at 
the right hand of the Father, and also the Jesus who 
had walked in Pal. This Jesus is the Son of God, 
to whom the Divine voice spoke at His baptism : 
" Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well 
pleased." Fm. that hour He was all that in the faith 
and experience of Christians He ever came to be. 
But He cd. not tell what He was as one can impart 
a piece of indifferent information to another. He 
had to reveal Himself as what He was in life and 
word and works : He had to be discovered as what 
He was by men who associated with Him in obedi- 
ence, trust, and love. The truncated form in wh. 
the Gospel has come to us, with no resurrection 
scene, and no words of the risen Lord, prevents us 
fm. seeing as directly in Mark as we do in the other 
evangelists the full scope of the writer's faith. But 
we have seen what he means by the term Gospel, 
and know fm. words wh. he ascribes to Jesus that he 
believed the Gospel to be meant for all mankind 
(13. 10 , 14. 9 ). " Jesus exalted as Lord and Saviour of 
all, the Jesus whom the evangelist can exhibit to us 
in this char, even in the days of His flesh, is the same 
incomparable and incommensurable Person whom 
we meet everywhere in NT. religion " (Dr. Denney, 
Jesus and the Gospel, pp. 60, 61). 

James Iverach. 

MARKET, RV. MARKET-PLACE, appears 
only in OT. Ek. 27. 13 ; RV. " merchandise." In 
NT. M. represents Gr. agora, " place of meeting." 
It was usually an open space or square where 
assemblies for various purposes were held (Ac. 16. 19 , 
&c), where goods were exposed for sale (Mk. 7*), 
and children found room to play (Mw. n. 16 , &c.). 

MARKS PAINTED ON THE BODY. See 
Cuttings in the Flesh. 

MAROTH (" bitterness "), a town mentioned 
by Micah (i. 12 ). Other towns named in the same 
passage — Gath, Saphir, Moresheth-gath — seem to 
point to some position in the Philistine plain : but 
no identification is possible. 

MARRIAGE. The original charter of M. as a 
Divine institution is found in Gn. 2. 24 . In the NT. 
it is confirmed by Christ Himself (Mw. 19. 4 " 6 ), and 
a deeper sacredness attached to the bond ; while 



432 



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also to honour a M. feast He wrought His first 
miracle (Jn. 2.). The OT„ and NT. ordinances 
are monogamic in principle. The lapses of man- 
kind into polygamy, chiefly in the patriarchal times 
and in the middle ages of Isr.'s hist. (Gn. 16 4 , 
25. 1 - 6 , 28. 9 , 2c,. 23 ' 28 ; 1 Ch. 3. 1 ' 9 , 7. 14 ), were 
" winked at," and the continuation of the system 
permitted, but the evils of polygamy were fm. time 
to time made manifest, as in the cases of Abraham 
(Gn. 2 1. 11 ) and Elkanah (1 S. I. 6 ), while we find 
repeated reversions to monogamy, a notable case 
being that of Noah (Gn. 7. 13 ). In nearly all cases 
the rule of monogamy was recognised in the position 
given to the first wife. In post-exilic times mono- 
gamy was prevalent (Jb. 2. 9f - ; Su. vv. 29, 63), 
and not a single case of polygamy is mentioned till 
the time of Herod the Great. He is reported to 
have had several wives at the same time. In NT. 
days monogamy was also the rule (Mw. 18. 25 ; 




Market Place, Jaffa 

Lk. i. 5 ; Ac. 5. 1 ). The remarkable statement in 
Is. 4. 1 is not to be regarded as having anything to do 
with the present question. It is merely a poetic 
explanation of the reduction of the male population 
through the ravages of war. Rabbinical Judaism 
made much of the first command in Scrip. (Gn. I. 28 ), 
and strongly insisted on the duty of M., declaring 
that the man without a wife was not a man, and was 
among the excommunicated of heaven. At the 
same time they disapproved of polygamy. They 
advise a man not to marry two wives, but tell him, 
if he has done so, that he ought to marry a third 
who will reveal their intrigues {Pes. 113b). On 
the other hand there arose between the OT. and 
NT. times new ideas of asceticism, including the 
teaching of abstinence from M. In Palestine the 
Essenes, a sect akin to the Therapeutae of Egypt, 
followed such practices. They are interesting as 
having influenced several sects in the first and 
second cents., but the little that is to be known of 
them is found only in Josephus, Philo, and inci- 
dental refcs. in the Talmud. 
Limitations of Choice. — With non-Isrs. there 



were three degrees of limitation as to choice of a 
partner in M. (1) Isr. men and women were abso- 
lutely prohibited fm. entering into any M. relation- 
ship with the Can., on the ground that such was 
certain to lead to idolatry (Ex. 34. 16 ; Dt. J. 3t ). 
(2) Ammonite and Moabite men were excluded 
fm. M. with Heb. women (Dt, 23. 3 ), but Isr. men 
might marry Moabite women (Ru. I. 4 ). (3) The 
relationship to the Edomite and the Egyptian was 
of a similar nature but less stringent (Dt. 23. 7f -). 
Proselytism was not a sine qua non in the case of a 
wife, but was in the case of a husband (cp. 2 Cor. 
6.14,17). The child born of an illegal M. was 
designated mamzer (Dt. 23. 2 ). The prohibitions 
between Isr. men and women were dependent on 
consanguinity and affinity (Lv. 18. 6 ' 18 , 20. 11 " 21 ), and 
the various degrees are given in detail, with the 
various punishments for violations. Kinship, how- 
ever, cannot be regarded as the moral reason for 
these restrictions, as such marriages were not con- 
sidered invalid in patriarchal times (Gn. 20. 12 ; Ex. 
6. 20 ). To the Scrip, lists the rabbis added the wife 
of the fr.'s uterine br., and the mr.'s br.'s wife A 
remarkable exception to these limitations is the case 
of the levirate M., in wh. a man was required to 
marry his br.'s widow when she had been left child- 
less. It is first mentioned in Gn. 38. 8 , and is com- 
prised in the Mosaic economy (Dt. 25. 5 ' 9 ). It was 
a case of this kind in wh. the Sadducees, with their 
hair-splitting art, tried to entrap the Lord (Mw. 
22. 23 " 30 ). The levirate M., being connected with 
territorial succession, became useless when Isr. 
ceased to be a nation in Pal., so the custom was 
allowed to lapse by the rabbis, who instead ordained 
that the responsible party shd. give the widow a 
" bill of divorcement," a regulation still in use. 

It is to be noted that the prohibition of M. with 
the wife's sr. in Lv. 18. 18 is " during her life." The 
question of M. with a deceased wife's sr. must be 
settled on other grounds, and if rejected, it must be 
by analogy fm. the prohibition on act. of affinity. 

Special limitations were imposed on the High 
Priest, who was limited in his choice to a virgin 
Isr. (Lv. 2 1. 13 ' 14 ). The ordinary priests had more 
freedom, but were not allowed to marry prostitutes 
or divorced women (Lv. 21. 7 ). To prevent the 
alienation of tribal lands also heiresses had to marry 
within their own tribe (Nu. 36. 5 " 9 ; To. 7. 10 ). 

The reasons for the gen. prohibition noted have 
been ascribed to (1) the preservation of moral 
propriety among those living in the same family 
circles ; (2) social convenience, as the prevention of 
domestic jealousies and disturbances ; (3) to pre- 
vent sympathy with or participation in heathen 
practices, and thus to preserve Isr. a peculiar people 
(Lv. 18 3 ). 

In the Christian Church bishops or elders and 
deacons were required to be the husband of one 



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wife (i Tm. 3. 2, 12 ). This regulation has been con- 
sidered ambiguous, and has been interpreted as pro- 
hibiting a second M. in the case of these office- 
bearers. The likelihood, however, is that, in view 
of the condition of the world then, the regulation 
meant that such functionaries shd. be chosen fm. 
men who were leading monogamous lives. Chris- 
tianity did not create violent ruptures with social 
conditions, but such an arrangement wd. be a suit- 
able first step in leading the Church and the world 
to a universal monogamy ; and the very ambiguity 
suggests that the apostle was not introducing some- 
thing entirely new, for in such a case he must of 
necessity have been more explicit. 

Betrothal. — This is called espousal in the Bible. 
The age at wh. it cd. take place was, of course, de- 
termined by that at wh. M. was allowed. In the 
Bible no particular age is fixed for this latter event, 
but early marriages are approved (Pr. 2. 17 , 5. 18 ; 
Is. 62. 5 ). The Tim., however, allows girls to be 
married at the age of 12 yrs. and 1 day, and boys 
when 13 and I day old, but gives the gen. age 
eighteen (J both, v. 21) ; and, as a yr. was the usual 
time between the betrothal and M. in the case of 
virgins, and a month in the case of widows, we can 
thus fix the earliest possible date of affiance. The 
selection of a bride for a marriageable youth was 
very often made by the relatives of his family, but in 
connection with this and the carrying through of 
all the arrangements till the conclusion of the M. 
ceremony the responsible and active duties fell upon 
the friend of the bridegroom (Jn. 3. 29 ), who is 
named in Heb. shoshebm, and in Gr. paranymph. 
He was gen. the youth who had been the chief com- 
panion of the prospective bridegroom during his 
youthful days, and so understood to be acquainted 
with his tastes and wishes. It was his duty to be 
mediator between the two families, to arrange the 
contract, to fix the amount of the bride's dowry 
(mohar) and the presents (mattan) to her relatives 
(Gn. 34. 12 ), and to make sure that all was done with 
the full kge. of each party (M. Bab a Bathra, x. 4). 
The dowry was nat. in proportion to the rank of the 
bride, so that as a rule a poor man cd. not marry a 
rich wife {cp. 1 S. 18. 23 ). As early as the days of the 
Judges (14. 20 ) we find mention of this friend or com- 
panion, and the Tg. in this place as well as in 2 S. 
13. 3 uses the word shoshebin. There were in Judea 
often two such friends, one fm. the relations of each 
family, but in Galilee this custom was not common 
(Kethuvoth, 12a) : indeed they commonly had none, 
but it wd. seem that the governor of the feast at the 
M. at Cana of Galilee (Jn. 2. 8 ) acted this part. 

Matrimonial unions, however, for the sake of 
money are spoken agst., and the children of such are 
said to be unruly {Kidd. 70a). The consent of the 
girl was sometimes asked (Gn. 24. 58 ; Kidd. 41a), 
but it was subordinate to the will of others (Gn. 



24. 51 , 34. 11 ) ; and in the Tim. free unions are also 
spoken agst. {Kidd. 12b). When the arrangements 
were all completed they were usually confirmed by 
an oath and followed by a family feast. Between 
betrothal and M. all communications between the 
bridegroom and the bride were carried on through 
the friend of the bridegroom. During this period 
also the bride was theoretically a wife, and there- 
fore, if unfaithful, the punishment was death (Dt. 
22. 23> 24 ) ; but in such a case the husband had still 
the option of simply divorcing her (Dt. 24. 1 ; 
Mw. I. 19 ). 

Wedding Ceremonies. — The Mosaic law pre- 
scribes no ritual of M., but that a good deal of cere- 
monial gathered round the event we have ample 
proof. The essence of the ceremonial consisted in 
the removal of the bride fm. her fr.'s house to that 
of the bridegroom ; but with this there seems to 
have been united fm. the first some formal ratifica- 
tion with an oath (Pr. 2. 17 ; Ek. 16. 8 ; Ml. 2. 14 ), 
and a blessing pronounced (Gn. 24. 60 ; To. 7. 12 ) ; 
as and there soon gathered round it a good deal of 
ritual, display, and rejoicing. Rabbinical Judaism, 
however, recognised that a woman might become 
a wife by the reception of money to that effect, 
by mutual consent, or by the execution of a 
deed {Kidd. la). The practice among the Jews 
was that virgins be married on Wednesday (modern 
Judaism also allows Friday), and widows on Thurs- 
day (M. Kethuvoth, i. 1), and the time usually fixed 
was sunset. At this time modern Jewish weddings 
are celebrated. This differs somewhat fm. the 
refces. we meet with in the NT., but modifications 
have been made by all the sects : still, modern 
customs, Jewish, Christian, and Moslem, enable us 
to understand these. The Oriental love of display 
comes out chiefly in the adornment, and the dressing 
of the bride and bridegroom are special ceremonies 
in themselves. The bride takes a preparatory bath 
(Ek. 23. 40 ; Eph. 5. 26 ' 27 ), and sometimes this lasts 
for hours. She is then adorned, and sometimes this 
is a laborious process as, esp. in the more secluded 
places, she is clothed with her whole trousseau, 
dress above dress. Except in the case of those who 
imitate western customs, the bride, too, is heavily 
veiled (Gn. 24. 65 , 38. 14 ' 15 ), and deception is not un- 
frequently practised even yet (Gn. 2Cj. 23 ). Jewish 
brides are invariably adorned with great quantities 
of jewels (Is. 49. 18 , 61. 10 ; Rv. 21. 2 ), many of wh. 
are borrowed or hired for the occasion ; while em- 
broidery in gold and silver (Ps. 45. 13 ' 14 ) is very 
common. Perfumery, too, is used (Ps. 45. 8 ), but in 
quantities far exceeding the bounds of good taste. 
The veil of the Heb. bride was designated tza'Iph 
{see Dress), and it is this that is referred to in 1 Cor. 
1 1 . 10 as the sign of submission. The girdle also, or 
qishshur, was usually of fine embroidered work, an 
object of joy to the bride (Jer. 2. 32 ). Last of all she 



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was crowned with a chaplet which gave her the 
name of kallah, and from which usage the modern 
Arabic wedding is also designated iklil or crowning. 
In the case of the M. of a virgin she usually had the 
hair left loose, and was dressed in a white robe (Rv. 
19. 8 ). While the bride is being adorned by her 
maiden companions, the bridegroom has also been 
so treated by his friends. He is likewise perfumed 
(SS. 3. 6 ), and in old times the head-dress wh. has 
now disappeared was a kind of nuptial crown (SS. 
3. 11 ; Is. 61. 10 ) called pe^er. That an hour has been 
fixed for the M. does not by any means imply that 
the ceremony takes place at that time. In both 
houses songs such as we meet with in the Song of 
Songs, descriptive of the love and beauty of the 
young pair, are sung to native instrumental music. 
Either two sets of musicians are engaged, or the one 
company passes back and forward. The bride and 
the bridegroom are expected to exhibit a modest 
reluctance to face the crisis, and so the weary hours 
drag on, till often near midnight the bridegroom, 
the shoshebln, and friends set out (Mw. 9. 15 ; Jg. 
14. 11 ), guided by lanterns (Mw. 25. 7 ; cp. Rv. 18. 23 ),* 
and accompanied by music (Gn. 31. 27 ; Jr. J. M , 
16. 9 ), to the house where the bride and her maidens 
have awaited (Mw. 25. 6 ). Practically the whole 
neighbourhood comes out to applaud (SS. 3. 11 ), and 
members of the bride's party may meet them on 
the way (Mw. 25. 6 ). 

A young Heb. couple's M. ceremony is carried 
through in the open court of the bride's house, or a 
court hired for the occasion. They are placed side 
by side under the huppah (Ps. 19. 5 ; Jl. 2. 16 ) or M. 
canopy, sometimes translated as if meaning " bride- 
chamber." The chief rabbi present prays, the M. 
contract, in use since the Captivity {Kethuv. v. 1), 
is read, and then the blessing is pronounced, and the 
young pair, having each drunk fm. one wine-glass, 
are considered to be married. At this moment a 
glass, specially provided for the purpose, is broken, 
and the company shout out the words of Ps. I24. 7b . 
It is then that the bridegroom cometh forth fm. his 
chamber, and that the friend of the bridegroom, 
hearing his voice (Jn. 3- 29 ), in response to the con- 
gratulatory greetings, rejoices in his own work 
effectively and joyfully concluded. Various kinds 
of festivities, over wh. the bridegroom's friend 
presides, now follow (Gn. 29- 22 ; Mw. 22. 1 " 10 ; Lk. 
14. 8 ; Jn. 2. 2 ), and varied entertainments in addi- 
tion to music are indulged in (Jg. 14. 12 ). In the 
case of Jews the feasting gen. lasts seven days (Jg. 
14. 12 ; To. 8. 19 ), and during this time, but gen. on 
the day of the M., the bride is conducted to her 
husband's dwelling (Ps. 45 , 15 ) to the noise of the 
Oriental sound of joy known as the zagharit. The 
Tim. says that the M. blessing is pronounced by 
God Himself {Ber. Rab.S), that matrimonial unions 

* The Tim', mentions that ten were carried (Chal. ii. 8). 



are formed by God {Moed Katon, 18b, based on Jg. 
14. 4 ; Pr. 19. 14 ), and that angels guard the bridal bed 
(Ab. R. Nath. iv., xii.). 

There is no actual trace of M. rings in the OT„, 
but since they were regarded as tokens of fidelity 
(Gn. 41. 42 ) and adoption (Lk. 15. 22 ), and are met 
with throughout the whole hist., we cannot doubt 
they were in early use in this connection also. 

The newly married man, like the newly betrothed 
(Dt. 20. 7 ), was free fm. military service, and this 
exemption lasted for one yr. (Dt. 24. 5 ). The duties 
and relationships of married life were practically 
those of the East to-day, and they only come out 
incidentally in Scrip. (Gn. 18. 6 ; Ex. 21. 10 ; 2 S. 
13. 8 ). The ideal wife is God's gift, and in contrast 
with brawling wives (Pr. 19. 13 , 2i. 9, 19 , 27. 15 ), her 
qualifications are beautifully set forth in Pr. 3 1 . 10 " 31 . 
The NT. contains many exhortations to mutual 
forbearance and love (Eph. 5. 22, 23 ; Col. 3. 18 ' 19 ; 
Tt. 2. 4> 5 ; 1 P. 3. 1 " 7 ) ; but on the whole the picture 
is the same. 

The social position of women was equal to the 
highest in the East to-day. They went about 
freely, unveiled (Gn. 12. 14 , 24. 16 * 63 , 29. 11 ; 1 S. I. 13 ), 
and they were even allowed to hold important 
offices (Ex. 15. 20 ; 1 S. 18. 6 " 7 ), and enjoyed a good 
deal of independence (Jg. 4. 18 ; 1 S. 25. 14 ; 2 K. 4. 8 ). 
A man was in duty bound to honour his wife {Bab. 
Meh. 59a), but as her property became his on 
marriage (Kidd. ix. 1, &c), and as there was great 
facility of divorce, there was the need of her being 
protected agst. it, or provided for in case of it, in 
the matter of dowry, the one essential in the M. 
contract. This gen. consisted of the amount the 
bride brought, together with an equal sum fm. the 
bridegroom, increased by 50 per cent., and this the 
husband was bound to pay his wife if he put her 
away. 

In Galilee the marriage arrangements were 
carried through with better taste than in Judea 
(Kethuv. 12a). Indeed in the south there were a 
number of departures fm. propriety so serious that 
we could not even think of the Lord Jesus attending 
a M. there as He did in Galilee. 

Dissolution of Marriage. — Though only one 
instance of divorce is recorded in the days of the 
patriarchs (Gn. 21. 14 ), it seems to have been pre- 
valent {cp. Code of Hammurabi, 137-143) ; and the 
Mosaic laws are intended to mitigate the evils and 
bring its operation under restraint (Dt. 24. 1 " 4 ), in 
certain circumstances taking away altogether the 
power of divorce fm. the husband (Dt. 22. 19 « 29 ). 
The law of Moses mentions as the ground of divorce 
" some uncleanness," and it is to be noted that this 
must mean something less than actual fornication, 
as the punishment in that case was death (Lv. 20. 10 ; 
Jn. 8. 5 ). Just before NT. days the schools of 
Hillel and Shammai differed in their interpretation 



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of this law. Shammai limited its operation to 
moral transgression, while Hillel allowed divorce 
" for every cause," e.g., allowing the food to be 
burned, or reproaching her husband in a loud 
voice ; and it was in connection with such disputes 
between the two schools that an attempt was made 
to make Christ a party (Mw. 19. 3 ). The giving of 
a bill of divorce required in OT. times the presence 
of Levites (Is. 50. 1 ; Jr. 3. 8 ), just as in modern 
times it has to be done through the rabbis ; and 
thereafter the divorced wife was free to marry 
.whom she pleased ; but in the event of the second 
husband's death she cd. not return to the first (Dt. 
24. 2 " 4 ). A woman might be divorced with or with- 
out her consent, but the husband could in no case 
be compelled to divorce his wife (Gift. 49b). With 
the consent of the husband, however, divorce might 
be obtained at the instance of the wife (Mk. io. 12 ; 
I Cor. 7. 11 ), and this is recognised in the Tim. too, 
though in such a case she lost her dowry. The NT. 
is much more definite on moral relationships than 
either the OT. or rabbinical teaching. It con- 
demns altogether not only adultery but even forni- 
cation, wh. many considered as quite indifferent 
(Ac. 15. 20 ). It aims at the restriction of divorce 
and the prohibition of the marriage of the guilty 
party (Mw. 5- 32 , 19. 9 ; Rm. J? ; 1 Cor. y. 10 - n ), and 
regards sexual immorality (Mw. 5. 32 , 19. 9 ) or per- 
sistent desertion (1 Cor. 7. 15 ) as the only lawful 
grounds for the dissolution of marriage. 

Symbolical. — M. is used in the OT. as a symbol 
of the sptl. relationship between God and the Isr. 
This may be seen very clearly in the prophets Hosea, 
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, but fm. the earliest days of 
Isr.'s hist, the same thought meets us. To serve 
other gods is described as whoredom (Lv. 20. 6 ), and 
to go a-whoring. This may have come about fm. 
the fact that it was gen. also literally true, as such 
services almost invariably embraced licentious rites 
of the same nat. as those practised to this day in 
Syria : as, e.g., in the service of Baal-Hamon on Mt. 
Casius beside Antioch. 

In the NT. the application is made to the re- 
lationship between Christ and the Church. Christ 
is the bridegroom (Mw. 9. 15 ; Jn. 3. 29 ) ; the Church 
is the bride (2 Cor. II. 2 ; Rv. 22. 17 ) ; while the con- 
summation of all things is the M. supper of the 
Lamb (Rv. 19. 7 " 9 ). In the bk. of Revelation, too, 
the Church appears, according to its state of apos- 
tasy or fidelity, as a woman (12. 1 ), a whore (17. 1 ), a 
bride, and a wife (21. 9 ). Wm. M. Christie. 

MARSHAL. This is the RV. rendering of two 
Heb. words. (1) Sopher in Jg. 5. 14 , where RV. 
" they that handle the marshal's staff " seems more 
appropriate than " they that handle the pen of 
the writer " (AV.). " Scribe " is indeed the usual 
meaning of sopher, but sh'ebet (rod, staff, club, 
sceptre) cannot mean " pen." Sopher here cor- 



responds to the ypajjL[jLaT€vs, " marshal," of 1 M. 
5. 42 , and the shebet is his truncheon, or baton. 
Sopher has this meaning of marshal or muster- 
officer in 2 K. 25. 19 ; 2 Ch. 26. 11 . (2) Tiphsdr, wh. 
is prob. the Bab.-Asyr. dupsarru, " tablet writer," 
but the meaning is uncertain. A military officer 
is intended in Jr. 5 1. 27 (AV. " captain "), and also 
in Na. 3. 17 (where the form is taphser ; RVm. 
" scribes "). 

MARS' HILL. See Areopagus. 

MARTHA, sister of Mary and Lazarus of 
Bethany (Lk. io. 38 ; Jn. n.i-5, i9-39 ? I2 2^ The 
name is Aramaic, meaning " the lady " : on this 
ground some have fancifully suggested that she may 
be " the elect lady " of 2 Jn. 1 . The fact that she 
served at the feast in " the house of Simon the 
Leper," while her brother sat at table, has been held 
to show that she was the wife or widow of Simon. 

The notices preserved of Martha present a con- 
sistent character, vividly contrasted with that of 
her sister Mary. She was of an anxious disposi- 
tion, taking a heavy lift of the work requiring to be 
done, and, feeling the burden, apt to be " troubled " 
with others who took life more calmly. In His 
kindly response to her complaint about Mary's 
inactivity, Jesus shows how well He understood her. 
" Martha. Martha," He says, and without detract- 
ing from the value of the service in wh. she is 
absorbed, encourages her to find deliverance from 
this engrossment by seeking for what is best.* It is 
the same practically minded Martha who reasons 
with Jesus as to the advisability of opening Lazarus' 
grave, and who " serves " at the feast where Mary 
breaks the box of ointment. 

An interesting and picturesque tradition repre- 
sents Martha with Mary and Lazarus as put out to 
sea during the persecution (Ac. 8. 1 ) in an open boat, 
without oar or sail, with neither food nor drink. 
They drifted to land near Marseilles, and did great 
things for the spread of Christianity in the south 
of France. Martha was buried at St. Baume. The 
tradition may be traced to the fact mentioned by 
Plutarch (Marius, 414), that a Syrian prophetess, 
Martha by name, accompanied Marius in his vic- 
torious campaign against the Cimbri and Teutones 
in Provence. There Marius and Martha are still 
popular Christian names (Hall, Romans on the 
Riviera, 121). 

MARTYR. The Gr. word [xaprvs,- from a 
Sanscrit root meaning " to remember," is used in 
NT. of one who gives evidence of what he person- 
ally knows, usually by way of supporting or con- 
firming something (2 Cor. I. 23 , &c), but also of one 

* The numerous dishes enjoined by Eastern hospitality, 
and the mental absorption implied in their preparation, give 
point to our Lord's statement, "But one thing — i.e. one 
dish — is needful," to one who has seen an Oriental enter- 
tainment. Our Lord seeks to impress upon her the higher 
hospitality of the listening ear and the inquiring spirit. 



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who makes an assertion on his own authority (Ac. 
6. 13 , &c). The fidpTvpes are they who declare the 
truth concerning Christ, confirming it by their own 
experience (Ac. 5« 32 ). fidprvs also denotes one who 
has suffered death for his confession of Christ (Ac. 
22. 20 ; Rv. 2. 13 , 17. 6 ). This, however, does not 
mean that their dying was their witness ; but only 
that their testifying led to their death. The sense 
now attached to our word " martyr " is not found 
in the NT. but only in later ecclesiastical Greek. 
In the Apocalypse Jesus Christ is called the faith- 
ful and true fidprvs (i. 5, 3. 14 ), i.e. " He who gives 
the information contained in the Ape. concerning 
the things wh. must shortly come to pass (x. lf -) " 
(Cremer, Lex. NT. Greek, s.v.). 

MARY. If distinct persons are intended in all 
cases where the name Mary occurs with different 
designations, then eight Maries are mentioned in 
the NT. I. Mary the mother of Jesus. 2. Mary 
Magdalene. 3. Mary the mother of James and 
Joses. 4. "The other Mary" (Mw. 27. 61 , 28. 1 ). 
5. Mary the wife (daughter ?) of Cleophas. 6. 
Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus. 7. Mary 
the mother of John Mark. 8. Mary saluted by 
St. Paul, as resident in Rome. 3, 4, and 5 probably 
denote the same person, and it is not impossible 
that 7 and 8 are one and the same. If these 
identifications are accepted, the number is reduced 
to five, or at most six. 

The name is the Gr. form of the Heb. Miriam. 
It was extremely popular in the days of our Lord's 
earthly ministry. In the form of Mariamne it was 
borne by two of Herod's wives, a grand-niece and a 
great-granddaughter. 

I. Mary the Mother of Jesus.— The NT. tells 
us nothing of Mary's immediate parentage. The 
Apocryphal Gospels, that narrate the Nativity, say 
that she was the dr. of Joachim and his wife Anna, 
born to them, miraculously, in their old age. 
Tradition still points out their house in Sepphoris, 
the mod. Safurieh, to the N. of Nazareth. These 
Gospels also agree that she was of Davidic descent. 
Schmiedel, indeed, declares that St. Luke assigns 
her a Levitic ancestry. This is contradicted by St. 
Luke himself, who relates that the angel Gabriel, 
announcing the miraculous conception to Mary, 
said, " The Lord God shall give unto Him the 
throne of His father David," with whom He had no 
connection, unless He were a descendant of that 
king. Mary's relative, Elizabeth, was of Aaronic 
descent : this, however, does not affect the fact 
that Mary herself was of the lineage of David. 
The present writer, although himself without any 
claim to royal ancestry, has a cousin who is able to 
claim descent from King Robert the Bruce. Yet on 
such evidence as this, Schmiedel has the courage to 
assert "that the author of Lk. 1. held her to be a 
Levite is certain." What value can attach to the 



historical judgments of one who finds " certainty " 
in such evidence as this ? Prof. Paul Haupt, how- 
ever, straining after the extraordinary, goes still 
further. Resting upon a misunderstood passage in 
I Maccabees 5. 23 , he maintains that Mary was not 
even a Jewess. But even if the Jewish population 
in Galilee at the time was so small that Simon the 
br. of Judas Maccabaeus was able to carry them all 
for safety into Judasa, there was nothing to hinder 
any number from returning when the immediate 
danger was past. Josephus himself furnishes proof 
of an overwhelming Jewish element in Galilee ; and 
in order to explain it Haupt asserts a general pro- 
cess of compulsory proselytism, an assertion unsup- 
ported by evidence. If one may capriciously accept 
or reject documents, any conclusion desired may be 
reached. The only purpose, however, which such 
conclusions can serve, is to exhibit the learning and 
ingenuity of their authors — possibly nothing else 
is intended. 

No historical value attaches to the narratives 
contained in the Apocryphal Gospels of the wonders 
connected with the birth and early days of Mary. 
The story is told in the Canonical Gospels with a 
quiet restraint which carries conviction of its truth. 
Apparently while still young, Mary was betrothed 
to Joseph, a carpenter in Nazareth, who is described 
as a " righteous man " (Mw. I. 19 ). There is no 
doubt that he belonged to the house of David. If 
Mary had had a brother the events that followed 
would have furnished occasion for his interference. 
Of this there is no record, and the inference is that 
she had no brother. She was therefore an heiress, 
in however humble a way, and therefore legally 
bound to marry within the circle of her own family 
(Nu. 36. 8 ). It follows that she also was of the house 
of David (cp. above). Her inheritance may, not 
impossibly, have been in the territory around 
Bethlehem. 

To the betrothed maiden the angel Gabriel ap- 
peared with the greeting : " Hail, thou that art 
highly favoured, the Lord is with thee ; " and pro- 
ceeded to announce her great destiny, concluding : 
" that which is to be born of thee shall be called 
holy, the Son of God." The beauty and simplicity 
of her spirit are manifest in her reply : " Behold the 
handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to 
thy word" (Lk. i. 26ff -). Joseph's natural anxiety 
and alarm were allayed by a divine messenger (Mw. 
1 . 18ff •) . Not long afterwards Mary visited Elizabeth, 
the destined mother of the great forerunner, in a 
city of Judah in the hill country, who, by divine 
intuition, recognised in her young kinswoman the 
mother of her Lord. The Magnificat, in wh. Mary 
responded to the greeting of Elizabeth, is largely 
reminiscent of the song of Hannah (1 S. 2.), afford- 
ing evidence of sympathetic knowledge of OT. 
Scripture. Tarrying with her friend some three 



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months, Mary returned to Nazareth just before the this narrative we see what confidence Joseph and 
birth of the Baptist (Lk. i. 39ff -). Mary reposed in her Son. His absence from the 

For the enrolment decreed by Caesar Augustus company of returning pilgrims was not observed till 
Joseph and Mary journeyed to their ancestral city, the approach of nightfall. This cannot be attri- 
Bethlehem in Judah, and there, under circumstances buted to any want of solicitude on their part, as is 
with wh. all are familiar, the Divine Child was born, plainly shown by their hurried return to Jerusalem, 
The vision to the shepherds, their visit to the their three days' search, and the terms in wh. Mary 
Infant, and the coming of the Wise Men, with their greeted hereon. The terms of that greeting, in 
adoration and offerings, made a deep impression wh. Joseph is called His father, imply that she had 
upon the young mother's heart. Treasured in her not revealed to Him the secret of His birth. Yet 
memory also were the scenes in the Temple when, His reply, perhaps with emphasis on " My Father," 
with her husband, she went thither, to make the may indicate an expectation on His part, that His 
necessary legal offerings for her Son — offerings mother should note a difference between Him and 
which would declare their humble condition — " a others. It does seem to show at least the dawning 
pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons " (Lk. consciousness that His relation to God was not the 
2. 24 ; cp. Lv. 12. 8 ). There Simeon, a waiter " for same as that of other men. 

the consolation of Israel," took the Child in his This is the last time that Joseph appears in the 
arms and, with thanksgiving to God, spoke his narrative, and we may perhaps assume that no great 
marvellous prophecy. Perhaps the splendour of time thereafter Mary was left a widow, and may 
the destiny promised to her Son may have obscured have been dependent for support upon the earnings 

of her Son. Subject as He was to His parents in 
the home, we may be sure His mother was held in 
special love and honour; and the eighteen years that 
elapse before we meet them again would be years of 
peaceful and happy life. Mary next appears at the 
marriage in Cana of Galilee, where her kindly solici- 
tude for the bridegroom's reputation lest, by short- 
age of the wine, he should be shamed in presence of 
the guests, exhibits the delicacy of her nature. Her 
authority over the servants seems to imply that she 
was in some way related to the bridegroom. It is 
possible that Mary's appeal to Jesus was made in the 
expectation of miraculous help : but there is no cer- 
tainty. In His reply there is no harshness, as some 
have supposed, in His use of the word " Woman." 
With accompanying tone and look it may express 
for the time the force of that word spoken to the both honour and affection. It is the word that 
mother, " Yea, and a sword shall pierce through comes to His lips addressing His mother from the 
thine own soul." The aged Anna, a prophetess, Cross. And certainly Mary shows no sense of re- 
seeing Jesus, gave thanks to God, and spoke of Him buff or soreness. The report is no doubt greatly 
to all the company of " waiters for the redemption condensed. But evidently He lifted the veil very 
of Israel," to which she also belonged (Lk. 2. 22ff -). gently, that she might see a relationship between 
Before the red storm of Herod's jealous wrath them other than that of mother and Son. It may 
burst over Bethlehem, warned of God in a dream, not have been easy for Mary to realise this ; she evi- 
Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt ; then, as now, dently felt that her expectation was to be fulfilled ; 
a refuge for the oppressed. There they tarried for but we may detect something of awe in her direc- 
a time, possibly for two years. Tradition still points tion to the servants: " Whatsoever He saith unto 
out spots associated with their residence, such as the you, do it." Subsequently we find Him correcting 
tree of Mary at Heliopolis. After Herod's death in this sense the words of the crowd who spoke of 
they returned to Pal., but to Nazareth, not to His mother and brethren according to common 
Bethlehem, as Archelaus, Herod's son, reigned in usage. " Who is My mother ? and who are My 
Judaea. There is no record of the home-life in brethren ? " Then, stretching His hands towards 
Nazareth. That it was marked by piety we gather His disciples, " Behold My mother and My breth- 
from the regular presence of Joseph and Mary in ren ! " This, at the moment when in motherly 
Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover (Lk. 2. 41 ). solicitude she would fain have exercised some 
It is in connection with one of these visits that the restraining influence, would add to the feeling of 
interview of Jesus, now twelve years old, with the distance between herself and her Son, which must 
doctors in the Temple, is related. Looking behind have grown with succeeding years, shedding partial 

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light for her, perhaps, upon the meaning of Simeon's 
prophecy. This sense of remoteness no doubt 
reached its climax on Calvary, when addressing her 
as " Woman," however much of tender affection the 
word conveyed, and not as " Mother," He com- 
mitted her to the care of His beloved disciple. And 
then, also, to her broken heart was revealed the full 
significance of the word spoken in the Temple so 
long ago. Through what process Mary was led to 
recognise the Divine Saviour in her crucified Son we 
do not know. The fact thr.t she was entrusted to 
the care of John may possibly indicate that, for 
the time at least, she was out of sympathy with the 
other members of her household. But it is a happy 
circumstance that she last appears in the sacred nar- 
rative as present, with the complete family circle, 
in the company of 120 who, after the Ascension, 
waited together, praying, in the upper room in 
Jerusalem (Ac. I. 14 ). 

Two questions connected with Mary the mother 
of Jesus, which have attracted much interest re- 
cently, may be here briefly considered, viz. The 
Virgin Birth of Jesus, and the Perpetual Virginity 
of Mary. 

I. The Virgin Birth. — In addition to what is 
said in the article Jesus Christ we may observe — 

(a) With regard to the Record. — The facts would 
at first be known to few ; perhaps only to Joseph 
and Mary. Reticence about them was natural, and 
when stated, they called for great delicacy of treat- 
ment. St. Matthew tells the story as it must have 
appeared to Joseph. Only Mary herself could have 
been the source of the narrative given by St. Luke. 
The work of this historian shows how carefully he 
verified his facts. His calm, firm outline is precisely 
what we should expect from one who, upon evidence 
which he could not resist, had accepted the truth of 
events, which in themselves must have appeared so 
entirely improbable. The Virgin Birth is directly 
asserted in the first and third Gospels, and it is 
implied in the fourth. " The Word became flesh " 
(Jn. I. 14 ) has no meaning if an ordinary birth is re- 
ferred to. An older generation of critics drew atten- 
tion to the difference between Mw. 13. 55 and Mk. 
6. 3 . The former speaks of Jesus as " the carpenter's 
son " ; the latter describes Him as " the carpenter," 
thus avoiding, as these critics thought, the ascription 
of a human father to Christ. St. Matthew doubt- 
less employed what was the popular phrase : and 
whether St. Mark wrote from the theological point 
of view or not, his description was no doubt quite 
accurate. Owing to the relation in which St. Paul 
stood to St. Luke, his silence on this point is de- 
prived of all probative force. The argumentum e 
silentio, always hazardous, is doubly so when we are 
so far removed from the date and circumstances of 
the writer. It is a significant fact that, as early as 
the beginning of the second cent., this doctrine was 



universally received (Ignatius, Efhes. i. 8). In the 
Palestinian Syriac Gospel found by Mrs. Lewis and 
Mrs. Gibson the continuation of Mw. I. 16 , "and 
Joseph begat Jesus," only means that our Lord's 
birth was so registered : indeed it could not be 
registered otherwise. 

(b) With regard to the Fact. — It is frequently de- 
clared that the Virgin Birth of our Lord was impos- 
sible. The alleged impossibility depends upon the 
gen. assertion that miracles cannot occur. Such an 
assertion betrays a misconception of what an " im- 
possibility " really is ; and further, it contradicts the 
expectation, practically universal to mankind, that, 
given suitable moral conditions, miracles will occur. 
The Virgin Birth is not even against the analogy 
of Nature. Parthenogenesis is well known in cer- 
tain lower forms of life. As the higher contains in 
itself all the lower forms, the isolated occurrence 
of phenomena connected with these is merely an 
exaggerated case of " harking back," as it is called. 
The Virgin Birth was miraculous, indeed, but even 
so it did not violate the analogy of Nature. 

2. The Perpetual Virginity of Mary.— This 
subject is referred to in the article Brethren of the 
Lord. That, after the birth of our Lord, Mary was 
merely in name the wife of Joseph is a dogma of the 
Church of Rome, greatly favoured in high Anglican 
circles. When we contemplate the awful mystery 
of the Incarnation it almost seems profanation to 
think of the Holy Mother bearing any other child 
than that One who was conceived by the power of 
the Holy Ghost. It seems like using the sacred 
vessels of the Holy Temple for common purposes. 
But we must be on our guard against taking a -priori 
notions as proving facts. The Docetism of the 
early centuries was due to this illogical use of a priori 
ideas as tests of fact. If the doctrine of Mary's 
perpetual virginity had been true we might surely 
have expected to find some early, if not Scriptural 
proof. At all events, when any phrase occurred wh. 
seemed to deny it, some guarding word or two would 
have been introduced to prevent mistake — such e.g. 
as hos nomizeto, " as was believed " (Lk. 3. 25 ), wh. 
warns the reader against taking Joseph as the father 
of our Lord in the ordinary sense of the word. No 
evidence, however, in support of the doctrine, either 
direct or indirect, can be drawn from Scripture. 
On the other hand, if we had to do with any merely 
secular matter, Mw. I. 25 would be regarded as 
nearly decisive against it, especially when taken 
along with Lk. 2. 7 , where Jesus is described as 
Mary's " first-born " son. In neither case is there 
any word to warn us against making a mistake wh. 
must have seemed so natural. The men of Nazareth, 
whose knowledge of the family had the closeness and 
intimacy born of nearly thirty years' life in the same 
village, spoke of four men as the " brethren " of 
Jesus, and referred to " sisters." In other passages 



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also we have notices of " His brethren " (Mw. I2. 46 ; 
Jn. 7. 5 ). Further, St. Paul (Gal. i. 19 ) speaks of 
James as the " Lord's brother." Such Scriptural 
evidence as exists, therefore, does not favour the 
doctrine {see Brethren of the Lord). 

To the Jewish mind the ideal of womanhood was 
found in motherhood, not in virginity ; and it is 
significant that this belief is first heard of only when 
the undue exaltation of virginity began to show 
itself in the Christian Church. 

A later development of this not unnatural ten- 
. dency to lay stress on the sanctity of her who was 
privileged to be the mother of our Lord, is found in 
the belief in her sinlessness — that she was conceived 
without sin. For this belief there is less to be said 
on the ground of sentiment, while on its own behalf 
no shadow of evidence is furnished by Scrip, or by 
the early Fathers. The dogmatic reason for its 
support is obviously to be sought in the desire to 
fence more thoroughly the doctrine of our Lord's 
freedom from Original Sin. The line of reasoning 
assumed, however, involves itself in contradictions 
if pursued to its legitimate conclusions. If it were 
necessary to our Lord's absolute holiness that His 
mother should be without sin, would it not be 
equally necessary to the sanctity of that mother, 
that her mother should also be sinless ? This step 
would involve another similar assumption, and that 
again yet another, until we should go back to Eve, 
thus ultimately denying altogether the fact of 
Original Sin, and, therefore, the necessity for the 
Incarnation. In point of fact, Maty seems to have 
allowed the influence of " the brethren of the 
Lord " — her own younger sons, as we think — to 
overbear her faith (Mw. 12. 46 ; cp. Mk. 3. 21 ). Also 
our Lord's words addressed to her at Cana of 
Galilee seem to imply that, although holy, she was 
not wholly free from human failing. 

Many traditions have gathered round the name of 
Mary. According to one she went with John to 
Ephesus. Another says John stayed with her in 
Jerusalem till her death. The disciples are said to 
have been brought miraculously from their various 
fields of labour to her deathbed. She was buried 
in Gethsemane, but her body was supernaturally 
carried away from earth. When the grave was 
visited three days after her burial only a sweet 
perfume remained. Jesus is said to have declared 
to her before her death, " Whosoever invokes thy 
name shall not be put to shame." 

The fable of the Assumption of her body, and the 
practice of Mariolatry, are natural deductions from 
the false premises discussed above. 

II. Mary Magdalene. — The name may be taken 
as indicating that she was a native of Magdala. 
This is the Heb. migddl, " tower." While there 
were several Migdals in Galilee, only one of them is 
named in NT. (Mw. 15. 39 ). For Magdala in this 



place the rdg. of RV. is "Magadan" {see Magdala). 
Mark gives " Dalmanutha." It may be identical 
with mod. el-Mejdel {see Magdala), where tradition 
locates the birthplace of Mary. She had been a 
demoniac, and out of her our Lord is reported to 
have cast seven devils (Lk. 8. 2 ; Mk. 16. 9 ). That 
her trouble was one of exceptional severity is plain, 
and her gratitude for deliverance would be cor- 
respondingly deep and sincere. There is absolutely 
no reason for identifying her with " the woman 
that was a sinner " (Lk. J? 1 ). There is no evidence 
that demoniac possession was in any way connected 
with special moral delinquency. She appears to 
have been a person of means. Of the women who 
ministered to our Lord of their substance her name 
stands first (Lk. 8. 2 ). That company of true friends 
witnessed the crucifixion " from afar " (Mw. 2J. bb ; 
Mk. 15. 40 ), but drew near when the cruel work of 
the soldiers was accomplished (Jn. 19. 25 ). She 
stood by and saw the body of Jesus laid in Joseph's 
tomb (Mk. 7- 47 ). Bent upon the pious duty of 
anointing the body, she was among the earliest 
visitors to the sepulchre on the morning of the 
resurrection (Mk. 16. 16 ; Jn. 20. 1 ). From the open 
tomb she inferred that the body had been removed. 
Running to Peter and John, she exclaimed : " They 
have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we 
know not where they have laid Him." When the 
disciples who had examined the tomb had gone, 
Mary still stood without, weeping, her sorrow 
doubtless intensified because she was balked of her 
affectionate purpose. To her then, after she had 
seen the vision of angels, first of all His followers, the - 
risen Lord appeared. In the grey twilight she did 
not at once recognise Him, but at the utterance of 
her name she fell at His feet, exclaiming " Rabboni " 
(Mk. 16. 9 ; Jn. 20. llfL ). Very gently Jesus makes 
her understand the great gulf that separates Him 
now from the friends of earth. Full of a new-found 
joy, she goes to tell the disciples, and so passes for 
ever from the page of history. Quite unwarrant- 
ably she has been identified with 

III. Mary, the Sister of Martha. — Mary is 
introduced to us as sitting at Jesus' feet, listening 
to His conversation, while Martha bustled around 
preparing for His creature comforts. In His reply 
to Martha's appeal He does not condemn the active 
as contrasted with the contemplative life. He does 
indicate that it is possible to be so absorbed in ex- 
ternal concerns as to miss what is of greatest import. 
In Mary He had found a mind that responded to 
the sublimity of His teaching (Lk. io. 38 ' 42 ). The 
incident recorded in Jn. u. 31fE - sets the impressive- 
ness of Mary's personality in a strong light. The 
expression of Martha's grief had been heard with 
composure. When Mary appeared the waves of 
her sorrow overwhelmed the bystanders, and for the 
moment even Jesus Himself was carried away. On 



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the return of Jesus from Ephraim to the Passover 
a supper was made for Him at Bethany, where 
Martha served, and Lazarus sat with Him at table. 
There, as He reclined at meat, His feet projecting 
over the couch behind, Mary came and anointed 
His feet with ointment of spikenard, and wiped 
them with her hair. Judas Iscariot's protest 
against the seeming waste only elicited Christ's 
commendation of a deed done on the prompting of 
some deep spiritual instinct, "against the day of My 
burying " (Jn. I2. lff> ). The resemblances between 
this incident and that recorded in Lk. y. 37 " 39 have 
led some to identify Mary of Bethany with " the 
woman that was a sinner." The identification is 
unsatisfactory. Although there are many points of 
resemblance, there are also many of difference. 
The incident in Luke is placed in Galilee, and early 
in our Lord's ministry. All the other evangelists 
place the incident where Mary is the actor, in 
Bethany near Jerusalem, and close to the end of 
Christ's ministry. Further, in chap. 10., St. Luke 
speaks of the family at Bethany ; but while Mary 
is there mentioned by name, there is no reference 
back to the incident of chap. 7., wh. would have been 
almost inevitable had she been " the woman that 
was a sinner." 

It should be observed, also, that the points of re- 
semblance concern things that were common, and 
call for no special remark. It is not surprising, 
e.g. that both feasts should be in the house of one 
called Simon. This was a popular name. There 
are seven Simons, or Simeons, mentioned in the 
NT., excluding the two here involved. Alabaster 
boxes of ointment, although costly, were far from 
unusual. From the attitude in wh. guests reclined 
at meat the feet were conveniently placed for 
anointing. In a land where perfumed ointment 
has always been held in such high esteem, there is 
nothing to call for remark in the fact that two 
women, independently, chose the same means of 
expressing their devotion and grateful affection. 
For the tradition as to Mary's last days see Martha, 
ad f,n. 

IV. Mary the Mother of James the Less (the 
Little) and Joses is named among the women who 
ministered to Jesus, and were witnesses of His 
crucifixion (Mw. 2J. 55 , &c). In v. 61 and 28. 1 she 
is identified with " the other Mary," and in Jn. 
19. 25 with Mary the wife (or daughter) of 
Cleophas (c<p. Mk. 15. 40 ). " Mary of Cleophas (or 
Clopas) " has been taken as sister of Mary the mother 
of our Lord, probably owing to a misunderstanding 
of Jn. 19. 25 (see Brethren of the Lord). With 
Mary Magdalene she saw the burial of Jesus (Mk. 
15. 47 ), and went to the tomb on the resurrection 
morning (Mk. 16. 1 ). 

V. The other Mary ; see the foregoing. 

VI. Mary of Cleophas (or Clopas) ; see IV. 



VII. Mary the Mother of John Mark.— Her 

house in Jerusalem the Christians seem to have 
regarded as a common meeting-place (Ac. 12. 12 ). If 
Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (Col. 4. 10 ), be identical 
with John Mark, as seems probable, Mary may have 
been the sister of the fr. or mr. of Barnabas. 

VIII. Mary saluted by St. Paul.— A Chris- 
tian who had toiled for the advantage of the Church 
in Rome : possibly identical with VII. 

MASON. The M. is one who graves stones (2 S. 
5. 11 ), makes a dry-stone wall (2 K. 12. 12 , &c), hews 
or digs stones (1 Ch. 22. 2 , &c), knows how artisti- 
cally to build a wall (1 Ch. 14. 1 ). Lebanon still 
supplies the greater number of masons to Pal., 
those of Shweir being in special repute. 

MASSAH. See Meribah. 

MATTAN. (1) A priest of Baal, who shared the 
fate of Athaliah (2 K. n. 18 , &c). (2) Father of 
Shephatiah, one of the princes opposed to Jeremiah 
(Jr. 38. 1 ). (3) Mw. i. 15 , Matthan. 

MATTANAH, a station of the Israelites, appa- 
rently the next after Beer, and before Nahaliel 
(Nu. 2l. 18f -). In Heb. Mattanah = " gift." Some 
have thought, therefore, that it may be identical 
with Beer, " the well," of all gifts the most prized 
in " the wilderness." It must have lain to the SE. 
of the Dead Sea, but no ident. is possible. 

MATTANIAH. This was a popular name. 
Ten men so called are mentioned in Scrip. Here 
we need only speak of that king of Judah whom 
Nebuchadnezzar placed on the throne instead of his 
nephew Jehoiachin (2 K. 24. 17 ). His name was 
Mattaniah, but the conqueror changed it to Zede- 
kiaii. In the same way Pharaoh-necho changed the 
name of Eliakim to Jehoiakim (2 K. 23. 34 ). 

MATTHAN, son of Eleazar, and grandfather of 
Joseph the husband of Mary (Mw. I. 15 ). He is 
prob. identical with Matthat (Lk. 3. 24 ). 

MATTHEW, one of the Twelve, a tax-gatherer, 
called by Jesus fra. the receipt of custom (Mw. o,. 9 ). 
In the parallel passages (Mk. 2. 14 ; Lk. 5. 27 ) he is 
called Levi. Probably he owned both names — a 
custom not uncommon. He is always named along 
with Thomas " the twin." It may therefore, per- 
haps, be inferred that he was the twin brother of 
Thomas. From his occupation at " the receipt of 
custom " he wd. form the habit of keeping records. 
It is prob. that he kept notes of our Lord's words 
and deeds which afterwards formed the nucleus of 
his Gospel. The beginning of his new relationship 
to Jesus he signalised by a feast (Mk. 2. 15ff -, &c). 
Late traditions assign him his sphere of missionary 
labour among the Ethiopians or the Parthians. 

MATTHEW, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 
TO ST. References to St. Matthew in New 
Testament literature are very few. His name ap- 
pears in the first Gospel, first when he was called 
to follow Jesus, and next in the list of the Twelve. 



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In the second Gospel he is called Levi, and there 
is no reason to doubt that Levi is identical with 
Matthew. His name appears in the list of the 
eleven in Ac. 1 . 13 . The story of his call is also told 
by Luke in almost identical terms. His position in 
the list of the twelve apostles is seventh or eighth. 

The ministry of Jesus had been some time in 
operation before the call of Matthew. Accdg. to 
the fourth Gospel there had been a ministry in Judea 
and in Jerusalem, and even from the three Gospels 
we gather that the ministry in Galilee had been 
going on before the day when Matthew was found 
at the receipt of custom, was called, and forsook all 
to follow Jesus. He was not one of the disciples of 
John as some of the Twelve were. His experience 
of the ministry of the Lord would thus date from 
his call. The events which happened and words 
which were spoken ere he was called, Matthew 
would have to learn from those who were then 
present. While the NT. is so far silent about 
Matthew and his work, and while his position among 
the Twelve was not such as to indicate why he should 
be chosen by subsequent tradition as the writer of a 
Gospel, yet the tradition is persistent, comes from 
an early date, and was universally believed by the 
Church from the second century onwards. The 
easiest solution of a difficult problem is to assume 
that a basis of fact forms the source of the tradition. 
That assumption alone can account for the tradition. 
For neither the position of Matthew among the 
Twelve, nor any mention of him in the NT., is 
sufficient to explain the tradition. 

The tradition itself is thus stated by Eusebius. 
" For Matthew, after preaching to the Hebrews, 
when about to go also to others, committed to 
writing in his native tongue the Gospel that bears 
his name ; and so by his writing supplied to those 
he was leaving the loss of his presence " (HE. viii. 24). 
The tradition is persistent and consistent from the 
second century onwards. The authorship of the 
first Gospel is always ascribed to Matthew, and it 
is also consistently said that he wrote it in the 
Hebrew language. The two statements hang to- 
gether, and must be taken together. From the 
tradition it would appear that the Gospel was 
first circulated in the Hebrew language, and we 
are told that each one interpreted it as he was able. 
The most likely interpretation of this statement 
is that those who read the Gospel, whether in a 
private reading or in the weekly assembly of the 
Christian congregation, translated it into Greek for 
the benefit of those who did not know Aramaic. 
We know of a parallel in the history of the Scottish 
Church. In the days before the Bible was trans- 
lated into Gaelic, Mr. Macdonald, the father of 
Dr. Macdonald, the Apostle of the North, was wont 
to read from the English version to the congrega- 
tion, and to translate, as he went on, into Gaelic for 



the edification of the people. This was apparently 
the custom in many parts of the Highlands of Scot- 
land, until the Gaelic version was published. This 
also seems to have been the custom in the early 
Church. So Matthew was translated into Greek, 
as the reader was able ; so also the Greek would 
be translated into Latin, into Syriac, Ethiopic, or 
into other languages as the need and the occasion 
demanded. 

We have not space to describe the tradition at 
length. It has often been described. We refer to 
Professor Nicol's work, The Four Gospels in the 
Earliest Church History, for a full and accurate 
account of the tradition. We can trace the tradi- 
tion backwards from the time of Irenaeus to the close 
of the first century, and there can be no hesitation in 
saying that the belief in the tradition was universal 
in the early Church. All believed that the first 
Gospel was written by Matthew, and was written 
in the Hebrew tongue. It was also believed that 
the first Gospel, as it now stands in the canon, was 
the Gospel to which Papias referred. It would 
seem also to have been the belief of Papias himself. 
What has criticism to say to this ancient tradition ? 
Many questions arise, to which a definite answer 
cannot yet be given. The trend of criticism is 
against the acceptance of the ancient belief in its 
simplicity and its entirety. Most hold that the 
present canonical Matthew is not a translation, 
that it cannot be the work of the apostle Matthew, 
that it is a compilation, and that the sources from 
which it was compiled can be traced and identified. 
There is a growing consensus of opinion that the 
second Gospel is a source of the first, and that a 
second source is a book of Sayings of Jesus, which 
was in early circulation in the Palestinian churches. 
The problem is very complex, and the solution is 
not yet apparent. Within our limits we can only 
indicate the problem, we cannot dwell on it. It 
may, however, be safely said that criticism of 
sources is a most delicate operation, and it is very 
difficult to conduct it in an objective fashion. It is 
hard to believe that a common source could have 
given rise to the sayings contained in the Sermon 
on the Mount, gathered into an artistic unity as 
an organic whole in the first Gospel, and scattered 
into separate and disparate paragraphs in the third 
Gospel. Some other solution must be found more 
consistent with the facts. A common source of 
the Sayings of Jesus has not yet been found. 

Nor is it to be forgotten that the meaning of the 
word logia, which identifies it with " sayings," dates 
only from Schleiermacher. He introduced it, he 
has been widely followed, until now, both in Ger- 
man and in English, the word logia means sayings. 
In the NT. logia always means the whole of the OT., 
and includes in it all the literary forms of the OT. 
A story, a fact of history, a poem, a parable, a pro- 



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phecy may be a logion, an oracle of God. So far as 
the NT. is concerned the Gospel history and the 
history of the Acts may be oracles of God. Apart 
from this fact, is there any ground to believe in 
a book of Sayings of Jesus compiled in the early 
Church, and in circulation before the destruction of 
Jerusalem ? Much may be said for that conclusion, 
and a good deal may be said against it. Nor is it 
necessary here to give a decision. For a discussion 
of the subject we refer to Dr. Allen's Critical Com- 
mentary on St. Matthew, to Zahn's Einleitung, and 
to all the treatises on NT. Introduction recently 
published, of which there are very many. 

The best use we can make of the limited space at 
our disposal seems to be this. We propose to leave 
on one side the questions regarding sources, the 
possibility of the Gospel being a compilation, and 
similar questions which cannot yet be definitely 
answered, and devote our space to a description of 
its contents, and to those particulars in which it 
differs from the other Gospels. It is a remarkable 
fact that the first Gospel, written by Jewish Chris- 
tians, should have been the most popular, and the 
most widely used and quoted by the Gentile 
churches. In the Greek and Latin Fathers it is 
much more frequently quoted than the others, and 
in fact it almost superseded the use of the second 
Gospel altogether. Many explanations are given 
of the fact, on which we need not dwell. Evidently 
the Gentile churches found the first Gospel to be 
that which met their deepest needs, and satisfied 
them. One reason for this preference may be found 
in the amount of didactic teaching found in the 
first Gospel, in the fact that the teaching of Jesus is 
found in it, aggregated into great discourses, and in 
the fuller account of the Passion Week and of the 
resurrection contained in it. Whatever the ex- 
planation may be, the fact remains that the first 
Gospel was regarded by the Church as the fullest 
and most complete of the Gospels. 

Looking at the contents of the Gospel we find 
first the fore-history. The fore-history of the first 
Gospel is peculiar to itself. It has first the genea- 
logy, next the account of the birth and childhood 
of Jesus, then the account of John the Baptist, and 
the baptism and the temptation of Jesus. It is 
noteworthy that the person in the forefront of the 
story is Joseph. It is Joseph to whom the dream 
comes, to him the Divine message is delivered, and it 
is to Joseph that the dream comes which directs the 
journey to Egypt. Mary is in the background. 
In the fore-history of Luke Joseph is scarcely men- 
tioned. It is to Mary that the dreams and visions 
come. The feelings, emotions, and aspirations of 
Mary, her wonder, her loyalty, and her devotion, 
are the themes on which the story lingers. Clearly 
the two stories come from different sources ; one 
comes from Joseph and the other from Mary ; both 



alike dwell in a sphere of spiritual greatness, the 
greatness of which is not appreciated by those 
who measure greatness by quantitative measures. 
The two fore-histories are unique in the history of 
literature. 

Having told the story of the genealogy of Jesus, 
laying stress on the fact of Davidic descent, and His 
consequent claim to Messiahship, it goes on to tell 
the story of the birth of Jesus, of His experience at 
baptism, of His temptation, and of His entrance on 
His public work. Then comes the story of the 
Galilean ministry (4. 12 — 13. 35 ), a brief and general 
description of His ministry in Galilee, in which the 
characteristics of His ministry and of its effects are 
given (zf.. 23 ' 25 ). The evangelist tells the story of 
the Galilean ministry in some detail. It is char- 
acteristic that the teaching comes first and the doing 
second. The teaching is summarised in the Sermon 
on the Mount, the doing in the eighth and ninth 
chapters. Then comes another brief summary of 
His teaching and working, followed by His commis- 
sion to the disciples of authority and power to fit 
them for their mission, and instructions to the 
disciples as to their conduct in carrying out their 
mission — instructions which were the guide of their 
conduct during all their life. The relation of His 
ministry to that of the Baptist follows, with an ap- 
preciation of the character, mission, and place of 
John the Baptist in the historic evolution of the 
kingdom of God. Then in a characteristic manner 
the parabolic teaching of Jesus is gathered together, 
and the reader finds in one place what was the way and 
manner of this feature of the ministry of our Lord. 

Passing over various scenes and circumstances of 
the Galilean ministry, we note the significant fact of 
the visit of the Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem 
and its bearing on the movements of Jesus during 
the rest of His Galilean ministry. What is the ex- 
planation of His journeyings and wanderings during 
these months ? For the most part He is outside of 
the dominion of Herod Antipas. No evangelist 
formally connects the fact of the rupture with the 
Pharisees with the fact that He keeps outside of the 
dominion of Herod. Some modern interpreters 
find a symbolic meaning in these wanderings. They 
find that it is a dramatic rendering of the old belief 
that a prophet must also be an exile, and that he 
must, Elijah-like, flee to Horeb. It is an illustra- 
tion of the tendency to find symbolic interpreta- 
tions of what the Gospels set down as fact. But if 
we connect the rupture with the religious authorities 
and the alliance with the Herodians (Mk. 3. 6 ) with 
the subsequent journeyings of Jesus, we find a suffi- 
cient motive and reason why He should not put 
Himself within the power of the authorities until 
He had trained the Twelve for their work. After all, 
it is easiest to take the Gospel statements of fact for 
what they appear to be, and to try to find an ade- 



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quate interpretation of them. So, in the Gospel It may be that the Sermon on the Mount, while it 
before us, we find that He is outside of the dominion contains only the sayings of the Master, may have 
of Herod. We find Him on the borders of Tyre received its present form and setting from and in 
and Sidon, in the region of Decapolis, at Caesarea the tradition of the Church. It may be so, also, 
Philippi, and His presence in these places is sum- with the other great discourses. That is one ques- 
ciently explained from the fact that He could not tion, and one which may well be discussed with a 
exercise His ministry safely within the dominion of reasonable hope of an answer. It is another ques- 
Herod. Then we have the account of His journey tion, however, when it is argued that the substance 
to Jerusalem and His arrival there, with all that was of these discourses is attributed not to Jesus but 
said and done during that journey. The next great to the consciousness of the Church, and when the 
section of the Gospel (21. -27.) tells of the arrival authorship of them is ascribed to the reflection of 
at Jerusalem ; of what He said and did till the be- the Church. When it is contended that the Church, 
ginning of the Passion Week ; of the events of the reflecting on her own needs, and craving satisfac- 
Passion Week ; of His betrayal, arrest, His trials, His tion for them, sought to make them objective, and, 
crucifixion, His death and burial. The final section to invent situations, doctrines, and facts which 
tells of the resurrection, and of the days between would accomplish this aim, really constructed the 
the resurrection and the ascension, and the Gospel Gospels, and that whatwe have in them is not the re- 
ends with the great parting word to the disciples to flection of the consciousness of Jesus,but of the con- 
go and win the world for Him. sciousness of the Church, that raises a different and 
Thus the fore-history, the ministry in Galilee, a larger issue. We should have, ere we accept such 
the journey to Jerusalem, the Passion Week, the a hypothesis, first to ascertain the capacity of the 
story of the crucifixion, and the story of the resur- Church for so great a work. Could the Church, as 
rection comprise the history as contained in the we know it in the Acts of the Apostles, and in other 
Gospel. Essentially it is the history common to the sources of information, have really reflected to so 
three Gospels. It is evidently the common tradi- great a purpose ? Could she have been able to 
tion with which the churches had been made ac- frame for herself, in that immature period of her 
quainted, and which was derived from the common development, a literature which was to be the 
apostolic teaching. What is peculiar to the first standard for Christian thought and life for all the 
Gospel is the fore-history and the grouping of the centuries — a standard which has never been ap- 
teaching of our Lord into great discourses. While proached, and which still remains unapproachable 
there are shorter sayings scattered through the by any age of the Church ? Whatever may be the 
Gospel, usually located in some particular place, and solution of the literary problem of the Gospels, and 
represented as spoken on some special occasion, yet of the first Gospel in particular, that solution which 
the characteristic peculiarity of the first Gospel is ascribes its contents to the reflection of the early 
that, it gathers the sayings of Jesus into great groups. Church is clearly untenable. Leaving these literary 
The first of these is the Sermon on the Mount questions for further investigation, and for an ade- 
(5.-7.). The second is the instructions to the dis- quate solution to the research of the future, we now 
ciples when they were sent forth to their separate turn to a brief description of the theology of the 
work (10.). The third is the great collection of first Gospel. 

parables (13.). The fourth is the denunciation of That Jesus is the Messiah, foreshadowed in the 

the scribes and Pharisees (23.). And the fifth is the OT. and expected in the fulness of time by Israel, 

great eschatological discourse, with the parables is one of the themes of the first Gospel. His 

illustrative of the last things. These, with the descent is traced to David and to Abraham. In 

discourse about the Baptist (11.) and the discourse David His ancestral line attained to kingship, and 

about Beelzebub, contain what maybe described though the royal dignity was lost at the Captivity, it 

as the didactic part of the Gospel as distinct from was restored again when Jesus the Messiah was born, 

the narrative portion. Many important questions He was king of the Jews by right of birth, and in the 

arise as to these parts of the Gospel. It may be end of the days He entered Jerusalem as its king, 

reasonably contended that these discourses, both in But stress is laid on more than His Davidic descent, 

manner and in matter, belong really to the Master. He was born of a virgin, was conceived by the power 

Almost all the contents of them bear the marks of of the Holy Ghost, and His proper designation is 

flis unique mode of speech. It is another question, Immanuel, or the Son of God. He was proclaimed 

however, and one not admitting of an easy answer, the Son of God by the Divine voice, at the baptism 

as to whether in their present form, and in their and at the transfiguration. He speaks of Himself as 

present aggregation, they were spoken by Him. It Son in an absolute and unique sense. Thus He is 

is possible that the tradition of the Church brought Son of David and Son of God. On one thing the 

together, into one place and time, sayings which were first Evangelist constantly dwells. He delights to 

spoken at different times and on separate occasions, trace in the words and deeds of Jesus fulfilments of 

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OT. prophecy. The instances of these are too 
frequent to be recorded here. A full treatment of 
the Christology of the first Gospel would take up 
much space. The wonderful works of Jesus, His 
gracious works of hearing, His words of grace and 
love, His prophetic insight into the future illus- 
trated by the foretelling of His death and resurrec- 
tion, and of the coming of the kingdom, are illus- 
trations of the way in which this Gospel attests His 
Messiahship. Briefly, in this Gospel He is Son of 
Man and Son of God, in whom and through whom 
OT. prophecy in all its lines obtained its fulfilment. 
Special stress is laid on the work of healing and of 
preaching as the means by which the approach of 
the kingdom of God was prepared. Again, stress is 
laid on the fact that He would return and build up 
the kingdom of God. 

In the first Gospel we find that, looking at the 
frequent references to the OT., the new beginning 
is simply the continuation and culmination of the 
old. To Matthew the new is simply the comple- 
tion of the old. What was prepared in the one is 
achieved in the other. Jesus is the goal of the past, 
the centre and the key to the eternal purpose, and in 
Him all the lines of the OT. meet and are fulfilled. 
Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. This is the 
essential feature of this Gospel. It is not merely 
that He was declared to be the Son of God with 
power by the resurrection, as with Paul ; not merely 
that in this or that phase of His history He had re- 
ceived the Divine attestation ; to this Gospel He is 
essentially Divine, Immanuel, God with us. 

This appears whether we dwell on His teaching or 
on His action. In His teaching, as it is gathered up 
into the great discourses, He always speaks with 
Divine authority, and always makes claims which 
could only be justified if He were Divine. In 
the Sermon on the Mount He interchanges " for 
righteousness' sake" (5. 10 ) with "for My sake" 
(5. 11 ) as if the two were identical. Nor is this the 
only place in which the personal claim of Jesus is 
identified with the claim of righteousness. "For 
My name's sake," "for the Son of Man's sake," are 
phrases of frequent occurrence in this Gospel and in 
the other Gospels, and these are set forth as the su- 
preme source of Christian obedience, and as the high- 
est Christian motive. It is noteworthy also that this 
note of Divine authority set forth in the Sermon on 
the Mount is deeply imbedded in that discourse. 
Jesus places His own sayings on the level of the 
Divine commands givenof old. "Yehaveheardthat 
it was said . . . But I say unto you." The situation is 
unique. Prophets of old had said, " Thus saith the 
Lord " ; Jesus says, " I say unto you." It is the 
attitude of One conscious that He is the truth, 
that in Him and in His words the earlier order has 
been transcended and that a higher order has been 
reached. In the Sermon there is a note of authority 



never used before by any messenger of God, a tone 
of assurance which stands absolutely alone. It is all 
the more remarkable because for Jesus the OT. was 
the revelation of the Father, and its words were 
Divine. Yet He places His own words on the 
same, or rather on a higher level. 

Equally noteworthy is the claim which is made in 
the Sermon to the highest judicial functions. This 
is noteworthy throughout the first Gospel. He 
claims to be the final Judge of men. It is sufficient 
to quote one passage : " Not every one that saith 
unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom 
of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of My Father 
which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that 
day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy 
name, and by Thy name cast out devils, and by Thy 
name do many mighty works ? and then will I pro- 
fess unto them, I never knew you : depart from Me, 
ye that work iniquity " (Mw. 7. 20 " 23 ). It is a note- 
worthy claim that is made here, not only for the 
fact of it, but also for the principles underlying it. 
The principle of judgment is unique. He will not 
accept service, however distinguished, unless there is 
sincerity in the hearts, of those who render it. He 
will not accept any service unless the people who 
render it are wholly His. There is nothing like this 
in the history of humanity. Other leaders accepted 
service without inquiring curiously into the motives 
of it ; Jesus will not accept such service. How did 
this happen to be placed in the forefront of the 
Christian conditions of service ? There is only one 
answer : Jesus Himself placed it there, and there it 
remains. 

If we gather this impression of uniqueness, of 
sovereign personal claims, and of authority from the 
words of Jesus, as these are reported in the first 
Gospel, a similar impression is made on us by a 
perusal of His doings, and of His general demeanour, 
as these are set forth here. To these we can only 
allude. We might speak of the mighty works done 
by Him but we forbear. The impression made on 
us by the teaching of Jesus, as that is set forth in this 
Gospel, is confirmed by the life He lived, and by 
the work He did. It is in the words and deeds of 
Jesus that we find the material with which to fill up 
the meaning we ascribe to Him, and to the names 
by which He is called in this Gospel. 

Take the first Gospel as it stands in our canon, 
and leaving out of sight for the moment all ques- 
tions as to its authorship, as to the sources of it, and 
all other literary questions whatsoever, what is to be 
said regarding it ? This much at least, that within 
half a century of the death of Jesus this book was in 
wide circulation among the churches, as an account 
of what the Master was, of what He had said, and of 
what He had done. This was what they believed 
about Him, this was their faith and the justification 
of it. It was received by the Palestinian churches, 



445 



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Mea 



and by the churches scattered around the shores of 
the Mediterranean Sea. Of this there can be no 
doubt. Granted that there were in it some reflec- 
tions made by the Church, some manifestations of 
the tendency on the part of disciples to magnify 
their Master ; grant also that we have here reflec- 
tions of the need of the Church, yet after all is said 
that can be said of these tendencies, what remains ? 
Much remains indubitable. There remains what 
no man could have invented. There remains Jesus 
the Christ, a figure so unique, so different in His 
greatness from what men usually regard as great, 
that no one could have thought of Him as He was, 
unless He had been. He is the reversal of all ideas of 
human greatness, so that men do not recognise how 
great He is until they are educated to apprehend 
the new spiritual measures. Be the literary sources 
of the first Gospel what they may, the fact remains 
that out of these sources we have a book which is its 
own evidence, which in its spiritual greatness is pro- 
ductive of greatness in those who surrender them- 
selves to it, and submit themselves to its guidance. 

James Iverach. 




Egyptian Hoes 

MATTHIAS is known in NT. only as the disciple 
chosen by lot for the place vacated by Judas Iscariot 
(Ac. i. 15fL ). This election may have been a mistake 
(Stier, Words of the Apostles). St. Paul seems to 
have been the man chosen of God for the office. 
M. disappears at once. Tradition has been busy 
with his name, but contains nothing worthy of 
credit. One story represents him as evangelising a 
city of cannibals in Ethiopia, fm. whose maw he is 
delivered by Andrew (Acts of Andrew and Matthias). 

MATTOCK stands for several Heb. words. 
(i) Hereb, a general term, often trd. " sword," but 
in 2 Ch. 34. 6 a tool for digging. (2) Mahareshah, an 
implement of husbandry, poss. "ploughshare" (1 S. 
I3. 20f -). (3) Ma'der, " hoe " (Is. J 25 ). The usual 
M. is a pick with one end broad, the other pointed. 



MAUL. The Heb. word is mefhltz, lit. " scat- 
terer " or " disperser," and denotes a club or mace 
(Pr. 25. 18 ). A smashing weapon is no doubt in- 
tended, like the club that has played so large a part 
in Oriental war. The cognate mafpdtz (Ek. g. 2 ) is 
" a shattering weapon," and ma-ppetz (Jr. 5 1. 20 ) is 
" a war club." 

MAUZZIM. AV. renders the Heb. phrase 
, eloah ma'uzzim " the god of forces," giving 
" munitions, Heb. mauzzim " in the margin. The 
RV. rendering, " the god of fortresses," is now 
generally accepted. It is impossible to say which 
god is intended. Antiochus Epiphanes, the king 
referred to, wished to erect a temple in Antioch to 
the Roman Jupiter Capitolinus (Livy, xli. 20), and 
some have therefore thought this may be the god 
meant. But in 2 M. 6. lf - we read that " the king 
sent an old man of Athens to compel the Jews to 
depart from the laws of their fathers, and not to 
live after the laws of God : and to pollute also the 
temple in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of 
Jupiter Olympius." Were this incident certainly 
historical a reasonable claim might therefore be 
made on behalf of the Olympian Jupiter. 

MAZZAROTH (Jb. 38. 32 ), supposed to be iden- 
tical with " planets" (mazzaroth — 2 K. 23. 5 ), RVm. 
" twelve signs " ; rendered by Psh. 'ogalto, " the 
waggon," prob. " Charles's Wain," Vlg. " Lucifer." 
Agst. the suggestion of RVm. is the fact that in Job 
it is sing. ; agst. Psh. the fact that M. is " led forth 
in his season," whereas " Ursa Major " is always 
above the horizon in Syria ; M. can scarcely be a 
star so frequently above the horizon as Venus. The 
suggestion of Fuerst that M. is Jupiter has some- 
thing to recommend it, only 'eth, " season," sug- 
gests a fixed star whose rising was a noted period. 
For this reason it wd. seem that Sirius, fm. whose 
rising the Egyptians arranged their Sothiac period, 
is the star most likely meant by M. 

MEADOW in AV. stands for 9 ahu (Gn. 41 > 18 ) 
and ma i arah (Jg. 20. 33 ). ^Ahu is lit. " reed grass, 
and it is so rendered in RV. It may have applied to 
the rich pasture land of Egypt. Ma ( arah is simply 
transliterated by RV. in Jg. 20. 33 . But it seems 
certain that this is a scribal error for ma'ardb, and 
that we ought to read " from the west of Gibeah.' 
In Is. 19. 7 'droth is trd. by AV. "paper reeds," by 
RV. "meadows." Probably, however, instead of 
droth we should read ^ahoth. 

MEAH, TOWER OF, RV. HAMMEAH, lit. 
" Tower of the hundred," stood on the wall of Jrs. 
between the sheep and fish gates (Ne. 3. 1 , 12. 39 ). 
See Jerusalem. 

MEAL is grain ground between millstones, or 
crushed in a mortar (Gn. 18. 6 , &c. ; Mw. 13. 33 , &c). 

MEAL OFFERING. See Sacrifice. 

MEALS. See Food. 

MEARAH, " a cave," a place remaining to be pos- 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Med 



sessed by Isr. (Jo. 13. 4 ), belonging to the Zidonians : 
poss. = Mugheiriyeh, " little cave," near Sidon. 

MEASURE. See Weights anp Measures. 

MEAT in EV. is the tr. of several Heb. words, 
and has a quite general significance. It is applied 
indifferently to bread, flesh meat, &c. ; the meaning 
in each case must be determined from the context. 
A similar use of the word " meat " is still common 
in Scotland. 

MEBUNNAI, one of David's heroes of the 
Judahite family of Hushah (2 S. 23. 27 ). It is a 
copyist's mistake for Sibbecai. The correct form 
is preserved in the parallel list in I Ch. II. 29 , &c. 

MEDAD. See Eldad. 

MEDAN, one of Abraham's sons by Keturah 
(Gn. 25. 2 , &c). No prob. ident. with any Arabian 
tribe has been suggested, and the question seems 
likely to remain in obscurity. An easy solution 
would be to take " Medan " as a doublet of 
" Midian " which immediately follows. But in 
Gn. 37. 36 (Heb.) there is mention made of " the 
Medanites." It is usual to regard this with EV. as 
an error for " Midianites." It is also poss. that we 
have here an allusion to the children of Medan. 

MEDEBA, an important town in the plateau E. 
of Jordan (Nu. 21. 30 ), occupied by Reuben (Jo. 
13. 9 ' 16 ), the scene of Joab's victory over the Am- 
monites and their confederates. It was taken by 
Omri, but recovered and fortified by Mesha (Moab. 
St. y lines 7I, 2oi. ; cp. Is. 15. 2 ). Here John, son of 
Mattathias, was murdered by the Jambri, a crime 
avenged by Jonathan (1 M. C). 36ff - ; Jos. Ant. XIII. 
i. 2, 4). It was captured by John Hyrcanus, and 
later by Jannasus (Ant. XIII. ix. 1, xv. 4, XIV. i. 4). 
It is = mod. Mddebd, six miles S. of Heshbon. In 
1880 a company of Christians fm. Kerak occupied 




Madeba — Ruins of Church 

the place. There are many anct. remains. A 
mosaic map of a portion of Palestine and a part of 
Lower Egypt in the reign of Justinian, found here 
in digging the foundations of the Greek church, 
is described in PEFQ., July 1897. 

MEDES. An Aryan race inhabiting a territory 
E. of Mesopotamia, one of the regions to wh. the 
Northern Tribes were deported (2 K. 17. 6 , 18. 11 ). 




Mede, with Bow 
in Case 



The M. seem to have formed several separate king- 
doms, as in Jeremiah the reference is always to the 
" kings of the M." (Jr. 25. 25 , 51. 11 ). Their ancestor 
(Gn. io. 2 ) is Madai, third son of Japheth. In both 
sacred and profane history the M., while distin- 
guished fm. the Persians, are always associated with 
them. Herodotus' account of the 
Empire of the M.has many elements 
of romance. Deioces, after gaining 
such a reputation for justice in his 
own canton that all his countrymen 
brought their cases before him, with- 
drew himself ; as they felt the want 
of his tribunal the M. ultimately 
made him king. Herodotus says 
he reigned 53 years — an impossible 
length of reign when we remember 
that he must have been more than 
mature when he was made judge 
even in his native canton, and that 
it wd. take a very considerable 
time for his reputation to spread over all Media, 
and become so high that the habit wrs formed 
of coming to his tribunal ; and that a further 
period wd. be required foi the need of his de- 
cisions to become so clamant that the M. were 
necessitated to make him their king ; when all 
this had transpired Deioces cd. not be much less 
than 70, an age wh. precludes a reign of more 
than half a century to follow. There occurs in the 
monuments a Daiuku, a vassal chief under the k. 
of the Manda who was taken prisoner by Sargon 
(b.c 715). Herodotus makes Phraortes his son and 
successor ; there is a Fravartish who was overthrown 
by Ashurbanipal. His successor according to 
Herodotus, Cyaxares, may have joined Nabopolasor 
in the assault on Nineveh and its capture. Mean- 
time a Scythian race, the Umman-Manda, who 
seem to have been confused by Herodotus or his 
informants with the Medes, burst in upon SW. 
Asia under Istivigu (Astyages). They were over- 
thrown by Cyrus, the k. of the canton of Anshan ; 
who thereupon united the now emancipated M. 
with the Persians and Elamites, to his small 
ancestral dominion. Fm. the beginning the M. 
were treated as the equals of the Persians, hence the 
phrase, " the laws of the Medes and the Persians " 
(Dn. 6. 8 ). When the Persian monarchy had been 
wiped out the M. still appear associated with the 
Parthians (En. lvi. 5 ; Ac. 2. 9 ). 

MEDIATOR (Gr. me sites ; it only occurs once in 
the LXX (Jb. cj. 33 ) to translate the Heb. mokiah, 
" daysman," wh. is more strictly " arbiter " or 
" umpire " : the verb yakah means " to rebuke " — 
see Am. 5. 10 ). It occurs six times in the NT. — twice 
in Galatians (3. 19 ' 20 ), once in 1 Timothy (2. 5 ), and 
thrice in Hebrews (8. 6 , 9. 15 , 12. 24 ). Four times out 
of the six it refers to our Lord directly ; in the 



447 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Meh 



"■**&&*& 



*£t£h. 



remaining cases (Gal. 3. 19 ' 20 ), though it refers to to represent Man before God, and to present God 
Moses primarily, the ultimate reference is Christ, to man ; by His atoning sacrifice He removed the 
In three out of the four instances of refce. to Christ, separating barriers ; and by His continual Advocacy 
while applied primarily to our Lord, there is also a He unites men to their Father in heaven. The 
reference to Moses, and mainly to his function in re- whole history of mankind was a course of training to 
gard to the covenant between God and Israel, the prepare men to see in Jesus the true mesites, after 
ratification of wh. is narrated in Ex. 2/j.. 3 " 8 . This whom they had been blindly feeling, 
general recognition of Moses as " mediator " of MEDICINE. See Diseases and Remedies. 
the first covenant is all the more striking that the MEGIDDO, a Can. city whose k. Joshua smote 
term is never used of him in the OT. In " The (12. 21 ), allotted to Manasseh in the territory of 
Assumption of Moses," an Apocalyptic writing wh. Issachar (17. 11 ), but not possessed by them (Jg. I. 27 ). 
cannot well be dated later than a.d. 6, the Latin It was subject to Solomon (1 K. 4. 12 , &c). Here 
Version of wh. is all that has come down to us, the wounded Ahaziah died (2 K. 9- 27 ), and Josiah 
Moses speaks of himself as " arbiter testamenti" was slain (23. 29 , &c). It is constantly named with 
obviously pointing to mesites tes diathekes, as the Taanach, wh. definitely points to the SW. of the 
Greek fm. wh. the Latin had been immediately plain of Esdraelon. The most natural road for an 
translated. It is introduced in a way that indi- 
cates that the mediatorial position of Moses was a 
commonplace in the theology of the period. Cer- 
tainly Moses did fulfil that function, not only as 
standing between Israel and God when the cove- 
nant was ratified, but also again and again he was 
their advocate with J /y '., and most of all when they 
entreated him to speak with God for them, and to 
them for God (Ex. 20 . 19 ). 

As universal as the belief in a Divine Being is the 
sense of the need of a mediator. Along with his 
belief in Divinity man has a consciousness of sin ; 
this makes him feel that he cannot enter into the 
presence of the Holy God without overmastering 
awe and dread. Hence away back in primitive 
times priesthood was evolved ; first it was, as in the 
case of Job, the father of the family that was the Egyptian army coming north issues into the plain 
mesites— the priest. When families became larger, by Khan el-Lejjun, the Rm. " Legio," wh. rose on 
and congregated together so as to form village com- the site of M. and gave its name to the plain. It 
munities, kingship of a simple sort was evolved ; lies five miles NW. of Ta'anuk (Taanach) on the 
then the ruler was priest and mesites. In early edge of the plain. Tell el-Mutasellim, hard by, 
Babylonian history the primitive ruler, the patesi, may have been the acropolis of M. _ The stream wh. 
was priest as well as ruler. As the moral degenera- flows through the anct. site to join the Kishon is 
tion of mankind became more pronounced, worship prob. referred to as " the waters of M." (Jg. 5. 19 ). 
became more elaborate. Sacrifices appropriate to It is quite possible that an echo of the old name is 
one set of circumstances were inappropriate to heard in the mod. name of the Kishon — el-Muqatta i 
another. Form of words, dress, attitude, all began (HGHL. 386), although Moore (Judges, 158) thinks 
to be regarded as important. The more men re- otherwise. El-Mujedda l in the Ghor, near Beisan, 
cognised their distance fm. God the more they felt favoured by Conder, while its name agrees in form, 
bound to express their awe in ceremonial. Hence seems in no other respect to claim consideration 
the greater became the necessity for a mesites — a (PEFM. ii. cpfL). 

priest who knew accurately all sacred formula and MEHETABEEL, RV. MEHETABEL. (1) An- 
modes of sacrifice; then kingship and priesthood cestor of the prophet Shemaiah, who prophesied 
were separated. There was needed also one to in- against Nehemiah, having been hired by Tobiah 
terpret God, and make known to men His will ; and Sanballat (Ne. 6. 10fl -). (2) Daughter of Matred, 
hence the prophet, who acted as mesites fm. the wife of Hadad, or Hadar, king of Edom (Gn. 36. 39 ; 
other side. Moses combined these characteristics. I Ch. I. 50 ). 

His mediatorship therefore became, as we have MEHIDA, the ancestor of a family of Nethinim 
seen, part of Jewish theology. In Christian who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ez. 
theology the mediatorial work of Christ is the 2. 52 ; Ne. 7. 54 ). Called " Meeda " in 1 Es. 5- 32 . 
fundamental truth. By His Person, uniting in MEHIR, son of Cherub, and brother of Shuah, 
Himself the Divine and human natures, He is able of the tribe of Judah (1 Ch. 4. 11 ). 

448 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mel 



MEHOLATHITE, THE. Adriel, the son of common identification to be correct. Stanley 

Barzillai, who married Merab, the daughter of thinks Gerizim to be Salem ; Ewald wd. place it 

Saul, is so called in I S. 18. 19 . It probably means E. of Jordan. The evidence of Jos. and the Tgg., 

a native of Abel-meholah. strong in itself, is confirmed by the Tell Amarna 

MEHUJAEL, son of Irad, a descendant of Cain tablets, in wh. there are letters fm. a priest-king of 

(Gn. 4. 18 ), who corresponds to Mahalaleel (RV. Uru-salim named Ebd-Tob (servant of the Good). 

" Mahalalel ") in Gn. 5. 12ff - Hommel (AHT. pp. 155, 156) considers one of the 

MEHUMAN, one of the seven eunuchs who expressions in a letter of Ebd-Tob to be an assertion 

served Ahasuerus (Est. I. 10 ). that he had received his position by Divine ap- 

MEHUNIM, RV. MEUNIM (Heb. me'umm), pointment, not by inheritance (cp. Heb. J. 2 ). The 

are identical with the Maonites of Jg. IO. 12 , who, .Tgg. Ps.-Jon. and Jrs. declare M. to be Shem bar 

along with the Zidonians and Amalekites, oppressed Noah. A sect of Gnostics asserted M. to be an 

Israel. In 1 Ch. 4. 41f - they are mentioned as a quiet earlier incarnation of the Second Person of the 

and peaceable people, occupying " fat pasture and Trinity, and superior to Jesus Christ. That M. 

good," who were raided and dispossessed by the was an Incarnation of Deity is a view that has fre- 

Simeonites in the reign of Hezekiah. It appears quently appeared among Christians. The parallel 

certain that " Ammonites " in 2 Ch. 20. 1 should be drawn in Heb. 7. between our Lord and M. has 

read Maonites, as forming part of the allied army formed the occasion of much of this, 

opposed to Jehoshaphat, which perished by mutual MELEA, son of Menan, an ancestor of Joseph 



the island on which St. Paul was 



slaughter. In this case they are identified as the (Lk. 3. 31 ). 
men of Mount Seir (v. 10). They suffered defeat at MELECH, second son of Micah, a descendant of 
the hands of Uzziah (2 Ch. 26. 7 ). They are men- Jonathan, son of Saul (1 Ch. 8. 35 ). 
tioned again among those returning from exile (Ez. MELICU, a family of priests who returned from 
2. 50 ; Ne. 7- 52 ). These may represent captives of Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ne. 12. 14 , RV. " Mal- 
the M. set to humble tasks connected with the luchi "). 
Temple. The name was derived from Maon, MELITA, 
represented to-day by Ma 1 an, a town on the pil- 
grimage road, now a station on the Damascus- 
Hejaz Railway, to the E. of Petra. 

ME-JARKON, Heb. me hayyarqon, lit. " the 
waters of Jarkon " (Jo. 19. 46 ). The LXX reads 
" and from the sea, Jarkon and the boundary near 
Joppa." While this may be taken to authenticate 
the existence of Jarkon as a place in Dan, no iden- 
tification is possible. The officers of the PEF. 
identify the waters of Jarkon with the river 'aujeh, wrecked (Ac. 28. 1 ), the mod. Malta, a small island 
to the N. of Jaffa. The text is in confusion. 60 miles S. of Sicily. It was probably first occupied 

MEKONAH, RV. MECONAH, a town in Judah, by the Phoenicians, who found it a convenient place 
prob. near Ziklag, occupied after the Exile (Ne. of call on their maritime trading enterprises. For 
II. 28 ), not identified. similar reasons it was counted of value by the Greeks, 

MELATIAH, a Gibeonite who took part in re- into whose hands it next passed. They were un- 
building the wall of Jerusalem (Ne. 3. 7 ). able, however, to hold it against the power of 

MELCHI. (1) Son of Janna, an ancestor of Carthage. The Carthaginians were in turn over- 
Joseph (Lk. 3. 24 ). (2) Son of Addi, in the same powered by the Romans, who took possession of the 




Coin of Melita 



genealogy (Lk. 3- 28 ). 



island in the second PunicWar (b.c 218), and joined 



MELCHIAH, a priest, father of Pashur (Jr. 21. 1 ), it to the province of Sicily. The population was of 



called "Malchijah" (1 Ch. 9. 12 ), " Malchiah " 
(Ne. 9. 12 ), and " Melchias " (1 Es. 9. 32 ). 

MELCHISHUA, son of Saul (i S. 14. 49 , 31. 2 ), 
otherwise Malchishua (i Ch. 8. 33 ). 

MELCHIZEDEK, a Canaanite Priest-king of 
Salem in the time of Abraham (Gn. 14. 18 ). He is 
called " Priest of the Most High God "('El-'Elyon). 



mixed Carthaginian and Lybian origin, very little of 
the Greek element remaining ; and so we find them 
described as " barbarians," Gr. /3ap/3apoL, that is 
people who did not speak the Greek language 
(Ac. 28. 2 - 4 ). The products of Melita most highly 
esteemed were honey and cotton. A very early 
tradition places the scene of St. Paul's landing in 






Abraham acknowledged his Priesthood by his offer- what is now called St. Paul's Bay, eight miles W. of 

ings. The identity of Salem with Jrs. has been Valetta. Of St. Paul's work during the three 

generally admitted. Jerome in his Epist. to Eva- months he was compelled to stay here only two 

grius maintains that Salem was near Scythopolis ; incidents are preserved to us. Wet and cold as he 

elsewhere (Quest. Heb. in Gen. 14. 18 ) he assumes the was, he helped to collect fuel for the fire. In the 

449 p 



Mel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mel 



bundle of brushwood which he brought there was a 
dormant viper. Roused " by reason of the heat," 
it sprang out and bit his hand. The natives, seeing 
this, thought he must be a murderer who, although 
he had avoided death in the sea, was not permitted 
by justice to escape. But no evil results followed, 
and their judgment swung at once to the opposite 
extreme: they believed him to be divine. Whether 
this were a poisonous snake or not — St. Luke does 
not say that it was — the thought of the nativv 
shows that there were venomous reptiles on ti ' 



the marks of their ancient origin, and the language 
is largely Arabic. 

MELONS (Heb. abattihlm = Arb. batfikh). The 
red-fleshed water melons are here (Nu. 1 1. 5 ) referred 
to. With green rind, they grow to a great size, 
and they are cultivated in large quantities all over 
Palestine. They are sent in enormous numbers to 
the cities, where in the hot summer months the 
juicy globes are intensely relished. They are cut in 
slices and set in the sun, where there is a draught 
or breeze, and they soon become icy cold. Ample 




Chart of Malta (Part of Northern Coast) 



island at that time, altho' none are found to-day. 
The other incident is the healing of the Roman 
governor, Publius, of fever and dysentery. By 
such deeds of kindness he won the honour of the 
islanders, and we may take the old tradition regard- 
ing the place of his landing as evidence that they 
cherished the memory of their benefactor. A 
bishop of Malta was present at the Council of 
Chalcedon (a.d. 451). 

Since the year 1800 Malta has been a British pos- 
session, and it is now the main station of the 
Mediterranean fleet. It is still famous for its 
honey. The natives industriously cultivate the 
land, and export large quantities of grain, fruit, 
and cotton. Trade is also carried on in marble, 
alabaster, filigree, lace, &c. The people still bear 



supplies make them very cheap, so that even the 
poorest are able to indulge in this luxury. 

MELZAR (Thd., Amelsad (B), Amersad (A) ; 
Coptic, Ameldad ; LXX Abiesdri (Paulus Tellen- 
sis, Abiezer) ; Psh., Meshitzar (v. 11), Meriitzar 
(v. 16)), the steward "whom the chief of the 
eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, 
and Azariah." To him Daniel appealed to be 
relieved of the necessity of eating the food fm. 
the royal table. All the early VV. regard M. as a 
proper name ; on the other hand most recent com- 
mentators and the English RV. look upon it as the 
title of an official in the Babylonian Court. It 
is supposed to be the Persian word melsar, "a 
steward " or " master of banquets." Certainly the 
article wh. seems to supply the first syllable implies 



45° 



Mem 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mem 



that we have to do with a common noun, and the 
way the word is introduced confirms this. Still the 
unanimous testimony of the versions is not lightly to 
be put aside. The first two syllables suggest that 
they represent the Asyr. amil, " man," and then 
amil-sarru mt. mean " the man of the king," but the 
" tz " is a difficulty, as it wd. suggest some deriva- 
tive of nutxur rather than sar ; moreover the final 
portion of such a name is usually a divine name, 
as Evil (Amil) Merodach. It seems impossible at 
present to decide definitely. Dr. Cheyne endea- 
vours, not quite successfully, to combine Melzar 
with Abiesdri and Ashpenaz, to extract the name 
fm. wh. all three have sprung. He deduces it to 
have been Belshatzar. 

MEMPHIS, the first capital of the united mon- 
archy of Egypt, was called in Egyptian Men-nofer, 
"the good place," wh.the etymologists of the Roman 
age made into " the haven of the good " (Plut. De 



'Abdellatif, in the twelfth century, describes the 
ruins as extending half a mile in length. West- 
ward, in the desert, was the necropolis, with its line 




Melon 

Is. et Osir. 20, p. 35). Men-nofer is the Moph 
(Ho. c.. 6 Heb.) and Noph (Is. 19. 13 ; Jr. 2. 16 ) of the 
OT., final r being dropped as in other names of the 
Tel el-Amarna period. It was built by Menes, the 
founder of the first dynasty of the united kingdom, 
on the western bank of the Nile, on a piece of 
ground wh. he had reclaimed from the river by 
means of a dyke (Hdt. ii. 99), and being situated a 
little south of the apex of the Delta and at the en- 
trance of Upper Egp., was a convenient centre for 
his kingdom. Menes is also said to have dug the 
sacred lake and built the great Temple of Ptah, the 
god of the district, whose massive wall of enceinte 
gave the city the name of Anbu-hez, " the white 
wall." From the temple the city also took the 
name of Ha-ku-Ptah, " House of the Double of 
Ptah " (written Higuptah in the Tel el-Amarna 
tablets), whence the " Aty wros of the Greeks. The 
site is now occupied by the villages of Bedreshen, 
Mit-Rahenna, and Qasriya. 




Ancient Tomb, Memphis 

of pyramids stretching from Abu-Roash and Giza 
in the north to Dahshur and Lisht in the south. 
Saqqara, with its " step-pyramid " of Neter-kha 
Zoser of the 3rd dynasty, its Serapeum, and 
sepulchres of the Apis-bulls, was the oldest portion 
of the cemetery. 

The 3rd and 4th dynasties were of Memphite 
origin, and Memphis continued to be the capital of 
the kingdom down to the age of the nth dynasty, 
when its place was taken by Thebes, and the centre 
of power shifted to Upper Egypt. Under the 
Hyksos dynasties it again became a seat of govern- 
ment, but the recovery of Egyptian independence 
under the Theban princes once more raised Thebes 
to the first place in the Egyptian empire. With the 
decay of the Theban dynasties, and the rise of the 




Step Pyramid at Saqqara 

Pharaohs of the 21st and following dynasties, who 
were connected with the Delta, Memphis again 
occupied a prominent position in the Egyptian 



45i 



Mem 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mer 



monarchy. It suffered severely from the Ethiopian to come." Mem, " God of fate " (" award," " ap- 

and Assyrian invasions, having been besieged and pointment "), may be compared with the Arab, 

captured several times. It was again taken by Manat (see Wellhausen, Skizzen, iii. pp. 22f., 189), 

Cambyses (b.c. 525), and the foundation of Alex- one of the deities worshipped by the Arabs before 

andria deprived it of much of its importance. Mohammed, and referred to in the Qor'an (Sura 53). 

Under Theodosius (a.d. 379-95) its temple was The idol was a large stone, and in the eighth year of 

destroyed, and henceforward it depended for pro- the Flight it was destroyed by one Saad. 

tection on the Roman fortress of Babylon (now Old MEONENIM, OAK OF (Jg. 9. 37 , AV. wrongly 

Cairo) a few miles to the north. The surrender of " plain of M."), i.e. " diviners' oak," a sacred tree 

the fortress handed Egypt over to the Moham- near Shechem, associated prob. with the responses 

medans (a.d. 638), who built a new capital on the of soothsayers who sat by it. Several sacred trees are 

east bank of the Nile, where Cairo now stands, mentioned as near Shechem (Gn. 35.*; Jo. 24. 26 ; 

Memphis served as a quarry for the new city, but in Jg. 9- 6 , &c). We cannot say where this tree stood, 

the time of 'Abdellatif its monuments were still MEONOTHAI, son of Othniel, Caleb's younger 

numerous and imposing. Now its site is marked brother (1 Ch. 4. 14 ). 

by mounds, a few remains of the city wall, and more MEPAATH, RV. MEPHAATH. A city of the 

esp. the two colossal statues of Ramses II. on the Amorites in the district of Heshbon, in the terri- 

site of the Temple of Ptah. A. H. Sayce. tory allotted to Reuben, subsequently given to the 

MEMUCAN, one of "the seven princes of Merarite Levites (Jo. 13. 18 , 21. 37 ). In the time of 
Persia and Media who saw the king's face and sat Jeremiah it appears again in the hands of Moab 
first in the kingdom" (Est* I. 14 ). According to (Jr. 48. 21 ), from whom prob. the Amorites had 
Josephus (Ant. XI. vi. 1) it was their duty to inter- first taken it. OEJ. says it was held by a Roman 
pret the laws. They were " wise men which knew garrison. It was necessary thus to hold the nomadic 
the times," from wh. we may infer that they were tribes in check. They have always been a danger to 
skilled in the lore of their age and land : probably anything like settled cultivation in the neighbour- 
acquainted with astrology. They evidently formed hood of the wastes. The place is not identified. 
a council with wh. the king advised in difficulty. MEPHIBOSHETH, " scatterer of shame." Son 
Memucan appears as their spokesman, and may have of Jonathan (2 S. 4.*, &c). The original form 
been their president (v. 16). was Meribaal, "Baal's man" (1 Ch. 8. 34 , &c). 

MENAHEM, son of Gadi, who slew Shallum in For similar transformation and reason see Ishbo- 

Samaria, seized the throne, and treated Tiphsah sheth. M. was lamed for life by a fall in the hur- 

with horrible cruelty (2 K. I5. 14ff -). His usurpa- ried flight after the battle of Gilboa, when only 

tion and violence made him many foes, and two five years old. Hearing fm. Ziba, formerly a ser- 

parties were formed, looking respectively to Egp. vant of Saul, that Jonathan had left a son, David 

and Asyr. (Ho. 7. 11 ). On the appearance of Pul sent for M. fm. his retreat in Lo-debar, gave him 

(Tiglath-pileser III.), he purchased immunity fm. Saul's private estates, to be managed for him by 

invasion with 1 000 talents of silver, exacted fm. the Ziba, and retained him as a permanent guest at his 

" men of wealth " in the kdm. The account of own table (2 S. 9.). On David's flight fm. Absalom 

2 K. 15. is confirmed by the Asyr. inscrs. (Shrader, Ziba succoured him with gifts (i6. lff -) but maligned 

COT. 2 i. 284). The evils of his brief reign are his master, and secured fm. David the grant of all 

portrayed in Ho. 4.ff., &c. The respite purchased M.'s possessions. M.'s protestations on David's re- 

fm. Asyr. was employed only to plunge into deeper turn apparently did not quite convince the k. of his 

guilt. M. was the last k. of Isr. whose son followed innocence; but Ziba had to restore half of what 



him on the throne 

MEN AN, an ancestor of Joseph (Lk. 3. 31 ) 

MENE. Aram, word meaning 
See Daniel. 

MENI. In Is. 65 . u RV. reads " that prepare a 
table to Fortune, and that fill up mingled wine unto 



he had won by craft and falsehood (i9. 24ff -). M.'s 
loyal response to the king's word is perhaps the 
a pound." best proof of his sincerity. He left one son, Micha 
(2 S. 9. 12 ), whose descendants are named in I Ch. 
8. 35 , 9 41 . 

MERAB, elder dr. of Saul (1 S. 14. 49 ), promised 



Destiny " (EVm. " Meni "). It is clear that two to the man who shd. slay Goliath (17. 25 ), and in 

deities are intended. Jerome (Com. in Is. ad loc.) violation of this promise, given to Adriel the Me- 

illustrates the practice here referred to " by refer- holathite (18. 19 ). Her five sons (2 S. 21. 8 , read 

ence to an idolatrous custom which prevailed in " Merab " for " Michal ") were given up to the 

Egypt, and especially at Alexandria, on the last day Gibeonites, who slew them and heaped indignities 

of the last month of the year, of placing a table upon their bodies. 

covered with dishes of various kinds, and a cup MERAIAH, a priest in the days of Joiakim, head 

mixed with mead, in acknowledgment of the fer- of the priestly family of Seraiah (Ne. 12. 12 ). 
tility of the past year, to us an omen of that wh. was MERAIOTH. (1) A descendant of Eleazar, son 

452 



Mer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mer 



of Aaron, son of Ahitub and father of Zadok (i Ch. 
9. 11 , &c). (2) A Levite (1 Ch. 6. 6f - ; Ez. 7?), 
called " Memeroth " (1 E. 8. 2 ), and " Marimoth " 
(2 E. I. 2 ). (3) Head of a priestly house in the days 
of Joiakim (Ne. 12. 15 ) called " Merimoth " (v. 3). 

MERARI, the third of the sons of Levi. At the 
first census the sons of M. were divided into the 
families of the Mahlites and Mushites ; the number 
of males of a month old was 6200 (Nu. 3. 33, 34 ) ; of 
those fit for service, i.e. fm. 30 yrs. old and upward, 
there were 3200 (Nu. 4- 44 ). They carried the 
boards of the Tabernacle, the bars, the pillars with 
their sockets, the pins, the cords " with all their 
instruments " under the superintendence of Itha- 
mar (Nu. 41. 29 " 33 ) : to aid them in this they had 
four waggons and eight oxen assigned them (Nu. 
7. 8 ). They had twelve cities, wh. were situated in 
Reuben, Gad, and Zebulon. Jeduthun ( = Ethan), 
a musician in the time of David, was a Merarite 
(1 Ch. 6. 44 ). 

MERATHAIM perhaps means "double re- 
bellion," a name applied to Babylon (Jr. 50. 21 ). 
Delitzsch thinks it may be equivalent to the Baby- 
lonian Marratim, i.e. land by the nar Marratu, the 
bitter river (Persian Gulf) = Southern Babylonia. 
Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v. 

MERCURIUS (Gr. Hermes, RVm.). Although 
M. and Hermes were identified by the Romans and 
Greeks, yet to the two deities in popular belief 
totally different spheres of activity were ascribed. 
The identification was due to the tendency, so 
strongly exhibited by Herodotus, but common 
among the Greeks and Romans, to regard deities 
of foreign nations as their own, but known by 
different names. M. the Roman divinity was essen- 
tially the god of merchandise, as evidenced by his 
name ; statues of him were made holding in his 
hand a purse of money. On the other hand the 
Hellenic deity was the god of eloquence, and, 
strangely, of theft. He was the messenger of the 
gods in the Homeric poems ; there also he is the 
leader of the souls of the dead to the shades. 
Mythology credited him with the invention of the 
lyre and the syrinx. Hermes or M. is usually repre- 
sented with a winged broad-brimmed hat on his 
head, and winged sandals on his feet, and in his hand 
the caduceus, or rod entwined with serpents. At 
Lystra, when Paul had cured the impotent man, 
the multitude became convinced that " the gods 
had come down in the likeness of men," and de- 
clared Paul to be Hermes and his companion to be 
Zeus (Jupiter). Possibly the inhabitants of Lystra 
were led to their choice of divinities by the legend 
of Philemon and Baucis (Ovid, Met. viii. 62 if.), 
located in the neighbouring Phrygia, in wh. these 
two deities appear together. It is probable that 
the deities actually invoked by the people of Lystra 
" in the speech of Lycaonia," had quite other 



names and attributes, but had been identified in the 
easy Greek fashion with Hermes and Zeus. 

MERCY-SEAT. See Tabernacle. 

MERED, son of Ezrah, of the tribe of Judah 
(i Ch. 4. 17 ). He married Bithiah, the daughter of 
Pharaoh, for whom the later rabbis found a place in 




Mercurius 

Paradise. These teachers of a subsequent age 
played with the names in this genealogy, making 
some curious combinations. Mered becomes Caleb, 
so called because he opposed or rebelled against 
(merad) the counsel of the spies. Again, Ezrah is 
Amram ; Jether and Mered, his sons, are Aaron and 
Moses. Moses (Mered) " takes " Pharaoh's daughter 
because she has forsaken idolatry and become a 



453 



Mer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mer 



convert to the true faith. These speculations may 
be traced to the mention of " Miriam " in I Ch. 
4. 17 , who was taken to be the sister of Moses. 

MEREMOTH. (1) Son of Uriah the priest (Ez. 
8. 33 ), of the family of Koz (Ne. 3. 4 ). This family 
had lost its genealogy during the Exile, and were 
excluded from the priesthood (Ez. 2. 61L ). This 
prob. applied only to certain divisions of the family, 
as Uriah is quite definitely designated " priest." 
To Meremoth was assigned the duty, along with 
three others, of making an inventory of the precious 
vessels of the Sanctuary (Ez. 8. 33f -). He also took 
part in the building of the wall (Ne. 3. 4 ' 21 ). 

(2) One who married a foreign wife (Ez. 10 36 ). 

(3) One of those who sealed the covenant (Ne. io. 5 ). 
In Ne. 12. 15 for Meraioth read " Meremoth." 

MERES, one of the seven princes of Persia, coun- 
sellors of Ahasuerus, " wise men who knew the 
times " (Est. I. 14 ). 

MERIBAH (" strife "), the name of two places 
wh. occur in the history of the wanderings in the 
wilderness. The first is in the beginning of the 
wanderings, near Rephidim (Ex. 17. 7 ), where the 
people, because they had no water, murmured agst. 
Moses ; then at God's command he smote the rock 
and the waters gushed forth. It was also called 
Massah. The second occurs near the end of the 
wilderness journey, in Kadesh in the Wilderness of 
Zin (Nu. 20. 1 " 13 ) ; the full name of this place is 
" the waters of Meribah-Kadesh." Here also 
the people murmured not merely against Moses 
but also agst. Aaron. It was here that Moses and 
Aaron were guilty of that mysterious sin wh. led to 
their exclusion fm. Canaan. 

There is without doubt a resemblance between 
these two incidents beyond that in the names of 
the localities. In both narratives thirst leads the 
people to murmur ; in both the situation is relieved 
by Moses striking the rock and the water flowing 
out. Notwithstanding, there are many points of 
difference ; the temporal and geographical back- 
ground of the two incidents is quite different ; the 
first is near Horeb in the first year of the wilderness 
journey, the second is in the Wilderness of Zin, on 
the confines of Edom, within a year of the conclusion 
of the 40 years. In the first there is no mention of 
Aaron, nor of any sin on the part of Moses and 
him, nor do they enter into the " tabernacle of the 
congregation," prominent features in the second. 
Onthe other hand, in the second there is no hint that 
the people were ready to stone Moses as in the first. 
The argument relied on by those who wd. identify 
these incidents, that in the " blessing of Levi " (Dt. 
33« 8 ) both incidents are mentioned in one verse, is 
valueless ; they are two separate occurrences, as is 
proved by the fact that in the next verse, but in 
the same sentence, an incident totally distinct fm. 
either is referred to ; that narrated in Ex. 32. 26 ' 29 . 



MERIBAH-KADESH. See Meribah. 

MERIB-BAAL. See Mephibosheth. 

MERODACH (Asyr. Marduk), a Babylonian and 
Assyrian deity identified astronomically with the 
planet Jupiter. Tho' worshipped by Nebuchad- 
nezzar as the supreme God, yet accdg. to the 
Creation myth M. was one of the younger deities. 
He gained his supremacy by the slaughter of the 
dragon Tiamat ; a statement that may indicate the 
conquest of the worshippers of Anu and Ea by the 
worshippers of M. ; and at the same time the 
recency of the city whose inhabitants claimed M. 
as their god. He was later usually identified with 
Bel, wh. probably means " deity " (Jr. 50. 2 ). 

MERODACH-BALADAN (Asyr. Marduk-bal- 
iddina, " Marduk has given a son "), hereditary k. 
of the Kalda ; his capital was Bit-Yakin. He is 
called " the son of Baladan " (2 K. 20. 12 ; Is. 39. 1 ) ; 
this, however, cannot be the complete name. 
Possibly Bel-baladan was the real name ; in the 
Asyr. inscriptions he is called " son of Yakin," 
prob. only a predecessor, perhaps remote. In 
b.c. 729 he secured a supreme position in S. Baby- 
lonia. He was overthrown by Tiglath-pileser ; 
but on the death of that monarch he resumed his 
interference in Babylonian affairs, and proclaimed 
himself k. of Babylon. Sargon II. was too much 
occupied to deal with the affairs of S. Babylonia for 
some years. At last, in B.C. 709, he defeated M.-B., 
drove him out, and assumed to himself the title of 
k. of Babylon. At the death of Sargon, M.-B. 
again got possession of Babylon. It was probably 
then that M.-B..sent the embassy to Hezekiah as re- 
corded in 2 K. 20. and Is. 39. M.-B. wd. then be 
anxious to confirm his own rule by alliances and 
to embarrass Sennacherib in the beginning of his 
reign. Sennacherib assailed him and pursued 
him into Elam. He seems to have intrigued 
agst. Asyr., but he never regained the possession 
of Babylon. 

MEROM, WATERS OF, where Joshua de- 
feated the Canaanites (n. 5 ' 7 ), are prob. ident. with 
Baheirat el-Huleh, " little lake Huleh," in the 
Jordan valley, ten miles N. of the Sea of Galilee. 
Josephus places the camp of the kings at Beroth, 
near Kadesh {Ant. V. i. 18). Relying as they did 
upon chariots, they wd. naturally prefer battle in 
the plain. When defeated, their path in flight was 
through familiar country, towards Gt. Zidon. 
Josephus refers to the same water as Lake Seme- 
chonitis {Ant. V. v. 1). The name Huleh first 
occurs in the form of Ulatha {Ant. XV. x. 3), apply- 
ing to the lake and the district. The springs of 
Jordan, and all the waters fm. the slopes on either 
side, drain into the Huleh. N'ward the floor of the 
valley is a great marsh, with masses of papyrus reeds, 
haunts of multitudinous bird and animal life, while 
the lake itself is well stocked with fish. It is the 



454 



Mer 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mes 



private property of the Sultan, and a rent is paid 
for fishing. See Jordan. 

MERONOTHITE. This description is applied 
to (i) Jehdeiah, who was over the asses of king 
David (i Ch. 27. 30 ). (2) Jadon, who assisted in 
repairing the walls of Jerusalem (Ne. 3. 7 ). He is 
named after Melatiah the Gibeonite, and before 
the men of Gibeon and Mizpah. We may perhaps 
infer from this that Meronoth lay in the neighbour- 
hood of these cities ; but so far there is no clue to 
its identification. 

MEROZ, whose inhabitants were cursed by the 
angel of the Lord for unpatriotic or cowardly sloth 
(Jg. 5- 23 ), is named only here. If it were within 
hail of the battle, or if, in the line of Sisera's flight, 
it allowed him to escape (Moore, Judges, ad loc'.), 
Deborah's wrath is easily explained. El-Murussus, 
a vill. 4| miles N. of Bets an, alone in the district has 
any resemblance in name to M. If Betsa'anim be 
identical with Khirbet Bessum, and Kedesh with 
Qadesb, SW. of Tiberias (Conder, Tent Work in 
Pal. 69 ; HGHL. 1 396), Sisera may easily have made 
a detour by el-Murussus in order to escape pursuit. 
Sure identification is impossible. 

MESHi\, k. of Moab, contemporary of Ahab, 
Ahaziah, and Jehoram, kings of Isr. (2 K. 3. 4 « 5 ). 
According to the Biblical notice of him he had 
been subject to the kings of Isr., giving a tribute 
of 100,000 lambs and the same number of rams 
annually. On the death of Ahab he rebelled. 
Jehoram, accompanied by his ally Jehoshaphat and 
the k. of Edom, who was subject to Judah, made an 
expedition agst. Moab. In order to take them by 
surprise, they proceeded fm. Gilead direct E. into 
the desert ; turning S. they reached Edom, and 
through Edom attacked Moab fm. the SE. The 
greater part of their march was through sandydesert, 
and the army was ready to perish with thirst till by 
the intervention of Elisha an abundant supply of 
water was vouchsafed to them. M. on learning of 
the approach of the army of the three kings made a 
furious assault on them, but was repulsed with such 
heavy loss that town after town fell into the hand 
of the invaders without any attempt at further 
resistance till they encamped before Kir-Haraseth 
(Kerak). M. is shut up : after a desperate but un- 
successful attempt at a sortie, as a counsel of despair 
he offers up in sight of the army his eldest son as a 
sacrifice. A mysterious panic seizes the allies, and 
they leave their conquest incomplete. 

Until 1 868 this was all that was known, but in that 
year Mr. Klein, a missionary of C.M.S., was shown a 
slab of black basalt containing an inscription of M. 
(see Moab). In this inscr. M. narrates his successful 
rebellion agst. Isr., and his conquest not only of the 
places wrested fm. the Moabites but also of cities 
that had formerly been occupied by Isr. Naturally 
he gives no account of the defeats inflicted on him 



by Jehoram. He appears to have taken advantage 
of the overthrow of the dynasty of Ahab to invade 
Isr. In comparing the hist, as given by M. with 
Scripture, the main difficulty is that M. declares 
that the oppression of Moab by Isr. lasted 40 years, 
whereas the united reigns of Omri and Ahab only 
amount to 28 years ; the difficulty is increased by 
the statement that one-half the reign of Ahab with 
that of Omri = 40 yrs., a period of only 17 yrs. 
The difficulty seems insuperable, as the difference 
between 17 yrs. and 40 appears to be too great to be 
explained by the use of round numbers. One wd. 
think that M. had no motive to increase the glory of 
Isr. and the humiliation of his own country by more 
than doubling the yrs. of their subjection to the 
House of Omri. It is not open to us to lengthen 
the reigns of Omri or Ahab, as, on comparing the 
chronology of Kings with that of Assyria, we find 
that the scriptural chronology is too long, not too 
short. If Moabite years were reckoned only fm. 
solstice to solstice, as we reckon the beats of a 
pendulum, then as the years wd. only be six months 
we cd. explain the difference. 

MESHA. (1) See preceding article. (2) The 
eldest son of Caleb (1 Ch. 2. 42 ). (3) Son of 
Shaharaim, a Benjamite, who was born in Moab 
(1 Ch. 8. 9 ). 

MESHA is given in Gn. io. 30 apparently as the 
western limit of the territory of the children of 
Joktan. Its position is quite uncertain. Among 
suggested identifications are the Greek Mesene, near 
the mouth of the Euphrates and the Tigris, the 
Syro-Arabian desert (Asyr. mashu), and, by changing 
the vowel points, Dillmann would read Massa\ 
identifying it with a branch of the Ishmaelites. In 
this case it would be the northern limit of the 
Joktanite territory. 

MESHACH, the Babylonian name of Mishael, 
one of Daniel's three friends. See Daniel. 

MESHECH, MESECH, son of Japheth (Gn. 
io. 2 ; 1 Ch. I. 5 ), generally associated with Tubal. 
Ps. 120. 5 is exceptional not only in omitting Tubal, 
but also in AV. spelling the name Mesech. M. 
frequently occurs in Asyr. inscriptions in the form 
Moskai, first mentioned by Tiglath-pileser I. (c. B.C. 
1 100) as a people situated between the Tigris and 
the Euphrates near their sources. Ezekiel mentions 
thatM. supplied Tyrewith vessels of brass (Ek. 27. 13 ). 
Later they seem to have occupied Commagene. 
Herodotus refers to Moschi and Tiber eni (vii. 8). 

MESHELEMIAH, a Korhite, whose son was a 
gatekeeper of the Tabernacle (1 Ch. 9. 21 , &c). He 
is called " Shelemiah " (26. 14 ), " Shallum " (9. 17 , 
&c), and " Meshullam " (Ne. 12. 25 ). 

MESHEZABEEL, RV. MESHEZABEL. (1) 
Ancestor of Meshullam (Ne. 3. 4 ). (2) One who 
sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (io. 21 ). (3) A 
Judahite, father of Pethahiah. 



455 



Mes 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mes 



MESHILLEMITH, a priest, the son of Immer 
(i Ch. 9. 12 ). 

MESHILLEMOTH. (1) An Ephraimite, an- 
cestor of Berechiah, a chief of the tribe under 
Pekah (2 Ch. 28. 12 ). (2) Identical with Meshil- 
lemith (Ne. II. 13 ). 

MESHOBAB, a Simeonite (1 Ch. 4. 34 ). 

MESHULLAM. (1) Grandfather of Shaphan 
the scribe (2 K. 22. 3 ). (2) Grandson of Jeconiah, 
and son of Zerubbabel (1 Ch. 3. 19 ). (3) Chief of a 
family of Gad, who dwelt in Bashan at the time of 
Jotham, king of Judah (1 Ch. 5. 13 ). (4) A Benjamite 
of the family of Elpaal (1 Ch. 8. 17 ). (5) A Benjamite, 
son of Hodaviah, and father of Sallu, a chief who 
settled in Jerusalem after the Captivity (1 Ch. o,. 7 ). 
(6) A Benjamite, son of Shephathiah, who lived in 
Jrs. after the return from Babylon (1 Ch. cj. 8 ). (7) 
Son of Zadok and father of Hilkiah (1 Ch. 9. 11 ; Ne. 
11. 11 ). (8) Ancestor of a priestly family dwelling in 
Jrs. (1 Ch. 9. 12 ). (9) A Kohathite overseer of the 
work in the Temple, under Josiah (2 Ch. 34. 12 ). (10) 
One of those sent from " the river that runneth to 
Ahava," by Ezra, to Iddo, who brought Levites for 
the service of the house of God (Ez. 8. 16 ). (11) A 
man associated with Ezra in his efforts to have the 
offence of foreign wives abolished (Ez. 10. 15 ). (12) 
Son of Bani, who had married a foreign wife (Ez. 
io. 29 ). (13) Son of Berechiah, probably a priest, 
who helped in building the wall of Jrs. (Ne. 3.*) 
and that of the Temple (3. 30 ) over against his own 
chamber. Johanan, son of Tobiah the Ammonite, 
married his daughter (Ne. 6. 18 ). (14) Son of 
Besodeiah, who helped in repairing the old gate 
(Ne. 3. 6 ). (15) One of the leaders who stood be- 
side Ezra at the reading of the law (Ne. 8. 4 ). (16) A 
priest who sealed the covenant (Ne 10. 7 ). (17) One 
of the chiefs who sealed the covenant (Ne. io. 20 ). 
(18) A priest representing the house of Ezra in the 
days of Joiakim, who took part in the dedication of 
the wall (Ne. 12. 13 ). (19) Also a priest at the same 
time, head of the family of Ginnethon (Ne. 12. 16 ). 
(20) One of the porters keeping guard at " the store- 
houses of the gates " (Ne. 12. 25 ). (21) A prince of 
the house of Judah who marched in the company 
on the right hand, upon the wall of Jerusalem, at 
its dedication (Ne. 12 33 ). 

MESHULLEMETH, the mother of Amon, king 
of Judah, wife of Manasseh and daughter of Haruz 
of Jotbah (2 K. 2 1. 19 ). 

MESOPOTAMIA, the Greek and Latin transla- 
tion, in the LXX and the Vlg., of the Heb. Aram- 
Naharaim, " Aram (Syria) of the two rivers," and 
adopted in EV. It may be regarded as doubtful 
how far these two names designated the same ter- 
ritory. The two cities associated with Aram- 
Naharaim in Scripture, Pethor (Dt. 23. 4 ) and 
Haran (" the city of Nahor," Gn. 24. 10 ), are to be 
found within the bounds of the Mesopotamia of the 



Empire of Alexander and the early Seleucids. As 
the name indicates, M. designates the territory 
between the two great rivers the Euphrates and the 
Tigris, in its greatest extent stretching fm. the 
sources of the two rivers in Armenia to their junc- 
tion SE. of Babylon. It would thus be a great 
ellipse, the longest diameter of wh. is nearly 700 
miles and its breadth at the greatest rather less 
than 200, with a narrow part where the two rivers 
approach rather less than a hundred miles NW. of 
Babylon, marked in ancient times by the Median 
Wall. The Greek province was less extensive than 
this, being bounded on the N. by Mt. Masius, the 
boundary of Armenia, and on the S. by the Median 
Wall. The Roman Province of M. under Trajan 
extended right down to the Persian Gulf. It was 
with some reason named by Arabian geographers el- 
Jezireh, " the island." While Babylonia is a dead 
flat, the northern portion had some hills, though 
none of any great height. The province must be 
taken in its widest sense in Ac. 2. 9 . It was origi- 
nally well wooded and very fertile, and wd. be so 
again under better government. There was a large 
colony of Jews left in Babylon and the region round 
about when Cyrus gave them permission to return 
to their own land. Indeed some of the Jews de- 
clared that at that time the finest wheat of Judaism 
remained in Babylon, only the chaff returning to 
Jerusalem. It was probably largely fm. the Baby- 
lonian colony that those " dwellers in Mesopo- 
tamia " came. The famous Hillel was said to have 
come fm. Babylon to Jerusalem. The larger and 
more popular of the recensions of the Talmud is 
that compiled in Babylon. It wd. seem probable 
that the Masoretic text of the Scripture received 
its last adjustment there also. 

In later days M. was the centre of the Syrian 
Church. To it we owe the Peshitta, one of the 
earliest translations of the NT. and a valuable aid 
to interpretation. For the churches of M. Tatian 
wrote his Diatessaron or Harmony of the Gospels, 
wh. for a time, among the Syrian churches, super- 
seded in use even the Canonical Books. The 
Peshitta Version of the OT. is valuable also. The 
majority of the Syriac-speaking churches followed 
Nestorius. 

MESSIAH (Heb. mashlah, Gr. christos). Like 
several races, the Jews in the midst of the humilia- 
tion of the years of subjection under foreign masters 
indemnified themselves by picturing a coming time 
in wh. the glories of David and Solomon shd. be 
surpassed. God had chosen the Jews for a special 
function. In them all mankind were to be blessed. 
He utilised these natural aspirations for a diviner 
purpose. The person that to the Jew was to be the 
restorer of Davidic glories was, according to the 
Divine plan, to bring in the reign of righteousness 
into the world. We shall trace the historic evolu- 



45 6 



Mes 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mes 



tion and definition of the Messianic idea in the prophets. In them fm. their office the doctrine of 

messages of the successive prophets, in the visions of the M. was especially prominent. The evolution 

t'he Apocalyptists, and in the expectations ruling proceeded on different lines in prophetic literature 

among the Jews while our Lord was upon the earth, fm. what it did in the Torah. In the Law the eye 

In considering these prophecies we wd. give special was always directed to a person ; his descent and 

prominence to those the Messianic reference of wh. function were made step by step more definite : in 

was recognised by the Jews, as shown by the Tgg. the prophets attention is more turned to the back- 

What is called the " Protevangel " is the sentence ground, the times of the M. rather than the M. 

on the serpent, " It (the seed of the woman) shall Himself, " the Day of the Lord " rather than " the 

bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel " (Gn. Lord's Anointed." Only later did the eyes rest on 

3. 15 , J.). It is difficult to imagine that all that is the M. who made the glory of the time. " The 

implied in this is that as a rule mankind shd. abhor Day of the Lord " has two aspects wh. are presented 

serpents ; certainly the traditional Christian view to us in Is. 61. 2 : " To proclaim the acceptable year 

seems more adequate. All that is to be read into of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." 

this is that there was to be a human deliverer from The most common view of the " Day of the Lord " 

sin who wd. crush the power of evil, but in doing is the latter, as in Jl. 2. 11 , " the D. of the L. is great 

so, wd. suffer for it. and very terrible " : this terror is sometimes due to 

Though there is no reference to the M. in Tg. O., in Tg. £ e destruction of the enemies of God's people (cp. 

Jrs. on this passage it is said, " There shall be a remedy for Jl. 3. 11 " 17 ) ; again, as Am. 5. 18 , the D. of the L. is one 

the heel in the days of King Mashiha." of chastisement to Israel. That wh. most impressed 

Though it may be going too far to regard the the Jewish people was the aspect of the times of the 
blessing of Shem (Gn. c>. 26 , J.) as Messianic, there is M. exhibited in Is. 2. 2 ' 4 and Mi. 4. 1 ' 2 ; it was to be 
a preparation for it in the singling out of Shem as a time of the splendour of Israel. As indicated 
the progenitor of the race to whom JHWH shd. be above, this period of glory is associated with M. as 
God. The promise to Abraham (Gn. 22. 18 , JE.), in Ho. 3A As to the personal M., while the law 
" In thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be had carried the definition only to the tribe of Judah, 
blessed," is not regarded by the Tgg. as referring the prophets have taken the family of David as that 
to the M., yet fm. the fact that the apostles fm. wh. the M. shd. spring. Frequently, as in Ho. 
Peter (Ac. 3. 25 ) and Paul (Gal. 3. 8 ) use it with this 3- 5 and I s - 1 1- 1 " 10 , it is David himself who is to re- 
application, we may presume it to have been com- appear ; this is prominent in Ezekiel, e.g. Ek. 34. 23 , 
mon among the Jews at the time. In it there was a 37- 24 ' 25 ; C P- J r - 3 - 9 - Another aspect is presented 

to us ; it wd. seem as if the whole Davidic house 



further restriction of the race whence the deliverer 
shd. spring. The next step in the definition is 
found in Jacob's blessing (Gn. 49. 10 , J.) in the 
promise of the coming of " Shiloh," wh. is inter- 
preted in the Tgg. as pointing to M. ; the limita- 
tion is now to the tribe of Judah. Besides the re- 



was the object of the Messianic hope, as in Am. 9. 11 
and Zc. 13. 1 . Again it is a scion of the House of 
David who is to be the M., as Is. c;. 6 ' 7 , n. 1 . The 
figure in the latter passage is modified slightly in 
Jr. 23. 5 , 33. 15 , " the Righteous Branch." While 



striction to the descendants of Judah there is an this designation of the Davidic House as that fm. 
indication of the circumstances in wh. the people wh. the M. was to come may be regarded as be- 
will be when the M. appears. Balaam's prophecy ginning in the promise to David that his " throne 



of the " Star " that shd. " come out of Jacob " and 
the " Sceptre " that shd. " rise out of Israel " (Nu. 
24. 17 , JE.) is rendered in Onkelos, " A king shall 
arise out of Jacob and the Meshiha be anointed 
fm. Israel." The Tg. of Jrs. has equivalent terms. 
This was regarded as foretelling a conquering king 
as M. In Moses' prophecy (Dt. 18. 15 ) of a " Pro- 
phet . . . like unto " him whom the Lord " wd. raise 
up," though there is no indication in the Tgg. 



shd. be established for ever," it may be said to cul- 
minate in the prophecy of Micah (Mi. 5. 2 , Heb. v. 1). 

In this passage we have the place of the Messiah's origin 
stated. That this prophecy was regarded as relating to the 
M. is proved fm. Tg. Jn. I.e. : "Thou Bethlehem-Ephrath 
art reckoned as little among the thousands of the House of 
Judah ; fm. thee shall come forth before me the Meshiha, to 
be made the ruler over Isr. , whose name was spoken fm. of 
old fm. everlasting days." Although we cannot maintain 
that Micah realised the full meaning of his words, the last 
clause points to the eternal pre-existence of the M., and 
is thus in perfect harmony with the Christian conception of 
the nature of prophecy (1 P. i. 11 ). 



that the " Prophet " was identified with M., yet as 

the assumption of this identity is the ground of the 

arguments of Peter (Ac. 3. 22 ) and Stephen (Ac. The suffering M. of Is. 53. does not seem to have 

7. 37 ), it must have been a commonplace of Jewish been generally recognised by the Jews at the time of 

Christology.* our Lord, although later they devised a M. "ben 

After the law in the Jewish Canon come the Joseph." Yet the prophecy of Zechariah of the 

lowliness of the coming King mt. be regarded as 

* A singular passage in Tg. PJ. on Gn 3 5-' 21 must be preparin g for this. The prophetic representation 

noted : to that verse is added the clause, " The place whence r r 5 , r • it. • j.i_ 

the King Meshiha will be revealed at the end of the days." of the M. has greater defimteness than that in the 

457 p2 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mes 



law ; further, the kingship of the M. is more em- 
phasised ; the last word of the law is " the prophet," 
the last word of the prophets is the " lowly King," 
" sitting on an ass." 

The Hagiographa have not so many evidences of 



nth of these Psalms gives a glowing account of 
Messianic times, but the 17th is especially Mes- 
sianic ; the M. is the Son of David, he is called 
Xpta-Tos Kvpios (wh. suggests the Gospels), God 
makes him mighty in the Holy Ghost, and his 



the Jewish expectation of a M. Daniel, reckoned kingdom is to be everlasting. The other Apocalyptic 

among the Kethubim in our modern Heb. Bibles — books are of less importance as to the Jewish notions 

tho' by the LXX, by the Jews of Palestine in the of the M. The Apocalypse of Baruch devotes 

time of our Lord, by Josephus, by the Jews of Asia itself to a sensuous description of the pleasures of 

Minor in the time of Melito regarded as a prophet — the times of the M., when Behemoth and Leviathan 

has striking references to the times and person of the shall afford meat for the saints. The Assumption 

M. His kingdom is to be the final and permanent of Moses is only a fragment, and the Book of 

empire ; it is to differ in character fm. all that pre- Jubilees avoids the subject wholly, 
ceded it ; it is rock instead of metal (Dn. 2. 34 ), it is As to the time when our Lord was on earth, the 

human instead of bestial (7. 13 ). In this last case the ideas of the Jews as to the M. seem to have been 

kingdom is merged in the King ; he is " Messiah that he was to be a man, the descendant of David, 

the Prince," who after 69 year-weeks " fm. the born in Bethlehem, and a conquering King. Yet 

going forth of the commandment (dabar, i word,' he was to be endowed with immortality, and have 

' thing,' ' matter ') to restore and build Jrs." almost Divine attributes ; ideas wh. were summed 

" shall be cut off " (for fuller discussion of this see up in the title " Son of Man." 
Daniel). The Psalms are most frequently quoted 



It may be noted here that in regard to Jn. 12. 34 the argu- 
ments of Westcott and Godet are founded on mistake. It 
is true the natural meaning of the English implies that to 
those who used the words, " Who is this Son of Man?" 
the term was an unfamilar one ; but the Gr. , although not 
excluding the English meaning, naturally implies that the 
speakers knew the term, but the attributes assigned seemed 
r , to indicate another scrt of person than that crdinarily 

righteousness over a vast empire. The Chnstology des ignated " Son of Man." The deduction of Westcott is 



in the NT. in proof of the Messiahship of Jesus. 
Without attempting to give all the passages, we may 
consider the leading features of the M. as presented 
in the Psalms. He is to be of Davidic descent, a 
King, a conqueror who shall reign in peace and 



of the Psalms may be said to culminate in Ps. no., 
when the M. is declared to be a " priest after the 
order of Melchizedek." That this was reckoned 
as Messianic by the Jews is proved by Mw. 22. 41-45 
(cp. Mk. 12. 35 - 37 and Lk. 20. 41 " 44 ). 

The period between the Testaments is repre- 



excluded by the connection. If in v. 32 He had desig- 
nated Himself as " S. of M.," Westcott's view wd. have 
had some logical foundation ; but the title only cccurs once 
previously in the chapter, when the Greeks are introduced ; 
then, speaking not to the multitude but to His disciples, 
our Lord says, " Now is the hour come that the Son of 
Man shd. be glorified." The multitude introduce the term 
themselves as the direct equivalent to the term "Christ." 



sented by the Apocrypha and the Jewish Apocalyptic Their language may be paraphrased : "We always thought 
Literature. The collection of books known as the 
Apocrypha, with the exception of 2 (4) Esdras, has 
nothing of the M. It is very different with the Apoca- 
lyptic books, wh. all point more or less to the M. and 
his times. During the period of Persian domina- 
tion, and that portion of the Greek period when the 
Jews were under the Lagids, as they were allowed to we have " M. ben Joseph " who was to suffer, and 
pursue their own worship and customs unhindered, " M. ben David " who was to reign ; the earliest 
the hopes of a coming M. were in abeyance. With authority to whom this is attributed is Rabbi Dosa 



that ' S. of M.' meant ' Christ,' and that this Jesus, when 
He called Himself so, claimed to be M., but He speaks of 
being crucified. What Son of Man is this ? " This is the 
view of Alford, Meyer, Liicke, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, 
Tholuck, and others. 

The Jewish views did not include " the Suffering 
Messiah " (Servant of the Lord). In the Talmud 



the advent of the Seleucids, with their determina- 
tion to Hellenise the Jews, Messianic ideas revived. 
These are most prominent in the books of Enoch, 
the largest and most important portion of this 
literature, and that wh. is most closely linked with 



(c. a.d. 250) in the Tract Sukkab, 52ab. Even he is 
to begin as a conqueror. The Jewish imagination 
goes to wildest lengths in picturing the glories of 
Messianic times. An interesting side question is 
the Samaritan views of the M. Merx discovered a 



the NT. In Enoch the M. is spoken of in terms Samaritan poem of pre-Christian origin on the M. 



that make him if not Divine at least superhuman. 
He is called in one portion " Son of Man," yet sits 
on God's throne as the " Elect One " ; he is to be 
supreme teacher : " The secrets of wisdom stream 
forth fm. his mouth." One passage (62. 5 ) is to be 
noted where the M. is called " Son of the Woman," 
as it seems to have a reference to the " prote- 
vangel " in Gn. 3. 16 . The Psalter of Solomon is 
rich in references to the M. and his times. The 



who was designated Thaheb ; the most plausible 
explanation of this name is, " He who causes to 
return." He is to bring back Judah to Israel, to 
recover the sacred vessels wh. had been hid on Mt. 
Gerizim, to conquer seven nations, and to reign 
many years : he was not, however, to be immortal ; 
after a life of no years he was to die ; like Joshua, 
failing by ten years to attain to the years of 
Moses. 



458 



Mes 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Met 



MESSENGER, tr. of Heb. maVak (2 S. 3. 12 ), and 
of Gr. ayyeXos (Lk. y. 2i ), usually trd. " angel." 
dbroa-ToAos, " one sent out," is rendered " mes- 

22 ^A Vhr^ o 25 # 

MINES, MIN- 



cognised to be an oxide of zinc, were melted in a 
furnace along with copper, the result was a bright 
yellow metal — in short, brass (Plin. Nat. Hist. xxx. 
10). It is poss. that the " fine brass " (chalkolibanos, 
Rv. i. 15 ) was what we mean by brass. In the NT. 

the 



senger " in 2 Cor. 8. 22 and Php. 2. 
METALS, METALLURGY, 

ING. One of the earliest steps in budding brass (bronze) is used for money (Mw. 10. 9 ), 
civilisation was acquiring the art of extracting coinage for smaller values being usually bronze, 
metals fm. the earth and using them to form The sonorous quality of bronze, unnoted in OT., is 
weapons, tools, or ornaments. Very early men referred to by St. Paul (1 Cor. 13. 1 ). Iron, the 
were attracted by the beauty of the precious metals metal that is next in frequency of scriptural men- 
gold and silver, and learned to form them into tion, was well known, but was used not for sharp 
ornaments. These two metals are those most fre- weapons as swords or spears, but more for agricul- 
quently mentioned in Scripture. Gold, while its tural implements, as harrows (2 S. 12. 31 ), coulters 
superior value was recognised, was not used so (1 S. 13. 21 ), and axes (2 K. 6. 6 ) ; weapons of iron 
much as silver for a medium of exchange. Wealth (Jb. 20. 24 ) were probably maces or battle-axes, 
in gold was stored up in bracelets and necklaces, as weapons that were formidable by their weight 
it is at present among the Arabs. To show the rather than by their edge. Lead is known for its 
frequency with which the word " gold " occurs in weight (Ex. 15. 10 ), for its union with silver in ore 
Scrip, we may mention that zahdb, the common (Ek. 22. 20 ). Tin must have been well known as a 
word for that metal, is found about 360 times. The component of bronze; but it was also known as 
word keseph, " silver," occurs about as often, but present in silver ore (Ek. 22. 20 ). It is mentioned 
in two out of every three cases it is translated as an article of commerce (Ek. 27. 12 ). It is to be 
" money." It does not seem to have been circu- noted that quicksilver, though known to the Greeks, 
lated in the form of coins, but if we may judge fm. was not known to the Jews. 

Egyptian paintings, in rings.* Rods of metal are Mines and Mining. — Although fm. the descrip- 
used as money on the West Coast of Africa, and bars tion given of Palestine, " a land whose stones are 
of metal may have been used in this way. Achan's iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass " 
" wedge of gold " probably implies some conven- (Dt. 8. 9 ), one wd. think that metals were easily got 
tional shape (see Money). In the NT. these metals there, they are really rare ; copper was found in the 
are more rarely referred to; chrusos (Mw. 2. 11 ), Lebanon, and iron in the Anti-lebanon ; but these 
chrusion (Ac. 3. 6 ), " gold," and arguros (Mw. io. 9 ) were without the bounds of Palestine proper. One 
and argurion (Mw. 26. 15 ), " silver," occurring 22 and mt. almost be led to think that the iron hills of wh. 
14 times respectively. The proportionate value of Moses speaks are the masses of black basalt that here 
gold to silver seems to be as one to nine. Brass and there burst through the white limestone of 
(Aram, nehdsh (Dn. 2. 32 ) ; Heb. nehosheth (Gn. Palestine. Basalt is black, hard, heavy, and is im- 
4. 22 ) ; nehushdh (Jb. 28. 2 ) ), or, as it ought in general pregnated with iron. At the same time the writer 
to be rendered, either copper or bronze, is the next of Job must have been well acquainted with the pro- 
most frequent in occurrence in Scripture. Pro- cess of mining. The opening verses of chap. 28. 
bably where we have reference to mining of the have all the appearance of being written by an eye- 
metal, as Dt. 8. 9 , the implication is that it is copper witness of the process. In verse 4 " the shaft " that 
that is meant, but where the reference is to things, is " broken open" " away from where men sojourn" 
such as armour, e.g. 1 S. 17. 5 , bronze must be in- evidently refers to the earliest form of mine, in wh. 
tended. Before iron was rendered serviceable to man an outcrop of metal was followed into the rock, 
copper was used, and means were found of harden- The mention of " swinging to and fro " away fm. 
ing it through alloys, so that it cd. be used for making men implies that the miners whom the poet had 
swords and other sharp weapons of war. Cutting seen used also perpendicular shafts, though not pro- 
tools were made of it, by wh. the Egyptians carved bably of any great depth. Pathways had been cut 
statues of porphyry and engraved inscriptions on that neither bird had seen or wild beast had trod. 
them. It is to be noted that in the only case where There is reference (vv. 1, 2) to the mining of the 
copper is mentioned (Ezra 8. 27 ), "vessels of fine four metals best known to the Jews, silver and gold, 
copper (Heb. nehosheth) precious as gold," it is pro- iron and copper. There is note of what is the great 
bably " brass " that is really meant. Although the foe of the miner, the inflow of water : " He bindeth 
metal zinc, the union of wh. with copper produces the streams that they trickle not." This informa- 
brass, was only recognised and separated in the be- tion seems to have been drawn fm. watching the 
ginning of the eighteenth century, it was known Egyptian miners in the Sinaitic peninsula. These 
that if " cadmia " (calamine), an earth wh. is re- date as far back as the reign of Thothmes II. and his 

* tk u *u ■ c *i iu sister Queen Hatasu. The exactitude of the de- 

Though these rings frequently appear on the monu- ... T ... ,, 

ments, in no instance have the rings themselves been found, lmcation mt. excuse the Jews in ascribing to Moses, 

459 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Met 



who was so long in that region, the authorship of 
the book in wh. it occurred. 

Not only is there reference to mining but to 
other processes of metallurgy. There is the refining 
of gold ; it often has an alloy of silver of a pro- 
portion of fm. 2 to 30 per cent. ; it is a process of 
considerable delicacy. Fm.the word used, however, 
with regard to gold refining, it seems probable that 
the process referred to was the washing of alluvial 
gold and picking out the grains fm. the sand and 
mud. Silver has also to be refined, as tin and lead 
are generally present in the ore. There are several 
processes by wh. this purifying is carried out, but 
that wh. the Jews knew of appears to have been a 
variety of what is called " cupellation." The fur- 
nace and the blowpipe performed an important part 
in the process (Ml. 3- 2 ' 3 ). 



even the Malagasy have a way of smelting iron 
without a flux ; though fm. the abundance of lime- 
stone in Palestine the discovery of the use of lime 
as a flux for iron mt. be made even by accident. 
Most of the iron implements used by the Hebrews 
seem to have been hammered. Lead was used for 
writing, as is seen in Jb. 19. 24 , " Oh, that my words 
. . . were graven with an iron pen and lead in the 
rock for ever." The lead would seem to have been 
set in the rock and then written on — a practice that 
implies the use of leaden tablets. Tradition re- 
moved the knowledge of metals back to a remote 
antiquity. In Genesis z{.. 22 we are told that Tubal- 
cain was " an instructor of every artificer in brass 
(copper) and iron." The ability to make alloys 
that wd. give requisite hardness or softness to 
metals, implied in the existence of bronze, showed 






mrr 1 



*L zz? ' wt -*- A ffl\ f ^ 




Figs. 



6 7 10 

Goldsmiths 

1, 2, making jewellery; 3, blowing the fire for melting the gold; 4, weighing the gold; 5, clerk or scribe; 6, 7, 8, g, washing 
gold; 10, superintendent. The remaining part relates to the preparation of the metal before it was worked. 



Other forms of metallurgy seem also to have been 
understood : e.g., plating with fine plates of gold. 
The ark (Ex. 3J. 2 ) and the altar of incense (Ex. 37- 25 ) 
prove that. It is probable that the statues said to 
be golden were in reality only plated with gold. It 
seems likely that the golden calf had a core of clay 
(Ex. 32. 4 ). The rebellion of Korah gives the occa- 
sion of the fact being recorded that the bronze 
censers cd. be beaten into plates for a covering of 
the altar (Nu. 16. 38 ' 39 ). We have in Isaiah (44. 12 ) a 
picture of an ancient forge, of the smith seizing the 
glowing iron with the tongs out of the fire and 
hammering it with hammers, till with heat and 
exertion he is ready to faint. In Jeremiah we have 
a reference to the " iron furnace " as the symbol of 
the severest affliction, from the greater heat re- 
quired to smelt iron than other metals known to 
the Hebrews. Some have maintained that the Jews 
must have been ignorant of iron for that reason, but 



a familiarity with metals of long date. Though the 
word " steel " occurs in our English AV. (Ps. 18. 34 ; 
Jb.20 24 ),it represents the word elsewhere translated 
" brass," and so it is rendered in the RV. That 
" bows " shd. be made of brass implies a mode of 
treatment of brass to make it so elastic unknown to 
modern metallurgy, and made the mistranslation 
excusable. 

METEYARD (Heb. midddh, Lv. 19. 35 ), usually 
translated " measure " (Ex. 26. 2 ; Jb. 28. 25 ). 

METHEG-AMMAH. If this be the name of a 
city, it is not otherwise known (2 S. 8. 1 ). RV. trs. 
" the bridle of the mother city." Perhaps we shd. 
read, as in the corresponding passage (1 Ch. 18. 1 ), 
" Gath, the mother city " (Wellhausen, Samuel, 

!74). 

METHUSAEL, RV. METHUSHAEL, a de- 
scendant of Cain, father of Lamech (Gn. 4. 18 ). 

METHUSELAH (" man of a dart," Ges.), son of 



460 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mic 



Enoch and fr. of Lamech (Gn. 5- 21f -). Accdg. to 
MT., M. lived 187 yrs. before the birth of Lamech 
and 782 after ; according to LXX 167 before and 
802 after the birth of Lamech ; in all 969 yrs. The 
Sam. differs fm. both, and makes the age of M. 
before the. birth of Lamech 6j, after wh. he lived 
653 yrs. ; in all 720 yrs. 

ME-ZAHAB, grandfather of Mahetabel the wife 
of Hadar, one of the " dukes " of Edom (Gn. 36. 39 ; 
I Ch. I. 50 ). The obscurity of the man gave the 
later rabbis occasion for much play with the name, 
wh. means " waters of gold." Perhaps the name 
of a place is intended, in wh. case some wd. iden- 
tify it with Dizahab. 

MIAMIN. See Mijamin. 

MIBHAR, son of Hagri, one of David's heroes 
(i Ch. II. 38 ). In the parallel passage (2 S. 23. 36 ) 
" of Zobah, Bani the Gadite," stands for " Mibhar 
the son of Hagri " ; and it is probably the correct 
reading. 

MIBSAM, " sweet odour." (1) A son of Ish- 
mael (Gn. 25. 13 ). No tribe with a name resembling 
this has been identified. It has been suggested 
that it may be associated with some district in 
Arabia rich in aromatics. (2) A son of Simeon 
(1 Ch. 4.^). 

MICAH. (1) The story of Micah preserved in the 
17th and 1 8th chaps, of Judges furnishes a priceless 
glimpse of the social and religious conditions pre- 
vailing among the Israelites in those old days when 
as yet " there was no king in Israel ; every man did 
that which was right in his own eyes." 

Micah lived in Mount Ephraim. He had stolen 
eleven hundred pieces of silver from his mother. 
His mother's hot curse upon the thief roused his 
superstitious fears, and he restored the silver. Her 
exclamation of relief shows that she believed in the 
efficacy of her curses, and her outcry was one of joy 
because her son, by restoration of the plunder, 
had escaped the peril. In her thankfulness she 
dedicated a portion of the silver, giving two hundred 
pieces to an artificer, who produced therewith a 
graven image and a molten image, to take their 
places " in the house of gods " owned by her son. 
In this house were an ephod and teraphim, and one 
of Micah's own sons was consecrated priest. He 
was aware that this was an irregularity, and welcomed 
the arrival of a young Levite from Bethlehem Judah, 
whom he engaged at a particular stipend to be to 
him " a father and a priest." With this arrange- 
ment Micah was well content. " Now know I," 
he said, " that the Lord will do me good, seeing I 
have a Levite to my priest." He had reckoned 
without the Danites. That tribe, becoming uneasy 
in their narrow territory, sent out spies to search 
the land, who might guide their brethren on a raid 
to secure for themselves wider quarters. The spies, 
going through Mount Ephraim, took shelter for the 



night with Micah. Hearing the voice of the young 
priest, probably conducting worship in the " house 
of gods," they knew it. He was none other than 
Jonathan, son of Gershom the son of Moses (18. 30 ) 
— the n in the name of Gershom's father was 
inserted, changing it from Moses to Manasseh, that 
the great lawgiver might be saved the disgrace of 
association with such a degenerate grandson. One 
with such a distinguished parentage was sure to be 
well known in the south country. Attracted by 
the voice they had recognised, they found him, and 
a few swift inquiries elicited the truth as to his 
position. Receiving an oracular response assuring 
them of prosperity, they went their way. This was 
the beginning of evils for Micah. When the six 
hundred raiders of Dan, girt with weapons of war, 
passed through Mount Ephraim, the spies brought 
them to the house of Micah. His erewhile guests 
entered and carried away the images and ephod by 
wh. he set such store. The priest's remonstrances 
were feeble, and, tempted with the prospect of 
being " father and priest " to a whole tribe, and not 
to the house of one man, he became a joyful partner 
in the theft, and went with them on their expedi- 
tion. Micah's reasonable complaints were silenced 
by threats of violence. The idols of his careful 
providing became the gods of the new shrine at 
Laish; and the priest of his consecration became the 
founder of a line of priests who ministered in that 
idolatrous sanctuary " until the day of the captivity 
of the land." 

The suggestions of this narrative need not be 
drawn out at length ; but we may look at one or 
two of them, because of their special interest. 

While his conduct betrays acquaintance with the 
provisions of the Mosaic law — e.g. his joyat securing 
a Levite to be his priest — Micah and the men of his 
time seem to have lost perception of its spiritual 
significance. His conception of how God might 
be acceptably worshipped was on a level with 
that of the idolatrous peoples of his time. There 
is no hint of surprise at his " house of gods," 
or at his procuring of graven and molten images. 
His ideas may therefore be taken as fairly represent- 
ing those of his fellow-countrymen. Although 
a Levite, Jonathan did not belong to a priestly 
family, and was not eligible for that office. Yet he 
did not scruple to undertake the functions of priest, 
and that in a shrine full of the instruments of 
idolatry. Considering his relationship to the great 
lawgiver, we have here evidence of a startling kind 
as to the condition of religion in Israel. Again, if it 
were necessary for a grandson of Moses to wander 
about in search of some occupation, we may infer 
that in the general religious decadence the provision 
for the Levites was largely neglected. As Jonathan 
was from Bethlehem in Judah, a town never associ- 
ated with the Levites, the members of that tribe 



461 



Mic 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mic 



would appear to have been scattered among the 
cities of Israel. The conduct of the Danites shows 
that not only was there no king, but also no central 
authority in Israel, capable of restraining lawless 
bands from enterprises that meant disaster to peace- 
ful inhabitants of the land. The company of six hun- 
dred freebooters were a law unto themselves. They 
acted on the simple principle that right was might, 
and there is no suggestion that there was anything 
singular in this. Withal, they were very religious 
men, and apparently they would not have been 
comfortable without religious sanctions of some 
kind. But religion must in no way interfere with 
their selfish predatory designs ; and in this regard 
the " priest " was on a level with themselves. In 
such circumstances, without organisation, destitute 
of any real sense of unity, the people must fall an 
easy prey to attacks from without. It was a time of 
religious decay, of social disorder, and of perpetual 
insecurity. 

(2) Ancestor of Beerah, who was prince of the 
tribe of Reuben when it was led into captivity 
(1 Ch. 5. 5 ). (3) Son of Mephibosheth, grandson of 
Jonathan (1 Ch. 8. 34 ), called " Micha " (2 S. 9. 12 ). 
(4) A Kahothite Levite, son of Uzziel the brother of 
Amram (1 Ch. 23. 20 ). (5) Father of Abdon (2 Ch. 
34. 20 ). (6) The prophet {see following article). 

MICAH, sixth of the Minor Prophets, was a 
younger contemporary of Isaiah, and belonged to 
Moresheth, a small town in the maritime plain, near 
Gath. He was a man of the people, and has little to 
say about the political situation, wh. is so prominent 
in the prophecies of Isaiah. His interests are pre- 
eminently relgs. and moral, and though he lives in 
a time of keen political activity, he stands apart fm. 
it. It is the wickedness in the land wh. he con- 
demns, and he speaks not of the political folly of the 
princes, but of their injustice. The competing 
claims of Asyr. and Egp. to influence in judah are 
not even mentioned, and when he speaks of Asyr. 
at all, it is merely as the enemy. He denounces the 
prophets for their falseness, the priests for their 
selfishness, and the great men for their harshness to 
the poor. M. goes in advance of Isaiah, when he 
declares that their fancied security in Zion is vain, 
for in the day of reckoning Zion itself will be de- 
stroyed. The refc. to M. in Jeremiah 26. 17 " 19 shows 
not only that he prophesied in the time of Heze- 
kiah, but also that his prophecy was the same as that 
which we possess. It reveals at the same time his 
influence over the k. and people. Fm. the denun- 
ciations of M. it is evident that Hezekiah's reforma- 
tion had in great measure failed. To a superficial 
observer all mt. appear well, but the improvement 
was more apparent than real. The first part of 
M.'s prophecy, at least, was written before the fall 
of Samaria in B.C. 722. He was fearless in his de- 
nunciation of evil, and he attacked the unworthy 



rulers with a boldness and directness wh. are un- 
surpassed. But at the same time he was a prophet 
of hope. True, Zion shall be ploughed like a field, 
and Jrs. will become heaps, but a deliverer will 
afterwards come. Not only will He be a desct. of 
David, but he will be born in Bethlehem, the birth- 
place of David. 

The prophecy begins with a picture of the coming 
of ]". in power and majesty to deal with His 
people's sins. Samaria is to be destroyed, for she 
is past redemption, but the agony of the prophet is 
great, as he sees how the ruin of Samaria will affect 
his beloved Judah also (i. 2 " 9 ). The approach of the 
enemy is next described, with its effect on certain 
small towns in M.'s native district, on the names of 
wh. he makes a punning commentary (i. 10 " 16 ). The 
next chap, describes the evil doings of the great 
men, who spoil their poorer neighbours and refuse 
to give heed to the prophet's warning. They will 
only listen to those whose words are pleasant, and 
their punishment will be accdg. to their deeds 
(2. 1 ' 11 ). The two following verses consist of a pro- 
phecy of restoration, as if the prophet were suddenly 
impressed by the thought of what mt. yet be, if only 
the people became difft. ; but these verses break 
the continuity of thought, and may be out of their 
proper place in the book, if fm. the hand of M. at all 
(2. 12 ' 13 ). The next chap, describes in vivid detail 
the evil practices of the leaders of Judah. They 
think that, in spite of all their wicked deeds, no evil 
shall come upon them, for the Lord is in the midst 
of them. M. now announces that this hope is vain. 
Even Zion shall be destroyed (3. 1 " 12 ). This picture 
of destruction is followed, as often in the prophets, 
by a promise of restoration. The change of tone is 
so great, however, that many critics have concluded 
that we have in the rest of the prophecy the work of 
another hand, or of several hands. But it is quite 
poss. to attribute the whole bk. to M., for a prophet 
is a man of varying moods, like all other men, and 
difft. passages express his thoughts, it may be, at 
widely difft. times. It is prophesied that in later 
days the glory of Zion will be greater than before 
(4. 1 " 8 ), but the people must first pass through a 
time of trial. Zion shall be oppressed, but her 
enemies know not the thoughts of the Lord (4. 9 ~5. 1 ). 
In a magnificent passage, a Deliverer is foretold as 
coming fm. Bethlehem to defend His people, and 
to bring them back to His service fm. all false 
worship (5. 2 " 15 ). 

There is greater force in the argument that 
chaps. 6. and 7. are fm. a difft. hand, but even here 
the case is not proven. They deal with a new 
situation, and can find a fitting background in the 
age of Manasseh. The style is dramatic, and the 
writing is full of vigour. The Lord has a contro- 
versy with His people, and He calls upon them to 
answer His charge, in the presence of the everlasting 



462 



Mic 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mic 



hills, wh. have witnessed all (6. 1 ' 2 ). The Lord 
reminds them of His former mercies, and indicates 
the return He requires fm. them. In a passage, 
wh. is unsurpassed in the OT., the true sptl. wor- 
ship of God is described, as it has been taught by 
God fm. of old (6. 3 " 8 ). The people are accused of 
sin, cert, outstanding sins being specified, and are 
threatened with punishment (6. 9 ' 16 ). In the final 
chap, the prophet condemns the nation by con- 
fessing its sins in its name (7. 1 ' 6 ). But Isr. repents 
and turns to God, believing that God will still hear 
and deliver (7. 7 " 13 ), and the prophecy ends with a 
promise of what the Lord will do for His people, 
and with a hymn of praise to God for His deliver- 
ance (7. 14 " 20 ). John Davidson. 

MICAIAH, s. of Imlah, was a prophet in Isr. in 
the time of Ahab, whose story is told in 1 K. 22. 4 " 28 
and 2 Ch. 18. 3 " 27 . Ahab had invited Jehoshaphat 
of Judah to go with him agst. the Syrians, and they 
first inquired of the Lord as to their success. After 
the false prophets had spoken, M.was produced, and 
uttered his striking prophecy, in wh. he declared 
that Jehovah had allowed a lying spt. to take pos- 
session of all the prophets, that Ahab mt. be led to 
his doom. The vision of the scene in heaven re- 
minds us of the first chap, of Job. M. was im- 
prisoned in punishment of his uncompromising 
attitude, but his prophecy was fulfilled. In these 
few verses, wh. tell us all we know of M., we are 
made acquainted with a strong, brave servant of 
Y '., who was prepared to deliver his message as it 
had been given to him, without regard to the favour 
or disfavour of men. John Davidson. 

MICHAEL (" who is like God ? "). (1) A man 
of Asher, father of Sethur, who represented that 
tribe among the spies (Nu. 13. 13 ). (2) Son of 
Abihail, a Gadite settled in Bashan (1 Ch. 5. 13 ). 

(3) An ancestor of the foregoing (1 Ch. 5. 14 ). 

(4) A Gershonite Levite, great-grandfather of 
Asaph (1 Ch. 6. 40 ). (5) A chief man of Issachar, 
one of Izrahiah's five sons, who mustered their 
" troops of the battle host " in the days of David, 
" six and thirty thousand ; for they had many wives 
and sons " (1 Ch. J. zt ). (6) A Benjamite, son of 
Beriah (1 Ch. 8. 16 ). (7) One of the Manassite 
captains who cast in his lot with David at Zik- 
lag (1 Ch. 12. 20 ). (8) Father of Omri, prince of 
Issachar in David's time (1 Ch. 27. 18 ), poss. the same 
as No. 5. (9) A son of Jehoshaphat, murdered by 
his brother Jehoram (2 Ch. 21. 2 ' 4 ). (10) Father 
of Zebadiah, one of those who returned with Ezra 
(Ez. 8. 8 ; I Es. 8. 34 ). (11) The archangel (Dn. 
io. 13 , 12. 1 ; Ju. 9 ; Rv. 12. 7 ). He is " the first of 
the chief princes," and the angelic head of the 
Israelite nation. He is " the great prince which 
standeth for the children of thy people " in the time 
of trouble. Angelic appearances, according to the 
sacred records, were most frequent in times when 



changes were imminent, e.g. in the period of the 
Judges, and in that of the Captivity : but the name 
of Michael is mentioned only in the later period, 
when angelic functions were distinguished and 
assigned to separate angels. Thus with Gabriel are 
associated angelic ministration towards men ; while 
Michael stands for them, in the name and strength 
of God, in the struggle against the power of Satan. 
And so in Rv. 12. 7 he leads in war against the great 
dragon, " the old serpent, he that is called the 
Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world." 

In the passage in Jude (v. 9), " Michael the arch- 
angel, when contending with the Devil he disputed 
about the body of Moses, durst not bring against 
him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord re- 
buke thee," we have an echo of Jewish traditionary 
lore. There the archangel figures in many scenes in 
the life of the great lawgiver, and particularly at 
his funeral (Dt. 34- 6 ). The cause of the contention 
there was a claim put forward by the Devil for 
possession of Moses' body, because in the old 
days, before the Deliverance, he had murdered the 
Egyptian. For further particulars as to Jewish 
views of Michael see Jw. En. s.v. 

MICHAIAH. (1) Father of Achbor (2 K. 22. 12 ), 
identical with " Micah," father of Abdon (2 Ch. 
34. 20 ). (2) Son of Zaccur, of the family of Asaph 
(Ne. 12. 35 ), identical with " Micah," son of Zichri 
(1 Ch. 9. 15 ), and with Micha, son of Zabdi (Ne. u. 17 ). 
(3) One of the priestly trumpeters at the dedication 
of the wall of Jerusalem (Ne. 12. 41 ). (4) Daughter 
of Uriel, wife of Rehoboam, and mother of Abijah 
(2 Ch. 13. 2 ). She is called " Maachah the daughter 
of Abishalom," i.e. Absalom (1 K. 15. 2 ). She was 
probably the grand-daughter of Absalom, by his 
daughter Tamar (so Josephus — see Maachah). (5) 
One of the princes sent out by Jehoshaphat to teach 
the law in the cities of Judah (2 Ch. 17. 7 ). (6) Son 
of Gemariah, named only in Jr. 36. 11 ' 13 . 

MICHAL, younger dr. of Saul (i S. 14. 49 ). 
She loved David, attracted no doubt by the heroism 
and chivalry of the young soldier (18. 20 ), a love re- 
ciprocated, if we may judge fm. the liberal fashion 
in wh. the strange dowry was provided (vv. 25n\). 
The demand of Saul betrayed his sentiments 
towards David. Very soon M. had occasion, by 
feminine artifice, to save her husband's life (i9. llff -). 
After David's flight Saul gave M. to Palti of Gallim 
(25. 44 ). Her romantic affection of early days was 
prob. undermined by David's marriages with Abi- 
gail and Ahinoam. When torn fm. Palti (2 S. 
3. 14ff -), prob. in order that the presence of the king's 
dr. might in a way legitimate David's claim to the 
throne, she seems to have been quite estranged. 
This easily accounts for her contemptuous words 
on the day of David's joyful arrival with the ark 
(6. 16, 20 ). Childlessness is indicated as the punish- 
ment of her contempt (v. 22L). See Merab. 



463 



Mic 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mid 



MICHMASH, MICHMAS. About six miles N. of Judah, named between Beth-arabah and Secacah 

of Jrs. the face of the country is split open by the (Jo. 15. 61 ). 

great rent of Wady es-Suweinlt, wh. sinks swiftly MIDIAN, s. of Abraham by Keturah (Gn. 25.*), _ 

down the eastern declivity into Wady el-Qelt. On also the people who claimed to be his descen- 

the S. of the wady stands Jeba'—Gehz of Benjamin dants (Nu. 22. 4 ), who are called Midianites (Gn. 

—and on the N. the vill. of Mukhmas. Between 37. 28 ). M. had five sons, Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, 

these villages runs the only path by wh. the gorge Abidah, and Eldaah (Gn. 25. 4 ). ^ We are told that 

can be crossed (1 S. 13. 23 ). Saul encamped at M. " unto the sons of the concubines wh. Abraham 

(v. 2), whence he was driven by the Phil., who made had " he " gave gifts " (Gn. 25. 6 ). These gifts wd. 

M. their headquarters, guarding the passage of the mean not only herds of cattle and flocks of sheep 

wady. To the E. of the pass on the N. rises the but also bands of slaves ; these slaves were regarded 



great crag 



known to the Hebs. 



as Bozez ; and 
further E. that known as Seneh. The Phil. mt. 
well think them absolutely unscalable. This formed 



as part of the clan of their proprietor. They seem 
to have combined with the kindred Abrahamite 
tribe of Ishmaelites. We see this in the story of 
Joseph, in wh. those who carried him down to 
Egypt are sometimes called Ishmaelites and some- 
times Midianites (Gn. 37- 25 ; cf.v. 28, also Jg. 8. 24 ). 
They appear to have taken the carrying trade with 
their camels ; crossing the Jordan fm. Gilead they 
made their way down to Egypt, wh. naturally was 
the principal market for Syria. They then seem 
to be inhabiting the region E. of Jordan. We 
next encounter Midian in the peninsula of Sinai. 
When Moses fled fm. Egypt he found refuge with 
Jethro, priest of Midian (Ex. 2. 15 ). Jethro and 
those about him appear to have retained a purity 
of faith and worship wh. suggests a tradition of 
Abrahamic practice. This purity of ritual was 
acknowledged by Moses. When in the desert 
Jethro came to meet Israel, Jethro acted as priest, 
and the brethren Moses and Aaron partook of the 
sacrifice (Ex. 18. 12 ). There is a geographical diffi- 
culty wh. is enhanced by the moral difficulty of the 
idolatry of the Midianites met with later ; the land 
of Gilead is far fm. Mt. Sinai. A further point of 
contrast is the fact that the Abrahamic rite of 
circumcision is not practised among them, hence 
Zipporah's horror of it (Ex. 3. 25 ). It is to be noted 
that, in the narrative connected with Jethro, Midian 
is always a region, never a race (see Ex. 4. 19 ). It may 
be that a chance resemblance has resulted in an 
the scene of the heroic exploit of Jonathan and his identification. This is further confirmed by the 
armour-bearer (14.). The occurrence of an earth- fact that Jethro is declared to have been a " Kenite " 
quake assisted to throw the Phil, into terror and in Jg. 1 , 16 . Little more than a generation later we 
confusion. M. was occupied after the Exile (Ez. find the Midianites in Gilead practising impure 
2. 27 , &c). At a later time it was the headquarters rites in the worship of Baal-peor. They seem to 
of Jonathan the Maccabee (1 M. c;. 73 ; Jos. Ant. have dwelt in the lands E. of Jordan among the 
XIII. i. 6). For a description of the district see Moabites and other settled races, much as the 
Conder, lent Work, 254^.). nomadic Bedouin wander about in Palestine at 

MICHMETHAH, " hiding place," on the boun- present. It is to be noted that the victory of 
dary of Manasseh (Jo. 16. 6 , 17. 7 ). It occurs only Hadad, k. of Edom, over the Midianites was gained 
with the article, and is therefore probably the name, " in the fields of Moab " (Gn. $6. 35 ). The Moabites 




Scene of Attack on the Philistine Camp by Jonathan 



not of a town, but of some natural feature of the 
landscape. Possibly the name survives in Mukhneh, 
the plain E. of Gerizim. 

MICHRI, ancestor of a Benjamite family (1 Ch. 

9- 8 )- 



seem to have made an alliance with them against 
Israel. They unite with them in hiring Balaam to 
curse Israel (Nu. 22. 4 ) ; their daughters unite with 
those of Moab in seducing the children of Israel to 
worship Baal-peor (Nu. 25. 1 ; cp. v. 6). War is de- 



MIDDIN, an unidentd. town in the Wilderness clared against Midian by Moses, a war of extermina- 

464 



Mid 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mil 



tion (Nu. 31. 1 " 18 ). Nothing of the kind is decreed between Bethlehem and Hebron (Gn. 35. 21 ; cp. 

against Moab or Ammon, although according to the vv. 19, 27). 

genealogy Midian is nearer to Isr. than either of MIGDAL-EL, " tower of God," a town in 

those nations. There is, not to speak of religious Naphtali, named between Iron and Horem (Jo. 

affinity, nothing of the kindly relationship wh. sub- 19. 38 ). It may be either Khirbet el-Mejdel, three 

sisted between Isr. and Jethro. Midian is next miles N. of Qedes, or Mejdel I slim, five miles NW. 

found intervening in the affairs of Israel in the days of this. 

of Gideon (Jg. 6. 1 -8. 28 ). We are told that " the MIGDAL GAD, " tower of fortune," an un- 

children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, identd. city of Judah, in the Shephelah (Jo. 15. 37 ). 

and the Lord delivered them into the hands of There is no guide to its position. Three sites have 

Midian seven years." The M. had combined with been suggested : (1) Khirbet Mejdeleh, five miles S. 

the Amalekites and the " children of the East," of Beit Jibrin ; (2) Khirbet Mejddel, seven miles 



further S., with Tell Mejddel, an eminence with 
(3) El-Mejdel, 



i\ miles NE. of 



MIGDOL is the Egyptian form of the Heb. 
Migddl. (1) An unidentd. town near wh. Isr. en- 
camped on leaving Goshen (Ex. 14. 2 , &c). The 



i.e. the Bedouin of the desert to the east of Gilead 

to raid the territory of Israel. They are said to ruins, hard by. 

have encamped in the land and eaten up the i Askaldn. 
country like locusts. They represented the forces 
of lawlessness, wh. had to be annihilated if civi- 
lisation was to be possible. The Israelites, if 

we may read between the lines, did not submit papyrus Anastasi (5. 20 ) mentions a M. of the 

tamely ; there had been conflicts, in one of wh. Pharaoh Sety I. in this district. (2) One of the 

brothers of Gideon had fallen (Jg. 8. 18 ). Gideon, Egyptian cities in wh. Jews dwelt (Jr. 44. 1 , 46. 14 ), 

taking advantage of the confusion which in an marking the N. frontier of Egp., as Syene did the 

undisciplined host is apt to occur when sentinels S. (Ek. 29. 10 , 30. 6 , RVm. is cert, correct). The Rm. 

are changed, made, as recorded in Jg. 7., a night Itinerarium Antonini notes a " Magdolo "12 Rm. 

attack upon their huge camp, adopting a stratagem miles S. of Pelusium. Tell es-Semut, a ruin on the 

which led them to imagine that they were being old caravan road, 12 miles S. of Pelusium, agrees 

assailed from three different directions. In the well enough as to position : but no certainty is 

panic which ensued, all rushing in terror through possible. 

the darkness, it was impossible to distinguish friend MIGRON. (1) A place near Gibeah in Ben- 

from foe, and each one slew, or attempted to slay, jamin (1 S. 14. 2 ). This is S. of Wddy es-Suzveimt, 

every one he met. The greatest number of those and cannot be identd. with (2). No trace of such 

who escaped from this mad turmoil of panic and a place has been found. While it is poss. that two 

slaughter turned to the Jordan valley, towards Abel towns so near each other had the same name, it is 

Meholah and Zererath. Attempts made to effect not likely. There may be some error in the text, 

a rally only delayed the flight, and enabled the (2) The mod. Makrun, NW. of Michmash (Is. 

Israelites to take the fords of Jordan against them. io. 28 ). 

A considerable number, however, succeeded in MIJAMIN. (1) Head of the sixth of the courses 

crossing under their kings Zebah and Zalmunnah. of priests instituted by David (1 Ch. 24. 9 ). (2) One 

Passing over Mount Gilead, they reached the remote who sealed the covenant (Ne. io. 7 ), the same as 

quiet of their desert haunts, east of Nobah and Miamin (12. 5 ) andMiniamin (12. 17 ). (3) One who 

Jogbehah, and there, in fancied security, they set had married a foreign wife (Ez. io. 25 , AV. Miamin), 

no watch. But Gideon, though faint, yet pursued, called " Maelus " (1 E. 9- 26 ). 

and taking them by surprise, " discomfited all the MIKLOTH. (1) Son of Jehiel of Gibeon (1 Ch. 

host " and captured their two kings. After their 8. 32 , 9. 37f -). (2) An officer in David's army (1 Ch. 

defeat and slaughter at Moreh and the death of their 27. 4 ). 



princes, Oreb and Zeeb, and their kings, Zebah and 
Zalmunna, the Midianites disappear fm. Bible his- 
tory. If Delitzsch is correct in identifying the 
Hayafa of the days of Tiglath-pileser with Ephah, 
the s. of Midian, the race remained extant to a 
much later time. 

MIDWIVES were early employed by the Hebs. 



MIKNEIAH, a Levite, a gatekeeper of the ark 
(1 Ch. 15. 21 ). 

MILALAI. One of those who took part in the 
dedication of the walls (Ne. 12. 36 ). 

MILCAH. (1) Daughter of Haran, sister of Lot, 
and wife of her uncle Nahor. She was the mother 
of eight children. Bethuel, her youngest son, was 



(Gn. 35. 17 , &c). They do not appear to have been father of Rebekah (Gn. II. 29 , 22 



20,23 24. 15 ' 24, 47\ 

numerous : only two are named in Ex. i. 15ff - The (2) Fourth daughter of Zelophehad (Nu. 26. 23 , &c). 

Heb. women, like other Orientals, had not much MILCOM. See Molech. 

need of their assistance. See Birth. MILE (Gr. milion, fm. Lat. millarium) is only 

MIGDAL-EDER, AV. EDAR, " flock-tower," once mentioned (Mw. 5. 41 ). The Roman mile was 

an unidentd. place where Jacob spread his tent, =1618 yards. This was the unit of measurement 

465 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mil 



used on their roads, and the remains of the Roman 
milestones are to be seen in many parts of Palestine 
— pillars, or columns by the wayside, with distances 
cut upon them. In NT. and Josephus, distance is 
generally reckoned in stadia — " furlongs." 

MILETUS, an Ionian city on the coast of Caria, 
touched by St. Paul on his way to Jrs. (Ac. 20. 15 ' 17 ; 
cp. 2 Tm. 4. 20 ). Founded c. b.c iooo on the S. 
shore of the gulf of Latmos, into wh. flowed the 
Maeander, it became an important Gr. colony. 
Taken by the Persians, b.c 495, it passed to the 
Seleucidas. In the 2nd century it fell to Pergamos, 
and finally to the Romans, who joined it to the 
province of Asia. There was a considerable Jewish 
colony in M. (Jos. Ant. XIV. x. 2 1) . The silt of the 
river has enclosed the bay, making it an inland lake, 
and cut off M. fm. the sea by flat land, some five or 
six miles in breadth. What was once the island of 
Lade is now a hill in the plain. The poor vill. 
Palatia stands on the old site. 

MILK and its products have always formed an 
important part of the diet (see Food, p. 201). 
Goat's milk is at the present day most generally 
used, and most highly prized in Palestine. It is 
almost invariably boiled before being drunk. It 
must in any case be " scalded " at once, if it is not 
to be used forthwith, or it will inevitably "turn." It 
is, however, very largely employed in a "curdled" 
form, called leben, the milk, when it is properly pre- 
pared, going to a firm curd. Perhaps the most re- 
freshing of all drinks in the heat of an Eastern day is 
what the Arabs call shanlny. Milk is poured into a 
skin " bottle," in wh. are the sour remains of the 
last milking. It is shaken gently, and in a little 
time it becomes slightly sour. This, as it is, or 
mingled with a little water, is greatly appreciated. 
Milk in this latter form is clearly intended by the 
word wh. EV. trs. " butter " in Jg. 5« 25 (cp. 4. 19 ). 
It also acts as a soporific. In other passages, how- 
ever, butter is meant (Gn. 18. 8 ; Pr. 30. 33 , &c). 
This is made by putting the milk in a skin bottle, wh. 
is then hung on a tripod (see illustration, page 201), 
and shaken until the butter comes. Butter, how- 
ever delicious when it is fresh, cannot be kept for 
any time in the heat. It is therefore boiled, and in 
the form of samn, " clarified butter," it is restored 
to the skin bottles, in which it may be kept for 
considerable periods. This is used extensively for 
cooking purposes, rice prepared with samn being a 
favourite dish. It is also an article of barter with 
merchants from the city. 

Cheese is made by removing the whey from the 
curd mentioned above, and a little salt is added. It 
is shaped in small disks about 6 in. in diameter and 
about 1 in. thick, and dried in the sun. This may 
be kept for a long time. A refreshing drink, also 
called shanlny, is made by grating this " cheese " 
into a glass of water. As it is easily carried in these 



small cakes, if water is available the traveller may 
often be regaled with this beverage in the tents of 
the Arabs. 

The prohibition of seething a kid in its mother's 
milk (Ex. 23. 19 , &c.) may have referred originally to 
some magical or idolatrous rite, of wh. we have now 
no knowledge. The Rabbinical Jews understood it 
to bar the taking of meat and milk at the same meal : 
and so particular are certain orthodox Jews at the 
present day, that they will not take milk in their 
tea, if they have had meat at the midday meal. 

Whatever may have been the original significance 
of the phrase, " a land flowing with milk and honey," 
as applied to Palestine (Ex. 3. 8 , &c.), it must always 
have conveyed a fairly accurate idea of the country. 
The multitudinous flocks furnish the milk, and the 
wild bees make abundant honey, in the securing of 
which the Arabs are adepts. 

MILL, MILLSTONE. The most primitive 
form of " mill " for the grinding of grain in Pales- 




Arab Women Grinding Corn with a Handmill, Rolling 
Out the Dough, and Baking the Bread 

tine was the " rubbing-stone," specimens of which 
have been brought to light by recent excavations. 
(See illustrations in Macalister's Bible Side Lights, 
Fig. 28 ; Vincent's Canaan d'apres P exploration 
recente, Figs. 282, 283. Fig. 282 represents a flint 
rubbing-stone of the paleolithic age : 283, one from 
Egypt of the third dynasty.) It consisted of a large 
stone with slightly hollowed surface, on wh. the 
grain was laid, and crushed or rubbed down with an 
oblong stone which had a slight convexity on its 
under surface. 

The introduction of the " quern " was a distinct 
step in advance. Mr. Macalister figures some of 
the older type, discovered in the course of excava- 
tion at Gezer (PEFQ., 1903, p. Iioi.). The lower 
and larger stone was fitted with an upright spindle, 
which passed through a perforation in the centre of 
the upper stone. Through this aperture also the 
grain was poured in. There was no handle by 
which the upper stone could be turned. This 
had to be done by grasping it with the hands. A 
complete rotation was thus inconvenient ; and the 
stone appears to have been worked backward and 
forward, " through about one-third of a rotation." 



466 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mir 



The insertion of an upright handle near the outer 
edge of the upper stone, by which it could easily be 
made to rotate, was a great improvement. The 
stones were made larger, retaining something like 
the same proportion to each other in size, and the 
corn was passed through a perforation in the upper 
stone. It was usually turned by two women who 
sat over against each other, grasping the handle, one 
hand above the other (Mw. 24. 41 ). This is still a 
familiar sight in many parts of Palestine. Under 
the Greek and Roman influence larger mills were 
introduced, the upper stone being turned by an ass 
(Mw. 18. 6 , Gr. " a millstone turned by an ass," 
RVm.). 

The grinding was the work of the women (Ex. 
11. 5 ; Mw. 24. 41 ), as it is to this day in the East, 
wherever the old methods are used. This doubt- 
less added to the ignominy of Samson's task (Jg. 
16. 21 ). The upper millstone was a weapon ready to 
a woman's hand (Jg. c;. 53 ; 2 S. II. 21 ). 

The water mill, now so common in Palestinian 
wadies, was unknown to the Hebrews. In most of 
them work is possible only during the rainy season. 
They stand silent during the long months of 
summer : and then the old hand mill is requisi- 
tioned again. 

Both upper and nether millstones are frequently 
made of the hard, porous basalt which abounds in 
Palestine. There is a famous quarry where these 
are made near Khabab on the W. border of el-Lejd\ 
whence they are transported by camels to all parts 
of the country : one stone forming a camel-load. 

The mill was regarded as indispensable to the 
people's life (Dt. 24. 6 ), and therefore might not be 
taken in pledge. The cessation of the sound of the 
millstones is the sign of utter desolation (Jr. 25. 10 ; 
Rv. 18. 22 ). See also Mortar. 

MILLET (Ek. 4. 9 ), Heb. dohan, Arb. dukbn, is 
the Panicum miliaceum, a tall plant bearing dense 
clusters of small white seeds, wh. are often mixed 
with wheat and barley for bread. It shd. be dis- 
tinguished fm. dburah, wh. in seed resembles it. 

MILLO. (1) The house of M. (Jg. 9 . 6 - 20 , 
where we shd. prob. read " Beth M."), a place near 
Shechem, unidentd. (2) A tower on the fortifica- 
tions of Jrs. built by Solomon (1 K. 9. 15 , &c), but 
prob. planned by David (2 S. 5. 9 ) : poss. the scene 
of Jehoash's murder (2 K. 12. 20 ). See Jerusalem. 

MINISTER, MINISTRY. (1) Heb. mcshd- 
reth, part, of sbdrath, " to serve," one who renders 
the honourable service of a free man, as Joshua 
to Moses (Ex. 24. 13 ; Jo. I. 1 ), an attendant to a 
monarch (1 K. 10. 5 ), &c. The term is also used by 
the prophets for those who serve in the Temple, and 
officiate at the altars — the Levites and priests (Jr. 
33. 2 . 1 ; Jl. I. 13 , &c). In both senses the verb con- 
stantly appears throughout OT. It is distinct in 
meaning fm. 'dbad, wh. means " to serve as a slave." 



This word is used, indeed, of service rendered to J"., 
as that of willing slaves (Ex. 3. 12 , io. 24 ; Ps. 2. 11 , &c), 
but it is mainly employed of slavery to conquerors 
(Gn. 14. 4 , &c), or to idols (Dt. 4. 28 , &c.) : only 
twice is it trd. M. (Nu. 4. 47 ; 1 Ch. c>. 28 ). (2) In 
NT. a like distinction obtains between diakonos, 
leitourgos, and huperetes on the one hand, and 
doulos on the other. The first three render free 
service to Christ and to men (Mw. 20. 26 ; Rm. 
15. 27 ; 2 Cor. 4. 1 ). Once leitourgos implies the 
service of a representative (He. 8. 2 ), and there it 
refers to Christ : once the verb has a similar mean- 
ing, alluding to the priests of the old dispensation 
(He. io. 11 ). Huperetes in Lk. 4. 20 signifies the 
servant of the synagogue, now known as Hazzdn. 
See Bishop, Deacon. 

MINNI, a country mentioned along with 
Ararat and Ashchenaz as acting against Babylon 
(Jr. 5 1. 27 ). The LXX takes it as a preposition with 
pronominal suffix, and trs. irap e/xov, " with me." 
It was the Mannu of the Assyrians, to the W. of 
Lake Urumiya, and to the E. of Van. Its inhabi- 
tants were the Mannai, who are mentioned in the 
Assyrian inscriptions — -those of Shalmaneser II., 
Sargon, Ezarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal. 

MINNITH, an unidentd. place on the way taken 
in flight by the Ammonites fm. Aroer (Jg. n. 33 ), 
famous in later times for its wheat (Ek. 27. 17 ; cp. 
2 Ch. 2J. 5 ). OEJ. places it four miles from Hesh- 
bon on the way to Philadelphia. But it must have 
been further north. The text, however, is prob. 
corrupt. 

MINT (Gr. heduosmon, " sweet-smelling," Mw. 
23. 23 , &c.) is the ordinary fragrant garden mint, 
much cultivated in Pal., and used in salads, &c. 

MIPHKAD, a gate in the wall of Jrs., on the E. 
or NE. of the city (Ne. 3. 31 ). See Jerusalem. 

MIRACLES, a somewhat unfortunate tr. of 
a-rj [xetov, " a sign " (Heb. 'oth). Miracle is to be 
regarded as a " sign " of Divine presence ; a word 
spoken claiming to be spoken with Divine authority 
justifies that claim by a work of power. The ab- 
stract possibility of miracle cannot be denied by 
any one who believes in a personal God ; the 
only questions are as to the " credibility " and 
" evidential value." 

Credibility. — Hume's famous argument, by 
asserting in the premise that universal experience 
is against M., assumes the thing to be proved, 
as the real matter in dispute is, " Have miracles 
ever formed part of experience ? " What is really 
meant by most people when they declare an event 
" incredible " is, that they feel themselves incapable 
of forming a mental picture of the event as occurring. 
The Siamese sovereign who had never seen water 
frozen, in the same way regarded the tale of men 
and horses going on the surface of a river as a 
flagrant falsehood. Even with abundant experi- 



467 



Mir 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mir 



ence we find it very difficult to imagine vividly the 
sensations of health when we are sick, or vice versa. 
Further, there is the fact to be explained that every 
past age has believed in miracle. Our own is no 
exception, with its belief in spirit-rapping and in 
Christian Science. Very few gamblers but have 
their mascots, on wh. they imagine their success 
depends, even tho' they may profess to be atheists 
and materialists. If we neglect such irregular 
phenomena, still there is the fact that, given a moral 
occasion of sufficient magnitude, all men, normally 
constituted, expect an interference with the course 
of nature, and recognise the non-appearance of such 
a sign of the Divine as a disappointment of their 
expectation. If our belief in the constancy of 
nature is due to inherited experience we must 
believe that this expectation is the result of 
miracle having, in similar circumstances, formed 
part of the experience of the race ; in instances, too, 
of very considerable magnitude and number, else 
the effect wd. not be so widespread and indelible. 
If, on the other hand, this belief in miracle is innate 
— built into our constitution — and not the inherited 
result of ancestral experience, then as Nature never 
makes half joints, never makes eyes without light, 
or fins without water, so over against this expecta- 
tion of miracle there must be this reality. 

Evidential Value. — At first sight it seems a 
plausible objection to say, " Force is no evidence of 
truth." When a bully knocks down one who has de- 
nied the truth of a statement he has made, he proves 
himself a bully by his violence, not that he is not a 
liar. The analogy, however, does not hold ; from the 
presence of one of a bundle of qualities wh. go to 
make up our idea of a given substance we infer the 
presence of the others. Thus we see before us a disc 
of yellow metal stamped with the profile of the king. 
We lift it and find it heavy ; the colour and the 
weight lead us to believe it to be gold — that were 
we to test it we shd. find it extremely ductile and 
malleable (qualities of gold), and also that it wd. 
present all the chemical reactions of gold. Our 
idea of God implies that He possesses all physical, 
mental, and moral perfection. He is Omniscient 
as well as Omnipotent ; All-Holy as well as Al- 
mighty ; therefore we argue that the Power that 
can raise the dead and check the flow of the sea 
implies Divinity behind it : it so transcends the 
power wh. can be ascribed to a creature that we 
may presume the other transcendent qualities of 
Deity to be present. Every age has recognised vast 
power as an attribute of Deity. When Elijah calls 
for fire fm. heaven to prove the Divinity of JHWH, 
as over against the claims of Baal, no one, unless 
committed to that view, wd. regard it as a non 
sequitur when he claims the burning up of the 
sacrifice as proof demonstrative of his thesis. Shd. 
it be urged that such arguments wd. accredit all the 



marvels of superstition, it shd. be noted that the 
scriptural miracles have several characteristics wh. 
distinguish them fm. the wonders of superstition. 
They are connected with such crises in the moral 
history of the world as form an adequate occasion 
for such a display. The miracles noted in the 
Biblical narratives are mainly confined to three 
groups, connected with three events of world-wide 
importance : the Exodus, the setting apart of a race 
to guard the sacred deposit, Divine revelation ; the 
period of Elijah and Elisha, when there was a danger 
of Isr. becoming apostate ; and the time of our 
Lord, when the message of salvation was being de- 
clared. To exhibit this distinction clearly we have 
but to consider the efforts of Jewish and Christian 
imagination in devising miracles wh. seem suitable 
to the various patriarchs and apostles. The aim of 
these marvels has as its object to enhance the glory 
of the individual. Whereas in the Biblical the 
individual sinks into the background, what he does 
is in order that the works of God may be manifested. 
This is the case even with regard to our Lord, who 
sought not His own glory but His that sent Him. 
Further, the miracles of Scrip, are usually works of 
mercy ; if of judgment the moral purpose is in 
general so obvious, that in the dubious cases we may 
presume that, were all the circumstances known, 
these too wd. have as obviously a moral purpose 
also. In the case of the miracles of our Lord there 
are only two that have not the alleviation of suffer- 
ing as their immediate object — the blasting of the 
barren fig tree and the destruction of the Gada- 
rene swine ; each of these appears to involve at all 
events the destruction of property. As to the first 
of these, the action was symbolical, and at this 
distance of time we cannot dogmatise as to whose 
property the fig tree in question was. The other is 
connected on the one side with a great work of 
mercy, and on the other with the mysterious ques- 
tion of demoniac possession, and how far the land 
consecrated to be the inheritance of JHWH was to 
be regarded as under the Levitical law. When we 
consider the numerous cases of healing that are 
slumped together, these miracles of judgment form 
a much smaller proportion of the works of Christ 
than appears on the face of the narrative. 

MIRIAM, (i) Daughter of Amram(Nu.26. 59 ), 
sister of Moses and Aaron. When the infant Moses 
was drawn from the water, at the request of Pha- 
raoh's daughter she brought a nurse — her own 
mother (Ex. 2. 4 ' 8 ). She was therefore considerably 
older than Moses ; and as the latter was only three 
years the junior of Aaron (Ex. J. 1 ) she must have 
been the oldest of the three. As a member of a 
gifted family we are not surprised to hear that she 
ranked as a prophetess, and that, timbrel in hand, 
she led the triumph song and dance of the women in 
the hour of deliverance (Ex. I5. 20f -). The Ethio- 



468 



Mir TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE Mit 

pian wife of Moses was an offence to his brother tory (13. 6 ), may be mod. Musbeirifeb, on the S. 

and sister, and the thought of her seems to have slope of Ras en-Naqurab, N. of the plain of Acre, 

fired the envy of him wh. was in their hearts. They The promontory and the mountain behind it mt. 

sought to undermine his authority, claiming to be well have been the S. boundary of the Zidonians. 

prophets by whom the Lord spake as much as he. MITE, a coin equal to half a farthing (Mk. 

Miriam was smitten with leprosy, and deeply humi- 12. 42 ; Lk. 12. 59 ). See Money. 

liated, being healed only at the prayer of Moses. MITHCAH, RV. MITHKAH, possibly meaning 

The march of the people was delayed seven days, " place of sweetness," one of the stations in the 

until she could be brought again into the camp (Nu. Wanderings, mentioned in Nu. 33- 28L ; unidentified. 

I2. lff -). Her case was subsequently made a warning MITHNITE. This gentilic name is applied to 

(Dt. 24. 9 ). That she exercised great influence we Joshaphat, one of David's guard, in 1 Ch. n. 43 . 

may infer from her being mentioned by Micah (6. 4 ) From the names adjoining his in the catalogue we 

along with her brothers as leading the people. She may perhaps infer that he came from the east of 

died and was buried during the sojourn of the the Jordan : but no place with a name such as 

people at Kadesh (Nu. 20. 1 ). According to Jose- Methen, from wh. " Mithnite " could be derived, 

phus {Ant. III. ii. 4 : vi. 1) she was the wife of Hur, has yet been recovered. 

and through him, grandmother of the distinguished MITHREDATH, " given by Mithra " — Mithra 

artificer Bezaleel. (2) A person of the house of being the Iranian sun-god. (1) The Persian treasurer 

Caleb, mentioned in the genealogies of the children to whom Cyrus entrusted the sacred vessels of the 

of Judah, but whether a man or a woman is not Temple for transference to Sheshbazzar (Ez. I. 8 ; 

clear (1 Ch. 4. 17 ). 1 Es. 2. 11 — in the latter the name is given as 

MIRROR. See Looking-glass. Mithridates). (2) A Persian officer whose station 

MISGAB (Heb. misgdb, " secure height "), the was at Samaria. He took part in the representation 

name of a place mentioned with Nebo and Kiria- made to Artaxerxes (Longimanus) with the object 

thaim in the denunciatory oracle of Jeremiah (48 . 1 ). of hindering the Jews in their work of rebuilding 

It may possibly be a descriptive name applied to the Temple (Ez. 4. 7 ; I Es. 2. 16 ). 

Kir-Moab. No name resembling it has been re- MITRE. (1) Mitzne-pbeth, from tzdnapb, " to 

covered. The word occurs in Is. 25. 12 , where EV. wind." This is the name given to the official head- 

tr. " high fort." It is used fig. of security (Is. dress of the High Priest (Ex. 28. 4 , &c). RVm. 

33. 1G ), and of God as a refuge (2 S. 22. 3 , &c). suggests "turban," in every case save one, viz. 

MISHAEL. (1) Son of Uzziel, and cousin of Ek. 21. 26 , where AV. reads "diadem" and RV. 
Moses (Ex. 6. 18 ' 22 ), who, with his brother Elzaphan, " mitre." The term used for the head-dress of 
carried the dead bodies of Nadab and Abihu out of ordinary priests is migbd'oth, probably because of its 
the sanctuary. Their white linen coats were used conical shape, from the root gdba\ " to be high," 
for shrouds, and the victims of God's jealous anger or " convex." EV. render " bonnet." Both con- 
were buried without the camp. (2) One of the sisted of a long piece of fine linen — the Talmud 
leading men who supported Ezra, standing at his makes it 16 cubits in length — wound round the head 
left hand as he read the law (Ne. 8. 4 ; he is called in the form of a turban. Exactly how they were 
Misael in 1 Es. o,. 44 , the Greek having no sb, distinguished it is impossible to say ; probably it 
corresponding to the Heb. £?). (3) One of Daniel's was by some difference in shape. The description 
three companions, better known by the name given given by Josephus (Ant. III. vii. 6) is confused and 
him in Babylon, Meshach (Dn. I. 6 , &c). He also is contradictory. A golden plate, with the words 
called Misael in the Song of the Three Children. " Holy to the Lord " engraved upon it, was at- 

MISHAL, a town in the territory of Asher given tached to the " forefront " of the High Priest's 

to the Gershonite Levites (Jo. 19. 26 , 21. 30 ). In mitre, above his forehead. The "blue lace" 

I Ch. 6. 74 it is called Mashal. The name occurs secured it, being tied round the mitre. This 

between Amad and Carmel. Amad is still un- doubtless formed the fillet or " diadem " referred to 

identified, so that no indication of the site of M. is as " the holy crown " (see Crown, Diadem). Ap- 

possible. parently the royal crown of Judah also consisted of 

MISHRAITES, one of the four families of turban or mitre, and diadem or crown (Ek. 21. 26 ). 

Kiriath-jearim (1 Ch. 2. 53 ), who doubtless colonised (2) Tzantpb, from the same root as mitznephetb, 

the town from wh. they took their name. There EV. render " mitre " (Zc. 3. 5 ), where it obviously 

is no trace known of the site of Mishra. But as applies to the head-dress of the High Priest. In 

colonies from Mishra seem to have founded Zorah Jb. 29. 14 (AV. " diadem," RVm. " turban "), it is 

and Eshtaol, it was probably in that neighbour- the symbol of the righteous man's nobility. In Is. 

hood. 3- 23 it refers to some female finery. In Is. 62. 3 

MISREPHOTH MAIM, to wh. Joshua chased it suggests the dignity and honour wh. God will 

the Can. ("II. 8 ), on the S. border of Zidonian terri- bestow upon restored Israel. 

469 



Mit 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mna 



MITYLENE, a town on the island of Lesbos, to mountain," i.e. the sacred hill at Jerusalem, infinitely 
wh. it now gives its name, with a good natural dear to the exile. Others would drop the " m " 
harbour facing the mainland, wh. is some II miles from mehar, as due to dittography, and read, " I 
distant. When St. Paul visited M. (Ac. 20. 14 ) it remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the 
belonged to the Rm. province of Asia, enjoying the Hermons, O, thou little hill (of Zion)." Prof. G. A. 
freedom wh. Pompey had bestowed on it, B.C. 63. Smith calls attention to certain names in the neigh- 
It was founded as an ^Eolian colony. Daughters of bourhood of " the Hermons " — i.e. triple summits 
M. were Sigeum and Assos. It favoured Xerxes in of the mountain — resembling Miz'ar, and suggests 
the war with Greece. In consequence of a revolt " that these may be a reminiscence of the name of a 
from the Athenian League wh. it had joined, it hill in this district, called Mitz'ar " (HGHL. 1 477 n.). 
suffered grievously (b.c 428). It opposed Rome in It is impossible at present to reach any certainty, 
the Mithridatic War. It was famous for the beauty MIZPAH, MIZPEH, "watch tower." (1) A 
of its buildings in Roman times. It is one of the city in Gilead (Gn. 31. 49 ; Jg. io. 17 ), the home of 
few cities which, even under Turkish rule, has main- Jephthah (Jg. II. 11 ). It was taken by Judas Macca- 



tained its prosperity to the present day. 





baeus (1 M. 5. 35 ). Poss. it is = Ramath Mizpeh 
(Jo. 13. 26 ). These passages point to a position N. 
of the Jabbok, and N. also of Mahanaim. Jerash, 
Suf, and Qal'at er-Rabad, among others, have been 
suggested, but no prob. site of Mahanaim has been 
found to the S. of these. Dr. Schumacher found a 
place NW. of Jerash called Mas/a (M. & N. DPV., 
1897, 86). This name exactly corresponds with 
the Heb. Mitzpah. (2) The land and the valley of 
M. (Jo. II. 3 ' 8 ) under Hermon denote the land NE. 
MIXED MULTITUDE (Heb. 'ereb,Ex. 1 2. 38 E.; of el-Hdleh, i.e. the W. slopes of Hermon and the 
Ne. 13. 3 ; and 'asaphsuph, Nu. n. 4 J.), the crowd plain. (3) A city of Judah in the Shephelah (Jo. 
of aliens that joined the Israelites when they left 15. 38 ). It may be=Tell es-Sdfieh, S. of Wddy es 
Egypt. The first Heb. word is derived fm. 'drab, Sunt, j\ miles N. of Beit Jibrln, a high white lime- 
" to mix." The second is contemptuous = " riff- stone cliff, the Blanche Gaarde of the Crusaders, 
raff," fm. 'dsaph, " to collect." (4) A town in Benjamin (Jo. 18. 26 ), a place of as- 

It is evident that many of the Egyptians were sembly for the men of Isr. (Jg. 20. 1 ' 3 , 21. 1 



Coin of Mitylene 



impressed with the wonders wrought by Moses. I S. 7> 5 , 
When the plague of hail was threatened, certain circuit (] 



&c). Samuel visited M. in his official 



S. 7."). 



among the servants of Pharaoh " feared the word of 15. 22 ). Here the 



It was fortified by Asa (1 K. 
governor Gedaliah, who had 



the Lord," and " made his servants and his cattle chosen M. as his seat, was slain by Ishmael, who, 

flee into houses." Such disciples of fear might well having murdered also 70 pilgrims, threw their 

be expected to join the Israelites in their Exodus, bodies into the great reservoir wh. Asa had made 

As at present there are Arabs among the inhabitants (Jr. 4l. lff -). M. is described as an anct. Israelitish 

of Egypt — nomads that have come into it fm. the sanctuary, and was the scene of an inspiring 

desert — so there mt. be then : these might join also, assembly during the war under the leadership of 

Such accretions wd. be liable to discouragement Judas Maccabasus (1 M. 3- 46 ). It is prob. = Neby 

when exposed to hardship by the way. We cannot Samwil, wh. crowns an imposing height, \\ miles 



be sure that the one word refers to one class and the 
other to the other. The passage in Nehemiah 
refers to the pentateuchal account of the Exodus, 
and seems to deduce fm. it that it was incumbent on 
them to separate themselves fm. all aliens — a de- 



NW. of Jrs., the traditional burying-place of 
Samuel. No more spacious view is to be found in S. 
Pal. (5) M. of Moab (1 S. 22. 3 ), unident. (6) For 
" watch tower " (2 Ch. 20. 24 ) perhaps we shd. read 
Mizpah," wh. wd. denote a place in the wilder- 



duction that does not seem justified by the text as ness of Judah, somewhere near Tekoa (cp. v. 20). 

we have it. MIZRAIM. (1) Son of Ham and father of 

MIZAR, apparently the name of a mountain in Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Path- 



the NE. of Palestine (Ps. 42. 6 ). No height with a 
name resembling this has been discovered. The 
phrase mehar mitz'ar may be rendered " the moun- 
tain, or hill of littleness," i.e. " the little mountain " 
(EVm.), deriving mitz'ar from a root tza'ar, " to be 



rusim, Casluhim (whence went forth the Philis- 
tines), and Caphtorim (Gn. io. 6 ' 13f -). (2) The 
name of Egypt in the Hebrew tongue. 

MNASON, a native of Cyprus, " an early dis- 
ciple " (by wh. prob. is meant that he was among the 



scanty " or " small." Some would therefore read first to believe, possibly on the Day of Pentecost), 
" I think upon thee (O God !) far from the land of with whom, according to EV. rendering, St. Paul 
the Jordan and of the Hermons, far from the little and his friends lodged in Jrs. on his last visit (Ac. 

470 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Moa 



2 1. 16 ). Possibly, however, we should read " brought 
us to Mnason." The distance from Caesarea to Jrs. 
was rather great for a single day's journey — about 
70 miles. Mnason may have had a house on the 
way. D. (Latin) reads, " And when they had come 
to a certain town, we lodged with Mnason, an old 
disciple of Cyprus, and leaving there we came to 
Jerusalem." 

MOAB (Asyr. Ma- aba). No etymology that can 
be regarded as more than plausible has been sug- 
gested. In the LXX it is interpreted " from my 
father " : in principle this is the etymology held by 
Simonis, Onomasticon, Gesenius, and Fuerst. A deri- 
vation fm. y a* ab, "to desire, "is suggested and applied 
to the land. Against this last is the fact that terri- 
tories were named anciently fm. their inhabitants, 
not inhabitants fm. the land : though " the land of 
Moab " was certainly a land to be desired. It lay 
to the E. of the Dead Sea. At its greatest extent it 
occupied roughly a parallelogram of 50 miles by 30. 
It was bounded on the west by the Dead Sea ; on 
the north by the territory of Reuben, and to some 
extent by that of Ammon ; on the east by the terri- 
tory of Ammon and the desert, the home of the 
Amalekites and other nomads ; to the south by the 
desert and the land of Edom. These are the 
political neighbours whose territories limited those 
of Moab, but the physical boundaries varied very 
much. When the Israelites arrived, Sihon, the 
Amorite king of Heshbon, had wrested the land 
south to the river Arnon (Mo jib). Originally Moab 
must have extended much further north ; for " the 
plains of Moab " in wh. the Israelites encamped 
(Nu. 22. 1 ) were over against Jericho. Reuben, and 
to some extent Gad, became heirs of Sihon, but it is 
probable that the Moabites never acquiesced in this. 
In Is. 15. 4 Heshbon and Elealeh are regarded as in 
Moab, so too Medeba and Nebo ; the languishing 
of " the vine of Sibmah " is the result of the over- 
throw of Moab ; yet all these places are about 
thirty miles north of the river Arnon. At times, 
indeed, Moab seems to have possessed all the cities 
assigned to Reuben in Joshua. Probably the boun- 
daries of Moab in regard to the other contiguous 
states varied as much as they did in regard to those 
of Israel. Near the sea it consists of barren, rocky, 
limestone hills, interspersed with basalt ; behind 
these is a level plateau wh. is nearly treeless ; this 
is very fertile. Low mounds, the tombs of buried 
cities, are numerous ; frequent fragments of columns 
near them tell of wealth and splendour ; the char- 
acter of the columns dates this time of glory in the 
period of the Antonines. These mounds, however, 
bear names that carry them back to the days when 
Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem.* 

* One of the identifications can be carried back to the 
Targum of Jonathan, in wh. Qir-Hareseth and Qir-Heres is 
rendered in Is. 16. 7 and in Jr. 48. 31 , 36 Kerak : in 2 K. 
3. 15 it is called Qartta. 



The original inhabitants were called Emims : they 
were numerous, and were regarded as cognate to 
the Anakim and giants : they had been dispossessed 
by the Moabites (Dt. 2. 10 ' n ) before the Exodus. 
The people were cognate to Israel, Moab being the 
son of Lot, the nephew of Abraham, through incest 
with his elder daughter (Gn. 19. 37 ). The Israelites 
came in contact with M. before they crossed the 
Jordan. Moab seems at this time to have been op- 
pressed by Sihon, king of Heshbon. The arrival 
of the tribes of Israel supplied them with powerful 
allies. Sihon was conquered and slain ; his terri- 
tory was seized by the Israelites. The Moabites 
began to dread their previous allies. Balak, the 
then k. of Moab, unable to try war, hired Balaam 
to blight Israel with his potent curse. He came 
but he was not allowed to curse Israel. Though 
he knew the impotence of his maledictions, as he 
had been hindered fm. uttering them, yet he en- 
deavoured to succeed by indirect means, seducing 
Israel so to sin that JHWH would Himself curse 
them. Balak united himself with Midian to 
accomplish this purpose by alluring the children of 
Israel to take part in the lustful rites of Baal-peor. 
During the conquest of Canaan M. held aloof, 
although the herds and sheepfolds of Reuben cd. 
only have been barely defended when the choice 
of the Reubenite warriors were westward of the 
Jordan, and wd. appear a ready prey. After the 
death of Joshua, and of Othniel, who had de- 
livered Israel fm. the power of Chushan-Rishtha- 
thaim, the people again sinned, and Eglon, k. of 
M., who had united under his rule Amalek and 
Ammon to his native kingdom, captured Jericho 
and held the southern portion of Palestine in 
subjection. He was slain by Ehud (Jg. 3. 12 " 31 ). 
With this exception the relations between Israel 
and Moab appear to have been friendly, as may 
be seen in the story of Ruth. Notwithstand- 
ing, in the Deuteronomic law the Moabite and 
Ammonite were excluded fm. the "congregation." 
This prohibition must have meant that no sept of 
Moabites cd. settle down in the land of Israel, and, 
in virtue of this, claim the covenant privileges of 
Israel. Although Saul maintained war against 
Moab (1 S. 14. 47 ), yet David, pleading possibly his 
descent fm. Ruth, committed his father and mother 
to the care of the king of Moab (1 S. 22. 3 ' 4 ). When 
David conquered Moab there seems to be a bitter- 
ness in his treatment of the people wh. points to 
some act of very special treachery either to him or to 
Israel wh. has not been recorded ; perhaps they had 
taken advantage of David's absence in his Syrian 
wars to invade the fields of Reuben. While tribu- 
tary under David and Solomon, they appear to have 
taken the opportunity afforded them by the division 
of the kingdom to regain their independence. This 
they retained until Omri made them once more 



47i 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Moa 



tributary (Moabite Stone, lines 4, 5). After the 

death of Ahab Moab rebelled (2 K. I. 1 ) against 

Israel. This subjugation lasted, according to the 

Moabite Stone, 40 years. Mesha does not claim to 

have regained independence, but to have wrested 

most of the territory of Reuben, and to have 

destroyed local sanctuaries of JHWH. Jehoram, 

against whom he had rebelled, summoned to his 

aid Jehoshaphat his ally, and made an expedition 

against Moab round the southern end of the Dead 

Sea. After suffering great hardships the army of 

Israel gained such successes that only his capital city 

was left to Mesha ; then some mysterious disaster 

appears to have fallen on the confederate force. 

The invasion of Judah by " Moab, Amnion, and Mount 
Seir" narrated in 2 Ch. 20. is difficult to place, especially 
in relation to the expedition recorded in 2 K. 3. 4 - 27 . At 
first sight it mt. be thought to be a garbled account of 
that campaign. Closer inspection renders that improbable ; 
indeed, except that Jehoshaphat is on one side, and Moab, 
presumably under Mesha, on the other, there does not 
seem any resemblance at all. It wd. seem most natural 
to regard it as taking place after the campaign of Jehoram 
and his allies. After the host of his enemies had melted 
away fm. the land of Moab, not impossibly Mesha induced 
the king of Edom to break away fm. Jehoshaphat, as he 
seems to have been in correspondence with Mesha before. 
When he attempts his desperate sally fm. Kir-Hareseth the 
effort is to cut through to the king of Edom. The Am- 
monites wd. be ready enough to join in an attack on Israel 
north or south. To pick up the forces of Edom they wd. 
naturally proceed round the south of the Dead Sea. They 
appear to have made their way along the shore, and only 
emerged into the uplands of Judea through the gorge at 
Engedi. After the decisive overthrow inflicted on them 
the confederacy was broken up : Edom again became tribu- 
tary to Judah, Ammon fell back to a purely observant 
attitude, and Moab sank to a secondary place. 

The revolution wh. annihilated the house of 
Omri kept the Northern Kdm. fm. intervening 
in Moab. 

The war with Syria wh. Jehu, who had succeeded 
to the house of Ahab, had to carry on, and the ad- 
vance of the Assyrian power, gave Moab oppor- 
tunity to retain its independence. We next hear of 
Moab by Salmannu, a king of Moab, subdued by 
Tiglath-pileser (b.c. 733) 5 a later king, Chemosh- 
nadab, paid tribute to Sennacherib (b.c 701) ; 
later still Mushuri is catalogued as a vassal king in 
the lists of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, along 
with Manasseh of Judah. When Nebuchadnezzar 
reclaimed for Babylon the Assyrian Empire, Moab 
appears to have submitted without a struggle. 
When Jehoiakim rebelled against Babylon the 
Moabites showed their loyalty to their master and 
indulged their spite against Judah by combining 
with the Syrians and Ammonites to assist the bands 
of Chaldeans to ravage the land of Judah (2 K. 2/\.. 2 ). 
It seems probable that they shared in the rebellion 
of Zedekiah and that then the destruction de- 
nounced upon them by Isaiah and Jeremiah actually 
occurred (Is. 15., 16. ; Jr. 48.). After this M. dis- 
appears fm. history. In Maccabean times the 
Nabatasans occupy the land of Moab (1 M. 5. 25 ' 28 ). 



The character of the Moabites can only partially 
be deduced fm. the notices of them in Scripture and 
fm. the stela of Mesha. Physically the Moabites 
seem to have been characterised by bigness and 
stoutness. The fatness of Eglon is a distinct feature 
in the Hogarthian picture of his assassination. When 
Ehud proceeded fm. the murder of Eglon to rouse 
his countrymen to rebel and hurl the Moabites fm. 
the land, he took the fords of Jordan against them, 
" and they slew of Moab at that time about ten 
thousand men, all lusty (Heb. 'fat'), and all men 
of valour " (Jg. 3. 14 " 30 ). The suggestion of such a 
description is not that they were unwieldy, but that 
compared with the spare nomads and slightly built 
Hebrews, they were men of bulk. The men whom 
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada slew (2 S. 23. 20 ) are 
called Ariel, " lions of God," a title wh. wd. suggest 
size, if also courage. 

It is to be noted that the LXX inserts huious, "sons," 
taking Ariel for a man's name ; on the other hand the 
Psh. renders ganlorin, "heroes." Although the reading 
of the LXX is accepted by RV. and by Dr. Driver, for 
our part it seems to show the effort cf the Gr. translator 
to get over a difficulty, and not to be the evidence of 
another reading. 

The moral characteristic of Moab, as seen in the 
prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, is pride — a not 
unnatural result of their physical strength. The op- 
pression they inflicted on Israel wd. be the natural 
outcome of this ; and wd. be the harder to endure 
because of it. The numerous cities they possessed 
confirm the statements of the prophets in ascribing 
to Moab wealth and luxury. As they have left no 
literature we can say nothing of their mental endow- 
ments. Clay tablets or potsherds may turn up at 
any time, wh. may reveal much to us. 

The greatest light was thrown on the language 
and religion of Moab, and to some extent on its 
history and geography also, by the discovery about 
forty years ago of the stela of Mesha, commonly 
called the " Moabite Stone." M. Clermont- 
Ganneau heard of this monument in 1868, and 
secured a squeeze of it. The Arabs, thinking it 
must be a talisman, or that the inscription was a 
magic formula, and afraid to let such a thing pass 
into the possession of unbelieving Franks, broke it 
in pieces, and distributed the fragments. Most of 
these have been recovered, and have been pieced 
together. From the squeeze most of the missing 
sections of the inscription have been deciphered. 
It was a slab of black basalt about 3J feet high by 
2 feet wide, curved on the top. The inscription is 
in the angular script found in the Phoenician in- 
scriptions, and afterwards in that of Siloam. Though 
it is easily accessible to scholars it may be well to give 
the translation of it here. 

(1) I am Mesha, son of Chemoshgad, king of Moab, the 
Dibonite. (2) My father reigned over Moab thirty years, 
and I (3) reigned after my father. And I made this High 
Place to Chemosh in QRHH., a High Place of Salvation 



472 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Moa 



(4) because he had delivered me fm. all that assailed me, 
and because he let me see (my desire) on my enemies. 

(5) Omri, king of Israel, afflicted Moab many days, because 
Chemosh was angry with his land. (6) His son succeeded 
him, and he also said, " I will afflict Moab" ; in my days 
said he (thus). (7) But I saw (my desire) upon him and 
upon his house, and Israel perishing, perished for ever. Omri 
had annexed the land of (8) Mehedeba ; and Israel dwelt 
therein during his days and half his son's days, forty years, 
but Chemosh restored it (9) in my days. And I built 
Baal-Meon and I made in it the ? reservoir? and I built 
(10) Qiryathaim. And the men of Gad had dwelt in the 
land of 'Ataroth fm. of old, and the king of Israel (n) had 



against Yahatz and took it (21) to add it to Dibon. I 
built QRHH, the wall of the forests, and the waif of (22) 
? the mound (ophel) : and I built its gates and I built its 
towers. And (23) I built the king's palace and I made two 
reservoirs for water in the midst of (24) the city in QRHH, 
and I said to all the people, " Make (25) for yourselves every 
man a cistern in his house." I dug the moat (cut the cutting) 
for QRHH by means of the prisoners of (26) Israel. I built 
Aroer and I made the highway by the ARNON (27). I 
built Beth-Bamoth for it was pulled down. 1 built Betzer 
(28) for it had become ruins, with the help of fifty men fm. 
Dibcn, for all Dibon obeyed me. And I reigned (29) over 
a hundred chiefs in the cities wh. I added to the land. 
And I built (30) Mehedeba and Beth-Diblathen and Beth- 
Ba'al-Me'on ; and I took thither . . . (31) . . . sheep of 
the land. As for Horonain there dwelt in it . . . (32) 
And Chemosh said to me, " Go down, fight against Horo- 
nain," and I went down . . . (33) . . . and Chemosh re- 
stored it in my days. . ." After this the inscription survives 
only in detached letters. 

The Language. — The script, as we have already 
said, is practically identical with that found in the 
Siloam inscription, those in Phoenicia, and in Sin- 
jirli. It may be regarded as a dialect of Hebrew. 
It has some most striking peculiarities of Hebrew, 
e.g. the waw conversive, the definite article ha, and 
'etb, the sign of the accusative. There are, however, 
several distinct points of difference. The plural of 
nouns masculine is n 9 not im as in Hebrew. In this 
it relates itself to Aramaic, as also by its use of oh for 
the pronominal suffix of the third pers. masc. in- 
stead of 6 as in Hebrew. This peculiarity is found 
in Phoenician. Another peculiarity it shares with 
that dialect also is the first personal pronoun anokh 
instead of anokhi as in Hebrew. The most remark- 
able characteristic is its affinity with Arabic as mani- 
fested in a form of the verb (a conjugation) wh. is 
found only in Arabic, ifta'el. The presence of 
Aramaic and Arabic forms is easily explicable fm. 
their proximity to the desert and the caravan route 
fm. Damascus to Arabia. Were more inscriptions 
discovered it is possible we shd. find more affinities, 
and perhaps relations to other Semitic languages 
than those mentioned. 

Religion. — The Moabites appear to have wor- 
shipped only Chemosh ; even when he speaks of 
Ashtaroth-Chemosh Mesha means merely that 
Chemosh has the attributes of Ishtar. There is no 
distinct evidence that the Moabites universalised 
Chemosh so as to recognise in him the supreme 
God. They wd. thus be strictly " henotheists." 
On the other hand we have no certain knowledge 
that the Moabites did not do so ; Mesha refers to 
JHWH and His sacred vessels, but we have no 
certain evidence that they did not regard Chemosh 
as supreme and look on JHWH as merely the 
national god of the Hebrews. Certainly the argu- 
mentum ad. hominem wh. Jephthah addressed to the 
Ammonites implies that they believed Chemosh to 
the ? vessels? of (18) JHWH, and I dragged "them before be tneir g od distinctively, and that JHWH Stood 
Chemosh. And the king of Israel had built (19) Yahatz merely on the same level (Jg. II. 24 ). Only it wd. 
and abode in it while he fought against me But Chemosh • h noticirig that Chemosh is there 

drove him out from before me, and (20) I took of Moab , \. . , . . & . , tv/tit. 

two hundred men all its chiefs and I caused them to go up spoken of as god of the Ammonites, and not Molech. 

473 




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The Moabite Stone 



built for himself 'Ataroth. But I fought against the city 
and took it. And I slew all the people of (12) the city, a 
spectacle to Chemosh and to Moab, and I brought thence 
the ? altar hearth of Dodoh? (?the Ariel of David?) and 
I ? brought? (13) it before Chemosh in Qeryioth, and I 
settled in it the men of ? Sharon? and of (14) MHRT. And 
Chemosh said to me, " Take Nebah against Israel," and I 
(15) went by night and fought against it fm. break of day till 
noon and I took (16) it, and I slew it wholly, seven thousand 
(men and boys) and women (17) and strangers, and slaves, for 
I had devoted it to ? Ashtoreth-Chemosh? and I took thence 



Mol 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mol 



As, however, Molech is certainly attributive, being 
simply the Hebrew word for " king," with the 
vowels of bosheth, " shame," the probability is 
that Chemosh is so also ; the word seems to mean 
" the subduer." He might be worshipped in Moab 
as the War God, the counterpart of the title JHWH 
among the Jews, " the Lord of Hosts." As it was 
the influence of the Prophets that kept before Israel 
the universal aspect of their God, " the Creator of 
heaven and earth," and there are no evidences of 
the existence among the Moabites of such an order, 
.on the whole the probability is that they were 
strictly " henotheistic." Although Mesha sacrificed 
his son in the extremity of the siege, it wd. seem that 
human sacrifices were not so common in the worship 
of Chemosh as they were in that of Molech. There 
is unquestionably a certain parallelism between the 
religion of M. and that of Israel ; the devotion of 
Nebo by Mesha to absolute destruction being 
paralleled by that of Jericho ; and the offering up of 
the son of Mesha by that of the daughter of Jeph- 
thah. The fact that they had become " heno- 
theistic," and were thus on the sliding scale towards 
polytheism, put them out of the line of the religious 
progress of the world. 

MOLADAH, an unidentd. city of Judah (Jo. 
15. 26 ), or Simeon (19. 2 ), wh. prob. lay near Beer- 
sheba. It has nothing to do with Tell el-Milh, 
with which some would identify it. The site has 
not been recovered. 

MOLE. (1) Tinshemetb (Lv. n. 30 , RV. "cha- 
meleon "), a species of lizard. The same word de- 
notes an unclean bird, trd. by RV. " horned owl " 
(Lv. n. 18 = Dt. 14. 16 ). Tristram suggests the ibis 
or water-hen ; Gesenius the pelican. (2) Haphar- 
pardb, pi. bapbarpdroth (Is. 2. 20 ; MT. bapbor- 
peroth). The word occurs here only, and the mean- 
ing is obscure. It prob. refers quite generally to the 
" burrowing " animals wh abound in Pal. The 
true mole does not occur there, but the mole-rat, 
wh. belongs to a different order, is found in multi- 
tudes. " It is about nine inches long, yellowish 
brown tinged with slaty grey in colour, without 
any apparent ears and hardly any eyes. It has 
large, projecting, powerful incisor teeth, wh. give 
its face a strange and dangerous expression " (Hart. 
Animals of the Bible, 1551".). 

MOLECH (MOLOCH,MILCOM),really Melek 
with the vowels of bosbetb, " shame." The Hebrews 
probably pronounced it "Bosheth" ; just as JHWH, 
the sacred name, received the vowels of Jdonai, and 
was pronounced by the reader " Adonai." The 
name is simply attributive, hence to say that M. 
was the " god of the Ammonites " is merely to an- 
nounce that they worshipped their principal deity 
under this title. It seems to have become a per- 
sonal name, as his full title became Melek-Baal, 
" King Lord " ; wh. may be compared to the 



scriptural "Lord God" (JHWH 'Elobim). He 
was worshipped by offerings of infants. It has been 
urged that the phrase " to cause to pass through the 
fire to Molech " described not a sacrifice, but rather 
a rite of initiation, or consecration, a heathen 
equivalent of circumcision. It is probable enough 
that the rite mt. become softened to that extent ; 
Jerome renders Jr. 32. 35 in this sense. There is, 
however, no possible ambiguity in Jr. 7. 31 : " They 
have built the high places of Tophet, wh. is in the 
valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and 
their daughters in the fire " (cp. 2 K. 23. 10 : " He 
defiled Topheth, wh. is in the valley of the sons of 
Hinnom, that no man mt. make his son or his 
daughter to pass through the fire to Molech"). The 




Moloch with Attributes of Saturn 
practice is expressly forbidden in Lv. 18. 21 : " Thou 
shalt not let any of thy seed pass (' give any of thy 
seed to cause them to pass,' RV.) through the fire 
to Molech." Where the title Melek was given to 
deity there appears frequently to have been a 
similar worship. " The Sepharvites burned their 
children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anam- 
melech, gods of Sepharvaim " (2 K. 17. 31 ). Among 
the Phoenicians and their descendants the Cartha- 
ginians, under the title Melkarth (Melek-Qartha), 
Baal was worshipped, as seen by such names as 
Hamilcar, Bomilcar, &c. The Greeks identified 
this deity with Kronos, and the Romans with 
Saturn, and to him classic historians represent the 
Carthaginians sacrificing boys (Diodorus Sic. xiii. 
86, xx. 14). Some have thought that there was a 
very widespread worship of this divinity in Israel in- 
dependently of the action of such monarchs as Solo- 
mon, who have the odium attached to their names 



474 



Mon 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mon 



of introducing it. Tnis is implied in the fact that 
such offerings were expressly forbidden in Lv. l8. 21 , 
20. 2f - There indeed appears to have been a ten- 
dency to mingle the worship of Molech-Baal with 
that of the God of Israel, for only in that way can we 
explain the disclaimer wh. Jeremiah puts in the 
mouth of " the Lord of Hosts" (Jr. 19. 5 ) : "They 
have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their 
sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal, wh. I 
commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into 
My mind." Such names as Malchishua, Malchiram, 
&c, seem to point in the same direction. Solomon, 
while he is represented as turned away fm. God by 
his wives, probably reasoned philosophically, that 
Molech (Melek) was J." known by an attribute, and, 
moreover, that many of his people so worshipped ; 
therefore that it was right that he, as king, shd. 
represent the feelings of his subjects. " The hill 
before Jrs." on wh. Solomon built the high places to 
Molech and Chemosh was clearly Mount Olivet, on 
wh. tradition has placed them. Later, these burn- 
ings to Molech appear to have been perpetrated in 
the valley to the SW., the valley of the sons of 
Hinnom, instead of on a hill to the E. Ahaz and 
Manasseh, of the subsequent kings of Judah, are re- 
corded as having been guilty of this worship. The 
stern opposition of Law and Prophets to the wor- 
ship of such deities was due to the fact that, altho' 
they had been originally names of the supreme God, 
they had become henotheistic, and naturally tended 
to polytheism, with all its moral and spiritual de- 
gradation. The name is spelt Moloch in Am. 5. 2G 
and Ac. 7. 43 . Milcom is only another form of M., 
and really means " their king," as proved by I K. 
II. 5 (cp. II. 7 ). It occurs three times (1 K. Il. 5 > 33 ; 
2. K. 23. 13 ). Some have maintained these to be 
separate, but without any plausibility. 

MONEY. Money defined as " metal stamped in 
pieces of portable form as a medium of exchange 
and measure of value " seems to have been an in- 
vention of the kings of Lydia in the seventh century 
b.c. In this sense it was not used by the Hebrews 
until after the Exile. But the age of barter pure 
and simple had passed before the beginning of Old 
Testament history. Silver and gold were the 
media of exchange, and the Hebrew word for silver 
is often translated " money " in the English version. 

The early Hebrew legends refer often to incidents 
in the land of Palestine long before it was occupied 
by the Hebrew people. In this early age the land 
was already highly civilised, and strongly influenced 
by — often under the direct governance of — Baby- 
lonia and Egypt. During this period gold and 
silver were used for purchases, and were kept in the 
form of bars, either straight or, in Egypt at least, 
sometimes curved into rings. The system of 
weighing these would naturally be that of the two 
countries. That the Babylonian system of weigh- 



ing money was in use then not only in Babylonia 
but also in Syria and Palestine, is known for the 
fifteenth century b.c from the Tel el-Amarna 
tablets. This scale was — 



60 shekels: 
60 minas : 



1 mina. 
1 talent. 



(Cf. Weights and Measures.) The ordinary com- 
mercial shekel weighed about 126 grains. There 
was also another series of weights of the same names 
but double the weight of these, i.e. the heavy 
shekel weighed about 252 grains. These values 
were kept in weighing gold, but for silver a shekel a 
third heavier was adopted, i.e. one of 168 grains, 
while the mina was now made to contain only 50 
shekels. Apparently this alteration was made in 
order that a shekel of silver might be one-tenth of a 
shekel of gold in value, instead of three-fortieths, as 
it would have been had the weights been the same. 

In addition to the common standard for the 
weights as already given, there was a royal standard, 
according to which the shekel of gold in the first 
scale weighed 130 grains instead of 126. 

From the time of their entrance into Palestine to 
the Exile the Hebrews used gold and silver by 
weight for purchasing. Nothing is known of any 
official standard of purity. Buyers and sellers alike 
could test the weight of the metal by the balances 
they carried in the wallet (Dt. 25. 13 ). At the same 
time pieces of a known weight were probably in use 
(as the quarter-shekel in 1 S. C;. 8 ), though these, too, 
would be tested by any but a prophet. Judging by 
the information of Josephus, the Hebrews seem to 
have adopted the Babylonian scale in weighing gold. 
In regard to silver, however, while the proportions 
of the shekel and mina (Heb. maneh) remained the 
same, there is found a shekel a third lighter in weight, 
i.e. about 112 grains. This was the weight of the 
Phoenician shekel, which was widely used in the 
commercial world of the period. It has been 
carefully calculated by Professor Kennedy (HDB. 
iii. 420) that the value of the heavy gold shekel in 
ordinary use was about £2, is., that of the silver 
shekel about 2s. o,d. Thus the gold maneh was 
about ^102, 1 os. and the talent ^6150, while the 
silver maneh was about £6, 16s. 8d. and the talent 
about £410. 

In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and once in 
Chronicles (1 Ch. 2c;. 7 , an anachronism), mention is 
made of " darkemonim," translated in the Revised 
Version by " darics." These darics were Persian 
coins (see below) generally supposed to have been 
first coined by Darius, and worth about £1, is. But 
the Authorised Version is probably correct in trans- 
lating " drams," referring to weight. In Ezra 8. 27 
the reference is undoubtedly to weight. The 
Hebrew word seems to be a transliteration of the 
Greek " drachma," which was a weight of 66\ 
grains. 



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The " shekel of the sanctuary " which is men- From the time of Alexander the Great coins 

tioned in the P. documents of the Pentateuch (be- must have been numerous and varied. Alexander's 

longing to this period) is the old silver shekel of 224 gold didrachm (of 133 grains), his silver tetradrachm 

grains. During the Persian period Persian coins (266 grs.), and drachm (66% grs.) were used here as 





Copper Quarter-Shekel 



Silver Half-Shekel 





Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Lysimachus, King of Thrace Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Demetrius I. 




Copper Coins of Vespasian, representing the Mourning of Judaea for her Captivity 



circulated in Palestine. There were the golden 
stater or daric (mentioned above), on which is re- 
presented the king kneeling and holding bow and 
spear ; and the silver siglos or shekel (called the 
Median shekel) weighing about 87 grains and worth 
a little over a shilling. 



elsewhere, and bronze coins were introduced. 
Some of the tetradrachms have been discovered in 
Palestine. At the same time the silver coins of such 
cities as Tyre, Sidon, and Gaza were in circulation. 
For about 100 years after Alexander's death 
(b.c. 301-198) Palestine was ruled by Egypt, and 



476 



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its coins were taken from the Egyptian mints at 
Alexandria and other Mediterranean cities. These 
coins followed the Phoenician standard. The 
drachm weighed 56 grains and the double drachm 
or silver shekel 112 grains, worth about is. 5jd. 
The term didrachm is, however, often used in the 
Alexandrian version of the Old Testament to trans- 
late the Hebrew shekel, just as it had come to be 
used in ordinary language for the tetradrachm. In 
B.C. 198 Palestine passed to the Seleucids, and again 
the coinage changed. The Seleucid coins were 
gold, silver, and bronze. The standard used was 
the Attic, though the Phoenician still existed beside 
it (at any rate from b.c. 150 to 100), while, as the 
Seleucid power declined, various autonomous cities 
issued their own coins. The weight, too, varied, the 
tetradrachm being sometimes as high as 265 grains. 
As on the Ptolemaic coins, the head of the ruler ap- 
peared on one side, and his name and title in Greek 
with a device on the other. 

In the reign of Antiochus Epiphanus (b.c. 175-164) 
came the revolt under the Maccabees, and with it 
after a time the issue for the first time of a native 
Jewish coinage. According to 1 M. 15. 6 Antio- 
chus VII. Sidetes (b.c. 138-129), writing to Simon 
Maccabseus, said : " I give thee leave to coin money 
for thy country with thine own stamp." Whether 
Simon exercised this right or not is disputed. Some 
silver shekels and half-shekels have been found in 
Jerusalem and Jericho with inscriptions on both 
sides in the old Hebrew character. On the obverse 
is " Shekel (or half-shekel) of Israel," on the reverse 
" Jerusalem the holy," with numbers from 1 to 5. 
On the obverse is also a jewelled cup, on the reverse 
a branch of lily with three flowers. The belief that 
these are coins of Simon has been held of late years 
by most numismatists, but has been seriously at- 
tacked by Prof. Kennedy (HDB. III. 424), who in 
turn has been answered by Theodore Reinach 
(Jewish Coins, London, 1903), who gives reasons for 
believing that. they must be assigned to this period. 
It is certain, however, that the right of coining gold 
and silver was very strictly guarded by kings, and 
that if this privilege was granted to Simon, it was 
withdrawn from his successors, whose coins are of 
copper only, until the later revolts under Hadrian 
and Vespasian. According to the Mishnah the 
silver of Tyre, which about this time won the privi- 
lege of coining silver shekels, was used in paying the 
Temple tax. John Hyrcanus (b.c 135-104) issued 
small bronze coins (weighing about 28 grains). 
Three specimens of these are in the British Museum. 
On one side in Hebrew is " John the High Priest 
and the Commonwealth (or Senate) of the Jews," 
on the other a double cornucopia with a poppy-head 
between. Nearly all the types used on Jewish coins 
(cornucopia, flower, star, &c.) are borrowed from 
Seleucid coins, care being taken only to avoid the 



representation of any living thing, in accordance 
with Jewish law. From the time of Alexander 
Jannaeus (b.c. 104-78) it was customary to have the 
king's name in Hebrew on one side of the coin and in 
Greek on the other, the Hebrew name being used in 
the one case, the Greek in the other. Thus the 
coins of Alexander have in Hebrew " Jonathan the 
king," in Greek " Alexander the king." The last 
Maccabean, Antigonus II., has " Antigonus the 
High Priest " in Hebrew and " Antigonus king "' in 
Greek. 

The Idumean dynasty founded by Herod (b.c. 37) 
was entirely subordinate to Rome. But the coinage 
of gold was entirely forbidden in Roman provinces, 
while that of silver was only allowed to certain cities. 
Herod's coinage w r as therefore of copper only. The 
inscriptions were now in Greek only " King Herod." 
The types were still those of the Seleucid coins 
(such as the cornucopia, pomegranate, helmet, &c), 
and from respect to Jewish feeling were inanimate 
until, towards the end of his life, Herod introduced 
an eagle on them. Archelaus used the title " eth- 
narch " ; Antipas has the inscription " Herod te- 
trarch " on one side and the name of the Emperor 
Tiberius on the other. The coins of Agrippa 
(" King Agrippa ") were the last lawfully struck in 
Jerusalem. While the coins mentioned above were 
used for local purposes, the money of the Roman 
Empire (of which Judaea was a province in a.d. 6) was 
in circulation for business purposes. There were 
the gold aureus, worth from £1, os. 6d. under Caesar 
to 1 8s. 8d. under Nero ; the silver denarius, which 
was a twenty-fifth of the aureus, i.e. about 9^d. 
Beside this imperial money was the provincial silver 
and copper coinage of Antioch and later of Caesarea 
Cappadociae, based on the Greek and Phoenician 
standards, as well as the copper money issued from 
the Procurator's mint at Caesarea, while the Tyrian 
tetradrachms ( = 4 denarii) were also in use up to 
the time of Josephus. 

The money mentioned in the New Testament is 
for the most part of Greek or Roman origin, and 
consisted of gold, silver, and copper (Mw. io. 9 ). 
The talent (Mw. 18. 24 , 25. 15 ) represents a sum of 
money equivalent to 6000 denarii, i.e. about ^240, 
and the mina or " pound " (Lk. 19. 13 ) the sum of 
loo denarii or .£4. 

Of actual coins, the stater (Mw. 17. 27 ), translated 
" piece of money " in the AV., " shekel " in the 
RV., was the Tyrian tetradrachm mentioned above. 
The didrachm (Mw. 17. 24 ), translated " tribute 
money " in the AV., " half-shekel " in the RV., was 
a somewhat rare coin half the value of the preceding. 
The drachme (Lk. 15. 8 ' 9 ), translated "piece of 
silver," was a silver coin of Greek origin, in com- 
merce equivalent to the denarius, but in official 
payments reckoned as worth only three-fourths of 
that coin. 



477 



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Moo 



The denarion (of Roman origin = denarius), tran- 
slated " penny " in the English versions (the Ameri- 
can revisers wished to translate " assarion " penny, 
and " denarion " shilling, except in Mw. 22. 19 ; Mk. 
12. 15 ; Lk. 20. 24 , where they proposed to give the 
name of the coin, " denarius ") (Mw. 18. 28 , 20, 2 « 9 * 13 , 
22. 19 ; Mk. 6. 37 , 12. 15 , 14. 5 ; Lk. 7. 41 , io. 35 , 20. 24 ; 
Jn. 6. 7 , 12. 5 ; Rv. 6. 6 ), was a silver coin worth 
about 9^d. 

The assarion (of Roman origin), translated in 
AV. and RV. " farthing " (Mw. io. 29 ; Lk. 12. 6 ), 
was a bronze coin worth about two-thirds of a 
penny. The kodrantes (of Latin origin = quad- 
rans), also translated " farthing " (Mw. 5. 26 ; Mk. 
12. 42 ), was a bronze coin worth about a sixth of a 
penny. The lepton or " mite " (Mk. 12. 42 ; Lk. 
12. 59 , 2 1. 2 ) was the smallest bronze coin (of Greek 
origin) , worth about a twelfth of a penny. 

Twice in later times Jewish coins were again 
struck. To the period of the " first revolt " (a.d. 
66-70) Prof. Kennedy assigns the shekels mentioned 
above under Simon. Some coppers are also ascribed 
to this revolt. At the time of the " second revolt " 
(a.d. 132-135) imperial denarii, drachms and 
tetrachms were re-struck with Jewish types and 
Hebrew inscriptions. Many of these are extant. 

Bibliography : F. W. Madden, Coins of the Jews, 
London, 1881 (reissued 1903) ; A. R. S. Kennedy, 
Article " Money " in vol. iii. of Hastings' 1 Bible 
Dictionary, 1900 ; Th. Reinach, Jewish Coins, 
London, 1903 ; The British Museum Catalogues of 
Ptolemaic and Seleucid Coins ; various standard 
works on Greek and Roman coins. 

G. W. Thatcher. 

MONEY-CHANGERS. There was obvious 
need of the money-changer in Palestine in the time 
of Christ, who might change the money brought by 
pilgrims and others from all quarters of the empire 
into the current coin of the country. His modern 
counterpart is equally indispensable to-day. The 
multitude of coins of various denominations floating 
about in the market and among the people is quite 
bewildering to any but an expert. Regular charge 
is made, not only for changing money from one 
currency to another, but also for " change " in our 
colloquial sense, turning, e.g., the pound into shillings 
and pence. In this matter the simple country folk 
are often grievously over-reached. The main busi- 
ness of the money-changers in the Temple court 
was no doubt connected with the payment of the 
Temple dues. This must in every case be paid in 
the money of the Sanctuary ; the half-shekel alone 
being accepted. This coin was worth about is. 4^-d. 
of our money. The recognised charge for furnish- 
ing the half-shekel, according to the Talmud, was 
a kolluhos, worth about i|-d. Hence the money- 
changer was called MMw^j (Mw. 21. 12 ; Mk.n. 15 ). 
The convenience of these men in the outer court of 



the Temple, for Jews of the Dispersion, is obvious. 
Then, as always, attempts were made to cheat the 
money-changers by palming off on them spurious 
coin. This required them to be constantly on the 
alert, and gave point to the unwritten saying of 
Christ to His disciples, " Be ye expert money- 
changers," exercising the same skill and care as to 
the teaching which should be received. 

The reference to " exchangers " (RV. " bankers ") 
in Mw. 25. 27 , and to the " bank " in Lk. 19. 23 , with 
a view to interest (RV.), shows that certain of these 
men at least were accustomed to receive money 
on deposit, at a certain rate of interest, making a 
profit, no doubt, by lending it out to others. 

MOON (Heb. yareah and lebanah ; in Asyr. 
irrihu, and in Eth. wareh ; in Aram, the corre- 
sponding word means " month," Gr. selene). In 
Gn. i. 14 " 16 the M. and the other heavenly bodies 
have as the purpose of their being to " be for signs 
and for seasons, and for days and for years," and " to 
give light upon the earth." This geocentric view 
was the natural one to present itself to primitive 
peoples. The brilliant white light of the M. is at 
once more striking and more useful in the E. than in 
more northern latitudes. But as the most notice- 
able feature in the phenomena presented by the 
moon was her changing phases and her continually 
varying relation to the constellations, fm. wh. latter 
it got its most common Heb. name of yareah, " the 
wanderer," it was as a measurer of time that she was 
primarily observed. It is likely that it wd. be a 
much longer time before the progress of the sun 
through the heavens wd. be observed in semi- 
tropical countries like Babylonia and Egypt, in wh., 
as they had no mechanical means of measuring time, 
the difference between the longest and shortest 
days, though amounting to between three and four 
hours, wd. not be definitely noted. It is thus not 
impossible that the earliest year, shanah, " repeti- 
tion," was reckoned by the changes of the moon. It 
does not seem that the Jews had any idea that the M. 
shone with a borrowed light ; in Gn. it seems to be 
thought as much an independent source of light as 
the sun. Singularly, although the variation in the 
phases of the moon mt. be supposed to suggest 
changefulness, to the Jew it was the symbol of per- 
manence. The regularity and invariableness of the 
succession seem to have made a greater impression 
than the changes themselves. So we find in Ps. 72. 
that the reverence given to the Messiah shd. be " as 
long as the sun and moon endure," and his " peace 
so long as the M. endureth " (see also 89. 37 ). It 
was regarded as having at once a beneficial and a 
hurtful effect; thus in Dt. 33. 14 the blessing of 
Joseph was to consist of " precious things put forth 
by the moon " ; but at the same time in Ps. 121. 6 
one of the blessings of the saint is that the moon 
shall not smite him by night. The Hebrews do not 



478 



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Mor 



seem to have supposed any connection between 
madness and the phases of the M. such as is implied 
in the Gr. seleniazomai. They had noticed the 
phenomena of eclipses of the moon, but do not 
appear to have had any idea of their periodicity. 
In Jl. 2. 31 the description of the M. being turned 
into blood gives a vivid picture of the scene. 

Lunar Festivals. — Although the feast of New 
Moon does not appear to have formed part of 
Mosaic legislation, that it shd. be a holiday was 
assumed, and the special sacrifices for that day 
arranged (Nu. 28. 11 ), in succession to the sacrifices 
for the Sabbaths. It seemed to be a day when, ac- 
cording to court custom, all members of the court 
feasted with the king ; hence the necessity David 
felt himself under of apologising for his absence 
(1 S. 20. 5 ' 18 » 24 ). In the Northern Kingdom the 
pious seem to have been in the habit of visiting the 
prophets on New Moon (2 K. 4~ 23 ). According to 
Chronicles one of the purposes of the Temple and 
the priesthood was for the offering of the sacrifices 
appropriate to the New Moon. In the ceremonial 
religiosity in Jrs. rebuked by Is. the celebration of 
New Moons is prominent. In later Judaism the 
day of the appearance of the New Moon was fixed 
by observation, nominally, but calculation fixed the 
time when the watchers went out. The full moon 
was the time when the Passover was celebrated. 

Worship of the Moon. — The worship of the 
heavenly bodies was one of the earliest forms of poly- 
theism. Especially was the M. an early object of 
worship. In Jb. 31. 26 ' 27 , " If I beheld ... the moon 
walking in brightness, and my heart hath been 
secretly enticed, and my mouth hath kissed my 
hand," there is reference to some part of heathen 
ritual, kissing the hand at the sight of the M. In 
Egypt Isis was identified with the Moon. In Phoe- 
nicia Ashtoreth, as the feminine equivalent of Baal, 
was the Moon Goddess. In Assyria Sin was the 
Moon God ; and not a few names manifest the pre- 
valence of his worship, e.g. Sennacherib, " Sin has 
multiplied brothers." Jericho by its name wd. 
seem to have been the seat of Moon-worship in 
times before the Israelite conquest. It seems 
doubtful whether the Queen of Heaven, for whom 
the women of Jerusalem made cakes, was the 
Moon (Jr. 7. 18 ). 

MORDECAI, cousin and foster-fr. of Esther (Est. 
2. 7 ). When he is introduced into Bible story he is 
an exile in the Persian capital ; a Benjamite, his 
family had been carried captive with Jeconiah (Est. 
2. 5 « 6 ). Contemporary with the elevation of his 
foster-dr. M. becomes an official of the court (Est. 
2. 19 ) and thus is in a position to learn of a conspiracy 
against Ahasuerus and to frustrate it. When the 
king raised Haman to be vizier M. refused to do him 
reverence (Est. 3. 2 ). We are not informed why he 
did so. It may be that he regarded Ex, 17. 16 as re- 



quiring every Jew to show enmity to Amalek. 
Haman determined on his part not only to destroy 
M., but also the whole Jewish race. The service 
that M. had rendered him was brought to the re- 
membrance of the K., and he called upon Haman to 
show honour to M. (Est. 6. 1 " 11 ). After the deliver- 
ance of the Jews was secured through the interces- 
sion of Esther, M. became vizier instead of Haman. 
The etymology of the name is not certain. 




Alleged Tomb of Esther and Mordecai 

MOREH (from the Heb. verb yarah, " to teach," 
" to instruct ") is a " teacher," " director " (2 K. 
17. 28 ; Is. 30. 20 , &c), or " prophet " (Is. 9. 15 ). The 
M. was often consulted sitting under a tree {see 
Meonenim). (i) The plain (RV. correctly, " oak ") 
of M. (Gn. 12. 6 ), a name wh. may have preserved 
the memory of Abraham's experience near Shechem. 
(2) The terebinths of M. (Dt. n. 30 , RVm.) were 
also near Shechem, but neither position is now 
known. (3) The " hill of M." (Jg. 7. 1 ) may be 
Jebel ed-Duby, popularly called Little Hermon. It 
lay N. of the Midianites' position (6. 33 ), while, if the 
identification of " the spring of Harod " with 'Ain 
Jalud is correct, Gideon lay on the N. slopes of 
Gilboa. " The M." (Heb.) may point to an anct. 
sanctuary, the successor of wh. is the white-domed 
Neby Duhy. 

MORESHETH. See Moresheth-Gath. 

MORESHETH-GATH (Mi. i. 14 ) may be the 
native place of Micah, who is called the Morashtite 
(i. 1 ; Jr. 26. 18 , RV.). The meaning is not clear. It 
may be M. of Gath; then M. wd. be near that city. 
OEJ. places it near Eleutheropolis — Beit Jibrin. 

MORIAH. Abraham was directed " to the land 
of M." (Gn. 22. 2 ), nowhere else mentioned in Scrip., 
and on " one of the mountains " there to offer up 
Isaac. He had journeyed three days fm. the land of 
the Phil, when he saw the appointed place " afar 
off." As we know nothing of where the land was, 
or what its boundaries were, it is imposs. to ident, 



479 



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Mos 



the place. The Samaritans lay the scene of the 
sacrifice on Mt. Gerizim : Jewish tradition places it 
on the Temple hill. This seems to be the mind of 
the writer in 2 Ch. 3. 1 , who calls the hill " Mt. 
Moriah." 

MORTAR. Before the hand-mill came into use 
grain was often prepared for culinary purposes by- 
being pounded in a mortar. During recent excava- 
tions in Palestine many ancient mortars have been 
brought to light. They consist of stones, in the 
upper surface of which a hollow is made. The 
pestle is also of stone, cylindrical in shape, and 
rounded at the end. Mortar and pestle may often 
have been made then, as now, of hard wood. Not 
only was grain ground in the mortar, the manna 
was also beaten in it (Nu. II. 8 ). It was also 
used for pounding spices (Ex. 30. 36 ) and for the 
meal-offering (Lv. 2. 14 , RV. " bruised corn "). It 
is said that a mortar made of gold was used in pre- 
paring the incense in the Temple of Herod, by the 
family of Abtines. After the destruction of Jeru- 
salem it was taken to Rome, where it remained till 
the time of Hadrian. 

Now that coffee is universally used in the East the 
coffee mortar is one of the indispensable pieces of 
furniture. The master of the house deems it no 
indignity to pound the brown beans himself, and 
very dexterous many men are in the use of the pestle. 
A common dish, kibbeh, is made of pieces of flesh 
with burghul, boiled wheat, pounded together in a 
mortar. This may be the process glanced at in Pr. 
27. 22 . Maktesh, " mortar," is the " hollow place " 
of Jg. 15. 19 , probably in some way resembling the 
mortar. It is also the name applied to a quarter in 
Jerusalem, most likely for a similar reason. 

MORTAR, MORTER. Homer denotes the 
cement by which building stones are held together. 
Bitumen was used for this purpose in Babylonia 
(Gn. II. 3 , RVm.). Usually in ancient times, as 
now, clay would be used in Pal. It is trodden by 
the feet, to prepare it for use (Na. 3. 14 ), chopped 
straw being added. The mud, ashes, &c, with wh. 
the walls are often plastered (Lv. 14. 42 ' 45 ) and the 
roof laid are mixed with great care, and altho' the 
present writer has not seen it, oil is said to be added 
at times, so that it better resists the rain. Lime is 
now in much more common use in the East. 

MOSERAH, a station in the wilderness, where 
Aaron died and was buried. It is named between 
Beeroth Bene-jaakan and Gudgodah (Dt. io. 7 ). In 
Nu. 33. it appears in the plural form, Moseroth : 
Bene-jaakan appears without the " Beeroth," and 
Gudgodah becomes Hor-haggidgad. The order is 
also changed. Beyond the fact that it was on the 
way to Mount Hor there is nothing to guide us as 
to its position. 

MOSES, son of Amram and Jochebed, a descen- 
dant of Levi (Ex, 6. 18 - 20 ; Nu. 26. 59 ), the liberator 



of Israel fm. their Egyptian bondage, and their 
lawgiver ; he that gave them a religion and welded 
them into a nation ; one of the greatest names in all 
history. The Hebrew nation, fm. enjoying special 
favour, as they did under the Hyksos Kings, under 
whose rule they had entered Egypt, had fallen into 
a disfavour that had deepened into persecution. 
Joseph appears to have been sold into Egypt during 
the reign of Apepa L, the greatest of the Shepherd 
Kings, whose inscriptions have been found in Upper 
Egypt. He it was that made Joseph his vizier, and 
under him Jacob and his family, his slaves and his 
herds, were received into Egypt. Apepa, so far as 
can be discovered fm. the few remains wh. the spite 
of the later dynasties have allowed to come down to 
us, had assimilated himself thoroughly to his sub- 
jects ; a state of matters wh. harmonises with the 
narrative in the book of Genesis and the habits and 
views of the court there presented to us. Under 
Apepa II., a son, it may be, of the friend of Joseph, a 
quarrel broke out between him and his vassal king at 
Thebes. The struggle was prolonged, but at length 
the native forces triumphed, and the armies of the 
Hyksos Kings were driven out of Egypt. This event 
seems to have taken place some time during the 
fifteenth cent, b.c The Israelites did not follow 
the dynasty that had favoured them, but remained 
in Egypt. Suspicion began to grow in the minds of 
the new native Pharaohs that the Hebrews mt. not 
be true to them. The Shepherd Kings had estab- 
lished themselves in Palestine, if we are to believe 
Josephus ; they mt. be liable to reinvade Egypt, 
and the dread was not chimerical that the Hebrews 
mt. join the side of those who had favoured them 
so much in the days of their power. Hence 
the Egyptians began to make efforts to weaken 
the Hebrews. Notwithstanding, they increased in 
numbers, and suspicion became dread. In true 
governmental fashion, the king wishes to destroy the 
Hebrews, but does not wish his hand to appear in 
the matter, so he strives to seduce the midwives to 
do the work for him. The two he experiments on 
will not be his instruments. The next plan that 
suggests itself to the king is the drowning of the 
male children of the Hebrews. This wd. not be an 
open order. Secret orders wd. be given to such 
officials in ancient Egypt as answered to police, that, 
whenever it cd. be done secretly, the boys belonging 
to the Hebrews, especially of the leading families, 
shd. be so disposed of. The oppressed wd. soon 
come to a knowledge of the real meaning of the dis- 
appearance of their boys. It was in these circum- 
stances that Moses was born. His personal beauty 
led his parents to be specially careful about their 
infant son, hiding even the fact of his birth, lest the 
myrmidons of Pharaoh shd. be able to lay hold of 
him. It may have been that the faith with wh. 
Amram and Jochebed are credited in He. II. 23 was 



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that God wd. not leave the seed of Abraham His 
friend thus desolate, but wd. raise up a deliverer for 
them. When concealment was no longer possible 
Jochebed drew courage fm. her despair, put her boy 
in an ark of bulrushes, and consigned it to the river 
herself. It is probable that it was known that the 
daughter of Pharaoh was. accustomed to bathe in 
the Nile about this part. It may also have been 
that the character of this princess was known and 
calculated on. It all fell out as was hoped for. 
The daughter of Pharaoh, accompanied by her 
maidens, came down to bathe in the Nile, and, 
seeing the infant in his coffer, sent one of her maids 
to fetch it to her. When the coffer was opened the 
babe wept, and so won the heart of the princess. 
It somewhat confirms the idea of calculation that 
Miriam, who had been placed to watch, was so 
ready with her suggestion of a nurse ; she must have 
been previously " coached " to come forward so 
opportunely. The princess cannot have known 
of the conspiracy against Israel, nor can she have 
shared the dread and hate that had occasioned it : 
she recognised the babe to be a child of the despised 
Hebrews, but that did not move her to have it 
cast into the river again. Moses was adopted 
by Pharaoh's daughter, but was given back to his 
mother, and thus passed his infancy and early child- 
hood among his own people. In the most impres- 
sible years of his life he had the opportunity of 
learning the faith and hopes of Israel. In his early 
youth he was removed to the palace and formally 
adopted as the son of the daughter of Pharaoh. 

This princess Josephus calls Thermouthis (Ant. II. ix. 5) ; 
Eusebius, on the authority of Artapanus, says her name was 
Merrhis, and that she was the wife of Chenephren, ruler of 
Memphis, but having no children herself adopted Moses. 
One of the daughters of Ramses II. was called Meri. 

Fm. the Biblical narrative we learn that the 
princess called his name Moses " because I drew 
him out of the water." 

This wd. make the probable etymology mo, " water," and 
nshe, " saved," as suggested by Josephus. We are told that 
this etymology is no longer " fashionable " (Bennett, HDB.). 
The received etymology is, it seems, to regard " Moses " as 
a modification of ?}tesu, "child." There is no reason as- 
signed for the preference that seems adequate. That the 
name shd. be modified to suit the Heb. language is but 
natural. 

His education embraced not only all the wisdom 
of the Egyptians in the ordinary sense of the term, 
if we are to believe Josephus, but he also was in- 
structed in military affairs, in wh. he manifested so 
great proficiency that he was appointed commander 
of an expedition against the Ethiopians, and brought 
it to a successful termination. Artapanus, as quoted 
by Eusebius, has a similar account of a conflict with 
the Ethiopians under the leadership of Moses. 
That, brought up as a prince, Moses shd. learn 
something of military organisation is extremely pro- 
bable. No training cd. well have been more neces- 



sary for one who was to lead the thousands of Israel 
through the wilderness. Meantime it wd. seem 
that the more murderous part of the royal policy 
with regard to Israel had been departed fm. ; per- 
haps the action of the princess may have had some- 
thing to do with this. Oppression was again tried : 
toil and scourges were the means by wh. it was 
hoped that the Hebrews wd. be diminished. Now 
a new actor came upon the scene. Sympathy with 
his kinsfolk, intensified on the one hand by sacred 
memories of his early childhood, and on the other 
by taunts at his parentage wh. wd. not be wanting, 
Moses determined to revisit them. The sight of 
their misery moved him to be their deliverer. It is 
probable he hoped to be able to mould these op- 
pressed slaves into warriors who, under his leader- 
ship, mt. wrest their freedom fm. the Egyptians by 
force of arms. His first act towards the assumption 
of leadership was to slay one of the taskmasters 
whom he saw abusing one of his kinsmen, and to 
hide the body of his victim in the sand. It may 
have been that his plan was to paralyse the Egyptian 
oppression by removing its instruments. That the 
oppressed Hebrews shd. have hailed as their leader 
the talented student and successful general who had 
left the pleasures of the court to acknowledge, them 
as his brethren, was a not unnatural expectation. 
If he was to deliver, they must be ready to yield to 
him obedience, and further be prepared to preserve 
an absolute silence as to his plans when they knew 
them. An opportunity soon occurred to test this. 
Two Hebrews were quarrelling, and Moses endea- 
voured to act as peacemaker between them ; but 
his efforts were rejected in a way that led him to 
see that everything was already known to the king. 
He fled instantly, and, travelling along the eastern 
coast of the Red Sea, came at length to the land of 
Midian. He wd. have to avoid the workers in the 
Egyptian mines in the Sinaitic peninsula. He had 
an opportunity of benefiting the daughters of the 
priest of Midian, Jethro or Reuel.* One cannot 
help deducing fm. the treatment the daughters of 
Jethro received fm. the shepherds that, though in- 
fluential as being priest, he cd. not be the king of 
Midian. Moses became shepherd to Jethro, and 
married his daughter Zipporah. His lengthened 
stay in the desert of Sinai, and not less his inter- 
course with the permanent inhabitants, wd. teach 
him the lore of the desert, and thus fit him in a very 
special manner to act as guide of his people through 
the wilderness. While acting as shepherd to his 
father-in-law he had " led his flock to the backside 
of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, to 
Horeb " : then he had the Divine call to go and 
deliver Israel. " The Angel of the Lord (JHWH) 

* Colonel Conder has shown that the difference between 
these two names when written in cuneiform is very small, 
so that one might easily be mistaken for the other (First 
Bible, p. 104). 



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appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst whelms the rulers of Israel, and leads them to 
of a bush." God then proclaimed the purpose of reproach Moses and Aaron, whom they regard as 
His appearing. Moses was to lead His people out of the cause of this additional misery. It was little 
Egypt and bring them into " a land flowing with wonder, then, that Moses was bowed down and nigh 
milk and honey." Diffidence had now taken the unto despair, crying out to God in his anguish, 
place of confidence, and he seemed to seek for ex- God, however, let him know that He had accepted 
cuses to avoid taking up his great commission. God Pharaoh's challenge. Again the brothers went into 
met all his difficulties, revealed His covenant name the king's presence and demonstrated to him by 
of JHWH, gave miraculous signs by wh. to attest works of wonder that the Lord God of the Hebrews 
the reality of his mission, and, finally, when he com- was a God of might. The astrologers gave a colour- 
plained of inability to speak effectively, gave Aaron able imitation of what Moses and Aaron did, and 
his brother to be his spokesman. Dismissed with a Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Now when Pharaoh 
"blessing by his father-in-law, and taking his wife and would not yield to evidence, judgment was meted 
children with him, Moses departed for Egypt. On out to him ; he was warned that the sacred river 
the way occurred the strange but illuminating inci- Nile was to be turned into blood. It happened 
dent at the inn or khan. A messenger of God met according to Moses' prediction; yet the king's 
Moses on the way, in the khan where they had heart was hardened because the magicians could do 
rested for the night, and threatened to slay him. the same. The plague of frogs followed ; though 
This may have been a sharp, severe illness, in wh. the magicians cd. increase the plague, this time he 
Moses read Divine rebuke of his neglect in not called upon Moses and Aaron to pray for him, and 
circumcising his second son. Learning fm. her promised to let the people go. When, however, 
husband the meaning of his danger, she with a flint the respite came, again his heart was hardened, and 
knife performed the rite, evidently against her will he wd. not fulfil his promise. Another plague was 
(Ex. 4. 24 " 26 ). This incident reveals how little re- sent, wh. to the fastidious Egyptians was a yet sorer 
ligious sympathy there cd. have been between Moses —lice were sent in all their borders; yet Pha- 
and his wife ; it also shows a certain weakness in the raoh's obstinacy was not conquered to let Israel go. 
great prophet. The messenger of God to bring Following on this was a plague of flies, or as some 
Israel the Divine law has not fulfilled the law him- 



self. After this episode Zipporah appears to have 
returned to her father and taken her children 
with her. 

It may be doubted whether we are to take the "forty 
years " assigned to the residence of Moses in Midian as 
more than a round number ; although it harmonises with 
Ex. 7. 7 S and with Moses' statement in Dt. 31. 2 , wh. may 
have been modified by harmonising copyists. 



think, beetles ; " swarms " is all that is in the original. 
For a moment Pharaoh's obstinacy yielded, only to 
return in all its former obduracy when the plague 
was removed. Meantime the marvel is that the 
monarch made no attempt to have these bold chal- 
lengers of his authority removed by assassination if 
not by execution. The dread of JHWH, the God 
behind these His messengers, must have held the 
hand of the tyrant. Murrain on the cattle fol- 
As God had been fitting Moses to be the leader of lowed ; then boils ; after that hail ; next locusts ; 
His people, so, concurrently, had He been preparing then darkness over all the land for three days. The 
His people to submit to the guidance of Moses, last terrible demonstration of the power of JHWH 
The Egyptian oppression was making the Hebrews was announced, and then there was a pause. Atten- 
groan. Aaron, too, was called by God to go forth tion was now turned fm. the Egyptians to Israel ; a 
to meet his brother. The two brothers met after feast was ordained for them in connection with this 
their long separation, and compared visions. This threatened tenth plague. A lamb was to be slain, 
was not all : they proceeded together and gathered and its blood sprinkled on the lintels and doorposts, 
into an assembly " all the elders of the children of that the Angel of Death might " pass over " their 
Israel." Those that had rejected Moses before, dwellings. The lamb was to be roast whole and 
now, on seeing the signs, believed in his mission eaten in haste. Then when all things were ready 
and bowed their heads in grateful worship. The the stroke fell. There was not a house in all Egypt 
two brothers next proceeded into the presence of in wh. there was not one dead ; and so up to the 
Pharaoh and delivered to him the message of JHWH, silent moon rose the bitter cry of desolation. Then 
God of Israel : " Let My people go that they may under the leadership of Moses, laden with the gifts 
hold a feast to Me in the wilderness." Pharaoh met of the Egyptians, who thus strove to propitiate the 
this request as a challenge fm. JHWH, because He terrible God of the Hebrews, Israel took his depar- 
had declared Himself the God of Israel, and claimed ture. There was a new trial before Moses ; hardly 
their freedom to worship Him : therefore Pharaoh had the children of Israel started when Pharaoh re- 
doubled their oppression. They are to make bricks pented of the permission he had given. Meantime 
as many as before, but now they have to gather the the people were led into what seemed a trap. Hear- 
binding straw. This cruelty of oppression over- ing that they had gone by way of the mountains, 

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Pharaoh assembled his chariots to pursue after them. 

Again the murmur rose against Moses ; but he 

called upon them to trust : " Fear ye not, stand 

still. . . . The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall 

hold your peace." Then the cloud that told God's 

presence came and stood between the host of Egypt 

and the camp of Israel. At early dawn Moses 

stretched his rod over the sea that hemmed them 

in, and it opened and afforded a pathway to them. 

When the Egyptians endeavoured to follow, again 

the hand was stretched forth, and the waves flowed 

over the host of Pharaoh (Ex. I3. 20 -I4. 31 ). When 

they had crossed over the Red Sea and had seen their 

enemies overwhelmed the Israelites were full of joy. 

Here once more Moses led the people ; he voiced 

their feelings in the great song of deliverance wh. 

his sister set to music and led the daughters of her 

people in singing : " I will sing unto the Lord, for 

He hath triumphed gloriously." 

As to the point where the crossing took place, it probably 
was at the " Bitter Lakes " (see Exodus, The). Textual 
questions must be looked for in connection with the Book 
wh. contains the narrative (see Exodus, The Book of). 
We shd., however, like to remark that while Canon Driver 
(LOT., p. 21) assigns Ex. 3. mainly to E. (the writer who 
prefers Elohim, "God," as the Divine designation), and 
directs the reader's attention to the prevalence of "God" 
in the narrative, he assigns the triumph song of chap. 15. 
to the same source although " God " occurs only twice, 
while JHWH is found twelve times. At the same time Dr. 
Driver is moderation itself compared with some others. 

After the song of triumph the host appears to 

have moved inland, leaving the sea coast, into the 

desert of Shur ; probably the object was to avoid 

the Egyptian frontier fortresses. When they began 

to encounter the hardships of the desert, at once 

they murmured against their leaders. All their 

difficulties were met and their distresses relieved. 

The bitter waters of Marah were rendered pleasant, 

and " manna " was sent fm. heaven to satisfy their 

hunger. In connection with the sending of the 

manna we have the emphasising of the Sabbath. 

According to Genesis the Sabbath is old as creation 
(Gn. 2. 3 ). As pointed out by Dr. Sayce (Gifford Led. 
p. 476), the Sabbath was known in Babylon — word and 
thing. It was a day of rest, ' ' a day of rest of the heart " ; 
it was a day of restriction ; even the king was not to eat 
cooked food. The Babylonian Sabbath was arranged in 
relation to the month ; the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days 
of the month were Sabbaths, also the 19th, which was 
approximately the seventh seventh fm. the beginning of 
the preceding month ; a mode of reckoning wh. points to 
the Babylonian reckoning being a modification of an older 
mode, in wh. the days were grouped in sevens irrespective 
of the phases of the moon (see Sabbath). 

The people came at length to Rephidim, where 

the Hebrews again murmured against Moses. It 

was thirst that afflicted them, and they complained, 

" Thou hast brought us up fm. Egypt to kill us and 

our children and our cattle with thirst." Moses was 

told to take the rod with which he had smitten the 

" river," and with it to smite the rock in Horeb. 

He did so, and the water flowed forth. The place 

was called in consequence Massah, " temptation," 



and Merlbdh, " strife." But they soon learned that 
hunger and thirst were not the only disagreeables 
to be encountered in the desert. The freeboot- 
ing tribe of Amalek assailed them, cutting off the 
stragglers, and generally harassed them on their 
march (Dt. 25. 17 " 19 ). The leadership of the sol- 
diery was given to Joshua : Moses, accompanied by 
Aaron and Hur, stood on the top of a neighbouring 
height " with the rod of God " in his hand. While 
Moses kept the rod stretched out Israel prevailed, 
but when he let his hand down Amalek prevailed ; 
so Aaron and Hur supported the hands of Moses, 
and Amalek was discomfited before Israel. In 
commemoration of this event Moses erected an 
altar to JHWH, wh. he called Jehovah Nissi, 
" JHWH is my banner " (Ex. 17. 8 - 16 ). The news 
of the deliverance of Israel fm. their Egyptian 
bondage had reached Midian, and Jethro came to 
the camp of Israel bringing with him Zipporah the 
wife of Moses, and his two sons with her. Moses 
treated Jethro with all the ceremony of Eastern 
courtesy, making obeisance to him, and kissing him. 
A feast was made and a sacrifice offered, in wh. 
Jethro officiated. Observing how the whole burden 
fell on Moses, that all causes, great and small, were 
brought before him, Jethro suggested the appoint- 
ment of subordinate judges who shd. decide all 
ordinary matters. Moses listened to the advice of 
Jethro, and chose men fitted for the office of judge 
(Ex. 18. 1 " 27 ). Jethro then departed to his home. 

After leaving Rephidim the Israelite host came to 
the neighbourhood of Mt. Sinai. They had already 
left behind them the bondage of Egypt for two 
complete months when they encamped under the 
shadow of Sinai. A cloud settled on the top of the 
mountain ; the cloud unfolded itself and revealed 
flames of fire within it ; there were lightnings and 
thunderings, and an earthquake ; more terrible was 
" the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud " ; it 
" sounded long and waxed louder and louder. 
Moses spake, and the Lord answered him out of the 
cloud." Into that dreadful fire went Moses to hear 
the words of God, to tell them to Israel. The law he 
received fm. the Lord was the " Ten Words," or, as 
we name them, the " Ten Commandments." In 
the first table we have the unity and spirituality of 
God to be recognised, and the reverence and service 
He requires to be rendered : in the second table, 
after the fifth commandment, in wh. lies the essence 
of all authority and government, we have reciprocal 
duties between equals laid down, each wrong being 
forbidden in its extremest form — murder, adultery, 
theft, and perjury. It is shown in the tenth com- 
mandment,' " Thou shalt not covet," that every- 
thing that leads to these extremes is also forbidden. 
No other code of laws can approach this in profound 
spiritual morality. From Ex. 20. 22 to the end of 
Ex. 23. may be regarded as exposition of these 



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fundamental commands, but arranged on no dis- 
tinct principle : early lawgivers were not careful of 
logical arrangement. The earlier code of Hammu- 
rabi is not gathered up as this is into principles, but 
is frittered away in details. Another step in the 
hallowing of Israel is taken in Ex. 24. ; a covenant is 
solemnly made between Israel and JH WH, a cove- 
nant of blood : in this transaction Moses is Medi- 
ator. Again Moses is called up into the presence of 
God, and is accompanied towards the awful fires by 
Aaron and his two elder sons, with 70 of the elders 
of Israel ; they are left to go down to the camp, 
where they are to carry on the government in the 
absence of Moses ; only Joshua is left alone without 
the fiery cloud and above the camp. While thus 
forty days and forty nights with God, Moses re- 
ceived in vision the plan of the Tabernacle and the 
figures of its various vessels. Aaron and his sons 
were designated as the servants of the sanctuary ; 
and Bezaleel and Aholiab were appointed artificers 
to carry the work to completion. It may be noted 
that there appears to be a contradiction between 
the ordinance in Ex. 20. 24 , that the altar was to be 
an altar of earth, and the directions in chap. 27. 1 " 8 , 
for the making of the brazen altar; but the altar 
was essentially a box, wh. was filled with earth when 
used to offer on it burnt-offerings. 

While Moses in ecstatic vision had unveiled 
before him the Tabernacle of Meeting, in all its 
glory of curtains of fine twined linen, and courts 
with pillars that had silver sockets, a change was 
taking place in the mind of the multitude in the 
camp of Israel. Moses had left them for nearly 
six long weeks. Aaron had not the commanding 
personality of his brother. The people wished 
a deity they cd. see, and compelled him to make 
the " golden calf." It was probably a reminis- 
cence of the Apis-worship wh. they had seen in 
Egypt, and wh. they probably knew was an excres- 
cence on a spiritual religion, that led them to take 
the figure of a young bull as the symbol of their 
deity. God broke the current of revelation to tell 
Moses of the moral tragedy that was taking place 
among His people. When God Almighty threatened 
to destroy the " stiff-necked " race, and coupled 
with this the offer to make of him a great nation, 
Moses again came forward as mediator. Resisting 
the temptation, so strong to the Eastern, of being 
remembered with reverence by a numerous and 
powerful progeny, he pleaded the cause of Israel for 
the sake of God's own glory. He came fm. the 
awful presence bearing in his hands the tables of the 
law — the solemn " Ten Words." Moses said no 
word to Joshua of what had been told him regarding 
the apostasy in the camp. As they came nearer 
Joshua heard the shouting and, warrior as he was, 
he thought at once of war, of the assault anew 
of Amalek or of some other warlike tribe. Moses 



directed his attention to the fact that the sounds 
were not the sounds of strife, but those of feasting. 
When Moses came within sight of the camp and 
saw their orgiastic worship and its object, the wrath 
that had been gathering in his soul burst forth, and 
the sacred tables of the law that had been conse- 
crated by the finger of God he dashed to the ground 
and broke. They were unworthy of this proof of 
Divine condescension. He pounded the golden 
calf in pieces, and pouring its dust on water made its 
worshippers drink of it. Nor was this all ; he called 
upon the tribe of Levi, his own tribe, to arm them- 
selves and execute the vengeance of the Lord upon 
those who had turned the glory of Israel into shame. 
Three thousand fell on that day. In the midst of 
his wrath he was yet full of yearning love for his 
kinsfolk, and again he entreated God on their behalf; 
nay, in the sublimity of his self-devotion offered 
himself as the substitute for Israel. Let him perish 
if only Israel might be saved. But some obvious 
sign must be given of Divine displeasure, so Moses 
now removed his tent fm. the centre of the camp, 
where it had been, to wh. the people had been wont 
to come for judgment and to receive Divine oracles, 
to the outside of the camp, and required that they 
shd. don the garb of penitents before God. At this 
point, when Moses had reached the highest point 
of unselfish love for his people, God gave him His 
highest revelation. He was placed in a cleft of the 
rock, and covered over by the cloudy hand of God 
while the awful glory passed by ; then the hand was 
lifted, and he saw a vision of vanishing yet surpassing 
splendour. God made all His mercy and His good- 
ness pass before him. Then it was that the strange 
splendour began to illuminate the face of Moses, so 
that when he came fm. the presence of God he had 
to put a veil upon his face. 

Now he began to endeavour to realise in actual 
fact the vision he had received when in the mount 
with God. He called for the people to bring their 
voluntary offerings of gold, of linen, and gems, in 
order that the Tabernacle might be erected, so that 
thepeople might have before them the visible symbol 
of JHWH's presence among them; and Bezaleel and 
Aholiab were summoned to carry out and superin- 
tend the work. Thus it was all made according to 
the pattern wh. Moses had seen in the mount. At 
the same time it is probable that Egyptian models 
were used by God to give definiteness to the thought 
of Moses ; the sacred ark itself had prototypes in 
Egyptian worship. The book of Leviticus is so 
wholly occupied with the consecration of Aaron and 
his sons as priests, and the arrangement as to sacri- 
fices, that there is in it only one biographical note ; 
but it is striking and illuminative. When Nadab 
and Abihu perish before the Lord for offering 
strange fire on the altar (Lv. io. 1 " 20 ), Aaron and his 
two remaining sons refrain fm. all outward signs of 



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mourning, yet they cannot eat the sin-offering, each tribe. Of these twelve spies only two, Caleb 
Moses, to whom the sense of the Divine swallows up and Joshua, brought a favourable report ; the other 
everything else, rebukes his brother for this failure ten, while admitting the fertility of the land, de- 
to perform his ritual duty ; yet when Aaron pre- clared it impossible that Israel cd. conquer the 
sents the human side to him, "how such things nations wh. possessed it ; they had strongly fortified 
have befallen " him, Moses is at once " content." cities, and were themselves giants. The people be- 
The narrative is resumed in Numbers with the came utterly downhearted ; nothing that cd. be said 
census of the people ; following it there are some was able to infuse courage into them. Then their 
ceremonial regulations. We have reference to a despair turned to rage, and they were ready to take 
visit of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses (Nu. up stones to stone Moses and Aaron. But at this 
io. 29-32 ). We are not told, but it seems as if he had point " the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Ta- 
accompanied them in their journeys thereafter, and bernacle of the Congregation." JHWH threatened 
put his knowledge of the desert at the service of to destroy the whole nation and make of Moses a 
Israel. He was promised a share in the blessings people mightier than they. Again Moses put be- 
God had spoken of to Israel. Again Moses was hind him the glittering prospect, and again became 
tried by the murmuring of the people, the " mixed the advocate of the people. As before, the point of 
multitude " especially {see Mixed Multitude), his intercession was God's glory ; it was involved in 
They despised the manna that was sent fm. heaven fulfilling His promises to Israel ; he pleaded also His 
to them. Moses was so much depressed by this past mercy. " Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity 
renewed expression of petulance that he prayed to of this people according to the greatness of Thy 
be delivered fm. his responsibilities by death (Nu. mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people fm. 
II. 15 ). He was required to bring seventy of the Egypt even until now." Though God answered, 
elders of Israel to the Tabernacle. Two remained " I have pardoned," yet He punished them by de- 
behind in the camp, named Eldad and Medad ; daring their exclusion fm. the land. " Your ear- 
when the Spirit of God fell upon those who were cases shall fall in this wilderness, and your children 
with Moses in the precincts of the Tabernacle, then shall wander in the wilderness forty years." When 
it fell also on the two who remained in the camp, they heard the sentence on their rebellion, too 
When Joshua appealed to Moses to rebuke those late repentant, they wd. now rush to the conquest 
irregular prophets, Moses answered him : " Enviest of the land. Despite the fact that Moses warned 
thou for my sake ? Would God that all the Lord's them, they rushed on, but were driven back 
people were prophets, and that the Lord wd. put with ignominy (Nu. 13., 14.). Another subject of 
His spirit upon them." He did not regard the discontent arose ; the question of precedence. It 
possession of inspiration as a thing to be jealously assumed two forms : one ecclesiastical, whether the 
restricted to himself alone. Meantime a plague Aaronites shd. have the precedence of the other 
broke out among the people, especially among the Levites ; the other civil, whether the tribe of 
mixed multitude who had desired flesh, and had Reuben, as that of the eldest son, shd. not supply 
eaten of the quails ; many were the graves in the ruler of Israel. The former of these movements 
Kibroth-hattaavah. Thence the people journeyed found a leader in Korah, while the latter was led by 
to Hazeroth ; while there a family quarrel came three sons of Reuben — Dathan, Abiram, and On. 
to the surface. Zipporah, here called a Cushite Meek though Moses was, this rebellion of the 
woman (her mother mt. have been an Ethiopian), Reubenites and of Korah roused him. He de- 
did not agree with her sister-in-law Miriam, nounced the vengeance of God upon them. Those 
Moses became involved in the dispute, and Miriam Reubenites who shared in the revolt were swallowed 
in her heat proceeded to deny that Moses had any up, their tents and all their possessions. Those 
special mission ; Aaron was drawn in to take the side that joined Korah were burnt up with fire when 
of Miriam. Moses, ready as he always seems to have they wd. offer incense. The exact time-connection 
been to yield where merely his own dignity was in of these events cannot be definitely ascertained, 
question, was willing to submit to the arrogance of The precedence of the house of Levi was fixed by 
his sister and brother ; but God Himself interfered Aaron's rod budding (Nu. i6. 1 -iy. ls ). 
and smote Miriam with leprosy. It wd. seem that There is a lacuna in the history ; 37 years are 
in some way the sin of Miriam was worse than that passed over without record. Towards the end of the 
of Aaron, as the punishment fell only on her. 40 years the curtain is lifted, and we find them at 
Aaron besought Moses to intercede with God on Kadesh ; and there Miriam died. The new genera- 
her behalf, wh. he readily consented to do ; God tion showed that they had inherited the evil disposi- 
would, however, only grant her healing and par- tions of their fathers : " They gathered themselves 
don after seven days' exclusion fm. the camp (Nu. against Moses and against Aaron " (Nu. 20. 2 ). Again 
12. 1 " 16 ). Fm. the wilderness of Paran, their next wasMoses commanded to take the rod in hishand and 
resting-place, spies were sent into Canaan, one fm. go and speak to the rock. When the congregation 

485 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mos 



were assembled before the rock Moses said, " Hear 
now, ye rebels ; must we fetch you water out of this 
rock ? " then smote the rock twice and the water 
came out abundantly. It was in regard to this in- 
cident that Moses, and with him Aaron, incurred 
the special guilt wh. excluded them fm. Canaan. 
Whether it was the assertion by implication of 
equality with God in the phrase, " Must we fetch 
you water " ; or his contempt of the people and 
rage at them wh. made him say, " Hear now, ye 
rebels " ; or whether, when commanded merely to 
speak to the rock, he smote it twice, as if implying 
that without the redoubled stroke the miracle wd. 
not have happened, we cannot telh This place was 
called, as was the place near Horeb, " the waters of 
Meribah," " the waters of strife," but distinguished 
fm. it by being called Meribah Kadesh (Dt. 32. 51 ; 
Nu. 20. 1 - 13 ; cp. Ex. 17. 7 ; see Meribah). The 
people passed on eastward, and Moses endeavoured 
to get the Edomites to allow Israel to pass thro' 
their territory, but they wd. not. When the chil- 
dren of Israel arrived at Mt. Hor on the boundary of 
Edom, Aaron was informed that the time had come 
that he must die. Moses conveyed his brother and 
Eleazar his son to the top of Mt. Hor, and there 
Aaron died and was buried, and Moses was left 
alone. 

In Dt. io. 6 it is said that Aaron died at Mosera, but this 
was possibly the district where the camp was placed and 
the hill rose up from it. It is certain that the mountain 
near Petra called Jebel Neby Harun is not the scene of 
Aaron's death. It is a sandstone mountain, and on the top 
there is a wely wh. purports to be Aaron's tomb, hung round 
with tokens of the piety of pilgrims {see Hor). 

The march was now taken away to the SE. to 
compass the territory of Edom. The heart of 
the people was depressed with this retrogression, 
and again they murmured against Moses. Their 
punishment for this renewed rebellion was that 
fiery serpents were sent among them, and many died 
fm. the envenomed bites. Moses set up a brazen 
serpent, and whoever looked to it was healed. 
Israel had now come to the E. of the territory of 
Moab at Ije Abarim. Moab at this time had been 
driven back before the attacks of Sihon, king of the 
Amorites, and they seem to have been inclined to 
enter into an alliance with Israel. Sihon refused, as 
had the king of Edom, to permit Israel a passage 
through his country. War ensued, and Sihon was 
utterly overthrown and slain ; his territory was 
taken. It wd. seem that fm. this time Moses con- 
templated settlements for Israel E. of Jordan. He 
proceeded N. to Jazer and dispossessed the Amorites 
who dwelt there. This roused the suspicions of Og, 
king of Bashan, and he too was overthrown and 
slain, and his territory taken. The Moabites began 
now to be afraid of Israel, and, making an alliance 
with the Midianites, they sent for Balaam to curse 
the invaders. Though prevented from cursing, 



Balaam suggested that Israel mt. be lured to 
destruction by Moabitish and Midianite maidens, 
leading them to join in the impure worship of Baal- 
peor. A plague was sent in punishment ; and 
24,006 perished (Nu. 22. 1 -25. 18 ). While thus in the 
neighbourhood of the land promised to their fathers 
a new census was ordered, when it was found that, so 
far fm. there being an increase in the 40 years, there 
was a falling off to the extent of 3000 of males able 
to bear arms. The Levites were estimated on a 
different principle, and they show an increase of 
1000 males (Nu. 26. 1 - 65 ). At their request Moses 
assigned the extensive territory conquered on the 
E. of Jordan to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and 
the half tribe of Manasseh, on promise that they 
shd. assist their brethren in the conquest of Canaan 
proper (Nu. 32. 1 " 42 ). In the plains of Moab, ac- 
cording to the record, Moses delivered to assembled 
Israel Deuteronomy, " the Second Law." While 
to some extent a recapitulation of the events con- 
nected with their journey through the wilderness, and 
a promulgation anew of the law, at the same time it 
is more than that, for the events are sometimes pre- 
sented in a new light, and the laws have modi- 
fications introduced into them. For the various 
questions involved see Deuteronomy. In the 32nd 
chap, of Deuteronomy 'we have what is called the 
Song of Moses. It is not improbable that the 
nucleus dates as far back as Moses, but it appears 
to have been added to, as such compositions are to 
this day. There is a characteristic note running 
through the whole composition ; the title " Rock " 
is given to God throughout. There is also the 
alternation of threatenings of judgment and de- 
clarations of loving pity. After a final exhortation 
to keep the law of God, as " it is their life," Moses 
received the intimation that, as Aaron went up 
Mt. Hor to die, so was he to ascend Mt. Nebo. 
Then in the 33rd chap, we have the blessings of the 
separate tribes. There are several peculiarities in 
it worthy of note : the omission of Simeon ; the 
assigning of other geographical situations to some 
of them than those they occupied ; Dan leaps fm. 
Bashan, wh. he never occupied ; Naphtali, the most 
northern of the tribes, is declared to possess " the 
west and the south " ; the comparative insignifi- 
cance of the place assigned to Judah. Probably 
here also modifications have been introduced in the 
course of transmission. Moses then went up the 
lonely hill above the Dead Sea and saw the land 
stretchedoutbef ore him, * and there he died and there 
God buried him. No man knoweth his sepulchre 
unto this day. It is impossible in a few sentences to 
estimate the character of the great lawgiver, whose 
* Some have maintained that Jebel Oska' near es-Salt 
was the true Nebo. Certainly the whole land can be seen 
from it. The Mohammedans place the tomb of Moses on 
the west side of Jordan above the Dead Sea. It is visited 
annually by bands of fanatical Dervishes. 



486 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mou 



influence is felt equally in Christian and Moham- 
medan countries. Sublime faith in God and love 
for Him are the foundations of his character. 
Towards men, unless when, like Pharaoh, they were 
enemies of God, he was gentle almost to weakness. 
We can scarcely deny him the possession of poetic 
gifts, whatever our ideas of the authenticity of what 
is ascribed to him. Power of winning affection 
seems to have been his ; witness the devotion of 
Joshua to him. After all, Moses is too great to be 
estimated. Criticism of the documents fm. wh. we 
learn his story may be considered under the articles 
on the various books of the law. 

MOST HIGH (Heb. and Chal. 'elyon, Gr. 
vxpiarTOs). A title first given to God (Gn. 14. 18 " 23 ) 
in relation to the priesthood of Melchizedek. It 
occurs in the speech of Balaam (Nu. 24. 16 ) ; in 
Is. 14. 14 it is put in the mouth of the king of Babel. 
It is frequent in the Psalms (21 times), and twice 
in Lamentations. Out of these two poetic books 
" Most High " always occurs in connection with the 
heathen ; e.g. Dt. 32. 8 . In the NT. it is frequent 
in the writings of Luke. It is found nine times, as 
applied to God ; of these five are in the Gospel, and 
two in Acts : one of the remaining cases (He. 7. 1 ) 
is a quotation fm. Gn. 14. 18 . According to Philo of 
Byblus (quoted by Eusebius, Prep. Ev.) there was a 
deity of Tyre called Elioun. 




The Clothes Moth 

a, Larva in a case constructed out of the substance on which it 
is feeding; b, case cut at the ends; c, case cut open by the 
larva for enlarging it; d, e, the perfect insect. 

MOTH (Heb. 'ash, Gr. ses). The clothes moth 
is invariably referred to, and the references show 
a keen appreciation of its destructive powers. 
Clothes, if left for any time shut up, seem almost to 
crumble to dust before the industry of these ubi- 
quitous creatures (Jb. 4- 19f -, &c). This gives special 
point to the allusion in Mw. 6. 19 , &c. ; so much of 
an Oriental's treasure has always consisted in fine 
apparel. It is used also as a symbol of fragility (Jb. 
4. 19 ; Ps. 39. 11 ). 

MOTHER. See Family. 

MOUNT, MOUNTAIN. As was natural in a 
country like Pal. mountains play a great part in its 



history. They are treated in articles under their 
individual names. Some ambiguity arises fm. the 
use of the word bar, now for a mountain range (Gn. 
3 1. 21 , &c), now for a single height (Ex. 3. 1 , &c), and 
again for a definite part of a mountain range (Jo. 
21. 21 , " Mt. Ephraim "). See Ephraim, Hill. 

Certain mountains connected with the life of our 
Lord are mentioned without name in the Gospels. 
" This mountain " in Mw. 21. 21 is the Mt. of 
Olives : in Jn. 4. 20 it is Gerizim. The scene of 
the Temptation may be laid correctly on the bleak 
uplands W. of Jericho ; but if the phrase, " an ex- 
ceeding high mountain," is to be taken literally, 
there is nothing in the region at all resembling 
this. But " wild beasts " (Mk. 1 , 13 ) still haunt these 
dreary wastes. 

" The mountain " of Mw. 5. 1 can only mean the 
rising ground behind the plain of Gennesaret, as the 
same phrase, el-Jebel, does on the lips of the natives 
to-day. There is absolutely nothing to justify the 
identification with Qurun Hat tin, popularly known 
as " the Mt. of Beatitudes." It is difficult of 
access fm. the plain : the identification dates only 
fm. Crusading times. 

" The mountain " of Mw. 28. 16 was an appointed 
rendezvous, therefore some particular height, prob. 
a familiar object to the followers of Jesus, near 
Gennesaret, and lofty enough to afford a wide view. 
A not unlikely spot is Jebel Kan'an, six miles N. of 
the plain, 2761 ft. above the Mediterranean. It 
commands a view of unusual beauty and interest, 
including northern and central Pal. on the W., and 
eastern Pal., fm. Hermon to Gilead, with the blue 
mirror of Galilee below, deep in its mountain 
frame. See also Transfiguration, Mount of. 

MOURNING. Amongst Easterns, esp. the Jews 
and kindred Semitic peoples, the whole ceremonial 
of M., both in its activities and in its abstinences, 
was designed with a view to publicity, and conse- 
quently its rites are not to be regarded as evidence of 
the feelings of the human heart, but rather show the 
respect wh. the mourner thought due to the de- 
ceased. It was regarded as a debt owing, and in the 
case of the death of a " wise man " in rabbinical 
times, its payment was compulsory on the part 
of the whole community (Mod. Kat. 25a ; Shab. 
105b). It was in agreement with this idea that 
Herod sought to have " the honour of a memorable 
M. at his funeral " by compassing the death of the 
leading men of Isr. (Jos. Ant. XVII. vi. 5). The 
OT. is full of expressions for and examples of M. for 
the loss of friends, possessions, and country, and in 
all these cases it was of a like nature. There was 
generally the rending of the clothes (Gn. 37- 34 ; Jb. 
I. 20 ) and the substitution of dark-coloured gar- 
ments — sackcloth (2 S. 3. 31 , 14. 2 ; Is. 15. 3 ; Jr. 8. 21 ), 
the shaving of the head or beard (Jb. I. 20 ; Jr. 
16. 6 , 41. 5 ), or powdering the head with ashes and 



487 



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Mul 



earth (2 S. 15. 32 ; Jb. 2. 12 ), sitting on the ground 
(Gn. 2 3 . 3 ; Jg. 20. 26 ; 2 S. 13. 20 ; Jb. 2. 8 ) and, 
indeed, doing anything that presented a general 
appearance of negligence and uncleanness. There 
was also self-affliction in the beating of the body, 
generally the breast or the thigh (Ek. 21. 12 ), and in 
cutting the flesh (Jr. 16. 6 ' 7 , 41 . 5 ). Mourners were 
looked upon as in a sense unclean, and so they had to 
abstain fm. all sacrificial food (Lv. 7. 20 ; Dt. 26. 14 ), 
as also to fast for a time (2 S. I. 12 , 3- 35 , 12. 16 ). All 
ritual M. was prohibited to the High Priests and the 
Nazarites (Lv. 2i. 10 > u ; Nu. 6. 7 ), and the inferior 
priests mourned only for their near relatives (Lv. 

2I 1,2.4). 

Professional mourners are to be met with as early 
as the days of Amos (5. 16 ). The practice of en- 
gaging such continued in Isr. (Jr. 9. 17 ; Mw. cj. 23 ), 
and is common in the East to-day. Their duties 
consist of weeping, screaming excessively (Jr. 22. 18 ), 
tearing their hair, face, and hands, throwing earth 
and sand on their heads, and winding up every few 
minutes with the wilwala, and that present-day 




Mourning: Throwing Dust on the Head 

usage represents the old custom we may be sure in 
this case, for the Talmud quite approves of " flutes 
and a tumultuous crowd," while it directs that 
at the funeral of even a poor man there should be 
" not less than two flute players and one mourning 
woman." In ordinary circumstances their duties 
would end with the day of death and burial, but the 
official M. in the home still continued. The usual 
period was seven days, and this time we find to have 
been observed in the case of Saul (1 S. 3 1. 13 ), but 
it might be extended as circumstances seemed to 
require. Thus for Aaron and Moses there were 
thirty days M. (Nu. 20. 29 ; Dt. 34.8). For Jacob 
there were seventy days in Egp. (Gn. 50. 3 ) and seven 
days more before the burial (Gn. 50. 10 ). 

Modern Judaism has reduced all the Scripture practices 
to a system. It prescribes thirty days M. with abstinence fm. 
shaving, and new, white, or clean clothing. The first seven 
of these days are those of lamenting, and there must be 
no saluting, no servile work, no anointing, little washing, 
no sandals, no bedstead, no reading of the law, Mishna, 
or Gemara; only of Lamentations, Job, and portions of 
Jeremiah. The first three days (of weeping) were still 
more severe, and included abstinence fm. all sacred things, 
including phylacteries. On the first day, that of the death 
and burial, mourners had to abstain fm. all positive pre- 
cepts of the law, including prayer ; also from wine, meat, 



and society. The first seven days are spent at home, and in 
harmony with Scrip, example (Gn. 50. 3 ; Jb. 2. 11 , 30. 25 ) 
friends and neighbours are expected to join and try to com- 
fort the mourners. As soon as they shake the head in 
acknowledgment of condolence visitors must leave (Moed. 
Kat. 27b). Behind all this there is doubtless often a real 
sorrow, but the impression made on the onlooker is thaUit 
lacks the depth the western heart can feel. The deepest and 
sincerest of all M. is that for a first-born or only son (Jr. 6. 26 ; 
Am. 8. 10 ; Zc. 12. 10 ). The loss of a female child is so little 
thought of that it is usually considered a sufficient condo- 
lence to say, " What does it matter? It was only a girl." 

Wm. M. Christie. 

MOUSE. The Heb. word l akbar is a generic 
term covering a wide variety of animals. In 
Palestine there are many species of mice, includ- 
ing the field-mouse, the dormouse, the porcupine- 
mouse, &c. The term denoted other small rodents, 
and probably even the hamster and the jerboa. 
The ''akbar was to the Hebrews an unclean animal 
(Lv. II. 29 ), and they evidently regarded with disgust 
people who could eat such things (Is. 661 1 ). But 
among the Arabs the hamster and the jerboa are 
eaten, and even field-mice. The hamster is about 
the size of a brown rat. It eats much grain, and 
also carries away in its cheek-pouches supplies which 
it stores up for winter. The field-mice are the 
most destructive, and so prolific are they that but 
for the birds that prey upon them little grain would 
see maturity. These no doubt were the mice that 
marred the land of the Philistines (1 S. 6. 5 ). The 
offerings of golden mice probably show that the 
mouse was the recipient of Divine honours ; with 
the view possibly of inducing it to spare the crops. 
For the agency of mice in spreading disease see 
Diseases and Remedies : Bubonic Plague. 

MOUTH. (1) Garon (Ps. 1 49. 6 ) = " throat." 

(2) Hek (Jb. 12. 11 , &c.)=the interior of the M. 

(3) c JdJ (Ps. 32. 9 , RV. " trappings " ; 103. 5 , RV. 
" years ") = " ornament." (4) Peh (very frequent 
= Chald. pum, Dn. J. 5 , &c), also signifying 
" edge " (Gn. 34. 26 , &c), and " border " (Ps. 133. 2 ). 
(5) Panim (Pr. 15. 14 ) = " face." (6) Tent, Chald. 
" door " (Dn. 3. 26 ). 

MOZAH, a town in Benjamin (Jo. 18. 26 ), named 
with Mizpeh and Chiphirah, prob. = mod. Beit 
Mizzeb, a ruin N. of Qulonieh, four miles NW. 
of Jrs. 

MULBERRY TREES are mentioned only in EV. 
of 2 S. 5. 23f - ; 1 Ch. I4. 14L , where the one thing sure 
is that the M. is not the tree intended. Balsam 
trees are suggested in RVm. It is doubtful if they 
cd. grow at that elevation (see Baca, Valley of). 
The M. is mentioned in I M. 6. 34 and the black M. 
(Sycamine) in Lk. 17. 6 . 

MULE (Heb. pered). The earliest notice is 2 S. 
13. 29 , where, after the murder of Amnon, it is said 
" all the king's sons arose and every man gat him up 
upon his mule " ; apparently the M. was used only 
by people of rank. The breeding of the M. was 
forbidden in Lv. 19. 19 , but not the possession of 
488 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mus 



them (Ez. 2. 66 ; Jth/15. 11 ), hence they were im- outstanding national events have been handed down 

ported. Ezekiel mentions Togarmah (Armenia) as to us ; and these being of a lyrical char, were no 

the source (Ek. 27. 14 ). Mules are not mentioned in doubt intended to be sung, and were sung to some 

the NT. Now, however, they are greatly prized, musical accompaniment. Such were the song at 

and rank next to the camel as beasts of burden in the Red Sea (Ex. 15.), the Song of Moses (Dt. 32.), 

Pal. They are very hardy and sure of foot, and the Song of Deborah (Jg. 5.), &c. The Hebrews 

they are not difficult to feed. The soft, easy pace drew no hard-and-fast line between secular and 

of the mule also makes it a favourite riding animal, sacred, and national affairs are under the sanction of 



especially among Eastern ladies. 




Mule: 



religion. So we find music at an early time em- 
ployed in the service of religion, and apparently 
music of the same kind as was in ordinary use ; for 
David dances before the Ark, while the people play 
with all manner of instruments (2 S. 6. 5, 14 ). It 
seems to have been a regular exercise in the schools 
of the prophets fm. the time of Samuel (1 S. io. 5, 10 , 
19. 20 ), and we read of Elisha on one occasion that he 
called for a minstrel, and when the minstrel played 
the hand of the Lord came upon him (2 K. 3. 15 ). 

Although music, both vocal and instrumental, 
came to be a very prominent feature in the Temple 
service, there is no ordinance of sacred song to be 
found in any of the laws of the Pentateuch ; the 
only music that is mentioned being the trumpets 
wh. were to be blown to announce certain feasts 
(Nu. IO. 1-10 ). This is a very significant fact, wh. 
should not be left out of consideration in connection 
with the discussions as to the date of the priestly 
legislation of those books. For, if the Priests' Code 
was composed or compiled during or after the 
Exile, and its laws ascribed to Moses to give them 
greater authority, it seems incredible that an ele- 
ment of the worship wh. was so prominent in the 



Two Women Riding (Koyunjek) 

MURDER. See Crimes and Punishments. 

MURRAIN. See Diseases and Remedies. 

MUSIC is so universal and so innate that the 
Hebrew writers ascribe its invention to primeval 
times (Gn. 4. 20 " 22 ). Music and poetry go together, 

and both appear at the earliest dawn of literature, second Temple, and must have long prevailed in the 

The Heb. language is eminently poetical ; even its pre-exilian Temple, was not attributed to the great 

prose is rhythmical ; and where there is rhythm legislator. It is not to Moses but to David that the 

music is already present. Rhythmical cadence in sacred writers ascribe the institution of Temple 

sound, and rhythmical movement in the dance, are music, as they also trace to him the use of sacred 

instinctive, and manifest themselves at the earliest song or psalmody (2 S. 23. 1 ; 1 Ch. I5. 16ff -). It 

stages of human history. We find music employed is true that it is in books of post-exilian origin, 

to give expression to the most varying feelings in all Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, that we have full 

the relations of the common life. At harvest and details of the institution and arrangements of the 

vintage feasts (Jg. c;. 27 ., 21. 21 ; Is. cj. 3 ), at family Temple music, though we are not without hints of 

festivals (Gn. 31. 27 ; Jb. 21. 12 ; Jr. 25. 10 ), at social its employment in pre-exilian times (e. 



Is. 



3°- 



banquets (Is. 5. 12 ; Am. 6. 5, 6 ), music is spoken of as Am. 5- 23 ). But it is plain that the singers and 

a matter of course. The women sing to the well as musical guilds who appear immediately after the 

they draw water (Nu. 2I. 17 ), the shepherd solaces Restoration could not have originated in the Exile, 

himself with music as he tends his flock (1 S. 16. 18 ), but were simply resuming and continuing the 

theyoungmenhavetheir songs at the gates (La. 5. 14 ). functions wh. their ancestors had exercised before 

Music is sought for to drive away Saul's melancholy that time. The numbers, gradations, and duties of 

(1 S. 16. 16 ); Jephthah and Saul and David are wel- these officials are so carefully given that we must 

corned with song and dance on their return vie- assume the pre-exilian music to have been a matter 

torious fm. battle (Jg. n. 34 ; 1 S. 18. 6 ); and when of long development. The growing importance of 

Solomon was proclaimed king, " the people piped the Temple musicians is seen in the fact that they 

with pipes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the are sometimes reckoned among the Levites (Ez. 

earth rent with the sound of them " (1 K. I. 40 ). A 3. 10 ; Ne. n. 22 ; 1 Ch. 6. 31ff -), and in other passages 

time of national adversity is a time when the mirth distinguished fm. them (Ez. 2. 41 * 70 , J. 7 ' 24 ; Ne. 

of tabrets and the joy of the harp cease (Is. 24. 8 ). 7 44 * 73 ). At a later time Josephus tells us (Ant. XX. 

The poetical pieces associated with some of the more ix. 6) that Agrippa II. gave the singers permission to 

489 Q2 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mus 



wear the white garment of the priests. Though the Psalms would seem to indicate that the worshippers 
OT. writers give so many details as to the names, may have joined in a refrain or doxology (Ps: 106. 48 , 
divisions, and functions of the Temple singers— 136.; cf. 1 Ch. 16. 36 ). _ " Harmony," or part sing- 
matters wh. were of importance to the officials— ing, is not a characteristic of Eastern music, wh. con- 
they leave us very much to conjecture what was the sists merely of " melody " ; and that this was the 




Women beating Tambourines and "Darahooka' 
Drum: Egyptian 



Egyptian Cymbals 




Egyptian Harp, Guitar, Double Pipe, Lyre, and Square Tambourine 




Lyre played with and without Plectrum 



nature of the music, and what were the precise 
forms and uses of the instruments employed. We 
have to be guided here by what is known of modern 
Oriental music, and by monumental representations 
of instruments used by Assyrians and Egyptians. 
In all probability antiphonal singing was a feature 



of the worship (see Ne. 12 31 " 43 ), and some of the 



Sistra 

case with the Temple music is perhaps implied in 
2 Ch. 5. 13 , where it is said that " the trumpeters 
and singers were as one," i.e. perhaps rendering the 
same melody though on different octaves. Oriental 
music (and no doubt the ancient Temple music was 
the same) seems rude and noisy to western ears ; but 
it has a charm for Oriental people, and it has been 



490 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Myr 



elaborated with more technical skill, and cultivated 
with more scientific art, than is generally supposed. 
The influence of the Temple music no doubt passed 
over to the synagogue. The Talmud relates that 
" Joshua ben Hananiah, who had served in the 
Sanctuary as a member of the Levitical choir, told 
how the choristers went in a body to the synagogue 
fm. the orchestra by the altar, and so participated in 
both services " (Jew. Ency., vol. ix. p. 120). But it 
is doubtful if the influence was strong or lasting, as 
the char, of the synagogue service was so different 
fm. that of the Temple. The cantillation wh. is 
heard in the reading of Scripture is no doubt 
ancient (see Ne. 8. 8 ), and may have retained ancient 
elements ; but the more elaborate musical compo- 
sitions that came at a later time into the synagogue 
service were rendered with music wh. probably 
echoed or imitated that of the countries in wh. the 
Jews lived, and it varied in different localities. 

Instruments of music were early used, and no 
doubt were at first of a very primitive char. They 
are of three kinds : Stringed instruments, Wind 
instruments, and instruments of Percussion. 

(1) Two stringed instruments are mentioned in 
the OT. : the kinnor or lyre, and the neb el or harp, 
both of wood, and both employed as accompani- 
ments of song. The kinnor is the only stringed 
instrument mentioned in the Hexateuch, and there 
only twice (Gn. 6. 21 , 3 1. 27 ). It was the instrument 
played by David (1 S. 16. 23 ), and by the exiles in 
Babylon (Ps. 137. 2 ). The nebel is first mentioned in 
connection with the prophetic bands in the time of 
Samuel (1 S. io. 5 ). The kinnor seems to have been 
the more common, being mentioned 44 times in the 
OT., as compared with 27 times in wh. the nebel 
occurs ; and it seems to have been used as much for 
secular as for sacred purposes (see Is. 23. 16 ). 

(2) Of wind instruments three are particularly 
mentioned, (a) The s bo far, AV. " trumpet," was the 
simplest, being merely the ram's horn (Jo. 6. 4 ' 5 ). 
It was used to give a signal, to call to arms, and to 
summon an assembly (Am. 3« 6 ; Jl. 2. 1 ; Jg. 3. 27 ; 
1 S. 13. 3 ; 2 S. 15. 10 ). A similar rude horn is still 
used in the Jewish synagogues on some special 
occasions, (b) The batzbtzerd, or trumpet proper, 
was of metal, and was employed by the priests to 
announce the set feasts, and to give the signal for the 
march in the desert (Nu. io. 1 " 10 ). It is mentioned 
also in warlike operations (Nu. 31. 6 ), at the pro- 
clamation of a king (2 K. n. 14 ), and prominently in 
the Temple orchestra (1 Ch. 13. 8 ; 2 Ch. 5. 12 , &c). 
This was the straight instrument represented on the 
Arch of Titus, and, in a modified form, on Jewish 
coins, (c) The hdlil or flute was no doubt at first 
a reed or simple pipe, such as may be seen, single or 
double, in use among Oriental peoples at the present 
day. It was essentially a peaceful instrument ; and 
it is mentioned in connection with the bands of 




prophets (1 S. io. 5 ), at the proclamation of Solomon 
(1 K. I. 40 ), and in processions to the Temple (Is. 
30. 29 ). No doubt a similar instrument is referred 
to in the NT. (Mw. 1 1. 17 , and g. 2Z , where for 
" minstrels " the RV. has " flute-players "). 

(3) Of instruments of percussion the simplest and 
most common was : (a) The toph, rendered tabret 
or timbrel, used to mark the rhythm in singing or 
dancing. It was employed not only on common 
festive occasions, but also in religious service (Ps. 
8 1. 2 , 149. 3 , 150. 4 ). (b) Cymbals are mentioned 
among the Temple music (1 Ch. 15. 16 , &c), and a 
word fm. the same stem, rendered " loud cymbals," 
occurs in Ps. 150. 5 . (c) The word rendered 
" castanets " in 2 S. 6. 5 
(RV.) is from a root mean- 
ing to shake, and is pro- 
bably to be rendered as in 
RVm., sistra. 

(4) .Of uncertain mean- 
ing are : (a) The word 
rendered in AV. " organ " 
(Gn. 4. 21 ; Jb. 21. 12 , 30. 31 ; 
Ps. 150. 4 ), but by RV. in 
all cases " pipe." It may 
have been the same or 
similar to the " flute " of 

Dn. 3A (b) The " sack- Dulcimer 

but " of Dn. 3« 5 may have been a triangular instru- 
ment of four strings, (c) The sbdlisbim, mentioned 
only in 1 S. 18. 6 , may have been " three-stringed 
instruments" as in AVm., or "triangles" as in 
RVm. (d) Sumponya in Dn. 3. 5 is rendered in 
AV. " dulcimer," but in RVm. " bagpipe." 

James Robertson. 

MUSTARD. This is the Senapis nigra — Arb. 
khardal, a plant very common in Pal., both under 
cultivation, where it may be seen at times 10 to 
12 ft. in height, and also wild, e.g. in the plain of 
Gennesaret. It bears great quantities of very small 
seeds, wh. are eaten by birds sitting (" lodging ") on 
the branches. M.-seed is the symbol of what is 
very minute (Mw. 13. 31 , &c). The plant, although 
an annual, fm. its great size is not inappropriately 
described as a " tree " (Lk. 13. 19 ). 

MYRA, a city on the S. coast of Lycia, touched 
by St. Paul on his voyage to Rm. (Ac. 27. 5 ). It lay 
on an eminence 2^ miles fm. the sea, its port town 
being Andriake. Under the Empire M. reached its 
greatest prosperity. The prevailing winds in the 
E. Mediterranean are westerly. The corn ships 
of Alexandria were therefore accustomed to sail 
direct to M., wh. possessed an excellent harbour, 
and thence, under protection of the shores and 
islands, to work their way westwards. The mod. 
name is Dembre. 

MYRRH. The M. of mod. commerce is de- 
rived fm. a shrub, Balsamodendron myrrha, wh. 



49 : 



Myr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mys 



grows abundantly in SE. Arabia and Somali-land. 
It is a gum exuded through incisions made in the 
bark, wh. speedily solidifies. The M. of OT. (Heb. 
mor = Arb. murr) is frequently spoken of as " flow- 
ing " (Ex. 30. 23 , RV.) or "liquid" (SS. 5- 5 , RV.). 




Mustard. (See p. 491.) 

It may have been the product of the Balsamoden- 
dron opobalsamum, the Mecca Balsam, valued for its 
aromatic properties. But the term may also have 
covered the produce of the former plant. M. was 
an ingredient in the holy anointing oil (Ex. 30. 23 ). 
It was used in fumigation, and for perfumes (Est. 
2. 12 ; Ps. 45. 8 , &c). M. was used in preparing the 
dead for burial (Jn. 19. 39 ). The Romans mixed M. 
in wine, to lessen its intoxicating power. Wine 
mingled with M. was given to dull the pain of 
crucifixion (Mk. 15. 23 ) ; see Gall. Lot (Gn. 37. 25 , 
43. 11 ) is not M., but a resin derived fm. a species of 
Cistus, a low shrub with pink flowers, wh. grows in 
the lands bordering the E. Mediterranean. 

MYRTLE (Heb. badas, fm. wh. Esther's Heb. 
name Hadassah is derived) is a small shrub with 
white flowers and small bluish berries, much relished 
for their pleasant flavour. The leaves when pressed 
emit a delightful perfume. It is found in all the 
Mediterranean basin except where moisture is lack- 
ing. The Messianic time is to be marked by the 
springing of myrtles in the desert (Is. 41. 19 , 55- 13 )- 
In the latter passage " trees " is an error. It is not 
in the Heb. 



MYS I A, a district in the NW. of Asia Minor, 
bounded on the N. and W. by the Propontis and 
the Hellespont, on the S. by Lydia, and on the E. 
by Phrygia and Bithynia. St. Paul passed through 
M. on his way fm. Galatia and Phrygia to Troas 
(Ac. i6. 7L ). Assos and Adramyttium were also in 
M. The name was derived from that of a Thracian 
tribe, the Mysi. It was within the dominions of 
the Persians and of Alexander the Great. Sub- 
sequently it belonged to Pergamus, and fell with 
that kingdom to the Romans in b.c. 133, becom- 
ing part of the province of Asia. It is said to have 
been evangelised in part by one Onesiphorus, who 
suffered martyrdom at Parium in the second decade 
of the second cent. 

MYSTERY (Gr. [AvcrTrjpLov). In classic usage 
" mystery " means something concerning wh. one 
must keep silence, especially the religious " mys- 
teries " : e.g. the Eleusinian. In these certain 
symbolic actions were done, through wh., according 
to some, esoteric doctrines were revealed. The NT. 
sense is derived fm. this last. It is something that, 
to be known, must be revealed ; generally this 
revelation is by symbol wh. must be explained. 
Hence the parables of our Lord are the " Mysteries 
of the Kingdom " (Mw. 13. 11 ). So the symbol of 
the " seven stars " (Rv. I. 20 ) is called a M. The 
apostle Paul, when he looks upon marriage as a 
symbol of Christ's relationship to His Church (Eph. 
5. 32 ), calls it " a great M." When he regards Nero 
as a symbol of lawlessness (2 Th. 2. 7 ) he calls him 
" the M. of iniquity." His use of M. for the 
Gospel (Eph. 3. 9 ; Col. I. 26 ) seems slightly different ; 
unless he regards the Incarnation and death of 
Christ as the symbol by wh. a transaction in the 
heavens was revealed. The sacramental idea is 
reached through this ; certainly the Sacraments 
are spiritual truths revealed in symbol. When the 




Coin of Myra. (See p. 491.) 

modern sense of M. is intruded, i.e. something in- 
comprehensible, then erroneous views are reached. 
The transition has been made all the easier fm. Vlg. 
tr. of M. into " sacr amentum." 



492 



Naa 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nab 



N 



NAAM, a son of Caleb the son of Jephunneh 
(I Ch. 4. 15 ). 

NAAMAH. (1) Dr. of Lamech, sr. of Tubal- 
cain (Gn. 4. 22 ). (2) An Ammonite w. of Solomon, 
mr. of Rehoboam (1 K. 14. 21 ). (3) A town of 
Judah in the Shephelah, named with Beth-dagon 
and Makkedah (Jo. 15. 41 ), prob. = Na'aneh, \\ miles 
S. of er-Ramleh. Zophar is called a Naamathite 
(Jb. 2. 11 , &c), but his home must be sought prob. in 
Edom. 

NAAMAN. (1) 2 K. 5- lff -, generalissimo of 
Benhadad, king of Damascus. A leper, he is in- 




Naaman's House, Damascus: Traditional Site 

duced by the words of an Israelite slave girl to go to 
Elisha to be cured, The prophet tells him to wash 
seven times in Jordan. At first indignant, he yields 
to the remonstrances of his servants and obeys the 
prophet's command, and " his flesh came again like 
unto the flesh of a little child." On his cure he 
professes himself a worshipper of ]". alone. The 
case of conscience N. presents to Elisha about the 
apparent conformity to idol-worship his position in 
the court necessitated is full of interest. As N. 
does not seem to have survived long, Providence 
solved the difficulty for him. The exploit referred 
to (" by him the Lord had given deliverance unto 
Syria ") may mean that he commanded at the battle 
of Karkar, where Shalmaneser, altho' he claims a 
victory, was forced to abandon his attempt to con- 
quer Syria. Josephus' idea that he shot Ahab is 



unlikely. His request for two mules' burden of 
earth fm. Canaan shows he had the idea that J", cd. 
only be worshipped on His own ground. There 
may be a reference also to the command in Ex. 20. 24 . 
The affection of all who came in contact with him, 
Benhadad and the little Heb. maid, proves his 
amiability, and the fact that tho' he is in a towering 
rage at Elisha his servants can venture to reason with 
him shows that past experience had taught them 
their master was amenable to reason. The way he 
presses his gifts upon Gehazi shows his frank gene- 
rosity. His acceptance of J", as his God shows his 
enlightenment. Altogether N. is one of the most 
attractive characters of OT. heathendom. (2) A 
son of Benjamin, born before the migration to 
Egypt (Gn. 46. 21 ). He is called the son of Bela, son 
of Benjamin, in Nu. 26. 40 ; I Ch. 8. 4 . He was the 
ancestor of the family of Naamites (Nu. 26. 40 ). 

NAAMATHITE. See Naamah. 

NAAMITE. See Naaman (2). 

NAARAH. (i) One of the wives of Ashur 
the father — poss. "founder"- — of Tekoa (1 Ch. 



4. 5 ). (2) A town in Ephraim (Jo. 16. 7 ; 1 Ch. y. 28 
Naaran), poss. = el-'Jujeh, six miles to the north 
of Jericho. 

NAARAI, one of David's mighty men (1 Ch. 
II. 37 ), the son of Ezbai. In 2 S. 23. 35 he is called 
" Paarai the Arbite." The change from one form 
to the other is easy in writing ; but so far as can be 
seen now, either form might be the original. 

NAARAN. See Naarah (2). 

NAARATH, a place on the border between 
Ephraim and Manasseh (Jo. 16. 7 , RV. " Naarah "), 
called in 1 Ch. 7. 28 " Naaran." OEJ. places it at 
Noorath, five Rm. miles fm. Jericho. The name 
has disappeared, but the site may be el-'Aujeh, or 
es-Samieh, both in Wddy el-Aujeh. 

NAASHON, NAASSON = Nahshon. 

NABAL, the churlish sheep farmer of Carmel in 
Judah, a Calebite (1 S. 25.). His boorish treat- 
ment of David, whose band had protected his flocks 
agst. marauders, exposed him to a fate fm. wh. only 
the wise policy of his w. delivered him (see Abigail). 
The effects of his carousal, and the terror inspired 
by his wife's story, seem to have paralysed him, and 
in ten days he was dead. His conduct had amply 
justified his name : Nabal = " fool." His wife 
thoroughly understood the man (1 S. 25. 25 ). 

NABOTH, the owner of the land by Jezreel wh. 
Ahab coveted, who was foully done to death by 
Jezebel, to gratify her lord's desire (1 K. 21.). The 
crime made a deep impression on the popular mind, 
and when the downfall of the house of Ahab was 
accomplished, it was regarded as vengeance for 

cp. 



this particular deed of infamy (2 K. 9. 



25f., 36f. 



493 



Nac 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nah 



2i. 20tf -). Naboth's unwillingness to part with the 
vineyard inherited from his fathers, even although 
the king desired it, illustrates the tenacity with 
which the people clung to their, ancestral posses- 
sions. The owner held himself as the guardian for 
the time of the family property, which only dire 
straits could induce him to alienate. 

NACHON (RV. NACON), THRESHING 
FLOOR OF. Here on the journey with the ark 
from Kirjath-jearim, owing to some movement of 
the oxen, stumbling or becoming restive, the ark 
was in danger of being thrown off the cart. Uzzah 
reached out his hand to steady it and was stricken 
dead for his rashness (2 S. 6. 6f -). The place 
was thenceforth called Perez-UZZah, " breach of 
Uzzah," because here the Lord broke forth upon 
him. There is no trace of the name here given to 
be found, nor is there any tradition pointing to any 
particular locality. The site therefore remains in 
obscurity. In 1 Ch. 13. 9 Nachon is called Chidon. 

NACHOR, the form in which the name of 
Abraham's grandfather appears in Lk. 3. 34 . 

NADAB AND ABIHU, sons of Aaron (Ex. 
6. 23 ), destroyed for offering strange fire (Lv. io. 1 ' 2 ). 
This action implied a disregard for God's commands 
wh. was subversive of all true worship. A highly 
spiritual idea of God, wh. mt. be above forms, Isr. 
had not attained, and had to be led to it by way of 
reverent obedience. The action of N. and A. was 
subversive of all reverence, and ultimately of all 
belief in God. 

NADAB. (1) See preceding article. (2) Son 
and successor of Jeroboam I. king of Israel. He 
reigned for two years (1 K. I5. 25ff -). What circum- 
stances led to his besieging Gibbethon we do not 
know. It was a town within the territory allotted 
to Dan (Jo. 19. 44 ), but assigned to the Levites (21. 23 ). 
At this time, however, it was occupied by the 
Philistines. While the siege was in progress a con- 
spiracy against him was organised by one of his 
generals, Baasha, a man of Issachar. The conspiracy 
succeeded, and Baasha slew Nadab, before the be- 
leaguered town. Thus fell the last member of the 
house of Jeroboam, in accordance with the prophecy 
of Ahijah (1 K. 14. 10 ), and the first dynasty of the 
kingdom of Israel came to an end. (2) A man of 
Judah, son of Shammai, a descendant of Jerahmeel 
(1 Ch. 2. 28 ' 30 ). (3) A Benjamite, son of Gibeon 
(1 Ch. 8. 30 , 9. 30 ). 

NAGGE, an ancestor of Jesus (Lk. 3- 25 ). 

NAHALAL, a town in Zebulun allotted to the 
Levites, out of wh. the Can. were not driven (Jo. 



19- 



35 . 



Jg. I. 30 , Nahalol). The rabbis ident. 



N. with Mahlul (Tim. J. Meg. i. 1). This may be 
the small vill. Mdlul, ^\ miles W. of Nazareth. 
Another possible site is i Ain Mahil, about the same 
distance to the NE. of Nazareth. 
NAHALIEL, a halting-place of the Israelites 



between the Arnon and the Jordan (Nu. 21. 19 ). 
It is named with Mattanah and Bamoth. OEJ. 
places it close to the Arnon. If it is rightly trans- 
lated " torrent-valley of God," it may be sought in 
one of the tributary valleys of the Arnon ; perhaps 
in Wady Waleh, which, under different names, 
drains a large area of the district to the NE. of the 
Arnon. 

NAHALOL, a variation in spelling of the name 
Nahalal, occurring only in Jg. 1 30 . 

NAHAM, brother of Hodiah, the sons of the 
latter being the father of Keilah the Garmite, and 
Eshtemoa the Maacathite (1 Ch. 4. 19 ). 

NAHAMAIN, one of the chiefs who returned 
with Zerubbabel and Jeshua (Ne. jJ) whose name 
does not appear in the list of Ez. 2. 2 . In 1 Es. 5. 8 
he is called " Eneneus." 

NAHARAI, a native of Beeroth (1 Ch. c;. 39 ), the 
armour-bearer of Joab (2 S. 23. 37 , AV. " Nahari "). 

NAHASH. (1) K. of the Ammonites fm. whom 
Saul rescued the people of JabeshGilead(i S. n. lff -), 
whose appearance seems to have suggested to Isr. 
the idea of having a k. of their own (12. 12 ). (2) Fr. 
of Hanun (2 S. io. 2 ; I Ch. 19. 2 ). (3) Fr. of Shobi 
of Rabbath Ammon (2 S. 17. 27 ). (1), (2), and (3) 
may all refer to the same man, although this involves 
a very long reign, fm. before the beginning of Saul's 
reign till David was well established on the throne. 
(4) Abigail (2 S. 17. 25 ) is called the " daughter of 
Nahash," and " sister to Zeruiah," while I Ch. 2. 16 
makes her sister to David. " Nahash " in 2 S. 17. 25 
is prob. an error for " Jesse." The rabbis have 
always taught that Nahash was identical with Jesse. 
Some have thought that Nahash the Ammonite king 
was the first husband of Abigail's mother. This in- 
ference rests, however, upon too slender a basis. 
Others suppose that Nahash was the name of 
Jesse's wife, the mother of his children. The name 
may equally well denote either a man or a woman. 
But the matter must rest in uncertainty. 

NAHATH. (1) Eldest son of Reuel, son of 
Esau ; a phylarch in Edom (Gn. 36. 13 ; I Ch. I. 37 ). 
(2) A Kohathite Levite, an ancestor of Samuel 
(1 Ch. 6. 26 ). (3) A Levite who in Hezekiah's time 
was one of those who had oversight of tithes and 
dedicated things (2 Ch. 3 1. 13 ). 

NAHBI, the prince of Naphtali who represented 
his tribe among the spies (Nu. 13. 14 ). 

NAHOR. (1) Fr. of Terah and grandfr. of 
Abraham (Gn. n. 22ff - ; 1 Ch. I. 26 , &c). (2) Son of 
Terah and br. of Abraham (Gn. Il. 26f - ; Jo. 24. 2 ). 
He settled in Haran, having married his niece 
Milcah, who bore him eight sons (Gn. 22. 20ff -). His 
concubine Reumah bore him other four (v. 24). 
His son Bethuel was fr. of Rebekah. Bethuel and 
Laban are described as Aramaeans (Gn. 25. 20 , 31. 20 , 
RVm.). Cert. Aramaean tribes traced their descent 
to N. through his sons Buz, Uz, Aram, &c. 



494 



Nah 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nah 



NAHSHON, NAASSON, son of Amminadab, 
was prince of the children of Judah when the people 
were first numbered in the wilderness (Ex. 6. 23 ; 
Nu. I. 7 , &c). According to the genealogy he was 
in the fifth generation from the patriarch Judah 
(i Ch. 2. 10 ). His sister Elisheba was married to 
Aaron ; and his son Salmon married Rahab, who 
was saved at the destruction of Jericho. He takes 
the first place in the' offerings of the princes, and in 
the order of the march (Nu. 2. 3 , 7. 12 , io. 14 ). He 
died in the desert (Nu. 26. 64i ). David was in the 
fifth generation from him (1 Ch. 2. 10fl -), and he 
appears also as an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Mw. I. 4 ; 
Lk. 3. 32 , AV. Naasson). 

NAHUM, seventh of the Minor Prophets, whose 
name means " consoler," announced the cert, and 
immediate destruction of Nineveh, the city of the 
Asyrs., who had long been the oppressors of Judah, 
and of the whole world. He speaks in the name of 
all the nations agst. their common enemy, and while 
his book has little relgs. teaching, its moral and 
poetic value is of the highest. It is written with a 
poetic force and grandeur of expression wh., short 
though it is, place N. among the masters of pro- 
phetic speech. The pathos and passion of it come 
fm. the heart, for it is a cry of pain and revenge, 
uttered in the name of outraged humanity, by one 
who has long been sorely puzzled by the apparent 
indiffc. of J", to the cause of righteousness and of 
His chosen people. The prophecy is unique, in 
that it does not once mention the sins of Judah 
and the need for repentance. Even his contempo- 
raries, Jeremiah and Zephaniah, denounce the sins 
of their own nation, but N.'s mind is so absorbed 
in the coming manifestation of J'Vs power and 
righteousness, that he has no place for any other 
thought. 

Of the person of the prophet we know nothing 
more than is given by the heading of his bk., and 
though the name occurs in the genealogy of our 
Lord in Lk. 3. 25 , and in the word Capernaum, 
which means " Vill. of Nahum," we cannot say that 
these names have any connection with our prophet. 
He is introduced as " the Elkoshite," wh. implies 
that he was a native or inhabitant of Elkosh, but it 
is doubtful where this place was situated. At a 
modern Elkush, near the site of Nineveh, the tomb 
of Nahum is shown, but the tradition dates only 
from the 16th cent., and its origin is easily under- 
stood. Other localities suggd. by the name are 
claimed in Galilee and in Judaea. The time of 
Nahum's prophecy lies between two important 
dates in the latter half of the seventh cent. b.c. 
Refc. is made in 3. 8 to the capture of No Amon, or 
Thebes, the capital of Upper Egp., wh. was taken by 
the Asyrs., under Ashurbanipal, in b.c. 664. Be- 
tween this date and that of the fall of Nineveh itself 
in or about b.c. 607, the prophecy of Nahum must 



be placed. Some commentators insist that it should 
be placed soon after the fall of No Amon, to act. for 
the vivid remembrance of the event, while others 
incline to place the prophecy on the eve of the final 
capture of Nineveh. The triumphant prediction 
of overthrow, and the vivid picture of the catas- 
trophe caused by the victorious onset of a hostile 
army, the falling of the walls, the confusion in the 
city, the terror and destruction of its inhabitants, all 
give the impression that the prophecy was immedi- 
ately fulfilled, and not given with a long interval 
before the event, such as the earlier date requires. 

After its double title, the prophecy deals with the 
char, of J"., who is a jealous Avenger, slow to anger 
but great in power. The mighty forces of nat. are 
but His instruments, and none can stand before His 
indignation (1 , 2 " 6 ) . J", is a stronghold to those who 
trust Him (i. 7 ), but His vengeance is about to fall 
upon His enemies, and He will make an utter end 
(i. 8 " 10 ). Nineveh is addressed as having already 
suffered J'Vs vengeance in the experience of Senna- 
cherib : " Did not one come forth out of thee, who 
imagined evil agst. ]" '. ? " His host had been de- 
stroyed. Now again ]' ' . will afflict Nineveh, but 
this time it will be final (i. 11 * 12 ). Judah and Asyr. 
are next addressed in alternate verses. To Judah is 
the promise given that the yoke of Asyr. will be 
broken, and Asyr. is threatened with the overthrow 
of its gods. Judah is told that the messenger is 
already on the way with the good tidings of peace, 
and now she can keep her feasts and perform her 
vows in safety (i. 13 ' 15 ). 

Traces of an acrostic poem have been found in 
this first chap., and attempts have been made to 
reproduce the original by modifications of the 
text, bat these attempts can hardly be described 
as. convincing. 

Chap. 2. gives an act. of the attack on Nineveh, 
the main theme of the prophecy. The hostile 
armies are described as ready for the conflict, and 
the reason for it all is given, in passing (v. 2), that 
J", restoreth the excellency of Judah. Inside the 
city of Nineveh all is confusion ; the chariots jostle 
each other in the streets, the k. calls on his nobles to 
man the walls, for already the enemy is battering 
them. It is all in vain ; the water gates are opened, 
the palace taken, and the queen and her attendants 
are without defence. The vast population melts 
away like water, and the call to stand and resist 
finds no response. Nineveh is fallen, the lion's den, 
where, in fancied security, the Asyr. conquerors had 
gathered for a hundred yrs. the riches of the world. 

Chap. 3. contains the song of triumph over 
Nineveh. She is destroyed because of her evil deeds, 
and the poet revels in the destruction : " a multi- 
tude of slain, and a great heap of carcases ; and 
there is none end of the corpses ; they stumble upon 
their corpses." With great wealth of imagery and 



495 



Nai 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nam 



with burning passion N. hurls his denunciations 
agst. the doomed city. Her defences will fail, her 
traders will forsake her, and her nobles will be help- 
less in the day of her trouble. She has no friends to 
take her part, for all have experienced her wicked- 
ness and oppression, and, at the report of her de- 
struction, all will clap their hands over her in joy 
and in derision. John Davidson. 

NAIL (Heb. yatdd = Arb. watad, " a tent-peg"). 
If it be not fastened in a sure place the tent is unsafe 
(Jg. 4. 21 ; Is. 22. 23, 25 ). The Heb. masmer = Aih. 
mistnar (i Ch. 22. 3 , &c.) is the usual nail of metal. 
Tzipporen may signify the point of a stylus (Jr. 17. 1 ) 
or the finger nail (Dt. 21. 12 ). " In the observances 
prescribed in Dt. 2i. 12f - the paring of the nails cor- 
responds to one of the acts by which an Arab widow 
dissolved her widowhood and became free to marry 
again " (Robertson Smith, Kinship, 1 p. 178). It 
may have symbolised the putting away of mourning 
for her captivity : or possibly it was part of the 
process of purification by which an alien woman 
became a fit mate for a Hebrew man. Certainly in 
Israel the neglect of the finger nails was a sign of 
mourning (2 S. 19. 24 , LXX). 

NAIN, the scene of the miracle in Lk. 7. 11 , is = the 
mod. vill. of Nein, on the N. slope of Little Hermon 
(Jebel ed-Duhy — see Moreh, Hill of). The ruins 
show that the vill. was once much larger. The 
decay of the place is locally attributed to specula- 
tion in the cultivation of simsum, the market for wh. 
unexpectedly failed, bringing ruin to the inhabi- 
tants. The rock tombs to the E. are ancient. The 
name of Jesus is preserved in that of the little shrine, 
Maqam Sidna l Isa. A fine view is obtained of 
Esdraelon, Carmel, and the northern hills. The 
mention of the " gate " of the city has led some to 
suppose that it must have been a walled town ; and 
Tristram thought he could trace remains of the 
ancient walls. Fuller investigation has shown that 
he was mistaken. " The gate " probably only 
signified the point at which the road entered the 
town. 

NAIOTH (1 S. ic>. 18f -), a place near Ramah 
where Samuel dwelt with the prophets when 
David fled to him. It has been customary to re- 
gard N. as meaning " houses," " dwellings," but 
there is no distinct evidence in favour of this. The 
LXX transfers the word ; the Psh. has yonath and 
the Tg. Jn. has " the house of instruction." From 
v. 20 it wd. seem that whatever the etymological 
meaning of the word it was the abode of the 
prophets — one of the schools of the prophets (see 
Driver, Samuel, on passage). 

NAMES. Place-names usually contain reference 
to physical peculiarity, as Beer, " a well " or 
" cistern," e.g. Beer-sheba ; Abel, " a meadow," 
e.g. Abel-meholah ; En (ain), " a spring " or 
" well," e.g. En-gedi ; Beth, " a house," e.g. Beth- 



lehem ; Ramah, Ramoth, " a height " or " heights," 
e.g. Ramoth Gilead. The second part of the N. 
supplied the distinctive. Sometimes these were 
commemorative, as " Beer-lahai-roi," " the well of 
the living one who seeth me," commemorating J'Vs 
appearance to Hagar; or indicated some local pecu- 
liarity, as the presence of certain plants, e.g. Abel- 
shittim, "the meadow of the acacias " ; or again it is 
the territory where it occurs, as Ramoth Gilead, 
" the heights of Gilead," or Mt. Ephraim and 
Mt. of the Amorites (cp. mod. Jebel ed-Druze). A 
number of the names, being of foreign origin, have 
no Heb. etymology, e.g. Gaza, Ashdod, &c. 

Personal Names. — A true name of a person as 
well as of a place ought to be descriptive of his 
character, but as each individual presents different 
sides of his nature to each of his friends, he wd., 
were he truly named by them, have to each a dif- 
ferent name. This to some extent explains nick- 
names and pet names. In the E. there are many 
superstitions in regard to names ; some are supposed 
to be of good omen. When Jacob changed the N. of 
his youngest son fm. Benoni, " son of my sorrow," 
to Benjamin, " son of the right hand," his motive 
was to change a name of evil omen to one of good. 
The name is supposed to be singularly related to 
the person. A thing wh. not infrequently happens, 
when a child has taken a serious illness, is to change 
its name, that when the Angel of Death comes 
commissioned to slay a child named, e.g., " Daoud," 
and finds instead one named " Yusuf," he will go 
away and let the child live. Divine names form 
frequently a part of personal names, as El, e.g. 
Israel, Eliezer. After the time of David, ]". became 
a very common element of such names in Israel, 
e.g. Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Obadiah, &c. 
Tho' more common after the time of David, J". 
is found in earlier names, as Jehoshua (Joshua). 
We have also occasionally the names of heathen 
deities introduced, as Jerubbaal, Ethbaal, Ben- 
hadad, Hadadezer. This characteristic is seen in 
NT. names as well, e.g. Hermadorus (Hermas), 
Theophilus, Apollonius (Apollos), &c. Such 
names are common still in the E., as Abderrahman, 
" the servant of the Merciful," i.e. God. Less 
commonly than in the mod. E. we find names of 
animals used, e.g. Caleb, " a dog " ; Nahash, " a 
serpent " ; Deborah, "a bee" ; Jonah, " a dove " ; 
while now the name of the animal is supposed to 
carry with it some of the qualities of it, as Asad, 
" a lion " : but scarcely cd. any one have been called 
Caleb in this expectation. As Caleb seems to have 
been of foreign extraction, the root might have been 
in some other language and modified into Caleb, as 
that was intelligible in Heb. Names of plants occur, 
as Tamar, "a palm tree"; of objects of nature, as 
Shimshon (Samson), " the sun" ; Peninah, "coral." 
Pet names are sometimes perpetuated, as probably 



496 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nap 



is the case in regard to David and certainly in regard 
to Solomon, for Jedidiah. With the Greek domi- 
nation the perpetuation of certain names in families 
was adopted. Thus Simeon Hatz-Tzadiq was the 
son of Onias — his son was Onias also and his grand- 
son Simeon. So, if we may trust the Talmud, there 
were six Gamaliels, all descendants of Hillel in a 
direct line. 

The name of God is used for God in His supre- 
macy, e.g. Jo. 7- 9 , " What wilt Thou do unto Thy 
great N. ? " It has something of idea of reputation : 
" continually every day is My N. blasphemed " (Is. 
52. 4 ). God's character was so misrepresented by 
the conduct of those who professed to be His people 
that it was as if a calumny were uttered against Him. 
The action of the sons of Sceva show this supersti- 
tion ; they adjured the demon " in the name of 
Jesus whom Paul preacheth." The name awakened 
thoughts and feelings in the brain of the mad- 
man, and he leaped on them and drove them out. 
Power was supposed to be conveyed with the name 
(cp. Ac. 19. 13 ) : certainly the apostles used the N. of 
Jesus when they worked miracles (Ac. 3. 6 ) ; but 
they recognised God as the real agent (Ac. 4. 30 ). 
The reason why the name of Jesus was used was to 
show clearly to the Jews that Divine power was 
manifested thus in order to prove the mission of 
Him whom " with wicked hands they had crucified 
and slain." This evidence was all the more fitted 
to be convincing with the Jews fm. their belief in 
the power those had who knew the great Shem-ham- 
phorash (the name of God) of 42 letters : here the 
name of the Crucified had equal power. 

It is well known that the true pronunciation of 
the Divine name of the Covenant God of Israel 
has been lost. " Jehovah " it certainly is not. 
The most probable appears to be Jahzoeh, in wh. 
the first h is to be pronounced. The Jews pro- 
nounce Adonai when they come to the sacred name 
in reading the Scripture, and hence the vowels of 
that word are placed under the four consonants 
JHWH, and that is the origin of our word " Jeho- 
vah." The sacred name was to be truly pronounced 
only in the Temple. When it was pronounced in 
the priestly benediction the singers broke in to 
drown the voice of the High Priest, lest any un- 
worthy person might hear it. Originally when he 
pronounced it the name was heard as far as Jericho 
— so Talmudic authorities assure us (Jzv. En., Shem- 
ham-phorash). This was a perversion of an earlier 
relationship. The sanctity of places was indicated 
by the N. of God being recorded there (Ex. 20. 24 ). 
The Temple itself was holy because it was built for 
the N. of God. His name was therein (1 K. 8. 16 ). 
Persons were sanctified by this. The Angel of the 
Presence that led Israel in the wilderness had His 
power because of the divine N. in Him : " Provoke 
Him not ... for My name is in Him " (Ex. 23. 21 ). 



The name of God gave sanction to an oath. He 
was called to witness and to avenge any breach of 
the oath. Here it may be observed that taking the 
name of God in vain seems to refer not to perjury 
but to the habit common in all countries of invoking 
God on trivial occasions. The primary lesson Israel 
had to learn was reverence, and this invoking God 
on every occasion when it was merely wished to 
give emphasis to a statement, tended to lessen that 
awful reverence wh. God required. This is the point 
of the horror all religious people have of profane 
swearing. The swearers put no meaning in the 
words they use, but they have broken the awful 
reverence that ought to hedge in everything con- 
nected with God and Divine things. 

Change of N. occurred when one entered a new 
service, e.g. Joseph (Gn. 41. 45 ), Daniel and his 
friends (Dn. I. 7 ). Similarly Necho changed the N. 
of Eliakim to Jehoiakim (2 K. 2^. M ). Perhaps the 
" new N." of Rv. 2. 17 may refer to this. New 
covenant relationships to God were signalised by 
change of name, as Abraham, Jacob, and Simon 
Peter. 

NAOMI, " my pleasantness," a native of Beth- 
lehem, w. of Elimelech, mr. of Mahlon and Chilion 
(Ru. I. 2 , &c.) : see Ruth. Her experience was 
peculiarly " bitter." Driven to Moab from Beth- 
lehem by reason of a famine, her husband died in 
the land of the alien, and her two sons, having 
married maidens of that land, also died there. 
Her return thus bereaved to Bethlehem must have 
stirred many memories wh. enable us to understand 
her play upon her name (Ru. I. 20 ). 

NAPHISH, the second youngest son of Ishmael 
(Gn. 25. 15 ; 1 Ch. i. 31 ). His descendants were 
among the peoples E. of Jordan, who were subdued 
by the Israelitish tribes settled there (1 Ch. 5. 19 ). 
They have not been identified with any Arabian 
people. 

NAPHTALI, fifth son of Jacob, the second of 
Bilhah, br. of Dan (Gn. 30. 7L ). At the descent into 
Egp. he had four sons (Gn. 46. 24 ). He is said to have 
been swift of foot (Tg. Ps. J.) and to have lived 132 
yrs. idlest, of the Twelve Patriarchs). For strength of 
the tribe see Numbers. N.'s position in the desert 
was on the N. of the Tabernacle, with Dan and 
Asher ; and on the march, in the rear (Nu. 2. 29> 31 ). 

The territory assigned to N. lay to the W. of the 
Sea of Galilee and the Upper Jordan (Jo. iCj. 32ff -). 
Josephus is surely wrong in saying that on the E. it 
reached Damascus (Ant. V. i. 22). In Jo. I9. 32ff - 
nineteen cities are assigned to Naphtali. The most 
important was the famous City of Refuge, Kedesh- 
nafhtali, the ruins of which are still to be seen on 
the heignts W. of the Waters of Merom. Few of 
the others can now be identified. The boundaries 
cannot be drawn with certainty. On the S., SW., 
and W., Naphtali bordered on Issachar, Zebulun, 



497 



Nap 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nat 



and Asher : on the N. it reached the Litany, and 
included part at least of the plain of Ijon, the mod. 
Merj A'yun. The boundary may have run roughly 
fm. the E. roots, or " ears " (Aznoth) of Tabor, 
by way of Hat tin and Taquq, turning W.-ward by 
er-Rameh to the border of Asher, and then in an 
irregular line N.-ward to the Litany. It included 
thus the broad, fertile terraces and plains W. and 
NW. of the Sea of Galilee, and the bulk of Upper 
Galilee, with its lofty mountains and deep gorges, its 
picturesque hills and fruitful valleys. Dan carved 
a portion for himself out of the NE. part, apparently 
with no opposition on the side of Naphtali (see Dan). 
The old inhabitants also continued to occupy many 
of the towns (Jg. I. 33 ). The open, free life of these 
spacious uplands seems to have developed a fine 
wholesome spirit of independence. Josephus pays 
a high compliment to the courage and military skill 
of the people (BJ. III. hi. 2). They distinguished 
themselves in the attack on Sisera (Jg. 5. 18 ). They 
made an important contribution to David's strength 
at Hebron (1 Ch. 12. 34 ). Lying on the northern 
border, N. suffered much during the wars of the 
kings (1 K. 15. 20 ; 2 K. 12. 18 , 13. 22 ), and its people 
were the first W. of Jordan to be taken captive 
(2 K. 15. 29 ) ; see Galilee. Barak alone of Naphtali 
made for himself an enduring name, and if he were 
joint author of Jg. 5., lent colour to the saying, " He 
giveth goodly words " (Gn.- 49. 21 ). Naphtali con- 
tained the highest mountain in Pal. proper, Jebel 
Jermuk (see Mt. of Transfiguration). Much of 
the land is very good, and the peasant farmers to 
this day are among the most prosperous in the 
country. The villagers devote themselves largely 
to the cultivation of vegetables for the markets of 
Safed, Tiberias, Nazareth, and Acre. On the hill- 
sides are many excellent vineyards. The olive 
groves that flourish in the rich hollows yield abun- 
dance of fine olive oil : while preserved olives are 
also sent in great quantities to the above-named 
towns. Quince, citron, lemon, fig and mulberry 
grow to perfection ; and splendid harvests are 
gathered from its upland fields. It still supports a 
considerable population. The chief mod. city is 
Safed, crowning the mountain due north of the Sea 
of Galilee, containing well over 20,000 inhabitants. 
It occupies a position of great strength, which must 
always have been of importance, but it cannot be 
identified with any ancient city. The ruined for- 
tress which dominates the whole region was the 
stronghold of the Templars. The garrison sur- 
rendered to Sultan Bibars in 1266, and were forth- 
with massacred. In 1759 it was ruined by an 
earthquake. The city suffered appalling disaster 
from a similar visitation on 1st January 1837. It is 
now reckoned one of the holy cities of the Jews. 
Among the Sephardim community polygamy is still 
practised. Within the limits of N., including as it 



did the land of Gennesaret, with Bethsaida, Caper- 
naum, and Chorazin, much of the Saviour's public 
life was passed, and here He found the most pro- 
minent of His apostles. 

Mt. Naphtali is that portion of the range domi- 
nated by N. See Mount. 

NAPHTUHIM (Gn. io. 13 ), a people connected 
with Egypt. No very plausible identification has 
been reached. Napata, the capital of Ethiopia, has 
been suggested. Erman's suggestion of a corrup- 
tion of Patemka, the northern division of Egypt 
as distinguished fm. Pathrum the southern, seems 
as probable as any. Dr. Johns has suggested that 
it is a Heb. modification of the name modified in 
Asyr. to Nathu, and means a district in the Lower 
Egypt. 

NAPKIN occurs only in the NT. in connection 
with its use for binding the face of the dead (Jn. 
II. 44 , 20. 7 ), and as that in which the unprofitable 
servant buried his lord's money (Lk. 19. 20 ). The 
name soudarion is borrowed from the Latin (suda- 
riuni), and signified primarily a cloth carried for the 
purpose of wiping off perspiration. 

NARCISSUS. In Rm. 16. 11 slaves of N. are 
saluted. N. is supposed to be the freedman of 
Claudius, who had boundless influence over him, 
and through this acquired great wealth. He was 
put to death by Agrippina on the accession of Nero, 
and all his property taken by the Emperor. It is 
supposed that his slaves, tho' added to those of 
Caesar's house, mt. still be called Narcissiani. The 
name Narcissus was common among slaves, and 
consequently among freedmen. 

NATHAN. (1) The trusted adviser of king 
David, who appears first as approving the king's 
purpose to build the Temple. He soon withdrew 
that approval in consequence of a vision : but at the 
same time comforted the monarch with a great and 
splendid promise (2 S. 7. 2ff- )- We next find him re- 
buking David for his peculiarly heinous sin. Bring- 
ing home to him his guilt — making him condemn 
himself— by means of his famous parable of the " one 
ewe lamb," he led the royal offender to penitence 
(l2. lff -). In token that sincere repentance had 
been accepted, he called the infant son of the now 
forgiven parents Jedidiah, " beloved of Jah ".(v. 25). 
Solomon's designation and final anointing as king 
were clearly in some measure due to the influence of 
Nathan, acting in concert with Bathsheba (i K. 
i. 8fE -). It was natural for Solomon, in gratitude to 
the prophet who had so effectually befriended him, 
to find high office for Nathan's sons, Azariah and 
Zabud (1 K. 4. 5 ). Nathan is said to have written 
a history of these times (1 Ch. 29. 29 ; 2 Ch. 9- 29 ). 
(2) A son, probably the third, borne to David 
by Bathsheba (2 S. 5. 14 ; cp. 12. 24 ). The line of 
Solomon appears to have become extinct with 
Jehoiachin. The right of succession to David's 



498 



Nat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Naz 



throne therefore passed to Salathiel, the descendant 
of Nathan, who is probably referred to in Zc. 12. 12 . 
Nathan thus appears as an ancestor of our Lord 
(Lk. 3. 31 ). (3) Father of Igal, one of David's 
mighty men (2 S. 23. 36 ). In 1 Ch. n. 38 he is called 
the brother of " Joel." . (4) One who returned 
with Ezra (8. 16 ; 1 Es. 8. 44 ). (5) One who had 
married a foreign wife (Ez. io. 39 ). (6) Son of 
Attai, of the tribe of Judah (1 Ch. 2. 36 ). 

NATHANIEL, a native of Cana of Galilee (Jn. 
21. 2 ), one of the first disciples of Christ, a friend of 
Philip, who brought him the good news, " We have 
found Him of whom Moses in the law and the 
prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
Joseph." He received the news, apparently, with 
incredulity, but willingly followed his friend to 
put the declaration to proof. Jesus perceived and 
spoke of the utter simple-heartedness of the man. 
On seeing Jesus and hearing His words his doubts 



Nathaniel's name has become proverbial for sim- 
plicity and guilelessness. 

NAZARENE (Gr. Nafeo/xuos, Nafa/oijvos), inha- 
bitant of Nazareth, used of Christ (Mw. 2. 23 ) and 
changed into a denominative of Christians (Ac. 2/\.. 5 ). 

In regard to the prophecy referred to in Mw. 2. 34 there 
are five explanations given : (a) Nazarene is there equivalent 
to Nazirite (?iazir), the argument being that though our 
Lord was not a Nazirite, yet as the essence of this was 
consecration, He might be regarded as really a Nazirite 
(Lightfoot, Hor. Tal. ii. 44). This, however, is unlikely 
fm. the contrast between our Lord's conduct and the 
asceticism of the Nazirite. (b) The general idea that He 
wd. be despised, fm. the low esteem in wh. Nazareth 
was held (Jn. i. 46 ). This also is unlikely, as we have no 
reason to think that the estimate of Nathaniel was one 
generally held, (c) A play on natzur, "preserved" (Is. 
49. 6 ) ; the objection to this is that the "preserved" of the 
passage does not refer to the Messiah but to His people. 

(d) That it refers to a lost prophecy is poss. but unlikely. 

(e) That Nazareth meaning a "sprout," and netzer, "a 
branch," is applied to the Messiah (Is. u. 1 ). This seems 
on the whole the best explanation. The strongest objection 
is that drawn fm. the Gr. transliterating tz by z, contrary 




Nazareth from the East 



vanished, and with awe and reverence he exclaimed, 
" Thou art the Son of God ; Thou art the King of 
Israel" (Jn. i. 45ff -). Nothing further is known 
about Nathaniel, and we cannot with certainty 
identify him with any other. Many think that he is 
identical with Bartholomew. The latter is not a 
personal name : it is lit. " son of Talmai," and it 
does not appear at all in St. John's Gospel. Na- 
thaniel is mentioned as one of those to whom Jesus 
appeared at the Sea of Galilee, after His resurrec- 
tion. It would seem strange if he only of that 
company were not an apostle. Again, one so well 
known as N. must have been would surely have been 
chosen among " the seven," if not for the place left 
vacant by Judas Iscariot, if he had not already been 
numbered with the apostles. Friendship with 
Philip may be indicated by their being named 
together in the lists. The use of the name Bartho- 
lomew by the other evangelists may be due to the 
ancient and universal custom in the Orient of 
calling a man by his patronymic — Tehudah ibn 
Zeideh, Hassan ibn i Abdullah, or only ibn Zeideh, or 
ibn 'Abdullah. So Nathaniel bar Talmai would 
often be referred to simply as Bar Talmai. These, 
considerations make the identification probable. 



to the custom of the LXX : this wd. imply that the middle 
consonant in the name of the town was z, not tz as in 
netzer ; but the mod. Arb. name has as middle consonant 
s—tz. 

NAZARETH, a town in Galilee (ML I. 9 , &c), 
the home of Joseph and Mary (Lk. 2. 39 , &c), the 
scene of the first 30 yrs. of Jesus' life (Mw. 2. 23 : 
Lk. 2. 51 , 4. 16 , &c). He was therefore known as 
Jesus of N., and His followers were called Naza- 
renes. With the Arabs to this day Nasrany is 
" Christian." 

N. is not mentioned in OT. Quaresimus says its 
ancient name was Medina Abiat, doubtless intend- 
ing el-Medlnat el-Beida, " the white town " ; a 
description wh. perfectly suits N. The Mishna 
(Menachoth, viii. 6) speaks of the " white house on 
the hill," wh. supplied wine for the drink-offering. 
A lament for the 9th of Ab, anniversary of the de- 
struction of Jrs., seems to speak of N. as a priestly 
station. But nothing is known of it with certainty 
(Delitzsch, Ein Tag in Ka-pernaum? 142). 

The mod. en-Ndsirah, " the victorious," lies in a 
cup-like hollow among the hills of Lower Galilee, 
five miles W. of Mt. Tabor. It is built of white 
limestone, mainly on the NW. slope. The road to 
Carmel and the sea runs over the SW. height, and a 



499 



Naz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Naz 



gorge breaks down S.-ward to the plain of Esdraelon, 
past the crag known to tradition as the Mt. of Pre- 
cipitation (Lk. 4- 29 ). This is more likely to be the 
cliff hard by the ancient synagogue, wh. is still shown 
in the W. part of the town. The one spring of any 
volume in N. is under the Gr. Orthodox Church. 
The water is now led by a conduit to a mod. foun- 
tain. This spring Mary and her little Son must 
often have visited. NW. of the town rises the 
height of Neby Sa'ln, whence a most beautiful and 
comprehensive view is obtained. Of the 6000 or 
7000 inhabitants, the largest community is the Gr. 
Orthodox, with between 2000 and 300CX The 
Moslems number some 1600. In the late spring the 
valley, with its cactus hedges, fig and olive trees, and 
spreading vineyards contrasting with the glisten- 
ing white of the walls, presents a very attractive 
appearance. The centre of an agricultural and 
pastoral district, many of the people are engaged in 
these pursuits. It was formerly under the govern- 




Nazareth : Mount of Precipitation 

ment of Acre, but is now under that of Jrs. An 
important work has long been carried on here in the 
Orphanage (now under the auspices of the Church 
Missionary Society) among the girls of Galilee. 
Medical missionary work is also successfully prose- 
cuted by the agents of the Edinburgh Medical 
Missionary Society. 

NAZIRITE (Heb. nazir, fm. nazar, " to sepa- 
rate," connected with nadar, " to vow "). The 
Nazirite vow was a peculiar institution, by wh. cer- 
tain persons vowed to separate themselves to Divine 
service for life, or for a time. It seems to be of 
primitive origin, as the Code of Hammurabi takes 
for granted the existence of " votaries," apparently 
only women ; it may be noted that they were for- 
bidden even to enter a wine-shop. It may be 
regarded as parallel with the " hierodouloi " of 
Hellenic heathendom. Among the Romans the 
priestesses of Vesta — the Vestal Virgins — may be 
said to occupy something of the same position. In 
the East in modern times the Dervishes represent 
something of the same movement ; they do not cut 
their hair, and as rigid Moslems drink no wine ; the 



like is true of the monks and nuns of Catholicism in 
the West, not, however, in the matter of the hair 
and wine. It wd. seem, then, to be a primitive 
practice wh., as in the case of the blood feud, 
Mosaism received and regulated. In the account of 
the restrictions implied in the Nazirite vow wh. we 
have in Nu. 6. 1 " 21 , it is taken for granted that the 
ceremonies by wh. one became a Nazirite were well 
known. Talmudic authorities, who wrote long after 
the Nazirite vow was impossible owing to the de- 
struction of the Temple, assert that a man had only 
to say " May I be a Nazirite " to be under the vows. 
Yet the ceremonies wh. took place when by accident 
a man's N. vow was broken seem to imply that after 
the offerings for sin were completed the votary was 
to consecrate himself anew before the High Priest, 
so it might be presumed his first consecration wd. be 
equally before the priest. The long locks worn on 
their temples by orthodox Jews, wh. may be re- 
garded as in some sort a survival of Naziritism, are 
consecrated usually at some feast ; in Northern Pal. 
it is done generally at the burning of Meiron in 
commemoration of Shimyon ben Yohai : all the rest 
of the hair is cut and the locks in front left. May it 
not have been that the hair was solemnly cut and 
then left to grow during the period of the vow ? 
It wd. almost seem as if Paul had taken on him 
temporary Nazirite vows when he shore his head 
at Cenchrsea, " for he had a vow " ; his haste at 
Ephesus wd. be explained by his wish to be released 
fm. his vow at Jrs. at the expiry of the 30 days. 
The period, unless something specially to the con- 
trary was mentioned, was understood to be 30 days. 
The passage in Numbers is occupied with summaris- 
ing the restrictions and describing the ceremonies of 
release, with, as an episode, the ceremonies con- 
nected with the accidental breach of his vow above 
referred to. The restrictions were : during his 
vow his hair was not to be cut, he was not to drink 
wine nor eat anything made of the vine, he was to 
shun all contact with the dead. The consecration 
of the N. had many points of resemblance to that of 
the High Priest : like the N. the High Priest might 
not come in contact with the dead, like him (while 
engaged in the service of the sanctuary) he must not 
taste wine (Lv. io. 9 ) ; there is no word of the High 
Priest's hair being consecrated. One may compare 
the restrictions under wh. the Roman Flamen 
Dialis was placed, even more numerous and trouble- 
some than those of the Nazirite. While there is 
nothing said as to the persons who cd. lawfully make 
these vows, the law in Nu. 30. 3 " 16 wd. apply to N. 
vows when taken by women. Probably males while 
minors wd. be under similar restrictions. When the 
days of his separation were completed, the N. had to 
bring to the Temple two lambs, a male and a female 
of the first year without blemish, and a ram, for 
burnt-offering, sin-offering, and peace-offering re- 



Naz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Neb 



spectively, and a basket of unleavened bread and 
wafers ; his head was solemnly shaved, and the hair 
was " put in the fire under the sacrifice of the peace- 
offerings." Then, after they had been put in the 
hands of the N., the priest was to wave "the sodden 
shoulder of the ram, one unleavened cake, and one 
wafer ... for a wave-offering before the Lord " ; 
after that the N. mt. drink wine. 

References to the N. are not numerous in Scrip- 
ture. Samson is repeatedly called a Nazirite (Jg. 
13. 7 , 16. 17 ). Not only is he personally to refrain 
fm. wine or strong drink, but before his birth his 
mother is to be equally abstinent, with the addition 
that she is not to eat anything that " cometh fm. the 
vine." His long hair is prominent in the narrative. 
Nazirites are referred to in Am. 2. 11, 12 as members 
of a well-known institution, and one equally with 
that of the prophets showing God's signal favour for 
Israel. It is regarded as a special sign of apostasy 
that the Israelites gave the Nazirites wine to drink. 
In L. \P their beauty is mentioned as one of the 
great but vanished glories of Israel ; they were now, 
fm. being " whiter than milk, more ruddy in body 
than rubies," blacker " in visage than a coal ; their 
skin cleaving to their bones." A personage yet 
more potent than Samson in the evolution of Israel 
is Samuel ; though he is not called a Nazirite, yet 
the restrictions his mother consecrates him to, 
especially if we follow the text behind the LXX, wh. 
mentions " wine and strong drink " as debarred to 
him, prove him to have been one. As any one may 
see, the sacrifices that a N. had to offer when the 
period of his vow was accomplished wd. be burden- 
some to a poor man, hence it was a common evi- 
dence of zeal for the law for a man of means to pay 
those charges on behalf of the poorer Nazirites ; 
thus king Agrippa I., when he returned to Jrs. from 
Rome, besides the offerings of thanksgiving he pre- 
sented for himself, arranged for the sacrifices of 
" very many Nazirites " (Naziraion mala suchnous). 
When the apostle Paul visited Jerusalem for the last 
time he was urged to pay the charges for certain 
Jewish Christians who had taken on them the 
Nazirite vows and whose time of release had come, 
in order that he might prove that for himself he 
had not abandoned Judaism. This affords evidence 
that even Christians became Nazirites. It is true 
that Critical opinion has decided that this portion 
of Numbers is late ; Kuenen {Hex. 92) assigns it to 
P. 3 , who must on his showing have written close 
upon B.C. 400 (Paterson [Polychr. Bib.] agrees) : a 
period during wh. we know absolutely nothing of 
the history of Israel. Still, tho' the record may 
be late, the institution itself may be early. As to 
Samson, Moore (Polychr. Bib.) dates that section of 
the book of Judges about b.c 850. Budde further 
declares it to be glossed, and asserts that the original 
document contained nothing about wine. He fur- 



ther maintains, as Samson made a banquet for the 
Philistine relatives of his wife, that therefore he had 
partaken himself. Further, it is argued that, as a N. 
was forbidden to touch a dead body, Samson cd. not 
have been a N. since he took the honeycomb fm. the 
carcase of the lion. But it was only dead human 
beings the N. was forbidden to touch, not dead 
animals, or the High Priest, who was under the re- 
striction, cd. never have offered sacrifice. More- 
over, the carcase of the lion at the time of Samson's 
descent wd. be a mere desiccated skeleton ; every- 
thing that cd. be devoured wd. have been eaten by 
the ants. But it is objected that in his frequent 
battles he touched many dead men. But the dead 
in his battles were not dead when Samson touched 
them, whatever they were after. Hence fm. the 
history nothing can be drawn against the law of the 
N. in Numbers. Singularly enough, Jewish tradition 
wd. claim Absalom to be a N. on account of his long 
hair. The object of this institution was to protest 
against the luxury so apt to set in when a nomadic 
people became settled, and especially when they 
began to grow the vine. The Rechabites carried 
this protest a little further, but it was the same 
protest. It may be noted that the protest was in 
its simplest form in this institution. The Nazirites 
formed no communities so far as we learn. The 
Essenes appear to have endeavoured to fulfil some- 
what of the office of the Nazirites. At the same 
time John the Baptist, Banus the tutor of Josephus, 
and, according to tradition, James the brother of 
our Lord, resembled the Nazirites not a little. 

NEAH, a town in the territory of Zebulun (Jo. 
19. 13 ), possibly identical with Neiel (v. 27). It is 
named with Gath-hepher and Rimmon. It has 
not yet been identified. 

NEAPOLIS, the seaport of Philippi, where St. 
Paul landed when he crossed fm. Troas (Ac. 16. 11 ), 
now either Eski Kavalla or the mod. Kavalla, ten 
miles further E., on the coast of Macedonia. It 
was the eastern terminus of the great highway, 
the Via Egnatia, which, starting at Dyrrhachium, 
traversed the country, touching at the main cen- 
tres of population, Thessalonica, Amphipolis, &c, 
forming the principal avenue of commerce between 
east and west. See also Shechem. 

NEARIAH. (1) One of the sons of Shemaiah, 
a descendant of king David, after the return from 
Babylon (1 Ch. 3. 22f -). (2) Son of Jehi, one of the 
captains of the marauding Simeonites, who in 
Hezekiah's time raided the Amalekites in Mount 
Seir (1 Ch. 4. 42 ). 

NEBAI, RV. NOBAI, one of those who sealed 
the covenant with Nehemiah (Ne. io. 19 ). 

NEBAIOTH, the firstborn of Ishmael (Gn. 
25. 13 ; 1 Ch. I. 29 ), fm. whom a large pastoral tribe 
was named. The " rams of N." are mentioned 
along with the " flocks of Kedar " (Is. 60. 7 ). As 



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Neb 




Josephus assigns to the sons of Ishmael (of whom the name is connected with nab a, " to prophesy," an 

eldest was, to use his form, Nebaiothes) the region etymology wh. agrees with the function assigned 

of Nabatene, it seems obvious that he identified this him in the mythology of Babylon. His worship 

tribe with the Nabataeans of his own day (Ant. I. was very popular in Babylon, 

xii. 4). Jerome follows him in the same identifica- as may be seen by the number 

tion (Com. on Gen.). Doubt has been thrown on of names in wh. it occurs as an 

this recently by Dr. Glaser. In the Annals of element, as Nebuchadnezzar, 

Ashurbanipal there occur repeated references to a Nabopolasar, and many others. 

race called Naba-ai-te : with them are associated He is the god of prophecy 

Kidrai and Aribi. There is an etymological dim- and learning. Very suitably, 

culty in the identification proposed by Josephus Tashmit, " hearing," is given 

and Jerome that the third consonant in the name him as spouse. 

Nabatsan is t while in Nebaioth it is t. That, NEBUCHADNEZZAR (2 

however, is not insuperable, as the Heb. verb qatal K. 24. lf -, 25. lf - ; 2 Ch. ^6. 6t ; 

becomes qatala in Arabic. Notwithstanding the Ez. 2. lf - ; Jr. 2j. lt , 34. 1 ; Dn. 

authority of Dr. Glaser we venture to approve of i. 1L ), NEBUCHADREZZAR 

Jerome's view. (Jr. 21. 2f -, ^g. lf - ; Ek. 26. 7 , 

NEB ALL AT, a town in Benjamin, occupied 29. 18 ' 19 ), Asyr. N abu-kudurri- 

after the Exile (Ne. n. 34 ), but not mentioned in utzur, " Nebo protects the 

the original list of Jo. i8. llfl - It is named with boundary"; Gr. LXX Naboii- 

Zeboim, Lod, and Ono. It is prob. =mod. Beit chodonosor ; Jos. Nabouchodono- 

Nebdla, three miles NE. of Lydda. sows. The n instead of r in 

NEBAT, father of Jeroboam I., king of Israel, the commoner but less cor- 

His son was born in Zered in the Jordan valley, of rect form is due to the fact Nebo (from a statue in 

which place we may presume Nebat was a native, that the Heb. verb natzar is Bnt Mus,) 

He is entirely unknown to history except as the equivalent to the Asyr. yatzar, the r in the second 

father of his distinguished son (1 K. II. 26 , &c). element of the Assyrian name being dropped before 

Jeroboam is constantly called " son of Nebat," pos- the Heb. n. Exclusive of Daniel, in which the 

sibly to make clear the distinction between him and first form occurs 31 times, that form is found 28 

the second Jeroboam, the son of Joash. times, 10 times of these in Jeremiah ; the second is 

NEBO. (1) A mountain in Moab, part of the found 31 times. When the Assyrian empire had 

mountains of Abarim, climbed by Moses to view the become weakened by the expenditure of blood and 

promised land and die (Nu. 33« 47 ; Dt. 32. 49 , 34. 1 ). treasure in the conflicts and conquests of Ashur- 

It was a mountain one head or top of wh. was called banipal, the Chaldaean Nabu-pal-utzar seized the 

Pisgah (Nu. 21. 20 , 23. 14 ; Dt. 3. 27 , 4. 49 , &c). On throne of Babylon. For a considerable period 

the back of a ridge wh. runs out W.-ward fm. the he occupied himself with the consolidation of his 

Moab tableland, c. five miles SW. of Hesbdn, we find Babylonian dominions. When, however, the Assy- 

the name en-Nebd. A little further to the W. the rian empire was beginning to stagger beneath the 

ridge terminates in the height of Sidghab, wh. com- blows of the Manda (Medes), he entered into an 

mands a view of the Jordan valley to Mt. Hermon, alliance with these assailants of what had so longbeen 

and all the main points of the land W. of Jordan, to the dominant power in SW. Asia, and took as a wife 

the uplands of Judah (HGHL. 563, Birch, PEFO. for his son, N., Amytis (Amuhea, Eus. Chron. 1, 

1898, nofL). We may safely identify this with quot. fm. Polyhist.), the daughter of the Median king 

Moses' outlook. (2) A city in Moab fortified by Astyages (Istu-vegu). The allies besieged Nineveh 

Reuben (Nu. 32. 3> 38 ). It was taken and destroyed and ultimately took it ; meanwhile Pharaoh-Necho, 

by Mesha (Moab St., lines I4ff.), and is later re- anxious to secure some share of the falling empire, 

ferred to as Moabite (Is. 15. 2 ; Jr. 48. 1 ' 22 ) : perhaps conquered Syria and occupied Carchemish, wh. 

identified with the ruins at en-Nebd, mentioned guarded the ford over the Euphrates. Nabupo- 

above (Buhl, GAP., 266). (3) A town in Judah lasar, who had associated his son N. with him on the 






(Ez. 



29 



Ne. 7- 33 ), poss. = Beit Nuba, 12 miles throne, sent him to encounter Necho. A battle 



NW. of Jrs., or Nuba, 4 miles SSE. of Adullam. was fought at Carchemish, and Necho was com- 

NEBO, an Asyr. and Bab. deity (Is. 46. 1 ; Jr. pletely defeated. The young conqueror followed 

48 }), originally supreme god of Borsippa near up his victory by demanding the submission of 

Babylon, then, drawn into the pantheon of the all those who, having been vassals of Assyria, had 

greater city, he became in the popular mythology become tributaries of Egypt. Among the others 

the son of Bel-Marduk. He is regarded as the thus brought into subjection was Jehoiakim, who 

interpreter of the gods, and is associated with the appears to have been taken prisoner, and to have 

planet Mercury, wh. is messenger of the Sun. The ransomed himself by giving over to N. a " part of 

502 



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Neb 



the vessels of the Lord's house." At this time was 
Daniel taken as a hostage along with others of the 
Jewish nobility, including his three friends. At 
this point, when possibly meditating an invasion of 
Egypt, N. was informed of the death of his father ; 
Berosus informs us that he sent his hostages, heavy 
baggage and heavy armed troops to the north, while 
he himself with his light troops struck across the 
desert, and arrived in time to prevent any attempt 
at revolution. N. began his independent reign in the 
month Iyyar (May), b.c. 604. Unlike his Assyrian 
predecessors in empire, N. in his inscriptions rarely 
chronicles his conquests : we cannot tell his wars 
in any detail, but as Elam and Anshan appear to 
have become independent about that time, he mt. 
have to keep his armies near the eastern frontier. 
Meantime Hophra had succeeded Necho in Egypt, 
and began to intrigue with the former vassals of 
Egypt. Three years after his submission to N. 
Jehoiakim rebelled against him. At the moment N. 
cd. not himself engage in the affairs of the West, but 
the garrison troops of Chaldaea, with the troops of 
the allies that remained loyal, harassed Jehoiakim. 
Possibly it was about this time that N. had the 
dream of the gigantic statue (Dn. 2.). At length 
Jehoiakim died, and was succeeded by his son 
Jeconiah. N., now free to intervene, besieged 
Jerusalem and again took it. He carried Jeconiah 
away captive to Babylon, and made his uncle 
Zedekiah king in his place, as vassal of Babylon 
(b.c. 597). He directed his arms against Phoenicia, 
captured Sidon, and laid siege to Tyre, but after a 
long investment appears to have been unable to 
capture it. It may have been after he had raised 
the siege of Tyre that N. turned his arms S. and 
began the two years' siege of Jerusalem. Famine 
helped the besiegers, and at length the city was 
taken. Zedekiah was brought before N. at Riblah 
and deprived of his eyesight. If we are to believe 
the date given in LXX and Theodotian versions of 
Daniel, N. celebrated his triumph by erecting a 
golden image. Not very long after this N. seems 
to have carried his arms into Egypt. Though for 
the moment he conquered it, he did not attempt to 
retain possession of it. In one of the few inscrip- 
tions of the many he has left in wh. N. tells of his 
campaigns, an invasion of Egypt is assigned to his 
37th year. Some time during his latter years N. 
was afflicted with madness, and had to be put under 
restraint. If this event be transferred fm. the reign 
of Nabunahid to that of Nebuchadnezzar, the for- 
mer was a number of years in Tema when his son 
reigned in his stead. On the other hand Neri- 
glissar (Nergal-Sharezer) claims that his father, 
Bel-sum-iskun, had been king of Babylon : it is 
possible that during the madness of N., as one 
wd. have to fulfil the functions of royalty, Bel-sum- 
iskun may have done so. He reigned 43 years, and 



with him departed the glory of Babylon. Of his 
genius as a general we have no means of judging, 
save by the fact that he was stronger than any one 
opposed to him. His governmental methods were 
to some extent inherited fm. his Ninevite prede- 
cessors, but he seems, if we must judge fm. the list 
of officials in Daniel, to have maintained the unity 
of his empire more by governors than did the 
Assyrian monarchs, and less by tributary sovereigns ; 
there was, however, the same system of deportation 
in the case of nations specially prone to rebellion. 
He adopted the somewhat hazardous custom of 
employing Hellenic mercenaries wh. had proved so 
advantageous to Psammetichus of Egypt ; perhaps 
the valour of these mercenaries at Carchemish 
had impressed Nebuchadnezzar, for Necho wd. 
assuredly not encounter such a formidable foe as N. 
without his choicest troops. Strabo (Bk. xiii. under 
heading " Lesbos ") states that Antemenidas, the 
brother of the Lesbian poet Alcaeus, served as a 
mercenary in the Babylonian army when Nebuchad- 
nezzar was king. In Daniel a very vivid picture is 
given of the character of N., liable to fits of un- 
governable rage, having no measure in the vengeance 
he was eager to wreak on those who offended him, 
but generous to those who won his favour. Like 
all men of the highest type of greatness, he was 
not above attention to the minutest details ; he 
arranged the dietary of the hostages who were being 
trained to take part in the Babylonian civil service, 
and the Melzar felt that he risked his life to make 
any change in what the king had ordained. The 
greatest testimony to his character is the feeling of 
love that Daniel has for the man who burned the 
holy city and carried himself captive. Very dif- 
ferent is the attitude of the later Jews ; Jos. asserts 
that Jehoiakim admitted him into Jrs. voluntarily, 
but that N. treacherously slew him, a statement 
that has no justification in the Biblical narrative. 
In Rabbinic Lit. vengeance is taken on his memory 
for his capture of Jrs. in tales in wh. the venom is 
lost in the childishness. His inscriptions are gene- 
rally more occupied with an account of the temples 
he reared than with the cities he took ; he seems to 
have been eminently religious.* 

NEBUSHAZBAN (Asyr. nabu-suzib-anni, " may 
Nebo save me "), one of the chief captains in 
the army of Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem was 
captured (Jr. 39. 13 ). His title, Rab-Saris, naturally 
suggested " chief of the eunuchs " ; this is not im- 
probable fm. the number of eunuchs that appear as 
warriors in the armies of Sennacherib. Possibly, 
however, it really meant " chief of the captains." 

* There is a cameo engraving on black stone purporting to 
be a portrait of Nebuchadnezzar — it is a votive offering to 
Merodach. The character of the work is distinctly classic : 
it can scarcely be authentic, yet the reason for making it 
as a votive offering seems difficult to fathom (Kennedy, 
Daniel, p. 59) ; see p. 120. 



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In v. 3 of the chap. Sarsechim has this title : the 
verse seems corrupt {see Sarsechim). The LXX 
has omitted v. 13 altogether, and in v. 3, instead of 
Rabsaris after Nabousachar, the name wh. occupies 
the place of Sarsechim, we find Nabousaris, wh. looks 
like a telescoped version of "Neboshasban Rabsaris." 

NEBUZARADAN (Asyr. Nabu-zira-iddina, 
" Nebo has given seed "), " captain of the guard," 
Heb. rab-tabahim, literally " prince of the butchers." 
Arioch in Daniel has the same title ; he probably 
was predecessor of N. The work of destroying 
Jerusalem, burning the Temple, the royal palace, 
and the dwellings of the nobles, and breaking down 
the wall of the city was superintended by N. (2 K. 
25. 10 ) ; he removed the captives " and those that 
fell away " to Babylon ; he and other princes of 
Nebuchadnezzar " sent and took Jeremiah out of 
the court of the prison and committed him to 
Gedaliah" (Jr. 39. 9 * 14 ). He was later sent to 
Pal., after the murder of Gedaliah, to carry " away 
captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five 
persons " (Jr. 52. 30 ). 

NECHO (1 Ch. 35. 20 ' 22 , 36. 4 ), PHARAOH- 
NECHOH (2 K. 2 3 . 29 ), king of Egypt (Egp. Nekau, 
Asyr. Nekun). Egypt had sunk fm. the lofty posi- 
tion she had occupied under the monarchs of the 
1 8th and 19th dynasties. For some centuries, 
though there had been kings of Egypt, the majority 
of those of mark had been Nubians or Ethiopians. 
Meantime the Assyrian monarchs had conquered 
Palestine, but their hold on this province was always 
weakened by the intrigues of the kings of Egypt. 
To stop this Sargon carried his arms into Egypt, but 
did not retain his hold of it. Sennacherib, rinding 
that Hezekiah of Judah had entered into an alliance 
with Egypt, determined to strike at the source of 
these intrigues and defeated Shabataka at Eltekeh ; 
a later expedition against Egypt resulted in the de- 
struction of Sennacherib's army by pestilence. His 
successor Esarhaddon conquered all Lower Egypt 
and divided it into satrapies. The first-named of 
the satraps on the list of Esarhaddon is Neku-u. 
He made some attempts to rebel, but abortively ; 
his son, the Psammetichus of Herodotus, set up 
once more the kingdom of the Pharaohs. During 
his long reign he endeavoured to consolidate his 
dominion ; according to Herodotus he strengthened 
his native soldiery with Greek mercenaries ; a por- 
tion of these latter he placed in Tahpanes (tel- 
Defneh), where many tokens of their presence have 
been discovered by Dr. Flinders Petrie. When N. 
his son came to the throne Assyria was falling ; suc- 
cessful rebellions were being made everywhere ; his 
own power was secure, so N. determined to attempt 
to revive the Empire of Thothmes. At first he was 
successful. He carried his arms into Palestine ; 
Josiah, whether out of loyalty to the power whose 
vassal he had been, or himself intending to bid for 



the imperial position, ventured to oppose Necho, 
and encountered him at Megiddo ; Josiah was 
defeated and slain. It wd. seem as if N. had not 
wished to encounter Josiah ; he claimed divine 
orders to march against Assyria, as if appealing to 
the piety of the Jewish king ; he wished to take an 
unbroken army to encounter the Assyrians on the 
Euphrates. After his victory at Megiddo N. held 
on his march to Carchemish (Jerablus), where he 
established a garrison to hold the ford over the 
river there ; he returned to Egypt, and on the way 
asserted his suzerainty over Judaea by deposing 
Jehoahaz, whom the people had made king, and 
carrying him a captive to Egypt ; in his stead he 
set up his brother Eliakim, whose name, in token of 
his being a vassal of Egypt, he changed to Jehoiakim. 
He was, however, soon called to defend his more 
distant dominions. The Babylonians had captured 
Nineveh with the assistance of the Medes ; accord- 
ing to Herodotus, the capture was the deed of 
the Medians alone, wh. is less likely. Babylonia 
claimed to have a right to all the Ninevite empire as 
representing the same race. The army of Babylon 
was under the command of Nebuchadnezzar when 
Necho met them at Carchemish. The Babylonians 
were completely triumphant. Necho seems to have 
made a precipitate retreat towards Egypt, pursued 
by the youthful victor, who claimed the allegiance 
of all who had been subject allies of Assyria. Be- 
fore he had followed Necho into Egypt Nebuchad- 
nezzar was informed of his father's death, and 
hastened to Babylon to secure the throne for him- 
self. Necho is celebrated in Herodotus for having 
attempted to unite the Mediterranean with the Red 
Sea by means of a canal ; not, however, directly, 
but by endeavouring to make a mouth of the Nile in 
the Red Sea. After sacrificing numerous lives he 
was forced to desist. Another feat of his wh. Hero- 
dotus chronicles is his circumnavigation of Africa. 
He was succeeded by Psammetichus II. (Psemtek), 
the father of Hophra. 

NECK. The neck is a part of the frame which 
offers itself readily for ornamentation by means of 
chains and other objects of adornment (Pr. I. 9 ; Ek. 
16. 11 ). The arms thrown around the neck in the 
kiss of greeting is a token of great cordiality and 
warmth of affection (Lk. 15. 20 , &c). The neck of 
the bullock being put unwillingly into the yoke, this 
becomes a figure of the servitude to which con- 
quered peoples are subjected (Dt. 28. 48 ). To break 
the yoke was to be set free (Jr. 30. 8 ). From the 
bullock, strong and hard of neck, difficult to guide 
in ploughing, comes the phrase " stiff or hard of 
neck " (Dt. 31. 27 , &c). One with his neck under his 
enemy's foot was clearly in evil case (Is. io. 24 , &c). 
Where Nehemiah says that the " nobles put not 
their necks to the work " we should probably say, 
" put not their shoulders to the wheel " (Ne. 3. 5 ). 



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NECKLACES are not mentioned by name in 
EV., but the custom of hanging ornaments round 
the neck is one of great antiquity. Chains of the 
precious metals worn round the neck might be the 
symbol of authority (Gn. 41. 42 ) ; but they also 
served for simple . adornment (Pr. I. 9 ; Ek. 16. 11 , 
&c). The " strings of jewels " mentioned in SS. 
I. 10 (RV.) were probably necklaces. The like is 
true of the " chain of thy neck " in 4A The golden 
crescents worn by the kings of Midian (Jg. 8. 26 ; 
cp. Is. 3. 18 RV.) were probably worn on the breast 
in some form of necklace. The camels also were 
furnished with golden chains about their necks. 
The horse, mule, and camel are often decorated 
with strings of beads or shells, which are supposed to 
act as amulets, guarding them specially against the 
evil eye. Necklaces of coins are popular among 
Oriental women to-day. Strings of fruit seeds, 
amber beads, mother-of-pearl, and necklaces of 
filigree work are also common. 

NECROMANCER (Dt. 18. 11 ). See Divina- 
tion. 

NED AB I AH, a member of the royal family of 
Judah (1 Ch. 3. 18 ). 

NEEDLE'S EYE. In the saying recorded with 
merely slight verbal differences in the Synoptics our 
Lord declares, "It is easier for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into 
the kingdom of God " (Mw. 19. 24 , &c). In the 
East the camel is very commonly taken as the type 
of size, as it is the largest animal with wh. the 
natives are acquainted. Thus our Lord, in rebuking 
the Pharisees, declares that they " strain out a gnat 
and swallow a camel." Some have thought to im- 
prove the saying first in question by asserting that 
" the needle's eye " means a small door cut in the 
heavy wooden gate of a city. Such small doors are 
common enough, not merely in the gates of cities 
but the gates into courtyards, but they are never 
now called by that name, and we have no evidence 
that they ever were so designated. 

NEESING. The Heb. word 'aftshah, from 
'dtash, " to sneeze," corresponds to the Arabic 
'apah (Jb. 41. 18 ). It is obviously onomatopoetic, 
and cannot, as some have thought, mean " snort- 
ing," or " hard breathing." A different word, 
zdrar, is used of the child's sneezing in 2 K. 4- 35 . A 
sneeze has always been regarded as of happy omen 
in the East. 

NEGEB. This Heb. word is in EV. rendered 
" south," as in " south land " (Jo. 15. 21 , &c), and 
" southward " (Gn. 13. 14 ). While correctly so ren- 
dered, it is the name applied to a definite tract of 
country which is often mentioned in Scripture. It 
is associated with the sojourning of Abraham and 
Lot (Gn. 12. 9 , 13. 1 ) and also of Isaac (24. 62 ). By 
the Negeb the spies entered Palestine (Nu. 13. 22 ) ; 
there Amalek dwelt (v. 29). It was the district 



sloping southward from Hebron, through which the 
more fertile uplands of Judah shade off into the 
desert of et-Hih. This was the region assigned 
to the tribe of Simeon (Jo. I9. lff -). Within it lay 
Ziklag, associated with the exile of David (1 S. 2J. % ). 
At that time it was occupied in part by Judah, 
part by the Jerahmeelites, and in part by the 
Kenites. The Cherethites of I S. 30. 14 were doubt- 
less the Philistines, who held the western part of the 
Negeb. The Amalekites took advantage of the 
absence of the Philistine army at Gilboa to make 
a raid upon their territory. Caleb's portion, of 
course, belonged to Judah. 

The country is broken into a series of ranges of 
bare hills, which run from east to west, forming a 
secure defence for Palestine against invasion from 
the south. For centuries it has been entirely 
pastoral, but there are many evidences of ancient 
cultivation, and ruined sites of considerable extent 
are numerous. Means were found in old times to 
imprison the winter rains in the wadies for use in 
irrigation. Great cisterns also were constructed, so 
that life in an otherwise dry land was made tolerable. 
These arts may be employed again, and already some 
slight improvements have been attempted, with 
promising success. 

NEHELAMITE is used of Shemaiah, one of the 
false prophets who opposed Jeremiah (29. 24 , &c). 
It may mean that he was a native of a place called 
Nehelam, or that he was descended from a man 
bearing that name. But neither place nor man 
with a name resembling this has been discovered. 
AVm. suggests " dreamer," as if the word were 
connected with halam, " to dream." 

NEHEMIAH. (1) Son of Hachaliah, prob. of 
the tribe of Judah. The one source of information 
regarding this patriotic leader of the 
Jews is the book known by his name. 
He is introduced as acting in the 
capacity of cup-bearer to king Ar- 
taxerxes Longimanus at Shushan, 
where the Persian monarchs were 
wont to spend the winter. There 
intelligence was brought to him by 
a company of Jews from Judaea, a 
kinsman of his own among them, of 
the distressful condition of things in 
Jerusalem. The tidings cast him into 
great sadness. He earnestly sought 
Divine guidance as to how best he 
might serve his people and restore the city. The king 
observed the downcast face of his attendant, and 
learning its cause, forthwith appointed him governor 
of Judaea, gave him a guard, and letters to the satraps 
in the provinces through which he must pass. He 
also received orders to the keeper of the king's 
forests for the supply of such timber as he should 
require. His appointment was for a limited term, 




Median Cup- 
bearer 



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Neh 



at the end of which he was to return to the 



Arriving in Jerusalem, he first surveyed the situa- 
tion, and determined the line to be followed in re- 
storing the walls which Nebuchadnezzar had broken 
down. The state of the people appears to have 
been even worse than that of the walls. They were 
in deep poverty, and, exposed as they were to per- 
petual attacks of enemies, who pillaged their country 
and carried off their sons and daughters as slaves, 
demoralisation proceeded apace. Their one hope 
was the rebuilding of the city's defences. With the 
security thus afforded a stable government might 
again be organised and the Temple services re- 
sumed : the spirit of the people might revive, and 
a new lease of prosperous life might be entered upon. 
With remarkable energy and skill Nehemiah set 
about the work. In spite of the opposition of his 
people's enemies, Sanballat, Tobiah, and others, 
who exhausted their ingenuity in their attempts to 
entangle and hinder him, he so guided and inspired 
the Jewish workmen whom he had gathered that 
the walls were completed within two months. 
Measures of religious reform were inaugurated. 
Ezra the scribe read the book of the law in the hear- 
ing of all the people. Arrangements were made for 
the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles accord- 
ing to the directions of the law : a practice that had 
been long neglected. The people then gathered 
with every token of mourning, and national con- 
fession of sin was made. A " solemn League and 
Covenant " was drawn up and sealed by the heads of 
houses as representing the whole people, whereby 
they became bound to observe the requirements of 
the law. The book then gives an account of the 
religious service at the dedication of the walls, on the 
strength and durability of which so much depended. 
These events seem all to have taken place within the 
year (b.c. 444), but it is impossible to say if they are 
stated in strict chronological order. 

Whether specially summoned or in fulfilment of 
his agreement, Nehemiah returned to the Persian 
king, and was absent from Jerusalem for some years. 
He may have continued to hold the governorship, 
some officer meantime representing him in Jeru- 
salem. His absence may have lasted about twelve 
years. Some such time would in any case be re- 
quired to permit development of the abuses which, 
on his return, he was called upon to correct. In- 
termarriage of Jewish men with heathen women, 
which had become very common, was bound to 
bring many evils in its train. In spite of Ezra's 
stern measures against it, the practice seems to 
have been growing, and had even received official 
sanction, the son of Eliashib the priest being son-in- 
law to Sanballat the Horonite. The offspring of 
these marriages spoke half in the speech of their 
heathen mothers. The priest had given Tobiah 



apartments within the Temple enclosure. The 
portions of the Levites had not been given, and they 
had fled every one to his field. From the country 
people brought their produce for sale on the Sab- 
bath day, as did also the Tyrian fish merchants, 
and trade was done as on other, days. Nehemiah 
threw himself into the task of reform with his old 
promptitude and energy. He cast forth the house- 
hold stuff of Tobiah, and cleansed the chambers it 
had polluted. The priest's son, Joiada, son-in-law 
of Sanballat, he " chased " from him. He closed 
the gate before dark on Sabbath eve, and put an 
end to the Sabbath trading. He handled the men 
who had married foreign wives with great severity. 
He cursed them, and smote certain of them, and 
plucked off their hair and made them swear by God 
that they would discontinue the practice. He re- 
arranged the work of the Levites, and put matters 
on a satisfactory basis. 

Here the narrative closes. Nothing further is 
known of Nehemiah with certainty. Josephus says 
he did many other excellent things, and died at a 
great age. In 2 M. I. 18ff - a curious story is told of 
the preservation of the sacred fire by which Nehe- 
miah's sacrifices were consumed. 

It is impossible to estimate the services Nehemiah 
rendered to Judaism. At a time of national de- 
moralisation and religious decay, when everything 
seemed to point to the speedy extinction of Judaism, 
he cast his strong personality athwart the stream of 
tendency, and by the blessing of God was able to 
arrest its progress. His pure patriotism was shown 
by his leaving a position of wealth and comfort in 
Persia to face the perilous and toilsome tasks that 
awaited him in Jerusalem. He had the eye of an 
engineer, the mind of a statesman, and the heart of 
a religious enthusiast. Fearless, yet kindly, keen of 
insight, swift in decision and prompt in action, he 
was a man of incorruptible integrity, absolutely 
devoted to the honour of God and the welfare of His 
people. The affectionate and reverential memory 
in which he is held is more durable than the walls 
of Jerusalem, which, Josephus said, should be his 
eternal monument {Ant. XI. v. 8). See also Ezra 
and Nehemiah. 

(2) One of the heads of the people who returned 
with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 2 ; Ne. y. 7 ). (3) One who 
assisted in repairing the wall of Jerusalem (Ne. 3. 16 ). 

NEHUM, one of the heads of the Jewish com- 
munity who returned with Zerubbabel (Ne. J. 1 ). 
In Ez. 2. 2 " Rehum," and in I Es. 5. 8 " Roimus."' 

NEHUSHTA, the daughter of Elnathan of Jeru- 
salem, wife of Jehoiakim, and mother of Jehoiachin, 
kings of Judah (2 K. 24. 8 ). When her son was 
taken captive to Babylon she accompanied him as a 
prisoner (v. 12). 

NEHUSHT AN (2 K. 18. 4 ). The Brazen Ser- 
pent wh. Moses had made for the cure of the 



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serpent-bitten among the Israelites had been pre- 
served, and fm. being an object of natural interest 
had become an object of worship. Hezekiah, pur- 
suing his religious reform, not only destroyed the 
" high places " (bdmotb), but broke in pieces this 
interesting relic, and called it contemptuously N., 
"a bit of brass." There seems to have been a play 
on the resemblance of the sound of the two words 
neboshetk, "brass," and ndhdsh, " a serpent." The 
transliteration adopted by the LXX, neesthan, wd. 
indicate that the Egyptian translators connected 
N. rather with nahash than with nehosheth. The 
necessity for this destruction was clear if Judah was 
to be led to feel that God alone ought to be wor- 
shipped. Neither artistic beauty nor historic in- 
terest ought to be allowed to intrude between the 
worshipper and God. 

NEIEL, a place on the boundary of Asher (Jo. 
19. 27 ) named between Jiphthah-el and Cabul. It 
may be identical with Neah of v. 1 3 : unidentified. 

NEIGHBOUR. In ancient Pal., as in that 
country at the present time, isolated dwellings were 
rare : the inhabitants collected themselves in small 
towns, wh., in virtue of having walls, were called 
cities ; travel to any distance was fraught with 
danger, hence social duties were naturally summed 
up in those to the " neighbours." The Heb. word 
re'a, wh. EV. most frequently tr. " neighbour," 
does not suggest propinquity so much as inter- 
course. It is also very frequently rendered " friend." 
The Greek word plesion conveyed the idea of 
physical nearness. A new meaning was imported 
into the commandment by the Pharisees. In the 
Targum the word for N. was haber or habra ; in 
the Pharisaic schools this word became restricted to 
mean " a brother Pharisee " : when this meaning 
was transferred to the commandment its meaning 
became changed fm. the widest philanthropy to the 
narrowest bigotry. In the parable of " The Good 
Samaritan " our Lord gave it even a deeper mean- 
ing than it had at first. 

NEKEB, " pass," joined to Adami (Jo. 19. 33 ). 
LXX makes two names. Poss. we shd. read " Adami 
and Nekeb." Later N. was called Tziyadathab 
(Neubauer, Geog. d. Tim. 225) : poss. therefore = 
Khirbet Seiyadeh, E. of ed-Ddmieh, and c. four miles 
SW. of Tiberias. 

NEKODA. The children of Nekoda were a 
family of Nethinim, who returned from Babylon 
(Ez. 2. 48 ; Ne. 7. 50 ; 1 Es. 5. 31 , " Noeba "). (2) A 
family whose genealogy had been lost during the 
Exile (Ez. 2. 60 ; Ne. 7.™). 

NEMUEL. (1) Son of Eliab, of the tribe of 
Reuben, eldest brother of Dathan and Abiram (Nu. 
26. 9 ). (2) Eldest son of Simeon, from whom the 
Nemuelites claimed descent (Nu. 26. 12 ; I Ch.4. 24 ). 
In Gn. 46. 10 he is called Jemuel. 

NEPHEG. (1) Son of Izhar son of Kohath, and 



brother of Korah (Ex. 6. 21 ). (2) A son of David? 
born after he had transferred his capital from 
Hebron to Jerusalem (2 S. 5. 15 ; 1 Ch. 3. 7 , 14. 6 ). 

NEPHEW, in every case where it occurs in AV., 
should be "grandson" (Jg. 12. 14 ; Jb. 18. 19 ; Is. 
14. 22 ; 1 Tm. 5. 4 ). 

NEPHISH = NAPHISH. 

NEPHISHESIM. The children of N. were 
among the Nethinim who returned with Zerub- 
babel (Ne. y. 52 ) : the Nephusim of Ez. 2. 50 ; 
Naphisi of 1 Es. 5. 31 . 

NEPHTOAH. The spring and waters of N. are 
mentioned (Jo. 15. 9 , 18. 15 ), on the boundary of 
Judah and Benjamin. N. is often identified with 
Lifta, on the E. bank of Wady Beit Hanind, two 
miles N jV. of Jrs. (see Eleph). The Tim. (Neu- 
bauer, 146) places it at 'Ain 'A tan, beside the 
Pools of Solomon, S. of Bethlehem. There is no 
certainty. 

NER, son of Jehiel, who was probably the founder 
of Gibeon, and his wife Maachah (1 Ch. 9. 35 ). His 
sons were Kish the father of king Saul, and Abner, 
who became the captain of Saul's host. 

NEREUS and his sister, Christians in Rome, are 
saluted by St. Paul (Rm. 16. 15 ). " All the saints 
that are with them " may point to their house 
being a meeting-place for Christians in the capital. 
Origen thinks he may have belonged to the house- 
hold of Philologus and Julia. A Nereus is said to 
have been baptized at Rome by St. Peter ; but we 
have no means to identify them. 

NERGAL, the principal deity of Cutha ; " the 
men of Cuth made Nergal " (2 K. 17. 30 ) : his 
Babylonian name was Ne-uru-gal, " the Lord of the 
Great City," i.e. the place of the dead. Later he 
was regarded as the son of Bel of Nippur. He was 
the god of war and devastation, and the planet 
Mars was sacred to him. The month associated 
with him is Kislev, December, when the sun appears 
to die. His worship seems to have been popular, as 
his name frequently occurs on seals as a component 
of personal names. 

NERGAL-SHAREZER(Asyr.i\^/-^f-^z^, 
" Nergal preserves the king "). (1) A high officer 
in the army of Nebuchadnezzar (Jr. 39- 3 ). There is 
a doubt about this name : Dr. Sayce wd. omit it ; 
it is represented in the LXX by Marganasar, but the 
verse is hopelessly corrupt ; all we can say is that 
some name stood here that was capable of being 
confounded with N.-S. His place in the second list 
of nobles is occupied by Nebuzaradan. (2) Named 
in the same list as No. I, but also in that in v. 
13 ; N.-S. is called Rab-mag, formerly interpreted 
" chief of the magicians," now understood to be 
equivalent to " chief physician." This, however, 
does not involve much of difference, as cures among 
the Babylonians were usually wrought by magical 
formulas, not by medical remedies. He was son-in- 



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law of Nebuchadnezzar. He conspired against his 
brother-in-law, Evil-Merodach, had him assassi- 
nated, seized the throne, and reigned for four years. 
His father, Bil-sum-iskun, he claims to have been 
king. This is difficult to explain, unless that during 
the madness of Nebuchadnezzar he occupied the 
place of vice-king. In classic literature he is known 
as Neriglissar. His son, Labasi-Marduk, a mere lad, 
succeeded him, but was murdered after a reign of a 
few months. 

NERI was a descendant of David's son, Nathan. 
On the line of Solomon becoming extinct in Jeco- 
niah, Neri's son, Salathiel, succeeded to the status of 
David's successor and heir, and thus appears in the 
genealogy of our Lord (i Ch. 3. 17 ; Mw. I. 12 ) as 
the " son " of Jeconiah. St. Luke preserves the 
fact that Neri was the father of Salathiel (Lk. 3. 27 ). 

NERIAH, father of Baruch, the friend and 
amanuensis of Jeremiah the prophet (Jr. 32. 12 , &c). 
In Ba. i. 1 Nerias. 

NERO was the last of the emperors of Rome that 
cd. claim any relationship to the great dictator, 




Coin of Nero (with Harbour of Ostia) 

Julius Caesar. His father, Cnaeus Domitius Aheno- 
barbus, was the grandson of Octavia, the sister of 
Augustus, and grand-niece of Julius : his mother, 
Agrippina, was daughter of Germanicus and of the 
elder Agrippina, the grand-daughter of Augustus. 
On the murder of his nephew, Caius, the brother of 
Agrippina, Claudius became emperor ; by his wife, 
the notorious Messalina, he had a son, Britanni- 
cus, and a daughter, Octavia. On account of her 
publicly scandalous conduct Messalina was put to 
death, and Claudius married his niece, Agrippina, 
then a widow. Shortly, through the influence of 
his mother, Lucius Domitius was adopted by the 
emperor, and his name changed to Nero Claudius 
Caesar Drusus Germanicus, and generally known as 
Nero. Claudius began after a year or two to show 
indications of a growing preference for his own son 
over Nero, his son by adoption, and at the same time 
an alienation fm. Agrippina ; she promptly had 
him poisoned and her son proclaimed emperor. 
When his mother threatened to espouse the cause 
of her cousin, Britannicus, against her son, as he was 
proving unmanageable, Nero procured that he shd. 
be poisoned while sitting at his table. Notwith- 



standing this inauspicious beginning, the first five 
years of Nero's principate gained the commenda- 
tion of Trajan ; he wisely allowed matters to be 
directed by his erstwhile tutor, the philosopher 
Seneca, and Burrus, Prefect of the Praetorians. The 
government of the vast empire was no easy matter ; 
in Rome the mob had to be fed and amused ; in the 
provinces justice had to be administered and means 
of communication maintained ; the frontiers must 
be guarded, and the armies must be kept in disci- 
pline ; at the same time the temper of their com- 
manders had to be understood, so that no unfore- 
seen rebellion shd. set up a claimant to the empire. 
During this " quinquennium " things went well, 
but Nero himself was becoming more and more 
debauched. His mother was murdered by his 
orders ; his wife Octavia put away, first for Acte, a 
slave girl, then for Poppaea Sabina, and then mur- 
dered. At the same time this ruthless parricide and 
debauchee wept when he signed the warrant for the 
execution of two highway robbers. He had an 
artistic nature, had written poetry fm. childhood, 
fancied himself an accomplished musician, and pro- 
bably was above the average. He admired statuary 
and painting, and delighted in gorgeous architecture; 
he does not seem to have revelled in mere size like 
the Flavians — delicate and abounding ornament 
afforded him more pleasure. Like many youths of 
artistic temperament, he became stage-struck; inno- 
cent though this was, it did more to lower his popu- 
larity than his murders. These murders began to 
avenge themselves, especially that of his mother, in 
dreams prompted by unavailing remorse, and deeper 
and deeper debauchery was the remedy to wh. he 
turned. Burrus, the stern soldier who wd. not aid 
him in his parricide, died, possibly by disease — 
rumoursaid bypoison. Tigellinusbecameprefect in 
position, but in office minister of his master's vices. 
Seneca, feeling that now he had no influence over 
his quondam pupil, retired to his estates. We need 
not spend time over campaigns wh. N. surveyed fm. 
a distance in Armenia under Corbulo, successful, 
with an interval of disaster when Paetus had the 
command ; and in Britain, where massacres like 
those of the Indian Mutiny were avenged by Sueto- 
nius. While these things were going on a new factor 
entered into Roman politics. An obscure peasant 
teacher in Pal., Jesus by name, had been crucified 
under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius, but 
had risen from the dead ; followers had gathered to 
His memory ; above all an eloquent young rabbi of 
purest Jewish descent, of Greek culture, possessing 
the political privilege of Roman citizenship, became 
a convert. His zeal carried him through Syria, 
Asia, Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia, proclaiming 
his Gospel, not only to Jews, but also to Greeks, and 
making many converts. At first the doctrines of 
Paul, regarded as merely those of an eccentric Jewish 



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sect, were looked upon by Roman society with the 
lack of interest with wh. the British public wd. sur- 
vey a peaceful Babist propaganda among the Mo- 
hammedans in India. More than modern London, 
ancient Rome gathered to herself members of all the 
nationalities of the empire ; into Rome had come 
this new Jewish " superstition " ; there had been 
conflicts about these views, and riots in the days 
of Claudius. Paul came at last a prisoner on appeal : 
his bonds did not hinder him preaching to all and 
sundry, and proclaiming the insufficiency of the 
Jews' religion. The Empress Poppaea Sabina was a 
Jewish proselyte of a kind. Paul was brought before 
Nero and set at liberty. His liberation did not les- 
sen his activity — more and more numerous became 
the followers " of this way " ; some even of the 
Roman nobles became infected with this " foreign 
superstition." The zealots for old Roman manners 
saw in this influx of Eastern religions only the in- 
troduction of foreign vice, a view that not a few 
occurrences had done much to justify. Mean- 
time the orgies of Nero's debauchery had become 
monstrous ; history can only draw a veil over the 
scenes. Nero was an artist, and had designed a 
palace worthy the abode of one so gifted, but the 
site was cramped ; mean dwellings that shocked the 
imperial taste pressed on the walls of Caesar. An 
opportune fire broke out and swept over the centre 
of the city, till the whole valley between the Pala- 
tine and Aventine was a lake of fire. Any attempt 
to stop the fire was hindered by men who claimed 
that they had authority : some of them scattered 
firebrands to spread the fire. The emperor hurried 
fm. Antium to Rome to see what cd. be done. The 
sight of the sea of fire struck a chord in his artistic 
soul ; he hastened to a tower fm. wh. he cd. view 
the conflagration, and recited passages fm. his poem 
on the destruction of Troy. The black cloud of 
smoke that hung like a pall, torn here, reddened 
there, by the pillars of flame that mounted up 
towards heaven, the porticos of the marble temples 
reddened by the glow, accompanied by the roar of 
the fiery billows, the crash of falling buildings, and 
the disconsolate wail of the houseless and the ruined, 
wd. make a scene of appalling impressiveness ; that 
Nero shd. have been affected by its aesthetic char- 
acter was but natural. That, however, roused 
wrath against him among the people of Rome ; 
moreover, sayings of his were remembered in wh. he 
had inveighed against the narrow streets of the city. 
He was condemned by the popular verdict of Rome 
for having burned the city. In vain he exerted 
himself to stop the spread of the fire ; he was be- 
lieved to be guilty. Another victim must be found 
to sate the vengeance of the Roman mob. He 
thought of the Christians ; they had few friends, 
they were regarded as Jews, and they were looked 
on as contrary to all men ; but the Christians were 



hated by the Jews. To accuse them wd. involve no 
great mass of persons, and those it did involve were 
disliked and suspected by every one. He, however, 
overdid his cruelty : even a Roman audience, who 
cd. listen unmoved to the groans of a robber cruci- 
fied on the stage, were horror-struck at the shrieks 
of the victims, wrapt in the molesta tunica of cloth 
saturated with naphtha and pitch, blazing to illu- 
minate the gardens. After that he went mad with 
the lust of blood ; men were hurried to the arena 
to be torn of wild beasts, Christian maidens were 
fastened to the horns of wild bulls to give a realistic 
representation of the fate of Circe. It was under 
his rule that Paul was beheaded and Peter was 
crucified. We need not pursue his career further, 
or tell of his journey to Greece and his exhibition of 
himself as a singer on the stage before the Greeks. 
It is not to be denied that the canal he planned at 
Corinth wd. have been useful, but nothing cd. win 
back the respect he had lost. Galba rebelled in 
Spain and joined Vindex in Gaul ; the Pretorian 
guards, misled by Tigellinus that he, Nero, had de- 
serted them and fled to Egypt, easily accepted a 
donative to proclaim Galba. N. fled fm. the city 
and attempted to end his life by suicide ; and only 
succeeded when his freedman drove home the 
dagger. He died saying, " What an artist perishes 
in me." So died Nero, the flagitious product of a 
flagitious age. Coming to the throne of empire a 
mere boy, surrounded by men and women the most 
unprincipled, it was small wonder he became what 
he did. It was only after the conspiracy of the 
Pisos that his suspicions struck at those around him ; 
then only did the conspiracy become general. 

One of the commonest theories of the reference of 
the number 666 in Revelation is to Nero ; his name 
in Hebrew, iDp {113, amounts to that number when 
the letters are assigned their natural numerical 
value. It is more interesting than conclusive. At 
the same time there is much that wd. suit this iden- 
tification. Rome is certainly meant by the city 
that ruleth over the kings of the earth. The rever- 
ence the emperor claimed was more like that wh. 
ought to be given to God only than what shd. be 
offered to a man. All things about the situation of 
the emperor of Rome, his awful power, his solitary 
and unique grandeur, make him a suitable represen- 
tative of Antichrist, the power that is the enemy of 
all righteousness. Altho' he is not named, yet the 
fact that it was he to whom Paul appealed, and that 
he may have been intended specially by Antichrist, 
make it necessary to present some account of his 
history and character to our readers. 

NETAIM, a town named in I Ch. 4. 23 , RV., " the 
inhabitants of N. and Gederah " : unidentified. 

NETHANEEL, RV. NETHANEL. (i) Son of 
Zuar, prince of the tribe of Issachar (Nu. I. 8 , &c). 
(2) The fourth of the sons of Jesse ; brother of 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



New 



David (i Ch. 2. 14 ). (3) One of the priestly trum- 
peters who accompanied the ark on its removal fm. 
the house of Obed-edom (1 Ch. 15. 24 ). (4) A 
Levite of David's time, father of the scribe 
Shemaiah (1 Ch. 24. 6 ). (5) A son of Obed-edom 
(1 Ch. 26. 4 ). (6) One of the princes of Judah who, 
at Jehoshaphat's direction, went round to teach the 
people in the cities (2 Ch. 17. 7 ). (7) One of the 
Levites who took part in the celebration of the 
Passover under Josiah (2 Ch. 35- 9 ). (8) One of the 
priests in the time of Ezra who had married a 
foreign wife (Ez. io. 22 ). (9) A priest representing 
the family of Jedaiah in the time of Jehoiakim (Ne. 
12. 21 ). (10) A Levite musician who took part in 
the solemn dedication of the completed wall of 
Jerusalem (Ne. 12. 36 ). 

NETHANIAH. (1) A man of the blood royal 
of Judah, father of Ishmael, who murdered Geda- 
liah (2 K. 25. 23 , &c). (2) One of Asaph's sons, 
chief of the fourth division of the Temple singers 
(1 Ch. 25. 2 ' 12 ). (3) One of the Levites who ac- 
companied the princes of Judah who were sent by 
Jehoshaphat through the country to teach the law 
(2 Ch. 17. 8 ). (4) Son of Shelemiah and father of 
Jehudi (Jr. 36. 14 ). 

NETHINIM. This word is derived fm. the 
Heb. nathan, to give, and means " given, set apart, 
dedicated." The name was applied to those who 
were appointed to the lowest offices in the Temple 
service, and to whom were assigned all the menial 
duties. This designation is only found in the later 
OT. books — Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah — but 
such a class and the services they rendered are met 
with during the whole hist. The first N. were 
really the Levites who were given by Moses to serve 
the priests (Nu. 3. 9 , 8. 19 ) as attendants and servants 
— to guard, transport, and clean the house and 
its vessels and assist generally. Their duties were 
many, and as soon as captives were taken in war (Nu. 
3 1. 47 ) they were relieved by the appointment of 320 
to the charge of the tabernacle and 32 to the service 
of the priests. Soon after (Jo. 9. 21 ; 1 Ch. 9. 2 ) the 
Gibeonites were reduced to slavery and added to this 
class, and in this position they remained till, perhaps 
through the slaughter by Saul (2 S. 21. 2 ), they were 
so reduced in numbers as to be insufficient for the 
work, and the N. proper came into office — " those 
whom David and the Levites appointed for the 
service of the Levites " (Ez. 8. 20 ). Rabbinical refer- 
ences wd. lead us to think that they were all along a 
subject and menial class, and that their alien origin 
was never forgotten. If this were so we should infer 
that they were introduced fm. among the remnants 
of the Canaanites or fm. among captives taken 
during David's wars. Still, with the rest of Isr., 
they were carried into captivity, and on the return, 
when there were many priests and few Levites, the 
position of the N. was more important and promi- 

5 



nent (Ez. 8. 17 ). They were allowed residence and 
possessions in the priestly cities (1 Ch. 9. 2 ), the re- 
cord of their families was kept (Ez. 2. 43 ), and, by the 
decree of Artaxerxes (Ez. 7- 24 ), they too were re- 
lieved of taxation. Under Ezra they numbered 
220, and in the days of Zerubbabel 390. Tb - are 
not mentioned later by name either in the ...per., 
Jos., or the NT., but the servants sent by the 
Pharisees and chief priests to take Jesus (Jn. 7. 32 ' 45 ) 
in the Temple, as also Malchus, may have belonged 
to this class. Wm. M. Christie. 

NETOPHAH. The name of the town itself first 
appears in the lists given in Ez. 2. 22 ; Ne. 7. 26 , of 
those who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel, 
but natives of the place, Netophathites, are men- 
tioned long before. Such were Maharai and Heleb, 
two of David's heroes (2 S. 23. 28f -), and others (1 Ch. 
27. 13 , &c). It is probably represented by the mod. 
Beit Netttf, at the mouth of Wddy es-Sunt. 

NETS were used chiefly in fishing, and were prob. 
not unlike those used in Palestinian waters to-day. 
(1) Shabakeh, "cast net," prob. = Heb. her em (Ek. 
26. 5 , &c.) and Gr. am-phiblestron (Mw. 4. 18 ). It is of 
fine mesh, circular in form, with lead sinkers round 
the circumference. It is lifted by a string attached 
to the centre, and so laid on arm and shoulder that 
by a dexterous movement it is thrown out, fully ex- 
tended. It is used only in shallow water, the fisher- 
man wading in to secure the fish enclosed. (2) Jarf, 
" draw net "=Heb. mikmoreth (Is. 19. 8 , &c), and 
Gr. sagene (Mw. 1 3- 47 ). It is of great length, and as 
much as 20 ft. deep, with sinkers on the lower, and 
cork floats on the upper edge. The mesh is small, 
so that when let down and drawn to shore, it sweeps 
the waters. If caught on any obstacle, " naked " 
fishermen (Jn. 2 1. 7 ) dive to relieve it. Diktuon 
(Mw. 4. 20 , &c.) is a general term for net. No net 
corresponding to the mod. m? batten is mentioned 
in Scripture. It is a triple net, the inner being of 
small, the two outer of wide mesh. The net is let 
down in a likely place. The fish entangle them- 
selves, entering the outer net, and pushing the 
middle net through that on the other side. They 
are secured by lifting the net. See Hunting, 
Snares. 

NETTLE. (1) Harul (Jb. 30. 7 ; Pr. 24. 31 ; Zp. 
2. 9 ). RVm. trs. always " wild vetches," but these 
wd. hardly be found near salt-pits. It is perhaps 
best taken with Post (HDB. s.v.), as a generic term, 
applied to thorn, scrub, or brushwood. (2) Qim- 
mosb (Is. 34. 13 ; Ho. g. 6 ) is most likely the common 
Urtica -pilnlifera, wh. flourishes abundantly on 
ruined sites in Palestine. 

NEW MOON. See Moon, Feasts. 

NEW TESTAMENT. Although nowhere used 
in Scripture, the title is recognised as applied to 
the specially Christian portion of the Bible. It 
represents the Greek he kaine diatheke, wh., literally 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nic 



translated, means " the New Covenant." For the 
question of the Canon of the NT. see Scripture ; 
and under the different books the questions con- 
nected with them. 

NEW YEAR. In the beginning of the Talmudic 
treatise Rosh hash-Shana there are four New Years 
rec "d : the New Year for the kings and the 
feasts, the 1st of Nisan (March-April) ; the N.Y. 
for the work of the field, the 1st of Tishri (Sept - 
Oct.) ; the N.Y. for the tithing of cattle, the 1st of 
Elul (Aug.- Sept.) — this, however, mt. be reckoned 
fm. Tishri ; the N.Y. of the trees, the ist or 15th of 
Sebat (Jan.-Feb.). Among the Jews now the N.Y. 
is always celebrated on the 1st of Tishri, when they 
don the brightest garments, and give gifts to each 
other. It is announced by the blowing of the Shofar 
in the synagogue. In some places there is a solemn 
bathing and washing of clothes in token of cleansing 
fm. sin. In some places where the sea or a large 
lake is in sight there is, or till lately was, a quaint 
custom of turning the back towards the sea and, 
quoting Is. 38. 17 , throwing a stone over the shoulder. 
On the N.Y. wh. begins a new 19-year cycle the 
custom is to get up to the top of the nearest height 
in time to see the sun rise fm. it and to greet the sun 
with certain prayers. Some of the more ignorant 
Jews are credited with the belief that a new sun 
is created for each cycle. Scripture contains no 
traces of such observances. The question of the 
relation of this N.Y. to the beginning of the Sacred 
Year on the ist of Nisan will be considered under 
Year. 

NEZIAH, a family of Nethinim who returned 
from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 54 ; Ne. 7- 56 ), 
called " Nasith " in 1 Es. 5. 32 . 

NEZIB, a town in the Judaean Shephelah, in the 
same group with Keilah and Mareshah (Jo. 15. 43 ). 
OEJ. places it on the road between Eleutheropolis 
(Beit Jibrin) and Hebron, seven miles from the 
former. It is represented to-day by Beit Nastb, a 
village on an ancient site which quite meets these 
conditions. 

NIBHAZ, a god of the inhabitants of Awa, 
brought with them to Samaria (2 K. 17. 31 ). No- 
thing further is known of him. The rabbis derived 
the name from nab ah, " to bark," and so concluded 
that he was in the form of a dog. 

NIBSHAN, a city in the wilderness of Judah (Jo. 
15. 62 ). It was known by name to Eusebius and 
Jerome {OEJ. s.v.), but they give no hint as to its 
site, which has not yet been recovered. 

NICANOR, one of the seven chosen by the 
apostles to attend to the business of the daily minis- 
tration (Ac. 6. 5 ). Nothing more is known of him. 

NICODEMUS. All that is known of N. is re- 
corded in the Gospel of John. He was a Pharisee, 
and a man of authority among the Jews (3. 1 ). Jesus 
calls him " the teacher of Isr.," prob. implying such 



a function as interpretation of the law. He was a 
member of the Sanhedrin (7. 50 ). His gift of spices 
for the body of Jesus shows that he was a man of 
some wealth (19. 39 ). He was cautious, perhaps even 
timid. He sought Jesus by night to avoid critical 
eyes — whether in Jrs., on Olivet, or in the retirement 
of Bethany there is nothing to show. The earnest 
address of Jesus proves His appreciation of the man. 
Conviction does not seem to have come to N. at 
once ; but in the Sanhedrin, when his colleagues 
were ready to condemn Jesus unheard, he had the 
courage to risk suspicion by contending for a fair 
and legal procedure ; and at last he frankly associ- 
ated himself with Joseph of Arimathaea in providing 
honourable burial for the Crucified. Not distin- 
guished by the spirit of initiative, he was clearly not 
fitted to be a leader : but there is a consistency in 
the representations of this man, suggestive of great 
fidelity and deep loyalty. Some have identified N. 
with Nikdemon ben Gorion mentioned in the Tim. 
(Taanith, xx. 1), who was alive when Jrs. was cap- 
tured and destroyed. If this is correct, wh. is 
hardly prob., he must have lived to extreme old age. 
NICODEMUS, THE GOSPEL OF, an Apocry- 
phal writing wh. had much influence on the religious 
thought of mediaeval times. It is composed of two 
separate works. The first contains an account of 
the trial of our Lord before Pilate, a work wh. 
seems to have been extant separately under the 
title of Acta Pilati. It is largely made up of ex- 
cerpts fm. the accounts given of our Lord's trial 
in the canonical Gospels, some of the passages being 
transferred with little alteration : e.g., cp. Mw. 
27. 19 and G.N. 2 (ist G.) ; Lk. 23. 39 ' 42 and G.N. 
10 ; Jn. 18. 33 - 39 and G.N. 3. Besides there are re- 
ferences to events elsewhere narrated in the Gospels, 
as the massacre of the innocents, the cure of the 
woman with the issue of blood, &c. There is pre- 
fixed to these an account of the standards bowed 
down before Jesus, and the proof that He was not 
born of fornication, &c, and appended to it an ac- 
count of the imprisonment of Joseph of Arimathaea 
by the Jews and his deliverance fm. prison, with 
many interpolations in the course of the relation. 
This work exists in several forms, both in Greek 
and Latin, in some of wh. Nicodemus writes the 
work in Heb. ; in others he is represented as trans- 
lating it into Greek. The Acts of Pilate have all 
the characteristics in style of being the work of a 
Jew. The two Greek forms seem to have emanated 
fm. a common source wh. may have been composed 
early in the second cent. One striking feature is the 
accurate way in wh. the source must have dated 
the crucifixion — the 15th year of Tiberius and 
the consulships of Fufius Geminus and Rubellius 
Geminus ; Rufus is an evident change of the 
unfamiliar for the familiar. The second part, 
Descensus ad Inferos, is a much more rhetorical 



5 ir 



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production. It purports to be the writing of 
Simeon and his two sons, who had risen fm. the dead 
at our Lord's resurrection. They describe what 
took place in Hades when Christ descended there. 
While rhetorical, it has passages of some poetic 
power. It has the appearance of being consider- 
ably later than the Acta Pilati, possibly originally 
written in the third cent., but having features 
added in the fifth. 

NICOLAITANS (Rv. 2. 6 - 15 ), a sect mentioned 
as present in the churches of Ephesus and Pergamos. 
Irenseus {Advers. Hceres. i. 26) declares them to 
have been the followers of Nicolaus the deacon (Ac. 
6. 5 " Nicolas "), and further says they lead lives of 
unrestrained indulgence. Hippolytus has a similar, 
though not quite identical account of them ; Nico- 
laus, he asserts, inculcates " indifferency of both 
life and food " (vii. 24). Tertullian gives a descrip- 
tion that does not seem to be borrowed fm. Irenseus 
nor founded on the passages in Revelation. " He 
(Nicolaus) says that Darkness was seized with long- 
ing — in the foul and obscene sense — after Light ; 
out of this conjunction it wd. be a shame to say 
what other and unclean things resulted " {Preas. 
Hceret. xlvi.). It seems clear that they were a 
semi-Gnostic sect who exhibited their contempt of 
the body, not by asceticism, but by licentiousness. 
The connection that Nicolaus of Antioch had with 
them may be doubted. Baur, obsessed with the 
idea of an antagonism between St. Paul and the older 
apostles, at wh. he had arrived by a priori methods, 
saw in the Nicolaitans a caricature of Paulinism. 
There is no evidence that the " pillar apostles " 
ever identified themselves with the Judaisers. This 
view has been revived by v. Manen, without, how- 
ever, advancing any further evidence of a positive 
kind. 

NICOLAS, a Jewish proselyte fm. Antioch, one 
of the seven chosen to attend to the daily ministra- 
tion (Ac. 6. 5 ). By many of the Church Fathers he 
was regarded, it seems erroneously, as the founder of 
the sect of Nicolaitans. 

It is worthy of note that this is perhaps the first 
case in which a 'proselyte was admitted to office in the 
Christian Church. The other six appear to have 
been Jews in the fullest sense. 

NICOPOLIS, the city in wh. St. Paul " had de- 
termined to winter " (Tt. 3. 12 ). There were many 
cities of this name ; but the general opinion is that 
N. in Epirus, on the W. shore of the Gulf of Am- 
bracia (G. of Atba), is here intended. It was 
founded by Augustus to commemorate his victory 
over Antony and Cleopatra, b.c 31 ; and, enjoying 
imperial favour, it speedily assumed the leading 
place in all that region. For many of its finest 
buildings it was indebted to Herod the Great 
{Ant. XVI. v. 3). It probably contained a strong 
Jewish community. It was the scene of great 

5 



festivals and athletic contests, wh. drew crowds fm. 
far and near. A position gained here wd. enable 
the apostle to influence a wide district. This no 
doubt formed its attraction for him. The site, on 
a peninsula W. of the bay of Actium, was low and 
unhealthy. It was destroyed by the Goths and 
restored by Justinian. It gave place, however, 
gradually to its more favourably situated rival, 
Prevesa, further south. The site is marked by 
extensive ruins. 

NIGER (Ac. 13. 1 ), the Gentile surname of 
Simeon (RV. Symeon), a prominent believer in 
Antioch at the time when Barnabas and Paul were 
sent on their first missionary journey. His first 
name proclaims that he was a Jew, and his second, 
as it is Latin, that he had a connection with Rome : 
probably he had been a slave and was now a freed- 
man. Nothing is known with certainty about him : 
even tradition is silent. 

NIGHT HAWK (Heb. tahmas), an unclean bird 
(Lv. II. 16 ; Dt. 14. 15 ) ; it is not possible to identify 
it with any certainty. The VV. are very little 
assistance ; Tg. O. has tzitza 9 , wh. Levy says means 
either " an owl or an ostrich," the Psh. shale 9 nuna 9 , 
wh. Brockelmann renders " heron," and Castelli 
" gull or ibis," and the LXX hierax, " a hawk." 
Bochart identified it with the male ostrich, while 
Niebuhr found that the Jews of Mosul call the 
" swallow " tahmas. 

NIGHT MONSTER. See Lilith. 

NILE, THE RIVER, is one of the most inter- 
esting of the world's great waterways. It is the 
creator of the land of Egypt, and its fertile banks 
have been the scene of busy life from the dawn of 
human history. 

The name by which it is known to us is a modifi- 
cation of the Greek NetXos, the origin of which is 
obscure. This name does not appear in the English 
Bible, but the river itself is very often referred to. 
The most common Heb. name is just the Egyptian 
word for river, ye 9 or, which first occurs in the ac- 
count of Pharaoh's dream regarding the fat and the 
lean kine (Gn. 41. 1 , &c). Out of its waters Moses 
was drawn (Ex. 2. 5ff -) ; and it figures frequently 
in connection with the plagues. We must distin- 
guish it from Nahal Mitzraim {see Egypt, River 
of), which is probably Wady el-Arish. 

The fertile valley of the Nile is bordered on either 
side by desert hills and wastes of burning sand. It 
is like a long ribbon of green stretched across the 
brown wilderness. The rich soil is alluvium de- 
posited through millenniums by the inundations of 
the Nile. This annual overflow, having created the 
land, has maintained it against encroachment by the 
desert. If for any reason it should cease, Egypt 
wd. speedily be buried beneath the drifting sand. 
Failure for a single year wd. produce disaster. To 
this cause must have been due the seven years of 
12 



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famine in the days of Joseph. Although no authen- 
tic record of that particular calamity has been pre- 
served, both history and tradition furnish parallels 
which enable us to appreciate its character. The 
rise of the Nile has therefore been a matter of careful 
observation from the earliest times. A fair average 
rise was the desire of all. If the waters were too 
high they endangered both property and life, and 
were regarded as only a less misfortune than an 
abnormally low rise. The seed was sown as the 
waters subsided. The river begins to rise about the 
middle of June, and the subsidence begins about the 
middle of October. 

Fish abound in the river, and there also the hippo- 



arms of the river only two remain, the others having 
been silted up in the course of centuries : that to 
the W. is known as the Rosetta, and that towards the 
centre as the Damietta branch. 

The main permanent supply of water comes from 
the great Central African lakes, by means of the 
White Nile. The streams of the Blue Nile and the 
Atbara shrink to small proportions during the rest 
of the year, but in summer and autumn they are 
swollen by the torrential rains which annually de- 
scend upon the Abyssinian highlands. To this is 
mainly due the inundation which has meant so 
much for Egypt. 

In ancient times one crop was taken off all the 









The Nile: Cattle Rescued from Inundation 

i, 3, Men calling others to drive the cattle towards the boat; 2, rowers; 4, pulling cow in with a noose; 5, driving the cattle 
towards the boat; 6, throwing a noose (end effaced); 7, rowers; 8, man on bank fishing 



potamus and crocodile are found. From ancient 
times the Egyptians were skilful fishermen, and the 
harvest of the waters formed an important part of 
their diet. Some of the Heb. terms for fishing- 
tackle were borrowed from Egypt {see Fishing). 
The Nile is the one source of water supply for the 
country. It has also from old time been the great 
highway of traffic between various points of the 
country, and the avenue of communication with the 
outside world. The seven mouths of the river 
spread out fan-like, forming a figure not unlike the 
fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. The part thus 
marked out was therefore called the Delta. By the 
most westerly of these mouths the vessels trading 
with Greece and the islands entered ; and those 
of the Phoenicians by the most easterly. Of these 



land covered by the inundation, and in districts of a 
lower level a second crop was secured by irrigation. 
The shaduf, and at a later time the wheel, were used 
to raise the water, which was led whither the 
peasant would, by means of channels hollowed in 
the surface of the fields. This old method may still 
be seen at work in many parts of the East. Great 
developments have taken place in Egypt within 
the last few decades in the way of water storage. 
Enormous dams have been constructed which retain 
the overplus of the inundation, and reserve it for use 
in irrigation during the long dry months. The pro- 
ductivity of the land is thus incalculably increased. 
The sources of the Nile were for ages wrapped in 
obscurity. The ancient Egyptians knew nothing of 
its course beyond the cataracts, whence it seemed to 
13 R 



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Nim 



burst upon the land in the full maturity of its bene- 
ficent powers. From one mighty spring at the first 
cataract poured the river that made Egypt ; from 
another, they thought, rose a stream that flowed 




River Nile at Cairo 

southward. All life-giving and refreshing agencies 
were associated by them with the river. The rains 
that fertilised other lands — for no rain fell in 
Egypt — came from a Nile in the sky : another 
Nile underground fed the springs. " That the Nile 
should have been worshipped throughout the land 
of Egypt is natural. The very land itself was his 
gift; the crops that grewupon it and the population 
it supported all depended upon his bounty. When 
the Nile failed the people starved ; when the Nile 
was full Egypt was a land of contentment and 
plenty. It is only wonderful that the cult of the 
Nile should not have been more prominent than it 
was. The temples built in its honour were neither 
numerous nor important, nor were its priests en- 
dowed as the priests of other gods. But the cause of 
this is explained by history. The neolithic popula- 
tion of the country lived in the desert ; the Nile was 
for them little more than the creator of pestilential 
swamps and dangerous jungles, where wild beasts 
and venomous serpents lurked for the intruder. 
The Pharonic Egyptians brought their own gods 
with them, and these naturally became the divinities 
of the nomes. When the river had been embanked 
and its waters been made a blessing instead of a 
curse, the sacred animals and the gods of the nomes 
were too firmly established to be displaced " (Sayce, 
The Religions of Anct. Egp. and Bab., p. 141). While 
this is true' in general, there was no lack of gratitude 
and devotion of individuals, and in the hymns that 
are preserved to us these are expressed in a way that 
leaves nothing to be desired (Sayce, op. cit., pp. 
14.11. ; Breasted, A History of Egp., pp. 374f.). The 
deities representing the Nile and its canals are por- 
trayed as stout, with large female breasts, crowned 
with flowers, and wearing only the narrow girdle of 
prehistoric Egypt. 

5 



The Nile boats with their lateen sails form a 
picturesque feature. They still play a large part 
in the transit of goods. In the winter season the 
Nile is now transformed into a veritable " river of 
pleasure," the glorious climate of Egypt attracting 
visitors from all parts of the world. 

NIMRAH. See Beth Nimrah. 

NIMRIM, WATERS OF, named with Zoar and 
Horonaim, a stream in the S.of Moab (Is. 15. 6 ; Jr. 
48. 34 ) : prob. = Wddy Wmeirah, wh. enters the 
Dead Sea fm. the E., about three miles fm. the S. 
end. 

.NIMROD (Gn. io. 8 ' 10 ), the son of Cush. Of him 
we are told that " he began "to be a gibbor (a warrior 
hero) in the earth " ; further, we are told that "he 
was a gibbor tzayid" (a heroic hunter); yet again we 
are informed that " the beginning of his kingdom 
was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the 
land of Shinar." When we look at the passage we 
see that N. is not named along with the other sons of 
Cush. While the first-named " sons " are clearly 
peoples, in N. we have to do with a person ; it wd. 
seem, the first who founded a kingdom. All the 
cities, with the exception of Calneh, have been 
identified, and even in regard to it a plausible sug- 
gestion has been made. Several ideas have been 
mooted as to the person meant. Etymology most 
probably affords no guidance, as the Jews were so 
prone to mutilate foreign names, and the connection 
of " Nimrod " with mar ad, " to rebel," renders one 
at once suspicious. The sovereign that seems most 
nearly to suit the requirements is Sargon of Agade 
(Accad). He appears to have united all Babylonia 
under him. He resembled Moses in being set afloat 
in the river by his mother ; he confesses that he did 
not know his father. It may be of interest to know 
that if we take the Gematria of minimum values 
then Sargon and Nimrod have the same numerical 
value. The other identifications are Gilgamesh, 




Boats in Nile 

the hero of the Babylonian Epos, and the god Mar- 
duk. Nimrod has impressed the imagination of the 
East very greatly. The legends of his contests with 
Abraham are many of them very beautiful, though 

14 



Nim 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nis 



others are grotesque. They may be found in a 
popular form in Baring-Gould's Legends of OT. 
Characters. 

NIMSHI, father of Jehoshaphat the father of 
Jehu king of Israel (2 K. o,. 2 ). He was thus the 
grandfather of the king, who is elsewhere described 
as his son (1 K. 19. 16 , &c). 

NINEVEH (?$% Ntv€i>2), the later capital of 
Assyria, on the east bank of the Tigris, opposite 
Mosul, and 18 miles north of Nimrud (Calah) at the 



angle between the Tigris and the Upper Zab, wh. 
extended from Calah (Nimrud) to Dur Sargina 
(now Khorsabad), built by Sargon (b.c. 707) to the 
north The circumference of this triangle is as 
much as 90 miles ; see Jh. 3. 3 , where " Nineveh " 
means the whole fortified complex of the capital 
and its suburbs. 

Nineveh was more conveniently situated on the 
high road of trade to Asia Minor and Syria than 
Assur (Qala'at Sherghat), the old capital of the 




Outline of the Mound at Nimrud 



junction of the Tigris and Upper Zab. It was 
called Nina and Ninua in Assyrian, and the name 
was popularly derived from nunu, " fish " ; like 
Nina in Babylonia, however (of wh. it may have been 
a colony), it really took its name from Nina, a title 
of Istar, around whose sanctuary the city had grown 
up. It is now represented by the mounds of 
Kouyunjik on the north and Nebi Yunus on the 
south, the sites of the palaces of Sennacherib, Esar- 
haddon, and Assur-bani-pal, between wh. ran the 
Khusur (now Hoser). The city was in the shape of 
a rectangle containing about 800 
acres, the west side of wh. was 
washed by the Tigris, while the 
southern end was only 873 yds. in 
length. The northern wall (2150 
yds. long) was defended by a moat, 
the eastern partly by the Khusur, 
partly by two artificial ditches, 
150 and 108 ft. wide and 20 ft. 
deep, beyond wh. was a double 
line of ramparts some 5400 yds. in 
length. These seem to have con- 
sisted of earth and rubble ; the 
inner wall, however, was of stone 
and brick, surmounted with gra- 
dines and intersected by numerous 
towers and gates. According to Diodorus Siculus 
the walls were 100 ft. high, three chariots being 
able to drive upon them abreast. In the time of 
the Later Assyrian Empire Nineveh was further 
defended by being enclosed in the fortified tri- 



J^pi 


-77-. 


I 'irfn 


L__ 


)--:'-vw \H 








Sil 





Nin, the Fish-god 



country. The earlier Assyrian kings, accordingly, 
built palaces there, and Shalmaneser I. (b.c 1300), 
the builder of Calah, may have made it a royal resi- 
dence. But it did not finally supplant Assur till the 
reign of Assur-bil-kala (c. b.c 1080). In b.c 823 it 
followed the fortunes of the rebel king Assur-dani- 
pal (Sardanapallos), and underwent a siege ; Sen- 
nacherib made it the capital of his empire, and as 
such it remained until in b.c 606 it was taken and 
destroyed by the Manda or Scyths, and with it 
Assyria itself came to an end (see Na. 2., 3. ; Zp. 
2. 13 - 15 ). 

Lit. : Rich, Residence in Kourdistan, 1836 ; A. H. 
Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, 1 848 ; Discoveries 
among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, 1853 ; F. 
Jones, Tocography of Nineveh in JRAS., 1855 ; V. 
Place, Ninive et VAssyrie, 1866-9. 

A. H. Sayce. 

NISAN (Asyr. Nisannu), the first month of the 
Hebrew year (Ne. 2. 1 ) ; it was originally called 
Abib, but it was changed after the Babylonian Cap- 
tivity to the name the month had at Babylon. It 
was the harvest month (see Year). The word is 
supposed to mean the " month of flowers " ; a 
name wh. in Pal. wd. be thoroughly appropriate. 

NISROCH, an Assyrian deity in whose temple 
Sennacherib was worshipping when he was mur- 
dered by his sons (2 K. 19. 37 ; Is. 37- 38 ). It is a 
matter of doubt what deity is meant by N., for no 
such name is found in the Asyr. pantheon. Ges. 
suggested a derivation fm. nesher, " an eagle " ; 
following this, Layard named several eagle-headed 



515 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Noa 



figures " statues of N." The Jewish tendency to 
mutilate the names of heathen deities renders it 
very probable that this has taken place here. As 
Asshur was the principal god of Nineveh, the idea of 
Schrader that Nisroch = Asshur is plausible ; it be- 
comes still more so if one adds Dr. Pinches' sugges- 
tion that Nisroch represents " Asshur-Aku," in wh. 
the name of the national Asyr. god is compounded 
with " Aku," the Accadian name of the Moon-god, 
called in Asyr. " Sin " ; the god whose name occurs 
in that of Sennacherib. 

NITRE (Heb. nether), not our " nitre," wh. is 
"otherwise called " saltpetre," but " natron," i.e. 
native carbonate of soda, found in certain lakes in 
Egypt and elsewhere ; it effervesces with vinegar 
(Pr. 25. 20 ) ; it was used for the manufacture of soap 
(Jr. 2. 22 ). Gesenius wd. regard it as potash. 

NO (Jr. 4 6. 25 ; Ek. 3o. 14 ' 15 . 1 6; Na. 3 . 8 ), NO- 
AMON (P.V. Na. 3- 8 ), a city in Egypt known to the 
Greeks as Thebes, and surviving to modern times in 
the ruins at Karnak and Luxor, ruins wh., at the end 
of thirty centuries, despoiled and dilapidated by the 
ravages of countless armies, fm. the hosts of Ashur- 
banipal to the army of Napoleon Bonaparte, still 
awe the tourist into admiration. Already in the 
Iliad, Thebes of the hundred gates is the symbol of 
populousness and wealth. It appears in hiero- 
glyphic as n • t : the vowel is supposed to have been 
e or a, hence the Heb. No and the Asyr. Ni* : the t 
seems to have disappeared in speech. The word 
net really meant " city " ; the complete name was 
Net- Amen, " the city of Amen." The vowel in the 
Heb. is probably a blunder of possibly a late date. 
This identification is confirmed by the LXX render- 
ing of No in the passages in Ek. as Diosfolis, the 
known Ptolemaic Greek equivalent of the older 
Thebes, or Net- Amen. The rendering of LXX in 
Na. 3. 8 is meris Amnion, " the portion of Amen." 
This passage is of special interest as describing at 
once the splendour of the city and the terrors of its 
sack by Ashurbanipal. The prophet, denouncing 
Nineveh, demands of her, " Art thou better than 
No- Anion," on wh. such a terrible destruction fell ? 
By implication it was supposed to be even more 
splendid than the Assyrian capital. Founded in 
remote antiquity, No became prominent when fm. 
it sprang the nth dynasty ; it was less prominent 
again till the time of the 18 th dynasty, and there- 
after to the 20th. During this period most of the 
buildings were erected that are the glory of Thebes. 
It died slowly ; Diodorus Siculus, under the later 
Ptolemies, estimates its circumference to be 140 
stadia, about 17 miles (Diod. Sic. i. 45) : he was 
impressed with its marvellously adorned temples. 
About half a century later Strabo estimated its cir- 
cuit at 10 miles. It was the principal centre of the 
worship of Amen, regarded as the equivalent of the 
Greek Zeus ; hence its name Net-Amen, of wh. the 



later Greek " Diospolis " was a translation. The 
more ancient Greek " Thebes " seems to have been 
an adaptation of Tape, " the head," " the capital." 

NOADIAH. (1) One of the Levites to whom 
was entrusted the inventory of the sacred vessels of 
silver and gold brought back from Babylon (Ez. 
8. 33 ). He is called " Moeth " in 1 Es. 8. 63 . (2) A 
prophetess associated with Sanballat and Tobiah in 
their opposition to Nehemiah (Ne. 6. 14 ). 

NOAH, in the Gospels (AV.) NOE, the son of 
Lamech the Sethite (Gn. 5. 28 " 32 , 9 . 29 ), father of 
Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Altho' the MT., the 
Sam., and the LXX differ in the ages of the pre- 
ceding patriarchs they agree in declaring N. to have 
been 500 years old at the birth of his three sons. In 
the midst of the abounding wickedness of the world 
God Himself testifies of N. : " Thee have I seen 
righteous before Me in this generation " (Gn. 7. 1 ). 
In 2 P. 2. 5 he is called " a preacher of righteous- 
ness." God reveals to him that He is about to 
destroy the world with a flood, commands him to 
build an Ark, and to collect into it a pair of every 
species of animal in the world in order that the seed 
of life may be preserved. 

In the 7th chap, it is said, "Of every clean beast thou 
shalt take seven seven, a male and his female (lit. ' a man 
and his wife'), and of the beast wh. is not clean pairs, a 
male and his female (lit. ' a man and his wife') : even fm. 
the fowls of heaven the clean seven seven male and female, 
and every bird wh. is not clean pairs, male and female." 
According to the Critical hypothesis this is due to a differ- 
ence of source ; while fm. Gn. 6. 9 to 6. 22 the narrative is 
fm. P., the source of the account of the emphasis given to 
the distinction between clean and unclean is J. The old 
interpretation was that greater precision was given to the 
directions when they were on the point of being carried 
into action. 

N. obeyed the commands of God, and in the 
600th year of the life of Noah, " in the second 
month, the seventeenth day of the month, the self- 
same day entered Noah 
into the Ark," a notice 
that has all the appear- 
ance of beinga statement 
of an exact date ; the 
same may be said of the 
time of his leaving the 
Ark, " the second month 
and seven and twentieth 
day of the month." 
When he left the Ark 
" N. builded an altar 
unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast and of 
every clean fowl and offered burnt-offerings on the 
altar " ; and it is added, " The Lord smelled a sweet 
savour ; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not 
again curse the ground any more for man's sake." 
The reason assigned is that " the imagination of 
man's heart is evil fm. his youth." This passage is 
also ascribed to J. In the blessing of N. wh. follows 
animals as well as vegetables are given to man for 
16 




Coin of Apamen in Phrygia, 
representing the deluge 



Noa 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nos 






food ; the punishment of death is decreed on the 
murderer; and the rainbow is appointed as a token of 
the covenant of God not to destroy the earth again 
with a flood. The rainbow is seen when the sun has 
broken through the clouds. Noah began to culti- 
vate the vine, as if this fruit had not been cultivated 
before, nor wine made. Then follows the myste- 
rious curse of Canaan for the dishonour done to his 
father by Ham the father of Canaan. This trans- 
action looks like a preparation for the devotion to 
destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan. At the 
age of 950 Noah died. 

As already considered under Flood, there is an 
account of the Noachian Deluge in the Babylonian 
Epos of Gilgames, in wh. he is called Nuh-Na-pishtim 
or Hasisadra, the latter being the original of the 
Xisuthrus of Berosus. As we saw there, the Heb. 
narrative is the more primitive. 

The Book of Noah. — In our book of Enoch 
there are portions in wh. N., not Enoch, is the 
spokesman, wh. are regarded as fragments of a book 
of Noah. In En. 106. we have an account of the 
birth of Noah narrated by Methuselah to his father 
Enoch in defiance of scriptural chronology : " His 
body was white as snow, and red as a blooming rose, 
and the hair of his head and his long locks were 
white as wool, and his eyes were beautiful. And 
when he opened his eyes he lighted the house like 
the sun, and the whole house was full of light." We 
venture to differ fm. Dr. Charles in his opinion that 
we have the whole of the book of Noah ; in our 
opinion it was considerably larger, and that it is to 
be dated between the nucleus of Enoch and the 
section 1-41. For legends about Noah see Baring- 
Gould, Legends of Old Testament Characters. 

NO-AMON. See No. 

NOB, a station of the priests visited by David in 
his flight fm. Saul, with disastrous consequences for 
the priests who befriended him (1 S. 21. 1 , 22. 9 , &c.) ; 
occupied by Benjamites after the Exile (Ne. II. 32 ) ; 
apparently close to Jrs., and between the city and 
Anathoth (Is. lo. 30ff -). No trace of the ancient 
name is found. Stanley (S. y P. 187) suggests the 
N. summit of the Mt. of Olives. Others favour the 
height N. of Jrs., popularly called Scopus, the tradi- 
tional site of the camp of Titus at the siege of Jeru- 
salem. From this point one approaching from the 
north obtains the first view of the city. It wd. thus 
suit admirably the description of Is. io. 32 , where the 
Assyrian halts at Nob and shakes his hand at the 
mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jeru- 
salem. We should infer that here it had just come 
into view. For an argument in favour of Gibeon 
see BE. s.v. 

NOBAH. (1) A Manassite ancestor of the clan 
wh. conquered Kenath and called it by his name 
(Nu. 32. 42 ). (2) A city, apparently in Gilead, men- 
tioned with Jogbehah as on the line followed by 



Gideon in his pursuit of the Midianite kings, Zebah 
and Zalmunnah (Jg. 8. 11 ). Poss. we shd. read with 
the Syr. " N. wh. is on the desert," instead of 
" Nophah wh. reacheth unto Medebah "(Nu. 21. 30 ). 
It may have been the original settlement of the 
clan called by this name. The site has not been 
recovered, but is probably to be sought somewhere 
to the N.E. of ''Amman. 

NOBAI, one who sealed the covenant with 
Nehemiah (Ne. io. 19 ). 

NOBLEMAN. (1) Basilikos (Jn. 4. 46 - 49 ), 
" kingly," a term loosely applied, now to persons of 
royal blood, and again to those intimately connected 
with them. Here " courtier " (AVm.) or " king's 
officer " (RVm.) wd. be more accurate. He was evi- 
dently a Jew in the service of Antipas. (2) Eugenes 
anthropos (Lk. 19. 12 ), " well-born man." Some 
think this N. is Archelaus, son of Herod the Gt. 
. NOD, " flight " or " exile," the land of the "wan- 
dering " of Cain. There is nothing to indicate any 
particular locality. The phrase " to the east of 
Eden " (Gn. 4. 16 ) furnishes no guidance. 

NODAB, a tribe with whom Reuben made war, 
mentioned along with the Hagarites, Jetur and 
Nephish (1 Ch. 5. 19 ). From the nature of the spoil 
taken we gather that they were pastoral tribes, their 
wealth consisting of cattle ; camels, sheep, and 
asses. No trace of the name is now to be found, if 
it be not in that of the mod. village Nudeibeb, to the 
SE. of Bosra in the Haurdn. 

NOE, the patriarch Noah (Mw. 24« 37 , &c). 

NOGAH, one of the sons born to David in Jeru- 
salem (1 Ch. 3. 7 ). The name does not appear in the 
parallel list of 2 S. 5. A similar name, wh. may 
refer to the same person, is given in the genealogy 
of Lk. 3. 25 , " Noggai." 

NOHAH, Benjamin's fourth son (1 Ch. 8. 2 ). 

NOPH. See Memphis. 

NOPHAH. See Nobah. 

NORTH, NORTH COUNTRY, are vague 
terms, indicating generally the direction whence 
the people of Palestine had most to fear in the 
matter of invasion. In point of fact, while from the 
south Egypt at times struck hard, and " the children 
of the East " occasionally inflicted serious damage, 
the really paralysing blows all fell upon Palestine 
from the north. Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, 
Rome, each in turn appeared upon the northern 
horizon, and the war-clouds broke southward in 
disaster. The absence of good seaports was a pro- 
tection on the west, and the deserts made im- 
practicable approach from the east, so that even 
Babylon, wh. is almost in the same latitude as 
Samaria, had to send her armies by a detour, to 
enter the country from the north. 

NOSE, NOSTRILS. A man with a flat or 
" slit " N. might not make offerings (Lv. 21. 18 ). N. 
is used figuratively for anger (Gn. 27- 45 , &c), prob. 



517 



Nov 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Num 



fm. the distension of nostrils and swift breathing 
caused by anger. 

The nose or nostril is the organ of the breath of 
life (Gn. 2. 7 , &c). This, so easily interrupted, be- 
comes the symbol of life's transiency (Is. 2. 22 ). The 
putting of a hook in the nose (2 K. 19. 28 , &c.) 
doubtless refers to the control thus gained over 
recalcitrant animals. Pr. 30. 33 refers to the ease 
with which blood is drawn from the nose. The 
prominence of the feature led to the nose being 
adorned with nose-rings as jewels (Is. 3. 21 ), a form 
of finery still much affected in the East. The 




Arab Nose-ring and Bracelet of Silver 

putting of a branch to the nose (Ek. 8. 17 ) was 
evidently a part of some idolatrous rite; but the 
meaning of this is lost. 

NOVICE, Gr. neophytos, lit. " newly planted," 
i.e. one recently baptized, whom lack of experience 
and proof disqualifies for the office of " bishop " 
(1 Tm. 3. 6 ). Later the word came to signify tech- 
nically one who had not yet taken upon him the 
religious vows. 

NUMBER. Although no examples have come 
down to us in the few and short inscriptions that 
have survived fm. ancient Israelitish times, it is so 
highly probable as to amount almost to a certainty 
that among the Hebrews there was a system of 
numerical notation. It wd. seem as if the indi- 
cation of number wd. precede the recording of 
thoughts. In Egypt and Phoenicia, the immediate 
neighbours of Palestine, there were such systems ; 
in Babylonia and Assyria, whose influence over 
Palestine in the very dawn of history was so great, 
there was also a similar system. The simplest 
system was one wh. founded itself, as did the 
original measures of length, on the members of the 
body. The five fingers on the hand gave the V. of 
the Roman notation, and two of these joined at their 
apexes gave X ; the Egyptians sometimes united the 
five in a star ; as, however, three was the number of 
separate strokes that the eye can most easily grasp, 

5 



six was represented by two groups of three Lines 
either one above the other or succeeding each other ; 
seven was three above, four below, and so on ; when 
ten was reached it was represented by an arch. 
The Phoenician was very much the same. It may 
be noted that these systems were both decimal : the 
Babylonian was sexagesimal. Among the rabbis 
there was a system of notation much used, the age 
of wh. it is impossible to fix with absolute accuracy ; 
only it must have been old, dating possibly from 
the age before the Exile. This used the letters 
as numerals ; fm. K to D for the units, fm. * to ¥ 
for the tens, and fm. p to the end of the alphabet 
with the help of the finals for the hundreds. This 
system may sometimes be of use in explaining mis- 
takes. The Babylonian system, as mentioned above, 
was sexagesimal ; its first group was formed by 
multiplying together three, four, and five ; we have 
the result of this in our minutes and seconds, and in 
the days of the year, wh. are sixty multiplied by six 
and five added ; it was, however, too cumbrous for 
ordinary use. 

Besides the use of numbers in the exact sense, we 
have the loose use — approximating vaguely without 
attempting exactitude. Thus we have c< two ". for 
a few ; the widow of Zarephath, when Elijah asks 
her for bread, tells him she is " gathering two 
sticks " that she may cook the meal for herself and 
her son (1 K. 17. 12 ). So also " five " is used in this 
way : in Lv. 26. 8 the Israelites are told that " jive 
of them should chase a hundred." A moderately 
large number is indicated by " ten " ; as when 
Jacob reproaches Laban with the frequent changes 
he made in his wages, he declares that he changed 
them " ten times " (Gn. 3 1. 7 ). After Israel in the 
wilderness, discouraged hy the report of the spies, 
refused to enter Canaan, God declares, " Those men 
have tempted Me now these ten times" (Nu. 14. 22 ). 
" Forty " is used when a very considerable num- 
ber is intended ; when Hazael brought to Elisha 
" forty camels' burden ... of every good thing of 
Damascus," we are not to understand that exactly 
that number, neither more nor less, came as a 
present fm. king Benhadad. This is more obvious 
in regard to a space of time : " forty years " means 
really a long space of time, a generation ; thus three 
times are we told in the book of Judges that " the 
land had rest forty years " (3. 11 , 5. 31 , 8. 28 ). That 
Saul, David, and Solomon shd. all reign each 
" forty years " (cp. Ac. 13. 21 ; 2S.5. 4 ; I K. n. 42 ) 
is improbable. It must simply be taken as an in- 
definitely large number. A very large number is 
indicated by a " hundred," as in Ec. 6. 3 : when the 
hypothetical case is presented, " if a man beget an 
hundred children," we understand what is meant. 
So "a thousand" (Dt. 32. 30 ), "ten thousand" 
(Lv. 26. 8 ), " forty thousand " (Jg. 5. 8 ). There is, 
besides, the ordinary indefinite use of numbers, as 
18 



Num 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Num 



" two or three," " four or five " (Is. 17. 6 ), for 
a few. 

We must also take account of what are called 
sacred numbers. The idea that numbers had a 
potence of themselves meets the investigator into the 
progress of human thought everywhere. Pythagoras 
founded his whole philosophy of the universe on 
number ; Plato is full of discussions of " odds " 
and " evens " ; Lenormant says, " Speculations 
upon the value of numbers hold a very im- 
portant place in the religious philosophy of 
the Chaldaeans." All the gods were designated 
by whole numbers, and the various kinds of 
inferior spirits by fractions. In these circum- 
stances it is to be expected that among the Hebrews 
there shd. be traces of something similar. The 
smallest of these numbers is " three." We see this 
special significance of three in Elijah stretching 
himself three times on the dead boy (1 K. 17. 21 ). 
Simon Peter's sheet was three times let down (Ac. 
io. 16 ). It is supposed by some that the peculiar 
place " three " has in thought is due to the fact that 
heaven, earth, and sea emphasise a threefold divi- 
sion ; but to the Babylonians the sea, however im- 
portant in mythology, was not phenomenally pro- 
minent — the vast plain was much more perceptible. 
It is really fundamental to the human mind ; as two 
is the natural symbol of division, three is the natural 
symbol of stability. It is not far-fetched to connect 
this with the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, 
since man is made in the image of God. " Four " 
is the next ; its peculiar significance is seen in the 
four rivers of Paradise (Gn. 2. 10 ) ; in the four pre- 
Messianic empires in Daniel (2. 31f -, 7- 3 " 7 ) ; the four 
horns in Zechariah (i. 18 ), and elsewhere. This is 
supposed to be connected with the four points of 
the compass ; rather the four directions relatively 
to the human body, before, behind, to the right, 
and to the left. The most obviously sacred of 
numbers is " seven." This is illustrated by the 
Divine rest at the close of the work of creation 
(Gn. 2. 2 > 3 ). Noah is ordered to take " seven 
clean animals " into the Ark with him (Gn. 
7. 2 ), and in many other cases. This is supposed 
to represent the addition of the two former 
numbers ; rather, we think, man wd. regard him- 
self as centre, and add to that the six directions 
from that : above, below, behind, before, right, and 
left. To the Babylonians this wd. be emphasised 
by the seven planets wh. they as astronomers had 
observed. The number " twelve " is marked 
among the Israelites, as it is the number of their 
tribes, and the twelve apostles of the Lord. It 
was the number of the months among the Baby- 
lonians : twelve times the phases of moon recurred 
in the year, so they may have observed this, and con- 
sequently made twelve a sacred number. The fact 
that it is the multiple of three and four, the com- 



ponent parts of seven, mt. help that decision. In 
Apocalyptic literature there is a symbolical use of 
number wh. is akin to this. We find this in Daniel 
and in Revelation. In Daniel " one " is the symbol 
of Babylon, and " two " the symbol of the Medo- 
Persian Empire ; from the " three " ribs in the 
mouth of the Persian bear one mt. think that 
" three " mt. possibly be the symbol of Lydia. 
" Four " is the symbol of the Graeco-Macedonian 
Empire, and " ten " is the symbol of the Roman 
Empire. This is made clear by the Apocalypse, in 
wh. we have further " seven " as the symbol of the 
city Rome. It has been observed by Gesenius that 
the number five has some special affinity in Heb. 
thought for Egypt ; as " Five cities in the land of 
Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan " (Is. 
19. 18 ). This was carried much further by the 
Kabalists. 

. From the fact that numbers were indicated by 
letters a number was sometimes put for a name, the 
sum of whose letters amounted to that number. 
In the book of Revelation the number 666 at once 
occurs to one. Another scriptural instance, though 
naturally less recognised, is " Eliezer," the sum of 
the letters of whose name is 318, the number of 
Abraham's servants when he went to encounter 
Chedorlaomer. This estimation of names and 
representing them by numbers is called by the 
Rabbins " Gematria," a word that seems to be de- 
rived fm. the Greek geometreia. In the Talmud it 
becomes an elaborate system with modes and rules ; 
certain letters mt. be inserted or omitted, mainly 
those called matres lectionis. Sometimes the letters 
were taken in their ordinary value ; again they mt. 
be reckoned according to minimum values, in wh., 
instead of tf being one and * ten and p a hundred, 
these three letters were all equally reckoned one, so 
2, 3, and T were each regarded as two, and not two, 
twenty, and two hundred respectively. Again, one 
or both the words or phrases mt. be modified by 
Athhash, in wh. the first letter of the alphabet is put 
for the last and the second for the second last, and so 
on ; or by Albam, in wh. the first letter is put for the 
twelfth and the second for the thirteenth, and vice 
versa. These methods are used sometimes for the 
interpretation of Scripture with ludicrous results. 
They served a useful purpose as mnemonics, as may 
be seen in the Massoretic notes at the end of each 
book in the Hebrew Bible ; thus at the end of the 
book of Joshua we are not only told that the number 
of verses in it are 656, but also are given VTRN, 
the first word of the verse in Heb. (Is. 35. 6 ), " and 
the. tongue of the dumb shall sing," in order to re- 
member it by, as the sum of these letters in Heb. is 
656. In some instances what seem to be interpre- 
tations are really statements of mnemonics that may 
be useful to the student. 

The Greeks had a system of numeration in 



519 



Num 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Num 



wh. the first four units were represented by lines 
and " five " by II, the letter with wh. fenta, the 
Greek word for " five," begins, and " ten " by A, 
the letter with wh. deka, " ten," begins ; so with 
H for hekaton, " a hundred," and M for murias, 
10,000. The system of numeration more com- 
monly used, however, was to give a numerical value 
to the letters of the alphabet, adding a character for 
six in the place of the ancient digamma, wh. in the 
original Greek alphabet had occupied the place of 
the Heb. waw. Another character was used for 
90 and yet another for 900. For higher numbers 
the alphabet as augmented was used with a dash 
below each character. To these letters also Gema- 
tria was applied, as the Heb. letters were among the 
Jews. A classic example of the practice to wh. we 
refer may be seen in the Sibylline Oracles, i. 328- 
331, in wh. the name of our Lord is said to be re- 
presented by " eight units, as many tens added to 
these, also eight hundreds." This is the summa- 
tion of the numerical values of the Greek letters 
that make the name Jesus. This we think has an 
important bearing on the vexed question of the 
" number of the Beast," 666. The writer of this 
portion of the Sibylline Oracles may be held as re- 
presenting the mind and methods of the Apocalyptic 
Jewish authors who had embraced Christianity and 
wrote in Greek. It wd. seem to us that we ought 
to argue backfm. the Sibylline author to the greatest 
of the Apocalyptists, and presume that later Greek- 
writing Apocalyptists followed the example he left 
them : so the solution, whatever it be, of that 
enigma is not to be sought in Hebrew but in Greek ; 
hence it follows that Nero is not the person meant. 
Although it is impossible to deny that there is a 
vast amount of trifling in these theories of numbers 
and the use made of them by the Jews, yet it is 
advantageous to know them, as occasionally we 
may find the interpretation of riddles otherwise 
insoluble. 

NUMBERS, the fourth book of the law, called in 
Heb. bemidbar, " in the wilderness (of Sinai)," fm. 
the word that follows the formula, " And the Lord 
spake unto Moses " ; the Greek name Arithmoi, of 
wh. the English title is a translation, is derived fm. 
the fact that it contains two enumerations of the 
people. It is to some extent a resumption of the 
history of the journey of Israel through the desert 
after the interruption caused by the intrusion of the 
ceremonial regulations wh. occupy the book of 
Leviticus. There is a great lacuna in the regular 
history between the end of the 14th chap, and the 
beginning of the 20th, bridged over by the rebellion 
of Korah among the Levites and that of Dathan and 
Abiram among the Reubenites ; and further by the 
dry enumeration of the successive encampments of 
the people wh. is to be found in chap. 33. There 
are, besides the history, various enactments of a cere- 



monial kind. Though the book begins with " and," 
it has many features wh. wd. suggest that it had 
been composed as a separate work, though in con- 
tinuation of those wh. precede it. 

Contents. — The book may be divided into three 
portions : there is first the account of events mainly 
in the second year after the Exodus ; the thirty- 
eight years' wandering, in the course of wh. occur 
the rebellions above mentioned of the Levites under 
Korah against Aaron, and of the Reubenites against 
Moses (see Moses), and certain ceremonial enact- 
ments ; the last portion contains the history of the 
last year of the wanderings and the stay in the 
plains of Moab. The first section extends fm. the 
beginning of the book to the end of chap. 14. The 
1st chap, gives an account of the order for the first 
census and preparations for it, the numbers of each 
separate tribe, the reason for the exclusion of the 
Levites fm. the census, and the position they were 
to occupy in the camp. The arrangements re- 
garding the position each tribe shd. occupy in the 
camp round the Tabernacle are given in chap. 2. 
They were divided into four divisions, arranged 
under four leading tribes : (1) Judah with Issachar 
and Zebulun ; (2) the tribe of Reuben, with 
those of Simeon and Gad ; (3) the tribe of 
Ephraim, with the kindred tribes of Manasseh 
and Benjamin ; (4) the tribe of Dan, along with 
Asher and Naphtali. These were to take up their 
position as follows : Judah to the E., Reuben 
to the S., Ephraim to the W., and Dan to the 
N. In the Tg. PJ. we are told that the flag of 
each camp had a special blazon ; that of Judah was 
a young lion ; that of Reuben was originally an ox, 
but was changed into a stag by Moses, " lest the sin 
of the calf mt. be remembered against them " ; 
that of Ephraim a young man ; and that of Dan a 
venomous serpent. In chaps. 3. and 4. are narrated 
the encamping, the numbers, and the duties of the 
various Levitical families. The family of Gershon 
was to encamp on the W. of the Tabernacle, that of 
Kohath on the S., while that of Merari encamped 
on the N. ; the Aaronites being encamped at the 
door of the Tabernacle to the E. In the two 
chapters that follow we have the law of the ordeal 
fm. jealousy, and the regulations concerning the 
Nazirite, ending with the priestly benediction. 
The long 7th chap., with that wh. follows, de- 
scribes the consecration of the Tabernacle by the 
offerings of the princes of the different tribes, and 
the consecration of the Levites by Aaron. The 
9th chap, begins with the account of the celebra- 
tion of the second Passover and regulations to meet 
special circumstances ; then follow regulations as to 
the march wh. are continued into the loth ; in re- 
gard to this there is the manufacture of the silver 
trumpets with wh. the signal was sounded for the 
movement of the successive " camps " or brigades, 



520 



Num 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Num 



when by the lifting of the cloud over the Tabernacle 
the token of the breaking up of the camp was given. 
At the end there is given the proclamation of Moses 
when the march began and that wh. he made when 
it concluded. The next two chapters give the ac- 
count of two murmurings, one public by the people 
against Moses on account of the manna. God 
listened to their murmuring and gave them their 
desire, but in wrath. They desired flesh — a flock of 
quails are sent : these, flying only some two cubits 
above the ground, are easily knocked down ; the 
people split them up and spread them in the sun to 
dry — they are satiated with flesh. The other mur- 
muring is domestic, by Aaron and Miriam against 
him because of his wife, presumably Zipporah ; the 
term of " Cushite " * was probably a reproachful 
designation, wh. a swarthy complexion may have 
explained. But murmurings had their punish- 
ments : numbers were slain by the pestilence wh. 
it wd. seem the eating of the quails' flesh induced ; 
and Miriam was struck with leprosy. The tribes 
had now reached the southern boundary of the land 
to wh. they had been journeying, and spies are sent 
into it to see the nature of the country and of what 
sort the inhabitants were. One fm. each tribe is 
chosen ; they are away forty days on this errand. 
On their return, while they praise the fertility of 
the soil, they declare that the fortified towns and 
the stalwart inhabitants preclude them fm. attempt- 
ing the conquest. So say all the spies save two — 
Joshua, who had commanded at Rephidim, and 
Caleb the Kenizzite, the representative of Judah. 
The people are discouraged, and again murmur 
against Moses and Aaron. The wrath of God is 
kindled against them, and He threatens to destroy 
them, and offers to make of Moses a nation mightier 
than they. Alluring as is the prospect to one with 
the Eastern's respect for a multitude of descendants, 
Moses pleads for Israel ; at his entreaty they are for- 
given, but forty years of wanderings is their punish- 
ment. Now presumption follows the cowardice 
the people had displayed ; in disregard of the 
warning of Moses they advanced up the mountain 
in front of the camp, but they were driven back 
ignominiously by the Canaanites and Amalekites. 
The second section embraces chaps. 1 5. -1 9. There 
are first in chap. I5. 1 " 31 enactments as to offerings to 
be made when, after their forty years are over, they 
enter the Promised Land ; enactments as to atone- 
ments for unconscious guilt, and the punishment of 
presumptuous wickedness. Then follow two inci- 
dents. The first is short ; the punishment of one 
who profaned the Sabbath. The second is an ac- 
count of the twofold rebellion, of Korah, and of 
Dathan and Abiram, against Moses. This event, or 
* This may have suggested the story told by Josephus 
(Ant II. x. 2), of the Ethiopian campaign, at the close 
of which Moses married Tharbis, an Ethiopian (Cushite) 
princess. 



521 



rather these conjoined events, are more fully con- 
sidered under Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The 
precise point in the wanderings when these two 
rebellions occurred is not indicated, but the space 
given to them is a proof of their importance ; the 
authority of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron re- 
ceived a Divine sanction through these rebellions 
wh. otherwise they wd. not have had. To Aaron, 
whose priesthood is thus confirmed, and to his seed, 
is given the ordinance of first-fruits, &c. ; they are 
to live of the altar. To the Levites, now definitely 
under their authority, is given the tithe. This was 
an ordinance that looked forward to the occupation 
of Palestine, when there wd. be threshing-floor and 
winepress ; it cd. have no meaning in the wilder- 
ness. From the fact that Eleazar is presumed to 
act as priest, the ordinance of the Red Heifer 
may be taken to be late in the intermediate space ; 
yet the necessity for purification fm. contact with 
the dead must have often arisen before. The last 
section contains an account of events wh. occurred 
during the last year of the wanderings. The people 
arrive in the wilderness of Zin, once more back 
again whence they had set out on their generation- 
long wanderings ; there Miriam dies. Untaught 
by previous judgments of God, the people murmur 
against Moses and Aaron because of the drought 
and the thirst. Whether it was that Moses sinned by 
calling them " rebels," or whether it was because, 
being told to speak to the rock, he struck it twice, or 
that he assumed Divine power when he said, " Must 
we fetch you water out of this rock ? " it is impossible 
to decide ; or what the sin of Aaron in the matter 
that he shared his brother's punishment. Both are 
declared not to have believed God to sanctify Him 
in the eyes of the children of Israel, and both are 
excluded fm. Palestine, the land towards wh. their 
longing hopes had been directed for all the fore- 
going forty years. The death of Aaron followed 
when the people had removed " fm. Kadesh and 
come to Mount Hor " ; Moses and Eleazar accom- 
panied Aaron up the slope of Mount Hor, and there 
he died and there he was buried. Before he died 
his priestly robes were stripped off him, and his 
son was clothed in them as his successor. As the 
Israelites passed eastward they took vengeance on 
Arad the Canaanite, who had assailed them cause- 
lessly. Now again, after forty years of knowledge 
of Moses, did Israel murmur against him and 
against God ; and God sent fiery serpents among 
them, " and they bit the people, and much people 
of Israel died." When Moses prayed for them God 
commanded him to make a brazen serpent to wh. 
the sufferers were to look — they looked and were 
cured. The march of the people brought them 
to the east of Moab ; in the wilderness there, want 
of water tried them, but the rulers superintended 
while the diggers digged the well ; and Isr. sang 

R 2 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Num 



" Spring up, well." Now only the territory of 
Sihon was between them and the land promised to 
their fathers. He, though courteously requested, 
refused to allow them a passage ; Isr. conquered 
him in battle and took his land. It wd. seem as if 
Isr. and Moab had a treaty, and that they were 
allies against Sihon {see Moab). They turned 
northward, probably in this unassisted by Moab, 
and encountered Og, king of Bashan, defeated and 
slew him, and took his territory (chap. 21.). This 
new conquest made the Moabites feel suspicious of 
their ally ; they sent for Balaam to come and curse 
Israel. He came, but was compelled by God to 
bless them altogether (chaps. 22.-24.). Balaam coun- 
selled that guile mt. be used ; the daughters of 
Moab and the daughters of Midian seduced Isr. to 
idolatry, and a plague fell upon the people, wh. was 
stayed by Eleazar's prompt action (25.). At this 
point there is a second census of the people taken 
(26.). The case of the daughters of Zelophehad led 
to new legislation (27. 1 " 11 ). Moses is told of his 
own approaching death, and is commanded to con- 
secrate Joshua to be his successor (2j} 2t ). While 
what follows was transacted in the plains of 
Moab, all naturally took place before Moses re- 
ceived the command to ascend Mt. Abarim ; hence 
the last nine chapters are of the nature of an appen- 
dix. The 28th and 29th chaps, form what may be 
regarded as the sacrificial calendar, i.e. the sacri- 
fices fixed by their date. There is the morning and 
evening offering, afterwards called the taniid, " the 
continual," fm. the word used in the beginning of 
v. 6. The Sabbath sacrifice and that for New Moon 
follow. The two cardinal months of the Jewish 
calendar were the first and the seventh, the month 
of the Passover and that of the Great Day of Atone- 
ment ; special offerings were enjoined on diffe- 
rent days in these months, and these are defined in 
these chapters. In the next chap. Moses considers 
the special case of a woman who makes a vow ; her 
position of tutelage until she has become a widow 
requires special legislation in the matter of her 
promises to God. The next chapters are secular. 
There is first vengeance on Midian for the treache- 
rous endeavour to lead the people into idolatry ; 
12,000 men go forth and exterminate the branch of 
that nationality whose dwellings were eastward of 
Moab ; the distribution of the spoil occupies the 
end of the section. The next question that arises is 
the disposal of the territory wh. they had conquered 
fm. the two kings of the Amorites. Reuben, Gad, 
and the half tribe of Manasseh request that it be 
assigned to them, and have their request granted on 
condition that their armed men accompany their 
brethren across the Jordan. The 33rd chap, has 
every appearance of being copied fm. an original 
document, possibly a clay tablet, in wh. Moses 
had recorded the various places where the camp 



had. been placed ; the fact that the names assume 
different forms fm. the same root when they re- 
appear in Dt. 10. proves the antiquity of the record. 
A singular and interesting document is chap. 34., 
in wh. Moses marks off the boundaries of the inheri- 
tance of the children of Israel : it may be noted 
that only in the time of David did they possess the 
going in of Hamath and Riblah, and even then not 
as an inheritance but as a subject territory. Another 
supplemental document is the law regarding the 
cities of the Levites and the cities of refuge, by wh. 
the Semitic custom of blood feud was limited, and 
ultimately, so far as Isr. was concerned, suppressed. 
The last chapter contains final arrangements re- 
garding the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophe- 
had, restricting their choice of husbands to men of 
their father's tribe. 

Critical Analysis. — On the Critical hypothesis at 
present dominant fm. I. 1 to io. 28 is assigned to P. ; 
within this, however, there are several further at- 
tributions by different authorities ; Kuenen wd. 
assign the whole to the writer he calls P. 3 , " or still 
later formations " ; Paterson (Polych. Bib.) assigns 
five vv. in the 3rd chap, and two in the 10th to the 
" Law of Holiness," whereas the whole of the 7th 
chap, except the last v., and the whole of the 9th 
except the first five vv., with seven vv. in the 4th 
and in the 8th chaps, and two vv. in the loth, are 
assigned to the later strata of the Priestly Code ; 
besides these there are overlinings that mark modi- 
fications and interpolations ; Harford-Battersby 
(HDB) rings the changes on P 1 , P g , and P s , some- 
times giving half a v. to one authority while the ad- 
jacent vv. go to another. The keenness of Critical 
acumen here is, to say the least, marvellous. We 
have had, in recent times, writers collaborating, and, 
despite memory assisting criticism, it has been im- 
possible, with absolute accuracy, to assign to each 
his share in the joint result. Yet the Critics of 
Scripture have neither qualms nor doubts. In the 
next portion, fm. io. 29 to 14. 45 , i.e. to the point at 
wh. the lacuna begins, a larger amount is attributed 
to the older authorities, J. and E., either separately 
or conjointly, with a few verses, sometimes single 
words, inserted here and there fm. P. To give an 
idea of the process and its results we shall take 
chap. II. The first three vv. are assigned by 
Paterson and Harford-Battersby to E. ; although 
the characteristic of E. was the use of Elohim for 
God, while J. used " Jehovah," yet the only Divine 
name used is JHWH ; then follow three vv. as- 
signed to J., with one word, "again," derived fm. P. 
The two vv. describing the manna are credited to 
P.; then follow six vv. fm. J., including one v. sup- 
posed to be a joint product of J. and E., then two 
vv. to E., six vv. to J., seven to E., and five to J. Of 
the sixteen vv. of the 12th chap, the first fifteen vv. 
are assigned to E. with the exception of four Heb. 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Num 



words representing " for he had married an Ethio- 
pian woman," credited to P. ; only the last v. is 
credited to J. In this we have followed Paterson, 
with whom, in the main, Harford-Battersby agrees. 
Canon Driver, with greater sobriety, says, " Data 
do not exist for separating the sources employed." 
The section in regard to the spies Paterson and 
Driver assign in almost equal proportions to JE. and 
P. : Harford-Battersby agrees so far, but wd. dis- 
tinguish between J. and E. The 15th chap, belongs 
to the Priestly Code, with some intrusions of later 
and earlier strata. In the episode of Korah, Dathan, 
and Abiram, all connected in the 16th chap, with 
Korah is assigned to P., while what is connected 
with the Reubenites is derived fm. JE. Chap. 17. is 
assigned to P. ; in the Heb. it begins with 16. 36 of 
the EV., wh. follow LXX and Vlg. The consecra- 
tion of Aaron and his sons (chap. 18.) is part of the 
original priestly document, whereas the enactment 
in regard to the Red Heifer is declared to be wholly 
fm. the later stratum of P. After the lacuna, 
chaps. 20. and 21. are mostly credited to JE., the 
clauses telling of the moving of the camp being as- 
signed to P., with accounts of Meribahand the death 
of Aaron. The conquest of Og is said by Paterson 
to be fm. D., the Deuteronomist, who is not intro- 
duced either by Driver or Harford-Battersby. The 
story of Balaam (22. 2 -25. 5 ) is distributed in fairly 
equal proportions between J. and E. The episode 
of Cozbi is attributed to P. The second enumera- 
tion of the people is naturally assigned to P. also, 
as well as the decision in regard to the daughters of 
Zelophehad. The arrangements for the morning 
and evening sacrifice, and for the Sabbaths and for 
the New Moons, the celebration of the feasts of the 
first month and of the seventh, are assigned to the 
later stratum of the priestly document. The war 
of vengeance against Midian is assigned to the same 
source, while Harford-Battersby assigns the whole 
of chap. 32. to P., with the exception of the 
four last vv., wh. he credits to J. Driver assigns 
it in the main to JE., except a few vv. attributed 
to P. Addis (Doc. of the Hex.) assigns vv. 1-5, 16, 
17, 20-27, 34-38 to JE., 39-42 to J. ; vv. 6-15 he 
assigns to a later Deuteronomist (as to this section, 
Kuenen wd. assign it to the latest priestly writer) : 
28-33 he ascribes to D. Paterson in the main 
agrees with this. A consensus of Critical opinion 
ascribes the last four chapters to P. Harford- 
Battersby assigns them to the latest priestly docu- 
ment, to wh. Paterson ascribes only eight w. at 
the beginning of chap. 35. 

While it is unquestionable that the book as we 
have it is composite, it seems to us impossible to 
do more than indicate in a general way the sources 
fm. wh. these elements were drawn. We must re- 
member that writing was an accomplishment very 
generally possessed by the inhabitants of Palestine 



into wh. the children of Isr. came, and as much so 
in the land of Egypt wh. they had left, so we may 
assume that the primitive elements were documents. 
All this splitting up of the text into such minute 
fractions that sometimes a single word is assigned 
to another source fm. the rest of the verse in wh. it 
occurs, while very ingenious, seems to us mere trifling, 
and devoid of scientific value. That Moses was 
personally the author of much in the book is quite 
possible, and in the light of persistent tradition may 
even be said to be probable. Certain elements of 
legislation presuppose a settled state of society ; it 
is of course not impossible that this was prophetic — 
that Moses, foreseeing what wd. be the condition of 
things in the land whither they were going, legis- 
lated in regard to these conditions. Palestine, we 
must remember, was by no means an unknown 
country to the inhabitants of Egypt ; Egyptian 
governors had long exercised authority there ; 
Moses, it may be presumed, wd. know all about its 
character and climate. Another hypothesis may, 
however, be suggested. As new conditions arose 
new laws were needed ; and men endowed with 
the Divine spirit, or some wise judge, enunciated a 
law that met the new circumstances, and this new 
decision wd. naturally be added to the body of 
Mosaic law. Such additions to the body of law, as 
they proceeded on the same principles as the original 
legislation, wd. not vitiate the claim of the whole 
still to be called the " Law of Moses." We ven- 
ture to think that the record of the stations of the 
children of Isr. in the desert may be an original 
document. Sacrificial ritual was not necessarily 
committed to writing, yet the minutiae were so 
numerous that writing must have been resorted 
to ere very long. It must, at all events, have been 
committed to writing before the time of Amos, from 
the acquaintance wh. he, a layman, manifests with 
the detail of sacrificial worship. The record of the 
rebellions of Korah and of the Reubenites might 
well have been engrossed on clay tablets at the time 
of the occurrences, and combined by a later editor. 
The source whence we have got the prophecies of 
Balaam mt. be himself. With the exception of the 
episode of the ass, he appears creditably. Fm. the 
language one wd. think that last incident had an- 
other source ; it may have contemplated another 
audience. The 7th chapter, with its repetition 
after repetition, has an undeniable aspect of late- 
ness. The position that seems to us the most 
reasonable is that, while many of the elements of 
the book may be of Mosaic date, the book did not 
assume its present form till the people had already 
been settled in the land of Palestine ; at the same 
time there is no evidence that in any part it is 
post-exilic. 

Historicity. — The presence of miracle does not 
afford a reason, unless one is prepared to deny the 



5 2 3 



Num 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Num 



possibility of such occurrences altogether, for re- 
jecting a narrative. Our religion is founded on 
miracle, the miracle of the resurrection of our Lord ; 
in it all miracles are rendered possible. Premising 
this, we must also bear in mind that we have no 
right to multiply marvels, if some other explanation 
can be given wh., without destroying the credibility 
of the whole narrative, is tenable. In the case of 
the book of N. the question of historicity applies 
to the episodes of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, of 
Balaam, and of the twofold census : the manna, 
the quails, and the water fm. the rock, tho' not re- 
stricted to N., occur in it. In regard to the first of 
these, the necessity for a sanction to the authority of 
Moses and Aaron wh. wd. be both unmistakable 
and striking, is obvious if Isr. was to be fitted for the 
function in the economy of redemption for wh. it 
was destined ; such a sanction was given by the 
earth opening her mouth, and the descent of fire fm. 
heaven. The speaking of the ass to Balaam mt. be 
purely subjective ; for moral significance it did not 
need to have any objective reality. In regard to 
the Manna the reader must consult the article on 
that subject. As to the quails, when it is said that 
the Lord " let them fall by the camp as it were a 
day's journey on this side and as it were a day's 
journey on the other side round about the camp, 
and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the 
earth," it does not mean that a province of some 
thirty or forty miles each way was covered for about 
a yard in height with the dead bodies of birds. It 
means that their flight was only about three feet 
above the ground, and that throughout that great 
extent of country they were alighting and, wearied 
as they were with their flight, were easily caught and 
killed. The camp, too, would not be one closely 
compacted collection of tents or huts like a Roman 
camp, or surrounded, like it, by a rampart ; it wd. 
more probably be like the encampment of an Arab 
tribe, made up of small groups of tents spread over 
an immense area. The gushing forth of the water 
when Moses struck the rock was a miracle, and not 
only was it necessary for the preservation of the 
nation to fulfil their function, but it involved, by 
the dependence on God it taught, a moral training 
that wd. fit them for their task. 

Kuenen regards it as suspicious, in regard to the 
historicity of the book before us, that the legisla- 
tion is crowded into two portions : " The laws 
are congested in the first year after the Exodus 
and the closing months of the fortieth year " (The 
Hexateuch, pp. 18, 19, Eng. tr.). This is, however, 
precisely what wd. be natural ; the first year of 
their existence as a nation there wd. of necessity be 
a press of legislation; then, when they were about 
to change fm. being nomads to become agricul- 
turists, again was there a necessity for a " conges- 
tion " of legislation. Another difficulty, and one 



that proved in the hands of Colenso the source of 
the more recent Critical attacks on the Pentateuch, 
is the numbers of the various tribes and of the whole 
nation. It is not so much the increase in four 
centuries fm. seventy persons, as they are stated to 
have been when they came down to Egypt, to ap- 
proximately two millions and a half ; the numerous 
slaves that accompanied them when they went down 
to Egypt are not included in the number, and they 
wd. amount to several thousands ; if we include the 
possible purchase of slaves, the increase, though 
great, wd. not be at all incredible. The difficulty of 
encamping and feeding such a number in the wilder- 
ness, even with the intervention of the manna, the 
quails, and the water fm. the rock, wd. certainly be 
great. The difficulties become much greater when 
we find them encamped in Gilgal after the manna 
had ceased. A population as large as that of Berlin 
wd. in the first place occupy more space than cd. be 
denominated Gilgal, and in the next place it wd. be 
impossible to feed such a number with the deficient 
means of communication then in use in Palestine, 
even if the whole country fm. Dan to Beersheba cd. 
supply food to such an addition to its population. 
Yet again, the inundation of half a million warriors 
bent on a mission of extermination wd. have swept 
the country bare of inhabitants in a single campaign. 
This difficulty has suggested two possible solutions. 
Recalling the fact that ''ele-ph means not only 
" a thousand " but also " a family " (Jg. 6. 15 ), Dr. 
Petrie has suggested rendering it so in N. In that 
case Judah wd. not be said to have 74,600 tribesmen 
but to have 74 families and 600 warriors. Another 
suggestion has been made by Mrs. Gibson, that 
''ele-ph was an interpolation, in wh. case the denomi- 
nator of the thousands wd. become a simple unit ; 
hence Judah wd. have not nearly fourscore thousand 
warriors but only 746. In both cases the resulting 
number seems to err as much by defect as the 
Massoretic errs by excess ; both also imply manipu- 
lation on the part of the editor to harmonise the 
summations to the presence of 'eleph, or his inter- 
pretation of it. In favour of Dr. Petrie's sugges- 
tion is the fact that it demands less emendation of 
the text, and that mainly in the summations. In 
favour of Mrs. Gibson's we have the numbers ending 
in exact units, a thing to be expected in a census. In 
the Massoretic numbers we have nothing less than 
hundreds save in two cases, one in each census, wh. 
must be further considered. In the first census Gad 
has 45,650, and in the second Reuben has 43,730. 
But it happens that the Heb. words for fifty and for 
thirty have the same consonants as two words that 
mean " warriors," and as in Heb. only the conso- 
nants were written originally the mistake might 
easily be made. If we take the words, then, to mean 
" warriors," and to refer not merely to the tribes im- 
mediately mentioned but to all the tribes, we may 



5 2 4 



Num 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Oak 



take these numbers as denoting merely the fully 
equipped men-at-arms as distinguished fm. the 
multitude who cd. not afford to provide themselves 
with costly arms and armour. It was a common 
thing in the Greek citizen armies that the heavy 
armed soldiers formed but a small portion of the 
inhabitants ; thus at Platsea every Spartan hoplite 
was accompanied by seven helots ; a similar if not 
a greater proportion of light armed or unarmed mt. 
be expected to be found among the Hebrews, who so 
recently had been slaves. So that, having reduced 
the number according to either of the schemes indi- 
cated, we have then to multiply by seven or eight 
at least to get the men able to bear arms. If we 
apply this to the tribe of Judah, and if we calcu- 
late the number of their fighting men according 
to Dr. Petrie's scheme, the number of adult males 
wd. be between 4000 and 5000 men ; on Mrs. 
Gibson's they wd. be between 3000 and 4000. 
The whole of the heavy armed warriors of Isr. 
according to Dr. Petrie's scheme wd. be 6100, 
representing about 50,000 adult males, and a popu- 
lation of 200,000 : Mrs. Gibson's is 5405, repre- 
senting 45,000 and 180,000 respectively. This, 
however, is a different thing fm. maintaining that 
the numbers in either census or both were manu- 
factured. In both schemes it is assumed that there 
was a true series of numbers to begin with. Accord- 
ing to Dr. Petrie the scribes made a blunder as to the 
meaning of a word ; according to Mrs. Gibson, for 
the greater glory of Isr., they deliberately falsified 
by inserting the word " thousand " after the units. 
On the whole our preference is for Mrs. Gibson's 
scheme. It is impossible to maintain with any show 
of reason that the figures in either census have the 
look of being manufactured. There is no preva- 
lence of significant figures ; no endowing tribes 
afterwards famous with great numbers, with the sole 
exception of Judah, on the Massoretic figures ; no 
favouritism or vindictiveness is shown in the dimi- 
nution ; Simeon, the tribe wh. suffered, was not 
among those named as prominent in rebellion. It 
ought to be noted that while, according to the 
Massoretic numbers, there is a net decrease of the 
people at the latter census of 1820, on Dr. Petrie's 
scheme it is 720, equivalent to between 5000 and 
6000 of adult males ; by Mrs. Gibson's there is an 
increase of nearly 1000 — that is to say, an increase 



of between 7000 and 8000. Dr. Moore (EB.) de- 
clares the census in chap. 26. to be the primitive, and 
that in chap. 28. to be manufactured fm. it, because 
he (Dr. Moore) can see " no manifest end " for it 
being taken. As three millennia and a half have 
elapsed since the Exodus, it is possible that " ends " 
enough mt. have been " manifest " when the census 
was taken wh. have ceased to be manifest now. 

NUN, the father of Joshua (Ex. 33. 11 , &c). He 
is mentioned only in connection with his son. An 
Ephraimite by descent, he probably died in Egypt 
before the Exodus. 

NURSE. In ancient Israel the nurse (Heb. 
meneqeth) was employed, and held an honoured 
place. Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, accompanied 
her to her new home. Of the affection with which 
she was regarded we may judge from the name given 
to the place of her burial, " oak of weeping " (Gn. 
24. 59 , 35- 8 ). Moses' mother was called as nurse to 
her own child (Ex. 2. 7ff -). Heb. women, however, 
were accustomed to suckle their own children, and, 
as now in Pal., weaning was often delayed till the 
third year (Gn. 21. 7f - ; 1 S. I. 23f - ; 2 M. 7. 27 ), and 
when it occurred it was the occasion of a festal 
gathering of friends. The " nurse " of Ru. 4. 16 ; 
2 S. 4- 4 (Heb. , omeneth) was only one to whose care 
a child was entrusted. 

NUTS. (1) Botnlm (Gn. 43. 11 ), the well-known 
pistachios, wh. did not grow in Egp. but have 
always been plentiful in Pal. The Gadite city 
Betonim, prob. received its name fm. these trees. 
(2) Egoz (SS. 6. 11 ), the walnut, Arb. el-joz, intro- 
duced at an early date, prob. fm. Persia. It has 
long been cultivated in extensive orchards, as, e.g., 
those near Damascus to-day. The tree furnishes 
excellent timber, and other products of commercial 
value. Natives of Pal. are exceedingly fond of nuts, 
and the various kinds figure largely in the con- 
fectionery of the* East. 

NYMPHAS, a Laodicaean believer saluted by the 
apostle Paul (Col. 4. 15 ). It seems better to follow 
WH. in reading " Nympha," and regard N. as femi- 
nine, and also read "the church wh. is in her house." 
Probably she was a wealthy believer, and cd. accom- 
modate certain of the Christians. Fm. this it 
wd. seem that the Laodicaean Church proper was 
wealthy enough (Rv. 3. 17 ) to have a hall, not a 
private house, for their assembly. 



OAK. The Heb. elah (Gn. 35.*, &c.) or allah 
(Jo. 24. 26 ), often trd. " oak " in RV., is prob. the 
Terebinth (Is. 6. 13 , " teil tree " ; Ho. 4. 13 , " elm " ; 
RV. " terebinth "). Allan (Gn. 35.8, &c.) or Hon 
(Gn. 12. 6 ; Dt. II. 30 , &c.) is wrongly rendered 
" plain " in_ AV. RV. uniformly and correctly 



translates " oak." These trees seem to have had 
religious associations in ancient times (Ho. 4. 13 , &c). 
This would be true especially of great trees standing 
apart, as it is to this day in Palestine ; see Tree (Gn, 

12. 6 , 35- 8 ; Jg. 9- 37 > &c -)-. 

Palestine is not now a richly wooded country, but 



525 



Oat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Oba 



among the trees found there the oak takes a pro- 
minent place. Two patriarchs now remain on 
Tabor, where 60 years ago there were many great 
trees ; but shady groves are found on Carmel. 
They also add to the beauty of the district watered 
by the fountains of the Jordan ; and they clothe 
many of the slopes of the mountain of Bashan. Nine 
varieties of oak are found in Syria. The finest in 
stature and appearance is the Quercus coccifera, 
which is frequently seen solitary, protected by a 
neighbouring sanctuary. " The oaks of Bashan " 
(Is. 2. 13 ; Zc. II. 2 ) probably correspond to the 
Quercus agilops, the acorns of which are prized for 
dyeing. The oak bush, which abounds, consists of 
shoots from old roots, the trees having been cut for 
firewood. The bush is largely used for making 
charcoal. 

OATH. The almost universal custom in the 
E. of confirming every statement, even the most 
trivial, with an oath, such as " by Allah," " by my 
life," &c, is doubtless a legacy fm. the practice of 
ancient times. It prob. arose before there was any 
properly constituted authority to enforce fulfilment 
of promises or observance of contracts. A god was 
invoked as witness, who mt. consider himself in- 
sulted by any breach of promise or contract, and 
inflict the penalty prescribed. Fear of the deity 
became the guarantee of truth and fidelity. The 
practice was legalised in the code of Isr. (Ex. 22. 11 ), 
was imposed by judge or priest (Nu. 5. 21 ), and mt. 
be registered in the Temple (1 K. 8. 31 ). One 
swearing an O. called upon himself some calamity, 
i.e. " curse," in case of violation : hence in EV. 
alah is trd. now " oath " (Gn. 24. 41 , &c), now 
" curse " (Dt. 29. 19 , &c). The usual word for O. 
is shebu'ah, fern. part, of sbdba', " to swear " : this, 
derived fm. the same root as sheba 1 , " seven," a 
Semitic sacred number, meant lit. " to come under 
the influence of seven things " (RS. 2 182 ; cp. Gn. 
2 1. 28 , 33. 3 , &c. ; Herod, hi. 8). See Covenant. 

Twice we read of the hand being placed under 
the thigh in swearing (Gn. 24^, 47- 29 ), in which 
there was a symbolic reference to posterity. Pos- 
sibly it meant an appeal to posterity to vindicate 
the oath taken to their father. It was usual to raise 
the right hand (Ps. 144. 8 ; Rv. io. 5 , &c). Perjury 
involved ejection fm. the religious community (Ek. 
16. 59 ; cp. Ps. 15. 4 ). 

Jesus discouraged oaths as of the evil one (Mw. 
£j # 34ff.) # They arise fm. distrust of men's spontaneous 
truthfulness. One who is bound by an O. may be 
tempted to think lightly of a word spoken without 
that solemnity. The variety of oaths then in use 
(loc. cit.) prob. indicates a flippancy like that of the 
mod. Arab, who holds himself seriously bound by 
none of his multitudinous oaths, save only the 
yamtn, " the faithful." This is an oath wh. differs 
in form with different tribes. 



Regarding these Arab oaths Doughty gives some 
interesting information. " There is a certain faith- 
ful form of swearing which they call halif el-yemin ; 
one takes a grass stalk in his fist and his words are : 
Wa hydt hatha el-aud, ' By the life of this stem,' 
zoa' r-rubb el-mabUd, ' and the adorable Lord.' " 
He found, however, that even after swearing some 
betrayed him, and when he " reproached them to 
the heart," they declared that oaths taken to a 
kafir (infidel) were not binding. " Magnanimous 
fortitude in a man to the despising of death where 
his honour is engaged were, in their seeing, the 
hardihood of a madman : where mortal brittleness 
is fatally overmatched we have a merciful God, and 
human flesh, they think, may draw back from the 
unequal contention " (Arabia Deserta, i. p. 267). 

Jesus must not be taken to condemn the judicial 
O., wh. He tacitly sanctions (Mw. 26. 63 ). St. Paul 
also uses solemn forms of asseveration (2 Cor. I. 23 ; 
Gal. i. 20 ). 

OBADIAH (" servant of J"."). This name seems 
to have been very popular among the Jews, as the 
corresponding 'Abdallah, " servant of Allah," is 
among the Arabs. (1) An officer holding a high 
position of trust in the court of Ahab. During the 
persecution instigated- by Jezebel, he protected a 
hundred prophets of Jehovah, hiding them " by 
fifty in a cave," and feeding them with bread and 
water (1 K. 18. 4 ). He shared with the king himself 
the search for water and herbage towards the end 
of the long drought. By him, Ahab and Elijah were 
brought face to face and the contest on Carmel 
arranged (1 K. i8.^ ff -). Rashi preserves the tradi- 
tion that the " certain woman of the wives of the 
sons of the prophets " who came to Elisha (2 K. 4. 1 ) 
was the widow of Obadiah. (2) A descendant of 
king David, grandson of Zerubbabel (1 Ch. 3. 21 ). 
(3) One of the sons of Uzzi and great-grandson of 
Issachar, and a leader of the mighty men of valour 
reckoned to the tribe (1 Ch. J. z ). (4) A Benjamite, 
son of Azel, and a descendant of king Saul (1 Ch. 
8. 38 , 9- 44 ). (5) A Levite, son of Shemaiah, one of 
the Temple musicians in the time of Nehemiah 
(1 Ch. 9. 16 ; Ne. 12. 25 ). (6) One of the famous 
Gadite warriors, the second of the three, who joined 
David at Ziklag. Their faces were like the faces 
of lions, and they were as swift as roes upon the 
mountains (1 Ch. 12. 9 ). (7) A prince of Judah, who 
under Jehoshaphat went round the cities of Judah, 
teaching the law (1 Ch. 17. 7 ). (8) Son of Jehiel, of 
the sons of Joab, who returned from Babylon with 
Ezra in the second caravan (Ez. 8. 9 ). (9) Representa- 
tive of a priestly family who sealed the covenant (Ne. 
io. 5 ). (10) Chief of the tribe of Zebulun in the 
days of David (1 Ch. 27. 19 ). (11) A Merarite 
Levite, one of those who in the time of Josiah were 
overseers of the work of restoration in the Temple 
(2 Ch. 34. 12 ). (12) The prophet : see next article. 



526 



Oba 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Off 



OBADIAH is fourth of the Minor Prophets, and 
his is the shortest written prophecy in OT. The 
name Obadiah means " Servant of J".," and was 
common among the Hebs. Of the prophet him- 
self we know nothing, and the widest diversity of 
opinion exists as to his date. Dates as far apart as 
b.c. 889 and B.C. 312 have been given and upheld by 
eminent scholars. The prophecy deals with Edom, 
and expresses in forcible language the hatred of 
Judah for her neighbour ; but the hostility between 
the two peoples was not peculiar to any time in their 
hist. It never ceased. The immediate occasion of 
the prophecy was some recent disaster wh. had be- 
fallen Jrs., over wh. the Edomites showed a malig- 
nant delight. They had also taken an active part in 
intercepting the fugitives and sharing in the plunder. 
Some have fixed the date of this disaster in b.c. 848- 
844, when the Phil, and Arabians attacked Jrs., and 
carried away the possessions of the k. (2 Ch. 2 1 . 16> 17 ) . 
But the most natl. refc. is to the destruction of Jrs. 
in b.c. 586 by the Chaldeans, and we know fm. other 
sources of the active hostility of the Edomites on 
that occasion (cf. Ek. 35. ; Ps. 137.). Malachi re- 
fers to the punishment wh. fell on the Edomites 
(Ml. I. 1 " 5 ), when, after the fall of Jrs., they were 
attacked by the Arabians, and it is prob. this event 
wh. occasioned the jubilant strains of O. over the 
defeat of his country's hereditary foe. But if O. 
was a prophet of the Exile, an interesting point 
arises in connection with Jeremiah. O. vv. 1-9 and 
Jeremiah 49. 9, 14 " 16 have such a close resemblance 
that some explanation of their inter-relation is called 
for. This part of Jeremiah's prophecy dates fm. 
before the fall of Jrs., but very few commentators 
have sought to maintain that O. is here quoting 
from Jeremiah, for there is considerable unanimity 
of opinion that O. possesses the more original form 
of the prophecy. The facts may be accounted for by 
the supposition that both are quoting fm. an older 
writer, and such a supposition as this is necessary if 
O. is referring to the final destruction of Jrs. O. 
was prob. a prophet among the exiles in Bab., or he 
may belong to a later date still. 

The bk. opens with an announcement of the fate 
of Edom. Her rocky dwellings will not protect her 
in her day of trouble, her friends will deceive her, 
and her wisdom will fail her (vv. 1-9). The reason 
for their punishment is next given, and the attitude 
of Edom to Jrs. in her affliction is indicated (vv. 10, 
11). In vv. 12-14 the prophet urges them to cease 
fm. their wicked delight in others' misfortunes. The 
prophecy concludes (vv. 15-21) with the prediction 
of the Day of the Lord, when all nations will receive 
their retribution. The Edomites will be destroyed, 
the boundaries of Judah will be extended, " and 
saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the 
mount of Esau, and the kdm. shall be the Lord's." 

John Davidson. 



OBAL, a son of Joktan (Gn. io. 28 ). In 1 Ch. I. 22 
he is called Ebal. He prob. represents an Arabian 
tribe ; but no identification is possible. 

OBED. (i) The son borne by Ruth the 
Moabitess to Boaz in Bethlehem (Ru. 4. 17 ). His 
birth was the signal for a popular expression of good- 
will to Naomi, his grandmother : " He shall be to 
thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine 
old age ; for thy daughter-in-law which loveth thee, 
which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne 
him." He was the father of Jesse, grandfather of 
David, and so an ancestor of our Lord (Mw. i. 5 , &c). 
(2) Grandson of Zabad, one of David's heroes, and 
a descendant of Jarcha, the Egyptian slave of 
Sheshan (1 Ch. 2. 37f -). (3) One of David's mighty 
men (1 Ch. 9 47 ). (4) A gatekeeper in the Temple, 
grandson of Obed-edom (1 Ch. 26. 7 ). (5) Father 
of Azariah, who took part in the revolution which 
was fatal to Athaliah (2 Ch. 23. 1 ). 

OBED-EDOM (Heb. 'obed edom, " servant of 
Edom," the latter part of the name being, prob., 
that of a god), a native of Gath, poss. a refugee, or a 
hostage in Isr., in whose house the ark was left after 
the death of Uzzah, until evidence of blessing wh. it 
brought encouraged David to remove it (2 S. 6. 10ff - ; 
I Ch. I3. 13ff -). Poss. the same man is intended in 
1 Ch. 15. 18 , &c, 26. 4 , &c. For others see 1 Ch. 
i6. 5 - 38 ; 2Ch. 25. 24 . 

OBEISANCE. See Salutation. 

OBIL, an Ishmaelite who doubtless by birth and 
training was well acquainted with the management 
of camels, and who was appointed to the charge of 
David's herds of those animals (1 Ch. 27. 30 ). The 
Heb. 'obil = Arb. 'abbdl, "camel-driver." 

OBLATION (in the law " oblation " trs. Heb. 
qorbdn, in Is., Jr., Dn. minhdh, in Ek. terumdh), a 
general name for a sacrifice (see Sacrifice). 

OBOTH, an encampment of Israel, prob. east 
of Moab (Nu. 21. 10 , 33. 43 ). The site is un- 
known. 

OCRAN, RV. OCHRAN, father of Pagiel, chief 
of the tribe of Asher (Nu. I. 13 , &c). 

ODED. (1) Fr. of Azariah, who prophesied 
under Asa (2 Ch. I5. lf -: "the prophet O." is 
obviously a scribal error). (2) The prophet who 
secured fm. Pekah release of the prisoners of Judah 
(2 Ch. 28. 9ff -). At his appeal 200,000 captives of 
Judah and Jerusalem are said to have been set free, 
fed, clothed, and anointed, and sent to Jericho, the 
city of palm trees. 

OFFENCE. Where in EV. it trs. Heb. Hef 
(Ec. io. 4 ), and Gr. hamartia and paraptoma (2 Cor. 
II. 7 ; Rm. 4. 25 , &c), O. means Sin. Where it 
stands for Heb. mikshol (1 S. 25. 31 ; Is. 8. 14 ), and Gr. 
proskomma (Rm. 14. 20 ), proskope (2 Cor. 6. 3 ), and 
skandalon (Mw. 16. 23 ), it means " stumbling-block " 
— anything in the way wh. mt. cause one to stumble, 
and so figuratively, anything that hinders faith, 



5 2 7 



Off 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Oil 



acceptance of, and submission to Christ (Mw. l8. 7 ; 
Rm. 16. 17 ; Gal. 5. 11 , &c.). 

OFFERING (when alone, represents either min- 
hdh, qorbdn, or terumdh), general term for Sacrifice, 
which see. 

OFFICER, a term wh. represents several Heb. 
words. (1) Ndtxab, meaning " one appointed," 
used of those who carried on the work of adminis- 
tration under Solomon. (2) Sorts, " a eunuch " : 
this term is generally applied to court officials, 
who usually were eunuchs, hence the word is most 
.frequently rendered so ; in Est. it is always tr. 
" chamberlain." (3) Derivatives fm. pdqad, " to 
oversee " : these are used in various relations, as 
those over the detachments fm. each tribe in the 
punitive expedition against Midian (Nu. 31. 48 ) ; 
those appointed by Pharaoh over Egypt in the 
plentiful years (Gn. 41 . 34 ). (4) Shoter, originally a 
" scribe," then an " inspector " : those appointed 
by the children of Isr. in Egypt over against the 
" taskmasters," occupying very much the position of 
village " sheikh " in the present time (Ex. 5. 6 , &c). 
(5) In the NT. it represents the Gr. huperetes, 
originally meaning " under-rower," i.e. " a common 
sailor " ; in this connection the word has very much 
the connotation of " police officer " ; O. as tr. (5) 
seems to be restricted to the men that carried out 
the orders of the High Priest (Jn. y. 32 , 18. 12 ; Ac. 
5. 22 ). The Gr. word is used of John Mark in rela- 
tion to Paul and Barnabas, by Lk. (i. 2 ) of the 
apostles, by Paul of himself (Ac. 26. 16 ; I Cor. 4. 1 ). 

OG, k. of Bashan, who was defeated at Edrei (Dt. 
3- lff -). He is described as the sole survivor of the 
Rephaim. His " bedstead of iron," shown at Rab- 
bah of Ammon, many think to have been a sarco- 
phagus of basalt (v. 1 1). This rests upon a supposi- 
tion for which there is no proof, that as iron is an 
ingredient in basalt, the Heb. barzel, " iron," may 
also stand for " basalt." The present writer has 
seen, east of the Jordan, many sarcophagi of lime- 
stone weathered dark, but cannot remember ever 
having seen one of basalt. 

OHAD, one of the sons of Simeon (Gn. 46. 10 ; 
Ex. 6. 15 ). The name does not appear in the lists of 
I Ch. 4. and Nu. 26. 14 . Here Syr. has Obor, as also 
in Gn. and Ex. 

OHEL, according to MT. one of the seven sons of 
Zerubbabel (1 Ch. 3. 20 ), but the text is uncertain. 

OHOLAH, OHOLIBAH, AV. AHOLAH, 
AHOLIBAH. Oholdh, " her tent," is a symbolic 
name for Samaria : Oholibdh, " my tent is in her," 
or possibly equivalent to Oholdh, a symbolic name 
for Jerusalem (Ek. 23. 4 , &c), sister cities alike fallen 
into sin. The allusion is to the purpose for which 
tents were used in certain idolatrous rites. Ac- 
cording to the allegory here wrought out, the two 
sisters are married to Jehovah : but, tempted by 
the strength and splendour of Assyria and Babylon, 

5 



they have proved unfaithful. The alliances formed 
with great heathen powers were always the objects 
of prophetic denunciation, as liable to result in the 
introduction of new forms of idolatry. 

Two members of a family are often called by 
names which differ very slightly : e.g. Muppim and 
Huppim (Gn. 46. 21 ) : Hasan and Husein, grandsons 
of Mohammed. 

OHOLIAB, AV. AHOLIAB, son of Ahisamach, 
an artificer appointed to work with Bezaleel (RV. 
Bezalel) in making the Tabernacle (Ex. 31. 6 , &c). 

OHOLIBAMAH. See Aholibamah. 

OIL means " olive oil " in every case save one 
where it is mentioned in Scrip. (Est. 2. 12 , " oil of 
myrrh "). The Olive grows to perfection in many 
districts of Palestine, and the making of oil is one of 
the oldest industries. The berries were beaten from 
the trees with light rods, and gathered into the olive 
press. This might be the press used in the making 
of Wine, in which case prob. the olives were pressed 
with the feet (Mi. 6. 15 ), the oil draining off into the 
lower trough. Various forms of press or mortar 
were employed at different times, but in essence the 
process was always the same. The berries were 
crushed, and the oil extracted. The finest oil was 
that which drained off without pressure. When it 
had settled and purified it was ready for use. 

The Talmud {Menach. viii. 8) informs us that the 
oil of Tekoa was reckoned the best. Large quan- 
tities of oil were exported. Among the supplies 
furnished to Hiram by Solomon were 20,000 baths 
of oil (2 Ch. 2. 10 , &c). It was applied to many pur- 
poses. It played a great part in the preparation of 
the food of the people, taking largely the place of 
animal fat (1 K. 17. 12 ; Ek. 16. 13 ). This led to its 
prescription as part of certain offerings (Ex. 2c). 23 ; 
Lv. 7. 10 ; Nu. 6. 15 , &c). For the use of oil as 
applied to skin and hair, in ceremonies of conse- 
cration, as a healing agent, &c, see Anointing. 
" Beaten " oil, i.e. oil made from olives bruised in a 
mortar, was burned in the lamps (Ex. 25. 6 ; Mw. 
25. 3 , &c). Pure olive oil was especially valued as 
causing no soot (Ex. 27. 20 ). 

Oil, with flour or meal, was prescribed for the 
following offerings : at the consecration of the 
priests (Ex. 2c;. 2 ' 23 , &c.) ; accompanying the daily 
sacrifice (Ex. 29. 40 ) ; at the purification of the leper 
(Lv. I4. 10fl -, &c), the leper's body being touched 
at certain points with oil ; at the completion of 
the Nazirite's vow (Nu. 6. 15 ) ; the offering of the 
princes at the completion of the tabernacle (Nu. 7., 
passim) ; at the consecration of the Levites (Nu. 
8. 8 ) ; meat-offerings (Lv. J. 10 * 12 ). Oil was to be 
absent from the sin-offering (Lv. 5. 11 ) and from 
the jealousy offering (Nu. 5. 15 ). Oil was included 
among the offerings of first-fruits (Ex. 22. 29 , &c), 
and tithes also were paid (Dt. 12. 17 , &c). The use 
of oil was an indication of gladness and plenty ; its 
28 



Oil 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Oli 



absence betokened sorrow or humiliation (Jl. 2. 19 ; 
Rv. 6. 6 ). Thus we have the fig. " the oil of joy " 
(Is. 6i. 3 ). 

Great quantities of oil are now used in Palestine 
in the manufacture of soap. There is still, however, 
a considerable export trade ; and the finest oil for 
the imperial table in Constantinople is furnished by 
the olive groves of Galilee. 

The " oil of myrrh " (Est. 2. 12 ) is the juice exuded 
through slits made in the bark of the Balsamoden- 
dron myrrba. 

OIL TREE (Heb. 'etz sbemen, " tree of oil " or 
" fat ") wd. well describe the Olive. The oleaster 
(Eleagnus angustifolia) with wh. some wd. ident. it, 
as found in Pal. to-day, is only a shrub, yielding no 
wood that cd. be used as in I K. 6. 23 ' 31 " 33 ; Is. 41. 19 . 
But in Ne. 8. 15 it is distinguished fm. the olive. 
This leaves doubt as to the tree intended. The 
oleaster, with its thin foliage and thorny branches, 
its berries yielding small quantities of a kind of 
balsam, hardly justifies the name " tree of oil." 

OINTMENT was compounded of oil and various 
sweet-smelling materials (Ex. 30. 25 , &c), or of 
fragrant substances, themselves of an oily nature 
(ML 14. 3 , &c); see Anointing. Ointments of 
pungent perfume are greatly prized by Orientals 
still. They are largely used for the hair, and also 
for softening the skin when affected by the heat. 
The odour of perspiration is also thus counteracted. 

OLD MAN, a phrase used by St. Paul for the 
unregenerate nature, with its affections and desires 
unpurified (Eph. 4. 22 ; Col. 3. 9 ). 

OLD TESTAMENT. See Scriptures. 

OLIVE. The O. has abounded in Pal. fm. 
ancient times (Ex. 23. 11 ; Dt. 6. 11 , 28. 40 , &c). The 
land of Asher was specially rich in olives (Dt. 33- 24 ). 
The gnarled stem and silver sheen of the foliage 
greet the eye in many an upland vale, where the 
O. grove is one of the most characteristic features. 
The tree is of slow growth, and its cultivation 
marks times of peace and comparative security. 
It grows best in soil not too moist, requires no irriga- 
tion, and loves the sun and shelter fm. the winds. 
When a sucker of wild O. reaches a height of 
about 6 ft., and a thickness of a man's wrist, it is 
cut down to the stem and grafted with a twig of 
good olive. In favourable conditions it begins to 
bear in 10 to 14 years, the crop improving rapidly 
after the 14th. A tree fm. 30 to 40 years old may 
yield in one season fm. 12 to 20 gallons of oil. It 
bears heavily, however, only in alternate years. 
When fully ripe, the berries are of a dark purple 
hue. Often they are gathered earlier, to secure 
a finer quality of oil. The green berries are fre- 
quently bruised and preserved in strong salt brine, 
in earthen jars. The like is done, but not on so 
large a scale, with the ripe fruit. Bread and olives 
form a main part of the people's food. 



The berries are beaten off the tree with long 
palm branches, stripped of leaves. They are 
usually crushed for oil in a circular stone basin, or 
hollow cut in the rock, by means of a heavy mill- 
stone. The oil drains off into a large vat. By 
further pressing the crushed olives an inferior 
quality of oil is got (see Oil). The wood of the O. 
takes a very high polish, and ornamental O.-wood 
is a leading industry in Jrs. 

The O. appears frequently in the figurative 
language of Scrip. (Ps. 52. 8 ; Jr. n. 16 ; Zc. 4. 3 ; 
Rm. II. 17 , &c). It may be said, apropos of the last 
text cited, that the grafting of a wild O. branch on a 
good O. tree, to rejuvenate it when old and ex- 
hausted, is quite unknown in Palestine. A state- 




Olive Tree in Sharon. 

ment affirming this practice made by Prof. Fischer 
(Der Oelbaum, p. 9), on what seemed to him good 
authority, misled Sir W. M. Ramsay (Expositor, 
1905, pp. i6ff., 152ft.). Recent investigations have 
shown Prof. Fischer, as he says in a letter to the 
present writer, that the practice referred to is " now 
unknown in Pal." The conclusions of Sir William's 
article fall to be revised in the light of this fact. 
Further, Sir William's argument to prove that the 
wild O. is the oleaster (see Oil Tree) does not seem 
quite convincing. The only " wild O." known in 
Pal. to-day is the ungrafted tree. May not agrie- 
laios have meant for St. Paul just what zaituneb 
barrlyeh means for the mod. Arab ? The Arabic 
version so renders the name. 

The opinion of some, that the O. came originally 
fm. Africa, may find support in the name sometimes 
applied by the Arabs to the wild O. — zaitun el- 
Habasb, " O. of Abyssinia." 



5 2 9 



Oli 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



On 



OLIVES, MT. OF. The mount " wh. is before 
Jrs. on the E." was called the Mt. of O. (Zc. 14 4 ; 
Lk. 19. 29 , 21. 37 ) or Olivet (Ac. I. 12 ), evidently be- 
cause this part of the range on the E. horizon of Jrs. 
was planted with olives. The name might have 
been applied to the whole southern part of the 
range, beginning with the mod. l Aqabet es-Suwdn, 
wh. really forms a distinct unit, with three tops. 
But tradition confines it, perhaps rightly, to the 
central part, just opposite the Sanctuary of jrs., the 
summit of wh. consists of a small plain, 2641 ft. high, 
rising eastward to a height of 2664.8 ft. An old 
road, " the ascent of the olives " (2 S. 15. 30 , Heb.), 
led first to the " top where God was worshipped " 
(ib. v. 32) and thence to " the way of the olive that 
is in the wilderness " (ib. v. 23, corrected text), wh. 
was one of the ways then used in going to the nearest 
ford of Jordan. Gr. tradition placed the scene of 
Christ's ascension at a spot on the summit, over 
against the Temple, where a heap of ruins now 
forms a fourth top to the mountain. In Ac. I. 12 , 
however, only Mount Olivet is mentioned, and Lk. 
24. 50 seems purposely vague, indicating simply the 
direction towards Bethany. To the height (2649 
ft.) at the northern extremity of the plateau, later 
tradition gave the name of Galilee, in order to 
explain the apparent disagreement between Mw. 
28. 10 - 16 and Ac. I. 4 . 

The S. end of the mountain, with a summit of 
about 261 1 ft., was called " the rock of the colum- 
barium," wh. in Heb. wd. be tztir hash-shobak (BJ. 
V. xii. 2). The nucleus of the mod. " tombs of the 
prophets " may have been a real dove-house ; or 
these tombs may have been so called because of the 
great number of loculi. 

Idolatrous high places were built by Solomon " on 
the right hand of the Mount of Corruption " (2 K. 
23. 13 ), opposite Jrs. "Mount of Corruption" 
(Heb. har ham-mashhlth) seems to be only a perver- 
sion of " Mount of Anointing " (Heb. har ham- 
mishha), the later Jewish name of the Mt. of Olives. 
The high places were on the right hand, that is S. of 
the Mt. of O., prob. on the hill opposite the city of 
David, now called bdten el-hawa (241 1 ft.). 

For the scene of Christ's agony and betrayal at 
the W. foot of the mt., see Gethsemane. Beth- 
phage and Bethany stood on the eastern slope. 

Dalman. 

OLYMPAS, a Christian at Rome saluted by St. 
Paul (Rm. 16. 15 ), perhaps of the household of Philo- 
logus. He was said to have been one of the seventy 
whom Jesus sent out (Lk. io. 1, 17 ), and to have been 
martyred in Rome. 

OMAR, son of Eliphaz the eldest son of Esau, a 
" duke " or phylarch of Edom (Gn. 36. 11 ' 15 ; I Ch. 
i. 36 ). 

OMEGA, the last letter of the Greek alphabet 
(see Alpha) : it is used instead of tau, the last letter 



of the Heb. alphabet, in the phrase " Alpha and 
Omega " (Rv. I. 8 , &c). 

OMER (Heb. 'omer, Ex. 16. 16 ), the tenth part of 
an ephah, not to be confounded with homer, wh. is 
ten ephahs (see Weights and Measures). 

OMRI. (1) " Captain of the host " to Elah, the 
last monarch of the dynasty of Jeroboam the son of 
Nebat. He was present with the army at Gibbethon 
when Zimri slew the king at Tirzah and assumed 
the reins of government. The army could not 
tolerate Zimri the regicide, and elected Omri to the 
throne, who swiftly marched to Tirzah, where Zimri, 
seeing the hopelessness of his position, committed 
suicide. A faction led by one Tibni and his brother 
Joram (LXX) proved more formidable than that of 
Zimri. The struggle of four years was at last ended 
by the defeat and slaughter of Tibni. Although 
the palace had been burned by Zimri, Omri re- 
mained for a time in Tirzah. Both statesmanship 
and military insight were shown in his choice of a 
site for his new capital — the hill of Samaria, at once 
strong, central, and beautiful (1 K. i6. lff -). Un- 
successful in his struggle with Damascus, he ceded 
certain cities to the Syrians, and granted them 
special privileges in Samaria (20. 34 ). Seeking doubt- 
less to strengthen his position, he formed alliance 
with the royal house of Tyre, his son Ahab marry- 
ing the Tyrian princess Jezebel. A tree was thus 
planted from which bitter fruit was destined to 
fall. He so thoroughly subdued Moab that not till 
the time of Mesha could it make any headway 
against Israel (2 K. 3. 4ff - ; Moabite Stone, lines 4ff.). 
From the time of Shalmaneser II. to that of Sargon 
(b.c. 854-720) Israel appears in the Assyrian inscrip- 
tions as " the land of the house of Omri," probably 
indicating that under Omri the Assyrians first came 
into contact with Israel. Of Omri's reign of twelve 
years little is recorded. He is said to have done 
" evil in the sight of the Lord " ; but when he died 
and was buried in the city he had founded (1 K. 
16. 28 ) he seems to have left the kingdom quiet and 
prosperous to his son Ahab. (2) A Benjamite, son 
of Becher (1 Ch. J. 8 ). (3) A Judahite, descendant 
of Pharez (1 Ch. 9. 4 ). (4) Prince of Issachar in the 
time of David (1 Ch. 26. 18 ). 

ON. (1) Son of Peleth, a descendant of Reuben, 
apparently associated with Dathan and Abiram in 
their rebellion against Moses (Nu. 16. 1 ). 

The complete disappearance of On in the whole subse- 
quent narrative gives plausibility to the suggestion of Graf 
that there is a corruption of the text here, and we shd. 
read bni Pallu (Gn. 46.9 ; Ex. 6. 14 ), instead of ben Peleth, 
thus making the two ccnspirators descendants of Pallu, 
the son of Reuben ; only one does net understand how 'On 
came into the passage. In Nu. 26. 8 . 9 we learn that Eliab, 
the father of Dathan and Abiram, was the son of Pallu. 

(2) A city of Lower Egypt where Potiphera, the 
father-in-law of Joseph, was priest (Gn. 41. 45, 50 , 
46. 20 ). In Ezekiel (30. 17 ) there is mention of a city 



530 



On 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



One 



with the same name consonantally but vowelled 
Aven, presumably the same ; the earlier form is 
the more correct, as the name of the city in 
Egyptian was Annu. It was also called Pe-Ra, " the 




On (Heliopolis) : Obelisk 

house of Ra " (the sun), hence Jeremiah calls it 
(43. 13 ) " Beth Shemesh." In all the passages men- 
tioned the LXX trs. Heliopolis. It was one of the 
most ancient of Egyptian cities ; it was prominent in 



famous even in the days of the builder of the Great 
Pyramid. Usertasen of the 1 2th dynasty rebuilt to 
a great extent and adorned the great Temple of Ra 
there. His tall obelisk of red granite still testifies to 
the splendour of that shrine, at the door of wh. it 
stood, but there is little else to show it. On lies 
about seven miles to the N. of Cairo. 

ONAM. (1) Son of Shobal son of Seir (Gn. 
36. 23 ; I Ch. I. 40 ), the name-father of a Horite clan. 
(2) A son of Jerahmeel by his wife Atarah (1 Ch. 

2 26, 28\ 

ONAN, son of Judah by his Canaanite wife, the 
daughter of Shua (Gn. 38. 4 ). On the death of Er, 
his elder brother, it fell to him to marry his brother's 
childless widow, and so rescue his name from ob- 
livion. His evasion of the consequences of this 
marriage seems to have been regarded as tantamount 
to the murder of his brother. The thing was evil in 
the sight of the Lord and He slew him (v. 10). 

ONESIMUS, a slave who had run away fm. 
Philemon his master in Colosse, and drifted, like all 
runaways, naturally to Rome to hide himself in its 
multitude. The fact that St. Paul in his epistle to 
his master says, "If he hath wronged theeoroweth 
thee aught, put that on mine account," appears to 
imply that when he had run away he had taken 
money of his master's with him. In Rome he had 
been brought into contact with Paul, and by him 
was led to the knowledge of Christ. After he had 
become a convert he evidently had devoted himself 
to the service of the apostle, so as to gain his heart ; 
he says of him, " Him that is mine own bowels." 
The apostle, playingupon the name, calls him "profi- 
table both to thee and to me." He could be of the 
utmost benefit to the apostle, prisoner as he was. 
Altho' anxious to retain him, St. Paul feels it only 
just to Philemon to send O. back with the epistle. 
Of his subsequent history after his return to his 
master even tradition has nothing clear to say. That 
his master received and forgave is certain, for other- 
wise the letter wd. not have been preserved ; very 
probably he afterwards manumitted him. The 
apostle in the epistle to the Colossians assumes that 
he will be received as a brother (Col. 4. 9 ). It has 
been maintained that it was to Csesarea, not to 
Rome, that O. betook himself. Communication 
was easy with Rome fm. Ephesus, the nearest port ; 
it wd. be difficult with Csesarea. In Rome he wd. 
be certain to fall in with fellow-countrymen fm. 
Phrygia ; had he gone to the relatively small town of 
Csesarea he probably wd. have found himself the 
only one of his nation in the city. For all wh. 
reasons we confess our adherence to the traditional 
view. There is no justification for v. Manen's 
assertion that the O. of Col. 4_. 9 is another. 

ONESIPHORUS, a Christian of Ephesus who, 
when Paul was there, had ministered to him (2 Tm. 



the days of Herodotus, and had been much more so. 

The priests connected with the Temple there were I. 18 ), and when he came to Rome, presumably on 

S3i 



Oni 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Oph 



some private business, he sought thfe apostle out and 
found him in chains (i. 17 ). This was probably 
during St. Paul's second imprisonment, when the 
policy of Rome toward the Christians had become 
definitely persecuting. O. had searched through all 
the loathsome prisons of the city till he found St. 
Paul, not now regarded as an appellant with rights 
to certain privileges, but as a despised criminal. 
When he had found him he had visited the apostle 
often, and refreshed him with his sympathy (i. 16 ). 
Fm. the fact that S. Paul salutes his house but never 
himself it has been deduced that he had died, not 
improbably at Rome. This conclusion seems to 
make the first clause of v. 18 a prayer for the dead, 
but not necessarily so, as the pronoun may be trd. 
" it " as well as " him." To us the prayer seems a 
loving wish rather than a distinct prayer. 

ONION (Heb. betzel = Arb. basal) is the common 
vegetable of that name (Nu. II. 5 ), wh. grows plenti- 
fully in the E., and is much used for food, both raw 
and cooked. It is interesting to note Hasselquist's 
opinion of the onions of Egypt (Travels, 290) : 
" Whoever has tasted onions in Egypt must allow 
that none can be had better in any other part in the 
universe. Here they are sweet ; in other countries 
they are nauseous and strong. . . . They eat them 
roasted, cut into four pieces, with some bits of 
roasted meat which the Turks in Egypt call kebab ; 
and with this dish they are so delighted that I 
have heard them wish they might enjoy it in 
Paradise." 

ONO, a city fortified by Shamed, a Benjamite, 
near Lod (1 Ch. 8. 12 ), occupied after the Exile (Ez. 
2. 33 , &c). It is prob. = Kefr Ana, to the NW. of 
Ludd (Lydda). Here his enemies tried in vain to 
induce Nehemiah to meet them for conference. 

ONYCHA. The word is from the Greek onyx, 
" a claw," " talon," or " finger nail." It translates 
the Heb. sheheleth, an ingredient of the holy incense 
(Ex. 30. 34 ). It denotes the operculum, or closing 
flap of certain molluscs of the genus strombus. When 
burned it yields a pungent perfume. In Sr. 24. 15 
Wisdom is made to say, "I yielded a pleasant odour 
like the best myrrh, as galbanum, and onyx, and 
sweet storax, and as the fumes of frankincense in the 
Tabernacle," where " onyx " probably denotes the 
same material. Something of the kind is employed 
still for purposes of fumigation. 

ONYX (Heb. shoham), a precious stone that 
cannot now be identified with certainty, as neither 
the W. nor cognate languages afford much light. 
It was regarded as of value: it is called "the precious 
onyx " (Jb. 28. 16 ) ; it is one of the jewels of the king 
of Tyre (Ek. 28. 13 ). It was suitable for engraving, 
and hence was on the shoulders of the High Priest, 
and had engraved on it the names of the " children 
of Israel " (Ex. 28. 9 " 12 ) ; it was also the middle stone 
of the fourth row on the High Priest's breastplate 



(Ex. 28. 20 ). So far as that is concerned the " onyx " 
wd. suit. RVm. has Beryl. 

OPHEL. See Jerusalem. 

OPHIR, son of Joktan (Gn. io. 29 ; 1 Ch. I. 23 ), 
named with Sheba and Havilah, and dwelling with 
his brethren towards the East, i.e. in Arabia. The 
district of Ophir doubtless took its name from the 
tribe. It is spoken of as furnishing gold and other 
articles of commerce fetched by the ships of Solo- 
mon (1 K. 9- 28 ). It attracted the attention of 
Jehoshaphat, whose attempt to renew the old com- 
mercial relations ended in disaster to his merchant 
fleet (1 K. 22. 48 ). Having regard to the merchan- 
dise associated with Ophir, and the time occupied 
by the double voyage, eighteen months each way, 
some have sought it in India, others in Africa, e.g. in 
Mashonaland. 

The association of O. with an Arabian tribe 
points to some locality in Arabia. It was noted for 
its gold (Jb. 22. 24 , 28. 16 ; Ps. 45. 9 ; Is. 13. 12 ), " gold 
of Ophir " being apparently a synonym for the 
finest gold. If it were a great market and em- 
porium, merchandise of many lands would be found 
in its stores. It need not, therefore, be sought in a 
land which produced peacocks, &c. These would 
naturally be imported for sale. The statement of 
time occupied in the voyage shows that it required 
three sailing seasons. 

No place on the W. or SW. of Arabia fulfils the 
conditions. Traffic with these quarters would in 
any case be carried on by means of caravans. The 
mention of Ophir between Sheba and Havilah 
points to some district in the SE. of the peninsula. 
In the Elamite cuneiform inscriptions the region 
lying between Susa and the Persian Gulf is called 
Afirra ; a name that obtained from the tenth to 
the eighth cent. B.C. (Hommel, Geschichte Bab.- 
Asyr., p. 720). It is impossible to fix any definite 
locality : but this is a gold-bearing district — a fact 
which was known to the Phoenicians — and some 
place on the shore of the Persian Gulf, or of the 
Gulf of Omaun, would meet all the requirements. 
With the leisurely speed of ancient vessels, and the 
time spent at ports of call, and in avoiding the 
monsoons, the three years occupied are easily ac- 
counted for. 

OPHNI, a town in the territory of Benjamin (Jo. 
18. 24 ), unidentified. The mod. Jifneh, the Gophna 
of the rabbis, about three miles NW. of Bethel, has 
been suggested. The position might suit, but the 
change from *JDy to Jifneh is a difficulty. 

OPHRA. (1) A town in the territoryof Benjamin, 
mentioned between Parah and Chephar-ammoni 
(Jg. 18. 23 ). From Michmash a marauding band of 
Philistines went out by the road to Ophra and the 
land of Shual. One band went westward by way of 
Beth-horon ; another eastward, towards Zeboim. 
As the south road was blocked by the Israelites the 



532 



Ora 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Orn 



first band must have gone northward (i S. 13. 17 ). 
With this agrees the identification of OEJ. with a 
village five Rm. miles to the E. of Bethel, apparently 
the mod. et-Taiyibeh. It is prob. ident. with 
Ephron (2 Ch. 13. 19 ). (2) A town in Manasseh, 
the home of Gideon (Jg. 6. 11 , 9- 5 , &c), belonging to 
the clan of Abiezer (17. 2 ). It seems to have been 
near the plain of Jezreel (6. 33ff - ; cp. 8. 18 ), but 
no satisfactory identification has been suggested. 
(3) The head of a clan of Judah (1 Ch. 4. 14 ). 

ORACLE (Heb. deblr), the innermost part of the 
Temple (i K. 6. 5 ). This meaning is due to a false 
derivation fm. ddbar, " to speak " : the LXX trans- 
literate dabir, wh. shows that the meaning of the 
word was not generally known when that tr. was 
made. It wd. seem to be connected with Arb. 
daber, " behind " ; the Tg. gives beth kapkari, " the 
place of atonement " ; Psh. beth qudsba, " the holy 
place." Jerome introduced oraculum. There were, 
however, no responses given fm. the Holy of Holies, 
so " oracle " was a misnomer. In NT. it stands for 
the Greek logion, " a Divine response." It is used 
of the giving of the law at Sinai (Ac. 7- 38 ), of 
the OT. Scriptures (Rm. 3. 2 ), and of the doctrines 
of the Gospel (He. 5. 12 ; 1 P. 4. 11 ). 

ORATOR. (1) The AV. tr. of Heb. lahash, lit. 
" a whispering," " charming " (Is. 3. 3 ), used of the 
charming of serpents (Ec. io. 11 ). RV. is prob. 
correct in rendering " enchanter." (2) The title 
given to the advocate of St. Paul's enemies before 
Felix (Ac. 24. 1 ). St. Paul was on trial as a Roman 
citizen : the forms of Roman law were observed, 
and probably the Latin language was employed. 
An " orator," familiar with the procedure of a 
Roman tribunal, and able rightly to present their 
case, was a necessity for the Jews. Men so qualified 
found occupation in many of the Roman provincial 
towns. 

ORCHARD. The Heb. pardes is a loan-word 
from the Persian, denoting " enclosure," " park," or 
" pleasure garden." In Mi. 2. 8 AV. trs. " forest," 
RV. " park." The presence of fruit trees in Ec. 2. 5 
and SS. 4. 13 makes " orchard " a quite satisfactory 
rendering. See Garden. 

ORDINATION. See Laying On of Hands. 

OREB AND ZEEB, the two " princes " of the 
Midianites, distinguished by their title as inferior 
to the two " kings " Zebah and Zalmunnah (Jg. 
7. 25 , &c). Fleeing from the rout of the Eastern 
hordes in the hollow of Jezreel, they were inter- 
rupted at the Jordan by the Ephraimites, and there 
put to death. The places where they fell were 
thenceforth called " the rock of Oreb " and " the 
winepress of Zeeb." Their heads were carried to 
Gideon. The scene E. of the Jordan cannot now 
be identified. Their names, signifying " raven " 
and " wolf," correspond with those borne by many 
Arabian -chiefs to-day. 



OREN, son of Jerahmeel, grandson of Hezron, 
son of Judah (1 Ch. 2. 25 ). 

ORGAN (Heb. 'ugdb, c uggab, fm. 'agab, " to 
blow," Gn. 4. 20 , &c), " a flute " or " pandean pipe " 
(see Music). Our organ was not invented till the 
Middle Ages. 

ORION (Heb. kefd, " giant "). This term is used 
in three passages of the EV. to denote a constellation 
(Jb. 9« 9 , 38. 31 ; Am. 5. 8 ) ; the plural is translated 
"constellations" in Is. 13. 10 . The LXX in Jb. 
38. 31 and in Is. 13. 10 has " Orion," evidently having 
the singular in the second passage ; in Jb. cj. 9 the 
rendering is *' Hesperus," the " morning star," 
while in the passage in Amos the reading before the 
Greek translators has been totally different. The 
Tg. in the first three cases renders nefila " giant," 
and in the fourth (Am. 5. 8 ) transfers the word. In 
the Job passages the Psh. has gabbara, " the hero." 
All these renderings point to a myth of a giant 
chained in the sky ; this certainly is associated with 
the constellation Orion, the three stars that form 
the " belt of O." being regarded as the chains by wh. 
he is fastened, hence the phrase in Jb. 38. 31 , " loose 
the bands of Orion." Semitic fancy had pointed 
out Nimrod as the rebellious warrior so punished. 
Some Jewish commentators have suggested, not a 
constellation, but the single star Canopus, the most 
prominent in the southern constellation Argo ; as 
we saw in one case, the LXX took it as meaning the 
" morning star." On the whole the AV. rendering 
is preferable to any other, all the more that Kasil 
was one of the Babylonian names for Orion. 

ORNAMENTS. Orientals have always been 
extremely fond of gaudy coloured dress and glitter- 
ing ornaments. In this respect the Hebrews were 
like their neighbours. The various articles of adorn- 
ment are treated more fully under their own names. 
Here we take a more general view. 

In ancient Babylon, Egypt, and Palestine the 
signet ring seems to have been designed quite as 
much for ornament as for use. The art of cutting 
precious stones and setting them for this purpose 
was already old in the days of the patriarchs. The 
Hebrew custom was to string the signet ring on a 
cord and wear it round the neck (Gn. 38. 18 ). This 
is a custom still largely followed in the East. The 
Egyptians wore the signet ring upon the finger, and 
this practice is also found later among the Hebrev/s 
(Jr. 22. 24 ). 

Ear-rings of silver and gold were worn universally 
by women, and by children of both sexes (Ex. 32. 2 ). 
It is not certain that Hebrew men wore them, but 
the presumption is that they did. It was the prac- 
tice of the Midianites (Jg. 8. 24ff -), and Pliny main- 
tains that it was quite general among Orientals. It 
is prevalent still among the Arabian tribesmen ; and 
the Arabian women attach great value to their 
ear-rings. 



533 



Orn 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ost 



The Hebrew women were fond of nose-rings (Gn. 
24_. 22 ; Is. 3. 21 , &c). This taste is shared to the full 
by the Arab women. Often their nose-rings are so 
large that they hang down over the mouth. It is 
said that the Arabs love to kiss their wives through 
the ring. Their fingers also are frequently loaded 
with rings of various designs. 

During the period of the later monarchy the 
women indulged in great extravagance in the matter 
of ornaments. Ankle chains were worn which 
tinkled musically as they walked, preserving at the 
same time an equal and stately step. Bracelets, 
anklets, chains for the neck, head-tires, perfume 
bottles, amulets, golden crescents, &c, were worn. 
The list given in Is. 3. 16ff - contains the names of 
many articles which it is now impossible to identify, 
all indicative of the luxury of the times. 

Recent excavations have shown that in the Neo- 
lithic age strings of shells were worn. It is interest- 
ing to note that these are favourite ornaments still. 
Enormous numbers of ornaments, in endless variety 
of form, have been found in the course of digging 
in Egypt and Palestine. Especially important are 
the finds of Prof. Sellin at Tell Ta'annek, and Mr. 
Macalister at Gezer. 

Pearls were greatly prized in ancient times, and 
although not now the most precious of jewels, they 
are still very popular. A common ornament in 
mod. Pal. is a string of coins, worn on the head- 
dress or round the neck. Among the poorer people 
" flash " coins are often used for this purpose ; and 
other ornaments of baser metals and glass are worn. 

ORNAN. See Araunah. 




OSSIFRAGE 

From Wood's " Bible Animals," by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

ORPAH, a Moabitess who married one of 
Naomi's sons. Along with Ruth, her sister-in-law, 
she accompanied Naomi so far on her return to 
Bethlehem : but at Naomi's entreaty she returned 



to " her own people, and unto her god " (Ru. I. 4 , 
&c). Orpah's return maintained the ancestral con- 
nection with Moab, and may explain why David 
took his parents there to be out of Saul's way (1 S. 
22. 3f -). 

OSPREY (Heb. 'azntyyah, Lv. n. 13 ; Dt. 14. 12 ), 
a bird of the hawk tribe declared to be unclean. It 







OSPREY 

From Wood's "Bible Animals," by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

seems probable enough that the bird intended is 
our O. ; it is sometimes called the fishing eagle ; it 
does not dive for its prey, but catches them when 
they come to the surface of the water. It is about 
two feet long, and the span of its wings as much as 
five. The LXX agrees with this identification as 
it renders haliaetos. The English name is a modi- 
fication of Ossifrage. 

OSSIFRAGE (Heb. feres, Lv. n. 13 ; Dt. 14. 12 ), 
a bird, probably, fm. it being mentioned along with 
the eagle and the Osprey, of the hawk or eagle .class. 
The Heb. name feres, " the breaker," agrees with 
the English name O., " the bone-breaker," hence 
Wood (Bible Animals) decides that the bird in- 
tended is the " lammergeier," wh. has the char- 
acteristic that it breaks the bones of its prey by 
dropping them from a height ; it kills the tortoise 
thus despite its hard shell. Its length is about four 
feet and the stretch of its wings about ten. The 
LXX renders gups, " vulture." 

OSTRICH, Heb. ya'en (L,3L.^.. 2 ) J bath-hayya i anab 
(Lv. ll. 16 ,&c.),RV. "ostrich," AV."owl"; notzab, 
RV. " feathers " ; renanlm, RV. " ostriches," AV. 
" peacocks ? ' (Jb. 39. 13 , &c). HasUah (Jb. 39. 13 ), 
AV. "ostrich," is prop, "stork" (RV.). In Lamen- 
tations (/j.. 3 ) Jeremiah says, " The daughter of my 
people has become cruel like the ostriches of the 
wilderness," referring to the way the O., making a 
mere depression in the sand, lays its eggs, depend- 
ing largely on the sun's heat for the development of 
the chick. The description in Job (39. 13 " 18 ) brings 
out many of the characteristics of the O., though 
the deduction of stupidity ascribed to the O. may 
be regarded as unwarranted ; if it does not fight for 
its young it endeavours by clever ruses to lead the 
hunter away fm. its nest. A supposed proof of folly, 
always flying to the windward, is really an evidence 
of wisdom, as its sense of smell is so keen that it is 
soon aware of any enemy in that direction. The O. 
is declared unclean (Lv. n. 16 ; Dt. 14. 15 ) under the 
name in AV. of Owl ; both eggs and flesh are used 



534 



Oth 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ox 



by the Arabs. It only barely can now be regarded 
as a native of Palestine, as it is occasionally seen in 
the Belqd to the SE. of Moab, but it was plentiful in 
earlier days. 




Ostriches in Captivity 

OTHNI, son of Shemaiah, grandson of Obed- 
edom, who, with his brothers, as a mighty man of 
valour ruled over the house of his father ; they were 
" able men in strength for the service " of the 
tabernacle in the time of David (i Ch. 26. 7 ). 

OTHNIEL, who took Kirjath-sepher, and re- 
ceived Achsah, dr. of Caleb, as his w. (Jo. I5. 16f - ; 
Jg. l. 12f ')j may have been, according to the language 
of these passages, either the br. or the nephew of 
Caleb. But while Caleb is described as a " Kenez- 
ite," he is consistently called " son of Jephunneh " 
(Nu. 13. 6 , &c). It seems therefore more natural to 
take Kenez,not as fr. of Caleb and O., but as younger 
br. of Caleb, and fr. of O. This fully accounts for 
O. so long surviving Caleb. He was the first of 
"the Judges," delivering Isr.fm.Cushan-rishathaim, 
and holding his position for 40 yrs. (Jg. 3. 8fL ). 

OUCHES (Heb. mishbetzoth). The English word 
has suffered a change ; it ought to be " nouch," but 
the n was confused with the final letter of the indefi- 
nite article. They appear 
to have been settings in 
filigree-work to hold the 
onyx stones on wh. were 
engraved the names of the 
tribes of Israel, and wh. the 
High Priest wore on his 
shoulders. Josephus says 
that they served as clasps 
to fasten the straps of the 
Breastplate to the shoul- 
ders of the High Priest 
{Ant. III. vii. 5). In LXX they are called aspiiskas, 
"rosettes." 

OVEN (Heb. tannur = Aib. tannur ; Gr. kli- 
banos ; Ex. 8. 3 , &c. ; Mw. 6. 30 , &c). This is often 
a hole dug in the ground, with sides smoothly 



plastered. Fire is placed in the bottom : when it is 
sufficiently heated, the bread, in thin sheets, is stuck 
on the smooth sides, and baking is swiftly done. 
Sometimes the O. is built of clay, and is movable. 

OWL. There are five Heb. words so rendered 
in A.V ; but one, bath-kayya'anak, really means 
Ostrich ; another, yanshuph, is trd. by RVm. 
" bittern," and by the LXX " ibis," though fm. its 
association with desolation it really means some 
species of O. A third, kos, seems to be another 
species of O., although Bochart (Hierozo, iii. 17) in- 
clines to think it may be the Pelican. A fourth, 
qippoz, occurs only in Is. 34. 15 , and is rendered by 
RV. " arrow snake " ; but as Post (HDB) remarks, 
the nest-making and incubation there ascribed to 
this creature, while it suits a bird, does not suit a 
snake. The LXX, following a different reading, 
trs. " hedgehog." It probably is also an O. The 
fifth, lilith, really means a " night monster " (see 
Lilith). The O. is common in Palestine, and is 
looked upon as of evil omen. 




Egyptian Oven 




Owl 

From Wood's " Bible Animals," by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

OX (Heb. baqar, " one of a herd of cattle " ; 
shut, " an ox " proper, so also 'eleph). As Isr. was 
an agricultural people the O. was an animal of the 
utmost importance ; the O. drew the plough ; it 
trod the corn in threshing ; it drew the cart that 
conveyed the sheaves to the threshing-floor ; its 
flesh was used for feasting. It was the great symbol 
of wealth, consequently it was frequently used for 
sacrifices (Lv. I. 2 " 9 , 3. 1 - 5 , 4- 3 > 15 , &c). The law 
took note of oxen — notwithstanding Paul's dis- 
claimer ; they were to share in the Sabbath rest, 
they were not to be muzzled when treading out the 
corn. The O. of one's neighbour was presumed 
to be an article of property specially liable to be 
coveted, hence in the Tenth Commandment it has 
a place. Helpfulness to neighbours was to be ex- 
hibited in helping the ox of the neighbour that had 
fallen (Dt. 22. 4 ). If an enemy's ox was seen going 
astray he was to be brought back (Ex. 23. 4 ). It 



535 



Ox 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pai 



exhibits the merciful consideration that formed so OX GOAD. See Agriculture. 

marked a characteristic of the Jewish law that it OZEM. (i) Brother of David, the sixth of 

was forbidden to yoke an ox and an ass together in Jesse's sons (i Ch. 2. 15 ). His name never occurs 

ploughing on account of the strain on the weaker again. (2) Son of Jerahmeel, a chief in the clan of 



animal ; the modern Arab has no qualms in yoking Hezron (1 Ch. 2. 25 ). 



an ass and a camel together. Oxen are frequently 
depicted on the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments. 



OZIAS, an ancestor of Jesus (Mw. 
-so RV. 



;. 8f -) =UZZIAH 



PAARAI (2 S. 23. 35 ), written Naarai {which see) is intended. Probably " spade " gives the best 



in 1 Ch. 9 



mod. sense. The same Heb. word is used for tent- 



PADAN, RV. PADDAN (Gn. 48.?) ==Padan- peg (Jg. 4- 21L , &c.) and for the peg on which things 



ARAM. 




Interior of Assyrian Palace (Restored) 



PADAN-ARAM, RV. PADDAN-ARAM (Gn. PADON, the ancestor of a family of Nethinim 
25. 20 , &c), denotes the region otherwise known as who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ez. 



Aram-Naharaim, called in Greek Mesopotamia. 
It seems to signify " field of Aram," fiadanu in As- 
syrian meaning a measure of land (cp. Arb. fidddn = 
what may be ploughed by a yoke of oxen). The 
name may have denoted more particularly the 
district near the Euphrates as distinguished from 
the more mountainous tracts to the N. and NE. 
In this region settled the kindred of Abraham, with 
the descendants of whom alone it was thought 
fitting for the heirs of the promises to intermarry. 



Ne. 7- 47 ). In 1 Es. 5. 29 the name is given as 
" Phaleas." 

PAGIEL, son of Ocran, head of the tribe of 
Asher at the Exodus (Nu. I. 13 , 2. 27 , &c). 

PAHATH-MOAB. The word as it stands seems 
to mean " governor of Moab." It is the name of 
a Jewish clan consisting of two divisions, sons of 
Jeshua and sons of Joab, who returned from Babylon 
with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 6 ; Ne. 7. 11 ). A further 
contingent came up with Ezra (8. 4 ). Some of their 



From Beersheba Abraham sent his steward to bring number incurred displeasure by marrying foreign 



thence a wife for Isaac. It was on the pretext of 
finding a wife among the family relations that Jacob 
departed to Padan-aram. It was in the fields of 
this country that his skill and patience were so 
severely tried. 

PADDLE is EV. translation of Heb. ydted in 
Dt. 23. 13 , where obviously some digging implement 



wives (io. 30 ). They were represented among the 
builders of the wall (Ne. 3. 11 ). The head of the clan 
was one of those who sealed the covenant (Ne. io. 14 ). 
The name is singular : no satisfactory account of it 
has been suggested. It may be due to some corrup- 
tion of the text. 

PAI, the royal city of Hadad, or Hadar (1 Ch. 



536 






Pai 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



II. 30 ), the last named of the kings of Edom (Gn. 
36. 39 ). In this last passage the city is called " Pau." 

PAINFUL, PAINFULNESS. In Ps. 73. 16 
" painful " trs. the Heb. 'amal, " labour " or 
" trouble." In 2 Cor. n. 27 " painfulness " repre- 
sents the Greek mochthos, " labour " or " toil." 

PAINT. The Hebrews seem to have had little 
sense of the distinction of colours, and the art of 
painting was hardly developed among them. The 
forms portrayed upon the wall of which Ezekiel 
speaks (8. 10 , 23. 14 ) were prob. cut with some tool and 
filled in with vermilion. The ceilings were some- 
times painted with vermilion, as, to this day in the 
East, they are often tricked out in gaudy colours (Jr. 
22. 14 ). The use of antimony to paint lines round 
the eyes, thus adding to their apparent size and 
lustre, is a habit of ancient standing in Pal. (2 K. 
9. 30 ; Jr. 4. 30 ; Ek. 23. 40 ). 

PALACE (Heb. 'armdn, " lofty place " ; b'trdh, 



PALESTINE (Arb. Filisiina). The name is 
derived from that of the strong and enterprising 
people who were so long a thorn in the side of Israel, 
the Philistines. Although the name as applied to 
the whole country dates only from Greek times, 
none the less is its persistence an impressive testi- 
mony to the influence wielded by that people in the 
day of their power. 

It is " the least of all lands." Its total area 
both east and west of Jordan comprises not 
more than about 10,000 square miles. Western 
Palestine stretches from the river Litany in the 
north to a somewhat uncertain line drawn from 
Wady el-Arish to the south end of the Dead Sea, 
a distance of over 140 miles, its average breadth 
being about 40 miles. The western boundary is, of 
course, the Great Sea. The land beyond Jordan 
marches on the east with the Syrian desert. Wes- 
tern Palestine consists mainly of a line of limestone 




South Front of Palace of Darius, Persepolis (Restored) 



" fortress " ; hekal, " temple " : Gr. basileion, 
" king's house " ; aide, " court "). Among noma- 
dic tribes the sheikh's tent is the largest ; accord- 
ing to Griffiths (HDB.) and other Egyptologists 
Pharaoh means primarily " the big house." A 
palace is a great house inhabited by a king. The 
principal remains that have come down to us fm. 
ancient Egp. and Asyr. are palaces. As the king was 
in many cases the national High Priest, included in 
the palace was a Temple. Solomon's P. was in 
close proximity to the Temple, and formed one 
group with it. As beams were of limited length, 
and arches, although known, were but little used, 
pillars were necessitated, if apartments of suf- 
ficiently spacious size were to be constructed. 
Palaces seem generally to have been of not more 
than two stories. In NT. the P. was " a court," as 
an Eastern dwelling was mainly a court with rooms 
opening off it (Mw. 26. 58 ). In Php. I. 13 the word 
" palace " represents Pr^etorium. 

PALAL, son of Uzai, who assisted in repairing 
the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah (Ne. 3. 25 ). 

PALANQUIN (RV.). See Litter. 



mountains, which form a continuation southward of 
the great Lebanon range. The slopes to westward 
are gradual, and between the base of the mountains 
and the sea runs a fertile plain, widening to the 
south, and broken only by the promontories at the 
Ladder of Tyre and Mt. Carmel. On the east the 
mountains sink steeply into the depths of the Jor- 
dan valley. This valley is, again, the continuation 
southward of the great hollow known in ancient 
times as Ccele Syria, between the Lebanon and 
Antilebanon ranges. It is as if a gigantic plough- 
share had been driven in at the roots of Hermon, 
going deeper as it was drawn southward until it 
reached the Dead Sea, finally issuing on the sea coast 
at i Aqaba. Thus we have the mighty furrow cutting 
off from the eastern plateau the long ridge, which is 
thrown up on the west in the form of the Central 
Range. The skirts of Great Hermon flow out to the 
south in the undulating heights of el-Jauldn. To 
the east and south-east they fall into the great plain 
which rolls away to the base of the mountain of 
Bashan, Jebel ed-Druz,e, the high basaltic dyke pro- 
tecting the fruitful fields of the Hauran against 



537 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



encroachment by the desert sands. The range Contemporaneously with this process another 

terminates at a point almost due east of the south was going on. When, in the early Tertiary period, 

end of the Sea of Galilee. With nothing to oppose the above-mentioned shrinkage of the earth occurred, 

its progress in the south, the desert has pushed west- the sea flowed into the depression, so that the Gulf 

ward until stopped by the hills on the eastern border of 'Aqaba reached up to the base of Hermon. 

of Gilead and Moab. Between the desert on the Later, another shrinkage took place, prob. accom- 

east, therefore, and the lip of the Jordan valley on panied by a tremendous volcanic outburst in el- 

the west, the richly diversified land of Gilead and Lejd? and el-Jauldn, which fissured the limestone in 

Moab stretches from the Yarmuk in the north to many places, and at many more overflowed it with 



Wddy el-Ahsa, to the SE. of the Dead Sea. 



streams of lava that have hardened into black basalt. 
In the W. the volcanic forces were not so manifest. 
An outburst near the Horns of Hattin, flowing down 
to Tiberias, was checked by the sea. At the same 
time a land-rise took place to the S. of Edom, which 
cut off the branch of the sea to the N. This mass of 
water, presenting a wide surface to the action of the 
sun, gradually contracted by evaporation until it 
concentrated all the saline elements in the deepest 
part of the great chasm, the Sea of Salt, the Dead 
Sea. 

It wd. seem that the original wrinkling of the 
earth's crust had left a subsidiary depression where 
the plain of Esdraelon is now, and that the waters of 
both seas washed across it, beating on the one side 
upon the precipitous cliffs of Carmel, and on the 
other upon the smooth sides of Gilboa. 

Beneath the cretaceous strata there is the Nubian 
sandstone ; but this is never exposed north of the 
Dead Sea. Immediately below the surface soil in 
many parts of Pal. there is a stratum of hard, indu- 
rated breccia, composed of limestone detritus bound 
together by dissolved lime. This general preva- 
lence of limestone produced notable effects in the 
hist, of Pal. Limestone corrodes under the influ- 
ence of water,leading to theformation of large caves. 
The softness of the rock suggests the enlargement 
of these to any extent required. Caves formed a 
refuge for the distressed and discontented in every 
age of Israel's hist. The kings defeated by Joshua 
took refuge in the cave of Makkedah. David hid 
in the cave of Adullam. The caves of Galilee 
became the strongholds of the Zealots, who were 
called " robbers " and ruthlessly slaughtered by the 
youthful Herod. Another result was the practice 
(i) Geology. — In the early Tertiary period Pales- of cave sepulture. Recent volumes of the PEFQ. 
tine appears to have been covered by a layer of afford abundant illustration of ancient cave-burial, 
nummulitic limestone. The shrinkage of the earth Many of the rock-cut tombs wh. abound in Pal. 
caused this to fold, thus forming the deep wrinkle were certainly adaptations of caves. The tomb of 
of the Jordan valley, now known as El-Gbor, " the Lazarus was " a cave." The rounded limestone 
hollow," par excellence. In later geologic times this hills were specially fitted for the culture of the vine, 
was deepened by the erosive and corrosive action of so characteristic a feature of Israel's life, 
successive floods. This erosion eventually carried It is a singular fact that in Heb. Lit. there is no 
away all the nummulitic limestone from the top of evidence that the Israelites ever observed geologic 
the ridge, laying bare the cretaceous strata beneath, phenomena, altho' many of them are very arrest- 
Deep wadies were cut in the limestone plateau, ing. The black cliffs of basalt intruding into the 
leaving mountains between that tell by their height weathered light grey of the limestone ; the raised 
the strength of this erosive force, and the length of beaches in the floor of the Jordan valley ; and, above 
the time it was in action. all, the numerous and striking fossil ammonites, a 

538 




Gorge of the Litany 



Pal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



foot and more across, seem to have had no interest 
for them. 

(2) Geography, (a) The Coast. — The coast line 
is fairly regular, sweeping southward, with a slight 
inclination to the west. Broken rocks, especially in 
the Phoenician district, alternate with stretches of 
sand and gravel. There is no bay or estuary that 
could afford safe anchorage for larger shipping. It 
has grown by deposits of Nile mud and sand brought 
northward by the sea currents, and the detritus 
carried down from the inland heights by native 
streams. At Tyre and Sidon rocky islets and reefs 
off the coast made possible the construction of 
capacious harbours : but these were always in the 
hands of the Phoenicians. The remains to be seen 
at Acre, Athlit, Caesarea, Gaza, &c, show that arti- 
ficial harbours were at one time built, providing ac- 
commodation for vessels of considerable burden. 
But they were exposed to the full force of the 
billows from the Great Sea, and could be main- 
tained only by constant vigilance, and at great ex- 
pense. The reefs at Jaffa (Joppa) have always been 
a source of peril. 

(b) The Coast Plain. — Palestine included the S. 
end of the Phoenician plain, the narrow strip of ex- 
ceedingly fertile land between the mountain and the 
sea, from the Litany to the Ladder of Tyre. This 
part, however, although allotted to Israel, was never 
possessed by them. South of Ras en-Naqurah the 
hills recede fm. the shore, leaving the plain of Acre, 
which, varying from 2^ to 5 miles in breadth, runs 
southward to the base of Carmel. Much of the 
surface is marshy ; but where the soil is under cul- 
tivation it yields richly. The gardens in the neigh- 
bourhood of Acre and Haifa are noteworthy. It 
connects with the plain of Esdraelon to the east 
by means of the gorge of the Kishon {see Accho). 
Cut across by the range of Carmel, the plain is re- 
sumed immediately to the south {see Sharon). As 
it runs southward it gradually increases in breadth 
to about 20 miles. From Jaffa to Wady el-'Arlsh 
it forms the territory known as Philistia, including 
the great and famous Philistine cities which are dealt 
with in separate articles. Sand cliffs and dunes, 
often extending a considerable distance inland, stand 
all along the sea front. They tend to block the 
mouths of the rivers, producing marshes along 
their banks. They also threaten danger to culti- 
vated land, which it is often difficult to avert. 
Many places which richly rewarded the industry 
of the ancients have been overwhelmed by sand- 
drift from the shore. 

(c) The Shephelah. — Between the mountain of 
Judah and the coast plain, forming a district which 
doesnot properly belongtoeither,isaline of low hills, 
uniformly referred to in Heb. as " the Shephelah." 
AV. renders it variously " vale," " valley," " low 
plains,"&c: RV. always "lowland" (see Shephelah). 



(d) The Central Range. — The river Litany drains 
the southern half of el-Biqa' (Ccele Syria). Ten 
miles NW. of Banias it turns abruptly to the W. and 
flowing, a foaming torrent, in the bottom of a tre- 
mendous gorge which cuts sheer through the mass 
of the mountain, it issues on the shore of the 
Mediterranean five miles north of Tyre. The 
breezy uplands to the south of this gorge, with 
richly varied scenery, woodland, hill, spacious 
valley and deep glen, formed the province of Upper 
Galilee in the time of Josephus. About five miles 
NW. of Safed the hills culminate in Jebel Jermuk, 
the highest mountain in Palestine proper, the sum- 
mit being c. 4000 ft. above sea level. Its eastern 
slopes dip steeply towards Meiron, sinking into Wady 
Leimun, a chasm running north and south, which 
splits the country in two. The range of which 
'Jermuk is a member runs east and west, forming the 
S. boundary of the province. The eastern heights 
overhang the Jordan valley, and sink in rough, rocky 
slopes to the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. 
The Lower province is more broken in character 
than the Upper. But the soil in the valleys is very 
rich, being in large part decomposed lava. The 
peasants are industrious and fairly prosperous, cul- 
tivating the olive, the vine, &c, and growing good 
crops of grain. Many of the hills are covered with 
bushes, with here and there a stretch of forest. In 
the heart of the hills lies the plain of Asochis (Arb. 
el-Battauf), almost due west from Tiberias, into 
which from the east juts the ridge of Jebel Tor'an, 
Jebel Kaukab being a prominent feature of the 
landscape to the NW. The hills rise to the south, 
surrounding the hollow in wh. lies the town of 
Nazareth, and then drop almost precipitously on 
the northern edge of the plain of Esdraelon. From 
Ourun Hattin — the traditional Mount of Beatitudes 
— and Mount Tabor, the land steps down eastward 
in a series of broad arable terraces, making a final 
plunge of about 2000 ft. to the shore of the Sea of 
Galilee. The plain of Esdraelon was included in 
the province of Lower Galilee. It forms the only 
important break in the continuity of the mountain 
chain. It seems as if a gigantic mass had been torn 
from the central range and hurled over to the 
north-west, where it forms the dark, wooded ridge 
of Mount Carmel, leaving as fragments along the 
edge of the Jordan valley, Tabor, Little Hermon, 
and Gilboa. The plain forms roughly a triangle, 
the base stretching from Jenln (En-gannim) to 
Mount Carmel, with the apex at Mount Tabor. 
The floor is covered deep with volcanic mould of 
extraordinary fertility. It is drained by the Kishon, 
" that ancient river," in its deep bed pursuing its 
tortuous way to Carmel and the sea. Its fruitful- 
ness attracted the Arab hordes from the East, while 
its open breadths formed the theatre of many 
decisive battles in the long history of Pal. Its 



539 



Pal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



approaches were guarded by a chain of fortresses on 
the south, the chief of which was Megiddo, now el- 
Lejjun, in the SW., and by Jezreel (mod. Zer'ln) on 
the east : these two in turn giving their name to 
the plain {see Jezreel). A belt of low hills running 
SE. and NW. severs Esdraelon from Sharon, rising in 
the NW. to the wooded heights of Carmel, and 
terminating in the promontory on the seashore. 
On the southern edge of Esdraelon (Arb. Merj ibn 
t Amr) begins the region of Mount Ephraim, later 
known as the province of Samaria. It is divided 
into two portions, dissimilar in character, by Wady 
esh-Sba'lr, which cuts across from the coast plain to 
the pass at Nablus, and Wady el-Ifjim, which runs 
down thence to the Jordan valley. The northern 
part consists mainly of scattered hills, with more 
continuous ridges breaking down eastward. These 



steep and forbidding, associated for millenniums 
with the sacred rites of the Samaritans. Its nor- 
thern summit overhangs the well of Jacob, and 
from its eastern base rolls out the plain of Makhna. 
The scattered hills disappear as the range consoli- 
dates, to pass southward with a fairly regular sky- 
line through Benjamin and Judah. The southern 
boundary of the province was not constant. A 
natural dividing line ran from Nahr el-'Jujeb, north 
of Jaffa, along Wady Deir Ballut, reaching the water- 
shed by Wady el-Jlb, and passing down south-east- 
ward by Wady Samieh and Wady el-'Aujeh to the 
Jordan. The boundary in the days of the double 
monarchy, however, seems to have been the valley 
of Ajalon, which runs from the plain by way of 
the Beth-horons to the watershed, and the wadies 
Suzveiriit and el-Qelt, issuing in the Jordan valley at 




Shechem and Mount Gerizim, from the North-west 



gather themselves to throw off the mass of Mount 
Gilboa, which runs northward along the edge of 
the Ghor, and then bends westward, sinking into 
the plain at Zer'in. There are many rich valleys 
among these uplands, the most important break 
being the plain of Dothan, to the SW. of Jenln, 
across which passes the ancient caravan road from 
Mt. Gilead and the East to Egypt. The hills are 
for the most part bare, or covered with stunted 
bushes : but the valleys between, watered by many 
springs, tempt the industry of the peasants by their 
great fertility. Luxuriant orchards and olive 
groves alternate with vegetable gardens, and, in the 
season, with breadths of waving grain. To this 
division belongs Mt. Ebal, the most prominent 
mountain in Central Palestine. It forms the nor- 
thern guardian of the pass, in the throat of which 
lies Nablus, the mod. representative of the ancient 
Shechem. Streams of " living water " from the 
springs near Nablus, flowing down Wady esb-Sba'lr, 
" the valley of barley," create a veritable " para- 
dise." Five miles to the NW. lies the hill of 
Samaria, the capital of Omri and of Herod, with its 
encircling mountains and charming outlook over 
Sharon to the sea, more " beautiful for situation," 
perhaps, than any city of Palestine. 

South of the pass at Nablus rises Mt. Gerizim, 



Jericho, Bethel thus falling within the Northern 
Kingdom. Neby Samzvll, possibly the ancient 
Mizpah, c. five miles NW. of Jerusalem, is the most 
prominent height on the uplands of Benjamin. 
Anathoth, the town of Jeremiah, lies c. 2\ miles to 
the NE. of the city, on the edge of the desert. 
Jerusalem itself is situated to the east of the water- 
shed, guarded on the east by the rampart of Olivet, 
wh. rises beyond the brook Kidron (see Jerusalem). 
The rolling surface of the plateau is for the most 
part pasture land, but in the neighbourhood of 
Bethlehem it is of extraordinary fertility. In this 
district, on hills that are now bare and stony, there 
are many traces of ancient vine culture. This is still 
a prosperous industry in the valleys around Hebron. 
Here the mountain of Judah reaches its greatest 
height, the higher summits commanding a view of 
the wilderness and the Jordan valley. The range 
then gradually sinks through the Negeb, the country 
assigned to Simeon, towards Beersheba. Beyond 
the uncertain boundary the high limestone plateau, 
et-Tih, " the wandering," runs away to the south, 
forming with the central range a link connecting 
the mountains of Lebanon with the peaks of Sinai. 
The eastern slopes of the mountain of Judah are 
known in OT. as Midbar Yebudab, " desert steppe," 
or " wilderness of Judah." It is indeed a savage 



540 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



forbidding wilderness. In the spring-time it is 
covered by a scanty herbage which soon disappears. 
The bare cliffs of its eastern edge, broken by tre- 
mendous gorges and deep clefts, frown darkly over 
the Dead Sea, and the lower Jordan valley. 

The watershed of the range is much nearer the 
Jordan than the sea, about two-thirds of the land 
lying to the west of it. The level of the Ghor is far 
belowthat of the coast plain. The descent seaward is 
therefore gradual, down long, dwindling slopes : that 
to the E. is steep, often precipitous. The alluvium 
lies deep in the bottom of the western vales, and in 
these great hollows field and orchard yield richly in 
response to the peasants' toil. To the east the rocky 
sides of the mountain are laid bare. The storms of 
winter keep them peeled. They are shattered by 
earthquakes and scarred by torrent-beds, and by the 
jagged edges of the great ravines worn deep into 
the mountain by the cataracts of winter rain. 

Along the ridge of the mountain ran the great 
highway from north to south, connected with the 
coast land and the east by branches down the 
valleys ; and on this line stood the great centres of 
population, and the main strongholds of the land : 
Nazareth, Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh, Bethel, Jeru- 
salem, Bethlehem, and Hebron. 

(e) The Jordan Valley. — This valley forms a de- 
pression with which there is nothing to compare on 
the surface of the globe. It is, as has been stated 
above, a continuation of the hollow of Ccele Syria in 
the north, and it extends to the Gulf of 'Aqaba in 
the south. From the charming and fruitful dis- 
trict of the Jordan springs, south-west of Great 
Hermon, with the sites of old Dan and C^sarea 
Philippi, we pass quickly to the great swamps of 
el-Huleh, which occupy a large part of the floor of 
the valley. The highlands of Upper Galilee drop 
steeply on the edge of the valley to the west. On 
the east the slopes rise more gradually to the 
volcanic hills of the Jaulan. To the S. of el-Huleh 
there are considerable breadths of excellent pastoral 
and agricultural land, largely cultivated to-day by 
two colonies of Jews. Soon, however, the moun- 
tains on either side advance to the river banks. 
Down the rocky bottom of the gorge thus formed 
the foaming waters descend to the swampy plain of 
el-Bateihah, through which it winds in a sluggish 
stream to the Sea of Galilee. A strip of plain 
runs round the north and north-west coast of the 
sea, in which were the cities of Capernaum, Beth- 
saida of Galilee, and Magdala (see also Genne- 
saret). The site of old Tiberias was near that 
of the mod. town on the western shore. In the 
mountain wall that rises high both east and west of 
the sea, gaps are made by the great wadies that drain 
the neighbouring uplands. Away to the south- 
east, on a lofty site beyond the gorge of the Yar- 
muk, lie the ruins of ancient Gadara. 



South of the Sea of Galilee the valley bears more 
strictly the name of el-Ghor. Hemmed in by the 
mountains on either side, it varies considerably in 
breadth, with a steady fall to the south. Within 
the Ghor a second valley has been hollowed out by 
the Jordan (ez-Zor),in the bottom of which the river 
flows in its winding bed (see Jordan). The Zor is 
filled with luxuriant vegetation, brushwood, poplars, 
tamarisks, &c, and forms a favourite haunt of wild 
boar and other animals. From Wddy el- Q Ashsheh, 
c. II miles S. of the Sea of Galilee, the mountain 
wall to the west recedes from the river, forming the 
plain of Beisan, into which falls Nahr Jalud from the 
plain of Jezreel. It is well watered and fruitful, and 
is still to some extent cultivated. Wddy el-Mdlih 
forms its southern boundary. From this point the 
plain west of the river is much narrower than that on 
the east. Here the west bank of the Zor presents an 
unlovely aspect, a series of unsightly bare mounds, 
surrounded by a network of deep winding chasms. 
Wddy Far' a opens into the Ghor in a wide, fruitful, 
and well- watered plain called Qardwd el-Mas'udi, to 
the S. of which the striking peak, Qarn Sartabeb, 
thrusts itself abruptly into the valley. From here 
southward the floor of the valley is desert. There 
are a few small oases near the mountains on 
either side of the river, breaking the monotony. 
The most important is that of Jericho, which is 
watered by streams from Wddy el-Qelt, 'A in es- 
Sultdn, &c. Here grow the Egyptian balsam, the 
tamarisk, the acacia, &c. The palms of old time 
have disappeared. The vine and the banana are 
cultivated ; and the crops of grain and vegetables 
raised with little toil prove the amazing fruitful- 
ness of the soil. The palm is still found at 'Jin es- 
Suweimeh, at the NE. corner of the Dead Sea. The 
surface of this sea is about 1 300 ft. below the level of 
the Mediterranean. It is shut in on the west by the 
highlands of the Judsean wilderness, and on the east 
by the western cliffs of the lofty Moabite plateau 
(see Salt Sea). Beyond the salt marshes to the 
south (see Siddim, Vale of) a line of white cliffs 
crosses the valley from NW. to SE., marking the S. 
boundary of el-Ghor. From this point to the Gulf 
of 'Aqaba the valley is known as the Arabah. 

It has already been said that the Jordan valley is 
the bed of an ancient sea (Geology, above). The 
general facts may be stated here. The changes of 
the early Tertiary period left a great lake, formed of 
the imprisoned waters of the ocean, stretching from 
the roots of Hermon in the north to the highest 
level of the Arabah in the south. This exposed a 
wide surface to the rays of the sun, and evapora- 
tion proceeded at a rate greater than the supplies 
from rainfall and springs could counteract. In the 
course of ages, therefore, the sea gradually shrank, 
leaving first, in the northern reaches, the marshes 
and lake of el-Hiileh, and then the larger basin of the 



S4i 



Pal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



Sea of Galilee. Finally, after ages more, the salt 
waters were confined to the limits of the Dead Sea. 
There, evaporation on the one hand, and rainfall and 
springs on the other, being fairly balanced, they 
have remained within historic time. Traces of this 
old-world sea and the process of shrinkage are found 
in successive beaches, at various levels above the 
present. Three are quite distinctly to be seen, one 
a little above the level of the lake, a second 30 ft., 
and another 100 ft. above it. There are also the 
beds of grey marl, deposited by the sea, worn into 
mounds and terraces by the action of water, found 
in many parts of the valley. At the south end of 
the Dead Sea again there is the deposit of salt — the 
salt cliffs known as Jebel Usdum, " Mountain of 
Sodom." The desert, in which we noted the oases, 
consists of the salt mud of the old sea bottom. 

(/) Eastern Palestine. — This division of the land 
lies east of the Jordan, and stretches between the 
valley on the west and the desert on the east, from 
Mount Hermon and his eastern outrunners on the 
north to Wddy el-Ahsd in the south. This region is 
cut in two by the tremendous gorge of the Yarmuk, 
which enters the Jordan to the SE. of the Sea of 
Galilee. The two districts thus severed are entirely 
dissimilar in character. That of the north was in 
far-off times the theatre of appalling volcanic pheno- 
mena, which not only left their impress upon its 
physical features but largely determined the course 
of its history. In the NW. part of this district, 
running southward from Hamas, is a series of conical 
hills, extinct volcanoes all, known by the name of 
Telul el-HJsb, " forest hills." Between and around 
these hills are strewn in confusion great lava blocks. 
A few oaks here and there are all that remain of the 
ancient forest. With the spring a fine crop of grass 
grows where the ground is not covered with stones. 
The springs are numerous, and far on in summer the 
present writer has seen the flocks of the Bedouin 
rejoicing in the fresh and plentiful pasture. 

Away to the SE. a remarkable dyke of basalt is 
formed by a group of volcanic mountains, known 
now as Jebel ed-Druze, formerly Jebel Hauran, and 
in ancient times " the mountain of Bashan." The 
highest point, Tell el-Qend, approaches 6000 ft. 
The western slopes are well wooded, the oak being 
prominent still. Springs are also plentiful, and the 
lower reaches are industriously cultivated by the 
Druzes, who have given the mountain its modern 
name. The splendid fortress of Salkbad crowns 
the ridge to the south, and such ruins as those of 
'Ormdn, Hebrdn, Suzveideb, Qanawdt, and Shahba 
tell of a numerous and prosperous population in 
ancient days. From the craters in the NW. of the 
mountain a terrific lava stream flowed out to form 
el-Lejd\ which is described in the article on Tra- 
chonitis. To the west of the mountain lies the 
plateau of en-Nuqrab, " the hollow." It is covered 



deep with reddish-brown mould of decomposed 
lava, and forms the richest grain-growing district in 
Syria (see Hauran). The city of Bozrah stands on 
the SE. edge of this plain, and is united by the old 
Roman road with Der'ab in the west. S. of Der'ah 
runs the low range of ez.-Zum.leb, cutting off from 
en-Nuqrab the plain es-Suzveit, the SW. part of this 
district. To the east of el-Lejd? lies the fruitful 
breadth of el-Bataniyeb, where the rich soil is so 
loose that the harvest is gathered by pulling the 
grain out of the earth. Diret et-Tulul is an outburst 
of lava similar to el-Lejd\ somewhat larger in extent 
and wilder and more forbidding in character. These 
basaltic ramparts on the east guard the rich lands to 
the west against encroachment by the desert sands. 
Southward from en-Nuqrab stretches the desert- 
steppe of Hamad. 

South of the Yarmuk the basalt disappears, save 
in the neighbourhood of Gadara. The prevail- 
ing formation is white limestone. This continues 
through the whole length of what bears the general 
name of Mount Gilead to Wddy Hesbdn in the south. 
Beyond this wady, in the high plateau of Moab, the 
volcanic rocks reappear, and, along with the original 
white limestone, there crops up the red sandstone 
characteristic of the mountains of Edom. 

North of the cleft of Nahr ez-Zerqd the district 
is now called i Ajlun. Immediately south of the 
Yarmuk, the rolling surface of the plateau at no 
point rises to a great height. S. of Wady Tibneb we 
enter the district known as Jebel c Ajlun, which cul- 
minates in Jebel Hakdrt, not far from Jerash. In 
general the level is higher here towards the east than 
further north. The great strength of Qal'at er- 
Rabad, which some would identify with Ramoth 
Gilead, occupies a height north of Wddy i Ajlun, 
dominating a wide area. 

In fruitfulness the land of c Ajlun cannot compare 
with the volcanic soil of the Hauran : but in many 
respects it is the most attractive region of Palestine. 
It is rich in forests, wh. the modern inhabitants have 
done little to injure. Many of the hills are clothed 
to their summits with waving green. The tere- 
binth, the carob, the almond, and the olive abound. 
Evidence of ancient vine-culture is also found : the 
rock-hewn presses perhaps served for the making of 
both oil and wine. In the deep wadies which cut 
through the country the sound of running water is 
heard all through the summer ; and the flush of 
oleander in season lends a touch of pleasing colour. 

South of Wddy es-Zerqd (see Jabbok) the levels 
rise considerably. The range of Jebel Jil'dd runs 
southward, culminating in Jebel Osha 6 , about 3600 
ft. high, three miles NW. of es-Salt. To the south 
and south-east many of the mountains reach a 
height of over 3000 ft. To the NE. of this district 
lies the remarkable plain el-Buqei'a, an ancient sea- 
basin the waters of which found outlet by Wddy 



542 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



ez-Zerqa. It is good land, and in part cultivated 
now. The mountains are more rocky than those 
north of ez-Zerqa, but are also in great part covered 
with shady woods. These, however, are suffering 
seriously at the hands of Circassian colonists and 
others. Vineyards are here found on the slopes. 
This industry is followed with great success by the 
natives of es-Salt. As the grapes may not be used 
for wine they are made into raisins, in which a brisk 
trade is carried on. 

The northern part of the plateau of Moab 
stretches from Wady Keshan to Wady el-Mojib. It 
rises gradually towards the east, where a range of low 
limestone hills mark it off from the desert. The 
western edge of the plateau sinks steeply to the shore 
of the Dead Sea, torn as it is by many deep gorges 
worn by the winter torrents from the uplands. The 
undulating surface of the plateau has an average 
height of about 2600 ft. To the west there are 
several outstanding hills, the most famous of which 
is Jebel Neba (see Nebo), the summit of which com- 
mands a view of extraordinary extent, variety, and 
interest over the Jordan valley and Western Pal. 
South of Wady Zerqa Ma'tn rises the lofty mass of 
Jebel 'Attdrus. Nearer the western edge, surrounded 
by deep gorges, is the hill Mkaur, the site of the 
stronghold of Machaerus, nearly 3700 ft. above the 
Dead Sea. South of Wady el-Mojib the monotony 
of the plateau is broken by the hill called Jebel 
Shihan, about 2800 ft. high. Southward the land 
rises, and the hill on which the ancient fortress of 
Kerak lies, guarded on every side by deep ravines, is 
not less than 3370 ft, high. Still higher is the 
plateau southward before it sinks swiftly into Wady 
el-Ahsa, beyond which the ascents of the Edom 
range begin. 

The rich soil of these spacious uplands is in part 
under cultivation, bearing fine crops of grain. The 
bulk of it, however, especially towards the east, is 
used for pasture. A few scattered terebinths serve 
only to emphasise the absence of trees. To the 
south of Wady Kerak the springs are numerous, and 
in the limestone rock many cisterns are found, con- 
structed to capture and preserve the overflow from 
the plentiful rains which fertilise the lofty plains. 
The steep slopes and cliffs to the west are for the 
most part quite bare, but luxuriant vegetation 
often covers the deep floor and openings of the great 
gorges that, in aspects both picturesque and awful, 
break down upon the shore. 

(3) Streams. — Of the wadies and winter torrent 
beds that furrow the mountains both east and west 
of Jordan no account need be attempted here. 
Certain great valleys collect the waters from nume- 
rous tributary hollows, and carry them down to the 
sea or to the Jordan. All the streams that enter the 
sea have branches far up among the hills. By far 
the greatest number of these dry up entirely during 



the drought of summer. We may note here the 
perennial streams ; that is, those that depend for 
their continuance on springs at some part of their 
course. In the Philistine plain we have Nahr 
Sukreir, which forms the opening for a system of 
wadies coming down from the district of Hebron ; 
and Nahr Rubin, wh. takes the water from Wddy es- 
Sarar and its affluents near Jerusalem. Into Nahr 
el-'Aujeh, to the north of Jaffa, flow the waters 
from the vale of Ajalon, Wady Deir Ballut and Wady 
Kdnah, draining all the slopes west of the watershed, 
from Michmash to the south of Gerizim. Strong 
springs in the plain near Antipatris preserve the 
current all the year. Several wadies lose them- 
selves in the marsh land near the shore, to drain 
which the cutting now known as Nahr el-Falik 
was made. Here grows the Syrian papyrus. Into 
Wady Iskanderunah, from the district of Shechem 
and Samaria, flow Wady esh-Sha'ir, &c. Nahr el- 




Waterfall on el-'Aujeh, Plain of Sharon 

Mefjir enters the sea two miles south of Caesarea. 
Its longest tributary traverses the plain of Dothan. 
The wadies in the south-eastern part of the Carmel 
Range fall into Nahr ez-Zerqa, the " Crocodile 
River " of Pliny. In the sluggish waters of this 
stream, beset with reeds and tamarisks, it is said the 
crocodile may still be seen. Several streams coming 
down from Carmel are lost in the marshes north of 
ez-Zerqcl. These are partially drained by Nahr ed- 
Difleh. Immediately north of Mount Carmel Nahr 
el-Muqatta c flows through the marshes to the sea. 
It drains the whole of the great plain of Esdraelon 
and its surrounding hills, the longest arms reaching 
Jeriin and climbing the slopes of Gilboa. It is 
joined in the plain of Acre by Wady el-Melek, which 
gathers the waters from the plain el-Battauf and its 
neighbourhood (see Kishon). Nahr Na'mdn, which 
enters the sea immediately to the south of Acre, re- 
ceives the waters of Wddy AbilUn and Wady Halzun, 
which drain the north-western district of Lower 
Galilee. Nahr Mejshuh is a smaller stream to the 
north of Acre, on the banks of which are the finest 
gardens in the country. We may also mention the 



543 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



copious spring at Ras el-'Ain, fully three miles south 
of Tyre, which scatters beauty and fruitfulness over 
the plain. The main wadies coming down west- 
ward from the mountains of Upper Galilee are 
Wddy el-'Ezziyeh, c. five miles south of Tyre, and 
Wddy el-Hub eshiy eh, c. one mile north of that city. 
Much of the water of this province drains north- 
ward into the Lit any (Nahr el-Qdsiniiyeh). 

For the head waters of the Jordan and its main 
tributaries see Jordan. A short stream of brackish 
water enters the Sea of Galilee from the fountains 
at et-Tdbgha. Several wadies cross the plain of 
Gennesaret : Wddy i Amud draining the hollow 
between Safed and the Jerrnuk range, Wddy er- 
Rubadiyeh from the district SE. of Rdmeh, and 
Wddy el-Hamdm coming down from Hat fin through 
the tremendous gorge behind el-Mejdel. There is 
also the stream from c Ain el-Mudawwerah on the 
western edge of the plain. Immediately south of 
the lake Wddy Fajjds comes down from the uplands 
west of the sea : then come Wddy el-Bireh from the 
hollow between Tabor and Little Hermon, and 
Nahr Jaliid at Beisan, the main source of which is 
c Ain Jaliid (see Harod, Well of), on the S. edge of 
the plain of Jezreel. The next considerable stream 
is Wddy el-Jozeleh, by which Wddy Far ah, draining 
the district north-east and east of Shechem, falls 
into the Jordan. Wddy el-Qelt also brings down a 
considerable volume of water, gathered from the 
wadies and springs to the NE. of Jerusalem. The 
wadies about Jerusalem find their outlet to the 
Dead Sea by Wddy en-Ndr, which cuts a deep, 
winding path through the wilderness. The spring 
of sweet, warm water at c Ain Jidy (En-gedt) should 
be mentioned, and here also the water collected by 
the wadies from the uplands east of Hebron enters 
the sea. 

On the east of Jordan a number of streams come 
from the Jauldn uplands, entering the Sea of Galilee 
through the plain el-Bateihah. Wddy Samak and 
Wddy Fiq descend from the east, opening on the 
shore of the sea. The first great tributary of the 
Jordan is the Yarmuk (Sharl'at el-Manddireh),wh.ich 
gathers the waters from the eastern Jauldn, the 
whole of the Hauran as far as the slopes of Jebel ed- 
Druze, and the northern part of Mount Gilead. At 
their confluence below the Sea of Galilee it carries 
a volume of water almost equal to that of the 
Jordan. Of the smaller wadies to the south the 
more important are Wddy Talin and Wddy i Ajlun, 
which drain the central part of Jebel l Ajlun. Then 
comes Wddy ez-Zerqd } which, rising in the neigh- 
bourhood of ''Amman (Rabbath Ammon), flows 
northward and eastward, touching the desert at Ras 
Zerqa — whence possibly its name : then it turns 
again to the north, and finally westward, pursuing a 
tortuous course in the bottom of a great ravine, 
joining the Jordan at ed-Ddmieh (see Jabbok). 



Wddy Nimrin and Wddy Keshan are the chief out- 
lets for the waters of southern Gilead. Of the 
great wadies that break down from the plateau of 
Moab upon the E. shore of the Dead Sea, we need 
mention only Wddy Zerqa Md'in, with the ruins of 
Hammam ez-Zerqd, the ancient Callirrhoe ; Wddy 
el-Mojib, the ancient Arnon, which with its con- 
fluents drains a wide region ; Wddy el-Kerak, which 
enters the bay north of el-Lisdn; and Wddy el-Ahsd, 
the southern boundary of the province, which 
reaches the Dead Sea at the south-east corner. 

(4) Roads. — Palestine has been described as a 
bridge, with the Mediterranean on the one hand 
and the sea of sand on the other, over which, in the 
ancient world, all communication between north 
and south had to pass. The great military high- 
way, followed by the armies of Egypt and those 
from the Euphrates valley, through the long ages 
of their ever-renewed struggle for supremacy, ran 
along the coast plain, round the eastern end of the 
Carmel range, by the pass of Megiddo into the plain 
of Esdraelon, then westward and along the coast 
once more to the north. The detour by Megiddo 
avoided the narrow passage at the promontory of 
Carmel, which might be defended by a handful of 
resolute men. Other difficulties had to be over- 
come. The making of the road round the rocky 
faces of the headlands forming the Ladder of Tyre 
involved no mean engineering skill. The like is 
true of the part at the Dog River (Nahr el-Kelb), 
north of Beyrout, where inscriptions hewn in the 
rock commemorate the passing of armaments in 
different ages. From Damascus, itself the port for 
" ships of the desert " arriving from the Euphrates 
valley by way of Palmyra, a great road led to the 
SW. over the Jauldn. It crossed the Jordan south 
of the Waters of Merom, where later a bridge (Jisr 
Benat Ta'qiib) was built, and proceeded by way of 
Khan Jubb Tosif to the N. shore of the Sea of 
Galilee. Here it was joined by a road from the 
east wh. crossed the Jordan at its mouth ; then 
bifurcating., one branch proceeded westward to the 
sea at Acre, the other ascended by Wddy el-Hamdm 
and passed southward by way of Khdn et-Fujjdr 
(" Inn of the Merchants ") and the eastern flanks of 
Tabor and Little Hermon to the plain of Esdraelon. 
Here it was joined by the caravan route from Gilead 
and the East, which crossed at the fords of Jordan 
and came up the S. edge of the vale of Jezreel. 
Again a branch ran westward to the sea : the main 
road, crossing t^e S.E. bay of Esdraelon, passed by 
way of the plain v f Dothan to the coast plain, where 
it united with the great north road to Egypt. The 
roads running north and south were confined to the 
plain or to the watershed of the mountains. The 
deep wadies that cut the lower slopes were, for 
beasts of burden, either difficult or impossible to 
cross, Hence ? as we have seen, the main centres of 



544 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



population were gathered along the line of the united at Shechem, and, running through the pass, 
watershed, on the road running from Jeriin to continued eastward to the fords of the Jordan at 
Shechem, Jerusalem and Hebron, passing thence ed-Ddmieh, forming in ancient times, as now, the 
through the Negeb to Beersheba. Here branches chief means of communication between the east 
run out to Gaza in the west, and eastward to and the west. A road on either side of the Jordan, 
Arabia and 'Aqaba : another ran southward to in the valley, enabled travellers between north and 
Sinai, while the desert path, " the way to Shur," south to escape the difficulties of the long mountain 
led across the wilderness to Egypt. A road from road. Jews from Galilee also, who wished to avoid 
Edom swept round the south end of the Dead Sea Samaritan territory in their journeys to and from 
and climbed the mountains to Hebron. Several Jerusalem, were wont to cross the Jordan atthe Sea 
roads approach the towns on the watershed from of Galilee, take their way down the eastern side, and 
the Dead Sea shore— one from Masada, one from cross again opposite Jericho. 

c Ain Jidy, and one from l Ain Feshkhah. Further On the east of the Jordan the great gold and 
north three roads go up from Jericho. One enters frankincense road from Arabia Felix to Damascus 
the mountains to the SW., joins the road from 'Ain must always have followed pretty closely the line 
Feshkhah, crosses Wddy en-Ndr a little to the north of the present pilgrimage route, along which the 
of Mar Saba, throws out a branch to Bethlehem, Damascus-Mecca railway has been constructed, 
and proceeds north-west to Jerusalem. The second The highway from Edom climbed to the uplands 
strikes westward up the southern edge of Wddy el- from Wddy el-Ahsd, and, keeping well out on the 

table-land to avoid entanglement in the gorges to 
the west, it passed to el-Kerak, and northward, 
crossing the Arnon at Aroer, to Madeba. Thence a 
branch ran down to the fords of Jordan and Jericho. 
The road bent north-eastward to ' Amman. From 
this point a road crossed the country to es-Salt and 
down to the ford at ed-Ddmieh. The north roads 
from ' Amman and es-Salt united before crossing the 
Jabbok, and proceeded by way of Jerash and Suf, 
to the north of which a branch went NE. to join 
the pilgrimage road to the south of el-Muxeirlb. 
Another went NW. to Gadara on the south lip of 
the Yarmuk. From es-Salt a road runs to the NW. 
into the Jordan valley and along the east bank to 
the Sea of Galilee. These are the main roads to-day, 
and probably they follow the ancient tracks. This 
Qelt. It is a steep and tortuous path, affording was true of the Roman roads connecting the great 
many glimpses into the shuddering depths of the cities of the Decapolis. The Romans were the 
gorge. It has been from of old the great pilgrim great road-builders of ancient days, and their work 
way, and has been the scene of many tragedies. The has borne the test of time. A very perfect specimen 
third climbs the mountain to the north of Wddy may be seen between Der'ah and Bozrah. The 
el-Qelt, goes round byMichmash, and onto Bethel, modern track usually runs alongside these ancient 
From the coast plain the Judaean uplands may be highways. The muleteers and camel-drivers avoid 
reached by a series of valleys that pierce the high the hard pavement, which they think beats up the 
wall of the western edge of the plateau ; the main feet of their animals, taking it only in winter, when 
openings being by Wddy es-Sardr, up which the the rains have made the paths difficult, 
railway runs to Jerusalem ; Wddy 'Aly, which is In pre-Roman times the roads for the most part 
followed by the carriage road ; and the vale of were probably not unlike the modern tracks. Built 
Ajalon by way of the Beth-horons, along which the roads were not necessary for the transport of 
tides of battle have so often rolled. All, however, chariots designed for use in battle. The Heb. 
are easy of defence. They are steep and crooked, word mesilldh (EV. " highway "), however, fre- 
with precipitous sides, now with .shingly bottom quently occurs, meaning lit. something " heaped 
and anon strewn with gigantic blocs of stone, with up." This seems to imply some artificial structure, 
passages where a few men might successfully oppose But although this is applied to roads for common 
an army. use (Jg. 20. 31 , &c), and also to highways prepared 

Mount Ephraim lay much more open to approach, for special occasions (Is. 49. 11 , 62. 10 , &c), no ex- 
and need not be dealt with in such detail. The ample of the work has yet been discovered, 
main roads led from Jaffa up Wddy Kdna, and (5) Climate. — Palestine falls within the sub- 
from Csesarea along Wddy esb-Sha c ir. These roads tropical zone. The difference between the longest 

545 s 




Road in Modern Palestine 



Pal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



and the shortest day is only four hours. The year 
falls into two divisions : the season of rain and the 
season of drought {see Summer and Winter). For 
many years exact observations of temperature and 
rainfall have been recorded at different points ; 
e.g. at Jerusalem and Tiberias. The great varia- 
tions in temperature within 24 hours are note- 
worthy. ■ 

The coast plain is naturally somewhat warmer 
than the mountains. The annual mean temperature 
is yo° Fah. Between Port Said and Beyrout, all 
along the coast, there is not half a degree of differ- 
ence. The nearness of the sea also prevents the 
great variations within the 24 hours to be noted in 
the other districts. Harvest comes on somewhat 
earlier than in the interior uplands. The rainfall 
also is less. 

On the mountains the annual rainfall is about 20 
inches, and the average temperature may be taken 
at 62 . The variation, however, is very great, as 
frost and snow are not unknown. 

The Ghr, in all respects singular, represents 
tropical climatic conditions. The high walls of the 
mountains east and west shut it in, and the sun's 
rays, pouring down into the great trough, produce 
a very high temperature. This is increased by re- 
flection of the heat from the steep sides of the 
valley. In the lower reaches, by Jericho and the 



respectively. The highest monthly mean tempera- 
ture in Tiberias in 1905 was 102. 2° as compared 
with 88. 9 in Jerusalem ; the former in August, 
the latter in September. The corresponding figures 
for 1906 were 99.7° and 85.9 respectively, both in 
the month of August. The rainfall at Tiberias in 
1905 was 20.88 inches in 51 days : at Jerusalem 
34.220 inches in 58 days. For 1906, a dry year, 
the figures are : Tiberias 14.72 inches in 54 days, 
Jerusalem 28.140 inches in 59 days. In 1907, an 
average year, the rainfall at Tiberias was distributed 
as follows : — 



January, rain 
February, ,, 


fell on 


n 
12 


iays- 


-total 


5.04 inches 
3-2i 


March, 


,, 


9 


,, 


M 


2-44 ,, 


April, ,, 


, , 


4 


,, 


,, 


1. 10 ,, 


May, 












June, 












July, 












August, 












September, 












October, ,, 




2 






1-23 ,, 


November, , , 


M 


6 






4.62 ,, 


December, ,, 


» 


6 


•> 


" 


3-04 „ 



50 days — total, 20.68 inches. 



An idea of the range of the thermometer through- 
out the year may be gathered from a comparison 
of the figures for monthly mean temperatures in 
1904-6 at Jerusalem and Tiberias respectively. 



Monthly Mean 


Temperature in Jerusalem and Tiberias 








1904. 


1905. 


1906. 


Jerusalem. 


Tiberias. 


Jerusalem. 


Tiberias. 


Jerusalem. 


Tiberias. 




Max. 


Min. Max. 


Min. 


Max. 


Min. 


Max. 


Min. 


Max. 


Min. 


Max. 


Min. 


January . . . 


63.1 


46.1 56.9 


4Q.q 


62.1 


42.2 


60.8 


44.0 


61.3 


43-o 


64.6 


49-4 


February . 




66.9 


47.0 


63-9 


53-2 


66.5 


41.6 


64.2 


48.5 


68.1 


47-5 


66.0 


51.0 


March 




70.1 


5 r -5 


65.0 


54.1 


70.7 


47.2 


69.4 


50.8 


70.0 


51.2 


73-3 


54- 


April . . 




76.6 


53-4 70.6 


59-7 


78.0 


52.7 


81.0 


58.4 


74-7 


5 2 -7 


78.0 


S7-S 


May . . 




79-3 


57-5 


84- 5 


6fri 


80.4 


56.7 


9i-3 


66.4 


80.4 


54-8 


82.2 


63-9 


June . . 




87.2 


63-4 


QS-9 


71.6 


84.6 


63-9 


94.1 


69.6 


83.8 


63-3 


Q5-i 


70.5 


July . . 




82.3 


67.1 


92.6 


76.4 


88.2 


68.5 


100.3 


74-9 


89. * 


67.8 


98.3 


75-5 


August 




89.1 


67.6 


93-4 


78.4 


89. S 


69. 5 


102.2 


76.8 


90.8 


70.0 


99-7 


76.9 


September 




83.8 


63.5 


88.2 




87.0 


65.6 


98.9 


74-5 


89.3 


68.0 


9 6 -3 


73- 6 


Octobsr . 




75-o 


61.0 


8q.6 




8q.6 


62.4 


92.9 


72.0 


84.0 


60.4 


90.5 


69.0 


November 




76.0 


54-o 


74-4 




78.9 


50.7 


82.7 


62.9 


79-5 


52.6 


79.8 


63.2 


December 


60.5 


44.0 63.7 


5°-7 


64.8 


44.1 


64.8 


50-9 


72-3 


49.2 


68.4 


55-5 



Dead Sea, this is especially to be noted. There the 
temperature can never be much under 8o° Fah. 
even at night, while by day it may exceed 130 . In 
the northern and shallower part naturally the heat 
is not so great. But the temperature is never very 
low. In five years at Tiberias the writer never once 
saw snow. Some of the natives, however, remem- 
bered having seen a slight fringe of ice on the shore. 
The lowest monthly mean temperature recorded at 
Tiberias in 1905 was 44 Fah., as compared with 
36.7 at Jerusalem in the month of January. The 
corresponding figures for 1906 were 49. 4 and 39 



Harvest is fully a month earlier in the oases lower 
down the valley than round the Sea of Galilee. 

On the high tableland east of the Jordan the 
variations of temperature are much greater ; the 
rainfall is heavier, and the heights are frequently 
covered with snow. The heat of summer is also 
very great on the confines of the desert. No ex- 
tended observations have yet been made. While 
the days are hot the nights are bitterly cold. 

The changes of temperature between day and 
night (Gn. 31. 40 ; Jr. 36. 30 ) are most violent in 
summer. The air then is crisp and dry : this 



546 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pal 



counteracts the discomforts, and modifies" the in- 
juries such sudden changes are fitted to cause. 

For Water Supply see Water : see also art. 
Wind. 

It is maintained by some (e.g. Buhl, GAP. 54f.) 
that the climate of Palestine has sensibly altered 
within historic time, the moisture decreasing as 
the heat increased. The great forests which in 
old time covered great areas of the country have 
disappeared. The cedars also which clothed the 
mountains in the north have gone, with the excep- 
tion of a few in remote recesses. It is contended 
that this could not have been brought about by the 
labour of men, and must be due to the alteration of 
the climate. The loss of the trees would, of course, 
accelerate the process. By this climatic change is 
explained the gradual decay of civilisation in the 
East (Blankenhorn, quoted by Buhl, GAP. 541.). 
Others (e.g. Benzinger, HA. 32) hold that there is 
no evidence to prove such a change, and that in the 
conditions of to-day are repeated practically those 
of the oldest times. It is a climate presenting great 
contrasts : hot days and cold nights, glowing south 
winds and biting north winds, torrential rains and 
burning droughts. It is healthy, nevertheless, and 
the constitution accustomed to these changes 
acquires a fine firmness and elasticity. Fever, 
dysentery, and ophthalmia are the most common 
troubles, and even in the height of summer their 
ravages are not excessive. There is no need for 
complicated garments : a simple shirt serves the 
peasant by day, and his cloak furnishes both bed and 
covering by night. The houses are as simple as the 
dress, built of mud and unhewn stones. No great 
toil is called for in tilling the soil. As it is " watered 
from heaven," he is largely spared the work of irriga- 
tion. This last kept the people in conscious and 
immediate relations with Jehovah, whose the land 
was and in whose hands were the sources of the rain. 
Plentiful showers at the proper seasons, with their 
promise of a year of plenty, gladdened their hearts 
as a sign of Jehovah's favour. The withholding of 
the rain threatened famine, and was taken as a mark 
of Jehovah's displeasure. 

(6) Flora. — A country where such varied clima- 
tic conditions prevail is naturally rich in varieties of 
plants. We have in the Ghor tropical vegetation; 
in the wastes of Judah that which is characteristic 
of the desert ; and in the rest the ordinary flora of 
the Mediterranean coast lands. The plants men- 
tioned in the Bible are described in articles under 
their own names. Here only a general outline is 
given. 

Nothing could well seem more dead than the 
hard-baked earth after the summer drought ; but 
no sooner do the first rains fall and moisten the soil 
than the land is covered with refreshing green. The 
winter cold does nothing to arrest this growth. 



When in the end of February the heat begins to 
return the land is speedily covered as with a gor- 
geous carpet, the green being sprinkled with many 
coloured flowers. Many species of narcissus, crocus, 
tulip, anemone and ranunculus, with their bright 
petals, bespangle the fields — the " lilies " of our 
Saviour's simile, with which even the splendid 
Solomon could not compare in glory (see Rose). 
The flowers and the grass which they adorn are 
very sensitive to the east wind. A few hours of 
the burning sharqiyeh are enough to lay the whole 
country-side in mourning. The flanks of the hills 
are often covered with annual grasses, legumins, and 
aromatic umbellifers. For the prickly plants that 
bestud the wilderness see Thorns and Thistles. 
The ruins that abound in the country are overgrown 
with nettles and thistles. Canebrakes and reeds are 
found in the marshes and along the river banks, the 
papyrus reed being specially plentiful among the 
bogs of el-Huleh. 

Of field produce, wheat and barley are largely 
grown, the latter being used mainly to feed the 
horses. Oats and rye have practically disappeared. 
Spelt, maize, and vetches ; lentils, millet, and beans ; 
dill, mint, rue, mustard, and coriander are objects 
of the husbandman's care. *Weeds are plentiful. 
Of these the worst are the tares, which so closely 
resemble the wheat among which they grow, and 
which, if used, produce such painful results. 
Cucumbers and melons grow to great perfection. 
Tomatoes, the egg plant, garlic, onions, and other 
vegetables are common. Tobacco is also culti- 
vated. Flax was grown in ancient times, and per- 
haps also cotton. 

The olive played a great part in the life of old 
Palestine, and many a valley is still filled with the 
silver sheen of its foliage. The rule of the Moslems, 
influenced by the old nomad antagonism to the 
symbol of the settled life, and by the prohibition 
of the prophet, has restricted the culture of the 
vine as compared with the past. The ruined vine 
terraces on the slopes, and the rock-cut winepresses 
that abound, are proof enough of this. The vine 
still flourishes, however, in certain districts, yielding 
rich crops of grapes. This is true especially of the 
neighbourhood of Hebron on the west and es-Salt 
on the east of the Jordan. The expressed juice is 
often made into what the Arabs call dibs, " grape 
honey," which is probably referred to in some cases 
by the Heb. name debash, rendered " honey " in 
EV. There is no more beautiful tree than the 
pomegranate with its rich red blooms amid the dark 
green foliage. The fig also, with its sweet aromatic 
fruit, is a characteristic feature of Palestine. The 
almond, the carob, the sycamore, the mulberry, the 
peach, the plum, the quince, the pistachia, are 
plentiful. Two thorn trees, the nabq and the sidr, 
bear fruit rather larger than a cherry, dry but well- 



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flavoured. The apple and the pear are also found, 
together with the apricot. This last is especially 
numerous in the orchards round Damascus. On 
the coast plain the orange gardens of Jaffa and Sidon 
are famous. Here also are the citron, the lemon, 
and the date palm. The dates of Gaza are highly 
prized. There is a palm grove north of Carmel. 
The palm has disappeared from Jericho, the old 
" city of palms," but is found at En-gedi, and in 
the oases in the lower Ghor. There are a few trees 
at points on the sides of Esdraelon, at Tiberias, and 
also on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. 

Stretches of forest there still are on Carmel, on 
the hills to the north and on the plain to the south ; 
and especially in Mount Gilead. For the rest, while 
the bush and brushwood covering great breadths 
of the hills are probably remains of old-world 
forests, there is nothing to show that within historic 
times the conditions have been greatly different. 
The Heb. ya'ar was practically equivalent to the 




Assyrians cutting down the Palm Trees belonging 
to a Captured City 

Arb. zva'r, denoting a stony country with bush 
and undergrowth. The Hebrews had no skill in 
forestry or in woodwork (i K. 5. 6 ). The sycamore 
only is singled out as being abundant (i K. io. 27 ), 
the timber of which is durable, but otherwise un- 
suitable for buildings of any pretensions. Dry 
branches and withered herbs were used as fuel (Is. 
27. 11 ; Mw. 6. 30 ). Several species of oak and pine, 
the terebinth, the wild pistachia and carob, the 
plane tree, the strawberry tree, the wild olive, the 
poplar, the willow, the rock-rose, the storax, the 
mastic, the henna, the myrtle, the tamarisk, various 
species of acacia, and the caper-plant are found 
to-day. Along the river banks, e.g. in the deep 
gorge of the Jabbok, and especially round the shores 
of the Sea of Galilee, the oleander blooms in great 
perfection. In the Ghor also grows the Populus 
eufhratica, a tropical species of poplar. In ancient 
times the balsam flourished in the deeper part near 
Jericho. There the sugar-cane still grows. On the 
desert steppes the juniper is found, from the roots 
of which charcoal is made. 

(7) Fauna, (a) Domesticated Animals. — Sheep 
and goats are numerous, as they have always been. 
The herbage on the hills furnishes their food. The 



sheep are of the fat-tailed species. The goats are 
dark brown in colour, with long, drooping ears. 
The rough cloth for tents is made of their hair. 
While that of the sheep is preferred, the flesh of 
both sheep and goats is largely eaten in Palestine 
to-day. Goat's milk is used everywhere. The 
native oxen are small, but of considerable strength. 
From of old they have been employed mainly in 
ploughing. They are now seldom slaughtered for 
food. The buffalo is also found, chiefly in the upper 
Jordan valley. The ass, ridden by princes in the 
olden times, is now almost confined to the humbler 
classes ; being used also as a beast of burden. The 
white ass, however, is often ridden by the well-to-do. 
The horse is the favourite animal for the highway. 
Marvellously sure-footed and excellent climbers the 
little Syrian horses are, on the stony and moun- 
tainous tracks of the country. Arab horses of pure 
blood are very greatly prized. The mule is also 
used largely for riding, and as a beast of burden ; 
not, however, among the Arabs, who share the 
Jewish dislike for hybrids. The camel is indispen- 
sable for desert journeys, and is largely used for the 
transport of heavy burdens. The rearing of camels 
is the special care of the Arabs. The number of 
camels he possesses is the measure of a man's impor- 
tance among them. For months every year camels' 
milk furnishes the chief subsistence of many tribes. 
The hair is made into cloth by the women, finer than 
that of goat's hair. The Arabs also are fond of 
camel's flesh. This was forbidden to the Israelites. 
Both Jews and Moslems hold the swine unclean ; 
but it is reared in some of the Christian villages. 
The swineherds mentioned in the Gospel no doubt 
belonged to the Greek population of Eastern Pales- 
tine. Of the dog, as used in the chase, there is no 
mention in Scripture. It has always been valued 
by the shepherd (Jb. 30. 1 ). Crowds of ownerless 
dogs haunt the streets of Eastern cities, and perform 
the useful function of public scavengers, consuming 
the garbage thrown out, which otherwise must 
become a source of disease. They are held in great 
despite, and " son of a dog " is one of the most 
common phrases of contempt. There is no men- 
tion of poultry in the OT. They seem to have been 
introduced after the Exile. They appear in the NT. 
as well known, and they are found everywhere in 
Palestine to-day. Various species of doves have 
been tamed in Pal. from ancient times. 

(b) Wild Animals. — The lion, which in ancient 
times haunted the jungle of the Jordan, and 
wrought havoc in the surrounding hills, has en- 
tirely disappeared. The leopard is still found in 
the Ghor, and in the valleys east of the Jordan. At 
rare intervals one bolder than the rest may visit 
the flocks in Galilee. The wild cat is seen on the 
eastern plateau. The main haunt of the brown 
bear now is Mount Hermon. Wolves are occasion- 



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ally seen in the more remote districts west of the conspire to make Palestine in a true sense " a land 
Jordan, but more frequently in the east, and in the flowing with milk and honey." Fleas are ubiqui- 
Lebanon uplands. The jackals are without num- tous, but their favourite resorts are the mud villages 
ber : issuing from cave and ruin at nightfall, they of the fellahln. Locusts are the most feared of all 
and the hyenas make the hours of darkness hideous the insect tribes. The destruction they work when 
with their howlings. Foxes too are plentiful. The they come in clouds from the desert was only too 
wild boar finds a home among the luxuriant growth well known to the Israelites of old (Lv. Il. 21f - ; 
and canebrakes in the bottom of the wadies. The Jl. I. 4 , &c). The locust is still prepared and pre- 
present writer once saw a string of over twenty, in served for food — only, however, by the poorest of 
the early morning, crossing the marsh land of el- the people. 

Huleh. The wild ass, swift of foot and shy of (/) Fishes. — The Sea of Galilee is rich in fishes, 
habit, is now seldom seen. The graceful gazelle some species being found elsewhere only in the Nile 
and antelope abound : the fallow deer also, and the and other tropical waters. As in ancient times, the 
mountain-goat, are still objects of the chase. The fish form an important part of the diet of the people 
latter is found in the mountains of Edom, and within reach of the lake (Mw. J. 9t , 1 4. 16f - ; jn. 21. 13 ). 
among the gorges and cliffs around the Dead Sea. The fish of this sea seem to be meant in Ho. 4A In 
The hare, the jerboa, mice of various species, the the Jordan, and in the waters of Lake Huleh also, the 
squirrel, the weasel, the hedgehog, the porcupine, fishermen to-day ply their task. Many species of 
and the singular animal, somewhat resembling the fish are found in the tributaries of the Jordan, 
rabbit, the rock-badger, have all their homes in Along the Mediterranean coast many fishermen 
different parts of the country. Swarms of bats are pursue their calling, especially in the district of 
found in the ruins and in the roofs of the great caves Tyre and Sidon. 
in the hills. (8) Minerals. — From what has been said under 

(c) Birds. — Singing birds in Palestine are few : Geology above, it will be understood that Palestine 
the chief being the Palestine nightingale. But if is a country of no great mineral wealth. Iron is not 
songsters are few the feathered tribes are numerous, found within the country, but the Israelites seem to 
The Heb. tzippor may have been a general term de- have known the methods of smelting (Dt. 4. 20 ; 
noting small birds like the sparrow. Among the I K. 8. 51 , &c). From the oldest times, in Wady et- 
well-known birds we may mention the eagle, various Teim, W. of Mt. Hermon, and in the neighbourhood 
species of vulture, hawk, raven, and owl ; the red- of the Dead Sea, bitumen and oil have been ob- 
legged partridge, multitudinous wild doves, larks, tained. In antiquity pitch was used as mortar in 
and quails. Among the marshes we find the pelican, building (Gn. 1 1 . 3 ). It was also employed to make 
the bittern, and the stork. The cormorant and watertight canoes and small boats of wickerwork 
many species of ducks find a livelihood in the lakes (Ex. 2. 3 ). By the Egyptians it was put to certain 
and streams, and the bright plumage of the king- purposes in connection with embalming. After 
fisher flashes among the greenery along the Jordan, earthquakes large masses are often found floating in 
Enormous flocks of birds of passage, wild geese, the Dead Sea. Sulphur in lumps the size of a nut is 
flamingoes, &c, often settle for a little on the Sea found on the north-west shore of the Dead Sea, and 
of Galilee. also in the neighbourhood of Machserus (BJ. VII. 

(d) Reptiles. — There are many species of lizards, vi. 3). Salt was obtained by the Israelites from the 
Frogs abound in the marshes, where also the turtle Dead Sea, which was called by them the " Salt Sea." 
is found. The tortoise is frequent. Snakes both It is seen in the form of whitish crystals on the shores 
innocuous and poisonous are numerous, some of the of the sea. It is also got in the bed of the pools 
python species attaining a great size. There are whence the Dead Sea water has evaporated. Rock- 
also dangerous water-snakes. In Nahr ez-Zerqa, to salt is furnished by the salt mountain Jebel Usdum, 
the south of Carmel, the crocodile may sometimes at the south end of the sea (Ek. 47. 11 ; Zp. 2. 9 ; Gn. 
be seen. Some have thought they had seen it also 19. 26 ; Ws. io. 7 ). Of great value was the clay- 
in the lower reaches of the Kishon. marl of the Jordan valley. With this, mixed with 

(e) Insects. — The insect life of Palestine is exten- straw, bricks were made (Gn. II. 3 ; Ex. I. 14 ; Ek. 
sive and varied. We may mention the scorpion ; 4. 1 ). It was used for all kinds of pottery (Is. 29. 16 , 
many species of spiders ; flies innumerable, the 45. 9 , &o). It also furnished the moulds for the 



mosquito and sandfly being especially troublesome 
the hornet, the wasp, and the wild bee. This last 



castings required for the Temple (i K. 7- 46 ). 
(9) Influence of Position, Physical Features, 

still builds its nest in the clefts of the rock, or in the and Conditions. — Palestine was in the centre of the 
slopes among the underwood. The Arabs are ex- ancient world. The great military roads, the high- 
perts in the art of securing the honey, and it is one ways of commerce and culture, ran through her 
of the most common, as it is the most delicious, of valleys and across her plains. The chief rivals for 
the desert delicacies. The flocks and the bees still empire, in the north and in the south, could strike at 

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one another only over this country. It was there- 
fore inevitable that it should become an apple of 
discord between Egypt and the monarchies on the 
Euphrates. Its possession was for them a point 
of vital importance. This applied mainly to the 
plains through which the highways passed, and of 
these Israel never obtained a secure hold. But 
while these might be for the time in the hands of 
Canaanites, Philistines, Phoenicians, Egyptians, or 
Assyrians, the uplands of Central Palestine, the main 
theatre of Israel's life, were largely isolated from the 
great world in the heart of which they lay. In 
a" measure this holds for the Northern Kingdom, 
but it is especially true of the mountain of Judah. 
Samaria, as we have seen, lies more open to approach 
from without, and her wide valleys, like the great 
Wady esb-sha c 7r, are less easy of defence. She was 
thus more exposed to the influence of surrounding 
peoples, entered readily into relations with them, 
and played a greater part in international affairs. 
Judah, on the other hand, high and remote, con- 
nected with the north by a single road, and that full 
of difficulty and peril for an invading force, ap- 
proached from east and west by narrow and steep 
denies, where one in defence might be equal to a 
hundred in attack, and from the south by exhaust- 
ing paths through desert tracts, was able to maintain 
her apartness, while yet sufficiently near to be aware 
of all that was transpiring in the world beyond. 
From her mountain heights she could view in safety 
the glittering streams of armaments rolling over the 
plains far below, and the long caravans of the mer- 
chantmen. She possessed little that could excite 
the avarice of the conqueror : even if she were 
captured her spoils would not balance the loss and 
damage she could so easily inflict upon her assailants. 
The conquest of the mountain was a task at once so 
perilous and so profitless that none would undertake 
it save of necessity. The effects of this isolation are 
marked in the character and history of her people. 
" Like her annual harvests, the historical forces of 
Judaea have always ripened a little later than those 
of Samaria. She had no part in Israel's earliest 
struggles for unity and freedom — indeed in the 
record of these she is named only as a traitor * — 
nor did the beginnings either of the kinghood or 
of prophecy spring from her. Yet the gifts which 
her older sister's more open hands were the first to 
catch, and lose, were by her redeemed, nourished, 
and consummated. For this more slow and 
stubborn function Judaea was prepared by her 
isolated and unattractive position, which kept her 
for a longer time than her sister out of the world's 
regard, and, when the world came, enabled her to 
offer a more hardy defence. Hence, too, sprang 
the defects of her virtues — her selfishness, provin- 

* Deborah's song does not mention Judah. It was the 
men of Judah who betrayed Samson to the Philistines. 



cialism, and bigotry. With a few exceptions, due 
to the genius of some of her sons, who were inspired 
beyond all other Israelites, Judaea's character and 
history may be summed up in a sentence. At all 
times in which the powers of spiritual initiative or 
expansion were needed, she was lacking, and so in 
the end came her shame. But when the times 
required concentration, indifference to the world, 
loyalty to the past, and passionate patriotism, then 
Judaea took the lead, or stood alone in Israel, and 
these virtues even rendered brilliant the hopeless, 
insane struggles of her end. . . . From the day 
when the land was taken in pledge by the dust of 
the patriarchs, till the remnant of the garrison of 
Jerusalem slaughtered themselves out at Masada, 
rather than fall into Roman hands, or till at Bether 
the very last revolt was crushed by Hadrian, Judaea 
was the birthplace, the stronghold, the sepulchre of 
God's people " (HGHL. 1 2591.). 

The cutting up of the country by natural divi- 
sions explains its occupation by so many different 
peoples. We must think of the Canaanites whom 
Israel conquered as distinct tribes, each holding a 
separate and definite part of the land. After the 
great schism under Rehoboam, the territories of 
Judah and Samaria, as we have seen, formed their 
boundaries along certain well-marked lines. The 
great cleft of the Jordan valley only too well brought 
about what at first the eastern tribes feared. It 
divided them from their brethren on the west, 
and they were the first that were finally lost to the 
commonwealth of Israel. In all periods of history 
the inhabitants of this land have been split up into 
separate communities, and the bitterness of their 
mutual antagonism seems to have been proportioned 
to the need for unity, and the sinking of tribal 
differences, in presence of the threatening world- 
powers. The history of Israel shows how difficult 
it was, in this country, to establish and maintain a 
commonwealth under one central authority. 

The political divisions in NT. times were marked 
off by natural boundaries. Galilee included all 
between the Litany and the S. edge of the plain 
of Esdraelon. Samaria lay between this and the 
boundary about two hours south of Shechem. Its 
eastern border was the Jordan to Wddy Far'ah, N. 
of Qarn Sartabeb. The Talmud draws its western 
boundary through Antipatris. Judaea lay to the 
south of this, extending on the west to the Medi- 
terranean, on the east to the Jordan and the Dead 
Sea, and on the south to the desert of Arabia 
Petraea. Persea, " the land beyond " Jordan, com- 
prised the district of the Decapolis reaching to the 
Yarmuk (with cities in other districts — see Deca- 
polis) ; Gaulonitis, on the E. of the Sea of Gali- 
lee, stretched as far as Hermon ; Batansea pro- 
bably corresponded to en-Nuqrah ; Trachelitis, 
the mod. el-Lejfi? ; Auranitis, the region of Jebel 



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ed-Druze ; and Itursea, or the Itursean country, 
wh. lay prob. somewhere to the NE. of the Sea of 
Galilee. 

Palestine is a land of many and violent contrasts : 
lofty mountain and deep valley, burning desert and 
fruitful plain, the snow of Hermon and the torrid 
heat of the Dead Sea, hot day and cold night, 
the deluge of winter and the drought of summer. 
Life meant a perpetual accommodation to sudden 
changes. The constitution, adaptable and tough, 
developed under those conditions by the ancestors 
of the Hebrew race, and bequeathed by them to 
their, children, in some measure explains the per- 
sistence of the Jewish people, in such widely diverse 
circumstances, in every part of the world to-day. 

There is no country where, within such small 
compass, the like varieties of climatic and geogra- 
phical conditions are found. Practically all condi- 
tions under which men live on the globe are repre- 
sented here. Character, individual and national, is 
influenced by environment. This largely deter- 
mines the order of ideas to which men respond. The 
great religions of the world have been confined 
in their operation mainly to lands where natural 
conditions resemble those of the land of their origin. 
Their success within these limits is not more strik- 
ing than their failure when these limits are passed. 
They appeal to needs grown under special condi- 
tions ; they are powerless when confronted with a 
character developed in a diverse environment. This 
is well illustrated by the triumphs and limitations 
of Islam. It succeeded in countries where cli- 
matic conditions in some degree resembled those of 
Arabia ; but it has knocked in vain at the gateways 
of the northern nations. The note of asceticism on 
the one hand, and of extreme license on the other, 
accord well enough with the melancholy yet pas- 
sionate temperament developed amid warmth and 
leisure ; but they ring falsely in the ears of men who 
breathe the invigorating air of the hills, whose moral 
natures are braced in the wholesome conflict with 
Nature for the means of life. 

This makes evident Divine wisdom in God's 
choice of Palestine as the scene of His supreme self- 
manifestation to man. Here we escape, in a degree 
nowhere else possible, from the limiting influence 
of special environment. The character grown in 
these conditions will be responsive to the revelation 
with the widest range of application. Other re- 
ligions are addressed largely to what is accidental 
and local in human character. The revelation that 
comes to us from Palestine, unhampered by the like 
conditions, breathing an atmosphere in which are 
mingled the chill winds of the Arctic north with the 
hot breath of the torrid south, seeks to reach and 
satisfy, not what is peculiar to tribes and nations, 
but what is common to man as man. The truth re- 
vealed to Israel in her land of rich diversities makes 



appeal to the universal heart. Its sphere of influ- 
ence is co-extensive with the human race. 

(10) Pre-Israelite Palestine.— Before the com- 
ing of the Canaanites whom Israel dispossessed, the 
country was occupied by a non-Semitic race. Little 
is yet known regarding this people and their suc- 
cessors. But by means of excavation and research, 
information is gradually gathering. The excava- 
tions at Tell el-Hesy, Gezer, and Taanach, con- 
ducted by Dr. Bliss, Mr. Macalister, and Professor 
Sellin respectively, have been specially fruitful. An 
excellent survey and summary of the results ob- 
tained is given by Dr. Driver in his Schzveich 
Lectures (1908), and, from the point of view of 
religion, by Mr. Stanley A. Cook in his Religion of 
Ancient Palestine. Already in the fourth millen- 
nium B.C., the dominion of Babylon extended over 
Palestine. To the pre-Canaanite, non-Semitic in- 
habitants probably we owe certain survivals from 
antiquity, the like of which are found also in other 
countries: (a) The menhir, a great block of stone set 
upright, tapering towards the top. This corre- 
sponds to the Heb. matztzebah, and was regarded 
as the dwelling of a deity (see Pillar), (b) The 
dolmen, consisting of two or more upright stones on 
the top of which rests another great block or slab 
of stone. They may be referred to in some cases 
where the Heb. mizbeah is used. The purpose of 
all may not have been the same. Some figured in 
the ritual of worship ; others, as bones found in 
them suggest, may have been used as graves. Rings 
of copper wire discovered, in a dolmen show that 
they do not all date from the stone age. (c) The 
cromlech, a circle of stones, often with menhir or 
dolmen in the middle. This corresponds to the 
Heb. Gilgal. Such circles of stones are often 
to be seen round the graves of the Arabs to-day. 
Flint implements and weapons have been found in 
various parts of the country. These people lived in 
Caves. Evidence of a large settlement has been 
found at Gezer. In the disposal of their dead they 
practised cremation. Survivors of this people may 
have been the Horites mentioned in Scripture. 

The pottery found in the different strata in the 
course of excavation, points to Canaanite occupa- 
tion from c. 2000 to 1200 B.C. The Canaanites be- 
longed to the Semitic stock. They are referred to 
in Scripture as consisting of various nations. The 
names by which they are known, however, probably 
denote separate divisions : or, as the names are not 
consistently applied, they may only be different 
appellations for the whole people. Thus in the 
Babylonian records the country is uniformly called 
" the land of the Amorites " (see Canaanites, and 
articles under the various names). How soon 
Egyptian influence began to be exercised we can- 
not tell. In the fifteenth cent. B.C. Palestine had 
become a province of the Egyptian empire, its 



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various divisions being ruled by tributary " kings " 
or petty chiefs, who were themselves perpetually at 
strife. For a time the Hittites were the most for- 
midable rivals of Egypt for supremacy in Palestine. 
Ramses II. distinguished himself in conflict with 
them. Colonies of Egyptian slaves were settled in 
Palestine, and many high officials made journeys 
through the country. Objects found in the exca- 
vations prove extensive intercourse between Egypt 
and Palestine from earlier times. In the records 
of the 19th and 20th dynasties, great numbers of 
Syrian products imported into Egypt are men- 
tioned. Obviously the less cultured but susceptible 
Canaanites must have been greatly influenced by the 
civilisation of Egypt. Thus we find that Phoenician 
art closely follows that of Egypt, while the script of 
the Hittites seems to be moulded upon that of the 
Egyptian hieroglyphics. In religion, also, we may 
note the blending of the Osiris legend with that of 
Adonis at Byblus. 

Babylon and Assyria exercised a still greater influ- 
ence in the development of Syrian civilisation. The 
Philistine god, Dagon, probably came from Babylon 
by way of the Canaanites. In the sixteenth cent. 
B.C. Babylonian measures, weights, and money were 
in common use. The Tel el-Amarna tablets show 
that the subject " kings " in Syria, writing to their 
overlord in Egypt, used the Babylonian language and 
the cuneiform script. It was inevitable that Baby- 
lonian ideas should have a like range and influence. 

Canaanite civilisation reached a fairly high state, 
as we gather from the OT., and also from Egyptian 
records of that time. They cultivated the fields, 
and possessed flocks and herds. The mulberry, the 
fig, the olive, and the vine yielded richly. Great 
quantities of oil were exported to Egypt. Gar- 
dens in the plain of Sharon were much admired for 
luxuriance and fruitfulness. Ancient oil- and wine- 
presses hewn in the rocks, and water cisterns, are 
found everywhere. Large districts were also re- 
served for the nomad life, to which many were still 
devoted. 

The Canaanite fortified towns were numerous 
and of no great size. They appear to us little more 
than fenced villages. They were usually situated 
on " the projecting spur of a range of hills like 
Gezer, Tell es-Safi, and Megiddo, or on an isolated 
hill rising up out of the plain, such as Tell el-Hesy 
and Taanach. We can therefore understand how 
the Canaanite cities, standing thus on eminences, 
with substantial walls, such as excavation has re- 
vealed to us, must have impressed the Israelite 
invaders : the Hebrew traditions of the Conquest 
still preserve recollections of the Canaanite cities 
being ' great ' and * fenced,' i.e. fortified, or — to 
preserve the Hebrew metaphor — ' cut off,' i.e. 
unapproachable by assailants, impregnable " (Nu. 
13.28; Jo. 14.^). 



In these cities progress was made in manufactures 
and in trade, tending to the refinement of life. The 
colours of the garments worn were more rich and 
varied than those of Egypt, showing a certain love of 
display, and dexterity in the art of weaving. Orna- 
ments of silver, gold, precious stones, and costly fur- 
niture betoken considerable proficiency in artistic 
work. Chariots of silver and gold (i.e. overlaid 
with these metals), brought from Cyprus, figure 
among the spoil taken from Syria by Tahutmes III. 
Rings and bars of the precious metals served for 
money in commerce. 

The Philistines and the Hittites were specially 
distinguished for military skill and prowess. They 
had regularly organised armies, consisting of in- 
fantry, cavalry, and chariots, led by their princes in 
orderly battle array. The heavy armed soldiers 
wore a round bronze helmet, coat of chain-mail, 
greaves, shield, javelin and spear : the light-armed 
being archers. The iron chariots of the Canaanites 
filled the Israelites with a natural fear (Jo. 17. 16 , &c). 

Only the Philistines and the Phoenicians seem to 
have made any progress in the development of 
political organisation. At an early time a sort of 
constitution appears among the Phoenicians ; and in 
Scripture we find the Philistines united in a league 
of the five chief cities, Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, 
Gath, and Ekron. For the rest we have a series 
of small communities who, under their own princes 
or " kings," zealously defend their independence 
and resist all attempts at unification. The nobles 
among them owned the bulk of the land. 

The best connected account of the religion of the 
Canaanites as illustrated by recent discoveries will 
be found in Mr. Stanley A. Cook's Religion of 
Ancient Palestine. Along with this should be read 
Curtiss' Primitive Semitic Religion To-day. Each 
civil community formed at the same time a religious 
brotherhood, under protection of their own god, 
who was the owner (Ba'aJ) or mistress (Ba'alah) of 
the place concerned (see Baal, Ashtoreth). Sanc- 
tuaries accordingly were numerous, and legends 
grew up explaining the origin of sacred places, 
stones, groves, mountains, &c. The Canaanites 
found a use for the menhirs, the sacred pillars 
of their predecessors, which persisted even into 
Israelitish times. The like is probably true of the 
sacred caves into which, from the rock above, 
offerings seem to have been sent down either to the 
dead or to subterranean deities. The knowledge 
gathered from excavations is thus summarised by 
Dr. Driver : — 

" We find high places at Tell el-Hesy, Gezer, 
Taanach, and Megiddo, with the sacred standing 
stones, and sometimes rock altars beside them : of 
rock altars, also, traces apparently exist in other 
parts of Palestine as well. The standing stones are 
found in Israelite as well as Canaanite times, as 



552 



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indeed would naturally be expected from the Old and orchard to-day must be multiplied many times 
Testament itself. Underneath the high place at to make the amount available in ancient times for 
Gezer have been found memorials of the grim rites the support of the people. We must further re- 
performed in honour of the numen loci — the bones member that there is no comparison between what 
of children which had been sacrificed, and some- is necessary to sustain life in our climate and what a 
times burned, and then deposited in jars. These man can live well on in Palestine. A brave and 
jar-buried infants have also been found at Tell el- strong manhood is often supported there on the 
Mutesellim and at Taanach. Instances after b.c. simplest diet ; and other expenses, clothing, &c, are 
1200 are, however, rare. When this practice was reduced to a minimum. That the population of 
given up, the mere lamp and bowl seems to have been ancient times far exceeded that of our day may be 
adopted as a symbolical substitute. Somewhat taken as certain ; but without data more complete 
later, also, we find instances of foundation sacrifices, and reliable than we now possess any attempt at an 
or human sacrifices offered at the foundation of a exact estimate is futile. 

house or other building, to secure the welfare of its Lit. : G. A. Smith's Historical Geography of the 

future inhabitants. We may add to the instances Holy Land is indispensable. Thomson's The Land 

already mentioned the skeleton of a child found in a and the Book is invaluable for its exact delineation of 

large jar just a yard under the great altar-stone in scenery and its account of the peoples, and their 

the residence of Ishtar-washur. Numerous figures manners and customs. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine; 

of Ashtoreth or Astarte were also found, though Sayce, Early Lsrael and the Surrounding Nations ; 

these are rarer in Israelite than in Canaanite times, the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund. 

Professor Sellin mentions, as illustrating current Baedeker's Guide Book to Palestine and Syria is of 

popular superstitions, the discovery at Taanach of great value. There is practically no limit to the 

a small jar containing sixty-six animal ankle bones, literature on Palestine. Besides the books here 

fashioned into the shape of beans, to be used pre- named and those referred to in the article, the 

sumably as lots for ascertaining the will of a deity, writer acknowledges special indebtedness to Buhl's 

many serpents' heads for use in incantations, two Geographie des alien Palastina ; Nowack's Lehr- 

serpent-like bronze knives, and golden crescents (cp. buch der Hebraischen Archaologie ; and Benzm- 

Jg. 8. 26 ) intended as amulets to ward off the evil ger's Hebraische Archaologie. 

eye " {Schweich Lectures, 88). PALLU, son of Reuben, father of Eliab, whose 



For the coming of the Israelites and the subse- 
quent history see Israel. 

(i i) Population. — No reliable statistics are avail- 
able for the population of modern Palestine. But 
it appears that in its ruined state, after centuries of 



descendants are called Palluites (Gn. 46. 9 , AV. 
" Phallu " ; Ex. 6. 14 ; Nu. 2 6. 5 - 8 ; I Ch. 5. 3 ). In 
Nu. 16. 1 prob. " Pallu " should be read for 
" Peleth " — so Josephus. 
PALMER-WORM (Jl. i. 4 , 2. 25 ; Am.4. 9 ). Some 



oppression, there cannot be much over three million have thought that the Heb. gazdm denotes a par- 
inhabitants in the whole of Syria, i.e. Palestine, with ticular species of destructive locust. There is no 
Mt. Lebanon and Northern Syria ; which means doubt that the caterpillar is meant. See Locust. 
that the population of Palestine must be consider- PALM TREE (Heb. tamdr, Gr. phoinix). The 
ably under a million, probably from 600,000 to date P., Phoenix J,actylifera, is found in groves, esp. 
700,000. Difficulty has been felt as to the figures along the seaboard of Pal. Once it must have been 
given in the OT., from which an estimate of the more abundant, as it gave its name to Phoenicia as 
population in ancient times may be made. Take, well as to Phoenix in the island of Crete. Also on 
for example, the 1,300,000 warriors mentioned in Jewish and Phoenician coins, it figures as a symbol of 
2 S. 24. 9 . If Israel numbered so many men of war the land. It favours sandy soil, with abundant 
the population could hardly be less than 5,000,00c. moisture, and a pretty warm temperature. On this 
This would mean about 500 to the square mile, the latter act. it is not frequent on the higher land. 
area being about 10,000 square miles. It is said Formerly it flourished in the Jordan valley, and 
that Palestine could never have supported anything Jericho was known as the city of P. trees (Dt. 34. 3 , 
like so large a population. It must be admitted &c). It is still found wild fm. the Sea of Gal. to 
that the numbers seem very large. The population the Dead Sea, stunted and fruitless. Many oases in 



of England works out at over 550 per square mile : 
but this includes the great cities and industrial 
centres such as were not found in Palestine. 

On the other hand, we must bear in mind the ex- 



the desert are made attractive by palms (Ex. 15. 27 , 
&c). The P. raises its head of graceful fronds to 
a height of 50 to 100 ft., and is one of the most 
beautiful features of the landscape. The female 



traordinary fertility of the soil of Palestine, and the tree is carefully fertilised with pollen fm. the male, 

extent to which it was cultivated in ancient times. The great bunches of dates are valued, esp. among 

Many a bare hillside to-day bears marks of careful the desert Arabs, the fruit being very nutritious, 

toil in far-off days. The produce of field, garden, The dates of Gaza are held in high repute. 

553 S2 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pam 



The stem is of little use as timber. The fibrous be taken of Palti's feelings in the matter 
material of the outer covering and the fronds is used 3. 15 the name is given as Paltiel 



In 2 S. 



for string, and also in wicker work. The fronds 
(" P. branches ") figure in the feasts (Lv. 23. 40 ; 



PALTIEL. (1) Son of Azzan, and prince of the 
tribe of Issachar (Nu. 34- 26 ). He was the represen- 
tative of the tribe at the division of the land. 
(2) See (2) of preceding article. 

PALTITE, one belonging to Beth-pelet, a town 
in the south of Judah (Jo. 15. 27 ; Ne. II. 26 ). The 
only Paltite known to fame was Helez, one of 
David's mighty men, who in the seventh month 
commanded a division of 24,000 men in David's 
army (2 S. 23. 26 ; 1 Ch. n. 27 , 27. 10 ). In the last 
two passages he is called the " Pelonite," probably 
in error. 

PAMPHYLIA lay on the S. coast of Asia Minor, 
with Cilicia on the east and Lycia to the west. The 
flat land between Mount Taurus and the sea is very 
fertile, but it has always been the home of malaria. 
The resources of P. do not seem to have equalled 
those of the contiguous districts. In the Persian 
war Pamphylia sent only 30 ships, while Cilicia sent 
100 and Lycia 92 (Herod, vii. 91!). Under the 
Romans Pamphylia was a province, including Lycia 
on the west and Pisidia in the uplands to the north. 
This, however, was arranged in a.d. 74. The names 
are kept distinct in the NT. In Pamphylia St. 
Paul first touched the soil of Asia Minor as an 
apostle and preacher. He came hither with Bar- 
nabas and John Mark from Cyprus, sailing up the 



Palm Tree in Desert 

Ne. 8. 15 ). They were carried as symbois of victory 
(1 M. 13. 51 ; cp. Jn. 12. 13 ; Rv. y. 9 ). The P. ap- 
pears as a carved architectural ornament (1 K. 6. 29 , 
&c. ; Ek. 41. 18 , &c). It early appealed to the 
poet's eye (Ps. 92. 12 ). Tamar was a woman's name. 
The Arab sees in the P. the symbol of the fairest of 
the desert's drs. So too the anct. song — 

" How fair and how pleasant art thou, 
O love, for delights ! 
This thy stature is like to a palm tree." 

(SS. 7l *) 

PALSY. See Diseases and Remedies. 

PALTI. (1) The man who represented Ben- 
jamin among the spies (Nu. 13. 9 ). (2) The Ben- 
jamite to whom Saul gave David's wife Michal (1 S. 
25. M , AV. Phalti). He was the son of Laish of 
Gallim. Under whatever circumstances this mar- 
riage was brought about, it is evident that he con- 
tracted a great affection for his wife. When David 
claimed her, Palti's grief was genuine and pathetic. 
It may be that David sent for her in the thought river Cestrus for five miles to Perga ; there the 
that the presence of Michal, his predecessor's party was deserted by John Mark (Ac. 13. 13 ). Re- 
daughter, in his harim would lend some air of turning from their journey into the interior, Paul 
legitimacy to his position. Little account would and Barnabas preached in Perga (Ac. I4. 24f -) and 

554 





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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Par 



finally left Pamphylia by its chief seaport, Attalia. 
Once again in later years St. Paul sighted the land as 
he sailed past (Ac. 2J. 5 ). Dorian settlers may early 
have found their way to Pamphylia, and one of their 
tribes, the Pamphyli, probably gave its name to the 
district. The Asiatic element, however, always 
predominated in the district. The chief native 
town was Perga, and there the Asiatic goddess, 
" Artemis of Perga," received divine honours. 
There were Jewish colonies in the district (i M. 
15. 23 ; Ac. 2. 10 ). Possibly also they had a synagogue 
at Perga. 

St. Paul evidently did not preach in Pamphylia on 
the occasion of his first visit. Some have thought 
this may have been owing to the pain of parting 
with John Mark. Sir W. M. Ramsay suggests that 
here he may have been attacked by the prevalent 
malaria, which produces very distressing effects — 
prostration and weakness, with a tendency to recur. 
The remedy for this is to get the patient off to the 
hills as soon as possible. This seems to have been 
the course followed in the case of St. Paul. This 
humiliating and painful sickness Prof. Ramsay 
would identify with St. Paul's " thorn in the flesh " 
(St. Paul the Traveller, 895.). The work done here 
subsequently does not seem to have been greatly 
fruitful. No church of Pamphylia appears in the 
list of 1 P. I. 1 . 

PAN. (1) Eabittim (1 Ch. 9. 31 ). Oxf. Heb. 
Lex. takes these to be " some kind of flat cakes or 
bread wafers." (2) Kiyyor, a pot for cooking (1 S. 
2. 14 ). It is also used of a basin of bronze for wash- 
ing (Ex. 30. 18 ; I K. 7. 30 , &c), and of the platform 
on which king Solomon stood and kneeled (2 Ch. 
6. 13 ). This last may have been round or bowl-like 
in shape. (3) Mahabath, " a flat iron plate, pan, or 
griddle for baking " (Lv. 2. 5 , &c). (4) Masreth, a 
pan or dish, perhaps originally dough-pan or knead- 
ing-trough (2 S. 13. 9 ). (5) Sir, a capacious pot of 
bronze, in which flesh was boiled (Ex. 27. 3 ; 2 K. 
4. 38 , &c). It is used for " washing-pot " in Ps. 60. 8 . 

(6) Parur is a small earthenware pot (Nu. II. 8 ). 

(7) Tzelahdh, a cooking-pot (2 Ch. 35. 13 ). 
PANNAG (Ek. 27. 17 ) is RV. transliteration of the 

Heb. word. AV. takes it as a place name ; RV. as 
an article of commerce, suggesting in the margin, 
" perhaps a kind of confection." Cornill would 
amend the text so as to read " wax," Cheyne would 
make it read " grape-syrup." There is no certain 
clue to its meaning. 

PAPER (Gr. chartes, 2 Jn. 12 ), the inner bark of 
the papyrus. See Writing. 

PAPHOS, a city in Cyprus, situated at the west 
end of the island, reached by St. Paul and Barnabas 
on the first missionary journey, no doubt by the 
road which connected it with Salamis, which stood 
at the eastern end (Ac. 13. 6 " 13 ). At Old Paphos, 
mod. Kuklia, about a mile from the sea, was the 




Coin of Paphos 



temple of Venus, or Aphrodite, who was said to have 
risen from the sea near by (Homer, Od. viii. 362). 
The goddess was represented by a conical stone. 
New Paphos, mod. Baffo, about seven miles to the 
north-west, was the chief town and harbour, and 
the residence of the Roman governor. The road 
between these two towns was often the scene of 
profligate processions (Strabo > xiv. 683). At New 
Paphos the apostles met 
Sergius Paulus the pro- 
consul, who is described 
as " a man of under- 
standing," and here the 
sorcerer Elymas, who 
opposed them, was put 
to confusion, blindness 
falling on him at the 
word of St. Paul. The 
proconsul seems to have 
been favourably im- 
pressed. He is the first of the great Roman officials 
named in the records as hearing the Gospel. Pro- 
bably a church was founded as a result of this 
preaching. From Paphos the missionaries sailed to 
Perga in Pamphylia. 

PARABLE (Heb. mashal ; Gr. parabolP,. In 
OT. the word really means a proverb (1 S. io. 12 ; 
Pr. 26. 7 ), a saying (Mi. 2. 4 ), a prolonged speech (Nu. 
2 3 . 7 ; Jb. 27. 1 ). 

Jerome in the Vlg. has called the book of Proverbs 
Liber Proverbioi'um, but he entitles his com. In Parabolas. 

In NT. in which alone parables occur in the sense 
in wh. we usually employ the term, they are re- 
stricted to the Synoptics ; only on the lips of our 
Lord do we find the " earthly story with a heavenly 
meaning." A parable resembles a " fable " in this, 
that it is a symbolical narrative ; but in the fable 
the lower animals, and even inanimate objects, are 
introduced as talking ; hence what is so often 
spoken of as " Jotham's P." was really a " fable." 
Further, in the " fable " there is no spiritual mean- 
ing : it enjoins prudence, &c, for this world. The 
parables of our Lord were always narratives of what 
might easily take place, if they had not occurred, as 
seems in some cases probable ; moreover, there was 
always the spiritual meaning. Unlike an " alle- 
gory," the narrative is short, involving explicitly 
only one aspect of the truth to be conveyed. 

It is at least possible that the parables were not delivered 
in the crisp shape in wh. they have descended to us, but, as 
in Jn. 10., the various features were evolved by the inter- 
ruptions of the multitude. The 13th of Mw. cd. not have 
occupied the time it did unless either there were many more 
spoken then than are recorded, or the narrative was evolved 
stage by stage in presence of His auditors. In the first case 
it is difficult to understand how the interest of the multitude 
cd. be sustained by a series of disconnected, short narratives. 

The first recorded P. is that of " the Two 

Builders" (Mw. 7. 24 " 27 ). Then we have "the 

parabolic discourse" (Mw. 13.), in wh., supple- 



555 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Par 



mented fm. Mk. 4. 26 " 28 , and with parables indicated 
in Mw. 13. 52 , we have nine parables ; these exhibit 
the historic evolution of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
The purpose of this discourse was to encourage His 
disciples in the work of evangelising the world by 
showing them that despite all obstacles the Gospel 
will cover the whole earth. There follow parables 
wh. refer to duties : " the Lost Sheep," " the 
Unmerciful Servant," " the Two Sons," " the 
Labourers in the Vineyard." After this we reach 
the parables of judgment in chapters 21., 22., and 
25. The parables in Luke are mainly directed to 
life : " the Two Debtors," " the Good Samaritan," 
" the Friend at Midnight," " the Rich Fool," " the 
Unprofitable Servants," " the Unjust Judge," and 
" the Pharisee and the Publican " show this. In 
Lk. 15. and 16. we have a group of related parables : 
" the Lost Sheep " (also given in Mw.), " the Lost 
Piece of Silver," " the Prodigal Son," " the Unjust 
Steward," " the Rich Man and Lazarus." There 
are two other parables in Lk. wh. represent the class 
so prominent in Mw., parables of judgment : " the 
Great Supper " and " the Pounds." 

Classification. — No classification is more than 
partially accurate, as each P. has many references : 
thus while the immediate lesson of " the Good 
Samaritan " is brotherly kindness, yet it also points 
to Christ as the " brother born for adversity " : 
while the P. of " the Labourers in the Vineyard " 
teaches the reward awaiting all God's people, it also 
shows how absurd is a captious, envious spirit, and 
further shows that it is never too late to enter the 
Kingdom of Heaven, even tho' it shd. be the 
eleventh hour. 

Interpretation of the P. — In older days there 
was a tendency to find spiritual meanings in every 
casual feature of a P. : thus the " two pence " in the 
P. of " the Good Samaritan " were held to repre- 
sent the two Sacraments. On the other hand, now 
the tendency is to maintain that only the one cen- 
tral truth was taught. It is impossible to lay down 
any rules ; every intelligent exegete will be careful 
to guard against sloth on the one side, wh. wd. dis- 
card every difficulty as drapery, and fancifulness 
on the other, wh. wd. magnify the minute into the 
important. 

The Reason of Parable. — It is very generally 
maintained that our Lord taught in parables in 
order to illuminate the truths He was teaching, and 
make them more easily understood. While this 
may apply to certain parables, e.g. " the Good 
Samaritan," yet this is not the purpose our Lord 
Himself assigns for His practice. It was that they 
might not be understood immediately. Had the 
multitude understood fully and at once the teach- 
ing of His parables they wd. have been repelled, it so 
ran counter to all that they had been previously 
taught. Those, however, who retained these tales 



in their memory andmeditated on them wd. find the 
parabolic husk dissolve and reach the kernel. The 
truth was gradually, and thus more effectively, 
assimilated. Books on the parables are too nume- 
rous to mention, but Arnot, Bruce, Dods, Greswell, 
Lisco, Trench, may be named. 

PARACLETE. See Spirit, The Holy. 

PARADISE, ILa P d8 € L<ros, DT)£> (SS. 4. 13 ; Ec. 
2. 5 ; Ne. 2. 8 ), Zend pairidaeza, Sansk. paradega, 
borrowed by Heb. and Greek from Old Persian, 
where it signified a royal pleasure-park, enclosed by 
walls, planted with trees, and stocked with game. 
Hence the name is applied in English to the Garden 
of Eden (Gen. 2.), wh. was similarly planted with 
trees, like the gardens of the Babylonian houses, not 
with flowers or vegetables. It had been planted by 
Yahveh Elohim " eastward " in the land of Eden, 
and to it was brought the first man to tend and pro- 
tect it from trespassers (Gn. 2. 8 ' 15 ). Numberless 
conjectures have been made as to its situation. It 
has been placed in Armenia (chiefly because of the 
resemblance of the names Pison and Phasis), in the 
neighbourhood of Damascus, in Southern Arabia, 
on the Pamir plateau (identified also with the Hara- 
Berezaiti of the Avesta and the Indian Uttara- 
Kuru), at Udyana in Northern India, in Media 
Rhagiana, and even at the North Pole. The cunei- 
form inscriptions, however, have now settled the 
question in favour of Babylonia. 

Babylonia was called by its primitive Sumerian 
inhabitants Edin, " the plain," wh. the Semites 
borrowed as Edinu. It was watered by the Nar 
Marrati, or " Salt River," a continuation to the 
north of the Persian Gulf, into wh. the Euphrates, 
Tigris, and other rivers flowed thro' separate 
mouths. As the Nar Marrati encircled the world, 
like the Greek Ocean, the mouths were also " heads," 
up wh. the tide flowed and at times inundated 
the plain. The plain itself owed its fertility to 
the " inundation " (Babylonian edu, whence the 
Heb. 1$, translated " mist," Gn. 2. 6 ) of the Euph- 
rates and Tigris. The Tigris was called Idiqna 
by the Sumerians, Idiqlat by the Semites, Heb. Hid- 
dekhel; and the city of Assur, from wh. Assyria 
took its name, was built on its west bank. The 
Gihon, wh. compassed the land of Kush, i.e. the 
Kassites, seems to be the Gikhan of the inscrip- 
tions, while Pison is the Bab. Pisannu, " a water- 
conduit," and probably meant the canal wh. 
watered the " sandy " desert of Havilah west of the 
Euphrates. Havilah corresponds with the Bab. 
Tilmun and Melukhkha, " the onyx stone " (sho- 
hem) being the sdmu or " blue-stone," and " bdel- 
lium " (b'dolakh) the budidkhu of the Babylonians. 
The tree of life is often represented on Assyro- 
Babylonian monuments guarded by two winged 
figures ; the tree of knowledge answers to the oracle- 
tree of Ea, wh. was a special object of reverence to 



556 



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Par 



several of the early Babylonian kings. This oracle- 
tree (giskin) was planted at Eridu, under the pro- 
tection of Ea, the god of wisdom and culture. 
Eridu, " the good city," was the primeval port of 
Babylonia, tho' now more than loo miles from the 
sea in consequence of the silting up of the coast, and 
an old poem describes the oracle-tree as growing in 
its sanctuary " between the mouths of the rivers on 
either side." It is noticeable that Ea was associated 
with the serpent, wh. is coupled with the tree on 
a monument from N. Syria, now in the Louvre, as 
well as on a Babylonian seal. The cherubim are the 
Babylonian Kirubi, guardian spirits set at the en- 
trance to a building or enclosure to keep off tres- 
passers, whether earthly or spiritual. The flaming 
sword has its parallel in the symbol of more than 
one Babylonian deity, and in the rock-sanctuary of 
Boghaz Keui, the Hittite capital, where the art has 
been borrowed from Babylonia, a dagger with its 
point in the ground is sculptured at the entrance 
to the inner shrine. 

In the Apocalyptic literature wh. grew up among 
the Jews after the Maccabean period, Paradise be- 
comes the place to wh. the souls of the righteous are 
transported. In the Book of Enoch it is still re- 
garded, however, as being on the earth, tho' there 
was also a belief that it had been created before the 
earth. In the Slavonic Enoch it is identified with 
the third heaven. But this is probably derived 
from 2 Cor. I2. 2 " 4 , where St. Paul seems to identify 
the two. The Paradise promised by our Lord to 
the penitent thief (Lk. 23. 43 ) is generally held to be 
an intermediate state of happiness where the soul 
will remain until the Day of Judgment, rather than 
the Sheol to wh. Christ descended. Such, at any 
rate, would probably have been the meaning at- 
tached to the word by the ordinary Jew in our 
Lord's time. And such certainly appears to be its 
meaning in Rv. 2. 7 . 

Lit. : Friedrich Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies, 
Leipzig, 1 88 1. A. H. Sayce. 

PARAH, a city in the territory of Benjamin (Jo. 
18. 23 ) named with Avim and Ophrah. It is prob. 
ident. with the mod. Fdrah, on Wddy Fdrah, a 
southern tributary of Wddy Suweimt, about three 
miles NE. of Anathoth. 

PARALYSIS. See Diseases and Remedies. 

PARAN. Comparison of the passages where it 
is named shows that the wilderness of Paran was a 
wide district, including the wilderness of Zin, with 
Kadesh (Nu. 13. 21 , 20. 1 , 27. 14 ; cp. 13. 26 , 33- 36 ) 
and the stations Taberah, Kibroth-hattaavah, and 
Mazeroth (Nu. io. 12 , &c). It lay, therefore, along 
the western edge of the Arabah, probably extending 
from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of 'Aqaba. This 
corresponds with the high desert plateau of et-Tlh. 
It furnished a refuge for Hagar and her son Ishmael 
when cast out by Abraham (Gn. 21. 21 ). For a time 



also David, fleeing from Saul, found refuge here 
(1 S. 25. 1 ). El-pdrdn, " the oak or terebinth of 
Paran " (Gn. 14. 6 ), should probably be identified 
with Elath, on the Gulf of 'Aqaba. Paran of Dt. 
33. 2 ; Hb. 3. 3 , associated with Seir, may have been 
in this district, and quite possibly may correspond 
to the Paran of 1 K. II. 18 . This Palmer (Desert of 
the Exodus, 510) would identify with Jebel Maqrab, 
c. 29 miles S. of l Ain Qadts. Paran in Dt. I. 1 may 
possibly refer to some place in Moab ; but if so it 
cannot now be identified. 

PARBAR was probably an open hall or colonnade 
on the west side of the Temple where six of the 
Levite guard were placed ; four without " at the 
causeway," and two within (1 Ch. 26. 18 ). Oxf. 
Heb. Lex. takes it to be the same word asparvdrim in 
2 K. 23. 11 (following Gesenius). It is supposed to 
be a Persian word compounded of par, " light," and 
the termination bar, which means " possessing," and 
so it came to apply to an open portico or colonnade, 
into which the sunlight has free access. In later 
Hebrew parwdr is often used for " suburbs," the 
houses there built by the well-to-do being open and 
airy. We are not surprised to meet with a Persian 
word in the late book of Chronicles. Its appear- 
ance in 2 K. 23. 11 may be due to the hand of a later 
scribe. 

PARCHED CORN is wheat roasted in the ear. 
Maize is also often roasted on the stalk, and, so 
parched, is greatly relished (Lv. 23. 14 , &c). The 
grain chosen for this operation is not quite ripe. A 
fire of dry grass and other vegetable debris plentiful 
at that time of year is made. The grain is tied 
in small bundles and held over the flames. In 
the process of roasting the outer integuments are 
consumed. When sufficiently cooked the grain is 
rubbed out in the hands and eaten. The present 
writer has often shared in the meal thus prepared, 
and found it very agreeable. 

PARCHMENT, the prepared skin of an animal 
(see Writing). Paul's " parchments " (2 Tm. 4. 13 ) 
were prob. copies of the Jewish Scriptures. The 
art of preparing the skin for writing is said to have 
been perfected in Pergamos, from which city the 
name is derived. 

PARENTS. See Family. 

PARLOUR represents three Heb. words: (1) 
i dliydh, " a roof chamber " (Jg. 3. 20 ) ; (2) lish- 
kdh, " a guest chamber " (1 S. Q. 22 ) ; (3) heder, 
" a chamber " (1 Ch. 28. 11 ). The first was a small 
chamber of slight material erected on the corner of 
the roof, used on account of its coolness for sleeping 
in. The second was a public dining-room con- 
nected with a high place, used on occasion of 
sacrifice. The third was a chamber for retirement. 

PARMASHTA, the seventh of Haman's ten sons, 
whom the Jews in Shushan put to death (Est. 9. 9 ). 

PARMENAS is the sixth name on the list of " the 



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seven " who were set apart to attend to the distribu- 
tion of the alms of, the Church to the poor and to 
the widows (Ac. 6. 5 ). He does not again appear 
in Scripture. According to tradition he suffered 
martyrdom at Philippi in the reign of Trajan. 
Along with Prochorus he is commemorated on July 
28th in the calendar of the Byzantine Church. 

PARNACH, a man of Zebulun, father of Elza- 
phan the prince of the tribe (Nu. 34« 25 ). 

PAROSH, the ancestor of a family who to the 
number of 2172 returned with Zerubbabel from 
Babylon. Later, 150 men under Zechariah came 
back with Ezra (Ez. 2. 3 ; Ne. J. 8 ; Ez. 8. 3 ). Several 
of them married foreign wives (Ez. io. 25 ). They 
took part in building the wall (Ne. 3. 25 ) and were 
represented in sealing the covenant (Ne. io. 14 ). 

PAROUSIA (Gr. parousia, "Presence," also 
" Coming," as that which leads to the Presence) is 
the word used by our Lord and His apostles for His 
Advent or Coming in glory at the end of the age to 
complete the Kdm. of God. Other terms are 
" Apocalypse " or " Revelation," and " Day of 
Christ " or " That Day." The words of Jesus on 
this subject form an important part of His teaching. 

I. Parallels to His Teaching.— (1) In the OT., 
wh. He came to fulfil. The prophets have a vivid 
expectation of the Day of the Lord, when J", will 
come to judge the heathen and the impenitent in 
Isr., to deliver the faithful, and set up His Kdm. on 
earth (Am. 5. 18 ; Is. 13. 6 ; Jl. 2. lf - ; Zp. 3. 8 ). This 
is spoken of as the Coming of J". Himself (Pss. 50. 3ff -, 
96. 13 , 98.°), and as the Advent of the Messiah (Ml. 
3. lff< ). It is to be ushered in by notable " signs " 
(Is. 13., 14. ; Jl. 3. 15f -). See esp. Dn. 7.** RV., 
where " one like unto a son of man " is described 
as coming with the clouds of heaven to receive 
dominion over all nations. 

(2) About the time of our Lord the Jews were 
filled with a fresh expectation of the Messiah and of 
the great world-crisis as connected with His Advent. 
This finds expression in the Jewish Apocalyptic 
literature, e.g. Baruch, 4 Ezra, and notably the 
Book of Enoch (ch. 48!?.), where the Son of Man 
appears in His glory as the righteous Judge of men 
(cf. Mw. 25. 31 " 45 ). Certainly the resemblance is re- 
markable. We cannot, however, believe that Jesus 
simply borrowed the current ideas of His time : if 
He laid hold of them because in their measure they 
were true, yet He moulded them to serve the ends of 
His own larger truth. 

II. What Jesus Taught. — {A) In the Synoptic 
Gospels, (a) In sending out the Twelve He said, 
" Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till 
the Son of Man be come " (Mw. io. 23 ), and after 
the Great Confession by Peter, " There be some 
standing here wh. shall not taste of death till they 
see the Son of Man coming in His kdm." (Mw. 
16. 28 ; cf. Mk. 9. 1 ; Lk. c.. 2 ?), telling also (Mw. 



16. 27 ) of His coming in glory with the angels as 
Supreme Judge. A similar strain appears in the 
chief passages, wh. are also the most difficult, viz. 
Mw. 24. (and 25.); Mk. 13.; Lk. 21. In some 
verses He speaks of the destruction of Jrs. ; in others, 
of His Coming at the end of the age. He had previ- 
ously predicted the fall of the Temple, and after de- 
scribing various "signs " of His Coming, He said, 
" This generation shall not pass, till all these things 
be fulfilled " (Mw. 24. 34 ; Mk. 13. 30 ; Lk. 21. 32 ), to 
wh. Mw. and Mk. (but not Luke) add, " Of that day 
and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of 
heaven, but My Father " (Mk., " neither the Son, 
but the Father "). Mw. and Mk. also include the 
saying, " This gospel of the kdm. shall be preached 
in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and 
then shall the end come," a work wh. was not over- 
taken before the destruction of Jrs. (a.d. 70). Per- 
haps the phrase in Lk. (21. 24 ), " Until the times of 
the Gentiles be fulfilled," corrsps. to this. We 
cannot reach a clear and consistent interpretation of 
these discourses. It is clear, however, that Jesus 
predicted the destruction of Jrs. by the Rms., and, 
taking His whole teaching, we can hardly avoid the 
conclusion that He also foretold a P. to complete 
the Kdm. (b) Further, His words to Caiaphas 
(Mw. 26. 64 ), " Hereafter (i.e. from henceforth) shall 
ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of 
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven," are 
taken to indicate His Coming as a great sptl. world- 
process, His power and triumph repeatedly dis- 
played in the crises of hist.,/?.g. not only the destruc- 
tion of Jrs., but also the Reformation, the Revivals 
of the 1 8th cent., the French Revolution. (<:) His 
counsels in view of the P. are very explicit. He en- 
joins watchfulness, sobriety, and faithfulness (Mw. 

24. 45 - 51 , 25. 1 - 30 ; Mk. I3. 32 " 3 ?; Lk. I2. 35 - 48 ,2I. 34 " 36 ). 

(B) In the fourth Gospel. Here the Coming of 
Jesus for final judgment is spoken of (5- 25 " 29 ), but is 
much less prominent. This Gospel brings out those 
parts of His teaching in wh; emphasis is laid on 
present judgment (3. 18 , RV.), and on resurrection 
and eternal life as present possessions (il. 25f -, 3 36 ). 
It omits altogether the discourses of Mw. 24., &c, 
and their place is taken by His discourse on His 
Coming by His Resurrection (14. 18 , 16. 16 ) and by 
the Holy Spirit (14. 23 , cf. 16. 7 ). 

III. The Parousia in Acts, the Epistles, 
Revelation. — With the early Christians, including 
the apostles, the P., as the great event ushering in the 
kdm. of glory, was a leading article of their creed and 
an obj. of eager and joyful anticipation (Ac. I. 11 , 
3. 19 - 21 ; 1 Cor. i. 7f -; 2 Th. i. 10 ). Then wd. be 
revealed the eternal kdm. of their Lord (2 P. I. 11 ; 
cf. 2 Tm. 4. 18 ), the heavenly Jrs. (Rv. 2i. 2ff - ; He. 
12. 22 ), and the glory of Christ (1 P. 4. 13 ), with whom 
His followers wd. be manifested (Col. 3- 4 ), seeing 
Him and made like Him (1 Jn. 3. 2 ). It wd. be for 



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them the day of salvation (i P. I. 7 " 9 ; cf. He. 9. 28 ), 
redemption (Eph. 4. 30 ), visitation (1 P. 2. 12 ), and en- 
tire renewal (Php. 3. 20f - ; I Th. 5. 23 ) ; of deliverance 
for the whole creation (Ro. 8. 21f -), and yet of judg- 
ment for the ungodly (2 Th. 1. 7 - 9 ; 2 Cor. 5. 10 ). 
As to the time of the P., the early Christians ex- 
pected it very soon (Rm. 13. 11 ; Php. 4» 5 ; Js. 5- 8 ; 
Rv. 22. 7 ) : Paul expected he wd. live to see it (1 Th. 
4. 15 ; I Cor. I5. 51f -), while he gave warning that the 
" man of sin " must first be revealed (2 Th. 2. 1 ' 12 ). 
In 2 Cor. 5. lff - he speaks of the state intervening 
between death and the P. : some therefore think he 
had come to believe the P. was not so near. 

In Rv. 2. 5 - 16 , 3. 3 » u , Christ tells the churches that 
He is coming to sift and purify them. In ch. 19. 
His Coming is described in warlike imagery, and in 
ch. 20. He is said to be coming both to reign and to 
judge. His saints rise and reign with Him for 1000 
years, and only then do the genl. resurrection and 
the final judgment take place. Many fanciful ex- 
pectations arising fm. this and other chaps, have been 
set aside by the decisive pronouncements of hist., 
and questions of interpretation still fascinate and 
divide Christian men. 

In conclusion, while there are many things we 
cannot clear up, yet (1) the Coming of Christ by the 
Spirit is of the first immediate importance ; (2) His 
Coming in the crises of His Church and of human 
affairs (Mw. 26. 64 ) is a very impressive lesson fm. 
hist, as well as fm. the NT. ; (3) we cannot explain 
away the P. at the end of the age (1 Cor. 4. 5 , II. 26 ), 
the crown and climax of those previous Comings; 
and (4) the tenor of the NT. is such as to lay em- 
phasis on the truth that He comes to individual 
men at death (Lk. 12. 20 ; Jn. 14. 3 ). See Eschatology, 
Revelation. 

Lit. : HDB. s.v. ; Salmond, Chr. Doctrine of Im- 
mortality (Index) ; Clarke, Outline of Christian 
Theology, Pt. iv. ; Greenhough, Doctrine of the Last 
Things ; Kennedy, 5/. Paul's Conception of the Last 
Things ; Muirhead, Eschatology of Jesus ; Stuart 
Russell, The Parousia. Robert G. Philip. 

PARSHANDATHA, the eldest of Haman's ten 
sons, whom the Jews put to death in Shushan 
(Est. 9 . 7 ). 

PARTHIA, PARTHIANS (Ac. 2. 9 ). Parthia was 
an empire conterminous with that of Rome, but 
mainly E. of the Euphrates. The original P. was a 
territory to the SE. of the Caspian, separated fm. it 
by the province Hyrcania, with wh. it shared the 
mountains that formed their mutual boundary. It 
was a fertile strip lying between the foot of these 
mountains and the salt desert. The inhabitants 
seem to have been congeners of the nomadic 
Scythians, but had adopted a settled life. They 
were with difficulty subdued and added to the 
Persian empire by Darius Hystaspis ; they are men- 
tioned by Herodotus as forming part of the army 



with wh. his son Xerxes invaded Greece ; along 
with the Chorasmians they were under the com- 
mand of Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces (Herod, 
vii. 66). The Parthians seem to have been quiet, 
contented subjects of Persia during the whole period 
of her dominance. When, after the battle of 
Arbela, the empire of SW. Asia passed into the 
hands of Alexander the Great, the Parthians sub- 
mitted to the conqueror without objection. When 
Alexander died the Parthians made no attempt to 
throw off the Macedonian yoke ; after the battle of 
Ipsus they peaceably accepted the rule of Seleucus 
Nicator. The strife of the Seleucids with the 
Lagids of Egypt for the possession of Ccele Syria 
was taken advantage of by Diodotus, the satrap of 
Bactria, to set up as king on his own account. As 
Antiochus Theos took no steps to recover the lost 
province, roused by a Bactrian named Arsaces, the 
Parthians revolted and made Arsaces king. In the 
Bactrian kingdom Greek influence prevailed, but 
in Parthia the native influence was predominant. 
This revolt took place in the year b.c. 250. Arsaces 
was succeeded after a short reign by his brother 
Tiridates, who assumed as throne-name that of 
Arsaces II. ; all his successors followed this example, 
and assumed the name Arsaces. He consolidated the 
kingdom founded by his brother, and addedprovinces 
to it. That for wh. P. owed him most was his de- 
feat of the attempt at reconquest made by Seleucus 
Callinicus, by which he secured the independence of 
P. fm. Syrian domination (b.c 237). His successor, 
Artabanus, invaded and conquered Media ; but 
Antiochus III. was not one to sit tamely under this : 
he turned on his adversaries, and inflicted defeat 
after defeat on Artabanus. Still he was forced by 
circumstances to make peace and leave P. inde- 
pendent. While he carried his arms into India his 
rear was defended by his allies in P. and Bactria, 
although they were not subjects. They were what 
are now called " buffer states " between Syria and 
the nomads. After two unimportant reigns, in 
b.c. 174 Mithridates succeeded to the throne, and 
further consolidated the Parthian empire ; during 
his long reign he arranged the government of the 
kingdom. Antiochus Sidetes was the last of the 
Seleucids who made a serious attempt to subdue P. ; 
at first he was successful, but, taking him by surprise, 
Phraates II. defeated him in a battle in wh. Sidetes 
fell. Mithridates the Great was the first of the 
Arsacides to come in contact with Rome through 
Sulla. Both Rome and P. feared the power of 
Mithridates of Pontus, and Sulla put down Tig- 
ranes, the Armenian ally of the Pontic king. After 
this there is a period when the history of P. is very 
obscure. In the reign of Orodes (c. b.c 60) P. 
again becomes prominent. In the first Trium- 
virate Crassus was assigned the E. as his province ; 
and he came with the avowed intention of conquer- 



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ing P. and securing much plunder fm. it. He not 
only delayed operations for a year, wh. he devoted 
to plundering the subject allies of Rome, among the 
rest the Jews, but also approached the Parthian 
territory by a line wh. was most favourable to their 
numerous cavalry, and difficult for an army com- 
posed, like the Roman, mainly of infantry. His 
campaign ended in utter disaster at Carrhse ; 
Crassus himself was killed, and the greater part 
of his army either killed or made prisoners. 
Cassius led the remains of the Roman army into 
Syria. Emboldened by this disaster, the Jews, 
but they alone, made an abortive insurrection 
against the Romans in revenge for the way in wh. 
Crassus had pillaged the Temple, but the attempt 
to follow their initial success under Pacorus was 
defeated by Cassius. During the civil war wh. fol- 
lowed P. remained quiet but observant ; Pompey 
seems to have had some negotiations with Orodes, 
king of Parthia, but these were resultless. The 
assassination of Caesar and the second civil war, 
followed by the overthrow of the republicans at 
Philippi, resulted in the over-running of Syria and 
Asia Minor again by Parthians under Pacorus, the 
son of Orodes, and a renegade Roman, Labienus. 
After little more than a year they were hurled back 
by Antony's lieutenant, Ventidius, till Pacorus was 
slain in battle, and Antigonus, whom he had set on 
the Jewish throne, was taken prisoner and executed 
by Antony's orders at the instigation of Herod. 
The success of his lieutenant led Antony to under- 
take direct operations against P. After, however, 
an initial success, he was compelled to retreat with 
the loss of nearly the third of his troops. After this 
the contests with Rome were mainly about the pos- 
session of the suzerainty of Armenia, varied by dis- 
turbances within P., wh. were fostered by Rome. 
The Jews formed a numerous class in the popula- 
tion. Most of them were probably the descendants 
of Nebuchadnezzar's captives who had not taken 
advantage of Cyrus' permission to return, nor joined 
with Ezra's company. They were favoured by the 
Parthians as affording a balance to the numerous 
Greeks, who were less than lukewarm subjects of a 
barbarian power. An act of violence done by an 
unpopular Jewish governor roused the populace, 
especially the Greeks, to an assault on the Jews wh. 
resulted in a general massacre. The conflict with 
Rome went on, accompanied by anarchy within, 
frequent rebellions, and much cruelty ; though ever 
and anon enlivened by the rising of some irregularly 
vigorous monarch. At length P. as an imperial 
power fell before a revolt of the Persians under 
Artaxerxes the Sassanid in a.d. 227, after having 
existed close upon half a millennium. Like most 
Turanians, the Parthians never amalgamated with the 
conquered races ; in this resembling the Turks, who 
are still aliens even among their co-religionists in 



Turkey. Like them, they appear to have been in- 
capable of anything like real culture. Neither in 
art nor literature have the Parthians left any note- 
worthy remains. In religion they were Zoroas- 
trians, tho' the worship of Mithra was combined 
with purer doctrines ; also a worship of the sun and 
planets seems to have been affected by them. This 
religious syncretism led them to tolerate the Jews ; 
fm. the Rabbinic schools set up in Babylon, in 
Nahardea, in Sura, and in Pumbeditha, under the 
rule of Parthians, in after days sprang the Babylonian 
Talmud. Christianity was early spread in P. ; if 
Babylon in 1 P. 5. 13 is to be taken literally, Peter 
may have spread the Gospel there, though tradition 
assigns that province to Thomas. The western 
capital of P., Ctesiphon, on the E. bank of the 
Tigris, had in it many Christians, who were under 
the superintendence of a bishop, whose see included 
that city and the Greek city of Seleuceia. They 
were numerous enough to be persecuted under the 
Sassanids, but they seem to have lived undisturbed 
by Government under the rule of the Parthian 
Arsacids. 




The Partridge 

From Wood's ' Bible Animals ," by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

PARTRIDGE. The rock partridge, Coccabis 
ckukar, is found in great numbers all over Palestine, 
both east and west of Jordan. It abounds on the 
hills round the Sea of Galilee, ' and nowhere is it 
more plentiful than in el-Leja\ Trachonitis. It is 
a red-legged bird, with beautiful markings, and is an 
object of eager pursuit by the huntsman, its flesh 
being greatly prized for the table. Another species, 
the sand partridge, Ammo-perdix Heyii, is probably 
referred to under the name of qbre' in 1 S. 26. 20 and 
Jr. 17. 11 . In the deserts of Southern Palestine it is 
especially abundant. It often escapes notice owing 
to its brown colour, so closely resembling that of its 
environment. It is often pursued by the huntsmen 
until, utterly fatigued, it is easily approached and 
knocked over with a stick. Even so, it seemed, was 
Saul endeavouring to run David to earth. 

In Jr. 17. 11 there may possibly be a reference to an 



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old Oriental belief that the partridge was accus- 
tomed to steal the eggs of its congeners and hatch 
them ; but that the young birds speedily deserted 
their false parent. " As the partridge that sitteth 
on eggs which she hath not laid (RVm.), so is he that 
getteth riches, and not by right ; in the midst of his 
days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be 
a fool." 

In Sr. II. 30 there is an allusion to a practice still 
common in Palestine, that of attracting the par- 
tridges by means of a decoy bird in a cage. 

PARVAIM, a place or region whence gold was 
brought for the adornment of Solomon's Temple 
(2 Ch. 3. 6 ). It may be identified with Farzva in 
el-Yemen (Sprenger, Alte Geog. Arabiens, 54f.), in 
which case it may be the source of the " gold of 
Sheba " ; another possible identification is with 
Sdq el-Farwain in NE. Arabia (Glazer, Skizze, ii. 

347). 

PASACH, one of the chiefs of the tribe of Asher, 

son of Japhlet (1 Ch. yp). 

PAS-DAMMIM. This is the form in which 
Ephes-dammim (i S. 17. 1 ) appears in 1 Ch. II. 13 . 

PASEAH. (1) A Judahite, son of Eshton, a 
descendant of Caleb (1 Ch. 4. 12 ). (2) Father of 
Jehoiada (RV. Joiada), one of those who repaired the 
old gate (Ne. 3. 6 ). (3) The ancestor of a family of 
Nethinim, who returned from Babylon with Zerub- 
babel (Ez. 2. 49 ; Ne. 7. 51 , AV. " Phaseah "). 

PASHUR, RV. PASHHUR. (1) Son of Mal- 
chijah, an opponent of Jeremiah (Jr. 2 1. 1 , 38. lff -). 
He appears in 1 Ch. 9. 12 and Ne. II. 12 . He acted 
as Zedekiah's messenger to Jeremiah several times. 
When Pharaoh Hophra's advance relieved for a 
space the city from the siege by the Babylonians, 
and the spirits of the people were raised, he was so 
incensed at Jeremiah's discouraging prophecies that 
he joined with others in begging the king to have 
him put to death as a traitor. This Zedekiah would 
not do ; but they cast the prophet into a dungeon 
where he came near to perishing. Nothing further 
is known of Pashhur. (2) Son of Immer, a priest 
who held a high position in the Temple (Jr. 20. 1 ). 
He also was bitterly opposed to Jeremiah in the 
reign of Jehoiakim. Because Jeremiah prophesied 
evil of Jerusalem, P. had him beaten and put in the 
stocks by the gate of Benjamin, where he left him all 
night. For this the prophet told him that his name 
had been called by the Lord, not Pashhur (which 
may prob. mean " peace ") but Magor-missabib, 
" terror on every side," and proceeded to utter a 
terrific curse upon him. He should also be ca ried 
to Babylon, and die and be buried there (Jr. 20. lff -) 
(3) The father of Gedaliah (Jr. 38. 1 ). (4) The 
ancestor of a priestly family (Ez. 2. 38 , 10. 22 ; Ne. 
7. 41 , ii. 12 ). (5) A priest who sealed the covenant 
with Nehemiah (Ne. io. 3 ). 

PASSAGE (Heb. ma'abdr, ma'bdrdk) may be 

56 



either a ford across a river (Jo. 22. 11 , &c.) or a moun- 
tain pass, e.g. that at Michmash (1 S. 13. 23 , &c). In 
Jr. 22. 20 we shd. read with RV. " Abarim," lit. 
" the parts across," the name of a range of moun- 
tains east of the Dead Sea. 

PASSION is used definitely of the sufferings of 
Christ (Ac. I. 3 ). In Ac. 14. 15 ; Js. 5. 17 , the word 1 
has the meaning of feelings or emotions. 

PASSOVER, FEAST OF THE ; FEAST OF 
UNLEAVENED BREAD. In origin the Pass- 
over was probably a very ancient feast. It may- 
have formed part of the common ritual inheritance 
of the Semites. Falling in the spring of the year, it 
was associated with the offering of the firstlings of 
the flocks and herds in sacrifice. The Feast of Un- 
leavened Bread, with which it is joined, had perhaps 
a similar history. It fell in the same season, when 
the first-fruits of the earth were also presented as 
offerings. Neither the shedding of the blood of the 
animals offered, nor the eating of unleavened bread, 
need be regarded as originating in ritual prescrip- 
tion. The animals must be killed for food ; and no 
doubt in early times men often preferred to eat 
unleavened bread, as they do to this day in the East. 
This is true especially when the fresh grain is 
gathered, in the beginning of harvest. In the insti- 
tution of the Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened 
Bread, a new significance is attached to old obser- 
vances. They are no longer to be taken as merely 
agricultural and pastoral festivals, but are definitely 
linked in memory with great historical events. They 
still hold their place among the festivals marking the: 
progress of the seasons, but now receive a monu- 
mental or commemorative value. 

Possibly the ancient feast is referred to in Ex. 3. 18 ',, 
&c, where pilgrimage is implied as part of its proper 
observance. In Ex. I2. lff> we first meet specific 
directions, where,altho' the Passover is not named, it 
is clearly intended. " This month " is that of the 
Deliverance from Egypt. It is to be the first of 
months of the year for Israel. They are instructed 
to choose a lamb for each household on the 10th 
day of the month. Two small households, being 
neighbours, might join in one lamb, which might be 
from the sheep or from the goats, a male of the first 
year, without blemish. On the evening of the 14th 
day the lamb was to be slain, and its blood sprinkled 
on the door-posts and lintel of the house where it 
was to be eaten. It was to be roasted and eaten the 
same night, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, 
nothing being left till the morning ; whatever was 
over was to be burned with fire. They were to eat 
in haste, with loins girt, feet shod, and staff in hand. 
The blood on door-posts and lintel was to secure 
their safety when the plague of God was abroad in 
Egypt. The Feast was thenceforth to be an annual 
memorial. 

Connected with this is the Feast of Unleavened 



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Bread, which, beginning on the 14th, is to last for 
seven days, during which no leaven is to be found in 
their houses under penalty of being cut off from 
among their people. This applies also to strangers 
sojourning with them. 

In vv. 2i fl - more particular instructions are given. 
The blood is to be caught in a basin and sprinkled 
with a bunch of hyssop. No one is to go out till 
morning ; and the explanation to be given to chil- 
dren who inquire as to the meaning of the Feast is 
specified. Haste in leaving Egypt is given as the 
reason for the bread being unleavened {c-p. chap. 
I3„ 6ff -). A servant or foreigner might take part in 
the Feast on condition of being circumcised. None 
of the flesh of the lamb might be carried out of the 
house, nor might a bone of it be broken.* 

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is one of the three 
occasions on which all males are to appear before 
the Lord God (23. 14ff -), and there is evidently an 
allusion to the Passover ritual in v. 18 (c-p. 34. 23ff -). 

In Lv. 23. 5ff - the Passover is fixed for the 14th day 
of the first month, the Feast of Unleavened Bread 
beginning on the 15th and lasting for seven days. A 
sheaf of the first-fruits is to be brought to the priest, 
who, on the morrow after the Sabbath, is to wave it 
before the Lord. That same day a he-lamb of the 
first year, without blemish, with appropriate meal 
and drink offerings, is to be made a burnt-offering 
unto the Lord. Only then might they eat bread, 
parched corn, or fresh ears of the new harvest. 

A year after the Deliverance from Egypt, in the 
first month ©f the year, the Passover was observed in 
the wilderness of Sinai (Nu. 9. lff -). There certain 
men who were " unclean by the dead body of a 
man," having been in contact with it for the neces- 
sary purpose of burial, were unable thus to observe 
the Passover at the appointed time. To them, and 
to such as were on a far journey, permission was given 
to celebrate the Feast a month later. In Nu. 28. 16 
the Passover is noted as falling on the 14th day of 
the first month, the Feast of Unleavened Bread be- 
ginning on the 15th (v. 17), the first and seventh 
days of that feast being " holy convocations," on 
which no servile work might be done. Each day of 
the feast, besides the " continual burnt-offering and 
the drink-offering thereof,"" two young bullocks, one 
ram, and seven lambs of the first year, without 
blemish, were to be offered as a burnt-offering, with 
their appropriate accompaniments of meal and oil ; 
and one he-goat for a sin-offering. 

In Dt. i6. lfE - the Passover is directed to be kept 
in the month of Abib {i.e. " fresh young ears 
of barley "), and it is explicitly characterised as 

* "There is so much that is antique about the Paschal 
ritual, that one is tempted to think that the law of Ex. 12. 46 , 
' Neither shall ye break a bone thereof,' may be a prohibi- 
tion of some usage descended from the rule given by Nilus, 
that the bones as well as the flesh must be consumed." 
— J?S. 2 , 345 ??. 



a memorial of the Deliverance from Egypt. No 
leavened bread is to be eaten with it, and the Feast 
of Unleavened Bread is to last six days, leading up 
to the solemn assembly of the seventh day. Pro- 
visions are here added prohibiting the keeping of the 
Passover in private houses, and appointing the place 
for its observance by all. " Thou mayest not sacri- 
fice the Passover within any of thy gates which the 
Lord thy God giveth thee, but at the place which 
the Lord thy God shall choose to cause His name to 
dwell in." The roasting and eating are to be com- 
pleted there, and only thereafter, " in the morning," 
they may return to their dwellings. The Passover 
and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are treated as 
one. The offerings also are apparently blended, 
as the Passover is sacrificed " of the flock and the 
herd." While it is marked as a memorial feast, it 
takes its place definitely as the first of the annual 
series of agricultural festivals. 

In Jo. 5. 10f - is recorded the celebration of the 
Passover at Gilgal after the crossing of the Jordan. 
Theie is no further reference to the Passover and 
the Feast of Unleavened Bread till the days of the 
kings. In the course of his reforming work Heze- 
kiah ordered the observance of the Passover. It 
could not be kept at the appointed time because a 
sufficient number of priests had not sanctified them- 
selves. It had therefore to be postponed to the 
second month. Intimation was made throughout 
the land, and the people called to the Passover at 
Jerusalem. The men of the northern tribes, on the 
whole, laughed the messengers to scorn, but some 
humbled themselves and came. Of these a num- 
ber had not sanctified themselves. For these the 
Levites killed the sacrifices, and they were per- 
mitted, despite their uncleanness, to eat the Pass- 
over. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was observed 
" with great gladness." In the fulness of their 
hearts they extended this feast other seven days, 
the king and the nobles making munificent gifts 
of animals for the sacrifices (2 Ch. 30.). Under 
Manasseh, probably, things reverted to the order 
which prevailed before Hezekiah. This continued 
during the early years of his son Josiah ; but after 
the book of the law was found in the Temple Josiah . 
ordained that the Passover should be kept " as it is 
written in the book of the covenant " (2 K. 23. 21 ; 
2 Ch. 35, lff -)- It is added, " Surely there was not 
kept such a Passover from the days of the judges that 
judged Israel," from which we may infer that many 
of the observances prescribed in the law had fallen 
into abeyance. The Passover was kept and the 
Feast of Unleavened Bread was observed with great 
joy by the captives who had returned from Babylon, 
and had kept themselves from " the filthiness of the 
heathen of the land " (Ez. 6. 19ff -). 

The Passover as described in Ek. 45. 21ff - differs in 
important respects from that of earlier days. It is 



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identified with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as a 
" feast of seven days," on which unleavened bread 
is eaten. On the first day the prince furnishes a 
bullock as a sin-offering for himself and all the 
people ; and on each of the seven days, for burnt- 
offering, seven bullocks, seven rams without blemish, 
and a he-goat as a sin-offering, with their proper 
proportion of meal and oil. The atoning aspect of 
the sacrifices is especially emphasised. There is no 
other certain reference to these feasts in the OT. 

We may assume with practical certainty that the 
Passover was observed by the Jews during the Cap- 
tivity. After the breach with the Samaritans, and 
the establishment of the rival temple on Mount 
Gerizim, there was a twofold observance of the 
feast, one in Jerusalem and one on the mountain 
beside Shechem. This last has continued to this 
day. The present writer has witnessed the scene. 



lamb was now chosen on the 7th day of Abib as for- 
merly. On the 13th day of the month, at evening, 
a thorough search was made in the house for leaven. 
After a certain hour before noon on the 14th, 
nothing leavened might be eaten. All work, with 
slight exceptions, ceased at noon. The hour of the 
daily sacrifice was put forward to leave time for the 
Passover ritual. The lamb was slain " between the 
evenings," i.e. about sunset. A liberal interpreta- 
tion was given to Ex. 12. 4 , and companies of from 
10 to 20 were formed, without regard to contiguity 
of residence. Persons chosen from each company 
took the lamb — of the first year, and more than eight 
days old — to the Temple and slew it in presence of 
the priests, who caught the blood in gold and silver 
bowls, and threw it at the base of the altar. The 
lamb was laid on staves resting on the shoulders of 
two men, flayed and cleansed by the priests, and the 




Samaritans at the Passover on Mount Gerizim 

The worshippers in white robes in left centre : with the great crowd of onlookers annually attracted to the mountain 

by the celebration. 

The whole Samaritan community moves to the parts which were to be burned on the altar removed 
place of sacrifice on the summit of Gerizim. There and prepared for burning. While this was being 
the rites are performed with careful reference to the done the Levites chanted the ballet (Pss. 1 1 3.-1 1 8.). 
directions contained in Exodus. This celebration The lamb was then taken to the place selected by 
on the mountain was interrupted for about forty the company, and roasted whole, on a spit of pome- 
years, during the last cent., by the Moslem autho- granate wood, which exuded no sap. No bone of 
rities, and the feast had to be observed in their own the lamb was to be broken, and special care was 
quarter of the city. The right to resort to the taken that it should touch nothing — not even the 
ancient sanctuary of their people on Mt. Gerizim side of the oven. If it touched anything, the part 
for this purpose was restored through the influence which had been in contact was cut off. For the 
of Mr. Finn, then British Consul in Jerusalem. In supper, which must be completed before mid- 
earlier times a second Passover was celebrated in the night, the other materials necessary were four cups 
following month, for any who were unable to take of red wine for each member of the company ; 
part in the first ; but this, has now been long dis- the harosetb, a compound of nuts, raisins, apples, 
continued. almonds, &c. — not obligatory but usual ; the bitter 
After the Exile the Jews gradually introduced herbs, which were to be dipped once in salt water 
modifications in the observance of the Passover, and or vinegar and once in the harosetb ; and the un- 
in the time of Christ the practice seems to have been unleavened cakes. The following order was ob- 
as follows : The last month of the oldyear (Adar) was served in the feast : (a) A blessing was spoken over 
devoted to preparatory purifications, &c, a point the first cup of wine, and the wine was drunk, 
being made of whiting the sepulchres, so that no (b) Bitter herbs were placed on the table, and part 
one might contract uncleanness by contact with eaten, (c) The unleavened cakes were handed 
them unawares. There is no evidence that the round, (d) The lamb was placed before the head 

563 



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of the household and the -second cup of wine was 
•filled, (e) One, usually the youngest present, asked 
what the meaning of the feast might be, and an ex- 
planation was given by the father. (/) The first 
part of the hallel was sung (Pss. 113., 114.). (g) 
The lamb was eaten, (h) The third cup of wine 
was drunk, and, after a brief interval, the fourth. 
(j) The second part of the hallel -was sung (Pss. 115.- 
Il8.). Sometimes a fifth cup of wine was drunk, 
when the great hallel was sung (Pss. 120.-1 38.). This 
ended the feast proper, but dessert might follow. 
. The bitter herbs might be water-cress, pepper- 
cress, endive, &c. They were easily obtained, and 
from of old they have been largely eaten in Egypt 
and in the East generally. In the feast they came 
to symbolise the bitterness of Egyptian bondage. 
In the haroseth the fruit was bruised and mixed. It 
was symbolic of the clay in which the children of 
Israel had toiled in Egypt, and was required to be 
thick. In connection with this feast the hagiga 
is mentioned. This was a freewill peace-offering, 
taken from flock or herd, male or female, but with- 
out blemish. It was taken to the door of the 
sanctuary, where the offerer laid his hand on its head 
and slew it. The priest sprinkled its blood on the 
altar, and burned the fat and kidneys. Certain 
parts were given to the priests, and the rest might be 
>eaten by the offerer and his guests. It had, how- 
ever, to be consumed on that day or the day fol- 
lowing ; whatever remained till the third day was 
burned. 

A second, or, as the Talmud calls it, " little " 
Passover, was held a month later, for the benefit of 
any who might be prevented from taking part in the 
first. It differed from the first in that it lasted only 
one day : the hallel was required to be sung only 
when the lamb was slaughtered ; and it does not 
appear that the same care was exercised to remove 
all leaven from the house (see Edersheim, The 
Temple and its Service, passim). 

While in ancient days the Passover was eaten 
standing, with loins girt, feet shod, and staff in hand, 
as if ready for a journey, in later times the finest 
holiday attire was worn, and the feast was eaten re- 
clining at table, signifying, as the rabbis said, that 
God had given to His people the promised rest. 

We have seen that in its origin the Passover is 
very ancient. It is the one feast instituted before 
the Exodus. It is associated with a demand for 
permission to make a sacrifice which involved a 
pilgrimage. This may have been the offering of the 
first-born ; and some have thought that the smiting 
of the first-born of the Egyptians may have been 
the punishment inflicted by God because the per- 
mission was refused. The offerings of firstlings and 
of first-fruits, falling naturally at the same season of 
the year, go back to high antiquity {cp. the story of 
Cain and Abel). The Passover cannot, however, be 



described as the continuation of any particular 
festival. It might almost be called a summary of 
the sacrificial ritual, embodying such features as 
the sprinkling of the blood, which marks the aton- 
ing sacrifice — the sin-offering ; the roasting of the 
flesh, as in the burnt-offering ; and the eating of 
the flesh by the offerer, which is characteristic of the 
peace-offering. Coincidence in date no doubt led 
to its amalgamation with the Feast of Unleavened 
Bread. This was observed when the sickle was first 
put into the barley crop — the earliest of the cereals 
— when in their eagerness to taste the fruit of the 
new year, men did not wait for the process of leaven- 
ing. The Passover was no doubt a solemn feast, 
with elements of sombreness ; but the Feast of Un- 
leavened Bread was a joyful festival, the first of the 
series including the Feast of Weeks and the Feast 
of Tabernacles, which marked the progress of the 
agricultural year. 

PATARA, an important Lycian seaport, situated 
about sixty stadia SE. of the mouth of the river 




Coin of Patara 

Xanthus. A convenient place of call for vessels en- 
gaged in trade between the Levant and the West, 
with a rich valley behind it, Patara was probably a 
prosperous place in ancient times. It was noted for 
its devotion to the worship of Apollo, and here was 
a famous oracle (Horace Od. III. iv. 64). It de- 
veloped a considerable commerce in the third cent. 
b.c, when Ptolemy Philadelphus extended the city 
and called it by the name of his queen, Arsinoe. 
The name lasted only as long as the Egyptian 
supremacy. Patara was touched by St. Paul, who 
came from the island of Rhodes, which lies to the 
west. Here he found a ship " crossing over unto 
Phoenicia." The direct course to Tyre was possible 
because of the prevailing west winds (Ac. 2i. lf -). 
The ancient site is marked by the mod. village 
Gelemish. There are considerable ruins, notably of 
a theatre, baths, and a triple arch, which was one of 
the gates of the city. The harbour is now blocked 
up with sand. 

PATHROS, PATHRUSIM. In Is. n. 11 it is 
said that the Lord will recover the remnant of His 
people " from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from 
Cush (Ethiopia)." This points to a position be- 
tween Egypt (Mitzraim) and Ethiopia. Jr. 44. 1 



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places it south of Noph, i.e. Memphis : while in 
v. 15 it is distinguished from " Egypt " ; so also in 
Ek. 29. 14 , 30. 14 . It represents the Egyptian pteres, 
" south land," and denotes Southern, i.e. Upper 
Egypt, stretching from the neighbourhood of Mem- 
phis to Syene; Mitzraim ("Egypt"), applied 
to Lower Egypt, comprising the Delta and the 
valley as far south as Memphis. The prophets were 
thus aware of the old political division of the land. 
Upper Egypt was but little known to the outside 
world, but Jews were probably found there from 
very early times. Recently discovered papyri fur- 
nish abundant proof of a strong Jewish colony being 
settled at Syene, in the extreme south, more than 
half a millennium before the coming of Christ. 
Pathrusim, the inhabitants of Pathros, are repre- 
sented as the offspring of Mitzraim (Gn. io. 14 ; 
1 Ch. 1.12). 

PATMOS, a bare, rocky island in that part of the 
iEgean called the Sea of Icaria, one of the Sporades 
off the coast of Caria, now called Patino. It is 
about ten miles long and six miles broad, with an 
exceedingly irregular coast-line. The loftiest hill, 
Hagios Elias, is over 800 ft. high. In the Middle 
Ages it was known by the name of Palmosa ; but the 
palms have now disappeared. A narrow isthmus 
connects the northern and southern parts of the 
island. Here, on the east side, lay the ancient 
capital and harbour. Its great antiquity is proved 
by the cyclopean ruins of the citadel. The modern 
town lies somewhat to the south, and is dominated 
by the monastery of St. John, an imposing building, 
founded in the eleventh century. The cave of the 
Apocalypse is shown about half way up the hill. 
Patmos was famous in former times for its library, 
which has now fallen on evil days. Here, in 18 14, 
was purchased the famous Codex of Plato, dating 
from the ninth cent., now in the Bodleian. Tradi- 
tion says that St. John was banished to Patmos in 
Domitian's 14th year, and returned to Ephesus in 
a.d. 96 (Eusebius, HE. iii. 1 8). 

PATRIARCH is the name generally applied to 
the men, of whose lives a record is preserved, before 
the time of Moses. It is applied more particularly 
to the great fathers of the Jewish race, Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob ; and to the sons of the last. The 
title is once given to David (Ac. 2. 29 ). By the 
" patriarchal system " is meant the order of society 
which grew naturally out of the family before 
nations with ordered government arose. The 
" patriarchal dispensation " refers to the fellowship 
with God vouchsafed to men before the choice of 
Israel. 

PATROBUS, one of the Christians in Rome 
saluted by St. Paul (Rm. 16. 14 ). Tradition gives 
him a place among the seventy disciples. He is 
said to have become bishop of Puteoli, and to have 
been martyred on Nov. 4 along with Philologus. 



PATTERN. Three Heb. words are so trd. 
(1) Mar' eh, lit. " appearance " (Nu. 8. 4 ). (2) Tab- 
nltb, " a pattern " or " figure " of something to be 
constructed (Ex. 25.9 ; 2 K. 16. 10 , &c). (3) Tokb- 
nlth, lit. " measurement " or " proportion " (Ek. 
43.1°). It also stands for three Greek words. 
(1) Tupos, " model." It is something to be copied 
(Tt. 2. 7 , RV. " ensample "). In He. 8. 5 it is = Heb. 
tabriith. (2) Hupodeigma, lit. " copy " (He. 8. 5 , AV. 
" example," RV. " copy," g. 23 ). (3) Hupotuposis. 
is a sketch or outline (1 Tm. I. 16 ; 2 Tm. I. 13 ). 

PAU. See Pai. 

PAUL, the Latin name of the apostle of the 
Gentiles ; his Heb. name was Saul. He is intro- 
duced to us in the bk. of Acts in connection with 
the martyrdom of Stephen (Ac. 7. 58 ) ; he is then 
a member of the Sanhedrin, prominent, though 
young. Of his earlier life we learn fm. his speeches 
recorded in Acts that he was a native of Tarsus (Ac. 
22. 3 ) but had inherited Roman citizenship (Ac. 
22. 26 " 28 ). As a Jew P. belonged to the tribe of 
Benjamin (Rm. II. 1 ; Php. 3. 5 ) : by religion he was 
a Pharisee (Ac. 23. 6 , 26. 5 ). Early in life he had 
been sent to Jrs. to be educated for the post of rabbi 
in the school of Gamaliel (Ac. 22. 3 ). 

How the ancestor fm. whom P. inherited his 
Roman citizenship acquired it we have no means of 
knowing. It is not impossible that P.'s grandfather 
had been taken by Pompey to Rome as a captive, 
sold as a slave, and, becoming a freedman, acquired 
wealth and retired to Tarsus. The tradition re- 
corded by Jerome, that P. belonged to Giscala, must 
only refer to his grandparents. Jerome's statement 
is impossible as it stands (Wrede adopts it as true). 
The date of Paul's birth is uncertain, but Lewin 
conjectures a.d. 2. The fact that P. passed his early 
youth in a Gentile university city like Tarsus meant 
considerable intercourse with Gentiles and some 
knowledge of Hellenism. Though the Jews for 
convenience in regard to food collected in certain 
neighbourhoods, there was nothing like the medi- 
aeval Ghetto in the cities of the Roman empire. P. 
knew something of Greek Literature, as is proved by 
his quotations. He knew that more than one poet 
had the phrase, " We are also His offspring " (Ac. 
17. 28 ) ; he can complete the common quotation fm. 
Epimenides (Tt. I. 12 ). His stay in Jrs. probably 
coincided with our Lord's ministry ; so P. may have 
seen Him (2 Cor. 5. i6 ), but, it is needless to say, was 
not influenced by Him. 

After his novitiate P. seems to have risen rapidly 
into prominence, till he was admitted into the 
Sanhedrin (Ac. 26. 10 ). The rise of Christianity 
roused his opposition alike for patriotic and for 
religious reasons ; especially when its consequences 
were expounded by Stephen. He vehemently aided 
the efforts of the High Priest to annihilate the sect 
by persecution. Jerusalem was too narrow a sphere 



565 



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for his zeal : learning that the " sect " had spread to 
other cities, and that the Judaism of the dispersion" 
was infected by " this way," he importuned the 
High Priest for letters of authorisation by wh. he wd. 
be able to carry his work of persecution even into 
strange cities. Whatever show of hesitancy he mt. 
present, the High Priest was nothing loath to grant 
his request. Nearing Damascus, wh. he made his 
first objective, and whither he went as accredited 
representative of the High Priest, Jesus met him. 
A light shone round about him brighter than the 
noonday sun, and a voice declared : "I am Jesus 
whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick 
against the pricks " — a sentence that indicates that 
Paul had begun to suspect that Christianity was 
after all true, and that this fierce persecution was 



received him and introduced him to the apostles, 
who with the other believers at first shunned and 
suspected him. In Jrs. his life was again threatened, 
and he was sent away to his native city Tarsus. 
Although we have no details we may assume that P. 
proclaimed his new-found faith among the friends of 
his boyhood, with no marked success it wd. seem, 
altho' when he sets out on his second missionary 
journey he strengthens churches in Cilicia as well 
as in Syria ; these Cilician churches may have owed 
their origin to his early preaching. Meantime the 
Gospel had spread to Antioch, and Gentiles were 
entering the Church. Barnabas was sent fm. Jrs. 
by the apostles to investigate the matter on the spot. 
Broad-minded as he was, he saw not only a new 
sphere for the spread of Christianity, but also an 




Tarsus, with Mount Taurus 

partly to convince himself. Stricken to the earth, opening for his friend P., so he went to Tarsus to 
stunned and blinded, he had to be led into the city, seek him out and bring him to Antioch. Almost at 
The Lord who had met him on the way had His once, it wd. seem, Saul becameprominent among the 
servants in Damascus, and when Saul was lying teachers of the new faith. Soon the Mother Church 
blinded, confounded, wrestling in prayer, sent one of Gentile Christianity, led by the Divine Spirit, 
of them to open his eyes physically and spiritually, determined to pass on the gift they had received to 
Conversation with Ananias deepened the effect of other Gentiles, and Barnabas and P. were selected 
the vision, and P. became a Christian. He departed to be the messengers of the Church. Fm. Seleucia, 
for a season into Arabia, most likely to think out the port of Antioch, are to be seen the peaks of 
what all this meant : he had to reconstruct his Cyprus, the birthplace of Barnabas. Thither the 
beliefs in the light of the new faith. He may have two friends sailed, accompanied by John Mark, the 
proclaimed Christ even there, but soon returned to nephew of Barnabas, and landing at Salamis, pro- 
preach in Damascus the faith wh. once he destroyed, ceeded fm. city to city, probably along the southern 
The Jews, unable to meet in argument the accom- coast to Paphos, the residence of the Roman 
plished Jerusalem rabbi, endeavoured to silence him " deputy " (proconsul), Sergius Paulus. Like not 
by the easy method of assassination ; but the dis- a few of the governing class in Rome of that time, 
ciples, aware of the plot, let him down over the Sergius was interested in philosophical, i.e., re- 
city wall in a basket. He proceeded to Jrs., where ligious questions ; so the two Jews were brought 
Barnabas, who probably had known him as a youth, before him. They find their efforts to enlighten 

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the proconsul neutralised by another Jew, Elymas 
" the sorcerer." It wd. seem that Elymas en- 
deavoured by sophistical arguments to hinder the 
proconsul fm. recognising the truth. P. rebukes 
him as " full of all subtilty, the child of the devil, 
the enemy of all righteousness," and emphasises his 
rebuke by striking him with blindness (Ac. 13. 6 " 12 ). 
When it is said that " the deputy believed," as there 
is nothing said of baptism following, we may not 
regard his belief as more than a recognition that 
there was " something " in the doctrine of these 
missionaries more than the magic of the soothsayers. 
At the same time we must remember that this 
negative conclusion is based largely on the fact that 
we have no further notice of Sergius Paulus ; he for 
aught we know may have been one of the founders of 



ceeded inland to Antioch in Pisidia. On the 
Sabbath P. and Barnabas entered the synagogue. 
An opportunity of speech being given them, P. de- 
livered an address in wh. he proved fm. the prophets 
that Jesus was not only the Christ of the Jews, but 
also that He was the Divine Saviour of the world. 
This doctrine was rejected by the majority of the 
Jews : a Messiah who had been crucified overturned 
all their hopes of imperial power through Him — a 
Messiah who was Saviour of the Gentiles sapped the 
foundation of their belief in their special privileges : 
so these missionaries turned to the Gentiles. The 
Gospel had so much success among them that this 
led the Jews to stir up " persecution agst. P. and 
Barnabas." Leaving Antioch they went to Ico- 
nium, a city lying E. of Antioch and reckoned as in 




Cyprus, Larnaca (Ancient Citium) 

the Church in Rome, and death may have taken him Phrygia by Xenophon, but by Strabo as in Lycaonia 

ere the apostle reached that city seventeen years — at this time it formed part of the province of 

after. Even the twelve years that elapsed between Galatia. There the history of their work in Antioch 

Paul's visit to Cyprus and the writing of the Epistle was repeated, only that the Jews and their rulers 

to the Romans may explain why he is not named, if wished to excite the mob to stone the apostles ; 

the last chapter be not really addressed to Ephesus. their hatred was thus more deadly. They left then 

Up to this point the apostle had been called " Saul," for Lystra, where the cure of an impotent man led 

after this it is always P. Some have thought that the people to imagine that, as in the old legend 

there was a connection between the conversion of of Baucis and Philemon, localised so near them, 

Sergius Paulus and the adoption of the Roman Zeus and Hermes had revisited their land. Full 

name. The probability is that the adoption of the of religious excitement, the Hellenic culture slips 

Roman name in preference to the Jewish was the away from them; they forget the Greek tongue, and 

outward and visible sign of P.'s acceptance of the in their ancestral Lycaonian tongue they shout out, 

office of " apostle to the Gentiles." There is some- " The gods have come down in the likeness of men," 

thing grotesquely un-Pauline in the suggestion that, and, aided and encouraged by the priest of Zeus, 

as Metellus fm. his conquest of Crete was called they attempt to offer sacrifice to them. This with 

Creticus, so Saul took " Paul " fm. his conversion of difficulty the apostles prevented them doing, de- 

Paulus ; yet this is the opinion of St. Jerome. daring, " We also are men of like passions with 

Leaving Paphos, the little band sailed to Perga, you " (Ac. 14. 15 ), and denounced the worship of the 

where Mark deserted them. They at once pro- false gods for whom they were mistaken. Under 

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the influence of the Jews fm. Iconium and Antioch 
the mood of the multitude changed ; P. was stoned 
and dragged out of the city for dead. He revived, 
however, and along with Barnabas proceeded to 
Derbe. Long after we find " Gaius of Derbe " one 
of the apostle's chosen associates (Ac. 20. 4 ) ; probably 
he was one of the many men taught by the apostle 
at this time. After a short but fruitful stay there 
they retraced their steps, revisiting the churches 
they had founded, and embarked at Attaleia for the 
greater Antioch whence they had come. 

The cities they had just evangelised, though three of them 
were in the district of Lycaonia and one in that of Phrygia 
(Pisidia), were all in the Roman province of Galatia. 
Professor Sir Wm. Ramsay contends with great acuteness 
that these are the churches addressed in the Ep. to the 
Galatians ; but see GALATIA. 

This preaching of the Gospel with so much ac- 
ceptance among the Gentiles caused questionings in 
the Mother Church in Jrs. Paul and Barnabas were 
sent to Jrs. from Antioch to report and ask advice. 
The little Christian communities with the name 
ekklesia (church), adopted some of the notions con- 
noted by it in the minds of Hellenic believers. 
Even in the cases of cities claiming the most absolute 
independence the opinion of the ekklesia of the 
metropolis or " mother city " was always of weight. 
After a discussion a compromise was agreed to, at 
the suggestion of James, and this decision was em- 
bodied in a letter to the Gentiles who had embraced 
the faith ; the converts were to submit to certain 
ceremonial restrictions as to food, but were relieved 
fm. circumcision (Ac. 15. 1 - 30 ). 

There has always been a difficulty felt in the presence of 
" fornication" (a moral delinquency) among the purely cere- 
monial matters. Bentley's suggestion of iropKeia, " swine's 
flesh," instead of iropvela, " fornication," is. at least plausible, 
tho' no MS. authority has been found for it \ as we learn 
fm. 2 M. and 4 M. how very abhorrent to the Jew was the 
eating of " swine's flesh," for the sake of Christian unity it 
wd. be as needful to abstain fm. it as fm. ' ' things strangled 
and fm. blood." At the same time it is not to be denied 
that the sin referred to was very lightly regarded among the 
Greeks, and even when they had become converts to Chris- 
tianity it wd. be difficult for them at once to rise to the 
loftier morality of Christ, and so they mt. be prone to con- 
sider it as merely a law binding on the Jews. 

Bearing letters wh. conveyed the apostolic " Ire- 
nicon," P. and Barnabas accompanied Silas and 
Judas Barsabas to the Church of Antioch, from wh. 
they had come to Jrs. Peter appears soon to have 
followed the deputies to Antioch. While at first 
loyal to the compromise, on the arrival of certain 
believers fm. Jrs. he Judaised, and led Barnabas to 
do so likewise. This tergiversation was sternly 
rebuked in public assembly by P. (Gal. 2. 11 " 14 ). 
Shortly after this P. proposed to Barnabas that they 
shd. revisit the churches they had founded. Bar- 
nabas was willing to do so, but wished to give his 
nephew Mark an opportunity of redeeming himself. 
P. wd. not have him on any account. The friends 
quarrelled and separated ; Barnabas and Mark went 



to Cyprus ; P., accompanied by Silas, went by land, 
visiting on their way to Galatia the churches in 
Syria and in Paul's native province of Cilicia. At 
Lystra P. joined to his company Timothy, son of a 
Jewess, Eunice, by a Greek father ; him P. circum- 
cised in order to forestall the opposition of the 
Judaisers. Thence he proceeded westward, making 
known to the Gentile churches the decision of the 
Mother Church. In some providential way P. was 
hindered fm. preaching in the Roman province of 
Asia — in Ephesus,the capital of wh.,he was to estab- 
lish such a flourishing church — till he came toTroas. 
Here, moved by a vision, he took the momentous 
decision of carrying the Gospel into Europe. 

Joined now by the historian Luke, the company 
sailed over the iEgean to Macedonia. After land- 
ing at Samothracia they hurried on to Philippi, wh. 
had the honour to be a Roman colony. There the 
Jewish community was neither large nor influential, 
as they do not seem to have had a synagogue but a 
proseuche, " a place for prayer," outside the city by 
the banks of the river. They found an entrance into 
the hearts of the people largely through the influ- 
ence of Lydia, a seller of purple. Their progress 
was arrested not by the Jews but by the owners of a 
mad girl, whose maunderings were regarded as Divine 
oracles. Some chord in her disordered brain had 
been touched by the preaching of Paul, and follow- 
ing him and Silas she declared : " These men are the 
servants of the Most High God, wh. show unto us 
the way of salvation." Following Christ's example, 
Paul wd. have none of such testimony. He com- 
manded the spirit of " Pytho " to come out of her 
and so healed her madness, and the money gained 
fm. her soothsaying ceased. Suborned by the pro- 
prietors of this slave girl, who urged that the 
customs enjoined by the apostle were not " lawful 
for them to observe," as they were Romans, the 
multitude, excited by this appeal to their pride and 
their patriotism, rose and haled P. and Silas before 
the magistrates, who commanded them to be beaten 
and sent them to prison. It is difficult to under- 
stand what it was in the apostle's teaching that wd. 
afford a plausible ground for accusing him and those 
with him of teaching unlawful customs. There was 
a law against foreign religions, but this had long been 
in abeyance in Rome itself. It probably was an 
accusation of sorcery against them and of teaching it 
to their disciples. While they were in the prison 
an earthquake shook the building ; the terrified 
jailer, to whom the apostles presented the Gospel, 
declared himself a convert. The magistrates now 
wished to release their prisoners, but P. claimed his 
rights as a Roman citizen, and forced an apology fm. 
them. Having taken good-bye of Lydia and the 
church in her house, P. and those with him took 
their departure (Ac. i6. 11-40 ). Paul always seems to 
have had a specially endearing relationship to this 



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earliest of European churches. Renan wd. explain 
this by holding that Paul was married to Lydia, and 
that she is the " true yokefellow " of Php. 4A 
They passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia 
and hastened on to Thessalonica. Here there was a 



correct but a few years earlier ; further, there is the 
naming of the " deputy." Afalsarius had no need 
then to be so careful. 

After a ministry of eighteen months, during wh. 
he wrote the two Epp. to the Thessalonians, P. 



larger Jewish community, and to them first P. and sailed for Ephesus, where, however, he was unable 
Silas preached, and through them the Christian to stay. He sailed thence to Caesarea, and fm. there 
missionaries reached the Gentiles ; then the history paid a flying visit to Jrs. to salute the Mother 
of the work in Iconium was repeated ; the Jews Church. P. then returned to Antioch, whence 
roused the people against P. and his companions. he had set out (Ac. 18. 18 " 23 ). After P. had left 

Here in passing may be noted a proof of the Corinth for Jrs., an Alexandrian Jew, Apollos, 
minute accuracy of Luke — the magistrates in Thes- arrived there. His message was really a call to re- 
salonica are called " politarchs," a title proved by pentance, in accordance with the preaching of John 
inscriptions to be that by wh. they were then known, the Baptist, in the hope of a coming Messiah. In- 
whereas the magistrates in Philippi are strategoi, structed " in the way of God more perfectly " by 
the received Greek tr. of the Latin decemviri, who Aquilaand Priscilla, he became an eloquent preacher 
were the magistrates in a " colony." of Christ (Ac. 18. 24 " 28 ). His presence in Corinth 

The believers sent P. to Berea, where on a smaller afforded a starting-point for those divisions for wh. 
scale the same succession of events occurred (Ac. the Corinthian Church so soon became notorious 
17. 1 * 13 ). P. was sent on by sea to Athens. There 

he spent his time while waiting for Silas and __„-■'-'""-■'■■ ' ' - - '- " - '"""" "" " '-- =, 

Timothy; the former seems to have tarried longer 
in Berea, and only the latter came on to Athens. In 
his anxiety for the Thessalonian believers he sends 
Timothy away to Thessalonica, and is once more 
left alone (1 Th. 3. 1 ). As the Jews do not seem to 
have had a synagogue in Athens, Paul had not his 
usual port of entrance into the city's life, so he was 
for. the time a sightseer, and saw an altar to the 
Unknown God, of wh. there were probably several. 
Since he cd. not enter into the life of the city by the 
synagogue, he used the knowledge of the customs 
of philosophers acquired in Tarsus ; and in going 
through the city he entered into disputes with the 
representatives of the various philosophic sects. As 
it was a secluded spot, the philosophers brought P. 
to the Areopagus to hear what he had to say. 
Altho' his speech was a model of wise conciliatory 
advocacy, the Gospel does not seem to have had 
much success in Athens (Ac. 17. 14 " 34 ). To these 
philosophers truth was a thing to be argued about, 
not a thing by wh. a man cd. live, for wh. a man 
wd. die, as it was to Paul. Without waiting for his 
friends P. went on to Corinth. There he made 
friends with Aquila, like himself a tentmaker, who 
with his wife Priscilla had left Rome shortly before, 
in consequence of the decree of Claudius expelling 
all Jews fm. the city. At first it seemed as if P.'s 
fate wd. pursue him here ; first success, then uproar 
through the envy of the Jews, then expulsion by the 
civil authorities. But when the Jews brought P. 
before the judgment-seat of Gallio the wise refusal 
of this Roman officer to involve himself in questions 
of their law gave freedom for the spread of the 
Gospel (Ac. 18. 1 - 18 ). 

In passing, again let us note the accuracy with wh. 
Luke designates the office of Gallio : he is anthu- 
patos, " proconsul," a title wh. wd. have been in- 




Site of Ephesus 

(1 Cor. I. 11 " 13 ). While some were faithful to the 
apostle fm. whose lips they had received the Gospel, 
others were charmed by the polished periods of the 
accomplished Alexandrian. The Judaisers had se- 
duced some to believe that Peter was a truer ex- 
ponent of Christianity than Paul cd. be, while yet 
others wd. seem to have restricted themselves to the 
words of Jesus Himself. P. does not seem to have 
rested long in Antioch, but to have set out to revisit 
the churches in Lycaonia and Phrygia, " strengthen- 
ing the disciples." 

That Lycaonia is meant by FaXart/o? x^PV 1S evident 
fm. the fact that P. is confirming churches already founded ; 
while Lycaonia lies naturally between Antioch and Phrygia. 
The district of Galatia, as distinct fm. the province, is so far 
to the north that Phrygia wd. not naturally be visited by 
one coming fm. Antioch on the way to it, nor by one on the 
way to Phrygia ; but see Galatia. 

Having passed through the eastern portion of 
Asia Minor, P. arrived in Ephesus to pay the pro- 
longed visit he had already promised. Ephesus was 
the seat of the Roman government of the province 
of Asia — all the roads converged on it. It was also a 
great commercial centre, and moreover the seat of 
the worship of Diana — a most important strategic 



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position for the conquest of Asia for Christ. There 
he began his work by bringing certain disciples of 
John to a profounder knowledge of the Gospel. It 
is singular to find that the disciples of John had pro- 
claimed his incomplete Gospel so widely : probably 
Jews who had visited Jerusalem while he fulfilled 
his ministry had carried away so strong an impres- 
sion that they conveyed it to others. The first 
three months of his stay P. reasoned in the syna- 
gogue with the Jews, till at length, opposition being 
stirred up, he separated the believers and assembled 
them in " the school of one Tyrannus." Lewin 
thinks that this may have been a rhetorician named 
by Suidas as an authority. Conybeare and How- 
son think, whoever he was, he must have been a 
convert. Alford thinks he probably was a Jew, as 
scrupulous Jews wd. not be ready to assemble in a 
heathen lecture-hall. The two years of Paul's occu- 
pancy of this lecture-hall were fruitful in converts. 
Luke says, " All they that dwelt in Asia heard of 




View of the Theatre at Ephesus 

the Lord Jesus." Probably P. appointed pres- 
byters to carry the message of the Gospel to the 
other cities of Roman Asia, not impossibly himself 
occasionally accompanying them. Not unlikely it 
was at this time that the churches at Colosse, 
Laodicaea,and Hierapolis, in the valley of the Lycus, 
wh. had not seen Paul in the flesh (Col. z.^had been 
established. Many works of healing were done by P. 
Some of the cures were accomplished at a distance by 
means of napkins and aprons. This does not mean 
that curative power was conveyed in these articles of 
clothing, for it was Divine power that effected the 
cure, but these articles gave the contributory faith 
of the patient something to lay hold of. Even evil 
spirits were by this means compelled to leave their 
victims ; this raised the emulation of certain Jews, 
sons of one Sceva, who is called " High Priest," a 
title that seems to indicate a connection with the 
Essenes. These exorcists were discomfited by the 
demoniac on whom they attempted to operate. 
Ephesus was the home of magic, and the influence 
of P.'s preaching was shown by many of those who 



" used curious arts " abandoning these practices and 
burning their magical books. Probably scepticism 
as to the power of magical formulae now so general in 
civilised countries does not date more than a couple 
of centuries back, and in the East belief in it is com- 
mon to this day. Many ancient inscriptions are 
destroyed in the East lest there shd. be words of 
power upon them wh. the Franks wd. understand, 
and so secure hid treasures wh. ought, so they think, 
to come to true Moslems. The greatest evidence 
of P.'s success was the complaint of Demetrius, the 
silversmith, and his fellow-tradesmen, that their 
trade in " silver shrines for Diana," little models of 
the great temple, had fallen off. They mask their 
greed of gain under the face of zeal for religion, and 
excite the whole multitude of citizens to the idea 
that the credit of the city is at stake. The mob rush 
into the theatre without any clear idea of what had 
taken place. Paul was willing to expose himself in 
the theatre to address the mob, but not only the 
members of the Christian community but also the 
Asiarchs — officials connected with the sacred festi- 
vals — entreated him not to do so. The great uproar 
thus occasioned did not cause P. to leave Ephesus 
immediately, tho' he did so after a brief interval, as 
one may deduce fm. the language. 

While still in Ephesus messengers came to P. fm. 
Corinth informing him of the state of the Church 
there, and asking his advice : this led him to write 
the ist Epistle to the Corinthians. Some have 
thought that during his prolonged stay in Ephesus 
Paul paid a short visit to Corinth. It is quite 
true that it was in all probability comparatively easy 
to pay such a visit, as there wd. likely be constant 
communication between two such important com- 
mercial centres as Corinth and Ephesus, but we have 
no distinct evidence of such a visit — indeed the tone 
of the Epp. appears to preclude it. When he left 
Ephesus P. proceeded to Troas, where he hoped to 
meet Titus with news of the Corinthian Church, to 
wh. he had been sent with Paul's epistle. Paul did 
not find him there as he expected. Full of anxiety, 
Paul crossed to Macedonia and hastened to Philippi: 
while waiting there, Titus arrived with good news. 
In gladness of heart, yet also with some anxiety as 
to the efforts of the Judaisers, he wrote his 2nd 
Epistle to Corinth. This epistle shows the con- 
flict with the Judaising Christians in full force ; the 
" Irenikon " of Jrs. seems to have been disregarded 
by these fiery spirits. P. was collecting funds for 
the support of " the poor saints " in Jrs. fm. the 
Gentile churches. 

At the present time there is a custom, a survival fm. ancient 
days, of the Jews of the diaspora sending money for the 
support of Jews in Palestine; nine-tenths of the Jews now 
resident in Palestine are supported by the charity of their 
European brethren. P. in like manner wd. devote the 
charity of the Gentile Christians to the support of the 
Christians of Jrs. 



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In due time he arrived in Corinth, wh. had been 
his objective fm. the time of his departure fm. 
Ephesus. We have no details of the events of this 
short stay in Corinth, but it wd. seem certain that 
P. then wrote his Epistle to the Romans, and 
probably that also to the Galatians, from there. 
About this time, whether fm. Corinth or on his way 
to it, P. took the journey into Illyricum to wh. he 
refers in Rm. 15. 19 . He left Corinth for Macedonia 
and came again to Philippi, where, by the change of 
pronoun, we learn that he was joined by Luke, and 
fm. Philippi sailed to Troas, where he was joined 
by other disciples who had preceded him thither. 
While there the incident of Eutychus occurred (Ac. 
20. 6 ' 11 ). The meeting-place was an upper room, 
where the disciples were accustomed to meet for the 
celebration, every Sunday evening, of Holy Com- 
munion. The believers crowded in to hear the 
apostle's exhortations : even the very balconies were 
filled, and people were sitting on the railings. Paul, 
full of his great message, prolonged his exhortation, 
mingled, it may be, with accounts of how the Lord 
had prospered his work in other places. There were 
many oil lamps, as Luke informs us, in that upper 
room, and these wd. help yet more to exhaust the 
air, already scant enough for the crowd that filled it. 
The lateness of the hour, the length of the discourse, 
and the closeness of the atmosphere prove too much 
for Eutychus, who had been sitting on the railing of 
the balcony; he falls asleep, falls down on to the 
paved street, and is taken up dead. Paul hurried 
down, embraced the lad, and restored him to life. 
To secure a little longer time with the Christians of 
Troas Paul allows his friends to depart by ship round 
Cape Lectum, proposing to join them at Assos, a dis- 
tance of 20 miles by land, about half the distance of 
the sea journey. Of the journey from Assos to Jrs. 
the main incident was Paul's meeting with the 
elders of Ephesus at Miletus. He had sent word to 
Ephesus, possibly from Trogyllium, requesting the 
elders of the Church of that city to take the 30 miles 
journey to Miletus, for had the ship wh. had pro- 
bably been freighted by Paul's company sailed up to 
the harbour of Ephesus, a contrary wind might have 
delayed him a long time. In his affecting speech 
one may note his fear lest any one shd. regard him 
as eager for money. The vice of dishonesty was and 
is so common among the Levantines that a reputa- 
tion for incorruptible honesty gave a man immense 
influence. His declaration that he had " kept no- 
thing back " seems to be a reference to pretended 
esoteric doctrines wh. the Gnostics of a slightly later 
day made great use of, alleging that this apostle or 
that had left a secret Gospel. The Judaisers pro- 
bably had begun the process by this time ; the Es- 
senes, fm. whom the Judaisers appear largely to have 
been recruited, dealt much in Apocryphal Litera- 
ture. That wh. caused most sorrow was the con- 



viction the apostle expressed that he wd. never see 
them or they him again : this, however, is not to be 
regarded as other than a deduction of human reason 
in wh. Paul in this instance was mistaken. Having 
thus taken a solemn farewell of them, as never 
expecting to see them again, he rejoins the ship. 
Proceeding on their course past Rhodes and Patara, 
where they dismiss the little vessel they had hired, 
they take their passage in a cargo ship ; sighting 
Cyprus, they passed to the S. of it direct to Tyre, 
whither the ship was bound. There they abode 
a week. The believers there warned Paul not to 
go to Jerusalem. Although Paul had none of the 
fanatic zeal that needlessly rushes into danger, 
yet here he felt that duty called him to go there 
whatever the risk to himself. The point wh. led 
him to recognise it as a duty was the use that mt. 
have been made by the Judaisers of his failure 
to go to meet the older apostles. The company 
with P. found a coasting vessel in wh. they sailed 
on to Caesarea, staying a day at Ptolemais on the 
way. At Caesarea the company is received with 
Oriental hospitality by Philip the evangelist ; it is 
noted that he had four daughters who had the gift 
of prophecy, fm. wh. we may infer that they also 
tried to dissuade Paul fm. going to Jrs. While still 
with Philip, the prophet Agabus came down fm. Jrs., 
and, endeavouring to emphasise the advice Paul had 
received fm. so many quarters, in expressive symbol 
foretold the treatment that awaited him at the 
hands of the Jews. The dangers before him did not 
dissuade P. fm. his purpose ; so he and his com- 
panions proceeded to Jrs. and there lodged with 
Mnason, a Cyprian Jew (Ac. 2 1. 1 " 16 ) ; but see 
Mnason. 

When he reached Jrs., P. informed the assembled 
elders of the Church of the results of his ministry 
among the Gentiles. The Senate, as we may call 
them, of the mother republic of Christendom ex- 
pressed their joy in the result of Paul's preaching, 
but warned him of the state of matters in Jrs. It is 
to be noted that these warnings contemplated only 
the action of the Judaisers, not the Jews as a nation. 
It was suggested to him that in order to conciliate 
the Judaisers he shd. pay the expenses of certain 
Jewish Christians who had taken on them Nazirite 
vows. This, however, occasioned the crisis it was 
intended to avert. Certain Jews of Asia Minor, 
seeing P. in the Temple, and having seen him in the 
city with Trophimus, an Ephesian, raised the cry 
that he had profaned the Holy Place. At once a 
tumult was excited, and P. wd. certainly have been 
slain had not Claudius Lysias, the commander of 
the Roman garrison, descended into the Temple 
court and delivered him. Fm. the stairs of the 
Castle Antonia P. was allowed to address the mul- 
titude. As he spoke in Hebrew (Aramaic) they 
listened attentively until he spoke of his mission to 



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the Gentiles ; then uproar arose afresh. Lysias, 
unable to understand the meaning of all this, deter- 
mined to examine P. by scourging. P., however, 
claimed his right as a Roman citizen, and was saved 




Roman Judgment 

the pain and ignominy, tho' still retained in custody. 
Lysias sent P. before the Sanhedrin that he might 
learn the cause of the Jewish enmity. Paul had 
hardly begun his defence when Ananias the High 
Priest commanded to smite Paul on the mouth, 
prompting Paul to a bitter retort, all the more 
bitter for the truth that was in it. For this Paul 
promptly apologised. There resulted fm. this a 
state of excited tension, wh. was increased rather 
than appeased when P., recognising the power of the 
Pharisees in the assembly, and recalling the enmity 
between them and the Sadducees, declared, " I am 
a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee ; of the hope and 
resurrection fm. the dead am I called in question 
this day." Paul asserts his agreement with the 
Pharisees as against the Sadducees, on the two 
points regarding which he is called in question, 
viz., the hope of a Messiah, and the general 
resurrection of the dead : although he differed 
from them in identifying Jesus with that Messiah, 
and in asserting that, after His crucifixion, He 
had risen from the dead — this was not in question. 
Paul's life was endangered in the " dissension " 
which ensued between the parties ; and again 
Lysias had to rescue him from the hands of his 
countrymen. Now came a diabolical conspiracy 
on the part of Jewish fanatics — forty of the Jews 
came under a mutual oath neither to eat nor drink 
till they had slain P., and got the priestly party 
readily to assist them in their project by requesting 
that P. shd. be brought down to them again ; but 
Paul's nephew, finding out their plan, informed his 
uncle, who in turn informed Claudius Lysias. He 
now sent him to Csesarea (as no justice was to be got 
in Jrs.) to Felix, along with a letter wh. with fair 
accuracy records the facts, only he asserts his own 
action to have been prompted by his knowledge that 
Paul was a Roman— wh. he did not know till he was 
about to have Paul scourged. When the High- 
priestly party went down to Caesarea they were ac- 
companied by a certain Tertullus, a Roman advo- 
cate, who flattered Felix for his activity in putting 
down robbers — this was meant in the reference to 



the quietness enjoyed by the Jews — and the worthy 
deeds wh. had been done by Felix. He accused 
Paul of being turbulent and causing dispeace and 
uproar in the city, a ringleader of the sect of the 
Nazarenes, and an attempted profaner of the 
Temple. No proof is offered that these statements 
are true, so Paul's answer is a triumphant refutation. 
Felix ought to have dismissed the case, but on the 
pretence that he must consult Claudius Lysias 
delayed his decision. Though convinced of P.'s 
innocence, Felix kept him in prison in the hope that 
he wd. be bribed to release him. When Felix gave 
place to a successor, P. was tried anew before Festus. 
When Festus wished to do the Jews a favour and 
carry him back to Jrs. to be tried again there, and so 
give them another opportunity of attempting his 
assassination, P. appealed to Caesar (see Nero). The 
arrival of Agrippa and his sister gave Festus the 
opportunity of re-examining P. in order to the pre- 
paration of the official report. As Agrippa pro- 
fessed to be a zealous Jew in religion, Paul's defence 
before him, wh. we have in a very condensed form, 
runs entirely on Jewish lines. He gives an account 
of his own conversion and of his life before his con- 
version — a life that gave emphasis to his conversion. 
He showed how the Jews endeavoured to kill him 
time and again. He proceeded then to the argu- 
ment from the prophets that Jesus was the Christ, 
wh. we have in the report merely in sketch. At 
this point Festus, wearied with this excursus into 
regions of wh. he knew nothing, called out, " Paul, 
thou art beside thyself; thy much learning hath 
made thee mad." Paul answered calmly and re- 
spectfully the governor's taunt, and appealed 
directly to Agrippa and his belief in the prophets. 
His answer is to be taken as a polite acknowledg- 
ment of the logical cogency of the arguments, but 
without the slightest shadow of real belief. " In a 
little while you will persuade me to be a Christian." 
Agrippa agreed with Festus that legally Paul should 
have been set at liberty had he not appealed to 
Caesar. P. was then sent to Rome in the charge of 
Julius, centurion of the Augustan cohort. 

This Julius has been identified by Wieseler with Julius 
Priscus, Prefect of the Praetorians under Vitellius. 




The Tullianum at Rome (St. Paul's Prison ?) 

Fm. Caesarea the prisoners and their guards sailed 
in a ship belonging to Adramyttium ; they stopped 
at Sidon, possibly lying by for the night there, and 



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Paul was allowed to visit his friends in the city — an 
act of kindness that speaks well for the consideration 
of Julius. Thence they proceeded under the lee of 
Cyprus to Myra, where they transhipped into an 
Alexandrian grain ship. Sailing along the coast to 
make what progress they might against the prevalent 
NW. wind, they reached Cnidus ; now they were 
exposed to the full force of the Etesian winds, and 
therefore they had to yield to the wind and, taking 
advantage of the various islands, make to the south 
of Crete. Coasting along the lee of that island, 
they passed Salmona and reached Fair Havens. The 
question was raised whether they shd. winter there. 



appears at this time to have been light so far as im- 
prisonment in Rome ever was light. His stay lasted 
for more than two years, as we learn fm. the con- 
clusion of the bk. of Acts. During this period P. 
wrote the Epp. to the Ephesians, Philippians, and 
Colossians, with the private letter to Philemon. 
As to Paul's subsequent life we have to depend on 
tradition. 

Somewhat in defiance of logic, Weinel maintains that the 
writer of Acts assumes the death of P. at the end of the 
"two whole years"; it is more reasonable to argue that 
Luke had a third treatise in his mind, and expected to 
have material for it in P. 's subsequent life. 

The unanimous assertion of ecclesiastical tradi- 





Straits of Messina, Harbour of Syracuse 



As the harbour of Phenice further to the west 
was more commodious to winter in, they attempted 
to gain it, but in the process the vessel was caught in 
a storm and carried along with much straining of 
timbers till they were shipwrecked on the island of 
Malta. In consequence of his cure of the father 
of Publius, " the chief man of the island," P. was 
treated with special kindness during the three 
months in wh. the prisoners stayed in the island. 
Embarking in a vessel that had wintered in Malta, 
they passed Syracuse and Rhegium to Puteoli. 
Having landed there, they proceeded to Rome. 
The Church in Rome had learned of Paul's coming, 
and certain of them came to meet him at Appii 
Forum and The Three Taverns. Arrived in Rome, 
the prisoners were delivered into the hand of the 
Prefect of the Praetorians. Paul's imprisonment 



tion is that P. was released fm. this imprisonment 
and proceeded to Spain (Clem. Rom., I Cor. 5. ; 
Mur. Fr.p. 10b. lines 71.). If we receive the Pastoral 
Epp. as genuine, P. must have revisited Asia Minor 
and Greece ; he probably preached the Gospel also 
in Crete. He seems to have suffered martyrdom 
in the year a.d. 69 ; the place of his martyrdom is 
generally assumed to be Rome, but this cannot be 
definitely deduced fm. Clem. Rom., I Cor. 5. 

The Learning of St. Paul. — This falls natu- 
rally into two divisions in accordance with the two 
sources of his education — Tarsus, the seat of the 
Greek university ; and Jerusalem, the seat of all 
Jewish learning — (1) Classical Learning and (2) 
Rabbinic Learning. (1) Classical. It has been 
regarded as a commonplace that the apostle Paul 
had no knowledge of Greek Literature. We must, 



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however, bear in mind that the letters and speeches 
of the apostle wh. have come down to us were all 
directed to one purpose — the proof of Christ's claims 
to be the Messiah promised to the Fathers and the 
exposition of what these claims meant, with exhorta- 
tions to the fulfilment of moral duties and advice as 
to the management of ecclesiastical affairs. In deal- 
ing with such topics he had no opportunity to dis- 
play his knowledge of Homer or of the Tragedians — 
if he had any. Howard Staunton was distinguished 
as a Shakespearian scholar and still more distin- 
guished as a chess player ; but one might peruse 



It is objected that the three quotations are trite 
and were in common speech. The quotation from 
Aratus on Areopagus is the earliest in point of date 
— Ton gar kai genos esmen, " For we are also His off- 
spring." Paul, however, knows that this sentiment 
is not to be found in any one poet : he says, " As 
certain of your own poets have said." ' To know 
that a sentence like this was also in Cleanthes im- 
plies an acquaintance with Greek literature some- 
what intimate. The next is the quotation fm. 
Menander, I Cor. 15. 33 : Ph their ousin ethe chresta 
homiliai kakai, " Evil communications corrupt good 




■1 



Mole of Puteoli 



the Chess Praxis from title-page to Finis and never 
find an allusion to Shakespeare. Should it be said 
that these two spheres are further apart than are 
Paul's theology and the Homeric poems, tho' per- 
sonally we doubt this, we can form an estimate 
by comparing the number of quotations from 
Gr. Lit. in the writings of St. Paul with those 
from English Lit. in similar writings among our- 
selves. If we take a volume of Newman's plain and 
parochial sermons — and St. Paul's epistles are really 
sermons — we may find not a single quotation from 
an English poet. If we turn to Vinet's Sermons 
(Disc ours) we find not a single quotation fm. a 
French dramatist or poet. That there should be 
few quotations from Gr. Lit. in such compositions 
as Paul's epistles is no evidence of ignorance of it. 



manners." It has been argued by Dean Farrar 
that any one who was at all acquainted with Greek 
Literature wd. have made the elision between 
chresta and homiliai, and read chresth' homiliai. 
Yet Sir William Ramsay lately, in quoting Homer, 
//. i. 5, left out the 8', wh. rendered its scansion im- 
possible, and did so because it suited his argument. 
It may be noted Paul's quotations are always argu- 
ments. The last is in Titus I. 12 : " The Cretians are 
alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies," Kprjres de'i 
xpevcrrai Ka/cct Orjpla yacrrepes dpyat. It is true that 
the first three words are common ; he, however, 
completes the hexameter, wh. wd. seem to indicate 
a knowledge of the source. It seems that while 
these quotations do not necessarily imply an inti- 
mate or extensive knowledge of Greek Literature, 



574 



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Pau 



yet they do imply something more than the mere 
acquaintance with them as " tags " such as might be 
picked up in conversation. The schools of rhetoric 
were the places in wh. Literature was taught, so far 
as such a thing was taught at all in ancient days, and 
there seem to be traces that Paul had received some 
culture of that kind. Altho' one may not go so far 
as Dean Farrar in seeing proofs of St. Paul's mastery 
of the rhetorician's art, yet the way that his style 
differs to to coslo from the rabbinic style as exhibited 
in the Talmud, and the way it agrees on the whole 
with Greek methods, is evidence that his knowledge 
of Greek was more than merely conversational. 
But Greek learning meant then a knowledge of 
Greek philosophy. No one can read his speech on 
Mars' Hill without seeing the influence of Stoicism 
on St. Paul. We have not only the quotation 
from the Stoic poets but it is saturated with Stoic 
thought: that racial distinctions are nothing, 
that all are dependent on God for everything, 
are thoroughly Stoical notions. We find Stoical 
nomenclature in the epistles — the use of fneuma as 
Divine : thus, " the Lord is that Spirit (to fneuma), 
and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty " 
(2 Cor. 3. 17 ). Then there is the idea that every- 
thing shall be burned up and try the works of men 
(1 Cor. 3. 13 ). The Stoical doctrine was that the 
world wh. had sprung fm. God through fire was to 
return to Him again through the same agency. The 
absoluteness of fate,of God's foreordination as St. Paul 
puts it, wh. is one of his ruling thoughts, is also one 
of the ruling thoughts of the Stoics. There is the 
further idea that as everything proceeds from God 
all shall return to Him : " From Him, and through 
Him, and to Him, are all things " (Ro. II. 36 ) We 
do not mean that St. Paul was a Stoic, but he had 
become, during his youth in the birth-province of 
Zeno, acquainted with the philosophy of the Stoics, 
and used it in setting forth the doctrines of the 
Gospel. 

(2) His stay in Jerusalem and his education at the 
feet of Gamaliel made him acquainted with the 
subtleties of rabbinic learning. At the same time 
we must bear in mind that we have no records of 
Judaism till more than a century after Paul's head 
fell beneath the stroke of the Roman executioner. 
Still the process that culminated in the Talmud 
was begun. Gamaliel, his master, alike from the 
account of his attitude to Christianity, as we have it 
in Scripture and the traditional notices of him, was 
a man of wider culture than the majority of the 
Sanhedrin, still he wd. teach him rabbinic methods. 
Some of the most marked instances of Paul's applica- 
tion of rabbinic methods are to be found in the 
Epistle to the Galatians. Such are his arguments 
from the singular, " seed," being used, not the 
plural (Gal. 3. 16 ) ; and from the allegory of Hagar 
and Ishmael, and Sarah and Isaac (Gal. 4- 21ff -). 



Most striking of all is the identification of Hagar 
with Sinai by a recondite piece of Gematria. One 
of its methods is to neglect the tens and hun- 
dreds (Jw. En. v. 589b) : thus X, *, and P are all 

equal, as also 2, D, and "| and J, 7, and W ; on this 

scheme n = 5, J = 3, "I = 2, in all 10; = 5,3 = 4,*= 1, 

in all 10. We may say that this is trifling, but it was 
addressed to those who had preferred such trifling 
to the simple Gospel. His constant reference to 
Scripture in confirmation of every point in his argu- 
ment is after the best method of the Talmudists. 
Paul's reference to the " rock wh. followed them " 
(1 Cor. io. 4 ) alludes to a rabbinic interpretation 
in the Targums of Jerusalem and of Pseudo- Jona- 
than in Numbers 21. 17 . Tho' we have no distinct 
evidence in the condensed account of his defence 
before Agrippa, we may assume that he wd. resort 
to rabbinic arguments to one who prided himself on 
his knowledge of legal questions. Moreover, only 
on the assumption of this cd. the impatient burst 
of Festus about Paul's learning having made him 
mad be explained. Another direction in wh. evi- 
dences of Pauline learning might be sought is in the 
writings of Philo and the Apocrypha ; in both these 
may be seen what may be sources of sentiment and 
phrases in Paul. The full investigation of these 
wd. take us too far afield for a short article like the 
present. We must refer to the articles on Philo and 
Wisdom for a fuller discussion of these questions. 
Did we know the literature, both Jew and Gentile, 
of the period, we wd. be in a better position to 
estimate the learning of St. Paul, 

Theology of P. — The function of our Lord was 
not to preach Christianity, but to atone for the 
world's sin. As a teacher His efforts were directed 
to prepare the way for the doctrines concerning 
Himself. He came nearer affirming definite doc- 
trines in His interpretations of the parables, yet 
even in His farewell discourse there were many things 
that He could not make known to His disciples be- 
cause they cd. not bear them then. He had to sap 
gradually, in the minds of His followers, the power 
of the Judaism they had been taught, in order that 
they might be ready to realise the meaning of His 
life, death, and resurrection. The mind of P., 
trained in Tarsus and Jrs., was used of the Spirit to 
translate facts into philosophy, the life of Christ 
into Christian theology. Paul's interpretation of 
the meaning of his Lord's work was accepted by the 
early Church, as may be seen in 1st Peter, the Johan- 
nine writings, and Epistle to the Hebrews. It is 
difficult to formulate Pauline theology because we 
have to cull it, not fm. treatises, but fm. occasional 
letters wh. only contained what bore on the ques- 
tion at issue. We can only attempt to sketch the 
system of P. in its central ideas. 

To P. as a Jew, righteousness, with its converse, 



575 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pau 



sin, is of primary import ; this at first was purely 
external, but the Tenth Commandment led him to 
recognise the spirituality of the demands of the 
law (Rm. 7. 7 ). Over against this is his Christology. 
On the one hand, his conflicts with Stephen wd. 
force him to be aware of the claims of Jesus, and the 
justification of these claims by His deeds ; on the 
other, acquaintance with the bk. of Enoch wd. pre- 
pare him to admit the " Son of Man " as a super- 
angelic being. The crucifixion of Jesus was the 
" stumbling-block " wh. hindered him fm. recog- 
nising Jesus as the Christ. When Jesus met him on 
the way to Damascus he was forced to acknowledge 
His Messiahship ; with this the problem assumed a 
new shape. The question now was, " Why had the 
Messiah died ? " This led P. to the idea of the 
atonement : " the wages of sin is death," but He 
had no sin. Guided by this, P. was led to look on His 
death as substitutionary. Death was wide as the 
race, therefore sin must also be universal ; if so, the 
origin of sin must be found in the origin of the 
race; "in Adam all died." Jesus is the second 
Adam in whom " all are made alive " (i Cor. 
15. 22 ) : the result of the physical union to the first 
Adam is counterbalanced by spiritual union to 
Christ (1 Cor. 6. 17 ). All, however, do not benefit 
by the life-giving power of Christ's death : only 
those who believe. This has two aspects : from the 
human side, faith is the consent of the will to God ; 
but fm. the Divine side, it is " God that worketh in 
us both to will and to do of His good pleasure " 
(Php. 2. 13 ). Those who believe are to be received 
into glory at the coming of the Lord (1 Th. 4. 15fL ). 
With this is closely connected the Last Judgment 
and the Resurrection (Ac. 17. 31 ; 1 Tm. 4. 16 ). P. 
did not look forward to the salvation of individuals 
only, and that in the present life ; he also contem- 
plated a regenerated society on the earth. The 
Church, the assembly of believers, was the new Israel. 
Fm.the old covenant he drew the idea of the conjugal 
symbol for the relation of the Church to her Lord 
(Eph. 5- 32 ). The Church was to be a self-sufficing 
republic, not going before civil tribunals (1 Cor. 
6. 1 " 6 ). The psychology by wh. P. explained con- 
version and the consciousness of sin after it, as also in- 
spiration and prophecy, and the explanation he gives 
of the rise of Church orders, are worthy of study. 
Paul's "Thorn in the Flesh."— When the 
apostle gives an account of a glorious vision in wh. he 
was caught up to the third heaven, he adds, " Lest I 
should be exalted above measure by the abundance 
of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in 
the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me." 
On this subject much has been written, but nothing 
authoritative can be reached. There have been 
those that regard it as having been the opposition of 
false teachers or some one special teacher. Chrysos- 
tom considers this thorn in the flesh Hymenaeus, &c. 



Against this is the fact that the vision with wh. this 
trial was associated occurred fourteen years before 
he wrote this 2nd Ep. to the Corinthians, when 
he can only have begun his work of teacher : he wd. 
not be the mark for opposition wh. he became later. 
One idea that may be dismissed at once is that it is 
a temptation to unbelief — the thorn is something 
bodily. Moreover, unbelief cd. scarcely be asso- 
ciated with these wonderful visions. Another idea, 
favoured largely by the monkish commentators, is 
that it was temptations to sensuality. But besides 
that he never wd. have ceased to pray against this, 
sarx, " flesh," has not so markedly this reference in 
the apostle's writings. It must be some affliction 
of a bodily kind that is meant ; what it was cannot 
be absolutely determined. From the prevalence of 
ophthalmia in the East and the weakened sight it 
leaves very generally, it has been thought to be 
some disease of the eyes. Only the phrase, " a thorn 
in the flesh," seems to imply lancinating pain. 
Tradition assigns severe headache as the thorn in the 
flesh — a neuralgic headache recurring frequently 
wd. hamper his work very much. Epilepsy has also 
been mentioned, but its tendency is to weaken the 
mind if frequent, and if infrequent not so important 
a hindrance as this appears to have been. It was 
some painful chronic disease that hindered his 
work, and further, had some connection with his 
visions. 

Lit. : The Pauline Lit. is very extensive. Of 
lives of St. Paul there are four in English : Cony- 
beare and Howson, Lewin, Farrar, Baring-Gould. 
Baur and Weinel in German, and Renan in French 
are worth looking into. There are numerous works 
on Pauline doctrine. 

PAULUS, SERGIUS, proconsul (Gr. anthupatos, 
AV. " deputy ") of Cyprus when St. Paul and Bar- 
nabas visited the island (Ac. 13. 7 ). It is a note of 
St. Luke's accuracy that he gives the proper title to 
the governor. Cyprus had been an imperial pro- 
vince governed by a " propraetor," but was restored 
to the senate by Augustus, and was thenceforth 
governed by a " proconsul." A Sergius Paulus, 
quoted by Pliny as an authority for information re- 
ferring to Cyprus, may have been the proconsul. 
Cesnola (Cyprus, 425) records an inscription, dating 
probably from a.d. 55, in which allusion is made to a 
revision of the senate by means of assessors in the 
proconsulship of Paulus. A coin has also been found 
in Cyprus with the inscription, " in the time of 
Paulus, proconsul " ; the reference in each case is 
probably to the official whom the apostles met at 
Paphos. An intelligent man, he was interested, as 
many of the best minds of his time were, in occult 
Oriental studies, and had in his train one Elymas — 
prob. the Gr. form of Arabic i dlim, " wise man " — 
a magus. He proved the liberality of his mind by 
the readiness with which he heard the Gospel. The 
76 



Pav 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pee 



attempt of Elymas to distract him from it ended in 
disaster for the magus ; and the proconsul, " when 
he saw what was done, believed." This is the first 
recorded instance of one of the great Roman pro- 
vincial officers hearing the Gospel. We may doubt 
if Sergius Paulus ever definitely joined the Chris- 
tians, as there is no note of his baptism. One of his 
eminence could hardly have escaped further men- 
tion, had he taken the final step. 

PAVEMENT (Heb. martzepheth, ritzpdh [cp. 
Arb. rasaf, " to set in order, as stones in a build- 
ing "], Gr. lithostroton). Floors of mosaic were 
found in the chief apartments of palaces and 
temples, the courts, and sometimes the streets, being 
paved with blocks of marble, &c. (2 K. 16. 17 ; 2 Ch. 
j. 3 ; Est. I. 6 ; Ek. 40. 17 , &c). See Gabbatha. 




Pavement-slab (Koyunjik) 

PAVILION. Of the Heb. words so rendered : 
(1) Sok is lit. " covert," or " lair." It is used of the 
"covert" of the lion (Jr. 25 ™; Ps. io. 9 RV., 76? 
EV. " tabernacle " ; Jehovah being conceived fig. 
as a lion). In Ps. 27. 5 , where EV. tr. "pavilion," we 
should possibly read sukkdh, " his booth," instead of 
sukkoh, " his lair." (2) Sukkdh is used once of the 
thicket or covert of lions (Jb. 38. 40 ). It is frequently 
rendered Booth (which see). The clouds are con- 
ceived as forming an enclosure or " pavilion " for 
J". (2 S. 22. 12 ; Ps. 18. 11 , &c). (3) Shaphrur, a 
word of doubtful meaning. In Jr. 43 . 10 EV. tr. 
" royal pavilion," RVm. " glittering." It probably 
means " brightlv coloured canopy," or " carpet." 
(4) Qubbdh (Nu.' 2c;. 8 ; AV. " tent," RV. " pavilion," 
RVm. " alcove ") is a large vaulted tent. 

PEACE-OFFERING. See Sacrifice. 

PEACOCKS. (1) Peacocks (Heb. tukk'iyyim) 
were among the curiosities brought home by the 
navy of Solomon (1 K. io. 22 ; 2 Ch. 9. 21 ). In 1 K. 
IO. 22 LXX gives " carved stones," and in 2 Ch. 9. 21 



it omits the word altogether. But as the word 
seems to be cognate to toku, the Tamil name for 
peacock, there is no reasonable doubt that the ren- 
dering in EV. is correct. (2) Rendnlm in Jb. 39. 13 , 
AV. trs. " peacocks," RV. correctly, " ostriches." 
Diod. Sic. (ii. 53) says that there were peacocks in 
Babylonia. 

PEARL, a secretion of the pearl-oyster Avi- 
cula margaritifera. In AV. it trs. the Heb. word 
gab'ish (Jb. 28. 18 ), which is properly " crystal " ; so 
RV. Dar in Est. I. 6 should be trd. " mother-of- 
pearl " ; cp. Arabic durrah, " pearl." In NT. pearl 
(Gr. margarites) is the symbol of what is precious 
(Mw. 7. 6 , 13. 45 ) ; of beauty, in the gates of the New 
Jerusalem (Rv. 21. 21 ). The use of pearls for orna- 
ment is also referred to in 1 Tm. 2. 9 ; Rv. 17A 
Among the most ancient and productive pearl 
fisheries are those in the Persian Gulf, whence many 
" goodly pearls " were brought by the merchant- 
men to Palestine. The pearl was to the ancients 
what the diamond is to us : as Pliny says, " Pearls 
hold the chief and highest place of all precious 
things." He also tells of two famous pearls pos- 
sessed by Cleopatra, each valued at .£80,000 of our 
money. " The romantic theory current in ancient 
times respecting the origin of pearls served to 
enhance their fitness to body forth the things of 
the kingdom. It was believed that the pearl was 
formed by the dew of heaven entering into the shell 
wherein it was found, the quality and form of the 
pearl depending on the purity of the dew, the state 
of the atmosphere, and even the hour of the day at 
the time of its conception" (Bruce, The Parabolic 
Teaching of Christ, Jii. ; see also Greswell, Expos, of 
the Parables, ii. 22ofL). 

PEDAHEL, son of Ammihud, prince of the 
tribe of Naphtali : one of those chosen to preside 
at the distribution of the land west of the Jordan 
(Nu. 34. 28 ). 

PEDAHZUR, father of Gamaliel, chief of the 
tribe of Manasseh at the time of the Exodus (Nu. 
j 10 2 . 20 7. 54 » 59 io. 23 ). 

PEDAIAH ("J"- has redeemed"). (1) Father 
of Zebudah the mother of Jehoiakim, a native of 
Rumah, a place not identified (2 K. 23. 36 ). (2) 
Brother of Shealtiel, and described as father of 
Zerubbabel in 1 Ch. 3. 17fL Zerubbabel is usually 
called son of Shealtiel. (3) Father of Joel, prince 
of the half tribe of Manasseh west of Jordan, in 
David's time (1 Ch. 27. 20 ). (4) Son of Parosh, 
i.e. belonging to the family of Parosh, who assisted 
in repairing the walls of Jerusalem (Ne. 3. 25 ). (5) 
One, possibly a priest, who stood on Ezra's left at 
the reading of the law (Ne. 8. 4 ). (6) Ancestor of 
Sallu, of the tribe of Benjamin (Ne. II. 7 ). (7) A 
Levite appointed by Nehemiah among those in 
charge of the treasury (Ne. 13. 13 ). 

PEEP (Is. 8. 19 , io. 14 ). The verb tzdphaph means 



577 



Pek 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pel 



" to cheep," not " to chirp " (RV.). It suggests 
complaining feebleness. 

PEKAH, son of Ramalia, was a captain in the 
guard of Pekahiah. His name is a shortened form of 
that of his master (" J", hath opened "). He was 
probably of humble origin (Is. 7- 4 ). He formed a 
conspiracy, in which he was joined by " fifty men of 
the Gileadites," slew Pekahiah in the castle of the 
king's house at Samaria, and took possession of the 
throne (2 K. 1 5 . 25 ). He was the eighteenth in order, 
and the second last of the kings of Israel. A reign of 
twenty years is assigned to him (v. 27), but there 
must be some error (see Chronology). No motive 
is stated for the crime committed. Probably it was 
disapproval of the Assyrian alliance which was so 
costly to Israel (w. 19ft.), the annual tribute being 
a drain on her resources which must have seemed 
intolerable to an ardent patriot. Having secured 
his position, Pekah formed a league with Rezin, king 
of Damascus, evidently in the hope that their united 
forces might form an effective bulwark against the 
Assyrians. It is probable that they sought the co- 
operation of Jotham, king of Judah, but in vain. 
On his death an attempt was made to compel his 
weak son and successor, Ahaz, to join the league. 
It was their purpose, if he should prove obstinate, to 
dethrone him, and put the son of Tabeal in his place 
(Is. 7. 6 ). Rezin attacked the possessions of Judah in 
the SE., capturing Elath, while Pekah marched 
against Jerusalem (2 K. i6. 5fl - ; Is. J. 1S '). The war 
was conducted with terrible ferocity : so much is 
evident, even if allowance is made for exaggeration 
in the statements of the chronicler (2 Ch. 28. 5fL ). 
The captives of Judah whom Pekah carried away he 
was persuaded by the prophet Oded to set at liberty. 
His success against Jerusalem drove Ahaz to ask for 
help from Assyria (2 K. i6. 7fl -). This brought 
swift destruction upon the allies. Tiglath-pileser 
(b.c. 733) broke the power of Damascus, slaying 
Rezin (2 K. l6. 9ff -), and reduced the land of Israel 
as far as the Sea of Galilee, taking the inhabitants 
captive (2 K. 15. 29 ). Tiglath-pileser claims in his 
record (Shrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, ii. 30) 
to have taken the whole territory of Beth Omri, 
turning it into an Assyrian province. Pekah there- 
fore became his vassal, and powerless to do further 
injury to Judah. Tiglath-pileser, indeed, asserts 
that he slew Pekah. This need not mean more 
than that Hoshea, the son of Elah, was his agent in 
conspiring against and slaying the king. For reward 
he was made tributary king in place of Pekah. He is 
described as having done " that which was evil." 
Hosea presents a dark picture of social and religious 
decay in his time (Ho. 4- 6 » 7 ). 

PEKAHIAH (the longer form of Pekah), son and 
successor of Menahem on the throne of Israel. He 
was the seventeenth monarch of the Northern King- 
dom. During his reign of two years (see Chrono- 



logy) Samaria was subject to Assyria, paying heavy 
tribute. The absence of Tiglath-pileser in the 
north probably suggested the possibility of revolt to 
the more ardent spirits. If Pekahiah discouraged 
the rising, this may explain why he was assassinated 
and put out of the way by Pekah and his associates. 
He also " did evil in the sight of the Lord " (2 K. 
I5. 23ff -). 

PEKOD. The two passages in which Pekod 
is named (Jr. 50. 21 ; Ek. 23. 23 ) possibly refer to a 
district of Babylonia. A people called Puqudu, 
" dwelling near the mouth of the Uknu river," are 
mentioned in the inscriptions (Keilinschriftliche 
Bibliothek, ii. 84L, ; Sargon's Annals, lines 222, &c). 
They were a thorn in the side of the Assyrian rulers 
of Lower Babylonia. Piqiidu is also the name of 
a city in Babylonia (Pinches, Records of the Past, 
xi. 92). 

PELAIAH. (1) Son of Elioenai, a descendant of 
David (1 Ch. 3. 24 ). (2) One of the Levites who 
helped Ezra in expounding the law (Ne. 8. 7 ), and 
who also was among those who sealed the covenant 
(Ne. io. 10 ). 

PELALIAH, son of Amzi, from whom was de- 
scended Adaiah, who was a priest in Jerusalem after 
the return from exile (Ne. II. 12 ). 

PELATIAH. (1) Son of Hananiah the son of 
Zerubbabel (1 Ch. 3. 21 ). (2) A leader of the 
Simeonite marauders who, in Hezekiah's time, 
raided Mount Seir, driving out the Amalekites 
(1 Ch. 4. 42 ). (3) One of those who sealed the cove- 
nant (Ne. io. 22 ). (4) Son of Benaiah, a " prince of 
the people " who, in the record of Ezekiel's vision 
and prophecy, is said to have fallen down suddenly 
and died on hearing the utterance of the prophet 
(Ek. ii. 1 - 13 ). 

PELEG (" division," " water-course," Gn. io. 25 , 
&c. ; Lk. 3. 35 AV. " Phalec "), son of Eber, brother 
of Joktan, in whose days " the earth was divided." 
This probably refers to the division of the people 
(il. lff -). Kiepert (Lehrbuch der alt. Geog. 155) and 
others find the name in Phaliga, at the confluence of 
the Chaboras and the Euphrates. 

PELET. (1) Son of Jahdai (1 Ch. 2. 47 ). (2) Son 
of Azmaveth, one of David's mighty men, a Ben- 
jamite who joined David at Ziklag (1 Ch. 12. 3 ). 

PELETH. (1) In Nu. 16. 1 we should read 
Pallu. (2) Son of Jonathan, a descendant of 
Jerahmeel (1 Ch. 2. 33 ). 

PELETHITES. See Cherethites. 

PELICAN. The Heb. name TH$\> is supposed 
to be derived from fcOp, " to vomit " (Gesenius), 
from the pelican's habit of regurgitating its food. 
But the translation is doubtful. In Lv. ii. 18 ; Dt. 
14. 17 , it is an unclean bird. In Is. 34. 11 and Zp. 2. 14 
(AV. " cormorant ") it is represented as frequenting 
ruins, while in Ps. 102. 6 it appears as haunting the 
desert. One would not naturally seek the pelican 



578 



Pel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pen 



among the waste places of Eclom (Is. 34. 11 ) nor in 
the wilderness (Ps. 102. 6 ). In the last case midbar, 
while it does not necessarily mean " the desert " in 
our sense of the word, does as a rule denote dry 
places. Possibly, however, it may be extended to 
cover the uninhabited and untilled land of the 
marshes, where certainly the pelican is at home. 
There is also nothing incongruous in placing it 
among the flats and marshes of ancient Nineveh 

(Zp. 2.^). 

Two species of pelican are common in Palestine : 
the Pelicanus onocrotalus, the white pelican, and the 
P. crispus, the Dalmatian pelican. They are both 
great birds, as much as 6 ft. in length and 12 ft. in 
the spread of their wings. Favourite haunts of the 
pelican are the marshes of el-Bat eiha\ at the NE. of 
the Sea of Galilee, and those of el-Huleh in the 




The Pelican 

From Wood's " Bible Animals" by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

upper Jordan valley. Tristram thinks that the 
allusion in Ps. 102. 6 is to the melancholy aspect of 
the pelican, when, after gorging itself, it will sit 
" for hours or even days with its bill resting on its 
breast." * 

PELONITE. Two of David's heroes are so 
called (1 Ch. II. 27 - 36 ). See Paltite. 

PEN. See Writing. 

PENDANT appears only in RV. as translation of 
nefiphoth (Jg. 8. 26 ; Is. 3. 19 ). The word corresponds 
to the Arabic natafab, " a small pearl " in an ear- 
ring. In the former case it refers to Midianite 
ornaments (AV. " collars "), and in the latter to 
some pieces of female jewellery. In both cases pro- 
bably ear-rings are meant. 

PENIEL or PENUEL, a place east of the Jordan, 
close to the Jabbok, the scene of Jacob's night-long 
wrestling (Gn. 32. 24ff -). The name, meaning " face 
of God," is there explained as given because Jacob 
said, " I have seen God face to face." It has been 
suggested that the name may have applied originally 



to some prominent cliff, the outline of which re- 
sembled a face. Thus the name Theou prosopon, 
" face of God," was attached to a projecting rock 
south of Tripolis on the Phoenician seaboard. It 
appears to have been a position of some strength, 
with a tower (Jg. 8. 17 ) guarding the passage of the 
Jabbok. It was fortified by Jeroboam I. (1 K. 1 2. 25 ). 
It was some distance from the Jordan and from 
Succoth (Jg. 8. 8 , &c). Merrill's identification 
with Telul edh-Dhahab, " two hills with remains of 
ancient fortifications on the S. of the Jabbok, ten 
miles E. of Jordan " {East of the Jordan, 39ofi\), is 
rendered impossible by the impassable nature of the 
river banks in that neighbourhood. No satisfactory 
suggestion has yet been made. 

PENKNIFE (Heb. ta'arhas-sopher, "knife of the 
scribe "). The name occurs only in Jr. 36. 23 , but it 
is and must always have been a familiar object in the 
East. It is the small knife with which the reed, 
which is used as a pen, is cut to the necessary shape, 
and with which it is mended when required. 

PENNINAH, wife of Elkanah, who, altho' 
blessed with children, was jealous of her husband's 
love for his childless wife Hannah, and " provoked 
her sore" (1 S. I. 2 , &c). 

PENNY. See Money. 

PENTATEUCH, a word of Greek origin, is the 
name given to the five bks. wh. stand first in the 
canon of the OT. It simply means five-fold bk., 
fm. the fact that, fm. earliest time, these bks. have 
been handed down as a composite whole, but it is 
not descriptive of the contents. " The five books 
of Moses," as they are sometimes designated, is an 
attempt at description ; but it is apt to be, and has 
been, misleading. Four of the five bks. relate to the 
time of Moses, and are occupied with events in wh. 
he was the central figure ; at certain points also it is 
recorded of him that he wrote certain things con- 
tained in the bks. ; and it is easy to understand, 
therefore, how they came to be so closely associated 
with his name. By Jewish writers the collection is 
called " The Torah," i.e. the Law, or the Law of 
Moses. This name, again, though more precisely 
descriptive, seeing that laws of various kinds given 
by his hand are found in most of the bks., is quite 
inadequate, for there is a continuous line of hist, 
running through the bks., in the course of wh. the 
occasions on wh. the laws were given are out- 
standing episodes. 

It is this stream of hist, that gives unity to the five 
bks., and furnishes the key to their composition and 
collection. For, if we leave out of consideration for 
a moment the questions as to when and by whom 
the several bks. were written, and look at them as 
they lie before us, we shall perceive that we have 
here not a bare chronicle or recital of events, nor an 
attempt at a clearly articulated and systematic code 
of laws, but a hist, written fm. a definite point of 



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view. It is an account of God's choice and guidance 
of a special people for a special purpose. Fm. the 
theological point of view, there is the unfolding of a 
Divine plan ; fm. the literary point of view, there is 
the exhibition of the stages of that development, re- 
garded fm. a situation in wh. the plan was recognised 
and more or less fully manifested. So far as the 
orderly march of events toward a final goal is con- 
cerned the whole might have proceeded fm. one 
mind and have been written by one hand. Fm. 
beginning to end the Divine element is kept in view : 
it is God's dealing with men, and not the dealing of 
men and nations, that is prominent. Even the per- 
sonal and domestic affairs of individuals are related 
in their religious aspects ; and persons or peoples 
who do not come within the scope of the Divine plan 
wh. is being worked out are dismissed with bare 
mention or left entirely out of account. 

The first bk. starts " in the beginning " with 
" God," and God in hist, is the thought throughout. 
At the close of the five bks. the tribes of Isr., whose 
election and preparation have been kept in view fm. 
the first, are on the point of taking possession of the 
promised land, in fulfilment of the Divine purpose. 
The individual bks., wh. in the Heb. Bible are simply 
designated by a significant word or words with wh. 
each bk. opens, mark the notable stages of the his- 
torical progress. The bk. of Genesis, " in the be- 
ginning," goes back to the very origin of all things, 
the creation of heaven and earth, the making of man 
in the image of God, and the entrance of sin into the 
world. It then traces the rise of nations and their 
dispersion on the earth, represented, however, not 
as matters of blind natural impulse, but as controlled 
and guided by an Almighty and Holy Power, who 
rewards the good and punishes the evil, eliminating 
for a purpose an elect people to be the instrument 
of its execution. Stage by stage the outlook is 
narrowed and interest is concentrated, till, in the 
person of Abraham, a culmination is reached ; and 
then, in him and his descendants, the prospect opens 
out again into the hist, of a chosen nation. At the 
close of the bk. we see the twelve fathers fm. whom 
grew the twelve tribes migrating into Egp., though 
still regarding Pal. as their promised land ;. and the 
curtain falls on an unfinished story wh. the attention 
is strained to hear completed. 

The bk. of Exodus begins by enumerating " the 
names " of the heads of tribes that went down to 
Egp. There, after a space without record, the 
people is seen greatly multiplied but greatly op- 
pressed and put to hard bondage. When their case 
was at the worst, Moses, prepared for his task by his 
early training at the court of Pharaoh, by his sojourn 
in Midian, and by assurance of Divine help, appears 
before the king demanding the liberation of his 
people. By signs and wonders he gives proof of his 
mission, and finally the Exodus takes place, the people 



on the other side of the Red Sea sing songs of thanks- 
giving, while the Egyptian host is overwhelmed 
in the waters. Then begins the narrative of the 
forty years' wandering in the wilderness, the thread 
of wh. runs through the remaining portion of the 
Pnt. In Exodus the interest is mostly concentrated 
on the momentous transactions in the neighbour- 
hood of Mount Sinai, the impressive giving of the 
Law and solemnisation of the Covenant, the pro- 
vision for the orderly worship at the Tabernacle, 
and the regulation of corporate national life. The 
book of Leviticus is almost entirely made up of 
laws for ritual service, the right performance of 
sacrifice, the duties and privileges of the priestly 
caste, instructions for the right performance of their 
duties, and so forth ; through all wh., however, runs 
a thread of narrative binding the bk. into the unity 
of the Pnt. The bk. of Numbers contains a narra- 
tive, fragmentary and partial, of the remaining 
period of sojourn " in the wilderness," with wh., 
again, are incorporated sundry additional laws, more 
or less anticipatory of the residence in the promised 
land. Finally, the bk. of Deuteronomy, covering 
a very limited space of time, is chiefly made up of 
" Words " or addresses delivered by Moses at the 
close of the wilderness period, with immediate 
refce. to the occupation of the country, and sum- 
ming up and expounding the Law under wh. their 
national life was to be constituted, emphasising 
most particularly their covenant relation to their 
national God, and warning them agst. the con- 
tamination of heathen idolatry, with assurance of 
blessing if they remained faithful, and denunciation 
of curse if they should fall away. The whole closes 
with a brief but sublime account of the death of 
Moses after wistfully gazing upon the land wh. he 
was not to enter. 

Now, when we approach the question of the 
authorship and composition of the bks. of the Pnt., 
there are some things wh. strike us as remarkable. 
In the first place, the bks. do not say fm. whose hand 
they have come, nor fm. what source or sources the 
author or authors received their information. In 
the bk. of Genesis there is no hint of authorship nor 
even mention of writing. In the three bks. that 
follow, in wh. the personality of Moses is prominent, 
there are certain things wh. he is said to have written 
" in a bk.," i.e. committed to writing " for a memo- 
rial " ; and the bk. of Dt., speaking of Moses in the 
third person, says that he wrote the law contained 
therein and gave it into the hands of the priests. 
But all this is very different fm. saying that the 
whole Pnt. in its finished form came fm. his hand. 
Then, in a hist, extending over so long a period, 
the materials must have been derived fm. various 
sources and vouched for by different authorities ; 
but there is no citation of such sources or appeal to 
authorities such as we find, for example, in the bk. 



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of Kings. Yet a very cursory examination of the he confined his attention, as the work of Moses, he 

literary features of the composite work is sufficient put forth his " Conjectures " as to the sources wh. 

to show that, though the materials are put together Moses must have employed in its compilation. He 

so as to give a fairly continuous account, they must distinguished, along with some minor sources, two 

have been drawn fm. various quarters, and presum- main elements in the bk., in one of wh. the Divine 

ably have been written by various hands. Again, name Jehovah was employed, while the name Elohim 

the impartiality with wh. the hist, is related, without was used in the other. Succeeding critics, following 

palliation of the faults of prominent characters or that line of inquiry, and applying it to the other 

glorification of their virtues, the manifest desire of books of the Pnt., have endeavoured more closely to 

the writers not to obtrude themselves, and the con- distinguish the sources, to note their characteristics, 

stant aim to exhibit the Divine leading and guiding and to determine their relation to one another, and 

of the chosen people, warrant the conclusion that the how they have been brought together into their 

things related were matters of common kge., things present form. It was found, e.g., that the varying 

most surely believed — that, in short, these bks. are use of the Divine name was not confined to Genesis, 

the deposit of the national tradition. but was carried out in the succeeding bks. Subse- 

Unfortunately we do not possess any precise in- quently it was perceived that, in the parts employ- 
formation as to the time at wh. literary composition ing the name Elohim, there were to be distinguished 
began to be practised by the Hebrews, or even in two very different elements, one concerning itself 
what manner the practice of writing originated predominantly with ritual ordinances, the other 
among them. In the Pnt. after the bk. of Genesis chiefly historical, and, apart fm. the use of the Divine 
it is mentioned as a matter of course that " writing name, resembling more closely the portions using 
in a bk." was well known. Moreover, within com- the name Jehovah. Further, the book of Dt. had 
paratively recent times, our information in regard characteristics of its own wh. showed that it must be 
to the literary attainments of the ancient East has regarded separately. The problem was : where to 
been materially extended. We know now that, at place in hist, the composition of these different ele- 
the date assigned to Abraham, a high condition of ments, and how to explain their combination. Were 
civilisation, with no mean literary achievement, pre- they entirely independent compositions, wh. had a 
vailed in the lands from wh. he is represented as separate existence before coming together ? Or, 
migrating. We know also that, in Pal. itself, at the were they supplementary one of another ; and if so, 
date of the Exodus, an extensive correspondence was wh. was the fundamental, and was the supplementer 
carried on in the script of the distant East with the an early or the final redactor ? In the course of the 
highly cultured court of Egp. ; all which shows how inquiry, various designations were applied by various 
rash was the assertion that used to be made, that the writers to the component parts, indicative of the 
period of Moses was too early for such literary work char, of the composition or the order of their 
as is ascribed to him. Whether, therefore, what we appearance. 

call the national traditions embodied in the Pnt. The designations wh. are now current are as 
were handed on partly in writing, or, if transmitted follows : J. denotes the historical portions using the 
orally, when they were for the first time committed name Jehovah, E. the historical parts using the 
to writing, we do not positively know. The answer name Elohim ; and, as these two sources are often 
to such questions — if they can be answered — must so closely interwoven as to be inseparable, the com- 
be given on the grounds of a literary examination of bination is denoted by JE. The priestly and ritual- 
the documents themselves, a line of reasoning wh. istic portions are denoted by P. or PC. (i.e. Priests' 
cannot be so conclusive as positive historical testi- Code) ; D. denotes the writer of Dt., and R. stands 
mony, esp. in a case like the present, where it is for Redactor. A closer scrutiny, however, of these 
evident that the literary processes of the original main sources has led to the conclusion that we have 
writers were so different from our modern methods, not in them so many complete and independent 
and when the line of reasoning must inevitably be productions, composed once for all as we now have 
affected by the mental attitude of the investigator, them, but that they passed through editorial hands 
When literary study of a systematic kind came to be and are themselves more or less composite, and that 
engaged on the OT. bks., the Pnt. naturally at- they have been put together, not end to end, so to 
tracted particular attention, and the criticism of the speak, but superimposed, layer upon layer, till the 
Pnt. has given rise to a long-continued and still un- Pnt. reached its present form. The order of this 
finished literature of most voluminous bulk. Within literary process was as follows : — 
the compass of the present article it must suffice to Two independent and almost contemporaneous 
indicate the chief steps of the critical process. narratives, J. andE., were combined together, J. be- 

The first step in the systematic disentanglement longing probably to the Southern or Judaean kdm., 

of" sources " was taken in 1753 by Astruc, a French and E. to the Ephraimite kdm. of the Ten Tribes, 

physician. . Accepting the book of Genesis, to wh. Before they came together each of these sources had 

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gone through several editions ; and, of course, their 
combination was effected by an editorial hand. 
Then, some two centuries later, the bk. of Dt. was 
composed as an independent work ; and this, at a 
later time, probably in the Exile, was joined to the 
existing JE., not without considerable editorial re- 
daction. Finally, in the exilic period, the priestly 
PC. was composed, and formed the upper layer or 
embracing framework, completing the present Pnt. 
This arrangement of the component parts is based 
by the critics, not so much on a comparison of the 
merely linguistic features of the parts as early or late, 
as on an examination of the subject-matter, and par- 
ticularly on a comparison of the various legal ele- 
ments of the bks. with one another, and with the 
various stages of the hist. There are, it is averred, 
three different deposits or Codes of Law, one em- 
bodied in JE., the so-called book of the Covenant 
(Ex. 21. -23.), the Code of Dt., and the Code of PC. 
These differ, particularly in regard to the place of 
sacrificial worship ; for, whereas the Code of JE. 
permits such worship at any place, the Code of Dt. 
restricts it to a central Sanctuary, and PC. takes it 
for granted that centralised worship has been the law 
fm. the beginning. The three Codes, therefore, 
translated into practice, wd. show a natural develop- 
ment fm. the simpler to the more complex. Now, 
when we turn to the hist., it is pointed out that the 
practice followed precisely the same course. In 
early times the patriarchs, and even after the occu- 
pation of the land the religious guides of the people, 
are found building altars and offering sacrifices at 
various places throughout the country ; at the time 
of the reformation of Josiah the high places were 
put down and worship was concentrated at the 
Temple at Jrs. ; and, finally, on the return fm. the 
Exile, when the Temple was rebuilt, it became and 
remained the sole centre of an elaborate service, 
under an organised hierarchy. Accordingly, it is 
concluded, this is the order in wh. the three Codes 
of laws were promulgated, the order also in wh. the 
literary " sources " in wh. they are embedded were 
composed. Fm. a comparison of JE. with the 
earliest written prophecies of Amos and Hosea it is 
inferred that JE. dates fm. a short time before these 
prophets, say about the middle of the eighth cent. 
b.c. ; D. is taken to have been composed in the 
early years of king Josiah or in the preceding reign, 
and to have been written for the purpose of exhibit- 
ing what the Law shd. be, and of bringing about the 
reformation of b.c. 622 ; while PC, composed in 
the Exile or about the time of the return fm. it, puts 
down in the form of a Code what had been the accu- 
mulating practice at the Temple before the Exile, 
representing it as the ancient legislation of Moses in 
the wilderness. 

Such has been the main course of Pentateuch 
criticism, and such are the main conclusions, wh. are 



claimed to be firmly grounded and unassailable. 
The final outcome is so revolutionary of long-ac- 
cepted beliefs, and so inconsistent with the manifest 
view of those fm. whose hands the bks. have come, 
that ordinary minds, not accustomed to minute 
critical processes, are excusable if they hesitate to 
accept the conclusions, while advocates of the view 
who also believe in the Divine revelation of the OT. 
strive to assure their readers that there is nothing in 
it inconsistent with devout Christian faith, by ex- 
plaining as best they can those features of the theory 
that seem to be in conflict with the statements of the 
sacred writers. And, when all is said and done, it 
would appear, fm. the tone of apologetic on the one 
hand and of uncomfortable perplexity on the other, 
that the end is not yet. The objectionable or vul- 
nerable points of the critical view suggest them- 
selves to any thinking reader. It minimises the 
work of Moses to such an extent that sufficient ex- 
planation is not left of the high estimation in wh. he 
was held and the importance ascribed to him in con- 
nection with the legislative system, by ascribing the 
laws to a process of gradual growth and stereotyping 
of custom instead of positive enactment. The mere 
discovery of different " sources " in these bks. is not 
in itself disconcerting ; and minor discrepancies, or 
repetitions, or variant accounts, wd. only be what 
we shd. expect in the circumstances. But, in de- 
fault of direct historical information as to how these 
u sources " were manipulated, and in what way the 
accounts were preserved, it is hazardous to base 
theories on literary features or historical indications 
wh. may be, and have been, regarded differently by 
different minds at different times. In particular, 
the literary skill implied in the assumed " compli- 
cated literary processes extending over a long period " 
seems incompatible with the simple habit of the 
sources themselves, or else wd. imply an antecedent 
literary activity of a much earlier time than critics 
make allowance for. 

Then, the accounts given of the introduction of 
the Codes of D. and PC. are open to the grave ob- 
jection that they declare the Biblical accounts of 
these transactions to be unhistorical. One could 
easily understand how a Code, originally given in 
brief compass, shd. in course of time be modified or 
enlarged. So cd. one understand how a prophet or 
a number of prophetic men about the time of Josiah 
might set themselves to draw up a scheme of what 
they regarded as the fundamental obligatory Law. 
But this is a very different thing fm. putting forward 
a Code, with all the circumstantial details of its 
original promulgation by Moses, and containing not 
a few elements wh. had no application in the time 
of Josiah. According to the account in the bk. of 
Kings, wh. is relied on as proving the promulgation 
of the Code at that time, there was no doubt in the 
mind of any one then that the Law-Book came fm. 



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Moses ; that is to say, it was by that time the general writers of the OT. represent to have been the case 
opinion that Moses was the great legislator. There in Isr. 

was, therefore, no need to resort to the elaborate and Though the internal hist, of Isr. is only to be 
sustained fiction of describing in minutest detail of learned fm. the OT. bks., the progress of arcteeo- 
Dt. the publication of the Law by Moses. Pro- logical discovery and research of recent yrs. has 
phetic men, when they had a message to deliver, greatly extended the horizon of our kge., and 
gave it in the name of the Lord, and did not even enabled us better to understand the place of the 
appeal to one another. So, in regard to the Code of Hebrews among the nations, and to appreciate their 
PC., nothing is more natural to suppose than that,in national traditions regarding themselves. We know 
the course of practice, the details of ritual, provision now that the Eastern lands fm. wh. the Biblical 
for the priests, and so forth, shd. undergo modifica- writers represent Abraham to have come were at 
tion as time went on. And one can understand how that time and before it the seat of a highly developed 
the priests, to provide for the services of the post- civilisation, the influence of wh. extended as far west 
exilic Temple, wd. gather up the regulations for as Canaan ; we know also that elaborate codifica- 
worship as they had been observed in the first tion of law, and law ascribed to a Divine source, 
Temple. Nay, it is not difficult to suppose that a was achieved at that early time ; and also that a 
praxis wh. reached back to a time beyond memory purer religion and a higher conception of deity than 
shd. be ascribed to Moses the first legislator. But it that of the later Assyrian Empire prevailed. Then, 
is a very different thing to set down in minute detail the various nations with wh. the Hebrews claim 
the circumstances under wh. the various enactments kindred are known to be races of the same stock ; and 
were made by Moses, and to describe most punctili- the credibility of the account of the servitude in 
ously the arrangements and construction of a Taber- Egp. is confirmed by the consideration that peoples 
nacle wh. never in fact existed. If the alleged late of antiquity are never in the habit of describing 
writers who thus wrote believed what they were themselves as descended fm. slaves. Indeed, the 
writing, then we must postulate a very considerable whole account wh. the Hebrews give of themselves 
time for such a belief to grow, and some good ground is so unlike the exaggerated and mythical accounts of 
for its growth : if they did not believe what they other peoples of antiquity that it stands unique and 
wrote, we are confronted by a very uncomfortable bears the stamp of truth. No doubt, the form 
conclusion as to the general credibility of the Biblical in wh. the hist, is cast, and esp. the accounts of 
writers. And for the ordinary Bible reader this is primeval time given in Genesis, are of such a nature 
where the importance of the discussion lies. To that we may be able only to gain a dim vision of the 
such it is a matter of minor importance how the bks. actual historical movements recorded. But, as our 
were written, or when, or fm. what sources ; but he view becomes more and more widened, these tradi- 
desires to know whether the account is substantially tions become clearer, and are found to correspond in 
true, and he wd. fain be assured that the writers of a remarkable degree with the facts brought to light 
these bks. are dealing honestly and in good faith ; or by archaeology. Even the assumption of the sacred 
if they are misstating or overstating the facts, he writers that there was a kge. of the true God long 
desires an explanation of this wh. shall be consistent before Abraham, fm. wh. the nations had fallen 
with a belief in their honesty. away, is strangely confirmed by the most recent 

In the nature of the case, we have no materials researches into the religion of Babylonia, 
outside the Bible to enable us to verify the in- It is ever and above all to be remembered that 
ternal hist, of Isr., and it is confessed that fm. the the evident object of the sacred writers was not to 
sources themselves the theory of the critics cannot set down these accounts of ancient time to satisfy 
be substantiated. It is only when the different curiosity or to magnify their nation, but to represent 
Codes are compared with the post-Mosaic hist. — a God's dealings with mankind, and esp. with Isr. as 
hist, of a much later date — that the theory is said to the instrument of His purpose. The early writers, 
be proved. But, granting even that the course of who were able so clearly to discern that plan, and 
the hist, of the worship was such as is asserted, it is so consistently to exhibit the unfolding of it, must 
doubtful how far the hist, of ceremonial worship is a have had a special insight to enable them so to do. 
safe line on wh. to construct the hist, of the religion. In short, the Pentateuch contains a record of the 
It wd. certainly be a very unsafe line to follow in the Divine Revelation, written by men who wrote as 
case of the Christian or the Mohammedan religion, they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 
Moreover, all the great religions wh. have made a James Robertson. 

permanent mark in the world's hist, exhibit, not PENTECOST is the (Greek) NT. name of the 
a gradual and painful struggle upwards fm. the feast known in the OT. as the Feast of Harvest, 
crudest elements, but, on the contrary, a falling the Feast of Weeks, and the Day of First-fruits. 
away fm. a high starting-point, with a struggle It fell on the " fiftieth " day after that on which 
to maintain a higher level, precisely such as the a wave-offering of a sheaf of barley was made, during 

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the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This last was giving and confession to be used is set down, 

generally made on the 1 6th of Nisan ; so that Pen- Special acknowledgment is made of the deliverance 

tecost fell on the 6th of Sivan. from Egypt and the gift of the good land. Again 

The feast is first mentioned as the " feast of har- it is made clear that in the joy of this festival all are 

vest " in Ex. 23. 16 , as one of the occasions when all free to take part, 

males must appear before the Lord — i.e. a feast in- The celebration of the feast, without any details, 



is referred to in 2 Ch. 8. 13 . 

That this was an agricultural feast is beyond 



volving pilgrimage — to present an offering of " the 

first-fruits of thy labours, which thou sowest in the 

field." It appears as " the feast of weeks, even of doubt. It coincided with the close of the wheat 

harvest. As barley is the earliest, so wheat is the 
latest of the cereals in Palestine. The Feast of Un- 
leavened Bread and the Feast of Weeks therefore 
fell at the beginning and the end respectively of 



the first-fruits of the wheat harvest " in Ex. 34. 22 
In Nu. 28. 26ff - it is " the day of the first-fruits," 
identified with the " feast of weeks," on which " a 
new meal-offering " was offered to the Lord. It 

was marked as " an holy convocation," on which no the year's harvest. This was naturally a period 
servile work might be done, and directions are given of great joy ; and the presentation of first-fruits 
for offering " a burnt-offering for a sweet savour and freewill-offerings appropriately symbolised the 
unto the Lord " : two young bullocks, one ram, and gratitude of the people to the Giver of all good, 
seven he-lambs of the first year, with their meal- There was some difference of opinion as to the 
offering, fine flour mingled with oil in their proper day from which the " week of weeks " was to be 
proportions ; and one he-goat to make atonement, reckoned. Lv. 23. 15 makes it " the morrow after 
The animals were to be without blemish, and the the Sabbath," the day when the sheaf of the wave- 
offerings described were to be made over and above offering was brought. " The Sabbath " here is 
the daily burnt-offering and meal-offering. evidently the first day of the feast, which was " an 

In Dt. i6. 9ff - further directions are given. The holy convocation " (v. 7), so that " the morrow " 

feast is fixed by counting seven weeks "from the would be the 1 6th day of the month ; and, as stated 

time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing above, the Feast of Pentecost would fall on the 6th 

corn." In keeping the feast an essential feature of the month following. Some thought the refer- 

was the bringing of a freewill- offering, as an ex- ence was to the ordinary Sabbath, as one Sabbath 

pression of gratitude. This gift was to be propor- must fall within the seven days of the Feast of Un- 

tioned to the blessing which the offerer had received, leavened Bread. But if this Sabbath fell on the 

i.e. the prosperity he had enjoyed. The celebration 21st of Nisan, the wave-offering could not be 

of this feast was also open to the son, daughter, brought into the days of the feast. The former 

man-servant and maid-servant, to the stranger, the view was prevalent in later times, 
fatherless, and the widow. And here it is directed There is nothing to support the rabbinical sug- 

to be celebrated " in the place which the Lord thy gestion that this feast commemorates the giving of 

God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there." the law at Sinai, fifty days after the deliverance 

With this feast also is associated the memory of from Egypt, 
escape from Egyptian bondage. As distinguished from the feasts at the beginning 

This is the feast referred to, although not named, of the harvest and at the end of the vintage, the 
in Lv. 23. 15£E -, when a new meal-offering was to be Feast of Pentecost lasted only a single day. 
made : two leavened loaves of fine flour as first- In NT. times, if we may judge from the multi- 
fruits were to be waved before the altar. Along tudes present in Jerusalem for its celebration, this 
with the bread for a burnt-offering were to be feast was very popular among the Jews. It is asso- 
offered seven lambs of the first year without ciated with an event of supreme importance for the 
blemish, one young bullock and two rams, with their Church of Christ. In obedience to the Master's 
meal- and drink-offerings ; one he-goat for a sin- direction, the little company of believers continued 
offering, and two he-lambs of the first year for a in Jerusalem, waiting the fulfilment of His promise, 
peace-offering. The bread and the lambs were to On the morning of this feast they were all togethei 
be waved for a wave-offering before the Lord, and in one place. " Suddenly there came from heaven 
were then set apart for the priest. It was to be a a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it 
holy convocation, on which no servile work might filled all the house where they were sitting. And 
be done. there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, 

It is probable also that this feast is intended in like as of fire ; and it sat upon each one of them, 

the direction given in Dt. 26. 1 ' 11 . The offerer is to And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and 

take the first-fruits in a basket to the appointed began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit 

sanctuary. His address to the priest is prescribed gave them utterance " (Ac. 2. 1-4 ). On this day was 

(v. 3) ; and when the priest has taken the offering given the first manifestation of the Spirit's power in 

and placed it before the Lord, the form of thanks- the conversion of about 3000 souls, by means of St. 

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Peter's sermon. To this day, with such associa- 
tions, a new significance was attached for Christians. 
It was the day when the first-fruits of the spiritual 
harvest were rendered. Before the end of the 
second century it had taken its place as a Christian 
joyful festival. Perhaps this association lent in- 
tensity to the desire of St. Paul to reach Jerusalem 
in time for this feast (Ac. 20. 16 ). It was in a true 
sense the birthday of the Church. The season 
between Easter and Pentecost, analogous to the 
fifty days of the old law, became the common time 
for the baptism of converts (Tertullian, De Baft. 
c. 19). 

PEOPLE. In AV. it is sometimes impossible for 
the English reader to say whether " people " applies 
to the children of Israel or to other nations. To 
obviate this difficulty RV. uses " peoples " for 
the heathen, and the sing. " people " for Israel. 
" People of the land " is used of the heathen inhabi- 
tants of Palestine in patriarchal times (Gn. 23. 7 , 
&c). It is used also of the " rank and file " of the 
population, as distinguished from nobles and rulers 
(2 K. 11. 14 , &c). In the time of Ezra and Nehe- 
miah it denoted the mixed people who had increased 
in the country during the Captivity, from whom 
these rulers found it exceedingly difficult to keep 
their own people apart (Ez. 9. 1 , &c. ; Ne. g. 2i , &c). 
In later times ( am hd'dretz, " people of the land," 
came to be a technical phrase descriptive of those 
who were either ignorant of, or who neglected to 
obey, the law. It was used, as it is to this day, in- 
dividually as well as collectively. It expresses great 
contempt (Jn. 7- 49 ). It was permissible even to 
rend an c am hd'dretz like a fish. 

PEOR. (1) A mountain E. of Jordan, looking 
down upon the desert, to which Balak took Balaam 
(Nu. 23. 28 ). OEJ. places it on the way between 
Livias and Heshbon. Buhl {GAP. 123) suggests 
Jebel el-Mushaqqar, with ruins of an ancient town, 
between Wddy A l yun Musa and Wddy Hesbdn. 
(2) A town in Judah (Jo. 15. 59 , LXX), probably 
now represented by Khirbet Fdghur, to the S. of 
Bethlehem. (3) Peor stands for Baal Peor in 
Nu. 25. 18 , 31. 16 ; Jo. 22. 17 . 

PERAEA, THE, is not mentioned by this name in 
Scrip. Josephus so names the district which in 
NT. and rabbinical literature is spoken of as " the 
land beyond Jordan." It stretched, he says, from 
Pella to Machaerus, and from the Jordan to Phila- 
delphia, the mod. ''Amman (BJ. III. hi. 3). The 
description may be merely general. The natural 
boundary in the north would be the great gorge of 
the Yarmuk. But the land along the S. bank of the 
Yarmuk may have belonged to Gadara, one of the 
cities of the Decapolis. Josephus says that Gadara 
was the capital of Peraea. Such a position could 
hardly be held by a member of the league of ten 
cities. The probability is that by Gadara he meant 



not the great and famous city on the Yarmuk, but 
that which is represented by the mod. Jedur in the 
neighbourhood of es-Salt (Guthe, KB. s.v. ; Buhl, 
GAP. 255). This would throw the north boundary 
of the Jewish province into the district of Pella. 
The natural border in the south was the Arnon. It 
forms a high table-land, falling steeply on the west 
into the Jordan valley, and more gradually into the 
Syrian desert on the east. For fuller description of 
this picturesque and fruitful province see Gad, 
Gilead, Palestine. Arab, writers speak highly of 
its fertility, and also of its cold. 

Jews in small numbers were found in the Peraea, 
until for safety they were removed by Judas (1 M. 
5. 45 ). But they could not long resist its attrac- 
tions. The whole district passed under the sway 
of Alexander Jannaeus. It had varied fortunes as 
between the Romans and the Herodian family. 
Finally it was added definitely to the Roman 
dominions by Placidus. 

The rabbis placed the Peraea on a level with 
Judaea and Galilee as a province of the land of Israel. 
Jews coming from Galilee to the feasts at Jerusa- 
lem, wishing to avoid the risks of passing through 
Samaria, might cross the Jordan a little way below 
the Sea of Galilee, journey down the eastern side, 
and cross again opposite Jericho, keeping within 
Jewish territory all the way. Within Peraean terri- 
tory, probably, Jesus was baptized ; and here He 
spent some of the most peaceful and happy days of 
His life (Mw. 19. 1 , &c). Here He found safety 
from the homicidal fury of the Jews ; and here He 
was found by the messenger of the bereaved sisters at 
Bethany. Part of the country is under cultivation 
by villagers, but especially by Circassian colonists. 
Great tracts are used for grazing purposes. 

PERAZIM is mentioned only once (Is. 28. 21 ). 
The reference is probably to Baal-perazim, where 
David defeated the Philistines (2 S. 5. 20 ). Conder 
places it on the ridge above i Ain Farts, to the NE. 
of Adullam. 

PERESH, a son of Machir, by Maachah (1 Ch. 

7- 16 )- 

PEREZ (AV. Pharez, " rupture," or " breach," 
Gn. 38. 29 ) was the son of Judah by his daughter-in- 
law Tamar, and twin brother of Zarah. He was the 
ancestor of the clan called Perezites. Prolific seed 
is the blessing most coveted by the Oriental heart. 
From the blessing pronounced upon Boaz by the 
elders of Israel, " Let thy house be like the house of 
Perez " (Ru. 4. 12 ), we may infer that the clan was 
numerous. The sons of Perez were Hezron and 
Hamul (Gn. 46. 12 ). His family, in the descendants 
of Hezron, through his son Ram, attained great 
distinction, David and his house no doubt, in the 
eyes of Israel, forming its chief glory. Of this 
family, also, according to the flesh, Jesus Christ 
came(Mw.'i. 3 ; Lk. 3. 33 ). 



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PEREZ-UZZAH, the spot so named by David, long, and there is no indication that they preached 
because here the Lord brake out upon Uzzah in Perga before continuing their journey inland. It 
(2 S. 6. 8 ; I Ch. 13. 11 ). Josephus seems to have may be questioned if this was their original purpose 
known the place, and says that " the place where (see Pamphylia). It is probable that there was here 
he (Uzzah) died, is even now called ' the cleaving of a Jewish community, with a synagogue ; and to 
Uzzah.' " No trace of it is now to be found. these St. Paul would naturally first address himself 

PERFUME, PERFUMER. Orientals have al- when, on his return, he preached in Perga. There 
ways been extremely fond of sweet and pungent is, however, nothing to show that his efforts here 
odours. Apart from the mere pleasure they afford, met with any success (Ac. 13. 13 , 14. 25 ). At a later 
perfumes have been used in the way of self-defence, time Perga was the seat of a metropolitan bishopric, 
against the offensive odours generated by the heat of dividing with Side the authority over the province 
the climate. Considerable trade was done in im- of Pamphylia. 

porting spices from Arabia, and use was made of The site is now called Murtana, c. 12 miles NE. of 
native aromatic plants. Sometimes a twig of a Attalia. It is situated on the plateau which lies 
sweet-smellingplant orflowerwascarriedinthehand. between the rivers. To the south of the Acropolis 
This is still a prevalent custom. The materials were there are extensive ruins, theatre, stadium, churches, 
sometimes ground to powder and used for fumiga- &c. Towards the SE. of the Acropolis is a platform 
tion (SS. 3. 6 ), or the perfume was extracted and with the bases of six granite columns. Some have 
mingled with oil for application to the person (Jn. thought these might be the remains of the Temple 
12. 3 ). Ladies were accustomed to carry perfume- of Artemis; others, however, are of opinion that 
boxes (Is. 3. 20 , RV.). Incense and perfumed they are too rude for a place in such a splendid 
Ointment were used in the Temple service. The building as that must have been, 
clothes (Ps. 45. 8 ; SS. 4. 11 ) and beds (Pr. 7. 17 ) were PERGAMOS, RV. PERGAMUM, a famous city 
perfumed. Perfume plays a considerable part in of Mysia, situated about four miles N. of the river 



the reception of honoured guests (Dn. 2.*° ; cp. 
Lane, Mod. Egp. ii. 14). " Pillars of smoke " were 
thrown around the king as he rode out in his palan- 
quin (SS. 3- 6 ), perfumed with frankincense and 
myrrh, and all the powders of the merchant. Per- 



Caicus and fifteen miles from the sea. Smaller 
craft were able to ascend the river thus far. Two 
small tributaries flow into the Caicus from the 
north ; the Selinus, and, further east, the Cetius. 
Between these streams rises a great rock, dominating 



fumes were used in preparing the dead for burial the whole valley. Tradition says that here was 

(2 Ch. 16. 14 ; cp. Jn. 12. 7 ). The preparation of witnessed the birth of Zeus. A place of enormous 

fragrant substances to gratify the sense of smell has strength, this rock was occupied from very early 

been practised from old time (Ex. 30. 35 ; Pr. 7. 17 , times. In it, as a sacred place, treasure may have 

2J. 9 ; SS. 3. 6 , &c). " Apothecaries " in AV. been deposited. The sanctuary, however humble, 

should always be read " perfumers " — so also " con- is in the East a safe place for valuables. Perhaps on 

fectioners." For particular perfumes see articles this account king Lysimachus here entrusted 6000 

under their own names. talents of his treasure to the care of Philetasrus. 

PERGA, a city of Pamphylia lying over seven His confidence was ill placed. Philetasrus used the 
miles inland, between the rivers Cestrus and Cata- treasure for his own purposes ; with the help of 
ractes. Nothing is known of Perga before the Seleucus, king of Syria, he founded a kingdom and 
second cent. B.C., but the walls probably date from asserted his independence. He reigned from B.C. 
the third cent. b.c. Its coins range from the second 284-263, and was succeeded by his nephew Attalus. 
cent, b.c toA.D. 276. It was noted in antiquity for The Attalid dynasty continued till b.c 133, when 
its devotion to the goddess Artemis, whose worship Attalus III. died, leaving his kingdom to the 
resembled that of the Ephesian Diana. A great Romans, stipulating that Pergamos should be main- 
temple of Artemis occupied rising ground outside tained as a self-governing city. It thus became the 
the city, and probably was to the inhabitants what capital of the Roman province, which at first was 
that of Diana was to the Ephesians. The goddess not coterminous with the former kingdom, Phrygia 
and her temple are represented on the coins. It Magna being given to king Mithri dates of Pontus ; 
may be assumed that the right of asylum attached but in b.c. 320 Phrygia also was attached to the new 
to the temple. Perga lay about five miles from the province, which the Romans called Asia. 
Cestrus, but probably possessed a harbour on the Situated far inland, upon no great trade route, 
river, which is navigable to a point opposite the with a river navigable only by small vessels, Per- 
city. gamos was in many respects at a disadvantage com- 

To this city came St. Paul with his companions pared with such a city as Ephesus. But she held 

from Cyprus on their first missionary journey, her position as the seat of provincial government 

There John Mark parted with them and returned and a great religious centre, 
home. The others do not seem to have tarried The art of preparing skins to receive writing is 

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said to have been perfected in Pergamos, and from the whole, the more likely suggestion (Gesenius, 

this city the name parchment is derived. Heb.-Chal. Lex. s.v. ; Moore, Judges, p. 17). 

To Pergamos was addressed the third of the PERSIA, PERSIANS (CHS, D^S, TLkfxrai, Ne. 
letters to the churches of Asia (Rv. 2. 12ff -). The 12. 22 ; Est. I. 3 ; Dn. 8. 20 ; first mentioned in 
" sharp two-edged sword " probably alludes to the Ek. 27. 10 , if the reading is right) were names origi- 
symbol of Roman authority, the short cut-and- nally confined to Persis (now Fars), between Car- 
thrust sword of the Romans as distinguished from mania and Susiana on the E. and W., and Media and 
the single-edged weapon of the East. In days the Persian Gulf on the N. and S. Under Teispes 
of persecution, Christians would be taken to the (in B.C. 600) the old Elamite kingdom of Anzan was 
capital of the province for trial ; so we may regard conquered by the Persians, and Susiana, with its 
the martyrdom of Antipas as merely a typical in- capital Susa, thus came to be included in Persian 
stance. When Rome had ranged itself definitely territory ; the conquests of Cyrus at a later date 
against Christianity, and martyrs' blood had flowed founded the Persian empire, wh. comprised the 
freely, " Satan's throne" (v. 13 RV.) not inaptly whole of Western Asia, and of wh. the modern 
describes the chief provincial seat of the State re- Persia is a fragment. Persis, or Persia proper, was 
ligion — the worship of the emperor ; two imperial flat and sultry near the sea-coast, elevated and 
temples being found there. There may also be an bracing in the centre, and mountainous and wintry 
allusion to the Oriental nature- worship, especially in the north. Its chief city was Persepolis or 
the cults of Dionysus and Asclepius, which also Istakhr (Chehil Mtnar), 35 miles NE. of Shiraz, 
flourished there. Here also there was special temp- still remarkable for its ruined palaces. In the cliff 
tation to Christians to shield themselves from of Naksh-i-Rustem, in the neighbourhood, are the 
danger by outward conformity in the matters of chambered tombs of Darius I. and his successors, 
heathen ritual, since an idol was " nothing in the Northward, on the Cyrus, was Pasargadae, generally 
world," and no value could be attached to its identified with Murghdb, the burial-place of Cyrus, 
worship. Those who were thus ensnared may be whose tomb, with the inscription, " I am Cyrus, the 
meant by " some that hold the teaching of Balaam, king, the Achaemenian," is still pointed out there, 
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before The identification, however, is not absolutely cer- 
the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to tain, and the Cyrus of the inscription may possibly 
idols, and to commit fornication." For white be Cyrus the Younger. Westward, on the road to 
stone see Stone. Babylonia, is the sacred rock of Behistun, on wh. 

The later city crept down the hill and spread to Darius inscribed the record of his achievements, 

the south-west, across the Selinus, where the town The Persians were Aryans, and spoke a language 

of Bergama now stands. It was adorned with many closely allied to Sanskrit and the Zend of Bactriana. 

splendid public buildings, the Acropolis being on They belonged to the same race as the Aryan Medes, 

the rock (see Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven and had made their way into Persis at a compara- 
Churches, 28 iff.). 

PERIDA, ancestor of a family of " Solomon's 
servants " who returned from Babylon with Zerub- 



babel (Ne. 7."). 



tively late date under the leadership of Achaemenes 
(Hakhamanish). One of his descendants, Teispes 
(Chaishpaish), made himself master of a part of 
Elam after the destruction of the Elamite kingdom 



PERIZZITE. There are no available data for a by the Assyrians shortly before the fall of Assyria 

certain identification of this people. They were itself. His descendants — Cyrus I., Cambyses I., and 

found, along with the Canaanites, in Palestine in the Cyrus II. — accordingly called themselves kings of 

days of Abraham (Gn. 13. 7 ), and are named along Anzan or Elymais. Cyrus (Kurush) II. rebelled 

with the Rephaim (15. 20 ). They were among the against his suzerain Astyages (Istuvegu) of Ecba- 

peoples to be driven out by Israel (Dt. 20. 17 , &c). tana, whose army revolted against him and delivered 

Remnants of them were left in the land (1 K. 9. 20 ), him up to Cyrus. Ecbatana was taken and Media 

and were a cause of trouble even after the return incorporated into the Persian kingdom (b.c 549). 

from Babylon (Ez. 9. 1 ). Shortly afterwards Cyrus assumed the title of king of 

Their distinction from the Canaanites, and asso- Persia, and overthrew Crcesus of Lydia, adding Asia 

ciation with the Rephaim, some have thought, Minor to his territory (b.c 546 ?). Nabonidos of 

point to their belonging to the pre-Semitic inhabi- Babylon now found it needful to secure himself 

tants of Palestine, knowledge regarding whom is against his dangerous neighbour, who had already 

slowly gathering by means of excavation. Others extended his dominions to the east and north. But 

regard the name as connected with perdzl, "vil- in B.c. 538, encouraged by a revolt in southern 

lager," and suggest that they may have been a Babylonia, Cyrus marched against Nabonidos, who 

Canaanite tribe, like the fellahln of the present day, was overthrown in a battle at Opis in the month of 

cultivating the soil and dwelling in " villages," i.e. June. A few days later Babylon surrendered, and 

in unwalled towns in the country. This seems, on Cyrus was proclaimed king of Babylonia. His son 

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Cambyses (Kambujiya) II. succeeded to the un- Ochus, made his way to the throne by murdering the 
wieldy empire in B.C. 529, and further enlarged it by rest of the royal family (b.c. 362). After reconquer- 
the conquest of Egypt. But he lingered in Egypt ing the revolted provinces of Egypt and Phoenicia, 
too long, and the crown was seized by the Magian Ochus was poisoned in b.c. 339, and three years later 
Gomates (Gaumata), who pretended to be Bardes his son Arses shared his fate. Darius III. Codo- 
(Smerdis), the murdered brother of Cambyses (b.c mannus was then set upon the throne, but in b.c. 
521). For seven months the Magian conspirators 334 Alexander of Macedon crossed the Hellespont, 
held the government ; then Bardes was assassinated and after defeating the Persians at the Granicus 
by Darius (Darayavush), the son of Hystaspes, the and at Issus destroyed both Darius and his empire 
great-grandson of Teispes, who was elected king at Gaugamela, b.c 331. 

in his place. The empire of Cyrus, however, was The founder of Persian religion was Zoroaster, 
already breaking up, its several provinces asserting the Moses of Persia. The older deities, whom the 
t-heir claims to independence under local pretenders ancestors of the Persians had shared with the Hindus 
to royal birth, and it had to be reconquered piece by of the Veda, were degraded into demons, while the 
piece. When the task was accomplished, Darius set Sun-god Mitra with his kindred gods became a 
about the organisation of his conquests, and the subordinate divinity or sort of angel. The supreme 
Persian empire was created, with its separate pro- god and creator of the world was the good being 
vinces under satraps appointed by the king, and Ahura-mazda (Ormazd) ; over against him was the 
paying a fixed amount of taxation to the imperial principle of evil, Angro-mainyus (Ahriman), who had 

brought evil into the world. Persian religion was 
thus a dualism. Fire, the symbol of Ahura-mazda, 
was accounted sacred ; so too were earth and water, 
and a peculiar sanctity was attached to the dog. 
Drinking the habma wine was a sacramental act. As 
both earth and fire were sacred, the bodies of the 
dead were not buried or cremated, but left to be 
stripped of their flesh by birds of prey. This cus- 
tom, however, seems to have spread from the 
Mazdean Magians after the age of the Achsemenian 
kings, who were buried in rock-cut tombs. The 
Avesta was the sacred book of Persia ; it was written 
in Zend, and purported to be the composition of 
Zoroaster. In its present form, however, it cannot 
be older than the Sassanian period, tho' certain por- 
tions of it called the Gathas go back to an earlier age. 
Lit. : G. N. Curzon, Persia, Longmans, 1892 ; F. 
Spiegel, Die altpersischen Keilinschriften, Leipzig, 
1 881 ; Inscription of Darius the Great at Be his tun, 
British Museum, Longmans, 1907. 

A. H. Sayce. 
PERSIS, a female Christian in Rome, saluted 
by the apostle Paul (Rm. 16. 12 ) as " the beloved 
Persis." mention being made of her much labour. 
PERUDA (Ez. 2. 55 ) = PERIDA. 
PESTILENCE. See Diseases and Remedies. 
PETER. See Simon Peter. 
PETER, THE FIRST EPISTLE OF. That 
Peter the apostle was the author of this epistle was 
universally admitted as early as the end of the 
second century ; it is expressly quoted as his by 
Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian ; 
it was received without question into the Canon at 
the end of the third century, and not until modern 
times has the traditional view been disturbed. 
Even yet the majority of critics hold to it, finding it 
harder to set aside the strong external evidence than 
to find a plausible answer to the admittedly weighty 
objections founded on the book itself. Thus the 




Persian Men 

treasury. The satrap had the power of life and 
death, limited by an appeal to the monarch ; but in 
most cases the troops stationed in his satrapy were 
under a commander of their own. Darius died 
b.c 485, while preparing to avenge upon the Greeks 
the defeat of Marathon, and was succeeded by his 
inefficient son Xerxes (Khshayarsha, the Ahasuerus 
of the OT.), whose reign is chiefly memorable for 
the disastrous end of his invasion of Greece. Under 
his son and successor, Artaxerxes I. (Artakhshatra) 
Longimanus, the empire steadily declined ; his son 
Xerxes was murdered after a reign of two months 
(b.c 425), and the murderer, his half-brother Sog- 
dianus, was himself murdered, after a reign of 
seven months, by his brother Ochus, who took 
the name of Darius II. (Nothus : b.c 424). He 
was followed (in b.c 405) by his son Artaxerxes III. 
(Mnemon), who was soon afterwards called upon 
to confront the rebellion of his brother Cyrus the 
Younger. The rebel, however, fell in the battle of 
Cunaxa, and the retreat of his Greek mercenaries 
has been described by Xenophon. Family troubles 
hastened the death of the king, whose successor, 



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manifest dependence on Paul's writings, notably on 
Romans and Ephesians, a thing very unlikely (it is 
said) in the premier apostle, and especially after con- 
flict, may yet be accounted for by the well-known 
disposition and character of that apostle ; and it is 
pleasing to think that the two great men met in 
Rome (" Babylon " almost certainly is so to be 
understood) before they suffered, and were so en- 
tirely reconciled that Peter could make loving use 
of Paul's thoughts, and Paul's companions could 
send loving messages in Peter's epistle. The other 
great objection, that the epistle appears to refer to 
a period when it was a crime to be a Christian, which 
was not till the reign of Domitian, when it is almost 
certain that Peter could not be still alive (tradition 
says that he suffered in a.d. 66), may be met by the 
obvious enough suggestion that the saints suffered 
long before that, ostensibly for some other cause, 
but really because they were Christians ; and there 
is therefore nothing to hinder us from accepting the 
date usually assigned to the epistle, about a.d. 64. 
It may further be pointed out that the suffering in 
the present case does not appear to have been as yet 
" unto blood," and it may not have been entirely 
official in its origin ; but it was hard to bear, and 
therefore the apostle writes to strengthen their 
faith. He has little thought about style and less 
about originality. He writes out of the fulness of 
his heart and of his memory. He quotes Paul and 
James, as well as the writers of the OT. ; but most 
of all he is saturated with the words of Jesus. It is 
very significant, and not without evidential value, 
that there are more of our Lord's words in this short 
letter than in the whole of Paul's writings. Then 
in regard to doctrine, the only peculiarity is in the 
passages about the dead, and the reference is so 
obscure that we must conclude that he knew his 
readers to be in possession of a fuller statement, 
which no doubt was a well-known item of tradi- 
tional apostolic teaching, although lost to us. Taken 
by itself and as it stands, the first passage (3. 19 ) 
seems clearly enough to mean that Christ preached 
to the antediluvian dead, and the second passage 
(4. 6 ) that the preaching was extended somehow 
to all the dead who died before the Gospel was 
preached on the earth ; but it would be hazardous 
to go further (as some have proposed), and infer 
from this as a general doctrine the possibility of re- 
demption after death. The Scriptures elsewhere 
being silent on the subject, it is wiser to leave the 
final interpretation of these obscure passages till we 
have fuller knowledge. 

Summary. — i. 1 * 2 . Salutation. — His readers are 
Christians in the north-east provinces of Asia Minor, 
Jews apparently from the mode of address, but most 
certainly including Gentiles, if these are not in the 
majority, from the references to their past moral life. 

I. 3 * 12 . The Christian Life, its -privileges. — The 



great salvation devised by God's mercy, and secured 
by Christ's resurrection, will be revealed in its fulness 
in the last time, when they shall enter into posses- 
sion of their inheritance and see their Lord ; but 
even already, such is the power of faith, they can 
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and 
that even in the midst of manifold trials, realising 
that such are sent to purify their faith and prepare 
them for Christ's coming. This salvation, which 
remained a mystery in past ages even to the pro- 
phets, and is still a mystery to the angels, was an- 
nounced (and made clear) to them by the high 
authority of preachers commissioned by the Holy 
Ghost. 

l. 13 -2. 10 . The Christian Life, its distinctive fea- 
tures : hopefulness, diligence, and holiness. — Their 
eyes must ever be on the horizon looking for their 
Lord, but they must not neglect their own prepara- 
tion, they must be holy because He is holy. Let 
them remember what their redemption cost, their 
exodus from the bondage of the old life ; and let 
them make diligent use of the Word by which they 
were begotten into the new life, finding in it milk 
for their spiritual nourishment — they are as yet but 
babes in Christ. The foundation only of their faith 
is laid (it is a sure foundation), and they must build 
upon it — nay, they themselves are the stones to be 
built up into a spiritual house. Let them remember 
their high calling, how they are the true Israel of 
God, an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, 
sojourners and pilgrims in this world, strangers in 
every land, with a heavenly Canaan. 

2. u -3. 13 . The Christian Life, its duties. — The 
world has its claim upon them, sojourners though 
they be ; let their life then do credit to their re- 
ligion. As citizens let them be loyal and obedient, 
recognising the secular government to be from God ; 
as servants let them be in subjection with all fear, 
not only to the good and gentle, but also to the 
froward, remembering the example of their Lord. 
(That there is no corresponding exhortation to 
masters may indicate that they were mostly of the 
humbler class.) Wives who happen to have heathen 
husbands are still to obey, and their whole life 
should be such as to win their husbands to Christ. 
Husbands, on the other hand, are not to despise their 
wives, but to honour them as the weaker vessel, and, 
where both are believers, as joint heirs of the grace 
of life — a suggestive hint for all time. Finally, let 
them' recognise their duty to one another, let them 
live in peace and love, subduing their revengeful 
feelings, and so earn the length of days and the se- 
curity promised to the righteous. But this brings 
him back to their present sufferings, and he must 
explain. 

3- 14 -4- The Christian Life, its sufjerings. — Let 
them make sure that their suffering is for righteous- 
ness sake, not for evil-doing or meddling in other 



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men's matters, but simply and solely because they 
are living the Christian life in its severe simplicity, 
refusing to hob-nob and carouse with their former 
boon companions (let the past suffice for that !) ; 
let each of them make sure that he is suffering as a 
Christian, and then let him rejoice. Let him under- 
stand andbe alwaysreadytoanswer: (i)That it isnot 
a token of God's anger but of His favour ; to suffer 
as a Christian is to be a partaker of Christ's sufferings, 
through which the world is saved. (2) That the 
suffering is disciplinary ; the gold is refined in this 
way (and if this is needed for the good what about 
the wicked ?). (3) That it will only be for a short 
time ; the Lord is coming. (4) That their souls 
are in God's keeping ; let them commit themselves 
to Him (as Jesus did, 2. 23 ). 

5. 1 " 11 . The Christian Life, its organisation. — 
Christians are not units but a unity. He has 
already spoken of them as a nation, a family, a 
spiritual house ; he will now compare them to a 
flock, the true sheep of God's pasture, and as such 
they must have overseers. Christ is the Chief 
Shepherd, the elders are the under-shepherds, the 
Word of God is the pasture. Let the elders there- 
fore feed the flock, let them also protect it, and 
when the Chief Shepherd will come they will get 
their reward. The flock, on the other hand, must be 
obedient, willing to be kept, and anxious to be fed ; 
the younger especially are to be dutiful and sub- 
missive ; and as the bond of peace let them all be 
humble-minded, " for God resisteth the proud but 
giveth grace to the humble." 

5. 12 " 14 . Farewell greetings and benediction. 

D. Ross. 

PETER, THE SECOND EPISTLE OF. The 
Petrine authorship of this epistle has been greatly 
questioned from the beginning. There is no cer- 
tain mention of the epistle in the second century, 
and when it is referred to in the third it is only to 
have its apostolic origin doubted or denied. It was 
long in being accepted by the great churches, and 
how it found its way into the Canon it is impossible 
to say. At the Reformation, again, it was attacked 
by Erasmus and Calvin ; and in modern times many 
leading critics are against it. Not only, they say, is 
there the want of external authority, which in itself 
is a grave objection, but there are such additional 
objections as these : the difference in style from 
I Peter — that so simple, this so artificial and am- 
bitious — and the close resemblance to the Apoca- 
lypse of Peter, a work of the second century ; its de- 
pendence on Jude (if later — and all the evidence 
points that way), a thing very unlikely in an apostle, 
even in Peter ; the many suggestions of a later age, 
as the presence of antinomian agnosticism as a 
system; the distance from the Fathers; the reference 
to Paul's epistles as Scripture. All these, it is con- 
tended, lead to the conclusion that the epistle be- 



longs to a later period, probably about the middle of 
the second century, and was written by a man who 
(with a high purpose, it may be conceded) imper- 
sonated Peter for the sake of authority, and who 
perhaps was in possession of some of the apostle's 
writings, or at least was familiar with his specific 
teaching. At the same time, and in spite of all this, 
there are still critics of repute who accept the 
epistle as genuine ; and it is likely that the plain 
reader of Scripture, thinking only of the substance 
of the epistle, will still go on believing that he is in 
contact with a mind which was in contact with 
Christ in the days of His flesh. The epistle in that 
case must be placed at the very limit of Peter's life, 
not earlier than a.d. 65 ; and while the readers are 
the same as in 1 Peter, the enemy is a new one — im- 
moral heresy, either already present or seen on the 
horizon. 

Summary. — I. 1 ' 2 . Salutation. I. 3 * 11 . Introduc- 
tory exhortation to a diligent use of the Divine gifts. 
God has given in Christ all that is necessary for life 
and godliness ; let them, then, for their part so use 
the means of grace, building on the foundation of 
faith the Christian graces — virtue and knowledge, 
self-control and endurance, godliness and brotherly 
love — that they make their calling and election sure 
and secure an entrance into the eternal kingdom. 

I. 12 " 21 . The importance and certainty of his mes- 
sage. — He writes as a dying man, and he will not fail 
in his duty, hoping that his words will have weight 
when he is gone. He is not in any doubt as to the 
Divine origin of the apostolic teaching. He was an 
eye-witness of Christ's glory, and heard the voice of 
God confirming His sonship and making the word' of 
prophecy more sure (RV.) ; which word in respect 
of Christ's second coming (given, as all Scripture is 
given, by the Holy Ghost) they have as a lamp till 
the day-star arise. This leads to the main part of 
the epistle. 

2. Warning against those who wrest the Scrip- 
tures to justify their sinful lives. — Such men are sure 
to come if they have not already arisen, and they 
will do much harm, but their judgment is sure. 
God, who spared not angels when they sinned, nor 
the men before the Flood, and who turned Sodom 
and Gomorrah into ashes for their wickedness, will 
not spare these men who follow in their steps ; but 
He will, as of old, deliver the righteous. Justice 
cannot fail to overtake such insolent sinners as 
these ; and then he goes on to describe them, 
following (or anticipating) the description of Jude, 
enlarging, generalising, and in parts altering the 
sense, and finishing up with an unsavoury proverb. 

3. Warning against mockers, probably the same 
class. — These men make light of Christ's coming on 
the Day of Judgment. They point to the uniformity 
of nature since the creation, wilfully forgetting that 
the order was broken once at the Flood because of 



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sinners like themselves, and what happened once will 
happen again, only the next time the destruction 
will be by fire. Let them understand that the long 
delay (since the [apostolic] Fathers fell asleep) is not 
a sign of slackness on God's part but of His long- 
suffering, and that He does not reckon time as men 
do. The day of the Lord will assuredly come, and 
it will come suddenly, bringing destruction upon 
the ungodly ; but they, the people of God, need 
have no fear even though the heavens be dissolved 
and the elements melt with fervent heat. Only, 
with such a prospect, let them give diligence that 
they be found without spot and blameless ; and in 
particular let them take care that they be not led 
astray by those who wrest the Scriptures (including 
Paul's utterances on the subject) to their own de- 
struction ; but let them grow in the grace and 
knowledge of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
— to Him be the glory for ever ! D. Ross. 

PETHAHIAH. (i) A priest who was head of 
the 19th of the priestly courses in the time of David 
(1 Ch. 24. 16 ). (2) A Levite who had married a 
foreign wife (Ez. io. 23 ). He took a leading part in 
the service, regulating the devotions of the people 
when Ezra had concluded the reading of the law 
(Ne. 9- 5 ). (3) Son of Meshezabeel, of the tribe of 
Judah, who was employed by the Persian king " in 
all matters affecting the people, to speak to the king 
concerning them" (Ne. 11. 24 ). 

PETHOR, whence Balak, king of Moab, brought 
the prophet Balaam, with intent to curse Israel 
(Nu. 22. 5 ; Dt. 23. 4 ), lay " on the river " (Eu- 
phrates) in Mesopotamia. It is called Pitru by 
Shalmaneser II. (KIB. i. 133, 163, 173), who says 
it is " on the Sagur," i.e. the mod. Sajur. It must 
therefore have been on the W. bank of the Euphrates, 
at its confluence with the Sajur, some 60 miles to 
the NE. of Aleppo. 

PETHUEL, father of the prophet Joel (Jl. I. 1 ). 
It may possibly be a scribal error for Bethuel 
{cp. LXX). 

PETRA. See Sela. 

PEULTHAI, RV. PEULLETHAI, the eighth 
son of Obed-edom (1 Ch, 26. 5 ). 

PHAATH MOAB. See Pahath Moab. 

PHALLU = PALLU. 

PHALTI, PHALTIEL = PALTI. 

PHANUEL, mentioned only in Lk. 2. 36 , of the 
tribe of Asher, father of the prophetess Anna. 

PHARAOH (njrja, <£apaa>), the title of the 
Egyptian kings, in Egyptian Per-aa, " (the) Great 
House," similar to that of the " Sublime Porte." 
As we speak of the " Mikado " of Japan, the 
foreigners in and around Egypt spoke of " the 
Pharaoh " ; hence it is only after the Ethiopian 
conquest of Egypt that the actual names of the 
Pharaohs are given in the OT. Ten Pharaohs are 
mentioned there : (1) The Pharaoh of Abraham, who 



would have been a Hyksos king of Canaanitish origin, 
and consequently ready to welcome the visitor from 
Canaan. (2) The Pharaoh of Joseph, who was also a 
Hyksos king, belonging probably to the third and last 
Hyksos dynasty (the 17th). Eusebius makes him an 
Apophis, of whom three are known from the monu- 
ments. (3) The Pharaoh of the Oppression, for 
whom the Israelites built Raamses and Pithom (Ex. 
I. 11 ). As the excavations of Professor Naville have 
shown that the builder of Pithom was Ramses II., of 
the 19th dynasty, we must see in Ramses II. the 
Pharaoh under whom Moses was born. Ramses II. 
had a passion for building, and during his long reign 
of 6j years covered Egypt with his constructions. 
(4) The Pharaoh of the Exodus, who was the suc- 
cessor of the Pharaoh of the Oppression (Ex. 2. 23 ), 
must have been Meneptah, the son and successor 
of Ramses II. The " Israelites " (I-s-r-a-l-u) are 
mentioned on one of his monuments discovered at 
Thebes by Prof. Petrie. The Exodus would have 
taken place before the 8th year of his reign, when, as 
we learn from a letter to the Egyptian government, 
the land of Goshen had been left without inhabi- 
tants. (5) Pharaoh the father of Bithiah (1 Chr. 
4. 18 ), wh. is possibly the town of southern Palestine 
called Bethia by the Egyptian king Thothmes III. 
(Karnak List, 97). Bithia is said to be the wife of 
Mered, son of Ezra and " the Jewess," who seems to 
be identical with " Jered, the father of Gedor." 
(6) The Pharaoh to whom Hadad of Edom fled after 
the conquest of his country by Joab (1 K. 1 1 , 14 " 22 ). 
Hadad subsequently married the sister of " Tah- 
penes the queen," and on the death of David asked 
leave to return to his own land. (7) Pharaoh the 
father-in-law of Solomon (1 K. 3. 1 ) , who must have 
been the last king of the 21st (Tanite) dynasty, 
Pasebkhanu II., but can hardly have been identical 
with the Pharoah of Hadad. Resuming ^he old 
claims of Egyptian sovereignty over Canaan, he 
marched against Gezer, wh. he took from the 
Canaanites and handed over to his son-in-law in 
place of a dowry. (8) The Pharaoh on whose help 
Hezekiah relied in his revolt from Sennacherib (Is. 
36. 6 ). As the Assyrian invasion of Judah took place 
in b.c. 701, this would have been Shabatoka of the 
Ethiopian (25th) dynasty (see Petrie, History of 
Egypt, hi. p. 296). (9) Pharaoh Necho, the first 
Pharaoh whose name is given in the OT., Nekau II. 
Uahem-ab-Ra in Egyptian, the 4th king of the 26th 
(Saite) dynasty, who reigned b.c 610-594. He at- 
tempted to reopen the canal wh. connected the Nile 
with the Red Sea, and sent Phoenician ships to cir- 
cumnavigate Africa. The fall of Assyria allowed 
him to restore the Egyptian empire in Asia ; and in 
b.c 608 he invaded Palestine, where Josiah was over- 
thrown and slain at Megiddo (2 K. 23. 29f - ; 2 Ch. 
35. 20 " 24 ). Three months later Jehoahaz was deposed 
and carried to Egypt, Jehoiakim being made king in 



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his place (2 Ch. 36. 3L ). In b.c. 605, however, the 
Egyptians were utterly defeated at Carchemish by 
Nebuchadrezzar (Jr. 46. 1 ' 2 » 6 ' 10 ) and the Asiatic 
empire of Egypt lost (2 K. 24. 7 ). (10) Pharaoh 
Hophra, Uah-ab-Ra in Egyptian, Apries in Hero- 
dotus, the grandson of Nekau II., reigned B.C. 589— 
570. He is called simply " Pharaoh " in Jr. 37- 5 ; 
Ek. 17. 17 . The alliance of Zedekiah with Egypt, 
wh. led to his revolt from Nebuchadrezzar, must 
have been made before the death of Psammeti- 
chus II., the father of Hophra, since the siege of 
Jerusalem began b.c. 590, but the advance of the 
Egyptian army wh. occasioned the temporary sus- 
pension of the siege probably took place after it. 
Hophra was dethroned and subsequently put to 
death by one of his generals, Ahmes, thus fulfilling 
the prophecy of Jr. 44. 30 . A. H. Sayce. 

PHARAOH HOPHRA. See Hophra. 

PHARAOH NECHO. See Necho. 

PHARES (Mw. i. 3 ; Lk. 3 . 33 ) = PEREZ. 

PHAREZ. See Perez. 

PHARISEES (Heb. D»B>n$, " separated "). We 
do not meet with the name either in OT. or in the 
Apcr., but the P. are nothing else than the Assideans 
(D*TDn) of 1 M. 2. 42 , 7. 13 - 17 ; 2 M. 14. 6 . The 
principle of separation, wh. had been introduced by 
Ezra, became a much more pressing necessity when 
the Seleucidae were introducing and enforcing 
heathen customs, and when many Jews were becom- 
ing lax and yielding to free thought, and hence arose 
the sect and name of the P. They feared that, in 
the confusion of the times, politics would usurp the 
place of religion, and so they held against all parties 
that the Law was Israel's office and only standard of 
life and government. They did not wish a worldly 
State, but only a community obedient to the Law, 
and accordingly they were ready to accept into their 
party any pious Jew who was faithful to the Law, 
and, strictly observing the laws of ceremonial purity, 
separated himself fm. the i amme ha- arete. They 
had recognised Alcimus of the house of Aaron as 
High Priest, but when Jonathan received that office 
fm. the Syrians they stood aloof, and he in return 
abolished and punished the observance of the in- 
stitutions wh. the Pharisees had imposed on the 
people as received by succession fm. their fathers 
{Ant. XIII. x. 6). Several of the Maccabean 
princes tried to prevent an open rupture with their 
chiefs, but without success. Under Alexander Jan- 
naeus they suffered, but in the days of Salome they 
gained considerable influence, and even seats in the 
Sanhedrin, while through the appointment of their 
candidate, Hyrcanus, to the high-priesthood and the 
removal of Aristobulus, they were, though hostile to 
the Romans on account of the pollution of the 
Temple, brought to submission. In Herod's con- 
tests for the kdm. they took no part, but the fact 
that their chiefs, Pollio and Sameas, were instru- 



mental in inducing the people to open the gates 
of Jerusalem to him, procured them position and 
honour ; nevertheless when the oath of allegiance to 
Caesar and Herod was imposed, they declined to take 
it, and a fine had to be paid instead (Ant. XVII. ii. 4). 
During his reign their great teachers — Shemaia and 
Abtalion, Hillel and Shammai — lived, and their in- 
fluence and the number of their representatives in 
the Sanhedrin gradually grew. With the advent of 
the pure Rm. rule (a.d. 6) the Sadducees gained a 
momentary advantage, but the action of the Zealots 
brought decline, and henceforward not only the 
moral influence but the official rule was in the hands 
of the P. 

Starting with the principle that the Law was all 
in all, and devoting themselves to its study, they 
soon came to be regarded as excelling all others in 
their accurate kge. and skilful exposition of it (Jos. 
Fit. 38 ; BJ. II. viii. 14), but in applying it to the 
changed circumstances of their more complicated 
life they found it insufficient, and so it soon became 
a part of their teaching that alongside of the written 
Law there exists an oral law wh. is meant to be its 
interpreter, giving details of the application of every 
regulation in the Pnt. on matters ceremonial, doc- 
trinal, and legal (Pirke A both, i.). Besides instruc- 
tions said to have been delivered to Moses on Sinai, 
it contained (a) opinions of the elders on disputed 
points ; (b) decrees of the prophets and wise men ; 
(c) legal decisions of the ecclesiastical authorities on 
doubtful questions. Every possible case of conduct 
in life was brought into contact with the Law 
through the forced interpretation of some verse. 
Endless detail was given, regulations for every 
motion and action, so that men became not only as 
children, but mere machines. Their religion was 
mechanical, lifeless, unspiritual. The kernel was 
buried and died under the heap of dry husks. The 
Law became a bondage and a burden too heavy to be 
borne (Mw. 23. 4 ), in very truth beggarly elements 
(Gal. 4. 9 ). Nor is this the opinion of the NT. alone. 
Such of the later Jews as fully appreciated their 
position designated the P. " a trouble of life," 
and expected them to be " nothing in the next 
world." 

The P. held with great strictness to the law of 
tithing, and refused to partake of anything that had 
not paid tithes (Mw. 23. 23 ; Lk. 18. 12 ). To them 
also the regulations regarding clean and unclean were 
of vital importance, in relation to both eating and 
touching. These matters necessitated great care in 
buying and selling. Thus there was brought about 
the formation of Pharisaic societies, the members of 
wh. were named haberlm, and these were trusted by 
their brother P. The admission of candidates took 
place in the presence of three members, before whom 
they had to swear to be true to the laws of the asso- 
ciation. For the same reasons they confined them- 



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selves in social and marriage relations to their own 
society. 

Josephus, who was himself a P. ( Vit. 2), frequently men- 
tions them and their doctrines, but his statements lose some- 
thing of their value on act. of his fondness for accom- 
modating Jewish ideas to the terms of Greek philosophy. 
He compares them to the Stoics, prob. having in mind their 
indiffce. to wealth and luxury and their ascribing all things 
to fate. This latter point he modifies elsewhere, saying 
that ' ' the Pharisees, while they have determined that all 
things are done by fate, do not take away the freedom of 
men acting as they think fit ; since their notion is that it 
hath pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what 
He wills is done, but so that the will of man can act vir- 
tuoosly or viciously " (Ant. XVIII. i. 3 ; B.J. II. viii. 14). 
In connection with their belief in a future life they are 
prominent in the NT., and this article of faith is also 
mentioned by Josephus : " They believe that souls have an 
immortal vigour in them, and that under the earth there 
will be rewards or punishments accdg. as they have lived 
virtuously or viciously in this life, and the latter are to be 
detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall 
have power to revive and live again " (Ant. XVIII. i. 2). 
Elsewhere he says that they believed in the transmigra- 
tion of souls : " They say that souls are incorruptible, and 
that the souls of good men are only removed into other 
bodies" (BJ. II. viii. 14; cf. Mw. 14. 2 ; Jn. 9.2). From the 
NT. we should judge that they believed in the resurrection 
in the Christian sense. Our Lord does not mention the 
future life as anything new, and He takes for granted that 
they are right in their thoughts concerning it (Mw. 22. 30 ; 
Mk. 12. 25 ; Lk. 20. 34 - 36 ). In the Mishna the phrase so often 
met with, "the world to come," is a clear expression of 
Christian truth. On the other hand the idea of transmi- 
gration may have been held by individuals even in the first 
century, as it became and still is a doctrine of Judaism. 

The P. were said to be friendly to one another, and 
to be moved by a desire for the exercise of concord 
and regard for the public. They were not apt to be 
severe in punishing, and sought to make relg. the 
moving principle in the life of the people. They in- 
sisted on education in divine things, and one of the 
leaders gave utterance to this saying, " Secure thy- 
self a teacher, procure a companion, and judge every 
man fm. the best side ; " while another said, " Love 
work, hate lordship, and be not in the confidence of 
the rulers." The multitude was on their side, and 
they had the guidance of the people in religious 
matters (BJ. II. viii. 14 ; Ant. XIII. x. 6 ; Aboth, i.). 
But though ruling and guiding them, they were wont 
to despise those who knew not the Law (Jn. 7- 49 ), 
and whom they named the 'amine hci-aretz (people 
of the land). This name was given to such as did 
not repeat the Shema' prayer, who did not wear 
phylacteries or Tzitzith, and who did not teach 
their sons the law, i.e. all those who did not study 
and observe the various details of rabbinical teach- 
ing. Among many other expressions of contempt 
for such we read, " the garments of an 'am hd-aretz 
are as defiling as articles trodden under foot by a 
man who has an issue " (Chulin, 35 a ). 

An interesting illustration of the extent of Phari- 
saic hypocrisy, and an ample justification of the woes 
our Lord pronounced upon them, may be seen in 
several passages of the Tim., where they are divided 
into seven, wh. may be named and described as 
follows : (1) The Shechemite P., who, like the people 



of Shechem, obeys not fm. precept but fm. expedi- 
ency and self-interest. (2) The stumbling]?., who in 
his humility will not lift his feet fm. the ground, and 
so goes stumbling along. (3) The bleeding P., who 
shuts his eyes in his modest desire not to see a 
woman, and so is always striking himself agst. the 
wall. (4) The fainted P., who is so holy that he 
fears to touch any one lest he be contaminated. 
(5) The dutiful P., who says, " tell me of another 
duty that I may do it." (6) The trembling P., who is 
actuated by motives of fear alone. (7) The P. fm. 
love, who serves his heavenly Father fm. motives of 
love. Of all these we can only regard the last class 
as truly good and pious men ; and if we accept the 
Jewish proportion of good to bad, we must count 
that in Gospel days Pal. contained but several 
hundred such, of wh. class we may regard Nico- 
demus, Gamaliel, and Saul as examples, each in his 
own way. 

The P. were the one sect that sought to make con- 
verts fm. beyond the pale of Judaism. In this they 
were very energetic (Mw. 23. 15 ), and they were suc- 
cessful in gaining some very distinguished proselytes 
(Ant. XX. ii. 3). We read of conversions being very 
common in Galilee, esp. in the tribe of Issachar to 
the S. of Nazareth, and. there our Lord's disciples 
may have seen and learned something of their 
methods of persuasion. The freedom of the syna- 
gogue system, and the facilities there afforded (Lk. 
4. 16 ; Ac. 17. 2 ) for the expression of new thoughts, 
doubtless helped them, as it did the early Gospel 
preachers, and prob. the fact that the P. had led the 
way in preaching assisted in paving the way for the 
spread of Christianity. Wm. M. Christie. 

PHARPAR, one of the " rivers of Damascus " 
preferred by Naaman the Syrian to the Jordan (2 K. 
5. 12 ; see Abana). Identifications have been sug- 
gested with the stream from 'Ain Fijeh, and with 
one or other of the canals from the Barada. There 
is a local tradition which identifies Abana and 
Pharpar with the canals Nahr Bainas, or Abanias, 
and Nahr Taurfi. This is probably reflected in the 
Arabic version, which renders Pharpar by Taurd. 
There is nothing to support this identification in the 
Arab geographers ; and the canals are, after all, only 
branches of the one river. Wady Barbar, which 
comes down from the E. slope of Hermon, entering 
the plain of Damascus at the SW., perhaps retains a 
reminiscence of the old name. Save in winter, 
however, it is hardly a stream to attract the eye. 
It seems more likely that Naaman alluded to the ad- 
jacent river el-A'waj, which carries quite a volume 
of water, flowing along the southern edge of the 
plain to the desert lakes (HGHL. 1 642 ; Baedeker, 
Pal. and Syr. 3 268, 312). At the nearest point it is 
distant six miles from the gate of Damascus, Baw- 
wabet Ullah : some have thought, therefore, that it 
is too far away to be called a " river of Damascus." 



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But Naaman probably thought of the term as cover- 
ing the rich plain so closely associated with the city. 
And we find the Arabic writer Dimashki (c. a.d. 
1300) actually describing el-A'waj as a river of 
Damascus. ■ 

PHARZITES, RV. PEREZITES. See Perez. 

PHASEAH, RV. PASEAH, which see. 

PHEBE. See Phcebe. 

PHENICE. See Phcenix. 

PHICHOL, RV. PHICOL, captain of the host of 
the Philistine king Abimelech of Gerar. He ac- 
companied his master when the covenant was made 
with Abraham at Beer-sheba (Gn. 2l. 22ff -), and also 
when the covenant was made with Isaac (26. 26 ). 

PHILADELPHIA (Rv. 3. 7 ), a city in Lydia, was 
founded by Attalus II. king of Pergamos (b.c 159- 
138). It was situated in the vale of the Cogamis, a 
tributary of the Hermus, on rising ground to the S. 
of the river, and north of Mt. Tmolus. It was on 
the edge of the " Burnt Land," the Katakekaumene, 
which lies to the north and north-east of Phila- 
delphia. The name is due to the evidence on all 
hands of tremendous volcanic activity in compara- 
tively recent times. The volcanic detritus lends 
the charm of extraordinary fertility to the slopes 
and glens. Vines grew with great luxuriance, and 
the country was celebrated for the excellence of its 
wines. The position of Philadelphia fitted it to be, 
as was designed, a centre of Hellenistic influence 
in the whole region. Standing on the great road 
from Smyrna and the sea to Phrygia and the East, it 
enjoyed profitable trade relations with the cities on 
the inland plateau, the edges of which looked down 
upon it on three sides. The merchants in Phila- 
delphia would arrange for the transit to Smyrna of 
the rich vintages of the surrounding country. Its 
prosperous trade was sufficient to attract a colony of 
Jews (Rv. 3. 9 ). The district was liable to disturb- 
ance from earthquake. When the city had suffered 
from such a catastrophe in a.d. 17, the emperor 
Tiberius helped to restore it, giving it the name of 
Neokaisareia ; and it enjoyed the high honour of 
the neokorate, i.e. it was made warden of the temple 
consecrated to the worship of the emperor. 

When and by whom the Church was founded in 
Philadelphia there is nothing to show ; but a posi- 
tion of such consequence, holding open a door of 
approach to a wide and important region, could not 
long be neglected by the early missionaries. In the 
letter addressed to this Church (Rv. 3. 7ff> ) there is no 
word of rebuke or reproach. Possibly the " little 
power " may mean that it was still in its infancy as a 
Church ; the " open door " may refer to the oppor- 
tunities its position afforded. It is commended for 
its fidelity ; and so far, at least, it had not suffered 
from the " trial " of persecution. The Jews had 
evidently succumbed to the temptations that beset 
them there ; but a hopeful view is taken of their 



future. The people, accustomed to flee to the open 
country at the rumour of earthquake, and who after 
such a disaster would come back slowly to the 
shattered buildings of city and temple, could ap- 
preciate the promised reward to faithfulness : " I 
will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, 
and he shall go out thence no more." 

Philadelphia played a considerable part in later 
history, and after a heroic resistance passed finally 
into the hands of the Turks in the last quarter of the 
fourteenth century. " In the times when we catch 
a glimpse of its condition, Philadelphia was living 
amid ceaseless dangers, of old from earthquakes, 
and last from Turkish attack. It was always in 
dread of the last hour of trial, and was always kept 
from it. It stood like a pillar, the symbol of stability 
and strength. In the Middle Ages it struggled on, 
a small and weak city against a nation of warriors, 
and did not deny the name, but was patient to the 
end ; and there has been written on its history a 
name that is imperishable, so long as heroic resist- 
ance against overwhelming odds, and persevering 
self-reliance, when deserted by the world, are held 
in honour and remembered " (Ramsay, The Letters 
to the Seven Churches, 412). The mod. town, Ala- 
sheher, has still a large Christian population. 

PHILEMON. The great majority of the 
Pauline epistles were directed to communities — to 
churches or groups of churches. Of the thirteen 
epistles wh. have Paul's name, nine are public in the 
salutation, addressed to a body of believers, and 
deal with questions wh. interest them in their cor- 
porate capacity as a community. Of the remain- 
ing four, three may be regarded as official letters 
directed to Timothy and Titus to guide them as 
to the character of the persons to be ordained 
as deacons and presbyters. That to Philemon is 
unique in that it is addressed to a personal friend in 
regard to a purely private matter. As such it is re- 
plete with revelations of the character of St. Paul. 
Many such letters may have been sent fm. St. Paul 
to other believers who enjoyed the friendship of the 
great apostle, but this alone has been preserved. 
Philemon appears to have been a wealthy citizen of 
Colosse. The name was borne by several persons 
mentioned in Smith's Dictionary of Classical Bio- 
graphy, most of them having some connection with 
Asia Minor. As St. Paul at the time this epistle 
was written had not visited Colosse, it probably was 
in Ephesus, during the apostle's prolonged stay, that 
Philemon came under St. Paul's influence. Fm. 
v. 19 it is clear that P. was a personal convert of the 
apostle's ; more, he seems to have been drawn into 
close friendship with him. Not impossibly Phile- 
mon was resident in Ephesus, so St. Paul wd. have 
frequent opportunity of becoming acquainted with 
the various slaves that went to form the familia 
of his friend. If Philemon had been resident in 



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Ephesus during St. Paul's stay there, it wd. seem 
that he soon removed to the valley of the Lycus and 
took up his abode in Colosse. He may, indeed, have 
conveyed the Gospel of the Kingdom thither. It is 
possible, however, that when he returned to Colosse 
he found a Christian community already existing, 
due possibly to the preaching of Epaphras, whose 
special salutation is sent to Colosse (Col. 4. 12 ' 13 ). 
Perhaps the meeting-place was not suitable for all 
the believers in the city, hence a community met in 
Philemon's house. After the removal of his house- 
hold to Colosse he suffered a severe loss. Onesimus, 
a trusted slave, robbed his master and became a 
fugitive ; the natural centre of attraction for fugi- 
tives was Rome. There the fugitive had been seen 
and recognised by the apostle. Converted by his 
instrumentality, and brought to see his sin and the 
duty of restitution, the apostle sent him back to 
Colosse to his master. He wished to intercede with 
his friend for this runaway. Such, then, was the 
occasion of this short letter. It begins with a salu- 
tation in wh. the apostle conjoins Timothy with him- 
self, though immediately after the salutation the 
letter is written wholly in the first person singular. 
It is to be noted as a skilful but covert appeal to the 
sympathy of his correspondent that Paul calls him- 
self " the prisoner of Christ Jesus." He addressed 
his letter not only to Philemon but also to Apphia 
his wife and Archippus his son, who apparently is a 
presbyter in the church of the neighbouring city of 
Laodicsea (Col. 4. 17 ). The three verses wh. follow 
contain thanksgiving for the faith of Philemon 
and the kindliness to wh. it prompted him. The 
apostle then opens the purpose of his writing, en- 
treating where he had the right to command, ap- 
pealing by his age and his bonds to the affection of 
Philemon for the runaway. It is noted that there 
is a play on the contrast between the unprofitable 
servant and the profit he had been to Paul himself, 
and thus, as doing what Philemon wd. have wished 
done, profitable to Philemon. He declares that he 
wd. have liked to have retained Onesimus with him, 
but as he was the slave of Philemon he felt he cd. 
only use the services of Onesimus with his master's 
free consent. He refers to the theft in the most 
delicate terms, offering himself to make good the 
loss, though at the same time he suggests to Phile- 
mon that it wd. be but graceful shd. he forego the 
debt. It is to be observed that, although St. Paul 
does not ask for the manumission of Onesimus, by 
asserting his brotherhood he renders real slavery im- 
possible. There follow salutations fm. Epaphras, 
who wd. seem to have shared his imprisonment, 
Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas. 

While every one admits the gracefulness and 
beauty of this epistle, several of the critical school 
have denied it to be by Paul. Either they have 
formed a theory of the apostolic times fm. their own 



inner consciousness and dismiss everything that con- 
flicts with it (Baur), or, having formed a theory 
of the apostle himself, everything that militates 
against this is dismissed for the most futile of 
reasons (v. Manen). Short as it is, this epistle is 
early guaranteed as Pauline ; Marcion admitted it 
into his canon ; it is in the Muratori fragment ; it 
is named as Pauline by Tertullian and quoted by 
Origen. To forge such a letter wd. serve no pur- 
pose ; there is no dogma or practice impugned at 
the time when we first know of its existence wh. it 
defends. If it were intended to be a manifesto 
against slavery its purpose wd. have been much more 
clearly displayed. Some who have admitted the 
Pauline authorship have differed fm. the general 
opinion that it was written fm. Rome, and held it 
was written during Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea. 
That question is discussed under Colossians and 
Onesimus. As to the place it occupies among the 
Epp. of the first imprisonment, one thing is certain, 
it is closely connected with Colossians, and that with 
Ephesians : the probability seems to be that the 
Epistle to the Philippians was later, but not by 
much {see Bernard, HDB.). 

PHILETUS. See Hymenjeus. 

PHILIP. (1) The husband of Herodias (Mw. 
14. 3 ) and (2) the Tetrarch (Lk. 3. 1 ) are treated under 
Herodian Family. (3) The apostle, a native of 
Bethsaida of Galilee, apparently among the number 
who were attracted by the preaching of John the 
Baptist, and one of the first followers of Jesus (Jn. 
i. 43f -, 12. 21 ). Like Andrew, he also, on making the 
great discovery, brought another, Nathaniel, to 
Jesus. He seems to have been of an eminently 
practical turn. He did not argue with Nathaniel, 
altho' on the point raised argument might have been 
used with effect : he simply invited him to come 
and see for himself what would make all argument 
needless (Jn. i. 46 ). It may have been Philip's busi- 
ness to see that the company was sufficiently sup- 
plied with food. At any rate, when Jesus asked him 
as to means for feeding the multitude he had already 
thought the matter out, and was prepared with an 
estimate of the cost (Jn. 6. 5f -). Philip and Andrew — 
it is a striking coincidence that both bore Greek 
names — introduced the inquiring Greeks to Jesus 
(Jn. i2. 20fL ). He does not seem, however, to have 
been swift of spiritual perception. Andrew said, 
" We have found the Messiah " (i. 41 ). Philip's 
perceptions required to be sharpened by a personal 
summons from Jesus (v. 43). An ancient tradition 
identifies Philip with the man who would have post- 
poned obedience to the call of Jesus, asking that he 
might be allowed to go and bury his father (Lk. c;. 59 , 
&c). His request on the last evening Jesus spent 
with His disciples points in the same direction. 
It shows, indeed, the impression which Jesus had 
made upon those who were nearest Him, that one 



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who sat with Him familiarly at table should take it 
as a matter of course that He could do this tre- 
mendous thing — show them the Father. But it 
also reveals the distance Philip had to travel before 
rising to the true spiritual apprehension of the teach- 
ing of Jesus. Of his work as an apostle after the 
resurrection there is no scriptural record. Accord- 
ing to Polycrates (Euseb. HE. iii. 32), he laboured 
and died in Hierapolis ; and mention is made of 
his three distinguished daughters — not to be con- 
founded with the daughters of Philip the Evangelist. 
Of the apostolic band only Peter and Philip are 
reported to have had children. Various traditions 
represent him as visiting at an earlier time Lydia, 
Asia, Athens (where he founded a church), Parthia, 
Gaul, and Scythia. There is similar contradiction 
in the accounts of his death. Some represent it 
as natural, at the age of eighty-seven : others as 
martyrdom, without agreement as to the method. 

(4) The evangelist, one of the seven chosen to 
relieve the twelve of the burden of attending to the 
distribution (Ac. 6.). Of his origin we know nothing. 
The bearer of a Greek name, he may have been a 
Hellenist : if so, his election would be specially ac- 
ceptable to the widows who had complained. He 
was in any case a man of wide outlook and liberal 
sympathies. The scriptural record of his work is 
confined to the eighth chapter of the Acts. Driven 
from Jerusalem by the persecution in which Stephen 
suffered, he preached in Samaria with remarkable 
success, thus taking the first definite step in the way 
of proclaiming the Gospel to a non-Jewish people. 
Thence he was sent to guide the Ethiopian eunuch 
to the truth. We may believe that the introduc- 
tion of this high officer of queen Candace into the 
Church was fraught with happy consequences for 
his country and people. Then from Ashdod Philip 
passed on a preaching tour to Gsesarea. Here he 
resided with his four daughters, who were gifted 
with prophetic powers. He had the joy and privi- 
lege of entertaining St. Paul and his company (Ac. 
2i. 8fl -). Possibly then St. Luke may have learned 
from him many details regarding the first days of 
the Church in Jerusalem. From the traditions we 
may gather that he settled later in Asia Minor ; but 
he is confused by them with the apostle. To this 
confusion no doubt is due the belief that he had 
settled at Hierapolis. The likelihood is that he 
laboured and died in Tralles. 

PHILIPPI, the mod. Filibedjek, lay a few miles 
inland from the port of Neapolis, on the lower 
eastern slopes of Mount Pangasus. An older town, 
Krenides, stood on the same site, the name being 
drawn from the springs near by which feed the great 
marshes to the south. Gold mines in the mountain 
had been worked in old time by the Thasians, who 
had a settlement here. This source of wealth at- 
tracted the attention of Philip, king of Macedon, 



father of Alexander the Great. He seized the 
mines and refounded the city, which he strongly 
fortified, and called it after himself, Philippi. It 
served a double purpose as a fortress, guarding that 
part of Macedonia from the Thracians, while it also 
secured him in possession of the mines. It was 
situated on the great Egnatian road which con- 
nected the iEgean with the Adriatic — the main 
highway for the commerce of east and west : a cir- 
cumstance very favourable for the trade of Philippi. 
With the victory of iEmilius Paullus (b.c. 168) it 
passed under the control of Rome. The policy of 
the conquerors was to destroy the unity of Mace- 
donia. It was cut up into four districts, and as far 
as possible intercourse between them was prevented. 
Intermarriage was prohibited, and a man could not 
hold property in more than one district. The pro- 
vince of Macedonia was constituted in 146. Here 
in b.c 42 Brutus and Cassius were overthrown by 
Antony and Octavian, and in honour of the vic- 
tory it was constituted a Roman military colony, 




Coin of Philippi 

possessing the Jus Italicum. A further contingent 
was settled here eleven years later, after the defeat of 
Antony at Actium, and the city was honoured by 
the title Augusta. The jurisdiction of the city was 
independent of that of the provincial governor. The 
constitution was copied from that of Rome. It was 
a city belonging to " the first " rank in Macedonia 
(Ac. 16. 12 ). This was the first thoroughly Roman 
centre in which the apostle Paul preached the 
Gospel. The Church may have been in existence, 
and if so was probably the earliest of all European 
churches. That at Philippi was the first founded in 
Europe by St. Paul. The Jews apparently were not 
numerous, and were content with only a froseuche, 
a place of prayer by the river-side, where the apostle 
spoke to such as would listen. The conversion of 
Lydia opened her house to the missionaries. An 
unfortunate demoniac girl, possibly a slave, " pos- 
sessed by a spirit of divination " {see Python), was 
used by her inhuman masters for purposes of sooth- 
saying, by which they made great gain, among the 
superstitious people. With the demoniac's keen 
perception, illustrated once and again in the Gospel 
story, she recognised the missionaries as " servants 
of the Most High God." The apostle, "sore 
troubled " by the outcry she made, healed her. 
This roused the wrath of her masters, who saw the 



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means of their enrichment thus taken away. St. 
Paul was to meet this same spirit in another form at 
Ephesus (Ac. 19.). These men rushed upon the 
apostles, and persuaded the mob to assist them in 
dragging Paul and Silas before the magistrates. 
There the proceedings were clearly tumultuary. 
No opportunity was given to the accused of rebut- 
ting the charges made against them, nor of declaring 
their Roman citizenship, which would have pro- 
tected them from indignity. They were roughly 
stripped, scourged, put fast in stocks, and thrust 
into the inner prison. There, cramped and bleed- 
ing as they were, they raised their song of praise, 
which, through the gloom and stillness of the night, 
the prisoners heard. The terror of the midnight 
earthquake, the release of the prisoners, the conver- 
sion of the trembling jailor, the alarm and humble 
entreaties of the two supreme magistrates, when 
they realised that they were responsible for a grave 
breach of the law in having permitted Roman 
citizens to be beaten and dishonoured, without trial 
and condemnation, and finally the departure of the 
preachers, are described with simple directness, and 
lend to the city of Philippi an interest for all time. 

St. Paul maintained a close and affectionate re- 
lationship with the Church he founded here (Php. 
4. 15 ; 2 Cor. il. 8f -). This is manifest in the letter 
he wrote to the Philippians {see next article). When 
Paul and Silas left after the tumult it is possible that 
Luke was placed in charge of the infant Church for a 
time. It is probable that St. Paul visited the city at 
least twice in subsequent years, once on his journey 
through Macedonia to Greece, as well as on his re- 
turn (Ac. 20. lf - 6 ). There is an allusion also to a 
visit paid to Macedonia in 1 Tm. I. 3 . He would 
hardly be in the province without going to Philippi. 

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, visited Philippi on 
his way to meet his death in Rome for the Gospel's 
sake. He was most kindly entreated by the Chris- 
tians here. The bishops of Philippi figure in the 
Church councils during the early centuries, down to 
that of Chalcedon (a.d. 451). 

PHILIPPIANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE. 
" From thence to Philippi, which is a city of Mace- 
donia, the first in the district, a Roman colony." 
Such is the description of Philippi given by Luke 
(Ac. 15. 12 ). It is brief, yet it gives a vivid account 
of the city, its character, and its history. The name 
recalls the fact that Philippi was named after the 
king of Macedonia, who had discovered the import- 
ance of the site, and had so extended the ancient 
Krenides that it became a new city. It really com- 
manded the surrounding district, a district rich in 
the potentialities of wealth. In the year b.c 42, 
Augustus, after he had defeated Brutus and Cassius, 
founded a settlement for Italian soldiers, consti- 
tuted it a Roman colony, and conferred on it the 
Jus I tali cum. The privileges thus conferred were 



numerous and weighty. It gave the colony the 
right of self-government, subject only to the em- 
peror, immunity from some taxes, and the right 
of property in the soil. A colony with such privi- 
leges and with such a tradition were justly proud of 
their Roman citizenship, and very jealous of their 
rights and dignities. It was to a city with such a 
history and with such privileges that Paul came on 
his first European mission, and in it he made a con- 
siderable stay. The city had been a Roman colony 
for the greater part of a century. It occupied a 
commanding situation on the Via Egnatia, the great 
Roman road which led from east to west. Into it 
had flowed representatives of all the neighbouring 
population. Bishop Lightfoot points out how varied 
were the interests and the people contained in Luke's 
account of Paul's work at Philippi. The woman of 
Thyatira, the slave, the Roman jailor, are represen- 
tative of many peoples, and all of them came under 
the influence of the apostle. 

It is not necessary to dwell on the vivid and 
graphic account of Paul's work at Philippi. Paul 
and his company had gone, in the first place, in 
search of the synagogue, but found only a place in 
the open air where prayer was wont to be made. It 
would appear, therefore, that the Jews were not 
numerous or influential in Philippi. But Paul 
found his opportunity at the place of prayer, and 
Lydia, having been greatly impressed by him and 
his message, constrained him to abide in her house. 
The incident of the slave led to the arrest, torture, 
and imprisonment of Paul and Silas. It is note- 
worthy that the charge against them is aggravated 
by the accusation that they are Jews, proving inci- 
dentally that the Jews were not highly esteemed in 
the Philippian community. Their imprisonment is 
speedily followed by their release and departure. It 
is likely that Luke was left behind to carry on the 
work which Paul had begun, and which he had to 
leave so suddenly. 

Paul's first visit to Philippi had ended amid the 
storm of persecution. His intercourse with the 
Church at Philippi seems to have been frequent, 
and his relations with them were most affectionate 
and intimate. From Acts 19. 22 we find Paul " sent 
into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto 
him, Timothy and Erastus." When he appealed to 
the Macedonian churches to help the poor saints at 
Jerusalem, we may be sure that he did not omit an 
appeal to the Philippian Church. As Philippi lay 
on the way between Achaia and Asia, it may be 
safely inferred that Paul's messengers, from Corinth 
or from Ephesus, while he resided in those cities 
would break their journey at Philippi, and bear the 
greetings of the apostle to the Church or of the 
Church to the apostle. About the year 57 Paul re- 
visited the European churches. From Acts 20. we 
find that he visited Philippi both in his westward 



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journey and on his return to Troas. " We sailed captivity at Rome, in the midst of his many cares 
away from Philippi after the days of unleavened and burdens, suddenly aroused and touched by the 
bread " (Ac. 20. 6 ). From allusions in various coming of Epaphroditus, bearing with him the gift 
epistles, and from the Acts, we find that the inter- of the Philippian Church, and their grateful greet- 
course between the apostle and his first European ings to their father in Christ. One would like to 
Church was very frequent. We should then expect have been present at the meeting between these 
in his epistle many references which' remain to us two : one would like to have heard the rapid inter- 
somewhat obscure, but which would be vivid, rich change of question and answer as Paul asked the 
in many reminiscences to the Church at Philippi. Philippian messenger of the welfare of the Church, 
During the period of ten years, more or less, that had of this and that person in the Church, of the work 
elapsed between Paul's first visit to Philippi and the in Philippi and in the neighbourhood. We may 
date of the epistle, many things had happened to be sure that many questions would be asked and 
the apostle, and also to the Church. There had answered, and that for the apostle there would be 
been sufferings and persecutions for him and them, an uplifting of heart which would find utterance in 
But the most cherished of these memories would be the epistle, which love constrained him speedily to 
those which had revealed to Paul and to the Church write. He recognises the closeness of the ties which 



what they had been to each other. To Paul the 
Church had been " his joy and crown." What he 
had been to them, their constant devotion to him, 
their frequent ministering to his necessities, and 



had bound them together, ever since he had laboured 
among them, and with them endured hardship for 
Jesus' sake. He had allowed them to minister fre- 
quently to his need, and had placed himself under 



their response to his call for liberality abundantly obligation to them. So in his letter he gives ex- 
show. It is one of the most characteristic of the pression to personal feeling in an unwonted way. 
Pauline writings. It reveals the courtesy, the in- He writes not to correct errors of doctrine, nor to 
nate kindliness of the man. It shows him at the condemn irregularities of conduct. He writes to 
time when the strain is relaxed, and when he can relieve the strain of personal feeling, of emotional 
allow the gladness and the warmth of affection to gratitude which oppresses him. After the brief 
have free scope. He has no fault to find with the salutation, in which there is a recognition not only 
Church — their devotion to himself personally had of the saints, but also of the bishops and deacons at 
aroused his warmest gratitude. While throughout Philippi, he, under the strain of feeling, becomes 
we can feel the undertone of suffering, and hear the reminiscent of the past, and gives thanks for all that 
underlying note of anxiety, yet the dominant note is the Church had been in life and conduct, and for all 
that of joy, gratitude, and hope. "Rejoice, and that they had been to himself. They are too tender, 
again I say, Rejoice." too touching to be summarised. He passes on to 

It is scarcely possible to understand the position tell them of his present circumstances, of the pro- 
of some critics who can find no trace of personal gress of the Gospel in Rome, of the zeal of friends 
feeling in this epistle, and who think that it affords and the rivalry of foes, of his own hopes and fears, 
no fresh note of insight into the character of Paul. From the description of these personal matters he 
More than any other of his writings this epistle has suddenly rises to an exalted strain of thought and 
the note of personality. He writes in it as he feels, feeling, for he has named the name of Christ, and, 
allows himself to speak as the mood of the moment as always, so on this special occasion, the name of 
dictates, and in every verse of it we can feel the Christ arouses him to a loftier expression of devo- 
weight of the remembrances of the Church, of his tion. " To me to live is Christ, to die is gain." 
work among them, and of his frequent intercourse Yet even here he is practical, and turns the thought 
with them. towards the edification of the Philippians and of 

The epistle itself is not systematic, it is not doc- himself. " To you it hath been granted in the 

trinal, it is not corrective ; it is reminiscent, it is behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him but 

anticipative, it is in a word characteristically per- also to suffer for His sake." The naming of the 

sonal. At what time in the Roman captivity it was name of Christ leads him on to think of Christ, and 

written it is scarcely possible to say. Some place to set forth the great example set by Him to His 

it early, and make it the earliest of the captivity people. Their service ought to be Christ-like ; 

letters ; others make it late. The evidence is not their love to one another, their forbearance with 

overwhelming either way, and our space forbids an one another ought to be Christ-like. So he writes, 

examination of the evidence. We may take for from this point of view, the great christological 



granted that the epistle was written from Rome 
The evidence for this conclusion seems to be de- 
cisive, and critical opinion has tended with increas- 
ing weight to this conclusion. 

Thus we may picture the apostle in his place of of Epaphroditus 

598 



passage, on which we do not dwell. Practical ex- 
hortations follow, and then he passes on to speak of 
his hope of speedy release, of his intention of sending 
Timothy to them, of the recent illness and return 
It would almost seem as if the 



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epistle was about to end. " Finally, my brethren, 
rejoice in the Lord." But, after saying that writing 
to them was not irksome to him, he suddenly enters 
on a new subject. We may conjecture regarding 
the occasion of this new departure, but certainty is 
not attainable. We may suppose with Lightfoot 
that at this stage he was interrupted, that he was 
informed of some fresh attempt of the Judaisers in 
the metropolis to thwart and annoy him. At all 
events he is prompted to enlarge his letter, so we 
have this section descriptive of his past, of his 
present, and of his future. It is a revelation of 
character, of his unyielding hope, of the constant 
spring of freshness of feeling which continued to 
characterise the apostle even when he became Paul 
the aged. The digression ends : he resumes the 
strain of practical exhortation. Let them always 
rejoice, let them have freedom from care, let them 
follow and pursue the highest and the best aims. 
One more note of personal gratitude, one more 
blessing on them for their thoughtful care, and the 
epistle ends with the benediction, " The grace of 
the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." Surely a 
letter written by one of the most gentle, courteous, 
and loving of men, full of personal feeling, of loving- 
kindness, and of tenderness, which perhaps, more 
than any other epistle, reveals the humanity of the 
apostle. James Iverach. 

PHILISTINES, THE, an immigrant people who 
occupied the coast lands of Palestine fm. the boun- 
dary of Egp. to that of Phoenicia. Of their origin 
there are two accounts ; in Gn. io. 13, 14 it is said 
" Mizraim begat . . . Casluhim (out of whom 
came Philistim) and Caphtorim " ; this wd. imply 
that their origin was fm. Egypt. Amos has another 
account : " Saith the Lord, Have I not brought 
up . . . the Philistines fm. Caphtor ? " (Am. g. 7 ). 
Caphtor may represent the Egyptian kafta or kaftr, 
" Asia Minor " ; the balance of opinion seems to 
identify Caphtor with Crete. The usage of LXX 
is to tr. P. by allophylloi, " strangers," i.e. immi- 
grants. They are quite established in the land 
when Abraham and Isaac are sojourning in it. 
Jacob does not appear to have had any dealings with 
them. In patriarchal times the P. seem to have 
attained a fair amount of civilisation ; it is to be 
noted that the hereditary name of the king is 
Semitic (Gn. 21. 32 , 26. 1 ). When Isr. came out 
of Egp. they were not led into Canaan the shorter 
way because that wd. involve them in a conflict with 
the P., a conflict for wh. these freshly emancipated 
slaves were not ready. The P. appear in the 
Egyptian records as Parasati ; in the Assyrian as 
Palastu. W 7 hen Joshua entered Pal. the five lead- 
ing cities formed a league, in wh. sometimes one 
city, sometimes another, had the hegemony. Each 
city was ruled over by a " lord " (seren — a word wh. 
occurs in I K. 7. 30 and is tr. RV. " axles ") : they are 



called princes {sarim) in 1 S. 29A This constitu- 
tion is referred to in Joshua, Judges, and Samuel. 
Latterly they seem to have been ruled over by a k., 
whose authority was limited by that of the " lords." 
During the period of the Judges the P. oppressed 
Isr. ; latterly the Israelites seem to have acquiesced 
in the rule of the P., as may be seen by Judah's 
request to Samson to surrender and the reason 
assigned for it, " Knowest thou not that the P. 
are rulers over us?" (Jg. 15. 11 ). Samson's ex- 
ploits were more fitted to irritate the P. than to 
weaken them. The disastrous battle of Aphek, in 
wh. the sons of Eli were killed and the ark cap- 
tured, took the spirit out of Isr., and they were 
subdued under the P. The plagues that fell upon 
the P. led to the speedy return of the ark, and 
Samuel led the people to the victory at Ebenezer 
(1 S. 13. 19 " 22 ). Saul's reign was one continuous 
warfare agst. the P. In the earlier portion of his 
reign Saul's position seems to have been like that of 
Bruce in Scotland, only able to maintain himself 
with a small band of followers round him, and keep 
up the spirit of the people by assaults on the gar- 
risons wh. the P. had all over the land S. of the plain 
of Jezreel. The subjection of Israel to the P. must 
have been absolute when they submitted to being 
without any smith. N. of that plain Phoenician in- 
fluence was dominant. After the battle of Mich- 
mash (1 S. 14. 4 - 46 ) the P. lost their hold on Israel. 
The next important battle was that of Ephes- 
dammim, within the immediate territory of Gath 
(1 S. 17. 1 - 52 ). In it Goliath of Gath was their 
champion and was slain by David. After their de- 
feat in that battle the P. were restricted to their own 
land, and only made forays into the land of Isr. (1 S. 
23. 27 ). They prob. maintained their hold on the 
great plain, and the battle of Gilboa was fought for 
its retention. Before that battle David appeared 
with the Philistine army as the vassal of Achish 
(1 S. 29. 2 ) : he had Ziklag as the vassal of the Philis- 
tines. After the death of Saul, David appears, as 
king in Hebron, to be still the vassal of the P. 
The murder of Ishbosheth and David's elevation to 
the throne over Isr. led to war with the Philistines 
(possibly they thought their vassal was become too 
powerful when all Isr. had made him king), in wh. 
they were, after some desperately fought battles, 
effectually subdued. This state of vassalage con- 
tinued during the reign of Solomon. At the 
division of the kingdom the P. regained their inde- 
pendence, but were never able to assume a para- 
mountcy over even Judah, and were occasionally 
tributary (2 Ch. 17. 11 ). They prob. regarded them- 
selves as vassals of Egp. Sargon conquered them 
(Is. 20. 1 ), and put vassal kings in their various cities. 
Under the Persians the P. seem to have adopted the 
Hellenic city constitution. Under the Macedonian 
rule this Hellenisation became complete, as seen by 



599 



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their coins. Dagon was their principal deity ; it 
formerly was assumed that Dagon was a fish-god, 
but this seems doubtful now. Dr. Sayce thinks 
that he was god of agriculture, and that the worship 
was introduced fm. Asyr. He had temples both in 
Gaza (Jg. 16. 23 ) and Ashdod (i S. 5. 2 ). However, 
there seem to have been other deities also wor- 
shipped, as the armour of Saul was placed in the 
temple of Ashtaroth (i S. 31. 10 ), and Baalzebub is 
called the god of Ekron (2 K. I. 2 ). It is to be ob- 
served that Achish is represented as swearing to 
David by Jehovah (1 S. 2c;. 6 ) : probably this was an 
accommodation. 

PHILOLOGUS, a Christian in Rome saluted by 
St. Paul (Rm. 16. 15 ). He may have been a slave or 
a freedman, among whom this name was not un- 
common. Tradition makes him one of the seventy, 
and at a later time, bishop of Sinope. Possibly he 
was a member of the imperial household. The 
name has been found in the Columbarium of " the 
freedmen of Livia Augusta." 

PHILOSOPHY. Although the schools of Plato 
and Aristotle still met in the Academy and the 
Lyceum at the time of Paul's visit to Athens, the 
only followers of P. whom he encountered were the 
Stoics and the Epicureans. The only thinkers 
who influenced thought at the time and for a cen- 
tury after belonged to one or other of these sects. 
But in common usage P. had got a wider meaning. 
Philo speaks of the Hebrew religion and the Mosaic 
law as " the P. of the Fathers," or " the Jewish P.," 
and Jos. identifies the three Jewish sects with the 
Epicureans, Stoics, and Pythagoreans of the Greeks. 
Lightfoot {Com. on Col. pp. 71-111) thinks the P. 
referred to by the apostle Paul was a variety of 
Essenism (Waiters for the Redemption) : he, like 
all commentators, warns his readers agst. regarding 
St. Paul's words (Col. 2. 8 ) as a condemnation of 
all P. The revived Platonism of Plotinus affected 
Christianity strongly, and conditioned the form of 
orthodox doctrine. It may be taken as a continua- 
tion of the Stoical idea of P. when monasticism was 
looked upon as P. The doctrines of Aristotle be- 
came predominant in the Middle Ages. Further 
particulars are to be found in the many histories of 
philosophy. 

PHINEHAS, s. of Eleazar, grandson of Aaron 
(Ex. 6. 25 ). In the matter of Baal-peor,when Zimri, 
prince of the Simeonites, ostentatiously went aside 
with Cozbi, dr. of Zur (Nu. 25. 6 - 15 ), P. slew them 
both ; in consequence of this he was promised that 
the priesthood shd. be in his family. For a time 
the High-priesthood was in the line of Ithamar, 
fm. the days of Eli to the deposition of Abiathar 
(1 K. 2. 26 « 27 ), when, in Zadok, the line of P. again 
became High Priests. 



It is Critical opinion that the genealogy in 1 Ch. 6. 1 - 15 
is unhistorical, but there is no variation in the LXX or the 



Psh. — the reason Bishop Ryle assumes as precluding the 
likelihood of interpolation in Ne. 12. , although there are in 
that place signs of confusion wh. are absent in 1 Ch. 6. 
White in HDB. asserts that the statement in 1 Ch. 24.3, 6 is 
unhistorical, because Jonathan, not Ahimelech, was the 
s. of Abiathar (1 K. i. 42 ), as if a man might not have two 
sons. The fact is the same blunder occurs here as in 2 S. 
8. 17 , where, as here, we have Ahimelech the s. of Abiathar 
instead of Abiathar the s. of Ahimelech. 

P. accompanied the expedition agst. Midian (Nu. 
3 1. 6 ). He was sent, along with ten of the princes, to 
expostulate with the two tribes and a half in regard 
to the altar of Ed. When Isr. make their expedi- 
tion agst. Gibeah (Jo. 22. 13 ), P. is the High Priest 

(Jg. 20.28). 

PHLEGON, another of the Roman Christians 
who are named only in the greetings of St. Paul(Rm. 
16. 14 ). He figures in tradition as bishop of Mara- 
thon. The Greek Church commemorates him on 
the 8th of April, on which day he is said to have 
been martyred. 

PHCEBE, who carried the Epistle to the Romans 
from Corinth to Rome, is described as " deaconess 
of the church that is at Cenchreae " (Rm. 16. 1 ). 
The term does not necessarily imply that she held 
an official position. She may only have distinguished 
herself in the service, or ministry, she rendered to • 
the Church. The manner of her mention shows 
that she was a person of influence who merited 
respect and assistance from the brotherhood in 
whatever task she had in hand. As a " succourer " 
of himself she had won the apostle's gratitude. 

PHCENICIANS, THE, are the Canaanites of the 
OT. who dwelt on the sea-coast and in the Jordan 
valley (Nu. 13. 29 ), tho' the classical writers confine 
the name Phoenicia to the coast from Myriandus on 
the Gulf of Antioch in the north to Dor (Tafitura) 
and Jaffa in the south. The name is of uncertain 
origin, but has been connected with the Fenkhu of 
the Egyptian inscriptions, who seem to have occupied 
the same district, as well as with the Greek (£otvios, 
" ruddy." Agenor, the eponym of the Phoenicians, 
is probably a Greek corruption of Khna, i.e. Canaan, 
written Kinakhkhi in the Tel el-Amarna texts. 
The Phoenicians were Semites, and their language 
was practically the same as Hebrew, wh. is called 
" the language of Canaan " in Is. 19. 18 . According 
to their own traditions they had come from the 
Persian Gulf (Hdt. i. 1, vii. 89) where the islands of 
Tyros (Tylos) andArados wereheldto be themother- 
lands of Tyre and Arvad (Strab. xvi. p. 1090). 
Pompeius Trogus (Justin, xviii. 3, 2-3) brought 
them from " the Syrian (v. I. Assyrian) lake " in con- 
sequence of an earthquake. The chief cities of 
Phoenicia were Arvad (Rudd), whose fleet is already 
mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna tablets ; Gebal or 
Byblos (Jebail), the seat of the governor of Phoenicia 
in the Tel el-Amarna period, and of the worship of 
the goddess B^altis ; Berytus (Btyrout), past wh. ran 
the military 1 oad to the north, and, above all, Sidon 



600 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Phce 



(Saida, " Fishing-town "), the " first-born " of 
Canaan (Gn. io. 15 ), and Tyre (Sur, " the Rock "), 
built on an island at a short distance from the main- 
land. To the south was Akku or Accho {Acre), 
whose importance belongs to post-Biblical times. 

According to Herodotus (ii. 44) the Temple of 
Melkarth at Tyre was built c. b.c. 2750. Canaan 
was at the time dependent on Babylonia, " the land 
of the Amorites," as it was called, having been made 
a province of the Babylonian empire by Sargon of 
Akkad (b.c. 3800), and the Babylonian rule enforced 
there whenever the Babylonian kings were strong 
enough to do so. Khammu-rabi (Amraphel) and 
his successors were kings of " the land of the Amo- 
rites " as well as of Babylonia, and Babylonian cul- 
ture was thus introduced into the West, including 
the cuneiform script and literature, and the theo- 
logy and cosmology of Babylonia. After the con- 
quest of Babylonia by the Kassites (b.c. 1780) and 
the rise of the 18th Egyptian dynasty (b.c 1580) 
Canaan became a province of Egypt (brother of 
Mizraim, Gn. io. 6 ), native governors and " kings " 
under Egyptian control being set over its cities. 
Tyre was already renowned for its wealth. With 
the decay of the Egyptian empire (b.c. 1380) the 
Phoenician states recovered their independence, and 
were able to devote themselves to foreign trade. 
The sterile hills at their back and the advance of the 
Israelites forced them to the sea, and the murex of 
the Mediterranean coasts yielded them the purple 
dye wh. poured wealth into their coffers and led on 
to other branches of trade. Factories wh. developed 
into colonies were planted in various localities, and 
the fall of the sea -power of the Kretan princes 
opened the way to the western Mediterranean. 
Phoenician ships sailed as far as the Straits of Gib- 
raltar, if not farther, and eventually carried back 
to the East the tin of Spain and Britain. Under 
Hiram I., the son of Abibal and contemporary of 
David and Solomon, Tyre became the leading Phoe- 
nician state ; its fortifications were strengthened 
and the temples of Melkarth and Ashtoreth rebuilt. 
Cedar from the Lebanon was sent to his ally Solo- 
mon for the royal buildings at Jerusalem, as well as 
pilots and sailors for the trading vessels built by the 
Jewish king in the Gulf of Aqaba. Phoenician 
workmen were employed in the construction and 
decoration of the Jewish Temple, the plan of wh. 
resembled that of a Phoenician sanctuary, like the 
two pillars in the temple porch (1 K. 7. 21 ) analogues 
of wh. stood in the temple of Melkarth at Tyre 
(Hdt. ii. 44). Hiram's sixth successor was Eth- 
baal I., the priest of Ashtoreth, who gained the 
throne by murder, and whose daughter Jezebel was 
married to Ahab. As he is called " king of the 
Sidonians " in 1 K. 16. 31 , Sidon must at this time 
have been under the rule of Tyre. We find both 
cities paying tribute to the Assyrian king, Assur- 

60 



nazir-pal, in b.c. 870. Half a century later, in the 
seventh year of Pygmalion (Pumai-yaton), Carthage 
is said to have been founded (b.c. 826 or 813). 
Under Hiram II. and Metenna (Matgenus) Tyre 
was made tributary to Tiglath-pileser IV. of Assyria, 
Metenna paying him as much as 150 talents of gold 
(about .£400,000). The next Tyrian king, Elulaeus, 
revolted, and was attacked by Shalmaneser IV., who 
besieged Tyre, but in vain. Elulaeus, called king of 
Sidon by the Assyrians, was again attacked by Senna- 
cherib in his campaign against Hezekiah (b.c 701) ; 
the Tyrian king fled to Cyprus, but Tyre remained 
untaken, tho' an Assyrian nominee, Eth-baal, was 
made king of Sidon, and Arvad and Gebal sub- 
mitted to the Assyrian invader. In b.c 678 Sidon 
rebelled, but was razed to the ground by Esar- 
haddon, and a new Sidon built in its place. Seven 
years later Baal I. of Tyre was detected plotting 
with Taharka of Egypt ; he was, however, pardoned, 
as he was again some years afterwards by Assur- 
bani-pal for a similar offence. Tyre had profited by 
the destruction of Sidon, and in b.c 587 the wealthy 
city was besieged by Nebuchadrezzar. In b.c 574 
its king Eth-baal II. surrendered, and Baal II. was 
appointed in his place. Baal was accused of tyranny ; 
in b.c 564, accordingly, royalty was abolished, and 
the government handed over to sufetes or " judges." 
But they, too, were soon abolished, and monarchy 
was re-established. Under Azelmie, b.c 332, Tyre 
was taken and burnt by Alexander the Great, who 
had connected the island-city with the mainland by 
a mole 60 yds. wide and \ mile long. Sidon had 
already been ruined in b.c 351 after a revolt from 
the Persians, and Straton of Arvad surrendered 
without resistance to the Greeks. 

Phoenician religion was a personified nature-wor- 
ship. The supreme god was Baal, " the Lord," who 
revealed himself in the sun. But the forms of Baal 
— the Baalim of Jg. 2. 11 ; I S. 7 4 — were multitu- 
dinous. Every city and high place had its local 
Baal, and there were, as well, Baalim of the moun- 
tains and rivers. By the side of Baal stood his 
female counterpart, Baaltis of Gebal. But the 
female element in nature was usually adored under 
the name of Ashtoreth (originally the Babylonian 
Istar) or of Asherah (also of Babylonian origin), who 
was symbolised by a cone of stone or the stump of a 
tree. The local Ashtaroth (Jg. 2. 13 ; 1 S. 7 4 ) were 
as numerous as the Baalim. Among the latter must 
be included the Kabiri, together with such special 
forms of the deity as Moloch or Melkarth (" King of 
the City "), the supreme Baal of Tyre. Nature is 
cruel as well as beneficent, and the Baalim and Ash- 
taroth accordingly demanded the sacrifice of what 
was best and dearest. The first-born was burnt 
or otherwise put to death in honour of Baal, and 
prostitution was practised in the name of Ashtoreth. 
In later times, however, the sacrificial tariffs of 



Phce 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Phr 



Carthage and Marseilles show that the human sacri- 
fice was replaced by an animal (P^K, wh. was pro- 
bably the ram). A meal-offering was prescribed as 
well as the sacrifice. The temples were served by a 
hierarchy of priests, and contained altars and (like 
the temples of Babylonia) " seas " for purification. 
Some of them also contained stones or " bethels," 
consecrated with oil and believed to be habita- 
tions of the deity. These were survivals from a 
primitive period before the introduction of Baby- 
lonian culture. To the latter was due the concep- 
tion of Baal as a divine king of human form who was 
married and had children like the human king, while 
angel-messengers carried his commands to earth. 
From Babylonia, moreover, came the cult of Tam- 
muz or Adonis, wh. was localised at Gebal, where the 
women mourned the untimely death of the god, slain 
by the heats of summer. From the inscription on 
the sarcophagus of Eshmun-azar, king of Sidon, we 
learn that the Phoenicians looked forward to a life 
hereafter among the Rephaim or Shades. Their 
cosmology, so far as we know it, was borrowed from 
Babylonia. Their art also was unoriginal, and was 
a mixture of Egyptian and Babylonian elements. 
Their gift to the world, however, was the alphabet, 
wh. was adopted and improved by the Greeks. The 
origin of the alphabet is still unknown, and its use 
cannot be traced further back than the Davidic age, 
when the Tyrian annals, translated into Greek by 
Menander, began. Before that period the cunei- 
form script and Assyrian language were employed. 
The Phoenicians, moreover, were the pioneers of 
maritime trade as well as of colonisation. They 
settled in Cyprus (Kittim) at an early date, and 
worked the gold-mines of Thasos off the coast of 
Thrace. At a later time colonies were planted by 
them in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain, where Gades 
(Cadiz) is said to have been founded before B.C. I ioo, 
and they had marts at Memphis and (later) at Mar- 
seilles. The foundation of their colony, Utica, on 
the coast of Africa, is placed 287 years before that of 
Carthage by Aristotle. Of all these colonies Car- 
thage was the most important. It developed a re- 
publican government, under " judges " and a senate 
wh. was itself controlled by a national assembly ; 
but it never ceased to remember that it was bound 
to its mother-city Tyre by the ties of religion and 
sentiment. 

Lit. : R. Pietschmann, Geschichte der Phonizier, 
Berlin, 1889; G. Rawlinson, History of Phoenicia, 
London, 1889 5 Renan, Mission en Phenicie, Paris, 
1864; Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de VArt dans 
VAntiquite, hi., Paris, 1885. A. H. Sayce. 

PHCENIX, AV. PHENICE. The name is de- 
rived from the word for palm tree. This tree was 
indigenous to the island of Crete. Phoenix was a 
harbour on the S. coast of the island {see Chart, 
p. m). The ship bearing St. Paul was lying in the 



roads at Fair Havens. Winter was coming on, and 
it was not thought desirable to stay there if a more 
protected harbour could be reached. The sailors 
thought they might venture to sail for Phoenix, 
where the needed shelter might be found. St. 
Paul's mind was that they should remain, but, natu- 
rally, the sailors had their way. Sailing close in 
shore, the vessel would be safe from northerly winds, 
shielded by the mountains. They must have at- 
tempted to cross a bit of open sea, where the ship 
was caught by the north wind or north-east wind, 
and swept away beyond all their reckoning. This 
most likely happened to them in the gulf of Mes- 
saria, which curves inland to the west of Fair 
Havens. A point still further west must therefore 
have been their objective (Ac. 2'/. 9S -). The mod. 
Lutro is now generally accepted as the place aimed 
at by the sailors. It is the only place on the S. 
coast of Crete with an anchorage which would afford 
safe winter quarters for a vessel as large as that of 
which they were in charge. This also agrees with 
the situation indicated by Strabo. He describes 
Phoenix as a large and prosperous settlement on 
an isthmus. By isthmus he probably meant the 
narrowest part of the island, which is just here. 
The harbour is formed by a narrow isthmus which 
stretches out to the south, broadening at its ex- 
tremity. The eastern bay is the most safe and com- 
modious, and is probably the one intended : altho' 
the name Finika attaches to the bay on the west. 
The ancient authorities place Phoenix in the neigh- 
bourhood of Aradena — the mod. Aradhena, about a 
mile from Lutro — and Anopolis, the mod. ruin 
Anapolis, about two miles north of Lutro. 

St. Luke's description of the harbour has occa- 
sioned some difficulty : AV. " lieth toward the south- 
west and north-west " ; RV. " looking north-east 
and south-east." This would lead us to expect a 
harbour opening to the south-west, while that of 
Lutro opens to the south-east. RV. takes the words 
as referring to the direction in which the south-west 
and north-west winds blow. The confusion may be 
due to some misunderstanding or misreporting of 
the technical terms then in use among the sailors. 

Lit. : Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, 
25off. ; Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, 325L 

PHRYGIA, the country of the Phrygians, a war- 
like tribe or group of tribes which in the second 
millennium B.C. crossed the Hellespont from Wes- 
tern Thrace and settled in Asia Minor. Phrygian 
territory extended originally from the coast of 
Troas in the NE. over a large part of the central 
plateau of Asia Minor, eastwards as far as the river 
Halys, and southwards to the Pisidian offshoots 
of the Taurus range. A subsequent invasion of 
Thracian tribes cut the original Phrygia in two, the 
Troad or Hellespontine Phrygia {Phr. parva) being 
separated from the inland territory, which hence- 



602 



Phu 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Phy 



forward was called Great Phrygia (Phr. magna). 
Phrygia was still further curtailed in the third cent. 
B.C., when its north-eastern portion was allotted 
by Attalos I. of Pergamos to the Gaulish tribes 
which had entered Asia Minor some fifty years 
before. In spite of its narrowing boundaries it was 
still, however, a country of very considerable extent, 
and in Roman times it formed a part of the two 
provinces, Asia and Galatia. The precise locality 
indicated by " Phrygia " (or " Phrygian territory ") 
in Ac. 16. 6 , 18. 23 , is disputed (see art. Galatia). 
Churches were planted by St. Paul in Galatic 
Phrygia (Antioch of Pisidia and Iconium) and by 
disciples of St. Paul (Timothy, Epaphras, and others) 
in Asian Phrygia. The earliest seat of Christianity 
in Asian Phrygia was the Lycos valley with its three 
famous churches of Laodicea, Colossas, and Hiera- 
polis, and from this centre, reputed to be the scene 
of the later labours of the apostle John and of Philip 
(whether the apostle or the deacon is not agreed), 
the Christian faith spread rapidly over Phrygia to 
the NE. and found a congenial home, especially in 
Eumeneia and Apameia. It is extremely probable 
that Eumeneia became a city almost entirely Chris- 
tian (" the first Christian city " — Ramsay), and that 
it was destroyed on that account in the persecution 
of Diocletian in the beginning of the fourth century. 
The Christian inscriptions of Phrygia reveal a type 
of Christian life which was accommodating and con- 
ciliatory, so that so far as the externals of life were 
concerned there was little to distinguish the Chris- 
tians from their pagan neighbours. When a man 
became a Christian " he lived in externals much as 
before ; he observed the same laws of politeness 
in society ; his house, his surroundings, continued 
much the same ; he kept up the same family names, 
and when he died his grave, his tombstone, and his 
epitaph were in the ordinary style " (Ramsay). 
Under the Seleucid kings great numbers of Jews 
were settled in southern Phrygia in the third cent. 
B.C., and in Ac. 2. 10 Phrygia is mentioned as the 
home of Jews and proselytes who' witnessed the 
marvel at Pentecost. The Jews of Phrygia were 
less strict than those of Palestine ; Timothy was the 
uncircumcised son of a Jewess whose husband was a 
Greek (Ac. 16. 1 " 3 ). The prevalence of this en- 
lightened Judaism was undoubtedly one factor 
which led to the rapid spread of Christianity in 
Phrygia. A. F. Findlay. 

PHUT (Gn. io. 6 ; Ek. 27. 10 ), PUT (1 Ch. I. 8 ; 
Na. 3. 9 ). So AV., but RV. has PUT throughout, as 
also in Jr. 46. 9 ; Ek. 30. 5 , 38. 5 ,where AV. has Libyans 
or Libya. In the ethnico-genealogical tables of 
Genesis and Chronicles P. is associated with Egypt ; 
he is said to be the son of Ham and the brother of 
Cush, Mizraim, and Canaan. In the prophetic 
passages P. is mentioned as supplying warriors for 
Tyre (Ek. 27. 10 ) along with Persia (Paras, Heb.) 



and Lud. Along with Ethiopia (Heb. Rush), Egypt 
Heb. Mitzraim), and the Lubim, P. is the helper of 
No-Amon, the capital of Upper Egypt. A further 
association with Egypt is shown by the fact that in 
Ezekiel P. is joined with Lud, for in Genesis (io. 13 ) 
Mizraim is said to " beget Ludim." There is con- 
siderable question as to the locality of P. Josephus 
(Ant. I. vi. 2) says that " Phfites founded (eVrtcre) 
Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutoi after his 
own name ; there is a river in the country of the 
Moors having this very name." The LXX has 
Phoud in Genesis and Chronicles, but in the pro- 
phets Libues: Jerome follows the LXX in each case. 
The great strides that Egyptology has made during 
last century and the present place the problem in a 
new light, and furnish new possibilities of solution. 
The transliteration of the LXX into Phoud and 
their tr. into " Libyans " suggest that P. stands for 
Phaiat : etymologically it is, however, difficult to 
account for the t. Punt has been suggested : it 
was famous in the days of queen Hatasu (Hat- 
shepet), and appears to have been tributary to 
Egypt during the 18th and 19th dynasties. It is 
difficult to understand how in the reign of Hophra 
P. cd. be said to be a helper of No-Amon ; and as 
difficult to understand Punt supplying mercenaries 
to Tyre. The utmost that we can be certain about 
is that P. was an African nation : their employment 
by the Tyrians wd. rather suggest that they dwelt 
on the Mediterranean coast, not impossibly west 
of Cyrene, where the Tyrian colony Carthage 
flourished. 

PHUVAH. &*Puah. 

PHYGELUS, AV. PHYGELLUS, mentioned 
along with Hermogenes as having turned away from 
St. Paul, along with " all that are in Asia " (2 Tm. 
I. 15 ). The special mention of these two may mean 
that their desertion of the apostle took place in 
Rome. If it were at some moment of trial, when 
their fidelity would have comforted him, that might 
furnish a reason for recording their faithlessness. 

PHYLACTERIES. The name phylactery (<f>v- 
XaKrrjpLov) is common in the NT., but is found 
neither in the OT. nor in Jos. (though he refers 
to their use Ant. IV. viii. 13). By the Jews they 
are named r??^ (tepbillin), "prayer thongs" or 
" prayer fillets." The wearing of them is based on 
Ex. 13. 9 ; Dt. 6. 8 , II. 18 , which passages the majority 
of Jews understand literally, and only by such inter- 
pretation can they be justified. The Karaites do 
not use them, and declare that these verses are 
merely a fig. command to remember the Lord, 
citing as parallels Pr. 3« 3 , 6. 21 ; SS. 8. 6 . Along with 
the Mezuzah (door-post sign) and the Tzltzith 
(fringes) the Jew regards them as making up three 
signs to remind him continually of his duty to God. 
As with all other institutions of Judaism, the rabbis 
sought in their oral law to carry back that of P. in all 



603 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pic 




Phylactery 



their detail to Moses. In the Tim. we read that 
" square phylacteries were enjoined on Moses as a 
positive command at Sinai, as also that the parch- 
ment on wh. the portions of Scrip, were written shd. 
be tied with the hair of clean animals ; and that the 
boxes containing them shd. be sewed with the gut 
of such," and again that " the signs upon the P. 
were appointed to Moses at Sinai." 

P. proper were strips of parchment, having por- 
tions of Scrip, written upon them with a prepared 
ink. They were enclosed in cases, wh. when in use 
were bound to the forehead and to the upper left 
arm by thongs. In the case 
of that used on the head, the 
four portions of the Law — 
Ex. 13. 2 - 10 ' n " 16 ; Dt. 6. 4 ' 9 ' 
13 " 23 , were written in Heb. on 
four separate pieces of parch- 
ment, rolled up, and enclosed 
in the four compartments of 
a box made of calf skin and 
sewed to a stiff piece of 
leather. This box was in the 
form of a cube having an edge 
of 1 J inches. It had the Heb. 
letter shin, &, with three 
heads on its right side, and a 
similar letter with four heads 
on its left side — thus together making up the 
sacred number seven. The box for the arm was of 
a similar size and form, but had no letters outside, 
and only one compartment inside, in wh. was placed 
one piece of parchment having the same four 
passages written in four columns of seven lines 
each. The leather thongs — of one finger breadth 
— were ij cubits long. That on the forehead was 
placed with its upper edge where the hair com- 
mences, and was tied behind the head. The other 
had a loop through wh. the whole arm was passed, 
and then encircled by the thong seven times, thus 
forming two shins corrspdg. to those impressed on 
the sides of the box for the forehead. The knots by 
which the P. are bound to the head and the arm 
form the letters Daleth and Tod, thus in each case 
completing, with the Shin, the sacred name of 
Shaddai — the Almighty, but wh. the Jews interpret 
fm. its initial letters, " The Guardian of the houses 
of Israel." 

The wearing of P. was incumbent on every Jew of over thir- 
teen, at wh. age he became a " son of the Law," and their use 
was inculcated by precepts and penalties. These sayings 
of the rabbis are found in the Tim. : " He that wears P. 
secures length of days" (proof- text, Is. 38. 16 ). " A Jew is 
excommunicated fm. heaven who has no P. on his head and 
none on his arm." " Israelites who have transgressed by 
neglecting P. will descend into Gehenna, where they will 
undergo their judicial sentence for twelve months, after wh. 
their bodies will be annihilated and their souls will be con- 
sumed by a fire, whose cinders a wind will scatter beneath 
the feet of the righteous." Mourners only, during their 
period of mourning, were exempted from their use. 



They were worn at the times of the morning 
prayer, at the beginning of wh. each was put on to 
the repetition of a thanksgiving for their use. On 
Sabbaths and feast days, except Purim, they were 
not used. The Pharisees are said to have worn 
them at all times of the day, and this was also done 
and is still the practice with pious Jews engaged in 
the study of the Law, esp. in the holy cities of 
Palestine, but the common people use them only at 
prayer. 

The making broad of the P. meant the enlarging 
of the case and the making prominent of the letters 
upon it (Mw. 23. 5 ). The parchments themselves 
were of a fixed size. 

There can be little doubt that P. in their origin 
were intended to be a kind of amulet, or, as Scaliger 
has suggested, they may have been intended partly to 
supersede amulets. The word itself really means in 
Greek a " safeguard " or " protection," while the 
number seven and the name of God bring them into 
line with mod. Oriental charms. Origen in the 
Hexapla used the word P. generally for the amulets 
of Ek. 13. 18 . In the Tim. too it is said they were 
meant " to drive away evil spts.," while the Tg. on 
SS. 8. 3 understands that " they have power to keep 
off evil demons." Still, on the other hand, we find 
among other peoples also a mark or sign on the head 
as a token of allegiance to their deity (Herod, ii. 113). 

Wm. M. Christie. 

PHYSICIAN. See Diseases and Remedies. 

PI-BESETH (Ek. 30. 17 ), a city in Lower Egypt, 
on the W. bank of the Pelusiac or E. branch of the 
Nile. It is threatened with destruction in the in- 
vasion of Nebuchadnezzar. In hieroglyphic its 
name is written Bahest or Bast : the syllable Pi is 
really the article ; the Greek name was Bubastis. 
It probably was a considerable commercial centre 
under the 18th and 19th dynasties. It is now 
represented by extensive ruins near the railway 
station of Zag-a-zig called Tell-Basta. It was the 
seat of the worship of the cat goddess Bast, usually 
figured as a female with a cat's head. P. was 
the capital of a nome or district to wh. it gave the 
name. The 22nd dynasty, the founder of wh. was 
Sheshonq (Shishak, I K. 14. 25 " 28 ), is called Bubastite 
because they made it their capital. Near the ruins 
there was discovered a quarter of a century ago a cat 
cemetery fm. wh. ship-loads of cat mummies were 
exported for manure. 

PICTURE. (1) Mask'nh (Nu. 33. 52 ). In this 
passage RV. trs. " figured stones." They were evi- 
dently objects associated with idolatrous worship. 
In Pr. 25. u , " apples of gold in pictures of silver," 
RV. trs. " baskets of silver," giving in the margin 
" filigree work." (2) Sekiyydh (Is. 2. 16 ). Here, for 
"all pleasant pictures," RV. trs. "all pleasant 
imagery," and gives " watch-towers " in the margin. 
The meaning of the word is very doubtful. 



604 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pil 



In Egypt and Babylon painting and sculpture 
were greatly cultivated. Their development in 
Israel was barred by the Second Commandment. 
The Moslems have the same antipathy, especially to 
representations of the human figure. Their igno- 
rant fanaticism has led at times to the destruction of 
valuable remains from antiquity, e.g. in the tombs 
at Marissa. The natural desire for " pictures " is, 
however, gratified by the Jews in Palestine in a 
peculiar way. Verses of the Hebrew Scriptures — 
sometimes a whole book, as e.g. the Psalms — are ar- 
ranged and printed so as to form a representation of 
the object desired. The present writer possesses a 
" picture " of this kind, made for him by a Jewish 
friend in Tiberias, in which the whole of the book of 
Psalms is used. 

PIETY. This word originally signified rever- 
ence for God, for friends, for parents, and for father- 
land. It came to describe dutiful conduct, and 
now is almost restricted to piety towards God. In 
I Tm. 5- 4 (where alone it occurs in EV.) it trs. the 
Greek eusebein, " to show reverence," and suits the 
application to the household better than the literal 
rendering. 

PIGEON. See Dove. 

PI-HAHIROTH, the last station of the Israelites 
before they crossed the Red Sea. It is said to be 
" between Migdol and the Sea over against Baal- 
zephon " (Ex. 14. 2 ' 9 ; Nu. 33. 7 ' 8 ). The place has 
not been identified. The fact that Pi means in Heb. 
" the mouth of," and that ha is the Heb. article, led 
Hebraists of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies to endeavour to find the meaning of the last 
syllables in Heb. also ; finding in Rabbinic that 
hurath meant " a cavity," they extended its meaning, 
and explained P. as " the mouth of the defiles." 
Better knowledge has led to seeking for the meaning 
in Egyptian. Jablonsky thought it represented pi- 
ahiroth, " the place of sedges." As in Exodus the 
LXX tr. apenanti epauleos, " before the country 
house," Dr. Sayce recalled that there was a farm 
(achti) held by Pharaoh near Thukut (Succoth). 
Naville identifies it with Pi Oerhet, " the place of 
the goddess Qerhet " ; objections both etymolo- 
gical and geographical are brought against this. 
P. must meantime be looked upon as uniden- 
tified. 

PILATE, PONTIUS, governor (Mw. 27.2, &c), 
or, more correctly, procurator (Gr. epitropos, Jos. 
Ant. XX. vi. 2, &c.) of Judaea, a.d. 26-36. The 
name covered not only Judasa proper, but also 
Samaria and Idumaea, a district practically coter- 
minous with the kingdom of Archelaus, at whose 
death, a.d. 6, it became an imperial province. Of 
Pilate's origin nothing is known. His name may be 
derived from pileus, the cap worn by manumitted 
slaves, in which case Pilate may have been a freed- 
man : or it may be derived from Pilum or Pilo. 



He was responsible for the efficient working of the 
fiscal arrangements, for order, andgoodgovernment. 
He was the chief military and judicial authority in 
the province, his power in the latter capacity being 
limited only by the right of Roman citizens to ap- 
peal against his judgments to the emperor. His 
official seat was the palace in Caesarea ; but it was 
thought expedient that the procurator should be in 
Jerusalem at the great feasts ; and then his residence 
was in the palace of Herod (see Pr^etorium). In 
accordance with Roman practice, which respected 
as far as possible the customs, and even the preju- 
dices of subject peoples, the Sanhedrin continued 
to exercise many judicial functions. Death sen- 
tences, however, had to be ratified by the procurator. 

The character of Pilate has been painted in very 
dark colours. Philo (Leg. ad Caium) represents 
Agrippa I. in his letter to Caligula describing Pilate 
as " inflexible, merciless, and obstinate," as guilty 
of " corruption, violence, robbery, ill-usage," &c. 
He di'd indeed outrage Jewish susceptibilities on 
more than one occasion. Ignoring a well-known 
rule, he roused deep resentment by introducing 
Roman standards into Jerusalem, with the images 
of the emperor (Ant. XVIII. iii. 1, &c), and again 
by hanging in the palace at Jerusalem gilded shields 
inscribed with the emperor's name (Philo, op. cit. 
38). On each occasion (on the second by order of 
the emperor himself) he was obliged to withdraw 
the obnoxious objects. With his soldiers he quelled 
a disturbance made because he used certain treasure 
from the Temple to build aqueducts to Jerusalem 
(Jos. Ant. XVIII. iii. 2). The incident referred to 
in Lk. 13. 1 is not otherwise known. An impostor 
called a gathering of Samaritans at Mt. Gerizim, 
promising to show them the sacred vessels said to 
have been hidden there by Moses. Pilate sup- 
pressed this movement with violence, and Vitellius, 
legate of Syria, sent him to Rome to meet accusations 
made against him in consequence (ib. XVIII. iv. 1). 
Tiberius died before his arrival, and of Pilate's fate 
nothing is known with certainty. 

That Pilate made mistakes is clear enough ; but 
his long tenure of office is proof in itself that his ad- 
ministration was on the whole reasonable and suc- 
cessful. But for his connection with the trial of 
Jesus his name might have been forgotten. The 
Sanhedrin's death-sentence of necessity brought 
Jesus before the procurator. Convinced of His 
innocence, Pilate sought to do justice, and to deliver 
Him out of their hands. His vacillation and weak- 
ness probably arose from his desire to avoid another 
collision with Jewish fanaticism in view of past ex- 
perience. This was sufficient to overcome super- 
stitious fears awakened by the claim of Jesus (Jn. 
I9. 7ff -) and the warning of his wife (Mw. 27. 19 ) ; and 
a suggestion that favour to one professing to be a king 
would be treason to Caesar, finally decided him to 



605 



Pil 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pis 



take responsibility for a crime which he had vainly 
sought to prevent. 

The legends as to Pilate's end are, as usual, con- 
tradictory. He is made to commit suicide (Euse- 
bius, HE. ii. 7 ; Mors Pilati). The Tiber rejected 
his body ; it was sent to the Rhone, and, finally, to 
a lake on Mount Pilatus, near Lucerne (Miiller, 
Pontius Pilatus, 82f.). Others make him and his 
wife repent, a heavenly voice assuring them of 
pardon. 

According to tradition Pilate's wife was called 
Claudia Procula, or Procla. She is said to have been 
a Jewish proselyte (Gospel of Nicodemus, 2.), and sub- 
sequently to have become a Christian. She had 
probably heard something of the character and work 
of Jesus, and to this may be attributed the inspira- 
tion of her dream. In the Greek Church she is 
commemorated as a saint on Oct. 27. It has also 
been suggested that she may be the Claudia men- 
tioned in 2 Tm. 4. 21 . 

List of Lit. will be found in Miiller, Pontius 
Pilatus, der funfte Procurator von Judaea. 

PILDASH, son of Nahor, Abraham's brother 
(Gn. 22. 22 ). 

PILEHA, RV. PILHA, one who sealed the cove- 
nant with Nehemiah (Ne. io. 24 ). 

PILGRIMAGE (Heb. magor, lit. " sojourning ") 
is applied to the space of human life, i.e. the time of 
sojourning on earth (Gn. 47. 9 , &c). 
PILLAR. See Stone. 

PILLAR, PLAIN OF THE (Jg. c.. 6 ). We must 
here read with RV. " terebinth of the pillar." For 
the " pillar " see Stone. The solitary terebinth 
often marked a sanctuary, the tree in some cases 
being sacred as well as the pillar. 

PILLOW. The Heb. word kebtr denotes some- 
thing twined or interwoven. In 1 S. 19. 13 ' 16 pos- 
sibly some sort of quilt or 
network is intended. Keseth, 
used only in the plural (Ek. 
I3- 18 ' 20 )> is lit. a band or 
fillet. In this passage prob. 
some kind of charm or amu- 
let is meant. In new Heb. 
the word denotes " cushion " 
or " bolster." Mera'ashoth 
(Gn. 28. 11 - 18 ) : read here with RV. " under his head." 
The Greek proskephalaion (Mk. 4. 38 ) is the cushion 
(RV.) stuffed with straw, cotton, &c, used to this 
day by the rowers, and also placed for passengers in 
the boats on the Sea of Galilee. The illustration 
shows the form of " pillow " or head-rest common 
in the ancient Orient. 

PINE-TREE. (1) 'Etz shemen (Ne. 8. 15 ) ; RV. 
here trs. " wild olive " {see Oil Tree). (2) Tidhdr 
(Js. 41. 19 , 60. 13 ). There is no satisfactory clue to 
the tree here intended. The plane, the elm, and 
the pine have all been suggested, but without con- 




Pillows of Alabaster 



vincing reason. Dr. Post (HDB. s.v.) proposes 
simply to transliterate the word and call it the 
" tidhar." This appears the wiser course mean- 
time. 

PINNACLE, the part of the Temple to which 
the devil is represented as taking Jesus, and inviting 
Him to cast Himself down, in order to demonstrate 
His Divine Sonship (Mw. \. h ; Lk. 4. 9 ). Some par- 
ticular point is meant, as the phrase is to irrepvyiov, 
" the pinnacle," lit. " little wing," which may stand 
for turret or battlement, or perhaps for a pointed 
roof. The most probable point would be the SE. 
corner of the Temple buildings, from the top of 
which there was a sheer drop of 400 cubits into the 
valley below (Jos. Ant. XV. xi. 5 ; XX. ix. 7). Ac- 
cording to Eusebius, " the pinnacle " was associated 
with the martyrdom of St. James, he having been 
hurled from it into the depthsof thevale (HE. ii. 23). 

PINON, one of the " dukes " or phylarchs of 
Edom (Gn. 36. 41 ; I Ch. I. 52 ), perhaps identical 
with Punon of Nu. 33- 42f - 

PIPE. See Music. 

PIRAM, the Amorite king of Jarmuth, defeated, 
with his allies, by Joshua in the battle at Gibeon 
(Jo. io. 3 ). With them he fled for refuge to the 
cave at Makkedah, whence by Joshua's orders they 
were brought out and hanged (io. 27 ). 

PIRATHON, the home and burying-place of 
Abdon the Pirathonite, one of the minor judges 
(Jg. I2. 13ff -) ; the home also of Benaiah. It was in 
the territory of Ephraim, possibly in a district for- 
merly held by the Amalekites. It may be the mod. 
Fer l atd, six miles SW. of Nablus ; or Fer l on, fifteen 
miles W. of Nablus. 

PISGAH, a mountain on the east of the Jordan, 
apparently part of the Nebo range. In Dt. 3. 27 , &c, 
it is named as the height from which Moses was per- 
mitted to see the land of promise before he died. 
Elsewhere he is said to have stood on Mt. Nebo (Dt. 
32. 49 , &c). Pisgah is perhaps to be identified with 
the height of Siaghah (see Nebo). Some (e.g. Buhl, 
GAP. 122 ; Gray, Numbers, 292) think Pisgah a 
general name for the range in which the plateau 
terminates to the W., the " head " or " top of Pis- 
gah " being Mount Nebo. Hither Balak brought 
Balaam (Nu. 23. 14 ). "The field of watchmen" (Tzo- 
phim) points to a place with a wide outlook. The 
height indicated commands an extensive view, not 
only over the Arabah and the mountains of Wes- 
tern Palestine, but also over the desert (Nu. 21. 20 ). 
Ashdoth-Pisgah (Dt. 3. 17 , 4. 49 AV. " springs of 
P." ; Jo. 12. 3 ) we should read in each case with RV. 
" slopes of Pisgah," i.e. the slopes sinking westward. 

PISHON, AV. PI SON, one of the rivers of Para- 
dise (Gn. 2. 11 ). See Eden. 

PISIDIA was the name applied to the rough, 
broken hill country to the west of the Taurus moun- 
tains. The freedom-loving people who occupied 



606 



Pis 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pit 



these wilds were not subdued by the Romans till like them that go down to the pit." So in Ps. 30. 3 

B.C. 25, when Augustus planted a number of the Psalmist thanks J", that He " has brought his 

garrison towns throughout the district, with soul up fm. the grave ; that he shd. not go down to 

Antioch and Lystra, to which the rank of colony the pit " ; in v. 9 of that Ps. " pit " trs. shahath. It is 

was given, to the north. Pisidia marched with said of the murderer, " A man that doeth violence 

Pamphylia on the south, Lycia on the west, and to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit {bor), 

Phrygia on the north, with a less definite boundary let no man stay him." In these cases the " pit " 

to the east. In St. Paul's time Pisidia was politi- must mean more than merely the " grave " to wh. 

cally included in the province of Galatia. Under all mankind are hastening ; it has clearly the sug- 

Vespasian a large part of the district was attached gestion of the NT. " gehenna." " The abyss " 

to Pamphylia. In Ac. 13. 14 for "Antioch of also has an emphatic meaning ; it is used by LXX to 

Pisidia "we should read " Pisidian Antioch." That tr. tehom in Gn. i. 2 , 7. 11 , 8. 2 ; Dt. 33. 13 ; Jb. 28. 14 ; 

city was not at any time within the boundaries of Ps. 104. 6 ; Am. 7 4 , &c. In these cases the habi- 

Pisidia. The epithet " Pisidian " served to dis- table earth is pictured as an island floating on a 

tinguish it from other cities bearing the same name, mighty abyss of waters. In the passage before us 

Twice St. Paul passed through Pisidia, once on his the abyss is one of fire ; this island is imagined to 

way to Antioch from Perga (Ac. 13. 14 ), and again be perforated by a pit that goes right down to this 

on the return journey. Although, as we have seen, measureless ocean of flame. It is, however, closed 

the Romans laid a strong hand on the district in over, as if by a vast stone such as cover the wells and 

b.c. 25, the work of civilisation proceeded slowly, cisterns in Pal. ; this cover is locked. Then the 

When St. Paul was there the country was in a dis- fifth angel sounded and a star fell fm. heaven — an 

turbed condition, and quite possibly the perils of angel — who received " the key of the bottomless 

rivers and perils of robbers of which he writes in pit " ; he opened it and " there arose smoke out of 

2 Cor. II. 26 may refer to his experiences on these the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the air 

expeditions. He is not said to have preached in was darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." 

Pisidia. But his name, which is found in Kara The picture before the mind of the writer is clearly 

Baolo {i.e. Paulo), the ruins of Adada, may be due the eruption of Vesuvius, of wh. he must have 

to some ancient belief that he visited this place and heard. This smoke is worse than that of the vol- 

perhaps founded the Church there. cano — it bore only suffocating ashes in its bosom : 

PISPAH, son of Jether, or Ithran, of the tribe of fm. out of this came locusts, venomous locusts, wh. 

Asher (1 Ch. 7- 38 ). " had stings in their tails " like scorpions. Ordinary 

PIT is EV. tr. of twelve Heb. and two Greek locusts have no king : these have a king — it is " the 
words. The most common Hebrew word is bor angel of the bottomless pit " himself, Apollyon, 
(Gn. 37. 20 , &c), trd. " cistern " in 2 K. 18. 31 , &c, Abaddon, destruction personified. The dimmed, 
probably its usual meaning. When empty the bor bronze-coloured sky, the faint, sand-laden mist 
might be used as a prison (Gn. 40. 15fl - ; Jr. 38. 6 , &c). filling the air, so frequent a precursor of a visita- 
Be'er, from the same root, is the equivalent of the tion of locusts, may have been in the writer's mind ; 
Arabic b?r, the usual word for " well " (Gn. 16. 14 , only worse, as smoke is worse than thin vapour. 
&c. ; Jr. 2. 13 " cistern"; Ps. 55- 23 , &c). Geb = Whether these locusts symbolise a raid of the Par- 
Arabic jubb, " a hollow with standing water " (2 K. thian hordes (the description suits in many points ; 
3. 16 ; Jr. 14. 3 , &c). Shahath is the hole in which the period, too — five months — is appropriate) : or 
snares are set for wild animals, and so stands for the whether the Seer had a vision of a vaster host, of a 
stratagem of a man's foes (Ps. 7. 15 , 5J. Q , Sec), and for day distant fm. his by more than half a millennium, 
the grave, into which all men fall at last (Jb. 33. 18ff *, bred in the deserts of Arabia, the hosts of Islam : or 
&c). The Greek bothunos is any trench or hollow whether it is the influx of moral and physical evil 
in the ground (Mw. 12. 11 , 15. 14 ; Lk. 6. 39 , AV. that John foresaw, we are not in a position to decide. 
" ditch," RV. " pit "). Phrear (Lk. 14. 5 ; Jn. Such is the opening of the bottomless pit and its 
4. llf -) is the deep shaft of the well, used figuratively effects : we next see the closing of it. The 2'0th 
in Rv. 9. lfl - {see Abyss). The unguarded mouths chap, of Rv. opens with the account of the descent 
of these openings are often a source of considerable of an angel having in his hand the key of the bottom- 
danger in the East. less pit and a great chain with wh. the devil is 

PIT, BOTTOMLESS (Gr. -phrear tes abussou, bound ; he is shut into the pit, the great cover is 
Rv. 9. 1 ). In considering this subject we must re- rolled back upon the mouth of it and it is sealed, 
member the emphatic meaning attached in the OT. and for a thousand years is Satan bound ; then once 
to both bor, " a pit," primarily one dug to be a more is the pit opened, and the great foe of right- 
cistern, and shahath, " a pit," primarily dug for the eousness bursts forth upon the world to ravage it 
capture of a wild animal. In Ps. 28. 1 the Psalmist for a little space. 

entreats ]". not to be silent to him, lest he "become PITCH. The material used to make the Ark 

607 



Pit 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pit 



watertight was in Heb. called kopher (Gn. 6. 14 ). of Truth." This, however, was a mere indication 
Hemar was used for cement in the building of Babel of the region in wh. it might be sought. In the 
(Gn. II. 3 ). It was also employed as a coating of the year 1883 M. Naville, recognising that the opinion 
ark of bulrushes in which Moses was committed to of scholars was more and more agreeing that Pi thorn 
the river (Ex. 2. 3 ). Here also zepheth is named, the was to be found in the neighbourhood of Tel el- 
two words referring probably to the same material Maskhuta, began excavations. He found the wall 
in different forms. In Is. 34. 9 the streams are to of an enclosure round a temple ; this wall was very 
become zepheth, and the land burning zepheth. thick, nearly 23 feet across ; the space embraced 
There is no doubt that these words all denote bitu- was 55,000 square yards, between 11 and 12 acres, 
men, a substance formed from petroleum " by eva- Within this enclosure were found the ruins of the 
poration and oxidation." It is found abundantly temple, which furnished evidence that it had been 
in Mesopotamia. Bitumen wells (Gn. 14. 10 , EV. erected, not to Turn, but to Atum, the Sun-god. 
" slime pits ") were numerous in the Vale of Further investigations in the temple area revealed 
Siddim. It was called hemar (from the verb hamar, the ruins of extensive buildings of crude, sun-dried 
" to boil ") because of its bubbling up in liquid or bricks, divided off into rectangular chambers that 
semi-liquid form. It is also found at Hasbelyeh, at did not communicate with each other. This 
the western foot of Hermon. Zepheth corresponds proved to be a huge granary such as is so often seen 
to zlft, the Arabic name of bitumen. on the wall paintings. This wd. suffice to justify 

PITCHER (Heb. kad, Gn. 24. 15 - 18 ), an earthen- the title " store city." Near by were found ruins 
ware vessel for carrying water. In Palestine women of the city. In the Greek inscriptions discovered 

it was found that the Greek name of the city was 
Herdonpolis. It was independently known that the 
name of P. had been so altered under the rule of the 
Ptolemies. In confirmation of this identification it 
Jjf^ ^ak Jtm is to be noted that in Gn. 46. 28 , where, following 

the MT., the EV. render, " And he sent Judah be- 
fore him unto Joseph to ' shew the way before him ' 
(RV.) unto Goshen, and they came into the land of 
Goshen," the LXX reads, " But he sent Judah 
before him to Joseph to meet him at Her don polls in 
the land of Rameses " ; when this appears in the 
Coptic version, wh. was translated fm. the LXX, 
we find Peithom instead of Heroon polls. There a 
statue of Rameses II. between statues of two forms 
of the Sun-god, Ra-Harmachis and Atum, indicated 
a connection between him and the city Pithom wh. 
is abundantly confirmed by the remains. Although 
carry them on the head ; beginning as little girls this wd. seem to prove the truth of the common 
with small pitchers, these increase in size till the idea that Rameses was the Pharaoh of the Oppres- 
large jarrah is reached, wh. will contain some four or sion, the unscrupulous way in wh. that monarch 
five gallons. Rebekah seems to have carried her P. assumed to himself the works of his predecessors 
on her shoulder, a method followed by Egyptian renders his claim to have founded Pithom anything 
women sometimes. In the monuments water is but certain. A suggestion has been made, wh. is 
represented as carried in a couple of jars suspended supported bythe Greek above quoted, that Raamses, 
fm. a yoke wh. rests on the shoulders, much as water wh. appears as a companion store city, is really the 
used to be carried by girls in " stoups " in Scotland, name of the nome or district. Of course Raamses 
The broken fragments of these pitchers, ostraca, wd. be used by prolepsis, wh. wd. be no more in- 
were largely used in Egypt to make notes on ; many correct than to say that Hannibal crossed the Alps 
of the Greek and Aramaic inscriptions that have into Italy, whereas the portion of what is now called 
come down to us are written on these. Italy, into wh. he enteredfm. the passage of the Alps, 

PITHOM, one of the store cities built by the was then reckoned Cisalpine Gaul. The place was 
Israelites for Pharaoh : it is associated with Raamses. indicated by the name that wd. be most easily under- 
Herodotus, in his account of the canal of Pharaoh- stood by the audience contemplated. The great 
Necho (ii. 158), mentions that it leaves the Nile point gained by this discovery is the determination 
above the city of Bubastis, near Patoumos, the of the starting-point of the children of Isr. Closely 
Arabian town. This was generally identified with connected with Pithom is Thuku ; this with some- 
the Pithom of Exodus. The name was considered thing like certainty can be identified with Succoth 
to be really^ P#, " the place of," and Tun. " the god (Ex. 12. 37 ). The Romans erected a large fortified 

608 






Pitchers at Well 



Pit 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pla 



camp among the ruins of Pi thorn, and in doing so However, the damage done by the storm described 
utilised for their own purposes monuments of an- in Exodus was but partial, since there was still plenty 
tiquity, to the great loss of present-day archaeology, for the locusts to eat (Ex. io. 5 ). The storm would 
PITHON, grandson of Mephibosheth (Merit)- have taken place in the late autumn (Ex. Cj. 31f -). 
baal), one of the four sons of Micah (i Ch. 8. 35 , 9. 41 ). (8) The plague of locusts, wh. is invariably brought 
PLAGUE. See Diseases and Remedies. by " the east wind," is fortunately not very fre- 
PLAGUES OF EGYPT, THE. The ten plagues quent ; since the English occupation of Egypt, 
inflicted upon the Egyptians in order to induce the there have been only two serious recurrences of it. 
reluctant Pharaoh to release the Israelites fm. their (9) The plague of darkness was a heightened form of 
servitude were all characteristic of the country. (1) the dust-storms raised by the hamasinwmds, wh. are 
The first was the turning of the water of the Nile common in spring, and wh. produce a "darkness wh. 
" into blood," so that the fish died and the water was may be felt." (10) The last plague, the death of 
unfit to drink. (The second version of the account the first-born, has its parallel in the epidemic of 
(Ex.7. 19 ), wh. attributes the miracle to Aaron instead cholera, or, a century ago, of the plague, 
of Moses, and makes it include " streams," " rivers," It will thus be seen that the ten plagues were all 
and " ponds " as well as the Nile, is manifestly an in- native to Egypt, and are still characteristic of the 
terpolation.) Every year at the beginning of the country. The miraculous element in them con- 
inundation the same phenomenon recurs ; the water sisted in their coming and going at the command of 
becomes red as blood, and is for a few days unfit for Moses, and their appearance in an intensified form, 
drinking. In 1904 large quantities of dead fish were They must have extended from June or July, when 
afterwards found on the banks. While the water the river turns red, to " the first month " of the 
continues red, the Copts are in the habit of drinking Hebrew year, our March. The decisive battle 
water from cisterns or wells. (2) The plague of in wh. Meneptah II. overthrew the Libyan and 
frogs also recurs every year at the time of the inun- northern invaders who were ravaging the Delta and 
dation, and so follows, closely on the appearance of threatening to destroy Egyptian civilisation took 
" the red water." Both plagues are of annual place about April 15, and as it was under cover of 
recurrence, and the Egyptian " magicians " there- the invasion that the Israelites seem to have sue- 
fore had no difficulty in imitating them. (3) The ceeded in escaping from Egypt (see Exodus), the 
plague of lice is still an ever-present one among the flight from Goshen would naturally have taken place 
poorer natives, and is worst in the summer months, a few weeks before. The invasion, wh. the Egyp- 
the period of the inundation. The cleanly habits of tians would have considered the worst of the plagues 
the priests and upper classes protected them from that had befallen them, is passed over in silence by 
it ; when, therefore, the " magicians " found them- the Hebrew writer, whose attention is absorbed in 
selves covered with lice they recognised in it " the the story of the contest between Yahveh of Israel 
finger " of the Hebrew God. The Heb. word and the deities of Egypt incarnate in the Pharaoh. 
kinnim is translated crKvifas in LXX ; Ex. 8. 18 The account of the plagues, however, shows an 
shows that it cannot mean" mosquitoes." (4) The intimate acquaintance with Lower Egypt and its 
flies, more especially in the spring, are still an almost peculiarities. 

intolerable plague, wh. disappears only during the Lit. : Sayce, Early History of the Hebrews, ch. iii., 

colder winter months. Every Egyptian resident Rivington, 1897. A. H. Sayce. 

will understand the effect the plague at once had PLAIN. This is the EV. rendering of several 

upon the Pharaoh's obstinacy. For the first time a Heb. words, which have various shades of meaning, 

distinction was made between Goshen and the rest (1) 'Jbel (Jg. n. 33 ) is " a meadow." It occurs as 

of Lower Egypt in the case of it (Ex. 8. 22f -). The an element in a number of place-names (see Abel). 

Heb. word, wh. is rendered " dog-flies " in LXX, (2) 'Elon (Gn. 12. 6 , &c). This should always be 

has no connection with 'drabh, " to mix." (5) Cattle trd. " oak " or " terebinth " (see Oak). (3) Biq'ah 

plague still commits ravages in Egypt in spite of is a wide stretch of level ground between hills (Gn. 

modern quarantine regulations, and the country is II. 2 , &c). It is sometimes rendered "Valley" 

but just recovering from an attack wh. practically (zvhich see). It is applied to the plain of Esdraelon 

destroyed all the cattle. (6) Boils are still one of (2 Ch. 35> 22 , &c, " valley of Megiddo "), and also to 

the common diseases of the country. (7) Thunder- the great hollow between the Lebanon ranges (Jo. 

storms, accompanied by hail, are infrequent, but II. 17 , &c.) where the name persists to this day in 

when they do occur, especially in Lower Egypt, they the Arabic el-Biqa l . (4) Kikkar. This is lit. " a 

are apt to be of exceptional severity, the hail-stones round," and so applied to a loaf of bread, from its 

being sometimes as large as pigeons' eggs. The round shape ( I S. 2. 36 , &c). InGn. 13. 10 , &c, it is 

writer of this article has himself seen acres of corn used of the floor of the Jordan valley adjoining the 

and other crops in the neighbourhood of Cairo de- Dead Sea. If it is the Heb. kikkar, and not a sur- 

stroyed by one of these storms in a single night, vival of an ancient name, the meaning of which is 

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lost, it is used in a quite general sense as " cir- 
cuit," not denoting literal roundness. Certainly 
the plains north and south of the Dead Sea are in 
no sense to be so described. In Ne. 12. 28 the word 
probably indicates the district round Jerusalem. 
(5) M'ishor is smooth, level country, as distinguished 
from rough, mountainous land (Ps. 143. 10 , RVm. ; 
Is. 40. 4 , RVm.). The land east of the Sea of Galilee, 
on which Benhadad was defeated, is described as 
m'ishor (1 K. 20. 23 ). The name is applied specifically 
to the elevated plateau or table-land between the 
Arnon and Heshbon (Dt. 3. 10 , &c). (6) 'Arab ah, 
lit. " desert steppe." It is applied to a desert 
steppe west of the Dead Sea (in S. Judah), in I S. 
23. 24 , also Ek. 47. 8 ; Is. 51. 3 , whence the name yam 
ha- Arab ah (Jo. 3. 16 ) — Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v. Wddy hd- 
'Ardbdh, if the reading is correct (Am. 6. 14 ), must be 
sought on the east of the Dead Sea. As applied 
to the Jordan valley, see Arabah. (7) Shepheldh, 
" lowland," applied specifically to the low hills that 
run along the western foot of the Judaean mountains, 
between them and the plain {see Shephelah). It is 
also used of the low land in the neighbourhood of 
Dor (Jo. II. 2 ) and of the low land west of Ephraim 
(v. 16). In NT. the word "plain" occurs only in 
AV. of Lk. 6. 17 , where it trs. the Greek topos pedinos, 
" a level place " (RV.). Matthew places the scene 
on a mountain (h iw. 5. 1 ) where, naturally, some 
" level place " won d be sought for the convenience 
of speaker and hearers alike ; but hardly what we 
should call a " plain." 

PLAIN, CITIES OF THE. See Sodom. 

PLAISTER, PLASTER. (1) The art of cover- 
ing the rough face of wall (Lv. i4- 42f ", &c.) or stones 
(Dt. 27« 2 , &c.) with mortar was practised from 
ancient times. On the plaster, while still soft, 
writing might be impressed (Dt. 27. 2f -, &c). (2) 
The plaster laid upon the boil of which Hezekiah 
was dying appears to have been a poultice of figs 
(Is. 38. 21 ; cp. 2 K. 20. 7 ). 

PLANE. See Handicrafts. 

PLANE TREE. See Chestnut. 

PLANET. See Star. 

PLEDGE. The practice of giving loans on 
pledge — that is, something given by the borrower as 
security for repayment — is taken for granted by the 
law. In the code of Hammurabi this practiee is 
assumed to be generally followed, and the relations 
of debtor and creditor, their mutual obligations, are 
regulated. So, in the Mosaic law, there is no ques- 
tion of a new institution. The ancient custom is 
assumed as prevailing, and provisions are introduced 
to prevent unnecessary hardship in its operation. 
If the simldh, the outer garment corresponding to 
the Arabic 'aba, an outer garment of hair cloth, 
were taken as a pledge, it had to be returned at sun- 
set (Ex. 22. 26 ; Dt. 24. 12 ), one of the many uses of 
this article of clothing being to serve as a covering at 

6 



night, and poor people often having nothing to take 
its place. The raiment of a widow might not be 
taken at all (Dt. 24. 17 ). " No man shall take the 
mill or the upper millstone to pledge : for he taketh 
a man's life to pledge " (Dt. 24. 6 ). The creditor 
might not enter the debtor's house to select his 
pledge, but must wait without until it was brought 
to him (Dt. 24. 10f -). In Gn. 38. 17 the Heb. word is 
'erabon, meaning " surety." The phrase " give 
pledges" (2 K. i8. 23 = Is. 36.®) is lit. "exchange 
pledges " in making a bargain, the " pledge " to be 
forfeited by the one failing to keep the bargain. In 
I S. 17. 18 the word 'arubbah denotes a " token," i.e. 
something signifying that all was well. 

PLEIADES (Heb. ktmah) appears in Jb. c.. 9 , 
38. 31 ; in Am. 5. 8 AV. trs. " the seven stars," but 
RV. more consistently renders here also " Pleiades." 
In all the passages where P. occurs Orion (Kesil) 
also occurs. From the nearness of these two con- 
stellations, if the identification of the one is right, 
then is the other right also. The Greek myth con- 
nects these constellations, regarding the Pleiades as 
maidens flying fm. the great hunter Orion. It is 
singular that, though they are always reckoned 
seven, only six are prominent enough to be visible 
to ordinary sight : it wd. almost seem as if since the 
dawn of primitive astronomy some catastrophe had 
happened by wh. one had been dissipated. The 
Hebrew name has no reference to the number seven. 
The root fm. wh. k'imdh comes is not used in He- 
brew, but in Arabic kum means " to heap," whence 
kumat, " a heap " : in Assyrian kimtu means " a 
family " ; either of these terms might have supplied 
the figure to the mind of the Israelite who first 
called the group of stars klmdh. As their rising and 
setting marked the beginning and end of the period 
of navigation among the Greeks, it has been sug- 
gested that the classic name is derived fm. pled, " to 
sail." If " seven " had been the root of the name 
there wd. have been point in Lockyer's notion that 
P. wd. more naturally mean Charles's Wain ; but 
the signs of the Zodiac, fm. the fact that it marked 
the seasons when the different operations of hus- 
bandry began, were more studied than any other 
constellations in the nearer East. The idea that 
Sirius is meant has really nothing to recommend it. 
PLOUGH. The plough used by the peasants in 
Palestine to-day probably resembles very closely 
the implement used by the ancients. It is of very 
simple construction. It consists of the share 
(sikkah), " a conical, very acuminate shoe of iron, 
with no flaring portion as in our ploughshares, made 
hollow to receive the point of the shank (dhakr), wh. 
is a piece of tough wood, usually oak, about 2 ft. 
6 in. long, bent forward below its middle, and sharp- 
ened to go into the sikkah ; the handle (kdbusah), 
a cross-bar of the same tough wood, into which the 
shank is morticed, and fastened by a wooden pin. 
10 



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This handle is of a convenient height to be held by 
the hand of the driver below his waist ; the pole 
(burk), wh. is a hump-backed piece of the same 
tough wood, morticed at its joint with the shank. 
To lengthen this out in the proper shape there is 
attached by a cord to its free extremity the zoasl, 
wh. is a pot-bellied pole. with a blunt end deflexed 
about 6 in. fm. the tip at an angle of about 130 de- 
grees, to get it out of the way of the muzzles of the 
oxen. Fm. two to three inches behind this angle is 
morticed into the zoasl, at an angle of about 75 de- 
grees, a pin (qotrib) about 6 in. long, to receive the 
ring of the Yoke, and prevent it from slipping " 
(Dr. G. E. Post in PEFQ. 1891, p. 112). See also 
Goad. 

The plough is usually drawn by oxen ; but yokes 
consisting of an ox and an ass, and even of a camel 
and an ass, are not uncommon. See Agriculture. 

POCHERETH OF ZEBAIM, RV. POCHE- 
RETH-HAZZEBAIM, the ancestor of certain of 
the children of Solomon's servants who returned 
from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 57 ; Ne. y. 5Q ). 
In 1 Es. 5. 34 called " Phacareth." 

POETS, POETRY. The most natural beginning 
for poetry wd. seem to be found in worship. The 
same feeling wh. led men first to consecrate a set 
space of ground for the service of deity, and to 
dignify it with stately buildings, led them to set 
apart a certain elevated style of speech for the wor- 
ship of the gods. The sacred dances that accom- 
panied so many of the acts of worship had of neces- 
sity a cadenced accompaniment to guide the steps of 
those engaged. Mere beating of time wd. be mono- 
tonous ; hence words accompanied the beats, and 
were measured off in lengths by them in time with 
the feet of the dancers. The most marked act of 
worship in primitive times was sacrifice ; at such a 
time the feelings of the worshipper wd. be intensely 
stirred, and these feelings wd. find expression in 
praise of him to whom they were offering sacrifice. 
While pipe and harp accompanied the act of the 
priest in the sacrifice, words defined the meaning 
expressed more vaguely in the music. Alike among 
Jew and Gentile, along with the sacrifice there went 
a sacrificial feast. When Saul, who had come out 
in search of his father's asses, is told in Zuph of the 
sacrifice, he is also told of the feast, as if such a thing 
were the recognised concomitant of a sacrifice (1 S. 
9. 12f -). At such feasts song was a natural accompani- 
ment ; and, if we are to believe Homer, these songs 
were generally narrative — chanted ballads, in short. 
But the emotions that usually prompt to verse were 
themselves regarded as due to the influence of 
deities ; songs of the joy of harvest, war songs and 
love songs, were alike looked upon as prompted 
by the god who presided over the emotion. So, 
too, with the wisdom that expressed itself in the 
balanced antithesis of proverb or gnomic sentence. 

61 



Thus we see that all poetry had its origin directly or 
indirectly in worship. Hebrew poetry, with wh. 
we have to do here, is no exception ; the greater 
part of the poetry of the Hebrews is devotional — 
indeed has served as the model of the devotional 
poetry of all Christian countries. 

The Character of Hebrew Poetry.— Besides the 
books that are recognised as poetic — the Psalms, Job, 
Lamentations, the Song of Songs, and the gnomic 
wisdom of the Proverbs — there is Ecclesiastes, with 
its mixture of prose and verse ; there are the Pro- 
phets, whose poetry of thought not infrequently 
bursts the bonds of prose and falls into the free 
rhythm and cadence of Hebrew verse; besides 
these there are in the historic books fragments 
and short compositions that often afford exquisite 
examples of Hebrew verse. The first thing that 
strikes one is its predominant lyric character ; there 
are didactic books, but some of these, as Proverbs, 
while having the forms of verse, can only rarely be 
regarded as poetic ; what of charm they have is 
more akin to that of wit, than to that produced on 
the mind by poetry. The Prophets, when they are 
most poetic, are always lyric, expressing the emo- 
tions felt by the individual himself ; not describing 
or narrating ; still less arguing ; rarely resorting to 
the dramatic expedient of personification. The 
lack of narrative or dramatic poetry is a feature that 
very early strikes the student of Hebrew Literature. 
Greek Literature begins with the lengthened and 
elaborate Homeric poems, and next in importance 
come the Attic dramatists. So it is also with 
English, French, and German Literature ; narra- 
tive poetry was the earliest form it assumed. We 
must, however, in studying Hebrew poetry, always 
bear in mind that a large part of that poetry has 
been lost. The reason for the preservation of what 
has come down to us restricted the kinds of poetry 
preserved. The Hebrew State existed for its re- 
ligion ; it was merely the expression of that re- 
ligion in the sphere of politics and history ; hence 
its literature was presented under the same limi- 
tations : only what bore on religion was regarded 
as worthy of preservation. Although no Hebrew 
epics have been handed down to us, yet two books 
are referred to as authorities for certain statements, 
" The Book of Jashar," and " The Book of the Wars 
of the Lord." The first .of these is quoted in 
Joshua (io. 12 " 14 ) : " Sun, stand thou still upon 
Gibeon ; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. 
And the sun stood still and the moon stayed, until 
the people had avenged themselves upon their 
enemies." It is quoted again in 2 Samuel (i. 18f -) ; 
fm. this passage it wd. seem that the whole of the 
lament of David formed part of " The Book of 
Jashar." Probably, therefore, it gave an account of 
the principal events in the history of Israel, at least, 
to the establishment of the kingdom in the Dedi- 



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cation of the Solomonic Temple. Although not 
named, it is supposed that another quotation fm. 
the same book is preserved in I Kings 8. 12 " 13 . The 
passage is evidently a quotation — the two verses cd. 
be left out without interrupting the sense ; a fuller 
form appears in the LXX, but after v. 53 ; and 
there it is said, " Behold, is not this written in the 
Book of the Song ? " As this attribution is unin- 
telligible, it is suggested that we shd. read "Jashar" 
instead of " Song " ; the change only involves the 
transposition of the first two letters, a transposition 
wh. is made in the Peshitta of Joshua io. 13 . From 
these quotations we learn not only that it was in 
verse, but also that it included lyrics like David's 
dirge over Saul and Jonathan. Whether we are to 
regard this as a composition of David's included by 
the author of " The Book of Jashar," or as a dirge 
dramatically composed in David's name, is a ques- 
tion wh. cannot be settled. One wd. be sorry to 
attribute that beautiful elegy to any other than the 
" sweet singer of Israel." The other work, " The 
Book of the Wars of the Lord," is quoted only in 
Numbers 21. 14 ' 15 ; perhaps also vv. 17, 18, and 
27-30. The passages are somewhat difficult to in- 
terpret ; it is possible there may be some corruption 
of the text. Much help cannot be got fm. the 
versions, as the corruption seems to have occurred 
before the LXX, the earliest of them, was made. 
In v. 14, instead of " Wherefore it is said in the 
Book of the Wars of the Lord, ' What He did in the 
Red Sea and in the brooks of Arnon, and at the 
stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwell- 
ing of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab,' " 
the LXX has, " Therefore it is written in the book, 
' A war of the Lord has set on fire Zoob and all 
the brooks of Arnon ; and He appointed brooks to 
cause Er to dwell there, and it lies near to the coasts 
of Moab.' " The differences are too great to be 
easily explained. It is doubtful whether 27-30 is 
really part of this book and not of a book of Oracles ; 
yet the style is much the same. The character of 
" The Book of the Wars of the Lord," and if it is 
another book, " The Proverbs " also, is like that of 
" The Book of Jashar " — events narrated by means 
of lyrics. " The Book of the Wars of the Lord," if 
different fm. " The Book of Jashar," probably took 
up an earlier portion of the history. We have a 
specimen of the kind of thing in " The Song of 
Deborah " (Jg. 5.). It is a series of lyric outbursts 
wh. imply a course of events but do not relate them. 
In 2 Ch. 20. there is a composition wh. has more the 
characteristics of the ballad or narrative poem ; it is 
elevated prose with verse interspersed : the prose 
narrative is supplied wh. forms the background to 
the verse. " The Blessing of Jacob " (Gn. 49.), 
" The Song of Moses " (Dt. 32.), " The Blessing of 
Moses " (Dt. 33.), all present the same lyric char- 
acteristics. The book of Psalms not only represents 

6: 



the mass of Heb. poetic Literature, it is more than 
all the rest of the strictly poetic books put together ; 
it has, moreover, examples of all the approximations 
wh. Heb. poetry made to other than the lyric form. 
The 2nd Psalm is dramatic, the 136th represents 
the lyric narrative, and the 119th represents the 
gnomic or proverbial. In Job and the Song of 
Solomon we have an approximation to the drama ; 
they are really lyrics dramatically arranged ; in Job 
each interlocutor recites poems, each of the friends 
follows the others in a fixed, definite order, and 
between each pair is inserted a poem by Job. The 
hymn of Wisdom in the 28th chap, is of the nature 
of an ode, wh. in the Greek drama mt. have been 
spoken by a chorus ; though the Greek chorus has a 
more direct reference to the action of the play than 
has the praise of Wisdom in Job. There is more of 
the dramatic element in the prologue in heaven than 
elsewhere in the poem. The Song of Songs has 
more of the movement we expect in a drama, but in 
it there are no real dialogues any more than in Job : 
it is a series of lyric love-songs arranged dramatically. 
The Forms of Hebrew Poetry. — The first thing 
to be observed in all poetry is the system of versifica- 
tion. From the relation in wh. poetry stands to 
music there is necessity for a certain recurrence of 
features, a certain cyclic movement ; and again fm. 
the connection of music with dancing, these cycles 
are broken up by beats or accents. Thus in our 
ordinary octosyllabic verse, we have the couplet 
marked off by the rhyming syllable ; but, further, 
each line of the couplet has four accented syllables. 
Among the classic races the place of accent was sup- 
plied by quantity ; each line was made up of cer- 
tain groups of syllables called " feet," and named 
according to the proportion of each found in the 
given " foot." Attempts have been made to as- 
similate Hebrew versification to one or other of the 
methods, but without conspicuous success. It has 
been maintained that Hebrew verse was essentially 
dependent on rhyme, fm. the fact that the pro- 
nominal suffixes occur with great frequency, that 
plurals masculine and feminine are formed by 
syllables with long vowels. As these are always 
regular, lines have only to end in nouns having the 
same pronominal suffix, or in nouns of the same 
gender in the plural, to have the appearance of 
rhyme. There are, besides, several other gramma- 
tical forms that have endings similar to those we 
have mentioned ; thus the terminal syllable of the 
first pers. sing. pret. of the verb, and that of the 
const, case of the pi. masc. noun, is the same as 
the syllable wh. forms the pronominal suffix of the 
first person sing. ; the result is that the number 
of purely accidental rhymes is very considerable. 
There are other systems based on the prosody of 
quantified syllables, and yet others based on accent, 
that, while having a certain amount of plausibility, 



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yet have to insert such a number of variations 
and exceptions that they are practically valueless. 
Many can only be rendered generally valid by a 
great number of textual emendations, unsupported 
by anything in the versions. With such freedom of 
emendation anything cd. be proved. For several 
centuries Biblical scholars have been occupied with 
the question of Hebrew poetry. We have also 
elaborate discussions of the subject by the Rabbins. 
But, with all the light thrown on the question by 
the prosody of Arabic and Syriac verse, and by the 
examples of Babylonian and Assyrian poems that 
have been handed down on clay tablets, we are still 
greatly in doubt. That there were lines in Hebrew 
verse, as in the verse of other languages, is proved by 
the fact that one form of Hebrew verse was acrostic 
of the alphabet. These lines are approximately of 
the same length ; it is, however, difficult to fix 
exactly in what this equality consists. One of the 
earliest investigators in this field, Bishop Lowth, 
recognised that the ruling character of the poetry 
of the Hebrews was parallelism — that is, that a verse 
in Hebrew poetry consisted of lines in wh. the 
second either repeated the thought contained in 
the first, or gave a contrasted thought, or supplied 
an increment to it. He divided this parallelism as 
above indicated into three classes : (i) The Synony- 
mous, in wh. the second of the parallel lines repeated 
the contents of the first in different words, as Ps. 
46. 7 « n , " The Lord of Hosts is with us ; the God 
of Jacob is our refuge." (2) The Antithetic ; in 
it the second member of the distich represents a 
thought contrasted with that in the first. This is 
frequent in Proverbs ; e.g. Pr. II. 23 , " The desire of 
the righteous is only good ; the expectation of the 
wicked is wrath " ; or, to take an example fm. the 
Psalms, " Weeping may endure for a night; but joy 
cometh in the morning." (3) The Synthetic, that 
in wh. the second member fills out or continues the 
idea in the first. An example of this is Ps. 19. 11 : 
" Moreover by them is Thy servant warned, and in 
keeping of them is great reward " : in this there is 
neither repetition nor contrast, but the filling out 
of the idea contained in the first by presenting the 
advantage of keeping the law of the Lord under 
another aspect. There is very generally a continua- 
tive element in the synonymous class, as it is hardly 
possible to repeat precisely the same thought in 
different words. It may be doubted whether there 
are any absolute synonyms, i.e. words that may in 
every connection replace each other : the connota- 
tion or the usage of one is generally, although per- 
haps only in a slight degree, different fm. that of the 
other. In such a case we have to consider the pre- 
dominant character of the relation. There is fre- 
quently an inversion of the parts in the second 
member — thus monotony is avoided: this elegance, 
while present in the Heb. original, is sometimes not 

6 



followed in the EV. An example may be given in 
wh. the inversion is carried over: thus Ps. 91. 16 , 
" With long life will I satisfy him, and I will shew 
him my salvation " ; here fm. the two verbs being 
put together the inversion is seen. In some cases, 
as we have said, this is not carried over ; thus in 
Ps. 97. 11 EV., " Light is sown for the righteous, and 
gladness for the upright in heart," the Heb. literally 
rendered is, " Light is sown for the righteous one, 
and for those that are upright in heart gladness." 
This is also an example of another variation in 
parallelism. Often, instead of repeating in the 
second member of the parallelism a portion of the 
first, or devising an equivalent for it, it is simply 
understood, as Ps. 78. 14 , " In the daytime also He 
led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light 
of fire " : in this second clause " He led them " is 
understood. It may be noted that in Heb. there 
is the inversion of parts in the second clause here as 
in Ps. 97. 11 . Sometimes there is a tristich wh. is 
formed in various ways — generally one of the mem- 
bers of the distich is split into a distich (Ps. 78. 21 ) : 
" Therefore the Lord heard and was wroth ; and a 
fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came 
up against Israel." Occasionally the third line is a 
summing up of the two preceding, as, to quote fm. 
the 78th Psalm already quoted above (v. 49) : " He 
cast upon them the fierceness of His anger ; wrath, 
and indignation, and trouble ; a band of angels of 
evil." Budde (HDB.) has maintained there is an 
elegiac verse in wh. a long line is followed by a 
short ; however, when we do not find it in Lamen- 
tations, save occasionally in chap 3., we may be per- 
mitted to doubt its existence as a regularly recognised 
form of verse. One thing is clear : in Heb. poetry 
the matter was more important than the form, the 
thought than the verse ; a characteristic wh. has 
made it possible to translate the Prophets and 
Psalmists with a minimum loss of meaning. 

We have to consider how these lines were linked 
together into poems. In modern poems, between 
the line and the poem comes the stanza, but no 
theory of the many that have been devised seems 
quite satisfactory. There are several ways in wh. 
verses succeed each other. One is to repeat as the 
opening thought of the second verse what had been 
the closing one of the preceding ; this arrangement 
is found in those Psalms that are called " Songs of 
Degrees," e.g. Ps. 121. 1, 2 : "I will lift up mine eyes 
unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My 
help cometh fm. the Lord, wh. made heaven and 
earth." Again the second verse may repeat a por- 
tion of that wh. precedes, and introduce a change 
in the other member of the distich ; thus in Ps. 
Il8. 8, 9 : " It is better to trust in the Lord than to 
put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the 
Lord than to put confidence in princes." But the 
most common way in wh. verses are linked together 

13 



Poe 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pol 



formally, i.e. irrespective of the sense, is by acrostic. 
Our acrostics take a name usually, and begin the suc- 
cessive lines of the short poem with the letters that 
make it up. The Hebrew took only the alphabet, 
and arranged according to the succession of the 
letters in it lines wh. presented the general subject 
of his poem under successive aspects. The most 
conspicuous example of this is Ps. 119., in wh. each 
letter begins, not merely each stanza, but each 
of the eight lines of each stanza ; so that there 
are eight alphabets moving through the Psalm in 
parallel lines. Another example less conspicuous to 
the reader of English, because the names of the Heb. 
letters do not in this case mark the beginning of the 
stanzas, is Lamentations, chap. 3., in wh. each letter 
of the alphabet begins three successive lines num- 
bered as verses. There are several of the Psalms wh. 
have this construction; and Pr. 31. 10 " 31 forms an 
alphabet descriptive of the virtuous woman. An- 
other literary device to give unity to a poem and at 
the same time mark off its divisions is the " refrain." 
An example of this, in wh. the refrain, " For His 
mercy endureth for ever," concludes every verse, is 
Ps. 136. ; this refrain also occurs in the first verses of 
Ps. 118. There are other Psalms in wh. the "re- 
frain " is used, but not with such frequency as in 
Ps. 136. ; thus Pss. 42. and 43., in wh. 42. 5> u and 
43. 5 are refrain ; so too Ps. 46., in wh. vv. 7 and II 
are refrain. In some cases the refrain is imperfect ; 
that is to say, the recurrent phrase is not precisely 
identical ; an instance of this is to be found in Ps. 
80., and also in Job 28. Sometimes the " refrain " 
is not carried through the whole Psalm, as is the case 
in Ps. 107. ; it is also a case where the refrain is 
modified. 

From the large number of musical notes that 
occur in the Psalms it wd. seem natural to believe 
that musical necessities played a part in the suc- 
cession of different parts in a Psalm ; therefore that 
it is lost work to torture brains to find logical con- 
nections. It is a feature of the Psalms early noted 
that, however sadly they may begin, they all but in- 
variably end, if not in joy, at all events in confident 
faith in God. One of the rules of the Sonata is to 
end, whatever the beginning or middle may be, 
joyously. Another characteristic wh. some of the 
Psalms have in common with the Sonata is that each 
is made up of three or four parts, wh. follow each 
other in such a way that one may contrast with 
that wh. it succeeds. Many of the Psalms have 
the same feature ; thus in the 19th Ps. the first six 
verses are a description of the heavenly bodies as 
forming a mighty chorus of praise to the Almighty ; 
the next four are in praise of the Divine law ; 
whereas the last four form an expression of personal 
experience on the part of the Psalmist. So, too, the 
29th Ps. ; in it we have first a call to all the deities 
of the heathen to render praise to JHWH the God 



of Israel ; then there follows the description of the 
progress of a thunderstorm, wh. is regarded as " the 
voice of the Lord " ; it ends with a doxology, in wh. 
the features of the storm are utilised to exhibit the 
glory of JHWH in a more majestic way. A similar 
succession may be seen in the great thunder-Psalm 
that forms the third chap, of Habakkuk ; it begins 
with a prayer to God to revive His work ; then 
follows a description of the progress of a thunder- 
storm, accompanied, as in that described in Ps. 29., 
by a hurricane, and it ends with a lyrical expression of 
confidence in God, however adverse circumstances 
mt. be. The succession in each of these cases is 
that of feeling, as is always the case with music. In 
the last example Habakkuk begins fm. depths of 
longing, almost of despair, before the impending 
wrath of God ; then follows the awe and admira- 
tion induced by the tempest ; that gives place to 
confident hope in God. This suits the lyrical char- 
acter of Hebrew poetry. It is thus clear that only 
in the most general way can we decide concerning 
the laws of Hebrew poetry; it was still in the forma- 
tive stage, before forms had become stereotyped. 

POISON stands for two Hebrew words. (1) He- 
mah, from ydham, " to be hot," signifies " anger " 
(Dt. 29. 27 , &c.) ; the heat produced by wine (Ho. 
7. 5 ) ; and also the venom of poisonous serpents 
(Dt. 32. 24, 33 ; Ps. 58.*, 140. 3 ). It seems to have 
been used to poison the points of arrows (Jb. 6. 4 ). 
This was a very widespread custom in early times. 
Pliny speaks of a tribe of Arab pirates who infested 
the Red Sea, who were armed with poisoned arrows 
(vi. 34). Sometimes the poisonous juice of certain 
plants was used for this purpose. The preparation 
in which the arrow-heads were dipped was called 
toxicon. It may be taken as evidence of the wide 
extension of the practice that this word became the 
name of poison in general. (2) Rosh, " head," de- 
notes some bitter and poisonous herb ; then poison. 
It is always used figuratively (Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v.). 
It may possibly signify the poppy. Twice it is used 
of the venom of serpents (Dt. 32. 33 ; Jb. 20. 16 ). 
The Greek ios is used figuratively of the mischief 
wrought by an evil tongue (Rm. 3. 13 ; Js. 3« 8 ). 

The deadly effects of snake poison have always 
been painfully familiar in Palestine, where venom- 
ous serpents are still plentiful. In 2 M. io. 13 we 
read that Ptolemeus Macron committed suicide by 
poisoning himself. The practice of poisoning was 
common in NT. times among the Romans ; but it 
never seems to have commended itself to the Jews. 
It is not directly spoken of in Scrip., but there may 
be an allusion to it in the figure setting forth the 
protection to be enjoyed by those who believe in the 
name of Jesus : " They shall take up serpents, and if 
they shall drink any deadly thing it shall in no wise 
hurt them " (Mk. 16. 18 ). 

POLLUX. See Castor. 



614 



Pom 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Poo 



POMEGRANATES (Heb. rimmon = Arb. rum- 
man) is the familiar Punica granatum, which grows 
plentifully in Palestine, both wild and under culti- 
vation (Dt. 8. 8 ; Jl. i. 12 , &c). It is a shrub of ten 
to fifteen feet high, with dark green foliage, which 
shows up the scarlet blossoms to perfection. The 
fruit is shaped like an apple, containing numerous 
seeds enveloped in a juicy pulp. Some are sweet 
and rather insipid ; others are slightly acid, and are 
greatly prized. A sort of wine is sometimes made 
from the fruit (SS. 8. 2 ). Pomegranates figure in the 
ornamentation of the priestly robes (Ex. 28. 33 , &c), 
and in the carvings in the Temple (i K. 7. 18 , &c). 
The beauty of flower and fruit is alluded to in SS. 




Pomegranate 
4. 3, 13 , &c. Tannin is extracted from the bark and 
rind. 

POMMEL is AV. tr. of gulldh, lit. " bowl," only 
in 2 Ch. 4 . 12f - (RV. " bowl "). In 1 K. 7. 41 it is 
rendered " bowls " in the same connection ; where 
it refers to the bowl- or globe-shaped portion of 
capitals of the two pillars in the Temple. 

POND, POOL. (1) 'A gam, a body of water 
collected in a hollow such as one sees in many parts 
of Egypt when the inundation subsides. AV. 
renders " pond " in Ex. 7. 19 , 8. 5 ; RV. uniformly 
renders " pool " (Is. 14. 23 , &c). It is to be distin- 
guished from miqzueh, a pond into which water is 
purposely conducted or into which water flows 
(Gn. i. 10 ; Ex. 7. 19 , &c). (2) Berekdh. This is pro- 
perly a tank or reservoir dug or built to store water 
for irrigation, or to gather water for the supply of 
towns and cities (2 S. 2. 13 , 4. 12 ; 2 K. 18. 17 , &c). 
It corresponds to the Arb. birkeh, which applies 
also to the large basins in the centre of the courts in 
Damascus houses. The Greek word is kolumbethra 
(Jn. q. 2 , 9. 7 ). In Is. 19. 10 we should render with 
RV. " all they that work for hire shall be grieved 
in soul." 



PONTIUS PILATE. See Pilate. 

PONTUS (Gr. ttovtos, " sea "). The kingdom 
of Pontus lay in the NE. of Asia Minor, along the 
southern shore of the Black Sea. The kingdom was 
not of ancient standing. Mithridates, a man of 
great ability, energy, and enterprise, took advantage 
of the unsettlement prevailing during the years 
after the death of Alexander the Great to make 
himself master of a considerable region beyond the 
Halys, assuming the title of king about b.c. 281. 
His territory marched on the west with Paphlagonia, 
on the S. with Cappadocia, and on the E. with 
Colchis. When conquered by the Romans in b.c. 
65, the western part was incorporated in the pro- 
vince of Bithynia-Pontus ; the eastern part being 
continued under native kings. The last of these 
was Polemon II., to whom Berenice, the great- 
granddaughter of Herod the Great, was married. 
The kingdom was finally absorbed by the empire 
under Nero (a.d. 63), the western part being joined 
to Galatia, and the eastern to Cappadocia. It is 
probable that the NT. usage followed the Roman in 
applying the name Pontus to the province united 
with Bithynia. From Pontus Jews and proselytes 
came to the feast at Jerusalem (Ac. 2. 9 ). Aquila 
is described as a native of Pontus (Ac. 18. 2 ). To 
" sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus," among 
others, St. Peter addressed his first epistle (1 P. i. 1 ). 
How, when, and by whom the Gospel was first in- 
troduced into Pontus is unknown, but the account 
given by Pliny in his letter to Trajan (Ep. 96) shows 
that in his time (a.d. 111-113) Christianity had 
taken a strong hold of the country. Pliny wished to 
know how he was to treat the Christians under his 
jurisdiction, and speaks of men and women of all 
classes, some of whom had been Christians for about 
a quarter of a century. Marcion, the famous here- 
siarch, was a native of Pontus : so also was Aquila, 
who rendered the OT. into Greek (see Ramsay, The 
Church in the Roman Empire, 1966°.). 

POOL. See Pond. 

POOR. In a purely nomadic or agricultural 
community the poor are generally few, and poverty 
does not involve very grievous hardships. But as a 
more complex social life is developed the poor man 
becomes the object of commiseration and humani- 
tarian concern. Prosperity is the blessing promised 
to obedience in OT., and it is clear that on occasions 
men regarded misfortune and poverty as marks of 
Divine displeasure. But it was early recognised that 
living among imperfect men, in a community where 
obedience to the will of God was far fm. reaching 
the ideal, one might be overwhelmed by misfortune 
through no fault of his own. There is therefore no 
incongruity in the phrase " innocent poor," used by 
Jeremiah (2. 34 ). Under these conditions it could 
not be assumed that a man was wicked because he 
was poor. The whole people of Israel belonged to 

1 5 



Pop 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pos 



God. The land and all material blessings were His 
gifts to His people. It could not be right for some 
to absorb these gifts while " God's poor " — His still, 
although in poverty — were left to suffer want. Thus 
a religious value came to be attached to Alms — gifts 
made to the poor for love of God. 

The law is conceived throughout in a spirit of 
kindly consideration for the poor {see Pledge). For 
them were to be left the gleanings of field and 
orchard (Lv. io. 9f - ; Dt. z\P> 21 ). They shared 
the land produce in Sabbatic years (Ex. 23. 11 ; Lv. 
25. 6 ). Usury was forbidden (Lv. 25. 35f -, &c). No 
poor man could be held in perpetual bondage (Dt. 
i5. 12fL , &c). Part of the tithes was appointed to 
the poor (Dt. I4. 28f- , &c). It was their privilege to 
share in the entertainments at the Feast of Weeks 
and at the Feast of Tabernacles (Dt. 16. 11 ' 14 , &c). 
Their patrimony could not be permanently alien- 
ated (Lv. 25. 25ff -). In the administration of justice, 
however, the poor man was to receive no more con- 
sideration than the rich. The law was to run with 
perfect impartiality (Ex. 23. 3 ; Lv. 19. 15 ). 

In NT. the preaching of the Gospel to the poor 
is one of the signs of the Messianic time (Mw. II. 5 , 
&c). The giving of alms to the poor is enjoined 
and commended (Mw. 19. 21 ; Rm. 15. 26 ). There 
is, however, no hint of that glorification of poverty 
which bulked so largely in later days. 

From the Heb. ( ebyon, " poor," came the name 
of the Ebionite sect in the early days of Christianity. 

POPLAR, Heb. libneh, " white tree " (Gn. 30. 37 ), 
is probably the ordinary white poplar, Populus -alba, 
which is a familiar sight by the water-courses, and 
also on higher land in the East. It is often planted 
for shade (Ho. 4. 13 ). Post (HDB. s.v.) would iden- 
tify it with the storax (Arb. lubna), a shrub which 
sometimes reaches a height of 20 feet. 

PORATHA, one of Haman's sons, slain by the 
Jews at Shushan (Est. g. 8 ). 

PORCH. The Heb. ^ulam occurs only in con- 
nection with Solomon's Temple (1 K. 7. 19 , &c), 
Solomon's Palace (1 K. 7. 8 ), and the Temple of 
Ezekiel's vision (4.0. 7f- , &c). The word probably 
denoted a colonnade, which serves as a forecourt or 
entrance-hall. In Jg. 3. 23 the word misderon may 
denote " a verandah." The meaning is doubtful, 
but as a derivation of TlD, " to arrange," as in 
battle order, it suggests a row of pillars supporting 
a roof. In NT. pulon, lit. " gateway," is trd. 
"porch" in Mw. 26. 71 (EV.). Proaulion (Mk. 
14. 68 ) is " forecourt." A stoa, " porch," or " por- 
tico," enclosed the pool of Bethesda (Jn. 5. 2 ). The 
same word is used of Solomon's porch (Jn. io. 23 ; 
Ac. 3. 11 , 5. 12 ), a colonnade carrying a roof which ran 
along the eastern side of the Temple enclosure. 

PORCIUS FESTUS. See Festus. 

PORCUPINE. See Bittern. 

PORT (Ne. 2. 13 ) stands for Heb. sha'ar, which 

61 



in the same verse is translated in the usual way, 
" gate." 

PORTER. In Scripture this word never has 
the mod. significance, " one who carries burdens." 
In every case it denotes either " doorkeeper " or 
"gatekeeper." It occurs often in the books of 
Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, of those to whom 
was entrusted the care of the various gates of the 
Temple. It is also used of those who keep the gates 
of a city (2 S. 18. 26 ; 2 K. 7. 10 . U) and the door of a 
private house (Mk. 13. 34 , &c). This duty might 
be discharged by a woman (Ac. 12. 13 ; cf. Jn. i8. 16f -). 
The " porter " of Jn. io. 3 is the person in charge of 
the fold where the flock have been gathered for the 




Desert Postman 

night. " Doorkeeper " in Ps. 84. 10 is misleading. 
The phrase is lit. " I had rather lie on the threshold." 

POSSESSION. See Diseases and Remedies, 
p. 140. 

POST. (1) Several Heb. words are so trd., all 
meaning " doorpost " (1 K. 6. 33 , RVm. ; Is. 6. 4 ; 
2 Ch. 3. 7 , &c). Meziizdh (Ex. 12. 7 , &c.) was later 
applied to the little tin case nailed to the doorpost, 
containing the words of Dt. 6. 4 " 9 , 1 1. 13 " 21 , written on 
a slip of parchment. Each one who enters touches 
the mezuzab with his fingers and raises them to his 
lips. The doorposts were sprinkled with the blood 
of the paschal lamb (Ex. 12. 7 , &c.). An awl put 
through a servant's ear at the doorpost marked him 
for perpetual service (Ex. 21. 6 ). In the Orient 
sacred ideas have always gathered round the entrance 
to the house (see Threshold). The doorposts of 
the Temple were of native olive wood (1 K. 6. 33 ), 
6 



Pot 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pot 



not of cedar. (2) " Posts " (Heb. ratz'im, 1 S. 22. 17 , 
" guard," RV., or " runners ") were men from 
whom were drawn the king's messengers, who carried 
letters and despatches (2 Ch. 30. 6 ; Est. 8. 10 - 14 , 
RV. ; cp. Xenophon, Chyrop. viii. 6, 17 ; Hero- 
dotus, viii. 98). They had the right to command 
the service of either men or animals in order to 
expedite their progress. They were noted for their 
speed (cp. Jb. g. 25 ) : " My days are swifter than a 
post." Posts still cross the desert on swift drome- 
daries ; but the railways will soon make their 
picturesque figures a thing of the past. 

POT is a general term, like Pan, applied to various 
kinds of vessels. (1) 'Asuk (from the verb suk, " to 
pour in anointing "), a flask for pouring oil (2 K. 
4. 2 ; the text, however, is doubtful). (2) Giblcf. 
" a cup " or " bowl " (Jr. 35. 5 ) used, e.g., of Joseph's 
" cup " (Gn. 44.2, &c). (3) Dud, a small pot for 
cooking purposes (1 S. 2. 14 EV. "kettle," &c). It 
is also a receptacle in which things may be carried, 
e.g. a basket (2 K. io. 7 ; Jr. 2^.. 22 ). (4) Kelt (Lv. 
6. 28 ) is a quite general term, and is best rendered 
here with RV. " vessel." (5) Sir is a large brazen 
pot (see Pan 5). (6) Pdrur^YAN 6. (7) Tzint- 
zeneth, " a jar " (Ex. 16. 33 ). (8) Shephattay'im (Ps. 
68. 13 ) probably means the fireplaces or ash-heaps 
of the villages or encampments. 

In NT. " water-pots " are spoken of at Cana 
of Galilee (Jn. 2. 6f -). They were of stone. These 
large vessels usually contain the water brought in 
smaller jars from well or spring : they are mostly 
of earthenware, and are sunk in the ground for the 
sake of coolness. The " water-pot " of the woman 
of Samaria was doubtless of the ordinary type of 
earthenware (Jn. 4« 28 ). The "pot" which con- 
tained the manna is said to have been of gold (He. 
9 4 ). In Mark 7> 8 the xestes is a wooden vessel, as 
distinguished from those of brass. 

POTIPHAR is described as a "eunuch" of 
Pharaoh (Gn. 37- 36 ). This, however, only means 
that he was a court official. He was captain of 
Pharaoh's bodyguard. The phrase may be read 
" chief of the cooks," or " chief of the slaughterers," 
" an expression which, so far as one can judge from 
Syriac and Arabic as well as Hebrew, can only mean 
slaughterer of cattle. ... So the bodyguard were 
also the royal butchers, an occupation not deemed 
unworthy of warriors in early times " (Robertson 
Smith, OTJC. 1 426). To Potiphar Joseph was sold 
by the merchants. Proving himself faithful, Poti- 
phar made him " overseer over his house." On a 
false accusation brought against Joseph, Potiphar 
cast him into prison, which seems to have been in 
Potiphar's house. Nothing further is known of 
Potiphar. In an Egyptian story entitled The Two 
Brothers, written to amuse Sety I., more than a cen- 
tury after Joseph, there is an incident resembling 
that of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. 

61 



POTIPHERAH, " he whom the Sun-god gave." 
Of this Egyptian name probably Potiphar is a 
Hebrew contraction. Potipherah was the priest, 
probably High Priest, of On (Heliopolis) ; his duties 
doubtless being connected with the celebrated 
Temple of the Sun in that city. His daughter 
Asenath, by Pharaoh's desire, became the wife of 
Joseph (Gn. 41. 45 , &c). 

POTSHERD. &* Potter. 

POTTAGE, a thick broth of vegetables, meat, 
&c, boiled together. The main ingredient is 
usually Lentils (Gn. 25. 29 ; 2 K. 4« 38 ; Hg. 2. 12 ). 
This is a favourite dish among the people of Pales- 
tine ; and the present writer can testify to its ex- 
cellence. A day spent in the open, even if one be 
not engaged in the excitements of hunting, renders 




Ramleh 



the smell of it particularly appetising. The ordi- 
nary method of eating it is to sit round the pot con- 
taining the pottage, with the thin, wafer-Hke bread 
at hand. From this each in turn tears off a part, 
doubles it up, dips it in the pottage, and conveys it 
to the mouth. The red lentil gives a red colour to 
the pottage (cp. Gn. 25. 30 , " Feed me, I pray thee, 
with that same red "). Among the vegetables used 
in thickening it (2 K. 4. 39 ) was one, possibly a sort of 
cucumber, which it was possible to mistake for the 
colocynth found in the lower Jordan valley, which 
when eaten produces violent pains and purgation. 
POTTER (Heb. yotzer). Pottery was well known 
in ancient Egypt (AE. ii. 190'ff.), where Israel may 
have become acquainted with it. During the 
desert wanderings pottery was too brittle to be of 
much service : skins, and vessels of wood and metal, 
would be mainly used. But the potter is early 
found in Palestine (2 S. 17. 28 ). Skins, however, con- 
tinued to be employed for a variety of purposes, 
alongside of earthenware, and to the present day 
they are used largely to contain wine, water, milk, 
clarified butter, &c. ; this especially for safe transit 
on camel- or mule-back (Gn. 21. 14 ; Jg. 4. 19 ; 1 §, 

7 y z 



Pot 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pow 



l6. 20 , &c). In later times the potter is a familiar 
figure (Ps. 2. 9 ; Is. 29. 16 , &c). In the process of 
manufacture the clay was first of all kneaded with 
the feet to the proper consistency ; then it was 
shaped on " the wheel," which consisted of an up- 
right wooden axle, the top end of which projected 
above the work-table. To this was attached a 
wooden disc, on which the clay was placed. A 
larger disc was attached to the end below the table, 
and this the potter turned with his foot. The ves- 
sels thus shaped were heated in an oven (Is. 41. 25 ; 
Jr. 18. 3 ; Sr. 38. 29fl -). Oxide of lead ("silver 
dross ") was used for glazing (Pr. 26. 23 ; Sr. 38. 30 ). 
The gate of Harsith, i.e. " gate of potsherds " (Jr. 
i8. lfL , i9- lf ')j which was evidently marked by a 



ZerHn, on the NW. slope of Gilboa, has been for 
long unanimously accepted as the site of Jezreel. 
Mr. Macalister says that the pottery found there 
proves that the site is not older than Roman times. 
Jezreel must therefore be sought elsewhere (PEFQ. 
1909, July, p. 175). The dispute between Tell 
Hum and Khan Minieb for the honour of repre- 
senting Capernaum, he claimed some time before to 
have settled triumphantly in favour of the former 
(see Capernaum). This sufficiently illustrates the 
value of bits of broken pottery which to the in- 
experienced eye seem absolutely useless. 

POTTER'S FIELD. See Aceldama. 

POUND. See Maneh, Weights and Measures. 

POWER OF THE KEYS, THE. This phrase 




Potters at Work in Ancient Egypt 

a, e, i, h, wheels; 1, inside and lip of cup formed; b, c, d, cups; 2, outside of cup formed — indenting base, to take it off; 3, cup 
taken off; 4, fresh piece of clay put on ; 5, round clay slab formed; 6, oven; g, prepared — flames issue at /, where cups are placed to 
bake; 7, cup handed to baker, 8 ; 9, cups carried away. 



heap of broken pottery, was probably near the 
clay-pits, and may have been a place for the sale 
of pottery. 

God's sovereignty is symbolised by the potter's 
mastery over the clay (Is. 29. 16 ; Rm. 9. 21 , &c). In 
Zc. II. 13 we should probably read with RVm. " into 
the treasury " (el-hcfotzer, Syr.) instead of " unto 
the potter " (el-bay yotzar). 

The pottery discovered by excavation, &c, has 
been carefully classified, and such experts as Flin- 
ders Petrie, Bliss, and Macalister are able by its 
means approximately to date the remains where it 
is found. Interesting discussions of the subject, 
with abundant illustrations, are found in PEFQ. 
(index) ; Petrie's Tell el-Hesy ; Bliss's Mound of 
Many Cities ; PEF. Excavations in Palestine, by 
Bliss, Macalister, and Wunsch. 

Startling applications of the knowledge thus ob- 
tained have recently been made by Mr. Macalister. 

61 



denotes the authority of the Church in matters of 
faith and conduct, which rests upon the words of 
our Lord to St. Peter (Mw. 16. 19 ). The figure im- 
plies that he who has the keys of the house can admit 
or exclude whom he will (Is. 22. 22 ). It does not 
indicate a power personal to St. Peter. An essential 
part of the authority referred to was assigned to the 
Church, the ekklesia, the community of believers 
(Mw. i8. 17f -). So the Fathers understood it. 
Augustine distinctly says that " Christ gave the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven to the Church." It might 
seem at first sight as if the power thus entrusted to 
the Church were greater than any human being, or 
company of human beings, could worthily exercise. 
" Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound 
in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven." And, again, in Jn. 20. 23 , 
" Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven 
unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they 



Pow 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pow 



are retained." What did the terms mean to those 
who first heard them ? 

We have here a reference to the ancient Jewish 
belief that everything done on earth according to 
the order of God was at the same time done in 
heaven. Thus, when, on the Great Day of Atone- 
ment, the priest offered two goats, cast lots to deter- 
mine which should be for Jehovah and which " for 
Azazel," slaughtered that for Jehovah, and sent 
that " for Azazel " into the wilderness, precisely the 
same forms were supposed to be gone through in 
heaven. The like was true in all matters of cere- 
monial purity settled by the priests. The man de- 
clared unclean and banished from society on earth, 
had his sentence of exclusion recorded also in 
heaven. 

In the words "binding" and " loosing," again, we 
have the echo of technical formulas constantly on 
the lips of Jewish rabbis. In their interpretation of 
the sacred law, and its application to conduct, what- 
ever they forbade was said to be " bound " ; what- 
ever they allowed was said to be " loosed." The 
doctors often found themselves in disagreement ; 
and their disputes were nearly always over things 
prohibited or permitted, " bound " or " loosed." 
Thus, as between the great rival schools of Shammai 
and Hillel, it is said, e.g., regarding the moving of 
empty vessels on the Sabbath day, even where there 
is no intention to fill them, " The school of Sham- 
mai binds it ; the school of Hillel looseth it." 
Again, " Rabbi Abha saith, R. Gamaliel Ben Rabbi 
asked me, ' What if I should go into the market ? ' 
and I bound it him." 

Such was the meaning commonly attached to these 
words. It is reasonable, therefore, to argue that 
Jesus intended the men whom he addressed to be 
the authorised exponents of His will. Before long 
we find the apostles acting in this capacity, giving 
decisions of the greatest importance affecting the 
life of the growing Church. From certain require- 
ments of the old law, binding upon Israel, Gentile 
believers were set free. On the other hand, eating 
of things offered to idols, of things strangled, and of 
blood was " bound " or forbidden to them equally 
with those who had been born Jews. The Church 
which preserves purity of faith, which cultivates 
Christ-like character, which is penetrated and con- 
trolled by the spirit of the Master, is always listened 
to with respect and deference when, through her 
properly constituted officers, she indicates what it is 
right and expedient, or otherwise, for Christians to 
do. In the general acceptance of her judgment, 
when she exercises discipline, there is full acknow- 
ledgment of her authority. 

Again, the Church has wielded her power in de- 
termining what is essential to the Christian faith. 
The doctrine of the Trinity, e.g., is nowhere formu- 
lated in Scripture ; only after centuries of contro- 



versy was the Church able to apprehend the truth, 
which was declared in several successive councils. 
In like manner the doctrine of the person of Christ 
is not defined in the New Testament ; but Chris- 
tian intelligence, acting on what was revealed, as in- 
terpreted in the experience of individual Christians, 
enabled the Church, after the prolonged Mono- 
physite and Monothelite controversies, to enunciate 
the doctrine of the Hypostatical Union. It is not 
pretended that her decisions have banished mystery, 
but the general assent of the Christian mind and 
heart sufficiently recognises the wisdom with which 
she has exercised her authority in matters of faith. 

In the light of subsequent experience we may also 
say that certain legislative and executive functions of 
what may be called the communal Christian con- 
science are glanced at in the words of Christ. Two 
illustrations will make this plain. In the days of 
the apostles no one thought it wrong to own slaves. 
With the fuller insight into the mind of Christ 
which the centuries have brought, the communal 
Christian conscience has declared that slavery is an 
outrage. In quite unmistakable language it has 
decreed, " Thou shalt not hold slaves." The law 
receives its sanction in the conviction wrought into 
the thought and feeling of the community, creating 
an atmosphere in which a man would be ashamed 
to be known as a slave-holder. Again, time was 
when persecution for religious opinions was not 
only thought permissible, it was regarded as the 
bounden duty of the civil magistrate to use all the 
power at his command to compel acknowledgment 
of Christian truth. Force was applied to produce 
right views, apparently without any qualms of 
conscience. Let one venture now to adopt this 
method, and be he prince or priest, he will expose 
himself to universal reprobation. The communal 
Christian conscience has spoken. To win adherents 
to any view it will tolerate only presentation of the 
truth, reason, and moral suasion. When the Chris- 
tian consciousness in Church or community thus 
reflects the mind of Christ, its decisions may truly 
be said to be registered in heaven. 

While in the passages cited from Matthew there 
is no explicit mention of power to forgive or retain 
sin, in Jn. 20. 23 Jesus declares that believers possess 
this authority. Again it is nothing personal to 
St. Peter. The words spoken apply equally to all 
members of the fellowship of faith. It is true, in- 
deed, that none can forgive sins but God only. His 
conditions are that a man repent, and trust the Sin- 
bearer. Apart from these conditions no declara- 
tion of man or Church possesses the slightest value. 
But where there is evidence of true penitence and 
faith, those who represent the Christian community 
are entitled, for the relief and comfort of the sinner, 
to declare that God forgives him. 

In point of fact the community in which a man 



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lives does effectively bind his sin upon him, or loose 
him from it, thus darkening his future or opening a 
door of hope. There is something in almost every 
man that tends to realise the expectations formed of 
him. The common judgment of him may be said 
to fix the level to which he may rise or descend. If 
one has gone astray, and men, while not belittling 
his offence, make him feel that they are willing to 
forget it — that they believe in him yet, and hope 
for better things — all that is good in him responds 
to this subtle and gracious appeal ; and it will be 
strange if their hopes are disappointed. He is in 
a true sense " loosed " from his sin. But let men 
refuse forgiveness, keep his sin in remembrance, and 
give him to feel that no good is to be expected from 
him ; the man is apt to be discouraged and driven 
to a deeper fellowship of wrong. His sin is bound 
upon him ; under its influence character is fixed and 
destiny determined. What is loosed or bound on 
earth is loosed or bound in heaven. It is very sig- 
nificant that in Mw. l8. 17 the words occur in the 
midst of a lesson on forgiveness, where, in view of 
the far-reaching effects of judgment once given, 
every resource is to be exhausted, almost indeed to 
the imperilling of self-respect, in the effort to bring 
an offending brother to reason. Only in the very 
last resort is the sentence to be uttered, on which 
such tremendous issues may hang. 

Jesus was not conferring any new power. He 
was simply taking a great fact of life and interpreting 
it. He set its meaning in new and startling light. 
Whatever others might do, His followers must 
henceforth exercise this power with a grave sense of 
responsibility. Any merely sacerdotal interpreta- 
tion of our Lord's words is beside the mark. The 
power He spoke of belongs to no individual and to 
no class. It resides in the democracy of the kingdom 
of God. 

PR^TORIAN GUARD. See following article. 

PR^ETORIUM (Gr. praitorion, Mk. 15. 16 ). The 
word is elsewhere rendered variously " common 
hall," " palace," " judgment hall," " Cesar's court," 
" Pnetorian guard" (Mw. 2J? 1 ; Jn. l8. 28 - 33 , 19. 9 ; 
Ac. 23. 35 ; Php. i. 13 ; cp. AV., RV., and margins). 
Originally the pr^torium was the headquarters in a 
Roman camp, including general's tent, camp-altar, 
&c. The name was then applied to the military 
council which met there. Subsequently it denoted 
the official residence of a praetor governing a province. 
Thus it came to mean any house of more than usual 
size and splendour, especially that occupied by the 
emperor when he was away from Rome. Prseto- 
rium in the NT. denotes the palace which Herod 
the Great built in Jerusalem, probably in the west of 
the city {see Jerusalem), which was occupied by the 
Roman procurators when they visited the city (Jos. 
BJ. II. xiv. 8 ; xv. 5). Only in Php. I. 13 it pro- 
bably means the quarters of the Praetorians, the 



Imperial Guard in Rome. They enjoyed higher 
rank and pay than the legions, and were called on 
for a shorter period of service. They were placed by 
Tiberius in a fortified camp to the NE. of the city. 
They exercised a powerful influence, even making 
and deposing emperors. They were finally broken 
up by Constantine the Great. 

PRAISE has various applications in Scrip. The 
usual but by no means the only words are : OT., 
hdlal and its derivatives ; Hallelujah, " Praise ye 
JAH," and tehillim, " praises " ; NT., epainos, 
" praise," and words derived fm. it. 

I. Praise of Man by Man. — This is sometimes 
discouraged as tending to flattery and undue exalta- 
tion (Jn. 5. 44 , 12. 43 ; Ac. 12. 21 - 23 ), while self-praise 
and self-glorifying are emphatically condemned 
(Pr. 27.2; Dn.4. 30 ^; 2 Cor. 10.18).' By a parable 
Jesus shows that we are not to take credit to our- 
selves even for extra service (Lk. 17. 7 " 10 ). Yet the 
P. of magistrates (Rm. 13. 3 ; 1 P. 2. 14 ) and of good 
men (Pr. 3. 4 - 16 » 35 , 4 # 8 , 31. 28 - 31 ) for well-doing is 
held out as a wholesome stimulus and a laudable obj. 
of ambition ; and Paul readily bestows generous P., 
even directly on those he has reason to commend 
(I Th. I. 3 ; Rm. 16. 1 - 13 ; Php. 4. 14 - 16 ; 2 Tm. I. 16 ' 18 ). 
Scrip, thus teaches the value of generously appre- 
ciating the work and attainments of faithful men. 

II. Praise of Man by God. — Explicitly or im- 
plicitly this is set forth as the great stimulus to a 
godly life (Pr. 3. 4 ; Mw. 25. 21 ' 23 ; Lk. 19. 17 ; Rm. 
2. 7 ' 29 ; 2 Cor. 5. 9 (AV.) ; 1 Cor. 4 . 5 ; 1 Th. 2. 4 ). 
God recognises His faithful servants (Nu. I2. 7f - ; 
2 K. 22. 18ff -),*and Jesus bestows generous P. where 
due (Mw. 15. 28 ; Lk. 7. 9 , 22. 28 ). 

III. Praise of God by His Creatures (see 
Hymn, Music, Psalms, Worship), the chief refce. 
of the word. The P. of God — the setting forth of 
His excellences, the giving thanks to Him by word 
and life — is called for as a fitting employment of all 
His creatures (Dt. io. 21 ; Ps. 33. 1 , 92. 1 , 147. 1 , 148. ; 
Rv. 4. 9 - 11 , 5. 11 ' 14 ). 

(1) History of Praise, (a) In Jewish Worship. 
— At first P. wd. be freer, consisting largely of vin- 
tage and harvest songs (Am. 5. 23 ). The Chronicler 
tells of the organisation of Temple worship under 
David and Solomon (1 Ch. 15. 16 ' 22 , l6. 4 " 36 ' *"*•, 25. ; 
2 Ch. 5. nff- )- The Psalter was the great manual of 
P., at least in the Second Temple (Ez. 3. 10f -). The 
" hymn " of Mw. 26. 30 (Mk. 14. 26 ) was the latter 
part of the " Great Hallel " ( = Praise-song) ap- 
pointed for the Passover, viz. Pss. 115.-118. It is 
not agreed whether or not P. formed part of the 
synagogue worship. We note with interest how 
Jesus welcomed the spontaneous P. of the children 
within the Temple courts (Mw. 2i. 15f - ; Ps. 8. 2 ), as 
well as that of His followers (Lk. io,. 3711 -), to Himself 
as Messiah. Glory is but His due (Jn. 17. 1 ' 5 ). 

(b) In early Christian Worship. — At first of a freer 



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nature, P. ever held a prominent place (Ac. 2. 46f - ; 
I Cor. 14. 26 ; Eph. 5. 19 ; Col. 3. 16 ; Js. 5. 13 ). 1 Tm. 
3. 16 is thought to be the fragment of an early Chris- 
tian hymn, and Pliny the Younger wrote (a.d. 112) 
to the Emperor Trajan that the Christians " sing a 
hymn to Christ as to a God." It is almost certain 
there were other hymns, now lost. 

(2) Materials and Elements of Praise.— Be- 
sides the Psalter a number of special " songs " have 
been preserved, viz. of Moses (Ex. 15. 1 " 21 ; Dt. 
32. 1 - 43 ), of the children of Isr. (Nu. 2i. 17L ), Deborah 
(Jg. 5.), Hannah (1 S. 2. 1 " 10 ), David (2 S. 22., 23. 1 - 7 ; 
cp. Ps. 18. ; 1 Ch. 16. 7 " 36 ; cp. Ps. 96., 105.) ; of 
Mary (Lk. I. 46 ' 55 ), Zacharias (Lk. i. 67 " 79 ), the angels 
(Lk. 2. 13f -), Simeon (Lk. 2. 28 - 32 ) ; and the P. of the 
redeemed in glory, in wh. creation joins (Rv. 4-. 9ff -, 
5 9-u 7- io-i2 ? I5- 3f. ? I9> i-7^ Seealsols. i2.,26.,6o. 18 . 

Chief Elements of Praise, often found together. 
(a) P. for the glory of creation and of God's Being 
and attributes, such as His holiness, righteousness, 
mercy, and faithfulness (2 Ch. 5. 13 ; Ps. 8., 19., 36., 
65., 89., 145. ; Rv. 4. 11 , I5. 3L ). Q>) Thanksgiving 
for temporal mercies, and for deliverances, personal 
and national (Ex. 15. 1 ; I S. 2. 1 " 10 ; 2 S. 22. ; Ps. 
46., 105., 106., 136.). (c) P. for the fulfilment of 
the Messianic promise, and for the great work and 
blessings of redemption (Ps. 72., 98., 103.; Is. 12., 
35.; songs in Lk. 1., 2., lo. 20f - ; Eph. I. 12 ; I P. 
2. 9 ; I Tm. 3. 16 ; Rv. 5. 9 - 14 , 7. 10 - 12 ). 

(3) Acceptable Praise must be (a) with the 
whole heart, with the spt. (1 Ch. i^. 25 " 28 ; p s . 



103 



iff. 



in. 1 ; 1 Cor. 14.15 ; Eph. 5. 19 ; Col. 3. 16 ). 



we can hardly ignore the question, How far is P. a 
really effective force ? In reply, (a) as Science is 
bringing to light the operation of unsuspected forces 
in the physical world, analogy suggests the proba- 
bility of the operation of untraced forces like P. in 
the sptl. region ; (b) the Laws of Nature are part of 
God's will, and indicate certain conditions under 
wh. men should pray : yet events in the material 
order already appointed to happen, wear a new 
aspect when, in answer to prayer, they come as 
gifts of a Father ; (c) P. is the utterance of a uni- 
versal human need, as witnessed by heathenism 
" seeking after the Lord " (Ps. 65? ; Is. 56. 7 ) ; 
(d) the Christian consciousness in all times bears 
testimony to its value and effects ; (e) any doubt 
raised by present-day conditions of thought as to 
how it works need not really undermine the solid 
basis of conviction as to its value if Christian men 
give themselves up to it with steadfast energy (Ac. 



It is the fitting crown of the religious life, including 
family relg. (Ps. Il8. 15 ), and Cowper truly says — 

" A soul redeem'd demands a life of praise." 

(b) With the understanding (Ps. 47. 7 ; 1 Cor. 
14. 15 ), "decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14 40 ). 
For care and skill bestowed on P. see 1 Ch. I5. 16 * 22 , 
16. 4 - 6 ' «"-, 25. ; 2 Ch. 5. llff - ; Ez. 3. 10f - 

(c) It naturally accompanies generous surrender 
and sacrifice (1 Ch. 29. 6 " 22 ; Ps. 96.8 ; Ac. 2. 44 ' 47 ; 
2 Cor. 8. 1 " 5 , 9. 7 - 15 ; He. I3. 15f -). 

(d) It is inspired by God (Ps. 51. 15 , 65. 1 , " Praise 
is silent for Thee "), is honouring to Him (Ps. 50. 23 ), 
and is to be offered through Christ (He. 13. 15 ). 

Lit. : HDB. and DCG. s.v. ; Robertson Smith, 
OTJC, Ij6ft. ; Milman, Hist, of Christianity, iii. 
401 ff. ; other Church Histories ; and works quoted 
under articles referred to. Robert G. Philip. 

PRAYER (Heb. tephillah, Gr. proseuche, and 
various other words), the word used for any address 
of man to God, specially indicates supplication or 
petition, but also includes confession, adoration, 
praise, thanksgiving, and intercession, and often it 
appears as mutual converse between God and man. 

I. General Questions of Prayer. — In view of 
Science and the doubts of professing Christian men, 

621 




Prayer: Adoration (Egyptian) 

i. 14 , 2. lfl -; Eph. 6. 18 ; Col. 4 . 2 ; Js. 5.16); (/) we 
have a perennial proof of its place and power in the 
teaching and example of our Lord. 

II. Examples of Prayer.— (1) InOT. InGn. 
4. 26 occurs the important notice, " Then began men 
to call upon the name of J"." Other expressions 
are " beseech " {e.g. Ex. 32. 11 , lit. " made the face of 
the Lord pleasant," or " sweet "), " entreat " (Ps. 
I19. 58 ), « cry " (Ps. 107. 6 ), " ask " (Ps. 21. 4 ). While 
men prayed chiefly for temporal blessings (Gn. 
28. 20fl - ; 2 K. 20. 2f - ; I Ch. 4. 10 ), the sptl. strain also 
appears, esp. in the Psalms (25., 63., 119.)- The 
individual prays for the nation, the nation prays 
as one man (1 K. i8. 36f - ; Ps. 44. ; Is. 6^-6^ 12 ). 
Some special prayers may be mentioned, e.g. 
David's (1 Ch. 29. 10 - 19 ), Solomon's (1 K. 8. 22ff - ; 
2 Ch. 6. 12ff -), Hezekiah's (2 K. I9. 14ff -), and Manas- 
seh's (2 Ch. 33. 12f< * 18f "). The most notable men of 
P. are Abraham, Jacob (Gn. 32. 24ff - ; Ho. 12. 4 ), 
Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Job, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra, 
and Nehemiah. They are great intercessors (Gn. 
i8. 23ff -; Ex.8. 12 ' 30 , 3 2. llf - 31f -, 34. sf -; 1 S. 7- 5 - 9 , 



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I2. 23 ; I K. I7. 20 S 18. 42 ; Ps. 99 . 6 ; Jr. 15. 1 ), con- 
fessing the sins of the nation as their own (Dn. 9. 3ff - ; 
Ez. 9. 5fl - ; Ne. l. m -), carrying on interviews and 
even arguments with God (Gn. i8. 23ff - ; Ex. 33 ; llfl - ; 
Jb. 10. ; Jr. 14., 15.), pleading with persistent 
appeal, esp. on the plea of God's honour, glory, 
and chosen purpose (Ex. 32. 11 - 13 ; Jr. 14. 7 ' 21 ; 
Dn. 9. 17 ' 19 ). 

(2) In NT. Even Jesus felt the need of solitary 
P. (Mk. i. 35 , 6. 46 ; Lk. 22. 39 ), seven special occasions 
being mentioned only by Luke (3. 21 , 5. 16 , 6. 12 , 
9. 18 « 28f -, 11. 1 , 23. 34 ' 46 ), and He prayed with strong 
emotion (Mk. 7. 34 ; Jn. 12. 27 ; Lk 22.^; He. 5.?). 
He set the example of grace before meat (Mw. 14. 19 , 
and parallels ; Mw. 15. 36 ; Mk. 8. 6 ; Lk. 24. 30 ; 
cp. Ac. 27. 35 , see also Mw. 26. 26f -) : He prayed in 
presence of His disciples (Lk. II. ; Jn. 17. 1 ), and of 
the people (Jn. n. 41 *-, I2. 27L ) ; for His disciples and 
future believers (Jn. I7. 9fl '), for an individual dis- 
ciple (Lk. 22. 32 ), and for His enemies (Lk. 23. 34 ). 
He continues His intercession in heaven (Rm. 8. 34 ; 
He. 7. 25 , 9. 24 ; 1 J. 2. 1 ) : in Jn. i6. 26f - He does not 
deny this heavenly intercession, but points to the 
willingness of the Father Himself. 

The early Christians prayed with great earnest- 
ness and expectancy, and with one accord (Ac. I. 14 , 
2. 1 ' ^ 4. 24ff -, 12. 5 ) ; at times with fasting (Ac. 13. 3 , 
14. 23 ). True prayer marks the dawn of Christian 
faith (Ac. 9. 11 ). Paul continually prays with and 
for his converts (Ac. 20. 36 ; 1 Th. 3. 10ff - ; Rm. I. 9 ; 
Php. I. 4 ' 9 " n ; 2 Tm. I. 3 ), and asks them to pray 
for him (2 Th. 3. lf -; Rm. 15. 30 - 32 ; 2 Cor. I. 11 ; 
Eph. 6. 19 ). 

III. Modes of Prayer : Lines and Conditions 
of Efficacious Prayer. — As to Modes, (a) Scrip, 
sanctions several Postures^ viz. standing, the usual 
one (Gn. 18. 22 ; Mk. II>; Lk. 18. 11 ' 13 ), kneel- 
ing (I K. 8. 54 ; Ps. 95.6 ; Lk. 22. 41 ; Ac. 20. 36 ), 
-prostration (Mw. 26. 39 ; Mk. 14. 35 ; cp. I K. 18. 42 ), 
and (perhaps) sitting (2 S. 7. 18 ). We may notice 
also the uplifted hands (Ex. I7. llf - ; Ps. 141. 2 ), with 
outspread palms, waiting to receive (1 K. 8. 22 ), and 
the uplifted eyes (Ps. 12 1. 1 ; Mw. 14. 19 ). (b) Prob. 
the prayers of the early Church, while largely spon- 
taneous, were also partly liturgical (Ac. 2. 42 , " the 
prayers "), and even at the end of free prayers an 
Amen was uttered by the assembled believers (1 Cor. 
14. 16 ; cp. Ne. 8. 6 ). For doxology at the close of 
prayer see Eph. 3. 20f - ; He. I3. 20f - ; I P. 5. 10f - 

Efficacious Prayer. — (1) The true centre of P. is 
God, and His will, not human need. The three 
most prominent petitions in the Lord's P. are : 
" Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kdm. come, Thy will 
be done in earth as it is in heaven," and this note re- 
appears—" For Thine is the kdm., &c." (Mw. 6. 13 ). 
Cp. the acknowledgment of God's sovereignty and 
glory in OT. prayers. We are to ask in the name 
of Christ (Jn. 16. 26 ) — a new development — i.e. we 



are to make Him our Way of approach to the Father 
by not only asking but also living in accord. with His 
whole spt., the doing of the Father's will (Jn. I4. 13f ", 
15. 7 ' 16 , i6. 23f -; 1 J. 3 . 22 ff-, 5M*.: cp % He io.i 9ff -). 
Subj. to His will we may ask for temporal blessings 
(Mw. 6. 11 , 24. 20 ). Sptl. blessings are accdg. to it 
(Mw. 7. 11 ; Lk. 11.13 ; Ac 8 15 . T Th> 4# 3.. r Tm# 
2. 1 ' 4 ). There are limits to P. (2 Th. 3.2 ; 1 J. 5. 16 ), 
yet the emphasis lies on its unlimited possibilities 
(Mk. 9 . 29 ; Jn. 14. 12 - 14 ). 

(2) A contrite and forgiving spt. — On contrition 
see Ps. 32. ; Zc. I2. 10ff - ; Lk. l8. 9 " 14 . How clearly 
Jesus teaches that God can forgive those only who 
also ask to be delivered from an unforgiving spt. will 
be seen fm. Mw. 6. 12 - 14f -, i8. 21ff - ; Mk. n. 25f - {cp. 

1 Tm. 2. 8 ; Js. 2. 13 ; 1 J. 3. 18 - 23 ). 

(3) Unwavering faith. — Jesus looked for faith in 
those that sought healing (Mw. 9. 28L , 15. 28 . He 
bids us ask as those that expect to receive fm. a loving 
Father (Mw. 7. 7 - 11 ; Lk. n. 9 ' 13 ) ; and in the very 
act of P. believe that we are already receiving (Mk. 
II. 24 ; ^.Jn.ll.4"-; Js. I. 5 ' 7 , 5. 16 - 18 ; 1 K. l8. 42 " 45 ). 

(4) Importunity. — The urgent insistence of many 
OT. prayers is vividly taught by Jesus in the parables 
of the Friend at Midnight (Lk. ii. 5 " 8 ) and the Im- 
portunate Widow (Lk. 18. 1 " 8 ). We are to take no re- 
fusal, and the very delay shd. quicken urgency. P. 
may be repeated for urgency (Mw. 26. 44 ), but mere 
repetition as a charm is of no value (Mw. 6. 7f -; 
cp. 1 Th. 5. 17 ; Eph. 6. 18 ). 

(5) Thanksgiving. — The Psalms show that P. and 
praise are near of kin. In praying for his converts 
Paul gives thanks for their past progress (1 Th. I. 2ff - ; 
Php. i. 3fL ), &c. He gave thanks even in a night of 
trial (Ac. 16. 25 ), and by direct precept he calls for 
thanksgiving (1 Th. 5. 18 ; Php. 4 . 6 ; Eph. 5. 20 ; Col. 
3. 17 ). The P. of thanksgiving sanctifies God's gifts 
(1 Tm. 4 .«•)- 

(6) Intercession is the privilege of all believers. 
The keynote is in the opening petitions and the 
doxology of the Lord's P. We have the example of 
our Lord (Jn. 17. ; Lk. 23. 34 ), Stephen (Ac. 7. 60 ), 
Paul (Eph. 3. 14ff -, &c), and the early Church (Ac. 
4. 24 " 30 , 12. 5 ) ; also the centurion (Lk. J. m -), and 
others. Christians are to pray for their ministers 
(2 Cor. I. 11 ; Eph. 6. 19f -; He. i 3 . 18f -), for one 
another (Eph. 6. 18 ; Js. 5. 16 ), for the increase of 
preachers, and the work of the Gospel (Mw. 9. 37f - ; 

2 Th. 3. lf - ; Rm. I5. 30fl -), for those in power, and for 
all men (1 Tm. 2. 1 " 4 ), including enemies (Mw. S^')- 

(7) Praying in the Spt. — Cp. (1). It is by being 
in the Spt. that P. is poss. and effectual (Eph. 6. 18 ; 
Ju. 20 ). He helps our infirmities, interprets to us our 
own needs, and even intercedes for us (Rm. 8. 26L ). 

(8) Social prayer. — Jesus regards the place of 
worship as a "house of prayer" (Mk. II. 17 ), and 
attaches special promises to agreement and associa- 
tion in P. (Mw. i8. 18f -). These are also suggested 



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by the " us " and " our " of the Lord's P., and ex- 
amples are furnished fm. the early Church (Ac. I. 14 , 
2. m ; 4. 24 - 30 ). When " the Spt. is poured out," this 
form of P. enters upon a fresh life, and, as in Scrip., 
P. knows no stint. See Lord's Prayer, Worship. 

Lit. : HDB. and DCG. s.v. ; Cambridge Theo- 
logical Essays, vii. ; Clarke, Outline of Christian 
Theology (Index) ; McFadyen, Prayers of the Bible ; 
Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer ; Mon- 
rad, World of Prayer. Robert G. Philip. 

PREACH, PREACHING. The Heb. words are : 
(i) Bdsar, " to bear tidings " (Ps. 40. 9 ; Is. 61. 1 ). 
It may mean to gladden with good tidings as of 
victory (1 S. 31. 9 ; 2 S. I. 20 , &c.) or of the birth of a 
son (Jr. 20. 15 ), or simply to bear tidings which may 
be evil (1 S. 4. 17 ). It also means to herald or pro- 
claim (Is. 40. 9 , &c). (2) Odrd, " to call," " pro- 
claim," " read " (Ne. 6. 7 ; Jh. 3. 2 ). This word is of 
very frequent occurrence in Scripture. The essen- 
tial idea is that of crying or speaking out ; so that it 
passes easily and naturally to mean announcement 
or proclamation (see Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v.). The NT. 
words are : (1) Diaggello, " to announce fully " (Lk. 
9. 60 ) ; (2) dialegomai, " to converse " (Ac. 20. 7 * 9 ) ; 

(3) euaggelizo, " to tell good news " (Lk. 3. 18 , &c.) ; 

(4) kataggello, " to announce " (Ac. 4- 2 , &c.) ; 

(5) kerusso, " to proclaim as a herald " (Mw. 3. 1 , 
&c.) ; (6) laleo, " to talk " (Mk. 2. 2 , &c). The 
element common to all is that of vivd voce procla- 
mation of a message. The character of preacher, 
therefore, attaches to the OT. prophets, whose 
oracles were probably all spoken before they were 
committed to writing. This is specially true of 
Jonah, who went as a missionary to preach righteous- 
ness to Nineveh. In the NT. John the Baptist is 
essentially a preacher. It was his business to an- 
nounce the coming of Him who was to fulfil the 
long hope of Israel ; and to summon men to repent- 
ance. The preaching of Jesus and His followers is 
quite clearly distinguished from their teaching or 
instruction. By preaching the coming of the king- 
dom was announced, and the good news of the 
Gospel made known. Men were summoned to 
realise the prevalence of sin and the inevitable con- 
sequences if it were persisted in. The necessity for 
penitence was proclaimed, and the way declared by 
which the sinner might enter the kingdom of God. 
It aimed at conversion, while teaching contem- 
plated the " edification of the body of Christ." 

In early times there is no mention of preaching in 
connection with public worship ; but in the days of 
Jesus it seems to have become a regular part of the 
service of the Synagogue. Jesus thus found oppor- 
tunity to preach the great sermon delivered in the 
Synagogue at Nazareth (Lk. 4. 16ff -). Other sermons 
of Jesus are summarised elsewhere, e.g. in Jn. 6. 26ff -, 
&c. Examples of apostolic preaching are also pre- 
served in the report of Peter's sermon on the Day of 



Pentecost (Ac. 2. 14fL ), that of Paul on Mars' Hill (Ac. 
17. 22 , &c). These two illustrate the adaptation of 
the message to the character of the audience ad- 
dressed. 

The worship of the Church was in the beginning 
modelled on that of the synagogue. Preaching 
therefore took its place at once as part of the settled 
order. It was specially the function of the Pro- 
phet, the apostles of course combining this with 
other functions. 

The proclamation of the Gospel remains for 
ever the chief element of preaching. But in an 
organised Christian community, for the perfecting 
of the saints, the exposition of the truth, and the 
illustration of its bearing on character and conduct, 
became increasingly important. 

PREPARATION (Gr. paraskeue). On the day 
before the Sabbath, and that before the Passover 
or other sacred feast, it was the duty of the Jews to 
do everything in their power to obviate the neces- 
sity for work of any kind on the sacred day. Thus, 
before the Sabbath begins on the Friday evening, 
the food that will be required on the Sabbath is 
cooked, the instruments of ordinary work are laid 
aside, lamps are trimmed and lit, &c. The day on 
which these things were done came to be known 
among the Jews as " the preparation." 

PRESBYTER, PRESBYTERY. The presbyter 
was the Elder or Bishop. The presbytery (1 Tm. 
4. 14 ) was a gathering of the elders, not to be con- 
fused with what is called the " Presbytery " in any 
of our modern churches. 

PRESENTS. See Gifts. 

PRESIDENT (Aram, sdrak, "overseer," or 
" head "). The word occurs (in the plural) only 
in Dn. 6., and is of doubtful etymology. 

PRESS. See Olive, and Wine. 

PRIEST. See Levi. 

PRINCE. This term represents fourteen He- 
brew and two Aramaic words in the OT., and three 
Gr. words in the NT. Of the two Aramaic words, 
one, ahashdarpenaiya (Dn. 3. 2 , 6. 1 ), is better ren- 
dered Satrap as in RV. ; the other, rabrebdn (Dn. 
5. 2 ), is trd. by RV. " nobles," and seems equivalent 
to rabbuti of the monuments. Three of the Heb. 
words are loan words : rab, of members of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's court (Jr. 39. 13 , 41. 1 ) ; sdgdn (Is. 41. 25 ), 
usually tr. " ruler " (Jr. 51. 23 ; Ek. 23.6 ; Ne. 2. 16 ), 
always of foreign, Bab., Asyr., and Persian officials = 
signin (Dn. 2. 48 ), "governors"; partemlm (Dan. I. 3 ), 
trd. " nobles," RV. In the case of kohen (priest) 
it is trd. P. in Jb. 12. 19 , and in 2 S. 8. 18 , " chief 
rulers " ; RV. trs. in both cases " priests." Several 
of the words are poetical : hashmannlm, rdzan, nadib, 
qdtzin, shdlish, and ndsik, only occur in the poetical 
books and the prophets. Another word, ndgid, 
contains the idea of sovereign as well as prince. 
Two of the words have a more technical use : ndsl\ 



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Used of the heads of tribes (Gn. 17. 20 ; Nu. I. 16 ; their lives for the safe keeping of the prisoners en- 
Jo. 9. 15 ; I Ch. 2. 10 ; Ek. 32. 29 ). The vast majority trusted to their charge (v. 19). Frequently the 
of those who formed any given tribe were descen- prisoner was chained to two soldiers, one on each 
dants, not of the sons of Jacob, but of their slaves ;• side, 
only the princely families cd. claim Jacob as their PRIZE. See Games. 

ancestor. After the times of the Judges these PROCHORUS, one of the seven chosen to attend 
princes of the tribes disappear fm. history. The to the " distribution " (Ac. 6. 5 ). Nothing further 
name was revived in the Talmud to denote the is known of him with certainty. Later traditions 
alleged academic president of the Sanhedrin. The make him a companion of the apostle John, and 
other, sar, means " high noble," as distinct fm. the bishop of Nicomedia, to which bishopric he was 
king. Singularly enough, it is the word used for consecrated by St. Peter. He is said to have been 
king in Asyr. under the form sarru. Presumably martyred in Antioch or Jerusalem (Lipsius, Apokr. 
these Jewish princes were heads of great clans, and ap.-gesch. i. 355ff. ; Magna Bibliotheka Patrum, i. 
cd. bring numerous warriors into the field. To- 49ff.). 

wards the end of the Southern Kingdom the princes PROCONSUL, from the Lat. pro consule, " de- 
became very prominent, and so powerful as to be puty consul," was the name applied in Rome to the 
able to overrule the king (Jr. 37. 15 ). They appear officer to whom the insignia and powers of consul 
to have formed a senate with whom the king con- were entrusted for a specified district outside the 
suited (Jr. 36. 21 , 38. 4 ). city. As governors of the Provinces, with the 

PRISCA. See Aquila and Priscilla. growth of the empire, officers of consular or 

PRISON. While imprisonment was not a praetorian rank were chosen. From the time of 
penalty prescribed by law, it was a practice from Augustus, the title denoted the governor of a sena- 
torial province. In NT. proconsuls (AV. deputies) 
appear, atPaphos in the island of Cyprus (Ac. 13. 7 , 
&c.) and at Corinth (Ac. 18. 12 ). 

PROCURATOR under the Republic in Rome 
" meant the fully accredited agent of a private 
citizen." Under the empire the title was given to 
the stewards of the emperor, and to those who at- 
tended to his financial interests in the provinces. 
Certain regions " before they were administered 
as actual provinces, were governed as domains by 
an administrator appointed by the emperor, and 
early times to place men in confinement for various personally responsible to him. He also was styled 
reasons {see Crimes and Penalties, Imprisonment), procurator, and in general had a position similar to 
The penalty was common in Egypt (Gn. 39. 20L ), that of the other governors " (Seyffert, Diet, of Clas. 
and, in later times, also in Israel (Jr. 32. 2f - ; Mw. Ant., 519). Judaea was thus governed for a time. 
5. 25 , &c). Beth has-sohar of Gn. 39. 20 , &c, may be The procurators who appear in NT. are Pontius 
" round tower," or " enclosure." The Philistines Pilate, Felix, and Festus. 

had a place called beth ha-asunm (Qri), " house of PROFANE applies to what is without the 
those who are bound " (Jg. 16. 21 ; cp. Jr. 37. 15 , beth Temple precinct, and open to the approach of all. 
ha J esur), in which prisoners were kept at work. A profane person (He. 12. 16 ) may be described as 
A common name for prison is beth keW, " house one whose mind and heart are thoroughfares for 
of restraint " (1 K. 22. 27 ; Jr. 37*, &c). Ham- wandering thoughts and passions — not sanctuaries. 
mahpeketh is " the stocks " (Jr. 20. 2f -, 29. 26 ) ; mat- PROPHET, PROPHECY. As religion is the 
tar ah, " place of guarding " (Jr. 32. 2 ; Ne. 3. 25 , &c). binding together of God and man, there must not 
Other Heb. words signify a place of safe keeping or only be the approach of man to God in adoration 
of supervision. The usual NT. word is phulake and worship, but also the approach of God to man,. 
(Mw. 5- 25 ; Mk. 6. 17 ; Lk. 23. 19 , &c). Desmoterion making known His will. Hence in all primitive 
also occurs (Mw. II. 2 ; Ac. 5. 21 ' 23 , i6. 26 = phulake). religions there were always in some form or other 
In the East, to-day, friends of the prisoners are priests and prophets. As the Priest was man's 
allowed to visit them freely, and are expected to ambassador to God, presenting to God his offerings 
provide them with food, &c. This appears to and directing him as to his prayers, so the prophet 
correspond with ancient practice (Mw. II. 2 , 25. 36 , was the mouthpiece of God, His ambassador to man, 
&c). The " inner prison " (Ac. 16. 24 ) was probably informing him what the Divine will was in cases not 
a cell under the ordinary place of confinement, met by the morality of custom. Some wd. begin 
For greater security a guard was set before the the study of prophecy with the incantations, augury, 
prison doors (Ac. 12. 6 ), who were answerable with sortilege, &c, of heathen nations, and starting fm. 

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these wd. trace the evolution of prophecy proper, the prophecy of Isaiah is called " The vision of 

This assumes without proof that the rites by wh. Isaiah " (Is. I. 1 ), but also that Jeremiah and Ezekiel 

mankind endeavoured to divine the intentions of describe pictures presented to their imagination 

Deity were primitive, and not the result of degene- (Jr. 24.2 ; Ek. 8. 2 ). The attitude of the different 

ration. Fm. Nu. 24. 1 we learn that Balaam, in prophets to the revelation given is marked. Isaiah 

ordinary circumstances, used enchantments as in- does not describe what he sees, but rather gives a 

troduction to his spoken prophecy. Balaam, as lyric accompaniment to the pictures as they rise 

beyond the pale of Isr., was within the sphere of before his inner eye ; his audience are left to guess 

that degeneration wh. Paul saw working in the what he is seeing. Jeremiah thinks more in words 

splendid heathendoms of Greece and Rome. Our than pictures, so the Divine message comes to him 

object is to study the prophet in the OT. in the in words ; when he has a vision, it is symbolical, and 

first instance, with the continuance of the office the voice of the Lord is given to interpret. Ezekiel's 

in the NT. prophecy is essentially written, and his visions are 

The Terms used to designate the P. — There described more fully and interpreted at greater 

are three Heb. words for P. : nabi\ wh. is derived length. Of Balaam (Nu. 2\?) it is related how he 



by Gesenius fm. a root " to boil, to bubble up," wh. 
wd. represent the P. as a " God-intoxicated man " ; 



fell " into a trance having his eyes open," when he 
saw the vision of God ; thus the external pheno- 



there is, however, in Asyr., the root nabu, " to mena of prophecy simulated catalepsy. Another 
speak to," " name," whence the god Nebo is called external resemblance to be noted is between pro- 
the P. of the gods." This wd. imply the P. to be phecy and madness ; when the prophet was sent by 



the speaker of divine oracles. Fm. I S. g. 9 we learn 
that there was an earlier name for a P., ro'ek, " seer," 
fm. rSabi " to see " ; fm. this we have mar'db, " an 
appearance " ; akin to this is hozeh, fm. kdzdh, " to 
see " (EV. tr. " seer ") ; fm. this comes kdzon, 



Elisha to anoint Jehu his brother-officers speak of 
him as a " mad fellow," meshugga'' (2 K. 9. 11 ) ; 
Shemaiah (Jr. 2C;. 26 ) declares " every man that is 
mad maketh himself a P." ; when Saul in his de- 
lirium is raving in his house, it is said he " pro- 



" vision." What the precise distinction between phesied." A peculiarity wh. is found accompanying 
these two words was it is impossible to decide, prophecy is the influence of music ; Saul is told by 
Samuel is called "seer "only in the first of these terms. Samuel that he will meet a company of prophets 
Another title given to the P. is " Man of God," as with " a psaltery and a tabret, and a pipe and a 
the P. fm. Judah that came to denounce Jeroboam harp " (1 S. io. 5 ) ; when Elisha in the camp of Isr. 
(1 K. I3- If ') ; this expressed the relation in wh. the and Judah is entreated on account of the army 
P. stood to God. The Gr. term wh. we find in the ready to perish with thirst when advancing agst. 
NT. is prophetes, fm. wh. our English word is de- Moab, he calls for a minstrel to play before him (2 K. 
rived ; it has a double reference, at once " pre- 3. 15 ; cp. the influence of music over Saul, 1 S. 16. 16 ). 
dieter " and " forth-speaker," the foreteller of the There was a physical condition induced by the 
future and the declarer of the will of the gods. Fm. sound of music wh. was somehow suitable to re- 
all this it wd. seem that to the primary idea of P. ceive the prophetic revelation. Combining all the 
prediction was subsidiary. The primary thing was notices we have, the phenomena of prophecy ap- 
to stand in a close relation to ]' '., so as to be able to pear to have been an overpowering sense of Divine 
declare His will. The earliest occurrences of the influence, the full meaning of wh. did not reveal 
word bear this out ; Abimelech is told to ask itself at once ; it mt. be days before its meaning was 
Abraham to entreat God for him, " for he is a unveiled ; during this time the P. was " searching 
prophet " ; when Moses hesitates to go back to what and what manner of time the Spirit wh. was in 
Egp. to plead with Pharaoh because of his slowness them did signify " (i P. I. 11 ). When the Divine 
of speech, he has his br. Aaron given to him as his message came to be expressed in words, these would 
" prophet." At the same time the fulfilment or be conditioned by the kge. of the person to whom 
non-fulfilment of his predictions was to be the test the revelation had been made, and his intellectual 
whether the man who claimed to be a prophet was apprehension. Of necessity many of the revela- 
so or not. tions wd. concern the future, whether absolute or 
The Psychology of Prophecy. — We mean by conditional. This mt. take the form of picture or 
this the mental process associated with the gift of P. it mt. crystallise in some sharp sentence, but more 
That it was associated with the presentation of generally the former ; it wd. be a quite indepen- 
vivid pictures to the mind follows not only fm. . dent mental act to discern the precise nature of the 
prophets being called " seers," but also fm. the dis- event foretold, or the exact order in wh. its various 
tinct statement of Nu. 12. 6 : " If there be any P. parts succeeded each other. Here the P. mt. be 
among you, I the Lord will make Myself known at sea, and end in coming to a wrong conclusion. 
unto him by a vision, and will speak unto him in a When the P. found expression his words wd. not be 
dream." There is further not only the fact that a dry, cold record of the vision, but wd. be all aglow 

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with feeling, and drop naturally into the cadence of 
verse. Prophetic inspiration had thus a resem- 
blance, if only superficial, to that of the poet ; 
hence the apostle Paul calls Epimenides the Cretan 
a prophet. 

The Prophetic Order.— While fm. a very early 
period there were prophets, the prophetic order did 
not become a recognised power in Church and State 
till the days of Samuel and thereafter. Samuel 
chose Saul for king before the lot had designated 
him ; when he failed to come up to the prophetic 
standard, he anointed David his successor. The 
formation of the Northern Kingdom, and the 
numerous changes of dynasty that took place in 
it, all are connected with prophetic interference. 
Such influence implies an order of persons acting 
together. In the books of the literary prophets we 
find many more evidences of the P. being a recog- 
nised figure in the constitution of Isr. and Judah ; 
especially by Jeremiah are the prophets denounced 
as a class parallel with that of the priests, and assist- 
ing them in lulling the people into a false security. 
Connected with Samuel and Saul we find repeated 
references to prophets as a class, travelling in com- 
panies, dwelling together in the " booths " (Naioth) 
at Ramah, regarded as a set of persons with whom 
it was astonishing that Saul shd. associate himself. 
We meet prophetic communities again in connec- 
tion with Elijah and Elisha. There seems to have 
been a distinctive dress wh. denoted the P. much as 
the monks are still distinguished in Roman Catholic 
countries. A hairy mantle seems to have been their 
distinctive mark ; the false prophets wore " a rough 
garment to deceive " (Zc. 13. 4 ) ; some other token 
they appear to have had, for when the P. sent to re- 
buke Ahab for his unseasonable clemency to Ben- 
hadad removed the bandage (AV. " ashes," RV. 
" headband ") fm. his face (Heb. " eyes "), the king 
recognised him as one of the prophets. Some have 
thought a mark was tattooed on their forehead 
between their eyes ; but such a practice seems to be 
forbidden in Lv. 19. 28 ; as, however, it is placed in 
connection with " cuttings for the dead," the for- 
bidding may be simply as part of the obsequies. 
Others have thought of a tonsure : of this there is no 
sign in Scripture. Had we any suggestion of it in 
Scrip., we mt. think the prophets had something 
like the side locks wh. mark off the pious Jew of the 
present time. Members of the order were called 
" sons of the prophets," a designation wh. suggests 
" pupils." The scene in Naioth in Rama (1 S. 
19. 20 ), " the company of the prophets prophesying 
and Samuel standing as appointed over them," sug- 
gests a school. To imagine that prophecy may be 
taught seems to contradict the very idea of the thing 
itself. As, however, there were physical and men- 
tal conditions wh. were more fitting for receiving 
the Divine afflatus, the sons of the prophets might be 



taught to induce the one and acquire the other. 
Mental training wd. be necessary to discriminate 
rightly " what the Spirit did signify." They might 
for this end be taught the prophecies of earlier seers. 
The prophets were the principal historians, as we 
may learn fm. the bk. of Chronicles ; all the autho- 
rities it appeals to are prophetic. To the P. the 
history of Isr. was a record of J'Vs dealings with that 
people. Hence writing, poss. in cuneiform, wd. 
not unlikely be one of the subjects of instruction. 
Not improb. our present books of Samuel and Kings 
were compiled piecemeal in the schools of the 
prophets ; a new record added with each reign, and 
the whole preserved. The prophetic communities 
were not monasteries but villages, the dwellings 
poss. not unlike the wattled booths in wh. the Arabs 
sometimes stay. They married and had families 
(2 K. 4. 1 " 7 ). They seem to have lived to some ex- 
tent fm. gifts (2 K. 4. 42-44 ) ; sometimes they appear 
to have been reduced to considerable straits, so as 
to depend for food on the wild herbs wh. mt. be 
gathered (2 K. 4. 38 " 41 ) ; they seem to have partaken 
of a common meal. 

The Function of the P. — The Divine purpose in 
regard to Isr. was that in that people shd. be pre- 
served all that was good in the primitive religious 
thoughts of mankind. Sacrifice, priesthood, ritual 
of worship, were all elements of religion that pointed 
to the future, and therefore such as it was needful to 
preserve. They were, however, apt to degenerate 
into mere superstition. When the one God was 
split up into gods the idea was prone to rise in the 
mind of the worshipper that by multiplying his 
offerings he mt. bribe the deity to overlook moral 
delinquency (so Adeimantus in Plato's Republic, 
ii. 366) ; such a view wd. be the ruin of real spiritu- 
ality. To keep at all events Isr. free fm. this, God 
inspired the P. The message of every P. was that 
offerings, however costly, were of no avail to secure 
the favour of J"., the God of Isr. When Saul 
returned fm. his campaign agst. the Amalekites, 
having, instead of obeying the command of God, 
brought back of the cattle the best for sacrifice, 
Samuel told him that " to obey was better than 
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams " (1 S. 
15. 22 ). Though David is abundant in his sacrifices, 
and has been purposing to build a temple to J"., 
Nathan rebukes him for his sin in the matter of 
Uriah the Hittite (2 S. I2. 1 ' 13 ). So Elijah does not 
rebuke Ahab so fiercely for his worship of Baal as for 
taking the vineyard of Naboth, whom Jezebel his 
wife had caused to be judicially murdered. When 
we come to the literary prophets we find this made 
even more prominent. Isaiah demands : " To what 
purpose are your sacrifices to Me ? . . . your hands 
are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean ; put 
away the evil of your doings fm. before Mine eyes ; 
cease to do evil, learn to do well " (Is. I. 11, 16, 17 ). 



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Every one of the prophets bears the same testimony 
to the worthlessness of sacrifice without righteous- 
ness. At the same time Amos denounces the wor- 
ship at Bethel and Gilgal. Another side of the 
religious function of the P. is shown to us by the 
incident of the Shunamite woman. Her request 
for means " to run to the. man of God " is met by 
the question, " Wherefore to-day ? it is neither new 
moon nor Sabbath," implying a custom, on the part 
of religious people, of visiting the prophet weekly ; 
a practice that wd. imply something not unlike the 
later synagogue service. But one other aspect of 
prophetic activity must be noticed cursorily. While 
on one side nothing was so fitted to exalt Jewish 
national pride as the Messianic hope, the kge. that, 
as characteristic of that time, the " people wd. be 
all righteous," wd. be fitted to deepen the spiritu- 
ality of those who " waited for the consolation of 
Isr." ; the coming of that glorious time was con- 
ditioned by the moral purity of the people. 

The False Prophets. — As there were false gods 
so there were false prophets of these divinities ; 
thus at Carmel there were 450 men who were 
prophets of Baal. These, however, do not present 
the features of difficulty wh. the false prophets do 
who professed to speak in the name of \ ' . There 
was the old P. of Bethel who seduced the P. of Judah 
to his death ; there are the 400 prophets who per- 
suaded Ahab to go up to Ramoth-Gilead and perish. 
Later, in the days of Jeremiah, we have, among 
others, Hananiah, who spoke in the name of the 
Lord, yet falsely ; God " did not send them yet 
they ran." We may not assume conscious impos- 
ture ; in the case of Hananiah he gave himself only 
" two full years " ere the falsity of his prediction wd. 
be manifest. The fact that there were physical 
concomitants to the presence of the Divine influ- 
ence ; the further fact that, as is implied in the 
schools of the prophets, susceptibility to this cd. be 
increased if not induced ; all rendered poss. an un- 
conscious or a semi-conscious simulation. Recalling 
what they had heard of the symptoms of Divine 
possession, they wd. cause their imagination to 
dwell on them till they seemed actually present to 
their experience. Thoughts rise in the mind con- 
ditioned by the predominant wish of the time ; 
their education has given them the power to express 
these thoughts in customary prophetic cadence. 
In confirmation of this it is to be observed that the 
false prophets seem to have belonged to the regular 
prophetic guild, who wd. have the kge. needful for 
this simulation : further, they were addicted to 
prophesy " smooth things " (Is. 30. 10 ) ; i.e. declare 
things their audience desired to be true. Their 
messages wd. be applauded and themselves com- 
mended, hence the woe our Lord pronounces on 
those of whom all men speak well, " for so did their 
fathers to the false prophets." All the while they 



claim to be speaking in the name of the Lord, and 
prob. were to some extent themselves deceived. 
How cd. the ordinary Israelite distinguish the 
true fm. the false ? Fm. Dt. 18. 22 the test is : 
" If the thing follow not nor come to pass, that 
is the thing wh. the Lord hath not spoken." 

Prediction. — When the P. was denunciatory, 
there was behind the denunciation a prophecy of 
doom ; the moral and the predictive blended into 
each other. As we have seen above, the failure or 
the fulfilment of a prediction was the test of the 
prophet's mission. So we find Micaiah (1 K. 22. 28 ) 
admitting this test : " If thou return at all in peace, 
the Lord hath not spoken by me." While predic- 
tion was thus a test of prophecy — the evidence that 
the moral truths the P. proclaimed were fm. God — 
such a function wd. only be a limited one ; the ful- 
filment must be soon enough to be within the poss. 
experience of his immediate audience. This, how- 
ever, was not the opinion of the prophet's audience 
— they tended to put the message away fm. them : 
" The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, 
he prophesieth of times that are far off " (Ek. 12. 27 ). 
When we consider the subject of most of the pro- 
phetic predictions this view is confirmed. These 
are mainly of two kinds : (1) Denunciatory, pro- 
claiming the fall of kingdoms, mainly those of Judah 
and Israel. Amos denounced the fall of Israel in 
the splendid days of Jeroboam II. ; when God had 
delivered Jrs. and destroyed the host of Senna- 
cherib, then it was that Isaiah declared that the 
seed of Hezekiah wd. be carried captive to Bab. If 
Is. 13. and 14. are authentic, before Bab. had at- 
tained an independent imperial power its overthrow 
was foreseen ; an event nearly two centuries off is 
described and exulted over. Fm. denunciatory 
prophecy it is imposs. to deduce that only what was 
of interest to his immediate audience was foretold 
by the P. In Is. 8. the P. was to engrave on a large 
tablet the name of his yet unborn son, Maher- 
sbalal-bash-baz, and took witnesses in order that the 
date of the writing mt. be indisputable ; so that 
when destruction befell Rezin of Damascus and 
Pekah, the s. of Remaliah, there mt. be no poss. con- 
troversy as to the priority of the prophecy. Then 
there were (2) comforting promises of the Restora- 
tion fm. the Babylonian Captivity, and the times of 
the Messiah; behind that, and mingling with it, at 
all events in Daniel, is the Last Judgment. The 
second of these we shall consider separately, and the 
last belongs to Eschatology. As to the Restoration, 
Jeremiah predicted the empire of Babylon and its 
overthrow when Nebuchadnezzar had only won his 
first battle ; this prediction is all the more telling 
that the period is fixed as seventy years. The pro- 
bability was that very few, if any, of his auditors wd. 
live to the completion of this period ; their interest 
in the overthrow of an empire not yet arrived must 



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have been slight ; it found its raison d'etre in the 
Captivity, when Daniel studied the letter of Jere- 
miah. When we turn to I P. 1 . 12 we find that the 
apostle Peter, an inspired man, living while prophecy 



Jerome renders " Bosporus. " In this textual confusion no 
deduction can be drawn ; the frequent captivities of numbers 
of the Jews make it impossible to suggest any prop, emen- 
dation of text. 

Next we have Amos and Hosea : both end with a 



was an actual phenomenon, thinks that the prophets time of happiness and restored prosperity to Israel, 
did not speak for their own time, and knew it was so. In the prophets of the Southern Kdm., Isaiah and 
Their predictions were often ideal and symbolical Micah, we have the same characteristic. The 
reconstructions that did not expect ever to be splendid description of the return of the captives in 
realised, as Ezekiel dreaming over a redistribution of Is. 35., the authenticity of wh. is not impugned, is a 
the land of Isr. under a restored prince of the house striking example of the outlook to a future of glory. 
of David, and a ritual of worship in a glorified In Micah we see it also present, but less definitely 
Temple, with a mighty river taking its rise fm. so. If we may date the 2nd Zechariah in this 
.the threshold of the sanctuary and sweetening the period (and there seems much to justify this), we 
waters of the Salt Sea. These were parables, and find the same thing. In all these instances a time of 
suggested a spiritual fulfilment, not a fulfilment in humiliation is presupposed to separate the date of 
the prose of actual fact. the prophecy fm. the vision of brightness. Nahum's 

Literary Prophecy. — We have seen it to be denunciation of Nineveh burns with unabated 
prob. that in the schools of the prophets the aspir- fierceness to the end ; only a single sentence — half 
ants to the prophet's office got a certain amount of of wh. appears elsewhere — lightens the gloom of his 
culture wh. may be called literary; and that per- denunciations (Na. I. 15 ; cp. Is. 52. 7 ). Habakkuk's 
haps they recorded the hist, of Isr. fm. the spiritual Psalm ends not in glory but submission. Of the 
and prophetic side. Meanwhile prophecy, strictly prophets of the Babylonian period Jeremiah is 
speaking, was not generally written, but merely was the exception to this ; and this is more apparent 
spoken, or perhaps rather chanted. Many of the than real, for the destruction of Bab. is really the 
prophets, as Elijah and Elisha, exercised their guarantee of the restoration of Judah. The pro- 
office more by deeds than words. When they phets of the Restoration manifest the same pheno- 
spoke they gave utterance to no elaborate discourse, menon. We may then look on the " comfortable 
but spoke a few sharp sentences of rebuke, warning, close " as a received law of prophetic composition, 
or denunciation. By-and-by, as the outlook of It wd. seem that in general the P. published the 
prophecy became more extended, the necessity of Divine message orally in the first instance, and then 
giving it a permanent form arose into prominence, wrote down what he had been inspired to say. This 
When prediction and fulfilment were separated by necessitated that the prophecies shd. be published 
a considerable interval of time, it was needful, if it as literary productions, piecemeal, in small tracts 
were to have any evidential force, that the predic- each consisting of one vision or burden ; these were 
tion be recorded when it was delivered. Thus, then combined in a book. Sometimes it wd. seem 
when, in prediction of the overthrow of Pekah and that several short books were issued, each containing 
Rezin, Isaiah named his s. Maher-shalal-hash-baz a number of prophecies. A good example of this is 
before his birth, the child's name was written on Isaiah; after the general introduction (chap. 1.) we 



a tablet in the presence of witnesses ; " in order 
that," to use the words of a Greater, " when it 
did come to- pass they might believe." When the 
events foretold were more distant, the simple corn- 



have, " The word wh. Isaiah the son of Amoz saw 
concerning Judah and Jerusalem " (chaps. 2.-12.). 
Next we have the " Book of Burdens," wh. contains 
oracles agst. heathen peoples, ending with a summa- 



mitting to writing served the purpose. It seems tion of the results (chaps. 1 3.-27.). There is then 

prob., although it is a subject of discussion, that the the " Book of Woes," directed agst. the covenant 

earliest of the prophetic writings wh. have come people, wh. ends with the glowing account of the 

down to us is the short prophecy of Joel, dating return of the captivity (chaps. 28.-35.). Whether 

prob. fm. the beginning of the reign of Jehoash. these bks. were combined into one by the P. him- 

Were we sure of the authenticity of Jonah it wd. of self or b y some literary executor we cannot tell, 

course be earlier than Joel; but, further, it is not a pre- The idea, to which the late Professor Davidson lent his 

diction but a history. venerable name, that the scribes "instead of keeping small 

Joel begins with Divine judgments shown in a anonymous prophecies apart by themselves, arranged them 

1 ri . j j •/? ce ^t_ j r ^1 under general headings as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the like," 

plague of locusts, and ends with the day of the is incapable of proof, and the instances he gives, the Psalms 

Lord." Nearly synchronous is Obadiah ; this pro- and the Proverbs, are not to the point ; the authorship of 

the non-Davidic Psalms is given and some are anonymous, 
so too with Proverbs. Ruth is an anonymous bk., yet it 



phecy is directed agst. Edom, and ends, like Joel, 
with deliverance coming " out of Zion." 

There is a difficulty in regard to Sepharad ; the LXX 
has Ephratha, "and the captivity of Jrs. (shall inherit) 
unto Ephratha" \ the Psh. has the " captivity of Jrs. wh. 
is in Spain " ; Tg. J. has " Ispamia, wh. prob. is Spain"; 



is not merged in any greater book. 

Though Baruch appears to have been both 
amanuensis and literary executor of Jeremiah, yet 
there are portions that seem to show signs of having 



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existed as separate collections ; e.g. chaps. 27.-29. 
In the case of Ezekiel it wd. seem to have been to a 
large extent written fm. the first, and to have been 
edited by the P. himself. Daniel appears to have 
been issued in separate tracts, and edited at a 
slightly later date than that of the P. As to the 
material employed, whether clay tablets, papyrus 
rolls, parchment, or ostraka, we have not informa- 
tion to decide : possibly the material used was not 
in all cases the same. 

Messianic Prophecy. — It is the Messianic idea 
and its fulfilment in our Lord that gives prophecy 
its value to us ; it is because all the prophets testify 
of Him that we study them now. That the Jews, 
at the time when our Lord was in the world, had the 
expectation that one wd. come fm. their land, and 
fm. the race of their great king, who shd. rule the 
world, is incontestable. Josephus makes use of it 
to curry favour with Vespasian, by pretending to 
believe that the prophets spoke of him. When we 
go back to the apocalyptic books we find the domi- 
nant idea is the coming of the Messiah and Messianic 
times. The most interesting of these is that collec- 
tion of visions called the book of Enoch, in wh. we 
find the Messiah designated " Son of Man," and 
regarded as, if not Divine, at all events super-angelic. 
These ideas had been borrowed fm. the prophets 
originally, but they had developed. When we look 
back on the prophets we find, as we already re- 
marked, that all of them, if only in a sentence, indi- 
cated a great absorbing hope, when " a king shd. 
reign in righteousness," and " the people wd. be all 
righteous," when " the isles shd. bring presents to 
him, Sheba and Seba shd. offer gifts." This king 
was to be of the race and lineage of David ; indeed, 
if the words were pressed to their literal meaning, 
it wd. be David himself who was to reascend his 
throne (Ek. 37. 24 ; Ho. 3- 5 ). The dominion of the 
Messiah is to be " fm. sea to sea " — not merely fm. 
the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, but to the 
great ocean stream that engirdled the earth : start- 
ing fm. the river (Euphrates), the boundary of the 
Davidic empire, it was to extend to " the ends of 
the earth." Although there is all this splendour, 
there is, especially in the 2nd Isaiah, a description of 
" the Servant of the Lord " who shd. be " despised 
and rejected of men " ; He is to be " a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief." There was a 
difficulty in harmonising these two pictures of the 
Promised One. Along with these there was the 
representation of the Messiah as a warrior " travel- 
ling in the greatness of His strength," with His 
" garments dyed in blood." While we have thus 
the general features of the Coming One sketched out 
fm. the external point of view, He is promised also as 
Himself a Prophet (Dt. 18. 15 ). This is interesting, 
as it seems to have been this aspect of the Messiah 
that most impressed the Samaritans (Jn. 4- 25 ). 



At the Congress of Orientalists at Stockholm in 1889, 
Merx gave an account of a Samaritan hymn to the Messiah 
under the name " Taheb," wh. he had found in a MS. at 
Gotha. It is said, "J", shall call Him and teach Him, 
and shall give Him a writing {?nichtab) and clothe Him 
with prophecy." Yet " His kdm. is to be exalted, and He 
shall reign over seven nations." The result was to be that 
• ' The Jews shall say, ' This is He, let us come under His law 
(o'datko') ; cursed be Ezra and the words wh. he wrote to his 
shame ; a rocky mountain (tor har) is Gerizim the holy, 
there is not among the mountains its like.' " It ends with 
the statement that He is the Prophet like to Moses. 

Special features in the life of the Messiah are 
noted : His birth at " Bethlehem of Judah " ; that 
He was to be born of a virgin, and enter into Jrs. 
riding on an ass ; that He shd. die a death of shame, 
yet be buried in a rich man's tomb ; all these and 
many more are quoted by Justin Martyr in his 
dialogue with Trypho. Much light is thrown on 
what passages are reckoned Messianic by the Jews, 
by the Targums ; and by the proofs of our Lord's 
Messiahship adduced by the apostles. The more 
orthodox Jews still have extravagant hopes of the 
glories of the times of the Messiah. 

Fulfilment of Prophecy. — In considering this 
we must bear in mind the idea prevalent among the 
Jews at the time of our Lord, of what was to be re- 
garded as fulfilment. In many instances, when we 
shd. say such a phrase mt. be aptly quoted, the 
evangelist says, " Then was fulfilled " ; although in 
many cases the meaning they attach to fulfilment 
is what we shd. not, e.g. Mw. 2. 15 ; cp. Ho. n. 1 . 
Prophecy was poetical, and therefore clothed in 
symbolic language. These symbols were of neces- 
sity expressed in terms intelligible to those to whom 
they were uttered. This is a view held by the 
rabbins ; e.g. Edom is held to mean Rome. It is 
in accordance with this that it is maintained that 
promises given in terms to Isr. and Jrs. may be 
transferred to the Christian Church. Again it 
must be remembered that prophecy was always 
conditional ; the destruction pronounced on Nine- 
veh by Jonah was conditional on their failure to 
repent. As there was a human element in prophecy 
it is poss. that at times the P. misinterpreted the 
message he had been appointed to deliver. Thus 
Ezekiel proclaims the absolute desolation of Tyre 
(Ek. 2 6. 19 - 21 ) : " Thus saith the Lord God, When 
I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that 
are not inhabited ... I will make thee a terror ; 
though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be 
found again." Taken absolutely, this means that 
Tyre shd. disappear as completely as have Bab. and 
Nineveh ; yet Tyre has had a continuous history 
down to the present time. The utter disappear- 
ance of Tyre as an independent imperial power is 
interpreted by the P. as applying to the city. Cer- 
tainly the contrast is immense between the insig- 
nificant village, that does not occupy the half of the 
ancient site, and the huge city described by Ezekiel, 
with its crowded marts. 



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NT. Prophecy. — In NT. the prophet is most alising effect upon the mind of Israel, especially 

prominent as one who " foretells," e.g. Agabus (Ac. among the Jews of the Dispersion. Away from the 

ii. 28 , 2I. 10 ). The apostle Paul in I Cor. 14. gives a limitations of the little land, with its rigid ideas, and 

different idea of the function of the P. ; in v. 3 system of rule inherited from the past, they came 

prophecy is " speaking to men to edification and into contact with the world's civilisation, and felt 

exhortation and comfort," but not a word of pre- the throb of a larger life. They were touched by 

diction ; at the same time prediction is not ex- the claims of what was human, as distinguished 

eluded. It wd. seem that in the first century of from what was merely national. On the otherhand, 

the Church the P. was a regular official (1 Cor. 12. 28 ; the sublime conception of the one God, wedded to 

Eph. 4. 11 ). In the Didache there is an account of the pure and high morality manifest in the life of 

the treatment to be accorded to the prophets, who the Jews, attracted many who found here something 

are regarded as standing officials. It is to be noted better and more satisfying than heathen systems 

that in the Didache the prophets are supposed to had ever been able to produce. They were thus 

travel about fm. church to church ; they seem to favourably inclined to the teaching which the Jews 

have borne with them no letters of authentication, were moved to impart ; and very many, by its 

for their right to assume the prophetic office was to power upon their hearts, were enabled to overcome 

be proved by their actions. The office very soon the repulsion created by a ritual which to them 

disappeared. must have been extremely offensive. The dream 

Lit. : The German Lit. is very extensive. Of of a world devoted to the worship and service of 

the works most easily accessible as translated are Jehovah, quickened the enthusiasm of the Jews, 

the OT. Theologies of Oehler and Schulz ; Ewald, If the movement was at first characterised by high 

Prophets of the Old Testament ; Orelli, Old Testa- spiritual sympathy and aims, it gradually lost that 

ment Prophecy ; Delitzsch, Messianic Prophecy ; character, and conversion came to mean little more, 

Riehm, Messianic Prophecy. In English : Robert- if anything, than mere change of " customs." To 



son Smith, Prophets of Israel; Briggs, Messianic 
Prophecy ; Fairbairn, Prophecy ; Kirkpatrick, Doc- 
trine of the Prophets ; Batten, The Hebrew Prophet ; 
Davidson, Hebrew Prophecy ; Selwyn, Christian 
Prophets. 

PROPITIATION. See Sacrifice. 

PROSELYTE. The Greek proselutos, "new 
comer," is the usual LXX equivalent of the Heb. 
ger {see Stranger). There is no distinction in the 
language of the OT. between the " stranger " who 



bring about this change in the case of their heathen 
neighbours at a later time, Maccabaean princes did 
not scruple to use force (Jos. Ant. XIII. ix. 1, xi. 3, 
xv. 4 ; XV. vii. 9) ; and only great zeal in prosely- 
tising could have justified the words of Jesus, which 
scathingly expose the ethical futility of the process : 
" Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, 
for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, 
and when he is become so, ye make him twofold 
more a son of hell than yourselves " (Mw. 23. 15 ). 



sojourns in the land of Israel, and the foreigner who The intense eagerness with which the work of 
not only dwells in Palestine but has submitted to proselytism was carried on in the latter days of the 
the characteristic rites, and become identified with Jewish State, may have been due in some measure to 
Israel as a religious community. One who had been the natural desire to increase the number of those 
circumcised and admitted to a share in the Passover who, in the conflict that must have seemed inevi- 
feast could no longer be regarded as in any sense an table, would stand for its defence. The extinction 
alien. If the name ger still attached to him it could of all hope of success against the arms of Rome may 
only be as an indication of his origin. These con- account for the decline of proselytism quite as much 
cessions, however, in the earlier times, seem to have as the decree of Hadrian forbidding circumcision, 
been due to the initiative and desire of the strangers Certain it is that Jewish efforts to make converts 
themselves, and not to any attempt on the part of soon ceased, and the community, although widely 
Israelites to produce a change in their faith. There scattered, was knit into a unity more hard and self- 
is no evidence of any movement within Israel having contained than ever ; resisting all influences from 
for its object the conversion of the heathen to the without, and seeking to make no religious impres- 
service of Jehovah. On the contrary, in the story of sion upon the peoples in the midst of whom they 
the prophet Jonah we have probably a reflection of sojourned. 

the narrow and exclusive temper of the average " Proselyte " in the NT. means simply a Gentile 
Israelite. Even the loftier souls among the. OT. convert to Judaism. " Proselyte of the gate " is a 
saints, who caught glimpses of the universal do- phrase of the later rabbis, denoting a sojourner in 
minion of Jehovah, seem to have thought rather the land of Israel. The true proselyte they dis- 
of the political subjection of the nations than of tinguished as the " proselyte of righteousness." 
their conversion to the true faith. They were to be From the later rabbis also we learn that the prose- 
made the servants of Jehovah's people (Is. 6o. llf -). lyte on admission was circumcised : this, when the 
In later times Greek influence produced a liber- wound had healed, was followed by a bath, and then 

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he was required to provide a sacrifice ; whereupon 
he assumed all the responsibilities of a member of 
the Jewish religious community. 

Proselytes are not to be confused with God- 
fearing men among the heathen, who took a more or 
less favourable view of the Jewish faith, like Cor- 
nelius, the Ethiopian eunuch, and others. Although 
they had not seen their way to take the final step of 
identifying themselves with Judaism, by submission 
to the essential rites, they were worshippers of the 
one true God, and attended Divine service in the 
synagogues. Among them were distinguished bene- 
factors of the Jewish people, like the centurion who 
had built them a synagogue (Lk. J. 5 ). They made 
contributions to the Temple, and observed Jewish 
customs as to the Sabbath, &c. They were not 
committed, like the proselytes, to the attitude of 
antagonism to Christianity assumed by the Jews . In 
this particular, indeed, the proselytes seem to have 
attained a bad pre-eminence. Speaking of them, 
Jerome says (Dial. 122) : " The proselytes not only 
do not believe, but twofold more than yourselves 
blaspheme His name, and wish to torture and put 
to death us who believe in Him." Among the 
" God-fearing," on the other hand, the Gospel and 
its messengers seem to have met with a fair and 
unprejudiced reception. 

Lit. : Schurer, HJP., by index ; articles in 
HDB. and EB. s.v. 

PROVERBS. The book of Proverbs occupies a 
place in the third collection of the books of the 
Hebrew Bible, coming after Psalms and before Job. 
It was thus among the latest books to receive ad- 
mission into the Canon. Objections to its canoni- 
city are mentioned in the Talmud, but these are not 
important, and its use in the New Testament shows 
the authority it enjoyed at the time of Christ. 

It consists of collections of proverbs (Hebrew, 
meshalim) compiled by some unknown editor from 
various sources to enforce the teaching of wisdom in 
the Jewish sense, i.e. the practical conduct of life. 
The collections used are indicated (at any rate in 
part) by the titles given in the following sections : 

Chaps. 1. -9. The Praise of Wisdom, ascribed to 
Solomon (9. 1 ). 

Chaps. io. 1 -22. 16 . AlsoascribedtoSolomon(lo. 1 ), 
although this title is not in the Greek translation. 

Chaps. 22. 17 -24. 22 . The Words of the Wise 
(22. 17 ). 

Chap. 24. 23 " 34 . Also the Words of the Wise (24. 23 ). 

Chaps. 25.-29. " The Proverbsof Solomon, which 
the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out " 

(25- 1 ). 

Chap. 30. The Words of Agur. 

Chap. 3 1. 1 " 9 . The Words of King Lemuel. 

Chap. 3 1. 10 " 31 . An alphabetic poem concerning 

the virtuous woman. 

The originally independent existence of these 



collections, suggested by the titles, is confirmed by 
the occurrence of the same proverb in identical or 
slightly varying words in the different divisions : 
cp. Ii. 14b with 24. 6b , I3. 9b with 24. 20b , 18. 8 with 
26. 22 , 19. 1 with 28. 6 , 24. 23b with 28. 21a (and other 
instances mentioned in C. H. Toy's Commentary, 
Intro.^3). 

By its subject the book of Proverbs is connected 
with the canonical books Job and Ecclesiastes, and 
the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of 
Solomon. These all together form the Wisdom 
Literature of the Hebrews. They are concerned 
with the practical problems of the personal re- 
ligious life, and those not of Jewish life only, but 
of human life. When these works were written, 
Jewish thinkers had come in contact with the life 
and thought of Persia and Greece, and so, while 
they remained Jews, their outlook on life had 
become broader than that of the prophets and 
lawmakers who had preceded them. The special 
features of Judaism, its Temple, its ritual, its Mes- 
sianic hope, do not appear. Questions of human 
conduct are the only matters of interest. The 
book of Proverbs differs from Ecclesiastes in that 
the latter professes to give the experiences of an 
individual, while the former is founded on the 
wisdom of the people, as it is accustomed to express 
itself in pithy fashion. It differs from Job, which 
is devoted to the consideration of one problem, by 
its general interest, its large observation, and its 
interest in common life. 

The form in which the book is written is generally 
that of the mashal or short proverbial saying, in 
which as a rule the phenomena of the natural world 
are used to illustrate or suggest those of the ethical 
and religious life. While these sayings were occa- 
sionally in prose, they were usually put in the form 
of parallel or antithetic statements, thus making 
couplets, sometimes groups of four lines, rarely of 
three, sometimes, however, expanded into strophes, 
which may be regarded as sonnets. The lines 
themselves are rhythmical, but probable differences 
between the later and earlier pronunciation of 
words and the imperfection of the text make it 
difficult to determine the accents. 

As regards authorship, a distinction must be made 
between (1) the compiler of the work in its present 
form ; (2) the compilers of the collections com- 
posing the work ; and (3) the authorship of the 
separate proverbs. The ascription to Solomon 
cannot apply to the whole book, for other authors 
are named in 22. 17 , 25. 23 , 30. 1 , 3 J. 1 , while the as- 
cription to Solomon in io. 1 is not found in the 
Greek version. Moreover, the objective way in 
which the king is spoken of (20. 2 , 25. 3 , 29. 4 ), the 
warnings against unchastity, and the praise of one 
wife, scarcely seem to indicate a Solomonic author- 
ship for the passages containing them. The ascrip- 



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tion of a Wisdom book to Solomon {cp. the Wisdom 
of Solomon) was founded on I K. \. z2 , and was as 
natural as the ascription of laws to Moses and 
Psalms to David. The whole work in its present 
form is, on account of its thought and its language, 
ascribed to an editor of the late Persian or early 
Greek period of Jewish history. 

Of the collections used, the second (chaps, io. 1 - 
22. 16 ) seems to be the kernel of the book. It con- 
sists of 375 proverbs almost entirely in couplets, and 
mostly antithetic (375 is the numerical value of the 
consonants in the Hebrew form of the name Solo- 
mon). To this section were added the next two 
collections (22. 17 -24. 22 and 24. 23 " 34 ), while chaps. 
25.-29. must have been added later still, otherwise 
it is hard to understand why they should have been 
separated from io. 1 -2 2. 16 . Chaps. 1.-9. seem to 
have been prefixed to the whole later. In them 
Wisdom is treated much more as a personification 
(especially in chap. 8.). Chaps. 30. and 31. are 
generally regarded as a part of the latest material 
in the book, and may have been added at any time 
before the final editing. The dates of these separate 
collections cannot be determined with any approach 
to certainty. 

As regards the individual proverbs, there is no 
means of determining either author or date. 
Doubtless much is old, and goes back to popular 
sayings, though they have been put in more literary 
form by editors. 

The teaching of the book as a whole may be 
gathered from chaps. 1.-9. Its purpose is " to 
know wisdom and instruction," i.e. it is a handbook 
of personal religion. That it is religious and not 
merely ethical is shown by the use of the same 
words (" pious, righteous, wicked, sinner," &c.) as 
in the other books of the Old Testament. Wisdom 
is not the abstract idea of the Greek philosophy, but 
a religious and practical conception. Its beginning 
is the fear of the Lord (i. 7 , 9. 10 ), which is to know 
God (2. 5 ), to understand righteousness and judg- 
ment and equity (2. 9 , I. 3 ), and to hate evil (8. 13 ). 
Wisdom comes from God (2. 6 ) and brings God's 
favour (8. 35 ). It bestows life (3- 16 - 18 , 6. 23 , 8. 35 ), 
riches (3. 16 , 8. 21 ), honour (3. 16 , 4.8. 9 , 8. 18 ) and 
security (i. 33 ). Its appeal is not to a class but to all 
men (i. 20 - 21 , 8. 1 " 3 , 9. 1 - 6 ). G. W. Thatcher. 

PROVINCE (Lat. provincia, Gr. eparchid) meant 
originally the sphere within which a Roman magis- 
trate exercised sovereign authority. It might be 
used also, as among ourselves, to indicate different 
departments of business. With the extension and 
organisation of the Roman dominions it came to 
denote an administrative district, paying tribute in 
taxes, and ruled by a Roman magistrate, procon- 
sul or pro-praetor, answerable to the senate. The 
magistrate received no salary, while his outlays were 
very heavy. But the position was greatly coveted, 

63 



because it furnished an opportunity of growing rich 
at the expense of the people. Grievous extortion 
was practised, and often, after a single year of office, 
an enormous fortune was carried away. 

Under Augustus an arrangement was made in 
accordance with which the provinces where peace 
prevailed were to be governed under the super- 
vision of the senate, while those where military 
occupation was required were to be under the 
direct control of the emperor — the commander- 
in-chief of the armies of the empire {see Roman 
Empire, II.). 

Under the empire the condition of the provinces 
was greatly improved. Extortion was sternly re- 
pressed, the governors received a stated salary, 
and each province had what was practically its own 
constitution — a statute, the terms of which guided 
the administration. The larger imperial provinces 
were governed by means of a Legatus pro prcetore, an 
officer of praetorian or consular rank. The small 
province of Judaea was governed by means of a 
" procurator," whose business it was to preserve 
order, and especially to see that the imperial taxes 
were duly collected and forwarded to the proper 
quarter. 

PSALMS, BOOK OF. The first book in that 
third division of the Jewish Canon of the OT. 
which is designated Ketubim or Hagiographa. It 
may have been this circumstance that occasioned 
the expression " the Law, the Prophets, and the 
Psalms " (Lk. 24« 44 ) as a designation of the whole 
OT. Scriptures ; although it is possible that our 
Lord, in using the words, had in view the book of 
Psalms specifically, for no other book is quoted more 
frequently in the NT. In point of fact, the place 
of Psalms in the Canon seems to have varied. The 
oft-quoted passage in Baba Bathra puts Ruth before 
the Psalms. The order in our English Version, in 
which Job precedes, is given by Jerome, and is 
the usual order in German MSS., whereas many 
Spanish MSS. place Chron. first. 

On a general and superficial view, the Psalter re- 
sembles any of our hymn-books, in being made up of 
a collection of sacred compositions of various tone 
and contents, suggesting that it may have been the 
work of various authors at various times, and pro- 
bably having a history of composition similar to that 
of more modern collections. One difference strikes 
the reader, that, as compared with these, it does not 
to nearly the same extent group the hymns accord- 
ing to the subject matter. Another thing is re- 
markable, that, though there is a word prefixed to 
many of the compositions {mizmor) which we trans- 
late " psalm," there is no plural of the word to 
denote the whole as a collection of Psalms. The 
name mizmor is given only to this class of compo- 
sition : another word, shir, frequently used along- 
side of it, may be applied to a secular song. The 



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Hebrew name given to the collection, Tehillim, 
means " praises," indicating, no doubt, the use of 
the Psalms in common worship. Another word is 
found in Ps. 72. 20 , which seems to be the earliest de- 
signation, viz., Tephilloth or " prayers." And this 
term is significant, for many of the Psalms are direct 
prayers, and, in general, they imply a lifting up of 
the soul, in confession, praise, or prayer, to God ; so 
that, as has been said, as the law is God's voice to 
man, the Psalms are man's response to God. This 
view, along with the prominent part assigned to the 
Psalms in public worship, led at an early time to 
the arrangement or division of the whole into five 
books, to correspond, it is supposed, with the five- 
fold book of the law. 

The place which the book of Psalms occupies in 
the Hebrew Bible may be taken as an indication 
that, as a completed work, the collection came into 
the Canon at a comparatively late date, and sug- 
gests that we may be prepared to find in it compo- 
sitions of a date not far remote from the time of the 
closing of the Canon. At the same time, however, 
in a collection of sacred songs like this, we may 
expect to meet with compositions of various anti- 
quity. It has become customary to describe the 
Psalter as the Book of Praise of the second Temple. 
The expression is correct as applied to the com- 
pleted collection, but it is misleading if intended 
to imply that no part of its contents was known 
or used in praise before that time ; otherwise the 
statement has no more significance than, e.g., to say 
that such and such a modern collection is the hymn- 
book of this or that branch of the Christian Church. 
The Psalter as a whole is indeed a more character- 
istic and integral part of the worship of the Church 
than of the worship of the synagogue. In point of 
fact, we have to fall back on an examination of the 
Psalter itself, and generally on an examination of its 
individual elements, for indications of the manner 
in which the collection was made and the time at 
which the individual Psalms were composed. 

The division into five books, as now exhibited in 
our RV., does not help us far towards a conclusion 
as to the growth of the Psalter. It is evidently a 
late arrangement or division of what at the time 
was substantially a whole. But, underneath and be- 
hind the fivefold division, there are indications that 
point to what was either another division or a pro- 
cess of growth by the accretion of smaller collec- 
tions. For example, there are larger or smaller 
groups with the same headings. Thus there are 
seventy-three entitled " to David," twelve " to 
Asaph," eleven " to the sons of Korah," two " to 
Solomon," one " to Moses the man of God," &c. 
Then there are the so-called " Songs of Degrees " 
(RV. " Ascents "), the " Hallelujah " Psalms, with 
the refrain, " Praise ye the Lord," &c. Moreover, 
there is a significant addition to the 72nd Psalm at 



the close of Book II., " The prayers of David the 
son of Jesse are ended," which looks like a colophon 
to a collection ending at that place ; and it is to be 
observed that almost all the Psalms up to that point 
bear the name of David, though there are others 
with his name in later parts of the book, the propor- 
tion being fifty-five in Books I. and II. out of a total 
of seventy-three in the whole Psalter. From such 
indications the conclusion is a reasonable one that 
the Psalter was a work that grew out of smaller col- 
lections ; and that the headings, which might seem 
to denote authorship, are rather to be taken as in- 
dicating the names by which the smaller collections 
were known, or at least the names of prominent 
persons associated with psalmody, to whom the col- 
lections as such were ascribed. When we attempt, 
however, to trace the whole process of collection, 
and to determine the authors of the several com- 
positions, we are on less secure ground. We may 
conclude that the colophon to Ps. 72. marks the 
point at which an original book of Psalms or 
" prayers " passing as Davidic ended ; but how the 
succeeding portions came into their places is not so 
apparent. There is one feature which may help 
towards more light on the process. It has been ob- 
served that, in the Psalter, as in the Pentateuch, 
there is a varying usage in regard to the Divine 
name, some portions being mainly " Jehovistic " 
(i.e. employing predominantly the name Jehovah), 
while others are as notably " Elohistic " (using the 
name Elohim). The proportions are these : in the 
Psalms forming the first book (1.-41.) the name 
Jehovah occurs 272 times, while Elohim is found 
only 15 times ; in the second book, on the other 
hand (Pss. 42.-72.), Elohim occurs 164 times, while 
Jehovah occurs 30 times. In the third book as it 
stands, the numbers are about equal, Jehovah 44 
times and Elohim 43 times ; but in the former half 
of this book, up to Ps. 83., Elohim preponderates, 
while in the second half Jehovah is more frequent. 
In Books IV. and V. Jehovah vastly preponderates, 
occurring in Bk. IV. 103 times, while Elohim is 
absent, and in Bk. V. 237 times to 7 occurrences of 
Elohim. This might suggest, as underlying the 
fivefold division, a threefold collection, Jehovistic, 
Elohistic, and Jehovistic ; and there may be here a 
trace or reminiscence of the triennial cycle in which 
the books of the law were read in the synagogue. 
What may have been the reason for this preference 
of the one divine name or the other, here or in 
the Pnt., has never been satisfactorily explained. 
That it was intentional and deliberate there can be 
no doubt, as the numbers show. Moreover, we find 
what are practically two readings of the same Psalm, 
the one Jehovistic and the other Elohistic. Com- 
pare Ps. 14. with Ps. 53., Ps. 40. 13 - 17 with Ps. 70., 
Ps. 108. with Ps. 57. 7 * 11 and 60. 5 " 12 . The conclu- 
sion is most probable that there were two separate 



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collections, a Jehovistic (now in Bk. I.) and an 
Elohistic (in Bk. II.), which were combined before 
the doxology was added at the end of Bk. II., and 
that the remaining parts of the Psalter are made up 
of other smaller collections or additions from time 
to time. Modifications, however, may have been 
made in the arrangement during the process or at 
the time of final redaction. As has just been indi- 
cated, e.g., an Elohistic portion in the beginning of 
the third book is separated from its kindred portion 
in Bk. II., and combined with a Jehovistic. portion. 
And, in the process of adjustment, it is quite possible 
that late Psalms may have got inserted into what 
was an earlier collection, as it is also possible that 
Psalms reputed early may have only come into the 
collection at a later stage of the process. On this, 
and on the whole question of the growth of the 
Psalter, there is much uncertainty, and very various 
opinions have been held. Modern critics are 
mostly of opinion that even the earliest collection 
was not made till after the Exile. However that 
may be, the books of Chronicles (about b.c 300) 
speak of psalmody as very ancient, and in one chap. 
(1 Ch. 16.) there are found portions of three Psalms 
(96., 105., 106.), which are not regarded as among 
the earlier. The bk. of Psalms is included in the 
Greek of the LXX made about two centuries b.c 
Again, in the prologue to Ecclesiasticus (written 
b.c 132), the author mentions that in the time of 
his grandfather (about b.c 180) the Canon of the 
OT. consisted of three parts, " the Law, the Prophets, 
and the other books of our Fathers," and that a 
Greek translation of these was known and current in 
his time. And, finally, in I M. 7. 17 (about a cen- 
tury b.c), a Psalm, which is so appropriate to those 
times that many have concluded it is of Maccabaean 
date (Ps. 79.), is quoted as Scripture. 

Distinct, however, from the question of the date 
of the collection, is the question of the date of the 
individual Psalms of which it is composed, and the 
whole subject of the origin and history of this 
kind of composition. For, before a collection was 
formed, there must have been Psalms to collect ; 
and, as each Psalm is a complete piece in itself, they 
may have been composed at sundry times by dif- 
ferent hands, and gathered from various quarters. 
If we may judge from the case of other compositions 
of this kind in other languages, we may suppose that 
Psalms were first composed as the expression of the 
personal feelings or experiences of the poet, and 
afterwards were adopted for use in public worship. 
This was the case with many of the hymnic pieces 
now incorporated in the Jewish Prayer-books ; and 
many of the best hymns in our Christian collections 
were first composed without reference to public 
worship. It will be observed that the Psalms in the 
later part of the book are for the most part of a more 
directly liturgical character than those, e.g., in the 



first book. The names, however, of persons stand- 
ing in the headings of the Psalms cannot be pressed 
to prove authorship ; for these headings must be 
regarded as later editorial additions, and probably 
were not intended to denote authorship in the strict 
sense of the word. At the same time, these names 
were no doubt affixed because the persons named 
were in a special way associated with sacred song and 
music. Since David is traditionally regarded as the 
one who introduced sacred song into the sanctuary 
service, and since he had a unique fame as a poet, 
one would naturally expect to find Psalms of David 
in the collection, and we can readily understand 
how, in process of time, the whole collection was 
known by his name, just as the Pnt. came to be 
spoken of as the five books of Moses. When, how- 
ever, the attempt is made to specify particular 
Psalms as Davidic, or indeed to determine the date 
and authorship of individual Psalms, the evidence is 
far from decisive, and different critics have assigned 
the same Psalms to periods separated by centuries. 
This kind of composition, as modern collections 
prove, is peculiarly liable to additions and modifica- 
tions in the course of transmission. The very char- 
acter, also, of the Psalms which gives them their 
power and charm — their subjective lyrical nature, 
expressing itself in modes of the mind and heart, 
rather than in pictures of external events and 
phenomena — makes it possible to refer them to 
various situations of history and experience, just as 
it has made them appropriate to men in various 
situations in all succeeding generations of the 
Church. 

It can hardly be doubted that sacred song of some 
kind was practised in the pre-exilian Temple. The 
guilds of singers who returned from the Captivity 
and exercised prominent functions in the restored 
service of the second Temple could not have origi- 
nated in the Exile ; and even the exiles by the 
streams of Babylon thought regretfully of the Lord's 
song in a strange land (Ps. 137. 4 ). The prophet 
Jeremiah in one passage gives us incidentally a hint 
of what was apparently in his time a familiar and 
long-established use of sacred song (Jr. 33. 11 ), when, 
in predicting the return from captivity, he says : 
" Again shall be heard in this place . . . the voice 
of joy and the voice of gladness . . . the voice of 
them that say, Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for 
the Lord is good, for His mercy endureth for ever, 
and of them that bring sacrifices of thanskgiving 
into the house of the Lord" — using the very phrases 
of some of the Psalms in the later part of the collec- 
tion (cp. Pss. 106. 1 , 107. 1 ' 22 ). What was the char- 
acter and amount of that Temple song we do not 
know. We know, however, that lyrical composition 
was practised from an early time, and that poems of 
a hymnic kind are found embodied in the historical 
and prophetical books. The 1 8th Psalm is found 



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in 2 S. 22. ; we have the ancient songs of Moses 
(Ex. 15.) and Deborah (Jg. 5.), the hymnic pieces in 
Dt. 32. and 33., the song of Hannah (1 S. 2.), and 
the elegies of David over Saul and Jonathan (2 S. 1.) 
and over Abner (2 S. 3. 34 ). And there are various 
pieces in the prophetical books which may be de- 
scribed as Psalms, e.g., Is. 12., 38. 10 " 20 ; Hb. 3. ; 
Jh. 2. Such an amount of poetical composition 
abundantly proves that Psalm production was not 
beyond the power of pre-exilian writers. And, 
though we may have to confess that we cannot for 
the most part identify the portions of the Psalter 
that were of earliest origin, we cannot but assume 
that the singers who came up from the Captivity 
preserved the traditions of an earlier time. The 
various headings of Psalms and small collections 
point to the manner in which these traditions were 
preserved ; and no doubt after the Exile there was 
an outburst of " new song," and a more systematic 
cultivation both of psalmody and music. 

The headings or superscriptions of the Psalms, 
to which reference has already been made, call for 
more special remark. These cannot be regarded as 
parts of the original compositions. They must have 
been added subsequently, and possibly not all at one 
time, in connection with the editorial process of 
collecting and arranging the Psalter. They consist 
of various elements. In a considerable number we 
find names of persons to whom, in some sense, the 
Psalm in question is ascribed. In most cases, pro- 
bably, they indicate collections known by the names 
they bear ; and they cannot in all cases be taken to 
mean authorship, as, e.g., those " to the sons of 
Korah." Yet it might be too much to say that the 
persons who added them had not some tradition or 
belief in some instances that the Psalm in question 
was from the hand of the person named, or else the 
collector, or even the writer, may have considered it 
befitting the situation and experience of the person, 
e.g., the Psalm of Moses (90.), the two Psalms of 
Solomon (72., 127.), and many of those assigned to 
David. For, it will be observed, a second element 
enters into the superscriptions, in the case of many 
Psalms in the first collection, which not only bear the 
name of David, but indicate the situation in his 
history, in which the collector thought the Psalm 
originated, or to which the Psalm was suitable. 
These historical notes are only found in Davidic 
Psalms, and only in those in the earlier portion of 
the book, where indeed, if anywhere, we are likely to 
find compositions of the Psalmist king. A third 
element consists of those musical or liturgical direc- 
tions " to the chief musician," followed generally 
by expressions, the precise import of which has not 
yet been determined. Some of them, as Sheminith, 
Alamoth, Neginoth, seem to refer to the kind of 
music or musical instrument with which the Psalm 
was to be accompanied. Others may refer to titles 



of ancient melodies to which the Psalm was adapted, 
such as " the hind of the dawn " (22.), " the dove of 
the distant terebinths " (56.), and perhaps others. 
The " songs of Ascents " (120.-134. RV.) may have 
been considered suitable for use by the pilgrims in 
their goings up to the great periodical festivals, 
though other explanations of the title have been 
given. And we have one instance, in the " song for 
the Sabbath day " (92.), of what became a custom, 
of assigning certain Psalms for use on stated occa- 
sions. These notes must have been of compara- 
tively early origin, and most probably arose out of 
the liturgical use of the Psalms, for, by the time 
of the LXX translators, who may not have been 
familiar with the arrangements of song in the 
Temple, they seem to have been unintelligible, to 
judge from the vague and variable renderings of 
that and other early versions. 

It is almost as difficult to classify the Psalms 
according to their subject-matter as to assign to 
each its occasion of composition ; and for the same 
reason. There are, it is true, a number that may be 
called historical, which take a review of the fortunes 
and vicissitudes of the people as a whole ; and there 
are some which may be called Nature-psalms, cele- 
brating the wonderful works of creation and pro- 
vidence. There are also what have been called 
" kingly " Psalms, and " Messianic " Psalms ; and 
attempts have been made to classify the whole ac- 
cording to their " themes." It will be found, how- 
ever, that a Psalmist does not adhere to one theme 
throughout a Psalm. In particular, a subjective 
influence comes into play ; and, if any classification 
is to be made, it has to be made according to the 
prevailing tone of the piece, as plaintive, jubilant, 
penitential, thankful, and so forth. And yet, even 
here, a Psalm that begins on one tone may change to 
another before the close. 

This characteristic of the Psalms, which makes 
the question of their literary form and primary 
occasion so difficult a problem to the critic, is the 
very feature which has endeared them to the pious of 
all ages, and given them a hold upon the religious 
consciousness in every variety of circumstance. The 
human soul here finds its many moods interpreted to 
itself, and readily adopts the language of the Psalms 
in its communing with itself, its struggles with sin, 
its aspirations after holiness, its efforts to reach the 
heart of God. However varied may have been the 
experience of God's children from age to age, they 
have turned to the Psalms for words in which to ex- 
press it, and channels through which to find relief. 
No doubt many of the Psalms, especially at a later 
stage of Psalm composition, were composed with a 
direct reference to public worship, and intended to 
express national hopes, fears, encouragements ; and 
no doubt many more, composed in the first instance 
to express the individual emotions of the Psalmist, 



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were, like hymns in our modern collections, found received instructions from Pharaoh to kill the male 
suitable and adopted as expressions of the common children of the Hebrews at their birth (Ex. I. 15 ), 
feelings of the congregation. But it is unjustifiable (2) A man of the tribe of Issachar, father of Tola, 
to say that all the Psalms, or even the Psalms for the the judge who rose after Abimelech (Jg. io. 1 ). He 
most part, have only a corporate or national refer- appears as brother of Tola in Gn. 46. 13 , AV. " Phu- 
ence, and that when the pronoun " I " is employed vah " ; Nu. 26. 23 , AV. " Pua," RV. " Puvah " ; 
it must be taken to denote Israel as a whole, or what and 1 Ch. 7. 1 . 

is called the Jewish Church. Psalm-writers could PUBLICAN. Under the Roman system great 
employ personification, and can clearly indicate societies were formed who " farmed " the imperial 
when they mean to do so (see, e.g., Ps. 129.). But, taxes. They paid a certain sum to the treasury, 
even if personification is intended where it is not which was thus freed from the trouble of collecting, 
overtly indicated, it is clear that a writer must have , , 

. had a conception of the individually personal before 
he could clothe the nation or community in the 
dress of the individual. As in Christian congrega- 
tions the whole can sing hymns, whether the speaker 
be I or We, so we must admit that, in the Jewish 
synagogue, the Psalms were found suitable for de- 
votion because the feelings they expressed were 
such as were common to the individual and to the 
congregation as a whole. This is the special inte- 
rest of the Psalms in connection with the whole sub- 
ject of the history of OT. religion, that they give 
proof of the presence of a religion of a simple but 
genuine kind, which did not consist in meats and 
drinks and divers offerings, but in the answer of the 
conscience towards God. Thus the Psalms were 
prophetic in the truest sense, inasmuch as, in the 
consciousness of sin which they express, in the long- 
ing for God and for righteousness which breathes 
through them, they give proof that the discipline of 
the old economy had not been without effect, and 
point forward to the redemption that was to come 
in the end of the days. They preserved and nur- 
tured a remnant that was not swallowed up in ritual 
formalism and legal self-sufficiency, and they made 
ready a people prepared for the Lord. The appear- 
ance of the infant Jesus in the Temple was hailed by 
devout ones as Simeon and Anna, who poured out The societies appointed agents, who were called 
their welcome in the language of the Psalms. The publicani, to gather the taxes. Whatever they were 
earliest preaching of the Gospel in many instances able to secure over and above the sum paid to the 
took these prophetic songs for its text ; and down treasury was gain to the societies employing them, 
through the history of the Christian Church, in The " publicans " of the Gospels were natives of the 
dark catacombs, or stately cathedrals, in humble country who attended to this business at the various 
cottage, on hillside conventicles, as in cloistered points of collection. The revenue from Palestine 
monasteries or in lordly palaces, on lonely sick-beds, belonged to the emperor {cp. Mw. 22. 17 , &c), and 
amidst the fires of the stake, the devout soul has its supervision was the main duty of the Procurator. 
found a voice for its deepest and most varied feelings The publicans were thus the agents of the heathen 
in the simple words of the Psalms. oppressor of their people. The Jewish law autho- 

James Robertson. rised taxation only for religious purposes. The 

PSALTERY (Heb. nebel), a stringed musical in- publicans were therefore regarded as traitors alike 

strument ; Jos. {Ant. VII. xii. 3) says it has twelve to their country and to their religion, stooping to 

strings in contrast to the kinnor, wh. had only ten. infamy for the sake of private gain. They were 

In Pss. 33.2 and 144. 9 , RV., there is reference to a P. driven from the religious community, and treated 

with ten strings. See Music. with the utmost hatred and contempt, as no better 

PTOLEMAIS. See Accho. than pariah dogs. The recurring phrase " publi- 

PUA, RV. PUVAH (Nu. 26. 23 ). See Puah (2). cans and sinners " is eloquent of the estimation 

PUAH. (1) One of the midwives in Egypt who in which they were held. Jesus differed from the 

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religious teachers of His time in having kindly 
thoughts even for publicans, and His hopeful 
kindness was vindicated by the conversion of 
Matthew and Zaccheus. 

The taxes now are collected in kind as wel] as 
in money. Until the publican's demand from the 
corn-heap has been met it is carefully guarded, an 
impress being made upon it by means of a " seal," 
as shown in the illustration. 

PUBLIUS, the officer in charge of Malta, who 
entertained St. Paul (Ac. 28. 7f -), was probably the 
representative of the praetor of Sicily and Malta. 
Tradition says that he became first bishop of Malta, 
and afterwards bishop of Athens. According to 
Jerome (De Viris Must, xix.) he received the 
martyr's crown. 

PUDENS, a Christian in Rome during the last 
imprisonment of St. Paul, mentioned as sending 
salutations to Timothy (2 Tm. 4. 21 ). Tradition re- 
presents him as having been one of " the seventy " 
who accompanied St. Paul on his missionary jour- 
neys, and suffered martyrdom with him at Rome. 
In the Greek Church he is commemorated on the 
14th of April. The name was not uncommon, 
and perhaps the suggestion referred to under 
Claudia must be regarded as merely fanciful. 

PUL. See Tiglath-pileser, 

PULSE. The Heb. word zero'lm or zer l ontm 
(Dn. I. 12 ' 16 ), " things sown," denotes garden herbs, 
and vegetables, possibly including fruit. " Pulse," 
therefore, which in English usage signifies legumi- 
nous plants, is a misleading term. See Food. 

PUNISHMENT. See Crimes and Penalties. 

PUNITES, the clan descended from Puah (AV. 
" Pua "), son of Issachar (Nu. 26. 23 ). 

PUNON, a station occupied during the wander- 
ings (Nu. 33. 42f *) : unidentified. See Pinon. 

PURAH, the " young man," probably armour- 
bearer, of Gideon (Jg. 7. 10f - " Phurah"). 

PURIFICATION. In the Mosaic dispensation 
communion between God and man was subject to 
certain limitations, or in other words, the right of 
approach to the Deity was only allowed to man on 
the condition that he was ceremonially clean. Al- 
though this was essentially a religious idea, there was 
linked with it the necessity of bodily cleanness, so 
that in this matter also there was a needful prepara- 
tion to meet with God (Gn. 35.2 ; Ex. 30. 20 ). Apart 
fm. this there were various degrees of ceremonial im- 
purity dependent upon cert, conditions of the body, 
or brought about by contact with what was in itself 
unclean; and that these mt. be removed, and the Isr. 
restored to his normal state and right to participate 
in divine things, the laws of purification had to be 
observed. It is to be particularly noted that all 
connection with the worship of other gods is every- 
where in the OT. regarded as defiling, and so all re- 
lationship to them by way of magic and sorcery as 



also particular ways of cutting the hair and marking 
the skin, are strictly forbidden (Lv. I*}. 27 * 28 ). Who- 
ever has to do with such things is unclean (Jr. 2. 23 ), 
and, as we shall see, nearly all the defiling elements 
came to be considered so fm. some supposed connec- 
tion with false deities. For such reasons a great 
variety of foods (Lv. II. ; Dt. 14.) were forbidden 
to the Isr. These have indeed been classified in 
Deuteronomy in a particular way, but still behind it 
there seems to be an original reason for their prohi- 
bition in virtue of their being in some way connected 
with false worship. We know that in Egp. many of 
the animals were considered sacred to one or other 
of the gods, and although we cannot here trace the 
reason for each particular case, we learn enough to 
judge that the essence of the prohibition was in this. 
In Is. 65*, 66. 17 we see that the eating of swine's 
flesh was connected with idolatrous rites. 

Closely connected with this was the prohibition of 
blood (Lv. 19. 26 ), and consequently, as containing 
the blood, whatever died of itself or was torn by a 
wild animal (Lv. 17. 15 ). This is explained fm. the 
fact that the blood is the life, and that the life be- 
longs to the Lord, but this claim is so emphatically 
set forth that we cannot doubt it is in contrast to the 
claims made for the life-giving and fertilising deities 
of heathendom. This becomes all the more apparent 
when we consider the various causes of unclean- 
ness connected with sexual relations — gonorrhoea 
dormientium (Lv. I5. 16 « 17 ) in the man, the monthly 
period in women (Lv. 15. 21 * 24 ), sexual intercourse 
(Lv. 15. 18 ), and child-birth (Lv. 12.). There is 
nothing in the OT. that suggests that the sexual life 
was in itself immoral or sinful, while sanitary and 
aesthetic grounds seem insufficient cause for the re- 
gulations made. Still, when we consider that all 
around the gods of fertility and increase were wor- 
shipped, such as Dagon, Ashtaroth, Ceres, and 
others, leading up to phallic worship itself, we can 
understand the necessity of formulating regulations 
to prevent all relationship to such deities. The 
claim is so often and variously repeated in the OT. 
that " it is the Lord who openeth and shutteth the 
womb," that it comes like an energetic protest agst. 
false claims raised elsewhere. 

A very great degree of uncleanness was attached to 
the touching of a dead body, and all things connected 
with death were defiling, including mourning cus- 
toms, the entering of a house in mourning, and even 
the touching of a grave (Nu. ig. UL ).* Modern 
Judaism still holds so strictly to the regulations on 
this point that no one who is reckoned a priest is 
allowed to remain in such a house or enter a ceme- 
tery. The Epistle to the Romans explains this idea 
of uncleanness as arising fm. death being the result 

* There is a special and temporary case of those who 
killed a man or touched one of the slain in the Midianite 
war (Nu. 31. 19 ) being reckoned to this class. 



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of sin, but it has been objected that this is not an 
OT. idea, and that prob. the declaration of this un- 
cleanness was made as a barrier agst. the " worship 
of the dead." Further, Leprosy was regarded as the 
extreme case of uncleanness, and if the idea of sin is 
originally absent fm. the OT. view of the former 
case, it cannot be so easily separated fm. this one. 
The leper, as even the name implies (Nu. I2. 10 ; 
2 K. 5- 27 ), is one who is smitten of God. The loath- 
some char, and the incurableness of the disease em- 
phasise this, and show how one so afflicted must be 
in the eyes of his fellow-men a manifest object of 
God's wrath, shut off fm. communication with Him, 
and so unclean. 

On the degree of defilement associated with each 
of these cases depended the nat. and extent of sepa- 
ration fm. divine and human fellowship, as also the 
greater or less complexity of the rites of purification. 
We read of cert, earthenware vessels that, having 
contracted defilement, were evidently incapable of 
purification and so had to be broken (Lv. II. 33 ), 
while those of metal were cleansed by fire (Nu. 3 1 . 23 ). 
The essence, however, of purification was usually 
water, either by way of immersion or sprinkling, but 
in certain cases it had to be accompanied by the use 
of the ashes of the red heifer (Nu. 19.) and sacrifices. 
The simplest case of purification was that of one who 
had touched an unclean animal (Lv. II. 40 ), for here 
the uncleanness passed away at sunset. When it had 
been eaten or carried (Lv. n. 25,40 ), there had to be 
added the washing of the clothes or change of them 
(Gn. 35. 2 ), wh. amounted to the same thing. In the 
case of sexual relations ox gonorrhoea dormientium (Lv. 
15. 17 ' 18 ), washing of the body was required in addi- 
tion. The case of a woman in her separation was 
equally simple (Lv. 15. 21 " 24 ), the period of seven 
days being, however, to be reckoned before its com- 
pletion ; but in the case of a more prolonged issue, 
the seven days were to be reckoned from its con- 
clusion (Lv. 15. 14 ' 28 ), and then an offering of two 
turtles or two young pigeons had to be made at the 
door of the tabernacle. At the same place absolu- 
tion fm. all uncleannesses connected with death had 
also to be effected (Nu. 19. 16 ), as also those produced 
by child-birth (Lv. 12.), and leprosy (Lv. 14. 4 " 32 ). 
For the first of these cases the ashes of the red heifer 
were used, the unclean person, because of contact 
with death, being sprinkled on the third and seventh 
days, after wh. he himself washed his clothes, bathed, 
and remained unclean till the evening. After the 
birth of a male child the mr. remained thirty-three 
days unclean, while in the case of a female child the 
uncleanness lasted sixty-six days. The offering in 
this event was a lamb of the first year, a pigeon, and 
a turtle-dove, but in the case of the poor the re- 
quirement was " two turtles or two young pigeons " 
(Lk. 2. 24 ), and as such seems to have been brought by 
Mary, it casts some light on her worldly standing. 



The case of leprosy was the most intricate of all. 
The leper had been compelled to dwell in a state of 
separation fm. man as well as fm. God, and so the 
restoration had to be carried through with due re- 
cognition of these two stages. The first of these 
was accomplished by examination, sacrifice, sprink- 
ling, shaving, and washing (Lv. I4 4 " 8 ). The second 
stage was carried through seven days later, and con- 
sisted of shaving, washing, sacrifice, and anointing ; 
after this he was readmitted to the society of his 
fellow-men. In post-exilic times the regulations 
regarding purification were extended, and applied to 
many cases not noticed in the OT. In the NT. 
there is the ritual washing of cups and pots, of 
brazen vessels and couches (Mk. 7*), while the cere- 
monial washing of the hands before meals (Mk. J. 2 ) 
remains as prominent in Judaism to-day as it did 
in NT. days, and occupies a whole treatise in the 
Talmud. The chief authorities in NT. and rabbini- 
cal times were the Pharisees, and even the wives of 
the Sadducees were wont to consult them on the 
signs of conditions demanding purification. What 
the special cases of impurity mentioned in Jn. 1 1 . 55 
and Ac. 2 1 , 24 may have been we cannot tell. A gen. 
purification may have been all that was meant, or it 
may have been connected with the idea that contact 
with heathen lands was defiling — an early Heb. 
notion (Am. 7. 17 ; Ek. 4. 13 ) which was still retained 
by the rabbinical Jew (Sbem. Rab. § 15 ; Sank. 39a). 
It is worthy of note that in the absence of the 
Temple and the meam of purification all modern 
Jews are ceremonially unclean (Joma, 57a), and we 
might even challenge their right to pray. Rabbini- 
cal Judaism, however, replies that God remaineth 
among them in the midst of their uncleanness (Lv. 
16. 16 ; Joma, 57a). Nevertheless mod. Jews as a 
rule abstain on account of their uncleanness fm. 
visiting the Temple court in Jrs. The mod. critical 
theory recognises a gradual development in the 
ideas of ceremonial purity and impurity, and an in- 
creasing demand for purification. The distinction, 
however, between the clean and the unclean is as old 
as the Jahve religion. JE. knows the distinction 
between clean and unclean animals, while the altar 
law presupposes the idea to have been associated 
with the varying conditions of the sexual life. Dt., 
while it lays little weight on ritual, emphasises these 
laws as separating Isr. as a holy people fm. other 
races, and to its list of defilements it adds sorcery, 
blood, and mourning customs. In Ek. and P. the 
system is still more extended. The latter presents 
a complete system of lustrations designed to rule 
the whole natural life, and so to aid man to attain 
the purification necessary for sharing in divine 
worship. W. M. Christie. 

PURIM, lit. " lots," referring in mockery to the 
lots by which Haman discovered the " lucky " day 
for the extermination of the Jews (Est. 3- 7 ). The 



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feast celebrates the signal deliverance which was 
wrought for the people from his murderous design 
by means of Esther and Mordecai. It was cele- 
brated on the 14th and 15th of Adar (March). 
Probably this feast came into general observance 
only gradually. The time was given up entirely to 
pleasure, visiting, feasting, giving of presents, &c. 
(Est. 9. 30fE -). For many centuries the people have 
met on the evening of the 13th and again on the 
morning of the 14th of Adar, in the synagogue, 
when the Megilla, the book of Esther, is read 
through. When the names of Haman and his 
ten sons are reached, the whole congregation, with 
violent gesticulations, stamping of the feet, hissing, 
&c, cry out at each, " Let his name be blotted out, 
let the name of the wicked perish." The closing 
sections are read by all together with hearty enjoy- 
ment. When this is over the people throw them- 
selves into the joyful festival without restraint, 
grave and reverend rabbis becoming quite jocund. 
Such is the licence permitted, that it has been held 
almost culpable for one to remain sober."* The song 
which Longfellow puts into the mouth of Rabbi ben 
Ezra is hardly an exaggeration : — 

" And often at the Purim feast 
I am as drunk as any beast 

That wallows in its sty : 
The wine it so elateth me, 
That I no difference can see 
Between ' Accursed Haman be ' 

And ' Blessed be Mordecai.'" 

On the 13th of Adar b.c. 161, Nicanor, the 
Syrian general, was defeated. 2 M. 15. 36 says that 
this victory was commemorated on the 13 th of 
Adar, " the day before Mordecai's day." Possibly 
this may account for the beginning of the feast on 
the evening of the 13th. There is no certain refer- 
ence to Purim in the NT. Some have thought it 
may be the feast spoken of in Jn. 5. 1 . This, how- 
ever, was a feast for the due celebration of which it 
was not necessary to go to Jerusalem. 

The difficulty of finding any Persian word cor- 
responding to " pur," from which the festival takes 
its name, has led to suggestions of other origins 
for the feast of Purim. These are discussed in 
HDB. s.v. 

PURPLE. The Heb. terms 'argaman and teke- 
leth are trd. in EV. " purple " and " blue " respec- 
tively. These are shades of the same colour, the 
former with more of the reddish tone, the latter with 
more of the blue. Both colours were obtained from 
a fluid secreted by a mollusc found in great quan- 
tities on the Phoenician sea-coast, Murex trunculus, 
and Tyre was famous for its fabrics dyed with 
purple. This colour was largely used in the hang- 
ings, &c, of the Tabernacle (Ex. 25.*, &c). Wear- 
ing of purple was the mark of royalty. Thus in 
mockery His tormentors arrayed Jesus in purple as 



King of the Jews (Mk. 15. 17 , &c). This is called 
" scarlet " (kokkinos) in Mw. 2J. 28 , illustrating the 
loose way in which colours are spoken of. Thya- 
tira was celebrated for its manufacture of " purple," 
by which probably is meant " Turkey red." In this 
trade Lydia was engaged (Ac. 16. 14 ). 

PURSE. See Bag (2), (5), (7). 

PUT, RV. See Phut. 

PUTEOLI, the Italian port where St. Paul 
landed (Ac. 28. 13 ; cp. Jos. Ant. XVIII. vi. 4). It 
was originally an Ionic colony on the N. shore of 
what is now the Bay of Naples, formerly known as 
Sinus Puteolanus. The town was called Dica- 
archia (Jos. Fit. 3). In the early days of the empire 
it was the most important centre of intercourse with 




The Addax or Pvgarg of Scripture 

From Wood's " Bible Animals," by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

the East. Remains of the ancient mole at which 
St. Paul landed can still be traced. 

PUTHITES, AV. PUHITES, a family of Kir- 
jath-jearim (1 Ch. 2. 53 ). 

PUTIEL, the father of Eleazar's wife, who was 
the mother of Phinehas (Ex. 6. 25 ). 

PUVAH. SV^Puah. 

PYGARG (Heb. dishon), named among the clean 
animals in Dt. 14. 5 . The name comes to us through 
the LXX, where dishon is rendered py gar go s, "white 
rump," by which name Herodotus (iv. 192) calls 
a Libyan kind of antelope. Perhaps the addax, 
an antelope with white tail and twisted horns, 
which, although rare, is still to be seen in Palestine, 
may be the animal intended. 

PYRRHUS, the father of the Bercean Sopater 
(Ac. 20. 4 RV.). 

PYTHON, SPIRIT OF. In Ac. 16. 16 RVm. 
there appears as an alternative to " a spirit of 
divination," " a spirit of Python." Python was 
the name given to the serpent that, according to 



639 



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mythology, guarded the oracle at Delphi, wh. was have said, as of the witch of Endor, " she has a 
poetically named P. also. This serpent was slain familiar spirit " ('o£), the Greek said, " she has a 
by Apollo, whence he is called Pythios. He was the Python " ; hence the tr. of AV. is quite accurate, 
god of poetry and prophecy ; he took the oracle P. is not used in LXX ; the witch of Endor is called 
henceforward to himself. When the Hebrew wd. engastromuthos, " a ventriloquist." 



Q 



QOHELETH. See Ecclesiastes. 

QUAIL (Heb. seldv), the well-known migratory 
bird ; mentioned in Scrip, only in connection with 
the wandering in the wilderness (Ex. 16. 13 ; Nu 




The Quail 

From Wood's " Bible Animals," by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

A difficulty, due to a misunderstanding, has been felt as to 
the huge number of quails that fell about the camp. The 
phrase in Nu. u. 31 is, "Let them fall by the camp, as it 
were a day's journey on this side and as it were a day's 
journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as 
it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth." 
But the real meaning of the word trd. "let fall" is "let 
loose " ; hence the picture presented is not of a province 
of iooo square miles in extent piled up a yard high with 
quails, but an immense flight of those birds flying at a 
height of two cubits above the ground. 

QUARREL does not in Scripture have the 
modern meaning of " an angry dispute." It is the 
Lat. querela, " complaint," or " ground of com- 
plaint." Thus it is used of the " quarrel " of 
God's covenant, which He is to bring a sword to 
avenge (Lv. 26. 25 AV.). The king of Israel thought 
Naaman's mission was to seek a quarrel against him, 
i.e. to find occasion for complaint (2 K. 5. 7 ). So in 
Col. 3. 13 , " if any man have a quarrel against any," 
RV. gives " complaint " for " quarrel." Herodias' 
" quarrel " against John was evidently deep resent- 
ment because of his fearless fidelity (Mk. 6. 19 ). 

QUARRY. When Ehud had presented the gift 
with which he had been sent to the king of Moab, 
he set out for home ; but we are told that he 
" turned back from the quarries that were by 
Gilgal " ; and, when he had accomplished the as- 
sassination of Eglon, that he " escaped while they 
tarried, and passed beyond the quarries." EVm. 
suggests that we should tr. " graven images." They 



were probably stones roughly sculptured to the 
shape of images (cf. Moore, Judges, ad loc). 

In I K. 6. 7 , regarding the stone used in building 
the Temple, AV. reads that it " was built of stone 
made ready before it was brought thither " : RV. 
" made ready at the quarry," but gives in the 
margin the alternative, " when it was brought 
away." The lit. rendering seems to be " stone per- 
fect at the quarry," or " at the quarrying." The 
word, massa\ does not occur elsewhere. 

QUARTUS, a Corinthian Christian who joined 
St. Paul in salutations to the brethren in Rome 
(Rm. 16. 23 ). Tradition makes him one of " the 
seventy," and subsequently bishop of Berytus. 

QUATERNION (Gr. tetradion), a detachment of 
" four men." The " watches " each consisted of 
four men, taking the four watches of the night in 
succession. Peter was delivered to four quater- 
nions, so in each watch he wd. be under the charge 
of four soldiers (Ac. 12. 4 ). 

QUEEN stands in EV. for several Heb. words not 
quite identical in meaning. The queen of Sheba 
(1 K. io. lff -, &c.) and Queen Candace of Ethiopia 
(Ac. 8. 27 ) are the only queens mentioned in Scrip- 
ture as reigning in their own right. Athaliah did 
indeed exercise royal authority, but only as a usurper 




Quarries under Jerusalem 

(2 K. ii. 3 ; 2 Ch. 22. 12 ). While queenly rule was 
legitimate in other countries, there is no evidence 
that a woman had the right to reign in Israel. The 
position of Deborah was due to the assertion of her 
own personal ascendency at a time of crisis, when 
law had to give way to necessity (Jg. 4*). 

The title of " queen " is applied to wives of reign- 



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ing monarchs in other countries ; e.g. to the wife of 
Pharaoh (i K. n. 19 ), to Vashti and Esther (Est. I. 11 , 
2. 17 ), &c. It is so used in Israel only in poetry (Ps. 
4S .»; SS.6.*). 

It was an almost inevitable result of polygamy 
that the mother of the king should possess consider- 
able influence over her son. The name of "queen" 
in this capacity is given to Jezebel (2 K. io. 13 ), 
Maacah (1 K. 15. 13 ), and Nehushta (Jr. 13. 18 ) in 
Israel ; and to the mother of Belshazzar (Dn. 5. 10 ). 
Bathsheba is not called " queen," but the position 
she held, and the influence which she was able to 
wield, are sufficiently indicated by the provision of a 
throne for her by Solomon, so that she might sit at 
his right hand (1 K. 2. 19 ). Maacah was able to 
maintain her evil influence throughout the reign of 
her son Abijah, and well into that of her grand- 
son Asa. Only monstrous and intolerable infamy 
brought about her downfall (1 K. 15. 13 , &c). Jere- 
miah's reference to Nehushta, the mother of Jehoia- 
chin (2 K. 24. 8 ; Jr. 13. 18 , 2o,. 2 ), can be explained 
only if she counted for something considerable in 
opposition to his counsel. The king's mother seems 
to have had in Israel some recognised official posi- 
tion ; but this it is impossible to define. 

QUEEN OF HEAVEN (Heb. meleketh hashsha- 
maylm), a deity worshipped by the Jewish women 
(Jr. 7. 18 , 44. 17 - 19 - 25 ), probably Ishtar, the Baby- 
lonian goddess whose star was the planet Venus. 
In the Heb. text the word for " queen " is pointed 
as if it were the word for " work " written defectively 
fD^D for ri3tfte- The scholars who added the 
vowels evidently took it in this sense, apparently 
understanding it of the creative work displayed in 
the heavens : so that for them the phrase would be 
equivalent to " host of heaven." The EV. trans- 
lation is, however, probably correct. 

QUICK in AV. of Ac. io. 42 ; 2 Tm. 4. 1 ; He. 
4. 12 ; I P. 4. 5 , means " living." In all these pas- 
sages save He. 4. 12 it is used in distinction from 
" dead." In He. 4. 12 the word of God is described 
as "living" (RV.). 

QUICKEN in every case means to impart or to 
intensify life (Ps. 71. 20 , &c. ; Jn. 5. 21 , &c). 

QUICKSANDS, RV. SYRTES. The Syrtes, 
Major and Minor, were two gulfs on the northern 
coast of Africa, with shallows and sunken reefs. 
The perils for shipping were increased by the 
moving of the sand-banks, and cross currents. 
Sailors dreaded to be caught in a storm amid the 
swirling waters of the Syrtes (Ac. 27. 17 ). The 
greater S. is now called the Gulf of Sidra, to the E. 
of Tripoli : the smaller S. is the Gulf of Gabes, to 
the E. of Tunis. 

QUIRINIUS. St. Luke explains (2. 1 *) how it 
came about that Jesus, whose parents had their 
home in Nazareth, was born in Bethlehem. They 
had to journey to their ancestral city to be enrolled 

64 



there, in obedience to a decree issued by the 
emperor Augustus ; and while in Bethlehem on this 
occasion their Son was born. In a parenthesis St. 
Luke observes that " this was the first enrolment 
made when Qurinius was governor of Syria " (2. 2 ). 

That St. Luke has assigned the true reason for 
the presence of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem need 
not be questioned. Such enrolments were common, 
and from evidence supplied by Egyptian papyri, 
they seem to have taken place once in fourteen 
years. We know that a census was taken in Judaea 
during the years a.d. 6-9. This is the enrolment 
referred to in Ac. 5. 37 , which provoked the ill-starred 
rising of Judas of Galilee. It is reasonable, there- 
fore, to assume that fourteen years earlier, while 
Herod the Great was yet alive, a similar enrolment 
was carried out. This is what St. Luke states ; and, 
" having traced the course of all things accurately 
from the first," he was not likely to err on a point 
like this. 

But the mention of Quirinius as being governor of 
Syria at that time raises difficulties. Quirinius was 
governor of Syria when the census mentioned in 
Ac. 5. was taken. Has St. Luke erred, antedating 
his governorship some fourteen years ? 

The facts, as established by ancient authority, are 
these : the governors of Syria were from B.C. 9-7, 
Sentius Saturninus ; 6-4, Quinctilius Varus. Here 
there is a blank in our knowledge till a.d. 6, when P. 
Sulpicius Quirinius was appointed. It is, of course, 
possible that he may have had an earlier term of 
office during these unrecorded years ; but even so, 
this could not have fallen within the lifetime of 
Herod the Great, who died b.c 4. That he was 
" governor " of Syria in the ordinary sense at the 
time of our Lord's birth cannot, therefore, be main- 
tained. There is still the possibility that Quirinius, 
at the time specified, held some such position in Syria 
as would justify St. Luke in describing him as hege- 
mon. After a careful consideration of all the avail- 
able and relevant facts, Sir W. M. Ramsay concludes 
in favour of the " supposition that the foreign re- 
lations of Syria, with the command of its armies, 
were entrusted for a time to Quirinius, with a view 
to his conducting -the difficult and responsible war 
against the Homonadenses, while the internal ad- 
ministration of the province was left to Saturninus 
or to Varus (according to the period when we place 
the mission of Quirinius). This extraordinary 
command of Quirinius lasted for at least two years, 
and had come to an end before the death of Herod 
in b.c 4, for we know on the authority of Tacitus 
that the disturbances arising in Palestine on that 
event were put down by Varus ; and this trouble, as 
belonging to the foreign relations of the province, 
would on our hypothesis have been dealt with by 
Quirinius, if he had been still in office " {Was Christ 
Born at Bethlehem P 238). Illustrations are quoted 



Qui 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Quo 




of such temporary division of duties elsewhere, 
where two men hold precisely the same title and 
official rank. • St. Luke's title, hegemon, exactly suits 
one holding such a position. 

Of Quirinius himself we know that he held the 
consulship in B.C. 12; his second governorship of 
Syria began in a.d. 6 ; he prosecuted his wife, 
Domitia Lepida, whom he accused of having tried 
to poison him, in a.d. 20. His death and public 
funeral took place in a.d. 21. 

QUIVER (Heb. 'ash-pah), the receptacle for spare 
arrows worn by the Egyptians at 
the side, and by the Assyrians on 
the shoulder. 

QUOTATIONS. There are 
quotations in the Bible from 
profane literature. Thus, in ad- 
dressing the Athenians on Mars 
Hill, St. Paulreminded his hearers 
that certain of their poets had 
said of God, % " We are all His off- 
spring " ; and this sentiment has 
Ornamented Quiver been traced back to more than 

(NIMRUD) one of the Q reek autllors# J n 

Tt. I. 12 the writer quotes an extremely uncom- 
plimentary reflection on the character of the 
Cretans from a prophet of their own, who has been 
identified as Epimenides, a poet belonging to the 
sixth century b.c. In his edition of The Book of 
Enoch, Charles gives no fewer than a dozen pages of 
passages in the NT. the language or ideas of wh. he 
believes to be coloured by those of that pseudepi- 
graphon ; but, in most cases, it requires the fond 
eyesight of an editor to detect any resemblance, and 
the ages of the different elements of which The Book 
of Enoch is composed are so uncertain that, where 
quotation may be acknowledged, it is impossible to 
determine on wh. side it lies. Not a few echoes of 
the Apocryphal Books of the OT. have been sup- 
posed to be heard in the NT. ; but these are vague 
and indecisive. Of course even one indubitable 
quotation of marked importance in the NT. might 
have elevated an apocryphal into a canonical 
book. 

In the Old Testament frequent reference is made 
to the Book of Jashar or to the Book of the Wars of 
the Lord as the source of statements in the historical 
books ; and, according to the modern theory of 
these books, numerous older documents are em- 
bodied in the narratives as they have reached us — a 
mode of writing history wh. has been exactly repro- 
duced in our own day in The Historian's History of 
the World. In the later prophets not only words 
but ideas are borrowed from the earlier ones ; and 
many a later psalm is little more than a cento of 
phrases from those which are more primitive, 
Psalm 14. and Psalm 53., for instance, being almost 



identical. 



But the phenomenon of greatest interest and im- 
portance is the quotation of the Old Testament in 
the New. This takes place on a large scale, and ex- 
hibits not a few remarkable characteristics. Some 
would state the number of quotations at about three 
hundred, but others put it at double that figure. 
This copiousness of quotation is one of the most 
striking signs of the harmony between the two Tes- 
taments. While all other influences on the Gospel 
History and the development of the Primitive 
Church are apt to be exaggerated, this one can 
hardly be sufficiently emphasised. The mind of our 
Lord Himself was soaked in the Old Testament ; 
His language was deeply coloured with its phraseo- 
logy ; and, in this respect at least, all the writers of 
the New Testament resembled their Master. They 
all acknowledged and welcomed the Old Testament 
as the Word of God ; they were persuaded that it 
spoke abundantly of Christ ; and they found in it a 
vocabulary ready to their hand for the experiences 
and convictions which they wished to express. They 
quote it, therefore, in every possible way — some- 
times unconsciously borrowing its phraseology ; 
sometimes introducing allusions as flowers of adorn- 
ment ; sometimes quoting loosely from memory, 
at other times giving the very words ; sometimes 
stringing together phrases taken from different 
places ; sometimes, with the formula " that it might 
be fulfilled," indicating that the event related has 
happened in accordance with ancient prophecy. 
But the style of quotation is always free and flow- 
ing, not learned and exact. It is the new Gospel 
that carries the force of truth within itself, not the 
quotation wh. makes it true. 

Generally the text of the OT. quoted is that 
of the Septuagint, which was the people's Bible of 
that age, giving the sacred books in the universally 
diffused Greek language. Only occasionally does 
one of the New Testament writers revert to the 
original Hebrew, though this must have been 
familiar to most of them. Now and then there is so 
wide a departure from both the Hebrew and the 
Greek, as these have come down to us, as to suggest 
that there may have been in existence a translation 
into Aramaic, the language then spoken in Palestine. 
It is of course possible that, in some cases, the 
Hebrew or even the Greek text of the Old Testa- 
ment which lay before a New Testament writer may 
have varied from that which has come down to us. 
Looseness of quotation is, however, in most cases a 
more probable explanation. It is certainly extra- 
ordinary how much freedom the writers allow them- 
selves in this respect. There are instances where 
they quote what we should now consider an incor- 
rect rendering, and yet the point of the quotation 
lies in this very word ; and, in some cases, words are 
quoted as if they bore on New Testament events 
when it is now very difficult for us to see in them any 



642 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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such reference. Of course it is easy to say, that 
there must be such a reference, if the Bible says so, 
and that the rendering must be the true one, if the 
New Testament adopts it ; but there is a conscience 
in scholarship, the violation of which is' even more 
perilous than it is to acknowledge that, in a distant 
and simple age, and amidst the first enthusiasm of a 
new religion, a style of quotation may have been 



occasionally employed which we should not now 
consider scientific. It is true, however, on the 
other hand, that often in the words of Jesus, and not 
infrequently in other portions of the NT., there is a 
sovereign glance into the Old Testament text which 
penetrates to the core, and reveals a meaning never 
divined before but inevitable when once detected. 

James Stalker. 



R 



RAAMA, RAAMAH, son of Cush, and father of 
Sheba and Dedan (Gn. io. 7 ). Ezekiel speaks of the 
merchants of Raamah (2J. 22 ), along with those of 
Sheba, trading with Tyre in " the chief of all 
spices," and " all precious stones and gold." The 
name is probably to be found in that of Regma, a 
settlement on the Persian Gulf near Ras-el-Khaima 
(Glazer, Skizze, ii. 325). 

RAAMIAH, one of the chiefs who returned from 
Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ne. J. 1 ). His name is 
given in Ez. 2. 2 as Reelaiah, and in I Es. 5. 2 as 
Reesaias. 

RAAMSES. See Rameses. 

RABBAH, RABBATH AMMON. (1) Rabbah 
of the children of Ammon was the capital of the 
Ammonites, where the bedstead (sarcophagus ?) 
of Og was shown (Dt. 3. 11 ). After a siege, during 
which Uriah was exposed and slain, the city was 
taken by David and Joab (2 S. II. 1 , 12. 26 , &c), but 
soon again passed into the hands of native princes 
(2 S. 17. 27 ). It was captured by Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus (b.c. 235-247), who called it Philadelphia. It 
was taken by Antiochus the Great, b.c 218. In 
b.c 135 we find it in the hands of Zeno Cotylas 
(Jos. Ant. XIII. viii. 1 ; BJ. I. ii. 4). Pompey 
joined it to the Decapolis. In a.d. 66 it was laid 
waste by the revolting" Jews (BJ. II. xviii. 1). 

Rabbah is identified with the mod. l Amman, an 
extensive ruin to the NE. of Heshbon, on the nor- 
thern bank of Wady 'Amman, a fertile vale in the 
upper reaches of the Jabbok. The ruins are mostly 
of Roman origin, but there are also remains of very 
ancient buildings. The city appears to have been 
built in two portions. The site of the " Royal 
City," or " City of Waters," if the reading is correct 
(2 S. 12. 27 ), may have corresponded with that of 
el-Qal'ab. By means of an underground passage 
this is connected with a large cistern or tank to the 
north, from which the stronghold was probably 
supplied with water. The besieger who secured 
command of the water-supply could speedily reduce 
the fortress (cp. Polybius, v. 7). When this strong 
position was taken the other part could offer no 
effective resistance.* 

* Klostermann suggests that we should read py instead of 
y>y, i.e. "fountain of waters," instead of " city of waters." 



'Amman is now occupied by a mixed population 
of Arabs and Circassians, who are fairly enterprising 
and prosperous in tilling the surrounding land. 
The Damascus-Mecca railway, with a station here, 
brings it into touch with civilisation. 

(2) A city in the territory of Judah, named with 
Kirjath-jearim (Jo. 15. 60 ), unidentified. 




Rabbah: Temple of Molecii 

RABBI, a title of respect. Originally it was rab, 
" great," wh. with the suffix of the first pers. be- 
comes rabbi, " my master." It was equivalent to 
" dominus," the title used by schoolboys to their 
teachers in the later Middle Ages. It is prob. 
derived fm. Bab. rab, " chief of." In the time of 
our Lord it meant " acknowledged teacher " ; in 
Tim. it means, when absolute, the compiler of the 
Mishna, Jehuda haq-Qodesh. A title of yet greater 
respect was Rabbon, with pronominal suffix Rabboni 
(Jn. 20. 16 ) ; a similar variation is Rabban, a title 
given to certain older rabbis, e.g. Gamaliel. Our 
Lord's exhortation, " Be not ye called R." (Mw. 
23. 8 ), means that they were not to be eager for 
titles of distinction. 

RABBITH, properly ha-Rabbith (with the def. 
art.), a city in the territory of Issachar (Jo. 19. 20 ). 
It is possibly to be identified with the mod. Raba, 
to the north of Ibzdq, on the southern part of the 
Gilboa range. 

RAB-MAG, a Bab. title borne by Nergal- 
sharezer (Jr. 39. 13 ). The exact significance of 
R.-M. is doubtful ; formerly it was thought to 



643 



Rab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Rac 



mean " chief of the Magi," but magicians were not 
known by that name in Babylon. Rawlinson sug- 
gests ~R.-emga, " the wise prince." Pinches prefers 
JL-mugt, with uncertain significance. Delitzsch 
suggests mahhu, wh. wd. mean " magician." 

RAB-SARIS, an Asyr. and Bab. title (2 K. 18. 17 ; 
Jr. 39. 13 ), originally supposed to mean " chief of the 
eunuchs " ; it is now thought to stand for rabu-sa- 
resu, " chief of the heads," prob. the superintendent 
of the household ; Luther's tr., der oberste Ram- 
merer, has a good deal to recommend it. 
- RABSHAKEH, the title of an Asyr. military 
official, sent by Sennacherib to Jrs. fm. Lachish to 
threaten Hezekiah into surrender (2 K. 18. 1 - 7 " 37 ; 
Isa. 36. 2 ' 22 ). Formerly it was regarded as cer- 
tain that this title meant the " chief of the cup- 
bearers," but it seems clear that it is a modification 
into Heb. intelligibility of rabu-saku, " chief of the 
captains," equivalent to our " chief of the staff " ; 
he was next in dignity to the Tartan. The R. of 
the narrative, if an insolent soldier, appears to have 
had accomplishments, as he knew Heb. ; it is con- 
ceivable that, as in modern armies, officers in the 
armies of Asyr. were expected to be acquainted 
with the languages of neighbouring countries. 

RACA (Heb. riq, Aram, riqa), a term of insult 
wh. made the utterer of it liable to prosecution 
before the Sanhedrin (Mw. 5. 22 ), but less oppro- 
brious than more, " fool," as the latter, being the tr. 
of Heb. ndbdl, implied moral delinquency (Ps. 14. 1 ). 

RACE. This was one of the earliest athletic 
contests instituted, and one of the most prominent ; 
it is mentioned in the Iliad in connection with the 
funeral rites of Patroclus (II. xxiii. 759f.), and Plato 
in the " Laws " regards it as a necessary part of the 
duty of the rulers of a city to institute such a con- 
test (Leg. viii. 833). There were different lengths 
of race : (1) the stadion, the usual length of the 
arena of the stadium, about 600 ft. ; (2) the diaulos 
or double course ; (3) the ephippios, twice the 
diaulos ; this was a test of endurance. The great 
test for this, however, was (4) the dolichos, wh. was 



sometimes on an irregular track across mountains. 
In I Cor. 9. 24 the reference is to the race within the 
stadium ; in v. 26 there may be reference to the long 
course over hills ; adolos, " uncertainly," seems to 
point to the possibility of uncertainty as to the 
course. Paul frequently mentions " running in 
vain " (Gal. 2. 2 ; Php. 2. 16 ), a phrase that seems to 
suggest, not defeat, but rather bootless running 
through mistaking the course ; it wd. appear to be a 
not infrequent cause of missing the prize. In He. 
I2. 1, 2 the fig. seems to be the epbippios, or even the 
dolichos ; it is a test of patience, and it is run in the 
stadium, " looking " to Him who has instituted the 
race, who Himself sits as judge. 

RACHAL, RV. RACAL, one of the cities in 
Judah to which David sent a portion of the spoil 
taken from the Amalekites who had raided Ziklag 
(1 S. 30. 29 ). No place with a name resembling this 
has been found. Perhaps we should read with LXX 
" in Carmel " (of Judaea) instead of " in Radial." 




Grecian Footrace 



7, 12, 20, or 24 stadia in length. If one may deduce 
the practice in Greece fm. Plato's requirement in 
the " Laws," it was sometimes run in full armour, 




Rachel's Tomb 

RACHEL, younger daughter of Laban, and 
chosen wife of Jacob, for love of whom the years of 
service spent to win her seemed " but a few days " 
(Gn. 29.). Jacob was deceived by Laban into 
marrying Leah, since it would be disgrace to her 
if the younger sister were married first. Rachel, 
however, was also given him, on condition of yet 
seven years' service. The elder sister bore him 
sons, while, to her sorrow, the younger and favourite 
wife remained long childless. Her dearest wish at 
length was gratified by the birth of Joseph. The 
two sisters stood by Jacob in his dispute with their 
father, and with their children and household ac- 
companied him in his flight. With a view, no 
doubt, to securing good luck, Rachel carried off her 
father's Teraphim, thereby incurring a danger at the 
hands of her father when he overtook the fugitives, 
from which she saved herself by womanly guile (Gn. 
3l. 17ff -). Somewhere north of Bethel Rachel died 
in giving birth to Benjamin. There Jacob buried 



644 



Rad 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ram 



her, setting up a monument over her grave. 
Rachel's Tomb is shown to-day on the west side of 
the road as one goes from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. 
It is a white-domed sanctuary, with a shelter beside 
it for the Jews who make pious pilgrimage hither. 
The Moslems do not permit them to enter the 
sanctuary where, they believe, the dust of their 
great ancestress sleeps. But a position to the north 
of Jerusalem, and not far from Bethel, seems to be 
required by I S. io. 2, 5 {cp. Jr. 31. 15 ). Ephrath 
may have been a place near Ramah ; and " the same 
is Bethlehem " (Gn. 35. 19 , 48. 7 ) must be taken as 
a gloss. No identification is at present possible. 
Jeremiah (3 1. 15 ) imagines Rachel weeping for her 
children, Joseph and Benjamin, as their descendants 
are carried away into captivity (cp. Mw. 2. 17f *). 

RADDAI, brother of David, fifth son of Jesse 
(1 Ch. 2. 14 ). 

RAGUEL (Nu. io. 29 ), REUEL (Ex. 2. 18 ). See 
Jethro. 

In the first of these spellings the AV. has followed the 
LXX, wh. in this instance represents the Heb. 'ain by 7: 
prob. in Heb. as in Arb. l ain had a smooth and rough form, 
the latter being transliterated by 7 . The RV. has not 
followed the eccentric variation of AV. 

RAHAB, a woman of Jericho, a harlot, who 
received the spies. She hid them under the flax 
stalks on the roof, when the king's messengers sought 
them, and contrived for them a way of escape. By 
a sign then agreed upon — a scarlet cord hung in the 
window — her house was recognised when the city 
was taken, and she and all her household were saved 
alive (Jo. 2. lff -, 6. 17 , &c). She is named among 
those the memory of whose faith is cherished as an 
inspiration (He. II. 31 ; Js. 2. 25 ). Rahab also ap- 
pears in the genealogy as an ancestress of our Lord 
(Mw. I. 5 ). There is no reason to doubt that the 
same Rahab is intended. 

RAHAB, lit. " pride," as in Jb. 9. 13 ; in 26. 12 a 
poetic name for the sea (RV.). Most frequently a 
poetic name for Egp., as Ps. 87*, 89. 10 ; also RV. 
Is. 30. 7 . It has been suggested that R. represents 
some native name of Egp., modified to suit a Heb. 
meaning, but no Coptic name of Egp. has been 
found wh. wd. lend itself to this. 

RAHAM, a descendant of Caleb, son of Hezron 
(1 Ch. 2. 41 ), son of Shema and father of Jorkoam. 

RAIMENT. See Dress. 

RAIN. See Water, Winter. 

RAINBOW. For the use of this most striking 
and beautiful of natural phenomena in ancient 
Babylonian mythology see Sayce, Expository Times, 
vii. 463^ It was regarded as the bow with which 
God shot His gleaming arrows — i.e. lightning — in 
anger against men (Ps. J. m - ; Hb. 3. 9fl -). The 
hanging of it up in the clouds was a token that His 
wrath was past (Gn. g. 13S - ; cp. Jos. Ant. I. iii. 8). 
Whatever 'may have been thought of it in former 



days, the covenant with Noah, of which it was made 
the sign, invested it with a new and nobler signi- 
ficance. It was an ever-recurring reminder of 
God's promise of mercy. The splendour of its 
colouring makes it a fit image of God's glory (Ek. 
I. 28 ). Thus it impressed the son of Sirach : " Look 
upon the rainbow and praise Him that made it. 
Very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof. It 
compasseth the heaven about with a glorious circle, 
and the hands of the Most High have bended it " 
(Sr. 43. llf -). This also is alluded to in the vivid de- 
scriptions of the " rainbow-circled throne " (Rv. 
4. 3 ), and of the angel rainbow-crowned (io. 1 ). 

RAISINS. In vine-growing districts where the 
Moslem feeling against wine is strong, raisins are 
still made in great quantities, e.g., in es-Salt, east of 
the Jordan. For this purpose the grapes without 
pips, which flourish there, are especially prized. 
The bunches are plunged into a solution of potash 
and dried in the sun. From these raisins the Jews 
in Tiberias are accustomed to distil a strong spirit, 
which they call " brandy." 

RAKEM, a descendant of Machir by Maacah his 
wife (1 Ch. 7. 16 ), brother of Ulam. 

RAKKATH, a fortified city in the territory of 
Naphtali, mentioned along with Hammath and 
Chinnereth (Jo. 19. 35 ). Hammath may be identi- 
fied with the hot springs on the shore south of 
Tiberias. A Jewish tradition identifies the site with 
that on which Tiberias was built. An ancient town 
did occupy that position, and the graves of its in- 
habitants were disturbed in preparing the founda- 
tions for Herod's city. But there is no certain 
knowledge as to its name (Neubauer, Geog. d. 
Tim. 208). 

RAKKON. This is probably a scribal error, a 
repetition of the name Me-jarkon immediately 
preceding. Only one name is given in the LXX 
(Jo. IO"). 

RAM. (1) Son of Hezron, brother of Jerahmeel 
and father of Amminadab (Ru. 4. 19 ; 1 Ch. 2. 9 ). 
He appears as the son of Jerahmeel in 1 Ch. 2. 25> 27 . 
His name is given as "Aram" in Mw. i. 3f -; Lk. 
3. 33 AV. (2) Head of the family to which belonged 
Job's " friend " Elihu, the son of Barachel the 
Buzite (Jb. 32.2). 

RAM. See Sheep. 

RAMAH, a name signifying elevation, attached 
to several towns in Palestine, occupying high posi- 
tions. (1) A fortified city in the territory of 
Naphtali (Jo. 19. 36 ), perhaps to be identified with 
mod. er-Rameb, a large Christian village on the road 
to the coast, about eight miles WSW. of Safed. 
Much excellent land is cultivated by the villagers. 
It is noted for its olive and lemon groves, while 
fruitful vineyards climb the slopes of the mountain 
to the north. (2) A city in the territory of Benja- 
min, named with Gibeon and Beeroth (Jo. 18. 25 ). 



645 



Ram 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ram 



It was situated on the road which led north from RAMATH LEHI, the place where Samson slew 
Jerusalem, not far from Gibeah (Jg. icj. 133 -), and in the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass (Jg. 15. 17 ), 
the neighbourhood of Rachel's tomb (Jr. 31. 15 ). At lit. " the height of Lehi." It is not identified. 
Ramah, Jeremiah was set free from among the RAMATH MIZPEH, a city on the northern 
captives of Jerusalem and Judaea who were being frontier of Gad (Jo. 13. 26 ), possibly identical with 
deported to Babylon (Jr. 40. 1 ). It was reoccupied Mizpah (i). 

after the Exile (Ez. 2. 26 ; Ne. 7. 30 ). OEJ. places it RAMESES (Gn. 47. 11 ), RAAMSES (Ex. i. n ), 
six Roman miles north of Jerusalem. These condi- the name of a city in Egp. built as a " store city " by 
tions are well met by er-Ram, about two miles north the Israelites under Ramses II. ; it is used as a name 
of Tell el-Ful (Gibeah), and five miles north of for Goshen (Qosem), wh., accdg. to Sayce (HDB.), 
Jerusalem. It is a wretched hamlet, occupying a was the capital of the 20th nome. The Israelites 
commanding position on a high hill. There are assembled here previous to their departure out of 
broken columns, squared stones, and other memo- Egp. (see Exodus) ; prob. the scribe changed the 
rials of a town of some importance in antiquity, superseded name, " Goshen," into the better-known 
(3) The place of birth and the burial-place of the Rameses. 

prophet Samuel (1 S. I. 19 , 25. 1 ), also called Rama- Professor Flinders Petrie would identify the site 
thaim Zophim (v. 1), in Mount Ephraim. Ha- of R. with Tell er-Retabeh in " Wady Tumilat, 
ramathayim-tzoptiim is ungrammatical, and points about 20 miles from Ismailiyeh on the east." Here 
to some confusion of the text. It may be trd. " the 
two hills of the Zuphites." It was on a height at 
no great distance from Shiloh, and was one of the 
towns within Samuel's annual circuit (1 S. 7. 16L ). 
In 1 M. 11. 34 it is named (Remathem), along with 
the two toparchies, Apherema and Lydda (Ephraim 
and Diospolis), formerly belonging to Samaria, as 
being added to Judaea. OEJ. identifies it with 
Arimathea, and places it in the region of Timnah, 
near Diospolis. Guthe (KB) would identify it 
with Renfis, a small village on an ancient site, 
eight miles north of Lydda. Many (G. A. Smith, 
HGHL. 254 ; Driver, HDB. s.v. ; Buhl, GAP. 170, 
&c.) incline to Beit Rima, a village standing on a 
hill, 1 3 miles ENE. of Lydda, and two miles north 
of Timnah. Of other possible identifications only 
Rdmallah need be mentioned here. It is a large and 
prosperous Christian village, occupying a lofty posi- 
tion, with ancient remains, fully eight miles north 
of Jerusalem, twelve miles south-west of Shiloh, he found " a temple of Ramessu II. with sculptures 
and three miles from Bethel. This place would in red granite and limestone ; part of a tomb of an 
agree well enough with the indications of the official who was over the store-houses of Syrian pro- 
Biblical narrative. (4) A city on the boundary of duce ; and the great works of Ramessu III. All 
Asher, near Tyre (Jo. 19. 29 ). It is probably now these discoveries exactly accord with the require- 
represented by Ramia, 13 miles south-east of Tyre ments of the city of Raamses, where both the second 
(Robinson, BRP. iii. 64). (5) By Ramah in 2 K. and third kings of that name are stated to have 
8. 29 ; 2 Ch. 22. 6 , the city of Ramoth-Gilead is in- worked, and where a store city was built by the 
tended. (6) Ramah of the South, a city in the Israelites along with that of Pithom, wh. is only 
territory of Simeon (Jo. 19. 8 ), apparently identical eight miles distant. The absence ^ of any other 
with Baalath Beer. It was one of the towns to Egyptian site suitable to these conditions, wh. are all 
which David sent a share of the Amalekite spoil fulfilled here, makes it practically certain that this 
(1 S. 30. 27 , Ramoth of the South, where LXX was the city of Raamses named in Exodus " (quoted 
retains the singular "Rama"). It is not identified, by M'Neile, Exodus, Addenda, from Hyksos and 




Ramses II. : Colossal Stati 



RAMAH, or RAMOTH OF THE SOUTH. 

See Ramah (6). 

RAMATHAIM-ZOPHIM. See Ramah (2). 

RAMATHITE. Shimei the Ramathite was 
David's superintendent of vineyards (1 Ch. 2J. 27 ) 



Israelite Cities, Brit. Sch. of Archaeol. in Egypt, and 
Egyptian Research Account, 12th year, 1906). 

RAMIAH, son of Parosh, one of those who 
married foreign wives (Ez. IO. 25 ). 

RAMOTH. (1) A city in the territory of 



possibly a native of Ramah (2), but there is no Issachar, given to the Gershonite Levites (1 Ch. 
certainty. 6. 73 ), perhaps to be identified with Remeth (Jo. 

646 



Ram 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Rea 



19. 21 ) and Jarmuth (Jo. 21. 29 ). (2) Ramoth, RV. compensation for murder; a practice common 
Jeremoth, one of the sons of Bani, who married a among savage nations still, but disallowed by the 
foreign wife (Ez. io. 29 ). law of Israel. 

RAMOTH-GILEAD, in the territory of Gad, RAPHA, RAPHAH. _ (1) In 1 Ch. 20 4 « 6 » 8 , 

where the Heb. word is ha-rapha\ and in 2 S. 
2 x 16, 18, 20, 22 ^ wne re the Heb. word is ha-raphah, 
each being trd. by RV. " the giant," RVm. sub- 
stitutes, perhaps wrongly, the names Rapha and 
Raphah. There is nothing to suggest that a proper 
name is intended : while the article indicates a 
common noun. The phrase prob. only means that 
the men named were born of giant stock {see 
Rephaim). (2) Son of Binea, a descendant of Saul 
(1 Ch. 8. 37 ). He appears as Rephaiah in 1 Ch. cj. 43 . 
RAPHU, father of Palti, who represented the 
tribe of Benjamin among the spies (Nu. 13. 9 ). 

RAVEN, the well-known bird Corvus corax, 
common in Pal. It is mentioned in the account 
of the Flood in Gn. 8. 7 ; and declared unclean 
in Lv. II. 15 ; Dt. 14. 14 . Ravens supplied Elijah 
with food (1 K. 17. 6 ). 

There is an explanation of this miracle wh. is not without 
some plausibility. If we neglect the vowels the word trd. 
"ravens" may be rendered "Arabs," or " merchants," or 
" inhabitants of Oreb." Some scribe loving the marvellous 
mt. have made the change. 

The ravens are mentioned as examples of Divine 

as black 




View of Spring. Watering the Flocks 



was one of the most important cities east of the 
Jordan. It was chosen as a City of Refuge (Dt. 4. 43 , 
&c). One of Solomon's commissariat officers was 
stationed here. Two others, one at Mahanaim, 
seem to have been placed to the south, so that 



Ramoth-Gilead must have lain in the northern 

district of Gad (1 K. 4. 13 ' 14 > 19 ). The possession of C are (Jb. 38. 41 ; Ps. 147. 9 ; Lk. 12. 24 ) 



Ramoth-Gilead was the object of fierce strife 
between Israel and Syria. Here Ahab was mortally 
wounded, Joram was badly hurt, and Jehu was 
anointed (1 K. 22. 3 , &c. ; 2 K. 8. 28ff -, 9. lff *). It was 
open to the approach of chariots (1 K. 22. 31 ). OEJ. 



(SS. 5. 11 ) ; as dwelling in solitary places (Is. 34. 11 ). 
RAZOR (Heb. mordh, ta'ar ; the former word 
is strictly " razor " ; the latter is really " knife "). 
Shaving was common among the Egyptians ; not 
only the chin but the whole head was shaved. One 



places it 15 Roman miles west of Philadelphia, on G f the signs of the consecration of the Nazirite was 

the Jabbok. ^ The distance might suit es-Salt, a that no razor shd. come upon his head (Nu. 6. 5 ) ; 

prosperous village, with ruins of a mediaeval castle, S o too of Samson (Jg. 16. 17 ) ; and of Samuel (i S. 

and a few traces of antiquity. But it was ten miles i.H). On the contrary, the sign of the consecration 

south of the Jabbok ; and the surrounding country of the Levite was " shaving " (Nu. 8. 7 ). When the 

is such as to make chariot warfare impossible. 

Buhl {GAP. 261 ff.) favours el-Jil'ad, on a height to 

the south of the Jabbok {see Gilead 2). If this is 

correct, Ramoth-Gilead cannot be identical with 

Mizpeh of Gilead (Jg. n. 11 , &c.) {see Mizpeh, 

Mah an i am) . Merrell {East of Jordan, 284!.; HDB. 

s.v) argues for identification with Jerash, the 

splendid ruins of which lie in Wady ed-Deir, five 

miles north of the Jabbok. Guthe favours er- 

Remtheh, on the great Hajj road, ten miles south 

of el-Mezenb {cp. G. A. Smith, HGHL. 1 586ft.). 

Cheyne {EB. s.v.) proposes Salkhad. Conder and 

others would identify Ramoth-Gilead with Reimun, 

an ancient site to the west of Jerash. There are not 

available data for any sure decision. 

RANSOM (Heb. kopher), " a covering over " ; 
the use is always in relation to God, as Ex. 30. 12 ; 
Jb. 33 > 24 ; therefore really Propitiation. In NT. 
the Gr. lutron (Mw. 20. 28 ) is taken fm. LXX. The 
Heb. word is also used for " pitch." It is also used 
in Nu. 35. 31 in the more ordinary sense of money Shobal and father of Jahath (1 Ch. 4. 2 ). 




Approach to Es-Salt from the North 

leper was cleansed he was to " shave off all his hair " 
(Lv. 14. 8 ). Razors were prob. first made of bronze, 
but afterwards of steel. 

REAIA, REAIAH. (1) A Judahite, son of 

(2) A 

647 



Rea 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Rec 



Reubenite, son of Micah and father of Baal (i Ch. 
5. 5 , AV. " Reaia "). • (3) Ancestor of a family of 
Nethinim, who returned from Babylon with 
Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 47 ; Ne. 6. 50 ). 

REAPING. See Agriculture. 

REBA, one of the five kings, or princes of Midian, 
slain in the campaign of vengeance undertaken 
against them in consequence of the evil wrought 
under the counsel of Balaam (Nu. 3 1. 8 ; Jo. 13. 21 ). 

REBEKAH, NT. REBECCA (Rm. cjX), was the 
daughter of Bethuel, and sister of Laban : she be- 
came the wife of Isaac, and mother of Esau and 
Jacob (Gn. 22. 23 , 24. 29 - 67 , 25. 21 , &c). No OT. 
story excels in simple beauty that of the trusted 
steward's expedition in search of a wife for his 
master's son. It is familiar in every detail, so it 
need not be repeated here. The scene at the well, 
the conference in the house, the persuasions of the 
steward, the costly gifts, the frank willingness of the 
maiden to face the unknown in faith upon the 
steward's word, and the final farewell to home and 
kindred, receive memorable description, and we 
share the steward's conviction that Isaac's bride has 
been chosen for him by God. Her kindly and win- 
some disposition gains our affection at once. That 
she was also fair is sufficiently proved by the narra- 
tive in Gn. 26. 6ff * When, at last, after long waiting, 
she was granted the joys of motherhood, and twin 
boys made sunshine in her tent, she revealed a lack 
of balance in her affection, which was destined to 
work disaster. All her heart seems to have gone out 
to the younger son, while for Esau she cared nothing. 
A woman of energetic nature, the history shows that 
she was not deficient in the craft that distinguished 
members of her family — Laban her brother, and 
Jacob her son. For the deceit practised on Isaac, in 
the interest of Jacob, she paid a heavy penalty. To 
escape the anger of Esau, under the pretext of seek- 
ing a wife among her kindred, she sent Jacob away, 
and never saw his face again. When she died she 
was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Gn. 49. 31 ). 

RECHAB. (1) Son of Rimmon, who, along with 
his br., murdered Ishbosheth (2 S. 4- 2 " 9 ). (2) The 
ancestor of a branch of the Kenites (1 Ch. 2. 55 ). 
He is probably the same person who is called the fr. 
of Jehonadab (2 K. io. 15 ). In Jr. 35. we have an 
account of the Rechabites, the tribe called by his 
name. They have taken refuge in Jrs. fm. the 
armies of Bab. when the prophet gathers them into 
a chamber in the Temple buildings. They are re- 
duced to a small number, since a single apartment 
can contain them all. On being offered wine they 
relate to the prophet their habits and the origin of 
them ; their ancestor Jehonadab, the son of R., had 
forbidden them to use* wine, or to practise agri- 
culture ; and commanded them to live in tents. 
Fm. the glimpse we have of Jehonadab he seems to 
have been a fanatical opponent of Baal-worship. 



Poss. he thought progress in civilisation meant pro- 
gress in evil. It might seem to be the teaching of 
history. When Bab. had sunk into idolatry, the 
sons of Terah, living in tents, maintained the purity 
of faith and worship. If the promise of Jeremiah 
has not been literally fulfilled, the principle that 
actuated him, the belief in the moral efficacy of the 
simple life, is ever with us. Sec Jonadab. 

RECONCILIATION. In this article we intend 
to study the teaching of the NT. as to the signifi- 
cance of Jesus Christ — His life, death, and resur- 
rection — in redeeming men and reconciling them 
with God. Nothing is gained by an effort to 
distinguish sharply between redemption and recon- 
ciliation. It is as they are reconciled that men are 
partakers in redemption. 

The importance of the death of Jesus for salvation 
is not to be measured by the number of His recorded 
sayings about it. These are, in point of fact, ex- 
tremely few. He could not explain the Cross while 
as yet the disciples were blind to its approach. 
Moreover, to die for the world's redemption was 
greater far than to interpret that death. Hence, 
while our Lord is quite explicit as to the fact that 
redemption and His Cross are bound up together, 
He no more left behind Him a theory of redemp- 
tion than of Church government. It was for Him 
rather to be the Gospel than to construe it in intel- 
lectual terms. We can hardly place the anticipa- 
tion of death too early in His ministry. The theory 
of a Christ who at the last resigned Himself to the 
blank shipwreck of early dreams, comforting Him- 
self with the assurance that at least He might die for 
those He had failed to save, is the fantastic creation 
of an intemperately romantic age. Nor could any- 
thing be more unlike the facts. Jesus lived, be it 
remembered, in the OT. ; from the first the picture 
of the Suffering Servant of the Lord in Is. 53. must 
have gone to reveal Him to Himself. The depth and 
glory of that ancient conception of Redeemership 
was a mirror in which He saw His own face. Hence 
at every stage of His ministry He forgives men their 
sins without reference to atonement, while yet His 
attitude to the Cross, when it drew nearer, is per- 
fectly in keeping with this. It means only that He 
is giving a more definite shape, in circumstances 
which had ripened further, to His uniform asser- 
tion of His own Saviourhood. If before He had 
announced the coming of the Kingdom of God in 
His person, now He states expressly that its coming 
is meditated through the Cross. Death for Him 
was no accident, nor even an unfortunate necessity ; 
it was the staple, rather, of the work given Him 
to do. 

In Mk. io. 45 Jesus says that " the Son of Man 
came ... to give His life a ransom for many." 
This is His description, in an hour of solemn and 
heightened feeling, of the vocation appointed Him 



648 



Rec 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Rec 



of the Father. Thus to give His life is the original 
ground of His presence in the world. By designat- 
ing the gift of His life as a " ransom " He means, 
probably, that it is a precious object, surrendered to 
God, and by its intrinsic worth able to liberate the 
forfeited lives of many. Why and to whom they 
are forfeit is not expressed, but it is difficult to be- 
lieve that Jesus' hearers would not understand the 
phrase as an allusion to the penalty of sin. This single 
word of Jesus puts the Cross at the centre of the 
Gospel. The very meaning of His life was that it 
should be given as a ransom. Passing to the words 
He spoke at the Last Supper, " This is My blood of 
the covenant shed for many " (Mk. 14. 24 ), we note 
that since the idea of a covenant in blood (i.e. sealed 
with blood) is central, it matters little whether 
Matthew's addition, " for the remission of sins," is 
authentic or not. The meaning is the same either 
way, for the passage is shot through with ideas 
drawn from the OT. sacrificial system ; covenant 
blood is therefore blood used in sacrifice, and blood 
soused is propitiatory or efficacious in mediatingfor- 
giveness. The irreducible minimum of meaning in 
this passage, accordingly, may be put thus. Jesus 
says that He is sealing a covenant with His blood, 
and that the cardinal benefit derivable from that 
covenant is the forgiveness of sins. The simple in- 
ference is that between these two things a real bond 
exists ; the shedding of His life-blood is the ground 
on which, under the New Covenant thus sealed, for- 
giveness of sins becomes real. Not merely does Jesus 
imply that His death is meant to effect forgiveness ; 
there is no other element in His experience about 
which He implies this. And yet we ought not to 
isolate the death from the preceding life. On the 
contrary, it is not so much the death of Christ that 
redeems men ; it is the death of Christ. 

In the fourth Gospel, also, stress is laid on the ele- 
ment of necessity in the life of Jesus, impelling Him 
to the Cross. And special weight is attached to His 
motives. The mighty passion of His love for men is 
shown by His voluntary acceptance of death. As 
the Good Shepherd He does for His flock a lonely 
and singular service they could not render for them- 
selves or for each other. The thought of sacrifice is 
present in the great word put in the Baptist's lips, 
" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world ; " where the phrase " of God " in- 
dicates that the sin-bearing Lamb is not of man's 
providing, but a Divine gift. 

The view of Jesus' death for sinners held by the 
apostles is in no sense a mere echo of the Master's 
words ; yet it is in completeharmony withtheindica- 
tions He had given. For them plainly the word of the 
Cross is but another name for the Christian Gospel. 
St. Paul's teaching on atonement is most worth 
study, and may be comprehended summarily under 
four heads., (1) The death of Christ is vicarious. 



What Christ has done and borne, He did and bore 
for a sinful world ; " one died for all." The need 
for His suffering was a need created by human sin. 
(2) The death of Christ is expiatory, or, to put it 
otherwise, it has direct relation to the Divine law 
that links sin and death together. Sin has estab- 
lished certain conditions in the world, which are 
charged with God's condemnation, and to these 
Christ bowed Himself in a sympathy that identified 
Him with the guilty. The right to forgive sin be- 
longs to Him who expiates it, and the soul that aban- 
dons itself to the redeeming judgment and mercy 
present in the Cross has peace with God. (3) The 
death of Christ is propitiatory; that is, it has rela- 
tion to the wrath of God against sin. It both reveals 
that wrath — as something which Christ sympathised 
with and felt to be the indispensable vindication of 
Divine righteousness — and averts its consequences 
for a sinful world. The way God took to express 
His mind about sin, and to mark its infinite serious- 
ness, cost Him a price such as only love could have 
paid. So that even in this point of view it is made 
quite clear that the love of the Father is the foun- 
tain of all redemption. Christ's death is a sacrifice, 
in every befitting sense of that word ; but, just as 
was the case in the OT., sacrifice is not the sinner's 
gift to God, but God's provision for the sinner. 
Did Paul regard the sufferings of our Lord as being 
strictly punishment ? It scarcely seems so ; He is 
nowhere described as having been the object of the 
Father's wrath, an idea indeed to which no moral 
meaning could be attached ; but we may certainly 
affirm that He bore what for us would have been 
punishment, and so accomplished in the moral uni- 
verse all and more than all than our punishment 
could have done. In the Cross there is that which 
attests and satisfies the inviolable holiness of God 
even more perfectly than His execution of judgment 
upon sinners. (4) The death of Christ effects recon- 
ciliation. " We were reconciled to God through 
the death of His Son " (Rm. 5. 10 ). What is chiefly 
important is to note that this reconciliation takes its 
rise not on man's side, but God's. It is the love of 
God that is being illustrated from v. 5 onwards. So 
that " we were reconciled " cannot mean " we laid 
our enmity aside " ; on the contrary, it must mean 
" God reconciled us to Himself by all that His love 
achievedinthe Cross"; asithas beenexpressed, "He 
put away everything that on His side meant estrange- 
ment." Similarly in 2 Cor. 5. 18 - 20 Paul beseeches 
men to be reconciled ; it is something for them to 
receive, not something for them to effect. Of 
course it remains true that for reconciliation the 
attitude of both parties must be modified ; but what 
the apostle's language bears is that in this matter 
God took the first step and paid the whole cost ; 
the change of feeling on our part being an ethically 
intelligible result of the appeal to us of what God 



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has done. On the basis of this reconciliation life 
is changed from end to end ; we are filled with 
the triumphant power to overcome sin, and made 
brethren one of another. 

It is impossible, however, to seize the Pauline 
view of reconciliation and atonement truly, except 
as we place all that has been said full in the light of 
the great conception of Union with Christ. In this 
conception the apostle's whole doctrine of redemp- 
tion is implicitly contained. It is in this connection 
that he utters his sublimest words. Thus in Rm. 8. 1 
we read, " There is now no condemnation to them 
that are in Christ Jesus " ; cp. Eph. I. 7 , " In whom 
we have our redemption through His blood." The 
death of Christ, in other words, is in a most real 
sense our death also, for we make it ours by faith. 
Our solidarity with Christ is such that in His cross 
we too are crucified (Gal. 2. 20 ) ; in His grave we are 
buried ; with the Risen Lord, because in Him, we 
too rise to newness of life. And in Him, the Living 
One who still keeps the redeeming virtue of His 
death, we have complete salvation. We have for- 
giveness, because His answer to God's holy law 
becomes, through our identification with Him in 
faith, our answer also ; we have holiness, because 
there energises within us, likewise in virtue of the 
union due to faith, the Spirit of His perfect life. 
The believer has an interest in the death of Christ 
because first of all and chiefly he has an interest in 
Christ Himself, and by faith is one with Him. On 
the basis of that oneness he is a reconciled and re- 
deemed man. And he is thereby assured of a grow- 
ing assimilation to Christ's own character, not 
simply as mediated by gratitude to the Saviour — 
although the springs of gratitude within him have 
been unsealed as never previously — but because 
Christ has taken possession of his inner lifeand abides 
in him. In this union with Christ there is nothing 
magical ; it is all ethical, spiritual, experimental. 
We are made one with Christ only as we have faith 
in Him as He is offered to us in the Gospel. This 
faith is not acquiescence in a prescribed dogma ; 
it is trust in a living Person. And the union so 
effected is such that it can be regarded from either 
side ; thus Jesus employs now the one phrase, " I in 
you," now the other, " ye in Me " (Jn. 15.). Careful 
study appears to prove that in this point we may 
discover the focus of NT. teaching about redemp- 
tion. Hither the various types of apostolic doctrine 
all converge. The writers of the NT. are conscious 
that it is as being " found in Christ " that they are 
saved men. 

For the modern mind also there is real help to be 
derived from this great religious idea. How, it is 
often asked, can the atoning passion of One Man 
benefit, or avail for, any other ? And if Christ were 
as separate from us as we are from each other, no 
answer could be given, in logic or morality. But if, 



with Paul and John, we refuse to look upon Christ as 
one isolated person, and the Christian as another, 
the representative act of Christ in dying for sin will 
appear in a new light. The union, just because it is 
a union, has two aspects. He joined Himself to us, 
and so took our place upon the Cross ; we join our- 
selves to Him, and so share in His relation to God. 
He takes us with Him into the favour of God, which 
is life indeed — our sins His, for we are His ; His 
righteousness ours, for He is ours. There is no im- 
putation on either side, but there is a coalescence of 
Life with life. This may be mystical, but, as has 
been said finely, the mystery is fact. Christ Him- 
self is our wisdom and righteousness and sanctifica- 
tion and redemption. He — not merely something 
He once did, but the Living One, in whom His 
passion is eternally present — He is the propitiation 
for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the 
sins of the whole world. H. R. Mackintosh. 

RECORDER (Heb. mazkir), a high official in the 
courts of David and Solomon (2 S. 8. 16 , 20. 24 ; 
1 K. 4. 3 ). There has been some difference of 
opinion as to the precise force of this title ; Luther 
trs. Kanzler ; EV. following Vlg. regard R. as court 
annalist, but the form of the Heb. word and the 
rendering of the LXX confirm the view of Thenius 
{Com. Konige), followed by Keil, Nowack, and Ben- 
zinger, that he was the king's " remembrancer." 

RED. See Colour. 

RED HEIFER. In Nu. 19. there is an account 
given of the means by wh. the " uncleanness " or 
" taboo " due to contact with the dead was to be 
removed. The section begins in a special way, sug- 
gesting a different origin, " This is the ordinance 
of the law. wh. the Lord hath commanded," im- 
plying that this ordinance (huqqah) stood in a 
singular and special relation to the other ceremonial 
legislation. Unlike the most of the sacrifices this 
was to be, not a male, but a female, a heifer ; the 
special colour is also prescribed — " red," i.e., is a 
reddish brown. This attention to colour is found 
in Egypt — thus the Apis bull had to be black ; the 
Mnevis bull, judging by the monuments, was white. 
This heifer was to be brought by the children of Isr. 
to Eleazar, and he was to lead her forth out of the 
camp, and some one, presumably not a priest, was to 
kill her in his presence. Then Eleazar was to " take 
of the blood on his finger and sprinkle of her blood 
toward the front of (RV. ; " directly before," AV.) 
the Tabernacle of the congregation seven times." 
It is difficult to understand what actually took 
place ; the most natural supposition wd. be that 
Eleazar brought the blood in a bason to the front of 
the Tabernacle, and there dipping his finger in the 
bason, sprinkled the blood seven times towards the 
door of the Tabernacle ; then returned to where the 
carcase was and saw it duly burned ; then into the 
fire Eleazar threw cedar, hyssop, and scarlet. After 



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this, first the priest and then the man who had North-east Africa. It stretches from Bab el- 

burned the heifer had to wash their clothes and Mandeb to Suez, a distance of about 1700 miles, 

were " unclean until even." A third person, " a At the western end it is split by the triangular 

man that is clean," had to gather the ashes and peninsula of Sinai into the Gulf of 'Aqaba on the 

deposit them " in a clean place," and he too became east and the Gulf of Suez on the west. There is 

unclean, and had to wash his clothes and remain abundant evidence that for ages the sea has been 

" taboo " till evening. The purpose of this is now receding and growing shallower ; or rather, that 

revealed. When any one had come in contact with the land has been gradually rising. This is seen in 

a dead body he was to be unclean seven days ; he the raised beaches which are found at various levels, 

was to wash himself on the third day and the seventh, containing the same shells and corals as now abound 

and after the last washing he was to be sprinkled by in the sea. One of these beaches is as much as 220 

a clean person with water, fm. a stream or spring, feet above the present level of the water. From 

wh. had been poured upon some of the ashes of the evidence collected during the cutting of the Suez 

heifer ; then only was he who had touched a dead Canal, it seems probable that in comparatively 

body clean. It has been found that a number of recent, although prehistoric, time the western arm 

superstitious observances, e.g. in India, have, totally of the sea reached as far as the bitter lakes. How 

independent of the ritual explanation, a hygienic far the waters had receded at the time of the 

origin ; here the Divine regulation emphasised what Exodus, when the sea first comes into notice, we 

possibly began by being a superstition for hygienic cannot tell. Upon this would probably depend the 

reasons. Contact with the dead, if the death had point chosen for the crossing when the children of 

been the result of infectious disease, was obviously Israel were leaving Egypt {see Exodus, The). The 

a thing to be discouraged. Even though the death Gulf of 'Aqaba forms the continuation southward 

had been by violence, and so no germs of disease of the great hollow which, under various names, 

were apparent, yet death tends to generate death, stretches away to the north, the 'Arabah, the Gbor, 

Such an ordinance it mt. be thought wd. be among the Biqa' (see Jordan Valley, under Palestine). 

the most primitive ; notwithstanding that the On this gulf lay Elath and Ezion-Geber, so that it 

general consensus of the critics declares this to be was associated with the two maritime enterprises 

late, the evidences of the document itself all point attempted by Israelite monarchs : that under 

to the consecration of an ancient custom. The cir- Solomon, with Phoenician seamen, being a great 

cumstances taken for granted in the ordinance imply success : that under Jehoshaphat being a disastrous 

that all the people were collected together when it failure. See further Sea. 

was enjoined ; when they were scattered over the REDEEMER, REDEEM, REDEMPTION. 
land it wd. be impossible for the law to be carried There are two Heb. words so trd. (1) Ga'al, wh. 
out in its entirety. Residents in Upper Galilee wd. suggests primarily relationship (cp. Arb. jil, " a 
be perpetually going up to Jrs. to be sprinkled with tribe "), hence gcfel, " the avenger of blood " (Nu. 
the water of " separation," or returning fm. the 35. 19 ) ; it means to ransom fm. slavery; e.g. God 
ceremony — a matter of a couple of weeks on each redeems Isr. (Ex. 6. 6 ). It is the technical word for 
occasion. That the name Eleazar is repeatedly the repurchase of house or land (Lv. 25. 24 ; Ru. 4. 4 ). 
mentioned, while it is not said that the second High (2) Padah, primarily meaning " to let loose," but it 
Priest is to superintend the slaughter of the heifer, acquired the meaning of paying a money ransom 
suggests the same thing; antiquity was not par- (Ex. 13. 13 ). The reference is especially to God and 
ticular to insert features that wd. indicate an early His people (Ps. 34- 22 ). In NT. agorazo (Rv. 5. 9 ), 
date. The introduction of Eleazar was needless exagorazo (Gal. 3. 13 ), lutroo(Tt. 2. 14 ), all refer to the 
unless Eleazar became a name for the second High work of Christ. See Ransom. 
Priest, a custom of wh. there is no trace. It may REED. The usual Heb. word is qaneh, from 
be noted that there is no trace historically that which comes our word " cane " (Greek, kalamos), 
the ordinance was ever observed ; it is, however, signifying tall grass. It is used, e.g., for the stalk of 
referred to in Hebrews (9. 18 ) as one of the regular corn (Gn. 41. 5 ). Probably in Scripture it denotes 
institutions of Judaism. That the killing and burn- mainly the tall and graceful Arundo donax, which 
ing of the red heifer shd. not be mentioned is not grows luxuriantly along the streams in the Jordan 
strange ; when we remember how small a pinch of valley. Its light, feathery head is sensitive to the 
ashes wd. suffice, the sacrifice wd. only rarely be slightest breeze (1 K. 14. 15 ; Mw. II. 7 , &c). Walk- 
offered. The rabbins say that nine were slain in ing staffs (2 K. 18. 21 , &c), measuring rods (Ek. 40. 3 , 
all, a number that, if true, wd. prove, small as was &c), and other useful articles were made of its 
the quantity of ashes required, that in general some straight stem. The kalamos, from which pens were 
less arduous mode of lustration was held sufficient, made (3 Jn. 13 ), grew only in Egypt. Gome? (Ex. 
RED SEA (Heb. Tarn Sufh, " Sea of Weeds "). 2. 3 ; Is. 18. 2 , AV. bulrush, RVm. " papyrus " ; 
This is the. sheet of water which divides Arabia from Jb. 8. 11 ; Is. 35. 7 , rush) is the famous papyrus cane, 

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no longer found in Lower Egypt, but abounding in 
Upper Egypt, and also in the Upper Jordan valley 
at el-Huleh, in Nahr ez-Zerqa, and Nahr el-Falik. 
'Agmin (Is. 58. 5 , AV. " bulrush," RV. " rush " : 
Is. 9. 14 , 19. 15 , " rush ") denotes some tall grass with 
drooping head. 'Agarriim (Jr. 51. 32 ) prob. refers 
to masses of reeds in the marshes. 'Aroth (Is. 19. 7 , 
AV. " paper reeds," RV. " meadows ") properly 
denotes " bare plains." 

" The wild beast of the reeds " (Ps. 68. 30 , RV.) 
may be the hippopotamus, the crocodile, or the wild 
swine that frequents the cane-brakes. See also Flag. 




Arundo Donax 

REELAIAH. See Raamiah. 

REFINING, the process of cleansing a precious 
metal of impurities ; as the commoner metal, the 
reference is most frequently to silver (Ml. 3. 3 ). The 
process involved melting and prolonged exposure to 
heat until it was complete ; hence frequently meta- 
phorically for the moral purification wh. results fm. 
affliction. See Metals. 

REFUGE, CITIES OF. See Cities of Refuge. 

REGEM, a Calebite, son of Jahdai (1 Ch. 2. 47 ). 

REGEM-MELECH. The name occurs in an 
obscure and difficult passage (Zc. J?) in connection 
with a deputation to the priest, inquiring as to the 
necessity for observing the fast of the fifth month, in 
which was commemorated the destruction of the 
Temple by the Chaldaeans. 

REGENERATION (Gr. palingenesia), a word 
occurring twice in the NT. ; once referring to the 
renewal of the world in the General Resurrection at 
the second coming of the Messiah (Mw. 19. 28 ) ; 
again to the renewal of the individual in conver- 
sion (Tt. 3- 5 ). The word is most commonly used 



in the latter sense, and to this we now turn our 
attention. 

The idea of a rebirth was not introduced by 
Christianity ; but, like many other terms and ideas 
taken over in a similar manner, it is deepened in 
meaning. In the mysteries of Greece, especially in 
the most important of them, the Eleusinian (Preller, 
Griechische Mythologie, i. 654), there is the sug-" 
gestion of a rebirth. This is the case with many 
of the initiatory rites of heathen races. When a 
young Brahmin is initiated, and has been invested 
with the sacred thread, he is thenceforth declared 
to be " twice-born " (Williams, Religious Thought 
in India, p. 361). More directly in the line of 
the evolution of Christianity is the admission of 
proselytes by the Jews ; along with circumcision 
there was administered to the intending proselyte 
the rite of baptism to typify his rebirth as a son of 
Israel. This last characteristic explains the con- 
nection between R. and Baptism. 

In approaching the question of Christian R. we 
must bear in mind that it is one to be handled with 
caution. The term is figurative ; a physical figure 
for a spiritual fact. By the very nature of the case 
a " figure " has only a superficial connection with 
that of wh. it is the figure ; pre-eminently is this 
the case when the figure is physical and that wh. is 
prefigured is spiritual. The figure is always inade- 
quate because the physical never can be conterminous 
with the spiritual ; hence the liability to error by 
pressing the figure too far, or on the other hand, of 
failing to get all the truth it conveys by not carrying 
it far enough. It is only one figure of many used 
to express the great truths of salvation. There is 
the forensic series of figures ; justification, substitu- 
tion, adoption, and in a manner sanctification also. 
This before us belongs to the vital series. R. is one 
way of representing the Divine and objective side of 
what is emphatically the great change, as " conver- 
sion " represents the human, the subjective side. 
The figure of raising fm. the dead is also used to 
convey this ; as " God . . . even when we were dead 
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ " 
(Eph. 2. 4, 5 ). In this figure the unconverted state 
is represented as a state of death ; a view wh. may 
be regarded as implicit in the figure before us. 
Death in the Biblical sense does not mean non- 
existence, but existence on a lower plane than that 
for wh. the being referred to was intended. This 
might, indeed, serve as a general definition of death. 
A corpse is a " dead body " : it is not non-existent ; 
it is a mass of matter occupying space, and having 
weight, but no longer the organ of a human spirit. 
So the human spirit may be regarded as dead when, 
though existent, it has ceased to be the organ of the 
Divine Spirit. In like manner he that has not been 
reborn exists, but as a slave, not a son of God. 
Under both figures the agent is the Holy Spirit ; 



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the regenerate is " born of the Spirit " (Jn. 3. 5 ) ; so 
of the new life, " it is the Spirit that quickeneth " 
(Jn. 6. 63 ). A man who ought to be a son of God 
lives to himself, and is thus " dead while he liveth " ; 
the spirit in him is dead. But a change comes over 
him ; the spirit in him is quickened, he is " be- 
gotten unto a lively hope," and he becomes the son 
of God which fm. the beginning he ought to have 
been. 

We have now to consider R. in relation to its 



of love to Him. Perfected R. is thus perfected 
sanctification. 

That there was, fm. early days, a connection in 
thought between R. and Baptism cannot be denied. 
In the classic passage concerning R., the interview 
between our Lord and Nicodemus, we find these 
two brought into close relationship. " Except a 
man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot see 
the kdm. of God " (Jn. 3. 5 ). In Titus we find the 
same thing asserted : God hath " saved us by the 



effects in life. A spiritual change that does not washing of R. and renewing of the Holy Ghost " 
manifest itself in act is valueless ; a tree that never (Tt. 3. 5 ). We have already seen the meaning the 
put forth leaves or blossom cd. not be reckoned Jews attached to baptism in the reception of prose- 
living. It has been well shown by Mozley (Bap- lytes ; this idea is carried over into the NT. This 
tismal Controversy) that R. always means moral connection it retains in Justin Martyr, the earliest 
goodness in the subject of it. This is test of it ; thus of the Fathers to give any particular account of 
the apostle Paul says, " As many as are led by the baptism (i A-pol. 61). As the Church became more 
Spirit of God they are the sons of God " (Rm. 8. 14 ). and more essentially Hellenic, the Jewish meaning 
Again he exhorts the Philippians to be " blameless was lost sight of, but rhetoric became more and 
and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke " more dominant. We must remember that, before 
(Php. 2. 15 ). The antithesis is the " children of the first Christian century had ended, to be a 
wrath," " children of disobedience." The presence Christian involved danger of the direst kind ; for 
of righteousness is thus the distinguishing mark of R. one to be baptized was publicly to confess himself a 
When, however, the apostle John declares boldly of believer, and thus expose himself to all these dangers, 
the regenerate, " Whosoever is born of God doth The new spiritual life must have been strong and 
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and vigorous within a man to have emboldened him to 
he cannot sin because he is born of God " (i Jn. make public his faith in these circumstances. The 
3. 9 ), we feel in the presence of a difficulty. Such a flush of enthusiasm that must have accompanied 
statement seems not only to contradict experience, such an experience wd. of necessity be an emphatic 
but even the words of the apostle himself in chap. I., waymark in the believer's spiritual history ; he wd. 
" If we say that we have no sin we deceive our- then be most conscious of having passed fm. death 
selves, and the truth is not in us" (i. 8 ). In the into life. That epithets and descriptions applicable 
first-mentioned passage the apostle regards the pro- only to the spiritual change shd. be given to that wh. 
cess of regeneration as completed in idea ; in so was its outward sign was but natural. What had 
• far as a man is regenerate he cannot sin. If we to the Fathers of the first centuries been excusable 
imagine a dead body having the spirit of life given rhetoric, became doctrine to the Schoolmen. The 
to it, the heart begins to beat, but only slowly and origin of the connection was lost sight of, and mar- 
by degrees does the life of the heart reach the ex- vellous were the subtleties employed to harmonise 
tremities. So the apostle Paul recognises that in the doctrine of infants being regenerate and yet 
his " flesh dwelleth no good thing " — that in his becoming at an early age obviously to every good 
sinful dead nature his members are " instruments work wholly reprobate. At the same time, while it 
of unrighteousness unto sin." There is a warfare is easy to ridicule the doctrine of Baptismal R., we 
going on within his spiritual nature much as there must recognise the truth it contains. When a child 
wd. be in the physical constitution of one in whom, is presented for baptism the assumption is that he is 
as we have imagined, the stopped heart has resumed of Christian parentage ; if there is anything in here- 
its pulsations ; there is a painful struggle in every dity he may be supposed to have inherited a dis- 
organ, every member, before life entirely triumphs position in some measure congruous to the Gospel ; 
over death. In the spiritual sphere the pain if not regenerate he is prepared for R. Further, if 
amounts, in Paul's case, to an agony leading him to his parents are really believers, the influence of their 
cry out, " O wretched man that I am ! who shall faith, exercised to a great extent unconsciously, 
deliver me fm. the body of this death ? " The tends to implant faith in his heart. But that 
apostle John sees within the external struggle infants, either of heathen or of Christian parents, 
against evil to the " inward man," and sees that the dying unbaptized, are consigned to eternal perdi- 
essential man does not consent to the evil. We tion, is a proposition repugnant not less to the 
must remember that in Scripture sin is not an act 
or a series of acts, but a state — a state of alienation 
fm. God. R. is the removal of the person out of 
this state to that of reconciliation with God and 



spirit of Christ than to reason and human 
feeling. 

REGISTER, a record of the birth and Genea- 
logy of every Jew (Ne. J. 5 ) wh. appears to have 



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been kept. It was especially careful in the case of 
priests (Ez. 2. 62 ). 

REHAB I AH, son of Eliezer the son of Moses 
(i Ch. 23. 17 , &c). 

REHOB. (1) The northern limit of the terri- 
tory explored by the spies (Nu. 13. 21 ), situated at 
" the entering in of Hamath." It is possibly iden- 
tical with Beth-Rehob : unidentified. (2) A city 
in Asher held by the Canaanites (Jo. 19. 28 ; Jg. I. 31 ). 
It is not identd., but is apparently distinct from (3), 
which is also a city in the territory of Asher, given 
to the Levites (Jo. 19. 36 , 21. 31 ). (4) The father 
of Hadadezer, king of Zobah (2 S. 8. 3 « 12 ). (5) A 
Levite who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah 
(Ne. io. 11 ). 

REHOBOAM, properly Rehabe'am, " the people 
is enlarged." Son and successor of Solomon on the 
throne of Israel. His mother was Naamah, the 
Ammonitess (1 K. 14. 21 , &c), and he succeeded his 
father at the age of forty-one (2 Ch. 12. 13 ). He was 
secure in the sovereignty of Judah, but the relations 
between the northern and southern tribes had never 
been too cordial {see Ephraim). The allegiance of 
the former to the house of David had been severely 
strained in the time of Solomon {see Jeroboam). 
The situation was critical. Only a wise and tactful 
prince could have met it with success. Rehoboam 
was foolish and tactless. To secure the sovereignty 
of the ten tribes he must be elected by an assembly 
of the nation convened at Shechem. There the 
throne was offered him on condition that he should 
relieve the people of the grievous exactions and the 
forced labour imposed by his father. The elder 
counsellors of Rehoboam advised concession, but 
the proposals of the younger men fell in with his 
own ideas of what was fitting. Utterly misjudging 
the strength of the opposition, he threatened to 
increase rather than diminish the burdens of the 
people. Thereupon the ten tribes spurned his rule. 
Adoniram, whom he sent, clearly with the purpose 
of making terms with them, they stoned ; and 
Rehoboam himself, as if in mockery of his boastful 
threatenings, had to find safety by flight to Jeru- 
salem. Jeroboam, who, at Solomon's death, had 
returned from Egypt, was elected king of the 
northern tribes, and the rupture with Judah was 
complete. 

A Divine warning prevented Rehoboam from en- 
tering upon a war of subjugation, but peaceful rela- 
tions between the two kingdoms were impossible 
(1 K. 14. 30 ). Judah seems to have been the only 
entire tribe adhering to Rehoboam (1 K. 12. 20 ). 
Some of the northern Benjamites joined the ten, 
although the main body of the tribe followed 
Rehoboam (12. 21 ). The accession of the Levites 
also strengthened his position for a time (2 Ch. 1 1 , 13 ). 
He fortified many cities towards the south, as if fear- 
ing an attack from Egypt (2 Ch. Il. 5ff -). Under 



Rehoboam there was a grievous lapse into idolatry. 
This was avenged by the invasion of Shishak, king of 
Egypt (1 K. I4. 21ff -, &c.). An inscription on the 
south wall of the temple of Amon at Karnak gives 
an account of this expedition. Jerusalem was taken, 
but there is no mention of a siege. The Temple 
was rifled of its treasures, including the golden 
shields which Solomon had made. These Reho- 
boam replaced with shields of brass. He main- 
tained a large harim. His favourite wife was 
Maacah, the granddaughter of Absalom (2 Ch. 
11. 21 ), whose son, Abijah, succeeded him on the 
throne of Judah. Rehoboam is said to have reigned 
seventeen years. A history of his reign was written 
by Shemaiah and Iddo (12. 15 ), but it has not been 
preserved. 

REHOBOTH, "wide spaces." (1) A well 
digged by Isaac, which, unlike others for which the 
herdsmen of Abimelech had striven, he was allowed 
to possess in peace (Gn. 26. 22 ). It is probably to 
be identified with a well about 19 miles south of 
Beersheba, where the ancient name is preserved in 
Wady Ruheibah. (2) " Rehoboth by the river " 
(Gn. 36 37 ). The home of the Edomite king Saul. 
" The river " might mean the Euphrates, in which 
case Rehoboth might be sought at er-Rahabah, near 
Chaboras, on the western bank. Some, however, 
think the " river of Egypt," i.e. Wady el-Arish, 
is intended — the southern boundary of Palestine. 
There is no certainty. 

REHOBOTH, THE CITY. The Heb. reho- 
both- ir really means " the squares [or broad places] 
of a city " ; it is named as one of the four cities that 
formed the beginning of Nimrod's empire (Gn. io. 11 
RV.). Esarhaddon (bx. 681-668) mentions rebit 
Nina, " the broad places of Nineveh," which may 
denote a quarter of the city, at first apart from it, 
with broad, open streets. It is possible that Heb. 
rehoboth- ir = Asyr. rebit Nina. 

REHUM. (1) One of "the children of the 
province " who went up to Jrs. from Babylon with 
Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 2 ). He is called Nehum in Ne. 
7. 7 , perhaps a scribe's mistake (1 Es. 5. 8 , "Roimus"). 

(2) " Rehum the chancellor," one of those who 
wrote to Artaxerxes, seeking to have the building at 
Jerusalem interdicted (Ez. 4. 8 , &c). The Aram, 
title, be'el te'em, " lord of decree," is simply trans- 
literated in LXX (/?aA.ra/x) : I Es. 2. 16 ,"Rathumus." 

(3) A Levite of the sons of Bani, who took part in 
repairing the walls of Jerusalem (Ne. 3. 17 ). (4) One 
of the chiefs who sealed the covenant with Nehe- 
miah (Ne. io. 25 ). (5) The head of a priestly family 
which returned with Zerubbabel (Ne. 12. 3 ). 

REI, an officer of the guard who did not favour 
the claims of Adonijah. He is named along with 
other mighty men of David (1 K. I. 8 ) upon whose 
loyalty Solomon depended for his security. Rei 
is not mentioned again, and various attempts have 



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been made to identify him with other men, the 
text here being doubtful. Josephus reads " Shimei, 
David's friend," so that Rei as a personal name 
disappears if his reading is correct. 

REINS (Heb. kelayoth, " kidneys," Jb. l6. 13 , &c; 
once only kbaldtzayim, "loins," Is. II. 5 ). In ac- 
cordance with Hebrew ideas, which associated men- 
tal and other functions with various organs of the 
body, the kidneys were supposed to be the seat of 
the affections and emotions. 

REKEM. (i) One of the five " kings " of Midian 
whom the Israelites slew at the time when Balaam 
was put to death (Nu. 31. 8 ; Jo. 13. 21 ). (2) Son of 
Hebron and father of Shammai, a Calebite (1 Ch. 
2 - 43 )- (3) $ ee Rakem. (4) A city in the territory 
of Benjamin (Jo. 18. 27 ), not identified. 

RELIGION OF ISRAEL. Nature of the 
Problem. — The term " religion," for which the 
language of the Old Testament appears to possess no 
exact equivalent, includes a system of practices, or 
ritual, and a system of beliefs, or theology. Both 
of these are subject to fluctuation, and indeed to 
violent and sudden change ; but on the whole the 
ritual is apt to be the more stable, being that with 
which the larger number of persons are acquainted, 
and capable at times of accommodation to various 
theological systems. An account of the religion of 
a nation, unless it be historical, can therefore be 
valid for only a limited period. The theory of the 
Old Testament with regard to the religion of Israel 
is very different. In the law of Moses it exhibits a 
code with which the national life of Israel is sup- 
posed to have started. Religion according to this 
takes the form of a contract between Israel and its 
Deity ; Israel's part was to carry out the law ; the 
part of the Deity is perhaps less clearly explained, 
but possession of the land of Canaan, with certain 
other tokens of prosperity, would be included in the 
contract. Since the history of Israel was on the 
whole a grim failure, the national historians, acting 
on the theory described, have an interest in showing 
that Israel failed to keep its part of the compact ; 
and in all the historical books, but especially in the 
Chronicles, prosperity and adversity are made to 
follow on piety and impiety in a manner known to 
no secular records. The supposition that the law in 
its final and complete form was promulgated at the 
commencement of the national history is indis- 
pensable for this view of the events. 

Certain problems are at once suggested by this 
theory, which call for at least a tentative answer. 
One is, What happened before this contract was exe- 
cuted? Another is, In what condition with regard 
to it are the other nations of the earth ? The first 
could be answered by the supposition that the great 
contract was preceded by a series of preliminary 
contracts, made either with the immediate or re- 
mote ancestry of Israel ; and to this extent the idea 



of " progressive revelation " is admitted into the 
OT., Noah, Abraham, &c, being represented as 
earlier contracting parties. There is reason for 
thinking that the reply to the second question would 
have been in the spirit of the narrative of the Flood, 
viz., that all other nations were outlawed. 

The difficulties of the theory in relation to the 
OT. records themselves, when once those records 
were critically studied, proved to be very great, and 
have led to its being generally abandoned. On the 
one hand the law itself is not a single and consistent 
code, but clearly a combination of several, belonging 
to different times and perhaps localities. On the 
other hand the practice of even pious personages, as 
described in the earlier documents, differs widely 
from the prescriptions of the law. The books of 
Chronicles give evidence of a deliberate attempt to 
get rid of the latter difficulty by revising the earlier 
narratives. Moreover, not a few Israelitish institu- 
tions are in certain documents made out to be earlier 
than the institution of the law, and statements 
occurring in the latter are contradicted by others in 
the narrative portions of the Pentateuch. Thus 
circumcision appears to have commenced with both 
Abraham and Moses ; and whereas in Exodus (6. 3 ) 
there is a definite statement that the name of the 
national Deity (JHVH) was unknown before the 
time of the latter, in Gn. 4. 26 the name is said to 
go back to the days of Seth, and in 4. 1 it is used 
by Eve. 

It has therefore become usual to place the law in 
its complete form at the end instead of the beginning 
of the national existence of Israel, meaning by the 
former some date after the loss of independence. 
The idea that the community had contracted to 
observe a code doubtless sprang up before that 
event, but it is unknown who first propounded the 
theory, and when that code was first attributed to 
Moses, with whose name it is traditionally asso- 
ciated. Epochs in its formation are connected 
with the names of Josiah and Ezra ; in the time of 
the former a copy is said to have been casually " dis- 
covered," whereas the latter in the fifth century B.C. 
is said to have brought it with him from Babylon to 
Jerusalem ; only we do not know whence he had 
procured it. Additions continued to be made even 
when the written form of the law had become in a 
measure unalterable ; these were accommodated to 
the theory by the supposition that there was an 
oral as well as a written code delivered to Moses ; 
and in time these too were committed to parch- 
ment. 

The religion of Israel is therefore now interpreted 
as the practices and beliefs of the nation in the times 
for which we have records — some day, we may hope, 
to be supplemented by archaeological discovery. 
These are no longer regarded as corruptions and 
offences against the law, where they differ from it, 



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the innovations being rather the methods which 
ultimately prevailed. The attitude of the Biblical 
writers towards the former is in general so hostile 
that only an imperfect sketch can at best be drawn. 

The Object Of Worship. — Before the establish- 
ment of the kingdom, and even afterwards, many 
concurrent notions of the nature of the Deity 
appear to have been entertained, varying to some 
extent with the intellectual development of the 
worshippers. In patriarchal days He was in some 
way identified with a stone (Gn. 28. 18 , 35. 14 ), in 
accordance with a theory characteristic of Arabia. 
That the Israelites worshipped molten images of a 
calf is attested by the historians ; the origin of the 
practice is ascribed to Jeroboam, and more strangely 
to Aaron, eponymous of the priestly caste ; the 
narrative, however, in which the latter figures im- 
plies that this image-worship was based on an earlier 
zoolatry, in which a real calf led the tribal migra- 
tions, much as a camel led those of certain Arab 
tribes. The vengeance which Moses wreaks on the 
calf (Ex. 32. 20 ) shows that it cannot have been bf 
metal. Image-worship was during the period of 
the kingdoms prevalent throughout Palestine ; the 
materials varying with the wealth of the devotees. 
The Israelites further worshipped the sun, moon, 
and stars ; and Amos has the curious notice (5- 26 ) 
that in the wilderness they worshipped the planet 
Saturn (Kaiwdn) ; this seems confirmed by the 
institution of the Sabbath, the day sacred to that 
planet, which, in the ordinary astrology, was un- 
lucky, whence work done on the day would be likely 
to be disastrous. The cult of the moon survived in 
the Mosaic ordinances for the observance of the 
new moon. Of Ancestor-worship it is possible to 
find a trace in the Ark of the Covenant, a remark- 
able symbol, which must originally have derived its 
sanctity from its contents. It first appears being 
carried in battle, a proceeding which it is difficult 
not to connect with the Arabian practice (which 
lasted to Fatimid times) of taking to the field a chest 
containing the bones or ashes of a deceased hero. 
The secret of the contents of the ark was jealously 
guarded (1 S. 6. 19 ), and eventually lost. Probably 
ancestor-worship is also implied by the cult of the 
household gods or Teraphim, which must have had 
some approximation to human form (1 S. 19. 16 ), 
and whose worship was normal at any rate down to 
the time of David. 

Worship of a number of deities appears to have 
been carried on simultaneously with little friction 
till the time of Elijah. Analogy would indeed 
suggest that each tribe or community possessed 
some special object of worship, symbolic of its 
unity, although this kind of cult by no means pre- 
vented the recognition of similar deities who stood 
in the same relation to other tribes (Jg. II. 24 ), to 
whom members of the first community might in 



time of trouble resort (2 K. I. 2 ) without necessarily 
offending their own special deity. Probably we 
should be justified in crediting the Israelitish com- 
munities of the early kingdom with a pantheon, the 
members of which together were designated by the 
name Elohtm (" gods," plural of eloah = ildh, itself 
probably plural of the old Semitic 11, " god "). In 
an early form of the Biblical records this word may 
have preserved its original sense, e.g. Gn. I. 1 , " In 
the beginning gods created the heaven and the 
earth " ; afterwards it had in some places to give 
way to the name JHVH, whereas in others it was 
preserved, but treated as a singular. The Psalms 
retain vestiges of this doctrine of a multiplicity of 
deities {e.g. 82. 1 ) ; and even St. Paul has to make 
some concessions to it. 

The substitution for this pantheon of the mono- 
theism embodied in the first two of the Ten Com- 
mandments was a process of long duration, attended 
by violent persecutions and reactions, of which we 
have a record in the books of Kings, which, however, 
suppose monotheism to have been restored, not in- 
troduced. The name of the God of Israel, written 
in papyri and proper names as JHV, in an inscrip- 
tion and ordinarily in the OT. as JHVH, but some- 
times in the latter as JH, seems to meet us first 
in Israelitish records about the time of Saul ; in 
Exodus (3. 14 ) it is said to be the equivalent of " He 
is," a divine name rightly compared by Hitzig with 
the Armenian astouads ( = vastuvan, " the really 
existing "), but the word is more likely to have had 
originally some less spiritual import. The con- 
jectures which have been offered as to the tribe 
which originally worshipped JHVH seem to rest on 
uncertain data. The cult at some time became 
associated with the idea of rigid and spiritual mono- 
theism, carried to the extent not only of icono- 
clasm, but even to the vetoing of the plastic and 
pictorial arts ; on the other hand, the ritual con- 
nected with the cults which it displaced survived to 
a considerable extent. On the whole the theory 
which prevailed was that the connection of JHVH 
with Israel dated from the Egyptian bondage ; and 
in the Ten Commandments deliverance by JHVH 
from that bondage is made the ground on which He 
is exclusively to be worshipped by the Israelites. 
There were, as has been seen, other opinions which 
traced the connection further back. 

The phenomena primarily connected with JHVH 
appear to have been meteorological — thunder, 
lightning, hail, rain, &c. — and the title " God of 
heaven " is of frequent occurrence (compare the 
Arabic hawa', " air," from a similar root) ; the 
term Ba l al, which at one time might be applied to 
the national Deity, but afterwards owing to other 
associations was disapproved, belongs to this range 
of ideas. In the religious disputes wherein Elijah 
figures, the cessation of rain is the punishment for 



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apostasy, whereas it recommences when true re- 
ligion is restored. Those who endeavour to arrest 
the prophet are consumed by heavenly flame. Since 
in the latter narrative it is a king whose name indi- 
cates worship of JHVH (Ahaziah) who sends to 
another deity in a case of sickness, the gods of 
the early Israelitish pantheon may, as with other 
nations, have been assigned a variety of functions ; 
of this the records show few traces, and the control 
of every natural operation (e.g. conception both 
human [i S. I. 6 ; Ru. 4. 13 ] and in the lower animals) 
was ascribed to JHVH. 

It would seem that the notion of the Divine 
Being current among the monotheists was anthropo- 
morphic, and this view is suggested by such visions as 
that of Isaiah, and various anecdotes (e.g. that of 
Jacob's wrestling) which have been preserved from 
the early mythology of the race or country, after 
undergoing considerable modification : doubtless, 
after the prohibition of images and representations, 
any detailed description would have been thought 
irreverent, and the assertion that Moses spoke with 
God face to face had to be revised (Ex. 33- 23 ). 
Anthropomorphism is further suggested by the 
mode in which OT. writers habitually speak of the 
Deity — though their language has often been inten- 
tionally altered, and indeed in some of the versions 
systematically improved. In this language both 
the actions and emotions which are characteristic of 
mankind are ascribed to the Deity, who walks, talks, 
writes, smells sweet savours, is pleased and dis- 
pleased, laughs, &c. The notion of the Deity was 
modelled on that of the king or despot, for whose 
ways there was no accounting. 

Mythology. — Some hymn-writers praise JHVH 
for smiting Rahab, otherwise the serpent, a victory 
belonging to great antiquity (Is. 51. 9 ) ; the author 
of Job appears to know most about it, as he states 
that Rahab had " helpers " (9. 13 ), and that the 
victory was won by strategy (26. 12 ). From Ps. 
74. 14 the serpent (Leviathan) would appear to have 
had many heads, and after they had been smitten, 
the flesh was given to the Tziyyim to eat ; but others 
think of the Leviathan as flung into the sea, whence 
he might still be roused. The details of this myth 
had been forgotten when the historical books were 
composed, or considered irreverent. The rescue 
of Israel from Egypt was substituted for it. The 
hymn-writers also assume the existence of a pan- 
theon, in which the inferiority of the other gods 
(elim) to JHVH is recognised, though their divine 
character is not otherwise questioned ; and Dt. 
32. 8 (which has clearly undergone alteration) implies 
that these were the gods allotted to other nations, 
whereas JHVH chose Israel for His own portion. 
The names of these beings are never mentioned, and 
it is only from a fragmentary record (Gn. 6. 2 ' 4 ) that 
we learn that they were at one time supposed to have 



been founders of famous houses by alliance with the 
daughters of men — a supposition precisely parallel 
to that of the Greeks. This passage gives us a 
glimpse of a whole system of mythology that has 
been expunged. 

With the growth of monotheism .these beings 
dwindled into a shadowy divine council, in which 
only one figure has a name — Satan, " the opposi- 
tion." As, however, the divine court could not be 
thought of as empty, at some time angels took the 
place of the earlier " God's sons." These angels 
had Hebrew names, of obvious import, and they 
were assigned in some systems the function of pro- 
tecting different nations which their predecessors 
had discharged. Of other beings, with fantastic 
forms, to be found in the divine court, we also have 
occasional notices. The location of the divine court 
itself seems to have varied with different minds, 
or indeed in the same minds. The most widely 
spread belief located it in the sky, and this could 
easily be reconciled with its location on the top of 
one or other mountain ; the latter might be re- 
garded as a stepping-stone between heaven and 
earth, and the theory of a sanctuary seems to have 
been that of a place where for some reason there 
was communication between heaven and earth — by 
an (ordinarily invisible) ladder in Jacob's dream. 
Hence the building of the Tower of Babel was an 
impious, but not wholly unpractical undertaking. 
There are, however, traces of the more spiritual 
view that the Deity is not located in space at all. 

Female divinities appear nowhere in our re- 
cords except as objects of forbidden worship ; such 
are Ashtoreth, the " queen of heaven " (Jr. 7. 18 ), 
Anath (only in local names). A verse of Ezekiel 
gives us a glimpse of a Tammuz or Adonis cult prac- 
tised by women (8. 14 ), doubtless involving the wor- 
ship of a goddess. The myths current about these 
among their worshippers are not recorded. 

Malignant beings bearing the difficult names 
shedim and se'lrim were recognised by the monothe- 
ists, who included among them the deities worshipped 
by their neighbours ; and in the ritual of the Day of 
Atonement, which otherwise appears to have been a 
late addition to the code, a demon named Azazel 
was to be propitiated by the present of a goat. 
Probably the names of others were preserved by 
those who drove the forbidden trade of witchcraft. 
The fierce persecution of these persons by the 
monotheists is probably due to their perpetuation 
of primeval superstitions ; so the wizard in Job 
(3. 8 ) is prepared to eclipse the sun by rousing 
Leviathan. In the narrative of the wizard Balaam, 
as we have it, he, though hired to curse Israel, 
figures as the prophet of JHVH, perhaps in order to 
account for the effectiveness of his utterances ; it is 
unlikely that this feature belonged to the original 
form of the story. The wizards and witches are 



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associated with utterances coming from under- 
ground (Is. 2C;. 4 ), and are likely to have been in 
relation with chthonian (or subterraneous) deities. 
Their names are obscure ; yid'orit (wizard) seems to 
mean " inhabitant of Yid'on," or Wad'an, a place 
near Yanbo in Arabia. 

Places and Modes of Worship.— The analysis 
of the Biblical records, carried out most successfully 
by Wellhausen, has revealed three main stages in 
these matters : a period of licence, in which worship 
might be conducted anywhere and by any person ; 
a period in which it is restricted locally to the 
Temple area of Jerusalem, and sacrificial operations 
are confined to certain privileged persons ; and a 
third, in which the functions and privileges of this 
priestly caste are greatly increased and elaborated. 
The process whereby one stage passed into another 
was evidently highly complicated, and its recon- 
struction is rendered difficult both by the scanty 
nature of the documents at our disposal, and by the 
regular projection into the past of what each writer 
believed to have been normal. In a period for 
which we have no positive evidence it is probable 
that each community possessed its own sanctuary, 
and the persons in charge of these are likely to have 
been such as were acquainted with the practices 
belonging to them, i.e. such as had inherited the 
tradition from a period before the arrival of the 
Israelitish conquerors, who are charged with having 
allowed these cults to continue, whereas (in ac- 
cordance with a later theory) they should have 
abolished them. The maintenance of a number of 
ancient sanctuaries as " cities of refuge " in the 
later legislation is evidence that there was no breach 
in the worship conducted in them ; the Israelites, 
in maintaining it, acted in accordance with the 
ordinary practice of invaders in ancient times. The 
substitution in all these sanctuaries of the worship of 
JHVH for the original cult seems in the Northern 
Kingdom to have been the work of the Jehu 
dynasty, whence it spread to the Southern King- 
dom. In the course of it many priestly families 
must have been exterminated. The next stage, the 
abolition of all places of sacrifice other than the 
Temple area at Jerusalem, and the creation of an 
inferior priestly caste (called Levites), out of the 
priests of the provincial sanctuaries, was later than 
the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, and ap- 
pears to be connected with the name of Josiah ; his 
reform was never carried out in its entirety till the 
destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the 
remarkable papyri of Elephantine show that the 
Jewish exiles built themselves temples outside the 
land of Palestine, the priests of which were not 
always at variance with their colleagues in the 
Second Temple of the capital. 

The elevation of the priests into a caste, treated 
in accordance with ancient ideas as a tribe — and 



indeed the tribe which gave Israel its greatest hero 
and legislator — is closely connected with Josiah's 
reform, and the subsequent loss of political inde- 
pendence, rendering the priest (as in the Chris- 
tian communities within the Ottoman empire) 
the national head. With the collapse of the old 
sanctuaries the irregular sources of revenue for the 
priests ceased ; they became a permanent charge 
on the community, and were assigned in different 
layers of legislation an ever-increasing share of the 
produce, but as a set-off they were in theory to own 
no land. How this principle worked in practice is 
not known ; Josephus, who declares he was a priest, 
was also a landowner. Of the mode in which the 
tithes, &c, were collected, and how they were 
divided among the members of the priestly caste, 
there is no record in the Bible or the works of 
Josephus. In any case only certain members of the 
caste can have devoted themselves to the perform- 
ance of sacerdotal functions. 

With the growth of the sacerdotal caste and the 
abolition of household gods as well as local cults, 
the distinction between sacred and frofane appears to 
have been accentuated, or actually to have arisen. 
Whereas at an earlier stage every act of life was in 
some way associated with religion, the sphere of the 
latter became narrowed ; gross forms of worship 
were abolished, though the memory of them was 
preserved (Dt. 23. 18 ), and what was originally a 
mode of propitiating the Deity was interpreted as an 
offence deserving condign punishment (1 S. 2. 22 ). 
The idea of merry-making became separated from 
that of worship, and the employment of the dance 
appears to have been abandoned, though David was 
thought to have practised it as a religious ceremony, 
not without occasioning some scandal (2 S. 6. 14 ). 
The dissociation of art from religion never extended 
to music, which appears to have been highly elabo- 
rated ; but to the variety of religious entertainments 
which other nations evolved the Israelites furnish 
no parallel. The taboos current in different parts 
of the community were at some time systematised, 
and some speculations on their reasons are pre- 
served ; thus blood might not be used as food 
because it was the life of the animal (Dt. 12. 23 ), 
though it appears that this taboo was at first recog- 
nised by a limited number of persons or tribes (1 S. 
14. 32 ). Work might not be done on Saturn's day, 
according to one account, because the Israelites had 
been slaves themselves, and should therefore give 
their slaves an occasional holiday (Dt. 5- 14f ; accord- 
ing to another, because the completion of the world 
in six days should be commemorated (Ex. 20. 11 ). 
Such speculation is on the whole rare, and is perhaps 
controversial in character where it occurs. The 
most curious example is the explanation of a food- 
taboo by an incident in the life of the patriarch Jacob 
(Gn. 32. 33 ), which suggests a state of cannibalism. 



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To what extent these ordinances were observed 
at any time before the final downfall of the Jewish 
State is not known. It is likely that a few prac- 
tices took root, and became almost instinctive with 
the Israelites : especially circumcision, observance 
of the Sabbath, and abhorrence of images and of 
swine's flesh and blood. Otherwise it is likely that 
the sacerdotal legislation had, except when a fanatic 
like Nehemiah happened to be in power, largely 
academic value. Thus it is observable that the 
violation of the Sabbath, which, according to Nu. 
15. 35 , is punishable by stoning, meets in the Gospels 
only with mild remonstrance. The rigid enforce- 
ment of these regulations would have meant a 
sacerdotal inquisition into the whole of life, such as 
could not fail to stir up bitter resentment against 
the priestly caste ; and of such a result there is 
no historical attestation. Experiments occasionally 
made at carrying out the enactments of the law on 
a great scale had a tendency to discourage such 
a course (Jr. 34. 12ff -). Hence the charge of not 
keeping the law could be brought not only against 
persons imperfectly acquainted with it, but even 
against those whose lives were devoted to its study 
(Jn. ? .»). 

Spiritual religion, or communication between the 
worshipper and the Divine Being, leading to the 
moral elevation of the former, was recognised by 
many persons as distinct from, if not absolutely 
opposed to, traditional practices ; and of the exist- 
ence of religion in this sense the Psalms and pro- 
phecies give evidence for at least a considerable 
period. Whether, however, prayer and preaching, 
the two most common expressions of this form of 
emotion — the former dissociated from requests for 
special favours, often or indeed ordinarily involving 
some kind of bargain — belonged exclusively to the 
monotheists and worshippers of JHVH is unknown ; 
the literature of the sort which the OT. preserves 
has all passed through their hands, even if it did not 
all originate with them. The ecstatic state, which 
is not unconnected with such emotions, appears 
to have been known to the earlier stages of the 
Israelitish system (Nu. 24. 4 ), and to have been in- 
duced by music (1 S. io. 5 , &c), and perhaps by 
violence to the person (1 K. 18. 28 ) ; of devotees, as 
the term is ordinarily understood — z\*. persons whose 
lives were spent in ascetic practice and meditation 
— we probably read first in the works of Philo and 
Josephus, and the systems which they describe show 
evident traces of foreign influence. Tendencies of 
this sort are illustrated from an earlier period by the 
practice of dedicating children to Divine service, 
and imposing on them certain privations, notably 
abstention from wine. The difficulties which exile 
ordinarily placed in the way of sacrifice led to the 
substitution of prayer at stated times of the day 
(Dn. 6. 10 ) for more material offerings ; and this rite 



developed at some time into a liturgy, leaving a 
permanent monument in the Psalms, of which the 
origin is perhaps somewhat more obscure than that 
of the law. For this development of Israelitish 
religion light is expected from the discoveries at 
Elephantine. 

Theology in relation to Law and Order.— It 
is probable that conduct was in general thought to 
be regulated by the will of the gods, but the inter- 
pretation of this of course varied from time to time. 
Those who compiled codes embodied some existing 
practice with certain innovations ; the Deutero- 
nomist even contemplates the constant modifica- 
tion of the code by a succession of prophets (18. 15 ), 
to be obeyed with some reservations (13. 2 ). The 
enunciation of general principles belongs, however, 
to a fairly advanced stage of civilisation ; the pro- 
phet at earlier periods is rather a person to be con- 
sulted on emergencies, whose suggestions, if they 
resulted successfully, might very likely furnish the 
norm for future practice. The moral value of these 
suggestions would vary with the character of the 
prophet ; whence we find in David's biography 
a measure adopted for allaying the Divine wrath 
which absolutely conflicts with the rule (Dt. 24. 16 ) 
which a later king is praised for observing. And 
the theory that the law, even concerning clean and 
unclean beasts, and marriage contracts, was given 
by Moses, is at times contradicted by relics of pre- 
Mosaic history. 

Prior to the introduction of monotheism it is 
probable that various deities were made responsible 
for the prevailing practice ; after that introduction 
right conduct was the will of JHVH. The epithets 
applied to Him furnished the general notions neces- 
sary for legislation, which was based upon them. 
Of these one of the most important was jealous, 
i.e. retentive of rights and unwilling that they 
should be shared. This adjective seems to have 
suggested the idea of conjugal jealousy, whence the 
worship of other deities is termed by the prophets 
" adultery." Another was of less obvious import — 
qadosh, " holy," probably meaning concerned with 
the condition of those who approach Him, and 
resenting such approach except by persons in a 
suitable condition. 

Although the records, in spite of repeated expur- 
gation, were allowed to connect the name of the 
Deity with many immoral orders (e.g. Gn. 22. 2 , 
2 1. 11 ), and violent persecutions of other sects were 
organised by prophets of JHVH, the tendency to 
connect the name with the higher morality can- 
not be ignored, and the analysis of the concept of 
justice or righteousness as applied to the Deity was 
productive of good. The relegation of all gods and 
goddesses save One to the region of fiction, and 
indeed blasphemous fiction, introduced the sublime 
and elevating conception of a philosophic First 



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Cause. Yet the resulting contradiction between 
this idea and that of a Being connected by contract 
with one special nation, and ignorant of the others 
(Am. 3. 2 ), does not appear to have been faced by 
the Israelitish speculation. In certain books (e.g. 
Joshua and Esther), as noticed above, it might seem 
that on the ground of the covenant between JHVH 
and Israel, and the absence of similar contracts with 
other races, all other nations were outlawed ; while 
some prophecies contemplate their eventual an- 
nexation to Israel in the character of proselytes. 
The period of codification was the time when the 
most intolerant views prevailed. 

Theology in relation to Psychology and kin- 
dred subjects. — The codes, while legislating for 
individuals, appear to deal with the nation corpo- 
rately, and in the history also the individual has a 
tendency to disappear in the mass ; prosperity and 
adversity befall the nation as a whole, and are de- 
termined by the conduct of the king. The cases in 
which we hear of individuals thinking and acting for 
themselves (unless they be prophets) are rare. It is 
characteristic of this doctrine that the nation is con- 
stantly addressed in the singular as " thou." The 
nation being eternal (Sr. 37- 25 ), whereas the indi- 
vidual was ephemeral, personality was not of suf- 
ficient importance to deserve analysis : Israelitish 
thinkers remained absolutely unaffected by the 
speculations of their Eygptian neighbours, whose 
efforts were largely devoted to solving problems 
connected with the state after death ; and when a 
portion of the nation adopted the doctrine of a 
resurrection, it took the form of a belief that pious 
Israelites would be restored to life in their bodies to 
share in the happiness of a restored " kingdom of 
Israel." The prospect of a restoration was clearly 
not earlier than the destruction of the kingdoms, 
and the codes themselves, which are projected into 
the time of the Exodus, appear to contain no hint 
of any life save that on earth, or of any prosperity 
other than of a material kind. For the Exile, indeed, 
preparation is made ; but in such a way that both 
the national death which it implies and the resto- 
ration which is to follow on repentance are to be 
corporate experiences, in which individual conduct 
is not considered ; Israel as a whole sins, repents, 
and is restored. 

This doctrine probably dominated Israelitish 
thought, and it accounts for many inconsistencies ; 
yet individualism was not without its representa- 
tives, and there were persons who, instead of ac- 
counting for misfortunes on the ground that the 
law had not been observed, asserted that " JHVH 
did neither good nor ill " (Zp. I. 12 ) : in a late work 
of the Israelitish genius, the book Koheleth, this 
doctrine is set forth with great emphasis — it won, 
however, little support. D. S. Margoliouth. 

REMALIAH, father of Pekah, king of Israel 



(2 K. I5. 25ff -, I6. 1 - 5 ; 2 Ch. 28. 6 ; Is. 7. lff -, 8. 6 ), 
apparently of obscure origin. 

REMETH (Jo. 19. 21 ), possibly identical with 
Ramoth 1 (1 Ch. 6. 73 ), called " Jarmuth " (Jo. 
2 1. 29 ). A city of Issachar, probably represented by 
er-Rameh, about 1 1 miles south-west of Jeriin. 

REMMON, RV. RIMMON (which see). 

REMMON-METHOAR. See Rimmon. 

REMPHAN, a term that in Ac. 7 43 replaces 
Chiun (Kizvan, " the planet Saturn ") of Am. 5. 26 . 
In the ordinary text of LXX it is Raifhan ; there is 
no satisfactory explanation of this variation. 

REPHAEL, son of Shemaiah son of Obededom, 
one of the gatekeepers of the Tabernacle (1 Ch. 26J). 

REPHAH, son of Ephraim, and ancestor of 
Joshua (1 Ch. 7. 25 ). 

REPHAIAH. (1) Head of a family descended 
from Zerubbabel (1 Ch. 3. 21 ). (2) One of the 
Simeonite chiefs who headed the raid on the 
Amalekites of Mt. Seir (1 Ch. 4. 42 ). (3) Son of 
Tola, of the tribe of Issachar (1 Ch. y. 2 ). (4) Son 
of Binea, a descendant of Saul and Jonathan (1 Ch. 
9 43 ; 1 Ch. 8. 37 , " Rapha "). (5) Son of Hur, who 
assisted in repairing the wall (Ne. 3. 9 ), and had 
charge of a portion of the city. 

REPHAIM, a pre-Israelite race in Palestine. 
They are first mentioned as occupying Ashteroth- 
Karnaim at the time of Chedorlaomer's invasion 
(Gn. 14. 5 ). Of these Og, king of Bashan, is de- 
scribed as a survivor (Dt. 3. 11 ; Jo. 12. 4 , 13. 12 RV.). 
They are said aforetime to have inhabited Ar of 
Moab, and to have been called Emim by the Moab- 
ites (Dt. 2. 11 ). Ammon also aforetime was called 
" the land of the Rephaim " ; their Ammonite 
name being Zamzummim (v. 20). They are de- 
scribed as a people great and tall. Bashan also was 
called the " land of the R." (Dt. 3. 13 ). They are 
enumerated as among the nations of Palestine in 
pre-Israelite days (Gn. 15. 20 ). That they were 
found in Western Palestine is indicated by Jo. 
17. 15 ; and by the name attached to a vale south of 
Jerusalem. See Rephaim, Valley of. [AV. trs. 
"giants" in Dt. 2. u - 20 , 3. 11 . 13 ; Jo. 12. 4 , 13. 12 , 
17.15.] 

As a people they seem to loom from the dim 
past, vague and large, on the imagination of Israel. 
The name, from the verb rdphdh, may denote the 
" sunken " or " powerless " ones. The same term is 
used for shades, or ghosts (Jb. 26. 5 ; Is. 14. 9 , &c). 

REPHAIM, VALE OF. A fruitful plain (Is. 
17. 5 ) south-west from Jerusalem (Jo. 15. 8 , 18. 16 ), the 
scene of David's victories over the Philistines (2 S. 
5. 18 - 22 , 23. 13 ; 1 Ch. 11. 15 , 14. 9 ). Josephus (Ant. 
VII. xii. 4) places it between Bethlehem and Jeru- 
salem. The name might apply to mod. el-Biqcf to 
the S.W. of Jerusalem, or, as the narratives imply a 
considerable extent of space, it may have covered 
the district between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, in 



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which are gathered the head waters of Nahr Rubin. 
Up this valley would be the natural approach of the 
Philistines against Jerusalem. 

REPHIDIM, a station between the Wilderness 
of Sin and that of Sinai (Ex. IJ. 1 ' 8 , 19. 2 ; cf. Nu. 
33. 14f -). Possibly it lay in Wady Feiran (Palmer, 
Desert of the Exodus, index). Water was supplied 
for the camp of Israel by Divine intervention. The 
strife with Amalek here no doubt concerned pos- 
session of the springs — a matter of supreme impor- 
tance to the dwellers in the waste. Jebel Tahuneh, 
north of the valley, would command a view of the 
battle. Certain scholars (e.g. Sayce, HCM. p. 269) 
think that Sinai may have lain to the east of the 
Gulf of 'Aqaba, Elath being Elim. In that case 
Rephidim would have to be sought to the east or 
south-east of Elath. But see Sinai. 




Traditional Rock that Moses struck in Wady Feiran 
(Rephidim) 

RESEN, one of the four cities built by Nimrod 
(RV.) in Assyria (Gn. io. 12 ), between Nineveh and 
Calah. These two are identified with Kouyunjik 
and Nimroud. Dr. Pinches would place it at or 
near the mod. Selamiyeh, and thinks that Reho- 
both-ir, Calah, and Resen are to be taken as 
suburbs of Nineveh. 

RESHEPH, son of Ephraim, brother of Rephah 
(1 Ch. 7. 25 ). 

RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. The cen- 
tral fact on wh. all Christianity is poised is the R. of 
Jesus ; the apostle Paul declares (1 Cor. 15. 17 ), " If 
Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet 
in your sins." 

(1) Evidence. — The earliest documentary ac- 
count of the evidence is fm. the hands of St. 
Paul ; in the opening vv. of 1 Cor. 15. the various 
witnesses for the fact are named. Three of the 
evangelists relate appearances of our Lord after 
He had suffered ; or, if we hold the last eight w. 

66 



of Mark as authentic, all four do so. Their ac- 
counts, though later than Paul's in being committed 
to writing, yet as representing the primary, possibly 
oral Gospel, present us with earlier evidence. It is 
difficult to arrange in strict chronological sequence 
the different appearances, but we shall take the 
order that seems on the whole the most reasonable : 
(a) to Mary Magdalene in the garden beside the 
tomb (Jn. 20. 14 " 17 ) ; (b) to the other women as they 
were hurrying to bring the disciples word (Mw. 
28. 9 - 10 ); (c) then "He was seen of Cephas" 
(1 Cor. 15. 5 ) ; (d) immediately after this He ap- 
peared to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus 
(Mk. 16. 12 ; Lk. 24. 13 - 33 ) ; (e) then " as they thus 
spake," narrating their experience to the ten 
apostles in the " upper room," " Jesus Himself 
stood in the midst of them " (Mk. 16. 14 ; Lk. 24. 36 ; 
Jn. 20. 19 " 25 ) ; (/) then the following week when 
Thomas, who had previously been absent, was 
present (Jn. 20. 26 - 29 ) ; (g) at the Sea of Galilee to 
seven of the eleven apostles (Jn. 21. 1 " 23 ) ; (h) there- 
after to the 500 " on a mountain where Jesus had 
appointed them " (Mw. 28. 16 ; I Cor. 15. 6 ) ; (t) 
then to James His brother (1 Cor. 15. 7 ) ; (7) then 
to the assembled apostolate when " He led them 
out as far as to Bethany," and " was parted fm. 
them and carried up into Heaven " (Lk. 24. 50 ; 
Ac. I. 4 ). This body of testimony is very consider- 
able, and mt. well call for credence were there no 
more to be said. But moreover, whatever may be 
said of some of the witnesses, others of them were 
persons little liable to yield to hallucinations. Of 
the apostles, the sons of Jonas and the sons of 
Zebedee, fishermen living in the open air, whose 
life depended on their nerves being in perfect con- 
trol, cd. not be neurotic visionaries ; Matthew the 
publican, by his profession, wd. be brought into 
perpetual association with the sceptical Romans ; 
this wd. give him a tendency to doubt all narratives 
involving the supernatural ; Thomas was constitu- 
tionally a sceptic. Further, we see that, although 
Peter and John had seen enough to make them 
believe, the rest of the disciples received with in- 
credulity not only the testimony of the women, but 
even that of Peter and the two fm. Emmaus. When 
their doubts were removed nothing cd. make them 
deny their testimony. Though every effort was 
made to silence them, their answer to their perse- 
cutors always was, " We cannot but speak the things 
wh. we have seen and heard." In spite of the fact 
that first the Jewish then the Roman authorities 
made it a thing of danger to proclaim the R., they 
wd. not consent to be silenced. When a case is 
before judge and jury, both are influenced by the 
bearing of a witness, to belief or disbelief. When 
these witnesses for the R. proclaimed it they not only 
received general credence but those who believed 
were filled with a like enthusiasm of faith. Within 



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Reu 



less than a generation, among the Jewish com- more than indicate thus briefly the theological 
munity in Rome, believers in the R. were numerous consequences of this sublime event, 
enough to be the occasion of tumults so important Lit. : Westcott, Gospel of the R. ; Milligan, R. of 
that the imperial authorities had to take action, our Lord ; Bruce, apologetics ; Latham, The Risen 
After little more than a generation believers were in Master ; Orr, The R. of Jesus. 
sufficient numbers to make Nero's accusation that REU, son of Peleg, an ancestor of Abraham (Gn. 
they had burned Rome at least plausible. The dis- n. 18 " 21 ; I Ch. I. 25 ). The Greek transliteration of 
crepancies wh. are alleged, when properly considered, the Heb. name gives Ragau in Lk. 3. 35 . 
really make for the credibility of the narratives. REUBEN, Jacob's first-born son, borne to him 
Even sworn affidavits as to an event very often do by Leah (Gn. 2c). 32 ). He should naturally have 
not perfectly tally. We may take it for granted taken the first place among his brethren ; but a 
that a writer always means to be consistent, yet St. peculiarly gross sin cost him his personal ascen- 
Luke's two accounts of Christ's appearance to His dency ; and there is no evidence that his tribe ever 
disciples before His ascension are to appearance exercised the hegemony in Israel. The pride of 
discrepant. This enables us to estimate the kind Jacob in his eldest son, and his sorrow over that 
of accuracy aimed, at. All the differences in the which wrought his downfall, are reflected in Gn. 
narratives are explicable on this understanding. 49- 3f - (cp. 35- 22 ). There may be a hint of the future 
Were there no even apparent discrepancies a fair greatness of Joseph's descendants in Gn. 48. 5 (cp. 
case mt. be made out for collusion. We need not 1 Ch. 5. 1 ), where Jacob adopts Ephraim and Ma- 
waste time over the hypothesis of a swoon, that nasseh, who are to be to him " as Reuben and 
Jesus was not really dead ; or that other, that the Simeon." The details of this patriarch's life are 
body was removed, and that fm. the empty tomb scanty. He wrought for the deliverance of Joseph 
the myth of the R. was evolved. out of his brother's hands, and deserves credit for 

(2) The Nature of the Resurrection and of the his intention, although he failed (Gn. 37- 21f -). To 
Resurrection Body. — Had our Lord awaked fm. reassure his father when Benjamin was required in 
death as one awakes fm. sleep, or as Lazarus was re- Egypt, he offered his two sons as security for his 
called to life, He wd. have unwrapped the linen cloth brother's safe return (42. 37 ). Four sons are men- 
in wh. His body had been swathed, and probably un- tioned as having been born to him in Canaan, before 
tied the napkin wound about His head ; but Latham the descent of the tribe into Egypt (46. 8f -). 
(Risen Master) has shown by a careful study of the Some scholars think that the notices of Reuben 
Gr. that the cloth had fallen flat and the napkin are simply bits of ancient tribal tradition, presented 
still retained to some extent the shape of the head, under the aspect of a biography of the supposed 
The natural process of decay, wh. takes many yrs., is ancestor of the tribe. This theory is beset by many 
completed in as many hours ; the equally natural difficulties. There is nothing recorded which is 
process by wh. the human spirit builds up a body by inconsistent with the view that the details pre- 
the absorption of matter is hastened also, so that served are bits of the personal history of the man 
what takes a lifetime is done in a moment. It is clear Reuben. 

that our Lord's Resurrection body must have differed For the strength of the tribe in the wilderness 

fm. that of Lazarus, wh. was a mortal body. The see Numbers. The name of Reuben occupies the 

phenomena recorded suit this. Our Lord vanishes first place in Nu. I. 5, 20 ; subsequently the name of 

fm. the sight of the disciples at Emmaus, He ap- Judah takes the premier position ; that of Reuben 

pears in the upper room in Jrs., " the doors being coming fourth (2. 10 , &c). The deposition of the 

shut." In short, our Lord's body is a spiritual, not tribe thus suggested, may have been the real cause of 

a natural body. the rebellion in which Dathan, Abiram, and On, 

(3) The Consequences of the Resurrection. — Reubenites, played a leading part. In that case 
The R. proved the Divinity of our Lord (Rm. I. 3 * 4 ), Korah may have been but the tool of the con- 
and consequently the worthiness of His sacrificial spirators (Nu. 16. 1 , &c). 

death, and thus the completion of His redemptive The place of Reuben in the desert march, under 

work. It is the first step in His exaltation. It is evi- the command of Elizur, was in the south of the 

dence of His Messiahship ; but also it reveals the real Tabernacle, along with Simeon and Gad. With 

nature of Messiahship ; it is not a mere imperialism ; this latter tribe Reuben was in future to be closely 

it is a spiritual supremacy (Ac. 2. 31 ' 36 ). The apostle associated. See Gad. 

Paul brings the R. into closest connection with The territory they desired on the east of the 

our justification : " He was delivered for our Jordan having been assigned to Reuben and Gad, 

offences and raised again for our justification " the fighting men of these two tribes crossed over 

(Rm. 4- 25 ). His R. is the pledge of our own R. and bore a part in the conquest of Western Palestine. 

(1 Th. 4. 14 ; Rm. 6. 5 , 8. 11 ; I Cor. 15. 20 ). It is im- One Reubenite, at least, seems to have distinguished 

possible, in the short space at our disposal, to do himself. The stone of Bohan the son of Reuben 

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(Jo. 15. 6 , 18. 17 ) probably marked the scene of some 
heroic exploit. Reuben and Gad were pastoral 
tribes, and the land east of Jordan was well adapted 
to their pursuits. When the work of conquest in 
the west was done, they returned to their own terri- 
tory. From fear lest the great cleft of the Jordan 
might tend to severance and alienation from their 
brethren in the west, they reared a great altar in 
the Ghor, which was to be a witness, for all time, of 
the essential unity of all the tribes. The misunder- 
standing which this gave rise to was satisfactorily 
cleared up, and a threatened danger avoided. But 
the course of history showed that their fear was by 
no means ill founded. It would have taken more 
than a mere altar of witness (Jo. 22.) to preserve the 
unity of tribes severed as the eastern and western 
were, not merely by the great natural barrier, but 
also by the whole circumstances of life and pursuits. 
Those on the east were, as we have seen, mainly 
pastoral ; those on the west gave themselves largely 
to agriculture, and the occupations of a city life. 
These sundering influences in time produced the 
result which might be expected. 

The territory assigned to Reuben lay to the east 
of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, marching with 
Gad in the north, and reaching to the Arnon in 
the south. There is no indication of the eastern 
frontier ; that, of course, was furnished by the 
desert (Jo. I3. 15ff> ). Bezer in Reuben was ap- 
pointed a city of refuge (20. 8 , &c). The cities of 
Reuben are dealt with in separate articles under 
their own names. For description of the land see 
Moab, Palestine. 

Reuben, evidently still a numerous tribe, took no 
part in repelling the invasion of Sisera (Jg. 5. 15f- )* 
From this we may gather that they were already 
losing touch with their brethren in the west. The 
Reubenites are technically included in " all the 
tribes of Israel " (Jg. 20. 10 , 2 1. 5 ) ; but it is hardly 
likely that they took any important share in the 
events there described. Holding, as they did, an 
outpost of the land of Israel, exposed to attack from 
the south, and to sudden raids from the desert, the 
Reubenites developed the martial spirit and mili- 
tary skill. In the days of Saul, assisted by Gad 
and Manasseh, they made successful war upon the 
Hagarites, taking rich spoil (1 Ch. 5. 10 ' 19ff -). They 
are described as " valiant men, men able to bear 
buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and 
skilful in war." Of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, 
from beyond Jordan, 120,000 " men of war that 
could order the battle array came with a perfect 
heart to Hebron, to make David king," " with all 
manner of instruments of war for the battle " (1 
Ch. I2. m ). One of David's famous captains was 
" Adina, the son of Shiza the Reubenite " (n. 42 ). 
David showed concern for their welfare, and that of 
their neighbouring tribes ; but the influence of his 



" overseers " was clearly evanescent (1 Ch. 26. 32 ). 
At the disruption of the kingdom they fell to the 
northern monarchy. In remoteness from their 
brethren in the fellowship of worship, the Reu- 
benites probably found the descent into idolatry all 
too easy. What were the immediate causes of their 
decline we do not know ; but the territory allotted 
to them east of the Dead Sea seems soon to have 
passed into the hands of Moab ; and the inscription 
of Mesha (Moabite Stone), while naming Gad, takes 
no notice of Reuben. In the days of Jehu they 
suffered at the hands of Hazael (2 K. io. 32t ). They 
were among the first to fall into captivity, Tiglath- 
pileser, king of Assyria, overwhelming them and 
carrying them away " unto Halah, and Habor, and 
Hara, and to the river of Gozan " (1 Ch. 5- 26 ). 

Reuben appears in the reconstructed Israel of 
Ek. 48., and among the tribes named in Rv. J. 5 . 

REUEL. (1) Son of Esau by Bashemath the 
sister of Ishmael (Gn. 36. 4 , &c). (2) See Jethro. 
(3) Father of Eliasaph, chief of the tribe of Gad 
(Nu. 2. 14 ). By mistaking 1 for 1 he is called 
Deuel in Nu. I. 14 , &c. (4) One of the chiefs of 
Benjamin (1 Ch. c;. 8 ). 

REUMAH, concubine of Nahor, the brother of 
Abraham (Gn. 22. 24 ). 

REVELATION, BOOK OF, has for its full title 
" The Revelation of St. John the Divine " (i.e. the 
Theologian), and was known in early Christian Lit. 
as the Apocalypse of John. This is, in fact, the de- 
scription of his work given by the author himself in 
the first verse, and marks it out as belonging to a 
special class of religious Lit. known as " Apoca- 
lyptic." Much of the difficulty wh. has been found 
in the interpretation of the bk. is due to the fact 
that it is only here and in the bk. of Daniel, and to 
some extent in the bk. of Zechariah, that we meet 
with specimens of this form of Lit. wh. are at all 
familiar. But among the Jews from the time of 
Daniel to the end of the first cent, of our era it was 
a very favourite form, and several other specimens of 
it have survived, the study of wh. in recent yrs. has 
shed much light on the char, and the interpretation 
of the Apocalypse. Our Apocalypse differs from 
the other bks. of its class in that it is written by a 
Christian and for Christians, and in that it is not 
pseudonymous, i.e. it bears the name of its author, 
" John." Otherwise it shares their main charac- 
teristics, of wh. the following may be noted. An 
Apocalypse is usually the product of a serious crisis 
in religious hist. ; it springs from a time when faith 
in God is being severely tried by the experience of 
the world's power and cruelty. Its purpose is to 
bracethe faith of God's people to continued patience 
and steadfastness, to courage, and the triumphant 
assurance of victory in the end. And the method is 
to present the situation of the moment in the light 
of eternal facts, and to depict the future in such a 



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way as to enhance the conviction that " the end is 
at hand," and that the end will be the vindication 
of God's rule and the glorious redemption of His 
people. The form in which these thoughts are ex- 
pressed is that of a vision or series of visions — a form 
wh. in some cases may have been the actual experi- 
ence of the writer, while in others it may have been 
a literary vehicle for conveying his convictions. In 
either case, the description of the visions is largely 
conveyed in the lang. of symbolism ; and this sym- 
bolism has a history. The writer, that is to say, did 
not invent his symbols. He borrowed them fm. 
earlierLit.; they had already acquired a certain gene- 
ral meaning ; by some slight change in the figure, or 
by the place given to it in the context, he indicated 
the significance wh. the symbol had in his reading of 
hist, or prediction of the future. One reason leading 
to the adoption of this cryptic method of writing 
may have been the desire to veil from hostile op- 
pressors the hopes and aspirations wh. were cherished 
by believers. The study of these characteristics of 
Apocalyptic Lit. is the essential condition for the 
right interpretation of our Apocalypse. 

The construction of the bk., wh. at first sight ap- 
pears to be loose, is really very closely articulated. 
It falls into three main divisions. The first, ending 
with the fifth chap., has for its theme the things that 
are, the unseen realities wh. form the background to 
all human experience and history. The second, wh. 
comprises the centre of the bk. fm. the sixth to the 
sixteenth chaps., describes in a threefold cycle " the 
things wh. shall be hereafter," up to the Judgment. 
And the third, comprising the last six chaps., de- 
scribes certain great episodes connected with the 
Judgment. In the first section the vision of the Son 
of Man, wh. sets forth the glory of Christ and His 
relation to the Church, is followed by the letters to 
the Seven Churches, revealing His intimate kge. of 
their situation and char., His care and concern for 
them, and the glorious issues of their steadfastness. 
To this follows, in chaps. 4. and 5., the vision of the 
eternal realities in Heaven, the glory of the Creator, 
and the saving function of the Redeemer, the kge. 
of wh. may enhearten the Church to sustain the 
utmost cruelty of men. In the second section the 
predictions of the stages that lead to the final 
Judgment are thrown into the form of three cycles 
of seven (the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls). 
The description of the successive strokes of judg- 
ment is throughout in terms of physical privation 
and suffering, and is largely based on the record of 
the plagues of Egypt, the horror being heightened 
by the widening of their area and the suggestion of 
diabolic agents at work. It is difficult to say how 
the writer intended these cycles to be related to one 
another, whether as consecutive or as a threefold 
description of the same series of events ; but prob. 
they are to be regarded as consecutive. 



The orderly development of the first and second 
cycles is broken by the insertionof parentheses, three 
in all. The first, in the cycle of the bowls, gives the 
vision of the Redeemed in Heaven (chap. 7.), in wh. 
the writer prob. begins by quoting fm. an earlier 
Apocalypse what had been a Jewish anticipation 
of the future, in wh. the redeemed are a limited 
number, drawn from the tribes of Isr., and owing 
their redemption to their place among the chosen 
people. On this he builds the Christian counter- 
part, a redemption wh. covers an innumerable mul- 
titude, drawn fm. all nations of the earth, and owing 
their salvation to the fact that they have washed 
their robes in the blood of the Lamb. The second 
parenthesis (chaps, io. 1 -! 1 , 13 ) interrupts the cycle of 
the Trumpets, and contains two episodes, the pur- 
pose of wh. is prob. to provide a pause in the unroll- 
ing of judgment, and consolation and assurance in 
the first vision for the seer, and in the second for 
the believing dwellers in Jrs. In both episodes the 
writer prob. employs ancient material. The same 
is true of the third parenthesis, wh. stands between 
the trumpets and the bowls, and occupies three 
chaps. (12.-14.). The first of these, the vision of 
the Woman and the Dragon, is best understood as 
a fragment of earlier date and possibly of Jewish 
origin, in wh. the writer saw an anticipation of 
events in the life of Jesus. He takes it, with its de- 
scription of the activity of the " dragon," as a clue 
to his own vision of the Beast or monster, wh. repre- 
sents the power of the dragon upon earth. By this 
monster he understands the Roman empire esp. as 
impersonated in the emperor Nero, and by the 
second monster prob. the priestly guilds whose 
business it was to promote and enforce the worship 
of the emperor in Asia Minor. 

The third section of the bk., beginning with chap. 
17., contains visions of judgment in the double form 
of destruction upon the enemies of God and the 
Church, in wh. Babylon, drunken with the blood of 
the saints, undoubtedly stands for Rome, and of 
victory for Christ's faithful servants consequent 
upon His return (19. 11 " 16 ), followed by the vision of 
the ideal City of God and the bliss of the saints. 

There has been much discussion in recent yrs. as 
to the composition of the bk. The difficulty of re- 
garding all its contents as homogeneous and the 
original product of one writer has led to several 
different attempts to find distinct stages or distinct 
sources in its composition. It has been held to be 
originally a Jewish Apocalypse, altered and added to 
by a Christian writer ; or a combination of two or 
more such Apocalypses set in a Christian frame- 
work ; or an originally Christian document re- 
issued after an interval of yrs. with additions by the 
same or another writer. The attempt to disen- 
tangle earlier Apocalypses, however, is baffled by the 
remarkable uniformity in the style of the bk. down 



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to the minutest particulars of diction, and even the between the fourth Gospel (wh. he held to be the 
striking peculiarities of grammar. The most serious work of the apostle) and the Ape. in respect of die- 
difficulties are removed by the recognition of the tion, grammar, and style, and also in respect of the 
above-mentioned parentheses, and possibly one or ideas severally underlying the two documents. In 
two other short passages or quotations fm. earlier view of these diffes. he held that one and the same 
and extra-canonical Lit. ; and the tendency of the man cd. not have been the author of both ; and 
best authorities at present is to dismiss the theories drew the conclusion that there must have been two 
of a composite origin, and see in the bk. the work of writers of the same name ; he does not, however, 
a single writer. He was certainly very familiar with suggest that the second John was John " the Pres- 
the OT., and his work is full of quotations and allu- byter." The effect of this criticism may possibly 
sions drawn fm. that source. The visions in Patmos be traced in the omission of the Ape. fm. several 
were granted to a mind wh. was saturated with the of the authoritative lists of canonical bks., such as 
ideas, the lang., and the symbolism of the later pro- the canon drawn up by the Council of Laodicea, 
phets ; and if, in their literary form, the visions and also in the non-appearance of the Ape. in the 
came to be clothed so largely in traditional concep- Syriac versions of the NT. It was left to Eusebius 
tions borrowed fm. the OT., there is all the more to make the suggestion that the author of the Ape. 
probability that they wd. borrow also some of their was John the Presbyter referred to by Papias, to 
material fm. the Apocalyptic Lit. wh. so deeply whom also some referred the second and third 
influenced Jewish thought in the first cent. Epistles of John. This opinion has been widely held 

The question of authorship is a double one. Was down to our own time, and some think to find con- 
the author really John, as he calls himself three firmation of it in a recently discovered statement of 
times in its course (i. 4 ' 9 , 22. 8 ) ; and was he John the an ancient writer to the effect that John and his 
son of Zebedee ? The former of these questions is to brother James were killed by the Jews. The infer- 
be answered in the affirmative. The writers of other ence fm. this wd. be that both the sons of Zebedee 
Apes, write in the name of some ancient hero of the perished as martyrs before the middle of the first 
faith ; this one writes as " your brother and par- cent. ; and the place thus left vacant by the early 
taker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and death of John the son of Zebedee was taken by 
patience wh. are in Jesus " ; he adopts throughout another John, known as the Presbyter, himself prob. 
the tone of one who was personally known to the one of the disciples of the Lord. This view meets 
churches of Asia Minor, and who enjoyed their re- with weighty support (Holtzmann, Bousset, Bauer, 
spect and confidence. Here are none of the signs &c.) ; but it cannot be said to be established, 
of pseudonymity. It is more difficult, however, to There is little reason to doubt that the Ape. 
decide who this John was. Down to the middle of was written by one of the early disciples of Jesus 
the third cent, it was the practically unchallenged named John, though it cannot be certain that this 
opinion in the Church that he was John the apostle, was John the apostle. 

the son of Zebedee. This was the opinion stated As to the date of the bk. we have more distinct in- 
explicitly by Justin Martyr (about a.d. 140) and formation than in regard to any other bk. of the NT. 
by TertuUian (about a.d. 200), and implicitly by Irenseus says plainly that the visions of the Ape. 
Irenaeus (about a.d. 180), and Clement of Alexan- were seen " almost in our own time, at the end of 
dria, who says that it was John the apostle who, on Domitian's reign," that is to say, towards a.d. 96 ; 
the death of the emperor, went fm. the island of and his statement is confirmed by several early 
Patmos to Ephesus. Of internal evidence support- writers. There are, however, indications that some 
ing the identification of the " John " who wrote the early authorities dated the bk. some thirty or forty 
bk. there is little or none, though the Gospel por- yrs. earlier, in the reign of Nero or Claudius ; and 
trait of the sons of Zebedee has been thought to though the later date is in this, case the traditional 
harmonise with the prob. char, of the writer of the one, and the one commonly accepted up to our own 
Ape. On the other hand, there is an ancient and day, it is prob. that either as it stands, or in its 
widespread tradition that the apostle John spent the earliest form, the bk. was written before the fall of 
later yrs. of his life in Asia Minor, with wh. the bk. is Jrs. This was the opinion of Westcott, and with 
evidently connected, and that he there exercised a him agreed both Lightfoot and Hort. From a 
great influence, quite comparable to that which different point of view and for different reasons 
appears to be claimed by the writer here. Certain Johannes Weiss would date the greater part of the 
doubts as to the apostolic authorship began to make bk. fm. the same period. Internal evidence in 
themselves heard towards the end of the second favour of the later date has been found in the con- 
cent. ; but these proceeded from heretical sources, dition of the churches as reflected in the Seven 
and the first serious challenge fm. within the Church Epistles, in the char, of the persecution referred to, 
came fm. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, about and fm. the interpretation of the Beast in refce. to 
a.d. 240. He founded his objection on the diffce. a revived and returning Nero. But there is nothing 

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in the Letters to the churches wh. compels us to 
assume a longer interval than ten or a dozen yrs. fm. 
their founding. The general persecution in Asia 
Minor lies rather in the future than in the past. 
Only one martyr, Antipas, is specifically referred to. 
The souls of the martyrs beneath the altar may be 
those of the victims of Nero's persecution at Rome, 
and it is Rome, the city, wh. is " drunken with the 
blood of the saints." A fresh remembrance of the 
cruelties of Nero, and a keen anticipation of the out- 
burst of similar cruelties in Asia connected with the 
attempt to enforce emperor-worship, wd. account 
for all the allusions to persecution. . And the vision of 
the Beast in chap. 17. is best interpreted as dating 
fm. the reign of Vespasian. Five kings " have 
fallen," Nero being the fifth ; the one who " now 
is " is the sixth, that is to say (omitting Galba, Otho, 
and Vitellius, who had failed to establish themselves 
as Augusti), Vespasian. This distinction between 
the ten who ruled and the seven who bore the names 
of blasphemy seems to underlie the similar descrip- 
tion in chap. 13. ; and this is not inconsistent with 
a writer in the reign of Vespasian anticipating the 
short reign of Titus, and after that the culmination 
of evil in the return of Nero. A theory wh. wd. 
more closely fit all the facts wd. be that the bk., 
written immediately before the destruction of Jrs., 
was reissued some twenty yrs. later with certain 
additions ; but ii that seem improbable, it is easier 
on the whole to assign it to the earlier than to the 
later date. 

The first step towards the true interpretation of 
the Ape. lies in the study of its symbolism. This 
will be found to be derived partly fm. the OT., 
partly fm. the later Jewish writings, esp. the Apes., 
and partly fm. the popular ideas of the time. To 
the last of these classes belongs the representation of 
Nero as about to return either fm. the place of his 
concealment or fm. the grave, to be the incarnation 
of anti-Christian power. This expectation was 
widely current in Asia as early as a.d. 69, the yr. 
after Nero's death, and persisted in one form or 
the other down to the beginning of the next cent. 
It furnishes the explanation of the head wh. was 
wounded unto death and yet healed, as also of the 
monster that had been one of the seven, and yet 
was himself the eighth. With this agrees the most 
probable interpretation of " the number of the 
Beast," wh. finds the equivalent of 666 in Nero 
Caesar. Another group of allusions is connected 
with popular religious ideas, many of them akin to 
" Gnostic " speculation. These are chiefly found 
in the Seven Letters, wh. betray the minutest 
acquaintance, not only with the circumstances of 
each church, but also with the most influential 
forms of surrounding paganism. 

We may trace to the speculations of post- 
canonical Judaism such things as the allusion to 



" the hidden manna," the name of power, and the 
millennial reign of the saints ; and to Hebrew cos- 
mology the refce. to the " pit " and the " abyss." 
And in the OT. we have the source of the represen- 
tation of world-empires under the form of monsters, 
and their history in the description of their appear- 
ance and their fate. But still more important is the 
use of numbers to indicate not the actual length of 
space or time, but the char, of the area or the period. 
Seven and ten and a thousand are numbers of com- 
pleteness ; whereas three and a half, a broken seven, 
is " a symbol of the interruption of the Divine order 
by the malice of Satan and evil men." The last 
number occurs in various forms (" time, times, and 
half a time " = 3 \ years, 42 months, 1260 days), and 
derives a special significance fm. the fact that it was 
understood to tally with the duration of Jerusalem's 
suffering under Antiochus Epiphanes. The recog- 
nition of the true significance of these numbers 
has this important consequence, that there is "no 
chronology " in the bk. To attempt to ascertain 
out of it the date of the End is to misapprehend its 
char, entirely, as well as to ignore our Lord's solemn 
warning that such kge. is not for us. 

The interpretation of the Ape. must be sought in 
the first instance in the message wh. it brought to 
the churches of Asia. They had reached their first 
critical period. The first glow of enthusiasm had 
passed away. The early hope of an immediate 
return of Christ had been disappointed. The 
problem of their relation to the people among 
whom they lived was intensely difficult. The Jews 
were hostile and contemptuous. The influences of 
Grecian thought and pagan immorality were work- 
ing insidiously. The worship of the emperor was 
becoming more and more central to the public life 
of the day ; to refuse to participate in it was not 
only religious eccentricity but constructive treason. 
And the tidings of what the Christians at Rome 
had undergone through the mad fury of Nero 
had reached the Asian churches. They must be 
prepared to face a similar storm. The Ape. was 
written for their sakes ; it records those visions of 
the seer in wh. he was permitted to behold the 
powers at work behind the veil of history, and to 
foresee the utter destruction of the forces of cruelty 
and oppression wh. threatened the Church, the 
glorious fruitage of her highest hopes. These are 
the eternal and the eternally important things ; and 
the pictures and symbols by wh. they are set forth 
have for their main purpose, not to denote the pro- 
cess of their realisation in hist., but to enforce the 
certainty of their existence now in heaven, in the 
will of God, and of their becoming part of human 
experience in God's good time. The writer of 
course believed that time to be very near at hand. 
In one sense he was justified ; in another sense he 
was mistaken ; but his mistake in expecting the im- 



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mediate and final return of Christ was one wh. he 
shared with all his fellow-believers at the time. The 
heavenly realities wh. he reveals remain eternally 
true. 

The most noteworthy feature in the theology of 
the Ape. is the position wh. it assigns to Christ, and 
that in combination with a monotheism as extreme 
as anywhere else in our Bible. God is here the God 
of the OT., the self -existent, and supreme ; He is 
the Creator and the Judge. And yet there goes 
along with this an equal recognition of the Divine 
glory and power of the Risen Saviour. He is " the 
Lord of lords and King of kings." He is the abso- 
lutely Living One, who can take upon His lips the 
words otherwise used by God : "lam the first and 
the last." To Him, therefore, is committed the un- 
folding of the bk. of human destiny, the waging of 
the final conflict with evil, the holding of the Last 
Assize. He holds the keys of Hades and of death. 
He searches the hearts of men. He shares in the 
Divine honour paid to God : even angels join in 
worshipping " God and the Lamb." This title of 
" the Lamb " (wh. is similar to but not identical 
with that used in the fourth Gospel) exhibits char- 
acteristically the redeeming function of Christ as 
recognised by the writer. It is no mere title, but a 
description of our Lord in the essential relation of 
His work to the salvation of men. The redeemed 
are " they wh. have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb." It is He 
who " loveth us and loosed {or, washed) us from our 
sins by His blood." And His sacrifice, though it 
was consummated in hist., has yet the quality of 
eternity ; He is " the Lamb slain fm. the foun- 
dation of the world." 

Closely parallel to the glory assigned here to Christ 
is the splendour of the picture drawn of the glori- 
fied Church. The present circumstances of the 
Church are depicted with frank recognition of her 
imperfection, her dangers external and internal, and 
the possibility that part of her corporate whole may 
fall away fm. the faith. But fm. it all and through 
it all a Church is to be saved to become the Bride of 
Christ, to be the ideal City of God ; that is to say, 
the purpose and promises of God include not only 
the salvation of the individual, but also the organisa- 
tion of a redeemed humanity. No book of the NT. 
expresses more vividly the triumphant conviction of 
the present rule and ultimate vindication of Divine 
righteousness and mercy, or the profound assurance 
that " he that endureth to the end shall be saved." 

The Lit. bearing on the Ape. is very copious, but 
for readers who wish to profit by the studies of recent 
yrs. much more limited. On the Greek text the 
best English commentary is that by H. B. Swete ; 
the best introduction to the whole subject of the 
Ape. is F. C. Porter's volume in the Messages of the 
Bible ; the theology of the bk. is well set forth by 



Stevens' New Testament Theology ; and the articles 
on Millennium in the EB., on Apocalyptic Lit., Re- 
velation, Angels, and Man of Sin in HDB. should be 
consulted ; also The Letters to the Seven Churches, 
by Sir W. M. Ramsay. C. A. Scott. 

REZEPH, one of the towns of which Senna- 
cherib boasts the destruction, along with Gozan 
and Haran (2 K. 19. 12 , &c). It corresponds to 
Asyr. Rasappa or Rasapa, a name borne by several 
towns. It is probably to be identified with the 
mod. Rusdfa, on the right bank of the river 
Euphrates, south of Raqqa. 

REZIA, RV. RIZIA, son of Ulla, of the tribe of 
Asher (1 Ch. 7. 39 ). 

REZIN (Heb. Rezin, Asyr. Rasunnu), a king of 
Damascus, mentioned by Tiglath-pileser along with 
Menahem as a tributary. He became confederate 
with Pekah, k. of Isr., possibly with a view to throw- 
ing off the yoke of Asyr. The confederates wished 
to compel Judah to join them. Ahaz not only re- 
fused but called in Tiglath-pileser, their suzerain, 
poss. informing him of their proposed defection 
(2 K. i6. 5 - 9 ; Is. 7. 1 - 9 ). R. was probably killed in 
the capture of Damascus. The conquest of Elath 
ascribed to R. and the Syrians (1 K. 16. 6 ) really was 
the work of the Edomites, and the statement is due 
to the confusion of the r in Aram (Syria) with 
d in Edom, two letters very like each other in 
most varieties of Heb. script. 

REZON, son of Eliadah, a subject of the king of 
Zobah, who, when David subjected his people to 
the fate of the vanquished, fled, gathered a troop of 
freebooters, took the city of Damascus, and founded 
a dynasty there. He appears to have been a man 
of statesmanlike gifts, and his kingdom became 
powerful. Considering his origin and experience, 
he could not be expected to prove very friendly to 
Israel. He is represented to have been an un- 
wearied foe of Israel " all the days of Solomon " 
(1 K. n. 23ff -). 

RHEGIUM, an ancient Greek colony at the 
south-west corner of Italy, on the western side of 
the straits of Messina, over against Syracuse. It is 
represented by the mod. Reggio. The Dioscuri 
(Castor and Pollux), the " sign " of St. Paul's ship, 
are figured on coins of this town, and doubtless were 
greatly reverenced by seafaring men in the adjoin- 
ing waters, which, with Scylla and Charybdis, were 
so perilous for ancient shipping. St. Paul's vessel 
lay here a day (Ac. 28. 13 ) ; then a south wind 
carried it northward to Puteoli. It was the ter- 
minus of the road known as Via Popilia, which 
joined the great Appian Way at Capua. The city 
had an exciting history, and was destroyed more 
than once (b.c 387, 280-270). Augustus favoured 
Rhegium, and in the Sicilian war (b.c 38-36) 
profited by its assistance. In St. Paul's day the 
population was mingled Greek and Latin. In 



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1 891 the population of Reggio was returned at but which of the great fountains in that district it 
44,415. is impossible now to say. Ezekiel (47. 17 , 48. 1 ) places 

RHESA, son of Zerubbabel, and ancestor of our Hazar-enan " by the border of Hauran," " at the 
Lord (Lk. 3. 27 ). border of Damascus." It may possibly be repre- 

RHODA, " rose," the name of the maid in the sented by the mod. village el-Hadr, at the south- 
house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, who re- east base of Mount Hermon. Riblah will then 
cognised Peter's voice at the door after his miracu- be somewhere to the south of this. (2) The place 
lous deliverance from prison (Ac. 12. 13 ). This " in the land of Hamath " where Pharaoh-necho 
name is still very popular in Palestine, in the Arabic threw Jehoahaz in chains (2 K. 23. 33 — see, however, 
form Wardeh. 2 Ch. 36. 3 ). Here also Nebuchadnezzar cruelly 

RHODES was one of the states to which orders treated Zedekiah (2 K. 25. 6f -). It is represented 
favourable to the Jews were sent by decree of the by the mod. Ribleh in the north of the great hollow 
Roman Senate (1 M. 15. 23 ). It is an island in between the Lebanons, on the right bank of the 
the Levant, about 12 miles off the coast of Caria. river Orontes, about 35 miles north-east of Baalbek. 
The city, Rhodes, on the north-east point of the It lay on the great highway between Egypt and the 
island, was founded in b.c. 406, and at once took an empires of the north. For Nebuchadnezzar's head- 
important place in the eastern Mediterranean. It quarters no position could have been more advan- 
reached its greatest prosperity after the time of tageous. He could strike with ease either at the 
Alexander the Great. Arts, science, and com- cities on the Phoenician seaboard, or at Palestine in 
merce long flourished here. The city was visited the south, or at Damascus in the south-east. See 
by Herod the Great, who seems to have lavished Diblah. 

gifts upon it, repairing ruined buildings, rearing a Lit. : Robinson, BRP. iii. 545 ; Sachau, Reise 

in Syrien, 5fL 

RIDDLE. The Heb. word Judah, from hud, 
" to tie knots," or " turn aside," means properly 
" something twisted " or " involved " ; hence " a 
dark speech " (Nu. 12. 8 ), an " enigma," or " riddle " 
(Jg. 14. 12 , &c. ; Ek. 17. 2 ; Hb. 2. 6 , RVm.), or " hard 
question " (1 K. io. 1 , &c). In Pss. 49*, 78. 2 , it is 
parallel to " parable." In Pr. I. 6 " dark saying " is 
clearly the sententious utterance otherwise called 
" proverb." 

Orientals have always found much entertainment 
in propounding and solving riddles. They are not 
fond of making direct statements, but they love 
21/ ; cp. Jos. 'Ant. XIV. xiv. 3 ; BJ. I. xiv. 3 for compact and pregnant phrases, especially such as 
Herod's voyages). In later times Rhodes was asso- imply an apt comparison. Conversation is liberally 
ciated with the knights of St. John, who took the spiced with proverbs, in which are crystallised corn- 
city in a.d. 1 310, established authority over adjoin- monly accepted opinions. Great delight is found 
ing islands and part of the mainland, and defied the in displays of mental dexterity, and in conflicts of 
might of the Turks till a.d. 1522, when the city was keen wit, like that between Solomon and the queen 
surrendered to Sultan Suleiman. The place has of Sheba (1 K. io. 1 , &c). For the contests be- 
fallen on evil days. The population is not more tween Hiram, king of Tyre, and Solomon, see 
than 30,000, and the trade is insignificant. Josephus (Ant. VIII. v. 3). 

The coins of Rhodes bear the sun and a rose. RIGHTEOUSNESS. I. In OT. Usual 

From the abundance of roses produced the island words P^V (tsaddiq, righteous, just), PI*, n lTPf 

may have been named. It was said that the sun (tsedheq, tsedhdqdh, righteousness, justice), with 

shone every day in Rhodes. P^V (tsadhaq, justify, be justified, &c). The physi- 

Lit. : Torr, Rhodes in Ancient limes ; Ross, cal root-meaning has been lost, but the ruling idea 

Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, iii. 7ofL ; Reisen is Tightness, the kind of rightness applicable to any 

nach Cos, Halicarnassus, Rhodes, &c, 53fL given case, as Ps. 4. 5 , " right sacrifices." (" Paths 

RIBAI, father of Ittai of Gibeah, a Benjamite of righteousness," Ps. 23 3 , may = " paths right and 

(2 S. 23. 29 , &c). safe for sheep," or " prosperous paths," or, literally, 

RIBLAH. (1) A place on the eastern boundary " righteous paths.") The words embrace complex 

of the promised land. It lay between Hazar-enan ideas ; here are the chief : — 

and the Sea of Galilee (Chinnereth, Nu. 34. 11 ), (A) Righteousness of the People.— (1) Some 
apparently south of Shaphan and east of Ain. common meanings, (a) Very often the words have a 
Shaphan is quite unknown. Ain may be " spring," forensic meaning — are used as in a court of law or the 

668 




Coin of Rhodes 



temple to Apollo, bestowing money for the con- 
struction of ships, &c. (Jos. Ant. XIV. xiv. 3 ; XVI. 
v. 3 ; BJ. I. xxi. 11). It was touched at by St. 
Paul on his voyage from Miletus to Ptolemais (Ac. 



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like. Thus " to be righteous " (" justified ") means 
" to be in the right," " to be found or declared to be 
in the right " (Ex. c>. 27 ; Ps. 51. 4 ; Is. 5. 23 ). To 
Hebrew thinking right is not on a sure footing until 
pronounced to be right, as by a righteous judge, 
who is superior to bribes, and judges impartially as 
between rich and poor (Lv. 19. 15 ; Dt. l6. 18 - 20 ). 
He is the natural protector of the weak, and 
righteousness = deliverance (Ps. 82. 3 ; Jr. 22. 3 ). 
(b) " Righteous " = " of blameless character before 
some perfect tribunal," viz. before God (Gen. 6. 9 ; 
Dt. 9 . 4 ' 6 ; 1 K. 3. 6 ). 

(2) Teaching of the Prophets. — This is one of the 
most remarkable things in the OT. Righteousness 
is the central idea in Amos, but the other prophets 
strike the same passionate note, (a) It is social 
righteousness they call for, denouncing wrongs like 
falsehood, plunder and oppression under forms of 
law, class selfishness, general misrule (Am. 5. 7 ' llf - 24 , 
6. 12 ; Is. 3. 14f -, io. lf - ; Mi. 2. lf - 8f -, 3. 1 " 3 ' 9f - ; Jr. 
22.13. i5f.^ They preach, not a self-centred correct- 
ness, but righteousness as a large humanity. The 
judge, besides judging impartially, should protect 
the weak (Is. i. 17ff -). Righteousness is linked with 
mercy (Ho. io. 12 ; Jr. 9- 24 ). (b) Righteousness is 
the inflexible demand of j".'s moral nature. As 
compared with it He sets little store by ritual (Mi. 
6. 6 " 8 ; Is. 58. 5 " 12 ), and He hates the offerings of un- 
righteous men (Am. 5- 21f - ; Ho. 8. 13 ; Is. i. 11 " 16 ). 
By righteousness He will judge Israel and the world 
(Am. I. 3 , 2. 4 , 8 4 ' 8 ). (c) Righteousness is to mark 
Messiah's reign (Is. II. 4 ' 5 , 32. lf -; Jr. 23. 5f - ; cp. Ps. 
72.). All this teaching is not set aside, but amply 
" fulfilled " under the Gospel (Mw. 5. 17 - 50 ). 

(3) Personal rightness of relation to God. — The 
ruling idea in Israel's history is, that the people are in 
covenant relation to ]' '., but the righteousness of 
individuals is also noticed, especially in later times 
(Jer. 3i. 29ff -; Ek. 18., 33.; Jb.). The classical 
example is in Gn. 15. 6 (cp. Rm. 4_. 3 ; Gal. 3. 6 ; Js. 
2. 23 ) : Abraham cast himself entirely upon J"., and 
this constituted " righteousness," a right attitude to 
Him. Cp. Ps. io6. 30L , which suggests merit, and re- 
ward as of debt (Rm. 4. 4 ) for a good deed. In the 
Psalms the righteous, as a party or as individuals 
upholding J".'s cause, plead that they are in the 
right as against the ungodly (35., 43. \ 74.). They 
claim cleanness of hands (i8. 20,24 ), integrity (j. 8 , 
25. 21 , 41 , 12 ), uprightness of heart (32. 11 , 64. 10 , 97. 11 ), 
but not sinlessness (25. 11 , 130. 3 , 143. 2 ). As to the 
relation of Providence to righteousness, one great 
question troubled good men then, as now : Why 
do the righteous suffer, while the wicked prosper ? 
(Jr. 12. 1 ; Ps. 37., 49., 73.) ; see Job. 

(4) Isaiah 40.-66. — In the OT. the people, as 
J".'s people, feel they are in the right as against the 
heathen : thus His interpositions on their behalf 
are righteous acts (Jg. 5. 11 ). In Is. 40.-66. we find 



a highly important development of this idea, (a) 
There is still much to contend with in the people 
(42. 19 , 46. 12 , 48. 1 ), yet at least a portion of them, as 
forgiven and cleansed, have a real righteousness of 
heart (44. 21f# , 51. 7 , cp. 60. 21 ), and as J".'s servant, 
wronged by heathen foes, a hidden right on their 
side (40. 27 , 49. 3f - ; cp. Ps. 37. 6 ). (b) They are to be 
justified, vindicated, put right in the eyes of the 
world, as well as in their own consciousness, by out- 
ward tokens of Divine favour. Their hidden right 
is to come into clear day. Thus " righteousness " 
= " prosperity," the positive side of salvation (46. 13 , 
48. 18 , 61. 10 , 62. lf -). 

(B) Righteousness of God. — (1) The most 
common meaning is His self-consistent, unswerving 
character as Supreme Ruler of the world (Gn. 18. 25 ; 
Dt. 32 4 ; Ps. 9. 8 ; Zp. 3. 5 ). Even Israel is not out- 
side this moral order (Dt. 6. ; Am. 3. 2 , &c). 

(2) As, however, a true judge was the champion 
of the weak and actively upheld the right, the 
righteousness of God wears a more gracious aspect 
(Ps. 89. 16 , 145. 7 ; Mi. 7. 9 ). It is not = " mercy" 
(" grace ") or " faithfulness " : the latter rather 
means that He is true to His promises ; His 
righteousness, that He is true to His character as 
Ruler of the world and Covenant God of Israel. 
Yet it is often joined with those attributes (Ps. 
36. 5 ' 7 , 89. 14 - 16 , 143. 1 ). The Psalmists often plead His 
righteousness, rather than His grace (7i. 2 » i6 , 119. 40 , 
143. 11 ; cp. Ps. 69. 27 (" righteousness " = " justifying 
activity "), also Jn. 17. 25 ; 1 J. I. 9 ). 

(3) Isaiah 40.-66. — The righteousness of God is 
revealed in history as a gracious purpose world-wide 
in its sweep. It embraces the very calling of Israel 
(42. 6 ), and His consistency and straightforwardness 
with His people (41 . 10 , 45. 19 ) extends to other 
nations (5i. 4f -), and includes His raising up of Cyrus 
(45. 13 ). It was almost prior in origin to J'Vs 
creating act (45. 18 * 22L ). While it demands the 
punishment of sin, it is chiefly redemptive (59. 15 " 19 ., 
65. lff *, 63. x ) ; its end is the new creation (65 . 17 ; 
cp. 2 P. 3. 13 ). It is not, so to speak, an afterthought, 
but of the very Being of God. The passage 45. 21f - 
is indeed remarkable : " There is no God else be- 
side Me ; a righteous God and a Saviour " — i.e. a 
righteous God and therefore a Saviour — " Look unto 
Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." His 
righteousness is not opposed to His saving activity, 
but embraces it. The OT. does not tell how He 
justifies the sinner, but it speaks of the righteous- 
ness, i.e. salvation, of men, their being forgiven, and 
like Him, and in manifest favour with Him, as His 
gift (46. 13 , Si. 8 *-- 8 , 56. 1 ; Ps. 24. 5 ). 

II. In NT. SUaios, "righteous," "just"; 
SiKatoa-vvq, " righteousness " ; Slkoliovv, " justify." 

(A) Teaching of Jesus. — Referring to this as a 
whole, and specially the Sermon on the Mount, we 
find : (1) He contrasts the righteousness of the 



669 



Rig 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Rig 



Kingdom with the legal externalism of the scribes 
and Pharisees, their foolish traditions, their servile 
exalting of the letter, while neglecting the spirit, of 
the Law (Mw. 5. 20 , 23. 23 ; Mk. 7. 8 - 13 ). It is en- 
tirely opposed to their vanity, display, and haughty 
contempt (Mw. 6. 1 " 6 - 16 " 18 ; Mk. 2. 16f - ; Lk. 15., 
i8. 9 ' 14 ; Jn. 5. 44 , I2. 42f -), their hypocrisy and cove- 
tousness (Mw. 23., 6. 19 " 24 ; Lk. 16. 13 - 15 ). This 
righteousness is a rightness of heart ; humility and 
purity, truth and charity, are demanded there (Mw. 
5., II. 29 , 18. 3 ; Mk. 7. 6 - 20 " 23 ). The very longing 
for it ensures possession (Mw. 5. 6 ). (2) It is the life 
that flows out of a right relation to God as our 
Father in heaven. It includes religious acts like 
almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, which are to be done 
as before Him (Mw. 6. 1 " 18 RV.). His perfection is 
our model (5- 45, 48 ). We are to seek the rightness of 
heart and life in full accord with His Kingdom, 
(which He will bestow, 7. 7L )> and all needful things 
will be added to us (6. 9-11 « 25 ' 34 ). It is Jesus who 
introduces us to this filial relation (Mw. II. 27 ; Jn. 
14. 6 ), and Mw. 3. 15 is best taken as referring to 
His calling as Servant of the Lord (Is. 42. 1 ' 6f -, 
53. 11 ). (3) It lies in rendering the service of love to 
our fellow-men, which both includes just dealing 
and clean transactions, and far transcends them. 
Christ came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and 
many OT. counsels as to the obligations of rulers 
must now be applied to the people, to whom so 
much power has passed, to convince them of their 
duties and opportunities as large-hearted citizens. 
Readjustment and redress in social and economic 
conditions, the hard driving of commercial competi- 
tion, questions of class and colour, fall within a Chris- 
tian survey of righteousness. We are to show mercy 
(Mw. 5. 7 ), make peace (5. 9 ), judge charitably (7. 1 " 5 ), 
give exacting men more than their due (5. 40 " 42 ), 
banish unholy anger (5. 21 ' 24 ), rejoice in persecution 
for righteousness' sake (5. 10 ' 12 ), love our fellow- 
disciples (}n. I3. 34f -), love and pray for our enemies 
(Mw. 5. 43 " 48 ), act a brotherly part to those of alien 
race (Lk. io. 25 ' 37 ), win and welcome others into the 
Kingdom (Jn. i. 41f « 45 , 4. 28f - ; Lk. 15.). Jesus does 
not propound any social scheme (Lk. 12. 13 " 15 ; cp. 
Jn. 6. 27 ), but lays emphasis on the worth and 
the regeneration of the individual (Mw. 12. 12 
RV. ; Jn. 3. 3 « 5 ) and the leavening effect of the 
Gospel (Mw. 13. 31 " 33 ), while the covetous and selfish 
are condemned (Lk. 12. 16 - 21 , i6. 19 " 31 ; Mw. 25 41 ' 46 ). 
(4) Self-abandonment to the interests of the King- 
dom (Mw. 6. 33 , io. 37 " 39 ; Mk. 10.1 7 - 22 . 29f. . Lk. 
9. 23f - 57 ' 62 ), as Jesus taught by His own example 
(Jn. 4. 34 , 6. 38 , 17. 19 ). (5) Righteousness is one of 
the three things in respect of which the Spirit is 
to convict the world (Jn. 16. 8 ' 10 ). When Jesus 
ascends to the Father His righteousness will be 
vindicated, but not vindictive, and men will be 
humbled to find, that when thus triumphant 



over their dark hate, it is but crowned with new 
power to save. 

(B) Teaching of Paul.— Other parts of the NT. 
do not call for separate treatment, but with Paul 
" righteousness " bears a special sense. How shall a 
sinful man be righteous before God ? is the question 
underlying Romans. He says that " a righteous- 
ness of God " is " witnessed by the law and the 
prophets " (Rm. 3. 21 RV.). (1) This points to the 
righteousness of God as Moral Ruler. His forbear- 
ance in passing over sins in previous ages had looked 
like indifference, and He had to demonstrate His 
righteousness by visiting the doom of sin, viz., death, 
upon Christ (Rm. 3. 25 RV.). (2) Yet the OT., as we 
have seen, bears witness also to His righteousness as 
the positive side of salvation, His justifying activity 
or saving purpose (Is. 45. 21fl -,&c). He is a righteous 
God and therefore a Saviour. Thus in the Gospel 
"is revealed a righteousness of God" (Rm. I. 17 
RV.), i.e. a justifying sentence of God, or " a Divine 
righteousness," or a righteousness valid before God 
(Luther), which in any case is the result of the justi- 
fying sentence. In setting forth Christ as a pro- 
pitiation God demonstrates His righteousness in two 
ways not in the nature of things opposed to each 
other. He vindicates His character as holding no 
parley with sin, and He displays another aspect of 
His righteousness by justifying the sinner that has 
faith in Jesus (Rm. 3. 26 RV. ; cp. 1 Jn. I. 9 ). (3) Paul 
adduces the " witness " of the OT. further by 
referring to Abraham (Rm. 4. ; Gal. 3. 6 ; cp. Js. 
2. 20 " 24 ). So, he says, if we cast ourselves upon God 
in His omnipotent saving power in Christ, our faith 
is reckoned for righteousness. Righteousness, in- 
deed, is God's gift : yet for the reception of it faith 



is necessary all through (Rm. I. 17 , 3. 22 * 26ff> , io. 6 * 10 ; 
Php. 3. 9 ). (4) This faith is no other than the faith 
that joins us in living union to Christ as our Repre- 
sentative. We are " in Him," " found in Him " 
(Php. 3. 9 ), and He has become righteousness to us 
(1 Cor. i. 30 ). He was made sin for us, " that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 
By faith we identify ourselves with Him in His atti- 
tude to sin, and reckon ourselves alive to God, the 
bondservants of righteousness (Rm. 6. ; I P. 2. 24 ; cp. 
I J. 2. 29 ). We are living branches in Christ, the Vine 
(Jn. 15. 1 * 6 ), who pours His power of right living into 
us. Thus faith not only is reckoned for righteous- 
ness, but also leads to righteousness realised in be- 
lievers, so that their righteous acts become as fair 
linen (Rv. 19. 8 RV.), and have the character of per- 
sistence and finality (Rv. 22. 11 ). 

Lit. : HDB. s.v. ; A. B. Davidson, Theology ef 
OT. (index) ; G. A. Smith, Isaiah, ii. ; Wendt, 
leaching of Jesus; Bruce, Kingdom of God; Peabody, 
Jesus Christ and the Social Question; Comm. on 
Psalms, Serm. on Mount, and Romans. 

Robert G. Philip. 



Rim 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Riv 



RIMMON, a Benjamite of Beeroth, whose sons, 
Rechab and Baanah, murdered Ishbosheth, who had 
claimed succession to the throne of Saul his father 
(2 S. 4 . 2 - 5 > 9 ). 

RIMMON, " pomegranate." (i) " Rock of the 
pomegranate," where 600 Benjamites, the broken 
fragments of the force defeated at Gibeah, found 
asylum for four months (Jg. 20. 43ff -). It is described 
as lying " towards the wilderness," i.e. eastward 
from Gibeah. It is probably identical with a 
conical, chalky hill, a prominent feature of the 
landscape, on the top of which is situated the mod. 
village Rumman. It lies about four miles to the 
east of Bethel. This corresponds to the " Remmon " 
of OEJ., 15 Roman miles north of Jerusalem. (2) A 
town in the territory of Judah, in the south, allotted 
to Simeon (Jo. 15. 32 , 19. 7 , AV. Remmon; 1 Ch. 
4- 32 ), mentioned by Zachariah (14. 10 ) as " south of 
Jerusalem " ; see Ain. (3) A city in the territory of 
Zebulun, assigned to the Merarite Levites (1 Ch. 
6. 77 , " Rimmono "). It is called " Dimnah " by a 
clerical error in Jo. 21. 35 . In Jo. 19. 13 AV. reads 
that the border of Zebulun " goeth out to Rem- 
mon-methoar to Neah," where we must read with 
RV., " went out at Rimmon which stretcheth unto 
Neah." It is represented by the mod. village, er- 
Rummdneb, a small place, with ancient remains, 
six miles north of Nazareth. (4) Rimmon-parez, 
RV. perez, a station in the wilderness wanderings, 
named between Rithmah and Libnah (Nu. 33. 19 ' 20 ), 
unidentified. 

RING. The ring (gab) of Ek. I. 18 is the "felloe" 
of the wheel. Rings of the precious metals were 
used for arranging curtains (Ex. 25. 12 , &c. ; Est. I. 6 ). 
The Seal was often set in a ring, and so the ring 
became the symbol of authority. When Pharaoh 
gives Joseph his ring it means that Joseph can act in 
the king's name, with his full sanction (Gn. 41. 42 ; 
c-p. Est. 3. 10 * 12 , &c). The finger ring was a very 
common article of adornment (Ex. 35- 22 ). Great 
numbers of rings have been found in Egypt, mostly 
of gold, with scarabs, or engraved gems, set in them. 



hair is allowed to hang on the forehead of one whom 
it is desired to protect (Ek. 16. 12 ). 

RINNAH, son of Shimon, of the tribe of Judah 
(1 Ch. 4. 2( >). 

RIPHATH, son of Gomer (Gn. io. 3 , &c), whose 





Egyptian Ring with Seal 

The profuse use of rings in apostolic times is sug- 
gested by the adjective which describes the rich 
man in Js. 2. 2 . He is called chruso-daktulios, lit. 
" golden-ringed." Rings were worn for ornament 
in nose and ears, as they are to this day in the East 
(see Ear-ring, Nose-ring). In Egypt at one time 
rings of the precious metals served for money. 
They may also have been used as charms or amulets. 
Thus among Orientals to-day a ring knotted in the 

67 



Egyptian Gold and Silver Ring-money 

descendants are identified by Josephus (Ant. I. 
vi. 1) with the Paphlagonians, living to the SW. of 
the Black Sea. In 1 Ch. I. 6 a clerical error makes 
the name " Diphath." 

RISSAH, a station in the wilderness wanderings 
(Nu. 33. 21f, ) 5 which may be identical with Rasa of 
the Peutinger Tables, on the road between Jeru- 
salem and 'Aqaba. 

RITHMA, the station in the wanderings next 
after Hazeroth (Nu. 33- 18f -). The place may have 
been named from the abundance of the broom 
(AV. " juniper "), called rothem. 

RIVER is used in EV. rather loosely as the tr. 
of a variety of Heb. words which have this in com- 
mon, that they denote running water (see Brook). 
Tubal (Jr. 17. 8 ) and 'ubal (Dn. 8. 2 , &c.) signify 
" flowing water." Peleg, " division," is applied to 
the channels by which water is conducted from 
spring, stream, or reservoir for purposes of irriga- 
tion (Ps. I. 3 , &c). The water flows in a " river," 
peleg, from the great storehouses on high to supply 
the rain (Ps. 65. 9 ). Te ( d?db is a conduit or aque- 
duct (2 K. 18. 17 ; Jb. 38. 25 , RV., &c). Nabar is 
the most common Heb. word for river (Gn. 2. 14 , 
&c). "The river" (Gn. 31. 22 ) and "the great 
river" (15. 18 ; Dt. I. 7 ) denote the Euphrates; 
while the latter phrase denotes the Tigris in Dn. 
io. 4 . Mesopotamia is " Aram of the two rivers," 
Aram-nabaraim (Gn. 24. 10 , &c). The word is used, 
like the Arabic nabr, for perennial streams ; but it 
is also applied to canals which probably, like the 
Ahava (Ez. 8. 21 ) and the Chebar (Ek. I. 1 ), contained 
a constant supply of water (Ps. 137. 1 ; Na. 2. 6 , &c). 
The Jordan is the one true river of Palestine ; but 
some of its affluents, notably the Yarmuk and the 
Jabbok, are important streams, which rise high in 
winter floods. For other streams see Palestine, 
Streams. 



Riz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Roc 



For a people who, in the absence of bridges, had 
to cross them by fords — as is still largely the case 
in Palestine — swollen rivers presented features of 
terror not so easily appreciable by us. These are 
reflected in the imagery of Scripture (Is. 8. 7 ; Jr. 
46. 7 , &c). Bridges are still few and far between. 
The present writer had occasion to ford the 
Jordan when it was swollen by the melting snows 
on the mountains to the north. After swimming 
his horse with difficulty to the other side, he was 
told that just the day before, at the same place, the 
son of the sheikh of a neighbouring village, attempt- 
ing to cross, with his horse, had been swept away 




JlSR EL MUJAMl' 

Old Roman Bridge on the Jordan to the North of Beisan 

and drowned. How vivid such an experience 
makes the imagery of such a verse as Is. 43. 2 . 

The refreshing power of the river was highly 
valued. Perhaps the poet had seen the river that 
makes glad the city of Damascus before he wrote his 
ideal picture of the city of God (Ps. 46. 4 ). In the 
new heaven and new earth there may " be no more 
sea " (Rv. 21. 1 ), but the new Jerusalem would not 
be complete without the " river of water of life, 
bright as crystal ... in the midst of the street 
thereof " (22. 1 ). The unceasing flow of the river 
suggested what cannot be exhausted (Is. 48. 18 ). 
For " River of Egypt," see Egypt, River of. 

RIZIA. See Rezia. 

RIZPAH, daughter of Aiah, and concubine of 
Saul, to whom she bore two sons, Armoni and 
Mephibosheth (2 S. 3. 7 , 21. 8 ). After Saul's death 
his son Ishbosheth, with the support of Abner, 
maintained a certain sovereignty over the northern 
tribes. Whether the charge were justified or not 
— Abner does not deny it — he accused his com- 
mander-in-chief of an intrigue with Rizpah, which 



practically meant a charge of aiming at the throne ; 
and thus alienated the one soldier on whose fidelity 
and skill the hopes of his house rested. In order 
to allay a blood feud between the Gibeonites and 
the house of Saul, David gave up the two sons of 
Rizpah, and five sons of Merab — MT. in error 
reads " Michal " — to the Gibeonites, who " hanged 
them in the mountain before the Lord . . . seven 
together ... at the beginning of the barley har- 
vest." Rizpah's long vigil by their dishonoured 
corpses is one of the most pathetic scenes in all 
history. 

ROADS. See Palestine, Roads. 

ROBBERY. See Crimes and Penalties. 

ROBE. See Dress. 

ROCK. (1) Eallamisb, " flint," the rock worked 
by miners (Jb. 28. 9 ). It describes the rock whence 
water was brought for Israel, " flinty " rock (Dt. 
8. 15 ) ; see Flint. (2) Keph, perhaps an Aram, 
loan-word, " a rock." It is used only in the plural, 
and occurs twice : in Jb. 30. 6 as a dwelling-place, 
and Jr. 4. 29 as a place of refuge. (3) Ma'oz (Jg. 
6. 26 , RV. " stronghold "), lit. " place of strength," 
or " of safety." (4) Sela\ " crag," or " cliff " 
(Jg. 6. 29 , &c.) ; a place in which tombs are cut (Is. 
22. 16 ) ; the haunt of wild animals (Ps. 104. 18 , &c.) 
and of birds (Jb. 39- 28 , &c). (5) Tzur, a rocky 
wall, or cliff (Ex. 17. 6 , &c), a haunt of bees (Ps. 
81. 16 , &c), as the home of goats (1 S. 24.2) ; snow- 
covered (Jr. 18. 14 ). Olives grow in its interstices (Dt. 
32. 13 ) ; it is the resort of the homeless — i.e. the 
caves furnish shelter (Jb. 24» 8 ) ; it is pierced by the 
miners (Jb. 28. 10 ). As the place whence stones are 
cut, the quarry is used as a fig. of Abraham, as 
ancestor of Israel (Is. 5 1. 1 ). It is a place of security 
(1 Ch. II. 15 , &c), and is a symbol of what is firm 
(Jb. 14. 18 , &c.) and enduring (19. 24 ). Selct and 
tzur are often used figuratively of God, as the sup- 
port and defence of His people (2 S. 22. 3 , &c). As 
the " Rock " of Israel He is contrasted with the gods 
of other nations (Dt. 32. 30f -, &c). In the NT. the 
rock ($etra) is the only safe foundation (Mw. 7- 24f# , 
16. 18 , &c). In the rock the new tomb is hewn 
(Mw. 27. 60 , &c). The ground with the rock near 
the surface is the figure of the shallow nature (Lk. 
8. 6 , &c). The rock whence water was struck for 
Israel is the symbol of Christ in His power to pre- 
serve and refresh His people (1 Cor. io. 4 ). 

The physical features of Palestine made inevi- 
table frequent references to rocks in the Lit. of 
Israel. It abounds in rocky tracts (Am. 6. 12 ), fast- 
nesses among the mountains (1 S. 13. 6 , &c), great 
caves in the rocks which furnished asylum in evil 
days (Jr. 16. 16 ; Is. 2. 10 , &c), and rocky heights, 
easily guarded against attack (Jg. 15. 8 , &c). Iso- 
lated crags and mighty boulders are often asso- 
ciated with particular events, and named accord- 
ingly (Jg. 20. 47 , 7- 25 , &c). The lofty rock walls of 



672 



Roc 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Rom 



the deeper gorges are among the most impressive 
sights in Palestine. See Sela. 

ROCK BADGER is RVm. for AV. Coney, the 
Hyrax Syriacus (Lv. II. 5 ). 

ROD stands in EV. for several Heb. words, 
(i) Hoter (Pr. 14. 3 ; Is. II. 1 ), a twig or shoot. 
(2) Maqqel is used for the rods cut from poplar and 
almond trees (Gn. 30. 37 , &c. ; Jr. I. 11 ), and also for 
Staff (Gn. 32. 10 , &c), which is cut from the tree in 
the same way. (3) Matteh is used of the rods of 
Moses and Aaron (Ex. 4. 2 , J. 9 , &c), the rods of the 
tribal princes (Nu. 17. 2 , &c), and also for " staff " 
(Gn. 38. 18 , &c). It is practically equivalent to 
maqqel. (4) Shebet, properly " sceptre " (Gn. 49. 10 , 
&c), is used to inflict punishment (Ex. 21. 20 , 
&c). It is also trd. " staff " (2 S. 23. 21 ; I Ch. 
II. 23 ). In Ps. 23.* it appears in connection with 
the " staff " (misb'enetk) as part of the shepherd's 




The Gazelle or Roe of Scripture 

From Wood's "Bible Animals," by permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

regular equipment. The staff was the invariable 
companion of a journey in the East, and served alike 
for support and as a ready weapon of defence. 
But for purposes of conflict it is inferior to the 
" rod " or club which every shepherd carries. This 
is a rod about 18 inches long, with a heavy knob, 
into which spikes are often fixed. On the handle is 
a strap by means of which it is attached to the wrist. 
It is a really formidable weapon, and in view of 
possible encounter, with wild beasts or marauding 
men, its possession is a reasonable cause of comfort. 

RODANIM. See Dodanim. 

ROE, ROEBUCK (Heb. tzebi, tzebiah), a 
gazelle ; frequent in Pal. It is reckoned clean in 
Dt. 14. 5 ; part of the provision for Solomon's 
table consisted of R. Its beauty was so much 
appreciated that the word is used in Heb. for 
" beauty " ; in some cases it is doubtful wh. tr. shd. 
be adopted, as Ek. 20. 6 , "the glory of all lands," mt. 
be trd. " the gazelle among all lands." 

ROGELIM, the city whence came Barzillai the 



Gileadite (2 S. 17. 27 , 19. 31 ). It probably lay near 
the path taken by David in his flight to Mahanaim, 
in the uplands east of the Jordan. It is not named 
elsewhere, and no trace of the site has yet been 
discovered. 

ROHGAH, son of Shamer, of the tribe of Asher 
(1 Ch. 7. 34 ). 

ROLL (Heb. megillah), see Writing. In Is. 8. 1 
the word rendered R. in AV. shd. be " tablet " as 
in RV. 

ROMAMTI-EZER, one of Heman's fourteen 
sons, leader of the 24th division of the singers in 
David's time (1 Ch. 25. 4 - 31 ). 

ROMAN EMPIRE. The outstanding fact in 
the world's history during the period covered by the 
New Testament narrative is the Roman supremacy 
over, and even beyond, the lands which border the 
Mediterranean Sea. We may briefly summarise — 
I. The history of its development ; II. The char- 
acter of its administration ; and III. Its relation to 
the Jews. 

I. The empire of Rome had not been built up 
consciously and systematically, but mainly as the re- 
sult of wars forced upon her by external powers or of 
bequests of foreign princes : Rome had " stumbled 
into the conquest of the world." The close of the 
first Punic War (b.c. 264-241) had brought the sub- 
jection of Western Sicily, and with it the beginning 
of provincial government. We cannot here trace in 
detail the successive steps which followed : it must 
suffice to say that by b.c. 27 Rome had incorporated 
in her dominions Sardinia and Corsica, Spain, Gaul, 
Northern Italy, Illyria, Macedonia and Achaea 
(Greece), most of the coast-lands of Asia Minor, 
Syria, Cyprus, Crete, Egypt, Cyrene, and " Africa " 
(roughly equivalent to the modern Tunisia). There 
were also numerous allied states and client kingdoms 
which were really under Roman suzerainty, and 
might be robbed of their independence at the will of 
their powerful mistress. To the early emperors was 
left the task of extending the empire to its natural 
frontiers, the Atlantic on the west, the Rhine and 
Danube in the north, the Euphrates in the east, and 
the Sahara in the south. Augustus created six fresh 
provinces — Lusitania (Portugal), Rhaetia, Noricum, 
Pannonia, and Mcesia, bordering the Danube from 
source to mouth, and Galatia, comprising the central 
highlands of Asia Minor. Tiberius annexed Cappa- 
docia ; Gaius separated Numidia from " Africa," 
making it an independent administration ; Claudius 
conquered Britain and formed also the provinces of 
Thrace and the two Mauretanias (Morocco and 
Algeria). Finally, Nero annexed Eastern Pontus 
and Lesser Armenia, though he did not at once make 
them into separate provinces. 

II. Under the republic the government of the 
provinces had been in the hands of ex-consuls or ex- 
praetors sent out by the Senate for a single year im- 



673 



Rom 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Rom 



mediately after their tenure of office at Rome or, 
since b.c. 52, after the lapse of at least five years. 
This system, which placed almost autocratic power 
in the hands of inexperienced and constantly chang- 
ing officials (for together with the governor the 
whole civil service was changed each year), was at- 
tended by great hardships to the provincials, who 
were mercilessly oppressed not merely by unsalaried 
governors, often as rapacious as they were incompe- 
tent, but also by the public ani, representatives of the 
great Roman societies which contracted for the levy- 
ing of taxes and the carrying out of public works in 
the provinces, and by money-lenders and men of 
business. The establishment of the empire (b.c. 27) 
brought the adoption of new methods of provincial 
rule. Those provinces which required a military 
force as garrison or to complete their subjugation, 
i.e. Gaul, Hither Spain, and Syria (including Cyprus 
and Cilicia), became directly dependent upon the 
emperor in his capacity of proconsul, and were 
administered by officers whom he appointed and 
removed at will {legatus C a? saris ; in the New 
Testament, ^ye/xwv). These were chosen from the 
senators, and were usually ex-consuls in the case 
of the larger provinces, ex-praetors in that of the 
smaller ones. There were also imperial officials, fro- 
curatores and prcejecti, taken from the " knights " or 
freedmen, who administered certain districts, e.g. 
Rhaetia, Noricum, Thrace, and the Mauretanias, 
but had no legionary troops under their command. 
Lastly, the emperor retained Egypt, which was 
governed by a frcefectus and had a garrison of three 
legions : this was regarded as an imperial possession, 
and no senator might set foot in it without the 
emperor's permission. All other provinces remained 
after b.c. 27 under senatorial control, and were 
governed by proconsuls (dvdv7raroi in the New 
Testament), appointed from ex-consuls for " Asia " 
and " Africa," from ex-praetors for the rest, by a 
combined system of rotation and lot : their office 
lasted for a single year, and was extended only in 
exceptional cases over two or more years. In b.c 
22 Augustus transferred to the Senate Cyprus and 
Gallia Narbonensis, but the area of the emperor's 
administration was enlarged by the addition of Dal- 
matia and of all the provinces formed after b.c 27, 
so that by a.d. 70 the imperial provinces numbered 
something like twenty, containing the entire regular 
army of the empire and stretching round it in an 
almost unbroken ring. Whatever the character of 
the early Caesars, there can be little doubt that their 
rule brought a marked improvement in provincial 
administration. Their deputies were kept under 
stricter supervision, they received fixed salaries, and 
were usually experienced men. Special financial 
officials were appointed, and the severe burdens of 
the provincials were lightened if not removed. So 
much was this the case that we have more than 



one instance of a province brought to the brink of 
ruin by senatorial mismanagement being transferred 
temporarily to the emperor and soon recovering its 
prosperity. An insight into the attention paid by 
an able emperor to minute details of provincial 
government is given us by the extant correspon- 
dence between Trajan and the younger Pliny, who, 
as legate of Bithynia in a.d. Ill, consulted the 
emperor on a great variety of questions, ranging 
from the proper attitude to be adopted towards 
Christians to the construction of baths or the insti- 
tution of a city-guild. 

III. The first contact of the Jewish state with 
Rome dates from the Maccabaean period. About 
b.c 161 Judas Maccabaeus formed an alliance with 
the Senate against Demetrius of Syria, and this was 
renewed by Jonathan and by Simon (1 M. 8. 22ff> , 
I2. lff -, I5. 7ff ')- In b.c 63, Pompey, after setting 
aside the Seleucid kingdom and organising Syria as a 
Roman province, invaded Judaea and demanded the 
deposition of the ruling Asmonaean prince, Aristo- 
bulus, and the restoration of the old high-priestly 
constitution. Jerusalem submitted, but the Temple 
rock was heroically defended for three months. 
After its capture, Hyrcanus, Aristobulus' brother, 
retained the high-priesthood, but Judaea was hence- 
forth practically a part of the Roman empire. The 
revolts which soon followed led to the abolition of 
the high-priestly rule and the partition of the Jewish 
land into five independent districts. In b.c 38 
Herod the Great was appointed by Antony king of 
Judaea and the neighbouring regions, and his power 
was continued, even though at Actium he sided 
against Augustus, until his death in b.c 4. Arche- 
laus succeededhim in Judaea, Samaria, andldumaea, 
but was deposed by Augustus in a.d. 6. Judaea now 
became a Roman province of the second rank, 
governed by an imperial procurator resident at 
Caesarea and in close relation with the neighbouring 
province of Syria. For a brief period, from a.d. 41 
to 44, Claudius restored to Herod Agrippa, a grand- 
son of Herod the Great, the territory his grandfather 
had held. But this experiment was soon abandoned, 
and between a.d. 44 and 66 there were eight pro- 
curators, of whom Antonius Felix (a.d. 52) and 
Porcius Festus (a.d. 60) were the fourth and fifth. 
A revolt broke out in 66, and after its suppression 
and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in a.d. 
70 the high-priesthood and the Sanhedrin were 
abolished, and Judaea became a province under a 
legatus with a single legion, the 10th, as garrison. 

For further details see especially T. Mommsen, 
The Provinces of the Roman Empire, 2 vols., London, 
1886, 2nd edition, 1909; W. T. Arnold, The Roman 
System of Provincial Administration, London, 1879, 
2nd edition, Oxford, IQ07. Marcus N. Tod. 

ROMANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE. Happily 
we need not spend time on the usual topics of intro- 



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duction with regard to the Epistle to the Romans, other work. Thus he must see Rome. He had 

With few exceptions (and these are so eccentric not only preached the Gospel, and established the 

that they may be disregarded) most people are churches, he had won for them their freedom. He 

agreed that this epistle was written to the Roman had, after a long controversy, established the right 

Church, and written from Corinth about the year of Gentiles to become Christians without first be- 

57-58. Paul had behind him many years of work, coming Jews. This had been authoritatively de- 

and a wide experience of dealings with men, ere he clared at the Council of Jerusalem, and the churches 

wrote this epistle. He had evangeliesd Galatia, of the Gentile world could rest in the open access 

had passed over into Europe, had founded the secured to them into the Christian Church, and 

churches of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth, rejoice in the liberty with which Christ had made 

had revisited many of the churches he had founded, them free. 

specially the churches in Phrygia and Galatia. He So Paul purposed to see Rome. But he had still 
had been at Ephesus for two years, and had so great some work to do ere he could carry out that pur- 
success there that the writer of the Acts of the pose. He had to return to Jerusalem, as the bearer 
Apostles, in summarising it, says, " So mightily grew of the liberality of the churches of Achaia and Mace- 
the word of God and prevailed " (Ac. 19. 20 ). Then donia towards the Church of Jerusalem. No doubt 
it is added, " Now after these things were ended, he had also in mind to bring both sections of the 
Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed Church into closer agreement, and more brotherly 
through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, fellowship. This was one of his most constant aims, 
saying, After I have been there I must also see He never lost hope of his kinsmen, and he eagerly 
Rome " (19. 21 ). From the epistle itself we gather desired their conversion to Christ. Specially he 
a definite view as to the time when it was written, desired that the Jewish Christians should realise the 
" Wherefore also I was hindered these many times unity of the Spirit, and feel that they were, with 
in coming to you ; but now, having no more any their Gentile brethren, sharers in the common 
place in these regions, and having these many years salvation. With this aim in view we note that he 
a longing to come unto you, whensoever I go unto fell in with the suggestion of James, and strove with 
Spain (for I hope to see you in my journey, and to all his strength to conciliate them. 
be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first As he had to travel first from Corinth to Jerusa- 
in some measure I shall have been satisfied with lem, and then, as he planned, to travel to Rome, he 
your company), but now, I say, I go unto Jerusalem, resolved to prepare the way by writing an epistle to 
ministering to the saints. For it has been the good the Church at Rome, which would prepare the way 
pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain for his personal visit, and at the same time place on 
collection for the poor among the saints that are at record the main elements of the Gospel as he con- 
Jerusalem " (Rm. I5. 22 " 26 ). ceived it to be. Other epistles he had already 
This makes the time of writing very definite, and written, and while in all of them he set forth the 
it needs no further notice here. We gather further Gospel, he had laid stress mainly on the defects 
from this passage that Paul had a purpose for many of his readers or on the misunderstandings of the 
years of visiting Rome. He had preached the Gospel or on the applications of the Gospel which 
Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem, and round about he had found in the belief and practices of the 
even unto Illyricum, and it was natural that his eye various churches. It is to be noted that in these 
should be fixed on the great city to which all roads epistles, such as those to the Thessalonians, the 
led, the seat of the Roman power, the place into Galatians, or to the Corinthians, he had mainly in 
which all the tendencies and interests of the time view the correction of mistakes, the clearing up of 
converged. He had set his heart on winning the difficulties, or the correction of conduct. No doubt 
world for Christ, he had sought to Christianise all Christian doctrine and Christian faith are incul- 
the influences, institutions, and interests which were cated in them, but stress is laid on the special cir- 
symbolised by the great name of Rome. Up to the cumstances of each Church. Thus the Galatians 
time of writing he had been fully occupied with the had to be taught what the Gospel of Christ really 
planting and establishing of churches in Galatia, was, and they had to be warned against false inter- 
Greece, and Asia Minor. These had been estab- pretations of it. Paul wrote out of a full, personal 
lished, they could go along by themselves ; they knowledge of these churches, and his epistles are 
were active, vigorous, and aggressive, and he was directed to particular situations. If we compare 
free to carry the Gospel of Christ into other regions, the Roman epistle with those mentioned we find an 
and specially into that great metropolis which was instructive difference. This epistle moves in an 
the head and heart of the great organism of the ampler region, and in a more tranquil atmosphere. 
Roman Empire. " Having no more place in these If we compare it with the Galatian epistle in par- 
regions " means that the work could now go on ticular we find that, while the same topics occur in 
without his' superintendence, that he was free for both, and occur in a similar order, yet the tone and 

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outlook are different. The Epistle to the Gala- 
tians is fiery, personal, controversial ; hurt feeling 
is apparent in every line, personal attitudes and 
grievances are there. It is written in a fervour of 
wounded feeling, and the apostle is largely con- 
cerned with his personal relations with his people. 
He does not forget to set forth what the Gospel is, 
but that setting is placed in the environment of the 
Galatian Church. One can understand it better if 
he places it among the earliest, if not the earliest, of 
the extant epistles. The present writer has a grow- 
ing conviction that the date ought to be placed 
early — earlier than the Council of Jerusalem ; and 
the most fruitful way of regarding it is to make it 
one of those documents which were originated by 
the Judaistic controversy, and that it is Paul's con- 
tribution to the settlement of the question. It is 
difficult to think of it as written after the decision 
of the Jerusalem Council. 

Be that as it may, we note the difference between 
it and the Roman epistle. Here we are in a larger 
atmosphere. The controversy between Jew and 
Gentile within the Church is in the background. 
It is no longer a burning question. The questions 
are discussed in a larger fashion, the horizons are 
wider, and the issues are not local or temporal, but 
universal and eternal. The wider sweep of the 
epistle is manifest from the great doxology with 
which it concludes : " Now to Him that is able to 
stablish you according to my gospel and the preach- 
ing of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of 
the mystery which hath been kept in silence through 
times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the 
scriptures of the prophets, according to the com- 
mandment of the eternal God, is made known unto 
all the nations unto obedience of faith : to the only 
wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the 
glory for ever. Amen " (i6. 25 « 27 ). This doxology 
contains or refers to all the leading thoughts of the 
epistle, and a good view of its teaching may be had 
simply from an analysis of the doxology. 

It may be well, however, to notice briefly 
some questions which necessarily arise. As to the 
authorship, date, and authenticity, much need not 
be said. The epistle was written by Paul, about 
the year 57, and written to Rome, to prepare the 
Church for his coming. As to the origin of the 
Church of Rome we have no trustworthy informa- 
tion. Very likely it dated from a very early period. 
" Sojourners from Rome " (Ac. 2. 10 ) were among 
those present on the Day of Pentecost. On their 
return to Rome they would in all likelihood tell of 
the wondrous things they had heard in Jerusalem on 
that eventful day. Intercourse between Jerusalem 
and Rome was frequent and close, and as the years 
went on many Christians would arrive at Rome, 
and the Church would quietly grow. Paul him- 
self would likely know something of Rome and the 



Church there. At Corinth he knew Aquila and 
Priscilla, who had left Rome at the command of 
Claudius, and from them he would know what was 
the state of matters with regard to the Church at 
Rome. All that can be safely said is that there was 
a church at Rome, but of its origin and history we 
know nothing. Nor can much be said regarding 
its prevailing character, whether it was Jewish or 
Gentile, or both. In the epistle itself the point of 
view varies ; sometimes the apostle appears to speak 
only to Jews, and sometimes to Gentiles, and some- 
times both are addressed together as Christians, and 
differences are left out of view. It is not necessary 
to discuss the question at any length. Scholars have 
largely forsaken extreme views, and there is a grow- 
ing consensus of opinion that the Roman Church 
had in its membership both Jews and Gentiles. 

The apostle had written his former epistles to 
churches which he himself had founded. In this 
epistle he writes to a church with which he had had 
no previous relation. It is a new situation, and it 
has its effect on the form of the epistle. He has not 
to deal with local situations, or with causes of con- 
tention arising in the church to which he is writing. 
He has to deal with matters of universal interest, 
with doctrines which are permanent, and with 
matters of discipline belonging to every age. Had 
we space we might admire the great and courteous 
way in which he introduces himself and his epistle 
to the Roman Church, and note how he selects in 
his introductory sentences those topics which had 
an equal interest for all Christians. Having estab- 
lished himself on common ground with his readers, 
he goes on to speak of the Gospel, and this is his 
main theme throughout — the Gospel of which he 
is not ashamed, " for it is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew 
first and also to the Greek " (Rm. I. 16 ), the Gospel 
which is to succeed where all other schemes had 
failed. For the Gospel is the power of God unto 
salvation. His purpose, then, is to set forth the 
Gospel, to explain and enforce it. It embraces, 
continues, and yet supersedes the older dispensa- 
tions. Briefly the theme is, How is man to be- 
come righteous in the sight of God ? " And the 
answer is : (1) By certain great redemptive acts on 
the part of God which take effect in the sphere 
above, though their consequences are felt through- 
out the sphere below ; (2) through a certain ardent 
apprehension of these acts and of their Author, 
Christ, on the part of the Christian ; (3) through 
his continued self-surrender to Divine influences 
poured out freely and unremittingly upon him " 
(Sanday and Headlam, International Critical Com- 
mentary on Romans, p. xlvii.). 

A detailed analysis of the epistle is not possible 
within our limits. The great thesis is set forth in 
manifold ways, and with many illustrations and 



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applications. But the question, How is man to 
become righteous in the sight of God ? is never lost 
sight of. Man becomes righteous, not by any effort 
of his own, but by the gift of God, through faith, 
through a real, loyal attachment to Christ. Former 
systems and attempts have failed. Tried by their 
own standards, Gentile and Jew have alike failed. 
The law of Moses has condemned the Jew, the law 
of conscience has condemned the Gentile. The 
failure to attain righteousness is universal. But the 
Gospel has succeeded where all else has failed. The 
new system is expounded, its relation to law set 
forth. It is universal, through the free gift of God. 
It is made possible through the propitiatory death 
of Christ. In this propitiation through the death 
of Christ God's twofold purpose of the condemna- 
tion of sin and the pardon of the sinner is made 
manifest. Having set forth the relation of the 
Gospel to the OT. in the case of Abraham, the 
apostle describes the blissful effects of righteous- 
ness by faith. These effects are vividly described 
(chap. 5.). Here are the vivid contrasts of sin, 
condemnation, death on the one hand, and 
righteousness, grace, life on the other. Then in 
two chapters progressive righteousness is set forth. 
Here there is the answer to the casuistical objection, 
" If more sin means more grace, why not go on 
sinning ? " followed by a description of the Chris- 
tian's release, what it is and what it is not. This is 
followed by the profound analysis of the moral con- 
flict in the soul, and of the ending of the conflict by 
the interposition of Christ (j. 25 ). From the state 
of mind known as no condemnation to the state 
of no separation is the theme of the 8th chapter. 
Once the Christian dreaded condemnation as the 
greatest possible calamity, now he dreads most of 
all the fact of separation from God. But this dread 
is overcome by the feeling of inviolable security 
which he attains in dependence upon God's favour 
and the love of Christ. 

Then comes the problem, of the Gospel in history. 
How are we to regard the failure of all former 
attempts to attain righteousness ? How are we to 
account for Israel's failure, for the sad contrast 
between the privileges and apparent destiny of 
Israel and its rejection ? Is the rejection just ? 
Is that rejection consistent with the Divine pro- 
mises, or with the Divine justice ? Yes, the apostle 
answers, for God is absolute. But he further shows 
that Israel failed because they sought for righteous- 
ness in their own way, not by God's way. They 
sought to earn their own salvation, and they neces- 
sarily failed. Yet God's way of salvation had never 
been difficult or remote, it had been within the 
reach of all. Israel had been rejected not suddenly 
or without warning, nor had the essential meaning 
of the Gospel been hidden from them. Yet the 
rejection is not final, nor irremediable. It is only 



temporary, and has, in fact, a special meaning, and 
even in the rejection there is a gracious purpose. 
" For God hath shut up all men unto disobedience, 
that He might have mercy upon all "(11 , 32 ). Then 
follow the ethical and practical parts of the epistle, 
of which it is not necessary to give an account. 
Nor can we deal with the interesting critical ques- 
tions regarding the concluding parts of the epistle. 
Nor can we answer the question as to whether there 
were two editions of the epistle. It is a question of 
great interest, and of difficulty, but it is not im- 
portant, theologically, nor can we discuss it here. 

The main purpose of the epistle is to set forth the 
Gospel, and to prove that it is destined to succeed 
where all else had failed. Failure had been written 
large over all the efforts of men to attain to right- 
eousness. Men had gone from bad to worse, until 
they actually did not desire to retain any knowledge 
of God within their minds. Jew and Gentile had 
alike failed. The failure had its stages of develop- 
ment. The Gentiles might have retained that know- 
ledge of God which was really imprinted on His 
creation (i. 19,20 ). They had, however, neglected 
this knowledge, and had landed in idolatry, and in 
the third place, because they did not retain that 
knowledge of God, and had landed in idolatry, they 
were given over to every kind of moral degradation. 
Such, briefly, is Paul's doctrine of degradation. 
The failure of the Gentile is complete, but the 
failure of the Jew is quite as notable. But the 
Gospel, which is the power of God, is successful. 
It restores the true knowledge of God. It sets 
men free from idolatry, it restores the power of holy 
living. The universal need of man for righteous- 
ness, and the way in which that need is met by the 
Gospel, is thus the main theme of the epistle. It is 
thus the counterpart of the old system which had 
failed, it is also its correction and completion. He 
then shows how it works in the individual life, and 
in the life of the Church. It is shown also how it 
works in history. The rejection of the Jews and the 
calling of the Gentiles are steps in a process, the end 
of which is the summing up of all things in Christ. 
The various parts of the epistle are steps in the great 
argument. It is an argument of the greatest scope 
and of the highest validity. It is both a Gospel 
message and a philosophy of history. The Gospel 
of Jesus Christ in itself, and in its effects on human 
life and on the history of the race, is thus seen to be 
the final revelation of the purpose of God for man- 
kind. It is also the outcome of the peculiar per- 
sonal experience of the great apostle of the Gentiles. 
As of all Scripture, so of this particular Scripture, it 
is the outcome not merely of Divine influence exerted 
on the soul of man, it is the response of that soul 
to the Divine influence. The great argument was 
wrung from the soul of Paul, and was written in 
the living agony of a soul which sought to know the 



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meaning of his experience of the Divine influence. 
This can only be stated, it cannot be unfolded. But 
we must read the epistle many times and from many 
points of view, ere we can grasp its meaning. We 
may read it as an account of Paul's religious experi- 
ence, we may read it as an objective account of the 
Divine method of salvation, or we may read it in 
other ways ; but however we read it, it remains one 
of the great writings of religious experience, and one 
of the greatest formative documents which help to 
determine and to guide the religious experience of 
mankind. James Iverach. 

ROME, the capital of Italy and metropolis of the 
Roman empire. The city lies on the left bank of 
the Tiber, some fifteen miles from its mouth. Ac- 
cording to tradition, it was founded on the Palatine 
Hill in B.C. 753 by Romulus, son of Mars and Rhea 
Silvia. Servius Tullius, Rome's sixth king(578~5 35), 
surrounded the city with a wall which included the 
Seven Hills, the Capitoline, Palatine, Aventine, 
Caelian, Esquiline, Viminal, and Quirinal, and this, 
though partly dismantled, remained the only wall of 
Rome down to the empire. In b.c 390 the town 
was destroyed by the Gauls, and the haste with 
which it was rebuilt was held to account for its irre- 
gular and crowded appearance, the narrowness of its 
streets and the meanness of its buildings. Gradu- 
ally, however, efforts were made to beautify it. In 
184 Marcus Porcius Cato made the first market-hall, 
and Quintus Metellus Macedonicus (consul in 143) 
built the first " marble temple." But though from 
that time onwards Rome gained many magnificent 
buildings, public and private, yet the streets re- 
mained steepand winding, narrow and poorly paved, 
and the Rome which Augustus found on his acces- 
sion (b.c 27) was " not adorned in a way befitting 
the majesty of her empire " (Suetonius, Augustus, 
29). His rule inaugurated a new era in the city's 
history, both in outward appearance and in adminis- 
tration. He boasted " that he had found the city 
of brick and left it of marble." Foremost among his 
public buildings were the new Forum Augusti with 
a splendid temple of Mars Ultor, vowed at the battle 
of Philippi and dedicated in b.c 2, the temple of 
Apollo on the Palatine, built to commemorate the 
battle of Actium, and that of Jupiter Tonans on the 
Capitoline. The senate-house, which had been 
begun by Caesar, was completed by Augustus, who 
also rebuilt Caesar's basilica after its destruction by 
fire. Noble and wealthy Romans were not slow 
to follow the emperor's example : temples and 
palaces, theatres and baths, porticoes and libraries 
vied with each other in size and magnificence. The 
work went on, though less vigorously, in succeeding 
reigns, perhaps the most notable structure being the 
Aqua Claudia, an aqueduct begun by Caligula and 
completed by Claudius. Augustus also remodelled 
the administration of the city, dividing it into 14 



regiones or districts, subdivided into 265 vici or 
wards. The governor of the whole was the city 
prefect, appointed temporarily during the absence 
of Augustus, but afterwards becoming a permanent 
official, charged with the task of securing order in 
the streets and suppressing turbulence ; for this 
purpose he was placed in command of 14 " city 
cohorts," stationed in seven barracks in various parts 
of Rome. A fire-brigade was also organised, at first 
under the command of the aediles, but after a.d. 6 
under a special officer nominated by the emperor, 
the frcefectus vigilum. Commissioners were also ap- 
pointed to superintend the water-supply, the banks 
and bed of the Tiber, and public works and places. 
The corn-supply, which came almost entirely from 
Africa, was regulated by a board of commissioners, 
replaced towards the end of Augustus' reign by a 
single -prcejectus annoncu. Thus by Augustus' death 
(a.d. 14) the chaotic administration of the repub- 
lican period had been replaced by one under the 
emperor's own supervision, which secured as far as 
possible order and efficiency. 

Such was Rome when Paul entered it in a.d. 61 , in 
the seventh year of Nero's reign. The time of the 
city's greatest splendour was to come half a century 
later, yet even then she could boast that she was un- 
rivalled. Storey was piled on storey in her towering 
buildings, especially the insula or lodging-houses. 
The products of every land in the known world were 
on sale in her markets and shops — the silk of China, 
the spices of Arabia, the costly wares of Babylon and 
India. Her population was enormous, numbering 
probably about a million and a quarter, half of whom 
were slaves : every nation and tribe of earth was re- 
presented in the motley crowd which thronged her 
busy streets and market-places. Amongst them the 
Jews were conspicuous from the time of Pompey's 
conquest of Palestine ; Julius Caesar and Augustus 
showed them some marks of favour, and though 
Claudius " commanded all Jews to depart from 
Rome " (Ac. 18. 2 ), this banishment must have been 
merely temporary, for we find numerous Jews living 
at Rome under his successor, Nero (Ac. 28. 17 ). But 
often the foreigners represented the dregs of their 
nations, adventurersor criminals, and the moral tone 
both of the wealthy and luxurious aristocracy and of 
the lower classes was corrupt and degraded : even 
religion was regarded as a political rather than an 
ethical force. Prices were high, and the majority of 
the citizens could not have lived but for the corn- 
doles granted by the state, while their chief amuse- 
ment was to watch the gladiatorial and other shows 
given by the emperor or other wealthy Romans. 
By day and night the din was incessant. Not infre- 
quently houses collapsed owing to the jerry-building 
of speculating contractors ; serious floods occurred 
from time to time ; any interruption of the corn- 
import threatened the great city with famine. Epi- 



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demies, too, raged among the crowded population in 
their insanitary dwellings, and great conflagrations 
sometimes defied the efforts of the fire-brigade, 
notably that in a.d. 64, which devastated more than 
two-thirds of the city. A charge of incendiarism 
was immediately afterwards brought against the 
Christians, who were already numerous in Rome, 
and though unsupported by any evidence, it led to 
their persecution by Nero. Even the fire, however, 
was not without its advantage, for a new Rome 
sprang from the ashes of the old, built on a grander 
scale, with broader, straighter streets and houses of 
more moderate height. Marcus N. Tod. 

ROOF {see House). The R, in ancient times 
was always flat ; it was often used for retirement 
(Ac. io. 9 ). 

ROOM in AV. stands for several Heb. and Gr. 
words. In most cases no misunderstanding is 
possible. In Mw. 23.6; ML 12. 39 ; Lk. 14. 7 ' 8 , 
20. 46 , the Gr. word is protoklisia, which means the 
highest place at the feast, or as RV. trs., " chief 
place." In Lk. 14. 9 ' 10 AV. trs. the Gr. tops 
by both " place " and " room," RV. uniformly 
" place." 

ROSE. The word habatztzeleth occurs twice 
only in EV. In SS. 2. 1 the rose of Sharon is used 
figuratively for the Shulamite ; and in Is. 35. 1 the 
desert transfigured is compared in beauty to the 
rose. The word probably means " narcissus." 
Tg. gives nargus, which is equivalent to the Arabic 
narjus, " narcissus." In Sr. 24. 14 Wisdom is com- 
pared to " a rose plant in Jericho." Tristram 
thought this might be the rhododendron. It may, 
however, have been the true rose, which was also 
found in the district. Roses are now plentiful in 
Palestine, and are greatly valued for the perfume 
which is distilled from their petals ; and also for 
the rose-scented water, of which the natives are ex- 
tremely fond. The plant popularly called " rose 
of Jericho " is not a rose at all, but a low crucifer, 
Anastatica kierochuntina, frequently found in sandy 
soil in Egypt and Palestine. Admiration of the rose 
expresses itself in the female name Rhoda, Arabic 
Wardeh, which has always been a favourite in the 
East. 

ROSH. (1) Son of Benjamin (Gn. 46. 21 ), where, 
for " Ahi and Rosh Muppim," possibly we should 
read " Ahiram and Shupham " (cp. Nu. 26. 38 ). 
(2) Instead of " the chief prince " (Ek. 38. 2 , 39. 1 
AV.) RV. reads " prince of Rosh," with the support 
of many scholars. If this is correct it denotes a 
people coupled with Meshech and Tubal, otherwise 
unknown. RVm. suggests " chief prince of Meshech 
and Tubal," as descriptive of Gog. 

RUBY (Heb. pent and 'edom), a precious stone 
not identd. ; it was red in colour, so may have been 
the " red coral" (Jb. 28 18 , &c). 

RUDDER. See Ship. 



RUE (Gr. peganon) must have been a garden plant 
in the time of Christ, and so subject to tithe (Lk. 
II. 42 ), although later the Talmud calls it a kitchen 
herb, and free from tithe (Shebiith, ix. 1). It is 
probably the Ruta graveoleus, a plant growing to 
a height of over two feet, greatly prized for its 
medicinal qualities, and also as a condiment. 

RUFUS. (1) Son of Simon the Cyrenian, and 
brother of Alexander (Mk. 15. 21 ). (2) A Roman 
Christian saluted by St. Paul (Rm. 16. 13 ). Some 
have thought that this Rufus is the same as (1), to 
whom and to his brother no doubt special interest 
attached because of their father's deed. " Chosen 
in the Lord " involves some distinction, but the 
exact significance cannot now be determined. 

RUG is RV. and AVm. tr. of semlkdh (Jg. 4. 18 , 
AV. " mantle "). The word probably denotes a 
thick coverlet, but the meaning is uncertain. 

RUHAMAH. Hosea gave to his daughter the 
name Lo-Ruhamah, " not pitied," as a sign of 
the fate of Isr. as unrepentant (Ho. i. 6 » 8 ) : this 
name is changed to R., " pitied," when Isr. repents 

(2.1). 

RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE. See Syna- 
gogue. 

RUMAH, the native city of Pedaiah, whose 
daughter, Zebudah, became a member of Josiah's 
harim, and mother of Jehoiakim (2 K. 23. 36 ). It 
may be the same place as that called Arumah (Jg. 
9 41 ), in the neighbourhood of Shechem. It may, 
however, be identical with the Rumah in Galilee 
mentioned by Josephus (BJ. III. vii. 21), which is 
probably represented by the mod. Khirbet Rumeh, 
about three miles north of Safurieh. 

RUSH. See Reed. 

RUST (Gr. brosis, Mw. 6. 19 > 20 ; ios, Js. 5. 3 ). In 
Mw. our Lord uses R. as a generalisation of the 
forces wh. make earthly things transitory ; James 
makes it the symbol of the corroding effect of in- 
justice empoisoning all seeming prosperity. 

RUTH, THE BOOK OF. This book contains 
the story of the kindness shown by R. the Moabitess 
to her mother-in-law Naomi, and the reward she 
received. The narrative begins with the removal 
of Naomi, with her husband Elimelech and her two 
sons, Mahlon and Chilion, to Moab. During their 
residence of ten yrs. Elimelech died ; his two sons 
married, and both soon died. Naomi, hearing that 
plenty now reigned in Judah, purposed to return 
thither. Her two widowed daughters-in-law ac- 
companied her so far, but ere they had crossed into 
Israel, Orpa, at Naomi's suggestion, went back to 
Moab, but R. clave to her mother-in-law. When 
they arrived at Bethlehem R. began by endeavouring 
to support Naomi by gleaning ; in doing this she 
attracted the notice of Boaz, in whose fields she 
was reaping. At Naomi's advice she made a direct 
appeal to Boaz, who was the kinsman of Elimelech. 



680 



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As the result of this he redeemed the land of 
Elimelech and married R. Fm. the fruit of this 
marriage sprang David the king. Naomi occupies 
the grandmother's place in the house of Boaz, 
taking into her bosom the child that took the place 
of Mahlon's son. 

Very interesting are the glimpses of ancient cus- 
toms given in the book, e.g. as to the duties of next- 
of-kin, concerning redeeming and concerning ex- 
changing, and the manner of attesting a transaction. 
The reference to the days of the Judges (i. 1 ), and 
to the " former times," shows that the book was 
written long after the events occurred with which 
it is occupied. But it is very difficult to fix the date 
of writing. Linguistic evidence is, as usual, some- 



what uncertain in its purport. The long form of 
the first pers. pron. is predominant, and this is 
usually regarded as a proof of antiquity ; but Konig, 
in the case of R., says it is due to intentional 
archaism ; as if the Jews of the post-exilic period 
knew or cared about this. The presence of Ara- 
maisms is doubtful, even if they proved recency, 
wh. they do not. The internal evidence proves 
that R. dates after David ; it may be in the days of 
Solomon, as after Moab regained independence 
there was too great racial hatred for a story to be 
committed to writing wh. exhibited a Moabitess in 
so favourable a light. 

RYE (Heb. kussemeth), or Rie (Ex. c.. 32 ; Is. 28. 25 ), 
is " spelt," and is so trd. by RV. See Fitches. 



s 



SABAOTH. See Lord of Hosts. 

SABBATH, THE. This was the name given by 
the Hebrews to the seventh or last day of the week, 
and the period of time covered by it extended from 
sunset on Friday to what, in our reckoning, would 
be sunset on Saturday. The root idea of the word 
is Rest, in the sense of ceasing, or desisting from, 
work ; and the value of the day to the social and 
religious life of the Jewish nation was incalculable. 

Its Origin is wrapped in obscurity, though men- 
tion of it is made very early in the Bible (Gn. 2. 1 " 3 ). 
What the sacred writer there says is ideally true, 
but neither chronologically nor historically correct. 
He was reading into the institution the ideas of a 
later age — ideas that were not known at the be- 
ginning, but took shape after a long period of 
religious evolution. What is certain is that the 
custom of marking off time, in cycles of seven days, 
is very old. Some say this division had a connection 
with astrology. Others assert that it is determined 
by the moon ; and it is to be remarked that " new 
moons and Sabbaths " is a Bible phrase, as if the 
one belonged to the other. It is known, also, that 
among ancient nations particular days stood out 
as having a peculiar significance or sacredness. In 
Rome, e.g., there were regularly recurring days on 
which the courts were closed and work might not be 
done. Among other peoples there were days on 
which fires might not be lighted and no one was 
allowed to bathe. Whatever its origin, one point is 
to be noted. True religion transfigures everything 
which it touches ; and among the chosen people 
this day, alike in its idea and purpose, was purified 
and elevated. Other nations have their separate 
creation narratives. What distinguishes the He- 
brew narrative is its freedom from puerility, supersti- 
tions, debasing elements, and the impression which 
it makes on the mind of the power and goodness 
of the Creator, and the utter dependence of the 

68 



creature. A similar transfiguration took place in 
regard to the Sabbath. The Hebrew took it and 
invested it with a sacred meaning, which was 
altogether unique. 

To say that this day may have been originally 
taken by the Hebrews f.rom the Babylonians or 
Canaanites may seem to some to make it less divine. 
But the crowning evidence of its divinity is to be 
sought, not in the manner of its coming, but in the 
transfiguring process through which it was made to 
pass and the gracious ends it has served. Our daily 
bread, which comes to us through the operation of 
natural laws, is as much the gift of God as was the 
bread which Christ multiplied by the side of the 
lake. And the Sabbath, even though it may have 
come to us through the channel of heathendom, 
is as much divine as if it had been handed down 
direct from heaven, and apart from any human 
medium. 

Its Purpose or Design. — It was meant to'secure 
for the labourer respite from wearing toil. The 
wheels of the world's machinery were to stop. 
Even in the busier seasons of the year, and when 
pressure was on, the tools of labour were to be 
thrown aside. " In ploughing time and in harvest 
thou shalt rest " (Ex. 34. 21 ). 

The strictness of this rule as to unnecessary 
labour was exemplified and emphasised in the case 
of the manna — a double portion of which fell on the 
sixth day, that there might be no gathering of it on 
the seventh (Ex. 16. 22 " 30 ). In one passage (Ex. 23. 12 ) 
there is vividly brought before us the philanthropic 
aspect of the Sabbath as a day of rest. Strangers, 
bondsmen, and beasts of burden were all to share 
in the merciful boon. That this idea of rest was 
burned into the mind of the people is clear from 
such a passage as Nu. 15. 32 " 36 , where we are told that 
for gathering sticks on Sabbath a man was adjudged 
worthy of death, and met his death by stoning. The 
I Y2 



Sab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sab 



Romans respected the day so far as to free the Jews, 
while it lasted, from military service ; and during 
the Maccabaean wars the Jews at first chose rather to 
be slain than to fight on Sabbath. 

But to say, as has been said, that physical rest was 
the only end contemplated in the institution of the 
Sabbath, is to rob the day of its chief glory. Man 
has a body but he is a soul, and this higher part of 
his nature stands even more in need of refreshment 
than the lower. Indeed, the lower is meant to sub- 
serve the higher : " Body helps soul." The day was 
to be hallowed. But mere repose hallows nothing. 
Idleness, indeed, is more likely to be productive of 
evil than of good. Special rites and services were 
therefore appointed to lead the thoughts of the 
people Godward. On that day the daily burnt-offer- 
ing — the expression of personal devotion to God — 
was doubled (Nu. 28. 9 ), and fresh cakes of shewbread 
were set before the Lord — symbolic of the spirit 
of consecration which should run through all the 
common days (Lv. 2zf.. 3 ' 9 ). Above all, the Sabbath 
and the observance of it were to be a special sign 
that God was their Lord and that they were His 
people (Ex. 31. 12 - 17 ; Ek. 20. 12 ). 

Passages and customs such as these — and they are 
numerous in the Scriptures — make it abundantly 
clear that a character of sacredness was attached to 
the day, and that its chief function was to free the 
minds and hearts of the people from absorption in 
secular cares, and give them opportunities of rising 
to their true dignity by cultivating fellowship with 
God. 

Its Abuse. — The Sabbath has not escaped per- 
version. The rabbis, whose duty it was to read and 
interpret the law, added to it, until the traditions 
of the elders became an intolerable burden. They 
made it an end in itself instead of a means. This 
was done with an ingenuity and a casuistry which 
would be comical, were it not for the serious issues 
involved. 

As to work, thirty-nine kinds which might not 
be done were catalogued ; but under each of these 
thirty-nine a number of cognate works were in- 
cluded, until the list became confusing and burden- 
some. For example, ploughing is one of the thirty- 
nine, and under it falls digging. It might be lawful 
to spit on a stone and efface it with the foot, as no 
mark would be made, but this might not be done on 
the ground, as the drawing of the foot along would 
form a rut. Tying or untying knots was prohibited. 
This led to a classification of knots. A camel- 
driver's knot or a boatman's might not be made, 
unless it could be done with one hand. Reaping 
was forbidden on the Sabbath. A woman, there- 
fore, must not look into a mirror, for she might see 
a grey hair and be tempted to pluck it out, which 
would be a kind of reaping. These are illustrations 
of the way in which what was meant as a blessing 



was perverted into a curse by the rabbis. It is right 
to say, however, that, despite such restrictions, the 
day was to many a gladness and a joy. The healthy 
element in human nature, which nothing can wholly 
efface, rebelled and asserted itself. 

A Sabbath Day's Journey.— This is referred to 
in Ac. I. 12 . The space covered by the phrase was 
about 2000 cubits beyond the city. Rabbinical 
ingenuity again set to work. If a man wished to go 
further, it was only necessary to deposit two meals 
at the boundary on Friday. That boundary, by a 
kind of fiction, became his home or " place " (Ex. 
16. 29 ), and he might journey 2000 cubits beyond it. 
Or if he fixed his eye on a tree in the distance, that 
tree became, for the time, his " place," and from it 
he could set out as a starting-point. 

It is in the light of these rabbinical perver- 
sions that we must interpret some of the collisions 
and controversies between the scribes and Christ. 
Christ was no iconoclast. He came not to destroy 
but to fulfil. As a loyal Jew He reverenced the 
Sabbath, frequented the synagogue on that day, and 
took part in its exercises (Lk. 4. 16 - 20 ). But His atti- 
tude was one of large freedom. His soul revolted 
against burdensome traditions as it did against the 
sham grief in the house of Jairus. Hence His indig- 
nation when they grumbled at Him restoring power 
to the man's withered arm, and at the disciples 
plucking a few ears of corn and rubbing them in 
their hands as they walked through the fields. It 
was easy for Him, when challenged, to show from 
Scripture (1 S. 2I. 1 " 6 ; Mk. 2. 23 " 28 ), and from their 
own practice (Mw. 12. 10 " 13 ), and from the tireless 
activity of God (Jn. 5. 17 ), that to do good on the 
Sabbath is lawful, and that human life is much more 
sacred than rabbinical rules. His summing up of 
the situation was : " The Sabbath was made for 
man, and not man for the Sabbath." 

The question of the permanence of the day has 
often been debated. Attempts have been made to 
prove its obligation from its place in the decalogue — 
the idea being that it would be as feasible to rescind 
the laws against theft or murder as the law of the 
Sabbath. All this is needless. The Sabbath was 
given because man needed it. This need will last 
through all time and in all lands, and therefore 
the necessity for the Sabbath will abide. But our 
Sabbath is somewhat different from the Jewish 
Sabbath. The type has given place to the reality, 
the shadow to the substance. All is changed be- 
cause Christ has lived and died, and risen again. 
The truth has made us free. See Lord's Day. 

S. M. Riddick. 

SABBATICAL YEAR. See Jubilee. 

SABEANS, SHEBA, SEBA. The first of these 
is twice used as ethnic fm. the second, and twice as 
ethnic fm. the third. The former of these repre- 
sents three races : (1) A Hamite, s. of Cush (Gn. 



682 



Sab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sac 



io. 7 ). Sheba is identd. by Jos. (Ant. II. x. 2) with sign of mourning (37- 34 , &c), or of a desire to excite 

Meroe, south fm. Egp. More recent discoveries compassion (1 K. 20. 31f -). Originally, at least, it 

place Sheba in S. Arabia, where a number of in- appears to have been worn as a loin-cloth, knotted 

teresting and valuable inscriptions have been found in front. The word used for " to put on " means 

by Prof. Glaser and others. The inhabitants seem " to gird," and " to put off " is lit. " to untie " as a 

early to have attained a high degree of civilisation, knot. This custom, resorted to in the hour of dis- 

as they are referred to in the Assyrian marbles. It tress, seems to have preserved the earliest form 

is evidently fm. that region that the queen of S. of Semitic costume. Whatever is associated with 

came who visited Solomon, hot fm. a region that religious practice in the East tends to stereotype, 

wd. have implied her passing through Egp. A similar survival is seen in the waistcloth worn by 

She is called Balkis in the Koran and in Rabbinic legend, the Moslem who visits the Ka'bah in Mecca. Sack- 

and marvels are related about her. cloth was worn as a mark alike of private and public 

Punt, referred to in the annals of the Egyptian distress, and also in the hope that the appeal thus 
Queen Hatasu, must have been near if not identical made to Divine pity might avert further disaster (2 
with Sheba. A queen there seems to have supreme S. 3- 31 5 J r - 4 8 - 37 '■> I Ch - 2I - 16 > &c -)- See also Hair. 
authority. (2) There is a Shemite son of Joktan SACRIFICE (the Heb. word so rendered conveys 
and grandson of Eber (Gn. io. 28 ). There is nothing by etymology the idea of cutting the throat : the 
to fix the region occupied by the tribe named for Greek that of turning into smoke) ; the presenta- 
him. (3) A descendant of Abraham, son of Jokshan tion to the Deity of gifts, usually animal or vege- 
the second son of Keturah (Gn. 2$. 2 * 3 ) ; the terri- table, either at certain seasons or with some special 
tory of his tribe wd. prob. be between Edom and object. The practice was common to the Israelitish 
Egp. It is impossible to decide to wh. of the with other cults, and formed the chief external 
Shebas Joel prophesies that the children of the manifestation of the religious sentiment. In the 
Tyrians and Sidonians shall be sold in punishment OT. it is first mentioned in connection with Cain 
for their traffic in the children of Judah. The and Abel, and afterwards forms the subject of 
other, Seba, is also a son of Cush. In Ps. 72. 10 elaborate regulation in the Mosaic code ; specula- 
te two are brought together and contrasted with tion on its meaning and purpose is to be found 
Tarshish and the isles. It wd. seem prob. that chiefly in the Epistle to the Hebrews within the 
some place in Africa south fm. Egp. is designated. Bible, but in the sacred literatures of other com- 
Bent wd. localise it in Mashonaland : although this munities there is much discussion of these subjects, 
view is favourably regarded by Margoliouth, we and they have received much attention from writers 
venture to doubt whether a place so far south is on comparative religion. The prevailing view of 
intended. modern times connects the practice with the anthro- 

SABTA, SABTAH. The name occurs among pomorphic conception of God current at certain 

those of the sons of Cush, between Havilah and stages of religion, while accounting for it by a 

Raamah (Gn. io. 7 ). This leads us naturally to variety of motives. One such is the same as gives 

seek identification with some Arabian tribe or dis- rise to sympathetic magic : the desire to exhibit to 

trict, possibly on the east or north-east coast of the Deity the object which the worshipper requires. 

Arabia. So far no trace of it has been found. In such a case the object sacrificed may be supposed 

SABTECHAH, RV. SABTECA. This name to have the value of a specimen, and it is placed or 

follows that of Raamah in the list of the sons of disposed of in such a way that the Deity will see it. 

Cush (Gn. io. 7 ). It is not as yet identified with Another theory is that the Deity shares in human 

any Arabian place or district. wants, and should therefore be fed, as well as housed 

SACAR. (1) Father of Abiharn, one of David's and clothed, like a human being. Thirdly, sacrifice 

mighty men (1 Ch. 1 1. 35 ), called Sharar (2 S. 23. 33 ). has at times propitiatory or atoning value, and repre- 

(2) A Kohathite Levite, son of Obed-edom, one of sents gifts or concessions whereby the favour of the 

the gate-keepers in the Tabernacle (1 Ch. 26. 4 ). Deity may be obtained. Fourthly, it has been 

SACKBUT (see Music) represents Heb. sabkd shown that in some cases the sacrifice is a process 

(Dn. 3. 7 ). If the tr. of the Gr. W. sambuke (Vlg. whereby the victim is sublimated, without reference 

sambuca) is correct, then the tr. in the EV. is wrong, to the Deity to whom it is offered. 
for S. is a "trumpet," while the sambuca was a Analysis of Israelitish Sacrifices according to 

" harp." the above. — Of the exhibitory sacrifice we seem to 

SACKCLOTH is a coarse fabric, woven of goats' have an example in the shew-bread (literally, face- 
hair or camels' hair, dark in colour, used still, as it bread), which consisted of loaves laid on a table 
has been from ancient times, to make the sacks in and renewed every week. Another example is 
which grain is transported on camel-back from the perhaps to be found in the offering of the first- 
village threshing-floor to market town or seaport fruits, which were to be laid on the altar, but not 
(Gn. 42. 25 , &c). The wearing of sackcloth was a consumed. 

683 



Sac 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sac 



The second theory, that sacrifice, or parts of it, 
are the Deity's food, is expressed in various parts of 
the OT. with great emphasis. In Nu. 28. 2 the 
phrase " My bread " is used by the Deity of the 
offerings, and in Ek. 44. 7 of the fat and blood which 
were unlawful for human food. Rather more fre- 
quently the thought represented is that it is the 
savour or odour of the sacrifice wh. is acceptable 
rather than the food offered. Still the prevailing 
theory was that conveyance was effected by fire : 
spontaneous combustion was a sign that a sacrifice 
had been accepted, and we find both Elijah and the 
prophets of Baal prepared to accept that criterion. 
The theory that the Deity required food led to two 
sorts of sacrifice ; a regular and daily supply, and 
occasional banquets, in which the Deity took part 
whether as host or guest. In the latter case there 
was room for the display of lavish magnificence ; 
and we usually hear of burnt-offerings and " peace- 
offerings " together, the flesh of the latter being 



was not due to the desire to give God the best, 
but to the widespread belief in the jealousy of the 
Deity, which could thus be appeased. In the Pen- 
tateuch, which contains precepts belonging to dif- 
ferent periods, we find it expressly commanded in 
Ex. 22. 29 , but in other places, while the principle is 
assumed, it is enacted that an animal shall be sub- 
stituted therefor (Ex. 34. 20 ; Nu. 18. 15 ) ; while yet 
another theory is that the Levites, devoted to God 
in another sense, are the substitute (Nu. 3. 12 , &c). 
Gn. 22. furnishes a definite example of the substi- 
tution of an animal for the child. 

The history of the Israelitish states is far too im- 
perfectly recorded to enable us to possess any accu- 
rate knowledge of the practice prior to the Exile, 
which undoubtedly varied greatly at different times 
and places, and with the theological opinions of 
different kings. The " building of a house for the 
Lord " which was accomplished by Solomon was a 
step of tremendous importance for the evolution of 



i!lii« v -ft 




Ancient Human Sacrifice — from an Etruscan Tomb 



consumed by the human guests after a share had 
been withdrawn for the Deity. With regard to the 
former the practice is likely to have varied prior to 
the building of the Temple, when definite arrange- 
ments could be made. So long as the custom of 
maintaining household gods (Teraphim) prevailed, 
provision of this sort must have been made for them. 
We hear of them in David's house (1 S. 19. 13 ) ; but 
Josiah among his other reforms destroyed these. 

With regard to propitiatory gifts, they were of 
course by no means always food or drink, but might 
be any object capable of gratifying desire. Incense, 
music, poetry, dancing, employed in Divine service, 
were doubtless intended to gratify certain tastes, 
and the case was the same with gifts of jewels, 
clothing, and perhaps statues and painting : this 
idea is most clearly expressed in the building of a 
palace or temple. At times tastes were gratified 
which were based on a barbarous interpretation of 
the Divine will ; by the torture and execution of 
defeated enemies (1 S. 15. 33 ), or of persons belonging 
to a doomed race (2 S. 21. 9 ), or the wholesale de- 
struction of enemies' property (Jo. 6. 21 , &c). To 
this last category we must refer the practice, at one 
time common in Israel, of sacrificing the first-born. 
There can be little doubt that this terrible custom 



the doctrine of sacrifice, because, while the preach- 
ing of the prophets led to the eventual triumph 
of monotheism, the maintenance of this sanctuary 
through many generations led to the accumulation 
of a sacerdotal tradition, furnishing the answer to 
the numerous questions that constantly cropped up. 
The prophets, at any rate at some periods, appear to 
have condemned the process of sacrifice absolutely, 
as involving an unworthy idea of the Deity ; and 
Jeremiah in a well-known passage (7- 22 ) denies that 
the Law contained any sacrificial precepts whatever. 
The custom was indeed too deeply rooted to permit 
of abolition ; for the theory, however, that the 
Divine tastes were to be materially gratified there 
was substituted a mystical theory that sacrifice was 
a means ordained for the atonement of sin, or the 
purification of the unclean. Its value, therefore, lay 
not in itself, but in the scrupulous observation of the 
rules for its presentation. Unless performed at the 
right time and place, by authorised persons and in 
the right manner, it was ineffectual, indeed likely to 
incur Divine displeasure instead of propitiating. 

Systematisation of sacrifice became therefore a 
matter of vast importance : the earliest example 
which we possess of such an attempt appears to be 
found in the final vision of Ezekiel, than whom the 



684 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sac 



final collection of precepts which is contained in the two acts must go back to somewhat higher an- 

Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers must be later, tiquity. The principle of the burnt-offering shows 

but probably embodies earlier materials. Prior to that the two elements mentioned were not regarded 

the publication of this code there was doubtless as exclusively the " food " of the Deity ; and in nar- 

great variety ; and it is unsafe to draw inferences ratives of certain improvised sacrifices, miraculously 

with regard to general practice from the occasional consumed, flesh and cakes feed the heavenly flame 

records of sacrifice. Thus it has rightly been in- (Jg. 6. 21 , 13. 20 ), while the broth is poured on the 

ferred from 1 S. 2. 14 that at Shiloh the sacrificial ground, like blood. In certain cases the conveyance 

meat was boiled ; but it has been shown that to is effected through consumption by the priests : the 

infer thence that sacrificial meat was ordinarily fact of a portion having been sacrificially consumed 

boiled would lead to ridiculous results. Similarly invests the remainder with a sacred character. The 

the meaning of the narrative in Gn. 4. (the sacrifices sacrifices of meat had for their ordinary accompani- 

of Cain and Abel) is evidently that in that primeval ments, salt, flour, unbaked or else baked or fried with 

experiment it was demonstrated that animal sacri- oil, and wine. For the incense employed there was 

flees were acceptable, but not vegetable ; neverthe- a special prescription. Perfume was an ordinary 

less we find that vegetable sacrifices of several sorts accompaniment of an Oriental meal, and its use 

were afterwards ordained. is due to this association : the suggestion of Mai- 

The animals offered in sacrifice appear, so far as monides that it was to conceal the odour of the 
our sources supply information, to have been the burned fat appears to be erroneous. 
same as were lawful for human food, except that we At a later period we meet with two sorts of sacri- 
hear only of domestic animals used for the former fice termed hafath and dshdm, words signifying 
purpose. The sacrifice of kine, recorded in I S. 6. 14 , "sin" and "guilt" respectively, and rendered 
would seem to be at variance with the later practice, " sin-offering " and " trespass-offering." Both ap- 
which regularly required males for sacrifice in the pear to have been represented in the time of 
case of this beast. Water appears to have been em- the Kings by money-payments (2 K. 12. 16 ); but 
ployed in some sacrifices (1 K. 18. 33 ), but of this the whether this was commutation or an earlier system 
code contains no mention. A distinction which than offerings in kind is uncertain. The difference 
goes back to early times is that between sacrifices between the two has been the subject of much dis- 
in which the whole animal was burned ( ( oldh), and cussion and not a few hypotheses have been put 
those in which certain parts were burned, but the forward ; in the case of both all but the fat, which 
rest consumed by the worshippers (shelem, plur. was burned, went to the officiating priest, or to the 
sheldmim). A further difference lay in the nature of priests in general, unless indeed the priest himself 
the parts burned, according as they were such as were involved in the sin which it was to expiate, 
must necessarily be consumed for the Deity, or of a in which case the flesh was burned, but not on 
sort in which human beings might also participate, the altar. The meat which belonged to a hafath 
This sacrificial terminology appears to have been seems to have acquired greater sanctity than that 
common to several Semitic races, as the famous which belonged to an dshdm, but the mode in wh. 
inscription of Marseilles, giving the tariff at a these sacrifices are described in Leviticus is only in- 
Punic temple, agrees in some technicalities with telligible on the supposition that rules have there 
the language of the OT. accumulated wh. belonged to times or places with 

The parts wh. constituted the food or " bread " varying usage. Thus in 5. 7 the dshdm is to consist 
of the Deity were in ordinary cases the fat and the of two pigeons, one for an 'oldh, and the other for a 
blood (Ek. 44. 7 )„ The latter of these had certain hafath. In I4. 21f> , however, all three sacrifices are 
mystic associations, as the " life " of the animal ; of mentioned together, as separate offerings. The 
the former none such are recorded in the OT., usage is much more regular with minhdh, wh. ap- 
though they can be found in the folk-lore of other pears to stand for an offering of meal, whether raw 
races. Conveyance, in the case of the blood, was or cooked with oil by some process or other, 
effected by spilling on the soil : in the Solomonic Supposing these various sorts of sacrifice to have 
and later temples there were elaborate arrangements had their appropriate occasions, there was from the 
for carrying it away by drains. It has been argued first a tendency to accumulate them. Thus the 
from Dt. 12. 15 that the slaughter of animals prior to c oldh is usually mentioned in the company of either 
the centralisation of the worship was regarded in " sacrifices " generally, or of sheldmim ; and in the 
all cases as a sacrificial act, and indeed the word em- sacrificial rules in Leviticus it is usual to mention 
ployed there for " to slaughter " is the same as is several together. A Nazirite who has through acci- 
elsewhere employed for to sacrifice, originally mean- dent broken his vow has to bring an 'oldh, a hafath, 
ing " to cut the throat." That passage, however, an dshdm, and sheldmim (Nu. 6. 12 ' 17 ). This multi- 
would also imply that the slaughter of wild animals plication of processes is rightly explained as due to 
was not so regarded, whence the distinction between the concentration of national speculation on sacrifice 

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after the loss of their independence, just as at a still 
later time, when sacrifice was no longer permitted, 
it became concentrated on the distinction between 
lawful and unlawful meats. 

System of Sacrifice according to the Priestly- 
Code. — Sacrifice may be divided into regular and 
occasional ; and the latter sort into compulsory and 
voluntary. 

I. Regular Sacrifices. — Every day sacrifice was 
to be offered morning and evening of a lamb (two 
years' old), accompanied by a meal-offering of a 
stated amount of meal and oil, and a libation of 
wine. This daily sacrifice constituted the funda- 
mental solemnity of the Jewish religion. The " abo- 
lition of the tdmid " (as it was called) was equivalent 
to the suppression of Judaism. 

On certain holy days additional sacrifices were to 
be offered. On the Sabbath the tdmid was doubled. 
On the first day of the month it was increased to 
two bullocks, a ram, and seven lambs ; on the great 
feast-days there was yet further increase. 

II. Occasional Sacrifices. (A) Compulsory. — 
These were to be offered by persons who had con- 
tracted certain kinds of uncleanness, or committed 
certain offences. Cases of the former sort were ordi- 
nary occurrences like child-bearing, or extraordinary 
occurrences like leprosy, which admitted of cure. 
Cases of the latter sort were involuntary breaches of 
the commandments, or such intentional breaches as 
admitted of restitution, with some minor offences. 
The amount of the sacrifice was in these cases to 
vary with the means of the culprit. 

(B) Voluntary. — These are divided into three 
classes : (a) Sacrifice of thanksgiving ; (b) votive 
offerings ; (c) freewill offerings. The distinction 
between the three sorts is not observed with pre- 
cision in the code. These seem to represent the old- 
fashioned sacrifices, and while the fat was consumed 
on the altar, the priest merely got as perquisite the 
breast and right shoulder, after an operation called 
" waving " had been performed on them. The 
meat belonged to the person who had furnished the 
sacrifice, and had to be consumed by him and his 
party : in the case of (a) on the same day as the 
sacrifice, whereas in the other two cases an extra 
day was allowed. The great hecatombs offered on 
special occasions would in the main come under this 
category. But at such times many animals were 
doubtless offered as holocausts, while the division 
between priests and feasters may have been more 
liberal to the former. 

Sacrificial System according to Josephus. — In 
the Antiquities (III. ix., x.) Josephus describes the 
sacrificial system in use in his day, and, if his asser- 
tion that he was himself a priest is to be trusted, this 
account should be of value. He gives the double 
division of (i) public and (2) private holocausts and 
thank-offerings (' oloth and sheldmtm). The private 



holocaust might be sheep or goats, one year old only, 
or cattle, not necessarily yearlings. They must 
always be males. After slaughter, blood is sprinkled 
round the altar, the carcase is dismembered, the 
portions sprinkled with salt, and burned on wooden 
sticks already placed on the altar. The feet and en- 
trails are cleansed and then burned, and the skins are 
kept by the priests. The same animals are used for 
sheldmtm, only older than yearlings, and in these 
cases a male and a female are sacrificed together. In 
this case the blood is poured on the altar ; the kidneys, 
caul, fat, lobe of the liver, and in the case of a sheep 
the tail, are burned on the altar ; the breast and 
right shoulder given to the priest ; while the rest of 
the meat provides a banquet for two days ; after 
which any that remains must be burned. The re- 
maining sacrifices are for involuntary and voluntary 
offences respectively. The mode of sacrifice is the 
same as in the case of the sheldmtm, except that all 
that is not burned goes to the priest, who must eat 
it in the same day. The blood in this case is not 
sprinkled on the altar itself, but on the horns. For 
voluntary offences a ram is offered ; for involuntary, 
ewe-lamb or she-goat (yearling). There is a further 
distinction between prince and plebeian : for the 
former in these cases sacrifice males, and bullocks 
instead of rams. Every sacrifice is accompanied 
with an offering of meal mixed with oil, in quantities 
varying with the size of the victim. The public 
daily and festal sacrifices are then described in ac- 
cordance with the statements of the priestly code. 

If the account given by Josephus represent his re- 
collections of the actual practice, it is evident that 
the priests of his time must have had some simpler 
manual for their guidance than the middle books 
of the Pentateuch. The difficulty wh. occurs to 
the reader of these precepts — how, in those days of 
difficult and dangerous travelling, could provincials 
be perpetually journeying to Jerusalem whenever a 
child was born or a peccadillo had been committed ? 
— is no more met by him than it is in the Pentateuch 
itself. The Pentateuch, however, ostensibly deals 
with a time when the whole nation was crowded 
round the Tabernacle, and was therefore less con- 
fronted with the difficulty. 

The Abolition of Sacrifice. — If it be true that 
ere the rise of Christianity the Judaic conscience had 
been impressed with the belief that sacrifice could be 
offered only in one place, it followed that when en- 
trance to that place was closed, sacrifice could not 
be offered ; and such entrance was forbidden the 
Christians so soon as the relations between them and 
the Jews were strained to breaking point by the ad- 
mission into the former community of persons who 
had not submitted to the characteristic badge of 
Judaism. But ere long it was forbidden to the Jews 
themselves, owing to the destruction of the city 
by the Romans, and though doubtless hopes were 



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cherished that the Roman conquest would be no 
more permanent than that of the Babylonians or 
Greeks, the ages passed leaving those hopes unful- 
filled. Whe cher in the event of the Jews recovering 
Jerusalem the sacrificial system would be restored, 
seems to be disputed by different authorities ; such 
an event seems, however, to be no nearer than ever. 
In Jewish worship prayer came to be regarded as a 
substitute for sacrifice. In the Christian community 
the theory gained ground that sacrifice had from 
the first typified the crucifixion : when that event 
was over, and the types all had been realised, there 
was no further ground for the continuance of the 
type. For the cessation of sacrifice preparation had 
long been made by the best Israelitish thinkers, who, 
as represented in the prophecies and psalms, declare 
the process to be unworthy and ineffectual ; while 
its claim to take away or atone for sin is resolutely 
denied by even such moralists as Ben-Sira (third or 
second century B.C.), who recommend compliance 
with the Biblical rules, on the ground that they 
form part of the tradition. 

D. S. Margoliouth. 
SADDUCEES (Heb. D>,?m). This was the 
name given to the party of the priestly aristocracy 
which exercised considerable influence in Jewish 
affairs fm. the time of the Maccabees till the fall of 
the state. Epiphanius tells us that they called them- 
selves by this name, wh. is connected with the Heb. 
word for righteousness, and that they meant thereby 
to claim that they were " just and righteous." 
Others seek to derive it fm. the only proper name of 
importance connected with this same word in the 
OT. — Zadok, who was priest in the days of David 
(i K. I. 8 ). In later days his descendants held a dis- 
tinguished position in the nation, and such designa- 
tions as " sons of Zadok " and " priests of the seed of 
Zadok " are met with, and so it has been thought 
that " Zadokites " and " sons of Zadok " are identl. 
Still another and not altogether unlikely explana- 
tion has been offered — that they were the followers 
of Zadok, a pupil of Antigonus of Socho, c. b.c. 200 
(Pirke A both, I. 3), one of the transmitters of the 
oral law. Inspired by a deep sense of the supreme 
obligation of morality, he taught that " men shd. 
serve God without hope of reward." Zadok and a 
fellow-disciple Boethus, developed his teaching on 
schismatical lines, so that their followers came to 
disbelieve in future rewards and punishments, and 
finally to deny the continuance of the soul. It has 
been said that it wd. be very un- Jewish to name a 
sect fm. its founder, but the position is strengthened 
in the present case by the fact that a party of the S. 
were also named Boethusians, and as the S. were 
now the richer and governing class, the judges and 
the priestly aristocracy (Jos. Ant. XIII. x. 6), just as 
the former Zadokites had been, they may not have 
been averse to connecting themselves with the old 



name, though indeed they had acquired the designa- 
tion fm. another and more recent source. At first 
their diffcs. from the Pharisees were merely politi- 
cal and practical. The Rm. conquest had brought 
greater suffering and loss on the aristocratic class 
than to any others in Isr., and so they became essen- 
tially the patriotic element in the nation. The 
Pharisees were attached to a kind of fatalism, and 
acted under the belief that it was Isr.'s duty to suffer 
in patience and to look forward with hope for a re- 
ward at the resurrection. The S. failed to get their 
political scheme accepted by a party with such a 
faith, and so the teachings of the Pharisees, used to 
advocate submission, became more and more dis- 
tasteful. They were strongly opposed to Phari- 
saic fatalism, and declared the freedom of the will. 
" They take away fate, and say there is no such thing, 
and that the events of human affairs are not at its 
disposal ; but they suppose that all our actions are 
in our own power, so that we ourselves are the 
causes of what is good, and receive what is evil fm. 
our own folly " {Ant. XIII. v. 9). This led them to 
devote their thoughts and activities to the visible 
present and to be careless of the imagined future ; 
while their dislike of the materialism of many of the 
descriptions of the future state, and the unbridled 
excesses of Pharisaic exegesis of the psalms and 
prophecies, induced them to insist more and more 
on the significant silence of the written Law ; and 
finally to declare that souls died with the bodies 
{Ant. XVIII. i. 4), and that there was neither angel 
nor spirit (Ac. 23« 8 ). Their denial of the second life 
may have begun asanobjection to transmigration, in 
wh. the Pharisees seem to have believed ; but it soon 
went beyond that, and we already find protests agst. 
their objection to any resurrection in the Bk. of 
Enoch, the Psalms of Solomon, and the " Eighteen 
Benedictions." Reports of discussions too are found 
in the Tim., e.g. " A S. once said to a Pharisee, 
1 Woe unto you wicked people, who maintain that 
the dead will rise. You see the living die, and yet 
you say the dead will live.' To wh. he replied,' Woe 
unto you wicked people, who deny the resurrection 
of the dead. If those live who at one time had no 
existence, how much more shall the dead live, who 
have had an existence ' " (Sanh. 91*). 

Their relationship to the question of the existence of 
spiritual beings is difficult to understand, in view of their 
acceptance of the OT. Either we must regard them as 
looking upon the theophanies there recorded as mere transi- 
tory, insubstantial representations of the Deity, or that their 
disbelief in angel and spt. extended only to a denial of the 
angelic system of Judaism developed in pcst-exilic days ; or 
perhaps we may think of them as accepting the OT. occur- 
rences as real, while they disbelieved in such events in their 
own times. 

The S. were conservative in all matters of ritual, and 
believing that the oral law had sanctioned all the innova- 
tions made by the Pharisees wh. they opposed, they declared 
that the written law alone represented old practice, and 
opposed the unwritten " tradition of the elders " so dear to 
the hearts of their opponents. Nevertheless they in some 



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things, including the use of phylacteries, followed the same 
practices as the Pharisees, and their wives consulted the 
Pharisaic doctors on matters of purification. Josephus tells 
us too that as magistrates and for the sake of getting the 
multitude to hear them " they addicted themselves to the 
notions of the Pharisees " (Ant. XVIII. i. 4). With the 
lapse of time, too, they betrayed a tendency to Greek learning, 
loving specially the writings of Homer [Yadaim, IV. 6), and 
became more and more worldly-minded and lukewarm in 
religious matters. 

In the NT. as we shd. expect the High Priest and 
his party were S. (Ac. 4. 1 , 5. 17 ). John the Baptist 
had included them in his words of condemnation as 
a " generation of vipers " (Mw. 3.'), and to this we 
find an interesting parallel in the Tim., where the 
family of Annas the High Priest are characterised 
as " Hanan's viper brood." They repeatedly at- 
tempted to entrap Christ (Mw. 16. 1 , 22. 23 ), and He 
warned His disciples agst. their " leaven " (Mw. 
16. 6 ). Herod Antipas accepted their teaching, 
but his faith in it was unstable (Mk. 6. 14 " 16 ). They 
combined with the Pharisees to compass the death 
of Christ (Mw. 27. 1 ), and when the resurrection 
was preached they became energetic against the 
disciples (Ac. zj.. 2 ). 

Some of theearly church fathers, including Origen 
and Jerome, tell us that the S. rejected all Scrip, 
except the Pnt. In this they seem to have made the 
mistake of confusing the S. with the Samaritans, 
who were sometimes so designated by the rabbis. 
Josephus mentions nothing of this. It has been re- 
garded as significant that Christ quoted only the 
Pnt. to them, proving the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion therefrom by inference alone (Mw. 22. 31 " 32 ; 
Mk. I2. 26f - ; Lk. 20. 37 ), though He mt. have found 
stronger arguments elsewhere in the OT. : still He 
may have had other reasons for that. One of these 
doubtless was their objection to poetical expressions 
being used as proof texts for doctrine. We are well 
aware that they knew and loved the psalms and the 
prophets, and this can be seen in the work of the 
S. author of I Maccabees. 

After the fall of Jrs. (a.d. 70) the S. rapidly dis- 
appear fm. hist. To men without a country and a 
home, their teaching grew more and more cold and 
heartless, and the Jew was driven to seek consolation 
in the hopes of a future life. The Christian teaching 
on the resurrection, too, did much to establish faith 
in a general resurrection, so that when the politi- 
cal influence of the S. passed away, their peculiar 
tenets became merely matters of academic interest. 

The idea that the S. formed a religious philosophical 
school is due partly to Josephus, who was fond of presenting 
things Jewish in terms of Greek Philosophy, but more especi- 
ally to the rabbinic tradition wh. looked upon the whole hist. 
of Isr. as made up of a variety of scholastic controversies 
similar to those of Talmudic days. 

Wm. M. Christie. 

SADOC, a descendant of Zerubbabel, ancestor of 



Jesus (M^ 



')■ 



SAFFRON (Heb. karkom, corresponding to the 



Arabic kurkum, or za'fardn, from which comes our 
word " saffron "), in SS. 4. 14 , denotes the Crocus 
sativus, the " saffron crocus." It has been greatly 
valued for perfume from ancient times. The styles 
and stamens are dried and preserved, and used to 
flavour or impart a yellow colouring to cooked 
food, e.g. rice. Among the Greeks as well as 
Orientals, saffron leaves were greatly prized. 
" Saffron morn " is a phrase of Homer's ; the 
divinities were arrayed in robes of this bright colour. 
" Saffron water was sprinkled on the benches of 
theatres, the floors of banqueting halls were strewn 
with crocus leaves, and cushions were stuffed with 
the same material " (Groser, The Trees and Plants 
mentioned in the Bible, 2io,f.). 

SAINTS in Scripture are simply the people of 
God : in OT. worshippers of ]". ; in the NT. 
followers of Jesus Christ (1 S. 2. 9 , &c. ; Ac. 9. 13 , 
&c). The term means lit. " holy ones," i.e. those 
who are " consecrated," sundered from the evil 
world by the work of redemption. It is to be 
observed that the word applies in NT. to the 
whole company of believers : there is no trace of 
its being regarded as a title to be won by peculiar 
excellence. 

SALAH. See Shelah. 

SALAMI S, the seaport at the eastern end of the 
island of Cyprus, where Paul and Barnabas landed 
after sailing from Seleucia on their first missionary 
journey (Ac. 13. 5 ). Here "in the synagogues" 
they proclaimed the word of God. Jews, there- 
fore, were numerous in the town. They had 
settled here centuries before (1 M. 15. 23 ). It was a 
considerable trading centre, its excellent harbour 
affording safe shelter for shipping. This, and the 
interest of Herod the Great in the Cyprian copper 
mines, would attract the Jews {Ant. XVI. iv. 5). 
The town was situated on the river Pediaeus, about 
three miles from the mod. Famagousta, at the 
eastern extremity of the plain of Salaminia. It 
suffered severely from an earthquake, and was re- 
stored by Constantius in the reign of Constantine. 
For a time thereafter it was known as Constantia. 
Epiphanius was bishop of Constantia from a.d. 367— 
403. A good road connected Salamis with Paphos 
in the west of the island. 

There are few remains of importance, and the 
harbour has been quite silted up with sand. 

SALATHIEL. See Shealtiel. 

SALCHAH, SALCAH, RV. SALECAH, a city 
of Bashan subject to Og (Dt. 3. 10 ), on the eastern 
border of his territory (Jo. 12. 5 , 13. 11 ). It was 
allotted to Manasseh (v. 30), and later occupied by 
Gad (1 Ch. 5- 4 ). It is represented by the mod. 
Salkhad, a city occupied by Druzes, on a lofty and 
commanding position at the southern end of Jebel 
ed-Druze. It is dominated by the castle, a great 
structure probably built by the Romans, and re- 



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paired by the Arabs. It stands in the mouth of an 
extinct volcano, some 300 ft. higher than the town. 
Salkhad depends for water-supply entirely upon the 
rain stored in the cisterns. Past Salkhad ran the 
great Roman road from the west across the desert to 
the Persian Gulf. The line of it can still be traced 
from the castle wall, away towards the eastern 
horizon. 

SALEM (Gn. 14. 18 ; Ps. j6?) is probably to be 
identified with Jerusalem : the available evidence 
establishes no more than probability. Jerusalem 
was known in the age of the Tel el-Amarna tablets 
as " Urusalim." The name of the king given in 
Jo. io. 1 , Adonizedek, bears a certain resemblance to 
that of Melchizedek. The king's vale, in which 
Abraham and Melchizedek met, may be the same 
locality as that in which Absalom raised his pillar : 
this was probably near Jerusalem (2 S. 18. 18 ). The 
city is called " Salem " in Ps. 76A Little weight 
would attach to this poetical abbreviation if it stood 
alone ; but taken with the other evidence here 
summarised it makes the identification probable. 

SALIM, near by which was tEnon, where John 
the Baptist was baptizing (Jn. 3. 23 ), lay on the west 
of the Jordan {cp. I. 28 , 3- 26 , io. 40 ). If iEnon were 
where OEJ. places it, viz., eight Roman miles south 
of Beisdn, the district within which it must be 
sought is fairly definite. About six miles south of 
Beisdn, near by the ruin of Umm-el-'Amddn, are 
seven fountains affording plentiful supplies of water. 
This might fitly be called JEnon, " place of springs," 
while the ancient " Salim " may survive in the 
shrine of Sheikh Selim, on the north side of Tell 
er-Ridhghah. It might be objected that this place 
lay within the boundary of Samaria ; but it seems 
likely that it was then included within the lands of 
Beisdn. No other identification has been suggested 
which meets the requirements of the narrative. 

SALLAI. (1) A Benjamite who with 928 of his 
tribesmen settled in Jrs. after the captivity (Ne. II. 8 ). 
(2) Head of a priestly family which returned with 
Zerubbabel (Ne. 12. 20 ), called " Sallu " in v. 7. 

SALLU. (1) A Benjamite, son of Meshullam 
(1 Ch. 9- 7 ). (2) The same as Sallai 2 (Ne. II. 7 ). 

SALMA. See Salmon. 

SALMAI, RV. See Shalmai. 

SALMON, SALMA, son of Nashon, who 
married Rachab of Jericho, and by her became the 
father of Boaz (Ru. 4-. 20f -), and thus comes into the 
genealogy of our Lord (Mw. i. 4f - ; Lk. 3. 32 ). The 
connection of Salma, son of Caleb, with Bethlehem, 
suggests that the same person may be intended. 

SALMON, MOUNT. See Zalmon. 

SALMONE is the promontory at the north-east 
corner of Crete, the mod. Cafe Sidero. The north- 
west wind encountered over against Cnidus led to 
an alteration of the course of the ship in which St. 
Paul was sailing to Rome. This brought it under 



the lee of Salmone, whence, protected by the island, 
it steered westward (Ac. 27. 7 ). 

SALOME (Gr. 5 dome). (1) The wife of Zebedee, 
and mother of the apostles James and John. Com- 
parison of the relevant passages (Mw. 27. 56 ; Mk. 
15. 40 ; Jn. 19. 25 ) seems to show that she was the 
sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. She was one 
of the women who followed Christ, ministering to 
Him of their substance. She was present at the 
crucifixion. (2) The daughter of Herodias, not 
named in Mw. 14. 6 , and Mk. 6. 22 . See Herodian 
Family. 

SALT is found plentifully in Palestine, especially 
at the south-west of the Dead Sea, where a great 
cliff of salt rock, Jebel Usdum, furnishes practi- 
cally inexhaustible supplies. It is easily obtained 
by evaporation from the Dead Sea water. Salt 
marshes in different quarters also yield considerable 
quantities. The same word, melah, in all Semitic 
languages, points to its use in the earliest times. 
The son of Sirach names salt as one of the neces- 
sities of life (Sr. 39- 26 ). The use for food no doubt 
suggested its employment for offerings — the food 
of the deity worshipped (Lv. 2. 13 , &c). From its 
purifying and preserving qualities, the eating of salt 
together came to be the symbol of indestructible 
friendship : hence the " covenant of salt " (2 Ch. 
13. 5 , &c. ; cp. Ez. 4. 14 RV.) ; see Hospitality. To 
this day in the East, rubbing with salt is supposed to 
promote the health of a new-born child (Ek. 16. 4 ). 
Christ's people act as salt in the community 
(Mw. 5. 13 , &c). Frequently other substances are 
gathered with the salt. When the sodium chloride 
has been washed away, the residuum may be de- 
scribed as salt that has " lost its savour." Salt is 
fatal to vegetable life. To sow the site of a city 
with salt is to doom it to utter extinction (Jg. 9 45 , 
&c). In Greek times salt was taxed (1 M. IO. 29 , 
&c), and it is now a government monopoly in 
Palestine. 

SALT SEA, THE, is also called Sea of the 
Arabah (Dt. 3. 17 , &c), the East Sea (Ek. 47. 18 , 
&c), the Dead Sea (Jerome on Ek. 47.), and by the 
natives to-day Bahr Lut, " Sea of Lot," this name 
enshrining an old tradition. It is the great lake 
stretching north and south between the uplands of 
Judah on the west and Moab on the east. It is 
about 47 miles long by about 9 miles broad. 

Thirty-three miles from the mouth of the Jordan, 
on the eastern shore, a broad tongue of land (el- 
Lisdn) juts out into the sea. To the north of this the 
sea is about 1280 ft. deep ; to the south the average 
depth is not over 18 ft. The proportion of salt in 
the water is very great, four times greater than that 
in the ocean — hence the name, " the Salt Sea " (Gn. 
14. 3 ; Nu. 34. 12 , &c). Its high specific gravity 
makes it difficult if not impossible for any organic 
body to sink in it. No fish of any size can live in 



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it ; although at points where purer water enters 
small fishes may be seen, which here and there make 
their way some distance round the shore. The taste 
of the water is most disagreeable. As it dries on 
the body of the bather, it deposits a thin encrusta- 
tion of salt, which makes a plunge in Jordan soon 
after .not only agreeable but necessary. 

There was an ancient belief that the waters of the 
sea covered the ground formerly occupied by Sodom 
and Gomorrah. Modern investigation has shown 



there is no outflow for the water : the level is there- 
fore preserved only by evaporation. In that great 
valley with hot crags on either hand, rising in some 
cases over 4000 ft. above the lake, the evaporation is 
extremely rapid. Between winter and summer the 
level varies only to the extent of some 21 inches 
(Dr. Masterman, PEFQ., 1907, Oct., 3021. ; 1908, 
April, i6of.). 

Seen from the mountains in clear weather the 
lake is of a beautiful deep blue colour. At the 




The Dead Sea 
View from the heights behind Sebbeh (Masada), showing the Lisan (" Tongue"), the peninsula projecting from the eastern shore. 



this to be impossible. The land now covered by 
shallow water south of el- Lisan, " the Lagoon," 
may indeed have been higher in ancient times ; but 
it could only have been salt marsh like that at the 
south end of the lake to-day (see Siddim, Vale of). 
The surface of the lake is now 1292 ft. below the 
level of the Mediterranean. Deposits, however, in 
the floor of the Arabah prove it to be an old sea- 



springs on the shore, e.g. 'Jin Jidy, there is 
luxuriant growth, but elsewhere round the coast 
no vegetation can live. 

SALT, THE VALLEY OF, is probably identical 
with Wady el-Milh, to the east of Beersheba, in 
which stands the City of Salt. It was the scene 
of defeats of the Edomites by David (2 S. 8. 13 , for 
Aram, " the Syrians," read Edom, 1 Ch. 18. 12 ), and 



bottom. There is ample evidence to show that at by Amaziah (2 K. 14. 7 ; 2 Ch. 25. 11 ). 

some period in the distant past the waters rose to the SALU, father of Zimri, the Simeonite prince who 

level of the Mediterranean, forming a vast lake, was slain by Phinehas (Nu. 25. 14 ). 

stretching from 40 miles south of the Dead Sea SALUTATION, SALUTE. Among Orientals 

almost to the roots of Hermon in the north {see much more importance is attached to the formal 

Palestine, Geology). Besides the great volume of courtesies of life than among us. Any neglect of 

water brought down by the Jordan, the sea receives customary word or gesture, as determined by the 

the contributions from the springs and winter relative position of the persons meeting, may be 

torrents of the high lands of Judaea and Moab, and taken as insult (cp. Lk. 7- 45 ). Common greetings 



also from the * Arabah. 



Locked in that deep hollow on the highway are marbaba, " welcome," to wh. 
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the answer is marhabatain, " two welcomes " ; 
" peace be upon you " — response, " and on you be 
peace " ; " may your day be happy " — response, 
" may your day be happy and blessed." Much 
importance is laid upon the response, esp. to the 
second of these. Failure to reply may be under- 
stood as a sign of hostility (Mw. io. 12f -). 

The kiss figures largely in Eastern salutations. 
Equals in rank and near relations kiss each other on 
the cheek. The humbler in station will kiss his 
superior's hand ; and the youth that of the elder. 
The utterly humble may kiss another's feet (Lk. 
7. 38 ). The writer remembers the embarrassment 



SAMARIA is the Gr. form of Heb. Shomeron, 
" outlook," the city built by Omri on the hill of 
Shemer, wh. under Ahab became the capital of 
the Northern Kdm. (i K. i6. 24 > 29 ). Its history 
then runs parallel with that of Jrs. till the Asyr. 
captivity (see Israel). Under the influence of 
Jezebel, Ahab here established the worship of 
Phoenician Baal, and erected for him a great temple 
(i K. 16. 32 ). See Jehu. 

The position was one of great natural strength. 
The hill rises in the midst of a wide and fertile vale, 
the " valley of barley," by wh. it is almost entirely 
cut off from the surrounding hills, a low saddle to 




The Dead Sea from the North 
Looking towards the Wilderness of Judaga, with the Hebron uplands in the distance, over the Wilderness of Tekoa. 



caused by a suppliant once suddenly kissing his feet. 
The slave may kiss the skirt of a master's robe. A 
common gesture is to bow low, let the back of the 
hand touch the ground, and then raise it to the 
heart, the lips, and the forehead. 

The duty to salute first lies on the younger and 
the lowlier in rank. But the horseman salutes the 
footman. The smaller company salutes the larger. 
In a crowd only the more exalted and honoured are 
saluted (Mw. 23. 7 , &c). 

Salutations are often drawn out to a preposterous 
length by the repetition of conventional question 
and answer wh. make neither party the wiser. This 
was the danger guarded against by the directions of 
Elisha (2 K. 4. 29 ), and of Christ (Lk. io. 4 ). 

See Reconciliation, Regene- 



SALVATION. 

RATION. 



the NE. alone connecting them. Vines and olives 
grow luxuriantly on the encircling slopes ; and the 
" fat valley " (Is. 28. 4 , &c.) yields abundant crops of 
grain. The view over the lower hills to the W. 
includes the plain of Sharon and the Great Sea. 
Under the conditions of ancient warfare it might 
easily be made impregnable. The narratives of 
I K. 20. and 2 K. 6. 24ff - show that the besiegers' 
only hope was to reduce the city by famine. In 
this way it fell to the Assyrians after a resistance of 
three years (2 K. 17. 5 ). The fall of Samaria com- 
pleted the conquest of the kdm., to wh., as the 
capital, it had given its name. Its inhabitants were 
included in the general deportation ; but the city 
was not entirely destroyed (Jr. 41. 5 ), and the Asyr. 
inscrs. tell of an unsuccessful rising two years later. 
Thus were fulfilled the prophetic denunciations of 



69] 



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wrath against the idolatry and wickedness wh. pre- 
vailed in S. (Is. 8. 4 , io, 9 ; Ho. 7. 1 , 13. 16 ; Am. 
3. 12 , 8. 14 , &c). Alexander the Gt., in b.c. 331, 
sent the bulk of its inhabitants to Shechem, re- 
placing them with Macedonians. Ptolemy Lagi 
and Demetrius Poliorcetes both damaged the city, 
wh. was taken and destroyed in b.c. 107 by John 
Hyrcanus, agst. whom it held out for a year {Ant. 
XIII. x. 2f.). Pompey rebuilt Samaria, making it a 
free city {Ant. XIV. iv. 4 ; BJ. I. vii. 7) ; Gabinius 
also restored and strengthened it (Ant. XIV. v. 3 ; 
BJ. I. viii. 4). Herod, to whom it was given by 
Augustus, greatly enlarged, beautified, and strength- 
ened the city, calling it Sebaste, or Sebasteia (lit. 
Augusta), in honour of his patron. Here some 
of the darker tragedies of his life were enacted 



the province of Syria (Ant. XVII. xiii. 5 ; BJ. II. 
viii. 1). The name Samaria, in our Lord's time, 
applied to the central division of W. Pal., lying 
between Judaea on the S. and Galilee on the. N. 
(Jn. 4. 4 ). See Palestine. 

SAMARITANS are first named in 2 K. 17. 29 , 
where apparently the Israelitish inhabitants are in- 
tended. Probably only the higher ranks and more 
influential of the people, including the priests, were 
carried away, and strangers fm. Bab., &c, brought 
in their places (2 K. 17. 24 ) ; and altho' these were 
reinforced by later contingents (Ez. 4- 2, 9f -), the 
Israelites seem to have been in the majority. 
Their religion prevailed over that of the conquerors 
(2 K. I7. 27fl -), and the whole land was affected by 
Josiah's reforming zeal (23. 15ff - ; cfi. Jr. 41. 5 ). The 




Hill of Samaria from the South 



(see Herodian Family). S. was the scene of 
Philip's preaching (Ac. 8. 5 ). Of its subsequent 
hist, little is known ; and nothing of the catastrophe 
of its final overthrow. 

S. is represented by the mod. Sebastiyeh, a poor 
vill. on the E. end of the hill, about five miles NW. 
of Nablus. Remains of a colonnade and scattered 
traces of ancient buildings probably date from 
Herod's time. A crusader's church, now a Moslem 
mosque, is called by the name of John the Baptist, 
whose body is said to have been buried here. 
Jerome says that the prophets Elisha and Obadiah 
were also buried at Samaria. 

Subject in succession to the masters of the great 
Northern empire, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Per- 
sians, the country of S. passed to Alexander the 
Great after the battle of Issus. Subsequently it 
changed hands between the Seleucids and the 
Ptolemies, falling to the Romans under Pompey. 
Augustus gave it to Herod (Ant. XV. vii. 3), but on 
the banishment of his son Archelaus it was added to 



blunt refusal of their proffered help in rebuilding 
the Temple (Ez. 4. lff- ) occasioned a bitterness of 
feeling between the Jews and Samaritans, wh. 
deepened with time, and was fruitful of many evils. 
The hostility of the Samaritans (Ez. 4. 4ff - ; Ne. 
4- 7ff \ &c.) provided a ready asylum for Jews who 
found the administration of the law in Jrs. too strict 
for them. One of these, Manasseh, br. of the High 
Priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat, the Persian 
governor of S. The latter secured the permission of 
Alexander the Gt. to build a temple on Mt. Geri- 
zim, of wh. Manasseh became High Priest. He was 
supported by many renegade priests and Levites 
(Jos. Ant. XL vii. 2 : viii. iff.).* While claiming to 
be " the children of Israel," possessing the only true 
copy of the law (see Samaritan Pnt.), they were 
ready on occasion, for their own advantage, to deny 
relationship with the Jews, and to profane their 
temple by dedicating it to a heathen deity (Ant. 



69 



* There is some doubt as to the dates of Josephus. 
temple was poss. built in the time of Nehemiah. 

2 



The 



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XII. v. 5). The temple was probably destroyed by quantities of brushwood. When they are suffici- 
John Hyrcanus {Ant. XIII. ix. 1). The Samaritans ently cooked they are taken out, and eaten by the 
often ill-treated Jews who passed through Samaria worshippers, who take hold of the flesh with their 
to the feasts at Jrs. {Ant. XX. vi. if.), and it became fingers, being shod, and girt as if ready for a journey, 
customary to avoid Samaria by going down the E. An account of this unique ceremonial is found in 
of Jordan. The Jews had no dealings with the Mills' Ndblus and the Mod. Samaritans, 2485. A 
Samaritans. " Thou hast a Samaritan and hast a more recent account, which is also much fuller, is 
devil" (Jn. 8. 48 ) was language of deepest contumely, given by Dr. J. E. H.Thomson in PEFQ., 1902, 

In a rising during the Jewish war Cerealis put to pp. 82ff. 
death 11,600 Samaritans. For some centuries they SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. It was known 
seem to have been fairly numerous, and widely to the Christian Fathers and to the Talmudists that 
scattered. In a.d. 529 they were heavily punished the Samaritans had a recension of the law, wh. to 
by Justinian for indulging their hatred against some extent differed fm. that used by the Jews, but 
Christians. Since that time the community has after the eighth cent. a.d. it fell totally out of know- 
ledge. In 1616 the Italian traveller, Pietro della 
Valle, sent to Europe a Samaritan codex wh. he had 
purchased in Damascus fm. the Samaritan com- 
munity then existing there. A great controversy 
at once arose as to its relation to the Massoretic. 
Morinus, its first editor, a Roman Catholic, saw a 
way of impugning the Protestant dogma of the 
sufficiency of Scripture, and asserting the need of an 
infallible Church to decide what was Scripture, by 
maintaining that the Samaritan Pnt. contained the 
primitive form of the text. He was opposed, among 
others, by Buxtorf, who went so far as to assert that 
Moses wrote the law in square character. The 
arguments were a -priori, and tended to no conclu- 
sion. Nearly two centuries after della Valle's pur- 
chase, in 1 81 5, Gesenius gave for his doctorate a 
thesis entitled de Pentateuchi Samaritane Indole 
Origine ac Auctoritate ; in it the subject was re- 
moved out of the sphere of theology into that of 
scholarship. While exceedingly able and pains- 
taking in his treatise, Gesenius too obviously 
assumes the priority of the MT., and the depend- 
ence of S.P. on it. In considering the S.P. we shall 
follow so far the line of Gesenius' thesis. 
The Character of the Samaritan Pnt. — The 

Samaria : Columns from Herod's City fl rs t thing that Strikes one who Opens a Sam. codex IS 

gradually shrunk, until now it numbers only some the difference of the character in wh. it is written 

200 souls, who live together round their single fm. ordinary Heb. When it is compared with the 

synagogue at the foot of Mt. Gerizim, in the city angular in wh. the Siloam inscr. was written, and 

of Nablus. with the ordinary square character, it is found to be 

The Passover, as now observed by the Jews, can intermediate between them. This is admitted by 

hardly be described as more than a " memorial " of the Jews ; in the Talmudic Treatise, Sanbedrin, 

the original feast. To this day, on Mount Gerizim, 2i b , it is said : " Originally the law was given to Isr. 

the Samaritans claim, the Passover is celebrated ac- in the Heb. character and the holy tongue ; it was 

cording to the ancient ritual. Two days before given to them in the days of Ezra in the Assyrian 

the first full moon in the Greek Nisan, the com- character and the Aramaic tongue. Isr. chose for 

munity move to the mountain, where, hard by the herself the Assyrian character and the holy tongue, 

" place of sacrifice," tents are pitched for them, and left the Heb. character and the Aramaic tongue 

The occasion attracts a great company of onlookers, to had-dioieth." This last is explained as meaning 

Moslem and Christian, while tourists from far and the " Cutheans," i.e. Samaritans ; it is, however, 

near gather to witness the spectacle. At sunset unfair to say that the language of the S.P. is Ara- 

on the following day the Passover lambs are slain, maic. While on the whole the S.P. may be regarded 

They are roasted whole in a pit which has been as identical with the MT., there are subordinate 

heated for the purpose, by burning in it great differences, wh., however, are of value in investi- 

693 




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gating the history of the recension. In S.P. there is 
a greater tendency in orthography to use the matres 
lectionis as they are called ; consonants that are used 
for vowels. Also there is preference for the ordi- 
nary grammatical forms instead of the abnor- 
malities ; thus S.P. has the fern, third personal pron., 
and does not use huH for both masc. and fern. ; so 
too with ncfar, " a youth," it uses the fern, ncfarah 
for a " young woman." The Samaritans seem to 
have had a different usage in regard to the cohorta- 
tive. A very marked feature of S.P. as compared 
with MT. is pleonasm : thus in the account of the 
plagues of Egp. in MT. the commands of ]". to 
Moses are given fully, telling what he is to say 
and do ; when it is narrated that Moses did go to 
Pharaoh these particulars are not repeated ; but in 
S.P. they are. This does not prove S.P. the deriva- 
tive, as any one who has heard an Eastern story- 



by quotations in the Fathers, shows this hypothesis 

to be mistaken without further argument. 

The Origin of S.P. — Historically we have no 

distinct statement, and a 'priori arguments are of 

little value in such questions. There seem to be 

two points at wh. the introduction of the S.P. cd. 

have taken place. Either the priest sent by Esar- 

haddon to teach the colonists " the manner of the 

God of the land " brought it with him ; or when 

the son-in-law of Sanballat — called by Jos. Ma- 

nasseh — became High Priest of the temple on Mt. 

Gerizim, he may have introduced it. 

It is almost certain that Jos. post-dates this event by a 
century. The improbability is great that two successive 
chiefs of the Samaritans shd. bear the unusual name of 
Sanballat, and that each shd. have a daughter married to 
a son of the Jewish High Priest ; the latter becomes all the 
more improbable when Nehemiah's reformation is remem- 
bered, wh. involved the putting away of foreign wives and 
the abjuring of all such relationships. Then there is the 









m3^\St Eh 


t^L ' '^ 


1 ',•■-.'• • " ""■'■>" ■' 


x./^JK* 



Samaritan Camp on Mount Gerizim at the Time of the Passover 



teller can testify. In a few cases theological views 
have occasioned changes ; thus " Gerizim " is read 
instead of " Ebal " in Dt. 27A 

The Relation of S.P. to the LXX.— That in 
some points the LXX agrees with S.P. agst. the MT. 
is undeniable : in Gn. 2. 2 LXX and S.P. agree agst. 
MT, in having " sixth day " instead of " seventh " ; 
both insert in 4. 8 what Cain " spake to Abel his 
brother," viz., " Let us go into the field." There 
are also some other cases of the same agreement ; 
Castelli has reckoned them as over a thousand. So 
important do they seem to some scholars that they 
have maintained the LXX to have been trd. fm. the 
ST. Yet one has only to examine the critical 
passages, those in wh. the doctrinal peculiarities of 
S.P. appear, to find that in no one of these does the 
LXX agree with it. In regard to the genealogy of 
the antediluvians, and in regard to that of the de- 
scendants of Shem, the three recensions are mani- 
festly perfectly independent of each other. Several 
of the alleged proofs of the dependence of the LXX 
on the S.P. really render it probable that the LXX 
was trd. fm. MSS. written in the Samaritan script. 
The fact that there was an independent tr. of the 
law into Gr. called the Samaritikon, a thing proved 



tendency wh. great names, like Alexander's, have to attract 
events. So we may dismiss the idea that S.P. originated 
in the days of Alexander the Great. 

If the Nablus roll were the only copy of the law 
saved when the Temple on Mt. Gerizim was burnt 
by John Hyrcanus, the peculiar sanctity ascribed 
to it may be understood. It certainly is written in 
Samaritan script ; the question arises, What was the 
script of MS. fm. which it was copied ? Of the 
differences due to mistakes of sight, the resem- 
blances of letters wh. have caused them are to be 
found not in the square script, but the angular wh. 
preceded it. The angular script has itself a history 
wh. we can to some extent trace, fm. that on the 
stele of Mesha, the contemporary of Ahab, to that 
on the sarcophagus of Esmunazar, the contemporary 
of Nehemiah. Some of the resemblances seem to 
imply the period of the Siloam inscription, wh. wd. 
suit the earlier of the dates. By the Maccabean 
period the Samaritan script, as proved by coins, is in 
full vogue. As epigraphy usually affects the archaic, 
this probably implies use for a couple of centuries 
previously. 

Authority : i.e. value for criticism of the MT. 
Despite the conclusion reached by Gesenius, that 



694 



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only in four cases was the reading of S.P. to be pre- broad, lying about a mile off the coast of Ionia, 

ferred, we venture to give it a much higher impor- nearly equidistant from Ephesus and Miletus. In 

tance. At latest it represents a text earlier than the strait between Samos and the shore was fought 

that behind the LXX, wh. again is older than MT. the battle of Mycale (b.c. 479). There were 

by seven centuries. Each case of variation must be numerous Jews in the island, who enjoyed many 

decided by itself. Where the LXX supports S.P., privileges (1 M. 15. 23 ). In b.c. 84 it was joined to 

other things being equal, the weight is predomi- the province of Asia. It was visited by St. Paul on 



Lit. The literature is extensive but not very easily 
accessible. The most recent work is that of Mont- 



nant. his return from his third missionary journey (Ac. 

20. 15 ). Wine, olive oil, tobacco, oranges, raisins, 
silk and leather, are among the exports of the island. 
SAMOTHRACIA, RV. SAMOTHRACE, a 
small island off the southern coast of Thrace, over 
30 miles from the mouth of the river Hebrus. 
The town lay on the north side of the island. The 
lofty peak in which its mountains culminate is a 
conspicuous object at sea (Ac. 16. 11 ). Although 
probably a dependency of the province of Mace- 
donia in the time of St. Paul, according to Pliny it 
enjoyed the privileges of a free state. In Samo- 
thrace Perseus took refuge after he had suffered 
defeat by the Romans at Pydna. In ancient times it 
was associated with the mysterious worship of the 
Cabeiri. 

SAMSON, son of Manoah, a Danite, whose home 
was in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol 
(Jg. 13.). Like others who played a great part in 
history — e.g. Isaac, Samuel, John Baptist — he was 
given to his mother after long childlessness (vv. 2f.). 
He was consecrated a " Nazirite unto God from the 
womb." As he grew to manhood he became, pos- 
sessed of prodigious strength, which is attributed 
to the moving of the Spirit of the Lord (v. 25). 
Later it seems to depend upon his strict observance 
of the Nazirite conditions (i6. 17ff -' 22 ). 

Samson loved a Philistine woman of Timnath, 
and despite his father's remonstrance, sought her in 
marriage. Going down to the betrothal, he slew a 
lion that roared against him. Going down after- 
wards to the marriage he found honey in the carcase 
of the lion, and this suggested his riddle for the 
entertainment of the wedding guests. It was not 
properly a riddle, as the facts essential to its solution 
were not known. The Philistines to whom it was set, 
Targum — a however, succeeded in solving it, with the assistance 
of Samson's wife. To provide the forfeit he slew 
SAMGAR-NEBO (Jr. 3c;. 3 ), apparently the name thirty men of Ashkelon and took their spoil. En- 
of a Babylonian official, but the text is evidently raged at his wife's duplicity, he returned to his 
corrupt ; it is difficult to amend it, but the pro- father's house. His wife's father, thinking he had 
bability is that instead of the first Nergal-Sharezer deserted her, gave her to another. On hearing this, 
we shd. read Nebuzar-adan, and regard Samgar as Samson set fire to the corn of the Philistines by 
the blundering reproduction of his title as captain of means of the jackals, with firebrands. To avenge 
the guard. Nebo again is the first part of Nebu- their loss the Philistines burned down the house of 
s hash ban, Sarsechim being the rest, as we find his father-in-law, causing the death of all the house- 




PEF. Photo 

View of old Silver Case containing Samaritan 
Pentateuch, Nablus 



gomery, The Samaritans. There 
version in Samaritan Aramaic. 



in v. 13. 

SAMLAH, one of the kings of Edom. Appa- 
rently his royal city was Masrekah (Gn. 36. 36f - ; 
1 Ch. i. 47f .). 

SAMOS, an island 28 miles long by 5 to 12 miles 



hold. A dreadful slaughter of the Philistines by 
Samson ensued, after which he retired to " the cleft 
of the rock of Etam." This was in Judah. The 
men of judah were willing to purchase immunity 
from Philistine attack, by handing Samson over to 



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them bound with cords. This he submitted to, understand that the destruction of all the Philis- 

but only to find fresh occasion to do them hurt, tines will serve to avenge him for only one of his two 

He burst the cords, and with the jawbone of an ass eyes ! (Jg. 16. 28 , RVm.). 

which he found, he slew a thousand of their men. It was perhaps inevitable that a parallel should be 

When an attempt was made to entrap him in Ga'za, drawn between the labours of Hercules and those of 

he carried away the gate, posts, " bar and all," to Samson, suggesting a common source for- the two 

the mountain east of Hebron. The story of his histories, e.g. the exploit with the Nemean lion, and 

dalliance with Delilah and its disastrous issue is the incident recorded in Jg. I4. 5fl - ; the pillars of 

familiar. Hercules, with those of Jg. 16. 3 ; while both owed 

As the narrative stands Samson appears at a time their destruction to women, 
when the Philistines were in undisputed ascendency. Samson's name, " Sunny," or " the sun man," has 
His father has the true Israelitish contempt for the suggested to others that his story may be only a 
" uncircumcised Philistines " (Jg. 14. 3 ), but the Hebrew variant of the sun myth, 
tribe seems to have acquiesced in the rule of their The history of Samson, however, presents a char- 
neighbours from the plain. Judah also has not the acter too individual and self-consistent, and a series 
heart to defend even such a champion as Samson of incidents too thoroughly in harmony with what is 
from the wrath of their masters. Samson, however, known of the life and conditions of those times, to 
is not represented as leading any national or general permit serious question of its authenticity, 
uprising against them. He neither claims nor has To the phrase " he judged Israel " (Jg. 15. 20 , 
ascribed to him any patriotic motives. His reasons 16. 31 ), perhaps a pretty free interpretation may be 
for his exploits are personal. He is held in honour given. One feels with Beer (Guthe's KB. s.v.) that 
because those who suffered were the foes of the Lord for this son of the mountains, mighty but undisci- 
and of His people. He possessed a certain grim plined, the mantle of the judge might have been 
humour, allied to a somewhat caustic wit ; and the something like a strait-jacket. 

practical jokes in which he took delight suggest the SAMUEL (Heb. sbemu'el, poss. = "name of 

pranks of an overgrown schoolboy. But these are God "). Altho' he is mentioned in other parts of 

just the things that would lend his story exhaustless Scripture, practically our only source of information 

interest for the peasants when the day's toil was regarding S. is the first book that bears his name, 

done, and for the townsmen meeting at evening by S. was sent to Hannah, the favourite but childless 

the gate. Samson is the ideal of the popular hero, wife of Elkanah, whose life had been made bitter by 

whose morals are taken little account of as long as his the taunts of her rival Peninnah. He was conse- 

gallantries and deeds of prowess excite the admira- crated to God under the conditions of the Nazirite, 

tion of the multitude. His passions are under no and as soon as possible he was brought to minister 

control, and he is liable to sudden access of fury in the temple at Shiloh. Here God made known 

when he is thwarted. The perils from which by through him the doom about to befall the house of 

his great strength he extricates himself, are often Eli. He grew in influence as in years, and he be- 

the result of illicit intrigues ; and his doom is came known throughout the land as a prophet of 

finally sealed by his pitiful surrender to the spell of the Lord. After the capture of the ark by the 

a treacherous woman. Philistines and its return to the house of Abinadab, 

The Philistines were not brought under any en- S. takes the lead in Isr. as " judge " ; he being the 

during subjection by Samson ; but while he lived in last to hold that office (Ac. 13. 20 ). Moved by him 

freedom they could enjoy no sense of security. His to repent of their sin and put away idolatrv, the 

periodical incursions, apparently accompanied by people gathered at his call to Mizpeh, for a season of 

great slaughter, were bound to excite deep resent- penitence and prayer. Their Phil, masters thought 

ment. The history of Samson serves as intro- this meant rebellion, and marched against them, 

duction to the account of the more serious and S. interceded for Isr. {cp. Jr. 15. *), and, with Divine 

sustained warfare under Samuel and Saul, which help, the Phil, were utterly overthrown, so that 

prepared the way for the complete subjugation of during Samuel's supremacy " they came no more 

the Philistines by David. within the border of Israel." The stone, Eben-ezer, 

To be caught in the toils of an evil woman ; to be commemorated this victory. A period of peace 

deprived of hair, strength, eyes, and freedom ; to and prosperity followed, S. having his headquarters 

be set in a dungeon to the Philistine equivalent of at Ramah, and making an annual circuit for the 

the treadmill, was a wretched end to a career which administration of justice, &c. 

had opened with such brilliant promise. The As years were multiplied upon him his sons sue- 

manner of his death (see an interesting discussion by ceeded to his authority but behaved ill. This led 

Mr. Macalister in Bible Side-lights, 127:6:.) invests it to a popular demand for a king. Much against 

with a certain grandeur, although here again his his will, but in obedience to the will of God, 

motive was personal. He humorously gives us to S. first declared " the manner of the king" (8. 11 ), 

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and then assented to the demand. By Divine found Israel broken, idolatrous, dejected, under the 
direction Saul was made known to Samuel. In heel of the Philistine oppressor. He left it united, 
view of what has been said of Samuel, one wonders in great measure purified, and free, under the sway 
why Saul knew nothing about him (9.). Many of a popular monarch. Prophet as well as states- 
scholars hold that this and the following chap, are man, he prepared the way for that grand succession 
part of an older account combined by the editor of of prophetic preachers unequalled in the history 
the book with a later account wh. we have followed of religion. With entire fitness he is chosen as a 
up to this point. Clearly, however, the compiler shining example of faith (He. II. 32 ). 
intended to indicate that after assent to the demand SAMUEL, BOOKS OF. These two books, as 
had been intimated, the people were given a period we now have them in our Bible, form really one 
for reflection, during wh. the king to be was shown whole, and were reckoned as one in the Jewish enu- 
to Samuel. Then a public assembly was called, at meration of the " four-and-twenty " books of the 
wh. the choice of Saul was divinely ratified by the canon of the OT. The separation into two, how- 
lot. After Saul's first successful campaign the ever, must have been made at an early time, for it is 
people met to " renew the kingdom " at Gilgal (n.). found in the LXX version some two centuries before 
Samuel, having vindicated the fidelity and justice the Christian era. That version, indeed, went 
of his administration, and having assured king and further, for it classed the books of Samuel with the 
people that obedience to God wd. bring prosperity, succeeding books of Kings, and gave to the series the 
and disobedience destruction, resigned the reins of names of first, second, third, and fourth books of the 
government into the hands of Saul (12.). Still, kingdoms; and this was followed and slightly modi- 
such was his influence that in a true sense he might fied by the Vulgate, which called them books of the 
be said to have " judged Isr. all the days of his life " Kings. The name of Samuel attached to the books 
(7. 15 ). cannot be taken as intended to denote authorship, as 

The cause of Samuel's first breach with Saul is the history is continued to a time considerably after 
somewhat obscure (13. 8 " 14 ). Apparently it con- his death ; but it is not inappropriate, seeing that 
cerned Saul's offering of sacrifice. The second was he is a prominent figure in the earlier part of the 
more serious — Saul's failure in obedience to God's nar., and his influence extended to the time at wh. it 
express directions to smite Amalek " and utterly closes. The time covered by the two books is about 
destroy all that they have." Samuel appears here a century, and embraces the careers of the three out- 
stern and unrelenting, with his own hands hewing standing personages — Samuel, Saul, and David ; for 
Agag in pieces before the Lord. It would not be it opens just before the birth of Samuel, and closes 
surprising if certain very human emotions, quite as soon before the death of David. In the series of 
much as zeal for the honour of the Lord, urged the historicalbooksof wh. it forms a part, it is the natural 
old prophet in his relations with the man who had sequence to the book of Judges, and the necessary 
superseded him in the rule of Isr. And yet his introduction to the books of Kings. At the opening 
sorrow over the king's fall seems to have been very of the narrative we see Eli the aged pries t in charge 
real (15 .). of the Tabernacle and the sacred Ark at Shiloh, and 

His mourning was interrupted by the command the people coming up from time to time, no doubt 

to anoint Saul's successor, whom, according to at the stated periodic feasts, to worship. Among 

Divine direction, he found in the shepherd lad them comes Hannah, the childless wife of Elkanah, 

David in Bethlehem (i6. lff ). who prays earnestly for a son, and vows to dedicate 

Later, when David fled from Saul to Samuel, they him to the service of the Lord. In due time Samuel 

both took refuge in Naioth, perhaps the building in is born, and while still a child is brought by his 

Ramah where Samuel presided over a " school " of mother and consigned to Eli's care. In a vision of 

the prophets and where the spirit of the pursuing the night there is revealed to him the impending 

Saul was subdued (i9. 18ff- ) . doom of Eli's house, wh. takes place in the disastrous 

Samuel's age at his death is not stated ; but he defeat at Aphek, in wh. Hophni and Phinehas are 

must have been a very old man. He was buried in killed and the Ark of God is taken by the Philistines, 

his own house at Ramah (25. 1 ). A later tradition, to The shock causes the death of Eli, and Samuel 

wh. no importance need be attached, made Mizpeh takes his place as administrative head of the people, 

(Neby Samzvll) his burying-place. round whom the nation takes heart to rally in its 

We can understand the lamentations of the death-struggle with the Phil., and gains the signal 

people over the passing of one who had been the victory of Ebenezer. Samuel is then seen going 

supreme figure in Israel for as long as most of them from place to place judging the people, and be- 

could remember ; under the influence of whose comes known as the seer or prophet, to whom the 

splendid personality a perilous period of transition people resort in cases of difficulty, " for all that he 

had been safely passed. He stands easily in the saith cometh surely to pass." But the national 

front rank- of leaders in those far-off days. He situation changed as Samuel grew old; his sons, 

697 



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Sam 



whom he had appointed judges, did not walk in their composed, from whatever source they were derived, 
father's steps ; the hereditary priesthood had got have been evidently put together by one who had 
disorganised since the time of the ill-fated Eli ; and in his mind the whole period covered by the book, 
a strong hand was needed to cope with the hostile and who lived after the last of the events recorded. 
Phil., and give better organisation to the people. How long after them it is hard to say. There is no 
The time anticipated in Dt. I7. 14fl " had come when mention of the Babylonian captivity, as there is in 
the monarchy was to be set up ; and, though Samuel the book of Kings ; nor is there any indication of 
had misgivings that this might lead the people to the downfall of the northern kdm., although I S. 
forget their Heavenly King, he yielded to the im- 27. 6 has an allusion to the schism of the kdm. As 
pulse of the time, and Saul the son of Kish was the writer does not, like the author of Kings, refer 
appointed. Samuel continued, however, to act as to written authorities, except to the poetical col- 
more than mere adviser, fearlessly denouncing the lection called the book of Jashar (2 S. I. 18 ), we can 
king when he gave signs of arbitrary action, and at only conjecture the sources, written or oral, from 
last, by Divine command, secretly anointing David wh. he drew. The more public events recorded 
as successor on the throne. The history goes on to were of such interest in themselves, and so important 
tell of David's introduction to the court, his signal as national episodes, that they must have been the 
victory over Goliath, his growing popularity with subject of popular discourse from the first ; and 
the people, and the fits of gloomy melancholy and there are some prominent actors in the scenes de- 
jealousy into which Saul fell, culminating in open scribed who are, in the later books of Chronicles, 
hostility, from wh. David has to flee and lead the referred to as writing authors (1 Ch. 2c;. 29 , RV.). 
life of an outlaw. His precarious experience, as he David had, like succeeding kings, a " recorder " and 
gathered around him a devoted band and eluded the a " scribe " among his court officials, and documents 
attempts of Saul to seize him in the south country of from their records may have been available, such as 
Judah, is related at length. By the death of Saul and the lists of heroes and officers (2 S. 2i. 15ff -, 23. 8fl -). 
his sons in the battle with the Phil, at Mount Gilboa, And then the narratives of a more personal kind are 
with wh. the first book ends, the way is open for so graphic and circumstantial in their details that we 
David to ascend the throne, and the second book is may well believe them to have come from eye-wit- 
entirely devoted to his reign. As king of Judah only nesses and actors, and to have taken literary shape 
he reigns in Hebron for 7^ years, during wh. time a very soon after the events, even if we should con- 
son of Saul, Ishbosheth, is recognised by the other elude that they were arranged and put together by a 
tribes, till, by the treacherous murder of his prime- considerably later editor. If, as is natural to sup- 



minister and the cruel death of the prince himself, 
the dynasty of Saul becomes extinct. Then follows 
the account of the 33 years of David's reign over all 
Israel. He takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and 



pose, these accounts were of the nature of popular 
recitals, we can understand how discrepancies in 
details might be found in two parallel accounts of 
the same events. Here as elsewhere in the OT. the 



makes it his capital, brings up the Ark of the Cove- manifest candour and impartiality of the writers are 

nant, and makes preparation for the erection by his a strong guarantee for the trustworthiness of the 

successor of a House worthy of the worship of the history. At the same time, there are so many links 

national God. David was a man of war, subduing of connection with w T hat we know of the antecedent 

and reducing to vassalage the neighbouring small history, and so many germinal features that come to 

states, and extending the boundaries of the empire fuller manifestation in the future, that we may re- 

as far as to the Euphrates. The lists, also, of the gard the books of Samuel as containing an authentic 

officers of his household, and the description of his and indispensable portion of the sacred history of 

state magnificence, show to what a pitch the mon- the Hebrews. We may say of them generally that 

archy had been brought in his reign. But the his- they mark the transition from the unsettled period 

torian is no court flatterer ; for, on the back of the of the Judges to the more settled condition of the 

description of David's prosperity, there follow a monarchy. We see here coming to bloom what lies 

number of chapters of a more personal and domestic in germ in the prophetic outlook of the great legis- 

char., showing how his own sin, and the evil in his lator in the book of Deut. The time had come 



own house, were undermining this grandeur, alien- 
ating a section of his people, and raising animosities 
wh. prepared the way for the disruption of the kdm. 
wh. took place after the reign of his successor. As in 
some other books of the OT., there are a few chapters 



vaguely indicated in Dt. 17. 14 , when the people 
would say, " I will set a king over me like as all the 
nations that are round about me " ; and Samuel 
himself is, in many respects, a prophet from the 
midst of the people like unto Moses (Dt. 18. 15 ) 



at the end containing supplementary matters wh. speaking directly in God's name, even when there 

have not been woven into the continuous narrative, was a king constituted as civil governor. The marks 

Who was the author or editor of these books it is of the period are the monarchy under which Israel 

impossible to say. The materials out of wh. they are was to fulfil its destiny as a nation, and prophecy the 

698 



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San 



distinguishing feature of the religion which was to 
have a world-wide influence. We are not informed 
as to the origin of those " schools of the prophets," 
as they have been called, which came into promi- 
nence in Samuel's time ; for the Hebrew writers 
make prophecy much older. But in these institu- 
tions we see for the first time a movement which 
assumed large proportions in the days of Elijah and 
Elisha, and was followed or accompanied by that 
" goodly fellowship of the prophets " extending to 
the close of Israel's history, of which St. Peter makes 
Samuel the first (Ac. 3- 24 ). If we knew more of those 
societies and how the men in them employed their 
time, we should obtain light on many difficult pro- 
blems of the OT. literature. It is not without sig- 
nificance that the historical books from Joshua to 
Kings are denoted by the Jewish collectors of the 
canon the " earlier prophets," for they are charac- 
terised by the prophetic point of view from wh. they 
are written. We cannot but believe that a nation, 
beginning fully to have consciousness of itself, and 
having already a wonderful past to look back upon, 
would cultivate the study of its history, and keep 
alive the memory of the past as an incentive and 
hope for the future. 

A very notable thing in the books of Samuel is the 
prominence given to music and song, not only as 
popular accomplishments, but as accompaniments of 
religion. This is seen in the religious exercises of the 
sons of the prophets. David's entrance to the court 
of Saul was due to his reputation as a musician ; and 
he exercised his gift not only in soothing the king's 
melancholy, and, later on, in the elegies over Saul 
and Jonathan, and over Abner, but also in connec- 
tion with the bringing up of the Ark to Jerusalem. 
There is in these books an unusual number of 
poetical pieces ascribed to this period ; and all these 
indications put together give ample justification for 
the fame of David as the sweet singer of Israel, and 
for the ascription to him of the origin of that volume 
of sacred song which never ceased in Israel, and has 
become embodied in the Psalms. The establish- 
ment of the kdm. in the line of David, wh. is the 
event of supreme importance to the historian of 
these books, however " secular " it may seem in the 
ordinary sense of the word, is secular in the higher 
and fuller sense of pertaining to the ages, inasmuch 
as it was the direct preparation for the setting up of 
a kingdom that can never be moved. 

James Robertson. 

SANBALLAT (Asyr. Sin-ballidb, " the moon- 
god has given life ") is called the Horonite — 
" native of Beth-horon " (Ne. 2. 10 , &c). Josephus 
calls him a Cuthaean. He may have been son of an 
Asyr. fr. by a Jewish mother. Whether he held 
office or not, he was a man of influence among the 
Samaritans (Ne. 4. lf< ), and one of the most bitter 
opponents of Nehemiah. A party in Jrs. favoured 



him (Ne. 6. 10fL ). One of the priests who had 
married Sanballat's dr. was driven out by Nehe- 
miah (13. 28 ). 

The account of Josephus (Ant. XI. vii. 2 ; 
viii. 2ff.) places Sanballat a century later. See 
Samaritans. 

SANCTUARY. See Temple. 

SAND. The Heb. name hoi, from the verb hul, 
" to whirl," " dance," or " writhe," is no doubt due 
to the ease with which the light particles of silex, 
mica, felspar, &c, which constitute the sand, are 
lifted and whirled by the wind. No fitter symbol of 
what cannot be counted is to be found than " the 
sand which is upon the sea shore " (Gn. 22. 17 , &c.) 
Along the seaboard of Palestine and Egypt it lies in 
enormous quantities, tending to encroach on the 
cultivated land wherever it is neglected. Many 
orchards, gardens, and dwellings of ancient days are 
now buried below many feet of sand. In Dt. 33. 19 
" treasures of the sand " refers to glass, which the 
ancients " regarded as mysteriously produced out 
of sand." In Jb. 29. 18 we shd. probably read 
"phcenix" for "sand" (RVm.). Although the 
particles are light, the mass is compact and heavy 
(Jb. 6. 3 ). In contact with water, however, the 
mass at once dissolves (Mw. J. 26 , Sec.) 

SANDAL, see Dress ; for illustration see Shoe. 

SANHEDRIN. In the Mishna (Sank I. 6) this 
institution is traced up to the 70 elders appointed by 
Moses (Nu. II. 16 * 17 ) ; but as we hear nothing of 
that assembly or its work in later times it was prob. 
only a temporary arrangement. The oldest refer- 
ence to a council like the S. is that mentioned in 
2 Ch. 19. 8 . We do not find anything of the kind in 
older Isr., nor after the Captivity till the days of 
Antiochus the Great {Ant. XII. iii. 3), when we 
meet with an assembly of a similar nature — the 
Gerusia or senate of the elders, wh. we must regard 
as the original of the S. As the name is Gr. (crvve- 
SpLov, assembly), not appearing before the days of 
Hyrcanus (Ant. XIV. ix. 4), we must assign its be- 
ginning to the Greek period. Josephus, Philo, and 
the Mishna all mention it, but they tell us little of 
its constitution. The NT. gives us some light, and 
the Gemara is pretty full, but unfortunately it is 
mixed up with the arrangements of later times and 
the thoughts of the later rabbis on an ideal state and 
S., wh. are set down as if they had been realities. 
So far as we can judge it seems at first to have been 
only the municipal council of Jrs. ; but as on its 
initiation the Jewish population of Pal. was located 
in the city and immediately surrounding districts 
only, its influence was coextensive with Palestinian 
Judaism. As that grew it gradually extended its 
influence and assumed further powers till it exer- 
cised a supervision over all Isr. and became its 
supreme court when Rome granted the necessary 
recognition. In the Mishna it is called " the San- 



699 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sap 



hedrin," " the Great Sanhedrin," " the Sanhedrin 
of 71," and " the Great Court of Justice." At first 
it consisted mainly of the priestly Sadducean aris- 
tocracy, but under the later Maccabean priests and 
during the days of Herod the Great the Pharisees, 
gradually advancing in power, acquired great influ- 
ence and numerous seats here also. In NT. days it 
was still to a great extent aristocratic, being made 
up of the chief priests and rulers, but at the same 
time including (Jn. 18. 35 ; Mk. 15. 1 ) the heads of the 
courses, elders, scribes, and lawyers. Judging fm. 
Paul's action (Ac. 23. 6 ), we may assume that at that 
'time the Pharisees preponderated, and we can see 
fm. that incident that both parties allowed their 
antipathies and peculiar prejudices to influence their 
verdicts. The members of the S. were required to 
be fathers, men of age and experience, learned, good- 
looking, bearded, understanding sorcery, sophistry, 
and languages, in order that evidence mt. be heard 
without an interpreter (Sanh. 17% 3i b ). O wise 
precaution ! — a description that shd. help us to 
form an idea of and correct common mistakes about 
such men as Gamaliel, Joseph of Arimathea, Nico- 
demus, and Saul of Tarsus. 

The president was designated Nasi, and was 
usually chosen on account of his worth and wisdom. 
The Gemara gives us a succession of presidents in 
the direct hereditary line fm. the gentle. Hillel ; but 
it seems that during the days of the Jewish State the 
office was usually occupied by the High Priest, at 
whose right hand sat the vice-president or Ab-beth- 
din. The members were said to have sat in the form 
of a semicircle, at the middle point of which was 
the president's seat, while the centre was the place 
assigned to such as were to be heard by the court. 
The first place of meeting was the hall called 
Gazzith, on the SE. of the temple court ; but 
special meetings seem to have been called for special 
purposes at the house of the High Priest (Mw. 26. 3 ). 
About 40 yrs. before the destruction of the Temple 
the meetings were removed to Chanoth, a series of 
rooms over the eastern gateway of the Temple. 

The S. was allowed to exercise judicial and ad- 
ministrative power (1 M. 12. 6 , 14. 20 ), but the extent 
of that power varied fm. time to time, being depen- 
dent on the amount of the autonomy possessed by 
the nation. At the time of the Crucifixion it did not 
possess the power of life and death (Jn. 19. 31 ), and 
the Tim. tells us that about the same time — when it 
was removed fm. Gazzith — it had ceased to have 
authority to impose judicial fines (Ab. Zar. 8. b ). 
The death of Stephen is not to be regarded as a 
judicial act but rather as a riotous outbreak (Ac. 
7. 57 ), and we must not imagine that the mission of 
Saul to Damascus (Ac. 9) implied that the S. pos- 
sessed authority in that city. The letters were 
without doubt given by the High Priest, and wd. 
have been effective only on act. of his personal influ- 



ence with Aretas and his friendship for that king wh. 
is so often mentioned in the Tim. 

The S. for the time being required implicit 
obedience fm. every Isr., and it claimed the right 
to examine the pretensions of any new teacher or 
prophet (Jn. II. 47 ; Ac. 9. 2 ) ; but it did not claim 
infallibility, and the S. of one generation might 
alter or even overturn what a previous assembly had 
done. 

The Jewish tradition wh. looks upon the S. as a 
rabbinical assembly sitting under the guidance of a 
president and two vice-presidents does not repre- 
sent that wh. met in Jrs. Such an institution only 
came into existence after the destruction of the 
Jewish State, and when the study of the law was 
Isr.'s only heritage. It began at Jabneh and it- 
migrated through various towns in Galilee till 
finally it settled at Tiberias, and there it became in 
reality what the rabbis wrongly claim for the Great 
Council of Jrs. — the foundation-stone of the oral 
law. The Nasi lived like a temporal prince, his 
court gave responses to all who admitted its autho- 
rity, and it gradually assumed greater powers, even 
pronouncing capital sentences (Orig., Ef>. ad. Afric, 
§14). It looked forward to the restoration of the 
Jewish State, almost with Zionistic hopefulness, and 
one of its claims for itself was that a king could not 
be appointed but by its decision. Under its super- 
vision " the traditions of the elders " were gathered 
up in the Mishna, while the Palestinian Gemara was 
also nearly completed before its hist, closed about 
the yr. a.d. 414. And but for the work it did we 
may safely say that mod. Judaism would have had a 
very different hist. In addition to the Great S. 
we hear also of minor Sanhedrins of 23 members 
in every city that contained 120 Isr. householders, 
as also still smaller courts of three judges for the 
trying of minor cases, but these cd. not be created 
except by the authority of the great S., and it is 
doubtful how far the system was ever carried out. 

Wm. M. Christie. 

SANSANNAH, a town in the south of Judah (Jo. 
15. 31 ). In the parallel lists (Jo. 19. 5 ; 1 Ch. 4. 31 ) 
it is represented by " Hazar-susah," and " Hazar- 
susim " : it is not identified. 

SAPH, one of the sons of the giant slain in the 
battle at Gob by David's hero, Sibbechai the 
Hushathite (2 S. 21. 18 ). 

SAPHIR, RV. SHAPHIR, a town in the Philis- 
tine plain named by Micah (i. 11 ). OEJ. places it 
" in the hill country between Eleutheropolis (Beit 
Jibrln) and Ascalon." Three mud villages bearing 
the name es-Sudfir stand close together some 30 
miles SE. of Ashdod, one of which is possibly in- 
tended by OEJ. But there is no certainty as to its 
identification. 

SAPPHIRA. See Ananias. 

SAPPHIRE, the second stone in the second row 



700 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sar 



on the High Priest's breastplate (Ex. 28. 18 ), and as Josephus speaks of Jews in Sardis (Ant. XIV. x. 24). 
such it is engraved. Although in name identical, The glory of Sardis had greatly faded before the 
the precious stone denoted by the Heb. sapplr was close of the first cent. a.d. But even in the days of 
not our sapphire. From the descriptions of the its strength the Acropolis had been scaled by two 
" sapphire " given by Theophrastus and Pliny, enterprising soldiers — in b.c 549 by a Median in 
there can be no doubt that lapis lazuli was the the service of Cyrus, and in b.c 218 by the Cretan 
sapphire of the ancients. It is of an azure colour, Lagoras. This gives special point to the word in 
speckled with iron pyrites, which, from their colour Rv. 3. 2f -, "Be thou watchful. ... If therefore 
and lustre, may be easily mistaken for particles of thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou 
gold. " Sapphire " forms the second foundation of shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." 
the new Jerusalem (Rv. 21. 19 ). The decay of the city was matched by that in the 

SARAH (of which name Sarai is an older form) morals of the Christians here. Only " a few " were 
means " princess." Sarah was half-sister, and wife found in Sardis which did not " defile their gar- 
of Abraham. He explains that she is daughter of ments." The church seems to have revived, possibly 
his father, but not of the same mother (Gn. 20. 12 ). in consequence of this letter, and in subsequent 
A sister born of the same mother he would not have days the bishop of Sardis held a prominent position, 
married. We have here a trace of the old matri- The city received a new lease of life as capital of 
archate, the system which counted relationship 
through the mother (see Family). Sarah was the 
companion of Abraham through all his wandering 
life, from leaving Ur of the Chaldees (Gn. II. 29 ), j§jp 
until her death. In her youth she seems to have 
been beautiful. Abraham's half truth about her to 
Pharaoh and Abimelech came near to costing them 
dear (i2. 14ff % 20. 2ff *). The barrenness of Sarah was 
a sore trial to her. The scheme she adopted to 
remedy this (see Hagar) brought bitter dispeace 
into her tent. Both Abraham and Sarah greeted 
with incredulous laughter God's promise that she, 
in her old age, should bear a son (Gn. 17. 17 , i8. 12f -). 
In due season the promise was fulfilled, and Sarah 
became the mother of Isaac (Gn. 21. 2 ). The im- 
partial record does not always present Sarah in the 
most favourable light. We gather that she' was 
a devoted wife and mother, with not overmuch 
patience, and very jealous- for her honour in her own 
tent. Absorbed in the interests .of her own son, she the province of Lydia, instituted about a.d. 295. 
could tolerate no possible rival near him. The. Situated as it was on the great highway between 
very strength of her affection for him made her east and west, it continued for long an important 
indifferent even to the claims of simple humanity commercial centre. After many vicissitudes it re- 
where others were concerned. She died at the age ceived practically its death-blow from Tamerlane, 
of 127, and with her burial the great sanctuary of a.d. 1402. The name still lingers in Sart, a poor 
Machpelah received its earliest consecration (Gn. village amid the ruins, a station on the Smyrna- 
-23.). Philadelphia railway. 

SARAPH, a Judahite, descendant of Shelah SARDITES. See Sered. 
(1 Ch. 4. 22 ). SARDIUS (Heb. >odem ; Gr. sardion), the first 

SARDIS appears in Scripture only in connection stone in the High Priest's breastplate (Ex. 28. 17 ), 
with the letter addressed to the church there (Rv. the sixth foundation of the New Jerusalem (Rv. 
I. 11 , 3. 1 ' 4 ). It was the capital of Lydia, and played 21. 20 ). It is also called the sardine stone. (Rv. 
no small part in ancient history. It crowned a hill 4. 3 , AV.). The Heb. name points to the red colour 
about 1500 ft. high, at the northern foot of Mt. of the stone, which may be identified with our 
Tmolus and fully two miles south of the river carnelian. In ancient as well as in modern times 
Hermus. The precipitous sides of the hill made it it was Very frequently engraved. A fine dark 
inapproachable save on the south, where a narrow carnelian, el-aq%q was obtained from Arabia, 
ridge joined it to the mountain. The space on the SARDONYX (Heb. yahalom). RVm. so renders 
hill was limited, so as prosperity grew and the popu- instead of EV. "diamond," in Ex. 28. 18 . It is a 
lation increased, a new city sprang up under the precious stone forming the fifth foundation of the 
hill; the old city now serving as the Acropolis. New Jerusalem (Rv. 21. 20 ). The name denotes 

701 




Ruins of Sardis 



Sar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sat 



those varieties of onyx, or stratified chalcedony, 
wh. are composed of alternate layers of white, and 
red or brown. It has always been highly prized by 
cameo engravers. 

SAREPTA. See Zarephath. 

SARGON, the most powerful of the kings of 
Asyr., though only once mentioned in Scripture 
(Is. 20. 1 ). When Shalmaneser, during the siege of 
Samaria, died, Sargon took the throne, pressed the 
siege to a conclusion, and removed 27,200 of the 
inhabitants (b.c. 722). He carried on campaigns in 
all directions either personally or by his Tartan. 
One of his most formidable opponents was Mero- 
dach-Baladan, who seized Babylon ; finally S. 
conquered and expelled him not only fm. Bab. but 
fm. his ancestral city of Bit-Yakin. S. had himself 




Sargon in his War Chariot 

crowned as k. of Bab. He was murdered B.C. 705, 
and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib. 

SARID, a town on the southern borders of the 
territory of Zebulun (Jo. 19. 10 ' 12 ). The true read- 
ing here is possibly " Sadid." If this be so, then we 
may identify Sarid with Tell Shadud, a site on the 
north of the plain of Esdraelon, five miles west of 
Iksal (PEFM., ii. 70). 

SARON. See Sharon. 

SARSECHIM (Jr. 3c.. 3 ). See Samgar Nebo. 

SARUCH. See Serug. 

SATAN. The primary meaning of the Heb. 
word is " adversary," " accuser," hence it is used to 
describe the action of the " Angel of the Lord " in 
meeting Balaam (Nu. 22. 22 ). In 1 S. 29*; 2 S. 
19. 22 ; 1 K. 5. 4 , ii. 14 - 23 > 25 , it is used of a politi- 
cal or military opponent. With the later bks. — 
Chronicles, Job, and Zechariah — S. becomes a de- 
finite spiritual being. In 1 K. 22. 22 " the lying 
spirit " who engaged to put false words in the 
mouths of the prophets of Ahab performs some- 
what the same function as that assigned to S. in later 
times. It is, however, in the prologue to the book 
of Job that the idea of S. is fully developed. On 
what wd. be called, in regard to an earthly royalty, 
a court day in heaven, among " the sons of God " 



appears S. An account is demanded of him of his 
recent proceedings. God demands ofhim, " Hast 
thou considered My servant Job ? " a question that 
implies that the possibility of such a character had 
been denied by S. ; this is confirmed by the answer 
of S., " Doth Job serve God for naught ? " his godli- 
ness is mere self-interest (Jb. I. 6 " 10 ). The second 
colloquy presents the same characteristics (2. 1 " 6 ). 
A single picture is presented to us in Zechariah 
(Zc. 3. 1 ), " Joshua the High Priest standing before 
the Angel of the Lord, and S. standing at his right 
hand to resist him." Here S. has a function similar 
to what he has in Job. A like view meets us in the 
imprecations of Ps. 109. ; v. 6 is, " Let S. stand at 
his right hand." There is a further elucidation of 
the character and function of S. in I Ch. 21. 1 . In 
Zechariah he accuses, putting the worst construc- 
tion on every action ; in Job he not only does this 
but further tests the accused, as in the old Inquisi- 
tion, by torture, by external sufferings. Here by 
internal mental suggestion he allures David to sin 
by numbering the people. In 2 Samuel (24. 1 ) we 
are told " the anger of the Lord was kindled against 
Israel, and He moved David against them to say, 
Go number Israel and Judah." These presentations 
can only be harmonised by presupposing some 
such transaction as that described by Micaiah the 
son of Imlah in 1 K. 22. The late date of Chronicles 
and Zechariah and, by many assumed, of Job also, 
might suggest that the definition and naming of S. 
was due to the influence of Zoroastrianism. But S. 
is not an Ahriman — is not in any sense the rival of 
J". He is an official of the court of heaven, of the 
nature of public prosecutor. For purposes of his 
own, for the furtherance of his controversy with 
God as to man, he is eager to publish all the ill he 
knows of men or mankind ; and this malevolent im- 
pulse is utilised by God to realise His great purposes. 
These purposes do not find their end in man, they 
involve the Angels. S. is for ever giving God the 
occasion of justifying before the angels His gracious 
plan in regard to mankind. 

In the period between the Testaments the idea of 
S. is further developed, though always on OT. lines. 
Although in the Enoch books we have a vast hie- 
rarchy of angels and devils, and though the latter 
have a ruler, Semjaza (En. 6. 7 ), yet he does not at all 
act as S. In the Book of Similitudes S. is indirectly 
introduced : the instruments of punishment are 
called " instruments of S." Further, the hosts of 
the fallen angels are called the " hosts of Azazel." 
More nearly does the Mastema of the " Book of 
Jubilees " coincide with S. of OT. ; he comes to 
God after the Flood and demands as of right 
that men be given up to him. " Berial," of the 
Ascension of Isaiah, in his action with regard to 
Isaiah is modelled on S. in the Prologue of Job. 
It is to be noted that while it is doubtful whether 



702 



Sat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sat 



" Belial " in such phrases as " a man of Belial " is to 
be regarded as a proper name, there is no dubiety 
in the Ascension of Isaiah that " Berial," wh. is a 
variant of it, is the name of a person. Another evil 
spiritual being is introduced into the Ascension, 
" Sammael." In the Apocrypha the name S. does 
not occur. In Tobit Asmodeus is introduced, but 
he is not conceived as S. ; in the Book of Wisdom, 
however, the fall of man is attributed to the " envy " 
of the devil. The doctrine of the devil attained 
greater definition in the teaching of our Lord and 
His apostles. In the NT. the name S. is frequently 
trd. into diabolus, " the accuser " ; his function is 
not by any means restricted to mere accusation. In 
the parable of the " Tares " S. introduced evil into 
the world, and all evil persons are his children. 
Hence, before our Lord cd. enter upon His work, He 
had to encounter S. : " He was led up of the Spirit 
to be tempted of the devil " (Mw. 4. 1 ). S. was ever 
endeavouring to frustrate the Divine work ; the seed 
sown in the hearts of the wayside hearers he takes 
away (Mk. 4. 15 ). On the return of the seventy 
disciples fm. successfully spreading the kdm. our 
Lord declares that He " beheld S. as lightning fall 
fm. heaven " (Lk. io. 18 ). At that last evening 
when He ate the passover with His disciples before 
He suffered, " S. entered into Judas " to betray 
Him. The representations of the apostles suit this ; 
Peter declares that it was S. who had prompted the 
lie of Ananias (Ac. 5. 3 ) ; it was S. that hindered Paul 
when he wd. visit the Thessalonians (1 Th. 2. 18 ). 
S. is made to help mysteriously in church discipline ; 
the sinner was " delivered to S. for the destruction 
of the flesh " — a statement that brings out the idea 
that S. inflicted disease ; an idea supported by our 
Lord's saying of the woman " whom S. hath bound, 
lo ! these eighteen years," and Paul's regarding 
" the thorn in the flesh " as a " messenger (an angel) 
of S. to buffet " him. This view connects itself 
with a large number of passages wh. appear to imply 
that in some sort this physical world is under the 
dominion of S. In the temptation of our Lord S. 
offered Him " all the kingdoms of the world " (Mw. 
4_. 8 ' 9 ) ; in the parallel passage S. claims that this 
power was " delivered unto him " (Lk. 4. 6 ). Our 
Lord's answer assumes the reality of this offer and 
the correctness of this claim. In the Gospel of John 
S. is called repeatedly " the prince of this world " 
(12. 31 , 14. 30 , 16. 11 ). Paul in his Epistle to the 
Ephesians (2. 2 ) calls S. " the prince of the power 
of the air." No satisfactory explanation of these 
passages has been reached ; we know too little of 
the influence of spiritual beings upon matter to 
assume that this whole mode of representation is 
due to ignorance and misconception on the part of 
our Lord. In the Apocalypse, S., under various 
forms, is more prominent than elsewhere in Scrip. 
S. has under him angels who are his emissaries— a 



view implied in Mw. o,. 34 , 12. 24 , and Eph. 6. 12 ; in 
agreement with Enoch he is represented as having 
dwelt in heaven and fm. thence being expelled. 
The persecutions inflicted on the Church are due to 
the. influence of S. ; all heretical doctrines and im- 
moral practices are looked upon as " the depths of 
S." Notwithstanding all, evil as S. is, we learn fm. 
Jude ( 9 ) and Zechariah (3. 1 ), that he has a certain 
position and dignity wh. are to be respected. The 
NT. view of S. is essentially the same as that of the 
OT. ; there is, however, greater definition given to 
his character, and greater power assigned him ; in 
both S. is a powerful spiritual being who desires evil 
rather than good, and so endeavours to frustrate all 
efforts to establish a kdm. of heaven. But though 
he works freely, everything is so overruled that it 
falls rather to the furtherance of the Gospel. S. 
may desire to have believers " that he may sift them 
as wheat," but this trial works experience, hope, 
and every grace ; his persecution of the Church but 
purifies it fm. its dross, burns up its chaff. 

It is assumed in these days that S. does not exist ; 
that the only S. there is, is simply the personification 
of our own evil passions. The reason of such a con- 
clusion is not far to seek ; to be in the presence of 
what we cannot understand frets us, and the uni- 
verse wd. be much more easily understood if angels 
and devils were left out. Men of the highest 
spirituality, at a time when the presence of our 
Lord stimulated spirituality to its utmost activity, 
had no doubt in the matter ; with them have been 
in agreement those souls of every age that have been 
most sensitive to spiritual influences. To affirm 
a universal negative on a priori grounds against 
alleged experience is hazardous. It is impossible to 
deny the immense probability that we are not the 
highest of finite spiritual beings, that there are 
spirits of greater power and might than we. As 
impossible is it to deny that freedom is an attribute 
of spirit, and that being free they might sin. Given 
these things we have the possibility of S. That 
spirits such as we have supposed cd. affect human 
spirits is perfectly conceivable. Christian conscious- 
ness is aware, so many believers can testify, of sug- 
gestions to evil wh. cut athwart the natural suc- 
cession of ideas ; these may be the result of the 
influence of S. In many directions psychology is 
making new beginnings ; it wd. be rash to decide 
what discoveries mav be in store. 

SATRAPS (Heb.' ahashdarpemm [Ez. 8. 36 ; Est. 
3. 12 , 8. 9 , 9 . 3 ; AV. Lieutenants, RV. " satraps "]; 
Aram, ahashdarperiin, only in emph. form ahashdar- 
peniya' [Dm 3.2. 3 > 27 , 6. 1 - 2 - 3 > 4 - 6 - 7 , AV. " princes," 
RV. " satraps "] = the Persian khshatrapdvan, " pro- 
tectors of the empire "). These were the great 
officers who governed the provinces. In many 
instances their state and authority were hardly 
less than regal. 



703 



Sat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sau 



SATYR (Heb. sa'ir, "a he-goat," applied to 
Esau, pi. se%rim). While generally tr. Goat, in Is. 
13. 21 and 34. 14 it is rendered " satyr " ; in Lv. 17. 7 
and 2 Ch. II. 15 it is trd. devils. Prob. imaginary 
beings like the satyrs of Greek mythology. 




Satyr 

SAUL. (1) Son of a Benjamite farmer named 
Kish, accustomed himself to attend to the animals 
and to follow the plough. He was a man of splen- 
did physique, and of regal build ; and his disposi- 
tion, when we first meet him, commands our trust 
and admiration. Not less modest (1 S. I0. 21f -) and 
considerate (o,. 5 ) than brave and chivalrous (ii/ ff- ' 13 ), 
he presents a truly heroic figure. His frank and 
generous nature wins our affection. When his sky 
darkens, and the night falls on the tragedy of his 
life, our deepest compassions are stirred. 

When the demand of the Israelites for a king had 
been yielded, Saul was by Divine direction pointed 
out to Samuel as the coming prince over the people 
(1 S. 9., 10.) ; see Samuel. His anointing clearly 
took Saul by surprise, and Samuel foretold a series 
of events, the fulfilment of wh. was designed to re- 
assure him. The most remarkable of these was the 
change in himself when he met the band of prophets 
and " prophesied among them." This was incon- 
gruous with the popular impression of his character. 
" Is Saul also among the prophets ? " the people 
asked. Perhaps the same impression found utter- 
ance in the words of the men who asked, " How shall 
this man save us ? " This points to the fatal defect 
in Saul — the lack of religious depth and insight. 

The Divine choice of Saul was publicly ratified by 
the lot (1 S. io. 20ff -), and he soon found occasion to 
prove his patriotic feeling, his soldierly qualities, and 
his capacity for leadership, in his expedition for the 
relief of Jabesh-Gilead. Saul, who had returned to 
the farm after his election, was now formally in- 
stalled in the office of king (ii. 14f> ). 

When the Philistines again won ascendency over 
Israel we cannot say ; but in their jealous fear they 
had reduced the people to great straits (i3. 19ff -). 
Saul and his son Jonathan planned a struggle for 
freedom. Jonathan struck the first blow (13. 3 ). 



The Philistines advanced with a great army to 
Michmash, and in the terror they inspired Saul's 
force dwindled rapidly. Waiting at Gilgal for a 
tryst with Samuel, the prophet having failed to 
keep his appointment, Saul offered sacrifice, en- 
treating the favour of the Lord in the coming con- 
flict. For this Samuel, arriving late, denounced 
the rending of the kingdom fm. Saul. With this 
ringing in his ears he led his handful of men up to 
Geba, where Jonathan held his ground. The great 
force of the Philistines at Michmash had been much 
weakened by the sending out of predatory bands. 
By the heroic enterprise of Jonathan and his 
armour-bearer {see Michmash, Jonathan) they 
were discomfited, and only the fatigue of their 
pursuers saved the Philistines from extermination 
(i4. 30ff -). Is there not a trace of incipient mad- 
ness in Saul's foolish curse and his dealing with 
Jonathan (14. 24 ' 37ff -) ? 

The next important recorded occurrence in 
Saul's life is the destruction of Amalek (15.). His 
failure to carry out in the fullest sense the instruc- 
tions given him led to a final rupture with Samuel, 
who once more prophesied the downfall of his 
house. The scene is one of the most pathetic in all 
history. Nothing more vividly shows the kingly 
nature of Saul than his bearing in this crisis. There 
was nothing petty or merely personal, but concern 
for the dignity of his great office, and the responsi- 
bilities attaching to it. " He was not unnerved by 
Samuel's denunciation of him. The very tremen- 
dousness of the sentence strung every nerve within 
him. He was strong. He did not go howling 
through the camp of Israel like a dog at wh. some 
one has cast a stone, bewailing his fate, and flinging 
down the reins of government in order to lament 
over his personal rejection." He addressed himself 
with high seriousness to the duties required of the 
king ; nor, despite the attacks of insanity which un- 
happily befell him, does he seem to have fallen far 
short of what the conditions of the time demanded. 
Information is very scanty, but he distinguished 
himself in war with his people's foes (l4. 47ff -), and 
although the Philistines gave perpetual trouble 
(v. 52), his reign seems to have been fairly pros- 
perous. 

Much space is occupied with an account of the 
relations of Saul with David. These are discussed 
under David. The darkest blot upon this period is 
Saul's slaughter of the priests at Nob, because they 
had succoured his supposed youthful rival (21., 
22. 9ff -). Withal the king still held the loyalty of 
the dwellers in the region where David sought 
asylum (23. lff -). He must also have been powerful 
E. of Jordan, as there his son raised his standard 
after the king's death (2 S. 2. 8f -). We may infer 
that his authority reached northward to Esdraelon, 
and that the Philistines, fearing this might give 



704 



Sau 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Saw 



him command of the great highways of commerce 
that cross the plain, on wh. their wealth and pros- 
perity depended, resolved to risk all in a pitched 
battle (i S. 29. 1 ). Filled with anxiety as to the 
result of this struggle, and urged, it may be, by a 




Sawing Wood 

yearning for conference with the counsellor and 
friend of youthful days, Saul made the strange 
pilgrimage to the witch of En dor (28. 3ff *). He re- 
turned with his worst fears confirmed. Notwith- 
standing, true to his own nature, he fought on 
Gilboa with conspicuous gallantry, until, seeing his 
three sons stricken, and the day clearly lost, he pre- 
ferred death to dishonour, and fell upon his sword. 
The Philistines treated his body with great barbarity, 
furnishing the men of Jabesh-Gilead an opportunity 
to show that they remembered the succour he had 
brought them in their dire need (3i. 8fl- ). 

At this distance it is not easy to do justice to the 
true greatness of Saul. The history is obviously 
written fm. the point of view of one who sym- 
pathised with David, and the conduct of Saul is 
always made to appear in the worst light. There is 
no denying, however, that in his earlier days he was 
as much distinguished by his nobility of nature and 
chivalry of spirit as by his heroic stature. The task 
to wh. he was called was both delicate and difficult. 
The scattered tribes of Israel had been in some 
measure drawn together by the influence of Samuel, 
finding a common centre of attraction in his mag- 
netic personality. But the confederation, if such it 
cd. be called, was very loose, and liable to rupture at 
the touch of tribal jealousies and ambitions. It was 
to Saul's advantage that he belonged to the small 
tribe of Benjamin, and not to either of the old rivals 
for supremacy, Judah or Ephraim. Judah cd. hardly 
be jealous of her weak neighbour on the N., while 
Ephraim wd. not grudge the honour to a tribe of 
Joseph's stock. But obviously the situation was one 
calhng for much skill in the handling. The success 
of Saul is sufficiently attested by the devotion to his 
cause shown by certain cities in Judah, even against 
the interest of their kinsman David ; and by the 
loyalty to the house of Saul, after his death, dis- 
played by the eastern as well as the northern tribes. 

There is much in the history to show that Saul 



accepted seriously the responsibilities of his exalted 
office, and with disinterested zeal sought the good 
of his people. Even in the dark days of personal re- 
jection he squared his shoulders to the burden, with 
high resolution and manful courage wh. command 
our admiration. Baffled by problems wh. cd. be 
solved only by one possessing religious depth and 
insight, in wh. he was deficient, perplexed by the 
non-acceptance of service wh. was rendered with no 
consciously unworthy motive, keenly alive to the 
claims wh. were legitimately made upon the king of 
Israel, and aware of the impairment of ability, due to 
withdrawal of Divine favour, it is easy to believe 
that these circumstances combined to produce that 
overthrow of reason wh. resulted in such disaster. 

That David in speech and bearing, in ways 
not recorded, gave Saul grounds for the suspicion 
that he was aiming at the kdm., is not unlikely. 
The prevailing methods of Oriental despots with 
possible aspirants to the supreme place, explain if 
they do not justify Saul's attitude to David. For 
the rest, no doubt Saul, like his great successor, 
had his own share of the ferocity inherent in the 
Semitic nature. 

The pathos of Saul's history lies in the picture it 
presents of a man, high in character, with many 
great gifts, but with certain obvious limitations, 
struggling with a task wh., constituted as he was, 
must prove beyond his power. His failure is due to 
no moral lapses. The grosser temptations to wh. 
his greater successors succumbed left him practi- 
cally unscathed. The spectacle of the sr>irit which, 
however baffled, and beset with perplexities, faces 
duty with unflinching courage, moves respect as 
well as sympathy. We feel that the tragedy of 
Gilboa, lending it dramatic completeness, was the 
only fitting close of such a career. 

(2) Saul of Tarsus. See Paul. 

SAW. From ancient times the use of the saw 
was understood (1 K. J. 9 ; Is. io. 15 , &c). The 
two-handed saw is frequently figured on the monu- 
ments. Apparently it was employed in cutting 
both wood and stone. It was also used as an 




Half of a Double-handed Saw (from Nimroud) 

instrument of torture. Recent excavations in Pal. 
have shown that the penalty of sawing asunder was 
not uncommon (He. II. 37 ). The hand-saw in the 
modern East is set with the teeth pointing to the 
handle. It is entered at the heel, and cuts on the 
back stroke. This is explained by the fact that the 
Oriental will not stand to do anything that may be 
done sitting. If one sits, holding the wood to be 



705 



Sea 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sch 



sawn between the great toes and the hand, using tary commander (Jg. 5. 14 , RV.). It appears also as 
our saw, entering at the point and cutting on the an instrument of punishment (Pr. 2§. 3 , &c.), and 

as a weapon of offence (Ps. 2. 9 , 
&c.) Wherever it appears con- 



nected with a king, it may be 
taken as the emblem of regal 
power (Ps. 45. 6 ; Am. I. 5 ' 8 ,&c). 




down stroke, should the saw stick he will be thrown 
backward. The Oriental uses his own saw in his 
own way ; the stress is purely muscular, so his 
balance is not disturbed. 

SCAB. See Diseases and Remedies. 

SCAPE-GOAT (Heb. 'aza'zel, RV. Azazel). Sharbit (Est. 4. 11 , &c.) is only an 
The meaning of the name is uncertain. It cannot xAramised form of shebet. Me- 
be translated "scape-goat" with AV., and it is hoqeq (Gn. 49. 10 ; Nu. 21. 18 , &c.) Sceptre of a Qukkn 
better to transliterate with RV. To Azazel a he- is the " commander's staff." In (Egyptian) 

goat was to be sent as over against that devoted to Gn. 49. 10 both shebet and mehoqeq are named, prob. 
J". (Lv. 16. 8 ' 10 ' 26 ). The name occurs nowhere with a similar significance ; the former being the 
else in Scripture. It is clear fm. the context that short ornamental sceptre developed fm. the " mar- 
it is not a place-name. It must be the name of a shal's baton," the latter the longer form derived 
being to whom the goat was despatched, laden with fm. the staff. 

the nation's sins. Some have thought that the devil Saul is said to have sat under the tamarisk in 
is intended. But altho' Jesus encountered him in Ram ah " with his spear in his hand " apparently as 
the wilderness, he is never specially described as a the symbol of authority. So in former times Joshua 
dweller in waste places. No sure interpretation of held the javelin (Jo. 8. 18 ). Beyond this we have no 
this part of the ritual is now possible. It seems to indication as to what particular emblem was used 
imply a belief corresponding to that of the Arabs by the kings in Israel. The golden sceptre of the 
in Jinn, strange beings that haunt the solitudes, Persian monarch mentioned in Esther was a long, 
Azazel being conceived as their prince. He figures tapering staff ornamented with gold. The lowering 
in the bk. of Enoch as the prime mover of the of this by the king was the sign that one who had 
angels who married the daughters of men (Gn. 6. 2ff- ) ventured unbidden into his presence might safely 
and wrought great evil in the earth, on account of approach him. Syrian and Philistine princes are 
wh. he was bound hand and foot, and put under referred to in Am. I. 5 ' 8 . The short ornamental 



rian monarchs is often figured 




certain great rocks in. the desert, to await the Day of sceptre of the 
Judgment. The place, Dudael, is prob. identical 
with the mod. Beit Hadudo, some nine miles E. of 
Jerusalem, where, fm. the edge of a limestone cliff, 
one looks down into a deep abyss. Over this cliff, 
we may suppose, the scape-goat was pushed by the 
man in charge. This having been signalled to Jrs., 

the High Priest might proceed with the remaining Eastern Sceptres 

part of the ritual. Particulars as to the practice of on the monuments. In Egp. a special form of 

the later Jews are given in the Mishnic tractate sceptre belonged to the queen. 

Toma. The symbolical transfer of the nation's SCEVA, a Jewish High Priest whose seven sons 

guilt to the animal, wh. shd. bear them away to a practised exorcism in the name of Jesus ; two of 

solitary land, is not without parallels among primi- whom (RV.), attempting this on a madman, were 

tive peoples. It may have been a survival from overcome by him and driven from the house, 

some ancient cultus, wrought into the ritual of Israel. " naked and wounded " (Ac. ig. im -). S. was prob. 

The same idea seems to underlie the regulation con- an Essene (see Waiters for the Kingdom) ; those 

nected with the cleansing of the leper (Lv. 14. 53 ). who presided at their feasts were called " priests " ; 

A grim story is told somewhere of the consterna- the Essenes also were addicted to magical arts, 

tion caused by the return of the scape-goat to the The genuineness of the passage has been impugned 

Temple, before the destruction of Jerusalem. among the rest by Prof. Sir Wm. Ramsay (Paul the 

SCARLET : Heb. sham (Gn. 38. 28 , &c), tola' Traveller, p. 172), but without sufficient reason. 

(La. 4. 5 , &c), and combinations of these. The Headlam (iIDB. s.v. " Sceva ") gives a copy of an 



first suggests " doubling," as if " twice dipped " ; 
the second means " a worm," referring to the Coc- 
cus llicis, an insect, the body of wh., when dried, 
is pounded to produce the dye. See Colour. 

SCEPTRE. The use of shebet (Heb.) for the 
symbol of royal authority is clearly a development 
from its use for the " rod " of the shepherd (Lv. 
27. 32 ; Ps. 23. 4 , &c), and for the baton of the mili- 



exorcism in wh. the name " Jesus " occurs, called 
" the God of the Hebrews." 

SCHISM appears only once in AV. (1 Cor. 12. 25 ), 
" that there shd. be no schism (lit. ' rent ') in the 
body." The same Gr. word, schisma, is used for a 
" rent " in a garment (Mw. 9. 16 ; Mk. 2. 21 ), and for 
" divisions " among the people (Jn. 7- 43 , &c. ; I Cor. 
I. 10 , II. 18 ). 



706 



Sch 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sch 



SCHOOL, SCHOOLMASTER. In Israel the 
first teachers were the parents, and the first S. the 
home. The duty of education as then understood 
was imposed on the parents by Moses (Ex. 1 2. 26 , &c), 
and to the early Isr. this would be no great burden as 
he had about one-fifth of the yr. free, and on such 
occasions instruction, mainly oral, was expected to 
be given in explanation of the seasons observed and 
their relationship to the national hist. Other in- 
struction wd. embrace such moral teaching as we 
find set forth in the name of parents in the Bk. of 
Proverbs. In addition to this we find traces of other 
education from the beginning. The Tell-Amarna 
tablets have shown that Pal. was not much behind 
Egp. and Bab., still we cannot infer too much 
from these as to the condition of the people gene- 
rally. The case of Moses was exceptional (Ac. 7- 22 ), 
as also were those of Solomon and Job in their 
kge. of Natural Hist, (i K. 4. 33 ; Jb. 38.-41) ; but 
writing seems to have been known from the earliest 
period. It is first mentioned in Ex. 17. 14 , but even 
then as something familiar, and further we cannot 
doubt that the writing on the priest's mitre and 
breastplate were meant to be read by the people 
(Ex. 28. 11 , 39. 30 ). Such names as Kirjath-sepher 
imply the existence of bks. According to one tr., 
Zebulun handled the pen of the writer (Jg. 5. 14 ), 
the law of the kdm. required the king to transcribe 
Deuteronomy himself (Dt. I7. 18 ),and the case of the 
boy fm. the town of Succoth beyond Jordan is sig- 
nificant (Jg. 8. 14 ). The management of Solomon's 
affairs, too, required a well-trained, educated staff of 
scribes, among whom a recorder is mentioned (2 S. 
20. 24 ; 2 K. 18. 18 ; 2 Ch. 34.8). That meant for 
those employed at least some course of systematic 
S. training. The Siloam inscr. (8th cent, b.c.) wd. 
lead us to believe that even the workmen employed 
in excavating it were familiar with writing, while the 
forms of the letters used show an elegant and char- 
acteristic development among the Heb. people. 
The teaching of the people by the priests in the 
Temple (Lv. io. 11 ; Ek. 4 4. 23 ' 24 ; ML 2?) was of 
course religious, as wd. also be that in the assemblies 
of the sons of the prophets (2 K. 2.),;but in the case of 
both parties we find traces of further teaching of the 
youth of their own classes (1 Ch. 25. 7 " 8 ; Am. 7. 14 ). 
For the pre-exilic period we cannot say more than 
this. After the Captivity, with the development of 
the synagogue system the possibilities of education 
were greatly increased, as it was understood there 
shd. always be a place in or near them for teaching. 
The Tim. attributes their establishment to Joshua 
ben Gamla {Bab. Bath. 2i. a ), and it says there shd. 
be one teacher for 25 pupils, while for 40 there shd. 
be one master and one assistant. The community 
that had no S. was ipso facto excommunicated. In- 
structions are given as to the health and safety of the 
pupils so far as these things were then understood. 



The S. was not to be in a densely populated quarter 
of the town nor near a dangerous bridge wh. the 
pupils must cross. The teachers sometimes received 
an appointment from the local authorities, but it 
was recognised that they were at liberty to settle 
freely. The pupils were led to S. by the father or 
the mother, the S. life beginning at five. At five the 
study of Scrip, was begun, at ten the Mishna or 
traditions of the elders, while later there was added 
at fifteen the Gemara. The pupils had scrolls on wh. 
were written portions of Scrip. — Story of the Crea- 
tion, the Shema, the Hallel, extracts fm. the Law 
and fm. the sayings of the wise men (Sr. 2. 9 * 11 ; 
Aboth. 1. 1). Jerome tells us that the Jewish children 
were required to recite even the genealogical por- 
tions of the OT. The instruction was mainly 
catechetical, and parables and proverbs were in 
frequent use as illustrations. Corporal punishment 
was thoroughly approved. The question is asked 
in the Talmud : " When the master enters the S.- 
room with the thong in his hand, who fears ? " To 
wh. the answer is given : " He that is accustomed to 
be beaten every day " (Succa, 2cf). The elementary 
schools must have been very like the Jewish chedar'im 
of to-day, in wh. the pupils, each with his own dirty, 
tattered leaf or volume, sit around on the floor, the 
rabbi occupying a small platform about 18 inches 
higher. They wd. be close and unventilated, and, 
especially in the upper classes where points had to be 
discussed, there wd. be a great deal of noise ; for 
the Jew has never known how to argue calmly. We 
can think of the existence of such a S. in Nazareth in 
the early yrs. of the first cent., and we may be sure 
that, out of Jerusalem, it was among the best in Pal., 
for, as the poems of Eliezer hak-Kalir tell us, that 
town was a meeting-place of the priests when going 
to the Holy City, and their frequent presence wd. 
influence the S. life, if indeed the S. did not belong 
to them. 

Higher education, but also on religious lines, was given by 
the more distinguished rabbis. It was their aim to gather 
"many pupils" around them. In the genial climate of 
Pal. they were in the habit of teaching in the open air in 
the first and second cents. Joshua ben Zakkai taught in the 
temple court all day : Ben Azzai and Rabbi Jehudah on the 
shores of the Lake of Galilee (Erubin. 2g a ). In the stricter 
sense of the word, as also with the meaning "systems of 
thought," Hillel and Shammai were heads of "schools" 
just before the Advent. The teachers were regarded by the 
pupils with profound respect and were addressed by the 
title Mar or Rabbi. The master had full authority over 
his scholars, and the relationship of the pupil to the rabbi 
was designated as "service of the hakhamim" (Ab. vi. 6). 
During the period of service the pupils were designated tal- 
mtdim. When the course of study was concluded they 
became talmide hakhamim. As such they were considered 
fully qualified for the office of rabbi or hakham, wh. they 
received through ordination. In addition to the learning of 
the midrashtm, it was strongly insisted upon that such ac- 
quire good manners, of wh. we find a summary in Aboth, 
v. 10: "Seven things are apparent in the conduct of an 
educated man, and seven in the behaviour of an illiterate. 
(1) A learned man will be quiet in the presence of one more 
learned than himself ; (2) He will not interrupt any one 
while speaking ; (3) He will not give a hasty answer ; (4) 

07 



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His questions will be appropriate ; (5) He will give appro- m any case precede the figurative ; and in connec- 
priate answers ; (6) He will reply to questions in order — to • -*i A x j 1 i_ / 9»\ 1 1 

the first, first, to the last, last ; (7) He will confess it when tlon Wlth the forced labour C 11 -) the bastinado 
he is ignorant of anything. The reverse of these seven was prob. not unknown. The " scorpion" we may- 
presume to have been an instrument of torture re- 



things are all to be seen in the illiterate. 

Of female education in Isr. we know very little. The 

good housewife was the ideal woman (Pr. 31.), and apart sembling the Roman scourge. This was made of 

from household duties she gave her time to all sorts of needle- long Strips of leather, the tips of 

work and weaving for the adornment of her family. The „r T „~_~ nrr ^^j , TT ,Vl, ,r,„. u;<-„ 

embroideries (Jg 5 - 30 ) which were so much prized in early wh. were armed With sharp bits 

Isr. , and the finery that went to make up a lady's wardrobe of bone or metal. The culprit 

in Isaiah's time (3. 16-24), implied a good deal of training of was bound in a bending posture 
the women in needlework. In later times the rabbis ob- -m j , ° r 

jected to women being taught the Law, and if it were done over . a P lUai > and the scourge was 

at all it was not allowed to be done systematically. The applied to his naked back. It tore 

apostle Paul brings us into touch with the education of his the flesh and pro d U ced injuries 
own time, but apart from his statement of having "been 7 . r . . J 

brought up at the feet of Gamaliel " (Ac. 22.3), w here, by the not untrequentiy ending in death, 

way, he stood and did not sit (Sota, ix. 15), his references This torture was endured by Jesus 

have more to do with Greco-Roman education than with /jYJ w# 27 26 & c \ j t was a ^OUt 



Jewish. With this he wd. be fully acquainted, as belong- 
ing to a city that had a long and distinguished educational 
hist. The education of the Rm. boy usly. extended fm. his 
seventh till his fourteenth yr. , and embraced the usl. branches, 
letters, and the syllables and words, so leading up to a kge. 
of his own lang., while he was initiated into writing by 
means of the stylus and wax tablets. Plautus tells us of 
the use of the rod ; and Martial mentions the floggings and 
cries of the children in Rm. schools. The earlier teach- 
ing was very often committed to a household slave, the 
paedagogus (TraiSaywyos), whose duties were confined to the 
teaching of the elements (crroixeta)- When that was accom- 
plished he was then employed to conduct his former pupils 
to the real S.-master or the hall of some distinguished 
philosopher. His humble office was naturally looked upon 
with something of contempt (1 Cor. 4. 15 ). Paul sets forth 
the ceremonial law as a pedagogue (Gal. 3.24) that fm. the 
elements of religious teaching was meant to lead men to 
Christ — the true philosopher. 

Wm. M. Christie. 




Scourge 



SCHOOLS OF 

iet, Prophecy. 



THE PROPHETS. 



Pro- 



lw. 27.* , &c). it was 
to be inflicted on St. Paul when 
he claimed the protection from 
this indignity wh. his Roman citi- 
zenship afforded him (Ac. 22. 24f -). 
The scourging in the synagogue 
never exceeded forty stripes. This was inflicted with 
a scourge of three thongs, thirteen strokes being laid 
on each shoulder, and thirteen on the naked breast. 
Five times St. Paul endured this (2 Cor. n. 24 ). 

SCREECH OWL (Heb. lilitb, Is. 34. 14 ). It is not 
certain what sort of owl is here intended. The 
word was regarded by some of the Jewish com- 
mentators as being a night monster, hence AVm. 
A midrashic fable declares that before Eve, Adam 
had a wife whose name was Lilith, and now she 
plays the vampire. See Owl, Lilith. 

SCRIBES. In the OT. the scribe (sopher) is one 
SCORPION, an articulate animal of the order whose profession it is to write, not in a literary sense, 
Arachnidce ; it has claws like a lobster's, and a long but as copyist or transcriber (Jr. 8. 8 , &c). " The 
tail with a venomous sting king's scribe " was an officer of state, whom we find 
at the end ; with this it kills associated with the High Priest (2 K. 12. 10 ). He 
the insects wh. are its prey, held a position of importance in the royal establish- 
There are various species ment. It may have been his duty to attend to the 
of S. in Pal. ; one attains records to be preserved in the state archives. In 
sometimes the length of six Ezra the offices of priest and scribe were combined 
inches. The sting of the (Ne. 8. 9 , &c). And now the term takes on some- 
S. is the characteristic most thing of the meaning wh. it subsequently bore, 
referred to in Scrip. (Rv. Ezra is called " a ready scribe in the law of Moses," 
9. 10 ). The small yellow S. may be fancied to be like " a scribe of the words of the commandments of the 
an egg ; hence Lk. n. 12 , " If a son ask an egg, will Lord and of His statutes to Israel " (Ez. J. 6t u ). 
he give him a scorpion." Fm. its habit of hiding Simon the Just is the last High Priest whom tradi- 
under stones it is a symbol of desolation (Dt. 8. 16 ; tion represents as also a scribe, and the head of a 
Ek. 2. 6 ). " school." Whether he was Simon I. (c. B.C. 300) 

SCOURGE, SCOURGING. Stripes were prob. or Simon II. (c. b.c 220) is uncertain, 
inflicted with rods in early times ; but we have seen From the days of Ezra the law was the main 
(Crimes and Penalties) that they were subse- interest of the Jewish people. As they no longer 
quently inflicted with a three-thonged scourge, spoke Hebrew it was necessary to translate the 
In the OT. the word " scourge " (Heb. shot) occurs ancient books into Aramaic, the language thence- 
several times in a fig. sense (Jb. 5. 21 ; Is. io. 26 , &c), forth spoken in Palestine. In this way the Tar- 
never literally. " Scourged " in Lv. 19. 20 shd. be gums came into existence. But the uninstructed 
simply " punished " (RV.). Rehoboam's reference required also to have the law expounded, and 
to " whips " and " scorpions " (1 K. I2. 11, 14 , &c.) its requirements made intelligible, that they might 
may have been figurative. But the literal use must be able to render obedience, upon which so much 

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depended for both individual and nation. In 
response to this demand there arose a class of men 
learned in the law, able to give counsel and guidance 
on all points of doubt or difficulty. Alongside the 
priesthood there thus grew up a great profession, 
with ever-increasing influence, and with the further 
advantage that, unlike that of the priest, it was re- 
stricted to no caste. It was open to aspiring youth 
from any family in Israel. In the NT. the scribes 
are constantly named with the Pharisees, the 
popular party, to wh. in fact they belonged, as we 
learn from several passages : " the scribes of the 
Pharisees " (Mk. 2. 16 RV.) ; " the Pharisees and 
their scribes " (Lk. 5. 30 RV.) ; " the scribes of the 
Pharisees' part " (Ac. 23. 9 ). 

The Torah was regarded as the expression of 
God's will for His people. It was to Israel the 
supreme fountain of law, alike civil and religious. 
It was held to prescribe, either directly or by im- 
plication, a man's duty in every detail of life, 
whether public or private. Obviously the men 
whom the people trusted to expound and apply the 
law to individual cases, who could " bind," i.e. 
forbid, or " loose," i.e. allow, what they believed to 
be contrary to or in accordance with the Divine 
will, exercised a great influence in the community. 
Their functions called for special endowments and 
training. We find that certain eminent exponents 
of the law founded " schools," in wh. disciples were 
taught their principles and method. These 
" schools " were not always in perfect accord ; 
witness the rivalry of Shammai and Hillel. In one 
respect, however, they were all agreed — in the 
reverence paid to the " traditions of the elders." 

The decisions of the more famous scribes in the 
cases brought before them stood as authoritative 
interpretations of the law, and as such were quoted 
by their successors. This habit of quoting from 
others in order to buttress their own doctrine is re- 
ferred to in the contrast drawn between them and 
Jesus (Mw. 7- 29 ). Gradually a body of decisions 
was formed which, claiming to be necessary infer- 
ences from it, were held of equal authority with the 
written law. They might even avail to make the 
written law of no effect (Mw. 15. 6 , &c). This 
" oral law " grew to such vast dimensions, so com- 
plicated and minute in its details, that no human 
being could possibly observe it all. The ingenuity 
of the scribes was therefore largely exercised in 
casuistical efforts to find ways whereby the letter of 
the law might be fulfilled, while the spirit of it was 
evaded. 

When we remember that these men were the real 
leaders and teachers of the people, their influence 
securing for them the first places in the synagogues 
(the priestly class concentrated mainly in Jeru- 
salem) ; when we consider the inevitable tendency 
of their system to destroy the conscience and stunt 



the nobler elements of manhood, we may find it 
easier to understand why the evangel of Jesus met 
with such a limited response among His country- 
men. 

Not only did the scribes sit " in Moses' seat " 
(Mw. 23. 2 ), they also found their way into the San- 
hedrin (Jn. 3. 10 , 7. 50 ; Ac. 5. 34 ), and seem to have 
discharged the functions of local judges. The 
names of Hillel, Shammai, Gamaliel, and Nico- 
demus show that men of high excellence were not 
wanting among them. 

It was not considered seemly for the scribe to re- 
ceive a fee. Doubtless ways were found of getting 
round this difficulty in many cases. But we know 
that certain great teachers supported themselves by 
their trade. Hillel is said to have been a carpenter ; 
and St. Paul, who studied under Gamaliel, was a 
tent-maker. It was a weakness of the class, how- 
ever, to long for recognition at the hands of their 
fellows. They loved the chief places at feasts, and 
to be saluted by the honourable title of " Rabbi." 
The perception that the teaching of Jesus was 
destined to undermine their authority may explain 
the bitterness of their antagonism, and their zeal in 
pressing for His removal. 

SCRIP is EV. tr. of Heb. yalkut (1 S. 17. 40 ), the 
bag carried by the shepherd lad, into wh. he put 
the stones for his sling. It is also AV. tr. for 
Trrjpa (Mw. I0. 1( >; Mk. 6. 8 ; Lk. 9 . 3 , io. 4 , 22. 35f -, 
RV. in every case " wallet "). This stands for 
the leathern satchel or wallet in wh . the Eastern 
traveller to this day carries his store of provision 
for the journey. 

SCRIPTURES. In the present article we pur- 
pose to consider the Canon ; its formation, func- 
tion, and extent. In the NT. we find repeated 
refce. to S. (Gr. grapbai), the decisions of wh., in 
matters of doctrine and practice, are looked upon as 
authoritative. It is mainly the OT. writings that 
are so referred to, but in 2 P. 3. 16 the Epp. of Paul 
are called S. We shall therefore, in the sequel, 
treat first the Canon of the OT. , and then that of 
the NT. While there are points of similarity be- 
tween the history of these two, the points of diffce. 
are too striking to permit them being treated other 
than successively. They differ in language ; the 
OT. being in Heb. with some chapters in Aram., 
and the NT. in Gr. ; they also differ in mode of 
presentation ; the OT. appearing at irregular in- 
tervals during centuries, the NT. being the product 
of one generation. 

The Old Testament Canon. — In the intro- 
duction to Ecclesiasticus the translator makes a 
threefold reference to " the law, the prophets, and 
the rest of the books " as being marked off fm. all 
Jewish and other literature. In Jos. (con. A-pion) 
we learn that among the Jews certain bks. were re- 
garded as of supreme value and importance. We 



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have similar testimony, though indirectly, fm. Philo 
Judaeus. 

He refers to all the bks. of the OT. with the exception 
of four : the influence of two of these may be traced, but he 
has no note of being even acquainted with the Song of 
Solomon or Ecclesiastes. He never quotes any of the bks. 
of the Gr. Apocrypha, although he freely quotes fm. heathen 
philosophers. 

In the NT. we find, as we have said above, that 
" the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms " 
(Lk. 24. 44 ) occupied a wholly special place. We 
may therefore assume that a collection of writings 
were acknowledged as sacred fm., at the latest, the 
days of the younger Siracides (at latest B.C. 130). 
Further, that this collection agreed in the main with 
the Massoretic Canon seems nearly equally certain. 
It is impossible, with the material at present at our 
disposal, to determine either the date when the 
Canon was fixed, or the occasion of this being done, 
with any degree of precision. It was probably a 
gradual process. One notice we have of something 
that looks like the formation of the Canon. In the 
epistle wh. introduces the second bk. of Maccabees 
it is said : " Neemias, founding a library, gathered 
together the acts of the kings and of David, and 
the epistles of the kings concerning the holy gifts " 
(2. 13 ). This mt. be better rendered " books about 
the kings and the prophets, and the books of 
David " ; this wd. seem to indicate the presence of 
the historical books of Samuel and Kings, the pro- 
phetical writings, and the Psalms. In the same 
passage there is reference to the " commentaries of 
Neemias," wh., as they contained an account of 
Solomon's dedication of the Temple, may be re- 
garded as probably our books of Chronicles. The 
law is not mentioned ; it is already sacrosanct : 
what we have here is thus the second step in the 
formation of the Canon ; it is a Deutero-canonicon. 

Niese {Kritik der Makk.) makes out a strong case for the 
early date and authenticity of this portion of Maccabees. 
It may then be held as representing the opinion of intelli- 
gent Jews living a couple of centuries after the date of 
Nehemiah. 

While formerly the Hebrew and the Christian 
Scriptures were looked upon by theologians as oc- 
cupying a perfectly unique position, we now recog- 
nise that many other races had sacred books also. 
The Egyptians had " The Book of the Dead," wh. 
portends to be a revelation of the state after death, 
with implied inculcation of moral conduct and 
ritual observances as the means by wh. future 
rewards will be attained and future punishments 
averted. There are also the great Babylonian 
Epics and Penitential Psalms ; the Code of Ham- 
murabi claims to be a revelation, as also the magic 
formulae. The Vedas are made up of ritual and 
hymns of adoration connected with it. The same 
may be said of the Zendavesta ; the creation- 
legends, the adumbrations of the future, the moral 
and ritual injunctions, are put in the mouth of 

1 



Ahura-Mazda. The prominent place occupied by 
ritual of sacrifice does not need to be pointed out. 
The very idea of a revelation in connection with 
ritual implies that the primary object of such a 
revelation wd. be to lay down rules for an accept- 
able approach to Deity ; this wd. naturally include 
words of praise and prayer ; these as naturally wd. 
assume the form of poetry. Connected with this 
wd. be legends of the origins of things, the creation 
of the world and the origin of evil. The earliest 
portion of the Heb. Scriptures we shd. expect to be 
(though this is in direct opposition to predominant 
theories) the ritual of worship as we find it in the 
documents designated P. ; and along with this, 
some portion of the book of Psalms. When the 
ritual, at first traditional, was written down, it wd. 
necessarily be preceded by a book of Origins, nar- 
rating how the institutions regarded as sacred came 
into being. In accordance with this we find in 
Amos and Hosea, the earliest of the literary pro- 
phets, that the law is known and recognised as 
supreme, and they manifest an acquaintance with 
all the component parts of wh., acedg. to the critics, 
the Pentateuch is made up. The case of Amos is 
very striking, as he, a herdsman, uses the technical 
terms for special sacrifices in a way that implies 
that he expects his audience to be acquainted with 
the legal requirements involved (cp. Am. 4.* with 
Nu. 28. 3 » 4 ; Dt. 14.28- 29 ? 2 6.i2 . v> 5 with Lv 7- i3f. 5 
22. 18f '). All this means that the law was no mere 
possession of the priests, but was generally known ; 
in other words it had been, to some extent at least, 
committed to writing. Amos also has references to 
the narratives in Gn. — the overthrow of Sodom and 
Gomorrah — using the word hapak, wh. is used in 
Gn. in regard to this catastrophe. The exodus fm. 
Egp., the wilderness journey, the conquest of the 
territory of Sihon are also referred to (Am. 2. 10 ). 
Hosea has yet more references, especially to the 
history of the Pentateuch, and in terms wh. sug- 
gest, if they do not imply, that there were written 
records of these things. Further we learn fm. 
Amos (5« 23 ) that music of voice and instrument 
accompanied the sacrifices. Thus we have, in the 
days of the earliest literary prophets, evidence that 
the people had a book of the law wh. contained all 
the elements J.E.D.P., wh. critics have found in the 
Pentateuch : also there was a Psalter of some sort. 
The history as given in Joshua, Judges, and Samuel, 
is also appealed to, though not so frequently. If, 
however, we regard Samuel as authentic history we 
have an earlier reference to the law. We are told 
(1 S. io. 25 ) that the prophet " told the people the 
manner (misbpat) of the kingdom, and wrote it in a 
book, and laid it up before the Lord." 

It is difficult to fix precisely the meaning of mishpdt 
hammalukah ; it naturally means the rights and duties of 
kingship, a description wh. exactly suits Dt. 17. 14 - 20 . It 
may have been that then, and by Samuel, that passage was 

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written and inserted in Deuteronomy. At all events it was 
a body of law; and it was laid "up before the Lcrd," 
probably in the Tabernacle. A common critical view is to 
regard this passage of S. as written by E. of the Pentateuch. 

This implies that there was a practice of conse- 
crating certain books by prophets. If this is cor- 
rect, we have the nucleus of the third element of the 
Jewish Canon. It is evident that the history after- 
wards included in the prophetic writings was under- 
stood to be well known. Joab expects that, when 
David learns of a slaughter of his men on account of 
the assault on Rabbath Ammon being pressed with 
too great vehemence, he will refer to history and 
quote the case of Abimelech. Hosea refers re- 
peatedly to the tragical incident of Gibeah (c-p. Ho. 
o,. 9 , io. 9 with Jg. 19.-21.). Another book, probably 
existing in some form, at all events in nucleus, while 
Amos and Hosea were prophesying, was Proverbs. 
Fm. chap. 10. to chap. 22. 17 is a section of the book 
beginning with a special title mishle Shlomoh ; it 
is characterised by its " proverbs " being of only one 
distich. The passage that follows (22. 18 -2/\.. 22 ) has 
characteristics wh. suggest the writer of the pro- 
logue (i. 1 -^ 18 ) ; there follows a small section of a 
dozen verses. Then we have (25. x ) the statement, 
" these also are the proverbs of Solomon wh. the 
men of Hezekiah copied out," wh. implies the exist- 
ence of the nucleus with its prologue and additions. 

The finding of "the Book of the Law" (2 K. 22.8-20 ; 
2 Ch. 34. 14 - 29 ) does not necessarily mean that it was the 
book of Deuteronomy only that was so discovered ; every- 
thing in the passage itself points rather to its being a bcok 
containing the whole lav/ that was so found. The finding 
of a copy thus wd. direct attention to the contents of the 
law more effectively than before. The allegation that the 
destruction of the high places started with this discovery 
is incorrect, as proved by 2 K. 18. >2Q . Hezekiah had already 
begun the process. When the colonists sent to replace the 
Israelite captives entreated that some one be sent them to 
teach them " the manner of the God of the land" {mishpdt 
' Elohe hd'dretz), it seems but reasonable, in the light of 
what we found in Amos and Hosea, that the priest who 
came brought a book. If this is so, the presence of 
Deuteronomy in the Samaritan Pentateuch is demonstration 
that it was not first seen in the reign of Josiah. 

The fall of the Jewish State is necessarily an im- 
portant point in the development of the doctrine of 
Holy Scripture. Away in Babylon the Jews cd. 
maintain themselves in fidelity to their religion only 
by the perusal of the law and such portions of the 
prophets as had yet been committed to writing. 
The law in its ritual portions wd. necessarily fall 
into the background, as there were no temple and no 
sacrifices to illustrate its enactments. The original 
Psalter too, as it wd. largely consist of ritual chant 
associated with special sacrifices, wd. sink very much 
into abeyance. So only the prophets remained. 
The " former prophets " (nebVim ri'skonim), 
Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, contained the his- 
tory of Israel viewed as a divine process ; persons 
were characterised and actions estimated in the 
light of it. The Jews, regarding themselves as the 

7 



products of this process, wd. segregate themselves, 
though national rites wd. be largely in abeyance. 

If the historicity of Daniel be admitted, we have an 
explanation of the otherwise inexplicable faithfulness of 
the Jews to their religion. In the light o f the discovery 
of an Israelite temple in Upper Egp. at Assouan the fact 
that the Jews in Babylonia never attempted this is very 
striking. The preservation of the books of a ritual they 
cd. not observe implies the high respect with wh. they were 
regarded. 

The return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the 
Temple gave a new impulse to the study of the law ; 
there are elements in the Psalter wh. point to this 
event ; the presence of the prophets Haggai and 
Zechariah kept that portion of the sacred writing 
in evidence. The second return under Ezra and 
Nehemiah was accompanied by a yet greater atten- 
tion especially to the law. It wd. seem not unlikely 
that something occurred about that time wh. led to 
the fixation of the number of the sacred books. 
Tradition, as represented by the Tim., ascribes this 
to the nebulous body, " the Men of the Great 
Synagogue," wh. owed its institution to Ezra 
(Wright, Ecclesiastes, 3-10). A yet earlier and even 
more confused form of this tradition is. found in 
2 Es. (4th bk. of Ezra) 14. 19 " 48 , where Ezra is com- 
manded to dictate ninety-four sacred books to five 
scribes ; of these books seventy are mystical, and to 
be retained, leaving the twenty-four books of the 
ordinary Jewish Canon. The date of 4th Esdras is 
prob. a.d. 95. Yet earlier is the form the tradition 
assumes in the prologue to 2 Maccabees above re- 
ferred to, that Nehemiah collected a sacred library. 
It is clear that the age of Ezra and Nehemiah was a 
critical one in the history of the Canon. 

It will not do to oppose the above view, as did Robertson 
Smith, by bringing forward the fact that the Canon of 
Alexandria was so much more extensive. The younger 
Siracides had evidently what was practically the same 
canonical books as we ; Philo only quotes fm. our Canon ; 
Josephus agst. Apion, writing to an Alexandrian audience, 
describes our OT. Canon. These facts imply that these 
additional books had a deutero-canonical position among 
the Jews much as they have among Protestants. Still less 
of force is the appeal made to the decisions of Jabne. 
These stories are of no historical value ; they give a his- 
torical setting to scholastic arguments as to the canonicity 
of certain bks. that might fm. internal reasons of a technical 
kind be spoken against ; it was not the Solomonic author- 
ship that was supposed to be questioned in the case of 
Ecclesiastes, but its moral teaching. Esther was defended 
against the reproach of never having in it the name of 
God ; Ezekiel, whom no critic assails, was impugned be- 
cause the regulations he promulgated concerning priests 
and sacrifices did not harmonise exactly with those in 
Leviticus. The pseudo-historical setting was simply a 
mnemonic device adopted by the Rabbins ; a story is more 
easily remembered than an argument. 

We may assume that at the time when Nehe- 
miah was governor over Jerusalem, certain books 
were selected to be looked upon as authoritative ; 
the governor's own commentaries being added. 
Whether there were any other books or portions of 
books inserted later is a matter for debate. More 
important in regard to the question before us is the 
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principle that guided the choice of the books so set 
apart. According to Josephus {contra Apionem, i. 
1 8) only such books were chosen as were (a) written 
by a prophet, and (b) dated before the end of the 
reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus. This wd. be 
valuable if only as the view of one who had had ex- 
ceptional opportunities of judging ; but it is more 
if it is confirmed by facts. If we consider the case 
of the books excluded and compare them with 
those included, the inclusion and exclusion seem 
most easily explicable on Josephus' principle. Why 
is* Ecclesiastes included in the Canon and Ecclesi- 
asticus not ? The former claimed to be written by 
Solomon, the latter made no such claim ; that is to 
say, Ec. conformed to the rule laid down by Jos. but 
Sr. did not. Though we wd. not maintain their 
criticism either to be scientific in its methods or 
accurate in its results, yet they did not admit every 
book on its mere claim. Though the book of Wis- 
dom was reputed to be written by Solomon, yet 
it was excluded. If it be answered that Ws. was 
published in Egp., this cannot be said of Baruch, 
Enoch, or 2nd Esdras. 

It is impossible to fix, with any degree of exact- 
ness, the date of the settlement of the Jewish Canon, 
but the limits, if we do not take into account the 
dates ascribed by critics to certain books included 
in it, may be said to be fm. b.c. 430, the date of 
Nehemiah's second governorship, to b.c. 130, the 
latest date we can assign to the descent of the 
younger Siracides into Egp. 

This is not the place in wh. to discuss this latter date, 
but strong arguments can be adduced to antedate the 
arrival of the yr. Siracides in Egp. by about a century. 
By most moderate critical authorities B.C. 100 is the date 
favoured. It has really nothing to recommend it but the 
fact that it leaves room for the reception of bks. into the 
Canon wh. they have declared to be late. The still later 
date, A.D. 100, is due to the misunderstanding of the 
meaning of the story of the "Council of Jabne" and its 
debates. 

The constitution of each division of the Canon is 
a matter of some importance. We have already 
seen that very early the sacred books were arranged 
in the three classes : the Law, the Prophets, and 
the Writings. As to the law, external evidence is 
unanimous in declaring that it consisted of the five 
books ; presumably the five we have at present. 
Any one who reads the LXX will observe the differ- 
ence of the relation of the version to the original in 
the case of the Pnt. as compared with the other 
books. The latest prob. date at wh. the Samaritans 
cd. get their Pnt. was during the second governor- 
ship of Nehemiah ; then the Pnt. was marked off 
fm. Joshua so decisively that while they have re- 
ceived the law J.E.D.P., they did not recognise or 
even possess the bk. of Joshua. Internal evidence is 
of little value as against external evidence so strong 
and so unequivocal. In regard to the prophets, as 
is well known, the majority of what we reckon the 



historical books are classed by the Jews as prophetic 
writings, and are called the " former prophets." 
Jos. appears to have included in this the bks. of 
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. The 
later prophets, according to the Jews, omit Daniel 
but otherwise coincide with ours. In regard to 
Daniel, the Canon of Jos. included it among the 
prophets, as did also that of Melito and the Alex- 
andrian, as seen in LXX. Our Lord also quotes 
" Daniel the prophet " (Mw. 24. 15 ) ; a fact that 
implies that in His day Dn. was not placed as now 
among the K'thubim, but among the " prophets." 
The third portion of the Canon, " the Hagio- 
grapha," is much more extensive in later Jewish 
reckoning than in earlier ; indeed more extensive, 
if we exclude the Apocrypha, than that of Alex- 
andria as seen in the LXX. Jos. has only four bks., 
Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesi- 
astes ; with this agrees Melito, save that he in- 
cludes Job, wh. Jos. had reckoned to the prophets. 
The present Jewish reckoning, wh. appears to date 
fm. about the fourth Christian cent., as it is referred 
to by Jerome, has Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five 
Megilloth (Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, 
Ecclesiastes, and Esther), Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 
Chronicles. While this is the order of these bks. as 
found in the ordinary Hebrew Bibles, it is by no 
means the only order in MSS. ; a very common 
order placed Chronicles first instead of last. 

The authority of the Old Testament is exhibited 
by the numerous quotations made fm. nearly every 
book. The decisions of Scripture are the final ap- 
peal as to doctrine and conduct. Although we do 
not press this beyond what may be legitimately 
deduced fm. it, yet the fact that our Lord foiled 
Satan by a constant appeal to Scripture invests it 
with a sanctity wh. it wd. be difficult to over- 
estimate. However, the main function of the 
OT. is to lead to the New and prepare for it. Its 
precepts and injunctions are binding on Christians 
through Christ, and as promulgated anew by Him 
with deepened meaning. 

The New Testament Canon. — As with the 
Canon of the OT., so with that of the New, the 
determining of the books wh. compose it was a 
gradual process ; yet by no means so gradual as 
that of the OT. In the one case we have the 
condensation of the Lit. of a" millennium, and the 
consecration of the elements selected ; in the other 
it is the Lit. of less than a century that is so 
treated. The gradual and unconscious segrega- 
tion of certain books as the norm of faith and con- 
duct is the more instructive, as we see the process 
taking place under our eyes. As the principle of 
selection, according to wh. the bks. of the OT. had 
been gathered together, was that each bk. had been 
the work of a prophet, so in the NT. apostolicity 
was understood to be the gauge and guarantee of 



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the right of an Epistle or a Gospel to be admitted our NT. Irenaeus either quotes or appears to be 
into the Canon. At the beginning, when our Lord influenced by the language of every bk. in the NT. 
had but recently passed away fm. the midst of His except Philemon and 3rd John. Hippolytus does 
disciples, and a cloud had received Him fm. their not quote or show any traces of acquaintance with 
watching eyes, the believers expected that the time either of the minor Epp. of John, but otherwise his 
was not far distant when, as they had seen Him go evidence coincides with that of Irenaeus. The list 
into heaven, so in like manner wd they see Him of books guaranteed by Tertullian is the same as 
come again. The presence of such hopes was an- that of Irenaeus, save that he does not refer to 2nd 
tagonistic to the idea of writing. They had with Peter. Very much the same evidence is given by 
them the apostles who had companied with the the Fathers till we come to the age of the more 
Lord while He was on the earth and had heard His voluminous writers, when every NT. writing is 
gracious words ; there was no need of ink or pen. noticed directly or implicitly. In what is called 
When the first persecution dispersed the apostles it the " Muratori Fragment " we have a portion of a 
is not improbable that there were short, condensed very early catalogue of the books of the NT. Scrip- 
manuals of the life and teaching of the Lord that tures wh. contains almost all our present Canon, 
wd. prompt the memories of the first preachers. It is in Latin, but has been translated from Greek. 
In the most primitive stage this evangelical deposit Bishop Lightfoot, in a letter to the Athenaum shortly before 
.,11 1 r his death, gave very plausible reasons for holding that this 
mt. possibly be conveyed fm. person to person original was in verse. It may be dated somewhere between 
memoriter ; although we ought not to forget that a.d. 170 and 190. Some thought Hippolytus was the 
shorthand notes were already in use, and an imperial aut l° v - It is mutilated both at the beginning and end ; 
.... AT . ' 1 r m 1 • probably also there are lacunae in the body of it. After 
official like Matthew cd. scarcely tail to be practi- a - line wh> apparently is the conclusion of a description of 
cally acquainted with it. While different individuals Mark's Gospel the author proceeds to say that the third 

rnmmittprl thesp to writino- with a general resem- Gos P el is Luke's. He gives an account of the reason why 
committed these to writing witft a general resem the Apostle John wrote the fourth GoS pei, j n course of wh. 

blance, there wd. be differences due to additions fm. the 1st Epistle of John is quoted. The bk. of Acts is 

the personal experience of the individual speaker, described as "the Acts of all Apostles." All the Pauline 

rr., • • n vi i't j • ^.i. • • r u.1. it Epistles are named, but Hebrews is not anions: them. 

This m all likelihood is the origin of the many c f ement of Rome is so impressed with that epistle that 

Gospels " to wh. Luke refers. These, however, his own is in parts a paraphrase of Hebrews. It is im- 

never seem to have been collected together. The P°? si ? e th ?V5 is ca ^ Io £ ue ' compiled in Rome as it was, 

.. • <• x T m o • i £ j • sn °-- nave failed to take any notice of a bk. so influential 

earliest portion of NT. Scriptures to be formed into as the Epistle to the Hebrews must thus have been: the 

one collection appears to have been the Epp. of St. omission was probably due to scribal carelessness, a thing 

Paul. If we may regard z Peter as authentic, theu ^2*tf&J&t°S%£, Zfi&Sf fe£ 

even during their authors lifetime they were re- notices an "Apocalypse of Peter" wh. may possibly be our 

garded as authoritative and inspired (2 P. 3. 16 ). 2nd Epistle of Peter. 

The fact that they were " wrested," not declared There are two versions wh. cannot be dated later 
not to be of authority, proves how highly they were than the middle of the second century : the Latin 
regarded when opponents resorted to twisting their Vetus and the Syriac Peshitta. Tertullian's quota- 
words, not denouncing or ignoring them. In the tions from the former prove that it contained all our 
fourth decade of the second cent., Justin Martyr, bks. except Hebrews and 2nd Peter ; the want of 
in his first Apology, appeals to the Memorabilia quotations fm. the short and purely personal Epp. 
(A-pomnemone eumatd) of the apostles ; he quotes or of Phm. and 3 Jn. does not prove their omission, 
shows himself influenced by the language of every The latter did not contain Rv., 2 and 3 Jn., 2 P., 
chap, in the Gospel of Mw. His pupil Tatian Ju. When we come to the fourth century we have 
combined the fourfold narrative into one in the the evidence of Eusebius, wh. is specially valuable, 
Diatessaron. This quite independently of the fre- as he gives unconsciously the process by wh. bks. 
quent quotations found in the works of the early were admitted into the Canon. He divides the bks. 
Fathers. Clement of Rome {c. a.d. 98) quotes the wh. claimed to be authoritative into three classes : 
Gospels and Epp. repeatedly as authoritative ; the (a) Homologoumena ; (b) Antilegomena ; (c) Notha. 
same may be said of Polycarp and Ignatius. The The first class contained those bks. that were univer- 
early Christian writing, The Didache, seems to show sally admitted to be apostolic and authoritative ; 
that the writer was acquainted with the Gospel of the second, those whose claims were contested by 
Mw. ; prob. with that of Lk. also ; yet he refers to some ; the third, those whose spuriousness was in his 
the Gospel as if it were a writing to wh. they cd. day generally admitted. This division is founded 
apply and expect their hearers to do so also (i. 5). on one of Origen, with wh. it in the main coincides. 
When we proceed down the Christian centuries In the first are the Gospels, fourteen Epp. of Paul 
we find always clearer evidence that certain bks. (that is including Hebrews), 1 John, 1 Peter, and the 
were regarded as canonical and authoritative ; it is Apocalypse : in the second are the Epp. of James, 
further growingly evident that the books so distin- Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John : in the third the Acts 
guished coincided in the main with those that form of Paul, Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, Barnabas, 

713 Z2 



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Sea 



the 'leaching of the Apostles. As an appendix to 
this he mentions that some reject the bk. of Rv., a 
statement due to the faet that Dionysius of Alex- 
andria had suggested that it mt. have been written 
bv k ' John the Presbyter." * The evidence of the 
three great uncials represents Christian opinion in 
the century \vh. immediately followed the age of 
Eusebius. These may be regarded as bearing evi- 
dence in favour of our present Canon, with this 
exception, that, on the one hand, the Codex Vati- 
canus is defective fm. the loth chap, of Heb., and so 
it is without the Pastoral Epp. and Rv. (the Catholic 
Epp. are placed after the Gospels and the Acts, and 
before the Pauline Epp.). 

With the third Council of Carthage the Canon 
assumed permanently the elements we now have in 
it. The action of the Christian consciousness in re- 
gard to the sacred Scriptures is to be compared with 
that of the aesthetic consciousness of those who speak 
a language and its literature. In English no aca- 
demy decreed Shakespeare his supremacy, or placed 
Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, and many more, on high 
as indefeasible classics : their rank was recognised, 
and this recognition is shown by their necessary ap- 
pearance in every collection of English poets. Bythe 
end of the fourth cent, believers knew in their hearts 
what really afforded them spiritual nutriment, hence 
those bks. formed the Canon. It is true that the 
Fathers and the Councils thought they decided the 
question as to each bk. on the ground of apostolic 
origin. When the Holy Spirit, working on their 
spirits, had moved them to accept a bk., they strove 
to persuade themselves that an apostle had written 
it : hence it was that the Epistle to the Hebrews 
was so long among the Antilegomena, and so many 
had doubts of 2nd Peter. The greatest difficulty 
was the adjustment of this theory to the case of the 
second and third Gospels ; Mark and Luke were 
certainly not apostles, yet their Gospels were uni- 
versally recognised as authoritative. The device 
was adopted of regarding the writers as little more 
than the amanuenses of the apostles Peter and Paul 
respectively. While in the case of Mark there is 
nothing against this view to be. found in the bk. 
itself, Luke bears all the marks of being the result of 
independent thought and investigation. Although 
Jade, by appealing to the evidence of the apostles 
( 17 ), marks himself off fm. the Twelve, yet because 
there was a Judas, not Tscariot, among the apostles 
the cpi->tle was attributed to him, when the hesi- 
tancy produced by the quotations fm. Enoch and 
the A^umption of Moses was got over. The hesi- 
tancy of the Church to accept the claim 2 Peter 

• Julicher (/mire, to XT. p. 5261 is mistaken in maintaining 
thai Eusebius was willing, if so desired, to place ili<' Apoca- 
lypse among the Notha ; lojjic ought to have shown him 
us m ant that he was willing to degrade Rv. to 
• AntiUgomena instead of being when < 
■ I it, among bks. universally acknowledged. 



makes in its first verse, shows the important place 
external evidence had with them. Acceptance by 
the churches, as the unbroken succession of officials 
in these communities guaranteed a valid tradition, 
was the test of canonicity, as proving the apostolic 
origin of the bk. concerned : what it did prove was 
the universality of its application to spiritual needs. 
The fact that certain bks. — the Epp. of Clement, the 
Epistle of Barnabas, and the Pastor of Hermas — 
hovered for a time on the edge of canonicity, but 
were rejected, may be mentioned for the evidence 
of caution it gives. That the present Christian 
Canon represents the decision of universal Christian 
consciousness, carefully interrogated for three cen- 
turies, gives it a value it cd. never have derived 
fm. the mere imprimatur of any council, however 
ancient or however august. 

SCYTHIANS, a race inhabiting a vast district, 
including modern Poland and Southern Russia, both 
in Europe and Asia. They had the reputation of 
being the most uncivilised of peoples. The prin- 
cipal account of them is that given by Herodotus 
(iv. 99-102), who does not assign to them so large 
a territory. The Scythian is referred to by Paul 
(Col. 3. 11 ) along with Barbarian. 

SEA (Heb. yam). This word is used for the col- 
lection of the waters as distinguished from the dry 
land (Gn. 1 . 10 ). It is also used quite generally, with 
no refce. to any particular sea, as in Gn. I. 26 , " the 
fish of the sea " ; Ps. 107. 23 , " they that go down to 
the sea in ships," &c. We find that the name is also 
applied to such large bodies of water as are collected 
in the Euphrates (Is. 21. 1 , &c.) and the Nile (Is. 
18. 2 , &c). The mod. Egyptians still call their river 
" the sea," el-Bahr. " From sea to sea " (Ps. 72.8 ; 
Am. 8. 12 ) is prob. intended to cover the whole 
habitable earth. For the most part, however, 
when another sea is not definitely indicated, the 
Mediterranean is meant. This for Israel was " the 
sea " par excellence, the largest expanse of water 
with which they were familiar, the Great Sea (Nu. 
34. 6 ). It formed the western boundary of their 
land, and from many a height far inland glimpses 
were obtained of its shining breadths, stretching 
away to the setting sun. So largely did it bulk in 
their minds that in their speech the " west " and 
the " sea " were identified : so that when a man 
would say " westward " he said " seaward " (Ex. 
26. 22 ; Jo. 5.1 ; 1 K. y. 25 , &c). The Sea of the 
Philistines is of course the Mediterranean, from 
Jaffa southward, where it washes the Philistine sea- 
board. The Dead Sea is known bv various names. 
It ia the Sea of the Plain (Dt. 4 : i9 ; RV. " sea of 
the Arabah "). Again it is the Salt Sea (Jo. 1 q.-. 
&c). Sometimes both names arc given (Dt. 3. 1, ; 
Jo. 3. 18 ,&C.). It i<al<o the "former "or "eastern, " 
bayyam baq-qadmOn%, as distinguished from the 
" hinder " or " western " sea, bayyam bd^abarCn t 



714 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sec 



i.e. the Mediterranean (Zc. 14. 8 ; cp. Dt. 34. 2 ). 
The Red Sea, the scene of Israel's deliverance and 
the disaster to Pharaoh's host (He. n. 29 ), is in Heb. 
yam Supb, lit. " Sea of Weeds " (Ex. 13. 18 , &c). The 
name " Red " may be due to the colour of the coral 
wh. abounds ; or possibly to the red hues of the 
mountains on the northern horizons. Tarn Supb in 
EV. is invariably trd. Red Sea (Nu. 14. 25 , &c.j. The 
Sea of Chinnereth (Nu. 34. 11 ), or Chinneroth 
(Jo. 12. 3 ), is the Sea of Galilee, also known in the 
NT. as the Lake of Gennesaret (Lk. 5. 1 ) and the 
Sea of Tiberias (Jn. 21. 1 ). The Babylonian 775- 
mat, the primeval sea, suggests the Heb. Tebom, 
" the deep." Certain resemblances have been 
pointed out between the Babylonian cosmogony 
and that of Genesis ; along with striking differences 
(see Creation). There may be a survival of the 
primitive conception of the sea in Jb. 7. 12 , where it 
is represented as a great beast over wh. God sets a 
watch ; and in Dn. J. 3 , &c, where it figures as the 
prolific mother of monsters. Perhaps there is a re- 
flection of this in Rv. 20. 13 , where the sea gives up 
the dead that lie in its great maw. The sea is a 



iM * m 



4-J4-*- t> 



fl&fipAJFfH 



jRffsNH f: j# J* 



spur «r> jf& 



Signet of Orchamus, King of Ur 

figure of the turbulence of the wicked (Is. 57. 20 ), of 
instability (Js. i. c ), and of impotent rage (Ju. 13 ). 

The Hebrews were not a seafaring people. They 
were for the greater part of their history practically 
barred from the sea by the peoples holding the coast 
plain and cities. The absence of good natural har- 
bours made it less necessary for them to secure the 
seaboard. As they viewed it from a distance we 
can in a measure understand how, when they saw 
the splendours of the mighty mirror flashing in 
the glories of the sinking sun ; when they saw 
the billows breaking on the beach, and heard the 
thunder of the storm ; when the moaning of the un- 
quiet waters was borne to their upland ears like the 
sound of " sorrow on the sea " ; the Hebrews were 
impressed with a sense of its mystery and fear. We 
are not surprised, therefore, to find that in the 
Hebrew seer's description of the heavenly country 
there is " no more sea " (Rv. 2 1. 1 ). See Galilee, 
Sea of. 

SEA OF GLASS, THE. In the Apocalypse we 
have this figure twice, in 4. 6 and 15. 2 . The figure 
does not imply a sea smooth as glass, but a trans- 
parent solid on wh. the saints stood. The reference 
poss. is to Ex. 24. 10 and Ek. I. 26 . The picture may 
have been suggested by the appearance of the Sea of 

7 



Galilee with the fiery glow of the sunset lighting up 
its waves, and the white peak of Hermon looking 
down on it. 

SEAH. See Weights and Measures. 

SEAL (Heb. hotbdm, Gr. spbragis). Anciently 
all documents had to be authenticated by affixing 




a S. Herodotus (i. 195) and Strabo (xvi. 513) 
mention concerning the Babylonians, the ruling race 
in SW. Asia, that every man bore a staff and a S. ; 
many have been found, chiefly cylinders. In Egp. 
the scarab was used as a S. Very frequently the S. 
was set in a signet-ring. The material used in the 
ancient East for receiving the S. was clay ; now the 
S. is dipped in ink and applied to the paper. To 
entrust another with one's S. or signet, was to give 
him absolute power to act for the owner ; hence 
Pharaoh gave his ring to Joseph (Gn. 41. 42 ). Hence 
also seals were used for authentication (1 Cor. o,. 2 ; 
Jn. 3. 33 , 6. 27 ) and as marking property (Rv. J. 2 ). 

SEBA, son of Cush (Gn. io. 7 ; 1 Ch. I. 9 ), named 
in connection with Egp. and Ethiopia (Is. 43 . 3 ). In 
Is. 45 . 14 the inhabitants are described as " men of 
stature," who may, as Margoliouth suggests (HDB. 
s.v), be referred to in Is. i8. 2 - 7 . In Ps. 72. 10 it 
is mentioned along with Sheba, not as lying also 
in Arabia, but as representing far-off peoples. S. 
must clearly be sought in Africa. Strabo's refer- 
ence to a town of this name on the sea coast near the 
mod. Massowah may furnish a clue to its position. 
No ident. is vet possible. 




Seal-cylinder on Metal Axis 

SECACAH, a city in the wilderness of Judah (Jo. 
15. 61 ). It is not mentioned in OEJ. Conder sug- 
gests identification with Kbirbet ed-Dikkeh, which is 
also known by the name of Kbirbet es-Sikkeh, two 
miles south of Bethany. This is uncertain. 

SECHU, RV. SECU, a place near Ramah, men- 
tioned only in connection with David's visit to 

15 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sel 



Samuel (i S. 19. 22 ). There is no sure clue to its 
position. Conder thinks it may correspond to the 
mod. Khirbet Shuweikeh, south of Bireh. But per- 
haps we ought to read with LXX (B.), " He came to 
the well [or cistern] of the threshing-floor that is on 
the bare hill " (en to sephei), understanding a height 
within the city. 

SECOND COMING. See Parousia. 

SECT. See Heresy. 

SECUNDUS, a Christian of Thessalonica who, 
with Aristarchus, preceded St. Paul to Troas, and 
went with him to Jerusalem, possibly bearing con- 
tributions from the Macedonian churches to that at 
Jerusalem (Ac. 20. 4f - ; cp. 24. 17 ). 

SEED. The Heb. zero, 1 is used in its lit. sense 
of the seed whence vegetables grow (Gn. I. 11 , 47- 24 , 
&c). It is most frequently used, however, figu- 
ratively, of family or descendants. The first oc- 
currence in this sense is in the protevangelium (Gn. 
3. 15 ), " I will put enmity . . . between thy seed 
and her seed." The covenant was made with 
Abraham and his seed ; a term wh. St. Paul inter- 
prets of all who by faith prove their spiritual affinity 
with faithful Abraham (Rm. 4. 9ff -, &c). More 
specifically he applies it to Christ (Gal. 3. 16 ), in 
whom believers become one, and as " Abraham's 
seed," are " heirs according to the promise " (v. 29). 
St. Paul's argument from the use of the noun 
" seed " in the singular is probably due to the 
subtleties of his rabbinical training. The word 
never elsewhere occurs in the plural, either in OT. 
or NT., and the apostle himself uses the singular 
form with the plural meaning (Rm. 9. 7 , &c). The 
argument, therefore, does not logically establish his 
point. But " even rabbinical writers saw that ' the 
Christ ' was the true seed of Abraham. In Him 
the race was summed up, as it were. In Him it 
fulfilled its purpose and became a blessing to the 
whole earth. Without Him its separate existence 
as a peculiar people had no meaning. Thus He was 
not only the representative, but the embodiment of 
the race. In this way the people of Isr. is the type 
of Christ " (Lightfoot, Galatians in loc). In I Jn. 
3. 9 " unquestionably the cnrepfxa is . . . the new 
life-principle implanted by the Divine begetting " 
(Law, The Tests of Life, p. 389). For seed-time 
see Agriculture. 

SEER. See Prophet. 

SEGUB. (1) The youngest son of Hiel, the re- 
builder of Jericho (1 K. 16. 34 ). He may have been 
sacrificed, in accordance with a certain ancient 
custom ; but the context points rather to death as 
the result of an accident. (2) Son of Hezron, fr. 
of Jair(i Ch. 2. 21t ). 

SEIR (Heb. se c lr, " hairy," or " rough "). (1) A 
name applied to the land occupied by Esau (Edom), 
covering a wide district, wh. included the moun- 
tainous country to the SE. of the Dead Sea (Gn. 

7 



33- 14, 16 > 3 6 - 9 , &c) ; the highlands between the 
'Arabah and the south boundary of Israel (Jo. II. 17 , 
&c), where apparently dwelt the Amalekites (1 Ch. 
4. 42 ) ; while, according to Dt. 33.2, Seir extends to 
the neighbourhood of Sinai. The name probably 
applied specially to the district E. of the 'Arabah, 
occupied by the Horites, before the coming of Edom 
(Gn. 14. 6 ; Dt. 2. 12 , &c). (2) The name-father of 
the Horites (Gn. 36. 20 ). (3) Mt. Seir is named as 
on the border of Judah, near Kirjath-Jearim and 
Chesalon ; prob. part of the range wh. runs NE. 
fm. Saris, by Qaryat el l Anab and Biddu, to the 
plateau of el- Jib, on wh. traces are still to be found 
of the ancient forest (Jo. 15. 10 ). 

SEIRATH, RV. SEIRAH. A place, apparently 
in Mount Ephraim, to which Ehud escaped when he 
had killed Eglon, king of Moab (Jg. 3. 26 ). It has 
not been identified. 

SELA. The Heb. word Sela', denoting " rock," 
" cliff," or " stone," often occurs in Scrip. (2 Ch. 
25. 12 , &c). In some cases it seems to be a place- 
name. In Jg. I. 36 , some position near the S. end of 
the Dead Sea is required. Moore (Judges, p. 56) 
approves Buhl's identification with " the modern 
es-Safieh, a bare and dazzlingly white sandstone 
promontory, a thousand feet high." More prob. 
is the ident. with the easily fortified wall of rock on 
the way leading from mod. Tell el-Milh over the 
pass of Akrabbim towards Edom. This would also 
agree with the narrative in 2 K. 14. 7 . The Sela (see 
Jokteel) there named is by many identified with 
the famous city of Petra, taking its name " Rock " 
as simply a translation of the Heb. Sela 1 (cp. Is. 16. 1 , 
EVm. ; Jos. Ant. IV. vii. 1), the capital of the 
Edomites, and known in OT. as Bozrah (Am. I. 12 , 
&c). Wetzstein (Excursus in Delitzsch's Jesaia 3 ) 
thinks the full ancient name may have been Bosrat 
has-sela', " Bozrah of the rock cleft." Petra has 
been often described in recent years. The best 
account of this wonderful city will be found in 
Dalman's Petra und seine Felsheiligtumer (Leipzig, 
1908). Popular and interesting is that of Libbey 
and Hoskins, The Jordan Valley and Petra (New 
York and London, 1905). The ruins of Petra lie in 
a great hollow among the many-hued cliffs of Edom, 
at the base of Jebel Harun, c. 50 miles S. of the Dead 
Sea. The remains consist chiefly of temples and 
tombs, cut with great skill and infinite pains out of 
the living rock. While not wholly inaccessible from 
other points the main entrance to the valley (Wady 
Musa) is by a deep winding cleft in the wall of rock, 
called the Slk, in the bottom of which flows a 
stream from the east. The Slk is continued E. of 
the city, and the stream plunges over a deep preci- 
pice, making its way through the gorge to the 
'Arabah. Of great interest are the high places dis- 
covered in the neighbourhood of the ruins. The 
chief of these is figured under High Places. The 
16 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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place must always have been one of great strength ; 
but of its history we know little or nothing until it 
became the capital of the Nabataean Arabs, about 
B.C. 312-A.D. 105. At the latter date it was merged 
in the Roman province under Trajan. " The Rock " 




Petra: The Sik 

(Nu. 20. 8 , &c.) is of course the wall of rock at t Ain 
Qadis, whence the water flowed at the touch of 
Moses' rod. The rocky strongholds that abound in 
Pal. no doubt suggested the frequent figure of the 
Lord as " the Rock " of His people (2 S. 22. 2 , &c). 
SELAH, -a musical term wh. occurs only in the 



Psalms and Hb. 3. ; seventy-one times in the 
Psalms — seventeen times in the 1st bk., thirty in the 
2nd, twenty in the 3rd, and four in the 5th ; it is 
three times found in the Ps. of Habakkuk. In sixteen 
cases it occurs once in a Ps., in fifteen twice, in seven 
thrice, and in one Ps. four times. ■ It is always found 
at the end of a clause, almost always at the end of 
a verse, very generally at the end of a paragraph. 
The Tgg. render it by words meaning " for ever," a 
view that has no justification in etymology, and is 
manifestly unsuitable in a large number of cases. 
The translators of LXX render it by diapsalma, so 
also Thd. and Sym. There is no certain meaning of 
this word ; the most plausible interpretation is that 
it is a sign of repetition. Aquila follows the Tgg. ; 
the Psh. when it does tr., wh. is seldom, also does so. 
Jerome in the Vlg. omits S. altogether, but in his 
Commentary and the version of the Heb. connected 
with it he renders by semper. Although there can 
be no certainty, the most likely view seems to be 
that S. indicated a pause in the singing filled up 
with instrumental music. 

SELA-HAMMAHLEKOTH, "Rock of divi- 
sions," or " escape " (1 S. 23» 28 RVm.), a hill in the 
wilderness of Maon, apparently with precipitous 
sides, where David narrowly escaped capture by 
Saul. It is not identified. Conder thinks it should 
be sought in Wady el-Malaqi, wh. issues on the 
shore of the Dead Sea c. four miles S. of Engedi. 

SELED, son of Nadab, a descendant of Jerah- 
meel (1 Ch. 2. 30 ). 

SELEUCIA, a city on the Syrian seaboard near 
the mouth of the Orontes, the ancient seaport of 
Antioch, whence Paul and Barnabas embarked on 
their first missionary journey (Ac. 13. 4 ). It was 
built by Seleucus Nikator, in a position of great 
strength, at the base of Mt. Pieria (b.c 300). The 
harbour was about 660 yards in length and 450 in 
breadth, running into the plain, and protected by 
two great moles. A road connected the harbour 
with Antioch. It was favourably situated for in- 
tercourse with Cyprus and Asia Minor, and it played 
a considerable part in the commercial life of its time. 
It was taken by Ptolemy Euergetes, and recovered 
by Antiochus the Great. Pompey made it free 
(b.c 64). Impressive ruins still remain, both of the 
harbour and of the city. 

SEMEI, RV. SEMEIN, father of Mattathias in 
the genealogy of Christ (Lk. 3. 26 ). 

SENAAH. Among the people of the various 
towns who returned fm. exile with Zerubbabel are 
mentioned the children of S. (Ez. 2. 35 ; Ne. 7- 38 ). 
It appears with the article — " Hassenaah " — in Ne. 
3. 3 . The people may be identical with the Ben- 
jamite clan " Hasennah " (1 Ch. c>. 7 ). The site of 
the town is unknown. OEJ. mentions the village 
Magdalsenna, seven Rm. miles N. of Jericho, wh. 
may possibly be the place. 

17 



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Sep 



SENATE. The word gerousia (Ac. 5. 21 ) is used 
as explanatory of sunedrion, " council," which has 
just been used — " all the senate of the children of 
Israel " (see Sanhedrin). The word does not occur 
again in the canonical books. Gerousia is used of 
the Jewish Council in 2 M. I. 10 , 4.** ; while the 
Roman Senate is referred to in 1 M. 8. 17ff * Sena- 
tors (Ps. 105 . 22 ) are lit. " elders," zeqenlm. 

SENEH, the name given to one of the two im- 
posing cliffs between which ran the pass of Mich- 
mash (see Bozez). S. was on the south side of the 
gorge. The name means " acacia," and lingers 
still in the mod. Wddy Suweinlt, " valley of the little 
thorn tree." Conder gives an interesting explana- 
tion of why the northern cliff was called Bozez, 
" shining." 

"The great valley runs nearly due east, and thus the 
southern cliff is almost entirely in shade during the day. 
The contrast is surprising and picturesque between the 
dark coal colour of the south side, and the ruddy or 
tawny tints of the northern cliff, crowned with the gleam- 
ing white of the upper chalky strata. The picture is un- 
changed since the days when Jonathan looked over to the 
white camping-ground of the Philistines, and Bozez must 
then have shone as brightly as it does now, in the full light 
of an Eastern sun" {Tent Work, p. 256). 

SENIR was the name by wh. Mt. Hermon was 
known among the Amorites (Dt. 3. 9 AV. " Shenir"). 
s u Hermon " and " Senir," however, appear side by 
side in 1 Ch. 5. 23 and SS. 4A The latter term prob. 
denoted the northern part of the Antilebanon range. 
In this sense the name appears in an inscription of 
Shalmaneser. According to Yaqut, the Arab geo- 
grapher (c. a.d. 1225), Jebel Sanir is the range 
between Horns and Baalkek (Guy le Strange, 
Pal. under the Moslems, p. 79). Mas'udi (a.d. 943) 
speaks of Baalbek as in the district of Sanir (Guy 
le Strange, o-p. cit., p. 295). 

SENNACHERIB (Heb. Sanherlb, Asyr. Sin-akhi- 
irba, " the Moon-god has increased brothers," a 
name that indicates that S. was probably the third 
son), son and successor of Sargon. The death of 
his father was the signal for an uprising in Baby- 
lonia, so when he came to the throne in b.c 705 he 
had to begin a campaign and practically reconquer 
the country fm. Merodach Baladan. His next cam- 
paign was against Ellipi and Elam. The tributaries 
of his father in the west, probably in confederacy 
with the Babylonians, had refused tribute. He 
swept through Phoenicia, capturing all the cities but 
Tyre. Hezekiah appears to have been one of the 
prominent heads of the rebellion, as into his keeping 
was given Padi, the tributary k. of Ekron, deposed 
by the people. Most of the states surrendered 
and gave tribute, including Moab, Ammon, and 
Edom ; only Hezekiah and some of the Philis- 
tine states still held out. Tirhaka, k. of Egp. and 
Ethiopia, came to encounter S., but was defeated 
at Eltekeh. Meantime S. devoted his attention 
to Judaea ; the whole country was overrun, every 

71 



fenced city except Jrs. was captured. Hezekiah 
gave S. 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver. 
But. S. wd. not be satisfied with anything short of 
the surrender of Jrs. S. sent arrogant messages 
by his officers demanding this, alternately scoffing 
at God and claiming His commission. Fm. the 
speeches of Rabshakeh we see how perfectly the 
Asyr. Foreign Office kept itself acquainted with 
what was going on among its tributaries ; it was 
known in Nineveh that Hezekiah had taken away the 
high places of J". (2 K. 18. 22 ), and that this wd. be 
a cause of disaffection among the Jews. At length 
a terrible disaster overtook S., either on the con- 
fines of Egp. as Herodotus relates (ii. 141), or near 
Libnah, as one mt. deduce fm. the Scriptural state- 
ment. The mention of mice in Herodotus' account 
of the event has led some to suppose that the death 
of 185,000 of S.'s army was due to bubonic plague, 
wh. is spread by rats (see Disease). Of course there 
is no mention of this in the Annals of S. After 
his return he engaged in many campaigns, several 
against Babylonia, in wh. Merodach Baladan had 
again made his appearance, aided by the Elamites, 
and had secured the possession of Babylon. He 
was assassinated by two of his sons, Sharezer and 
Adrammelech (2 K. 19. 37 ). From the fact that 
the histories and inscriptions name only one son as 
murderer, unfair doubts have been thrown on the 
Scriptural narrative ; both mt. be engaged in the 
conspiracy — the less prominent mt. easily drop out 
of notice. 

Lit. : George Smith's History of Sennacherib. 

SENUAH, RV. HASSENUAH, father of Judah 
of the sons of Benjamin (Ne. n. 9 ). This clan is 
probably identical with " Hassenaah " of Ne. 3. 3 
(see Senaah). In 1 Ch. 9. 7 , AV. gives the name as 
" Hasenuah," RV. " Hassenuah." 

SEORIM, the fourth of the priestly courses which 
David instituted (1 Ch. 24.8). 

SEPARATION, WATER OF. See Red Heifer. 

SEPHAR. The dwelling of the sons of Joktan 
was " from Mesha as thou goest towards Sephar, the 
mountain of the east." This is prob. ident. with 
Zafar, on the coast of Shihr, to the E. of Hadra- 
maut. It is built at the base of a lofty mountain. 
Although now a poor vill., it is prob. of anct. 
date. 

SEPHARAD. Obadiah speaks of " the captivity 
of Jrs. wh. is in Sepharad " (v. 20). The inscrip- 
tions of Sargon (b.c 721-705) speak of Shaparda, in 
SW. Media, towards Babylonia, the identification of 
wh. with S., Fried. Delitzsch thinks " exceedingly 
probable " (Wo lag das Paradies P p. 249). If we 
assume, as certain critics do, the post-exilic date of 
this portion of the book, we may identify it with 
Qparda, a Persian satrapy in Asia Minor, mentioned 
in the inscriptions of Darius (COT. ii. 145 ; Sayce, 
Higher Crit. and the Monuments, 483). The Jews 



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(c-p. Tg.O.) identified S. with Spain, hence Spanish 
Jews are known as " Sephardim." 

SEPHARVAIM, lit. " the two Sippars," pro- 
bably correspond to the two cities of that name 
associated with the Sun-god and his consort Ananit 
respectively, which are known from the cuneiform 
inscriptions. Sippar of the Sun-god was discovered 
in 1 88 1 by Hormuzd Rassam. The site is now 
called Abu Habba, and lies on the Euphrates, about 
16 miles south-east of Bagdad. Search in the ruins 
of the temple has brought to light many monu- 
ments and tablets of great value. When Israel was 
taken captive Samaria was colonised from Sephar- 
vaim (2 K. Ij. 2i ' 31 ). Sennacherib boasts of the 
conquest of Sepharvaim despite the gods and the 
kings who sought to defend it (2 K. 18. 34 , 19. 13 ; 
Is. 3 6. 1 9, 37. 13 ). 

SEPTUAGINT ("Seventy," more correctly 
" Version of the Seventy "), the name ordinarily 
given to the oldest Greek translation of the OT., 
after a legend that it was the work of seventy (or 
rather seventy-two) persons (six from each tribe of 
Israel), summoned to Egypt for the purpose by King 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, who died B.C. 247. This 
story, with the names of the interpreters, is told in 
the Epistle of Aristeas (called by Josephus Aristaeus), 
a historical romance, ostensibly by King Ptolemy's 
envoy to the high-priest Eleazar, and the same 
person who had suggested to the king that the re- 
quest for translators should be preceded by a whole- 
sale emancipation of Jewish captives, which was 
carried out. The translators met on an island for 
seventy-two days, at the end of which time they had 
accomplished their task. A summary of the same 
story is given by Philo, who adds some details, as 
that a feast called Pharia was still kept in his time 
in commemoration of the event (the island where 
the work was done being Pharos) ; and another by 
Josephus. Since both these writers depend in the 
main on " Aristeas," the Epistle must be earlier 
than the first cent. a.d. ; and as it teems with im- 
probabilities and absurdities, it must be classed with 
a small library of fabrications made for the purpose 
of glorifying the Jewish race in the eyes of the 
Greeks, by Jews masquerading as Gentiles, whose 
date and locality cannot be easily identified. The 
date of this romance has often been placed (on very 
inadequate grounds) at about B.C. 200 ; if this were 
correct, considerable importance would attach to it, 
owing to its being so near Ptolemy's time ; but it is 
more probable that it is some generations later. A 
second authority for the connection of the LXX 
version with Ptolemy is another author of doubtful 
genuineness, Aristobulus, who in a letter addressed 
to Ptolemy Philometor (1 81-145) states that the 
complete translation was made under Philadelphus, 
but that there had been an earlier Greek version 
before the conquest of Alexander. A more serious 



authority for the existence of the LXX in the middle 
of the second cent, b.c is the translator of Ecclesi- 
asticus, who dates his arrival in Egypt B.C. 1 32, and 
mentions translations of the Law, the Prophets, and 
the other Books. These he clearly utilised for his 
own work, but he gives no hint concerning their 
origin. The Version of Esther is ascribed in a 
rather difficult colophon to one Lysimachus, son of 
Ptolemy, in Jerusalem, whose name does not figure 
in Aristeas' list ; the date at which the book is said 
to have been " introduced " is given as the fourth 
year of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, which might signify 
B.C. 201 or some much later year. The Jewish oral 
tradition preserves the name of Ptolemy in connec- 
tion with the translation of the Bible, but this may 
be derived from Aristeas also. The notion that the 
translation of any part of it was due to Philadel- 
phus' initiative is usually rejected now : (1) Because 
of the untrustworthy character of the authorities 
who state it ; (2) because the translation seems 
intended for Jewish rather than pagan readers ; 
(3) because the date of Philadelphus is rather too 
early for the need of a Greek version of the OT. to 
have arisen among the Jews. Probably the earliest 
parts may go back to about B.C. 200. If, however, 
it could be supposed that the translation had some 
connection with the attempt made by Onias in the 
middle of the second cent. B.C., to transfer the 
headquarters of Judaism from Jerusalem to Helio- 
polis, its date would have to be considerably 
brought down. 

Content of LXX. — The story of Aristeas ap- 
pears to recognise the translation of the Law only, 
though the next writer, Aristobulus (if genuine), im- 
plies that the translation included all the canonical 
writings of the Jews. Josephus also speaks of the 
Law only, but it is certain that he possessed and 
utilised the " LXX " translation of other parts of 
the Bible. As, however, both Jewish and Christian 
writers use the " Law " in the sense of the whole 
Canon, as well as of the Pentateuch, some uncer- 
tainty attaches to statements in which the phrase 
occurs. When Gentile Christianity spread, it in- 
herited a body of Jewish literature in Greek, some 
translated from the Hebrew and some original, and 
of the former portion some of authority among 
the Jews, some unauthoritative. The name " LXX 
version " came to stand for the older Greek version 
where there was more than one of the same book, 
and also to include works belonging to the same 
collection. At some date unknown to us the Jews 
purged their Canon, and works retained in the 
Greek (Christian) Bible, but not found in the 
Hebrew (Jewish) Scriptures, were called Apocrypha. 
It is noteworthy that the Apocryphal Esdras I. was 
utilised by Josephus and not Esdras II., which is the 
translation of the Hebrew Ezra. He also utilised 
1 Maccabees, though he would not have regarded it 



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as canonical. It is clear that the translations which 
ultimately became incorporated in the " LXX " 
accumulated during at least a century and a half, 
and probably a much longer period. The Prologue 
to Ecclesiasticus, quoted above, is the only trans- 
lator's preface which we possess, and is said to be 
the only Jewish writing belonging to the first two 
centuries b.c. which is not pseudepigraphic. 

Purpose of the LXX. — The translations made 
by Jewish scholars of their Scriptures into various 
languages (e.g. Arabic, Persian, German) have usu- 
ally been due to the desire to accommodate their 
religion to some extent to the national life surround- 
ing them, and have been executed when their com- 
munity has been recognised and placed on an 
honourable footing in their place of sojourn. The 
privileges which the Jews enjoyed in Egypt are 
sufficient to account for the undertaking ; but a 
written translation of the Scriptures appears to have 
been a great innovation, since, though Hebrew was 
equally unintelligible in Palestine and Egypt, the 
translations in use in the former country appear to 
have been oral and improvised, accompanying the 
original, whereas the Greek version was intended to 
oust the original, which it succeeded in doing ; for 
the eminent Alexandrian Philo, in the first century 
a.d., has clearly no knowledge of the Hebrew (which 
he calls Chaldee), and treats the Greek as inspired. 
It appears that the LXX version was used for public 
worship among the Greek-speaking Jewish com- 
munities. Of the horror which this innovation 
caused among the more conservative sections of the 
community the oral tradition of the Jews has some 
traces. A question which we have not at present 
the means of solving is when this Greek version was 
abandoned by the Jews ; for all the copies that have 
come down have passed through Christian hands. 
At first it would seem Jewish controversialists met 
Christian arguments by producing new translations 
from the Hebrew, but afterwards they resolved to 
destroy all books belonging to their community 
except the Hebrew and Aramaic canon. Hence it is 
that the Syriac OT. also, which in part at any rate 
was a Jewish production, has come down through 
Christian hands. 

Language of the LXX. — The Greek of the 
LXX version is in the main the dialect which was in 
use in Egypt at the period when the translations 
were made, and the study of contemporary papyri 
has shown that many idioms formerly supposed to 
be Hebraisms were in reality colloquialisms of the 
time ; several of the forms are such as are expressly 
condemned by the Atticists as vulgar Greek. It is 
perhaps observable that neither Philo nor Josephus, 
who both aspired to be Greek stylists, finds fault 
with the Greek of the LXX for being unclassical. 
If a Gentile would have had difficulty in under- 
standing it, this would be due to the literalness 



which caused many Hebrew constructions to be re- 
produced, but far more to the nature of the matter, 
which required the creation of a whole vocabulary. 
At times the translators cut the knot by translite- 
rating the original, e.g. sabbaton (Sabbath), geioras 
(proselyte), ephod (Jg. 8. 27 ), elloulim (" rejoicings," 
Jg. 9. 27 ), sabek (" thicket," Gn. 22. 13 ), pascha (Pass- 
over) ; the extent to which this expedient is em- 
ployed varies very much in different books. More 
often a conventional translation is adopted and 
maintained with fair consistency. The elaboration 
of this whole system of equivalents must have re- 
quired much time and thought, and rather suggests 
the labours of an official committee ; the bulk of it 
occurs in the Pentateuch, which in general is better 
rendered than any other part of the Bible. To 
some extent, the religious technicalities of pagan 
cults could be adopted, e.g. the words in use for 
" burnt - offering," " peace - offering," and some 
others connected with the priestly vocation. For 
others fresh compounds had to be invented. Care 
was also taken to obtain correct renderings for 
legal and medical terms, as well as such as belonged 
to the weaving, building, and other trades. 

It is worthy of note that all our authorities make 
the translators come from Jerusalem, where it seems 
unlikely that the requisite knowledge of Greek could 
have been obtained ; the translator of Ecclesiasticus 
who came thence, studied Greek learning in Egypt 
for a considerable time before he started translating. 
The difference between the language of his original 
prologue and that of his translation (which is in the 
style of the LXX) is very marked. Since the version 
of the Biblical books very frequently exhibits the 
employment of recherche and even poetical expres- 
sions, we must suppose that the translators, if they 
really came from Jerusalem, did as Ben-Sira's grand- 
son afterwards did, or, as would be equally natural, 
associated with themselves Alexandrian Jews who 
had enjoyed such training. 

Sources of LXX. — While all later versions of the 
OT. made use (directly or indirectly) of the LXX, it 
is uncertain what help the Greek translators had for 
the interpretation of the texts before them. The 
story of an earlier version (mentioned above) seems 
to have been a fiction, intended to account for the 
supposed use of the OT. by Plato and other philo- 
sophers ; but the custom of paraphrasing the text in 
Aramaic for the use of Palestinian audiences must 
have led to the perpetuation of traditional render- 
ings, whence the employment by the LXX of an 
Aramaic intermediate translation may in a certain 
sense be held. The difficulty that is evidently felt 
by them in dealing with solitary expressions shows 
that such help did not extend very far ; but that the 
Aramaic language was more familiar to them than 
the Hebrew is indicated by their frequently giving 
the words of the original their Aramaic sense — e.g., 



720 



I 



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Ps. 6o. 8 , "Moab is the pot of my hope," for "Moab 
is my washpot;" Is. 25. 8 , "He hath swallowed 
up death in victory," for " for ever," &c. Much in 
the way of interpretation must have been the result 
of original conjecture, made by comparing the un- 
intelligible words of the original with some other 
language known to the translators, or by speculating 
on the probabilities of the case. Cases of conjecture 
based on Greek etymologies occur — e.g. esch antes 
(hearth-cake), for the Hebrew eshpdr (2 S. 6. 19 ) ; 
phoreion (bier), for the Hebrew apiribn (SS. 3. 9 ), of 
which the latter may be correct ; these are not very 
frequent. They have often been credited with 
going (like most scholars from the sixth cent, a.d.) 
to the Arabic for the explanation of hard words, 
but it is doubtful how far this most valuable source 
would have been open to them : the examples pro- 
duced— e.g. Mi. I. 2 , "words," for the Heb. "all of 
them" (Arab, kaldm, for kulldtn) — are far from con- 
vincing. They appear occasionally to have obtained 
help from the Coptic language, where Egyptian 
matters are dealt with (so Achei for " rushes," 
Gn. 41 . 2 , where the Hebrew has a variety of the 
Egyptian name), but the Egyptian Jews appear 
ordinarily to have paid very little attention to this 
subject ; they went to Egyptian sources rather for 
archaeological information (e.g. Gn. 46. 28 , where 
" the land of Goshen " is rendered by " Heroopolis 
in the country of Raamses ") than for the explana- 
tion of words. Most frequently their conjectures 
are evidently based on a comparison of Hebrew 
roots, made with more licence than modern philo- 
logy approves. It must be confessed that in numer- 
ous cases modern scholarship cannot arrive at much 
more satisfactory results. 

Style of Translation.— According to Philo, 
whose account of the LXX is an exaggeration of 
the statements of " Aristeas," the Greek version is 
a mathematically accurate reproduction of the ori- 
ginal, its miraculous exactitude being attested by 
the fact that the seventy translators working inde- 
pendently all hit upon precisely the same renderings. 
This fable has the underlying truth that the LXX is 
on the whole a word for word translation, retain- 
ing the original order so far as the difference of the 
two idioms admits. There is, however, considerable 
divergence between the styles in which the different 
books are rendered : some, especially Job, being 
rather elegant paraphrases than literal translations, 
while in others, especially Ezekiel, the Song of Songs, 
and Ecclesiastes (thought by some to be Theodotion 
rather than the LXX) the literalness is extreme. 
Of differences between the Hebrew and the Greek 
which do not imply difference of text a large number 
explain themselves easily as due to differences of 
vocalisation of the same consonants — for the vowel- 
signs used in Hebrew were not invented till after the 
Moslem conquest ; while others are explained by 



confusion of similar consonants, of which in Hebrew 
there are geveral pairs (indeed triads) liable, owing 
to their similarity, to substitution by readers or 
writers (in modern times by printers) ; and trans- 
position of consonants is also of common occurrence 
where the writing is uncial (i.e. in separate letters). 
Thus the renderings " the raiders " for Sheba in 
Jb. I. 15 , and " the horsemen" for Chaldees in I. 17 , 
reveal their origin to any one slightly conversant 
with Hebrew. Considerable ingenuity has been 
devoted to the explanation of LXX renderings 
by these methods, and it is unlikely that much of 
the kind remains to be discovered. Further, even 
literal translators allowed themselves some licence 
in matters of small significance, e.g. the substitution 
of singular for plural and vice versa, the omission 
or insertion of conjunctions, &c. In the identifica- 
tion of geographical and ethnic names the office of 
translator coincides with that of commentator, and 
some variations from the original are due to archaeo- 
logical theory (an example was given above) ; other 
examples are the rendering of the Naamathites of 
Job and the Meonim of Chronicles by Minaeans (an 
Arabian community with whom recently discovered 
inscriptions have familiarised us), and that of Philis- 
tines by Hellenes in Isaiah 9. 12 . Other alterations 
are due to theological theory ; thus there is a decided 
tendency to banish anthropomorphisms from the 
text — a tendency which has left its mark on the 
original also in places : e.g. God " reflects " that He 
had made man (Gn. 6. 6 ), rather than " regrets " ; 
Moses, Aaron, and the elders see " the place where 
the God of Isr. stood," rather than "the Deity Him- 
self " (Ex. 24. 10 ), and Moses sees the " glory," rather 
than the " form " of the Deity (Nu. 12. 8 ). Expres- 
sions that might lead to serious misunderstanding 
are abo altered at times (e.g. Ps. 84. 11 , " the Lord is a 
sun "). It has been noticed that in some places the 
current interpretation of the text has been substi- 
tuted for the text — so in Lv. 19. 19 , "Thou shalt 
not sow thy vineyard with mingled seed," for " thy 
field," the prohibition being confined to vineyards 
outside Palestine, and in Dt. 25. 5 (the law of levi- 
ratic marriages), " if he have no seed," for " if he 
have no son," where the ordinary gloss made the 
word " son " include both sexes. Attempts that 
have been made to show the influence of Greek 
philosophy in the rendering of the text have been 
less successful. 

The Jewish tradition charges the LXX with wil- 
fully altering the text in a number of places, variously 
given as 13, 14, or 18, of which five are actually 
found in existing copies of the LXX. Of these the 
most interesting is their avoidance of the ordinary 
Greek word for " hare " (lagos), for which they 
substitute " shaggy-foot " ; for fear, we are told, 
of offending a king whose ancestor had that name, 
should he find it reckoned among unclean beasts. 



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Relation of Massoretic to LXX Text. — Besides 
the general alterations noticed in the last section, 
several books exhibit serious additions, omissions, or 
changes of order : in Jeremiah the order of the last 
half is seriously disturbed, while chaps. 33. 14 ' 26 and 
48. 45 " 47 are wanting ; in the Proverbs there are some 
considerable transpositions, T5. 30 -i6. 9 are mutilated 
and in disorder, and in chap. 9. there are additions 
after vv. 12 and 18 ; further in i8. 23 -I9. 2 the text 
diverges widely from the Hebrew. In the Psalms 9. 
and 10. form one, whence all followingare numbered 
one less than the Hebrew : 114. and 115. form one 
psalm, 113., but 116. is divided into two, and the 
same is the case with 147., whence the number 150 
would be maintained, only an apocryphal psalm, 
101., is appended. After 2 Ch. 35. 19 , 2 K. 23. 24 " 27 is 
inserted, and after 36 4 , 2 K. 2 3. 34 -24. 4 . There are 
some serious differences even in the Pentateuch : of 
Ex. 28. 23 " 29 the first three verses are omitted, and the 
remainder summarised. Ex. 35. 12 * 18 are summarised 
in a single verse ; 36. 8 ~39. 43 show serious transposi- 
tion. Further there is great divergence between the 
two texts in the books of Samuel and Kings. Some 
editorial matter is found at the end of the book 
of Job, some additions, apparently translated from 
Hebrew, at the end of Joshua, and considerable 
additions to the book of Esther. 

Of systematic alterations we may notice those in 
the ages of the patriarchs in Genesis, showing that 
the editors whose texts have come down had worked 
out independent systems of chronology. On the 
comparative authority of the Massoretic and LXX 
texts opinion has varied at different times. So long 
as the Jews were credited with the most scrupulous 
care for their national literature, the former was 
naturally preferred. But this supposition rested 
largely on the authority of Josephus, who declares 
that " during all these centuries no one had ven- 
tured to make the smallest alteration " in the text of 
the canonical books, but whose own profession of 
having accurately represented the OT. in his Ar- 
chaeology without addition or omission, shows that 
his notion of accuracy differed so widely from that of 
modern times that the supposed immutability would 
be consistent with what we should regard as most 
serious alteration. Modern criticism is therefore 
disposed to favour the LXX in many places against 
the Hebrew, chiefly owing (1) to the greater anti- 
quity both of the MSS. of the LXX and (of course) 
of the MSS. which the translators followed ; (2) to 
the strong reasons which we have for believing that 
all our copies of the Hebrew go back to one of no 
great antiquity, casually preserved, and illegible in 
places. In the matter of wilful alteration in favour 
of particular dogmas there is no reason to suppose 
one text freer from manipulation than the other. 
The banishment from most of the Hebrew OT. of 
any form that could have been represented in Greek 

72 



as Iesus, suggests that the Hebrew has been seriously 
tampered with in the anti-Christian interest. It 
would appear, moreover, that in comparatively late 
times Jewish scribes had a poor reputation for accu- 
racy as compared with those who made copies of 
the Qor'an. 

History of LXX. — Translations are more liable 
to wilful alteration than original texts, and there are 
signs that even in early times the practice of cor- 
recting the LXX from copies of the original was 
common : for we frequently get the same word 
rendered twice according to different views of its 
meaning or rdg. Other alterations were made by 
persons ignorant of Hebrew, who seemed to them- 
selves by a slight (sometimes palasographically legiti- 
mate) alteration to introduce a better sense : a good 
case is Ps. i6.(i7.) 14 , " they are gorged with swine's 
flesh " (hut ion), for " they are gorged with sons " 
(huion), where, however, the latter corresponds with 
the original. Justin Martyr (ob. about 163) attests 
the custom then in vogue of altering the Greek text 
to suit the needs of Christian controversy ; and the 
Jewish conviction that the LXX did not represent 
the Hebrew truly led to a series of fresh translations 
into Greek according to a variety of principles. 
Finally a critical edition was undertaken by Origen, 
who died about a.d. 254, at the port of Ca>sarea in 
Palestine. This work was to be a Corpus of materials 
for the restitution of the text, consisting of (1) the 
Hebrew in Hebrew characters ; (2) the same in 
Greek characters ; (3) the translation of Aquila ; 
(4) that of Symmachus ; (5) the LXX as revised 
by himself ; (6) the version of Theodotion. This 
work bore the title Hexapld, " sixfold," for which 
in some books " eightfold " was substituted, two 
further translations having been added. Critical 
marks were placed against the LXX column (after 
the style of the Alexandrian critics of Homer) to 
indicate passages found in the Greek with no cor- 
responding Hebrew, or passages introduced from 
Theodotionto supply gaps indicated by the Hebrew. 
The translation was moreover subjected to revision 
by himself to make it accord with the Hebrew. 
The vast size of the work prevented it being multi- 
plied, except for the LXX column, and the omission 
or corruption by subsequent scribes of the critical 
marks placed new difficulties before succeeding 
critics in the way of recovering the earlier LXX 
text. The work was issued by Origen in a somewhat 
abridged form, called Tetrapld (" fourfold "), the 
first two columns being omitted ; and the column 
containing the LXX was afterwards issued separately 
by Eusebius of Caesarea (ob. 340) and Pamphilus. 
The original work is said to have perished in the 
sixth cent, or later. Two later recensions of the 
LXX were executed by Lucian of Samosata (ob. 
311) and Hesychius (also ob. 311, if rightly identi- 
fied). The former of these recensions was made by 
2 



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Ser 



comparison with Hebrew MSS. as well as the later 
Greek versions : of the latter the scope is obscure. 
It is stated that the recension of Lucian was in use 
" from Constantinople to Antioch," that of Hesy- 
chius in Egypt, while that of Origen dominated in 
Palestine. When the spread of Christianity neces- 
sitated the translation of the OT. into other lan- 
guages, it was the LXX on which these new versions 
were based ; there is in Syr'iac a large portion extant 
of a Hexaplar version, i.e. a translation made from 
Origen's edition preserving his critical marks. The 
efforts of modern scholars have been directed partly 
to restoring these three ancient recensions, which 
are greatly confused in the MSS., partly to repro- 
ducing faithfully the more ancient MSS. and col- 
lecting the variants to be found in those of later 
date. Of the former the most famous are the 
cod. Alexandrinus A. (in the British Museum), the 
Vaticanus B., and the Sinaiticus S. Of all these 
facsimiles have been published. The most accurate 
edition is that of Swete, Cambridge, 1 887-1 894 ; see 
also Introduction to OT. in Greek, ibid. 1906. 
D. S. Margoliouth. 

SEPULCHRE. See Tomb. 

SERAH, the daughter of Asher (Gn. 46. 17 ; 1 Ch. 
7.30), called " Sarah " in Nu. 26. 46 . 

SERAIAH. (1) Scribe to king David (2 S. 8. 1 ?). 
In 2 S. 20. 25 the name appears as " Sheva," and in 
1 Ch. 18. 16 as Shavsha. If, as some think, he was a 
foreigner acting in matters requiring a knowledge 
of other languages, this may account for the varia- 
tions in the form of his name. (2) High Priest in 
Jerusalem, who was taken when the city fell, and 
put to death at Riblah by Nebuchadnezzar's orders 
(2 K. 25. 18 ). He was ancestor of Ezra (7. 1 ). (3) Son 
of Tanhumeth of Netophah, one of the " captains of 
the forces " who joined Gedaliah at Mizpeh (2 K. 
25. 23 ; Jr. 40. 8 ). (4) Son of Kenaz, brother of 
Othniel, and father of Joab (1 Ch. 4. 13f -)- (5) One 
of the chiefs of Simeon, and ancestor of Jehu (1 Ch. 
4. 35 ). (6) A leader who returned with Zerubbabel 
from Babylon (Ez. 2.2, &c), called " Azariah " (Ne. 
7. 7 ) and " Zacharias " (1 Es. 5. 8 ). (7) A priestly 
familv represented in the sealing of the covenant (Ne. 
io. 2 , &c), called " Azariah " (1 Ch. 9. 11 ). (8) Son of 
Azriel, sent by king Jehoiakim to take Baruch and 
Jeremiah (Jr. 36. 26 ). (9) Son of Neriah and brother 
of Baruch (Jr. 5i. 59ff *). He accompanied kingZede- 
kiah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Jere- 
miah entrusted to him the roll on which was written 
the doom of Babylon, charging him to sink it in the 
Euphrates, as a sign that Babylon should sink and 
not rise again. He was sar menuhah, a title variously 
rendered " quiet prince " (AV.), " chief chamber- 
lain " (RV.), " quartermaster " (RVm.). 

SERAPHIM. See Cherubim. 

SERED, son of Zebulun, father of the Seredetes 
(AV. Sardites [Gn. 46. 14 ; Nu. 2 6. 26 ]). 



SERGIUS PAULUS. See Paulus, Sergius. 

SERJEANTS. This is EV. tr. of pa/38ov X ot, 
" bearers of rods " = Lat. lictores, the officials who 
waited upon the Roman magistrates, carrying out 
their orders, and acting as executioners (Ac. i6. 35 » 38 ). 
The lictors carried over the left shoulder the fasces, 
the emblem of the magistrates' authority, consisting 
of " a bundle of rods of elm or birch, tied together 
by a red strap, and enclosing an axe, with its head 
outside." 




LlCTOR 

SERPENT (Heb. generic word nahash ; the 
word in Dt. 32. 24 really means " creepers " (in the 
dust) ; saraph is really the adj. " fiery " ; tannin is 
also trd. " whale," " dragon." In Gr. ophis is the 
generic word). There are a very considerable 
number of serpents in Pal. ; some four or five 
species are poisonous (the Cerastes, the Cobra, and 
the viper of several kinds), but a large number are 
innocuous. All, however, share the evil reputation 
of the race. The venomous species hide in crevices 
of walls, or sometimes in the hollow made by the 
print of the hoof of a horse or mule : these poisonous 
snakes are considered under Adder, Asp, Cocka- 
trice, and Viper. The serpent is introduced into 
the story of the Fall as the symbol of evil united with 
wisdom. The repugnance of the human race to 
the S. is probably a beneficial inheritance to protect 
us fm. the poisonous species. It was thus natural 
that it shd. become the symbol of evil. The idea 
arose to escape evil by propitiating the power that 
was behind it ; hence S. -worship, a form of super- 
stition widely spread. Good qualities were then 
attributed to the object of worship, especially the 
power of healing ; this may have had something to 
do with the choice of the Brazen Serpent as the 
means of curing the snake-bitten Israelites. The 
superficial resemblance between the S. and a fish 
will explain the contrast of Mw. 7. 10 . Serpent- 
charming is a practice common in the further E. 
and known in the Levant. The S. is sensitive to 
musical sounds, as are many other animals, and is 
attracted to the source of them. The most veno- 
mous are the most sensitive, but although the snake 



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Ser 



influenced by the charm is little irritable, many 
operators extract the poison fangs before they carry 
the S. about. The S. -charmer has a shrill pipe, on 
wh. he plays a monotonous tune ; soon the serpents 
he has brought with him in his basket begin to raise 
their heads and move them in rhythmic accordance 
with the cadence of the music. Sometimes with 
greater skill, and consequently able to dare more, 
the charmer goes to a ruinous wall in wh. he knows 
there is a S. and plays. The S. gradually glides out, 
then he seizes it in such a way that it is powerless, 
then when it has exhausted itself he puts it into one 
of his baskets. 




Egyptian Asp : Cobra 

SERUG, son of Reu, great-grandfather of Abra- 
ham (Gn. n. 20 , &c. ; Lk. 3 . 35 , AV. "Saruch"). 
Ancient traditions represent him as the originator of 
idolatry, and especially of the deification of the dead. 
Thus John of Antioch says : " Serug, of the race of 
Japhet, taught the duty of honouring eminent de- 
ceased men, either by images or statues, or worship- 
ping them on certain anniversaries as if still living, 
of preserving a record of their actions in the sacred 
books of the priests, and of calling them gods, as 
being benefactors of mankind. Hence arose poly- 
theism and idolatry " {Frag. Hist. Grcec. iv. 345). 

SERVANT. See SLAVE, SLAVERY. 

SERVANT OF THE LORD. The worshippers 
of a deity were regarded as his " servants " ; to em- 
phasise their recognition of this frequently names 
were given wh. implied this, e.g. Ebed-Tob, Ebed- 
Asherah, and Ebed-Sullim, in the Tell Amarna 
tablets; also Abed-Nego (Nebo) (Dn. I. 7 ). The 
Israelites claimed to be in this sense the servants of 
the Lord, as in Ps. 90. 13 , 102. 14 , &c. Names were 
given in the same way by the Jews ; Obadiah is a 
not infrequent name in Scripture, occurring thir- 
teen times. It is found on seals that have come 
down to us (KB. 592 abb. 170 ; HA. p. 285, fig. 
139). Over against the human self-designation as 
S. of the L. is the Divine designation of certain per- 
sons as His " servants." Thus the " prophets " are 
called by God His servants (Jr. 44*) ; so with in- 
dividual prophets as Isaiah (Is.' 20. 3 ) ; it is most fre- 



quently used as a designation of Moses (Jo. i. 1 ) ; 
J", frequently calls David " My servant " (Ps. 89.3). 
This designation is not restricted to those of 
Israelite birth, for Nebuchadnezzar is also so called 
(Jr. 25 w 9 , 27. 6 ). A usage common with some of the 
prophets, as Isaiah and Jeremiah, is to call the nation 
collectively, as Jacob or Israel, the S. of the L. As 
the title Son of Man, in its first meaning, was 
applicable to every human being but became the 
special and peculiar title of our Lord, so with this. 
In the second Isaiah there is a group of passages 
(42. 1 - 4 , 49. 1 ' 6 , 50. 4 " 9 , 52. 13 — 53. 12 ) wh. are intensely 
personal in their reference, and have been by all 
Christians in more recent times regarded as Mes- 
sianic. It wd. be waste of time to attempt to con- 
sider all the suggestions that have been hazarded to 
avoid the Christian conclusion as old as Philip the 
Evangelist, but we may refer to one or two of them. 
An old Jewish interpretation was that it was the 
ideal Isr., the righteous kernel of the nation, that 
was here intended ; but he is to " restore the pre- 
served of Isr." (Is. 49- 6 ), in other words he is to 
restore himself ! The truth is the whole description 
is too intensely personal and individual to make 
any idea of personification at all plausible. Conse- 
quently critics have devoted their attention to find 
some individual who will fit the description ; a 
favourite has been Zerubbabel (Kittel), who so far 
as the record goes seems a somewhat colourless 
personage, put into prominence by his Davidic de- 
scent ; he neither was unjustly condemned nor was of 
mysterious origin (53- 8 ) ; he was not " despised nor 
rejected " by the Jews, nor did they " hide their 
faces fm. him "(53- 3 )- With greater plausibility it 
may be suggested (G. A. Smith) that Jeremiah is 
intended, as he certainly suffered imprisonment ; 
but the S. of the L. is put to death by an unjust de- 
cision of a court (53- 8 ), and nothing of that kind be- 
fell Jeremiah ; in no sense cd. it be said of Jeremiah 
by the Jews, " by his stripes we are healed " (53- 5 ). 
An extraordinary suggestion has been recently made 
that the S. of the L. was Cyrus (T. H. Weir) ; the 
typical Eastern conqueror had little in common 
with the sufferer who " is brought as a lamb to the 
slaughter." The idea that the Servant is Eleazar of 
2 Maccabees (Bertholet), and Cheyne's Jerahmeelite 
theory, are defended by unjustifiable triflings with 
the text. The final word of criticism is that of 
Duhm, that it is an insoluble problem. An incor- 
rect theory of the nature of Prophecy hinders these 
critics fm. recognising how completely and per- 
fectly the Messianic interpretation and its applica- 
tion to our Lord fits every feature of the picture. 

SETH, the son of Adam and Eve, born after the 
murder of Abel (Gn. 5- 3 " 8 ), and father of Enos. 
The bk. of Jubilees (4. 11 , Schodde) assigns him as his 
wife his sister Azura. A sect of Gnostics assumed the 
name Sethites, the precise tenets of wh. cannot be 



724 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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ascertained with any definiteness ; by the Fathers 
they were associated with the Ophites. 

SETHUR, son of Michael, who represented 
Asher among the spies (Nu. 13. 13 ). 

SETTLE is EV. tr. of 'azarab in Ek. 43. 14 « 17 > 20 , 
4.5 . 19 , where it is applied to the ledges (v. 14, RVm.) 
above the base, on wh. the cubes of the altar rested. 
Elsewhere (2 Ch. 4.°, 6. 13 ) the word is trd. " court." 

SEVENEH. S^Syene.. 

SHAALBIM, a town from wh., with Mount 
Heres and Aijalon, the Amorites had driven the 
children of Dan (Jg. I. 35 ). It is named with Makaz 
and Beth-shemesh in one of Solomon's commis- 
sariat districts (1 K. 4- 9 ). Possibly the same place is 
intended by Shaalabbin (Jo. 19. 42 ) and Shaalbon 
(2 S. 23. 32 , &c). Selbif, c. eight miles N. of Beth- 
shemesh, may represent the ancient town. 

SHAALIM, LAND OF, AV. SHALIM. Poss. we 
shd. here (1 S. c;. 4 ) read Shaalbim. Guthe thinks it 
may be ident. with Shual, and would then place it 
between Deir Dlzvan and et Taiyibeh. 

SHAAPH. (1) Son of Jahdai (1 Ch. 2. 47 ). (2) 
Son of Caleb, brother of Jerahmeel (1 Ch. 2. 49 ). 

SHAARAIM, SHARAIM. (1) A town in the 
Shephelah of Judah (Jo. 15. 36 ), named along with 
Adithaim and Gederah. It is mentioned on the 
route taken by the Phil, in their flight from the vale 
of Elah (1 S. 17. 52 ). It may be ident. with mod. 
Sa'ireh, c. two miles W. of Beit ( Jtab. (2) An un- 
identd. town in Simeon (1 Ch. 4. 31 ) = Sharulien (Jo. 
19. 6 ), and Shilhim (15. 32 ). 

SHAASHGAZ, chamberlain of Ahasuerus the 
Persian king, who had charge of the concubines 
(Est. 2. 14 ). 

SHABBETHAI, a Levite who was active in the 
matter of the men who had married foreign wives 
(Ez. io. 15 ), called " Sabbatheus " (1 Es. 9. 14 ). He 
was one of those who " gave the sense " of the 
law when it was read to the people (Ne. 8. 7 ). He 
shared the oversight of " the outward business of 
the house of God " (Ne. II. 16 ). 

SHACHIA, a Benjamite, son of Shaharaim 
(1 Ch. 8. 10 ). 

SHADDAI, a title of God, EV. tr. " Almighty," 
described as the primitive name (Ex. 6. 3 ). In the 
LXX Shaddai is generally left untranslated, save in 
Jb., in wh. are to be found nearly a third of the cases 
of its occurrence ; it is almost half the times trd. 
pantokrator. The precise force of the title may be 
regarded as somewhat doubtful. 

SHADRACH, the Babylonian name of Hana- 
niah, one of Daniel's three companions (Dn. I. 7 ). 
Delitzsch explains S. as equivalent to Shudur- 
Aku, " the command of Aku " (the Sun-god). See 
Daniel. 

SHAGE, father of Jonathan the Hararite (1 Ch. 
II. 34 ). In 2 S. 23. 33 he is called Shammah. 

SHAHARAIM, a Benjamite (1 Ch. 8. 8 ). 

7 



SHAHAZIMAH, properly SHAZUMAH, a 
town in the territory of Issachar, probably to the 
SE. of Tabor (Jo. 19. 22 ) : not identified. 

SHALEM (" peace "). Jacob, returning from 
Haran, " came to Shalem " (RV. " came in peace "), 
a city of Shechem. AV. is probably right, and S. 
may be represented by the mod. vill. Salim, c. four 
miles E. of Nablus, wh. lay in the way of Jacob's 
approach from the Jordan valley (Gn. 33. 18 ). 

SHALISHA, a district in Mt. Ephraim through 
wh. Saul passed in search of his father's asses (1 S. 
9 4 ). There is no clue to its position. " Beth- 
Shalisha " (2 K. 4« 42 ) may have given its name to 
the region. 

SHALLECHETH, THE GATE OF (1 Ch. 
26. 16 ), a gate of the Temple otherwise unknown. 

SHALLUM. This name occurs frequently in 
Scrip. Here we need mention only (1) The son of 
Jabesh, who assassinated Zechariah, son of Jero- 
boam II. His " reign " cd. be little more than 
nominal. A month later he was himself slain by 
Menahem, son of Gadi, who marched against him 
from Tirzah, having probably made insurrection at 
the same time (2 K. 15.). (2) The fourth son of 
Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his fr. and 
prob. at his coronation took the name Jehoahaz 
(Jr. 22. 11 ; 1 Ch. 3. 15 ; cp. 2 K. 23. 3 <>- 33 ; 2 Ch. 36. 1 - 3 ). 
(3) Husband of Huldah the prophetess (2 K. 22. 14 , 
&c). (4) Son of Kore, head of the Korahite gate- 
keepers (1 Ch. 9. 17 « 19 > 31 ). He is prob. ident. with 
Meshelemia (26. 1 , &c), and Shelemia (26. 14 ). 
(5) Son of Zadok, and fr. of Hilkiah, in the list of 
High Priests (1 Ch. 6. 12f - ; Ez. 7. 2 ). 

SHALLUN, son of Col-hozeh, who assisted 
Nehemiah in repairing the walls, &c. (Ne. 3. 15 ). 

SHALMAI, RV. SHAMLAI (Ez. 2 46 ; Ne. 7. 48 
[RV. Samlai]), ancestor of a family of Nethinim 
who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel ; 
called " Subai " (1 Es. 5. 30 ). 

SHALMAN, the conqueror of Beth-Arbel (Ho. 
io. 14 ), most probably Shalmaneser II. (see next 
article) ; as we have no clue to the city S. sacked we 
can have no certainty as to the person. We may 
not assume that it was in Pal., or that it was either 
the Arbela (Irbid) of Galilee or that of Gilead. 
There was a more famous Arbela E. of the Euphrates, 
made illustrious by Alexander's victory ; the special 
horror mt. spread the news to Israel. Schrader 
(COT. ii. 140) thinks a Moabite k., a tributary of 
Tiglath-Pileser, is intended, but of his history 
nothing is known. 

SHALMANESER, the name of several Asyr. 
kings, but only S. IV. is directly referred to in 
Scripture. He succeeded Tiglath-Pileser, and on 
ascending the throne assumed the name Shalmannu- 
asarid (Shalmaneser). Shortly after his accession S. 
made an expedition into Western Syria, and Hoshea, 
k. in Samaria, became tributary. However, S. soon 

25 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sha 



discovered that his vassal was intriguing with So, 
k. of Egp. ; having wiled him into his power, S. de- 
posed and put Hoshea in prison. The loss of their 
k. did not overwhelm the people ; for three years 
they maintained the defence of Samaria. Before 
the inhabitants had been compelled to surrender, 
S. himself died ; poss. he was assassinated. He was 
succeeded by Sargon, who, as he claims no relation- 
ship to S., was founder of another dynasty. 




Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser 

SHAMA, one of David's mighty men, son of 
Hothan of Aroer (i Ch. 1 1 , 44 ). 

SHAMARIAH, RV. SHEMARIAH, son of 
Rehoboam, his mr. being Abihail, the daughter 
of Eliab( 2 Ch. ii.is). 

SHAMBLES (i Cor. io. 25 ) did not mean, as it 
does with us, the place where cattle are slaughtered, 
but the market where meat and other provisions 
were exposed for sale. 

SHAMED, RV. SHEMED, son of Elpaal, a Ben- 
jamite (i Ch. 8. 12 ). 

SHAMER, RV. SHEMER. (i) A Merarite 
Levite, and ancestor of Ethan (i Ch. 6. 46 ). (2) 
An Asherite, son of Heber (1 Ch. 7. 34 ), called 
" Shomer " (v. 32). 

SHAM GAR, the son of Anath, is named after the 
time of Ehud for a heroic exploit in wh. he slew 600 
Philistines with an ox goad, thus saving Israel ; 
but it is not said that he " judged " Isr. (Jg. 3. 31 ). 
It has been said that in chap. 5. 6 he " appears to be 
a foreign oppressor." For this there is no founda- 
tion. The name is prob. Assyrian. It is ident. 
with " Samgar " in " Samgar-nebo " (Jr. 39- 3 ), the 
name of the deity being dropped. " Anath " is = 
anatu, the wife of the Assyr. god Anu. " The 
tablets of Tel el-Amarna have explained how 
Assyrian names came to be imported into Canaan, 

72 



and Anath, as we see fm. the existence of a Beth- 
anoth, ' temple of Anat,' had been worshipped 
within the territory of the tribe of Judah " (Sayce, 
Higher Crit. and the Mon., 308). 

SHAMHUTH, the fifth captain for the fifth 
month in the army as organised by David (1 Ch. 
27« 8 ). See Shammah (4). 

SHAMIR. (1) A city in the hill country of 
Judah (Jo. 1 5 . 48 ), near Jattir. It may be ident. with 
Khirbet Somerah, c. 12 miles SW. of Hebron, an 
ancient site with remains of walls, tombs, cisterns, 
&c. (2) A city in Mount Ephraim, the home of 
Tola, son of Puah, who judged Israel after Abime- 
lech (Jg. 1 o.i). Schwarz suggested identification 
with Sanur, a vill. occupying a striking position on 
the road, eight miles S. of Jenin. (3) The name of 
a Levite, son of Micah (1 Ch. 24. 24 ). 

SHAMMA, son of Zophar, an Asherite (1 Ch. 

7- 37 )- 

SHAMMAH. (1) Son of Reuel, grandson of 
Esau (Gn. 36.1 3 , &c). (2) Br. of David, third son 
of Jesse (1 S. 16. 9 ). He went with his two elder 
brothers with Saul to battle with the Phil. (17. 13 ). 
He appears in 2 S. 13. 3 as Shimeah, fr. of Jonadab, 
who is described as " a very subtil man," with whom 
Amnon, his friend and cousin, takes counsel ; and in 
2 S. 21. 21 (RV. Shimei) as father of Jonathan who 
slew a Gittite giant. In 1 Ch. 2.1 3 he is called 
Shimma (RV. Shimea), and in 20. 7 Shimea. 
(3) Son of Agee the Hararite, one of David's mighty 
men. His renown rested upon exploits of singular 
gallantry. A foraging troop of Phil, drove the 
Israelites fm. a field of lentils, but S. refused to fly, 
and by his bravery turned defeat into victory (2 S. 
2 3- llf ')- He was prob. one of the three who brake 
through the ranks of the Phil., and brought David 
water fm. the well of Bethlehem (vv. I4n\). In 
I Ch. 1 1 . 12fl * Shammah's feat is credited to Eleazar, 
son of Dodo [c-p. 2 S. 23. 9ff -). In 2 S. 23. 32 we shd. 
read "Jonathan son of Shammah." 1 Ch. n. 34 
makes Jonathan the son of Shage. This has arisen 
from confusion with Agee. (4) Shammah the 
Harodite, one of David's distinguished soldiers (2 S. 
23. 25 ). We shd. read " Harodite " for " Harorite " 
in 1 Ch. II. 27 , where the name is given as Sham- 
moth. In 1 Ch. 27. 8 it appears as Shamhuth. 
Perhaps " Hararite " (2 S. 23. 11 ) should be " Haro- 
dite," in wh. case (3) and (4) wd. be one and the 
same man. 

SHAMMAI. (1) A descendant of Jerahmeel 
(1 Ch. 2. 28 » 32 ). (2) Son of Rekem, and father of 
Maon, i.e. prob. founder of that city (1 Ch. 2. 44f -). 
(3) A Judahite (1 Ch. 4. 17 ). 

SHAMMOTH. See Shammah (4). 

SHAMMUA. (1) Son of Zaccur, who repre- 
sented Reuben among the spies (Nu. 13. 4 ). (2) Son 
borne to David by Bathsheba (1 Ch. 14. 4 ), called 
Shammuah (2 S. 5. 14 AV.) and Shimea (1 Ch. 3. 5 ). 
6 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sha 



(3) A Levite, father of Abda (Ne. II. 17 ), called boundary is indefinite. It runs from about Jaffa to 
Shemaiah, father of Obadiah (1 Ch. 9. 16 ). (4) Head the foot of the mountains, between wh. and the sea 
of the priestly family of Bilgah (Ne. 12. 18 ). the plain stretches northward along the coast to 

SHAMSHERAI, a Benjamite, son of Jeroham Carmel. It is covered with deep, rich soil, and 
(i Ch. 8. 26 ). wherever cultivated it yields abundant returns. 

SHAPHAM, the second in authority in the tribe Wonderfully beautiful are the many-hued flowers 
of Gad (1 Ch. 5. 12 ). that besprinkle it in the early year. Four perennial 

SHAPHAN (" coney "), son of Azaliah, father of streams cross the plain to the sea : Nahr el- l Aujeh 
Ahikam, and grandfather of Gedaliah, scribe to in the S., Nahr Iskanderuneh, Nahr Mufjir, and 
Josiah, probably somewhat like, mutatis mutandis, Nahr ez-Zerqa, or Crocodile River, just under Car- 
our Chancellor of the Exchequer : he was deputed mel. They are all sluggish, flowing through marsh- 
to arrange concerning the expenditure in the repair land to the sea. Plentiful supplies of water are 
of the Temple. It was to S. that Hilkiah de- found on digging at almost any point in the plain. 
livered " the book of the law " wh. he had found Several of the old Crusaders' wells are still in ex- 
in the Temple ; and it was he that " read it before cellent repair, and doing good service — like that 
the king." It has been assumed without evidence at Qalansaweh. The soil is largely uncultivated 
that this consisted solely of Deuteronomy. S. was to-day, serving, as it has done fm. of old, as pasture- 
one of the deputies sent to consult Hulda the land (1 Ch. 2J. 29 ; Is. 65. 10 ). But the gardens and 



prophetess (2 K. 22. 3 " 14 ; 2 Ch. 34, 8 ' 20 ). 



orange groves of Jaffa are luxuriant and fruitful, and 



On the name Shaphan, W. R. Smith built an ingenious afford ample proof of its fertility. Olives abound 
theory that it pointed to the remains of totemism amcng around Ramleh and Ludd. In the north there are 
the Jews ; yet to the present day men have animal names -11 . f 1 orient oak forests Of nlares be- 

given them in the E. without any thought of the totem of stm 5 raCCS °* tlie ancleI l t oa * lO rests : _ UI P laceS De 
the clan ; the name is given now in the hope that the longing to Sharon, which took positions of lmpor- 
animal's peculiarities may be possessed by the child. A tance at different times, may be mentioned Jaffa, 
girl is called Tabitha in the hope that she may be as ^ -n, 1 • -,->. j A ■> -,- ■■, / 

graceful as a " gazel'e " ; or a boy is called AW, with the Caesaraea-Palestma, Dor, and Athlit, on the shore ; 

Aphek, Antipatris, and Lydda inland. See Rose 
for Rose of Sharon. (2) S. occurs (1 Ch. 5. 16 ) 



desire that he may be fierce and agile as the "leopard 
the belief is that in some way the name tends to pro- 
duce the desired result. This is equally superstition, but 
totally different fm. totemism. Then there is the case of 



without the article, as the name of a district occu- 



nicknames to be considered; even the name "David" is pied by Gad E. of the Jordan, apparently to the 
poss. of that nature, as also "Solomon." K of Bashan# g^ following LX X, suggests 

SHAPHAT. (1) Son of Hon, who represented « Sirion," wh. (Dt. 3. 9 ) is Hermon. S. wd. then 
Simeon among the spies (Nu. 13. 5 ). (2) Father of re fer to the pasture grounds of Hermon. (3) In Jo. 
the prophet Elisha (1 K. 19. 16 , &c). (3) Son of I2 .i8 we stld> pro bably read "king of Aphek in 
Shemaiah, in the line of David (1 Ch. 3. 22 ). (4) A Sharon." This might point to a Sharon NE. of 
Gadite chief (1 Ch. 5. 12 ). (5) Son of Adlai, who Tabor, of wh, OEJ. speaks. If so, the name may 
had charge of David's oxen (1 Ch. 27. 29 ). be preserved in the mod. Sdrona, on the plateau, 

SHAPHER, RV. SHEPHER, an unidentified " 
station of the children of Isr. in the wanderings 
(Nu. 33. 23f -). 

SHAPHIR. See Saphir. 

SHARAI is named only as having married a 
foreign wife (Ez. io. 40 ). 

SHARAIM. See Shaaraim. 

SHARAR. See Sacar. 



SW. of Tiberias. See Lasharon. 

SHARUHEN. See Shaaraim (2). 

SHASHAI, a son of Bani, who had married a 
foreign wife (Ez. io. 40 ), called " Sesis " (1 Es. c>. 34 ). 

SHASHAK, a Benjamite (1 Ch. 8. 14 ). 

SHAUL. (1) S. " of Rehoboth by the river," 
an ancient king of Edom (Gn. 36. 37 , AV. " Saul " ; 
I Ch. 1 48f- ). (2) Son of Simeon by a Canaanitish 



SHAREZER, the s. of Sennacherib and, with woman (Gn. 46. 10 , &c), whose descendants were 
Adrammelech, his murderer (2 K. 19. 37 ; Is. 37. 38 ). known as the Shaulites (Nu. 26. 13 ). (3) A Koha- 
Only his br. is mentioned in the Bab. Chron. as the thite Levite (1 Ch. 6. 24 ), called " Joel " (v. 36). 



murderer. The name as it stands is incomplete 
there is a s. of Sennacherib called Sar-eti-utsur, a 



SHAVEH, THE VALLEY OF (Gn. 14. 17 ), the 
place where Melchizedek and the king of Sodom 



name that became S. in transcription. Moses of me t Abraham. It is " the king's dale," in wh 



Chorene names two assassins whom he calls Adra 
melus and Sanasarus ; however, he may be borrow 
ing fm. the Heb. record. S. mt. be relatively in 



Absalom erected his memorial pillar (2 S. 18. 18 ). 
It was most likely the wide depression at the head 
of the valley, now called the Tyropceon. See 



conspicuous, and therefore omitted fm. the Bab. Jerusalem. 

Chron - SHAVEH KIRJATHAIM, the scene of the de- 

SHARON (Heb. hash-Sharon). (1) The Gr. feat of the Emim by Chedorlaomer and the kings 
Sarbn (Ac. c;. 35 ) is preserved in the name of the that were with him (Gn. 14. 5 ). The place prob. 
German colony at Jaffa, " Sarona." The southern took its name from Kirjathaim (i). 

727 



Sha 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



She 



SHAVING. Several Heb. words are trd. " to was not fulfilled. Pursued by Joab, in command of 

shave " in EV. (i) Gdzaz, " to cut," or " shear " the tardily brought army of Judah, Sheba, joined 

(Jb. I. 20 ). (2) The piel of galah, " to be bald " only by the men of his own clan (for " Beerites," 

(Nu. 6. 9 , &c.) : the pual also meaning " to shave 2 S. 20. 14 , we shd. read " Bichrites "), shut him- 

oneself " (Lv. 13. 33 ). (3) The phrase " to cause a self up in Abel Beth Maacah. Joab at once in- 

razor to pass over " (Heb. l abar ta'ar, Nu. 8. 7 ). vested the town, and was clearly on the point of 

Shaving was practised in Egypt in early times, taking it, when, on the advice of a wise woman, the 

Herodotus tells us that the priests shaved the hair townsmen cut off Sheba's head and cast it over the 

off their heads (ii. 36), and indeed off their whole wall to Joab. The rebellion was thus promptly and 

bodies (37). Like Joseph (Gn. 41. 14 ), the Israelites effectively quelled (2 S. 20.). (2) A Gadite chief 



(1 Ch. 5. 13 ). (3) " Sheba " in Jo. 19. 2 is possibly 
a repetition of the last part of the preceding name. 
See also Sab^ans. 

SHEBAH (Heb. shib'ah, lit. " oath "), the name 

let the hair grow. Neither Moslem nor orthodox of the well dug by Isaac's men at Beersheba 

Jew will allow his beard to be shaven in normal cir- (Gn. 26. 33 ). 

cumstances. " The shaven one " is a term of re- SHEBAM, RV. SEBAM, a city in the territory of 

proach with the Arabs. But in fulfilment of a vow Reuben, named between Elealeh and Nebo (Nu. 



may have followed this practice there. 

Among the Hebrews, as among the Arabs to-day, 
shaving the head was a sign of mourning (Jb. I. 20 , 
&c). The Egyptians, on the contrary, in sorrow 



the hair may be shaven off the head (Ac. 21. 24 ). 
See also Hair. 



32. 3 ). It also appears as Shibma, v. 38, and Sibma 
(Jo. 13. 19 , &c), in the midst of a famous vine- 



SHAVSHA is not a Hebrew name. The bearer growing country (Is. 16. 8f - ; Jr. 48. 32 ). It is pos- 
was prob. not an Israelite. He may have been the sibly = Sumia, two miles fm. Keshan, on the S. side 
king's foreign " secretary " (1 Ch. 18. 16 , RVm.) : of the wady. The ancient remains are consider- 
that is, he may have conducted the necessary cor- able. These are described by Conder (Survey of 
respondence with foreign courts. The name seems Eastern Pal., PEF. pp. 22 iff.). Rock-cut wine- 



to have given the copyists some trouble. It ap- 
pears as Seraiah in 2 S. 8. 17 ; Sheva in 2 S. 20. 25 ; 
and Shisha in 1 K. 4A 



presses are found in the neighbouring slopes. 

SHEBANIAH. (1) One of the Levites who 
took part in the recital recorded in Ne. 9 4ff - 



SHEAL, one who had married a foreign wife (2) One of the priests who sealed the covenant 

(Ez. io. 29 ), called " Jasael " (1 Es. 9. 30 ). (Ne. io. 4 , 12. 14 ), called " Shechaniah " in Ne. 12. 3 . 

SHEALTIEL. See Zerubbabel. (3) A Levite who sealed the covenant (Ne. IO. 12 ). 

SHEARIAH, son of Azel, a descendant of Saul (4) A priestly trumpeter (1 Ch. 15. 24 ). 
(1 Ch. 8. 38 , 9 44 ). SHEBARIM, a place on the route taken by the 

SHEARING - HOUSE, the place where the men of Israel in their flight from Ai (Jo. J. 5 ). No 

brethren of Ahaziah were met and slain by Jehu name resembling this has been recovered in the 

(2 K. io. 12 ' 14 ). The Heb. beth-'eqed, " place of vicinity. Perhaps we should translate " quarries," 

binding," shd. prob. be taken as a place-name, with Keil and Steuernagel. LXX does not take 

" Beth-eked." OEJ. places the shearing-house in it as a proper name, and renders " till they were 

Esdraelon, 15 Rm. miles fm. Legio. It may pos- broken," i.e. utterly discomfited, 
sibly be represented by Beit Kad, a vill. three miles SHEBAT, the eleventh month. See Year. 
E. of Jenln. SHEBER, a son of Caleb by Maacah (1 Ch. 2. 48 ). 

SHEAR JASHUB (" a remnant shall return "), a SHEBNA (Is. 22. 15 - 25 , 36. 3 > u « 22 ), a high official 

symbolic name given by Isaiah to his son, who accom- in the court of Hezekiah. Fm. the fact that his f r. 

panied him to his interview with Ahaz, before the is not named it is argued that he was a novus homo, 

invasion by the allies, the kings of Israel and Syria perhaps a foreigner ; he appears to have given way 

(Is. 7- 3 ). to the love of grandeur so common in upstarts. 

SHEBA. (1) Son of Bichri, a Benjamite. On Isaiah denounces him for having hewed out for 
David's return from Mahanaim, after the defeat himself a tomb in the cliff, and threatens him with 
and death of Absalom, the old jealousy between captivity. It has been conjectured that he was 
Judah and the northern tribes, destined to lead in leader of the Egyptian party in the Jewish court, 
the end to the disruption of the kingdom, almost He seems to have been removed fm. the office of 
brought about the catastrophe then. Sheba saw an prefect of the palace to that of secretary to the king, 
opportunity to re-establish the ascendency of his We have no record of the fulfilment of Isaiah's 
tribe, to wh. the first king had belonged. The en- fierce prophecy ; but we have not the complete 
tire force representing the northern tribes responded history of that time ; and, further, as all prophecies 
to his call, and, raising the standard of revolt, he of judgment were conditional, he may have re- 
marched through the length of the northern king- pented, and so escaped the threatened punishment, 
dom. His hope of great accessions to his strength SHEBUEL. (1) Son of Gershom, who had 

728 



She 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



She 



charge of the Temple treasuries (i Ch. 23. 16 , 26. 24 ), 
called Shubael in 24. 20 . (2) Son of Heman (1 Ch. 
25*), called Shubael in v. 20. 

SHECANIA. (1) Head of the tenth course of 
priests taken by lot (1 Ch. 24. 11 RV.). (2) A priest, 
one of those appointed in the days of Hezekiah to 
distribute the daily portion to their brethren in the 
cities of the priests (2 Ch. 3 1. 15 ). 

SHECHANIAH, RV. SHECANIAH. (1) One 
descended from Zerubbabel (1 Ch. 3- 21f '). He was 
head of a family that returned with Ezra (Ez. 8. 3 ), 
called " Sechenias " in 1 Es. 8. 29 . (2) Head of a 
family which returned with Ezra (Ez. 8. 5 ), called 
" Sechenias " in 1 Es. 8. 32 . (3) Son of Jehiel, who 
suggested the putting away of the foreign wives 
(Ez. io. 2 ), called " Jechonias " in 1 Es. 8. 92 . (4) The 
father of Shemaiah, a gatekeeper (Ne. 3- 29 ), pos- 
sibly identical with (1). (5) Son of Arah, and 
father-in-law of Tobiah the Ammonite (Ne. 6. 18 ). 
(6) Head of a priestly family which returned with 
Zerubbabel (Ne. 12. 3 ), called " Shebaniah " in Ne. 
io. 4 , 12. 14 . 

SHECHEM. Ancient Shechem lay in the 
throat of the valley which cuts Mount Ephraim in 
two. Of this pass, or gateway, Ebal and Gerizim 
may be called the pillars. Between them from of 
old must have flowed the main stream of the com- 
merce of east and west. This formed the easiest ap- 
proach to the sea from the region beyond Jordan. 
Of the founding of S. we have no record, but from 
the days of Jacob it appears frequently in history. 
It was visited by Abraham on his first entrance into 
Canaan (Gn. 12. 6 , AV. Sichem). From its associa- 
tion with him the terebinth of Moreh may have 
derived something of its sacredness. Hither came 
Jacob, returning fm. Haran (Gn. 33. 18 ), and pur- 
chased a bit of land fm. the natives. While he 
resided here the events befell wh. are related in 
chap. 34., making it desirable that he shd. remove. 
Before going he buried the " strange gods " found 
among his household, and the ornaments, poss. 
associated with idolatry, under " the terebinth wh. 
was by Shechem " (35- 4 ). He retained grazing 
rights in the neighbourhood (37. 12 , &c). Probably 
its sacred associations led to its being given to the 
Levites, while its central position and comparative 
accessibility fitted it specially for a City of Refuge 
(Jo. 20. 7 , 21. 21 ). Here Joshua assembled the chil- 
dren of Israel, and exhorted them before they were 
dismissed each man to his own inheritance (Jo. 24.). 
And again the " sanctuary " is in evidence (v. 261".). 
The bones of Joseph were buried in the portion wh. 
Jacob had bought (v. 32). Gideon's Shechemite 
concubine bore him Abimelech, whose abortive 
attempt to set up a monarchy involved himself and 
his friends in disaster (8., 9.). A second great 
national assembly was held at Shechem, when the 
northern tribes decided to throw off allegiance to 



Rehoboam (1 K. I2. lff -). Jeroboam, on being 
chosen king, fortified Shechem and made it his 
residence (v. 25). It was still inhabited at the time 
of the Exile (Jr. 41. 5 ). Later,* it became the head- 
quarters of the Samaritans, whose temple was built 
on the neighbouring height of Gerizim ; who took 
full advantage of the ancient and sacred traditions 
connected with the place. Under the Romans it 
was known as Flavia Neapolis, and Neapolis, in the 
form of Nablus, is still the name of the city. It was 
held for a time by the Crusaders, and the ruins of 
several of their churches — one forming part of a 
mosque — are still to be seen. Besides the holy 
places pointed out by the Samaritans, the tradi- 
tional burying-place of Joseph is shown to the east 
of the city ; and on the south side of the vale, as it 
opens into the plain of Makhneb, the deep well wh. 
unanimous tradition identifies as Jacob's Well 

(Jn.4- 6 )- 

The mod. city has a population of over 20,000, 
mainly Moslems. The Samaritan community, now 
confined solely to Nablus, number from 150 to 200 
souls. There are 700 to 800 Christians, nearly all 
belonging to the Greek Church, with a few Latins 
and Protestants. ■ The Church Missionary Society 
have here an excellent hospital. Nablus is an im- 
portant market town, and is greatly resorted to 
from the east of the Jordan. It does a considerable 
trade in cotton and wool. It has also many soap 
factories, which use great quantities of olive oil. 

The city is now probably further west than in 
ancient times. It lies on the S. of the vale, under 
the cliffs of Gerizim. From the base of that moun- 
tain issue abundant supplies of water, which, flowing 
westward, fill the valley with beauty and fruitful- 
ness. See illustration, p. 540. 

SHECHEM. (1) Son of Hamor, whose love for 
Dina, the dr. of Jacob, brought such dire conse- 
quences upon himself and his people (Gn. 34.) ; see 
Jacob. (2) Ancestor of a Manassite clan (Nu. 
26. 31 ; Jo. 17. 2 ), called Shechemites. 

SHEDEUR, father of Elizur, chief of the tribe of 
Reuben (Nu. I. 5 , 2. 10 , &c). 

SHEEP GATE. See Jerusalem. 

SHEEP (Heb. kehes and keseb, properly " lamb " ; 
*zo\ collective " flock," general term " sheep " ; 
9 ayil, " a ram " ; rdhel, a " ewe "), the common 
domestic animal, one of the earliest of animals to be 
domesticated and so become property ; this natu- 
rally meant that they shd. be most frequently used 
for feasts, as still in the E., and hence for sacrifice ; 
the majority of the Levitical sacrifices were sheep or 
lambs. The species most common in Pal. is the fat- 
tailed S. (Ovis laticaudata) ; in this species the tail 
is enclosed in a cushion of fat fm. wh. the last joints 

* The name by wh. it was then known, Mabortha, is the 
Aram, form of the Heb. ma'bdrd, " pass," or "saddle"; 
cp. Is. 10. 29 {BJ. IV. viii. 1). 



72Q 



She 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



She 



of the tail protrude like a claw. This fat is regarded 
as peculiarly delicate, hence, it may be, the special 
prominence given to the " rump " (tail) of the S. in 
sacrifice. The word (^alyah) for the tail of the S. is 
different in Heb. fm. that for the tail of any other 
animal ; the Arabic word to-day differs fm. this 
only in the vowels. S. are still fed on the hills of 
Pal. ; as a rule the flocks are not so large as with us. 
Very common is it to see S. and Goats forming one 
flock, guarded by a shepherd without the help of a 
dog. In Pal. the shepherd does not drive his S. ; he 
goes before them, and summons them to follow him 
by a peculiar cry. The relation between the shep- 
herd and his S. is more kindly than with us ; some- 
times even the shepherd names individual S. 
Timid, and on the whole not well qualified to de- 
fend itself, besides being rather deficient in power of 



^T^ 




Palestinian Sheep with Broad Tail 

recognising localities, the S. is very liable to go 
astray ; a fact referred to both in the OT. and the 
NT. For the symbolic references see Lamb. 

SHEERAH. See Sherah. 

SHEHARIAH, son of Jeroham, a Benjamite 
(i Ch. 8. 26 ). 

SHEKEL (Heb. shegel), a weight, and a money of 
account ; as a weight it was probably fm. \ oz. to 
\ oz. ; as a money probably in value fm. 2s. 6d. to 5s. 
See Money, Weights and Measures. 

SHEKINAH {shekinah, from shaken, " to dwell"). 
This expression occurs frequently in the Targums 
and Talmud, and signifies the Divine presence. It 
owed its origin to the course of Jewish Rabbinical 
thought after OT. times. In the OT. the mono- 
theistic idea is seen growing in its range and depth. 
The conception of Jehovah is becoming broader and 
more august. Rabbinic thought continued to de- 
velop on this line, while the influx of Greek philo- 
sophical ideas contributed to make the conception 
of God more abstract. Thus the personal, self- 
revealing God of the OT. was resolved into a meta- 
physical abstraction in which infinitude eclipsed all 
attributes. God was conceived as the Infinite, of 
whom nothing could be predicated, since every 
quality implied a limitation {cp. Spinoza, deter- 



minant) negatio est). At the same time passionate 
devotion to the OT., and absolute respect for its 
authority, demanded some rendering of its constant, 
familiar, and anthropomorphic references to God. 
A system of mediators, more or less indefinitely con- 
ceived, was created, which, though essentially 
Divine, could be separated in thought from God, 
and were sufficiently limited to enter into relations 
with humanity. Of these were the Spirit, the 
Word, the Metatron, the Shekinah, and in a lower 
degree the Bath Qol and the Adam Qadmon. 
These really represented God, but by their means 
predication about God was formally avoided. The 
following are typical examples of the usage. Con- 
cerning the words, " But ye that did cleave unto the 
Lord your God are alive every one of you this day " 
(Dt. 4- 4 ) it was asked, " Is it then possible to cleave 
to the Shekinah ? Is it not said, ' For the Lord 
thy God is a consuming fire (Dt. 4- 24 ) ' ? " Again 
it was said, " A judge who does not adjudicate ac- 
cording to true equity causeth the Shekinah to de- 
part from Israel ; for it is said, ' On account of the 
oppression of the poor now will I arise {i.e. depart), 
saith the Lord (Ps. 12. 5 ).' " They would not even 
attribute to God residence in heaven. Thus they 
render " He dwelleth on high " by " He hath 
placed his Shekinah in the lofty heaven." 

The original conception out of which the 
Shekinah-idea grew was the presence of the Lord in 
the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, as indicated 
by the cloud resting upon it and enveloping the 
manifestation of God, which was thought of as the 
light behind the cloud. Even the light was not the 
Deity but His effulgence. But on account of its 
subtlety the thought remained vague and undefined. 
Whilst in the Targums the Shekinah " does not in- 
dicate the radiance or brilliancy, but the central 
cause of the radiance," being " the equivalent for the 
Divine Being, not for His glory" (Marshal in HDB), 
it was often alluded to as itself visible and a radiance 
or glory. Thus again, although the essential sig- 
nificance lay in its identification with Divinity, 
Nachmanides had to reprove Rabbis who described 
it as a " glory created " by God. 

The expression does not occur at all in the OT., 
the idea not having been developed at the time, and, 
while the thought is commonly regarded as con- 
tained in the word So£a (glory) in Rm. 9.* ; He. 
I. 3 9. 5 ; 2 P. I. 17 , &c, it is open to question whether 
the actual Shekinah-idea is here present. The NT. 
view of God is not that of the later rabbis, which 
required and produced the Shekinah-doctrine. It 
is not impossible that in the use of a-Krjvrj (taber- 
nacle) in Rv. 2 1. 3 there is a play on the word 
Shekinah. G. P. Wallace. 

SHELAH. (1) Youngest son of Judah by the 
Canaanite Shuah (Gn. 38. 5 , &c). From him 
sprang the Shelanites (Nu. 26. 20 ). (2) Son of 



73o 



She 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



She 



24 



Arphaxad (Gn. io 

18, 24 . TV <? 35 



n. 12ff -, AV. " Salah " ; I Ch. SHEMAAH, a Benjamite of Gibeah, whose two 

Lk. 3. 35 , "Sala"). (3) Siloam, RV. sons joined David at Ziklag (1 Ch. 12. 3 ). 

" Shelah " (Ne. 3. 15 ). SHEMAIAH. Of the many persons thus named 

SHELEMIAH. (1) A Levite, gatekeeper in the in OT. we need mention only the following : (1) S., 

Tabernacle (1 Ch. 26. 14 ), called " Meshelemiah " in described as " the man of God," who dissuaded 



I Ch. 9. 21 , 26. 1 

17, 19, 31 



Shelemiah," 26. 14 ; 



Rehoboam fm. his projected campaign agst. Isr. 
(1 K. I2. 22ff -). He rendered invaluable service by 
his counsel at the time of Shishak's invasion, and 
appears to have written an account of Rehoboam's 



Shallum," 
g±,, ±v, or . - Meshullam," Ne. 12. 25 . (2) and (3) 
Sons of Bani, who had married foreign wives (Ez. 
io. 39 - tt ), called " Selemias " in 1 Es. c-. 34 . (4) 

Father of Hananiah (Ne. 3. 30 ). (5) A priest having reign (2 Ch. 12. 5 ' 7 » 15 ). (2) A prophet, described 
charge of the treasury (Ne. 13. 13 ). (6) Son of as "the Nehelamite," who had been carried into 
Cushi, ancestor of Jehudi (Jr. 36. 14 ). (7) Son of captivity with Jehoiachin. He belonged to the 
Abdeel (Jr. 36. 26 ). (8) Father of Jehucal (Jr. party opposed to Jeremiah, who believed that the 
37- 3 , 38. 1 ). (9) Father of Irijah (Jr. 37. 13 ). captivity would be of short duration. Jeremiah 

SHELEPH, second son of Joktan (Gn. io. 26 ; wrote to the exiles urging them to build houses, 
1 Ch. I. 20 ), ancestor of a South Arabian tribe, not plant gardens, marry, and rear families, seeking the 
identified. peace of the city in wh. they were settled ; and 

SHELESH, son of Helem, an Asherite (1 Ch. warning them against the false prophets among 
7. 35 ). them, who held out delusive hopes of a swift return. 

SHELOMI, father of Abihud, prince of Asher This roused the ire of S., who wrote complaining 
(Nu. 34~ 27 ). that the priests had failed to do their duty, inas- 

SHELOMITH. (1) A woman of the tribe of much as they had not put the mad prophet from 
Dan whose son was stoned in the wilderness for Anathoth " in the stocks and in shackles." Jere- 
blaspheming " the name " (Lv. 24 
Daughter of Zerubbabel (1 Ch. 3. 19 ) 

Kohathite Levite, son of Izhar (1 Ch. 23. 18 ), called (Jr. 29. 24 » 31f -). (3) A man " hired " by Tobiah and 
" Shelomoth " in 24. 22 . (4) A descendant of Sanballat, who, under the guise of anxiety for his 
Eliezer (1 Ch. 24. 28 ). (5) A Gershonite Levite safety, advised Nehemiah to take refuge in the 
(1 Ch. 23. 9 , RV. "Shelomoth"). (6) A son of Temple (Ne. 6. 10 ). This advice,if followed, wd. have 
Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 20 ). (7) Ancestor of a family destroyed all confidence in the governor's courage, 
which returned with Ezra (Ez. 8. 10 ). while his sacrilegious resort to the Temple wd. have 

SHELOMOTH. See Shelomith (3) and (5). brought him into collision with the priests. Of 

SHELUMIEL, son of Zurishaddai, prince of some note also were : (4) S., who assisted in bringing 
Simeon (Nu. I. 6 , 2. 12 , &c), called " Samael " in up the ark fm. the house of Obed-edom (1 Ch. 



10ff -). (2) miah in reply denounced agst. him, not only his 
(3) A own death in exile, but the extirpation of his seed 



Jth. 8. 1 



I 5- 8, U )' (5) S., the son of Nathaneel the scribe, 



SHEM, the first mentioned, and therefore pro- who acted as recorder of the priestly courses (1 Ch. 

bably the eldest son of Noah, the ancestor of 24. 6 ). (6) S., son of Obed-edom, a Levite door- 

Abraham. S. with Japheth his br. covered their keeper in the Tabernacle (1 Ch. 26. 4 » 6 - 7 ). (7) S., 

fr. when he was lying uncovered in his tent, and the priest who, with Nehemiah, sealed the covenant 

hence received a blessing fm. Noah (Gn. 9. 23 ' 26 ' 27 ). (Ne. io. 8 , &c), and (8) S., fr. of Uriah (Jr. 26. 20 ). 

The Talmudists wd. identify Melchizedek with S. SHEMARIAH. (1) A Benjamite warrior who 

in order to explain the honour given by their an- joined David at Ziklag (1 Ch. 12. 5 ). (2) Son of 

cestor to the priest-king; accdg. to the received Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 19 ). (3) One who had 

chronology S. and Abraham were contemporaries married a foreign wife (Ez. io. 32 ). (4) One of the 



for 148 yrs. The territory occupied by the descen- 
dants of S. coincides on the whole with SW. Asia. 

In Gn. io. 21 AV. makes Japheth the eldest s. of Noah ; 
although this has the support of the LXX and the Tgg., 
still the natural tr. of the Heb. is "S. the elder br. of 
Japheth " ; only it is difficult to understand why Japheth 
shd. be placed in such prominence. 

SHEMA. (1) A city in the south of Judah, named 



sons of Bani who had done the same (Ez. io. 41 ). 

SHEMEBER, king of Zeboiim, ally of the king of 
Sodom (Gn. 14. 2 ). 

SHEMED. See Shamed. 

SHEMER, owner of the hill purchased by 
Omri as the site of his new capital (1 K. 16. 24 ). 

SHEMIDA, SHEMIDAH, son of Gilead, grand- 



with Amam and Moladah (J0.15. 26 ). Some would son of Manasseh (Nu. 26. 32 ; Jo. 17. 2 ; 1 Ch. 7. 19 ) 

identify it with Sheba, wh. see. (2) This is prob. His descendants are called Shemidaites (Nu. 26. 32 ). 

identical with (1), " son of," i.e. founded by Hebron SHEMIRAMOTH. (1) A Levite musician (1 

(1 Ch. 2. 43f -). (3) A Reubenite (1 Ch. 5. 8 ). (4) A Ch. I5. 18 « 20 , 16. 5 ). (2) A Levite sent by Jehosh- 

Benjamite chief of Aijalon (1 Ch. 8. 13 ). (5) One aphat to teach the people (2 Ch. 17. 8 ). 

who stood by Ezra at the reading of the law (Ne. SHEMUEL. (1) The chief of Simeon who re- 

8 4 ), called " Sammus " in I Es. 9 43 . presented the tribe at the allotment of the land 

731 



She 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



She 



(Nu. 34. 20 ). (2) Samuel the prophet (1 Ch. 6. 33 ). 
(3) One of the chiefs of Issachar (1 Ch. J. 2 ). 

SHEN is named in 1 S. 7. 12 as defining the posi- 
tion of the stone Ebenezer, set up by Samuel to 
commemorate the defeat of the Phil. Perhaps we 
shd. read with LXX and Syr. " Yeshana," wh. may 
be identified with l Ain Sinia, to the N. of Bethel. 

SHENAZAR, RV. SHENAZZAR, a descendant 
of Jehoiakim (1 Ch. 3. 18 ). See Sheshbazzar. 

SHEOL, the place of the dead. See Hell. 

SHEPHAM, a city on the E. boundary of the 
promised land, apparently in the neighbourhood of 
Riblah (Nu. 34. 10f ")- It is unidentd. Poss. it was 
the home of Zabdi the Shiphmite (1 Ch. 2J. 21 ). 

SHEPHATIAH. (1) Son of David (2 S. 3 4 , 
&c). (2) A Benjamite (1 Ch. c.. 8 , AV. SHEPHA- 
THIAH). (3) A Benjamite soldier who went to 
David at Ziklag (1 Ch. 12. 5 ). (4) Prince of Simeon 
in David's time (1 Ch. 27. 16 ). (5) Son of Jehosha- 
phat (2 Ch. 21. 2 ). (6) One whose descendants re- 
turned with Zerubbabel and Ezra (Ez. 2. 4 , 8. 8 ; 
Ne. 7. 9 ), called " Saphat " in 1 Es. 5. 9 and " Sapha- 
tias " in 8. 34 . (7) A family of " the sons of Solo- 
mon's servants," who returned with Zerubbabel 
(Ez. 2. 57 ; Ne. 7. 59 ), called " Saphuthi " in 1 Es. 
5. 33 RV. (8) A descendant of Pharez (Ne. II. 4 ). 
(9) Son of Mattan, a prince of Judah (Jr. 38. 1 ). 

SHEPHELAH. This Heb. word, shephelah, is 
represented in AV. by " vale " (Dt. I. 7 ; Jo. 10 40 ; 
1 K. io. 27 ; 2 Ch. I. 15 ; Jr. 33. 13 ), "valley" (Jo. 
9. 1 , ii. 2 ' 16 , 12. 8 , 15. 33 ; Jg. i.»; Jr. 3Z. 44 ), "low 
plains " (1 Ch. 2 7 . 28 ; 2 Ch. 9 . 27 ), " plain " (Jr. 
17. 26 ; 0. 19 ; Zc. 7. 7 ), and " low country " (2 Ch. 
28. 18 ). RV. uniformly "low land." It might 
have been well to retain the Heb. word, wh. always 
occurs with the article. It clearly attached to a 
well-known division of the country. The cities 
mentioned in the lists as lying within the Shephelah, 
are all, so far as their sites have, been identified, in- 
cluded within a region with boundaries sufficiently 
marked to justify a special name. With the assist- 
ance of the excellent " Survey of W. Pal.," carried 
out by the officers of the PEF., these boundaries are 
easily recognised. Between the maritime plain and 
the mountains of the central range there runs a 
strip of lower hilly country. It is separated fm. the 
central range by a series of valleys wh., beginning 
at the NW. of the lower Beth-horon (Beit 'Ur et- 
Tahta), run southward to the neighbourhood of 
Beersheba. 

" The mountains look on the Shephelah, and the 
Shephelah looks on the sea — across the Philistine 
plain. It curves round this plain fm. Gaza to Jaffa 
like an amphitheatre. But the amphitheatre is cut 
by three or four great gaps, wide valleys that come 
right through from the foot of the Judaean hills to 
the sea. Between these gaps the low hills gather in 
clumps and in short ranges from 500 to 800 feet 



high, with one or two summits up to 1500. The 
formation is of limestone or chalk, and very soft — 
therefore irregular and almost featureless, with a 
few prominent outposts upon the plain " (HGHL. 1 
20 ji.). There are great breadths of fine corn-land, 
and the olive groves are excellent. 

Five valleys break through the Shephelah and 
penetrate the mountain inland, each furnishing an 
approach to the central uplands. (1) The valley of 
Aijalon, leading by way of the Beth-horon and 
Gibeon to Michmash. (2) Wady es-Sarar, going 
up by Beth-shemesh and Kirjath-Jearim to Jeru- 
salem — the line followed by the railway. (3) Wady 
es-Sunt, running fm. Tell es-Safi (Gath ?), up the 
vale of Elah, to where Wady es-Sur branches south- 
ward, and Wady el-Jindy climbs towards Bethle- 
hem. (4) Wady el-Afranj, starting fm. Ashdod, 
passes Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis), and ascends 
towards Hebron. (5) Wady el-Hesy runs fm. the 
sea c. seven miles N. of Gaza, by way of Lachish, 
issuing in the mountain c. six miles SW. of Hebron. 
For the part played by these great valleys in the 
chequered history of the land see a full and admir- 
able discussion in HGHL. 1 209^. 

SHEPHI, SHEPHO, son of Shobal, a Horite 
chief (Gn. 36. 23 , &c). 

SHEPHUPHAN (1 Ch. 8. 5 ), SHEPHUPHAM 
(Nu. 26. 39 RV.), the ancestor of the Shuphamites 
(Nu. 26. 39 ), a familv of Benjamin. 

SHERAH, RV. SHEERAH, daughter of Eph- 
raim, who founded the Beth-horons, and a town, 
not identified, called " Uzzen-sherah," i.e. " por- 
tion " of Sherah (1 Ch. y. 2i ). 

SHEREBIAH. A Levite who joined Ezra at 
the Ahava (Ez. 8. 18 - 24 ; Ne. 8. 7 , 9 4 , io. 12 , I2. 8 » 24 ), 
called "Asebebia" in 1 Es. 8. 47 ; " Esebrias," 
v. 54, and " Sarabias," 9. 48 . 

SHERESH. A Manassite, son of Machir (1 Ch. 

7- 16 )- 

SHEREZER. See Sharezer. 

SHERIFF (Heb. tipktdye'^n. 3. 2 - 3 ). " Sheriffs" 
were officials in the court of Babylon whose func- 
tions it is impossible to determine. The text is 
corrupt here, as none of the W. agree precisely with 
MT. ; in the Peshitta the last four names appear as 
if they were tribal names, S. being 'Tabathcei, tribes 
of whose existence we have no sign elsewhere. A 
good deal may be said for Gesenius' derivation fm. 
afta, a verb found in Arabic, meaning " to issue a 
legal decision," whence is derived the official title 
" mufti." 

SHESHACH (Jr. 25. 26 , 51. 41 ), a name given to 
Babylon, as proved by the parallelism of the second 
passage. It is supposed to be derived fm. Babel by 
Atbash, i.e. the last letter of the Heb. alphabet was 
put for the first, and the second last for the second, 
and so on. Delitzsch has suggested that S. stands 
for Shisb-ku-ki, a name that represents a quarter of 



732 



She 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shi 



Babylon in an ancient regal register (Parad. 214) : 
Schrader objects that this name does not occur in 
later Bab. inscriptions. But poetic names are often 
revivals of ancient : e.g. Albion is a not uncommon 
designation for Britain on the continent of Europe, 
but is practically unused in Britain or America. 
One has a suspicion of cryptograms as early as the 
days of Jeremiah. 

SHESHAI, a clan of the sons of Anak, driven out 
of Hebron by Caleb (Nu. 13. 22 ; Jo. 15. 14 ; Jg. I. 10 ). 

SHESHAN, a descendant of Jerahmeel (1 Ch. 
2. 31 , &c). 

SHESHBAZZAR (Ez. iA n ,5. 14 » 16 ), "the prince 
of Judah " to whom Mithredath, at the order of 
Cyrus, delivered the treasures of the Lord's house. 
It has been maintained that S. is another name for 
Zerubbabel, but there is no statement to that effect 
to be found in the narrative, as we shd. expect. As 
a Bab. name it is prob. corrupt, hence the many 
forms it assumes in the W. The most likely sug- 
gestion is that S. is ident. with Shenazar (1 Ch. 
3. 18 ) ; S. wd. then be the uncle of Zerubbabel. 

SHETH. (1) The patriarch Seth (1 Ch. I. 1 , 
AV. "Sheth"). (2) In Nu. 24. 17 for "sons of 
Sheth," read with RV. " sons of tumult." 

SHETHAR - BOZNAI, RV. S. - BOZENAI, 
"companion" of Tattenai, Persian governor of Syria 
(Ez. 5. 3 « 6 ), called " Sathrabuzanes " in 1 Es. 6. 3 , &c. 

SHEVA. (1) Son of Caleb (1 Ch. 2. 49 ). 
(2) David's secretary (2 S. 20. 25 ). See Shavsha. 

SHEWBREAD (Heb. lehem happdnim, " bread of 
the face," Ex. 25. 30 ; lehem hammcfareketh, " bread 
of the pile," or " arrangement," 1 Ch. c;. 32 ; lehem 
qodesh, " holy bread," 1 S. 21. 6 , &c). Close by the 
veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most 
Holy stood a gold-covered table, on wh. were placed 
two heaps of loaves, six in each pile. In Lv. 24. 5 " 9 
an account is given of the method of preparing these 
" cakes." Each is to be made of a fifth of an ephah 
of fine flour : though it is not said that the cakes are 
to be unleavened, the presumption is that they were 
so. On the top of each pile frankincense was set, in 
sign of consecration. Jos. says the frankincense was 
in golden vials. Taken fresh fm. the oven on the 
eve of the Sabbath, they were placed on the table 
overlaid with gold, and there they remained until 
they were replaced by the new batch immediately 
before sunset on the following Friday. The priests 
were required to eat the newly removed cakes in the 
Holy Place. While these cakes were offered by the 
worshippers, as an acknowledgment of Divine supre- 
macy, they were also the symbol of Divine bene- 
ficence : His table was spread ready for guests. 

The Table of Shewbread. — It was made of 
shittim wood and overlaid with pure gold, its 
length two cubits, its breadth one, and its height 
one and a half ; there was a rim of gold round it, 
and four gold rings for the insertion of staves over- 



laid with gold to carry it. At the same time there 

were vessels, covers, spoons, dishes, bowls ; these 

appear to be symbolic of feasting (Ex. 25. 23-30 , 

37. 10 " 16 ). Jos. gives a careful account of the T. 

of S. in terms that imply that he had seen it {Ant. 

III. vi. 6). 

Prof. Kennedy {HDB.) argues fm. the action of Ahime- 
LECH with David that restriction of the S. to the priests 
was later, and that purity fm. sexual intercourse was all 
the qualification required. But the attitude of the High 
Priest is that of one who makes a concession to the 
necessities of David and those who were with him. A 
parallel instance may be given ; in 1897 the Bishop of 
Salisbury visited the Hither East. When he reached 
Baalbek the lady at the. head of the British Syrian School 
there thought it an excellent opportunity to have Holy 
Communion. The bishop was willing, but a difficulty 
emerged : some of those who taught in the school, natives, 
were converts of the American Mission, and Presbyterians ; 
hence they had not been confirmed. At first the bishop 
was nonplussed : then he suggested a compromise. He 
wd. admit them provided they came fasting. This was 
simply a compromise for the one occasion, and not to be 
used as precedent ; the one restriction kept up the idea 
of concession and compromise. 

SHIBAH = SHEBAH, wh. see. 

SHIBBOLETH. The Heb. word shibboleth, 
" ear of corn," and also " stream," or " flood," 
would be in common use. The incident recorded 
in Jg. 12. 6 well illustrates the variety of dialects 
found in different localities in Pal. still. Some are 
quite as remarkable as the change of shin to 
samech ; e.g. qof to kaf, and kaf to tsh. The sub- 
stitution of s for t, and also for sh, is sometimes met 
with. The Ephraimite custom was to drop the 
aspirate ; and in attempting to pronounce shibbo- 
leth, the best he could do was sibboleth : the heavier 
sibilant prob. indicates an effort to make a difference 
between sh and s. The mistake betrayed the 
Ephraimite's tribe, and sealed his fate. 

SHIBMA, SIBMA, a city in Reuben (Nu. 32. 38 ), 
prob. the same as Shebma. 

SHICRON, RV. SHIKKERON, a place on the 
N. border of Judah, named with Ekron, Mount 
Baalah, and Jabneel (Jo. 15. 11 ). Khirbet Sukreir, c. 
four miles SW. of Tebnah (Jabneel), seems off the 
line indicated. 




Showing Handle of Shield 

SHIELD. There are several words trd. S., but 
incorrectly, or at all events with doubtful accuracy ; 
there are, however, two wh. refer to different sizes. 
(1) Mdgen (Jg. 5. 8 , &c), the small round shield (Gr. 
aspis) : it was probably made of wicker or wood, 



733 



Shi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shi 




Concave Shield 



and had leather stretched over it. The Egyptian 
small S. had often a round top and square below. (2) 
Tzinndb : a large S. covering 
the whole body. Sometimes 
a warrior had one to bear his 
S. before him (1 S. 17. 7 ). 
These large shields appear to 
have been used in sieges. See 
Arms and Armour. 

SHIHON (RV. correctly 
SHION, Heb. sh?dn\ acity in 
Issachar named with Shunem, 
Haphraim, and Anaharath. 
It is prob. represented by the 
mod. Khirbet Sha'in, near 
i Ain esh - Sha'ln, c. four 
miles NW. of Tabor (Jo. 19. 19 ). 

SHIHOR, SIHOR, means prob. " black river." 
In Jo. 13. 3 ; I Ch. 13. 5 , it marks the S. boundary of 
the land of Israel, and corresponds with the River 
of Egypt in 1 K. 8. 65 . This must be identified 
with Wddy el-'Arish, to the S. of Gaza. In Is. 2^. 3 ; 
Jr. 2. 18 , the reference is evidently to Egypt. " The 
Black River " is a name that wd. fitly apply to the 
Nile, or to one of its branches. Brugsch has 
pointed out that Shi-Hor, " Horus Canal," was the 
Egyptian name of the canal wh. passed the border 
city of Zar. Cheyne (EB. s.v.) finds in the name a 
variant of Jerahmeel. 

SHIHOR-LIBNATH is mentioned as on the S. 
border of the territory of Asher, apparently south 
of Carmel (Jo. 19. 26 ). OEJ. finds here the names 
of two cities ; of these, however, no trace has been 
discovered. Shihor-Libnath is usually identified 
with the stream Nahr ez-Zerqd, wh. enters the sea 
immediately S. of Carmel. It is ident. with the 
Crocodile River (Pliny, v. 19), and Wilson (HDB.) 




Grasping a Spear while Supporting the Shield 
suggests that it may have been named " Shihor " by 
those who knew the Nile — one of the names of wh. 
was Shihor — as the great Crocodile River. These 
creatures are still found in this stream. 



SHILHI. Father of Asa's wife Azubah (1 K. 
22. 42 ; 2 Ch. 20. 31 ). 

SHILHIM, a town to the south of Judah (Jo. 
15. 32 ), probably identical with Shaaraim (2). 

SHILLEM, son of Naphtali (Gn. 46. 24 ), ancestor 
of the Shillemites (Nu. 26. 49 ). 

SHILOAH. Accdg. to 2 K. 20. 20 ; 2 Ch. 32. 30 ; 
Sr. 48. 17 , Hezekiah made a conduit to bring the 
water of Gihon within the walls of Jrs. This was no 
mere channel, wh. wd. not have been a notable 
work, but as even Sr. indicates, a tunnel, dug 
through the rock. Such a tunnel still leads the 
water fm. the " spring of the stairs " to the SE. foot 
of the south-east hill. In the form of an S, its total 
length is 1760 ft., the distance fm. the spring to the 
end of the tunnel being only 1685 ft. It is on an 
average 4 ft. in height, and 2 ft. in breadth. An 
inscr. in old Heb. characters found in 1880 near the 




The Pool of Siloam 

issue, gives the length as 1200 cubits, and informs 
us that the work was begun at both ends, and 
finished when the workmen met in the midst. The 
level shows no fall, so that the water cd. run off 
through the tunnel only when it stood high enough 
at the spring. Evidently the intention was to keep 
a store of water at this place, and only to lead off the 
overflow by the tunnel. 

A second conduit has been discovered, running 
round the hill, partly through the rock. This must 
be older than the first-named. The water in this 
conduit may be intended by " the waters of Shiloah 
that go softly " (Is. 8. 6 ), if the phrase really belongs 
to the time of Ahaz. It might also apply to the 
water in the tunnel. 

The name " Spring of Siloa," or simply " the 
Siloa," we find connected with the issue of the 
tunnel (BJ. V. iv. 1, 2 ; vi. 1 ; ix. 4, &c), wh. is still 
called " the Spring of Silwan." 

The water of the tunnel now runs through a 
small pond, Birket Silwan, and along a rock-cut 
channel to the dyke wh. closes the Cheesemakers' 
Valley, where it is led off in two directions, to irrigate 



734 



Shi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shi 



the vegetable gardens in the Kidron Valley. The 
excavations of Guthe and Bliss showed that Birket 
Silzadn is only part of a square pool, the " pool of 
Siloa " of Byzantine times, and prob. the " pool 
of Siloam " of Jn. o,. 7 . The level seems to have 
been only I ft. below that of the tunnel. It was 
therefore not used for storage, but only to provide 
water for purposes of washing and bathing. The 
smaller basin found by Guthe to the E. of the pool 
was 4 ft. deeper, and mt. serve as a reservoir whence 
to draw water, but could by no means contain 
sufficient to supply the city in time of siege. The 
pool named in 2 K. 20. 20 , Sr. 48. 17 , as made by 
Hezekiah, cannot, therefore, have been at the issue 
of the tunnel. 

Accdg. to Is. 22. 11 , " a reservoir " (AV. " ditch ") 
was made " between the two walls for the water of 
the old pool " ; and a gloss (Is. 22. 9 ) speaks of the 
gathering of the water of the lower pool. A certain 
part of the city wall is " the wall of the pool of 
Shiloah" (Ne. 3. 15 ? RV. "Shelah," read "Shiloah"). 
The pool of Hezekiah, prob. called the pool of 
Solomon by Jos. (BJ. V. iv. 2), must have been ad- 
jacent to the strong wall, excavated by Bliss, wh. 
closes the S. end of the Cheesemakers' Valley. Its 
actual extent is not known. The long, narrow tank 
once existing between the wall mentioned above, 
and another wall parallel to it, may have been part 
of the larger reservoir constructed by Hezekiah. 
This, wh. cd. hardly be filled fm. the spring of 
Gihon, " gathered " the waters of a second pool — 
the " old pool " as compared with Hezekiah's new 
one, and the " lower pool " as distinguished from 
the " upper pool " of Is. J? (see Jerusalem). The 
" old pool," wh. must have been higher up in the 
same valley, may have been the predecessor of the 
present Birket Silzvdn, or another pool not known to 
us. The new pool more completely served the pur- 
pose of gathering the rain water wh. flowed down 
the valley in winter, and certainly also retained 
the water coming from the tunnel when this was 
in existence. 

The tower in Siloam (Lk. 13. 4 ) prob. belonged 
to the fortification of the SE. hill, in the vicinity of 
the pool. G. H. Dalman. 

SHILOH, a city in the territory of Ephraim 
where, at the conclusion of the war of conquest, the 
congregation of the children of Israel assembled and 
set up the Tabernacle (Jo. 18. 1 ). Land was as- 
signed by lot to the seven tribes that had not yet 
received their portions, the unappropriated land 
having been marked out into seven parts by sur- 
veyors sent out for the purpose (v. 9). To the 
Levites were allotted cities with their suburbs in all 
the tribal portions, and the Cities of Refuge on both 
sides of the Jordan were appointed (chaps. 18. -21.). 
On their way to their territories east of Jordan, 
Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh aroused the suspicion 



of the other tribes by building a great altar in the 
Jordan valley. The congregation again assembled 
at S., and received satisfactory explanations (22.). 
S. continued to be the central sanctuary of Isr. 
during the period of the Judges (18. 31 ), apparently 
the seat of a permanent camp (21. 12 ), and the scene 
of festivals and pilgrimages (21. 19 ; 1 S. I. 3 ). Hither 
the captive maidens from Jabesh-Gilead were 
brought for the Benjamites ; and here, on the occa- 
sion of a festival, these tribesmen were allowed to 
make up their full complement of wives by capturing 
the maidens who danced among the vineyards 
(Jg. 2i. 19ff -). In the sanctuary at S. the boy Samuel 
grew to manhood under the supervision of the High 
Priest Eli. In his time it appears that a building 
(hekal, " a temple ") had taken the place of the 
ancient tent. Hence the ark was carried to the strife 
with the Phil., and here Eli died, overwhelmed by 
the disastrous news from the field of battle. It 




Shiloh: Ruins 

seems probable that the Phil, took the city and 
overthrew the Temple. That it was destroyed is 
certain (Jr. 7. 12 ' 14 , 26. 6 » 9 ), and God is said to have 
deserted the Tabernacle there (Ps. 78. 60 ). The 
descendants of Eli in the time of Saul are found, not 
in Shiloh, but at Nob (1 S. 14. 3 , 22. 11 ). Shiloh was 
the home of the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite, and 
here he was visited by the wife of Jeroboam I. (1 K. 
I4. 2, 4 ). Certain of the pilgrims deceived and 
murdered by Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, came fm. S. 

(Jr- 4'- 5 )-. 

Shiloh is now represented by Seilun, two miles 
NE. of Sinjil, three miles SE. of Khan el-Lubban 
(Lebonah), and nine miles N. of Bethel (Beifin). 
The position agrees fully with that indicated in Jg. 
2 1. 19 . It is approached by a path wh. at Sinjil 
leaves the main road to Shechem, runs eastward to 
Turmus i Aya, and then turns northward across a 
small plain, on the N. edge of wh. rises the hill on 
wh. lie the ruins of Seilun. The hill is cut off from 
the mountain to the N. by a deep valley, in the sides 
of wh. many rock-cut sepulchres have been found. 
In the head of the valley three-quarters of a mile to 



735 



Shi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shi 



the E. there is an excellent spring. In ancient is his," or (b) " whose it is." In accordance with 

times the vineyards prob. covered the adjoining (a) LXX reads' " till the things reserved for him 

slopes. The ruins are mainly of comparatively shall come:" Agreeing with (b) the Psh. reads, 

modern houses. An old mosque stands at the foot " until he shall come whose it is," i.e. to whom the 

of the hill, and a little to the SE. a building wh. kingdom belongs. 

may have been a synagogue. To the north of the That the passage is Messianic in character is 

ruins on the hill is a terrace with a quadrangle some obvious ; and on any of these interpretations it 

800 ft. in length from E. to W. and 400 ft. in points to a time when the power exercised by Judah 

breadth, cut in the rock. This may have been the shall be wielded by a nobler hand, 

site of the ancient sanctuary. SHILONITE. See preceding art. 

Natives of S. were Ahijah the Shilonite (the SHILSHAH, an Asherite, son of Zophah (1 Ch. 

37N 



ancient name Shilon, wh. appears in this, is pre- 7. 37 ). 

SHIMEA. (1) Son of David by Bathsheba 
(I Ch. 3. 5 ), called " Shammua " in 2 S. 5. 14 ; I Ch. 
14A (2) A Merarite Levite (1 Ch. 6. 30 ). (3) A 
Gershonite, ancestor of Asaph (1 Ch. 6. 39 ). 
(4) Brother of David (1 Ch. 20. 7 ), called 
" Shammah " in 1 S. 16. 9 ; Shimeah in 2 S. 13. 3 ; 
and Shimei in 2 S. 21. 21 . 

SHIMEAH. (1) Brother of David (see preced- 
ing art.). (2) A descendant of Jehiel (1 Ch. 8. 32 ), 
called " Shimeam " in c;. 38 . 

SHIMEAM. See Shimeah (2). 
SHIMEATH, the Ammonitess, whose son Zabad 
(2 Ch. 24. 26 ), or Jozachar (2 K. 12. 21 ), took part 
in the murder of king Joash. The text is in 
confusion. Speculative emendations are of little 
value. 

SHIMEI. This is a name borne by many per- 
sons in the OT. The following are worthy of 
note : (1) Son of Gershon the son of Levi, ancestor 
shd. be " Shelanite," tracing descent from Shelah, of the family of Shimites (Ex. 6. 17 , &c. ; Nu. 3. 21 ). 
son of Judah (Nu. 26. 20 ). (2) Son of Gera, a Benjamite, and clearly a partisan 

A good description is given in Conder's Tent of the house of Saul. Doubtless regarding David 
Work in Palestine, pp. 4411. as a usurper, he rejoiced in the apparent success of 

SHILOH. The passage in Gn. 49. 10 is one of Absalom's rebellion, and, exulting in the king's 
admitted difficulty. No certain interpretation can misfortune, cursed and insulted him in his flight 
be given of the phrase " until Shiloh come." from Jerusalem. His unchivalrous soul in its bitter 
Some have thought that it is a name used for the hatred forgot the possibility of the monarch's 
Messiah. In that case it would have conveyed victorious return. When that happened he was 




Shiloh : Site of 



ctuary (?) 



served in the mod. Seilun), and a family who, after 
the Exile, lived in Jrs. (1 Ch. cj. 5 ; Ne. II. 5 ) ; un- 
less, indeed, the true reading in these two passages 



some definite meaning : this, if it were ever known, 
seems to have utterly perished. The ancient ver- 



found in abject fear at David's feet, begging pardon, 
which was not refused, for the time at least, despite 



sions have not so read it. The Targums, however the advice of Abishai (2 S. 16. 5 " 13 , 19. 18 ' 23 ). It was 

(Tgg. O., Jrs., and PJ.), find here a reference to the reserved for Solomon to order the penalty he so 

Messiah. According to one interpretation, S. is richly deserved (1 K. 2. 44fl -). Condemned by Solo- 

the name of the town (see preceding article). It is mon to confine himself within the walls of Jrs., 

proposed to read " till he come to Shiloh." This he lived in semi-imprisonment for three years. At 

does no violence to the grammar. It assumes that the end of that time two of his servants escaped to 

Judah held the leadership in the desert wanderings, Gath. He ventured to follow them to bring them 

and until, at the completion of the Conquest, Israel back. Then his doom fell (1 K. 2. 36 " 46 ). (3) One 

assembled at Shiloh. The people, united till then, of David's officers whom Adonijah failed to attract 

went away to their separate districts, and the leader- (1 K. I. 8 ). He was prob. ident. with S., son of 

ship was resigned. There is nothing, however, Ela, Solomon's commissariat officer in Benjamin 

to show that Judah exercised any such leadership. (1 K. 4. 18 ). (4) Son of Heman, one of the Levites 

The commanders of the people did not belong to who took part in cleansing the house of the Lord 

that tribe. Shebet," sceptre," would hardly be used under Hezekiah (2 Ch. 29. 14 ). The same man is 

of such shadowy tribal authority. Others take possibly referred to in 2 Ch. 3 1 . 12f ' as having charge 

Sh'iloh as a compound word meaning (a) " that wh. of " the oblations and tithes, and dedicated things " 

736 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shi 



wh. were stored in the chambers prepared for them at the haven of the sea (Gn. 49. 13 ). Dan is re- 
in the house of the Lord. proached by Deborah for remaining in ships, and 

SHIMEON, one of the family of Harim, who Asher for sitting still at the haven of the sea (Jg. 5. 17 ). 

married a foreign wife (Ez. io. 31 ), called " Simon To what extent these tribes engaged in traffic by sea 

Chosameus " in 1 Es. g. 32 . we cannot tell (Dt. 33. 19 ). That it was small may 

SHIMHI, RV. SHIMEI, a Benjamite (l Ch. be safely presumed. And for the rest Israel was a 

8. 21 ) called " Shema " in v. 13. pastoral and agricultural people. Many of them 

SHIMON, a Judahite (1 Ch. 4. 20 ). lived in constant sight of the Mediterranean, and 

SHIMRATH, a Benjamite, son of Shimhi (1 Ch. striking figures are derived from the sea (Ps. 8c;. 9 ; 

8. 21 ). Is. 5. 30 , &c), and the vicissitudes of the sailors' life 

SHIMRI. (1) A Simeonite, son of Shemaiah (Ps. I07. 23ff - ; Pr. 30. 19 ; Is. 33- 23 ; Js. 3.*, &c). The 

(1 Ch. 4- 37 ). (2) Father of one of David's mighty business relations of Solomon with Hiram, king 

men (1 Ch. n. 45 ). (3) A Kohathite Levite who of Tyre, led to co-partnery in shipping enterprise, 

assisted in purifying the Temple under Hezekiah The ships built by Solomon, aided doubtless 

(2 Ch. 29. 13 ). by Phoenician builders, were manned by Phceni- 

SHIMRITH, the Moabitess, named in 2 Ch. cian sailors, and the venture met with no little 

24. 26 , as the mr. of Jehozabad, one of the murderers success (1 K. 



of Joash. The text is corrupt. 

SHIMRON. (1) Fourth son of Issachar (Gn. 
46. 13 , &c), ancestor of the family of Shimronites 
(Nu. 26. 24 ). (2) A city whose king was called out 
by Jabin to his assistance agst. Joshua (Jo. II. 1 ). 
It was allotted to Zebulun (19. 15 ), and may possibly 
be represented by the mod. es-Semeiriyeh, about 
three miles N. of Acre. 

SHIMRON-MERON, a Canaanitish city whose 
king was slain by Joshua (12. 20 ). In the list his 
name is followed by that of the king of Achshaph. 
This points to the district in wh. we sought for 
Shimron, with wh. it is prob. identical. The name 
of Samsimuruna appears in inscriptions of Senna- 
cherib, and other Assyrian kings. This Schrader 
identifies with Shimron-Meron, wh. he places at 
es-Semeiriyeh. 

SHIMSHAI, the secretary of Rehum (Ez. 4. 8f -, 
&c), called " Semellius " in I Es. 2. 16 . 



F -, io. llf -). Jehoshaphat sought to 
emulate his great predecessor, and also had " ships 
of Tarshish " constructed at Ezion-Geber. Lack- 
ing Solomon's wisdom, however, he entrusted his 




Phoenician Bireme 

ships to Israelitish sailors, whose want of skill was 



SHINAB, king of Admah, one of the five kings demonstrated by the wreck of the fleet at Ezion- 



attacked by Chedorlaomer (Gn. 14. 2 ). 

SHINAR, the OT. name of Babylonia. Some- 
times it is thought to be derived fm. Sumir, 
wh. with Akkad represented the whole province. 
Hommel wd. derive fm. Ki-Imgir, another term for 
the same region (HDB. 224b). The derivation is 
uncertain ; but the name seems to have denoted 
the whole of Babylonia (Gn. io. 10 , &c). 

SHION. See Shihon. 

SHIP, BOAT, GALLEY 



Geber. Apparently they never got away (1 K. 
22. 48 ; 2 Ch. 20. 36f -). The revolt of Edom and loss 
of Elath shut out Israel from the only ports where 
she seems ever to have attempted to establish a sea 
trade (2 K. 8. 20 , 16. 6 ). She appears to have 
cherished a certain dread of the deep. To be sent 
to Egp. " by ships " clearly adds terror to the threat 
against disobedient Israel (Dt. 28. 68 ). Altho' in 
later days Simon the Maccabee " took Joppa for an 
The Israelites were haven, and made an entrance to the isles of the sea " 



never a people who did business in the great waters. 
The representation of the ark as a great wooden 
house, without sail or rudder, designed merely to 
float, was possible only among a people unacquainted 
with navigation. The coast line of the Promised 
Land was not adapted to promote naval enterprise. 
The absence of good harbours and shelter for 



(1 M. 14. 5 ), there is no evidence that Jewish mari- 
time enterprise amounted to much. 

The Egyptians made use of " vessels of papyrus " 
in navigating the Nile (Is. 18. 2 RV. ; cp. Jb. 9. 26 
RVm.). There is abundant evidence that in 
ancient times craft of various kinds were used on 
the river for fishing, hunting, travel, and transport. 



shipping has always been a drawback. The northern The like is true of the old-world dwellers by the 

part, where the best facilities are found, was in the Euphrates and the Tigris. The safety of their frail 

hands of the Phoenicians, while that from Jaffa craft of wood or wattled willows was secured by 

southward was held by the Phil. Zebulun dwells means of inflated skins. The " ships of their 

737 2A 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shi 



rejoicing " (Is. 43. 14 ) were doubtless larger vessels in 
which they ventured on the waters of the Persian 
Gulf. The Phoenicians were, however, the great 
sailors, the " British " of the ancient world. The 
narrow strip of land where they settled, between 




Ancient Egyptian War Galley: Sail pulled up 
for Action 

the mountain and the sea on the coast of Syria, how- 
ever fertile, could not support a large population. 
Wheat and oil were imported fm. Palestine (1 K. 
5. 11 ; Ac. 12. 20 ). The name of their oldest city, 
Sidon (Heb. Tzidon, " prey taken in fishing or hunt- 
ing "), indicates that in primitive times their liveli- 
hood was eked out by the " harvest of the sea." 
The knowledge thus gained in the management of 
•fishing-boats doubtless laid the foundations of their 
future maritime supremacy (Is. z^. 1 ' 8 ). They 
established a trade with Cornwall in tin, and seem 
to have reached the Canary Islands. Their regular 
intercourse with Tartessus in Spain (Tarshish) led 
to their great sea-going vessels being called " ships 
of Tarshish " (cp. " East-Indiaman "). In such a 
vessel Jonah sought to make his escape (Jh. i. 3ff -). 

In the Gospels the " ships " or "boats" referred 
to are all on the Sea of Galilee. The bulk of them 
were no doubt fishing-boats, probably not unlike 
those in use on the lake to-day, which run about 
26 feet in length by about 7 feet in breadth. They 
are easily adapted to carry passengers. The boat- 
men usually stand when rowing, facing to the bow. 
The large lateen sail is used with caution owing 
to the sudden squalls that break down from the 
uplands. 

The voyages of St. Paul' recorded in the Acts 
take us on board the Mediterranean trading ships of 
his time. There was a large traffic in corn between 
Rome and Egypt, the course followed hugging the 
coast as closely as possible. These vessels were of 
considerable burden, some of them reaching a 
tonnage of 1200. In steering they were guided 
by observation of the sun and stars (Ac. 27. 20 ). 
Voyages were seldom undertaken in winter, when 
these were often obscured. By sounding the 
nearness to land was estimated : but withal, ship- 
wreck seems to have been a frequent experience. 
Three times, St. Paul tells us, he suffered in this way 



(2 Cor. II. 25 ), and there is a vivid suggestiveness in 
the phrase, " A night and a day have I been in the 
deep." Was he clinging to some fragment of a 
wreck ? What a mere thread of his marvellous 
story is left to us ! 

Each vessel carried mainsail and foresail, and, in 
default of wind, was impelled by banks of rowers. 
The anchor was let go from the stern, whence also 
projected two oars or paddles, which served the pur- 
poses of rudder. A figurehead usually adorned 
the bow. Undergirders were also carried. These 
were stout ropes or chains, which were passed round 
the vessel, under the keel and across the deck, and 
braced tightly, to prevent the timbers of the ship 
from springing in stress of weather (Ac. 27. 17 ). The 
small boat towed behind (v. 16) wd. be used for 
landing when the ship was unable to go close to land. 
For safety in a storm it was hauled on board. 

The evolution of the fighting ship from that used 
for trading was doubtless very gradual. It is pro- 
bable, however, that ships were used in battle from 
very early times ; and they came to play a decisive 
part in the wars between the East and the West. 
The Egyptian and Assyrian monuments preserve 
representations of many vessels of different kinds. 
The galley of Is. 33. 21 is prob. the vessel impelled 
by oars, as distinguished from the "gallant ship," 
wh. with sails outspread, seems to fly over the water. 




Ship Anchored by Stern 

SHIPHI, a prince of Simeon (1 Ch. 4. 37 ). 

SHIPHMITE. See Shepham. 

SHIPHRAH, one of the midwives of the Hebrews 
in Egypt (Ex. I. 15 ). 

SHIPHTAN, father of Kemuel, a prince of 
Ephraim (Nu. 34- 24 ). 

SHISHA. See Shavsha. 

SHISHAK (Heb. Shishaq, Egyptian Sheshonq), 
first k. of the XXII. Dyn. Having claims to the 
throne through his grandmother, he married the dr. 



738 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shi 



of Pasebkhanut the last k. of the XXI. Dyn., and 
was two years co-regent with him. To S. fled 
Jeroboam to escape fm. Solomon (i K. i i . 40 ). For a 
time after the Northern Kdm. had been set up the 
position of Jeroboam was precarious ; Rehoboam 
was pressing him hard, hence he appealed to S. 
That monarch was nothing loth to imitate his pre- 
decessors of the XVIII. and XIX. Dynasties, and 
invade Syria. On the wall of the temple at 
Karnak S. has commemorated in 159 cartouches the 
names of cities and districts that have become 
tributary ; it is to be noted that many of these are 
in the territories of the Northern tribes. Most 
probably many cities remained loyal to the Davidic 
race, and only acknowledged Jeroboam when com- 
pelled by the arms of S. In this expedition he cap- 




Shishak Inscription on Exterior of South Wall 
of Great Temple at Karnak 

tured Jrs. and, with all the treasures, civil and 
sacred, carried away the golden shields wh. David 
had taken fm. the k. of Zobah. The Lucianic re- 
cension of LXX says that S. gave his dr. Anoth to 
Jeroboam to wife. 

SHITRAI, a Sharonite, who had charge of 
David's herds in the plain of Sharon (1 Ch. 2jP). 

SHITTIM, the last camping-place of Israel, E. of 
the Jordan, where they sinned so deeply, and were 
punished by a plague (Nu. 25. lff -). Hence Joshua 
sent the two spies to Jericho (Jo. 2. 1 ). From S. the 
congregation moved to the Jordan (3. 1 ). In Nu. 
33- 48 the camping-place is called Abel Shittim, 



" meadow of acacias." According to Josephus 
{Ant. IV. viii. 1) it was " where Abila now stands, a 



■-:'' : '; : >' 




PEF. PhotO -re ™ 

The Shittim Plain „ 

place full of palm trees," and sixty furlongs from 
the Jordan (V. i. 1). OEJ. places Shittim near 
Mount Peor (Fogor). A possible identification is 
with Khirbet el-Kefrein, c. six miles E. of Jordan, on 
the edge of Ghor es-Seiseban, where acacias are 
plentiful. 

The " valley of Shittim " (Jl. 3. 18 ), i.e. " the 
valley of acacias," to be watered by a stream fm. 
Jrs. must lie on the W. of Jordan. It prob. applies 
to the lower reaches of Wady en-Ndr, where acacias 
are found. It carries the water from the valleys 
about Jrs. to the Dead Sea. 




Shittah-tree 



SHITTIM-WOOD,SHITTAH-TREE. Shittim 
wood was employed to make the framework of 
the Tabernacle, the Ark, and the furniture of the 
sacred tent (Ex. 25. 5 , &c). It was therefore a tree 



739 



Shi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sho 



growing in the desert of sufficient size to furnish the 
necessary timber. RV. translates " acacia." This 
tree appears to answer all the conditions. The 
species called by the Arabs seyyal, grows abundantly 
in the wadies of Sinai, and also in the Ghor. It 
reaches a height of 20 to 25 feet. The wood is hard 
and durable. It is much prized for making char- 
coal. From it is obtained the gum-arabic of com- 
merce. The tree " has a rugged and thorny stem, 
and bears yellow blossoms amidst its feathery 
foliage ; the fruit is not unlike a lupin." Shittah 
is a modified form of shintah, the Heb. equivalent of 
the Arb. sunt. This is another species of acacia, 
the A. nilotica. The difficulty of so understanding 
the term in Is. 41. 19 is that the acacia is naturally a 
tree of the wilderness ; so that there would be 
nothing extraordinary in making it to grow amid 



SHOBAL. (1) Second son of Seir the Horite, a 
phylarch of the Horites (Gn. 36. 29 ). (2) Son of 
Caleb, the founder of Kirjath-Jearim (1 Ch. 2, 5 °> 52 ). 
He is called a " son " of Judah in 1 Ch. 4. 1£ \ 

SHOBEK. One of the chiefs who sealed the 
covenant (Ne. io. 24 ). 

SHOBI, son of Nahash, k. of Rabbath Ammon, 
who along with Machir and Barzillai succoured 
David and his men with supplies of food and other 
comforts, when he crossed the Jordan at Absalom's, 
revolt (2 S. 17. 27 ). In view of the conduct of 
Hanun, son of Nahash, and the subsequent defeat 
of the Ammonites (chap. 10.), it is argued that S. 
cd. not be the son of Nahash ; and an attempt has 
been made, by emendation of the text, to blot him 
out of existence. But Nahash had probably more 
sons than one ; and considering his own friendship 




Egyptian Shoes and Sandals 

1, 2, 3, of green leather, probably Greek period; 4, 5, upper and lower side of sandals, palm leaf and papyrus ; 
6, sole of sandal; 7. sandal.; 8, sandal with shoelike sides. 



the drought of the desert. LXX here reads 
' ; box." 

SHIZA, father of Adina, one of David's heroes 
(1 Ch. 11. 42 ). 

SHOA, a people named among the enemies of 
Israel — Babylonians, Chaldseans, Pekod, Koa, and 
the Assyrians (Ek. 23. 23 ). Shrader idents. them with 
the Sutu, whose land lay E. of the Tigris. 

SHOBAB. (1) Son of David by Bathsheba (2 S. 
5. 14 ; 1 Ch. 3. 5 , 14. 4 ). (2) A son of Caleb (1 Ch. 

2.!8). 

SHOBACH, captain of the host of Hadarezer, k. 
of Zobah, in the army of the allies summoned bythe 
Ammonites to assist them agst. David, whom king 
Hanun had insulted. The Syrians were defeated 
by Abishai, and Shobach was slain (2 S. 10.). The 
name is given as Shopach in 1 Ch. 19. 16 ' 18 . 

Later tradition represents S. as an Ammonite giant ; 
and again, as son of a Persian king, who opposed Joshua, 
because the latter had slain his father. 

SHOBAI, ancestor of a family of door-keepers of 
the Temple who returned with Zerubbabel (Ez. 
Ne. 7. 45 ), called " Sabi " in 1 Es. 5.^, RV. 



42 



for David, it is not surprising if, in spite of Hanun's 
madness, one of them cherished a kindness for his 
father's friend. 

SHOCO, SHOCHO, SHOCHOH, RV. SOCOH. 
See Socho. 

SHOE. Indoors the Hebrews wore nothing on 
the feet. For outdoor wear the foot-gear varied 
from a simple piece of leather attached to the sole 
of the foot by a leathern latchet (Gn. 14. 23 ; Mk. 
I. 7 ) to the shaped shoe covering the whole foot. 
Ornamentation was also sometimes attempted. 
The illustration represents some common varieties. 
The Assyrian sandal was distinguished fm. the Heb. 
by a heel cap. In Eph. 6. 15 there seems to be a 
reference to the heavy hob-nailed sandals of the 
Roman soldier, wh. enabled the wearer to secure 
firm footing. 

The universal custom in the East of leaving the 
shoes at the door may be connected with the 
sacredness of the threshold and of the family 
hearth. The shoes have always to be removed 
before entering a sanctuary ; this evidently to pre- 
vent the carrying in of impurities. The like action 



740 



© 1 



Sho 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Shu 



was necessary on the part of one who stood on 
" holy ground " (Ex. 3. 5 , &c). The Moslem slips 
off his shoes before stepping on to his prayer carpet. 
No reverent Oriental will offer worship with shoes 
on his feet, or with uncovered head. 

The shoe also figures in certain strange legal cere- 
monies. Under the provisions for Levirate mar- 
riage, if the dead husband's br. refused to take the 
part required, the widow might take him before the 
elders at the gate, loose the shoe from his foot, and 
spit in his face as marking contempt for one who 
would not rise to the honourable and pious duty of 
building his brother's house. The shoe wd. be her 
evidence that she was free to marry another (Dt. 
25. 9 , &c). In ancient times the shoe of the vendor 
handed to the purchaser of property took the place 
of the signed and sealed documents of a later day 
(Ru. 4. 7f - ; Jr. 32 .»). 

Various explanations have been suggested of the 
phrase, " Over Edom will I cast My shoe " (Ps. 60. 8 , 
108. 9 ). It may be an act symbolising the taking 
possession of the land. It may suggest the servitude 
of Edom as having charge of its master's shoes. Or 
it may be an expression of contempt, regarding 
Edom as only a place into wh. an old shoe may be 
thrown. 

Unloosing the latchet (Mk. I. 7 , &c.) and bearing 
the shoes (Mw. 3. 11 , &c.) are among the most humble 
menial duties. 

SHOHAM. A Merarite Levite (1 Ch. 24.2*). 

SHOMER. (1) An Asherite (1 Ch. 7. 32 ), called 
" Shamer," v. 34. (2) Father or mother of Jeho- 
zabad, who slew Joash (2 K. 12. 21 ). In 2 Ch. 24. 26 
the name appears as " Shimrith " (fern. form). 

SHOPHACH = SHOBACH, the general of Hada- 
rezer(iCh. ic.. 16 -^). 

SHOPHAN. See Atroth. 

SHUA. (1) A Canaanite of Adullam, father of 
Judah's wife (Gn. 38.2- 12 ), who is called Bath- 
skua, " daughter of Shua," in 1 Ch. 2. 3 . (2) 
Daughter of Heber (1 Ch. 7. 32 ). 

SHUAH. (1) Son of Abraham by Keturah (Gn. 
25.2). We may prob. ident. him with the tribe 
Suchu of the cuneiform inscrips., who dwelt on the 
S. bank of the Euphrates. (2) A descendant of 
Caleb (1 Ch. 4. 11 ), RV. " Shuhah." 

SHUAL, an Asherite, son of Zophah (1 Ch. J. 36 ). 

SHUAL, LAND OF, a district to the N. of 
Michmash on the way to Ophrah (1 S. 13. 17 ). 
Ophrah is prob. ident. with et-Taiyebeh, c. five 
miles E. of Bethel. The land of Shual therefore 
prob. lay somewhere in the neighbourhood of et- 
Taiyebeh. 

SHUBAEL. See Shebuel. 

SHUHAH. See Shuah (2). 

SHUHAM, son of Dan (Nu. 2 6. 42 ), called 
" Hushim " in Gn. 46.2 s ; ancestor of the Shu- 
hamites (Nu. 26. 42 ). 



SHUHITE (Jb. 2. 11 , &c). Poss. a member of 
the tribe Suchu may be intended. See Shuah. 

SHULAMITE (Heb. Shulammith). The word 
naturally means a female inhabitant of Shunem 
(mod. Solam) ; but it may be a play upon the name 
Solomon, of wh. it is the feminine ; the name of the 
heroine in the Song of Solomon, wh. see. 

SHUMATHITES, a family from Kirjath- 
Jearim (1 Ch. 2. 52 ). 

SHUNAMMITE. See Shunem. 

SHUNEM, a city on the border of Issachar, 
between Jezreel and Chesulloth (Jo. 19. 18 ). It was 
the site of the Philistine camp before the battle of 
Gilboa (2 S. 28. 4 ). It was the home of the wealthy 
Shunammite lady who hospitably entertained 
Elisha (2 K. 4. 8 ). We need not suppose that the 
Shunem of 2 K. 4- 8 is different from that of the 
other passages. We have no kge. of the towns 
visited regularly by Elisha ; and Shunem was quite 
within reach of Carmel, being only some 15 miles 
distant across a level plain. 

There is no doubt that the ancient Shunem is re- 
presented by the mod. Solam, a village surrounded 
with fruit trees, on the lower SW. slope of Jebel 
ed-Duhy (Little Hermon). It looks southward 
across the valley of Jezreel to the heights of Mt, 
Gilboa, westward across the undulating breadths 
of Esdraelon to the rough crest of el-Mahraqah, 
" the place of burnt sacrifice," on Carmel, and 
N'westward to the hills of Nazareth where they 
drop upon the plain. 

Natives of S. were : (1) The Shunammite, whose 
son Elisha restored to life (2 K. 4.), to whom also, 
later, he secured the return of her property, wh. 
apparently had fallen to the crown during her seven 
years' absence (2 K. 8. lff -). (2) Abishag, who was 
brought to minister to David in his old age, love for 
whom was the undoing of Adonijah (1 K. I. 3 , &c). 
(3) The Shulamite, whose faithful love is cele- 
brated in the Song of Songs. In this name we 
observe the change of n to / wh. is found in the 
mod. Solam. 

SHUNI, son of Gad, and father of the Shunites 
(Gn. 46. 16 ; Nu. 26. 15 ). 

SHUPHAM. S^Shuppim. 

SHUPHAMITES. See Shephaphan. 

SHUPPIM and HUPPIM were sons of Ir (1 Ch. 
7. 12 ), descendants of Benjamin. They are called 
" Muppim and Huppim," sons of Benjamin, in Gn. 
46. 21 ; in Nu. 26. 39 " Shupham and Hupham," and 
in I Ch. 8. 5 " Shephuphan and Huram." 

SHUR may have been a fortress on the frontier of 
Egypt, to wh. a highway led through the desert of 
el-Tih (Gn. 16. 7 ). This quite fits the references in 
Gn. 20. 1 , 25. 18 ; I S. 15. 7 , 27. 8 . The wilderness to 
the north and east would quite naturally be called 
the "Wilderness of Shur " (Ex. 15. 22 ). Griffith 
(Hastings' Smaller DB. s.v) suggests identification 



74' 



Shu 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sid 



with Thor, " a fortress near the NE. frontier and 
capital of the 14th nome of Lower Egypt." It 
was situated on a canal called Shi-Hor. Thither 
malefactors were sent " after having their noses cut 
off." The site, however, is not identified. 

SHUSHAN (Heb. Shushan, Gr. Sousa), the capi- 
tal of Elam. It was destroyed by Asshur-bani-pal. 
About a century later it was rebuilt by Cyrus and 
made the capital of Persia. Poss. as ambassador to 
Cyrus fm. Belshazzar, who was acting sovereign in 
place of Nabunahid his father, 
who was incapacitated, Daniel 
came to S. While there he 
had the vision of the ram and 
the he-goat. The fullest ac- 
count of S. is to be found in 
Esther ; S. was the palace of 
Ahasuerus (Xerxes) ; the pro- 
minence of the marble pillars 
in the description is to be ob- 
served (Est. i. 2 , 2. 5 , 9. 15 ). As 
S. was also the capital of Arta- 
xerxes, it was here that Nehe- 
miah acted as cupbearer (Ne. 
I. 1 ). It is to be noted that S. 
most generally has the deter- 
minative " the palace " added. 
M. Dieulafoy's excavations 
(1884-86) have shown the im- 
portance of the palace ; also, as 
he is careful to assure us, the 
descriptive accuracy of the 
book of Esther. Later it shared 
its dignities with the better- 
known Persepolis. As in Per- 
sepolis, the Court of Columns 
was a marked feature. The modern name is Sus ; 
it is situated between the rivers Shapur and Dizful 
(SDB. p. 1302, vol. hi. ; Perrot and Chipiez, Hist, 
of Art. in Persia, p. 420). 

SHUTHELAH, ancestor of an Ephraimite clan 
(Nu. 26. 35 , &c), whose descendants were called 
Shuthelahites (Nu. 26. 35 , RV.). 

SIA (Ne. y. 47 ), SIAH (Ez. a. 44 ), a family of 
Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel ; called 
" Sua " in 1 Es. 5. 29 (AV. "sud"). 

SIBBECAI, SIBBECHAI, one of David's 
mighty men (2 S. 21. 18 , &c). In 2 S. 23. 27 " Me- 
bunnai " is a scribal error for S. 
SIBBOLETH. See Shibboleth. 
SIBMAH, a city in the territory of Reuben, E. of 
Jordan (Nu. 32. 38 ; J0.13. 19 , &c), called " Sebam " 
(AV. Shebam) in Nu. 32A 

SIBRAIM, a place on the N. boundary of the 
land as indicated by Ezekiel (47. 16 ), wh. may be 
ident. with Khirbet Sanbariyeh on Nahr Hasbany, to 
the E. of Abil (Buhl., GAP. 6y, 238). 

SICKLE. Sickles of flint, preserved fm. the stone 




Restored Elevation of 
Capital at Shushan 



age, have been found in Egypt and Pal. ; bronze was 
employed later, and then iron (Dt. 16. 9 , &c). The 
illustration shows the shape of the sickle in ordinary 
use in Pal. to-day. It prob. resembles that of 
ancient times. The edge of the sickle is often 
notched like that of a saw. The " sickle " of Jr. 
50. 16 and Jl. 3. 13 is the large knife, shaped like the 
sickle, with wh. the bunches of ripe grapes were cut 
from the vine (c-p. Rv. 14. 18 ). 




Sickle 

SIDDIM, THE VALE OF, is mentioned only 
in Gn. 14. in connection with the invasion by the 
four kings, and the capture of the five cities. It 
is described as being " full of slime pits " (v. 10), 
which apparently impeded the movements of the 
fugitives. The bitumen, here called " slime," is 
petroleum, formed by the decomposition of vege- 
table and animal matter under water, hardened by 
evaporation and oxidisation. These " pits " or 
" wells," whence the bitumen oozed, " are not now 
known in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea ; but 
the strata about it are rich in bituminous matter ; 
the ancients state that masses of bitumen were often 
found floating upon it (whence it was called by 
Josephus and others the ' Asphaltic Lake '), and 
after earthquakes similar masses still appear " 
(Driver, Genesis, 1621.). In v. 3 the vale of Siddim 
is said to be the Salt Sea, i.e. the Dead Sea. This 
might mean that the vale was coterminous with the 
sea, in wh. case the sea wd. have been formed by a 
great subsidence. But during all historic time 
there must have been a collection of water in the 
bottom of the valley, and there is notning to show 
that it ever could have been elsewhere than where 
it is (see Palestine, Jordan valley). But while the 
sea is deep N. of the Lisan, reaching a depth of 
1300 ft., to the S. of that peninsula it is shallow, at 
certain seasons being almost fordable in parts. 
Here it is distinguished by the name of " the 
Lagoon." It is just possible that this part may 
have been formed by subsidence within historic 
time. Before that event the salt, marshy flats of 
es-Sebkha, S. of the Dead Sea, may have furnished 
excellent arable land. The luxuriance of Ghor es- 
Sdfiyeh, a small oasis to the SE. of the sea, shows 
what this land may have been under favourable 
conditions. 

The view that the vale of Siddim lay to the N. of 
the Dead Sea may be safely dismissed. Zoar is not 
named among the cities given to Reuben (Jo. 1 3- 15ff -)> 



742 



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Sid 



and it appears as a Moabite city in Is. 15. 5 ; Jr. 
48 . 34 . Josephus {BJ. IV. viii. 4) clearly places it at 
the S. of the Dead Sea. The other cities of the 
plain, it may be presumed, were not far distant. 
This view is strengthened by the name attaching to 
the range of salt cliffs, wh. form the W. boundary of 
the N. part of es-Sebkha — Jebel Usdum, " the moun- 
tain of Sodom." The level of the water in the 
Dead Sea has in recent years shown a tendency to 
rise. This may be taken to show the possibility that 
the S. end of the sea was once dry land. What is 
now the marsh land may then have been th vale of 
Siddim. 

SIDON, SIDONIANS, ZIDON, ZIDONIANS. 
To the N. of the " Ladder of Tyre," and practically 
all the way to Beyrout, along the Syrian coast, 
between Mt. Lebanon and the sea, runs a narrow 
strip of rich land. This, with part of the mountain 
behind it, formed the territory of the Phoenicians. 
This people held their ground against the invading 
Israelites, and once at least the conquerors of Pal. 
were subject to Phoenician oppression (Jg. I. 31 , 
io. 12 ). The land was not sufficient in extent to 




Coin of Sidon 

support a large and growing population. The 
people therefore applied themselves to gather " the 
harvest of the sea." ' In plying the arts of fishermen 
they became expert in the management of sea-going 
craft. Two circumstances favoured their develop- 
ment as a seafaring people. On their coast-line 
there were natural facilities for the construction of 
excellent harbours, commodious and well pro- 
tected ; and the mountain above them furnished 
plentiful supplies of timber, well adapted for ship- 
building. That the voyages made in the interests 
of trade might be profitable, they required to carry 
with them commodities produced at home, for sale 
or exchange. This led to the founding of such 
industries as ornamental metal working, weaving, 
&c. Fabrics treated with the famous purple dye 
— discovered by the Sidonians, altho' afterwards 
known as " Tyrian purple " — were in great demand. 
At two specially convenient points on the Goast 
large industrial and trading communities were 
formed. The first was Sidon and the second Tyre. 
Trading relations with other countries resulted in 
the foundation of colonies. Poss. to Sidon must 
be attributed the planting of Aradus, Carthage, 
Melitus, Citium, and Berytus. 

In the earliest times S. was the chief city of the 



Phoenicians. So great was her ascendency that no 
incongruity was felt in calling the whole people by 
her name, " Sidonians " (Dt. 3. 9 , &c). S. is first 
mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. Her 
prince, Zimrida, appears along with the Amorite 
chief, Aziri, as opposing the attempt of Egp. to 
establish authority over the seaboard. Centuries 
later, at the time of the conquest of Pal., she was 
still the foremost city of Phoenicia. How long she 
held this position we cannot tell, but in the time of 
Solomon the leadership had evidently passed to 
Tyre. Josephus represents Hiram, king of Tyre, 
Solomon's contemporary, as acting the part of 
national leader {Ant. VIII. v. 3 ; Cont. Af. i. 18). 
In subsequent history the relative position of the 
two cities was often changed. The Assyrians pro- 
fited by their rivalry, playing one off against the 
other to the detriment of both. Sidon acknow- 
ledged the supremacy of Ashur-nazir-pal ; and felt 
the heavy hand of successive Assyrian monarchs. 
Sennacherib overthrew king Eluleus (b.c. 701), and 
placed Tuba'al, a creature of his own, on the throne. 
His successor, Abd-melkutti, made insurrection, 
provoking the onslaught of Esarhaddon, who, after 
terrific carnage, deported the survivors of the 
citizens to Assyria, utterly destroyed the city, and 
on another site erected a new city, wh. he called by 
his own name " Esarhaddonsburgh." But the old 
name cd. not thus be blotted out. 'Ir-esarhaddon 
had no vitality. Sidon persists to this day. The 
waning of Assyrian power did not necessarily in- 
volve independence for Phoenicia, but her people, 
freed from the distractions of war, were able for a 
time to pursue their avocations with success. 
Attempts were made in the western provinces to 
counteract the growing ascendency of Babylon ; 
and in connection with one of these we read of a 
Sidonian king visiting Jrs. (Jr. 27?). A rising on 
a considerable scale, wh. was organised prob. c. 
B.C. 598, suffered extinction at the hands of Nebu- 
chadnezzar. The heroic resistance and tragic fate 
of Tyre are depicted in Ek. 26. Sidon, unmanned 
by a terrible pestilence (Ek. 28. 22f> ), submitted at 
once, securing the conqueror's favour. 

During the earlier portion of the Persian do- 
minion happy relations existed between the 
Phoenicians and their masters, to whom, in their 
momentous struggle with the Greeks, the Phoeni- 
cian seamen rendered conspicuous service. Under 
the leadership of Sidon an attempt was made c. 
b.c 351 to throw off the Persian yoke. It ended in 
ghastly failure. Tennes, king of Sidon, in despair 
betrayed the city to Artaxerxes Ochus. Such were 
the cruelties practised by the latter in quelling the 
revolt, that, rather than fall into his hands, the 
people of Sidon set fire to the city, and over 40,000 
perished in the flames. The traitor gained nothing 
by his infamy ; he was soon butchered by order of 



743 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sid 



Ochus. A site with such advantages, however, cd. 
not long remain desolate. It was rebuilt and main- 
tained a prosperous life, with a son of Tennes as 
king, until, with the coming of Alexander, night 
fell upon the long day of Phoenician maritime as- 
cendency. Sidon, however, continued to be an 
important trading centre, now under Syrian, and 
again under Egyptian authority. The Romans 
made her a free city. Jesus was once in the neigh- 
bourhood of the city ; but we cannot say He ever 
entered it (Mw. i5- 21t , &c.) ; and it figures in His 



formed a safe and convenient harbour. To the S. 
lay the " Egyptian harbour," larger but not so 
secure. On the largest of the islands, connected 
with the mainland by a bridge, on a site which was 
prob. occupied by a fortress in early days, stands 
Qal'at el-Bahr, " the castle of the sea," built in the 
thirteenth cent. The mouth of the harbour was 
filled up by order of Fakhr ed-Dvn. This kept the 
Turkish fleet at a distance for the time : but it 
wrought permanent injury to the city, as it largely 
spoilt the harbour. No buildings of any antiquity 




PEF. Plwto 



The so-called Sarcophagus of Alexander 



denunciation of woe upon the highly favoured but 
heedless cities of Galilee (Mw. u. 21f -, &c). It was 
represented in the embassy to king Agrippa (Ac. 
12. 20 ). It was touched at by St. Paul on his voyage 
fm. Caesarea to Italy (27 . 3 ). Hardly less chequered 
has been the later history of the city. During 
crusading times it was a heavy sufferer. It saw 
prosperous days under the Druze prince Fakhr 
ed-Dln (1 595-1634), and again under Muhammad 
'Aly (18 32-1 840), by whom the walls were built. 

The mod. Saidd, " prey taken in fishing," stands 
on a point projecting into the sea. Not far from 
the shore a number of small rocky islands afforded 
shelter to ships lying near the town. These were 
joined together by embankments, and the water 
between them and the shore to the N. of the city 



remain, but there are abundant evidences of Sidon's 
ancient greatness — the squared blocks used in build- 
ing the harbour, the rock-cut reservoirs, the traces 
of walls, columns, &c. Certain ancient tombs have 
been uncovered, yielding highly interesting results. 
In 1885 was found the sarcophagus of king Esh- 
munazar (first half of the fourth cent. b.c). In 
1887 many highly ornamented Phoenician and 
Greek sarcophagi were found ; among them that of 
Tabnit, fr. of Eshmunazar, and the so-called coffin 
of Alexander the Great. From examination of the 
site it appears that ancient Sidon stretched further 
to the E. than the mod. city. " Great Zidon " 
(Jo. II. 8 , &c.) and " Little Zidon," are mentioned 
in an inscrip. of Sennacherib (KAT?, 288f.). What 
the distinction implied we cannot now say. 



744 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sil 



Mod. Saida is a town of some 11,000 inhabitants. 
Many are engaged in fishing. The gardens and 
orange groves are extensive, and furnish occupation 
for many more. Only small coasting steamers and 
sailing vessels call at Saida. Oranges form the 
main export. 

SIEGE. Of all the operations of ancient war- 
fare, only of a S. have we anything like a description 
of the actual succession of steps. In Ezekiel (4. 1 " 3 ) 
we have an account of how the prophet acted out in 
symbol the siege of Jrs., to impress upon his fellow- 
captives its horrors. The first thing done was to 
erect a watch-tower to overlook the city walls and 
see what was being done within ; then a mound was 
raised, filling up the fosse and forming a platform on 
wh. the battering engines mt. be moved to the wall. 



of Og, king of Bashan, made a great impression on 
the mind of the people, and is frequently referred to 
in the Lit. It is also celebrated in song (Nu. 
zi. 2 ^- ; Ps. 135. 11 , 136.W). The land taken from 
S. was assigned to Reuben and Gad. 

SIHOR, properly SHIHOR, wh. see. 

SILAS (Acts), SILVANUS (Epp.). He is intro- 
duced to us as one of the leaders of the Church 
m Jrs. (Ac. 15. 22 ), holding the office of Prof betes. 
After the apostolic council at Jrs. S., along with 
Judas Barsabas, was appointed to accompany Paul 
and Barnabas to Antioch, to announce the decree 
of the council in the matter of uncircumcised be- 
lievers. When the deputies had delivered their 
message they returned to Jrs. After a short time S. 
seems to have gone again to Antioch. 




The Siege of a City 



These engines were battering-rams in movable 
towers, fm. the top of wh. archers shot arrows to 
clear the walls while the rams shook the wall be- 
neath. In order to cover these operations the army 
first encamped, and then, if numerous enough, sur- 



V. 34 appears to be an interpolation to explain v. 40; 
it is only found in D. of the five great uncials, and v. 33 
implies that both deputies departed. 

When Paul had separated fm. Barnabas he chose 
S. to be his companion. His name, Silvanus, indi- 

rounded the city with a circumvallation. If this cates that he, like Paul, had the citizenship of Rome 

was completed and cd. be held, famine accom- (Ac. 16. 37 ). S. accompanied Paul through Asia 

panied by disease compelled surrender. This is Minor to Troas, and thence across to Europe. He 

confirmed by the monuments of Egp. and Asyr. was beaten with him in Philippi and was thrust into 

There are additional features ; in the assault we prison, but shared also in his triumph (Ac. i6. 12f '). 

find escalade and mining ; for the defence there He went with Paul to Thessalonica, and thence to 

were chains let down to catch the head of the ram, Bercea, where S. remained while Paul went on to 

and blazing torches were flung to burn up the Athens (Ac. 17. 14 ). In Corinth he, with Timothy, 

towers. Josephus's account of the siege and de- rejoined the apostle (Ac. 18. 5f -), who, encouraged by 

fence of Jotapata (BJ. III. vii.) may be regarded as their presence, threw himself with yet greater 

classical. vehemence into his controversy with the unbe- 

SIGNET. See Seal. lieving Jews. S. appears to have left Corinth about 

SIHON, the Amorite king encountered by Israel the same time as Paul, since his name did not form 

N. of the Arnon, who refused to let them pass, and the watchward of a party, as did that of Apollos 

was defeated in a battle fought at Jahaz (Nu. 21.). (1 Cor. i. 12 ). S. is named in the salutation in both 

For the extent of Sihon's territory E. of Jordan see the Epp. to the Thessalonians, wh. were both 

Ammon, Amorites. He fixed his capital at Hesh- written fm. Corinth. In the 2nd Epistle to the 

bon, wh. is indicated by his own name in Jr. 48. 45 Corinthians Paul unites S. and Timothy with him- 

(cp. Nu. 2 1.- 28 ). The overthrow of Sihon, with that self as preaching Christ in one way (2 Cor. 1. 19 ). If 

745 2 A 2. 



Sil 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sim 



we may assume as certain, what is at least probable, 
that S. of i P. 5. 12 had been Paul's companion, we 
may find a reason for the exceedingly Pauline char- 
acter of that epistle. We have assumed the iden- 
tity of Silas and Silvanus ; the contraction is the 
same in kind as that wh. produced Epaphras fm. 



usually " pieces of money " (Mw. 26. 15 ) ; the Gr. 

didrachm, " silverling," is used to tr. keseph in Is. 

7. 23 ; LXX tr. siklon = " shekels." 
SILVERSMITH. See Handicrafts. 
SIMEON. (1) Second s. of Jacob and Leah. 

He was born in Padan-Aram (Gn. 2c). 33 ). In this 
Epaphroditus, and Apollos fm. Apollonius ; further passage (J.) the name is connected with skdma', " to 
the Silvanus of the Epp. has been with Paul in the hear," Leah exclaiming at his birth, " The Lord 
experiences in wh. Silas, according to Acts, has been hath heard that I am hated, He hath therefore given 
with him. St. Paul's constant use of the Roman me this son also : and she called his name Simeon " 
name mt. be due to the importance he had been led (shim' on, " hearing "). In revenge for the seduc- 
to- attach to Roman citizenship, of wh. the name tion of Dina by Shechem, son of Hamor, Simeon 
was the sign. Luke, again, uses the form the name took part in the treacherous slaughter and despoiling 
assumed among the Greeks. Of the subsequent of the Shechemites, an atrocity that is represented 
fate of Silas nothing is certainly known. as having made a deep impression on the mind of 

SILK. Two Heb. words are so trd. : (1) shesh Jacob (49- 5 ). When Joseph's brethren visited him 
(Pr. 3 1. 22 ), elsewhere more correctly rendered " fine in Egypt, Simeon was left bound on their return 
linen " ; (2) meshl (Ek. 16. 10 ' 13 ), wh. poss. may be home, as a pledge that Benjamin would be brought 
S. In Rv. 18. 12 S. (Gr. serikon) is mentioned as one down (42. 24 ), and in a mood of pessimism Jacob 
of the luxurious possessions of the mystic Babylon, mourned over him as lost (v. 36). Six sons are 
Accdg. to Chinese annals they practised weaving of ascribed to S. at the time of the settlement in Egp. 
S. two millennia before Christ. Fm. Aristotle's (46. 10 ). We must suppose that, with the other 



references it seems certain that S. was unknown in 

Greece till after the conquests of Alexander the 

Great. The cultivation of the silkworm did not 

begin in the Levant till the reign of Justinian. 

With some plausibility the word tr. "Damascus" in 
Am. 3. 12 AV. is rendered by RV. " silken cushions." 

SILLA. Joash was killed by his servants at 
Millo on the way leading down to Silla (2 K. 12. 20 ). 
What Silla was and where it was there is nothing 
to show. 

SILOAM. See Shiloah. 

SILVANUS. See Silas. 

SILVER (Heb. keseph). One of the earliest of 



patriarchs, he died and was buried there. The 
critical speculations wh. find in the notices of S. 
reflections of tribal history, rest upon extremely 
meagre and uncertain data. 

For the strength of the tribe at the two enume- 
rations in the wilderness see Numbers. The 
representative of S. at the first numbering was 
Shelumiel, s. of Zurishaddai (Nu. 1 . 6 ) . The place of 
S. in the desert march was south of the tent of meet- 
ing, with the standard of the camp of Reuben (2. 12 ). 
Simeon's oblation, offered by the hand of Shelumiel, 
at the completion of the Tabernacle, is reported in 
chap. 7. 36ff \ Among the spies S. was represented by 



the metals to be regarded as precious. Keseph is Shaphat, s. of Hori (13. 5 ). Shemuel, s. of Ammihud, 
frequently trd. Money (Gn. 42. 27 ; Ex. 21. 21 ; Lv. was appointed to act for Simeon in the division of 
25. 37 , &c), a fact that shows how early it was used as the land (34. 20 ). Simeon was to " stand on Mt. 
a measure of value. Although S. never seems to Gerizim to bless the people " when they had passed 
have been mined in Pal. the Jews knew well the pro- over Jordan (Dt. 27. 12 ). The inheritance of S. is 
cess of mining (Jb. 28. 1 ), and of refining silver (Ek. said to have been " in the midst of the inheritance 
22. 22 ; Ml. 3- 3 ) ; they knew also the metals found in of Judah " (Jo. I9. lff -). The district assigned to S. 
combination with it in the ore, fm. wh. it had to be was the southern part of the territory of Judah, the 
purified (Is. I. 25 ; Jr. 6. 29 ). Isr. seems to have got reason for this being that " the portion of the chil- 
its supply of S. mainly fm. Tarshish (i K. io. 22 ; dren of Judah was too much for them " (v. 9). The 
Ek. 27. 12 ), poss. Tartessus in Spain ; but there must two tribes are represented as acting together in the 
have been some source of supply nearer to explain conquest of the whole region (Jg. I. 3, l7 ), out of wh., 
the knowledge the Jews had of the treatment of the along with the portion of Benjamin, thirteen cities 
crude ore. S. appears to have been wrought in the were assigned to the Levites (Jo. 21. 4 ). The de- 
Egyptian mines in the Sinaitic peninsula, but it is scendants of the patriarch are called Simeonites 
never mentioned as a source of supply. It is re- (Nu. 25. 14 , &c). The tribe of Simeon played no 
corded as an evidence of the riches Solomon intro- important part in subsequent history. The pas- 
duced into Jrs. that " it was not anything accounted toral character of their territory wd. assimilate their 
of in the days of Solomon" (2 Ch. 9. 20 ). In the life to that of the peoples on their borders ; and the 
NT. (Gr. arguros), generally the metal (Ac. 17. 29 ; probability is that such of their number as were not 
I Cor. 3. 12 ; Js. 5. 3 ), though occasionally of Money absorbed by the Arabs and Edomites were finally 
(Mw. io. 9 , argurion), sometimes trd. " money," as merged in the tribe of Judah. Simeon is not men- 
in the parable of " the talents" (Mw, 25. 18 ), but tioned by Deborah; but neither is Judah. In 

746 



Sim 



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Sim 



that rising the southern tribes were evidently not 
concerned. I Ch. 4. 41ff - preserves the record of a 
raid in the time of Hezekiah, by a company of 
Simeonites, against the Amalekites in Mt. Seir, 
where apparently they established themselves. 
Seven thousand one hundred warriors of the tribe 
are said to have joined David at Hebron (i Ch. 1 2. 25 ) . 
Certain sojourners of Simeon were associated with 
Asa in his reformation of religion (2 Ch. 15. 9 ). 
Josiah carried his attack upon idolatry into the 
territory of Simeon (2 Ch. 34~ 6 ). Simeon is as- 
signed a place in the ideal construction of Israel 
(Ek. 4 8. 25 ). 

(2) One of the " waiters for the consolation of 
Israel," a " righteous and devout " man (Lk. 2. 25ff> ), 
who recognised the infant Jesus when He was 
brought into the Temple. S. is usually described as 
an aged man. This, however, is only an inference 
from his prayer, " Now lettest Thou Thy servant 
depart in peace," it being assumed that unless he 
were advanced in years he would not wish to depart 
at the very threshold of the Messianic age. (3) 
Simeon, or " Symeon " (RV.), appears in the 
genealogy of our Lord (Lk. 3. 30 ). (4.) See Niger, 
Simon Peter. 

SIMON PETER, the chief of the twelve apostles 
of Jesus Christ, was called from his work as fisher- 
man on the Sea of Galilee to become a fisher of men. 
Our only reliable information about him is given in 
the Gospels, the Acts, and one or two of the 
epistles ; and we have no account of his life before 
his meeting with Jesus. We see him first -as a full- 
grown man, married, and with a house in Caper- 
naum. He had associated with him in his trade his 
brother Andrew ; and connected with them in some 
kind of partnership was another pair of brothers, 
James and John. St. P. belonged to Bethsaida of 
Galilee, a town on the northern shore of the Sea of 
Tiberias, and not far from Capernaum, his home. 
He is called son of Jonah or John, but his father is 
not otherwise mentioned. It is only a casual refer- 
ence which tells us that he was married, and ap- 
parently his wife's mother, as well as his brother 
Andrew, lived with him (Mw. 8. 14 ). 

The first meeting between Jesus and St. P. is 
recorded in St. John's Gospel only ; and it took 
place near the scene of the Baptism, at some distance 
from their homes. They would appear to have all 
come hither, drawn by the influence of John the 
Baptist, and St. P., with his brother Andrew, had 
already become a disciple of John when Jesus ap- 
peared. John's message was a call to repentance 
and to a changed life in preparation for the coming of 
the Messiah ; and those who enrolled themselves as 
his disciples would be men of lofty aims, who appre- 
ciated the ethical teaching of their master, and 
valued the coming of the Messiah as the beginning of 
a reign of'righteousness. St. P. came to Jesus from 



the school of John the Baptist (Jn. i. 40 ' 42 ), and gave 
himself heart and soul to his new Master. From 
the first Jesus saw great possibilities in the charac- 
ter of this man, and at their first interview told 
him that he would be called Cephas, or Peter, 
meaning " a rock." The name of honour gradually 
came to take the place of his proper name ; but 
Jesus, apart from the passage, Mw. 16. 18 , continued 
to call him Simon. St. James calls him Simeon 
(Ac. 15. 14 ) ; in the Gospels and Acts he is named 
" Simon who is also called Peter," or Simon Peter 
[cp. 2 P. I. 1 ), or simply Peter, and St. Paul calls him 
Cephas {cp. 1 P. I. 1 ), or, more rarely, Peter (Gal. 
2. 7 ' 8 ). After his meeting with Jesus, St. P. went 
back to Galilee and returned to his accustomed 
trade ; and it was only on the second interview that 
he left all and followed Jesus (Mw. 4. 18 - 22 ; ML 
j I6-20 . jjc 5. 1 " 11 ). This time Jesus was teaching in 
Galilee on the shore of the lake, and a great multi- 
tude pressed upon Him so that He had not room to 
speak. Taking advantage of His acquaintance with 
Peter, Jesus entered his boat and asked him to put 
out a little from the land. The result of that meet- 
ing was that St. P. immediately cast in his lot with 
Jesus, leaving all he had to become His constant 
companion. Some months later Jesus chose the 
twelve apostles, that He might have a band of men 
united to Himself by a closer bond than that of 
discipleship. They were to be continually in His 
company, that they might learn the inwardness of 
His teaching, and that they might faithfully present 
His Gospel to the world, when He Himself should 
have departed from them. St. P. is always given 
the first place in the list of the apostles, and he be- 
came at once the leader of them all, because of those 
qualities which Jesus recognised at the beginning, 
and which, under His training, were developed into 
something truly great. 

Though the details of the life of St. P. are scanty, 
we must remind ourselves that he was in the com- 
pany of Jesus all the time, hearing His words and 
seeing His wonderful deeds, and thus the impression 
of the Master's character would be gradually made 
upon him. Peter, like the others, came to Jesus full 
of prejudices. He had his own conception of how 
the Messiah should appear, and indeed none of the 
disciples seems to have realised till after the death of 
Jesus that His kingdom was not, and never could be, 
of this world. But Jesus came to fulfil not to de- 
stroy, and His method was, not to root out the old 
prejudices by denouncing them, but quietly to instil 
the new ideas which would gradually leave no place 
for the old. St. P. was peculiarly fitted to be in- 
fluenced by this kind of teaching, for he had a pas- 
sionate devotion to Jesus, and a humility in His 
presence which led him to submit at once to His 
influence. The old views and the new might re- 
main side by side for a time, but whenever the 



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disciple saw clearly what were the implications of 
the new teaching, he yielded at once and embraced 
it as his own. He often received correction, and 
sometimes Jesus had to speak with considerable 
severity, but he was always saved from bitterness by 
his confidence in the perfect love of the Master, and 
his conviction of His greatness and wisdom. Some- 
times this very confidence in Jesus led him into 
error, and his impulsive nature brought him into 
perilous situations. His rashness in offering to walk 
on the sea is an instance of this (Mw. 14. 28 " 31 ) ; for, 
in. the gladness of his heart, he had undertaken a 
task the difficulty of which he did not stop to realise, 
and his rashness, instead of gratifying Jesus, only 
brought himself into a position for which he was not 
fit. This impulsiveness was a characteristic of St. P. 
throughout. It made him rush into situations of 
danger before he had given himself time to con- 
sider ; and it sometimes led him to give utterance 
to thoughtless statements which brought upon him 
the rebuke of the Master. But all his rash actions 
and his hasty words were only the expression of his 
great love for Jesus. Had he loved less he might 
have contained himself more. And there were 
many occasions when his impulsive answers gave 
gladness to the heart of his Lord. Once at Caper- 
naum, when many, dissatisfied with His teaching, 
because He claimed to be the bread of life, mur- 
mured at the hard saying and walked no more 
with Him, Jesus turned to the twelve and asked, 
" Would ye also go away ? " The quick answer 
came from St. P. : " Lord, to whom shall we go ? 
Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have 
believed and know that Thou are the Holy One of 
God " (Jn. 6. 68 ' 69 ). He perhaps did not under- 
stand any better than the multitude, but the Master 
had become indispensable to him. His answer 
shows that it was the sinlessness of Jesus which had 
impressed St. P., who had been learning to under- 
stand that this constituted His highest claim to their 
reverence and obedience (cp. 1 P. 2. 22 ). It was this 
which gave the confession its value to Jesus. 

Near the end of the Galilsean ministry, when 
Jesus was with His disciples in the neighbourhood of 
Csesarea Philippi, St. P. again comes to the front 
(Mw. 16. 13 - 20 ; Mk.8. 27 " 29 ; Lk. 9 . 18 ' 20 ). It was a 
crisis in the life of our Lord, for He was about to 
prepare the disciples' minds for His approaching 
death, and before making this communication He 
determined to obtain an expression of their opinion 
as to His person. The confession at Capernaum had 
been the impulsive response of a warm, loving heart, 
but now Jesus wanted a deliberate statement of the 
judgment they had been led to form of Him, as the 
result of their intercourse. " He wished them to be 
fairly committed to the doctrine of the Messiahship 
before proceeding to speak in plain terms on the un- 
welcome theme of His death " (A. B. Bruce). He 



first asked the disciples what were the current 
opinions about Him, and the answers which they 
gave showed how the mind of the people was being 
exercised to explain Him. Then He asked 
pointedly, " But who say ye that I am ? " and 
St. P. alone answered, " Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the Living God." Other men had gone no 
further than to compare Him with the very greatest 
of the prophets, but St. P. ascribed to Him the 
attributes of divinity. The great value of St. P.'s 
confession was that he reverenced in Jesus the 
qualities which the Lord Himself considered essen- 
tial, and that his view of holiness had become inde- 
pendent of the external trappings which were 
universally associated with the appearing of the 
Messiah. The high praise which the Lord be- 
stowed on him shows the satisfaction with which 
He received St. P.'s answer, for He turned to the 
apostle and praised him unstintedly. He desig- 
nated him as the rock on which He would build His 
Church, against which the gates of Hades would 
not prevail. It is St. P. himself who is called the 
rock, the foundation of the Church, and the history 
of his career in the Acts is the best commentary on 
the Lord's promise. But St. P. was given the 
primacy, not as an official, but for personal reasons. 
He had the qualities for leadership, and his confes- 
sion showed that he had the right understanding of 
his Master. In the further promise as to " the 
power of the keys," St. P. is described as the steward 
of the kingdom, determining who were to be ad- 
mitted to the Church and who were to be rejected. 
The power to " bind " and to " loose," which was 
given to St. P. here, was also given to his brethren in 
Mw. 18. 18 . The expressions, " to bind," " to 
loose," are taken from the technical use of the words 
in the decisions of the scribes, and mean, " to for- 
bid," " to permit." The disciples, because of their 
special knowledge of our Lord's teaching, were em- 
powered to give an authoritative decision on matters 
concerned with the Church. That which they de- 
cide shall be in accordance with the decision of 
heaven. The distinction given to St. P. here is 
afterwards bestowed upon his brethren, but because 
he alone made this confession at this time he was 
given, as their representative and leader, a preroga- 
tive which justifies his description as the foundation 
rock on which the Church is built. On the same 
occasion St. P. laid himself open to severe rebuke 
from his Master, and revealed very plainly the 
double elements of strength and weakness in his 
character. Rejoicing in the commendation he had 
received, he took it upon himself to check his Master 
for what he considered His needlessly gloomy fore- 
bodings of the future, and brought down upon him- 
self the strong condemnation of Jesus. The heart 
of the Lord was grieved to find that the disciple who 
had best grasped the meaning of His Person, could 



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still be so earthly-minded with regard to His 
mission. On the Mount of Transfiguration (Mw. 
17.1- 13 ; Mk. 9. 2 - 13 ; Lk. 9 . 28 - 36 ) St. P., by his be- 
haviour, exhibited the same traits of character. At 
first he was awed by the change which had come 
upon Jesus when He was transfigured before them, 
but instead of keeping a discreet silence in the 
presence of mysteries which were beyond his com- 
prehension, he began to make arrangements affecting 
them all, and to tell out his plan. Apparently he 
thought that they had reached the climax of his 
Lord's life, and was incapable of understanding the 
mind of Jesus, who looked upon His death on the 
cross as the goal of all His life. St. P. wished to see 
the world dazzled by the glory of the transfigured 
Lord. Jesus knew that victory would come only by 
His death : " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto Myself " (Jn. 12. 32 ). 

From this point onwards to the final entry into 
Jerusalem there are only occasional references to St. 
P., as distinguished from the others. Perhaps he had 
been impressed by the dangers of hasty speech, and 
was practising obedience to the Divine command 
to hear the words of God's well-beloved Son. Thus 
we find that when Jesus began to speak again about 
being killed, and thereafter raised up, they were all 
exceeding sorry, but there is no word from St. P. as 
before. On four occasions, however, his name is 
mentioned during this interval. (1) The tribute 
money. The tax collectors came to St. P., his 
leadership among the disciples being apparently 
well known, and asked what was the custom of his 
Master with regard to the payment of the tax levied 
for the maintenance of worship in the Temple (Mw. 
17. 24 " 27 ). The tax was levied upon all, but the 
priests and rabbis seem to have been exempted from 
it, and the question was whether Jesus would claim 
this privilege. Jesus, while declaring to His dis- 
ciples that He had a higher right than even a rabbi to 
refuse to pay this tax, yet agreed to pay, " lest we 
cause them to stumble." P. was sent to take the 
first fish he could catch, and in its mouth he would 
find a coin to pay all that was required. (2) For- 
giving. Jesus had been speaking of the forgiving 
spirit, and St. P. asked, " Lord, how often shall my 
brother sin against me, and I forgive him ? until 
seven times ? " (Mw. 18. 21 * 22 ), expecting, doubtless, 
to be' praised for his large charity. Jesus replied 
that forgiveness is without limit, and St. P. would be 
made to feel again that he had failed to comprehend 
his Master's teaching. (3) Watchfulness (Lk. 12. 41 ). 
Jesus had been warning His hearers to be watchful, 
and prepared for the sudden coming of the Son of 
Man, and St. P. asked for a fuller explanation. He 
wished to have the distinction between the apostles 
and others clearly stated, thinking that when the Son 
of Man should come, the Twelve would be specially 
distinguished. The same thought suggests his 



question (4) when the Rich Young Ruler had sorrow- 
fully turned away (Mw. 19. 27 - 30 ; Mk. io. 28 ' 31 ; Lk. 
18. 28 " 30 ). He was thinking with complaisance that 
he had stood the test which had been applied to 
this young man. He reminded Jesus how he and his 
brethren had left all to follow Him, and asked about 
their reward. The revelation of himself which St. 
P. gives in these questions is of a man trying his best 
to rise to that which he admires in another, and 
though we find him often at fault in this effort, we 
realise that he " falls to rise, is baffled to fight 
better." He is a man with a practical turn of mind, 
who is not content till he understands the reasons 
of things. His impulsiveness leads him into error as 
well as, perhaps oftener than, to the truth, but it is 
always easy for the Master to bring him to see his 
faults. Though we feel often that he shows a lack 
of true reverence for Him whom he called his Lord, 
and whom he acknowledged to be Divine, his love 
for Jesus always kept him from going far astray, 
and none among the disciples gave to Jesus a more 
devoted service, or loved Him with a deeper affec- 
tion, than St. P. There is truth in the saying of 
Chrysostom : " He loved St. John exceedingly, but 
it was by St. P. that He was exceedingly beloved." 
The name of P. is not mentioned in the account of 
the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem and the triumphal 
entry, but he was continually in His company during 
these eventful days. He heard Jesus curse the fig- 
tree on the Monday of that week, for on the follow- 
ing day he called his Lord's attention to the fact that 
His prophecy was fulfilled and the tree withered 
(Mk. II. 21 ). On the same day St. P. is named along 
with three others as asking Jesus when His prophecy 
about the destruction of Jerusalem would be ful- 
filled (Mk. 13. 3 ' 4 ). St. Luke has preserved the 
detail that the two disciples sent to arrange about 
the place for the celebration of the Passover were 
St. P. and St. John (Lk. 22. 8 ) ; St. P. stands out 
prominently at this point. Jesus reclined at the 
Last Supper between St. P. and St. John, His face 
towards John on His right hand, while Peter could 
see His face only when He turned to him. Jesus 
had already sat down at the table when He rose un- 
expectedly and proceeded to wash the disciples' 
feet. He began with Simon Peter, who was there- 
fore the first to face the situation of seeing the 
Master at his feet, prepared to perform the service 
of a slave. The mildness of St. P.'s protest is at first 
surprising : " Lord, dost Thou wash my feet ? " 
But if Jesus began with him, as everything in the 
story seems to imply, the unexpectedness of His 
action and the condescension of it so took Peter by 
surprise that he was almost speechless. When he 
did realise it he protested vehemently against his 
Lord's action, and then, when rebuked, he went to 
the opposite extreme, and was as extravagant in the 
terms of his submission as he had formerly been in 



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his refusal to obey (Jn. 1 3. 1 ' 20 ). During the Supper, 
when Jesus was speaking of the betrayer, St. P., 
thinking that Jesus had whispered the name to St. 
John, asked him to declare the secret (Jn. 13. 24 ). 
When Judas left the table Jesus spoke of the love of 
His disciples for one another as being the sign of 
their discipleship after His departure. St. P. at 
once made evident how little he had even yet under- 
stood the words about His death by asking what He 
meant by going away, and maintaining that he 
would never forsake Him. He was solemnly told 
that he would thrice deny his Lord (Jn. 13. 38 ). The 
account in St. Luke's Gospel gives a valuable addi- 
tion (Lk. 22. 31 ' 34 ). Jesus turned to St. P. and ad- 
dressed him by his old name, Simon. He told him 
that there had been a spiritual conflict for the souls 
of all the disciples, but owing to the Master's prayer 
on his particular behalf he would come through the 
trial successfully, and was to use his experience in 
establishing the brethren. His impulsiveness would 
expose him to special danger, but he would pass 
through it, not scatheless certainly, but not to his 
utter ruin. This warning only made P. protest 
more vehemently, " Lord, with Thee I am ready to 
go both to prison and to death." Then Jesus 
spoke distinctly of the threefold denial, and the 
disciple, thunderstruck by the definite and confident 
prophecy, became silent. It is worthy of note that 
during the speech of Jesus recorded immediately 
afterwards in Jn. 14., while three other disciples 
broke in with questions, quite in the manner of St. 
P., he himself kept silence, as if utterly cast down by 
the words which Jesus had spoken. After supper 
they went to Gethsemane, and it is at this point 
that St. Matthew and St. Mark relate the prophecy 
of the denial (Mw. 26. 33 " 35 ; Mk. 14. 29 - 31 ). The 
explanation of this difference from the accounts in 
St. Luke and St. John may be that Jesus spoke more 
than once that night of the trial to which the 
disciples would be immediately subjected. In the 
Garden Jesus took apart Peter, James, and John, to 
watch near Him while He prayed, but when He 
rose from His knees He found them asleep. The 
three disciples had been taken by Jesus apart from 
the others twice already — at the raising of Jairus' 
daughter and on the Mount of Transfiguration. 
On this occasion they failed to respond to the great 
trust He put in them, and looking upon Peter as he 
slept He said, " Simon, sleepest thou ? couldest 
thou not watch one hour ? " (Mk. 14. 37 ). When the 
band, led by Judas, came to arrest Jesus, P. made a 
clumsy attempt at rescue, which only added to the 
difficulties of his Master, whose last miracle was 
wrought to undo the work of this impetuous 
follower. When Jesus was taken P. at first fled, but 
afterwards turned and followed afar off until they 
came to the judgment hall of Caiaphas. St. John 
gained him admission, and here took place the three- 



fold denial, recorded by all the evangelists (Mw 
26. 57 " 75 ; Mk. 14. 53 - 72 ; Lk. 22. 54 ' 62 ; Jn. i8. 15 " 27 ). 
He denied his acquaintance with Jesus with in- 
creasing vehemence, and seems to have forgotten all 
his protestations until Jesus turned and looked upon 
him, and he went out and wept bitterly. He now 
knew his weakness as he had never known it before, 
and he felt all the burning disgrace of his sin. After 
the denial P. is not mentioned till the morning of 
the Resurrection, when we find he is still the leader 
of the disciples, for Mary Magdalene, on finding the 
sepulchre empty, ran to him and John. John out- 
stripped Peter in the race to the tomb, but Peter 
was the first to enter the sepulchre to assure himself 
that the Lord's body was not there (Jn. 20. 1 " 10 ; Lk. 
24. 12 ). Later on the same day Jesus appeared to 
Peter privately (Lk. 24. 34 ; 1 Cor. 15. 5 ). Some 
time afterwards Jesus appeared to St. P. and other 
disciples in Galilee, when they were fishing (Jn. 
2 1. 1 " 19 ). St. John was the first to recognise the 
Lord, but no sooner had he named Him than St. P. 
sprang into the sea to go to his Master. On this 
occasion St. P. was publicly restored by Jesus, after 
he had been tested with special reference to his 
threefold denial. He was given his former place, 
and. as if to confirm it, Jesus said, " Follow Me," 
using the words He had employed when He first 
called him. 

When the Lord had departed St. P. at once took 
the place to which he had been appointed as leader 
of the brethren, and proposed that one should be 
elected to the office from which Judas had fallen. 
Ten days after the Ascension, on the Day of Pente- 
cost, St. P. stood out before the people on behalf of 
the apostles, proving that the gift of tongues was 
from God. On that day 3000 souls were added to 
the Lord, and the prophecy was notably fulfilled : 
" Upon this rock I will build My Church." Hence- 
forth, with only two exceptions (Ac. io. 5 , 15. 14 ), he 
is always called Peter in the Acts. From the Day 
of Pentecost St. P. manifested a courage which 
never flinched in the face of any opposition, and 
he who had been ashamed of Jesus before a serving- 
maid now defied the highest in the land in His 
service. We next find St. P. going with St. John 
to the Temple at the hour of prayer, and there 
healing a lame beggar, who asked for alms. This 
action, done in the name of the crucified Jesus, 
brought them into conflict with the rulers, and they 
were cast into prison (Ac. 4. 1 " 22 ). On his examina- 
tion by the Sanhedrin St. P. avowed Jesus, whom 
they had crucified, as the only Saviour (Ac. 4. 12 ), 
and refused to obey them before God. The rulers, 
uncertain how to act, only threatened the apostles 
and let them go. St. P. is the chief actor in the 
scene in which Ananias and Sapphira are dealt with 
(Ac. 5. 1 " 11 ), and his fame grew so great that the 
people brought their sick friends into the street so 






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that his shadow might fall upon them with healing 
power. Again the Sadducees imprisoned the 
apostles, but the same night they were miraculously 
delivered, and next day, being found in the Temple, 
they were beaten and dismissed with a warning. 
After the martyrdom of St. Stephen, when the per- 
secuted Christians were scattered, St. P. and St. 
John were sent by the apostles to Samaria, to super- 
intend the work begun by Philip the evangelist (Ac. 
8. 4 " 25 ). The converts received the Holy Ghost in 
answer to the prayers of the apostles and upon the 
laying on of their hands. Here St. P. met and re- 
buked Simon Magus for his sordid view of spiritual 
things, urging him to repentance and prayer. 
Thereafter he, along with St. John, preached in the 
villages of Samaria and returned to Jerusalem. 
St. P. next undertook a journey of visitation of the 
churches, which is vaguely described by St. Luke as 
a journey " throughout all parts." Special men- 
tion is made of his visit to three places — Lydda, 
Joppa, Caesarea. At Lydda he healed the para- 
lytic iEneas, and at Joppa he raised from the dead 
Tabitha or Dorcas, a notable member of the Chris- 
tian community (Ac. c;. 32 " 43 ). Here he remained for 
some time in the house of one Simon, a tanner. Up 
to this point St. P. had preached the Gospel to Jews 
alone, and to those Gentiles who had conformed to 
the Jewish rites, but, while at Joppa, he was led to 
admit a Gentile to the rights and privileges of the 
Church. Cornelius, a Roman centurion, stationed 
at Caesarea, was directed by vision to send for St. P., 
who at the same time was taught by vision to call 
nothing common or unclean. St. P. at once went 
to Cornelius, and while he was preaching at Caesarea 
the Holy Ghostfell upon his hearers as on the Day of 
Pentecost, and he commanded that they should be 
baptized (Ac. 10.). He had to defend his conduct 
when he returned to Jerusalem, for the Jewish 
Christians felt that their peculiar position was being 
invaded. St. P. related all that had occurred and 
gained their assent, and they glorified God that to 
the Gentiles also He had granted repentance unto 
life (Ac. ii. 1 " 18 ). Meanwhile the conversion of St. 
Paul had taken place, and the question of the rela- 
tion of the Gentiles to the Church soon became 
acute. St. Paul states that three years after his con- 
version {i.e. about a.d. 38) he went up to Jerusalem 
" to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days " 
(Gal. i. 18 ). After this the narrative in Acts is con- 
cerned chiefly with St. Paul, and nothing is heard of 
St. P. till some years later, when persecution broke 
out afresh. Herod Agrippa thought to gain popu- 
larity among the Jews by persecuting the Christians, 
and he put St. James to death and cast St. P. into 
prison (Ac. 1 2. 1 - 19 ). He was to be carefully guarded 
till the Passover was past, when he was to be brought 
forth to gratify the hatred of the people. But St. 
P. was miraculously delivered from prison by an 



angel, and made his way safely to the house of Mary, 
the mother of St. Mark, where a number of believers 
were gathered to pray for him. This would appear 
to be the house at which he lived when in Jeru- 
salem, and his relation to St. Mark was a very close 
one (1 P. 5. 13 ). From this " he departed and went 
to another place," of which there is no record. We 
find him next at the council in Jerusalem, a.d. 52 
(Ac. I5. 1 ' 29 ; Gal. 2. 1 " 10 ), where by his wise and 
conciliatory words he gained a unanimous decision 
in a great crisis in the history of the Church. St. 
Paul had first a private interview with James and 
Cephas and John, and it was agreed among them 
that each was to be allowed to follow the lines upon 
which he had been hitherto going. St. Paul's 
main work would be among the Gentiles, while St. 
P.'s work would be chiefly that of apostle of the cir- 
cumcision. At the public meeting which followed 
St. P. reminded his audience of his own conduct in 
the past in this connection, and told them that God 
had given the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles as well as 
to themselves. This is the last mention of St. P. in 
the Acts. He had earned the right to the name 
which Jesus had given him, and had proved himself 
to be the rock on which the Church was built, and 
now he had prepared the way for other men. His 
character and training did not fit him for the work 
of the great apostle of the Gentiles, but he showed 
that he was in full sympathy with the work of St. 
Paul, and had helped to make the way open for him. 
The only other references to St. P. in Scripture 
are in St. Paul's epistles, and in the two epistles of 
St. P. Some time after the Council in Jerusalem 
St. P. visited Antioch (Gal. 2. 11 ), the centre of the 
Gentile Church, and showed his large-hearted 
charity by treating the Gentiles on an equality with 
his Jewish brethren ; but under the influence of 
certain brethren who came down from Jerusalem he 
drew back and separated himself. St. Paul resisted 
St. P. to the face, for he saw the consequences of the 
action better than the others. St. P. had acted im- 
pulsively, as so often, and perhaps before he knew 
what he had done he stood condemned. But the 
older Christian listened to the hot rebuke of a 
younger and made no hasty reply, and in writing of 
St. Paul later he still felt able to describe him as his 
" beloved brother Paul " (2 P. 3. 15 ). Tradition re- 
lates that St. P. laboured for a time in Syria, and for 
this much may be said, though we cannot feel confi- 
dent about any of the details given of his ministry 
there. It seems probable that near the end of his 
life he went to Rome, and that he suffered martyr- 
dom there in the Neronian persecution (a.d. 64). 
" It would be quite in keeping with his character if, 
after the storm which had swept over the Roman 
Church under Nero, he went to the city with the 
same faith-inspired resoluteness with which in 
earlier days he returned to Jerusalem from Galilee in 



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order to recreate the Church. We cannot raise the 
veil which shrouds these events. But conjectures of 
this sort, and the assumption of such a last phase in 
P.'s life, are supported as much by his character as by 
the splendour of the enduring fame which he won 
for his name " (Weizsacker). The Roman Church, 
in the interests of the Primacy, has sought to add to 
this fame. It speaks of him as the first bishop of 
Rome, ruling there for twenty-five years. This 
theory is based on quite insufficient evidence. St. 
P. was certainly held in high honour by the Church 
in Rome, but there is no proof that in his life he 
either received or claimed the greatness that has 
been thrust upon him. His high name and char- 
acter need no help from fiction. He stands before 
the world as the chief of the apostles of Jesus Christ, 
whom he loved with a passionate devotion, and 
whom he served with a sincerity of purpose such as 
has never been surpassed. In reading the Gospels 
we feel that more care was given to his training than 
to that of any of the others, and the result justified 
the Master's wisdom, who saw what was in him at 
the first, and so dealt with him that St. P. himself 
and all men came to see it too. 

Three books in the NT. are associated with the 
name of St. P. St. Mark is called by Papias " the 
interpreter of Peter," who wrote down what he re- 
membered of the things which St. P. had told him 
about the sayings and deeds of Jesus. 

The first epistle is addressed to the Christians who 
were scattered abroad, and is written from Babylon 
and sent by the hands of Silvanus. It is possible 
that St. P. had visited Babylon during that period of 
which we have no record, but it is commonly be- 
lieved that by " Babylon " he means Rome, as in the 
Book of Revelation. The epistle Was written to 
encourage those who were being called upon to en- 
dure persecution, and its tone throughout is hopeful. 
The trials will pass and the faithful will obtain the 
inheritance which is reserved in heaven for them. 
With this end in view they are urged to a life of 
holiness and mutual love, that the enemies of Christ 
may not be able to charge them with sin (iP. 2. 12 , 
3. 16 ). The example of Christ is held before them 
for encouragement, and if they suffer as Christians 
it is a matter for glorying rather than for regret. 

The second epistle purports to be written to the 
same churches as the first. It claims to be by St. P., 
and to be written near the end of his life, but there 
is no book in the NT. whose authorship is more dis- 
puted than this. There is no evidence of its exist- 
ence till the end of the second century, and the 
question of the Petrine authorship has to be de- 
cided on internal evidence alone. The majority of 
critics are adverse to its Petrine authorship, though 
it is still ably defended as genuine. The object of 
the epistle is to stir up the minds of its readers to 
remembrance of the words of the prophets and the 



commandment of Christ. The author, speaking in 
the name of St. P., knows that his time will not be 
long, for the martyrdom, which was prophesied by 
Jesus, will soon be accomplished. He wants them 
to have something to remember after his death, for 
false teachers and scoffers abound and shall in- 
crease. These are men of base mind, who are de- 
scribed with glowing words of passion in this 
epistle, for they are worse than those who believe 
not, who after they have known the way of right- 
eousness turn back from the holy commandment. 
The author rebuts the sneer of those who mock 
their hope, and say that things will continue as they 
have continued from the beginning. So they 
thought immediately before the days of the Flood. 
The Lord delays out of mercy, " not wishing that 
any should perish, but that all should come to re- 
pentance." Let them think of these things and 
they need not be carried away with the error of the 
wicked, and, accounting the long-suffering of the 
Lord to be salvation, they shall be found in peace. 
See Peter, the Epistles of. John Davidson. 





Traditional House of Simon the Tanner 

SIMON. (1) Simon Peter (see preceding 
article). (2) One of the twelve apostles surnamed 
"the Canaanite" (Mw. 10.*; Mk. 3. 1 8). This, 
however, is only the Greek form of the Aram, word 
wh. is translated " Zelotes " in Lk. 6. 15 ; Ac. I. 13 . 
" The Zelot " was prob. a member of the extreme 
patriotic party known by this name. (3) One of 
the Brethren of the Lord (Mw. 13. 55 ; Mk. 6. 3 ). 
(4) Simon the leper (Mw. 26. Q ; Mk. 14. 3 ). This 
man doubtless owed his healing to Jesus. While at 
supper in Simon's house in Bethany a woman 
brought an alabaster vessel of precious ointment ; 
and, breaking the vessel, she poured the ointment on 
Jesus' head. The objection taken to this apparent 
waste He rebuked, commending the woman for the 
" good work " wrought on him. (5) A native of 
Cyrene, in N. Africa, who was compelled to assist in 
carrying the Cross with Jesus (Mw. 27 32 , &c). 
(6) A Pharisee in whose house transpired the scene 



75 2 



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Sin 



recorded in Lk. 7. 36ff \ Certain resemblances in the 
nar. suggest that this may be a different account of 
the event related in Mw. 26. 6 ; Mk. 14. 3 . But the 
differences are probably too great to permit of 
identification. (7) The father of Judas Iscariot 
(Jn. 6. 71 , &c). (8) Simon Magus (see Magus). 
(9) The tanner in Joppa, with whom Simon Peter 
lodged, on the roof of whose house the vision was 
seen, and whence he was called to Cornelius 
(Ac. 9. 43 -io.). 

SIN. (1) The Nature of Sin.— In the Bible 
sin is always represented as a want of conformity to 
the will of God. To define sin with strictness is no 
easy task, but it cannot even be described except by 
reference to the will or the law of God wh. it con- 
travenes. There is a standard outside of the mind 
from wh. sin departs. Thus St. John lays down the 
principle that " sin is lawlessness " (1 Jn. 3. 4 ) ; and 
St. Paul confesses, " I had not known sin . . . ex- 
cept the law had said, Thou shall not covet " (Rm. 
7. 7 ). The law, however, is no abstract or imper- 
sonal entity ; it is the expressed will of the living 
God. It is God speaking to man ; and therefore 
sin is defection from Himself, not merely from His 
commandments. There are, of course, various 
names for sin in the Old and New Testaments, but 
all the chief ones indicate a divergence or aberration 
from the right path, and that path is uniformly 
regarded as being determined by the Divine will. 
The Bible nowhere attempts to prove that it is 
God's will by opposition to wh. sin is constituted ; 
that, for religion, is self-evident. Hence the modern 
fashion of accentuating the offence done by sin to a 
man's own nature, or the wrong inflicted by it on 
society, is scarcely in harmony with Scripture. It 
does not deny these aspects, certainly ; but, being a 
book of religion from end to end, it is pre-occupied 
withthe direct bearing of moral evil onGod Himself. 
How significant is the Psalmist's cry of penitence : 
"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned " (Ps. 5 1. 4 ). 
One consequence is that the Bible represents a man's 
knowledge of sin as proportionate to his knowledge 
of God ; for a deepened realisation of God's purity 
and spirituality drew after it inevitably a deeper 
sense of what man must be to have fellowship with 
Him. Once the nature of God has been revealed as 
absolutely holy, man iscondemned as sinful through- 
out, not merely in a part of his life, in disposition 
or character, not merelyin particular acts (cf. Is. 6.). 
The limiting case of this principle is given in the 
Christian gospel. The Person of Jesus, in whom 
God is finally made known, is also the final exposure 
of human sin. 

From the narrative of the Fall, contemplated in 
the point of view of religion rather than of history, 
we may learn much as to the mental character of sin. 
Transgression is not due simply to the strength of 
sensuous desire, for this desire is an integral element 

75 



in human life, in itself neither good nor bad. There 
is no transgression until man chooses to gratify im- 
pulse in defiance of a higher intimation, thus assert- 
ing his own will as the rule of action against the 
known will of God. The sinner, in short, elects to 
be a law to himself, and he does so because of his 
deceptive expectation that to break away from the 
Divine ordinance will bring a heightening of life. 
So he puts himself in the place of God, having first 
conceived a mistrust of the mind of God towards 
him. From this angle we perceive the sordid char- 
acter of sin no less than its moral guilt. It is putting 
self where God or Christ ought to be. 

Nevertheless the Bible does not give, nor does it 
profess to give, a complete psychological account of 
why man sins. That is, from the nature of things, 
impossible. For we are confronted with that 
primary self-determination of the human will be- 
hind wh. no analysis can go, and without wh. moral 
life can neither be nor be conceived; and in its actual 
working there is insoluble mystery. Sin cannot be 
explained ; it is the one sheerly unintelligible thing 
in all the universe, and we can only register the fact. 
The Bible acknowledges this, indeed, by its so 
frequent allusions to diabolic agency. For, what- 
ever more, the idea of a devil is tantamount to the 
assertion that sin cannot be transparently inter- 
preted in terms of human motive. There operates 
in the sinner's mind a dread factor of utterly in- 
scrutable perversity. 

(2) The Prevalence of Sin. — On this point, the 
harmonious and distinct teaching of the Bible is that 
sin is universal. Explicit declarations are not want- 
ing, but still more striking are certain tacit assump- 
tions. Thus in the New Testament the universality 
of sin is taken for granted by Jesus, who, like the 
Baptist, opens His public ministry with a call to 
repentance. And even He spoke no more awfully 
significant word than this : " If ye then, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your children " 
(Mw. 7. 11 ). The most elaborate discussion is that 
of St. Paul, who in the first two chapters of Romans 
arraigns mankind — the Gentiles first, then the Jews 
— ending with the verdict : " All have sinned, and 
fall short of the glory of God " (3. 23 ). 

This, however, is not the same thing as saying that 
all men are equally sinful ; and in point of fact the 
Bible never says so. Degrees of sin are constantly 
insisted on. It shall be more tolerable, said Jesus, 
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than 
for Capernaum, where His mighty works were done. 
The servant that knew his lord's will, and made not 
ready, shall be beaten with many stripes ; he that 
knew not, with few. Many feel a delicacy in 
imitating the language of the Bible as to distinct 
shades of sinfulness ; it appears to them like claim- 
ing merit for the imperfect if they assert the relative 
reality of human virtue apart from Christ, and the 
3 



Sin 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sin 



graduated heinousness of sinful character. Yet 
here also the Bible is wiser and truer to experience. 
It speaks of men with perfect frankness as better 
and worse. 

St. Paul seeks for a reason of the universality of 
fin, and apparently finds it (the passage is obscure) 
in the fact that all the sins of mankind are but the 
unfolding, the detailed particulars, of the initial or 
germinal sin of Adam (Rm. 5.). Traditional theo- 
logy has fixed upon this theory, as if it were the 
Biblical account far excellence of the presence of 
sin in life. But even St. Paul has other points of 
view. He can explain sin, and redemption from 
sin, without in the least touching on the question of 
man's relation to Adam ; a relation, be it noted, 
which is nowhere referred to by Jesus. The pro- 
blem of what sin is can and ought to be kept distinct 
from the problem of its first appearance. Thus the 
apostle in various passages points to the flesh as 
being, actually and universally, the occasion of sin ; 
for the flesh is creaturely weakness, and man's pos- 
session of a fleshly nature creates a necessity to sin if 
it meet with no stronger resistance than he can offer 
apart from the help of God's Spirit. The flesh, 
therefore, is our trial, but it is not our fate. But as 
matter of fact, in every man the flesh is actually 
sinful. The individual receives a nature in wh. the 
relation between the higher elements and the lower 
is somehow wrong from the first ; and self-scrutiny 
reveals to him a sinfulness of nature of which indi- 
vidual sins are but symptoms. The constitution 
with wh. he starts has a fault in it, the roots of wh. 
go away back beyond the limits of conscious life. 
Moreover, Scripture has much to say about our 
connection with a sinful race. Moral evil touches 
the individual through the organic social whole of 
wh. he is a part. There is a common fund of sinful- 
ness out of wh. all men draw, and into wh. all in 
turn pay. The single life is never isolated. But 
Scripture supplements and modifies this principle of 
the social character of sin in three ways. First, 
Ezekiel makes it clear that no man shall die for any 
sin but his own. The guilt of the fathers reaches 
. and embraces the children only when the children 
are like the fathers, and freely enter on the evil 
heritage. Second, a man's relation to God is the 
most real thing about him — more real, immediate, 
and potent than any ancestral or social bias to evil 
from wh. he suffers. Third, our sense of responsi- 
bility is quickened by the reminder that we, by the 
moral quality of our lives, are contributors to the 
environment in wh. the next generation will live. 

(3) The Consequences of Sin. — Sin, according 
to the Bible, always renders a man answerable to 
God ; or, to put it otherwise, sin involves guilt. The 
simplest expression for this is probably the word 
" debt," as in the Lord's Prayer. It is a debt, 
moreover, which we can never discharge ; as Jesus 



said, we can never do more than it is our duty to do ; 
no surplusage of good works exists from wh. failure 
can be made good. Guilt is brought home to 
conscience in undeniable ways, and manifests itself 
chiefly in shame and fear, wh. testify to the wrath of 
God abiding on the sinner. Fear, more especially, 
is the apprehension with wh. the transgressor looks 
forward to evil, connecting it instinctively with his 
sin, feeling dimly that by a higher ordinance, over 
wh. he has no control, sin and evil or suffering are 
linked together. On evil as a consequence of sin 
Scripture lays an arresting emphasis. Not that" a 
specific penalty is kept for each specific sin, all down 
the list ; but sin never fails to bring evil of some 
kind in its train. Loss of communion with God ; 
social misery ; the emptiness and pain of defeated 
desire ; the frailty of the body and a thousand ills 
that flesh is heir to ; all these are connected penally 
with sin, and all are but the harbingers of death, wh. 
everywhere in the Bible has a unique prominence as 
the specific punishment of human transgression. 
" The wages of sin is death." Life is always viewed 
as a good gift from God, and its withdrawal as 
privation and penalty. Death robs existence of all 
that makes it worth having, and ushers man into 
the final stage of his destiny, in wh. he is separated 
from God. 

The bare doctrine, often alleged to be Scriptural, 
that mortality is a consequence of sin, is faced by 
peculiar difficulties at the present day. It is virtu- 
ally impossible to believe that man, if he has a 
physical nature at all, and is not pure spirit, owes 
death to the entrance of sininto the world, and would 
not have suffered physical dissolution had he not 
transgressed. This is to deny his real relation to a 
material world. But from 1 Cor. I5. 44 " 48 we can see 
that the core of St. Paul's teaching on this subject 
resides rather in the conviction that death, as we sin- 
ners know it, is the effect of sin ; and this is indeed 
a thought worthy of all acceptation. Apart from 
sin, death would not have been the thing of horror 
and anguish that it is ; it would not have been an 
indignity and poignant humiliation ; for then it 
would have lacked the sting imparted to it by 
sin. Death, then, as become what it is in our ex- 
perience, has a specific character which it owes to 
sin ; but for those who believe in Jesus this sting, 
this sense of guilt and dread of judgment, is re- 
moved. 

There is one consequence of sin wh. at first sight 
appears to be permanently hopeless, until we exa- 
mine it more closely. This is man's sheer inability 
to cease from sinning. Of the fact there can be no 
doubt at all ; appeals to men to regenerate themselves 
are vain ; the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor 
the leopard his spots. Yet man is capable of re- 
demption. Not only so ; the relation of God to 
the sinner is not merely one of condemnation ; it is, 



754 



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Sin 



behind and above and beyond that, a relation of a stream runs down during the rainy season from 
faithfulandunpurchasablelove. And one of His chief the Wady ed-Deir, and loses itself in the sand of 
instruments in reclaiming men is just the sense of the plain, so there must be a great store of water 



impotence, of complete inability to redeem himself, 




Wady Gharandel (? Elim) 
that visits the transgressor's heart. This is the first 
step to emancipation ; it is one point in the soul to 
wh. salvation can be attached, 
himself he said ... I will 

father " ; " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, 
but in Me is thy help." H. R. Mackintosh. 

SINAI. The sublime, triple-headed mountain 
which for centuries has borne the name of Sinai, 
situated in the granite district called in the Bible 
Horeb, that is, " the desolate," was the scene of 
God's proclamation of His Law to the children of 
Israel. We cannot allow that any other spot can ad- 
vance a claim to compare with that of this wondrous 
site. Its north-westerly peak, the Ras Safsafeh, 
rises sheer from the plain Er-Rahah, i.e. " the Rest," 
a plain which is enclosed by granite mountains on 
every side. Mount Serbal, on the other hand, which 
some scholars maintain as a rival site, cannot so well 
fulfil the conditions required, as though there is a 
large plain in its vicinity, formed by an expansion of 
the Wady esh-Sheikh, yet the mountain and plain 
are there separated by a succession of low hills 
stretching for several miles. The advocates of 
Serbal point out that the Wady Feiran, close by it, 
has a perennial stream which makes it the most 
charming oasis in the Peninsula. But having spent 
six months of my life at the traditional site, I am 
able to report that the plain Er-Rahah is capable of 
containing many thousand tents, being 400 acres in 
extent, with 230 more at the mouths of two wadies. 
Besides several perennial springs at the Monastery, 



underneath, which may be had by digging. Ety 
mology is also against the claim of Serbal. Feiran 
is evidently Par an, the letter " p " being represented 
in Arabic by " f," and this district being also the 
Repbidim of Ex. 17. 1 , it is evident that it cannot also 
be Sinai, to which the Israelites journeyed later. 

As for the latest theory, which would place Mount 
Sinai somewhere near Edom, it rests on the songs of 
Deborah and Habakkuk, and on the discovery of a 
name like Midian in that region. But the narra- 
tives in Exodus and Numbers agree so well with the 
journey from Suez to the traditional site, that it 
would require arguments less vague than poetic 
allusions to set them aside. The number of stages 
by which the Israelites travelled to Sinai after cross- 
ing the Red Sea is given in Nu. 33. 8 " 15 as ten, 
corresponding to those prescribed in Murray's 
Handbook for Egypt ; the journey from Horeb by 
way of Mt. Seir to Kadesh-barnea is explicitly 
stated in Dt. 1 
encumbered a 

twenty-one (Nu. 33. 16 " 36 ). The fifth encampment 
after leaving Egypt is said to have been by the Red 
Sea (Nu. 33. 10 ), and every traveller by the tradi- 
tional route can vouch for its accuracy ; whereas by 
the new theoretical route, it would be hard to 
" When he came to encamp by the sea in the midst of the wilderness of 
arise and go to my Tih. As for Midian, the tribes called by that name 



2 to be eleven days ; the Israelites, 
they were, seem to have taken 




Convent Garden, Sinai 



were simply wandering Bedouin, whose descendants 
to-day are ready to oblige a traveller with any name 
he may wish. One might as well build a theory on 
the undoubted name of Wady Hebran, in close 



755 



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Sin 



proximity to Jebel Musa. We are not aware that 
any mountain has yet been found near Edom which 
fulfils all the required conditions. And is it possible 
that the Jewish people ever forgot the locality of the 
giving of the Law ? 

Curelly asserts that the monks transferred the 
sacred places from Feiran to Jebel Musa after the 
Saracenic conquest. Yet in reading the narrative 
of St. Sylvia of Aquitaine, who visited these sacred 
places between a.d. 385 and 388, I can verify every 
detail which she mentions, from my own personal 



which the highest is Mt. St. Catherine (8536 ft.), 
the second Jebel Musa, " Mt. of Moses " (7375 ft.), 
and the lowest the Ras Safsafeh ("Peak of the 
Willow "). Nothing more sublimely beautiful can 
be seen in this world than a sunset from the Convent 
garden. The rosy glow on the mountain-tops, gradu- 
ally giving way before the rising darkness, reminds 
one irresistibly of " the glory of the Lord." Another 
splendid effect is produced by the moonlight with 
its dark shadows, and a starlight night has a charm of 
its own. But who can tell of the storm, with its 




Ras Safsafeh 



observations at Jebel Musa. And how can Justinian's 
fortifications of the present Convent be placed more 
than a century after his death ? 

The mountain mass, then, stands at the highest 
point of the Peninsula, and forms the crown of one 
of the most glorious ranges in the world. It is com- 
posed of pink granite, doubtless a continuation of 
that Egyptian stratum known as Syenite, which is so 
evident at the first cataract of the Nile. Being 
harder than the Peterhead variety, it is very trying to 
travellers' boots, and gives point to the statement in 
Dt. 2C;. 5 : " Thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy 
foot," and Dt. 8. 4 : " Neither did thy foot swell 
these forty years." From an elevated platform, 
1000 ft. above the Monastery, rise three peaks, of 



ink-black cloud, of the lightning and the thunder 
reverberating from the granite cliffs, and its sound 
of many waters in impromptu cataracts ? 

Barren as the district now is, it must once have 
been able to support more life than it does at pre- 
sent. Captain Palmer thinks its deterioration is 
owing to the gradual cutting down of trees, and 
that the year spent there by the Israelites may have 
been an unusually rainy season. . I once found, near 
Serabit-el-Kadeem, some blades of grass patheti- 
cally trying to push through the sand, as well as a 
number of tiny violets. At present there is no vege- 
tation but desert herbs, mostly aromatic, which 
furnish food for camels, and for a few sheep and 
goats. As there were once 360 monasteries estab- 

56 



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Sin 



lished in this Peninsula, and many anchorites, it is 
evident that there must have been more cultivation. 
The present monastery, " The Convent " as it is 
called, was built and fortified by Justinian. It has a 
garden, carefully tended, in terraces, which is being 
added to by degrees. The monks employ the 
Bedouin, of whom there are four principal tribes, 
and some smaller ones, to carry grain, &c, for them 
from Tor. There are two wells of delicious spring 
water inside the building, one in the garden and one 
half-way up the face of the hill, on the sheep-path 



Hobab, are just such as a modern dragoman needs 
from a local Bedawy sheikh, who knows from long 
experience which side of a sand-hill will afford the 
best protection from the wind. 

The Convent library contains about 2000 Greek 
MSS., catalogued by Gardthausen ; nearly 600 
Arabic MSS., catalogued by the present writer in 
1893 ; and 250 Syrian MSS., catalogued by her sister, 
Mrs. Lewis, in the same year. Since the former 
monks parted with the famous Codex Sinaiticus, 
discovered here by Tischendorff in 1844, now at St. 




Ras Safsafeh and Flain of Er-Raiiah 



ailed by the Arabs sikket Seydna Musa, " the way 
f our Lord Moses." 

The church inside the Convent walls is very 
ichly decorated, and contains many interesting 
'aintings. In the apse is an alabaster coffin, en- 
losing the bones of St. Catherine, as well as two 
ilver sarcophagi, inlaid with precious stones, pre- 
snted by the two Russian Empresses of this name, 
leneath the apse is shown the " chapel of the 
lurning Bush," as identified in the fourth century 
j the Empress Helena. In the surrounding wadies 
ne still sees the little tree called acacia seyydl, the 
nly thorn-tree of this desert, corresponding to the 
eneh of Ex. 3. 2 « 3 » 4 , and we see no reason to doubt 
he tradition, that at one of the wells inside the 
onvent Moses watered the flocks of Jethro. The 
srvices which forty years later he required from 



Petersburg, the chief treasure of the library is the 
Syriac Palimpsest of the Four Gospels, discovered 
by Mrs. Lewis in 1892 ; we may also mention as of 
high value two Palestinian Syriac Lectionaries of 
the Gospels ; a magnificent Greek MS. of Eusebius 
(Eccl. Hist.), a beautiful little Syriac MS. of some of 
Mar Ephraim's Hymns, and the Syriac Apology of 
Aristides, discovered by Dr. Rendel Harris in 1889. 
Of late years a great improvement has been carried 
out in the library. The ex-Archbishop made 
structural alterations, and his enlightened successor 
has introduced European methods. 

The usual road for ascending Jebel Musa is by 
the " Way of our Lord Moses," and is about as steep 
as can be imagined. At a height of about 1000 ft. 
above the Convent one turns up to the right and 
passes the remains of several ancient gates, which 



757 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sis 



pilgrims in the Middle Ages used to go through, Bottles have been found in Egp. with Chinese in- 
after confession and absolution, singing the 24th scriptions, but these are of too recent a date to 
Psalm. We next arrive at a plateau, in which we afford any evidence of commerce in the days of 
find a chapel over the cave of Elijah. To our left Isaiah, or of the Exile. Another suggestion worthy 
rises Jebel Mtisa, up which stairs have been cut in of consideration is that S. means Syene. The 
the rock, its summit crowned by a ruined church presence of a community of Israelites there within a 
and a dilapidated mosque. On our right hand rises century after the Exile may be supposed to make 
the still steeper Ras Safsafeh, which, being free from this identification more plausible. It is difficult 
mediaeval traditions, has no stairs to assist us, so to see how Seweneh became Sinim. Dillman's 
that we have to crawl over boulders ; and when we arguments agst. S. being China are not convincing, 
reach its top we look sheer down on the plain below. It may be regarded as an insoluble problem. 
No one who has ever stood on that giddy height SINITE, a Canaanite people, not identd. (Gn. 



will pay much attention to modern theories dis- io. 17 ; 1 Ch. I. 15 ). 
puting its identity, but will realise that Nature and 
Scripture singularly coincide. That the cloud 
veiling the Deity rested on Jebel Musa, and that 
from the edge of the Ras Safsafeh the Hebrew 



SIN OFFERING. See Sacrifice. 

SION. (1) A name applied to Hermon (Dt. 
4- 48 ). It may perhaps denote the peak of the 
mountain as seen from the south. On the other 



prophet spoke to the tribes gathered on the plain hand it may be a scribal error for Sirion, the 

below, his voice being distinctly heard by them, can Sidonian name for Hermon. It is so taken by the 

hardly admit of contradiction. Syr. (2) See Jerusalem, Zion. 

All the granite mountains of this region are being SIPHMOTH, a city, prob. in the S. of Judah, to 

gradually disintegrated, partly by the frosts of wh. David sent a portion of the spoil taken fm. the 

winter, but still more by the heat of summer, so that Amalekites (1 S. 30. 28 ) : unidentd. 

the slopes and wadies are covered with boulders and SIPPAI, a Philistine giant slain by Sibbecai the 

debris. A few days' heavy rain brings down the Hushathite, at Gob (1 Ch. 20. 4 ; 2 S. 21. 18 , Saph). 

water in torrents, there being no vegetation to hold SIRAH (Heb. sirdh, " turning aside "), the well 

it, and causes what the Arabs call a seil, Scottice or cistern near Hebron whence Abner was brought 

" spate," which carries everything before it, and back by the messengers of Joab (2 S. 3. 26 ). It may 

fills the wadies to the height of 6 or even IO ft. be ident. with i Ain Sarah, over a mile and a half to 

For this reason camping-grounds are chosen a little the NW. of Hebron. 

above the bed of the wadies. The 90th Psalm bears SIRION. This was the name given to Mt. Her- 

signs of having been written in this region : "Thou mon by the Phoenicians (Dt. 3. 9 ). It is possible 

earnest them away as with a flood." " In the that, like Senir, it may have applied to some definite 

morning it flourisheth, and groweth up ; in the part of the range. But it may quite well have been 

evening it is cut down, and withereth," applies to the Phoenician name for the whole mountain, as 

the vegetation on the plain Er-Rahah, which after a seen fm. the heights behind Sidon. 

day's rain puts on a lovely but evanescent green. In SISERA. (1) Captain of the host of king Jabin 

many of the wadies the want of flowers is compen- of Hazor, who oppressed Israel for twenty years 

sated by the variegated colours of the stones ; grey (Jg. 4. 1 " 4 ). It is perhaps straining the language of 

granite from Serbal, pink granite from Sinai, por- chap. 5. 19 to infer, as some have done, that Sisera 

phyry, quartz, &c, blending their tints harmoni- was himself a king. But there is nothing impossible 

ously together. Margaret D. Gibson. in the supposition that he may have been a vassal of 

SINEW. In Gn. 32. 32 an explanation is given of Jabin. His headquarters were at Harosheth, and 

the reason why the Jews abstain from eating " the the main strength of his army appears to have been 

sinew of the hip " (RV.), i.e. the sciatic muscle, of in " nine hundred chariots of iron." The ground 

animals slain for food. It is a powerful muscle, chosen for battle with the forces under Deborah 

necessary for control of the limb, damage to wh. is and Barak was the great plain of Esdraelon, where 

at once obvious in a halting gait. God's touch was the chariots could be employed effectively. Clearly 

taken to have rendered it sacred. Sisera had not apprehended the coming storm. 

SINIM (Heb. Sinim, Is. 49. 12 ). Since the sug- Under a heavy rain the rich soil of the plain goes 
gestion that S. means China was made by Gesenius swiftly to deep, clinging mud. As the Israelites 
it has had very general support. More recently this moved down from Tabor to the conflict, the rain- 
view has been impugned. It is clear fm. the con- storm did nothing to impede the light-footed 
text that S. must either be in the extreme south or highlandmen. The horses and chariots, sinking in 
the extreme east ; the latter of these wd. be satisfied the soft mud, were reduced to helplessness, and fell 
by the hypothesis of Ges. ; it does not imply inter- an easy prey to their foes. In their despairing 
course, for the name of the great empire of the far efforts to escape many threw themselves into the 
East may have percolated to the nearer East. Kishon, wh. had come down in spate, and were 

758 



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Sla 



swept away. Sisera fled on foot from the field 
where all was lost, and, taking shelter in the tent of 
Jael, was there done to death. The last verses of 
Deborah's song (Jg. 5. 28ff -) present a pathetic picture 
of his mother, waiting in vain for the return of her 
gallant son. 

There are certain differences in the story as told 
in chap. 4. and in chap. 5. These, however, are 
neither greater nor more numerous than we might 
naturally expect in compositions so diverse in char- 
acter. Chap. 4. is a plain prose narrative ; chap. 5. 
is a piece of exultant poetry. The poem is by uni- 
versal admission far older than the prose in its pre- 
sent form. We can hardly doubt that the compiler 
of the prose was acquainted with the song. If 
Jabin is not mentioned in the latter, we may pre- 
sume it is because he was not present at the battle 
with wh. the song is concerned. But some would 
infer that two traditions, one referring to Jabin, 
and one to Sisera, have been combined, and to make 
them agree Sisera has been called the captain of 
Jabin's host. The inference does not seem to be 
justified. 

(2) Head of a family of Nethinim who returned 
with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 53 ; Ne. J. 55 ). 

SISMAI, AV. SISAMAI, a descendant of Jerah- 
meel (1 Ch. 2. 40 ). 

SITHRI, AV. ZITHRI, a Kohathite Levite, 
son of Uzziel (Ex. 6. 22 ). 

SITNAH, "enmity," or "hatred," the name 
given by Isaac to a well digged by his herdmen, the 
scene of strife with the herdmen of Gerar (Gn. 
26. 21 ). It may be ident. with the well at Sadi, a 
little to the E. of Ruheibeh (Rohoboth). 

SIVAN, the third month of the later Jewish 
calendar. See Year. 

SKIRT, in OT. usually means what we intend 
by the skirt or train of a garment. In Ps. 133. 2 the 
Heb. peh (AV. " skirt ") may be more appropriately 
rendered " collar " (RV.). 

SKULL, PLACE OF A. See Golgotha. 

SLAVE, SLAVERY, SERVANT. The word 
" slave " was originally a national appellative signify- 
ing'the large numbers of Slavonic peoples (Slavs) who 
were reduced to servitude by the Teutons (see Skeat, 
Ety. Diet. s.v.). The word is rare in our English ver- 
sions — in AV. only in Jr. 2. 14 in italics (i.e. without 
a corresponding word in the original), and Rv. 18. 13 
(a-ojfxaTa) ; in Eng. RV. (1881) and American RV. 
(1901), in Dt. 21. 14 , 24. 7 ; Jr. 2. 14 ; Rv. 18. 13 . The 
word rendered " servant " (Heb. "Ip.V, Gr. BovXos, 
oli<€Tr)<s, 7rous, Oepd-rriDv) corresponds more accu- 
rately to " slave." The ancient Hebrew civilisa- 
tion, like that of Assyria and Babylonia, rested on a 
mild form of slavery, chiefly connected with the 
cultivation of the soil. The OT. presupposes 
slavery, and actually represents the curse of Canaan 
as servitude to his brethren (Gn. cj. 25 " 27 ) ; and 



Esau was before his birth destined to serve his 
brother (Gn. 25. 23 ). It allows, sometimes, the 
women and children of conquered tribes to be re- 
duced to slavery, and, to a more limited extent, 
permits the enslavement of Hebrews to Hebrews. 
The descendants of the conquered Canaanites were 
utilised as slaves (1 K. g. 20t ). The slave was 
reckoned as " property," whether he was " born in 
the house " or " bought with money." 
The Sources of Slavery in the OT. were : 

(1) War. — This was the most fruitful source, be- 
cause of the desolation caused by war, as well as the 
captives who became slaves. (It was an upward 
step in civilisation when slavery was substituted for 
slaughter of the captives.) Unhappily among the 
Israelites the whole population of a captured city was 
often "devoted to Jehovah," z'.<?. killed, men, women, 
and children (Dt. 20. 16 ; Jo. 6. 17 ; 1 S. 15. 3 , 22. 19 ; 
2 K. 15. 16 ). In Nu. 3i. 9f - all the males, both adult 
and infant, are slain, unmarried women and female 
infants alone saved ; in 2 S. 12. 31 David spared all 
for slaves (cf. also Dt. 2O. 10L , 2i. 10f -). (2) Debt 
(2 K. 4. 1 ; Am. 2. 6 , 8. 6 ; Ne. 5. 5 ). (3) Poverty 
(Lv. 25. 39 ). (4) Paternal authority, but only in 
case of a marriageable daughter (Ex. 21. 7 ). (5) 
Thieves (Ex. 22. 2f -) ; (6) Purchase, "bought with 
money " (Lv. 25. 45 ). (7) Sons of slaves " born 
inhouse " (Gn. 14. 14 ). (8) Kidnapping (Ex. 21. 16 ; 
Dt. 24. 7 ; cp. Gn. 37. 26 ). 

Slave Legislation. — We have in the OT. three 
slave codes : (1) the Covenant code (Ex. 21. 2 ' 11 ) ; 

(2) Deuteronomic (Dt. 15. 12 - 18 ) ; (3) Priestly code 
(Lv. 25. 39 " 55 ). 

Pre-exilian, found in the first two, which con- 
template only Hebrew slaves : (1) Male. — The 
term of service is definitely fixed as six years ; in 
the seventh he shall go out " free for nothing," on 
which Dt. advances, requiring the master not to 
allow the slave to depart " empty " (15. 13 ), but to 
furnish him " liberally " (15. 14 ), lest he should ex- 
perience destitution worse than slavery. If the 
slave entered the service married his wife was to 
go out free with her husband : if he entered un- 
married and was given a wife by his master, he was 
to go out alone, leaving his wife and family with 
the master. Of this, however, the Dt. code says 
nothing, thereby either tacitly assuming its validity 
or implying it had fallen into desuetude, to remain 
so. In case the slave voluntarily decided to remain 
for love of his master, or of his wife and family, or 
for fear of destitution, the master was to bring him 
to God (D*tf?t<n B 7K Ex. 21. 6 ; see commentaries 
ad. loc), and pierce his ear to the door or door-post, 
thereby making him a bondman in perpetuity (Ex. 
2 1. 6 ; Dt. 15. 17 ) — a custom common among the 
Arabs, the pierced ear being a sign of slavery. 
(2) Female. — According to the Covenant code, if a 
man sold his daughter she could not go out free at 



7^0 



Sla 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sla 



the end of six years as the men slaves. Her master order with which the princes and people complied. 



is to take her as a concubine for himself, after which, 
if she ceases to please him, he must let her be 
redeemed, having no power to sell her to non- 
Israelites ; or he may give her to his son for con- 
cubine, in which case she receives the rights of a 
daughter. But if, after having taken her for himself, 
the master take another wife, he is forbidden to 
diminish her food, raiment, or marital rights. In 
case of non-compliance with any of these conditions 



but immediately changed their minds and reduced 
their brethren again to servitude. The Jews 
became more tractable after the lessons of the 
Exile, so that the efforts of Nehemiah (Ne. 5. lf -) 
were crowned with success, the Hebrew slaves of 
foreigners being first redeemed (5- 8 ), and then their 
brethren at home were freed. 

Treatment of Slaves naturally varied much 
with individual slave owners, but on the whole. 



the girl is to be released " without money." The both in the earlier and the later periods of Jewish 

Dt. code, though harsher in one point, extending history — and indeed in Semitic history generally — 

the piercing of the ear to women who elected to re- more humanity was shown to slaves than under the 

main (15. 17 ), provides for the release of the female Greek and Roman civilisations, and with the 

as of the male at the expiration of the six years ; Hebrews this humanity was based not on philo- 



neither did she go " empty. 

Post-exilian code (Lv. 25. 39 ' 55 ). This provides 
for both (a) Hebrews, and (b) non-Hebrews, also for 
service to Hebrew and to non-Hebrew masters. 
Note, there is no special legislation for the female ; 
we have here probably an advance in civilisation, 
when slave concubinage was growing obsolete. 
(a) Hebrews (1) under Hebrew masters. The 



sophical but on religious grounds ; they were all # 
" servants of Yahweh." We often find the 
heartiest relations between master and slave. 
Eliezer of Damascus is presumed in default of issue 
to be the heir of Abraham (Gn. i5- 2f- ), and later he is 
entrusted with the delicate mission of procuring a 
wife for his master's son (24. 2 ). Saul's servant gave 
his master advice, upon which the master acted, and 



sabbatical (seventh) year has been replaced by the borrowed the prophet's fee (J shekel of silver) from 

year of jubilee (fiftieth), at the end of which every the servant, thus showing that the servant might 

man is to return to his possession (Lv. 25. 10 ). In even accumulate property (1 S. 9. 5ff -). In 1 Chr. 

the jubilee year the slave is to depart with his 2. 34 Sheshan, having no male issue, gave one of his 

family and to the possession of his fathers (25. 41 ). daughters to an Egyptian servant. The slave was 

Though the service is longer there is a marked incorporated with the Hebrew family, and human 

amelioration in conditions ; the lot of the " slave " brotherhood was more than an idle theory. In 

is to approximate that of the " hired servant " or other Semitic countries we find approximately the 

" sojourner " (v. 40) ; he is not to be ruled over same phenomena. It is likely that many a wretch 

with rigour (v. 43) ; the sale is limited (v. 42) ; he died from overwork and maltreatment in the great 

is protected from want on release (v. 41) ; the de- engineering works of antiquity, especially under the 



mand for slaves is to be supplied from the foreign 
slave markets (v. 44) ; or from the children of 
strangers sojourning in the land (v. 45). (2) He- 
brews with non-Hebrew masters (Lv. 25 47 " 55 ) may 
be redeemed by their immediate family, or next of 
kin, or they may redeem themselves (25. 48 * 49 ), the re- 
demption price being calculated on the basis of the 



warlike Assyrians : and the Hebrew race had a 
lively recollection of the hard tasks of Egypt (Ex. 
I. llf -). But there is another side. Joseph, a 
Hebrew slave, became prime minister and chan- 
cellor of one of the Pharaohs. An unnamed 
Hebrew maid was on good terms with her mistress, 
the wife of Naaman. The Israelites in Babylonian 
original price paid and the number of years to run exile were allowed to retain slaves (Ez. 2. 65 ), and so 
before jubilee (25. 50 * 53 ). If unredeemed, he with kindly were they treated many preferred to remain, 
his family shall go out in the jubilee year (25. 54 ). Compare also the favourable conditions reflected in 
His Israelitish brethren are to exercise vigilance Jr. 20,. 5 " 7 . Discipline without harshness is recom- 
that the foreign master treat not a Hebrew harshly mended by Sr. 33- 24ff " {cp. Pr. 29. 21 ). 
(25. 53 ). (b) Foreign slaves, with Hebrew masters Privileges {see also under Legislation). — The 
(Lv. 25. 44 " 46 ), are regarded as a " possession " slave had his rights as a member of society. If a 
(25. 45 ), capable of being transmitted, " an inheri- master maltreat a servant so that he die before a day 
tance for your children " (25. 46 ) ; their servitude is has elapsed the master is to be surely punished (Ex. 
to continue in perpetuity (25 46 ). There is no in- 21. 20 ) ; if a day or more elapse the loss of the servant 
junction against ruling over them with rigour. is regarded as punishment enough. This distinc- 
That these laws were neglected or deliberately tion between slave and free is removed in Lv. 24. 17 . 
violated by the rich we learn from Jr. 34- 8f \ When If a servant's tooth or eye is injured he is entitled 
Jerusalem was surrounded by the Babylonian army to freedom (Ex. 2i. 26 « 27 ). The runaway is not to 
Jeremiah persuaded king Zedekiah to proclaim be surrendered (Dt. 23. 15 ) ; a captive concubine 

2 1. 14 ). All the slaves were 



liberty according to the Dt. code (not Ex. 21. 2f -, for cannot be sold (Dt 



cp. Jr. 34. 9 , where the maid was to be freed also) — an circumcised 

760 



(Gn. ljP' 13 « 23 ), a rite which must 



Sla 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sla 



have continued to avoid " uncleanness." The 
slave is allowed his Sabbath (Ex. 20. 10 , 23. 12 ; Dt. 
5. 14 ) ; takes his part in the Passover (Dt. 16. 11 ' 14 ), 
and in other sacrifices and feasts (Dt. 12. 12 ' 18 ). 

Religious Usage. — The titles " bondservant " 
or "slave" and "handmaid" (HDK and *\2V) 
were employed even by people in good circum- 
stances about themselves in social intercourse with 
superiors or equals. From this the term was 
ennobled to the designation of one conspicuous in 
God's service, e.g. applied to Moses while alive (Nu. 
12. 7 ) and when dead (Dt. 34- 5 ; Jo. I. 1 ); to the 
prophets (Is. 20. 3 ; Jr. J. 25 ; Am. 3- 7 ; cp. "OU in 
Lexicons) ; apparently to angels (Jb. 4. 18 ) ; and to 
" the Branch " (Zc. 3. 8 ). This usage was taken up 
in the NT., especially by Paul, who sometimes 
applies SovXos to himself to express one aspect of 
Christian living, just as God is sometimes addressed 
as <$ecr7roT?7s, " the master of slaves." 

New Testament Times. — The NT. is histori- 
cally set in the midst of the Graeco-Roman civilisa- 
tion which was built upon slavery. Athenaeas tells 
us there were 400,000 slaves to 21,000 freemen in 
Athens, and 460,000 in Corinth. Alexander the 
Great sold 30,000 women and children after the 
taking of Thebes, and his father Philip sold the 
population of conquered Olynthus. Troops of 
slave-dealers followed the Roman legions, the 
prisoners after each victory being put up for sale. 
Thus in the war with Pyrrhus, after the victory of 
iEmilius Paullus 150,000 captives were sold. We 
read of Caesar selling 63,000 Gauls at once, and after 
the destruction of Jerusalem 97,000 Jews were sold. 
In the time of Augustus one Roman freedman left 
41 16 slaves. In NT. times it is estimated the ratio 
of slaves to free was two or three to one. How de- 
moralising slavery was for both master and slave in 
Greece may be seen in the dramas of Plautus and 
Terence, which depict Greek society. But it was 
under Rome that slavery justified its existence best 
politically and economically, while at the same time 
it worked the greatest moral degradation both for 
slave and slave-owner. The treatment was in- 
human, though legislation slowly stepped in to 
ameliorate, and frequent manumissions lightened 
despair. Most of the great minds of antiquity were 
indifferent to the moral evils of slavery. Aristotle, 
" the master of them that know," regarded slavery 
as necessary and natural, and for the mutual good of 
both parties ; and the " divine Plato," while dis- 
approving of the servitude of Greeks to Greeks, 
accepted slavery as necessary. On the other side 
stand Euripides, whose large-hearted humanity 
perceived the good qualities even in slaves ; Dio 
Chrysostom, who condemned the institution as 
violating the natural rights of man ; and Seneca, 
who preached kindness. 

In the atmosphere of the Gospels we find a con- 



trast to the outside world. No doubt the religious 
and social rights enjoyed by the slave in ancient 
Israel were continued in the time of our Lord. 
But slavery is not conspicuous in the Gospels ; our 
Lord seems to come very little in contact with it, 
though He evidently knew the terrors and cruelty 
shown toward slaves (Lk. 12. 46 ; Mw. 25. 30 ). The 
slaves of His time were mostly foreigners or of mixed 
blood, and the proportion of slave to free was not so 
alarming as in the surrounding pagan world. Christ 
never denounced slavery or commanded its aboli- 
tion : He gave no specific instructions either to the 
slave or the master. He intended the enlightening 
principles of His Gospel for the poor and the meek 
ones to work as a leaven in the social mass, and re- 
stored to labour its true dignity. It is still more 
striking that Paul, who knew the evils of slavery in the 
Roman empire better than any preacher of his day, 
and was second to none in the power of interpreting 
the spirit of his master, left this terrible scourge 
undenounced. Though he was familiar with the 
brutalising influence of the institution, and many of 
his converts belonged to the slave class, he never 
gives slaves any encouragement to disobey or run 
away. He accepted slavery as a necessary pheno- 
menon of the then state of social progress ; it was 
not to be immediately uprooted but ameliorated. 
He realised that it would have been ruinous both 
for master and slave to break the bonds before 
both classes received a patient Christian education. 
Without mentioning slavery, he everywhere lashed 
the moral evils which were the concomitants of the 
institution. He did not begin by dismantling the 
structure, but attacked it at its foundations by 
preaching the brotherhood of man, the equality 
before One who is no respecter of persons. His 
view was that Christians ought to remain at that 
time in whatever estate Providence had assigned 
them (1 Cor. 7. 20 - 24 ). In Eph. 6. 5f - and Col. 3- 22f -, 
he reminded both slaves and masters of their duties 
in Christ ; in Phm. he advises with a Christian 
master ; and in the Pauline spirit the Pastorals give 
us the slave's duty (1 Tm. 6. lf - ; Tt. 2. 9 ). The 
master was to be the bondman and the slave the 
freeman of Christ, in whose Gospel there was neither 
bond nor free (Gal. 3. 28 ; Col. 3. 1 " 1 ). Thus the spirit 
of Christ, working slowly but surely, has abolished, 
while Islam has only consecrated, slavery. 

Price of Slaves depended on the quality and 
age of the slave ; but the usual price seems to have 
been 30 shekels of silver (£4, 5s.), the sum which the 
master received if his slave was accidentally killed 
(Ex. 2 1. 32 ). The price in Lv. 27. 2f - is : for male from 
twenty to sixty years of age 50 shekels, for female 
of same age 30 shekels ; male from five to twenty 
years 20 shekels, for female of same age 10 shekels ; 
5 shekels for male from one month to five years, 3 for 
female ; for male over sixty 15 shekels, for female 



761 



Sle 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Smy 



io. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces (Gn. 37- 28 ), and 
the prophetic price of the Messiah was 30 pieces of 
silver (Zc. II. 12 ) — the sum for which He was be- 
trayed. We read of Ptolemy Philadelphus redeem- 
ing Jewish prisoners for 120 drachmae each, and 
Nicanor sold Jews at the rate of ninety for a shekel. 
Hired Servant (Heb. "VW, who works for 
"DCy ; Gr. /ztcr#fcos, juict^wtos, epyaTYjs), one who 
works for hire by the day or specified short period. 
He was a freeman, and could not be constrained as 
a slave. His connection with his superior was loose, 
and could be dissolved on the completion of his 
immediate contract. He could not eat the Passover 
(Ex. 12. 45 ). Little is said about hired servants in 
early Hebrew history ; they are not mentioned in 
the Covenant code (Ex. 21. f.). The Dt. code 
contemplates them, forbidding their oppression 
whether Israelite or non-Israelite, and requiring 
that they receive their wages every evening (Dt. 
24. 14 ' 15 ) — corroborated by the Priestly code (Lv. 

i9- 13 )- 

Lit. : Articles in Herzog-Hauck Encyclo-padie 3 ; 
Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Antiq. ; Hastings' 
BD. and Diet, of Christ and the Gos-pels ; Ency. 
Bib. ; Griinfeld, Die Stell. der Sklaven bei d. 
Juden, &c. ; Winter, Die Stell. der Sklaven, &c. ; 
Mielzinger, Die Verh'dlt. d. Sklaven bei d. alten Heb. ; 
Sayce, Social Life among the Assyrians and Baby- 
lonians ; works of Nowack, Ewald, Benzinger, on 
Archaeology. S. Angus. 

SLEEP. In the OT. shakab is a regular euphe- 
mism for dying, as in the phrase " he slept with his 
fathers " (1 K. n. 43 , " Solomon slept with his 
fathers "). In the NT. it has passed, fm. being used 
merely in a formula, into a regular mode of speech. 
It wd. seem to have been introduced by our Lord, 
as when He uses it with regard to Jairus' daughter 
they do not understand Him. The Greek word 
used by our Lord in that case is katheudein, but the 
later Christian usage was koimasthai, wh. our Lord 
uses with regard to Lazarus ; this also was mis- 
understood. Mw. uses it of the saints who were 
raised fm. the dead at our Lord's Resurrection (Mw. 
27. 52 ) ; it is used of Stephen (Ac. 7. 60 ) ; the apostle 
Paul uses it of all believers — "Weshall not all sleep" 
(1 Cor. IS. 51 ), " them that sleep in Jesus " (1 Th. 
4. 14 ). It was also a classic usage, but became more 
frequent later. This figure is the natural comple- 
ment of the Christian hope of a glorious resur- 
rection. 

SLEIGHT (Eph. 4. 14 ) refers to the sleight of 
hand practised by the dice-thrower. 

SLIME (Heb. hemar, " bitumen "). It is used of 
the bitumen near Babylon (Gn. n. 3 ), of that in the 
neighbourhood of the Dead Sea (Gn. 14. 10 ). It is 
used of the bitumen with wh. Jochebed pitched the 
ark of bulrushes in wh. she had placed Moses (Ex. 
2. 3 ). The name is connected with hdmar, " to 

76 



boil," " to ferment," " to be red," hence hemer, 
" wine " ; it may refer to the bubbles wh. rise to 
the surface of wells of fluid bitumen. 
SMITH. See Handicrafts. 





Assyrian Slinger 



Egyptian Slingers 

SLING, a weapon for throwing stones, anciently 
used in warfare. A corps of left-handed Benja- 
mites, marksmen with the S., fought at Gibeah 
(Jg. 20. 16 ). With a sling David 
overthrew Goliath. The S. is 
still used by shepherd boys in Pal. 

SMYRNA appears in Scrip, 
only in Rv. I. 11 , 2. 8 , as the seat of 
one of the churches to which the 
messages there preserved were ad- 
dressed. The city had a long and 
varied history before the situation 
attracted the attention of Alex- 
ander the Great. On the W. coast 
of Lydia a long arm of the sea 
reaches inland, at the eastern ex- 
tremity of wh. stood the ancient 
city of Smyrna, clinging to the 
slope of the mountain wh. over- 
looks the bay fm. the N. Originally an ^Eolian 
colony, it was taken by the Ionians. In their 
hands it exercised authority over a considerable 
district. After long strife with Lydia it was 
finally overthrown, c. b.c 600, by the Lydian 
king Alyattes. Smyrna as a " city " ceased to 
be ; but the name lingered on in connection with 
a group of scattered villages. Alexander is said to 
have purposed the rebuilding of S. in consequence 
of a suggestion made to him in a dream, after the 
battle of the Granicus, by the two goddesses of the 
city. The work of restoration was reserved for 
Lysimachus. A site was chosen on the SE. shore of 
the gulf, where an excellent harbour was formed, 
across the mouth of wh. a chain might be drawn for 
safety. It furnished protection for the smaller 
craft of these times ; while larger vessels might be 
anchored in the bay. A great trade road connected 
the harbour with the East. Smyrna thus received 
the caravans of the merchantmen, whose merchan- 



Smy 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sno 



dise was carried in her ships across the western 
waters, while the products of the West, brought to 
her harbour, were sent thence to the great inland 
markets. The situation furnished a guarantee of 
continuous life ; and in point of fact, from that 
day to this, in spite of the changes the centuries have 
brought, the history of S. has been one of practically 
unbroken prosperity. A vivid and picturesque ac- 
count of the city and its history is given by Sir W. 
M. Ramsay in The Letters to the Seven Churches, 
pp. 25 iff. The Smyrnseans were very proud of 
their beautiful city. Its handsome streets, with 
stately temples and public buildings sweeping round 
the slopes of the hill, were compared to the jewelled 
ropes of a necklace. The graceful Acropolis sug- 
gested the image of a crown, resting on the head 
of Pagos, " the hill." The blue waters of the gulf, 
the surrounding mountains and groves, made an 
exceedingly attractive scene. S. claimed to be 
" the first of Asia in beauty and size." The 
drainage of the lower part of the city was defective, 
and this evil was aggravated by the breeze fm. the 
sea, wh. in the hottest part of the year fans the city 
by day. Mod. Smyrna still suffers fm. this defect. 
The faithfulness of S. to the cause of Rome secured 
for her the favour of that great Western power. 
Cicero praises her as " the city of our most faithful 
and most ancient allies." This fidelity had been 
proved before the ascendency of Rome had been 
firmly established. It was successfully pleaded as 
a reason why S. should be chosen rather than any 
other city in Asia, in a.d. 26, as the site of the temple 
to be dedicated to Tiberius. 

Cybele, the mother-goddess, was the tutelary 
deity of Smyrna. This goddess, wearing the mural 
crown, suggested to iElius Aristides the picture of 
the city " as a statue sitting with her feet on the 
sea and her head rising to heaven, and crowned with 
a circlet of beautiful buildings " (Ramsay, op. cit., 
258). The "crown of Smyrna" was a familiar 
phrase, probably derived from the appearance of the 
hill " crowned " by the Acropolis. Apollonius of 
Tyana makes use of the phrase, declaring that 
nobility of character in the citizens was a worthier 
" crown " than " porticoes and pictures and gold." 

We see thus how appropriate was the letter ad- 
dressed to the city wh. had been destroyed, and had 
risen to a new career of prosperous life, by Him 
" which became dead and lived again " ; how apt 
His appeal to the fidelity of wh. they boasted, and 
His promised reward of a " crown of life " (Rv. 
2. 8ff -). The reference to Jews (v. 9) prob. points to 
a colony attracted by S. as a centre of commerce. 
Among them the earliest converts to Christianity 
may have been found. 

The harbour was blocked by Tamerlane in 
a.d. 1402. It was gradually filled up, and is now 
built over.' But in appearance the city retains 

76 



much of its ancient charm. The present writer saw 
it in 1888, while the hill, still wore its crown of 
battlements. He can corroborate the description 
of Mrs. Ramsay : " with Mount Pagos and its ruined 
castle rising out of the clustering houses, it looks a 
queenly city ' crowned with her diadem of towers.' " 

Smyrna claims to have been the birthplace of 
Homer. 

SNAIL, the tr. of two Heb. words in AV. 
(1) Hornet, rendered RV. " sand-lizard," declared 
to be unclean (Lv. II. 30 ). Fm. the connection the 
rendering of RV. is preferable. (2) Sbablul (Ps. 
58. 8 ). In the LXX, Vlg., and Psh. this is trd. " wax," 
but in the Tg. Cc. tlbldld, " snail " ; all modern 
W., following Luther, tr. S., except those, like 
the Douay, wh. are dependent on the Vlg. Of the 
MT. the tr. S. seems correct ; there almost appears 
to have been a different text behind the ancient W. 
There is in Pal. a large S. with white shell used by 
the natives as food. 

SNARE stands for several Heb. words. (1) He- 
bel, lit. " cord," so trd. in Ps. 140. 5 , where prob. 
" noose " is intended, as in Jb. 18. 10 (RV.). (2) Mo- 
qesh, the snare set by the ydqosh, " fowler," for 
birds ; by wh. ground game also was taken (Am. 3. 5 , 
" gin," &c). This is a cord with a running noose. 
The word is frequently used figuratively (Ex. io. 7 , 
&c). (3) Mdtzod, metzuddb, is the instrument by 
wh. the huntsman takes game, prob. a net (Ec. 
7. 26 ; Ek. 12. 13 , 17. 20 [fig.] ). (4) Pah (trd. " gin » 
in Jb. 18. 9 ; Is. 8. 14 ) was prob., like the Arb. fakh, 
a trap, the jaws of wh. are bone, and the spring 
twisted gut. Catching birds with the fakh is a 
favourite pastime of boys in Pal. The bird, caught 
by the foot, easily springs up a certain distance with 
this light trap (Am. 3. 5 ). (5) Sebdkdh (Jb. 18. 8 ) is a 
net. In NT. brochos (1 Cor. J. 35 ) is lit. " a noose " ; 
pagis, " a trap." The words are used fig. for any- 
thing that takes a man at unawares. 

SNOW. Although over the greater part of Pal., 
even in the severest winter, snow seldom lies more 
than a few hours, its white glitter in the sun is a 
familiar sight. It lies thick on the giant form of 
Hermon in the north. It remains on exposed parts 
far into the summer, and never disappears from 
some of the shadier glens. It is seen from almost 
every high hill in the country. From time im- 
memorial muleteers have carried blocks of snow 
from the mountain to the cities on the sea coast, to 
Damascus and other centres, to cool the summer 
beverages of the people (Pr. 26. 1 ). Spotless white- 
ness is " white as snow " (Is. I. 18 ). Perfect purity is 
" whiter than snow " (Ps. 5 1. 7 ). It is conceived as 
being sprinkled from some great treasure-house (Jb. 
38. 22 ; Ps. 147. 16 ). Snow seems to have been re- 
garded as possessing special cleansing properties 
(}b. 9. 30 ). It is the symbol of the winter's cold 
(Pr. 3 1. 21 ). Mithl eth-thilj, " like the snow," is the 
3 



Snu 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sod 



proverbial Arabic expression for drinking-water 
of delicious coolness. 

SNUFFERS, implements connected with the 
trimming of the lamps in the Temple. In AV. 
snuffers represent two Heb. words : (i) Mezam- 
meroth (i K. 7. 50 ; 2 K. 25. 14 ), fm. zamar, " to 
prune " : there seems no doubt about the meaning. 
(2) Malqahayim (Ex. 25. 38 , 37. 23 , RV. " tongs," 
etymologically the preferable rendering). In Is. 
6. 6 this word is trd. " tongs." Snuff-dish (Heb. 
mahtah) occurs in connection with above in Ex. 
2 5- 38 > 37- 23 5 Ges. renders " fire-pan." 

SO (Heb. fctfD, as vocalised pronounced So\ but 
mt. be pronounced Seve), an Egyptian king to whom 
Hoshea, the last k. of Samaria, sent for help in his 
rebellion against Shalmaneser. In the annals of 
Sargon there is reference to a Sibe Tartan, generalis- 
simo of Piri'u, k. of Musr, a name wh. was regarded 



pure- 




Part of Cartouche of Shabaco, enlarged from 
Impression of his Signet 

until recently as equivalent to Pharaoh, k. of Egp., 
and this Sibe was supposed to be Shabaco. Dr. 
Winckler's conjecture of a North Arabian Musri 
appears to render this doubtful. This whole 
theory has been definitely upset by Dr. Budge 
{Hist, of Egp. vi. prf. ix-xxx), and Dr. Flinders 
Petrie (Hist, of Egp. hi. p. 281). The latter thinks 
S. was Shabaka, who first was Regent over Egp. 
under Piankhi, and then succeeded him as k. Dr. 
Flinders Petrie thinks the difference between the 
s of " So' " and the sh of Shabaka may be due 
to dialectic peculiarities. A piece of clay bearing 
the impress of the seal of Shabaka was found by 
Layard in Nineveh. 

Dr. Glaser had been led by his discoveries of early Arabic 
inscriptions to assign them to a remote antiquity, and then 
to build up a Minaean empire. This embold'ened Prof. 
Winckler to devise a kdm. of Musri conterminous with 
Egp. {Musri) but different fm. it, and he supported his 
views by readings of Asyr. tablets that have not been con- 
firmed. To these Dr. Cheyne added the kdm. of Jerah- 
meel devised out of various readings which can hardly be 
taken seriously. Dr. Budge and Dr. Petrie have shown 
that the Minaean empire, such as it was, was contemporary 
with Cambyses; and that the North Arabian Musri was 
the Sinaitic peninsula, long a part of the dominion cf Egp. ; 
while Jerahmeel remains in Dr. Cheyne's imagination. 

SOAP, AV. SOPE, is mentioned only in Jr. 2. 22 ; 

Ml. 3- 2 , where it stands for the Heb. borith, from 



the verb barar, " to separate," in the sense of re- 
moving impurities. It is lit. " that which makes 
clean." In both cases LXX renders poia, " grass," 
probably understanding vegetable alkali. Bor, 
from the same root, EV. tr. " cleanness," 
ness " (RVm. Jb. 9. 30 ; Is. I. 25 , " lye "). 

The native women in Palestine sometimes use the 
powdered desiccated leaves and twigs of the Kali 
plant as a substitute for soap. " Our English word 
alkali is of pure Arabic origin, from el-Qali, the name 
of the green desert shrub, from the ashes of which 
potash in an impure state was first extracted. Crude 
potash is still procured from it for the manufacture 
of native soaps, and this forms quite an industry in 
the Kalamune district. The shrub is collected by 
the peasants and piled in heaps over a saucer-like 
depression in the earth. When sufficiently dry it 
is set on fire, and the impure potash collected in 
the basin beneath. It is sent south on camels to 
Damascus, Nablus, Haifa, &c, for the manufacture 
of native or Castilian soap. It is also used for the 
curing of green olives, and other domestic purposes. 
In some districts it is employed to remove the 
natural oil of grapes before they are converted into 
raisins " (Dr. Mackinnon of Damascus, in a letter to 
the writer). 

The manufacture of soap is a flourishing industry 
in the towns mentioned above — the olive oil, pro- 
duced so abundantly in Galilee, being used for the 
purpose ; and the trade in the export of soap is 
considerable. 

SOCO, SHOCO, SHOCHO, SOCOH, SHO- 
CHOH, SOCHOH. These are simply variant 
forms of the same name. (1) A city in the 
Shephelah of Judah, evidently in the neighbour- 
hood of Adullam and Azekah (Jo. 15. 35 ). Between 
S. and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim, was the Phil, 
camp before the encounter of Goliath and David 
(1 S. 17. 1 ). It lay in the commissariat district under 
Ben Hesed (1 K. 4. 10 ), and was one of the strongholds 
rebuilt by Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 7 ). It was taken 
by the Phil, in the time of Ahaz (2 Ch. 28. 18 ). 
OEJ. places it nine Roman miles fm. Eleutheropolis 
{Beit Jibrin), on the way to Jrs. This corresponds 
with the position of Khirbet Shuweikeh, c. seven 
miles NE. of Beit Jibrin, on the S. lip of Wady 
es-Sunt. It is a position of considerable strength, 
easily defensible in days of ancient warfare, and it 
was specially important as overlooking one of the 
main avenues from the plain to the inland uplands. 
The old walls may still be traced, and the remains 
of antiquity include cisterns and wine-presses. 
(2) A city in the uplands of Judah, near Jattir (Jo. 
15. 48 ), prob. = Khirbet Shuweikeh, fully 10 miles 
SW. of Hebron. There are no remains of im- 
portance. 

SODI, father of Gaddiel, who represented 
Zebulun among the spies (Nu. 13. 10 ). 



764 



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Sol 



SODOM AND GOMORRAH, two of the five were found in Judah under Rehoboam (i K. 14. 24 ). 

cities of the plain. Near Sodom Lot pitched his Asa banished them (15. 12 ), all but a " remnant," 

tent, and in it he later took up his residence (Gn. who were rooted out by Jehoshaphat (22. 46 ). They 

13. 12 , 14. 12 , &c). These cities were captured by seem to have returned with the corruptions of later 

the kings fm. the N. (i4. lff ), and succoured by days ; and Josiah is said to have broken down the 

Abraham (w. 13ft.)- On account of their wicked- houses of the sodomites, wh. were actually " in the 

ness they were overwhelmed " with brimstone and house of the Lord " (2 K. 23. 7 RV.). The prac- 

fire fm. the Lord out of heaven " (io,. 24f -). Thence- tices referred to were widely prevalent. The 

forward they often appear as signal illustrations of " iniquity " of the Canaanites takes a new meaning 

God's vengeance against evil (Dt. 20,. 23 ; Is. 13. 19 , for us when we realise the festering corruption there 

&c). The names of their kings are significant : was in the heart of the people's life. 

Bera\ " with evil," and Bereska', " with wicked- SOJOURNER. See Stranger. 

ness " (Gn. 14. 2 ). Sodom is associated in name with SOLOMON, the third king who occupied the 

vice of deepest infamy. throne of Isr., was the second s. borne to David 

The plain in which the cities lay must certainly be by Bathsheba. The name shelomoh, " peaceable " 

sought at the S. end of the Dead Sea {see Siddim, (=Irenaeus), may have been suggested by the deep 

Vale of). The physical conditions of the district yearning of the sinning but repentant monarch's 

prob. furnish the key to the nature of the catas- heart (2 S. 12. 24 ; cp. 1 Ch. 22. 8L ). At his birth the 

trophe wh. destroyed them. Bituminous regions prophet Nathan was sent to David, evidently with 

are liable to destructive eruptions. In the district a message of reconciliation from God, in token of 



of Petrolia, Canada, a borehole struck a reservoir of 
gas wh. rushed up with explosive force, carrying 
before it a large quantity of petroleum. The gas, 
taking fire, formed a tall column of flame. The air 
flowing towards the eruption caused a whirlwind, 
wh. carried the dense smoke high into the air, and 
threw down burning bitumen all around (Dawson, 
By-paths of Bible Knowledge, Egypt and Syria, pp. 



wh. he called the child Jedidiah, " Beloved of 
Jah " (2 S. 12. 25 ) ; the first element in this name 
being derived fm. the same root as David. " Jedi- 
diah," however, disappears from the records at once 
and finally. It may have been barred fm. common 
use by its association with the Divine message. The 
name Solomon was prophetic of the man's char- 
acter and career. He was as distinctively a man of 



1 1 if.). A deep fissure caused by an earthquake may peace as his fr. had been a man of war. 

have occasioned such an eruption on a large scale, From his known relations with David and Bath- 

with the effects so vividly described in the narrative, sheba, and, subsequently, with Solomon himself, it 

The earthquake may have resulted in a general may be inferred that the prophet Nathan was not 

subsidence of the whole district, producing such without interest in the training and development of 

changes as to render hopeless any search for remains the future king. We may safely take it, however, 

of the fated cities. that the predominant influence was that of his mr. 

SODOM, VINE OF. That any literal plant As clever as she was ambitious and unscrupulous, 

was ever so designated is open to grave question, she retained her power over David to the end. She 

had clearly resolved that her son should occupy the 
supreme seat, and her energies wd. be bent to fit 

" fruits " of such a nature may be fitly described as him for that position. Many of the qualities for wh. 

" grapes of gall," altho' no such literal grapes exist, he was afterwards distinguished may have been due 

In point of fact no plant has been found with the to the careful nurture and skilful instruction of this 

characteristics indicated, that can properly be called shrewd, practical woman of the world. Being what 

a vine. The " fruits " referred to by Josephus she was, little would be done to neutralise the effect 

(BJ. IV. viii. 4), often spoken of as apples of of his surroundings in the harim, and here, we may 

Sodom, wh. look tempting, but wh., when plucked, be sure,were planted the seeds of that which wrought 



" Their vine " (Dt. 32. 32 ) is their nature, wh. has 
gone to corruption like that of the Sodomites. The 



dissolve into smoke and ashes, may be the l usbr, or 
the colocyntb, the fruits of wh., when ripe, contain 
dry dust ; but they bear no resemblance to grapes. 
SODOMITE (Heb. qadesb, fern, qedesbab, lit. 
" sacred "). The English word is, of course, de- 



such havoc in his after life. 

There is no record of the promise made to Bath- 
sheba, that S. shd. succeed David (1 K. i. 13 ),but the 
chronicler indicates David's mind to that effect. 
While yet S. was " young and tender," the king de- 



rived from Sodom, the people of which were reputed scribes to him the preparations made for building 

as sunk in gross and unnatural vice. Qadesb and the Temple, He is told the reason for postponing 

qedeshab, however, were terms denoting the male the work, and on him is laid the duty to see this 

and female prostitutes attached to certain sanctu- completed when he comes to the throne (1 Ch. 22.). 

aries, where acts of immorality formed part of the But David's purpose was evidently unknown to 

ritual of worship. This was abhorrent to the true many who had been among his most faithful ser- 



worship of the pure God. of Isr. (Dt. 23. 17 ). They 



Adonijah's attempt to seize the throne, 



765 



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Sol 



while open to reproach as wanting in the respect due Solomon summoned an assembly at " the great 

to the aged monarch, may have been dictated in part high place" at Gibeon, where, on a prodigious 

at least by regard to the common weal, in wh., from scale, he offered sacrifices of thanksgiving. While 

gathering weakness and multitude of years, David sleeping, apparently in the sanctuary, he saw God in 

could take but feeble interest. But Nathan and a vision, and made his famous choice of wisdom in 

Bathsheba formed a subtle and powerful combi- preference to long life, riches, and victory over his 

nation. They obtained a decree from David wh. enemies. And an illustration of his wisdom is given 

frustrated the design of Adonijah, and placed in his judgment in the quarrel of the two harlots 

Solomon securely on his father's throne. When over the living child (i K. 3.). This sentence, rest- 

Adonijah says (1 K. 2. 15 ) that the kdm. was Solo- ing on something deeper and more certain than 

mon's " from the Lord," this does not necessarily mere kge. of jurisprudence, gave the people great 

imply previous kge., but only the recognition of an confidence in him as final arbiter in their disputes, 

"accomplished fact — accomplished, and therefore, in The task of unifying Israel under one central 

the Oriental view, the will of the Lord. There was authority was prosecuted successfully by Samuel, 

no fixed rule as to the succession {see King). Saul, and David. Their victories had placed her 

After his father's death S. proceeded to get rid of in a strong position, reducing to impotence the 

those who had taken a leading part in the rising of foes who had formerly oppressed her. A warlike 

Adonijah. Joab, whose conspicuous services and monarch wd. without doubt have sought greatly to 

loyalty through so many years could not save him increase his dominions. Solomon essayed the less 

from the fate wh. he yet justly deserved, and picturesque but more useful task of consolidation. 

Shimei, the man of bitter tongue and craven heart, He was left with ample resources. Even if we make 



Abiathar the High Priest was 



were put to death 
deposed, and banished to his " own fields " at 
Anathoth. Adonijah, with marvellous clemency, 
he pardoned, and sent to his house with a grim 



allowances for the tendency to exaggerate, the ac- 
counts given by the chronicler (1 Ch. 22. 14ff - ; 2 Ch. 
I. 15 ) represent enormous wealth. He was also 
master of a strong, well-trained, and disciplined 



caution. In slaying Joab and Shimei S. carried out army. The safety of the country was secured by 
the instructions of David (1 K. 2. 5ff< ). An en- the fortification of Hazor and Megiddo in the N. ; 
deavour has been made to relieve David of this Gezer, the two Beth-horons, and Baalath in the 
responsibility {see David), but the passage is cer- 
tainly ancient, and the counsel embodied the dic- 
tates of political wisdom. Joab, the most distin- 



W. ; and Tamar in the S. These guarded the main 
avenues by wh. the capital might be approached. 
Jerusalem was also strengthened by a wall and the 



guished soldier Israel had produced, had amply fortress of Millo (i K. o,. 15 "-). To the military 
earned his popularity with the army : while he lived establishment he added 1400 chariots and 12,000 
he wd. always be a possible centre of unrest. No cavalry. Among the broken uplands of Pal. those 
humbler post than that of commander-in-chief wd. arms were of little use ; but on the wide flats along 
have contented him ; and with him in that position the shore, on Esdraelon, and in the great open 
the peaceful development of succeeding years country to the N. and to the E., they would add 
wd. have been morally impossible. The loyalty of much to the effectiveness of the army (1 K. 9. 19 ; 
Shimei cd. not be trusted. A resolute partisan of 2 Ch. I. 14 ). The name of S., however, is not asso- 
the house of Saul, he was sure to take any chance ciated with any great military enterprise. 2 Ch. 
that offered, to stir up disaffection. The long 8. 3 attributes to him a victory over Hamath-zobah. 
fidelity of Abiathar to the cause and person of David It cd. hardly have been of much account, as nothing 
secured him his life. While Adonijah lived Bath- beyond the fact is mentioned. He seems to have 
sheba would be uneasy. His unfortunate passion maintained intact the territory he inherited ; but 
for Abishag, to whom prob. Solomon was him- what we hear of Hadad in Edom (1 K. n. 9ff -) and 
self attached, proved his undoing. The choice of Rezon of Damascus (w. 231!.) probably indicates a 
Bathsheba for advocate sufficiently proves his in- weakening of his authority in these directions, 
fatuation. The women of the late king belonged S. endeavoured to cultivate friendly and profit- 
of right to his successor. The desire for the able relations with other powers. He allied himself 
Shunammite was taken as evidence of a purpose to with the reigning family in Egypt by marrying the 
seize the throne ; and so a pretext was found to get Pharaoh's daughter (1 K. 3. 1 ), who brought him as 
quit of a dangerous rival. Benaiah succeeded Joab her dowry the important stronghold of Gezer (9. 16 ). 
as commander-in-chief, Zadok took the place of A suitable residence for the fair Egyptian was part of 
Abiathar, and the staunch friendship of Nathan was his sumptuous plan of building (7- 8 ). A trade in 
acknowledged by positions of importance given to horses and chariots was established with Egypt ; 
his sons. and with these, imported fm. Egp., S. supplied the 
Being thus quit of the main causes of anxiety, and Syrian and Hittite kings (1 K. io. 28f -). It is pro- 
feeling himself firmly seated on his father's throne, bable that S. also turned to advantage his control of 

766 



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Sol 



the great highways of commerce, the caravan roads 
between the Euphrates valley and that of the Nile, 
wh. passed through his territory. The stream of 
commodities, therefore, required by the civilisa- 
tion of the ancient world flowed thro' the passes and 
across the plains of Pal. With Hiram, king of Tyre, 
trade relations for mutual advantage were main- 
tained throughout the reign of S. He inherited his 
father's friendship with the Tyrian king. To the 
Phoenicians S. was indebted for the cedar-wood 
from the mountain, brought to Jaffa in floats. 
Among the Hebrews on leaving Egp. were found 
skilled craftsmen, workers in wood, brass, the 
precious metals, &c. (Ex. 31. 4 , 35- 35 , &c). The 
simple life after the Conquest furnished few oppor- 
tunities for the exercise of their craft, and when S. 
required the work of skilled hands in the construc- 
tion and adornment of the splendid buildings by 
which he was to be remembered for centuries, he 
had to draw from the accomplished workmen of 
Tyre. . For the development of his trade across the 
sea, S. was absolutely dependent on the shipbuilders 
and seamen of his ally. But for his friendship with 
S., on the other hand, the maritime enterprise of 
Hiram and his people wd. have been confined to the 
Mediterranean. In partnership with S. they were 
able to enter the Red Sea at Ezion-geber, and to 
open new lines of commerce, bringing fresh varieties 
of commodities into their markets. Then also, as in 
later days, " their country was fed from " the land 
of Isr. (Ac. 12. 20 ), the Phoenicians importing the 
produce of the rich corn land, olive groves, and vine- 
yards of Pal. In payment to Hiram for material 
and service, wheat, barley, oil and wine were pro- 
mised (1 K. 5. 11 ; 2 Ch. 2. 10 > 15 — the chronicler's 
figures are suspiciously large). 

Among Solomon's wives was Naamah the Am- 
monitess, who it may be presumed was also of royal 
blood. This alliance would strengthen the sense of 
security on the eastern frontier. Naamah was the 
only one of his wives to bear him a son (1 K. 14. 21 ). 

The reduction to slavery of the children of the 
old Canaanite inhabitants who had not been ex- 
pelled from the land, tended to consolidate the 
kdm. (1 K. 9. 20f -). The " threescore and ten thou- 
sand that bar: burdens, and fourscore thousand 
that were hewers in the mountains " (5. 15 ), those 
who cut the great blocks of stone in the quarries, and 
those who attended to their transport, were pro- 
bably drawn from this class. For the carrying out 
of his splendid designs he imposed forced labour 
upon his subjects. He raised a levy of 30,000 men, 
who were sent to toil in Lebanon " ten thousand a 
month by courses : a month they were in Lebanon 
and two months at home " (1 K. 5. 13f -)- The 
principle of the levy had been introduced by David 
(2 S. 20. 24 , RVm.). Its development under Solo- 
mon shows. that the people were no longer free. 



The monarch had become absolute, and his will was 
supreme. All the wisdom with wh. S. is credited 
did not save him from the temptations that accom- 
pany unlimited power. In the early years of his 
reign he appears at his best. Young, richly gifted 
in mind and body, sober in judgment, and alive to 
the responsibilities of his position, his was a truly 
kingly figure, fitted to win the pride and loyalty of 
his people ; while the prosperity and peace of these 
days left a happy impression upon their minds. 
Their confidence in him brought his opportunity to 
earn the 1 sting gratitude of Isr. by a rule at once 
humane and just, and by enterprises designed for 
the benefit and advancement of the nation. Un- 
happily he developed a selfish yearning for his own 
personal advantage, and bent the power now in his 
hands to the gratifying of his own desires for pleasure 
and magnificence. By a display of splendour he 
sought to enhance the greatness and dignity of the 
empire over wh. he ruled, and to make his father's 
house illustrious among the nations. Jerusalem 
lent itself admirably to his plan of fortification, and 
became a city of great strength. He covered the 
eastern hill with buildings of extraordinary size 
and beauty, including the famous Temple, and the 
royal residence. His domestic establishment grew 
until it contained " seven hundred wives, princesses, 
and three hundred concubines " : " the daughter 
of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, 
Edomites, Zidonians and Hittites " (1 K. n. lff -). 
The maintenance of such a household, with all the 
officers and servants about his court, and their de- 
pendents, while gratifying to the pride of the king, 
involved an expenditure necessarily oppressive upon 
a people who in the mass were poor. This was 
increased by his own expensive tastes, the luxuries 
and adornments to be provided for himself and his 
favourites. To meet these demands the country 
was divided into twelve districts — excluding Judah 
— which were placed in the charge of the king's 
officers. Each district had to furnish supplies for one 
month annually. We may imagine the weight of the 
burden when it is said that " Solomon's provision for 
one day was thirty measures of fine flour and three- 
score measures of meal ; ten fat oxen, and twenty 
oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, 
besides harts and gazelles and roebucks and fatted 
fowl " (1 K. 4. 1 " 23 ). One wonders how S. cd. have 
failed to see that the inevitable result of such a 
system must be discontent and alienation of the 
people. The exemption of Judah from the hard- 
ships imposed upon the other tribes, without doubt 
intensified the old jealousy between Ephraim and 
Judah, leading to the abortive rising of Jeroboam 
(1 K. li. 26fL ). The father's unwisdom, therefore, 
prepared the way for the disruption of the kdm., 
with all its disastrous consequences to the nation, 
wh. was only precipitated by the folly of his son (12.). 



767 



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Sol 



In view of the facts detailed it is natural to ask in 
what consisted the wisdom for wh. S. is so widely 
famed. In many respects he showed a conspicuous 
lack of what we mean by the term. This will be 
further illustrated below. But " wisdom " in our 
sense is not claimed for him in the history. He is 
represented as gifted with keen insight, knowing 
well the workings of the human heart, and, by dis- 
covery of underlying motives, able swiftly to discern 
the justice of a cause. This was the " wisdom " for 
wh. he prayed : " Give Thy servant therefore an 
understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I 
may discern between good and evil : for who is able 
to judge this Thy so great people ? " In popular 
estimation this prayer was granted to the full. 
Again, the " wisdom " attributed to him in I K. 
4. 29ff - is clearly defined. He had a passion for in- 
formation on all subjects open to him, and excelled 
all others in the learning of his day. He discoursed 
of trees and plants, of beasts, birds, creeping things, 
and fishes. He was celebrated for his power to con- 
centrate in brief, pointed, memorable sayings or 
epigrams, the results of moral reflection, the teach- 
ings of experience, and sagacious counsels for the 
conduct of life (i K. 4~ 32 ). He won distinction also 
in a field that has always possessed a keen interest for 
the Oriental mind, in propounding and answering 
" hard questions " or riddles. His reputation in 
this regard was carried to foreign courts, doubtless 
by his merchantmen (i K. 4- 34 ), and the queen of 
Sheba came expressly to put him to proof. An ac- 
count of such encounters of wits, in wh. S. was said 
to have been worsted, will be found in Jos. Ant. 
VIII. v. 3. The king's eminence, his extraordinary 
wealth, the pomp and splendour of his life and sur- 
roundings, deeply impressed the imagination of men. 
Whatever S. himself wrote, he was known to be 
deeply interested in these things. The tendency to 
associate with a great name whatever is produced in 
the field of his special interest, may "^sonably ac- 
count for the gathering round the name of S. of the 
proverbial and " wisdom " literature of Israel. It is 
clear that the Solomon of later days was largely the 
creation c f ous imagination. The monarch who 
figure ^iy in the legendary lore of the Orient 

has practically nothing in common with reality. 

Solomon at first displayed a sincere reverence for, 
and desire to honour, Jehovah, to whom he looked 
for the necessary equipment for his great task, and 
for guidance in discharging it. To him fell the 
privilege of building the house for the Lord planned 
by his father David, and nothing was spared to 
make it worthy. His prayer at the dedication of 
the Temple, in beauty and dignity, and depth of 
emotional feeling, is unsurpassed by anything in the 
OT. It is possible that in the lavish scale of the 
sacrifices offered something was due to his besetting 
desire for self-glorification ; but they may have been 



made as a fit token of gratitude out of his ample 
wealth. The functions of priest and king were not 
yet definitely separated, and it is clear that Solomon 
performed sacerdotal acts with general acceptance. 
He attended with care to the arrangement of the 
Temple service. The elaborate and impressive 
ritual was in harmony with the char, of the building. 
The Temple became the central sanctuary of the 
nation. The time had not yet come for the aboli- 
tion of local sanctuaries and high places, and worship 
continued to be offered in them ; but an important 
step was taken towards the concentration of later 
days. The influence of Solomon's piety and zeal 
upon his people was modified by the oppressions to 
wh. he subjected them, and his falling away in his 
old age left a painful impression on their minds. 
The toleration of idolatrous worship within the land 
must have seemed to many bad enough. But when 
the king, prematurely old by reason of unbridled 
self-indulgence, under the power of foreign women, 
not only built heathen high places for them over 
against the Temple of Jehovah, but himself took 
part in the unholy service of Ashtoreth and Milcom, 
it may well have appeared infamy unspeakable. 
Ahijah the Shilonite was the leader of the party of 
protest. Solomon made no sign of penitence, but 
he was so firmly seated in power that for any revolt 
there was no hope of success. He was left un- 
punished, and the penalty of his folly was to fall 
upon his son. But while the memory of his great- 
ness preserved sufficient loyalty to protect him from 
the dangers of insurrection, his last days were spent 
under a cloud. The reign wh. began with such 
brilliant promise, and reached such a height of 
splendour and fame, ended amid ominous silence. 

The fierce Semitic strain so evident in David is 
hardly seen in Solomon ; altho', when necessary, he 
cd. act with decision and severity (1 K. 2. 12ff -). As 
peaceful in spirit as David was warlike, he did 
nothing to extend the boundaries of Israel : indeed 
under him they may have suffered some curtailment 
(il. 14 " 25 ). The strengthening and adornment of 
Jerusalem, the erection of the Temple, and the 
elaboration of its services, lent a growing importance 
to the capital. The foreign trade which he en- 
couraged did little to benefit the people as a whole. 
Its main results were seen in the enrichment of the 
king and those who were around him. It was only 
in Jrs. that he made silver to be as stones, and cedars 
as sycomore trees (1 K. io. 27 ). The wealth wh. S. 
commanded was largely dissipated in wasteful ex- 
travagance : a sign of the luxury in wh. he indulged 
is the extraordinary size of his harim. His licen- 
tiousness is one of the darkest stains on his character. 
With this the son of Sirach reproaches him, while 
duly recording his greatness in other respects, 
" Thou didst stain thine honour and pollute thy 
seed : so that thou broughtest wrath agst. thy 



768 



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Son 



children, and wast grieved for thy folly " (47. 18ff -) 
Before reaching sixty he fell into the imbecility and 
decay of old age (i K. II. 4 ). He had but one son, 
and that son Rehoboam. " God's violated law of 
married love clearly avenged itself on Solomon and 
condemned his polygamy " (Prof. Flint, HDB. s.v.). 
He found the kdm. great and strong, but with the 
possibility of disruption in its heart. His task 
should have been wisely to remove all causes of 
alienation, and pave the way to permanent unity. 
By his oppressions and partiality he drove a wedge 
into the old fissure, and made disruption inevitable. 
His alliance with Egypt, where Jeroboam found 
asylum, must have been weakening ; and Rehoboam 
soon had to suffer at the hands of Shishak (i K. 14. 25 ). 
He failed in self-discipline. " He talked wisdom 
and practised folly." The honour offered to Je- 
hovah in the time of his splendour was more than 
balanced by the degradation of his last days. No 
king of Israel ever had greater opportunities. Few 
have displayed a more signal lack of true " wisdom." 

SOLOMON'S PORCH. See Porch. 

SOLOMON'S SERVANTS (Heb. l abde shele- 
mob, " bondslaves of S."). The children of these 
are mentioned with the Nethinim (Ez. 2. 55 ; Ne. 
7. 57 , &c). They were prob. descendants of the 
Canaanites enslaved by Solomon (1 K. 9. 20f -). 

SON. See Family. 

SON OF GOD, the designation of our Lord in 
His Divine Nature as the Second Person of the Holy 
Trinity. That some such relationship as that as- 
serted in the Creed as subsisting between the First 
and Second Persons in the Godhead had a place in 
the Deity, seems to have been a tenet of primitive 
religion. It is a mystery to the Church after two 
millennia of Christian revelation and experience ; 
much more wd. such a tenet be mysterious and 
difficult of apprehension to primitive humanity. 
As where logical thought failed him Plato took 
refuge in myth, to present in picture what he cd. 
not expound in discursive statement, so primitive 
men invented stories to clarify their thoughts, and, 
if only vaguely, to define them. In this way, pro- 
bably, the pantheons of polytheism largely origi- 
nated. Thus in Egypt to a highly spiritual notion 
of the Deity there was added an indefinitely nume- 
rous pantheon. The most widely diffused form of 
worship was that of Osiris Isis Horus, in wh. Horus 
was the son of Osiris, yet at the same time identical 
with him. In the grotesque Babylonian poem of 
Creation we have several generations of gods, wh. 
probably means several layers of stratification due to 
the pantheon of a conquering tribe or city being 
superimposed upon that of a conquered people. 
But the hero of the epic is Bel-Marduk, the son of 
Hea, and in a symbolic sense of all the gods, who is 
the destroyer of Tiamat, the principle of evil and 
lawlessness. - In classic mythology we have the 



thought in various forms because of the com- 
mingling of differing races, each with its own 
mythology. There is Athene springing full armed 
fm. the head of Zeus ; and there is Zeus and 
Apollo ; Zeus and Herakles ; Zeus and Bacchus. 
In considering this we must remember that Zeus 
had a double meaning ; he was not only the mytho- 
logical son of Kronos, but the supreme Deity, as in 
the hymn of Cleanthes. We might also refer to 
the relationship between Odin and Thor, and Odin 
and Balder, in Scandinavian mythology. In the 
very earliest form religious thought assumed, the 
necessity was felt to ascribe to Deity some such 
relationship. 

Such a view crudely apprehended naturally 
tended to anthropomorphism, idolatry, and poly- 
theism : this was its result throughout the whole 
human race ; hence the call of Israel to bring man- 
kind back to a recognition of the unity and spiritu- 
ality of God. This being the function of Israel, we 
shd. expect that any traces of such an idea in their 
sacred Literature wd. be few and obscure. Leaving 
to the one side the angels, who are called in Job 
" sons of God" (i. 6 , 2. 1 , 38. 7 ), and apparently in 
Genesis (6. 2 ), and such phrases as bene'elim (Ps. 29. 1 ), 
we have the words of Agur (Pr. 30. 4 ) : speaking of 
the Almighty he says, " What is His name, and 
what is His Son's name, if thou canst tell ? " In 
this passage it is assumed that the Creator of heaven 
and earth has a Son, and that no knowledge of the 
Creator is complete without also a knowledge of the 
Son. More important are the statements in the 
2nd Psalm. First the mysterious Messiah is de- 
clared in an emphatic sense to be the Son of God. 
Next there is the statement in v. 12, " Kiss the 
Son." Difficult as is this verse on the traditional 
interpretation, greater difficulty is involved in any 
other. When the subject is approached fm. an- 
other side we have Is. 9A When we take into ac- 
count the emphatic position assigned to the " Son " 
and the marvellous names given Him, " The Mighty 
God," " The Everlasting Father," it seems impos- 
sible to escape the thought that these things are 
spoken of One whose Sonship to ,CT- 9<\ x implied 
a superhuman relationship. Althou^ ; term 

" Son " is not used, there is implied a Being that is 
other than God, yet so closely related to Him as to 
be God. Here we wd. only refer to " Wisdom " in 
the earlier chapters of Proverbs, in wh. we have the 
unity in difference implied in the Nicasan doctrine 
presented under another aspect. What in a human 
being wd. be a faculty is regarded as an independent 
but closely associated personality. Then there is 
the " Angel of the Presence," who accompanied the 
Israelites in their journey through the wilderness 
when JHWH had declared that He wd. not go with 
them (Ex. 33- 2,14 ). All these passages reveal a 
sense that somehow there is a division in the essence 



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of Deity as necessary to an adequate idea of God 
as Unity. 

In the period between the Testaments, so far as 
evidence can be drawn fm. the Jewish literature of 
the time, the thought did not receive much de- 
velopment. In the Apocrypha the title S. of G. 
used in the emphatic sense appears to occur once. 
In the book of Wisdom it is said : " If the Just be the 
Son of God He will help Him and deliver Him fm. 
the hand of His enemies. Let us examine Him 
with despitefulness and torture, that we may know 
His meekness, and prove His patience. Let us con- 
demn Him with a shameful death (from His words 
shall be His visitation) " (Ws. 2. 18 " 20 ). One is 
tempted not only to take 6 Sikcuos as " the Son of 
God " in an emphatic sense, but also to see in these 
verses a prevision of the sufferings of Christ. In the 
pre-Christian Apocalypses the title does not occur ; 
in Enoch, in the book of Similitudes, the dignity 
ascribed to the " Son of Man " almost implies the 
higher (see Son of Man). In Philo we come nearer 
the NT. conception as crystallised in our creeds, of 
the Logos who is Son of God. It is difficult in study- 
ing the doctrine of the Logos in Philo to be certain 
where we have to do with rhetoric and where with 
definite thought. When he calls the Logos " the 
first-born Word," " the second God," regarding 
Him as neither quite a creature nor absolutely un- 
created, as the advocate (7rapdi<\r)Tos ; cp. I Jn. 2. 1 ) 
of creation with God, it is difficult to think of Philo 
as other than a soul feeling after the truth wh. was 
revealed in Christ. 

With the opening of the New Testament we 
come at once into clearer light. In the Synoptics, 
wh. may be said to be a threefold republication of 
the primitive Gospel, we have the title ascribed to 
our Lord repeatedly. The earliest is the statement 
of the angel at the Annunciation, " He shall be 
called the Son of the Highest" (Lk. I. 32 ), " that 
Holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called 
the Son of God " (v. 35). The next external testi- 
monies are the heavenly voices at His baptism, 
" This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased " (Mw. 3. 17 ; cp. Lk. 3. 22 ). In the Tempta- 
tion the devil's efforts were directed to make Him 
doubt His Divine Sonship and show His doubt by 
applying tests to make plain His relationship to God 
(Mw. 4. 1 " 10 ; Lk. 4. 1 " 13 ). There are testimonies to 
His Sonship to God given by the demons (Mw. 
8. 20 ; Mk. 3. 11 ; Lk. 4. 41 ). His testimony concern- 
ing Himself as reported by the Synoptics must be 
taken into account ; the acknowledgment of His 
claims wh. was wrung fm. Him by the adjuration of 
the High Priest at His trial before the Sanhedrin 
(Mw. 26. 63 - 64 ; Mk. i 4 .«i. 62 ; Lk. 22.™) ; it is im- 
plied in His parabolic teaching, e.g. in the parable 
of the Wicked Husbandmen, God is the proprietor 
and He is the Son sent to the husbandmen and 



murdered by them (Mw. 2i. 37f -); the Marriage 
Supper made for the son of the maker of the feast 
shows the same thing, as God is the maker of the 
feast (Mw. 22. 2 ; 14 ). It is implied in His other 
teaching as well, as when He demands, " What think 
ye of Christ ? Whose Son is He ? " (Mw. 22. 42 - 46 ). 
And when He describes the Last Judgment, He, the 
Son of Man, says to the righteous, " Come, ye 
blessed of My Father, inherit the kdm. prepared for 
you fm. the foundation of the world " (Mw. 25. 34 ). 
Though we may not press it, yet the agonised cry in 
the garden, " O My Father ! if it be possible let 
this cup pass fm. Me " (Mw. 26. 39 ), seems to assert 
a claim to a closer relationship to God than is 
implied in the ordinary sonship of mankind to their 
Creator. Then there is the effect He produced on 
those with whom He came in contact ; thus Peter at 
Ccesarea Philippi said of his Master, " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the Living God " (Mw. 16. 16 ) ; 
so too at the Cross the centurion declared, " Truly, 
this was the Son of God " (Mw. 27. 54 ). 

The fourth Gospel occupies a unique position in 
regard to Christology ; the assertions of our Lord's 
Divinity on the one hand, and of His humanity on 
the other, are clear and direct. The Logos doc- 
trine with wh. it opens represents under another 
figure the relationship symbolised in the passages we 
have been studying as Sonship. It is a develop- 
ment of the teaching of Philo ; a development 
caused to a great extent by intercourse with Christ. 
John exhibits his sense of the identity of the re- 
lationship when he says, "The Word was made 
flesh . . . and we beheld His glory, the glory as 
of the Only-begotten of the Father " (Jn. I. 14 ). In 
v. 18 this identity is assumed; the Logos is essen- 
tially the Revealer of God ; in the v. in question 
this office is assigned to the Only-begotten. We 
have in this chap, the testimony of the Baptist in 
regard to the descent of the Spirit upon our Lord at 
His baptism, and the consequent demonstration of 
His Divine Sonship (Jn. I. 34 ). When Jesus reveals 
to Nathaniel that He knew the subject of his medi- 
tation " under the fig tree," he answers, " Rabbi, 
Thou art the Son of God " (Jn. I. 49 ). Later we 
have the confession of Martha, " I believe that 
Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, wh. shd. come 
into the world " (Jn. 1 1 , 27 ). There is further direct 
assumption of Sonship, as in the passage beginning 
" The Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Not- 
withstanding that the Jews, recognising the claim, 
sought to kill Him because of it, He proceeded 
to apply and emphasise it, claiming that all men 
" shd. honour the Son even as they honour the 
Father " (5- 23 ). Even more explicit is the later 
statement, " Say ye of Him whom the Father hath 
sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blas- 
phemest, because I said, I am the Son of God ? " 
(io. 36 ). The whole Intercessory Prayer proceeds on 



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the presupposition of such a relationship. Further, 
it was part of the accusation against Jesus before 
Pilate that " He made Himself the Son of God." 
We have the testimony of the evangelist, given some 
four times in the 3rd chap., in wh. he shows the 
necessary connection between the Divine Sonship of 
Jesus and the salvation of sinners. In the last verse 
of the Gospel in its original form he assigns the pur- 
pose why he had written it : " These are written 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Son of God " (20. 31 ). 

As the book of Acts is mainly an account of the 
work of the apostle Paul, we may consider the evi- 
dence of Christ's Divine Sonship in it along with 
that in the Pauline Epistles. After the narrative of 
his conversion we are told of Paul, " Straightway he 
preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the 
Son of God." In his sermon in the synagogue of 
Antioch in Pisidia Paul quotes the 2nd Ps., " Thou 
art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," and 
applies it to Christ. 

We have not referred to the confessicn of the Ethiopian 
eunuch (8. 37 ) : although the verse is found in the Vlg. and 
the Psh., yet as it is wanting in the five great uncials its 
right to be in the text seems doubtful. 

When we pass from the Acts to the Epistles, fm. 
Paul the preacher to Paul the letter-writer, we find 
the proofs that Paul regarded Christ as the Son of 
God too numerous to be considered individually. 
In the earliest of his epistles, the 1st to the Thes- 
salonians, he refers to their spiritual history, " How 
they turned to God fm. idols to serve the living and 
true God, and to wait for His Son fm. heaven " 
(1 Th. I. 10 ). In Galatians, wh., if not the next in 
point of date, belonged at all events to the group wh. 
follows in point of time, we find that Paul ascribes 
his conversion to the fact that God was pleased to 
reveal His Son in him (Gal. 1 . 15 « 16 ) ; he further 
shows that the deliverance of the world fm. the 
bondage of corruption and the adoption of believers 
into the family of God were due to the Divine Son- 
ship of Christ (Gal. 4. 4 « 6 ). It is the source of the 
unity of believers ; they are " called to the fellow- 
ship of His Son " (1 Cor. I. 9 ) ; this truth is the sub- 
ject of all preaching (2 Cor. I. 19 ). The Epistle to 
the Romans is filled with the thought that salvation 
is through the death of Him who is the Son of God 
(Rm. 5. 10 , 8. 3 - 32 ). What is characteristic of Paul's 
earlier epistles we find also in those of the first im- 
prisonment (Eph. 4. 13 , by implication Php. 2. 5 " 11 ; 
Col. 1. 17 ). Throughout his whole teaching Paul's 
message is that with wh. he began in Damascus, that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 

The great Christological treatise wh. is called the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, whether written by Paul or 
not, is full of Pauline ideas. Certainly the Divine 
Sonship of Christ, wh. we have seen to be so pro- 
minent with St. Paul, is equally prominent in it. 



The great theme of his argument is the superiority of 
the priesthood of Christ over that of Aaron, and an 
element in this is the fact that Christ is the Son of 
God. He bsgins his argument by showing that 
the Christian revelation was necessarily superior to 
such as preceded, because in it God had spoken to 
us by His Son. He develops that idea by showing 
Christ's superiority to the angels, by whom, accord- 
ing to Jewish tradition, the law had been given ; 
then His superiority to Moses, by whom it had been 
delivered to the people ; the point in both cases 
being that He was " the Son." He gradually leads 
up to the Melchizedekian priesthood ; part of its 
superiority being due to the symbolic immortality 
of Melchizedek, that he was made like unto the 
Son of God, and because Christ, being " the Son of 
God," hath " the power of an endless life," " seeing 
He ever liveth to make intercession." But the very 
fact that our High Priest is greater and more glori- 
ous than any son of Aaron makes our responsibility 
the greater and our condemnation more terrible : 
how much sorer punishment shall be meted out to 
them who " crucify the Son of God afresh and put 
Him to an open shame." As we have already said, 
the whole argument of the epistle and the practical 
application of it turn on the Divine Sonship of our 
Lord. 

The Epistles of John exhibit, as might be ex- 
pected, the same characteristics that we saw in the 
Gospel ; the Sonship of Christ is the great assump- 
tion behind the exhortations. He begins by assert- 
ing our fellowship to be " with the Father and 
with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 Jn. I. 3 ), and our 
fellowship with one another is through the cleansing 
power of His blood. All evil involves the denial of 
the Son as well as the Father (2. 22 ), all good in be- 
lieving in Him (3- 23 ) ; the indwelling of God is the 
reward of him that confesses " that Jesus is the Son 
of God " (4. 15 ). His whole argument comes to a 
climax in the last chapter ; the phrase or its equiva- 
lent occurs nine times. Indeed in 5. 13 the apostle 
declares his purpose in regard to those for whom he 
is writing : " These things have I written that ye 
might believe on the name of the Son of God." So 
too with the 2nd epistle. Though the phrase in 
question does not occur so frequently in Revelation, 
yet the repeated references to " the Lamb in the 
midst of the throne, "and the way all praise "to Him 
that sits upon the throne " is associated with that to 
the Lamb, implies a similar relationship but under a 
different figure. 

We have thus seen that the thought that Jesus 
Christ was and is the Son of God permeates the 
whole New Testament. 

The Theological Content of this Doctrine. — 
It does not come within the scope of this Dictionary 
to consider the prolonged controversies that raged 
on this subject during the early Christian centuries 



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— controversies the importance of wh. are unduly 
under-estimated now. The first point implied in 
this title was recognised by the Jews when Jesus 
claimed it : they charged Him with blasphemy : 
"Thou being a man makest Thyself God." It im- 
plies essential Divinity. As to the mysterious fact, 
it gains immensely in credibility when it is remem- 
bered by whose testimony it is established. They 
are all either the associates of our Lord or the inti- 
mate friends of those who had been so. Of the 
Synoptists, Matthew was a disciple ; Mark was the 
interpreter of Peter, one of the three drawn into 
most intimate relationship with Him ; Luke was 
the companion of Paul, who, although not one of the 
earlier apostles, yet as at first the opponent of the 
Gospel collected all evidence concerning Jesus fm. 
an antagonistic point of view, and fm. this had 
become a convinced believer in His Divinity. The 
writer of the fourth Gospel was, like Peter, one of 
the inner circle of three. Not only so, but all the 
apostles who " had companied with Him," and all 
the seventy who had enjoyed some of His society 
both before and after His Passion, all proclaimed 
His Divine Sonship, and most of them sealed their 
testimony with their blood. That those with 
whom He had walked and talked, had eaten and 
drunk, declared Him, despite all opposing preju- 
dices due to education, despite the infliction of 
scourging and the threat of death, to be the Son 
of God, implies that the evidences He gave of His 
Divinity were strong to a degree that is inconceiv- 
able to us. This is not invalidated by the fact that 
the Roman emperors were deified, for Roman ideas 
of Godhead were vastly lower than were those of the 
Jews ; and all these witnesses were Jews. Fur- 
ther there is implied a certain dependence, if only 
economic. See Trinity. 

SON OF MAN (Heb. ben-'adam, Aram, bar- 
'enosh, Gr. ho huios tou anthrofou). The main 
interest this term has for us is the use our Lord 
makes of it to designate Himself. To appreciate 
this aright it is necessary to consider it historically. 
In the OT. the term S. of M. means " man," 
especially in his weakness. It is a striking fact that 
of the words used for " man," that wh. implies his 
weakness is chosen ; thus in Is. 2. 9 , " The mean man 
('dddm) boweth down, and the great man (%sh) 
humbleth himself " ; this is implied also in the 
connection in wh. the term S. of M. occurs ; thus, 
" What is man (enosb), that Thou art mindful of 
him ? and the S. of M. (ben-'adam), that Thou 
visitest him ? " (Ps. 8. 4 ). The plural of this is used 
for men in general, but with a similar suggestion, as 
" The Lord beholdeth all the sons of men (bene- 
hd-dddm) " (Ps. 33. 13 ). The most striking use of 
this title is as applied to the prophet Ezekiel ; in 
the book of that prophet eighty-nine times does 
JHWH address him as " S. of M." Daniel is thus 

77 



addressed by Gabriel (Dn. 8. 17 ). In all these in- 
stances real humanity in all its weakness is implied. 
The most important use of the term is to be found, 
not in the Heb. portion of the Scripture, but in the 
Aramaic. In Daniel 7. 13 we are told that " there 
came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a S. 
of Man " (RV.) ; the previous empires had been 
symbolised by animals — a lion, a bear, a leopard ; 
this, God's empire, is symbolised by a man. It is to 
be observed that in the two Gr. VV. and the Psh., 
as also in Luther, the term is indefinite. The term 
is thus purely descriptive, not denominative. 

The next appearance of the title is in the middle 
book of the Enoch books, " the Book of Similitudes " ; 
here it has become unmistakably denominative. 
To prove this we shall quote the principal passages 
in wh. it occurs. In doing so we shall make use 
of Dr. Charles' version. The principal passage 
(46. 1-3 ) is obviously modelled on Dn. 7. 9 - 14 : " x And 
then I saw One who had a head of days, and His 
head was white like wool, and with Him was another 
Being whose countenance had the appearance of a 
man, and His face was full of graciousness like one 
of the holy angels. 2 And I asked the angel, who 
went with me and showed me all the hidden things, 
concerning that Son of Man, who He was and 
whence He was, and why He went with the Head of 
Days ? 3 And he answered and said, This is the 
Son of Man who hath righteousness — with whom 
dwelleth righteousness, and reveals all the treasures 
of that wh. is hidden, because the Lord of Spirits 
hath chosen Him ; and His lot before the Lord of 
Spirits hath surpassed everything for ever." We 
have in a subsequent passage (48. 1 " 4 ) : " 1 And in 
that place I saw a fountain of righteousness wh. was 
inexhaustible, and around it were many fountains of 
wisdom, and all the thirsty drank of them and were 
filled with wisdom, and had their dwellings with the 
righteous, and holy, and elect. 2 And at that hour 
that Son of Man was named in the presence of the 
Lord of Spirits, and His name came before the Head 
of Days. 3 And before the sun and the signs were 
created, and before the stars of heaven were made, 
His name was named before the Lord of Spirits. 
4 He will be a staff to the righteous on wh. they will 
support themselves and not fall. He will be a 
light to the Gentiles and the hope of those who 
are troubled of heart." We find in the following 
chap. (49- 4 ), "He will judge secret things, and no one 
will be able to utter a lying word before Him, for 
He is the Elect One before the Lord of Spirits 
according to His good pleasure." Not only is it 
evident that the title S. of M. here designates an 
individual Being, but also one of super-angelic 
dignity, who though not eternal yet existed before 
the material creation. He is identified with the 
Elect, the Anointed One, i.e. the Messiah. He is to 
be judge also at the last day. 



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Professor James Drummond has maintained that these 
passages are Christian interpolations. But they are so 
involved in the structure of the book that the idea of inter- 
polation becomes improbable. 

We now proceed to consider the NT. use of the 
phrase " Son of Man." It occurs only as applied 
to Christ once outside the Gospels — in Stephen's 
dying exclamation (Ac. 7- 56 ). In the OT. sense it 
occurs in He. 2. 6 ; Rv. I. 13 ; the last an echo of 
Dn. 7. 13 . In the Gospels, of the eighty times wh. 
this phrase occurs, only once is it on other lips than 
those of our Lord Himself. This instance, how- 
ever, is of special interest, as it shows the sense in 
wh. the Jews understood the title. Our Lord had 
just received in the hearing of the multitude the 
Divine testimony that He was sent of God ; some 
had thought it was a peal of thunder ; others, hearing 
that words were spoken but unable to grasp their 
purport, said that " An angel spoke to Him " ; 
others, however, had understood what was said. 
Our Lord proceeded to explain the reason of the 
voice coming, and then, seeing His coming triumph 
by means of death, concludes, " I, if I be lif tedup, will 
draw all men unto Me." There has been no word 
of His being the " Son of Man." He had last used 
the phrase in connection with the coming of the 
Greeks ; then it is addressed primarily to the two 
apostles who introduced them — it was not addressed 
to the multitude, and there is no evidence that it 
was heard by them. The people, recognising that 
He intimated His death, and understanding that 
He claimed to be the Messiah, are in a difficulty. 
They say : " We have heard out of the law that the 
Christ abideth for ever, and how sayest Thou, The 
Son of Man must be lifted up ? who is this Son of 
Man ?'" This may be paraphrased : " You claim 
to be Messiah, the Son of Man, yet you intimate that 
you are to be crucified ; what very special Son of 
Man is this ? " The whole point of their argument 
lies in the assumed identity of S. of M. with " the 
Christ." The title was one of the recognised 
equivalents of " Messiah." From its use in the 
Enoch books we shd. expect it to be well known in 
the school fm. wh. these emanated, wh. in our 
opinion was the Essenes (Waiters for the Re- 
demption). What may have been the reasons wh. 
led our Lord to adopt this title as Messiah ? The 
meaning of the title wd. not be obvious to the 
Romans ; any one who claimed to be the Anointed 
asserted in no obscure way that he was a king. . The 
career of any claimant to kingship wd. be liable to be 
cut short speedily. This title S. of M. wd. convey 
no meaning to any one not well acquainted with the 
books of Enoch. 

While the title conveyed the idea of Messiah- 
ship, revealing yet concealing the claim, there were 
other ideas contained in the term. It asserted the 
absolute humanity of Him who assumed it. He 
claimed to be Son of God, and His miracles justified 



the claim, so that Peter, who was in most intimate 
association with Him, declared Him to be the Son 
of the Living God. The marvels that attended His 
death were so astounding that the centurion, on 
duty at the cross, is compelled to say, " Truly this 
man was the Son of God" (Mk. 15. 39 ). So im- 
pressed were men with this side of His nature that 
He had not many years left the world when the 
Gnostics arose, many of whom declared that our 
Lord only seemed to be Man. This title asserts that 
not only had He a human body, but that He had a 
human history ; He had not entered the world in 
maturity, breaking in upon history at once in ful- 
ness of mental and physical powers. No ! it was 
through the gateway of infancy and childhood that 
He entered humanity. But we saw that the term 
in Heb. meant " man " in his weakness ; the title 
then asserts indirectly what the evangelist deduced 
fm. His deeds, " Himself took our infirmities." 

There is yet another aspect to this title. When 
we translate it back into Heb. we find it reads Son of 
Adam. Adam was the representative of the race ; 
he had been tested but had failed, so had " brought 
death into the world and all our woe." Who fitter 
to be representative of mankind and stand the test 
anew on their behalf than the " Son of Adam " ? 
The argument of the apostle in regard to our sonship 
to God may be turned another way. " If Son, then 
Heir " : the heritage Adam left his progeny was 
guilt ; He assumes that guilt as His by being S. of 
M. ; He enters heir to the inheritance of woe. As 
the great First-born He is the Goel, the Avenger, 
who has come to destroy death and " him that had 
the power of death, that is the devil " (He. 2. 14 ). 
There is yet further " Brotherhood to men." By 
the fact that He has partaken of human nature so 
absolutely in all its weakness, we can realise His 
sympathy with us in all our sufferings and tempta- 
tions ; thus He is the Brother " born for adversity." 
The fact that He is our Omniscient Creator wd. 
enable Him to know our every feeling, while His 
Love wd. enable Him to have a tenderness for us 
that we shd. not be afflicted above what we shd. be 
able to bear. Since He has taken our nature we can 
realise His sympathy better, and so be comforted in 
all our sorrows. 

SONG OF SOLOMON, or more properly Song 
of Songs (as in the Hebrew Bible), i.e. the best or 
choicest song, comes immediately after Job in the 
third canon of the Hebrew books. It is the first of 
the five Megilloth (or " Rolls "), which comprise 
the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesi- 
astes, and Esther. These books are read on certain 
fasts and festivals of the Jewish Church. As its 
position indicates, the book was admitted late into 
the Canon. Although not quoted in the New 
Testament, it was probably regarded as sacred in 
the time of Christ, though its canonicity was dis- 



Son 



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Soo 



cussed even later. The ground of its admission 
must have been undoubtedly that it was taken to 
express allegorically the relation of Jehovah to the 
Jewish people. This is shown by the fact that it 
was read on the eighth day of the Passover feast, 
which commemorated Jehovah's deliverance of His 
people and His union with them by an everlasting 
covenant. Christians also regarded it as allegorical, 
expressing the relation of Jesus Christ to His Church 
(cp. the headings to chapters in the Authorised Ver- 
sion), hence the book was regarded with the same 
veneration among Christians as among Jews. But 
whether the intention of the author or editor was 
allegorical and mystical or not, was questioned by 
Theodore of Mopsuestia in the sixth century. For 
this literal view he was anathematised by the council 
of Constantinople in a.d. 553. Origen expounded 
it at great length, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux 
wrote eighty-six sermons on it, and then had only 
reached the beginning of the third chapter. Once 
the allegorical method was taken, numerous inter- 
pretations became possible. These may be found 
in the various commentaries that have been written 
on the book. 

In itself the work is entirely concerned with 
human love, and is made up of a number of songs as 
inconsequent as the passion described. Three main 
characters appear in the book : Solomon, the Shula- 
mite maiden, and a shepherd ; while the " daughters 
of Jerusalem " appear as a kind of chorus. Many 
exponents of the work find in it an attempt at 
Hebrew drama, but the efforts made to break it up 
into acts and scenes are not very convincing (for 
two of these see Driver's Intro., ed. 6, pp. 438*1*.). 
There are no scenic directions, and there cannot 
be said to be any real progress in the passion or in 
the events recorded. The plot is taken to be that 
Solomon had taken a Shulamite maiden to his court 
and now pleads for her love. She, however, re- 
mains faithful to her shepherd lover, to whom she 
is in the end restored. Delitzsch identifies the 
shepherd with Solomon, and sees only two main 
characters, and so he construes the course of events 
differently {see Driver as above). 

The material of the work, even if it be considered 
as a drama in its present form, consists of a number 
of songs and snatches of songs. Were these com- 
posed for this work, or are they material which the 
author found already in existence ? The probability 
of the latter theory has been made evident by the 
investigations of a Prussian consul, J. G. Wetzstein, 
whose results are given in Delitzsch's Commentary 
on the Song of Songs. He found a great similarity 
between the songs used at modern marriage cere- 
monies in Palestine and those of this book. The 
seven days of the marriage festival itself are called 
the " king's week." Solomon is thus the bride- 
groom (any bridegroom) as king ; the Shulamite 



(referring to Abishag the Shunammite, 1 K. .i. 3t ) is 
the bride ; the " daughters of Jerusalem " are the 
virgins of the district, who take part in the marriage 
ceremonies (their name indicating that the songs 
probably originated in or near Jerusalem) ; the 
" sixty mighty men " are the companions of the 
bridegroom. The order of the songs in our book 
does not altogether correspond with that in modern 
use, as the description of the physical charms of the 
bride in 7. 1 " 7 should come before the approach of 
the bridegroom in 3 . 6ff - The whole work, therefore, 
according to this view, consists of the regular songs 
of the marriage festival, but not in order, together 
with a number of songs in praise of love generally, 
such as were sung at these festivals. 

Whether the editor of the book used these songs 
with any idea of a dramatic unity is difficult to 
decide. A full discussion of this point will be found 
in J. W. Rothstein's article on the Song in HDB., 
vol. iv. pp. 589-597. 

Of the authorship and date of the work little can 
be said but what is negative. The view that Solo- 
mon is the author is impossible according to either of 
the views of its nature given above, and because of 
the linguistic evidence (see below). The date of the 
poem is disputed. Some hold it to be pre-exilic on 
account of the mention of Tirzah, which was the 
capital of the Northern Kingdom in the tenth cen- 
tury (1 K. l4-. 17 -i6. 23f '), and the apparently fresh 
memory of the brilliance of Solomon's court. Ac- 
cording to this view the form of the relative pro- 
noun {see Driver's Intro., p. 449), and the writer's 
knowledge of the places of North Palestine, indicate 
that the work came from the Northern Kingdom. 
The foreign words are then explained as having been 
introduced into Palestine by commerce with the 
East. But apart from a few passages of northern 
origin in the Old Testament, the form of the 
relative pronoun is that used only in exilic or post- 
exilic writings. The mention of Tirzah and of the 
glories of Solomon's court may be due to the 
poetical style only. One of the Persian words used 
(that for " orchard " in 4. 13 ) would not come in by 
commerce, and the word used for " palanquin " or 
" chariot" in 3. 9 seems to be Greek. The earliest 
time possible for the composition of the Song of 
Songs would thus be the Macedonian period, when 
such words first came into the Hebrew language. 

G. W. Thatcher. 

SONS OF GOD. (1) The title is used to indi- 
cate the status conferred on those who believe in 
Jesus Christ (Jn. I. 12 ; Php. 2. 15 ; I Jn. 3."-). The 
phrase is practically ident. with that elsewhere trd. 
" children of God " (see Adoption). (2) See Angels. 

SONS OF THE PROPHETS. See Prophet, 
Prophecy. 

SOOTHSAYER, SOOTHSAYING. See Divi- 



Sop 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sou 



SOPATERj a Bercean Christian, s. of Pyrrhus, 
who accompanied St. Paul through Macedonia as 
far as Asia, on his way to Jerusalem (Ac. 20. 4 ). The 
name is another form of Sosipater, and the father 
may be mentioned for distinction. 

SOPE. See Soap. 

SOPHERETH, ancestor of a family among 
" Solomon's servants " (Ne. 7- 57 ), called " Hasso- 
phereth" in Ez. 2. 55 , "Assaphioth" in 1 Es. 5. 33 RV. 

SORCERY. See Divination. 

SOREK, VALLEY OF. Here was the home of 
Delilah, the temptress and undoer of Samson (]g. 
16. 4 ). OEJ. notes a place called " Capharsorec," 
near to the town of " Saraa," i.e. Zorah, Samson's 
native place. It is represented by the mod. vill. 
Khirbet Sunk. It stands to the N. of Wddy es- 
Sardr, about a mile and a half to the W. of Zorah 
(Sar'ah). We may therefore ident. the valley of 
Sorek with Wddy es-Sardr. 

SOSIPATER, if he be not ident. with Sopater, is 



named only in Rm. 16. 2 



" kinsman " of St. 



Paul (i.e. poss. a Benjamite), who joins in salutations 
to the Roman Christians. 

SOSTHENES. (1) Ruler of the synagogue in 
Corinth (Ac. 18. 17 ). The conversion of Crispus, 
who held the same office, is recorded in v. 8. S. ap- 
parently succeeded him, and in virtue of his position 
took the lead in complaining to the Roman governor 
against St. Paul. Gallio's contemptuous dismissal 
of the case as dealing with Jewish trifles — " words 
and names and your own law book " — was the signal 
for an outbreak in which some old scores would be 
paid off. A prosperous Jew would not be very 
popular among the Greeks. (2) St. Paul's associate 
and possibly amanuensis in the writing of 1 Cor. 
(i. 1 ). He may have been a native of Corinth. This 
wd. explain his part in an epistle to the Christians 
there. But there is no reason to suppose that he is 
identical with (1). 

SOTAI, ancestor of a family of " Solomon's 
servants " (Ez. 2. 55 ; Ne. J. bl ). 

SOUL AND SPIRIT. Although the Heb. 
terms of wh. these words are the tr., nephesh and 
ruah, occur frequently in the OT., the distinction 
does not appear to be so clearly drawn as in the NT., 
in wh. the terms ^v\rf and TrveiJ/xa stand opposed 
to each other. We shall begin our study by con- 
sidering the usage in the NT. These two terms 
occur along with Viofxa in 1 Th. 5. 23 , "And may your 
spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without 
blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
Some, like Professor Jowett in his commentary on 
this epistle, declare that the apostle had no distinct 
notions in regard to these terms. " He (Paul) is not 
writing a treatise on the soul, but pouring forth, fm. 
the fulness of his heart, a prayer for his converts." 
Did this passage stand alone, a good deal cd. be said 
for Dr. Jowett's view. When, however, we find St. 



Paul making the distinction between the first and 
second Adam turn on the difference between " a 
living soul " and " a quickening spirit " ; when 
further we find (He. 4. 12 ) a writer of the Pauline 
school say of the Word of God, it is " living and 
active . . . piercing to the dividing of soul and 
spirit " (RV.), it seems difficult to maintain that the 
distinction was merely a rhetorical amplification. 

Assuming, then, that there is a distinction between 
these terms, it is necessary that we endeavour to dis- 
cover what it is. The first step in such an investiga- 
tion must be the careful study of the passages in wh. 
the terms occur and the various senses in wh. they 
are used. To take spirit (Gr. pneuma, Heb. ruah), 
we find it used for " wind." " The wind bloweth 
where it listeth,and thou hearest the sound thereof" 
(Jn. 3. 8 ) ; so it is used in the LXX, e.g. Jb. I. 19 . 
Again it is used for the " breath," hence yielding up 
the breath — " giving up the ghost " as the equiva- 
lent of death (Mw. 27. 50 ) ; so Js. 2. 26 . These two, 
breeze and breath, it may be remarked, were mean- 
ings in classic Greek (Plato, Phcedr. 229 ; Thuc. 
ii. 49). At the opposite pole fm. this is our Lord's 
declaration, " God is a Spirit " ; and connected 
with this is the designation of the Third Person 
in the Trinity, " the Holy Spirit " (to pneuma to 
hagion), as Eph. 4. 30 , " Grieve not the Holy Spirit." 
Angels are declared to be " spirits." " Are they" 
not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minis- 
ter ? " (He. i. 14 ). There are also " unclean spirits " 
(pneumata akatharta). In regard to the apostles we 
are told that our Lord " gave them power against 
' unclean spirits ' " (Mw. io. 1 ). It is used also for 
a portion of man's nature ; as in the conclusion of 
our Lord's statement as to the spirituality of God, 
" They that worship Him must worship Him in 
spirit and in truth " (Jn. 4- 24 ). We find this also 
in the Epp. ; thus 1 Cor. 2. 11 , " For what man 
knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man 
wh. is in him ? " Popular opinion held that though 
" spirits " might be visible they were not tangible ; 
hence our Lord, when the apostles doubted after His 
resurrection, says, " Handle Me and see, for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have " (Lk. 
24. 39 ). There are also some cognate uses of the 
word wh. have to be considered ; " the spirit of 
bondage " (pneuma douleias, Rm. 8. 15 ) ; here it 
means the disposition, as also in a passage in the TR. 
found in the Bezan Codex, "Ye know not what 
manner of spirit ye are of " (Lk. 9- 55 ). Further, 
when a man is specially under the influence of the 
Divine Spirit ; as Mw. 22. 43 , " David in the Spirit 
calleth Him Lord." 

It is necessary to consider the functions of spirit 
not only positively, but negatively, that is, in the 
light of the faculties and capacities of human nature 
with wh. it is contrasted. The first is " Soul." 
The passages quoted already (1 Cor. 15. 45 ; He. 

IK 



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Sou 



4.. 12 ) sufficiently prove that there is a distinction. 
The distinction is carried out in the derivative ad- 
jectives ; thus the " spiritual (pneumatic) man " is 
contrasted with the " natural (psychic) man " 



Trinity ever called the " Holy Soul." We have 
seen that " spirit " is distinguished fm. " soul " ; 
in one aspect they are united — the immortal part 
is called by both names; thus He. 12. 23 speaks of 



(1 Cor. 2. 



l ) ; in fact the " psychic " or soulish the glorified believers as " the spirits of just men 



man is defined as one that " has not the spirit " 
(Ju. 19 ). The spirit is contrasted with Flesh (sarx), 
as " The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak " 
(Mw. 26. 41 ) ; believers " walk not after the flesh 
but after the Spirit." By a comparison of pas- 
it will be seen that there is a connection 



made perfect," and in Rv. 6. 9 the " souls " of those 
" that were slain for the Word of God." " Soul " 
(psyche) and " natural " = " soulish " (psychic), are 
often contrasted with " spirit " and " spiritual," 
and the latter are also contrasted with " flesh " 
(sarx) and " fleshly " (sarkikos, sarkincs) ; we may 
between ^Xl an< ^ ^pS wn - wm be considered therefore regard them as in some degree identical, 
below. Some, dwelling on the distinction between It may be noted that while ^pvyyi has not generally 
" reason " (nous) and " understanding " (dianoia), a bad connotation, crdp£ usually has ; both the ad- 
have been inclined to identify the spirit with the jectives are associated, if not with moral evil, yet 
first ; but it is expressly distinguished fm. the nous, with moral weakness, wh. gravitates towards it ; 
" My spirit prayeth, but my understanding (nous) is thus in Js. 3. 15 we find the " wisdom " that results in 
unfruitful " (1 Cor. 14. 14 ). 



At the same time the usage of St. Paul, to whom this 
word is almost restricted, varies ; nous is sometimes con- 
trasted with the "flesh" (sarx), as in Rm. j. 25 , " So then 
with the mind (nous) I myself serve the law of God, but 
with the flesh the law of sin"; so conversion is "the 
renewing of the 'mind' (nous)" (Rm. 12. 2 ) ; yet again the 
"mind" may be "reprobate" (Rm. i. 28 ), the Gentiles 
walk "in the vanity of their 'mind' (nous)" (Eph. 4. 17 ) 
It is a faculty wh 
the flesh. 



strife is characterised as " earthly, sensual (rpyx^rj), 
devilish " ; again we are told that " the natural 
(xpvxi'Kos) man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God . . . neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned " (1 Cor. 2. 14 ). 
Paul in 1 Cor. 15. 44 ' 46 lays stress on the superiority 
of the resurrection body over that wh. is laid in the 
may be the instrument of the spirit c'r of grave, since the latter is only a " ' natural ' (ipv)(u<6v) 

body." So too of sarkikos, " carnal " ; the apostle 

In this connection we ought to consider resem- Paul says, " I am carnal, sold under sin " (Rm. 7. 14 ) ; 

blances as well as contrasts. The most important again he says, " The weapons of our warfare are not 

of these is Heart (kardia) ; it has been borrowed carnal, but mighty " (2 Cor. io. 4 ) : however, sarx 

fm. OT. through the LXX. It is identified by by itself, unless it refers to the physical frame, has 

thus he speaks of " circum- always an evil association ; as " In me, that is in my 

flesh, dwelleth no good thing " (Rm. 7. 18 ) ; " The 
carnal mind (to phronema tes sarkos, " the mind of 
the flesh ") is enmity against God " (Rm. 8. 7 ). In 
the preceding verse the position is yet stronger: "To 
be carnally minded (i.e. to have the life purpose wh. 
is associated with the flesh) is death " (8. 6 ). The 
with it as completing the usage in regard to psyche is different in the Gospels 



Paul with " spirit " ; thus ne speaks ot " circum 

cision of the ' heart,' in the ' spirit ' " (Rm. 2. 29 ). 

Many of the functions ascribed to the " spirit " are 

also ascribed to the " heart," as cp. 2 Cor. I. 22 with 

Rm. 8. 16 ; both are the sphere of the Divine Spirit's 

influence : so too in regard to worship, cp. Mw. 

15. 9 with Jn. 4. 23 ' 24 . Both are contrasted with 

" soul," and regarded 

inner nature (cp. Ac. 4-. 32 with Lk. i. 46 « 47 ). It may and the Acts fm. what it is in the Epp. It means 

be observed that " heart " in the Scriptural sense of frequently " life." " They are dead which sought 

the word has nothing to do with the affection ; only the child's life " (^v\r], Mw. 2. 20 ). " Is not the life 

in relation to God are " heart " and " love " as- (soul) more than meat " (6. 25 ). " The Son of Man 



sociated (Mw. 22. 37 ; Mk. 12. 30 ; Lk. io. 27 ) in came . . 
quotation fm. Dt. 6. 5 . It is the seat of reasoning many." 
(Lk. 9. 46 - 47 ; Mk. 2. 8 ), of meditation (Lk. 21. 14 ). Rm. 16. 4 



. to give His life (soul) a ransom for 

This sense also occurs in the Epistles, as 

Even in the Gospels we find instances of 



This practical identification of " heart " and the distinction, as in the Magnificat, " My soul doth 

" spirit " widens our knowledge of the Scriptural magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in 

notion of the latter. The spirit, then, is the Divine God my Saviour" (Lk. I. 46 ). There is a use of 

in man ; when man is under Divine inspiration he is " soul " as " person " nearly peculiar to Acts, as 

" in the Spirit " ; wd. he approach God aright he " three thousand souls " (2. 41 ) ; " threescore and 

must do so " in the Spirit " ; it is the faculty of fifteen ' souls ' " (7. 14 ), &c. : it occurs also in 1 P. 

faith, it is that by wh. we can be the " children of 3. 20 , " few, that is eight persons." Akin to this is 

God." It is thus the highest part of human nature, Rv. 18. 13 , " souls of men." 

that wh. makes us kin to the angels and to God We find, then, that " soul " and 



Himself. 



spirit are two 
distinct portions of our nature, not different aspects 



Soul. — This may be taken as a portion of human of one and the same. On the other hand, there does 
nature inferior to the " spirit " ; God is never not seem to be any evidence in favour of Pfleiderer's 
called a Soul, nor is the Third Person in the Holy contention that Paul's doctrine was that the Mes- 

776 



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Sou 



sianic pnenma was the share of man in the essence of If this is a true exhibition of the doctrine of the 

Christ's life, a donum super additum. Against this is apostles, then we shd. expect to find it in the 

the peculiarly personal function ascribed to the writings of the earliest of the Fathers. Though 

" spirit." " What man knoweth the things of a there is nothing bearing on this to be found in 

man save the spirit of man wh. is in him ? " (i Cor. the Apostolic Fathers, fm. the nature and purpose 

2. 11 ) ; here " spirit " performs the function of self- of whose writings it was not to be expected, yet in 

consciousness. If we gather up what has emerged Justin Martyr we find it distinctly enunciated. In 

in our study we find that the " spirit " is that part of the fragment of his treatise on the Resurrection we 

man wh. is akin to God, who is " the Father of our have this statement : " The body is the dwelling of 

* spirits ' " (He. 12. 9 ). If we assume the identity the soul, the soul the dwelling of the spirit." We 

of " heart " and " spirit " we find that faith is one find a similar statement in his dialogue with Try- 



pho ; he makes Trypho say (Dial. 6), " As the body 
without the soul is dead, so is the soul without the 
quickening spirit (^wtikov 7rv€vpx)," proving that 
Justin thought this distinction to be one recognised 
by Jews as well as Christians. Similarly Irenaeus 
{contra Hcer. V. 6. 1 ), " The soul and the spirit are 



of its functions — " With the heart man believeth " 
(Rm. io. 10 ) : " conscience " also ; thus in I Jn. 
3. 20 ' 21 , the alternatives are presented, " If our 
heart condemn us ... if our heart condemn us 
not." On the other hand, everything connected, 
not only with the bodily senses, but also with the 

discursive intellect, is summed up in the soul. It is certainly a part of the man, certainly not the man ; 
more than merely the vital principle of the body, for the perfect man consists in the commingling and 
In the ecstatic speaking with tongues under the the union of the soul receiving the Spirit of the 
influence of the Spirit, in wh. the human spirit was Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature wh. 
active, there was need for the interpretation of the was moulded after the image of God " (Roberts's 
discursive intellect. translation). Many of the Gnostic heresies as- 

We must, however, approach this subject fm. sume this trichotomy. The Apollinarian heresy cd. 
another side — the phenomena of conversion or never have arisen had this doctrine been generally 
Regeneration. The state of man before the held. Apollinaris maintained that the unity in the 
spiritual change takes place in him is said to be one person of Christ consisted in the part that the 
of death — he is dead in trespasses and sins. This human spirit occupied in the human economy being 
does not imply any want of intellectual ability ; the supplied by the Second Person in the Trinity ; a 
wise of this world and their cunning craftiness are view that was rejected by the Church because it 
contrasted with those who possess " the simplicity made the human nature of our Lord incomplete, 
that is in Christ." This death affects only the It wd. seem that the doctrine of a trichotomy was 
spirit, that part of man's nature by wh. he can have abandoned to deprive Apollinarianism of a harbour, 
intercourse with God, by wh. he can hold the rela- We must, then, assume that it was part of the 
tion of sonship to Him. To say that the " spirit " 
is dead does not mean that it is non-existent : a 
corpse is a dead body, but it exists, it possesses weight, 
it occupies space ; only it does not live, it is no 
longer an organism, the instrument and expression itself ; only it never reached the clearness of de- 
of a vital process. The spirit exists, but not as the finition in the OT. wh. it attained in the NT. 
organ and instrument of the Divine Spirit ; it is As was natural, the human spirit was quickened by 
dead. But this dead spirit is quickened to new life the coming of Christ in a way it had never been 
by the Spirit wh. Christ hath given us. By the before. His influence preceded Him, as the dawn 
spirit that is in us being again made alive we become before the sunrise ; so men were quickened into new- 
once more " sons of God." At his creation man ness of life, but not as they were when He had come 

in the flesh. We find ruah (spirit), nephesh (soul), 
bdsdr (flesh), all used in similar senses to the Greek 
pneuma, psyche, and sarx ; and passing through 
nearly the same variations of meaning. Thus 
ruah means "wind," asinPs. I. 4 , "Like chaff wh. the 
wind {ruah) driveth" ; so Ex. io. 13 ; 1 K. I9. n ,&c. : 
also " breath " as Jb. 17. 1 , " My breath {ruah) is 
corrupt " ; so Ps. 146. 4 ; Ec. 3. 19 : the disposition, 
" an haughty spirit " (Pr. 16. 18 ), " a contrite 



primitive system of doctrine wh. was laid aside for 
controversial reasons. 

As the language of this trichotomy was borrowed 
fm. the OT., so to some extent was the doctrine 



had this spirit, he had the image of God ; but by 
the Fall the Divine image was lost, man became 
spiritually dead. Like some aborted organ this dead 
spirit was conveyed down the generations. It was, 
however, only dead Godward ; towards the soul 
and the body it continued to fulfil its legitimate 
functions. When God created the human body fm. 
the dust of the ground, He breathed into the nos- 
trils the breath of life, infused into the organism 
something fm. His Divine Nature — Peter says we 



spirit " (Ps. 34. 18 ), &c. Although the doctrine of 



" partakers of Divine Nature " (2 P. I. 4 ), — and the Trinity is not formally taught in the OT. the 
there was evoked the soul to be the nexus uniting language used frequently suits the Christian view of 
the Divine and the material, the spirit and the body, the function of the Third Person, as in Gn. I. 2 , 

777 2B2 



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Spa 



" The Spirit of God moved (was brooding, RVm.) 
upon the face of the waters"; and 2 Ch. 15. 1 , 
" The Spirit of God came upon Azariah," &c. 
There are many references to the human spirit, as 
Jb. 32. 8 , " There is a spirit in man " ; Nu. 16. 22 , 
" The God of the spirits of all flesh." The uses of 
nephesh coincide in like manner pretty nearly with 
those of psyche. As to bdsdr, the evil connotation 
sarx has in the Pauline writings does not seem to 
attach to its Heb. equivalent. As we saw that 
kardia was nearly parallel in meaning to pneuma, so 
'is leb or lebab, " heart," to ruah ; it is with the 
" heart " that man is related to God ; " Trust in the 
Lord with all thine heart " (Pr. 3„ 5 ). There is a 
passage wh. relates leb, " heart," to nephesh, " soul," 
" The heart knoweth its own bitterness (the bitter- 
ness of its soul) " (Pr. 14. 10 ), as if the nephesh were, 
to use Justin's words, " the dwelling " of the ruah. 

While necessarily the OT. was the principal 
source of the NT. trichotomy, there are other 
traces of this doctrine wh. seem to carry it farther 
back in history. The Egyptians' sepulture arrange- 
ments imply a certain trichotomy. There was the 
" Ba," wh. on death flew back to the gods, and the 
" Ka," wh. was more nearly associated with the 
body. It was for the " Ka " that the body was 
embalmed, and that feasts were left in the tombs. 
Plato, who professed to be much influenced by 
Egyptian thought, as one may see fm. the frequency 
with wh. he refers in his illustrative myths to 
Egypt as their place of origin, had a trichotomy, but 
one scarcely parallel with that wh. we are here con- 
sidering. In Philo, Josephus, and the Apocryphal 
writings are evidences that a trichotomy resembling 
that of Paul was in common thought. The Neo- 
Platonist movement developed it further ; this, 
however, might be in consequence, to some extent 
at least, of Christian influences. The philosophy of 
the Stoics took it up also, till at length Marcus 
Aurelius states it almost in terms. It is interesting 
to note the close connection the Stoic school had 
with Cilicia, Paul's native province ; Zeno, its 
founder, was born in Cyprus, wh. is off the coast of 
Cilicia ; Chrysippus, its second founder, was born in 
Soli ; several of the presidents of the school were 
Tarsians. St. Paul might have learned the terms 
to wh. he gave their Christian connotation in the 
school at Tarsus. 

Were this the place for a dissertation on psycho- 
logy, the Pauline trichotomy might be defended as 
psychologically true. Recent investigations on the 
subliminal consciousness appear to prove that there 
are powers in our nature performing intellectual 
operations beyond the ken of the conscious " Ego." 
If the pneuma represents the self-conscious " Ego," 
then the " subliminal consciousness " may represent 
the psyche, " the soul." 

Lit. : Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology ; Beck, 



Biblical Psychology ; Laidlaw, Bible Doctrine of 
Man ; Dickson, St. Paul's Use of the Terms Flesh 
and Spirit ; Pfleiderer, Paulinism, vol. i. 

SOUTH. See Negeb. 

SOWER, SOWING. See Agriculture. 

SPAIN appears in 1 M. 8. 3 as the scene of Roman 
victories, and a land rich in gold and silver. It is 
described as " very far " from the Romans. The 
apostle Paul cherished the hope of being able to 
visit it after he should have seen Rome (Rm. I5. 24, 28 ). 
The country known then as Spania (Lat. Hispanid) 
corresponded generally to mod. Spain. The Greeks 
called it Hesperia, or Iberia, from the river Iber 
(the Ebro). The Phoenicians seem to have been 
the first to discover the riches of the country, and to 
have had colonies there in antiquity, probably to 
work the veins of precious metal found especially in 
the uplands between the rivers Baetis and Anas. 
Under the leadership of Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, and 
Hannibal in succession, the Carthaginians subdued 
the country (b.c. 236-219). Fm. S. Hannibal set 
out on his memorable invasion of Italy. With the 
defeat of Carthage S. fell to the Romans, but the 
conquest was not completed till the reign of 
Augustus. It was valuable on account of its agri- 
cultural and mineral wealth. The inhabitants soon 
fell into Roman ways, and adopted imperial senti- 
ments. There is no evidence that St. Paul was 
ever able to gratify his wish. 

SPAN (Heb. zereth), the distance between the 
point of the thumb and the point of the little finger 
when the hand is stretched out, about nine inches 
{see Weights and Measures). 




Sparrow 

SPARROW (Heb. tzippor, Gr. strouthion). The 
Heb. really means " a small bird," and the name is 
derived fm. the chirping ; hence in the EV. it is 
usually rendered " bird " (Gn. 7. 14 ; Lv. 14. 4 ), and 
several times "fowl" (Dt. 4. 17 ; Ps. 148. 10 ). 
Though the trapping of birds for food is common 

78 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Spe 



all over the E. the S. is not easily caught, so much so 
that the Arabs have proverbs of its wariness. The 
only cases in wh. tzippor is rendered S. in the EV. 
are Ps. 84. 3 and 102. 7 , the one passage referring to 
its habit of nesting beside human dwellings, and the 
other to its gregariousness, and consequently the 
specially lonely appearance that one " alone upon 
the housetop " wd. present. In the NT. our Lord 
refers to sparrows as creatures of least value, three 
being sold for a farthing, and five for two farthings. 
The true sparrow is common in Pal., although in 
some districts the crested lark is fully commoner ; 
probably the distinction was not noted. 

SPEAR, SPEARMAN (Heb. hanith,romah, kldon, 
Gr. longche). The spear was a weapon early evolved ; 
it combined to some extent the advantages, as an 
offensive arm, of the sword and the dart. It essen- 
tially consisted of a long rod or staff with a sharpened 
head ; at first the head was probably merely shar- 
pened, then its piercing power was increased by 
arming the head with flint. This, however, ere 
very long gave place to metal, first bronze, then 
iron. It is difficult to assign distinct meanings to 
the different Heb. words given above. It wd., how- 
ever, seem that hanlth was the regular military 
spear. It was Saul's favourite weapon ; it was stuck 
in the ground beside his bolster during the night (1 
S. 26. 1 ) whenin the camp ; it leant on the wall beside 
him at feasts when it was not in his hands (1 S. 
18. 10 , 20. 33 ) in his own house; when last seen, 
wounded in the battle of Gilboa, he was leaning 
on his spear (2 S. I. 6 ). That Saul hurled it at David 
is no evidence against it being a spear, as the 
Homeric warriors always used the spear as a missile 
in the first encounter (//. vii. 244, 249). If we may 
deduce the appearance of the hanlth fm. the S. of 
the Egyptian and Assyrian warriors, it does not 
seem to have been much if at all longer than the 
height of a man (Layard, Mon. of Nin., plate 69 ; 
Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, i. fig. 26). The 
Assyrian S. must have been very strong, as a warrior 
is seen dislodging stones with it (Layard, Mon. of 
Nin., plate 66). The romah was probably a longer 
and slighter weapon, possibly not unlike the Arab S., 
wh. bears the same name, rumh ; it is about 14 or 
15 feet in length. Against this is the fact that Joel 
calls upon the Jews to " beat their pruning-hooks 
into spears," a statement that wd. indicate a shorter 
weapon unless it was merely the spearhead that was 
to be supplied fm. the " pruning hook." It is to be 
noted that in the contrasted passage in Is. 2. 4 and 
Micah 4« 3 , the word for S. is hanlth. This form of 
S. seems to have been the common weapon, the 
want of wh. was evidence of utter disarmament. 
When Rehoboam placed magazines of arms in 
the cities of Judah this is the weapon wh., along 
with shields, is supplied. It is usually thought 
that kid on means a " dart," but there is nothing 

7 



in the use of the word to fix this. It seems 
difficult to understand how Goliath cd. have a 
" javelin of bronze " between his shoulders. A 
good deal can be said for the suggestion of Thenius 
that we shd. read magen, " shield," in this passage, 
in agreement with LXX and the Tg. Jn. This sug- 
gestion is all the more plausible that in the Samari- 
tan script (see Writing) wh. preceded the square 
character, and was therefore probably that in wh. 
the MS. was written fm. wh. the LXX translation 
was made, m and k are very like, g and d not 
very unlike, and with the final letters alike kid on 
mt. easily emerge. It cd., besides, scarcely have 
been a short weapon like a " javelin " with wh. 
Joshua signalled to the. men in ambush behind Ai 
(Jo. 8. 18 ). In the NT. only in regard to the weapon 
with wh. the soldier pierced our Lord's side does 
the word occur ; it is the cavalry lance in all 




Mounted Spearman of Sargon's Time 

likelihood that is there meant. The " sarissa," a 
spear of 16 feet long with wh. the Macedonian 
phalanx was armed changed the character of war- 
fare ; it met the charge of cavalry with a hedge of 
pikes. The Roman legionary tactics were freer, and 
superseded the phalanx ; still the idea of the hedge 
of spears maintained its place. Singularly, both the 
cases in wh. spearmen occurs — one in the OT. and 
the other in the NT. — are mistranslations. In Ps. 
68. 30 , instead of " the company of spearmen " we 
ought to read " the wild beast of the reeds," and the 
" two hundred spearmen " of Ac. 23> 23 really ought 
to be " slingers." 

SPECKLED BIRD (Heb. ha'ayit tzJbii'a, Jr. 
12. 9 ). As the MT. stands there is very consider- 
able difficulty in interpreting these words. The 
rendering of the Heb. is grammatically doubtful ; 
it is not certain whether the first syllable is to be 
regarded as the " article," as in the AV., or. as the 
" interrogative," as in the RV. and Vlg. Then the 
word rendered " bird " means " ravenous bird," 
like an eagle or a vulture ; on the other hand 
7Q 



Spe 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Spi 



tzdbu'a means not so naturally " speckled " as 
" dyed," though it does mean this ; it also, however, 
means " taloned," as in AVm., fm. a root meaning 
" to seize," " to grasp." The LXX (B), however, 
gives a totally different interpretation, " Is not my 
heritage to me a hyaena's cave." The LXX (A) 
instead of " hyaena " reads " robbers." An Arb. 
root, ghat, means " to dig," whence ghait, " a de- 
pression in the ground " ; fm. this it seems possible 
that " den " may be the meaning here. The word 
trd. " speckled " is rendered " hyaena " by Gesenius. 
The whole passage wd. be read, " My heritage is the 
lair of a hyaena, the lair is round about upon her. 
Come gather together every beast of the field that 
they devour her." At the same time something 
may be said for the RV. ; only there seems to be an 
incongruity in all the beasts of the field being as- 
sembled to devour a speckled vulture, wh. does not 
apply to their being assembled "to devour what a 
" hyaena " or " robbers " had collected. 

SPELT. See Fitches. 

SPICE, SPICES. Several Heb. words are so trd. 
(i) Basam (SS. 5. 1 , RVm. " balsam "), bosem, besem, 
pi. besdmlm. According to Ex. 30. 23 this was a 
generic name covering myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, 
and cassia. The Oriental love of pungent odours 
brought these into general use, and made them im- 
portant articles of commerce (Ek. 2jP). They 
formed ingredients in the holy anointing oil. They 
were esteemed as royal gifts (1 K. io. 2, 25 , &c). 
They were part of the stores guarded in the cham- 
bers of the house of the Lord (1 Ch. o,. 29 , &c), and 
they were reckoned among the treasures of the 
wealthy (2 Ch. 32. 27 ). Spices were employed in the 
purification of women (Est. 2. 12 ), and in preparing 
the dead for burial (2 Ch. 16. 14 ; EV. " sweet 
odours," Heb. " spices "). (2) Neko'th occurs in 
two passages, Gn. 37- 25 , 43. 11 . In the former RVm. 
suggests " gum tragacanth or storax." It may have 
been only a general name for fragrant substances. 
(3) Sammim. This also is a generic term, under 
wh. are included galbanum, onycha, and stacte. The 
Gr. aromata (Mk. 16. 1 , &c.) and amomon (Rv. 18. 13 , 
AV. " odours ") both seem to denote aromatic 
materials generally. 

SPIDER (Heb. c akkZblsh, Jb. 8. 14 ; Is. 5c.. 5 ' 6 ; 
semamith, Pr. 30. 28 ). There seems no reasonable 
doubt that the former of these words in the two 
passages in wh. it occurs means S. in our sense of the 
term, as there is reference to the " web " and to its 
frailty. All the versions agree with this. There 
is more difficulty about the second. The passage 
does not suggest a spider " taking hold with her 
hands." This is not the action of a S., nor do its 
legs resemble hands. All the versions agree in re- 
garding the creature intended here to be a species 
of " lizard " ; so the RV. They are numerous in 
Palestine. 



SPIKENARD (Heb. nerd, SS. I. 12 , &c.) is an oil 
with a pleasant perfume obtained from the " spike " 
of a plant, Nardostachys Jatamansi, a native of 




Spikenard 

India. The Arabs call it Sunbul Hindi, " Indian 
spike." The nardos pistike of Mk. 14. 3 ; Jn. 12. 3 , 
prob. means " liquid nard." The higher qualities 
were of great value. The " spikenard " used in 
anointing the Saviour's feet would cost about .£12. 

SPINDLE. See Spinning. 

SPINNING. Wool, fibre or flax (see Linen), 
camel's hair, goat's hair, silk, and cotton were all 
used by the ancients in producing woven fabrics c 




Spindles 



The thread or yarn was made by the use of distaff 
or spindle. The former was a stick, to the top of 
wh. the wool or fibre, properly prepared by scouring 
and carding, was attached. It was held under the 
left arm. The stuff was drawn out and twisted 



*Rn 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Spi 



with the right hand, and rolled on a ball, which 
revolved with the twisting of the yarn. The 
spindle prob. resembled that still in common use in 
the East. A staff is passed through the centre of a 
circular board, and the material is attached to a 
hook on the end. The yarn is twisted by revolving 
the spindle, wh. is steadied by the circular disc. 
Among the Hebrews, as among the mod. Arabs, this 
work was done by the women (Ex. 3 5 . 25f ■ ; Pr . 3 1 , 19 ) . 
" One that holds the spindle " (so we shd. prob. 
render mabazlq bappelek, not one " that leaneth on 
a staff," AV. in 2 S. 3- 29 ), is an effeminate person, a 
great contrast with the warrior Joab. 

SPIRIT. See Soul and Spirit. 

SPIRIT, THE HOLY ; PARACLETE. The 
Holy Spirit in Christian Theology is the third 
person in the Unity of the Godhead, and the 
doctrine of the Spirit and His work is an outcome 
of the Divine revelation of God to men, which grew 
from more to more, till in the teaching of Christ 
and His apostles it attained completeness. The 
growth of the conception can be traced through 
the progress of God's revelation of Himself to men, 
and we shall seek to sketch in brief outline the 
varied stages in the formation of this idea, as we 
find them in the Scriptures. 
I. The Spirit in the OT. 

1. Term and uses. 

2. Work ascribed to Spirit. 

3. Development of conception in OT. 
II. The Spirit in the Apocrypha. 

III. The Spirit in the NT. 

1. Terms. 

2. Work ascribed to Spirit. 

3. Teaching regarding the Spirit. 

(a) In the teaching of Jesus. 

(b) In the teaching of St. Paul. 
I. In the Old Testament. 1 . Term and uses. — 

The word ruab, translated " spirit," comes from 
a root " to breathe," " to blow," and also means 
" wind," " breath." As the breath of man is a 
sign of life, the term came to mean " breath of 



life" or generally "life" (Gn. 45 ^ ; Jb. 



A further modification took place, and " spirit " 
was applied to the mental life of man — the emo- 
tional life (Gn. 41. 8 ; Nu. 5. 14 , or the life of will or 
thought (Jb. 15. 13 , 32. 8 ), and then the term was used 
of the spiritual life of man as distinct from the 
flesh. Lastly the term was carried over from the 
human to the Divine sphere, and the Spirit of God 
is the vital energy of the Divine Nature which is 
represented as working in the world and among 
men. The combination Holy Spirit does not 
belong to the OT., and only occurs twice, viz. 
Is. 63. 10 ' 11 ; Ps. 51. 11 . 

2. Work of the Sprit. — {a) The Spirit, the vital 
energy of the Divine Nature, is represented as oper- 
ative in creation. The Spirit broods (Gn. I. 2 ) on 



the primaeval chaos and brings forth the order of 
the universe. Thus in the OT. He is the " Giver 
of life." The breath or Spirit of God vitalises 
what the Word creates, and also preserves the life 
of the world and the creatures in it (Ps. 33. 6 , 104. 30 ). 

(b) Again the Spirit is represented as coming 
upon men and endowing them with special gifts. 
Intellectual life generally is the gift of the Spirit. 
The breath of God in man made him a " living 
soul " (Gn. 2. 7 ), thus marking him off from the 
animal creation. But not only personal life gene- 
rally but all special endowments of body or mind 
are referred to the Spirit's working. Thus the 
prowess of the Judges, Gideon (Jg. 6. 34 ), Samson 
(13. 25 ), &c. ; the mechanical skill of Bezaleel (Ex. 
36. lff -) ; the wisdom of Solomon (1 K. 3. 28 ), are 
effects of the Spirit's work. 

(<:) The most outstanding aspect of the work of 
the Spirit in the OT. is found in connection with 
the inspiration of the prophets {pp. art. Prophet). 
All the varied forms and stages of prophetic in- 
spiration, from the seer and diviner to the great 
ethical prophets, are connected with the Spirit. 
The Spirit, in fact, was supposed to endow men 
for any special service. Thus we have references 
to the anointing of the Messiah with the Divine 
Spirit to enable Him to fulfil His vocation (Is. 
61. m ; 42. 1 ). 

(d) In addition to these special activities of the 
Spirit we find Him represented as bringing to men 
spiritual enlightenment and moral elevation {pp. 
Ne. 9. 20 ; Ps. Si. 11 ; Is. 63. 10 . n ), while the pro- 
phets look forward to the time when these ethical 
operations shall be extended and the Spirit poured 
on all flesh {pp. Jr. 3i. 31ff - ; Jl. 2. 28 ; Ek. 36. 26f -). 

3. Development in OT. ideas. — The Spirit, all 
through the OT., is the expression used for God 
exerting His power, and this came in course of time 
to be personified as the ^w^iz-personal energy of 
God in man. The Spirit came more and more to 
be regarded as the Divine elevating and moralising 
influence in human life. 

II. In the Apocryphal Literature the Holy 
Spirit is seldom alluded to, and there is, at least in 
the Palestinian writers, no approach to the doctrine 
of a personal Spirit. The Alexandrian school, 
however, preserved the idea of the all-pervading 
influence of the Divine Spirit, which is sometimes 
identified with Wisdom. In Philo the Spirit comes 
to all men. It is the pure wisdom of which every 
wise man partakes. In this connection the doctrine 
of the verbal and mechanical inspiration of the 
Scriptures was developed. The prophet is the 
mouthpiece of the Divine Spirit. Little is said of 
the Spirit's work in enlightening the minds of men 
or renewing the moral nature. 

III. In the New Testament. 1. Terms. — In 
the NT. the doctrine of the Spirit has a large place. 

781 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Spi 



Here we find varied names applied, e.g. Holy Spirit, 
Spirit of God, Spirit of Jesus, Spirit of the Father, 
Spirit of the Son. Other terms are applied, corre- 
sponding to the gifts and graces imparted by the 
Spirit to men, e.g. Spirit of truth, Spirit of wisdom, 
of grace, of life, of adoption, while the personal 
name of the Paraclete or the Advocate (AV. Com- 
forter) is applied by Jesus to the Divine Spirit who 
shall carry on His work after His departure (cp. 
Jn. I4. 16ff ;). 

. 2. Work ascribed to Spirit. — In the Synoptic ac- 
count of the life of Jesus a great role is ascribed to 
the agency of the Spirit. Before the Incarnation 
He drew near to men and awakened prophetic ac- 
tivity, which for centuries had slumbered. Zacha- 
rias predicts His coming, Simeon and Anna are 
moved by the Spirit to recognise Him in the 
Temple. The Spirit announces to Mary the birth 
of her Son, and the conception is ascribed to His 
agency {cp. Jesus Christ, Virgin Birth), though 
here the idea of the Spirit is the OT. one of the 
creative energy of God Himself. The life thus 
miraculously begun is sustained by the Spirit. 
Before the commencement of the public ministry 
we find the narrative of the illapse of the Spirit at 
the baptism of John (Jn. I. 33 ). This experience 
is regarded as the anointing of the Messiah for 
His work. Thus we find Jesus claiming that the 
Messianic prophecies that speak of the anointing of 
the Spirit apply to Him (Lk. 4-. 18ff -), and His life is 
now full of the manifested workings of the Spirit 
(Lk. 4. 14 ). It is to this Divine energy that the 
miracles and teaching of Jesus are ascribed (Mw. 
I2. 28 ; Ac. 1.2). 

After the resurrection the Spirit was imparted to 
the apostles (Jn. 20. 22 ), and on the Day of Pentecost 
to the whole Church (Ac. I. 5 - 8 , 2. m ). The rush- 
ing, mighty wind filling the house, and the tongues 
of fire, were the outward signs of the descent of the 
Spirit, which filled the recipients with new en- 
thusiasm and endowed them with special miraculous 
powers, of which the gifts of tongues and prophecy 
were the most outstanding. 

3. Teaching of NT. — (a) In teaching of Jesus. 
The Synoptics have preserved little with regard to 
the Holy Spirit which goes beyond the OT. The 
inspiration of the Scriptures is recognised (Mk. 
12. 36 ; Lk. 24. 44 ). The Holy Spirit is promised to 
the disciples (Mw. io. 20 ), and will be given to all 
who ask the Father for the gift (Lk. n. 13 ). The most 
remarkable statement in the Synoptics is the bap- 
tismal formula (Mw. 28. 19 ). Although many recent 
scholars have denied that these are genuine words 
of Jesus, the statement only completes the teaching 
of the fourth Gospel. It places the Spirit in co- 
ordination with the Father and the Son, and com- 
prehends all three under the Divine name. 

The teaching of the fourth Gospel devotes a 



large place to the work of the Spirit. He is the 
agent in the production of the new birth, working 
silently and mysteriously in the hearts of men (Jn. 
3. 5 ' 8 ). He is the source of spiritual life (Jn. 7- 39 ). 
The chief part of the teaching of Jesus is found in 
the last discourse (Jn. 14.-16.). Another Para- 
clete, the Spirit of truth, is promised (14. 26 ). The 
Paraclete will carry on the work of Christ after His 
departure. He is spoken of as a personal agent dis- 
tinct from Christ and the Father. " The Father 
will give you another Paraclete." "I will send Him 
from the Father." The functions of the Paraclete, 
who shall be present with the disciples (Jn. 14. 17 ), 
are various. He shall bring the teaching of Christ 
to the remembrance of His followers (14. 26 ). He 
shall teach them all truth (16. 13 ). He shall glorify 
Christ by revealing Him to the disciples (16. 14 ). 
His work shall extend to those who know not Christ. 
He shall convince the world of sin, righteousness, 
and judgment (i6. 8ff -). 

(b) These promises were fulfilled after the As- 
cension in the experience of Pentecost, in the sub- 
sequent work of the apostles, and in the life of the 
Church, and we find all the apostolic writers re- 
ferring to the reality and effect of the Spirit's 
presence. In the epistles of St. Paul these refer- 
ences are frequent, and have led to the full de- 
velopment of the doctrine of the Spirit. But we 
must remember that the apostle gives us no direct 
exposition. His allusions are more or less of a 
casual nature, and in order to appreciate them we 
must remember the state of opinion in the Church 
at Paul's time. The early Church regarded itself 
as the product of the Spirit's work, and manifesta- 
tions of the Spirit's activity were found in the 
special and extraordinary powers given to the early 
Christians, such as .the gift of tongues, miracles, 
visions, revelations, and prophecy. The more 
miraculous these gifts were, the more they were 
prized. Accordingly we find Paul writing to the 
highly-strung Church of Corinth on this subject. 
For him the gifts, which he also claims to possess, 
are to be tested by their utility in edifying the body 
of Christ. He finds the chief manifestation of the 
Spirit's work in the ordinary life of Christian men 
and women, not in extraordinary endowments. 
The life of love and faith was for him the supreme 
manifestation of the work of the Spirit. It is the 
" more excellent way " (1 Cor. 12. 31 ). The Spirit 
is before all else the Spirit of sanctification, and its 
fruits are " faith, hope, and love " (1 Cor. 13. 13 ), or 
" love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance " (Gal. 5. 22, 23 ) — 
ethical qualities common to all Christians. In ad- 
dition the Spirit is the Spirit of sonship, teaching 
men to recognise God as their Father, to say "Abba, 
Father" (Rm. 8. 15 ). It is also the work of the Spirit 
to sanctify the body, which is the temple of the 



Spo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sta 



Holy Ghost (i Cor. 3. 16 , 6. 19 ). In discussing the 
extraordinary gifts of the Spirit Paul prefers pro- 
phecy, because of its value in edifying the Church 
(1 Cor. I4. 3ff -). In the later Epistles the Spirit 
becomes the bond of unity and the source of 
common life of the Church, as well as the inspiration 
of the individual Christian. 

With regard to the personality of the Spirit, the 
references of St. Paul naturally involve for us the 
conclusion that the Spirit is a person distinct from 
the Father and the Son. The Spirit is distin- 
guished from God and Christ. The Father sends 
forth the Spirit into the hearts of men (Rm. 5« 5 , 
8. 15 ). The Spirit bears witness with the spirits of 
men (1 Cor. 12. 11 ) and dwells in them (Rm. 8. 9 ). 
Then in the Apostolic benediction (2 Cor. 13. 14 ) 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are placed 
in co-ordination, as also in the passages 1 Cor. I2. 4 ' 6 ; 
Eph. 4. 4 " 6 . This co-ordination, along with the 
work ascribed to the Spirit, seems to imply much 
more than poetical personification. 

Thus in the progress of revelation the Spirit, 
which was at first the name for the Divine energy, 
came to be personified, and to hold a larger place, 
till in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles He is 
regarded as a distinct personal existence, occupying 
a place co-ordinate with the Father and the Son, 
and having a definite work ascribed to Him in the 
process of saving men. The teaching of Christ and 
His greatest apostle led in after times to the 
formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

Lit. : OT. Theologies, Davidson, Schultz ; NT. 
Theologies of Stevens, Weiss, Beyschlag ; Wendt, 
Teaching of Jesus ; Pfleiderer, Paulinism ; Gunkel, 
Die Wirkungen des heiligen Geistes, &c. ; articles 
in HDB. and smaller Dictionary of the Bible, 
&c. . W. F. Boyd. 

SPONGE, a composite animal of the Protozoa 
class. Beneath the enveloping membrane wh. 
forms the living basis of the amcebiform animal- 
cules that make it up is a skeleton, wh. is composed, 
in the case of the S. of commerce, of a mass of inter- 
lacing horny fibre. When the fleshy portion is 
dissolved and removed this fibrous mass has a power 
of drawing up water into it, a power wh. was recog- 
nised in very ancient times and utilised. Pliny 
(Nat. Hist. ix. 45) mentions three different kinds 
of S. They are still largely fished in the Levant. 
During our Lord's crucifixion a sponge was filled 
with vinegar and placed on a stalk of hyssop and held 
to His mouth to allay the fevered thirst (Mw. 2j. i% ; 
Jn. 19. 29 ). 

SPOON. See Incense. 

SPRING. See Fountain. 

STACHYS, a Roman Christian, saluted by St. 
Paul (Rm. 16. 9 ). An old tradition says that St. 
Andrew appointed him Bishop of Byzantium, a 
position which he held for sixteen years. 

78 



STACTE (Heb. natapb, from ndtaph, " to drop ") 
applies to some fragrant gum wh. exudes in drops 
(Ex. 30. 34 ). In Jb. 36. 27 , where alone elsewhere the 
word occurs, it is used of " drops " of water. The 
gum intended cannot be identified with certainty : 
it may have been storax, or myrrh- 

STAFF. See Rod. 

STALL. See Manger. 

STANDARD (Heb. degel, ties). When military 
science advanced so far that the warriors acted in 
masses, there was a need for some point round wh. 
to form and rally, hence the invention of standards. 
These are frequently depicted on the Egyptian 
monuments, as these show troops arranged in 
phalanxes, or marching in regiments. They do 
not occur in the Assyrian bas-reliefs, wh. more 
generally represent the soldiers acting individually. 





Assyrian Standard 



Roman Standard 



The Romans brought this, as everything else con- 
nected with the organisation of armies, to great per- 
fection. N It was generally an eagle (aquila) that was 
the standard of a legion, hence the reference in our 
Lord's eschatological discourse (Mw. 24. 28 ; Lk. 
17. 37 ), "Wheresoever the carcase is there will the 
eagles be gathered together." See Banner, Ensign. 
STAR (Heb. kokab, Gr. aster). In the article on 
Astrology and Astronomy we considered how far 
the stars were grouped together in constellations by 
the ancient Israelites, and how far the laws that 
regulated the appearances of these luminaries had 
been apprehended by them. In connection with 
Astrology and Astrologers we considered some 
of the ideas then prevalent as to the effect the 
heavenly bodies had on the earth, and the fortunes of 
individual persons. In the present article we shall 
consider the stars as phenomena. The brilliance of 
the stars in the nearer East is one of the things that 
very early strike the visitor. This characteristic is 
noted in Scripture. " They that be wise shall 
shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever 
and ever " (Dn. 12. 3 ). The sparkling of the points 
of light, and the impossibility of marking off areas of 
the heavens for enumeration, gave a sense of multi- 
tude that seems specially to have impressed the 



Sta 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sta 



Israelite. This is frequently referred to (Gn. 15. 5 ; 
Dt. 1 . 10 ; Ne. g. 23 , Sec). A very casual inspection of 
the heavens showed the observer that high as the 
moon is above the earth the stars are yet higher. 
A yet more careful observation showed that the sun 
passed between the earth and the stars, therefore 
that they were yet higher than the sun. Hence the 
height of the stars is a point noted (Jb. 22. 12 ; Is. 
14. 13 ; O. 4 ). Purity is naturally suggested by the 
bright light of the stars ; so the strictness of God's 
judgment is shown by the statement, " The stars 
are not pure in His sight " (Jb. 2$. 5 ). Of course 
there are astrological notions, but these are not 
prominent in Scripture. When it is said that " the 
stars in their courses fought against Sisera " (Jg. 
5. 20 ), it may merely mean that the stars affected the 
weather, and that the rain had made the plain of 
Esdraelon mud, in wh. the chariots, the strength of 
Sisera's army, sank. This may not be much truer 
than the astrological interpretation, but at all events 
it is different. In the NT. the phenomena of 
meteors seem most to have struck observers. It is 
one of the signs of the last time that " the stars shall 
fall from heaven " (Mw. 2^. 29 ; Mk. 13. 25 ) ; so too 
in Revelation one of the frequent portents is the fall 
of a star from heaven (Rv. 6. 13 , 8. 10 , 9. 1 ). In Jude 
the wicked are described as " wandering stars " 
(Ju. 13 ). The fact that some stars were brighter than 
others was now striking the Jewish observer, as it 
had long been patent to Babylonian and Egyptian 
watchers of the heavens. In both Old and New 
Testament the relation between the stars and the 
angels is prominent. When the God of Israel is 
called " JHWH (Lord) of Hosts " the reference 
seems to be at once to the " host of the angels " and 
the " starry host." At creation we are told that 
" the morning stars sang together and all the sons 
of God shouted for joy." The same identity we 
find in the poetical book of the NT., the Apocalypse. 
In the beginning of it we are told that " the seven 
stars are the angels of the seven churches " (Rv. 
I. 20 ). Not only are the holy angels so reckoned but 
also those that " kept not their first estate " ; their 
fall is described as the " third part of the stars of 
heaven " being " cast to the earth " by the tail of 
the great red dragon. Our Lord Himself assumes 
the title of " the bright and morning star" (Rv. 
22. 16 ), as the precursor in His first coming of an 
evergrowing, everlasting day. Not impossibly 
there was also a reference to Balaam's prophecy of 
the " Star that shd. come out of Jacob " (Nu. 24. 17 ), 
perhaps also to the star that accompanied His birth. 
The Star of the Wise Men. — After the ac- 
count in Mw. of the birth and genealogy of Jesus we 
are told of the arrival of Wise Men (Magi) from the 
East, and of their demand to see the babe that had 
been born king of the Jews, accompanied by the 
information that they had " seen His star in the 



East and had come to worship Him." These Magi 
certainly were astrologers, but by that fact then also 
astronomers, so this star cd. be no casual meteor. 
In astrology certain quarters of the heavens were 
recognised as being associated with certain nation- 
alities, or even persons. In the quarter of the 
heaven appropriate to Judaea some phenomenon 
occurred wh., according to astrology, portended the 
birth of a monarch whose advent meant much to all 
the world. What the nature of this phenomenon 
was has to be considered. We must remember that 
the word aster did not necessarily mean a single 
star, though generally that was the distinction 
between this word and astron ; the evangelist was 
not describing what he himself had seen, but what 
had been related to him. Abarbanel had declared 
that a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the con- 
stellation Pisces was specially fateful for the Jewish 
people, and that such a conjunction had occurred 
before the birth of Moses ; he anticipated the ap- 
pearance of the Messiah in the latter half of the 
fifteenth century because of a similar conjunction 
in 1463. Kepler calculated that this conjunction 
occurred twice in the year B.C. 7. Dr. Pritchard 
calculated that it had taken place thrice in that 
year ; on 29th May, the 1st October, and on the 5th 
December. It shd. be noted that Lewin and Sir 
Wm. Ramsay on independent data arrive at that 
year as the date of the Advent. If at the first of 
these conjunctions a bright nova appeared in the 
immediate vicinity of the two planets, this wd. give 
emphasis to the fateful conjunction. They mt. 
wait till the second conjunction occurred and then 
start for Judaea. Meantime the nova we have sup- 
posed wd. be diminishing. The Magi mt. arrive at 
Jrs. about the time of the December conjunction ; 
if then the previously diminishing nova flared out 
afresh, a thing that has happened with these bodies, 
and if the constellation in wh. it had appeared was 
to the south at the hour they started for Bethlehem, 
itmt. quitewell seem directly over not only the town 
of Bethlehem, wh. is all that is required by the 
words, but even over the individual inn (khan) in 
wh. the Virgin and her husband had taken shelter. 
All the phenomena seem on the above hypothesis 
to be explained. It is not, however, necessary to 
think of a " new " star ; the " conjunction " wd. be 
sufficient. The " templum " in the skies wh. the 
Magi had determined referred to the child mt. be 
all that is meant by the phrase epano hou en to 
paidion. It does not follow that astrology is true 
because these astrologers came to a right conclusion. 
Other remarkable coincidences have occurred. In 
the year 1577 the astronomer Tycho Brahe, who was 
also an astrologer, observed a comet fm. wh. he de- 
duced that a child wd. shortly be born in Scandi- 
navia who wd. devastate Germany and disappear in 
1632, all wh. was fulfilled in Gustavus Adolphus. 



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All that the correct prediction of the Magi means 
is that God met them on their own terms, and used 
them to emphasise the Incarnation. 

In a book recently published {The Magi : Row 
they recognised Christ 's Star), Col. Mackinlay main- 
tains that the star was merely the morning star, 
wh. was then at the beginning of its eight years' 
cycle. No one who has resided in the East and 
started on journeys a couple of hours before sunrise 
but will agree with all he says about the welcome 
splendour of the morning star. All that must have 
been ordinary to the Magi ; all the cycles of Venus 
must have been familiar to them. He makes no 
attempt to show what made the Magi come to the 
conclusion that this particular cycle of the morning 
star had any reference to Judaea more than to any 
other kingdom ; so far as is shown, according to 
Mackinlay's theory, they mt. have been in the habit 
of appearing in Jrs. every eight years with the de- 
mand to be shown the newly-born king of the Jews. 
It seems to us that Mackinlay has no reason to 
assume, as he does, that Iv rrj dvaroXr) necessarily 
means that it was a star only seen in the eastern por- 
tion of the sky, therefore a planet revolving round 
the sun, and not, as we think it does, to the place 
where they made their observation looked at fm. the 
latitude of Jrs. On this supposition it is difficult to 
put a reasonable meaning on Mw. 2. 9 ; if when they 
left Jrs. to go to Bethlehem they saw the star to the 
E., it is difficult to understand how it cd. seem to go 
before them to Bethlehem, wh. is nearly directly 
S. of Jrs. 

Star Worship was an early form of polytheistic 
worship, and one to wh. the Israelites seem to have 
been peculiarly prone. In the book of Dt. they 
were warned against it (Dt. 4. 19 , 17. 3 ) ; it was one of 
the sins of wh. the ten tribes were guilty, and wh. 
led to their being sent into captivity (2 K. 17. 16 ) ; 
also it formed part of the sin of Manasseh (2 K. 
2 1. 3, 5 ). Jeremiah accuses the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem of " burning incense to all the host of 
heaven " (Jr. 19. 13 ). They probably brought this 
form of polytheism with them from Babylonia. 
Amos accuses his brethren of worshipping Kaiwan 
(Chiun, wh. is Kaiwan with the vowels of Shiqqutz, 
" abomination ") = the planet Saturn, wh. is again 
identified with Succoth-Benoth. Nergal, who 
was worshipped by the men of Cuth, was the planet 
Mars ; Nebo, so frequent a component of Baby- 
lonian names, is the planet Mercury ; and Ishtar, 
who is probably indicated by the title " Queen of 
Heaven " (Jr. 44. 17 ), is the planet Venus. At the 
same time it seems almost certain that the deities 
were originally local, and that the identification with 
certain heavenly bodies was an after development. 

STATER, the word used in AVm. and RVm. to 
represent the coin Peter took fm. the fish's mouth to 
pay the Temple dues for himself and his Master 



(Mw. 17. 27 ). It really was originally a weight, but 
of somewhat varying amount. The coin was first 
issued in gold of the weight of 133 grains, slightly 
heavier than our sovereign. Prof. Ridgeway has 
shown that it was regarded as the value of an ox at 
the date of its issue. The most common coin called 
S. was the silver S., wh. was reckoned as equal to a 
Shekel : this was clearly the case in regard to the 
coin in the fish's mouth. The common shekel was 
nearly half as heavy again as the gold S., being 194 
grains ; thus, in weight of metal, between our florin 
and half-crown; its value consequently wd. be about 
2s. 3d., or 55 cents. The " shekel of the Sanctu- 
ary " (Ex. 30. 13 ) was considerably heavier, about 224 
grains, making the value slightly more than half-a- 
crown or about 64 cents. This was in all proba- 
bility the coin in wh. the Temple dues were paid. 
It was equivalent to the didrachm of Antioch or of 
Tyre. See Money. 

STEALING. See Crimes and Penalties. 

STEEL (Heb. nehushdh, nehosheth). The Heb. 
word wh. S. represents is always translated " brass " 
except in four instances : nehushdh in 2 S. 22. 35 ; 
Ps. 18. 34 ; Jb. 20. 24 ; and nehosheth in Jr. 15. 12 . It 
is difficult to think of bronze by any process of an- 
nealing being made so elastic that " bows " cd. be 
made of it ; but this wd. seem to have been the case. 
If what we mean by " steel " — i.e. iron combined 
with a small portion of carbon — was known at all to 
the Jews, it is indicated by the term harzel mitz- 
tzdphon, "northern iron" (Jr. 15. 12 ). See Metal. 

STEPHANAS, a Corinthian believer who, with 
his household, was baptized by St. Paul himself 
(1 Cor. I. 16 ), and described by the apostle as " the 
first-fruits of Achaia " (16. 15 ). His » coming to 
Ephesus was a cause of gladness to St. Paul. He 
was present when the 1st Epistle to the Corin- 
thians was written (v. 17). 

STEPHEN stands out in the early annals of the 
Church as the first Christian martyr. Probably of 
Hellenistic origin himself, he was one of the seven 
chosen to relieve the apostles, by undertaking the 
work of distributing alms among the Hellenistic 
widows (Ac. 6. lff -). This duty doubtless suggested 
the name of " deacon," wh. is often applied to him 
and to his colleagues. He was the most distin- 
guished of the group, and did not confine himself to 
the service mentioned. He'is described as " full of 
faith and of the Holy Spirit " (v. 5), " full of grace 
and power " (v. 8). He wrought signs and wonders 
among the people, and did the work of an evangelist 
among the Hellenists, the Jews from the provinces 
who were in Jerusalem. In the disputations wh. 
ensued, his skill and ability received signal illus- 
tration ; but his opponents, although worsted in 
argument, were not persuaded. Probably wounded 
pride had something to do with the conspiracy they 
formed against him. If they could not vanquish 



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him in debate, they might at least silence him. 
The heart of their charge against him was, that 
according to his teaching, Jesus of Nazareth would 
destroy the Temple, and change the customs de- 
livered by Moses (v. 14). Unperturbed he ap- 
peared before the council, his calm, strong face 
suggesting that of an angel, and presented his 
defence in the form of a review of the history of 
revelation. In his review, as was natural if he were 
of Hellenist extraction, he uses the LXX. His 
narrative in many points does not coincide with 
that of the OT. This may be due in part to the 
freedom of a spoken utterance, and in part to 
sources of information wh. are now lost. His inter- 
pretation of the history is consistent with perfect 
reverence and respect for Mosaic law, and for the 
Temple. He makes it clear, however, that God 
never intended men to think that He was confined 
to any sacred building (7. 48f - ; cp. 1 K. 8. 27 ; Is. 
66. li: ). Some movement among his hearers at this 
point may have interrupted the development of his 
theme, and the record closes with the stern rebuke 
of vv. 51-53. In their wrath they " gnashed on 
him with their teeth." In no doubt as to the 
fate in store for him, S. " looked up stedfastly into 
heaven," and declared the vision vouchsafed him of 
the Son of Man. This provoked an outburst of 
fury, wh. wreaked itself in stoning him to death. 

This was the signal for the breaking out of the 
first persecution endured by the Christian Church, 
wh. resulted in scattering the preachers of the 
Gospel far fm. Jrs. It is hardly open to doubt that 
the impression made on the young man Saul (v. 58) 
by Stephen's heroic bearing had some influence in 
preparing tie way for his conversion. And in the 
doctrine of the great apostle of the Gentiles there is 
a significant resemblance to that for the teaching of 
wh. he " consented " to the execution of Stephen. 

STEWARD. This word does not, in the OT., 
represent any single Heb. term, but rather is the 
tr. of two periphrases. The earliest of these, ben 
mesheq bethi, lit. " son of the possession of my 
house " (Gn. 15. 2 ), is the description wh. Abraham 
gives to Eliezer of Damascus. The suggestion of 
the phrase is that he was regarded as his master's 
heir. Probably there was a customary law that 
when the sheikh was, like Abraham, childless, then 
one born in the tribe or bought into it who had 
gained the confidence of the sheikh was his acknow- 
ledged successor : much as" in modern commerce, 
the business manager wd., in similar circumstances, 
have the first offer of the business, on the demise of 
the head. The next phrase, hd-lsh 'asher c al baith, 
" the man who is over the house " (Gn. 43. 19 ), is 
used in regard to Joseph's major-domo ; he is dis- 
tinctly merely an upper servant. In the case of 
Arza, who is called " steward of (Elah's) house in 
Tirzah," he is clearly higher than an ordinary ser- 



vant, as he has a house of his own in wh. he can en- 
tertain the king. The Gr. words are two, epitropos 
and oikonomos. The former of these is used in re- 
spect to Chusa, the husband of Joanna (Lk. 8. 3 ), 
and of the overseer of a vineyard (Mw. 20. 8 ). The 
other is much commoner. It is used with deriva- 
tive verb and noun in the parable of the " Unjust 
Steward " (Lk. 16. 1 * 8 ), who seems to occupy the 
place of " factor." The usage in the epistles is not 
different (1 Cor. 4. 1 . 2 ; Tt. I. 7 ; 1 P. 4. 10 ). 

STOCKS. See Crimes and Penalties. 

STOICS, one of the two sects of philosophers 
wh. Paul encountered at Athens (Ac. 17. 18 ). They 
descended fm. Socrates through the Cynics, their 
founder, Zeno, having begun his study of philosophy 
under Crates the Cynic. One peculiarity of this 
school is that the members of it were to so large an 
extent drawn fm. the East. Zeno, the founder, was 
born in Cyprus ; Chrysippus, its second founder, was 
born in Tarsus, as were others of the earlier lights 
of Stoicism. Before the time of Paul the centre of 
Stoicism had moved to the West, and the most im- 
portant Stoics were to be found in Rome. While 
still lectures were continued in the Stoa Poecile, fm. 
wh. the school had got its name, the men that gave 
Stoicism its influence were in Rome, and had been 
for more than a century ; Cato of Utica was a Stoic, 
and now Seneca, one of those who had most influ- 
ence in the imperial circles, was a Stoic also. The 
general characteristic of Stoic views was great moral 
earnestness, and addiction to practical rather than 
speculative activity ; and this was a portion of its 
attraction for the Romans. There were several 
points in wh. Stoicism formed a preparation for 
Christianity. One thing that Stoicism made pro- 
minent, wh. Christianity also assumed, was the 
supreme importance of man as man, consequently 
of character as over against birth or wealth. The 
most famous teacher of this school in the times im- 
mediately succeeding that of Paul was Epictetus, 
a slave, afterwards manumitted. Closely connected 
with this was their doctrine of the essential unity of 
the human race, through a common relationship to 
God. The Stoic view of God, if one disregards the 
materialistic shell in wh. their views were conveyed, 
had much in common with the Christian ; God — or, 
to give the Hellenic name, Zeus — was not outside the 
universe, but pervaded it ; His providence guided 
it. The idea of Virtue living in harmony with 
this God-guided universe is not very different fm. 
doing right by doing what is in accordance with 
the law written in the heart. Not an altogether 
unimportant fact is a singular similarity in nomen- 
clature, though without any real identity of mean- 
ing. When our Lord said to the woman of Samaria, 
" God is a Spirit," these words as recorded in Greek 
by John wd. be accepted as true by the Stoics ; 
they too said " God was pneuma (spirit)," but with 



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them " spirit " meant the primeval fire, sometimes 
an atmospheric current. They maintained that 
this fineuma was the reason (logos) of the universe — a 
statement in perfect harmony with the teaching of 
the prologue of the fourth Gospel, even to the very 
words. At first sight Stoicism is an absolute fatal- 
ism : heimarmene, " fate," fixes everything, arranges 
everything in a course fm. wh. it cannot stray. Yet 
with that strange apparent self-contradiction wh. 
is to be found in all the creeds that are accused 
of fatalism, Stoicism called for the loftiest moral 
activity, and had the strictest views of individual 
responsibility. Stoicism was a Pantheism, but so is 
Christianity, a fact we sometimes forget. Like the 
Christian, the Stoic affirmed that in God we " live 
and move " ; but, also like the Christian, he asserted 
the Fatherhood of God to men as proved by the 
quotation made by Paul fm. Cleanthes and Aratus 
(Ac. 17. 28 ). The resemblance in teaching produced 
resemblance in conduct — so much so that Marcus 
Aurelius feels it necessary to differentiate between 
them, and declare that while the endurance of the 
S. proceeds fm. wisdom, that of the Christian is the 
result of obstinacy. Both systems posited an ideal 
man ; Christianity had, however, the advantage 
that the ideal had become actual in Jesus Christ. 
Both systems declared that the present frame of 
things shd. be burnt up. Stoicism also posited 
total depravity ; the excellent were few — Socrates, 
Antisthenes, Cato of Utica. And the change fm. 
the state of folly to that of wisdom was not ex- 
pected to be gradual, but had many features in 
common with that of Christian conversion. One 
can scarcely fail to note the prevailing Stoical char- 
acter of St. Paul's speech on Areopagus, and corre- 
late this with the fact that so many of the leading 
Stoics were natives of Cilicia, the province in which 
Paul himself had been born ; and that one of the 
two Stoic poets he quotes was Aratus, like himself a 
Tarsian. The leading point of contrast between 
the two as moral systems, irrespective of doctrine, 
was in the disposition wh. each induced ; while 
Christianity demanded love to all, especially to the 
brotherhood, and personal humility, Stoicism ex- 
pected pride in the " Wise Man," who was the 
superior of the gods, freedom fm. all emotion, love 
as well as hate. These resemblances do not indi- 
cate that Christianity borrowed fm. Stoicism, but 
that both had Asiatic elements in them. The 
resemblance between Stoicism and the teaching 
of Ecclesiastes is more apparent than real. The 
Pharisees had not a few points of identity with the 
Stoics, but these did not enter into the essence of 
either system. Josephus' identification of the views 
of the Jewish sect with those of the followers of 
Zeno is due to his effort to make Judaism intelligible 
to his Greek and Roman readers. 

STOMACHER. The Heb. word so trd. in EV. 

78 



denotes some article of female dress (Is. 3. 2 ' 1 ) : the 
meaning is, however, entirely lost. 

STONES, PRECIOUS STONES. The common 
Heb. term is *eben; the equally common Gr. is lithos. 
A stone is a piece of rock separated and capable of 
being moved about. The most prominent use of 
stones is for building. As in Palestine the great 
mass of rock is limestone, it has supplied the building 
material at all times. The intrusive basalt that is 
not uncommon is sometimes used. In some struc- 
tures of the Mohammadan period the black stone 
and the white appear alternately to produce a 
pattern. As, however, the basalt is more difficult 
to work, it is used much seldomer. There is also 
sandstone, but, being largely impregnated with 
lime, it is not a comfortable stone to work. The 
limestone is of varying degrees of hardness, and so 
suitable for different purposes. From the want of. 
wheeled vehicles the building stones are quarried in 
small sizes, so that a donkey can carry four of them as 
a load. It is to be presumed that similar conditions 
have at all periods largely prevailed, except during 
the times of the Romans. Hence such huge stones 
as are in the foundation of the Temple cd. only be 
moved into place at great expenditure of time and 
labour ;, there was reason in calling such stones 
yeqdroth (1 K. 5. 17 ), "precious " (Is. 28. 16 ). Stones 
were also used as missile weapons ; primarily slings 
were used to discharge S. (^abanvm). Water- worn 
stones seem to have been used for this purpose, as 
presenting fewer inequalities to divert the flight 
(1 S. 17. 40 ; Jg. 20. 16 ) ; larger stones were used for 
such engines of war as those introduced by Uzziah 
(2 Ch. 26. 15 ), as ballistce, or catapults. These 
engines were greatly improved and multiplied by 
the Greeks and Romans, who made both assault and 
defence of fortresses more scientific. It is probable 
that the S. for these military engines wd. be roughly 
rounded to avoid the deflecting effect of the resist- 
ance of the air. There was, further, among the 
Jews, the use of S. as the means of execution. The 
criminal was taken to the brow of a hill where there 
was a precipice ; he was cast down thence, and 
large stones thrown down upon him fm. the height. 
From the nature of the prevailing rock, loose stones 
of all shapes and sizes abound, except in the rich 
plains (see Crimes and Penalties). S. had also 
more domestic uses as Millstones ; these were ordi- 
narily made of basalt. As hand mills were mostly 
used, the S. cut into shape for this purpose were not 
large. In NT. there is reference to a larger form of 
millstone, wh. was in a mill turned by an ass, mulos 
onikos (Mw. 18. 6 ; Mk. c>. 42 ; Lk. 17. 2 ) ; to this our 
Lord referred as being bound to the neck of one cast 
into the sea as a punishment. Stones were, and are 
still, used to cover wells and cisterns, wh. may easily 
be polluted by anything falling into them ; and 
also, as water is a precious commodity, to prevent 
7 



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any one without right taking it. These were 
usually shaped to fit the circular aperture (Gn. 20,. 2 ) ; 
many of these wells were in the field, away fm. the 
immediate dwellings of their owners. Probably also 
pits were used as secret granaries (Jr. 41. 8 ) ; these 
wd. be protected and hidden by S. 

Another Gr. word is trd. S. in Rv. 2. 17 , " I will 
give him a white ' stone ' {psephos), and on the 
' stone ' a new name written wh. no man knoweth 
saving he that receive th it." This Gr. word is used 
for the voting pebble, as Ac. 26. 10 , " I gave my 
voice against them " ; and the verb derived fm. it 
for reckoning (Lk. 14. 28 ; Rv. 13. 18 ). The inter- 
pretation of the " white stone " has occupied com- 
mentators a great deal. Some have thought it 
referred to the " tessera " or token thrown by the 
emperors to the populace at the games, entitling the 
person that received it to provisions, garments, &c. ; 
these had, however, nothing mystic or secret about 
them : further, there is no point in the fact that it is 
a white stone that is used. Others have thought it 
referred to the lot, but there is no suggestion of 
" casting the lot " in the passage ; and the " new 



at 



MANLIVS 




Voting Tablets 

name," unknown to every one save to him whose it 
was, is utterly unsuited to the circumstances con- 
templated in the text. Another theory is more 
suitable : that the " white stone " was a tessera 
hospitalis (Gr. sumbolon), wh. entitled him that re- 
ceived it to help and entertainment. One thing in 
favour of this is, that the tallies had an inscription on 
them ; they were broken through the inscription, 
and each of the contracting families took a piece ; on 
the tally being presented its genuineness was proved 
by this, that the inscription wd. now be read. The 
main objection to this is, that there is no word of 
the stone being broken. We wd. adventure another 
explanation. The victor is to be given " to eat of 
the hidden manna," as well as to receive the " white 
stone." Where was the manna hidden ? According 
to He. c;. 4 , " the golden pot that had manna " was in 
the Ark ; in Ex. 16. 34 the manna was said to be put 
" before the testimony." If the narrative tells the 
event in its chronological setting, then the Ark was 
not yet made ; it might afterwards have been put 
in the Ark. Beside the manna in the Ark were the 
tables of the law; and the first words inscribed on the 
tables of the law were, " I am the Lord (JHWH)," 
the new covenant name of God to Israel. The 
principal objection to this is that psephos suggests 



a smaller stone than we think of when we speak of 
the " tables of the law"; yet this white stone had 
writing on it, and there is no definite size attributed 
to psephos. At all events the white stone must have 
written on it the covenant name of God — the 
covenant with the individual who claims to have 
overcome. And God's name to him has as its 
reciprocal his name to God. 

Individual stones were regarded as landmarks, as 
" the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben " (Jo. 15. 6 , 
18. 17 ) : there is no record of what this Reubenite 
did to be so immortalised. There is the scene of 
Joab's murder of Amasa, " the great stone wh. is 
in Gibeon " (2 S. 20. 8 ) ; there also is " the great 
stone " of Bethshemesh (1 S. 6. 18 ), where, possibly 
by blunder of hearing, 'eben, " stone," has been 
changed into 'Abel, and regarded as a proper name 
— the LXX has lithou. These probably were not 
stones wh. had been set up, but rather were blocks 
or boulders, results of geologic processes in the past, 
borne, it mt. be, far fm. the place of their origin. 

" The stone Ezel " in 1 S. 20. 19 MT. , and hence in EV. , is 
a doubtful case ; in the first place, in v. 41, where we shd. 
expect the same word, we find negeb, "south." The VV. 
are at variance with MT. and also with each other ; Tg. 
Jn. has " the S. atha " in both cases ; the LXX has argab, 
also in both cases ; the Psh. has kepha, " stone" ; only the 
Vlg. follows MT. If the LXX reading is accepted the 
genesis of MT. is easily explicable : argab wd. seem to 
mean ' ' cairn. " 

There is another class of S. wh. has to be con- 
sidered, those that have been set up in commemora- 
tion of some event ; as, e.g., Samuel set up Ebenezer, 
" the stone of help," to commemorate his victory 
over the Philistines (1 S. 7. 12 ). Jacob at Bethel set 
up the S. wh. had been his pillow, to be a pillar, 
and said it " shall be God's house," and poured oil 
upon it ; this was not only commemoration but 
consecration. At first it wd. seem as if this were 
parallel with the ideas of fetish-worshippers ; they 
think that a spirit inhabits their " fetish " ; the 
contrast is that it is always an inferior spirit that is 
thought of ; the Great God whom they all acknow- 
ledge never occupies this position. It is the Great 
God with whom Jacob makes his covenant. The 
S. at Bethel, and similar much earlier erections, may 
be regarded as the germ fm. wh. both the temple 
and the altar, if not also the idols of later times, 
sprang. There are not a few solitary stones to be 
foundon the E.of Jordan, usually called by the Celtic 
name of menhir, " long stone " {see illustration, 
Benzinger, HA. 57), wh. probably had an origin 
similar to the stone of Bethel.* The process of the 
evolution of the temple may be seen carried a step 
further in the dolmens, " table stones," common 
in Brittany, and not uncommon in the United 
Kingdom ; they consist of two or three short, up- 
right stones with a large flat one on the top of them. 

* There may be a reference to this in Jacob's Blessing 
(Gn. 49. 24 ), in wh. God is called "the S. of Isr." 



o \1 



Sto 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sto 



They are frequent E. of Jordan. Another set of 
monuments are the cromlechs, " crooked stones," 
" stones arranged in a circle " (in Britain formerly 
" dolmens " were called " cromlechs "). Stone- 
henge may be regarded as an evolution of the 
cromlech. These often had a central " menhir " 
or " dolmen," wh. served as an altar. Sometimes 
human bones have been found under these " dol- 
mens," likely those of victims. The upright stones 
in Gezer seem to represent a still later development ; 
they seem to have had no directly sacred significance, 
they merely ornamented the high place at Gezer ; 
these served the same decorative purpose that the 
obelisks did in an Egyptian temple. The " men- 
hir," somewhat modified, became the matztzebdb, 
perhaps in form indicated by Benzinger (HA. 380), 
wh. is derived fm. Phoenician sources. Roughly it 
may be said to be a square column with a cubical 
base, and a small pyramidal form, with base larger 
than the top of the column, as capital. There were 
probably variations on this. Not impossibly the 
altars on the Bamoth wd. follow to some extent the 
form of the " dolmens " ; probably later modifica- 
tions wd. be introduced as taste advanced. Pos- 
sibly some wd. be regular " cromlechs," wh. again 
mt. be modified, as we find in Gezer, to an approxi- 
mation to the arrangements of a temple. 

Precious Stones. — Jewels have always been 
specially prized in the E. ; partly because through 
so large a portion of its history government has been 
so inefficient, when it was not directly hurtful, that 
there was no security for property. Hence it was 
desirable to have wealth in as portable a form as 
possible ; the small size and great value of gems 
made them the most useful representatives of value. 
Moreover, beauty of colour has always had a special 
attraction for the sensuous Oriental. As we have 
considered all the precious stories occurring in 
Scripture under their respective names, we shall 
occupy our space here with more general considera- 
tions. The first thing that meets the student is the 
dubiety that surrounds the whole subject. It is 
very uncertain whether any of the stones men- 
tioned, at all events in the OT., as precious can be 
identified. Sometimes the name may be carried 
down with little change, as is the case with the 
sapphire and emerald, yet evidently not applied to 
the same gems. With the NT. the student has the 
advantage of Pliny's contemporary and elaborate, if 
often vague and confused, descriptions of the gems 
then popular ; and Theophrastus, who, if three 
centuries earlier than the writers of the NT., yet 
wrote in the same language. In regard to the OT. 
we have the LXX, wh. shows the opinion of Jews of 
the third and fourth cents, b.c of the Gr. equiva- 
lents of the Heb. terms. In Arabic the Heb. name 
may at times be preserved, but we have no certainty 
that the same precious stone is meant. Further, by 



the Egyptian explorations we are able to decide to 
some extent what gems were known to the Egyp- 
tians who were contemporaries of the Biblical 
writers. Not of so much value, though not quite 
valueless, are the opinions of the Talmudic rabbis. 
Yet withal, our information is still very indefinite. 
There are three related groups of gems : two in the 
OT., the gems in the High Priest's breastplate (Ex. 
28. 17 " 20 ), and those on the robe of the king of Tyre 
(Ek. 28. 13 ) ; and one in the NT., the foundations of 
the New Jerusalem. The list in Ezekiel in MT. has 
only nine gems, but in the LXX there are twelve ; 
it wd. appear as if a row of gems had dropped out 
fm. the MT. list. With regard to the High Priest's 
breastplate we have the list of the gems as given in 
Josephus to compare with that in the LXX ; yet 
there are some differences, e.g. " sardonyx " is put 
instead of " sardius," and the order of the gems is 
changed in the second, third, and fourth rows, in wh. 
the second and third members are transposed. As it 
is doubtful whether the breastplate came back fm. 
Babylon, we cannot affirm that Josephus was in a 
better position than ourselves to describe those 
gems ; his list seems to be derived fm. that of the 
LXX. The fact that the names of the tribes were 
engraved on the gems excludes the diamond and the 
varieties of corundum, the emerald and sapphire, 
wh. are too hard to have been engraved by the 
means then available. Dr. Petrie (HDB.) has 
suggested that the stones in the breastplate were 
arranged according to harmony of colours, wh. is 
probable, but not so certain that one may decide 
anything on the ground of that alone. We have not 
even that guide to aid us in regard to the foun- 
dations of the New Jrs., or the robe of the king 
of Tyre. There are other two gems mentioned 
besides those in these lists : kadkod (Is. 54. 12 ; Ek. 
27. 16 ; AV. " agate," RV. " rubies "), wh. some 
have identified with the " ruby " on rather in- 
sufficient evidence ; it seems extremely doubtful if 
the ruby had reached Syria till after the conquests 
of Alexander. Another rendered " ruby " is penl- 
n%m ; it is probable that this may mean " coral." 
Gems are used as symbols of preciousness (Jb. 
28. 16 " 19 ; Pr. 3. 15 ) and of beauty (La. \?). Many have 
seen or imagined a significance in the several jewels, 
but this has no basis save in fancy. Magical pro- 
perties also were attributed to certain stones, but we 
have no evidence that the Biblical writers made any 
use of or reference to this. 

STONING. See Crimes and Penalties. 

STORK (Heb. kasidak), a bird common in 
Middle and Southern Europe and Asia, though only 
a visitor in the British Isles and France. In Pales- 
tine there are two species comparatively common. 
There is the white S., Ciconia alba, wh. is the species 
best known in Holland and Germany. It usually 
nests on the top of high buildings in Europe, 



78o 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Str 



apparently claiming the protection of man. In 
Palestine it frequents ruins and rocks; occasion- 
ally it builds on trees. Probably this was its 
general nesting-place till tall trees became rare in 
Palestine. It usually goes in pairs. The black S., 
Ciconia nigra, is as common, but, as it is a much shyer 
bird, is less in evidence ; it feeds in flocks, but away 
fm. human habitations. The meaning of its Heb. 
name, " pious," seems to indicate that the S.'s 
fidelity to its mate and its kindness for its young 
were the qualities most observed. It was declared 
■by the law to be unclean (Lv. n. 19 ; Dt. 14. 18 ) ; it 
is noted as building its nest in fir trees (Ps. 104. 17 ) ; 
its migratory habits had been observed : " The stork 
in heaven knoweth her appointed seasons " (Jr. 8. 7 ). 




Stork 

The expanse of the wings of the S. was observed, so 
they are used as the symbol of prolonged flight 
(Zc. 5. 9 ). The fact that the Heb. prophets have 
not observed the way the S. returns to the same 
place year after year appears to indicate that it was 
not so much in contact with men in their days. 
The Heb. term is trd. in Jb. 39. 13 by AV. " feathers," 
for wh. there does not seem much reason, and 
RV. " kindly," wh. is more probable. A singular 
phenomenon is presented by the LXX ; the Heb. 
is never trd. by pelargos, the ordinary word for S. ; 
sometimes they transliterate asida, as if they did not 
know the Gr. equivalent ; they once render hero- 
dios " heron," and once epops " hoopoe," yet the 
stork is common in Egypt. 

STRANGER. While in the pre-exilic history 
of Isr. (see Foreigner) the number of resident 
aliens was very considerable, some even having a 
special relation to the worship, e.g. Obed-edom the 
Gittite (2 S. 6. 10 ), in the time of Ezra a stricter view 
was adopted. When the Jews were no longer a free 



nation living in their own territory, but merely 
a race, with a peculiar religion, scattered among 
towns and villages inhabited by men of kindred 
descent but different faith, the tendency was that 
the Jews shd. fall to the level of their heathen sur- 
roundings. Later, when in the Greek and Roman 
empires the sentiment of nationality became less 
potent, and the purity of Judaism as a religion was 
recognised, the entrance of Proselytes did much 
to break down Jewish exclusiveness. Among the 
Greeks, where the performance of certain sacred 
rites made the restriction of citizenship as absolute 
as among the Jews, the same influences broke down 
the barriers under the Roman rule. Still, even in 
St. Paul's times, the distinction between a citizen 
and a " sojourner " (metoikos, paroikos) was a recog- 
nised one (Eph. 2. 19 ). See Proselyte. 

STRAW. In our sense of the word S. is seldom 
seen in the East. The Heb. teben corresponds with 
the Arb. tibn. This consists of the corn-stalks, 
crushed and broken in the process of treading out, 
or threshing, mingled with the chaff, from wh. by 
winnowing the grain has been separated. Tibn is 
part of the provision laid in for winter provender. 
It is given to the horses mixed with barley ; and is 
the staple food of some of the humbler animals 
when herbage is exhausted. It is mixed with 
mortar, and with clay in the making of bricks, wh. 
are dried in the sun. These are the uses to wh. 
" straw " was put in Bible times (Gn. 24> 25 ; Ex. 
5J, &c). 

STREET. In Oriental cities one has often felt 
that while the houses may be built with some regard 
to security and comfort, the streets have simply 
" happened." They are narrow and tortuous, 
forming a maze wh. even natives at times find it 
difficult to thread. In a walled city like Jrs. space 
was an important consideration. There the streets 
frequently run under archways, on the top of wh. 
houses are built. Close building also furnished some 
protection from the sun. Windows of dwelling- 
houses never open on the streets, but casements 
often project from an upper storey. Sanitation 
makes slow progress, and refuse in great quantities 
still finds its way into the streets, where the dogs 
are the principal scavengers. Pavement is now 
seen in some of the main thoroughfares ; but it is 
not safe to venture forth without a light after night- 
fall in most quarters. The practice of paving may 
have been introduced by the Greeks. Herod the 
Gt. laid a street in Antioch with " polished stones " 
{Ant. XVI. v. 3). The great cities of the Greek and 
Roman period were divided by two main streets, 
cutting each other in the heart of the city at right 
angles. The excellent pavement of these streets 
may be seen still among the ruins. Of the colon- 
nade wh. lent such stateliness to the street, dividing 
the roadway from the path for foot passengers on 



700 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sun 



either side, the best illustration is found in the 
ruined remains of Jerash. See illustrations, p. 130. 

The Heb. word hutz is lit. " that wh. is without," 
i.e. outside the house ; and so is applied to street 
(La. 2. 19 , &c). Rehob is prop, a broad space, such as 
was found at the gates, or an open square in the city. 
In these beasts of burden are unloaded, travellers 
often spend the night, and there the children 
play (Gn. 19. 2 ; Zc. 8. 5 , &c). The Greek <plateia 
answers in meaning to rehob, but is used in NT. in- 
terchangeably with rhume for " street " (Mw. 6. 5 ; 
Ac. 9. 11 , &c). 

Goods are exposed for sale on the sides of the 
streets. Men following a particular trade tend to 




Street in Damascus 

gather in one street (e.g. " Baker St.," Jr. 37. 21 ; cp. 
BJ. V. viii. 1). This is seen in such cities as Cairo 
and Damascus, where certain streets are devoted 
purely to business. These " bazaars," as they are 
called, of the silversmiths, the silk merchants, &c, 
are closed at sunset, and strictly guarded. 

STRIPES. See Crimes and Penalties. 

STRONG DRINK. See Wine. 

STUBBLE. (1) Qash. The grain is often 
reaped with the hook, the ears being cut off, and 
large part of the stalks left standing. These are 
denoted by qash. This the children of Isr. had to 
gather and chop for brick-making (Ex. 5. 12 ) ; see 
Straw. In the hot sun it swiftly becomes tinder- 
dry, and if set on fire, burns fiercely (Ex. 15. 7 , &c). 
(2) Teben (Jb. 21. 18 ). This is the mod. tibn ; see 
Straw. The Gr. kalame corresponds to qash 
(1 Cor. 3. 12 ). 

SUAH, an Asherite, son of Zophah (1 Ch. 7. 36 ). 

SUBURB. The usual Heb. word so trd. in EV. 
is properly " pasture land," migrdsh, from gdrash, to 
drive out. It is used to describe the land surround- 
ing the cities given to the Levites (Nu. 35. 2 , &c). 
In 1 Ch. 5. 16 we should clearly read with RVm. 
" pasture lands of Sharon." 

For the word used in 2 K. 23. 11 , see Parbar. 

SUCCOTH (" booths "). (1) A city in the 
territory of Gad, E. of the Jordan (Jo. 13. 27 ). After 
leaving Penuel on his way to Shechem, Jacob came 



to S., the name being given to the place because of 
the " booths " he made there for his cattle (Gn. 
33. 17 ). Gideon, pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, 
crossed the Jordan (Jg. 8. 4 ), and came to S. (v. 5), 
before Penuel (v. 8). It must therefore be sought 
E. of the river, in the Jordan valley, no great 
distance fm. the Jabbok. Jerome (on Gn. 33. 17 ) 
places S. beyond Jordan, in the district of Scytho- 
polis. This suggests that it was N. of the Jabbok. 
Neubauer (Geog. du Tim. 248) gives the Talmudic 
name as tar l ald. This name Merrill would find in 
Deir ''Alia, a mound which lies c. a mile N. of the 
Jabbok. In this he is followed by other scholars. 
Driver (Genesis, 30 if.) would place Mahanaim 
" (say) at Deir 'Alia, four miles N. of the ford by 
wh. the Ghor route crosses the Jabbok ; Penuel near 
where the Ghor route crosses the route fm. es-Salt 
to ed-Ddmiyeh ; and Succoth on one of the lower 
terraces of the Jordan valley, W. of the point just 
suggested for Penuel." (2) The first station of the 
children of Isr. after leaving Egp. (Ex. 12. 37 , &c). 
The name may be the Heb. form (with substitu- 
tion of s for th) of the Egyptian Thuke, the dis- 
trict of Pithom. Here for the first time the people 
dwelt in " booths," and it is just possible this may 
account for the name. (3) The Succoth near wh. 
the brass castings were made (1 K. j. iQ , Sec.) 
prob. = (1). 

SUCCOTH-BENOTH, one of the deities in- 
troduced by the men of Babylon who settled in 
Samaria (2 K. 17. 30 ). Benoth may be a form of 
Banitu (Zer-banitu of the inscriptions), the wife of 
Marduk, the city-god of Babylon. S. may mean 
the " processional shrines " in wh. the images were 
carried (Sayce, HDB. s.v). 

SUKKIIM. A nation forming part of Shishak's 
army when he marched against Judah (2 Ch. 12. 3 ). 
Identification with the inhabitants of Suakin has 
been suggested ; but no certainty is possible. 

SUMMER. See Winter. 

SUN (Heb. shemesh : this word is found in most 
Semitic languages with but slight variations ; Aram. 
shimsha, Asyr. shamshu, Arb. shems). In a com- 
paratively cloudless climate like that of SW. Asia 
the brilliance of the S. is specially prominent ; its 
influence, benign or maleficent, was always before 
the inhabitants. Artificial light was so inefficient 
that the working day was bounded by sunrise and 
sunset (Ps. 104. 22 ) ; hence the emphasis of the 
phrase, " the greater light to rule the day." The 
portions of the day were reckoned as they still are, 
by the position of the S. in the heavens ; sunrise, 
noon, and sunset are the divisions of the Oriental's 
day. Even to nations as little astronomical as the 
Hebrews the connection of the succession of the 
seasons with the progress of the S. through the con- 
stellations of the Zodiac was known. Although in 
the countries like those inhabited by the writers of 



79 [ 



Sun 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Swa 



Scripture the difference in the length of day may guarded that " the S. shall not smite them by day." 

not be so observable as in more northern lands, yet It is the symbol of God (Ps. 84. 11 ), of permanence 

the fact that the sun rose and set further to the (72. 17 ), of beauty (SS. 6. 10 ). In NT. the scorching 

north in Summer than in Winter cd. not fail to effect of the S. is most prominent (Mw. 13. 6 ; Js. 

be noted. Further, not only time but space was I. 11 ; Rv. 16. 8 ). Part of the bliss of the. New Jrs. 

measured by the sun ; E. was sunrise, mizrah (Jo. will be that there will be no need of the sun (Rv. 

4. 19 ) ; W. was sunset, mctarab (Is. 45. 6 ). In taking 21. 23 ). 
the directions, a man is supposed to look to the SUPH, AV. RED SEA. A place in the Arabah 



rising S., therefore south was to his right hand is described as "over against Suph " (Dt. I. 1 ). 
(1 S. 23. 19 ), north to his left (Gn. 14. 15 ). In these Yam Suph is the usual name of the Red Sea. The 
circumstances it was not wonderful that the sun word for " sea " has probably fallen out of the text, 
was early an object of worship. In Babylonia and AV. may be right in restoring it. The Gulf of 
Assyria, fm. wh. the Israelites originally came, the S. 'Aqaba, in that case, is intended, 
was worshipped under the name Shamash. Pro- SUPHAH (RV.), a place not identified, east of 
bably many of the local deities assigned a place the Jordan (Nu. 21. 14 ). 
in the mythological genealogy were sun-gods, but SUPPER. See Food. . 
names and attributes were changed for harmonistic SUSA. See Shushan. 

reasons. It is to be observed that the S. was not SUSI, father of Gaddi, who represented the tribe 
identified with the deity, but was regarded as his of Manasseh among the spies (Nu. 13. 11 ). 
sign, as may be seen in an illustration in Hommel's SWADDLING BANDS (Jb. 38. 9 ; Lk. 2. 7 ). 
Gesch. Bab.-Jssyr., plate opposite p. 596 ; in it These consist of the cloth in wh. fm. time imme- 
worshippers are represented coming before the morial in the East it has been the practice to wrap 
enthroned god, while a figure on the canopy under up the body of a new-born child, and the bandages 
wh. the god is seated lets down with cords the sun's by which it is secured. This method greatly facili- 
disc. In Egypt, where Isr. dwelt for four centuries, tates the handling and carrying of the child, and 
the worship of the sun was also prominent. Ra was obviates the danger of cold through accidental 
the S. generally, or more particularly the S. at noon, exposure. It is continued for at least a year, when 
Chepera was the rising S., and Turn the setting ; the little one makes its first attempts at walking, 
while Aten was the solar disc. The worship of the This may account for the uniform straightness of 
S. was clearly practised among the Phoenicians also, Eastern limbs, and the erect carriage of the person, 
although our information concerning them is some- The salt applied to the skin in swaddling, is to pre- 
what scant ; they were the immediate neighbours of vent chafing (Ek. 16. 4 ). Swaddling is an evidence 
Israel. With these surroundings it is not surprising that the child is well cared for (La. 2. 22 ). 
that Isr., when they sank fm. the spiritual worship SWALLOW (Heb. deror, Ps. 84. 3 ; Pr. 26. 2 ; 
of JHWH, betook themselves frequently to the there are two other words, 'dgur and sis (sits), 
worship of the sun. The name of Beth-Shemesh one of wh. is trd. Crane and the other S., but the 
indicated that as a place consecrated to the solar AV. and the RV. differ as to wh. is wh.). As to the 
worship, probably fm. Canaanite times. Job refers first of the words there seems a certainty that it 
to sun-worship as one into wh. a person mt. easily means our S., and probably also the " swifts " and 
fall away (Jb. 31. 26 ). Towards the end of the " martins," wh. resemble so much the S. in flight, 
kingdom of Judah, Josiah, we are told, " put down In the two places where it occurs (Ps. 84. 3 and Pr. 
the priests . . . that burned incense to the S." 26. 2 ), the peculiarities noted — nesting where human 
(2 K. 23. 5 ) ; further, that he took away " the horses beings congregate, and rapidity of flight — are char- 
that the kings of Judah had given to the S. . . . acteristic of the S. Sometimes in Palestine they 
and burned the chariots of the S. with 'fire " (v. 11). are allowed to build within the house, where the 
Among the abominations wh. were shown to Eze- continually open doors and windows afford them 
kiel in vision was the sight of " five and twenty abundant means of entrance and exit. While 
men . . . who worshipped the S. toward the E." the etymology, from darar, " to fly in circles," 
(Ek. 8. 16 ). The religious view of the S. wh. the suits, the W. are all against translating " turtle 
Jews as worshippers of JHWH took, was widely dove " in Ps. 84. 3 (4) : in Pr. 26. 2 Psh. and Tg. tr. 
different. Their God had created the S. ; com- " winged animal," " bird " ; the LXX and Vlg. 
manded it and it rose not (Jb. c;. 7 ) ; marked the tr. " sparrow." Guthe decides in favour of deror 
race it was to run, and prepared a tabernacle for it in being "the bat," without assigning any reason, 
the E. whence it goes forth, and in the W. to wh. In the two passages in wh. the other two words 
it returns at night (Ps. 19. 4 ). God can make it are found (Is. 38. 14 and Jr. 8. 7 ), the LXX and 



return to confirm the faith of Hezekiah (Is. 38. 8 ). 
More even, a saint like Joshua may command the S. 



the Vlg. render with RV. sis (sus) " swallow," 
and ''dgur is omitted ; in the Tg. and Psh. i agur 



not to set (Jo. io. 12 * 13 ). The saints of JHWH are is treated as an adj. to sis. The characteristics 



Swa 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Swo 



ascribed to sus suit the swallow. There are two 
species of swallow in Palestine, besides several 
varieties of swift and martin. 

SWAN (Heb. tinsbemeth), a bird classified as un- 
clean in Lv. n. 18 ; Dt. 14. 16 ; AV. trs. "swan," 
but RV. renders " horned owl " ; this latter render- 
ing has the advantage that it is in harmony with the 
birds immediately preceding, " the little owl and 
the great owl." The S. is almost impossible, for it 
is rarely seen either in Egypt or Palestine ; more- 
over, it has none of the characteristics wh. are to be 
found in other birds declared unclean. The " ibis " 
and the " purple water-hen " have both been sug- 
gested, with considerable probability : both are 
common, and devour frogs and other unclean 
animals. The authority of the Tg. of Onkelos is in 
favour of RV. 

SWEARING. See Oath. 

SWEET CALAMUS, SWEET CANE (Ex. 
30. 23 ; Jr. 6. 20 ). This has not been identified. 
Jeremiah describes it as " from a far country." The 
fragrant reed or wood was therefore not indigenous 
in Pal. 

SWINE (Heb. bazir, Arb. khinzir, Gr. NT. 
XpLpos, vs : in the LXX the latter alone is used, 
wh. only appears in NT. in a quotation — 2 P. 2. 22 ). 
The S. was declared to be unclean (Lv. II. 7 ; Dt. 
14. 8 ). The S. seems to have been viewed with 
special horror ; to Isaiah to " eat swine's flesh " was 
the most abominable wickedness (65 . 4 ) : the most 
impure of conceivable offerings was that of " swine's 
blood." Yet it must have been pretty familiar, else 
such a proverb as Pr. n. 22 wd. never have been 
thought of. In the LXX the horror of the fate 
that befell Naboth is enhanced by the introduction 
of swine as, with the dogs, drinking his blood. With 
the influence of the Greeks the use of swine's flesh 
appears to have spread ; this became more marked 
under the Romans, among whom pork was a favourite 
article of diet. Epiphanes, recognising the horror 
with wh. the Jews regarded swine's flesh, when 
he endeavoured to make them abjure their faith, 
strove to compel them by torture to eat it (2 M. 
6. 18 ). It was looked upon as deepening the desecra- 
tion of the Temple that " swine's flesh " was offered 
on the altar (1 M. I. 47 ). The Roman influence led 
to large herds of S. being kept (Mw. 8. 30 ; Mk. 5. 11 ). 
The horror at the S. seems to have been lessened 
when our Lord cd. use a figure connected with the 
feeding of pigs (Mw. J. Q ) ; and Peter cd. refer to 
the washing of them (2 P. 2. 22 ). Some have thought 
the S. was declared unclean for dietetic reasons, that 
the flesh tended to produce cutaneous disease, but 
there seems no proof of this ; certainly S. are kept 
by the Christians in Pal. and they do not seem to be 
afflicted specially. It may have been inherited fm. 
Egypt if we may trust the account Herodotus gives 
of the Egyptian horror of the swine (Herod, ii. 47) : 



" If a man in passing accidentally touch a pig, he 
instantly rushes to the river and plunges in with all 
his clothes on." Yet he tells us that they use the 
S. to tread the grain into the ground and to thresh 
it (ii. 47). 

SWORD (Heb. hereb, Gr. NT. machaira, rom- 
pbaia, only in LXX xi-pbos). An ancient battle was 
decided by the advance of the heavy armed soldiers, 
who had as weapons a heavy spear and a S. Gene- 
rally the spear was hurled against the warrior oppo- 
site, then when the spear throw was evaded the 
warriors came to fight with the S. at close quarters. 
In earliest times the weapons wd. be wooden clubs 
or maces headed with stone ; the greater severity of 
the wound inflicted by weapons with point and 
edge led to the use of metal as the material of wh. 
offensive arms shd. be made. The first edged im- 
plements were flint knives, but swords of flint were 
impossible {see Knife). The first metal used for 
swords appears to have been bronze, that is, copper 
alloyed with tin. However, we must bear in mind, 
when we make affirmations as to the early prefer- 
ence for bronze over iron, that iron readily rusts 
away, while the " patina " that covers bronze is 
much slower in its action, and in fact protects the 
metal fm. rapid corrosion, so we cannot argue the 
proportion of the use of these metals fm. the 
proportion of the remains. It may be doubted 
whether the Hebrews knew anything of " steel " 
till after the Exile. Of course before NT. times it 
was well known. The shape of the S. varied with 
age and country. Fm. their monuments we can 
learn the shape of the Egyptian and Assyrian S. 
Wilkinson says (AE. i. 210): "The Egyptian S. 
was straight and short, fm. two and a half to three 
feet in length, having apparently a double edge 
tapering to a sharp point. It was used for cut and 
thrust." There were also scimitars with broad 
curved blade well in front of the handle ; and 
daggers with a long handle and a blade of seven to 
ten inches. The Assyrian S. was a little longer and 
slimmer than the Egyptian. Both nations wore 
their S. in the girdle on the left thigh. Although 
we have neither instance nor representation, fm. the 
statements of Scripture we may be sure that the S. 
of the Hebrews was, like that of the Egyptians, made 
for thrusting as well as cutting — Joab's murder of 
Amasa implies this ; as striking evidence is given by 
the battle of Helkath-Hazzurim {cp. 2 S. 20. 10 ). It 
wd. appear to have been short, otherwise it is diffi- 
cult to understand how Saul cd. effect his suicide by 
" falling on his S." (1 S. 31. 5 ). Ehud's dagger of a 
cubit's length was probably shorter than the ordi- 
nary S., or the length wd. not have been mentioned. 
That it was worn in a sheath is made known by the 
incident in the murder of Amasa, by wh. Joab se- 
cured that he shd. have his S. in his hand. The 
Greek form of S., wh. of course was the ruling one 



793 



Syc 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Syc 



during Maccabean times, was short, and shaped like 
a leaf. In the NT., whenever the S. is mentioned 
the Roman S. wd. be in the mind of the writer. 
The Romans originally used the Greek S., but, im- 




large blackberries, with a slightly acid flavour, is 
greatly relished in the East. 

SYCAMORE, SYCOMORE (i K. io. 27 , &c. ; 
Lk. 19. 4 ). Amos was a dresser of sycomores (7. 14 ) 
wh. bear figs of indifferent quality. They were 
apparently very plentiful in ancient times (2 Ch. 
I. 15 , &c). David placed an officer in charge of the 
sycamores and olives in the lowland (1 Ch. 27.2 s ). 
It grows to a goodly size, reaching at times 50 ft. 
in height. The timber is light but durable. Its 
spreading branches cast a grateful shade. Planted 
as they often are by the wayside, the traveller must 
pass under them. This furnished his opportunity 
to Zaccheus (Lk. 19. 4 ). Seated among the foliage 
on one of the lower limbs, he would be within a 
foot or two of the Saviour's head. 

SYCHAR is described as " a city of Samaria," 
" near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his 
son Joseph." It was not far from Jacob's Well (Jn. 
4. 5t ). Although there is evidence that the ancient 
Shechem reached further eastward than the mod. 
city, there is nothing to show that it ever approached 
the neighbourhood of Jacob's Well. We may dis- 
miss the idea that Shechem and Sychar were iden- 
tical. There was a tendency for a time, in default 



Sycamine or Black Mulberry 

pressed with its deadly power at the battle of 
Cannae, they adopted the Spanish S., wh. was rather 
longer than the Greek, and had a straight edge. 
While both the Greek and the Roman S. had two 
edges, it wd. seem that some swords were made like 
our cavalry S., with only one edge ; hence the refer- 
ence to "two-edged" S. (He. 4. 12 ; Rv. 2. 12 ). 
Further, the S. is used for " war " (Jr. 14. 13 ) : " Ye 
shall not see the S." To exterminate the inhabi- 
tants of a city is to " smite them with the edge of 
the S." (Jo. 11. 14 ). The S. stands also for military 
prowess, as in the interpretation the Midianite gave 
of his comrade's dream : " This is nothing else save 
the S. of Gideon the son of Joash " (Jg. 7. 14 ). In 
the NT. our Lord uses it of discord : " I came not 
to send peace but a S." (Mw. io. 34 ). The S. of 
the Lord is the lightning (Is. 34. 5 ), as the symbol 
of God's vengeance (Ek. 21. 5 ). The prohibitory 
power by wh. man was restrained fm. re-entering 
Paradise is symbolised as " a flaming S. wh. turned 
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life " 
(Gn. 3. 24 ). In the NT. the " Word of God " is 
" the S. of the Spirit " (Eph. 6. 17 ). In the kingdom 
of Christ the weapons are not carnal but mighty ; 
to these spiritual weapons our Lord -referred when 
He told the disciples to sell their garments to buy a 
sword. 

SYCAMINE. This tree is mentioned only in 
Lk. 17. 6 . It is properly the black mulberry, known of any more likely site, to accept the vill. of l Askar 
in Pal. as the Syrian or Damascus mulberry (tut as the ancient Sychar. It lies at the base of Ebal, 
Shdmt). St. Luke distinguishes between this tree two miles E. of Nablus. But the presence of a 
and the Sycamore (19. 4 ). The fruit, resembling spring furnishing abundant supplies of water made it 

704 




Sycamore 



Sye 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Syn 



difficult to understand why a woman should have 
been in the habit of carrying supplies " all the way " 
from Jacob's Well, as the narrative clearly implies. 
The sacredness of the well, and the medicinal 
quality of the water, would hardly account for this. 
And Mr. Macalister has shown reason to believe 
that l Askar dates from Arab times (PEFQ., 1907, 
92fL). There he tells of his examination of the 
mound Telul Balata, N. of the hamlet Batata, and 
W. of the so-called Tomb of Joseph, about equi- 
distant frn. the well, and fm. Ain l Askar. It was 
occupied from the days of the Heb. monarchy to the 
time of Christ. It is very prob. that here we have 
the site of the ancient Sychar. 

SYENE, RV. SEVENEH, a town on the southern 
border of Egp. (Ek. 29. 10 , 30. 6 — in each case read 
with EVm. " from Migdol to Syene "). It cor- 



local associations (Ek. 8. 1 , II. 15 , &c), so that the 
people had reached the stage necessary to allow 
the general development of the S. along with legal 
Judaism after the days of Ezra and his reformation. 
After that time every Jew was expected to be ac- 
quainted with the Law, and so, for the purposes of 
popular instruction, there arose the Beth-ha-kene- 
seth, while within or alongside of it the Beth-ha- 
midrash was established for the training of scholars. 
The first mention of the actual building of a S. is 
that by the Alexandrian Jews at Ptolemais or Accho 
(3 M. 7. 20 ), as a memorial of deliverance fm. the 
massacre planned by Ptolemy IV. Philopator (b.c. 
217-215) ; nevertheless such buildings seem to have 
existed in all parts of Judea at least as early as the 
Persian period (Ps. 74~ 8 ). In harmony with this we 
are told that even in " the Dispersion " such insti- 




Ruins of Synagogue at Kefr Bir'im, Ut-per Galilee 



responds to the mod. Assuan, on the right bank of 
the Nile, opposite the island of Elephantine, where 
recently papyri have been found wh. cast light on 
the life of a Jewish colony there (b.c. 471-410). In 
the neighbourhood were the quarries which sup- 
plied the famous red granite seen in the obelisks, &c. 
From ancient times it was a military post guarding 
the frontier towards Ethiopia. 

SYNAGOGUE (Heb. keneseth, Gr. o-vvayuyrj). 
The word S., lit. " an assembly," is used to denote 
either the congregation or the place of meeting. 
The origin of the S. system is obscure, but we can 
see how it must have arisen to meet the sptl. wants 
of the Israelites. In addition to the Tabernacle and 
Temple services, the needs of the people seem to have 
been supplied from very early times by special local 
assemblies, while the Sabbaths and the new moons 
too were seasons of meeting (1 S. 20. 5 ; 2 K. 4- 23 ). 
We have an indication of something of the same 
kind in Is. .8. 16 , and then the exile taught the Isr. 
the possibility of sptl. worship apart from ritual or 



tutions existed " in every city fm. ancient genera- 
tions " (Ac. 15. 21 ). As in Palestine itself, these also 
were meant for the same double purpose, and this 
their names indicate — 7rpocrev^7], place of prayer, 
and StSacTKaXeiov (Philo), place of instruction. By 
the first century such buildings had become very 
numerous. In Jrs. alone we read there were 480, 
quite a number being maintained by foreign Jews 
(Ac. 6. 9 ). Later we read of twelve in the city of 
Tiberias. 

In the selection of the site for a S. regard was to 
be had where possible to the proximity of water, as 
was required for ablutions (Ac. 16. 13 ), and in agree- 
ment with this we find in a decree cf Halicarnassus 
(Ant. XIV. x. 23) that the Jews were to be allowed 
to " make their proseuchae by the seaside, accdg. 
to the custom of their forefathers." In regard to 
the position and use of the bldgs. themselves it was 
required that they be treated with respect. The 
rabbis used to say that the city having its gardens 
higher than the S. would certainly be destroyed 



Syn 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Syn 



at last. Of the synagogues of Bab. it was said 
that while they were built for other purposes in 
addition to that of prayer, yet they were not to 
be treated irreverently ; and " to be behind a S." 
during divine service was regarded as a scorning of 
religion altogether. Another matter too had to be 
considered in the arrangement of the bldg., as it 
was required that " all worshippers in Isr. have their 
faces turned to that part of the world where Jrs., 
the Temple and the Holy of Holies are " (cp. I K. 
g30, 38^ anc j so [ t became the rule that the door was 
so placed that the Israelite when entering and when 
at prayer shd. at the same time face the ark and the 
Holy City. This rule is prob. of later origin than 
apostolic days ; with one exception the ruins of the 
synagogues of Galilee (a.d. 150-300) do not con- 



the poor. They were designated " elders " or 
" rulers " of the S. (Mk. 5. 22 ; Lk. 7.8, 8. 41 - 49 , 13. 14 , 
&c), as also parnasin (the Aramaic for shepherds), 
with wh. designation cp. Ek. 34. 5 « 8 » 20 ; Zc. 1 1 . 15 * 16 . 
The high responsibility attached to their office was 
meant to be conveyed by this word, for as God Him- 
self was the chief shepherd of Isr., so those who were 
called by this name were expected to care for His 
flock in the highest sense (Jr. 3. 15 ), and so the rabbis 
tell us that the Holy One mourns over the congre- 
gation whose shepherd conducts himself haughtily 
toward his flock, and that every shepherd who leads 
his congregation in gentleness has the merit of 
guiding them in the path for the world to come. 
The officiating minister was usually assisted by three 
archisynagogi, three deacons, a teacher, and in days 




Ruins of Synagogue at Tell Hum 



form to it. At the present moment, however, it 
is universal, and to ensure its practice in Western 
lands in every Jewish house a picture or tablet 
on the E. wall with the word mizrah, " east," 
upon it, indicates whither the occupants are to 
turn even at times of private prayer. 

For the establishment of a congregation there was 
required only that there shd. be a community having 
ten men of leisure (batlantm) who were known to be 
of humble disposition (Ber. 6. 6 ) and ever ready to 
meet at the times of service. This number was 
necessary as the oral law taught that the Shechinah 
did not meet with fewer, and besides they were re- 
quired to fill the various offices and carry through 
the synagogal functions. The organisation was 
essentially presbyterian, and these ten men (or a 
greater number in a larger community) were respon- 
sible for the conduct of the service in decency and 
order, for the exercise of discipline, and the care of 

7fi 



when tr. was needful, by two interpreters. The 
election of the chief ruler, who was designated 
shalih or angel (Rv. 2. 1 ), was vested in the congre- 
gation {Ber. 55% deduced from Ex. 35. 20 ), but was 
controlled by the Sanhedrin, a commission of wh. 
examined candidates and certified as to their fitness. 
Almost equally prominent was the hazzan or teacher 
(Lk. 4. 20 , v7rr)p€TY)<s, " minister "). In the mod. S. 
he leads the cantillation, but in former days he had 
also various other duties, including the charge of 
the bks. and the teaching of the children during 
week-days. 

The internal arrangement of the S. building was usually 
extremely simple. All that was required was a plain 
room, and very often in the case of the smaller communities 
an upper room — removed fm. the noise and bustle of the 
street — wd. be preferred. But much money was often ex- 
pended on ornamentation, both external and internal. The 
synagogues of Galilee, and especially that at Tell Hum, 
were built of massive stones, beautifully cut and ornamented 
with symbolic figures and animals. The S. of Alexandria 
6 



Syn 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Syn 



rivalled the Temple in beauty and wealth, and it was said that 
he who had not seen it, knew not the glory of Isr. The essen- 
tial furniture consisted of an ark or chest for the S. rolls, 
wh. was placed in a recess named the Sanctuary or Temple 
at the inner end of the bldg. , and to this several steps led 
up. In front of the ark they burned a perpetual light 
as a memorial of that in the Tabernacle or Temple (Ex. 
27. 20 ), and besides, it was considered as a symbol cf the 
human soul (Pr. 20. 27 ), of the Divine Law (Pr. 6. 23 ), and of 
the manifestation of the Deity (Ek. 43.2). In front of the 
steps leading to the sanctuary was a reading-desk, at wh. 
the chief ruler conducted the public prayer with his face 
toward the ark, while in the centre of the bldg. there 
was a large platform or pulpit fm. wh. the Law and the 
Prophets were read, the sermon delivered, and announce- 
ments made. The chief seats (Mw. 23. 6 ), in front of the 
ark, were primarily meant for the elders. In the S. of Alex- 
andria there were 71 such seats, and they were gorgeously 
adorned {Succa, 8i b ). Before and during the apostolic days 
the common people had no seats (Js. 2. 2 - 4 ), and as in the Ss. 
and Oriental churches to-day the women were kept apart 
from the men. 

The general order of the service was pretty well 
fixed even before the Christian era, and consisted 
of liturgical prayers with the cantillation of the 
Psalms, readings fm. the Law (fiarshaioth) and the 
Prophets (haphtaroth), and a sermon. The greatest 
change took place in regard to the choice of lessons. 
At first these were left to the reader, but gradually 
they became fixed. The oldest custom was that of 
dividing the Pentateuch into 154 Sabbath portions, 
to wh. were added 30 special lessons for fasts or 
feasts, and by this arrangement the whole Law was 
read through twice every seven yrs. Others read 
the special lessons as an extra portion on the days to 
wh. they referred, and they completed the Law in 
three yrs. Later an annual cycle of 54 lessons was 
introduced, and this holds to-day. We are told that 
Antiochus Epiphanes forbade the reading of the 
Law, and that for the time being the Jews read 
instead lessons from the Prophets, and that with the 
return of freedom both were retained. The volumes 
of the Law and the Prophets were in the form of 
parchment rolls, with the reading in columns like the 
pages of a bk. The Law had two rollers, and as the 
Lessons were consecutive it was always open at the 
place to be read ; but the bk. of the Prophets had 
only one roll, and as only sections were read, it was 
wound up when the reading was over, and the place 
had to be sought on every occasion (B.B. i\ & ; Lk. 
4. 17 ). These things were fixed, and it was the duty 
of the elders to guide the details, to call fit persons 
to read, pray, and preach, and to indicate where the 
congregation shd. repeat the " Amen." In theory 
it was admitted that services might be conducted in 
any language (Sota vii. 1), but it is scarcely likely 
that any others except Heb. (interspersed with 
Aram.) and Gr. were used, the former by the 
Palestinian Jews, and the latter by the Israelites 
of the Dispersion, whose Bible of course was the 
Greek (LXX). 

The chief service was on the Sabbath morning, 
and it really commenced by each worshipDer passing 



" two door lengths " into the bldg. and reciting 
the words of Ps. 5. 7 . On this occasion the phylac- 
teries were not used, and prob. the tallith or prayer- 
cloth was not introduced till post-apostolic days. 
The prayers were then recited. They included the 
Shema' (Dt. 6. 4 " 9 , n. 13 " 21 ; Nu. 15. 37 - 41 ), selections 
from the Psalms, and we think also, even as early as 
the days of our Lord, some sections of the Shemone 
Esre, "Eighteen Blessings" (1, 2, 3, 16, 17, 18). 
Then there followed the Law and the Prophets, 




Ruins of Synagogue at El Jish (Gischala) 
Upper Galilee 

with Targum as we find them printed to-day in 
Hoq le Israel. The section fm. the Law was divided 
among seven readers, who were as far as possible 
selected to represent all Isr., and so there was usually 
one Cohen or priest, one Levite and five ordinary 
Israelites. After the reading came the derashah or 
sermon based upon it, and the service was concluded 
with the blessing (Nu. 6. 24 " 26 ) pronounced fm. the 
steps in front of the ark. Similar services were held 
on Sabbath afternoon and on Monday and Thurs- 
day, but without the readings fm. the Prophets, 
while feast and fast days had of course special ser- 
vices of their own. Attendance at the S. was ex- 
pected to be regular (Lk. 4. 16 ). It was taught that 
prayer was effectual only fm. the S., that a man's 
prayer was not heard outside the S. unless he were 
unavoidably prevented fm. attending ; that resort- 
ing to the S. lengthened life ; that one who passed 
from the study to the S. and fm. the S. to the study 
was worthy to receive and did receive the Shechinah ; 
and that the angel of death hid his weapons in the 
S., where no children were taught and where ten 
men did not pray. 

The elders (it pea /3vre pot or yepovala) exercised all 
the powers of ecclesiastical discipline. The smallest 
session consisted of three, one of whom, presumably 
the shalih, was required to know the Law. In more 
serious cases they were joined by four members fm. 
the judicial bench — the minor Sanhedrin. Their 
decisions were enforced by temporary exclusion, wh. 
mt. lead up to excommunication. Punishment by 
scourging was also inflicted (Mw. 10. 1? ), and it was 



797 



Syn 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Syr 



the duty of the bazzdn to see to this. Appeals to 
higher courts were recognised. 

The collections were taken up by the bazzdn and 
two or more gabbdi tzeddqa who were chosen by the 
congregation, and who were required to be distin- 
guished for honesty, wisdom, and justice, and for 
having the confidence of the people. Collections 
were made for synagogal purposes, for poor students 
in Jrs., and for local poor. As Jews could not handle 
money on the Sabbath, the bazzdn took promises at 
the times of meeting, and on the following day he 
and the almoners collected it (c-p. I Cor. 16. 1 " 3 ). 
This collection in coin was known as " alms of the 
box " (HQ-lp), and was made weekly. In addition 
there were the " alms of the dish " (•inpE), consist- 
ing of remnants of food, &c, wh. were taken up 
each day and distributed to the very poor in the 
morning. It was expected that a Jew wd. contri- 
bute to the former after one month, and to the latter 
after a three months' residence in any place. 

It is not difficult to trace the foundation and practice of 
the Apostolic Church to the S. system, and to see that we 
have really nothing to do with the Temple worship, wh. was 
meant to be unique and to be devoted to the sacrificial 
ritual. Synagogues might be established anywhere, and the 
eleven in the upper rocm exceeded by one the legal number 
for the establishing a S. of the Nazarenes. The apcstles fm. 
the first followed the S. practice, and James, the Moderator 
of the first Christian synod, names the Christian place cf 
meeting a S. (Js. 2. 2 ), while the assembly over wh. he pre- 
sided and all that led up to it, show that the first century 
Church was ruled on synagogal lines. That meeting was in 
itself a representative assembly dealing with business re- 
ferred to it by an inferior court — the Presbytery cf Antioch 
— wh. was itself made up of the representatives of various 
congregations (Ac. 11. 20-28) # The Jrs. Synod — or Christian 
Sanhedrin — issued authoritative decrees (Soynara /ce/cpi,ueVa, 
Ac. 16. 4 ), thus exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction over 
presbyteries and churches. That the authority was com- 
petent, the churches recognised by their submission (Ac. 
15. 31 . 41 , 16. 4 > 5 ). Every detail cf the Primitive Church 
organisation and practice is synagogal — the equality of 
elders and rulers (Ac. 20. 17 . 28 ), the episcopal power vested 
in the presbyters, the daily ministration (Ac. 6. 1 ), the 
matter of collections, the use of the word angel (Rv. 2. 1 , &c.) 
for the presiding elder, and the general order cf Christian 
worship : all are synagogal and presbyterian. 

Great Synagogue. — According to the rabbini- 
cal tradition the Great Synagogue came into exis- 
tence on the cessation of prophecy in Isr., and its 
members were the transmitters of the oral law 
fm. Ezra (b.c 444) till the days of Simon the Just 
(b.c 300), after whose time its duties are said to 
have devolved on the scribes. It claimed to be the 
supreme religious authority in Isr., and the rabbis 
tell us that it was first presided over by Ezra. 
Joshua, Zerubbabel, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah, 
Malachai, and others were among its members. 

Its motto was, " Make a hedge round the Law," and its 
common teaching was a development of the saying, " The 
world rests upon the Law, the service of Gcd and mercy" ; 
but very soon the Law absorbed the most of their attention, 
and in its service they sought " to reveal the glory of Isr." 
Its members are said to have completed the canon of the 
OT. in its three divisions — Law, Prophets, and Writings ; 
to have revised its text ; to have instituted the S. organisation 
and prayers ; and to have done much more that we know 



to be of much later date. The only OT. notice of anything 
of the kind is in Ne. 8. 13 . Kuenen has sought to show that 
the name originally applied only to this great convocation, 
and that no such standing authority ever existed as the 
rabbis represent the Great Synagogue to have been. If 
anything of the kind ever existed at a later time, it was 
probably nothing more than a committee of the Sanhedrin. 

Wm. M. Christie. 

SYNTYCHE and EUODIA were female mem- 
bers of the Church at Philippi (Php. 4. 2 ), who had 
laboured with St. Paul in the Gospel, but who seem 
to have fallen into variance with one another. St. 
Paul exhorts them to be of one mind. 

SYRACUSE, in the harbour of which St. Paul's 
ship lay three days on his voyage to Rome (Ac. 28. 12 ), 
was situated on the E. coast of Sicily. In b.c. 734 
a band of Corinthian emigrants took possession of 
the island of Ortygia, hitherto in the hands of the 
Phoenicians, and founded a colony. The island wh. 
guarded the harbour was connected with the main- 
land by a bridge. The settlement spread to the 
mainland, and took its name from the marshy vale 
of Syraco. The circuit of the city wall at its 
greatest was c. 14 miles. In b.c 486 Gelon be- 
came " tyrant," and under him the city prospered 
greatly. In subsequent years the Syracusans de- 
feated the Carthaginians (480), the Etruscans at sea 
(474), and the Athenian expedition (415-41 3). The 
government had been changed from a " tyranny " 
to a democracy. In b.c 405 Dionysius restored the 
tyranny, and during his reign (405-367) the power 
of the city was extended, both in Sicily and in S. 
Italy. After a changeful history, in the course of 
wh. the Carthaginians were held at bay, the city 
passed into the hands of Hiero (b.c 275), who made 
friendship with the Romans, and reigned till 216. 
His grandson Hieronymus favoured the Cartha- 
ginians, and was overcome (b.c 212) by the Romans, 
who had already taken the rest of the island. Sicily 
was then placed under a praetor, whose seat was in 
Syracuse. One of her most famous citizens was 
Archimedes, whose inventions during the siege 
caused the Romans much trouble. He was among 
those killed by the victorious troops when the city 
was captured. Syracuse of to-day, a city of some 
31,000 inhabitants, lies almost wholly on the island 
Ortygia. There are manufactories of chemicals 
and pottery ; and large quantities of olive oil' and 
fruit — lemons, oranges, almonds, &c. — are exported 
annually. 

SYRIA {see Aram). Herodotus declares the 
identity of the Assyrians and the Syrians. " The 
people who by the Greeks are called Syrians are 
called Assyrians by the barbarians " (Herod, vii. 63). 
This, however, may, without undue scepticism, be 
doubted ; Woodhouse (EB. "Syria") thinks that it 
may be an extension of the application of Suri, the 
name of a Babylonian province beside the upper 
waters of the Euphrates. Homer (//. ii. 783) and 



1 



Syr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Syr 



Hesiod (Theog. 304) are supposed to refer to the 
Syrians under the name Arimoi. Herodotus ex- 
tended S. fm. Babylonia on the E. to Asia Minor on 
the W., and fm. the confines of Egypt to the Euxine. 
Among the Greeks after the time of Alexander the 
Great, the name S. was applied to the dominions of 
the house of Seleucus ; i.e. the S. of Herodotus 
without Pal. and Phoenicia, but including wide pro- 
vinces beyond the Euphrates. Again it was re- 
stricted to the territory S. of the Taurus and Amanus 
mountains, but with the addition of Pal. and W. of 
the Euphrates. It was bounded on the S. by the 
desert of Arabia and on the W. by the Mediter- 
ranean. This pretty much coincided with the 
Roman province of Syria. Pal. was regarded as a 
portion of this province, but when not under tribu- 
tary sovereigns it was governed by a procurator, who 
was under the authority to some extent of the 
legatus -pro prcetore at Antioch. The geologic char- 
acter of S. is very much the same as that of Pales- 
tine, mainly oolitic limestone, with intrusions of 
basalt. To the S. of the rough Amanus mountains 
begin the long parallel lines of mountains, the 
Lebanon and the Antilebanon, holding between 
them the long debated territory of Coele-Syria, for 
the possession of wh. the Lagids and Seleucids so 
often fought. To the E. of the Antilebanon lies 
the smiling valley of Damascus, with its streams and 
its orchards. E. of this are deserts, across wh., a 
little to the N., lies Palmyra, Tadmor in the wilder- 
ness. To the N., under the shadow of the Armenian 
mountains, is Commagene, where reigned the last 
monarchs that could claim descent fm. Seleucus. 
Farther S. is Apamene with its capital Emesa, after- 
wards known as the birthplace of Heliogabalus. In 
the time before Alexander {see Aram) S. was divided 
into many separate states, all called Aram, as Aram- 
Zobah and Aram-Beth-Rechob. All these were 
conquered by David, and remained tributary under 
the rule of Solomon. On the break up of the 
Davidic empire what had been its provinces re- 
sumed their independence. These states united in 
a confederacy under the leadership of Benhadad, 
assisted by Ahab of Israel, to resist the advance of 
Assyria under Shalmaneser. Although the Nine- 
vite king claims to have been victorious at Qarqar 
he retreated to Nineveh and had to resume his at- 
tempts again and again, only succeeding after the 
fall of the dynasties alike of Benhadad and of Omri 
had rendered confederacy impossible. The whole 
of Syria and Pal. was held by the Sargonids as part 
of their empire. On the fall of Nineveh, after a 
momentary subjection to Egypt, S. fell under the 
rule of Babylon, and then under that of Persia. 
After the battle of Issus, wh. gave Alexander the 
Great the western portion of the Persian empire, 
he proceeded to Egypt through S., enforcing his 
authority as -he went. After the death of Alex- 



ander, when Antigonus and his son Demetrius 
Poliorcetes strove to gain the whole Macedonian 
empire to themselves, much of the fighting took 
place in S. After their final defeat at Ipsus, while 
Pal. remained in the hands of Ptolemaeus Lagi, 
Seleucus Nicator secured possession of all Alex- 
ander's Asiatic dominions N. and E. of Pal. The 
Seleucids, weakened with their conflict with the 
Lagids for the possession of Ccele-Syria, lost their 
more eastern dominions ; the Bactrians and the 
Parthians set up independent monarchies. Intent 
on their struggle with Egypt, the Seleucids fixed 
their capital at Antioch on the Orontes. The 
Seleucids were further weakened by internal dissen- 
sion when Antiochus Hierax attempted to wrest 
Asia Minor fm. his brother, Seleucus Callinicus. 
Under Antiochus the Great S. assumed once more 
almost the dimensions wh. it had under Seleucus 
Nicator. He carried the arms of S. into India ; if 
he did not bring Bactria and Parthia again under his 
authority he at all events compelled their respect. 
Antiochus had Pal. and the greater part of Asia 
Minor ; indeed for a little while he had dominions 
in Greece. This, however, brought him into con- 
flict with the Romans, by whom he was signally de- 
feated at the battle of Magnesia. Asia Minor was 
taken fm. S., and Seleucus Philopator, the son of 
Antiochus, had to be merely a " raiser of taxes," as 
he is described in Daniel (n. 20 ). His brother Epi- 
phanes, who succeeded him, aspired to glories like 
those of his father, Antiochus the Great. He in- 
vaded Egypt and overran the whole country. When 
he was besieging Alexandria his career of conquest 
was stopped by the Romans, and he was compelled 
to return to S. He wreaked the vengeance of his 
disappointment on the Jews, whom he endeavoured 
to force into heathenism. He died in an expedition 
to plunder a temple fm. the treasures of wh. he 
hoped to be able to satisfy the exactions of the 
Romans and maintain his conflict against the Mac- 
cabees. After him monarchs rapidly followed each 
other on the throne of Syria : Demetrius, Alexander 
Balas, Antiochus Sidetes, and others. At length, in 
b.c. 65, S. was reduced by Pompey to the position 
of a Roman province. In the first Triumvirate 
Crassus took S. and fought disastrously against the 
Parthians at Carrhae. When the second Trium- 
virate divided the dominions of Rome, S. fell to 
the lot of Antony. He had to fight for its pos- 
session with the Parthians, not always fortunately ; 
his general Ventidius, however, drove them out. 
When Antony was overthrown at the battle of 
Actium, S. with the rest of the Roman empire 
became the prize of Augustus. Under him the 
Roman empire came under a more systematised 
form of administration. The seat of the govern- 
ment of S. was placed at Antioch, where stayed the 
Roman governor, legatus fro -prcetore^ who had three 



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legions under his control to maintain his authority. 
The Roman policy in S. was, as in most of their 
dominions, to retain existing powers so far as pos- 
sible. Under the Macedonian rule a number of 
cities had been founded with quasi-Greek consti- 
tutions ; these were confirmed in their privileges, 
were allowed even to form leagues like that of the 
Decapolis, and coined money. There were besides 
dynasties of monarchs. We have mentioned the 
dynasty of Commagene, ruled over by a family that 
claimed connection with the Seleucids. There 
were native dynasties also in Emesa, Chalcis, and 
Abilene. The Herodians in Judaea are examples 
of this policy ; they had a certain amount of ad- 
ministrative authority but no right to make war. 
Dominions were taken fm. one and given to another, 
as we saw in the history of the Herod ian Family. 
Occasionally even free cities were assigned to 
monarchs, as Damascus was handed over by Cali- 
gula to Aretas. These two, the free cities and the 
native dynasties, kept each other in check. After 
the death of Nero, followed by those of Galba and 
Otho, S. came into prominence. Vespasian, who 
was carrying on the Jewish war, became, with the 
support of Mucianus, governor of S., a candidate 
for the empire. With the fall of Jrs. before the 
arms of Titus, the son of Vespasian, Syria passes out 
of Biblical history. It shared in all the vicissitudes 
of the Roman empire, till it was conquered by the 
Mohammadans in the seventh cent. a.d. Save for 
the irruption of the Crusaders, and the tottering 
kingdoms set up by them, S. has remained under the 
power of Islam. 

SYRIAC LANGUAGE (Heb. "Aramlth). In 
Dn. 2. 4 we are told " then spake the Chaldeans to 
the king in Syriack " (AV.), " in the Syrian lan- 
guage " (RV.) ; thereafter follow six chapters in 
another language than Heb., cognate, but distinct 
fm. it. So in Ezra \? we have the statement, " the 
letter was written in the Syrian tongue and in- 
terpreted in the Syrian tongue " (AV.), " written 
in Syrian character and set forth in the Syrian 
tongue " (RV.) ; then follow in this language the 
rest of the chapter and the two that follow ; in the 
8th chap, the first ten vv. are in Heb., then the 
Syriac is reverted to for the rest of the chap. In the 
NT. our Lord's exclamation on the cross is a quota- 
tion in Palestinian Syriac of Ps. 22. 1 (Mw. 27. 46 ) ; 
the same language is employed in His address to 
Jairus' daughter (Mk. 5. 41 ) ; and in that to the 
deaf mute in Decapolis (Mk. y. M ). St. Paul in- 
troduces two words written usually as one (1 Cor. 
16. 22 ). In Jr. io. 11 we have a single verse in Syriac, 
and in Gn. 31. 47 two words. Misled by statements 
wh. Jerome makes in his preface to Daniel, scholars, 
as e.g. Luther, became accustomed to call this 
tongue " Chaldee," although in Dn. 2. 4 he trs. 
Resfonderuntque Chaldcei regi Syriace ; so also in 



Ez. 4. 7 . The Genevan version has (Dn. 2. 4 ) " in 
Aramites language " ; in Ez, \P the Genevan reads, 
" And the writing of the letter was the Aramites 
writing, and the thing declared was in the language 
of the Aramites." At the same time one of the 
earliest translations of the NT., the Peshitta, was 
made into a dialect of this same language, wh. was 
called in this connection " Syriac " : along with 
this was also a tr. of the OT. nearly, if not quite 
contemporary. Very little later the Targums, 
traditional interpretations of the OT. in Western 
Aramaic, began to be committed to writing. When 
we compare the Syriac of these two, putting aside 
for the time the Biblical, we find the principal 
grammatical difference to be that while the pre- 
formative of the third mas. impf. is " n " (nun) in 
Eastern Syriac, it is " i " (yud) in Western. While 
Biblical Syriac displays many features of the Pales- 
tinian dialect a case may be made out for maintain- 
ing these to be due to a great extent to scribes who 
assimilated what they wrote to the language they 
were in the habit of hearing (see Daniel). 

Like Hebrew, Syriac is a Semitic tongue. Its roots 
consist by a vast majority of three consonants, varied 
by the use of different vowels ; its verb has only two 
tenses, " preterite," wh. has to act as " perfect " 
and " pluperfect," and an " imperfect," wh. acts 
also as a " future " : it is not fertile in modal forms. 
The main development of the Syriac verb, as in 
other Semitic languages, is in derivative forms, of 
wh. there are six in ordinary use ; the simple verb, 
the frequentative or intensive, and the causative, 
each with its appropriate passive. The intensive 
or frequentative is formed fm. the simple verb by 
doubling the middle radical, and the causative by 
prefixing the syllable '<s (in Biblical S. ha), the pas- 
sives by prefixing the syllable ith, except in the case 
of the causative, where it is itta, and the ''a is ab- 
sorbed. The pi. of nouns is in n, with a different 
vowel for the different genders. The pronouns 
are practically the same as those in Heb., and as in 
other Semitic tongues in the oblique cases they are 
suffixes. The most marked peculiarity, wh. dis- 
tinguishes S. from other Semitic tongues, is the use 
of the status emfhaticus instead of the article ; it 
may be regarded as turned fm. being a prefix, as the 
article is in Heb. and Arb., to being a suffix, as in use 
it follows the same syntactical laws. As compared 
with Heb., S. has a tendency to shorten vowels, and 
to change the s sounds into those connected with 
t. On the whole it is a simple language with 
few irregularities. The characters in wh. it is 
written are modified fm. Heb. in such a way that 
they may be more rapidly written ; each separate 
letter is simplified, and those in a word are joined 
together. It is not so long since it was thought that 
S. was a modification of Heb., and consequently was 
later ; hence the presence of Aramaisms, as they 



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were called, in a document was regarded as proof of 
lateness. The question has now assumed a different 
aspect, since by the discovery of the inscriptions at 
Sinjirli it is found that S. was a fully developed 
tongue in the days of Tiglath-pileser. On the other 
hand, Mesha's inscription on the Moabite stone had 
linguistic characters that certainly wd. have been 
reckoned Aramaisms had they occurred in a book 
of the Bible. Syriac is found to have been the 
language of business and diplomacy fm. before the 
time of the Sargonids. When Rabshakeh presents 
Sennacherib's ultimatum to the representatives of 
Hezekiah, they say to him, " Speak, I pray thee, to 
thy servants in the Syrian language " (2 K. 18. 26 ). 
In the palace of Sargon were found a number of 
weights wh. had on one side the name of the 
sovereign with his titles, and the designation of the 
weight in Assyrian, and on the other the name of 
the weight alone in Syriac — as if that were for use 
and the other for dignity. More striking is the 
fact that in many cases the contract tablets, wh. 
were themselves written in the official language of 
Assyria, and in cuneiform characters, had on the 
day envelope, inscribed by way of docket, the sum- 
mary of the enclosed deed in Aramaic — as if that 
were the language more generally understood even 
by those who wd. be searching for legal documents. 
It was a question for a time whether the Sinjirli 
inscription shd. be described as written in Heb. or in 
Aramaic ; the balance of characteristics is, however, 
in favour of Syriac. When we think of the Ara- 
naisms of the Moabite inscription along with the 
Hebraisms of those of Sinjirli, we may doubt if at 
that early date the tongues were so perfectly dif- 
ferentiated as they were later : tho' perhaps the 



geographical situation of Sinjirli — or, to call it by 
its ancient name, J'adi — might explain the Western 
tinge in the language, and Moab's proximity to the 
trade routes with its Syriac-speaking merchants mt. 
explain the Moabite Aramaisms. The recent ex- 
tensive discovery of Aramaic papyri in the vicinity 
of Assouan is an important addition to our know- 
ledge of the geographical extent of the use of " the 
Syrian language." In the Mandaean writings and 
in some passages in the Babylonian Talmud we have 
a southern variety of Eastern Aramaic, some of the 
peculiarities of wh. appear in Biblical Aramaic. 
In the Samaritan Targum we have a somewhat 
corrupt dialect of Palestinian Syriac. Fm. early 
in the second cent, there was an extensive Christian 
literature in Eastern S., though, as the Gospels dis- 
covered by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson prove, not 
restricted to that. The Western became very much 
the vehicle for Jewish thought. Josephus wrote his 
history of " the Wars of the Jews " in Aramaic wh. 
he calls Hebrew, and then translated it into Greek, 
subject to the correction of friends. According to 
the tradition preserved by Papias, Matthew wrote 
his Gospel first in this language. When Paul spoke 
to his countrymen in " the Hebrew tongue " (Ac. 
2 1. 40 ) it was Aramaic that he used. 

SYROPHCENICIAN. The woman whose 
daughter Jesus cured, who dwelt " in the parts of 
Tyre and Sidon " (Mw. l5- 21f '), is so described (Mk. 
7. 26 ). " Greek," in this passage, may mean " Greek- 
speaking." She was evidently of Phoenician descent. 
" Syrophcenicia " designated the Phoenician district 
belonging to the Rm. province of Syria, distinguish- 
ing it fm. " Lybophcenicia " in N. Africa (Strabo, 
xvii. 3). 



TAANACH. A royal Can. city whose king was 
conquered by Joshua (12. 21 ) It was in the portion 
of Issachar, but allotted to Manasseh (17. 11 ). The 
Canaanites were not driven out (v. 12), but when 
Isr. waxed strong they were reduced to slavery. T. 
was assigned to the Kohathite Levites (21. 25 ). In 
the plain hard by the battle with Sisera was fought 
(Jg. 5- 19 ). It is named in one of Solomon's com- 
missariat districts, as under Baana, s. of Ahilud (1 K. 
4. 12 ). It is described as on the border of Manasseh. 
Without doubt it is to be identified with Tell 
Ta ( anek, a mound on the S. edge of the great plain 
of Esdraelon, five miles SE. of Tell el-Mutesellim, 
the site of ancient Megiddo, with wh. it is almost 
invariably named. Excavations have been carried 
out in recent years by Prof. Sellin of Vienna. A 
brief and luminous account of his discoveries and 
their significance is given by Dr. Driver in his 
Schweich Lectures (1908), Modern Research as 



illustrating the Bible, pp. 8ofT. Many articles of 
great interest were found, shedding light upon its 
history from as far back as b.c 2000, and illustrating 
the social and religious life of the inhabitants in 
successive centuries. 

TAANATH-SHILOH, a city on the NE. boun- 
dary of Ephraim (Jo. 16. 6 ). OEJ. places it (s.v. 
Thena) ten Roman miles E. of Nablus. It may be 
identical with Ta c nd, c. seven miles SE. of Nablus 
and two miles N. of Yanun, the ancient Janoah. 
There are remains of walls, cisterns, and rock 
sepulchres. 

TABBAOTH, ancestor of a family of Nethinim 
who returned with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 43 ; Ne. 7. 46 ), 
called " Tabaoth " in 1 Es. 5. 29 . 

TABBATH, a place, probably in the Jordan 
valley E. of Bethshan, named in connection with the 
Midianite flight (Jg. 7- 22 ), unidentd. 

TABEEL. (1) Father of the man whom Rezin 



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and Pekah proposed to make king in Jerusalem in- 
stead of Ahaz (Is. 7. 6 , AV. " Tabeal "). (2) A 
Persian officer in Samaria (Ez. 4. 7 ), called " Tabel- 
lius " in 1 Es. 2. 16 .* 

TABERAH, " burning," a station of the wander- 
ings in the wilderness of Paran, so called because the 
people were punished there by the " fire of the 
Lord" (Nu. 11. 3 ; Dt. c;. 22 ). 

TABERING. The verb here (Na. 2. 7 ) trd. 
" to taber " (tdphaph) appears in Ps. 68. 25 , where it 
is rendered " to play with timbrels." It means lit. 
" to beat," or " to strike," as one beats a drum. 
The " taber " is a small drum. The reference in 
the text is to the custom among women in the East 
of beating their breasts as an expression of grief. 

TABERNACLE. (1) Names.—" Tabernacle " 
(from the Latin word tabernaculum) has been regu- 
larly used in the English versions since Wyclif to 
denote the portable tent-like structure that accom- 
panied the Israelites in their wanderings in the 
desert, and during the early years of the settlement 
in Canaan, and served the purposes of a sanctuary. 
The English word, like the tabernaculum of the 
Latin versions, has unfortunately been used to 
render indiscriminately the " tent " (Heb. 7 ohel), 
the " booth " (prop, of interwoven boughs : Heb. 
sukkd), and the " dwelling " (Heb. mishkdn) of 
the Hebrew texts. More consistently the three 
terms may be rendered " tent," " booth," and 
" tabernacle " respectively. The last of these terms, 
i.e. " tabernacle " proper {mishkan), is character- 
istic of the priestly writers {see (3) below), and 
designates essentially the place where Jahveh 
dwells. Other important names employed are : 
" tent of meeting " (Heb. 'ohel mo l ed, AV. " taber- 
nacle of the congregation ") — this occurs in both 
the oldest and latest sources (E. and P.) ; and 
the " tent of the testimony " (RV., but AV. " taber- 
nacle of witness," Heb. 'ohel ha J eduth), peculiar to 
the priestly writers. 

(2) The " Tabernacle " (Tent) of the Earliest 
Source. — A remarkable section, which is evidently 
a fragment, regarding the " tent of meeting," has 
been preserved from the Elohistic source in Exod. 
33. 7 " 11 (beginning, " Now Moses used to take the 
tent and to pitch it without the camp, afar off from 
the camp ; and he called it, The tent of meeting "). 
The abrupt mention of " the tent " here implies that 
in another part of the source (not now extant) some 
account had been given of its construction for the 
reception of the ark. Its situation (" without the 
camp, afar off from the camp ") is also to be noted ; 
cp. the similar situation of shrines and holy places 
outside the villages of Canaan. The frequentative 
tenses of the description also show that it was regu- 

* Rashi observes that by Albam, a mode of Gematria, 
Tabeal becomes Remaliah— father of Pekah — wh. is not 
strictly accurate, as the yodh in the latter name is redundant. 



larly pitched in this situation (" Moses used to 
take . . . and pitch it," &c. ; so RV.), and, ap- 
parently (so light and portable was the structure), 
by Moses himself. The special purpose it sub- 
served is also clearly stated. It was the " tent of 
meeting," not for the whole congregation — a hall 
of assembly — but where Jahveh, descending in the 
theophanic cloud, which " stood at the door of the 
tent, spake unto Moses face to face as a man 
speaketh unto his friend," and made him the re- 
cipient of the revelations which were afterwards 
communicated (by Moses) to the people. Further, 
we are informed that all who " sought the Lord 
(Jahveh) went out unto the tent of meeting," i.e. 
probably to secure an expression of the Divine will 
(an oracle) in regard to affairs of difficulty or danger 
{cp. Dt. 3i. 14f . — the only place in Dt. where the 
tent is mentioned ; here Moses is bidden to repair 
with Joshua to the tent in order to receive a Divine 
revelation). Finally the tent is in the charge of a 
single attendant — the young Ephraimite, Joshua, the 
son of Nun, who " departed not out of the tent." * 

The original tent was thus essentially a tent- 
shrine, in which the sacred ark — the symbol and 
pledge of Jahveh's presence — was housed, and in 
which Divine communications were regularly made 
in the theophanic cloud to Moses. And such it 
continued, presumably, to be during the subsequent 
period of the conquest and settlement in Canaan, 
until it was superseded by the larger and more 
elaborate " temple " (Heb. hekdl) at Shiloh (1 S. I. 9 , 
3. 15 , 2. 22b is a late gloss — see the commentaries).! 
Later we find that a " tent " to shelter the ark was 
pitched by David on Mount Zion (2 S. 6. 17 ; cp. 
1 Ch. 16. 1 ), and the author of 2 S. 7* evidently 
thought of the ark as having been preserved con- 
tinuously from the first in a " tent." J 

(3) The Tabernacle (Tent) of the Priestly 
Writers. — In marked contrast with the simple 
portable tent which Moses (perhaps with Joshua's 
assistance) could carry, and which he habitually 
pitched outside the camp, which, moreover, had but 
one attendant, and that not a Levite but a young 
Ephraimite, viz. Joshua, we are confronted in the 
narrative of P. with an elaborate structure, sur- 
rounded by pillars and hangings which formed a 
large court, furnished with an equipment which 

* The same representation of the tent recurs in the 
episode of the seventy elders (Nu. u. 16 f-. 24.30), an d in the 
account of Miriam's leprosy (Nu. 12., esp. v. 4f.), both 
from E. 

f Ps. 78. 60 , however, refers to the sanctuary at Shiloh as 
a " tabernacle" and " tent." 

In any case it is a probable inference from Jer. 7. 14 that 
the " temple " at Shiloh was early destroyed by the Philis- 
tines. 

X The text of 2 Sam. 7. 6 , as corrected by Budde and 
others, runs : I {i.e. Jahveh) have not dwelt in an house since 
the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt 
even to this day, but have walked from tent to tent and from 
tabernacle to tabernacle. 



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required several wagons to transport it, attended by 
a large body of Levites, and pitched in the centre of 
the camp. How this priestly conception of the 
Mosaic Tabernacle arose will be discussed below. 
One point, however, needs to be insisted upon at 
the outset — the whole conception is dominated by a 
mblime religious ideal, the attempt, viz., to realise 
the idea of a sanctuary wh. should be a fit dwelling- 
place for Jahveh, the holy covenant-God of the 
sanctified community of Israel : the holy God of 
Israel dwelling in a holy habitation, served by holy 
ministers, in the midst of a holy land inhabited by a 
holy people. This conception which, apparently, 
started with (or, at any rate, first assumed articulate 
expression in) Ezekiel (cp. Ek. 4off., 37- 27 ), was de- 
veloped by the later priestly writers with elaborate 
detail. It is expressed with emphatic clearness at 
the beginning of one of the priestly sections con- 
cerned with the Tabernacle : Let them make Me a 
sanctuary that I may dwell among them (Ex. 25. 8 ). 

The general scheme of the ideal Tabernacle 
sketched by P. is dominated by the conception that 
all phases of the community's life should share in 
varying degrees in the desiderated standard of holi- 
ness. The different classes and localities exhibit 
by ascending stages higher degrees of sanctity, 
wh. are reflected in their arrangement. Grouped 
around the sanctuary are (1) in an outermost square 
the tents of the Hebrew tribes, three tribes on each 
side (cp. Nu. 2. lf -, io. 13f ) ; (2) contained within 
this is another square, the four sides of which are 
occupied by priests and Levites ; (3) within this, 
again, and forming the heart of the whole, is the 
sacred enclosure (the " court of the Tabernacle ") 
containing the Tabernacle proper, which itself is 
divided into two parts, viz., holy place and holy of 
holies. 

(a) The Court of the Tabernacle (Ex. 27. 9 - 19 ; 
cp. 38. 9 " 20 ). Coming to the Tabernacle enclosure 
viewed from without, we encounter an enclosed 
oblong space lying east and west, 100 cubits in 
length (east and west) by 50 in breadth (north and 
south) ; i.e. it consists of two squares of 50 cubits.* 
This is the " court of the Tabernacle " (Ex. 27. 9 ), 
and contained within it are the Tabernacle proper 
and all that appertains to it (altar of burnt offering, 
holy place, holy of holies, &c). The screen which 
shuts off this sacred enclosure from the surrounding 
camp is formed by five curtains or " hangings " of 
plain white, two (each 100 cubits long) on the 
north and south sides, one of 50 cubits on the 
west side, and on the east side two of 15 cubits each 
flanking the entrance to the court, which entrance 
was itself 20 cubits in width, and was closed by an 
embroidered portiere of white (Ex. 27. 9t ). All six 

* The cubit, for convenience of reckoning, may be as- 
sumed to be r8 inches; the exact measurement of P.'s 
cubit is uncertain. 



hangings were 5 cubits high, and were suspended 
from wooden pillars of the same height, standing 
in sockets of bronze, and held in place by cords 
fastened to " pins " of bronze in the ground (cp. 
35. 18 ). In all, the pillars required for the " hang- 
ings " are stated to be 60, ranged in groups of 20 
and 10 (viz. 20 + 20+10+10, 20 each long side, 
10 each short, 5 cubits of curtain being suspended 
from pillar to pillar). 

(b) Furniture of the Court. — In the centre of 
the court stood " the altar " (Ex. 27. 1 " 8 ), called also 
" the altar of burnt-offering " and " the brazen 
altar." It is described as a hollow box of acacia* 
( = AV. " shittim ") wood, 5 cubits in length and 
breadth, and 3 cubits in height, and overlaid with 
bronze. There is nothing in the text to suggest 
that the hollow part was filled with earth, as has been 
supposed. It was to be thus lightly built to facili- 
tate transport, and, like many other articles in con- 
nection with the Tabernacle, was fitted with rings 
and staves of acacia wood overlaid with brass. 
From the four corners, " of one piece with it," 
issued the four " horns " or " projections at the four 
corners, probably of a conventional shape, a few 
inches in height," •}* the origin and purpose of which 
are obscure. Probably, however, the term " horn " 
in this connection is metaphorical, and does not 
point to any ultimate connection with bull-worship. 
Round the altar, midway between top and bottom, 
ran a projecting " ledge " (Heb. karkobh), probably 
to enable the officiating priest to perform the sacri- 
ficial rites. J To this was attached a " grating of 
network of brass," which supported the ledge and 
made it possible for the blood to be dashed (through 
the grating) on the base of the altar. Possibly both 
the ledge and grating Were designed to prevent the 
ashes from the altar falling on and defiling the sacred 
sacrificial blood (Kennedy). Near the altar the 
Laver of bronze was, according to Ex. 30. 17 ' 21 , to be 
placed. This was to serve for the ablutions of the 
priests. No details are given as to its design and 
workmanship in detail. It is not improbable, how- 
ever, that the section of P. which makes mention of 
this, and of the golden incense-altar (Ex. 30.-3 1.), is 
a later addition to the body of P., and that these 
items had no place in the original description. 

(c) The Tabernacle Proper and its Coverings 
(Ex. 26. 1 - 14 = 36. 8-19 ). — Many difficult problems of 
interpretation emerge in P.'s description of the 
actual Tabernacle, which cannot be fully discussed 
here. It cannot be claimed that any of the many 
proposed solutions has removed all the difficulties ; 
but a great step towards the final solution has been 

* All the wood to be used in the construction of the 
Tabernacle was to be of this kind. 

f McNeile on Ex. 27.2. 

% Cp. Lev. c?. 22 , where Aaron is said to "come down" 
from " offering the sin-offering and the burnt-offering and 
the peace-offerings." 



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taken by Prof. A. R. S. Kennedy in his elabo- 
rate article on the Tabernacle in Hastings' DB., 
vol. iv.* 

It must be remembered that the structure that 
is being described throughout is essentially a tent, 
not a solid building. This is clearly stated at the 
beginning of the description in ch. 26. : Thou shalt 
make the Tabernacle of ten curtains. The curtains, 
in fact, constitute the Dwelling or Tabernacle in 
which Jahveh's presence resides. At the same time, 
-though structurally it is tent-like, it is in form, as 
will be seen, a temple. The ten curtains which 
make up the Tabernacle proper measure each 28 
x 4 cubits. These are to be sewed together into 
two sets of five, each set of five forming a continuous 
fabric of 28 X 20 cubits ; and the two fabrics are to 
be fastened together by fifty gold hooks, which link 
into fifty loops of velvet, along the edge of each set : 
so " the Tabernacle shall be one." 

It remains to describe how these curtains were to 
be arranged and suspended. Of course they would 
have to be supported on a wooden framework ; and 
the elucidation of P.'s description of this forms one 
of the most difficult of the problems of interpreta- 
tion attaching to the subject. The framework which 
supports the curtains is described in Ex. 26. 15 " 30 . 
Here the " boards for the Tabernacle " (Heb. 
qerashim) are stated to be of acacia wood, 10 cubits 
in height and i|- cubits in width (no thickness is 
mentioned). It was formerly invariably assumed 
that solid beams of wood were meant. But such a 
view is beset with the gravest difficulties — such 
heavy beams would clearly be unsuitable for trans- 
port, and it is doubtful whether acacia wood of the 
requisite size could ever be obtained.! To solve 
these and other difficulties Kennedy has put for- 
ward a view which is very attractive and has won 
many adherents. He regards the so-called " boards " 
as really frames of wood lightly constructed of two 
" arms " (Heb. yadoth, RV. " tenons "), i.e. long 
pieces of wood which formed the sides of the frame, 
and were joined by cross-rails (" joined one to 
another," 26. 17 ) like the rungs of a ladder. The 
frames were to be sunk in sockets of silver, two 
sockets for each " frame " (Ex. 26. 19 ). On Ken- 
nedy's view it is at once apparent why there are 
two sockets for each " frame " — it is because each 
frame consists of two uprights which, projecting at 
the base, require two sockets in order to fix them. 
In accordance with this interpretation the crucial 
verses (Ex. 26. 15ff- ) should now be rendered : And 
thou shalt make the frames for the Tabernacle of 
acacia wood, standing up — ten cubits the height, and 
a cubit and a half the breadth of a single frame — two 

* Kennedy's results have been adopted in recent dis- 
cussions cf the subject by McNeile and Bennett (in com- 
mentaries on Exodus). 

f Other difficulties are enumerated by McNeile, op. cit., 
p. 74. 

o. 



uprights for each frame, joined to each other by cross- 
rails. 

A single frame, then, measures 10 cubits high, and 
l|- cubits broad. The open space between each of 
the two uprights was divided by the cross-bars into 
(probably) two panels (a cross-bar joining top, 
middle, and bottom). The frames * thus con- 
structed were to be " reared up " (v. 30), side by 
side, along three sides of a rectangular space 30 
cubits long by 10 broad — twenty frames along each 
side (20 x i|- cubits == 30 cubits), and six frames at 
the western end (6 x i\ = 9 cubits ; the remaining 
cubit at this end would be made up by the thickness 
of the frames and bars which terminated the sides 
at the western end). Along the three sides bars were 
run through rings attached to the woodwork — one 
long central bar in each case, with two sets of half- 
length bars, i.e. five bars on each of the three sides, 
forming (with the cross-bars of the frames) double 
panels, "f This arrangement would secure rigidity 
to the framework as a whole. The east front was 
left open. J 

Such was the framework, and on it the curtains 
which formed the Tabernacle proper, and the cover- 
ings which enveloped these, were stretched. 

We have already seen that the Tabernacle proper 
consisted essentially in the ten curtains (26. 1 ) which, 
in two sets of five curtains sewn together, were to be 
spread over the framework. These curtains were 
of the finest linen, figured with inwoven tapestry 
figures of cherubim in violet, purple, and scarlet. 
When looped together the two sets of curtains 
would form one large surface 28 cubits by 40 (4 x 
10). Together they are " designed to form the 
earthly and, with the aid of the attendant cherubim, 
to symbolise the heavenly dwelling-place of the God 
of Israel " (Kennedy). It will be evident that this 
combined curtain, when spread over the framework 
in such a way that the 28-cubit width fell from side 
to side, since the height' of each side of the frame- 
work is 10 cubits and the width 10 cubits (total, 30 
cubits), the 28-cubit width of curtain would cover 
the roof-surface and hang down within 1 cubit 
of the ground on each side. The curtain is also 
directed to hang down over the western end, so as to 
form a back to the holy of holies. Allowing for this 
(10 cubits), the remaining length of 30 cubits will 
exactly cover the roof-space of the Tabernacle 

* According to the present text (v. 29) the frames were 
to be overlaid with gold. This feature is probably a later 
addition to the text. 



f Arranged thus 



I 1 I II I I 1 I . 
I I I I I I I I I ' 



Bars 



Frames 



the bars probably traversed (and coincided with) the cross- 
bars of the frames. 

X Two extra frames (a seventh and eighth) are assigned 
to the western side. Kennedy supposes that these were 
added to strengthen the corners. 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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(leaving the eastern end open), and the juncture of 
the two sets of curtains (made by the gold hooks and 
loops of velvet) would coincide with the division of 
the holy place from the holy of holies (10 cubits 
from the western end). Stretched in this way over 
the open framework, the beautifully figured tapestry 
would be visible within the Tabernacle through a 
series of panels each 5 cubits high by i^ broad. 
On the other hand, if the " boards " (frames) were 
solid, as was formerly supposed, the figured work 
would have been completely hidden from view by 
a wooden wall. In order to protect this delicate 
fabric a series of three outer coverings is enjoined to 
be made (Ex. 26. 7 " 13 ). The first of these consists of 
eleven curtains of goats' hair, in two sets of six and 
five, linked together by a hundred loops and fifty 
bronze hooks. The whole would yield a surface of 
30 x 44 cubits. When stretched over the tapestry 
this would just reach the ground at the sides (falling 

1 cubit lower each side than the tapestry). The 
extra 4 cubits of length was intended, apparently, to 
be " doubled over against the front," so as to allow 

2 cubits' length to overhang the edge of the roof at 
the eastern end. This would be useful in excluding 
Light and rain. Somewhat confusingly the goats' 
hair covering is called the " tent " (in v. 7 of chap. 
26.). Two other coverings, one " of rams' skins 
dyed red," and the other of skins of an animal which 
is probably the dugong (EV. " sealskins " : Heb. 
tahash), are provided for. The dimensions of these 
Last are not given ; but they must, at least, have 
:ompletely enveloped the goats' hair " tent." 

In what has been described we have the Taber- 
nacle, consisting of the figured hangings, suspended 
3n a light, open framework of wood, with a covering 
}f goats' hair and two outer envelopes of skins. 
This forms a rectangular structure 30 cubits long, 
2 broad (inside measurement), and 10 high (open at 
the eastern side). The structure was completed by 
1 division into two parts, in the proportion of two 
to one, which was effected by means of a " veil " 
[Heb. pdroketh) of the same materials, colours, and 
design as the figured tapestry. The veil was to be 
suspended from four pillars of acacia wood overlaid 
-vith gold, fitted at their bases into sockets of silver, 
md placed 20 cubits from the entrance and 10 from 
the western end. The outer compartment forms 
bhe holy place, and the inner (a cube of exactly 
[o cubits) the holy of holies (26 ? m -). 

One further structural feature remains to be de- 
scribed. No directions have been given, so far, for 
:losing the eastern end, which forms the entrance 
nto the holy place. Provision for this is made in 
Ex. 26. 36f - : And thou shalt make a screen for the door 
)f the tent. The screen was of less elaborate work- 
manship than the figured tapestry (it had no cheru- 
bim worked upon it), and the five acacia pillars from 
which it was to be suspended, though overlaid with 



gold, were to be sunk in sockets of bronze (not of 
silver), it being thus clearly indicated that the screen 
as such formed no pa-rt of the real Tabernacle. 

(d) The Furniture of the Tabernacle, (i.) In 
the Holy Place. — Here are three articles of furniture, 
viz. the table of shewbread, the golden candlestick, 
and the altar of incense. The table of shewbread 
(Ex. 25. 23 - 30 , 30. 10 - 16 ) was a low, wooden stand i±- 
cubits in height, with a surface measuring 2 cubits 
by I cubit. It was overlaid with pure gold, and 
provided with golden rings for transport purposes. 
For the service of the table a number of utensils, 
all of pure gold, are also provided (25. 29 ). The 
" golden candlestick," or rather lampstand, with 
seven stems, is described in Ex. 25. 31 " 40 , 37. 17 " 24 . It 




Golden Candlestick 

was constructed of " beaten work " of pure gold, to 
hold seven golden lamps. Its position was on the 
south side of the holy place, facing the table of shew- 
bread on the north side. It also was provided with 
various utensils in gold. The altar of incense is 
mentioned in the late appendix (Ex. 30. 1 " 7 ) which 
probably formed no original part of P. It is de- 
scribed as having a surface 1 cubit square, and as 
2 cubits high, and provided with horns. It was, of 
course, made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. 

(ii.) In the Holy of Holies. — In the most holy place 
are to be deposited the ark and the " mercy seat " 
(Ex. 25. 10 " 23 , 37. 1 " 9 ), the two most sacred objects 
and emblems which the Tabernacle contained. 
The ark, according to P.'s description, is an oblong 
chest of acacia wood, overlaid " within and with- 
out " with pure gold, 2\ cubits long by \\ in height 
and \\ in width. It was also to be furnished with 
rings for transport purposes, and was to contain 
" the testimony," i.e. the two stone " tables of the 
law " containing the Decalogue (cp. Dt. io. 16 ). 
" The ark of the testimony " is, in fact, P.'s charac- 
teristic descriptive term, with which compare the 
" tabernacle of the testimony " and the " tent of 
the testimony " (Ex. 38. 21 ; Nu. 9. 15 , &c.) ; so 



Sr>c? 



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called because it sheltered the sacred stone tablets. 
Here also, resting upon the ark, is the mercy seat or 
propitiatory (Heb. kapporeth), which consists of a 
solid slab of pure gold. It is of the same super- 
ficial dimensions as the top of the ark, viz. z\ by i^ 
cubits (Ex. 25. 17f> ). At the two ends were placed 
" two cherubim of gold," " of one piece with the 
mercy seat," and with spreading wings. Doubtless 
the ark and " the propitiatory " were placed in the 
centre of the holy of holies, which itself occupied 
the exact centre of the Tabernacle enclosure, and 
"so of the entire camp. Here, then, was Jahveh's 
throne. " The golden kapporeth was to the Jew the 
most sacred spot on earth ; Jahveh appeared there, 
attended by adoring cherubim ; and there the High 
Priest on the Day of Atonement presented the blood 
by which the sins of the nation were ' covered up ' 
or ' wiped away ' " (McNeile). 

(e) The Theological and Historical Signifi- 
cance of P.'s Description of the Tabernacle. — In 
reading the minute and elaborate descriptions of P., 
when describing the wilderness sanctuary and all that 
appertains to it, with the mathematical symmetry of 
its arrangements, its carefully defined gradations of 
sanctity, it is impossible not to recognise how pro- 
foundly the picture has been influenced by certain 
dominant religious ideas. The unapproachable 
majesty of Jahveh's holiness, His uniqueness, one- 
ness, the exquisite harmony and beauty of His attri- 
butes, are reflected in the arrangements of His 
earthly sanctuary. By ascending stages of sanctity 
— through court, holy place, and holy of holies, 
corresponding to laymen, priests, and High Priest — 
the central shrine of holiness is reached. All this 
would naturally lend itself to an elaborate de- 
velopment of religious symbolism, and, in fact, has 
done so from early to modern times. The Taber- 
nacle has always proved a fruitful theme for the in- 
genuity of pious devotion. P.'s description, too, 
exercised a profound influence on the religious 
symbolism of certain parts of the New Testament, 
which, of course, has a certain theological im- 
portance.* 

These considerations will also help to explain the 
relation of P.'s gorgeous sanctuary to historical fact. 
" The priestly writers," says McNeile, " did not 
make it their aim to present history as it was, but 
to systematise traditions and often to supplement 
them under the dominance of religious ideas." -f 
P., in fact, presents to us an ideal Tabernacle, in 
which the developed institutions of a later age are 
reflected in a Mosaic environment with the neces- 
sary modifications. This was done in all good 
faith. History has constantly been so re-written. 
To judge the authors of such writings by the canons 



* Cp. on this point the essay on ' ' The General Significance 
of the Tabernacle " in Westcott's Hebrews, pp. 233L 
f Exodus, p. 79. 



of modern historical science is foolish and unjust. 
They were concerned mainly not to teach the facts 
of history, but to use the historical form for the 
conveyance of religious ideas ; and nowhere is this 
more strikingly exemplified than in P.'s description 
of the Mosaic Tabernacle. G. H. Box. 

TABERNACLES, THE FEAST OF, or FEAST 
OF BOOTHS (the Heb. word is the same in both 
cases, sukkoth, Lv. 23. 34 « 39 , &c), is definitely asso- 
ciated with the completion of gathering in the 
fruits of the earth in Ex. 23. 16 (where it is called the 
Feast of Ingathering), &c. Its celebration began 
on the 15th day of the seventh month, and marked 
the end of the vintage. It may be described as 
a national " Harvest Home," and it was one of 
the three feasts involving a pilgrimage to Jrs. (Ex. 
23. 17 , &c). That it was for Isr. what similar 
festivals were for the nations around them, an 
occasion to express gratitude and joy that the 
annual produce of the earth was safely gathered, is 
practically certain. Jeroboam ordained a feast to 
take its place, in the month following, evidently to 
coincide with the later date of concluding the year's 
work in the north (1 K. 12. 32 ). At the same time it 
was designed for remembrance of the deliverance 
wrought by God, when He caused their fathers to 
dwell in tabernacles (Lv. 23. 43 , &c). 

The first day of the feast was " a solemn rest," 
and the seven days during wh. it lasted were suc- 
ceeded by another day of " solemn rest "' (Lv. 
23. 39ff< ). The people left their houses to dwell in 
shelters made of the branches of trees, like the 
" booths " to be seen in the vineyards. Only in 
Lv. 23. 40 is there mention of fruit (RV.) in con- 
nection with the celebration. Green boughs were 
carried in the hands. An " offering made by fire, 
of a sweet savour," was offered. On the first day 
thirteen young bullocks, two rams, fourteen he- 
lambs of the first year, and meal-offerings, fine flour 
mingled with oil, three-tenth parts for each bullock, 
two-tenths for each ram, and a tenth part for each 
lamb. A he-goat was offered as a sin-offering, 
besides the continual burnt-offering, and the meal 
and drink offering. Each day the number of bul- 
locks was reduced by one, till, on the seventh day, 
seven bullocks were offered ; and on the eighth day 
one bullock, one ram, and seven he-lambs, with 
the appropriate meal and drink offerings. Besides 
these were the vows, and the freewill-offerings (Nu. 
20,. 12ff -). Dt. 3 1. 10 prescribes the reading of the law 
in the hearing of the people at the Feast of Taber- 
nacles in the seventh year, the year of release. The 
dedication of Solomon's Temple fell at " the feast," 
in the seventh month, when sacrifices on an excep- 
tional scale were offered (1 K. 8. 2ff- , &c). The cele- 
bration of the feast is recorded in Ez. 3. 4ff- , when 
offerings were made " as the duty of every day 
required." By Ezra's direction the ancient custom 



806 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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of dwelling in booths during the feast, long in abey- 
ance, was revived (Ne. 8. 17 ), and he also " read in 
the bk. of the law of God " (v. 18). The booths are 
described as erected on the roofs, in the courts of 
the houses, and in the open spaces of the city, as 
one may see them in season in the Jewish quarters of 
Oriental cities still. The feast was a joyful festival, 
a time of merry-making, and exchange of tokens of 
goodwill. When the day of the Lord shall come, 
Zechariah pictures all nations as going up to Jrs. for 
this feast, and plagues as befalling those who refuse 

(14M*). 

The celebration was greatly elaborated in later 
times. The extraordinary festivities gave rise to 
the saying that " he who has not witnessed it has 
not seen what real joy is." An interesting discus- 
sion will be found in Hochman's Jerusalem Tern-pie 
Festivities, pp. 54n\, " the Water Feast." At night- 
fall on the first day of the feast the court of the 
women was illuminated by four golden lamps set on 
lofty golden candlesticks. The women were on the 
balconies and the men below. Grave and pious 
men joined in processions and dances led by flute- 
players. " It is related of R. Simon b. Gamaliel, 
the grandson of Hillel, that on the occasion of this 
festival he performed a dance with eight lighted 
torches, throwing them into the air and catching 
them again without one touching another or falling 
to the ground, and that he was the only person of 
his time who could perform the HTp, wh. con- 
sisted in bending over to kiss the ground while stand- 
ing on the great toes, and assuming the upright 
position without using one's hands." The " Songs 
of Degrees" (Pss. 120.-134.) were chanted towards 
morning. Two priests greeted the dawn with 
trumpets. Poplar twigs were brought from a 
distance and set round the altar so that their ends 
overhung it. Water for a libation was brought in 
procession from Siloam in a golden vessel. The 
libation of water and wine at the altar ended with 
the exclamation " Beauty is thine, O altar ! " There 
may be references to the " lights " and to the 
" water " in the sayings of Jesus (Jn. 8. 12 , 7. 37 ). 

TABITHA. See Dorcas. 

TABLE. The word is used in Scrip, in ways 
analogous to our own. It may be of wood (Ex. 






Assyrian Tables 

25. 23 ), of gold (1 K. 7 . 48 ), of stone (Ek. 40. 42 ), &c. 
Tables for various purposes formed part of the 
Tabernacle and Temple furniture. To prepare a 
table for one (Ps. 23. 5 ) is to set food before him. So 



" table " stands for the pleasures of eating and 
drinking (Ps. 69.22). In 1 Cor. io. 21 " the Lord's 
table " indicates the holy Supper. The law is said 
to have been written on " tables " of stone. These 
were stone slabs on wh. the writing was engraved 
(Ex. 24. 12 , &c.) ; and so, figuratively, " table of 
thine heart " (Pr. 3« 3 , &c). In Lk. I. 63 we shd. 
read with RV. " Tablet." 

TABLET. The Heb. word luah, used of the 
stone slabs on wh. the law was written {see Table), 
applies also to boards of wood (Ex. 27.®, &c), and 
to tablets of other material wh. might be written on 
(Hb. 2.2). The great libraries of the ancient world 
that have been preserved to us, consist of clay 
tablets on wh. the writing has been impressed (see 
Writing). The waxed tablet on wh. was scratched 
with a stylus the required writing, was in common 
use in the time of Christ (Lk. I. 63 ). Gilldyon is trd. 
" roll " by AV. in Is. 8. 1 (RV. " tablet "). What 
the material was cannot be determined. On the 
prepared surface one might write with a stylus. 
In Is. 3. 23 , RV. renders this word " hand mirror " — 
poss. polished metal. Some article of female adorn- 
ment is denoted by kumdz (Ex. 35.22 . n u _ 31. 50 ). 
Botte hannepbesh (Is. 3. 20 ), lit. " houses of the soul," 
RV. renders " perfume boxes." They prob. con- 
tained some peculiarly reviving and refreshing 
perfume. 

TABOR. (1) A mountain on the N. boundary 
of Issachar (Jo. 19. 22 ), prob. ident. with " the moun- 
tain " of Dt. 33. 19 . The attraction to the moun- 
tain wd. most likely be a sanctuary, or high place, 
and as Zebulun and Issachar were both alike to 
profit, it may be sought on the march between them. 
It can be no other than the mod. Jebel et-Tur, at 
the NE. corner of the great plain of Esdraelon. 
Such a prominent height was certain to have 
its sanctuary, and in providing supplies for the 
worshippers resorting thither, the tribes would 
find their advantage. To T. Deborah and Barak 
gathered their forces, and thence they swept down 
to the conflict with Sisera in the plain. It may have 
been the scene of the slaughter of Gideon's brothers 
(Jg. 8. 18 ). The mountain lent itself naturally to 
fortification. Antiochus the Gt. in b.c 218 took 
by stratagem the town of Atabyrion on Mt. Tabor. 
Later it was again held by the Jews (Ant. XIII. 
xv. 4). It fell to the Romans under Pompey, and 
in the neighbourhood Gabinius defeated Alexander, 
son of Aristobulus II. (Ant. XIV. vi. 3 ; BJ. I. 
viii. 7). Josephus fortified the mountain, and after 
Jotapata was taken its garrison was drawn out and 
defeated by Placidus, whereupon it surrendered 
to him. 

An ancient tradition connected the mountain 
with the Transfiguration. This led to the erec- 
tion of churches and monasteries on the summit. 
After the disastrous defeat of the Crusaders at the 



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Horns of Hattin, Saladin wrought havoc on the 
mountain. One church survived the stormy years 
that followed, but in 1263 was destroyed by Sultan 
Bibars. Annual pilgrimages were still made to 
Tabor, by both Latins and Greeks, to celebrate the 
Feast of the Transfiguration. In 1862 the Greeks 
restored and reoccupied their buildings, and were 
soon followed by the Franciscans. The monas- 
tery of the latter stands hard by the ruins of the 
old Crusaders' church. These have been largely 
excavated. Remains of fortifications of different 
periods have been uncovered, and many ancient 
tombs brought to light. 

Tabor is one of the most striking features of the 
landscape. It lifts its rounded form 1843 feet above 
the sea. It stands almost apart from the hills of 
Lower Galilee, and is separated fm. Little Hermon 
by a deep and fertile vale. The sides are covered 
with oak and terebinth. A winding, rocky path 
ascends from the NW. On the western slope 
stands the vill. of Deburiyeh, a name wh. perhaps 
enshrines that of Deborah. The summit com- 
mands a most comprehensive and interesting view. 
Southward over Little Hermon, with Endor and 
Nain on its side, and Shunem at its western base, we 
catch a glimpse of Mt. Gilboa. Away across the 
plain, the eye runs along the hills on the N. boun- 
dary of Samaria, past Taanach and Megiddo to Mt. 
Carmel by the sea, and the oak forest that runs 
northward from the gorge of the Kishon. A little 
to the N. of W., over five miles of broken upland, 
we can see the higher houses of Nazareth gleaming 
white in the sun. Eastward lies the gorge of the 
Jordan, and beyond it the wall of Gilead, and the 
steep cliffs E. of the Sea of Galilee, broken by glens 
and water-courses, and especially by the great 
chasm of the Yarmuk. The mountains of Zebulun 
and Naphtali seem to culminate in the shining mass 
of Gt. Hermon, rising far in the northern sky. 
Standing here one realises how aptly the two moun- 
tains may be associated in the Psalmist's thought, 
altho' Hermon be mighty, and Tabor humble (Ps. 
89. 12 ). It is referred to by Jeremiah (46. 18 ), and 
Hosea alludes to some ensnaring worship practised 
on the mountain (5. 1 ). 

It seems entirely improbable that the Trans- 
figuration cd. have taken place on Mt. Tabor. The 
evidence seems to point to the summit being at that 
time occupied and fortified, wh. wd. make it most 
unsuitable as the scene of such an event. See 
Transfiguration. 

(2) A town in Zebulun given to the Merarite 
Levites (1 Ch. 6. 77 ) wh. may be ident. with the 
town on the mountain top ; or perhaps with 
Chisloth-Tabor (Jo. 19. 12 ). (3) The plain (RV. 
" oak ") of T., apparently not far fm. Gibeah, 
passed by Saul as he went home after Samuel had 
anointed him (1 S. io. 3 ) : unidentd. 



TABRET. See Music. 

TABRIMMON, father of Benhadad I. (1 K. 

I5- 18 ). 

TACHES. So AV. renders qerasim (RV. 
" clasps "). They furnished the means for join- 
ing or " coupling " the curtains in the Tabernacle 
to each other (Ex. 26. 6 , &c), the " taches " on the 
edge of the one corresponding to and fitting into 
the " loops " on the edge of the other. The qeres 
(" tache ") was prob. some kind of hook. 

TACKLING, cords (Is. 3 3. 23 ), ship furniture 
(Ac. 27. 19 ). 

TADMOR, a city named as having been " built," 
i.e. fortified, by Solomon " in the wilderness, in the 
land " (1 K. 9. 18 , RV. Tamar). In 2 Ch. 8. 4 it is 
mentioned in connection with Hamath Zobah 
and Hamath, showing that the chronicler thought 
of it as in the Syrian desert. By the time he wrote 
Tadmor had become a great and splendid city. It 
seemed not incongruous that its history shd. be 
linked with the name of Solomon. In 1 K. 9. 18 the 
kethlb has " Tamar " ; the qeri " Tadmor," sug- 
gests the emendation of a later hand to bring it into 
harmony with 2 Ch. 8 A The city was prob. ident. 
with that mentioned in Ek. 47. 19 , 48. 28 , not yet 
identified, wh. must be sought in the wilderness of 
Judah, not far fm. the Dead Sea. The reading 
" Tamar " in 1 K. 9. 18 is certainly correct. It 
is equally certain that the chronicler thought of 
Tadmor, the Palmyra of later days, wh. in its desola- 
tion is again known by its ancient name, Tudmur. 
It lay on the great caravan route thro' the desert, 
wh. connected Damascus with the Euphrates valley. 
Wherever there is water in the desert settled life 
is possible. Here a supply, not abundant but 
sufficient, was furnished by springs. At a later 
time this was supplemented by an aqueduct. 
The date and author of its foundation are quite 
unknown. When or for what reason the name 
was changed to Palmyra is equally dark ; but the 
identity of the city is unquestioned. As a port 
of call in the midst of the sea of sand, it rose to im- 
portance and flourished greatly. In c. b.c 37 its 
conspicuous wealth tempted the avarice of Antony. 
Hadrian showed favour to the city (a.d. 130), calling 
it by his name, Adrianopolis. The name was short- 
lived. The city was made a Roman colony, and the 
people were associated with the Romans during the 
Persian wars. It reached the height of its glory in 
the third cent., under Odenatus, and Zenobia, his 
heroic widow and successor. Into the details of the 
history we need not enter here. The death-blow 
was dealt by Aurelian (a.d. 273). After long cen- 
turies of decay, during which it was lost to the kge. 
of western nations, it was at length rediscovered in 
1678 by members of the English merchant colony 
in Aleppo. The ruins are still beautiful and im- 
pressive, the remains of the great temple of Baal 



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and the graceful columns being specially note- TAHREA, grandson of Mephibosheth (i Ch. 
worthy. A handful of Arabs now live in their 9. 41 ), called " Tarea " in 1 Ch. 8. 35 . 
wretched huts among the ruins. For recent de- TAHTIMHODSHI, one of the places mentioned 
scriptions see Wright, Palmyra and, Zenobia ; and as the limits of Joab's census (2 S. 24. 6 ). The text 
Kelman, From Damascus to Palmyra. is to all appearance corrupt ; the LXX (B) reads, 

TAHAN, a descendant of Ephraim (Nu. 26. 35 ; " And they came to Galaad and to the land Tha- 
I Ch. 7- 25 ), ancestor of the Tahanites (Nu. 26. 35 ). bason wh. is Adasai." Lucian's recension has in 

TAHAPANES (Heb. written tab-panes, but read the critical words eis gen Cbitteim, Kades, " to the 
tabpanbes,]v. 2. 16 ), TAHPANHES (Heb. tabpanhes, land of the Hittites, Kadesh " ; Sym., " to the 
Jr. 43. 7 , 44. 1 , 46. 14 ), TEHAPHNEHES (Heb. teh'a- lower road " ; Tg. Jn. trs. " to the land of the S. to 
phnehes, Ek. 30. 18 ), a city on the frontier of Egypt, Hodshi " ; a land wh. David Kimchi confesses he 
near the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, called by doesn't know. The Psh. omits the verse. Follow- 
Herodotus Daphnae (ii. 30, 107), where the Persians ing Lucian's reading, it is proposed by Dr. Driver 
had a garrison. Though probably built before — and some others to amend the Heb. so as to read 
Herodotus tells a story wh. represents T. as extant " to the land of the Hittites towards Kadesh," an 
in the days of Sesostris — it became important when emendation wh. seems to us improbable, as the 
Psammetichus I. placed there the Greek and Carian blunders presumed to be made in MT. are hardly 
mercenaries through whose help he had gained his possible either to ear or eye, except in the square 
kingdom (Herod, ii. 154). It is represented now by character, wh. wd. make the blunder very late in- 
Tel Defneh ; a mound, in investigating wh. Prof, deed, too late to explain the fact that Sym. read 
Petrie found many traces of Greek occupation the MT. Much better is the explanation of 
mingled with Egyptian antiquities. It was here Thenius based on LXX, " the land of Bashan wh. is 
that the Jewish refugees under Johanan the son of Edrei." It is certainly in the natural geographical 
Kareah took up their abode when they fled fm. succession to Gilead and before Dan-Iyun (Dan- 
Canaan after the murder of Gedaliah. They had jaan), wh. again is on the way to Sidon. Kadesh on 
brought Jeremiah the prophet into Egypt with the Orontes is too far north. The object of the 
them, despite his denunciation of the emigration, census was to get the number of the fighting men 
He prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar shd. conquer of Israel, but this was beyond the bounds of Israel 
Egp., and placed stones underground in the court of altogether. 

the palace (Jr. 43. 9 ), and declared that there wd. TALENT (Heb. kikkar), originating in Babylon : 
Nebuchadnezzar set his throne. There has not as it was divided, according to the sexagintal system, 
yet been found any evidence distinctly confirmatory into 60 minas and 3600 shekels. In Pal. the number 
of this prophesied invasion of Egypt. From the of shekels in the mina became 56,- so the Heb. T. 
traces of conflagration in the ruins it wd. seem was equal to 3000 shekels in weight. By careful 
probable that T. had been taken by assault and investigation, examination of weights that have been 
plundered ; but there is no evidence to fix the date preserved, and consideration of statements with re- 
at wh. this occurred. gard to the comparative values of the different 

TAHASH, AV. THAHASH, a son of Nahor (Gn. standards, it has been found that the silver shekel 



was about a ninth less than the gold. Fm. this it 
follows that the talent of gold weighed nearly a 
hundredweight, while that of silver was about six- 
sevenths of that amount. The T. as money was of 
necessity never other than a money of account ; the 
value of the T. of gold was on the above basis 



22. 24 ). 

TAHATH. (1) A Levite, ancestor of Samuel 
and Heman (1 Ch. 6. 24 - 37 ). (2) and (3) Two de- 
scendants of Ephraim (1 Ch. 7. 20 ). (4) A station 
in the wanderings (Nu. 33- 26f ') : not identd. 

TAHPENES (Heb. tabpenes, Gr. tbekemeina), 

the wife of the Pharaoh who was contemporary slightly over £6000, whereas that of silver was about 

with the end of Solomon's reign, probably one of the £400. During our Lord's life on earth the Attic T. 

last monarchs of the XXI. (Tanite) dynasty. The was that in use ; its money value in silver wd. be 

sister of Queen T. was given as wife to Hadad, the slightly over £240. See Money, Weights and 

Edomite who escaped the massacre of the inhabi- Measures. 

tants of Mount Seir, which Joab appears to have TALITHA CUMI (Arm. talitba quml ; WH. 

carried out with systematic ruthlessness during his give taleitba koum), prob. the ordinary words with 

six months' residence in the land (1 K. I i. 19f -). The wh. the little girl was awakened every morning (Mk. 

queen brought up his son Genubath in the palace 5. 41 ). The first word occurs in the Tg. Jrs. It is 

with the sons of Pharaoh. There are signs of con- used of Miriam sent to watch over Moses in the ark 

fusion in the LXX ; it wd. seem as if there had been of bulrushes. The TR. gives the correct gram- 

an attempt made to combine two narratives re- matical fern, imp., but fm. passages in the Tim. it 

lating to different persons and events. The name wd. seem that in common speech there was a ten- 

T. has not been identified on the monuments. dency, as in mod. Arabic, to neglect distinctions of 

809 2 c 2 



Tal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tarn 



gender in verbal form. The text in WH. may 
therefore represent the actual words spoken. This 
cannot be taken as proving that our Lord ordinarily 
spoke Aramaic ; it only shows that He used the 
language of the nursery to a little girl not yet out 
of it. 

TALMAI. (i) A clan of the sons of Anak, 
driven out of Hebron by Caleb (Nu. 13. 22 ; Jo. 
I 5- 14 ; Jg- I - 10 )- ( 2 ) Son of* Ammihud, king of 
Geshur, whose daughter, Maacah, was a wife of 
David, and mother of Absalom (2 S. 3. 3 , 13. 37 ; 
r Ch. 3 - 2 ). 

TALMON, head of a family of gatekeepers in the 
Temple (1 Ch. 9. 17 ; Ez. 2.^ ; Ne. 7. 45 , II. 19 , 12. 25 ), 
called " Tolman " in 1 Es. 5. 28 (RV.). 

TAMAR, named by Ezekiel (47. 19 , 48. 28 ) as 
marking the S. boundary of Israel. It has not been 
identd., but must prob. be sought in the S. of Judah, 
near the Dead Sea. It may be the same as Tadmor 
(RV. " Tamar ") in 1 K. 9. 18 . 

TAMAR. (1) The daughter-in-law of Judah, 
whose story is told in Gn. 38. (2) The sister of 
Absalom, who shared with him the distinction of 
being of royal parentage on both sides, their mother 
being the princess of Geshur. That Absalom, her 
uterine br., avenges the disgrace wrought by Amnon, 
a duty we wd. naturally associate with the father, 
may be due to the persistence of sentiments be- 
gotten under the matriarchate, when relationship 
was counted through the mother (2 S. 13.). (3) 
Absalom's dr. who became the w. of Rehoboam 
(2 S. 14. 27 ; cp. LXX), poss. ident. with Maacah 
(1 K. 15. 2 ; 2 Ch. n. 20 ). The name in Heb. signi- 
fies " palm tree." Suggesting beauty and grace- 
fulness, it has from of old been a favourite female 
name in the East. 

TAMARISK (RV. Heb. 'eshel, Gn. 21. 33 ; AV. 
"grove"; 1 S. 22. 6 , AV. "tree"; 31. 13 , AV. 
" tree "). The Heb. corresponds to the Arb. 'dthl, 
" tamarisk." (For " tamarisk " in Jr. 17. 6 RVm. 
see Heath.) Of the species of T. found in Pal. 
most are little more than bushes. Some, however, 
attain a considerable size, in the shadow of wh. one 
may sit. " The tamarisk " (1 S. 22. 6 ) " on the 
height " (RVm.), was evidently a noted tree, prob. 
with some religious association. 

TAMMUZ. When he is brought in vision to 
Jrs. Ezekiel sees beside the north gate of the house 
of the Lord " women weeping for Tammuz." The 
name is derived fm. the Babylonian (Sumerian) 
Dumuzi, the child of the goddess of fertility. This 
worship was imported into Phoenicia, and had its 
principal seat there in Gebal. In the legendary 
poems of Babylon T. is represented as a youthful 
shepherd who was beloved by Istar, but slain in his 
bloom by the tusk of a wild boar ; she descended to 
Hades to secure his restoration to life. In Phoenicia 
he was addressed as" Adonai," fm, which the Greeks 



formed the name " Adonis." In Greek hands 
arose the myth of Aphrodite (Venus) and Adonis. 
The death of T. was lamented yearly in the fourth 
month, wh. was named fm. him. It coincided 
most nearly with our July. It is connected with 
the Osiris myth of Egypt ; indeed the myth in some 
of its forms contained the feature that Isis found 
the remains of her husband Osiris at Byblus (Gebal). 
Some have maintained that Adonis is a sun-god : 
but there is a difficulty in holding this when it is 
remembered that the celebration took place pre- 
cisely when the sun was at its strongest. This part 




Tammuz (Adonis) 

of the myth is essential ; the young Adonis is in the 
bloom of his early manhood when he is slain by the 
boar. Had there been a change in the tilt of the 
moon's orbit, so that formerely an eclipse of the sun 
occurred always in the month of July, it cd. have 
been understood how this might be reckoned a 
solar myth. Another idea is that T. is the god of 
vegetation, wh. the hot sun destroys. This is better, 
but still there is the want of any parallel to the 
emphasis laid in the myth on the youth of Adonis. 
It is true that the green herbage is all dead in Pal. 
and the nearer Orient by the beginning of July, 
indeed before that date ; but the grain, the grasses, 
and the rest of the herbage have reached and passed 
maturity. It is the chosen symbol for a ripe and 
seasonable death, like a sheaf of corn fully ripe, " as 
a shock of corn cometh in in his season." Prof. 
Robertson Smith thought that the weeping re- 
ferred to the mourning over the victim ; an offshoot 
fm. his idea as to the origin of sacrifice. But there 
is no hint of sacrifice in the myth. The idea that 



6lQ 



Tan 



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Tar 



the boar is winter, advocated by Dr. Sayce, wd. 
have considerable plausibility if the celebration had 
been held nearer that season, and if it had originated, 
not in Babylonia, but near the Arctic circle, where 
the sun is for three or four days buried beneath the 
horizon. It is really one of the large number of 
myths where a youthful god is represented as dying 
and being raised again. In Scandinavian mytho- 
logy we have not only the death of Balder the 
beautiful, but also the suffering of Woden himself. 
The fact that the river Adonis (Nahr Ibrahim) ran 
red during this particular month, fm. the marl over 
wh. it flowed, gave the excuse for the time of the 
celebration. 

TANHUMETH, the father of Seraiah, who 
joined Gedaliah at Mizpeh (2 K. 25. 23 ; Jr. 
40.8). 

TANNER. The tradesman is not mentioned by 
name in the OT., but that the calling was followed 
from early times is evident fm. such passages as Ex. 
25. 5 , &c. Only the tanner with whom Peter lodged 
at Joppa appears in the NT. (Ac. Cj. 43 , &c). The 
work was held to be necessary, but ignoble. " A 
trade that had to do with unclean things, the fetor 
of wh. clung to the workman, was ranked very low. 
The tanning of skins for leather, and mining, were 
considered such dirty trades that a woman was 
allowed to divorce, not only a collector of dogs' 
dung who supplied the tanner with this tan, but 
even a tanner or miner, whether he had become 
what was so intolerably repulsive to her before or 
after their marriage, thus putting them on a level 
with lepers. . . . ' The world cannot exist,' says a 
common proverb, ' without perfumers or tanners. 
Well for you if you are a perfumer, woe to you if 
you are a tanner ' ! Tanyards, like middens and 
graves, must be at least 50 cubits without the town 
walls " (Delitzsch, Artisan Life in the Time of Christ, 
pp. 29X). With this agrees the fact that' Simon's 
house was on the sea-shore (Ac. io. 6 ). The higher 
offices in State and Temple were closed to men who 
followed degrading occupations. That Peter en- 
tered the house of a tanner shows that old ideas 
were losing their grip upon him. 

TAPHATH, daughter of Solomon, and wife of 
Ben-Abinadab, one of the commissariat officers 

(1 K. 4- 11 )- 

TAPPUAH (Heb. tappuah, " apple "). (1) An 
unidentd. town in the Shephelah, named with 
Zorah, Zanoah, &c. (Jo. 15. 34 ). It is prob. = T. in 
12. 17 , wh. is named between Bethel and Hepher. 
(2) A city of Ephraim, the land belonging to wh. 
was assigned to Manasseh (Jo. 16. 8 , 17. 8 ). En 
Tappuah (17. 7 ) was doubtless the spring near the 
city. It lay to the S. of Michmetiiah. The 
original text in 2 K. 15. 16 (Tiphsah) prob. referred 
to this district. It may be the town Taphon, forti- 
fied by Bacchides (1 M. 9. 50 ). No certain identifi- 



cation is poss. Tristram suggests ( Aticf, N. of Wady 
el-Ferrah. 

TARALAH, a town in the territory of Benja- 
min named between Irpeel and Zelah (Jo. 18. 27 ) : 
unidentd. 

TARES. The zizania of the Gr. mentioned in 
Mw. 13. 25 , &c, corresponded with the Arb. ziwdn. 
The plant intended is the bearded darnel, Lolium 
temulentum. In the earlier stages of growth it 
closely resembles the wheat and barley, and it 
reaches an equal height. Only when harvest is 
approaching is it easily distinguished. The pulling 
up is also difficult, as the roots are often entwined 
with those of the grain. The seeds it bears are 
poisonous. The peasants think that the tares are 
degenerate wheat. 

TARPELITES, colonists placed in the cities of 
Samaria after the captivity of the Northern King- 
dom (Ez. 4- 9 ). 

TARSHISH, a name personal and geographical. 
(1) Personal. — (a) Second son of Javan (Gn. io. 4 ; 
I Ch. I. 7 ). If Kittim is here taken as the eponymic 
ancestor of Cyprus, and if for Dodanim we shd. read 
Rodanim (Rhodes), then Elishah will be the per- 
sonal representative of continental Greece, and T. 
will stand for some race further west, probably 
Italy, (h) Son of Bilhan and great-grandson of 
Benjamin (1 Ch. 7. 10 ). (c) One of the seven 
princes of Persia (Est. I. 14 ). Cassel (Com. on Est., 
ad loc.) thinks the name as it now stands may be due 
to the tendency to assimilate the little-known to the 
well-known, and suggests the reading " Barshish," 
from wh., he says, " the Gr. name Prexaspes easily 
appears." Prexaspes was one of Xerxes' admirals 
when he invaded Greece (Herod, vii. 97). Rawlin- 
son thinks he was son of one of the conspirators 
against the usurper Smerdis (Rawlinson, Herod. 
iv. p. 70, note 1). 

(2) Geographical. — Tarshish is the name of a 
country or city far from Palestine. Some think 
that several places were so named. Bochart identd. 
T. with Tartessus in Spain, and mod. commentators, 
until recently, have generally approved. In favour 
of this identification is the fact that, where " Tar- 
shish " is used to qualify " ships," LXX translates 
it " Carthaginian," calling the place itself " Car- 
thage." This points distinctly to the far West. 
It is objected that Tartessus was not known till 
after the foundation of Carthage, i.e. about a 
century after Solomon. But surely the Phoenician 
emigrants would choose the site of their colony in 
the light of knowledge gained in commercial inter- 
course with the western shores of the Mediter- 
ranean. Sir W. M. Ramsay would identify T with 
Tarsus, in this agreeing with the Jewish commen- 
tators. The " ships of Tarshish " might have been 
named from their place of origin, and not from 
their destination. The forests clothing the Taurus 



Tar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tar 



range would afford abundant material for ship- 
building. " Ships of Tarshish " might then be = 
" ships of Tarsus." On the other hand the com- 
merce of Tarsus does not seem to have required, as 
did that of Phoenicia, large sea-going craft. Dr. W. 
Max Muller would identify T. with Etruria. So 
far as Heb. views of geography are concerned this is 
plausible enough. Ceylon and Southern Africa have 
also had their advocates. If we consider the port 
of starting, and the ancient method of voyaging 
along the coast, neither can be called impossible. 

'The most important passage is the first chapter 
of Jonah. The prophet embarked at Joppa : his 
destination, therefore, was on the Mediterranean 
coast ; but clearly no point from which Nineveh 
was as easily accessible as it was fm. Pal. This rules 
out Tarsus, and all places to the south or east. It 
might, however, have been either Tartessus or the 
Tyrrhenian coast. 

Solomon's navy, manned by Tyrian seamen, is said 
to have consisted of " ships of Tarshish " (i K. 
io. 22 ), as also that of Jehoshaphat (22. 48 ). Their 
destination was Ophir (i K. c;. 28 , io. 11 ; I Ch. 8. 13 ; 
cp. i K. 22. 48 ). In 2 Ch. 9. 21 only it is said that the 
ships went to Tarshish. This might easily be an 
error made by a scribe. If it denoted either a city 
in the district of Ophir, or the district in which 
Ophir lay, no trace of the name has been discovered, 
nor of any name for which it might be mistaken. 

In Ps. 72. 10 " T. and the isles " evidently stands 
for the West, and " Sheba and Seba " for the East. 
Is. 23. 10ft shows that T. was far away across the sea. 
Jeremiah speaks of plates of silver brought from T. 
Polybius (quoted by Strabo) tells of silver mines 
near Carthagena, furnishing employment for 40,000 
workmen. We hear of no extensive silver mines 
near Tarsus. A southern site for T. might in some 
respects agree with Ek. 38. 13 ; but as T. there con- 
templates the raid of Gog, a northern site might 
suit better. 

No certain decision is possible. The balance of 
evidence favours a western T. with which trade was 
conducted in large ships. These may have been 
called " ships of T." in distinction from the smaller 
vessels engaged in the coasting trade. The name 
may then have been applied to any large ships 
employed in distant commerce. There is also the 
possibility that some place in the East, reached by 
vessels sailing from Ezion-Geber, bore this, or a 
similar name. On the other hand, with their dim 
and confused notions of maritime affairs, Tarshish 
to the Jews may have signified in some vague way 
the destination of all large vessels going on distant 
voyages. 

TARSUS. The best and fullest account of Tar- 
sus is found in Sir William M. Ramsay's The Cities 
of St. Paul, pp. 85ff., to wh. the present writer is 
mainly indebted for the material used in this article. 

8t 



Tarsus, represented to-day by the mod. Tersus, 
lay on the river Cydnus in the Cilician plain, 70 to 
80 feet above sea level, and ten miles from the coast. 
The summits of the Tarsus range throw themselves 
into the sky some thirty miles away, but their lower 
slopes touch the plain only about two miles N. of 
the city. At a distance of about ten miles the 
Tarsians built a second city in these uplands. It 
stood upon the great road leading to the Cilician 
Gates. It was strongly fortified, and occupied by a 
garrison. The city in the plain can never have been 
salubrious. From the heat and moisture a wel- 
come retreat was furnished by the city in the hills, 
wh., serving as a sanatorium and pleasant resort, 
preserved the health and energies of the Tarsians. 
No doubt in Roman times the flat country was well 
drained and cultivated, and healthier than it is in 
its present neglected condition. Including the in- 




Ancient Gateway between Antioch and Tarsus 

habitants of the city in the hills, the Tarsians may 
then have numbered about 500,000. 

In ancient times the three main centres of popu- 
lation and influence in the Cilician plain were 
Mallos, Adana, and Tarsus. Mallos lay on the 
river Pyramus, a short distance from its mouth, and 
was alone on the coast of Cilicia in possessing an 
excellent harbour with easy access fm. the sea. Its 
one means of communication with the interior was 
the road leading through Adana. Adana, while 
kept in easy contact with inland markets by means 
of the great road, had no outlet to the sea save by 
the harbour of Mallos, the river Sarus, on wh. it 
stood, being navigable only in the reaches near the 
city. Her river furnished Tarsus with a highway 
for her maritime trade, her distance from the river's 
mouth making for security in the days of peril from 
pirates. The excellent waggon road to the interior 
through the Cilician Gates, gave her a great advan- 
tage over those using the ancient track running 
northward by way of Adana. This helps to explain 
how Tarsus came to outdistance her rivals. 

The glory of Tarsus was the river, wh. originally 
flowed thro' the centre of the city. Owing to 
floods wh. did great damage to the city the emperor 
Justinian had a connection made between the river 



Tar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tar 



and a watercourse that ran past the city on the east. 
Gradually all the water flowed in this direction, and 
the ancient bed through the town has long been dry. 
In former times the river flowed into a lake five or 
six miles below Tarsus, wh., as the name " Rhegma " 
shows, must once have been a lagoon. A belt of 
sand dunes protected it from the sea. The lake was 
formed into a splendid harbour, and by deepening 
the river it was made possible for ships of lighter 
draught to go all the way to the city. This great 
engineering feat was accomplished at some unknown 
time in the past. The like is true of the astonishing 
enterprise by wh. a way was cut with chisel and 
hammer through the rocks of the Taurus mountains 
— the famous pass of the Cilician Gates. These 
achievements cast light on the spirit and energy of 
the inhabitants, which gave Tarsus a position to 
justify St. Paul's patriotic pride in it as " no mean 
city" (Ac. 21. 39 ). 

Sir Wm. Ramsay {Cities of St. Paul, pp. n6ff.) 
argues for the identification of Tarsus with Tar- 
shish. The name occurs in Gn. io. 4f * along with 
Kittim and Dodanim as "sons of Javan," i.e. 
" Ionians." The former is Cyprus, and the latter, 
wh. we shd. read Rodanim, stands for Rhodes. 
One naturally looks for Tarshish nearer to these 
than Spain. The change in the name by trans- 
literation is easily explained. The absence of tin, 
however, in Asia Minor, wh. was one of the staple 
exports of Tarshish (Ek. 27. 12 ; Jr. io. 9 ), is a diffi- 
culty. If the identification is accepted it shows 
that Tarsus has retained its name, practically un- 
altered, for about 6000 years. Of the earliest 
history of Tarsus practically nothing is known. It 
was prob. a city of some importance before the 
coming of the Ionians. The Greeks, according to 
their wont, would mingle with the native Orien- 
tal population, and strengthen their position by 
friendly trade relationships. The dominance of 
the Greeks was succeeded by a period of greater 
Oriental influence. This was inaugurated by Shal- 
maneser's capture of the city about the middle of 
the ninth century B.C., referred to on the Black 
Obelisk (see illustration to Jehu). Native kings 
ruled in Cilicia under the suzerainty of Persia until 
B.C. 401, when Xenophon found one Syennesis 
reigning in Tarsus. In b.c 334 Alexander the 
Great found a Persian officer in direct control. 
Alexander's advent marked the beginning of a new 
Greek ascendency. Tarsus was evidently regarded 
as more Oriental than Greek, and was not granted 
autonomy. It remained for a time under the Greek 
Seleucid kings of Syria. Prob. under Antiochus IV., 
Epiphanes (b.c 175-164), it was reorganised as an 
autonomous city, with the name Antiocheia-on-the- 
Cydnus. This name disappeared with the death of 
Antiochus. Under the new arrangement Tarsus 
received more honourable treatment than any other 

Si 



city in Cilicia. " The Tarsus of St. Paul dates in a 
very real sense from the re-foundation by Antiochus 
Epiphanes." It was a Greek city-state, managing 
its own internal affairs, but in other respects, such as 
its foreign relations, subject to the government of the 
Seleucid empire. According to Dion Chrysostom, 
Strabo, and Stephanus, the Greek settlers in Tarsus 
were " colonists of the Argives." The title demi- 
ourgos, applied to their chief magistrate, shows that 
the population was mainly Dorian. To flatter 
their pride of antiquity they claimed to be the 
children of the Argives who went with Tripto- 
lemus in search of Io, who, by the jealous anger of 
Hera, had been turned into a cow. They also, 
however, declared " that Tarsus was the founda- 
tion of Sardanapalos, and an old Oriental city." 
This may be a reference to the reconstitution by 
Shalmaneser. 

There was a considerable Jewish population in 
Tarsus. It appears certain that as a whole they 
enjoyed the rights of citizenship. St. Paul claims 
to be a citizen (Ac. 21. 39 ). This he could be only if 





Coin of Tarsus (Hadrian) 

enrolled in one of the tribes into which the com- 
munity was organised. For religious reasons he 
could not be a member of a Greek or heathen tribe. 
There was, therefore, a Jewish tribe to which his 
family belonged ; the rights of citizenship passing 
from father to son. It is prob. that they were in- 
troduced by Antiochus Epiphanes at the time of the 
re-foundation. The presence of Jews was held to 
make for prosperity, because of their skill in trade 
and commerce. 

With the decline of the Seleucid empire came a 
revival of Oriental influence in Cilicia, a leading 
part being played by Mithridates, king of Pontus. 
About a.d. 83 the hordes of Tigranes, king of 
Armenia, swept over the country, and it seems cer- 
tain that Tarsus fell into his hands. Experience of 
this barbarian's power was bound to provoke a 
reaction favourable to the western spirit, and to 
Hellenism, which it was the wise policy of Rome 
to promote. 

The Cilician plain was not included in the pro- 
vince of Cilicia, wh., when first instituted (b.c 104), 
was designed to check the pirates of Cilicia Tracheia. 
Pompey (b.c 65-4) freed the country from Oriental 
dominance and reorganised it. In b.c 47 it was 
visited by Julius Caesar, who won the affection and 



Tar 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tat 



trust of the Tarsians. They called their city Julio- 
polis, and afterwards favoured his nephew Augustus 
for his sake. The Triumvir Antony came to Tarsus 
in B.C. 42, and here took place his meeting with 
Cleopatra, who sailed up the Cydnus to the city in 
her magnificent galley. The privileges bestowed on 
the city by Antony were afterwards confirmed by 
Augustus. Under Antony the municipal govern- 
ment had become utterly corrupt, being manipu- 
lated in his own interest by one Boethos, de- 
scribed by Strabo as " bad poet, bad citizen." To 
Athenodorus, a citizen of Tarsus, a Stoic philo- 
sopher, teacher of the youthful Augustus at 
Apollonia, who retained much influence with 
his pupil after he assumed the imperial purple, 
the emperor entrusted the duty of reform. He 
banished Boethos and his corrupt gang, and revo- 
lutionised the constitution of the city. Under his 
influence also the university of Tarsus became an 
important centre of learning and philosophy. Close 
as the relations were between the municipality and 
the university, the citizens were proud of its high 
repute. Athenodorus was still alive in a.d. 7. 
Among the younger generation wholesome interest 
in athletics was stimulated by the public games. 

Probably the Romans leaned more upon the 
Jewish than the Greek element in the population. 
Subjection to authority is more natural to the 
Oriental mind ; and the Jews knew that their 
safety and prosperity depended on the good will of 
their benefactors. On the other hand, the impor- 
tance attached by the Greeks to individual rights 
and liberties was not favourable to settled and 
steady government. It is to be observed, however, 
that in Tarsus, more than in any other Asiatic city, 
there was preserved a fairly harmonious balance 
between the Hellenistic and Asiatic elements. 

The religion of Tarsus bore traces of Ionian, 
Assyrian, and Persian influences, the foundation of 
the Hellenic Tarsus (c. b.c 170) tending to change 
the aspect rather than the nature of the state wor- 
ship. The Greeks readily identified their gods 
with those of the Tarsians, and fell in with their 
religious practices. The religion of the Jews kept 
them apart ; but upon a certain circle it exercised a 
wholesome influence. The supreme deity is repre- 
sented as sitting like the Greek Zeus, an upright 
sceptre in his left hand, and in his right, objects wh. 
vary at different times, e.g. an ear of corn, a bunch 
of grapes, or a figure of Victory. He was connected 
with the old Anatolian peasant-god, whose gifts to 
mankind are the fruits of the year. Subordinate to 
him was a young and active deity, the " working- 
god," who is figured on the coins as standing on a 
winged and horned lion, fully armed, with a branch 
or flower in his right hand. He was identified with 
Heracles by the Greeks. He represents the youth- 
ful deity of ancient Anatolia, who is figured on a 



rock wall at Bogaz-Keui. The old Ionian Apollo 
also seems to be brought into relation with the 
native god Perseus. 

Our interest in Tarsus centres in the fact that it 
was the native city of St. Paul, the greatest per- 
sonality of the Christian centuries. Its influence in 
moulding and training the future apostle of the 
Gentiles was manifold. To interpret with sympa- 
thetic comprehension the perfected faith of Israel 
he must indeed be a son of Abraham. In Tarsus he 
was brought into vital contact with the Western 
as well as the Oriental spirit and ideas. The city 
stimulated his love of learning, and furnished oppor- 
tunities for its pursuit. Its easy communication 
with the great world gave breadth to his outlook. 
His citizenship of Tarsus and of Rome help to ex- 
plain the imperial range of his thought and plans. 
His- intimate acquaintance with the religion of 
Tarsus enabled him to distinguish the elements of 
good to be found in even the most degraded forms 
of religion. That this Jew was able effectively to 
present the Gospel to Asiatic and European alike, to 
learned and simple, to the proud Romans and the 
humblest of subject peoples, was due, in the provi- 
dence of God, to his birth and training as a citizen 
of Tarsus. 

TARTAK, a deity that, along with Nibhaz, was 
" made " (i.e. the idol was " made ") to be wor- 
shipped by the Avites (2 K. 17. 31 ). It is impossible 
to identify the deity intended. We cannot be sure 
what race is meant by the Avites, or where their 
original seats were ; consequently we have no 
knowledge of their worship. We cannot be sure 
that we have the correct form of the name, as the 
Jews had such a mania for distorting the designa- 
tions of heathen deities. The assertion that T. was 
worshipped under the form of an ass is to be dis- 
missed as fabulous. 

TARTAN (2 K. 18. 17 ; Is. 20. 1 ), an Assyrian 
official, next in dignity to the king, apparently 
nearly equivalent to our commander-in-chief. 
There were at least two of these. They were some- 
times distinguished as Tartannu rabu, " the great 
T," and Tartannu sanu, " the second T.," and 
sometimes Tartannu imni, " the T. of the right 
hand," and Tartannu sumeli, " the T. of the left 
hand." It is thought that the two Tartans men- 
tioned in Scripture can be identified. The T. sent 
by Sargon to conquer Ashdod (Is. 20. 1 ) was 
probably Asshur-iska-udannin ; and the T. who 
accompanied Rabshakeh to Jrs. was called Bel- 
emuranni (2 K. 18. 17 ). It is to be observed that, 
though in the negotiations the Rabshakeh is the 
chief speaker, the Tartan is the first-named of the 
officials sent, this indicating his superior rank. 

TATNAI, RV. TATTENAI, satrap of the pro- 
vince W. of the Euphrates, under the Persian 
Darias Hystaspis (Ez. 5. 3 , &c). He prob. corre- 



Tav 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tei 



sponds to the Ushtanni of the cuneiform inscription, 
satrap of Ebir Ndri, evidently = Heb. ( abar nahard, 
rendered " beyond the river." It included Ccele- 
Syria and Phoenicia. 

TAVERNS, THE THREE, the second station 
on the Appian Way, at wh. St. Paul was met by 
believers fm. Rome while journeying thither fm. 
Puteoli (Ac. 28. 15 ). Cicero, in a letter to Atticus 
(ii. 12), mentions that when he had emerged fm. the 
road fm. Antium into the Appian Way he met 
Curio at the Three Taverns. According to the 
Antonine Itinerary it was 33 miles fm. Rome ; it 
most nearly coincides with the modern village of 
Cisterna. 

TAXES. The law of Israel sanctioned certain 
payments in money and in kind to be made by 
the people for support of religious ordinances, 
and maintenance of the priests {see First-fruits, 
Tithes, &c), but not taxes in our sense, to furnish 
revenue for the government. A direct tax was 
levied by Menahem that he might with the proceeds 
purchase the friendship and support of Pul, king of 
Assyria (2 K. 15. 20 ). Jehoiakim also taxed Judah 
that he might meet the demands of Pharaoh-necoh 
(23. 35 ) ; see Tribute. The taxing of Lk. 2. 1 , &c, 
and Ac. 5. 37 was an " enrolment " (RV.) or " regis- 
tration." As a subject people the Jews paid taxes 
to the Persian kings after the Exile (Ez. 4. 13 , &c). 
For a time, under the Maccabaean regime, they 
were delivered from the humiliation of paying taxes 
to a foreign power. But with the advent of the 
Romans the burden was once more fixed upon their 
necks. For the taxes levied by the Romans and 
their method of collecting them see Publican. 

TEACHER. For education see School, School- 
master. In its original sense tordh, the name ap- 
plied to the Pentateuch, and commonly taken as 
equivalent to " law," means " instruction " or 
" direction." It was the utterance of one who gave 
counsel, or " taught " (yardh) the people the mind 
and will of God. Under this higher sense of 
" teacher " falls the prophet in OT. times (Ex. 
24. 12 , &c). Thus the strangers settled by the 
Assyrians in Samaria required one to teach them 
how they should fear the Lord (2 K. I7. 27t ). In 
Israel it was the duty of the Levites to give instruc- 
tion as to the requirements of the Divine law (Dt. 
17. 11 , 2/j.. 8 ; 2 Ch. 15. 3 ). The duty was one for wh. 
it was a disgrace to accept payment (Mi. 3. 11 ). 
After the Exile the function of the teacher was more 
definitely to read and explain to the people the 
written law. The Hebrew of the Scriptures was no 
longer the spoken language, and in reading it was 
necessary to render it into Aramaic ; or at least to 
give the sense in that tongue. The teacher was 
therefore now not one who brought a message he 
himself had received direct from God, but a student 
and exponent of what had been given by others 

8 



fixed and written. He had care of the written law, 
of which he made copies ; hence perhaps the name 
" scribe," by wh. he came to be known {see Scribes). 
Men of other than Levitical descent could under- 
take this work, and it gradually passed into the 
hands of a class distinct from the priests, whose 
influence and authority became less in proportion 
as the people were instructed in the mysteries of 
the faith. The scribes became the true leaders of 
the people, and the synagogues became the centres 
of the popular religion : the priests being limited 
more and more to the Temple services, and the 
management of the great national feasts. These 
" teachers " bore the honourable title of Rabbi 
(Mw. 23. 7 ). It is significant of their position and 
power that Jesus calls Nicodemus " the teacher 
(6 SiSdo-KaXos) of Isr." (Jn. 3. 10 RV.). 

In the NT. there is a sense in wh. the missionaries 
of the new faith are all " teachers." They are to 
" teach all nations," to " make disciples " of them 
(Mw. 28. 19 ), making known to them the good news 
of the Gospel, following the example of the great 
Teacher. With the growth of the Church, how- 
ever, we find that the " teacher " is distinguished 
from the apostle, prophet, pastor, and evangelist 
(1 Cor. 12. 28 ; Eph. 4. 11 ). The apostles, indeed, 
exercised all the functions indicated by these names. 
The prophet may be distinguished as one who 
preaches for edification ; the pastor as one who 
" shepherds " the flock ; the evangelist as the agent 
specially in presenting the Gospel to the uncon- 
verted ; and the teacher as the instructor of con- 
verts. The titles were prob. never intended to 
indicate entirely distinct persons, as if one could not 
at different times exercise different functions. Thus 
we find that the " bishop," or " elder," must be 
" apt to teach " (1 Tm. 3. 2 ). Elders who rule well, 
and " labour in the word and in teaching " (1 Tm. 
5. 17 ), are "worthy of double honour." Teachers 
who pandered to the depraved tastes of their 
hearers were in ill repute (2 Tm. 4- 3 ). It is 
poss. that the Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve 
Apostles, was intended for the use of teachers in 
sub-apostolic times. 

TEBAH, a son of Nahor the br. of Abraham 
(Gn. 22. 24 ). 

TEBALIAH, son of Hosah, a Merarite Levite, 
one of the gatekeepers of the Tabernacle in David's 
time (I Ch. 26. 11 ). 

TEBETH (Est. 2. 16 ), the tenth Babylonian 
month, nearly equivalent to our January {see Year). 
Esther was taken into the harem of Ahasuerus on 
the 10th of this month. 

TEHAPHNEHES, a variant of Tahpanhes (Ek. 
30. 18 ). 

TEHINNAH, the founder of the city of Nahash 
{'ir nahash, 1 Ch. 4. 12 ). 

TEIL TREE (Heb. 'elah) is correctly given as 
is 



Tek 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tel 



" terebinth " in RV. It is one of the trees from the 
roots of which, even when the stem is cut down, 
new shoots will spring (Is. 6. 13 ). 

TEKEL. See Upharsin. 

TEKOA, TEKOAH, a town in the territory of 
Judah, represented by the mod. Khirbet Tequ'a. 
The ruins are extensive, and crown a hill about five 
miles to the S. of Bethlehem, commanding a wide 
view of the uplands. It stands on the edge of the 
wilderness which stretches eastward to the Dead 
Sea, called " the wilderness of Tekoa " (2 Ch. 
20. 20 ). The LXX, but not the Hebrew, of Jo. 15. 59 
gives Tekoah as one of the cities of Judah. In I Ch. 
2. 24 , 4. 5 , Ashur, half-brother of Caleb, is called the 
" father of T.," by wh. we may understand that he 
founded the city. From T. came certain of David's 
heroes (2 S. 23.2 s ; 1 Ch. II. 28 , 27. 9 ). It was one of 
the cities fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 6 ). Its 
position on the border of the desert lent it consider- 
able importance, and its defences were evidently 
long maintained (Jr. 6. 1 ). Tekoa was the home of 
the wise woman, whom Joab used to persuade the 
king that Absalom shd. be recalled from his banish- 
ment (2 S. 14. 2 , &c). Here also dwelt the prophet 
Amos, who was one of the herdsmen tending the 
flocks of the town in the wilderness pastures. In 
the wilderness of Tekoa Jehoshaphat inflicted 
crushing defeat upon the Ammonites and their 
allies (2 Ch. 2O. 20fl -). The " nobles " or chiefs of 
Tekoa proudly refused to assist in repairing the de- 
fences of Jrs., but the humbler people did their 
share (Ne. 3. 5 « 27 ). From Bacchides the Maccabees, 
Jonathan and Simon, took refuge in the wilderness 
of Tekoa, pitching their tents at the pool of Asphar 
(1 M. cj. 33 ). An old story tells that Nathaniel was 
born in Bethlehem. He was saved from Herod's 
slaughter by his mother hiding him under a fig tree 
— a reminiscence of Jn. I. 48 — after wh. he escaped 
to Tekoa. In the twelfth cent, the tomb of Amos 
was shown in a cave. In 11 38 T. was raided and 
sacked by a band of Turks, the inhabitants finding 
asylum in the cave of Khareitun. 

The ruins include the remains of a square tower 
strongly situated, and the remains of a Greek 
church, with baptismal font of rose-coloured lime- 
stone. Numerous cisterns are found cut in the 
rock. The caves in the neighbourhood are used as 
shelters for sheep. 

TEL-ABIB. A place on the Chebar where 
Ezekiel (3. 15 ) visited the captives and stayed with 
them a week. The name in Heb. signifies " hill of 
corn." It probably corresponds to the Asyr. til 
abubi, a mound thrown up by a flood, of which 
many examples are found in Babylonia. The site 
is unidentd. 

TELAH, an Ephraimite, ancestor of Joshua 
(1 Ch. 7. 25 ). 

TELAIM, named only in 1 S. 15. 4 as the place of 

81 



assembling and numbering of Saul's troops prepara- 
tory to his attack on Amalek. Both LXX and Jos. 
{Ant. VI. vii. 2) give Gilgal, instead of Telaim. It 
would not be inappropriate that he should set out 
from that ancient sanctuary on his enterprise ; but 
its position in the Jordan valley certainly made it 
inconvenient. Perhaps, with Sir Charles Wilson 
(HDB.), we should identify T. with Telem (Jo. 
15. 24 ), in the S. of Judah, a convenient point of 
departure. 

TELASSAR (Is. 37. 12 ), THELASAR (2 K. 
19. 12 ; Heb. tela'ssdr, and telassdr). A city claimed 
by Sennacherib in his letters to Hezekiah to have 
been conquered by his predecessors despite the aid 
of the gods of its inhabitants. There is a pecu- 
liarity in the statement in regard to T. wh. has to be 
noted ; in the other cases the city alone is named, as 
if the inhabitants naturally were implied in their 
abode ; but here the inhabitants are mentioned 
separately, as if the city were not their first or 
natural dwelling-place. These inhabitants are 
called " the children of Erek." They have been 
identified by Schrader (COT. ii. p. 11, Eng. tr.) 
with the Bit Adini of the inscriptions, a nation in- 
habiting the region S. of Orfa (Edessa), in Northern 
Mesopotamia, and occupying a tract of territory 
to the W. of the Euphrates as well ; this race was 
only subdued after a severe and prolonged conflict 
by Asshur-nazir-pal. The probable history of sub- 
sequent events wd. seem to be that the leaders of the 
resistance to the Assyrian domination wd. be re- 
moved to some place at such a distance fm. their 
original seats as seemed to preclude the possibility 
of interference with the process of pacification. 
T. has been identified with Til-Asshuri, a place 
referred to in the monuments as in the neighbour- 
hood of Babylon. It was conquered by Tiglath- 
pileser ; thus if transferred thither " the children of 
Eden " wd. be distant 700 miles fm. their former 
homes. These colonists fm. Northern Mesopo- 
tamia appear to have revolted, and trusted in their 
gods that they wd. be delivered fm. the power of 
Assyria, but trusted in vain. The struggle must 
have been one of some severity or it wd. not have 
been singled out for record by Sennacherib on this 
occasion. 

TELEM. (1) A city of Judah named with Ziph 
and Bealoth (Jo. 15. 24 ), poss. ident. with Telaim. 
According to LXX (2 S. 3. 12 ), Abner sent his mes- 
sengers to David at " Thelam," poss. the same place. 
Sir C. Wilson (HDB.) finds a trace of the name in 
that of the Dhallam Arabs, to the S. of Tell el- 
Mill? (Moladah), but the site has not been dis- 
covered. (2) A Temple gatekeeper who had married 
a foreign wife (Ez. io. 24 ), called " Tolbanes " 
in 1 Es. o,. 25 : possibly identical with Talmon 
(Ne. 12. 25 ). 

TEL-HARESHA, TEL-HARSA, RV. TEL- 
6 



Tel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tern 



HARSHA, a town in Babylonia, whence after the 
Captivity certain families of Jews returned to Judaea, 
who were not able to prove their descent from 
Israelitish stock, their genealogical registers prob. 
having been lost during the Exile (Ez. 2. 59 ; Ne. 
7. 61 ) : unidentd. 

TEL-MELAH, a Babylonian town whence Jews 
in the same case with those from Tel-Harsha went 
back to Judaea (Ez. 2. 59 ; Ne. 7. 61 ) : also unidentd. 

TEMA, a son of Ishmael (Gn. 25. 15 ; 1 Ch. i. 30 ), 
progenitor of a tribe in N. Arabia bearing his name, 
ivh. is preserved in the mod. Teimd, an oasis c. 40 
miles S. of Dumat el-Jandal (Dumah), and c. 200 
miles N. of Medina, on an ancient road leading 
from the Gulf of 'Aqaba to the Persian Gulf. The 
inhabitants would naturally be engaged in the 
caravan trade (Jb. 6. 19 ). Their command of the 
oasis wells enabled them to befriend the thirsty 
travellers from the desert (Is. 21. 14 ). The ruins 
of the ancient city wall, three miles in circuit, are 
still traced. For description see Doughty, Arabia 
Deserta, i. 285. An Aramaic stele found recently, 
dating from the sixth cent. B.C., betrays the influ- 
ence of Assyrian art ; and furnishes evidence of a 
much older civilisation. The place is also men- 
tioned in the cuneiform inscriptions. 

TEMAH. See Thamah. 

TEMAN, son of Eliphaz, and grandson of Esau 
(Gn. 36. 11 ' 15 ; 1 Ch. i. 36 ), reputed ancestor of a 
tribe inhabiting a district in Edom (O. 8f- ). It 
is named by Amos (i. 12 ) along with the capital, 
Bozrah, and in Ek. 25. 13 it is placed over against 
Dedan, wh. lay to the S. T. is therefore to be 
sought in the N. of Edom. OEJ. speaks of a vill. 
with this name, wh. Eusebius places 15, and Jerome 
10 Rm. miles from Petra. Unfortunately the direc- 
tion is not indicated by either. The inhabitants 
were celebrated for their wisdom (Jr. 49. 7 , &c). 
Eliphaz, one of Job's friends, was a native of T. 
(Jb. 2. 11 , &c). Up to the present no trace has been 
fcund of this town, wh. was clearly one of some 
importance. 

TEMENI, an Asherite, father of Tekoa (1 Ch. 

TEMPLE. The Heb. word hekdl, wh. in OT. is 
rendered " temple " (2 K. 23.*, &c), when it refers 
to the residence of a king, is rightly trd. " palace " 
(1 K. 2I. 1 , &c.) The idea of a royal residence is also 
present in the name as applied to the Temple in 
Jerusalem, wh. is regarded as the dwelling-place of 
God, conceived as King (Is. 6. 1 , &c). Sometimes 
the word denotes only the fore part of the temple 
building, " the Holy Place " as distinguished from 
" the Holy of Holies " (1 K. 6. 17 ; Ek. 41.1). The 
most common designation of the Temple is " the 
house " (of the Lord, or of God), which may mean 
the Temple building alone, as in 1 K. 6. 1, 2 ; but it 
may also denote the whole sanctuary, including the 



court or courts (2 K. io,. 1 * 14 , &c). To go " into 
the house of the Lord " (2 K. 19. 1 ), therefore, does 
not necessarily mean to enter the Temple building. 
The word " sanctuary " (Heb. miqddsh), also mean- 
ing the whole sacred place, occurs rarely (1 Ch. 
22. 19 ; 2 Ch. 36. 17 , " house of the sanctuary "). 
In late Hebrew hekdl, " palace," was the usual ex- 
pression for the Temple building ; bet ham-miqddsh, 
" house of the sanctuary," for the whole sacred place. 
In accord with this usage, in NT. vaos always denotes 
the Temple building, and Upov the whole sanc- 
tuary. RV. renders both alike "temple" (Lk. I. 9 
[vaos] ; Ac. 2. 27 [tiepov] ), with " sanctuary " in 
the margin where vaos is used, altho' this would be 
the exact rendering of lepov. 

There were temples of the Lord before the time 
of Solomon, e.g. the temple {hekdl) at Shiloh with 
doors (1 S. I. 9 , 3. 15 ), and an inner recess where 
Samuel slept near the ark of God (3. 3 ). The law 
also makes mention of the " house of the Lord " 
(Ex. 23. 19 , 34- 26 ). David, however, placed the ark 
of the Lord in a tent (2 S. 6. 17 ), and was taught by 
Nathan the prophet that God did not wish a house 
to dwell in (2 S. 7- 5 " 7 ). With his new royal resi- 
dence north of the City of David (see Jerusalem), 
Solomon thought it proper to combine a sanctuary 
equal to it in royal splendour. Mount Zion should 
be God's fixed and final abode ; and there Israel's 
God and David's dynasty should appear in an indis- 
soluble alliance. The particular site of the sanc- 
tuary was the threshing-floor of Oman (or Araunah) 
the Jebusite (2 Ch. 3. 1 ), which David bought from 
him in order to build an altar there, according to 
the directions of the prophet Gad (2 S. 24. 18 ' 25 ). 
It was not an ancient place of worship, but it was 
hallowed by the appearance of the angel of the Lord 
(2 S. 24. 16 ), and it was occupied by the Lord when 
His ark was moved into its " oracle " (1 K. 8. 6 ' 10 > u ). 

(1) The Temple of Solomon (1. K. 6., 7. 13 - 51 ; 
2 Ch. 3., 4 ; cp. 2 K. 25. ]3 " 17 ; Jr. 52. 17 - 23 ). The 
Tyrians who built David's palace on Zion (2 S. 5. 11 ) 
are mentioned only as supplying and preparing 
materials for the Temple. All work in brass, how- 
ever, is ascribed to the Tyrian Hiram (1 K. 7. 13fL ), 
and skilled artificers' work of every description (2 Ch. 
2. 12fl -). According to 1 Ch. 28. 11 - 19 , the exact plan 
of the building was drawn by David, guided by a 
" writing from the hand of the Lord." 

In front of the Temple was a porch, 20 cubits in 
length and 10 in breadth. The entrance was sup- 
ported by two pillars of brass (see below). The 
porch could not have been higher, but rather lower 
than the Temple. 2 Ch. 3* gives its height as 
120 cubits, wh. should perhaps be reduced to 20. 
This led into the fore part of the building, the 
" palace " (see above), 20 cubits by 40, and this 
again to the " hindmost chamber " (Heb. deb'ir ; 
RV. erroneously, " the oracle "), 20 cubits by 20. 



817 



Tern 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tern 



The height of the house was 30 cubits ; that of the pentagonal in form ; i.e. it was topped by a gable 
debir, 20. If this be correct (wh. is doubtful), we (EV. wrongly " a fifth part of the wall," 6. 31 ). The 
must assume that there was an upper room over the two doors were of wood of the oil tree. A veil is 
debir. With the exception of the porch, the house mentioned only in 2 Ch. 3. 14 ; it may belong to the 
was surrounded by an annexe of " side chambers," in post-exilic Temple. The golden chains drawn " be- 
three storeys, each of five cubits in height. The fore the debir " may have served for the more secure 
breadth of these chambers varied from five to seven closing of the doors. The wall between the debir 
cubits. In order that the beams forming the roofs and the " palace " is not mentioned. It may have 
and floors of these chambers might not be let into consisted of cedar leaves ; it was therefore un- 
the Temple wall, a rebatement of a cubit was made necessary to speak of door-posts. These are men- 
in the wall at the height of each storey, and on this tioned in connection with the rectangular entrance 
the beams rested. Thus the chambers of the first to the " palace " as being of " oil wood," the doors 
storey were five, those of the second six, and those of being made of cypress. Owing to the width of this 
the third seven, cubits in breadth. The number of entrance each of the two doors was divided into two 
these side rooms, in which were placed the stores valves, moving on hinges. This made the opening 
and treasures of the sanctuary, is unknown. One easier, and the doors could be folded against the 
door on the south side gave entrance to all. The posts. In chap. 6. 21f - only one piece of furniture is 
storeys seem to have been connected only by aper- assigned to the " palace," namely, an altar of cedar 
tures in the floors (and ladders). Windows, covered wood, which may be the table of bloodless offerings 
by lintels, and filled in with perforated slabs of stone (cp. Ek. 41 , 22 ). In chap. J. i8t - an altar, a table, and 
(so we must understand I K. 6. 4 ), served rather for ten candlesticks, all of gold, are mentioned, 
ventilation than for light. These side chambers Works of art were the pillars supporting the porch, 
were protected by the holiness of the Temple which cast in brass, 18 cubits high and 12 cubits in circum- 
they surrounded, while they protected the Temple ference, having therefore a diameter of 3-^- cubits 
from unholy eyes and rapacious hands. The whole {pp. 7. 19 , " four cubits "). The capitals, five cubits 
building was covered with cedar beams brought high, were formed like lilies. They were each sur- 
from the Lebanon ; the roofs consequently were rounded by a network of brass (for " seven," which 
flat, and had the usual covering of plaster. In the occurs twice in 7. 17 , read " one net "), and two rows 
interior the walls of the main building were lined of pomegranates fixed upon four points. The form 
with cedar boards, and the floors were laid with reminds us of a capital found at Khorsabad, with 
boards of cypress (RV. " fir "). Not to see a stone two rows of ornamental bows, the lower inverted, 
inside the house was the luxury of a royal palace surrounding the capital like festoons. The idea of 
(2 S. 7- 2 ; I K. 7. 7f *)- Wood was regarded as a the capital was that of a basket shaped like a lily, 
costly substitute for common plaster, making the with garlands of fruit. Some think that these 
house warm in winter, and affording easy oppor- pillars stood free, but in J. 15 ' 19 « 21 they appear as 
tunity to adorn the walls with paintings and carving, part of the porch (pp. Ek. 40. 49 ). That on the south 
Here upon the wood-work, according to 1 K. 6. 18 , was called Boaz (perhaps originally " Baal "), that 
were carved apples of colocynth, and garlands of on the north Jachin (that is, " he establishes "), the 
flowers. Cherubim also, and figures of palm trees, names suggesting the Lord's almighty power to sus- 
are mentioned (6. 29 ). The statement that all these tain His people. 

walls and floors were overlaid with gold (6. 22 ' 30 ) is The Temple building was surrounded by the 
perhaps a later addition. Afterwards, perhaps by a inner court (1 K. 6. 37 , 7. 12 ), as distinguished from 
king before Hezekiah, the doors and door-posts were the outer or great court, wh. belonged to the royal 
gilded (2 K. 18. 16 , text doubtful). In the debir residence {see Jerusalem). The wall of the court 
was placed the ark of the Lord, over which kept was built in layers, each consisting of three rows of 
watch two cherubs, made from the wood of the " oil stones and one of cedar beams, an ancient method of 
tree" (perhaps "fir"). Their wings, outspread, strengthening walls. Solomon erected in the court 
met in the middle, and touched the wall on either an altar of brass (8. 64 , g. 25 ; ep. 2 K. l6. 14f -), the 
side (6. 27 ). Thus they barred the way to the place exact measurements of wh. cannot be determined. 



of the Lord's manifestation on the ark behind them. 
This does not quite correspond to the description 
given in chap. 8. 6f - (cp. Ex. 25. 20 ), where the wings 
seem to cover the ark from above. The staves, 
memorials of the ark's times of wandering, remained 
in their places (8. 8 ; cp. Ex.25. 15 ). The ark stood with 
its broad side towards the front, so that the ends of 
the staves could be seen only by one standing at the 
door of the debir. 



2 Ch. 4. 1 gives the breadth as 20 cubits, and the 
height as 10. To the south of this stood the 
brazen " sea," a basin of 30 cubits circumference, 
and 10 cubits in diameter at the brim, and 5 cubits 
deep. It was adorned by two belts of colocynths 
running round it, probably under the brim. It 
stood on twelve oxen of brass. It was said to con- 



tain about 2000 baths (about 16,000 gallons). If 
The entrance to the debir was the sides were perpendicular its capacity could have 

818 



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been only about looo baths. But it probably 
bulged out considerably. The " sea " was for the 
priests to wash their hands and feet (2 Ch. 4« 6 ; cp. 
Ex. 30. 19 ). According to Eastern custom the wash- 
ing could not be done in it. The water for this 
purpose must have been drawn off by means of 
spouts such as are mentioned in connection with the 
laver in the second Temple. While the " sea " was 
fixed in its position, ten movable basins on wheels 
were placed, five on each side of the altar, and in 
them were washed such things as belonged to the 
burnt-offering (2 Ch. 4. 6 ; cp. Lv. i. 9 « 13 ; Ek. 40. 38 ; 
lam. iv. 2 ; Midd. v.). Each basin was set upon a 
base four cubits in length and breadth, and three in 
height, with four wheels i-| cubits in diameter, and 



weight suggests that the measurements given may 
be exaggerated. It is difficult also to understand 
how the " sea," a single casting, weighing about 
15 tons, could have been transported to Jerusalem, 
from the place of founding in the Jordan valley. 

The position of the Temple building was cer- 
tainly never changed till its final destruction ; and 
on the whole, the inner court of the last Temple 
must have corresponded to the court of the time of 
Solomon, since it was important to know exactly 
how far the full holiness of the Sanctuary extended 
(cp. Zeb. v. 3, 5 ; Ednj. viii. 6). It was known that 
certain buildings wh. opened upon this court only 
partially belonged to holy ground (Maas. shani, 
iii. 8 ; Tos. Maas. sh. ii. 13, 15 ; Midd. i. 6 ; Bab. 




Temple Area, Jerusalem: J ami' el-'Aqs 



a ri.ig of half a cubit high on the top to support the 
basil. The basin was four cubits in diameter, with 
a capacity o'f forty baths. Four shoulder-pieces 
(EV. " undersetters ") at the four corners kept the 
basin in position. The whole was made of brass. 
The borders and ledges of the base, which was a 
frame rather than a box, were adorned with lions, 
oxen, and festoons, perhaps also with cherubs and 
palmetti. The weight of a basin filled with water, 
together with its base, has been estimated at about 
68 hundredweights. This would mean that the 
basins were practically immovable, and were only 
intended to symbolise the rain-clouds, as the " sea " 
symbolised the ocean. But the presence of water in 
the sanctuary, at the place where the sacrifices were 
prepared, was indispensable. Here also the water 
must have been drawn off by spouts. The great 



Zeb. 56a ; Bab. Jom. 25a). In the Temple building 
the exact boundary was assumed to be the interior 
side of the wall enclosing the court (Eduj. viii. 6). 
The sacred rock of the present Haram, as the highest 
point of the area, may represent the site of the altar, 
that is, the centre of Solomon's inner court. Then 
the western and southern edges of the present higher 
platform of the Haram may approximately corre- 
spond to the boundaries of Solomon's sanctuary. 
Towards the east and north, however, the present 
area is probably considerably wider. The north 
end may rather mark the northern boundary of 
Solomon's great court. We do not know when the 
part of the great court in front of the Sanctuary was 
added to its precincts. Two courts are mentioned 
in the time of Manasseh (2 K. 21. 5 ; cp. 23. 12 ). The 
second is called the " new court " (2 Ch. 20. 5 ), the 



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" outer court " (Ek. io. 5 ), the " great court " (2 Ch 
4. 9 ). The first is the " inner court " (1 K. 6. 36 , 
7. 12 ; Ek. 8. 16 ), the " upper court " (Jr. 36. 10 ), the 
" court of the priests " (2 Ch. 4. 9 ). From the inner 
court a gate led to the king's palace, the gate of the 
runners (2 K. n. 19 , EV. " guard "), or behind the 
runners (2 K. n. 6 ) ; perhaps also the entrance cf 
the adjutants (Jr. 38. 14 , read sheUshlm), the upper 
gate of 2 Ch. 23. 20 . Another gate led to the east, 
the east gate (Ek. io. 19 , II. 1 ), the royal gate (1 Ch. 
9. 18 ). In the north a gate was built by Jotham 
(2 K. 15. 35 ; 2 Ch. 27.2), called the new gate (Jr. 
26. 10 , 36. 10 ), the upper gate of Benjamin (Jr. 20. 2 ), 
the northern upper gate (Ek. g. 2 ), the northern gate 
of the inner court (Ek. 8. 3 ), or the gate of the altar 
(8. 5 ). This gate was important for the country 
people coming from the north ; but also for the 
town people approaching from the west, as in the 
south the royal residence bordered on the Sanctuary 
(cf. Ek. 43. 8 ). It was therefore the right place for 
public proceedings (Jr. 26. 10 , 36. 10 ). An outer 
north gate corresponded to this (Ek. 8. 14 ). The 
Temple of Solomon was burned by command of 
Nebuchadnezzar on the 9th or loth day of the fifth 
month of his nineteenth year, b.c 586 (2 K. 25. 8 ; 
Jr. 5 2.i2f.). 

(2) The Temple of EzekieL— The prophet 
Ezekiel had a vision of a new Temple, on the tenth 
day of the first month in the fourteenth year after 
the destruction, b.c 573 (Ek. 40.-42., 43. 13 " 17 , 46. 19 - 
47. 12 ). The leading idea of the plan drawn up by 
Ezekiel after the vision was, more thoroughly than 
had been done in the former Sanctuary, to protect 
that of the future from defilement. This was ac- 
complished in various ways. The Sanctuary was 
completely separated from Jerusalem, and placed in 
the middle of the land marked off for the priests 
(Ek. 48. s " 10 ). An outer court of 500 cubits square 
was assigned to the worshippers, who only at the 
feasts were allowed to enter the inner court, and 
this in a prescribed order (Ek. 46. 9 ). Ezekiel takes 
great pains to show how strongly the three gates 
of this court, towards the east, the south, and the 
north, were built, each being 25 cubits broad and 
50 long. There were six recesses within, evidently 
for the watchmen, whose duty it was rigidly to ex- 
clude every unclean thing. The east gate was to be 
entered only by the Lord ; then it was to be closed 
for ever. Thirty cells in the wall, open at the front 
and provided with columns, were probably designed 
for the sacrificial meals of the people ; and four 
courts, 40 by 30 cubits, at the corners, for the boiling 
of their sacrifices. The inner court, with its sur- 
roundings, rightly called the priests' court, was a 
space of 200 by 350 cubits ; but the central part, 
the court itself, was only 100 cubits square. It was 
approached by three strong gates, 25 by 50 cubits, 
like the gates of the outer court. These gates, how- 

82 



ever, had their porches on the outside, and stood 
without the court, while those of the outer court 
had their porches inside, and all their building 
within the court. There the doors closed from 
without, here from within ; which shows that the 
inner court was to be still better protected than the 
outer. In the porch at the east gate four tables 
were placed, for the slaying and cutting of the sin- 
offering and the guilt -offering (40. 39 ; delete " the 
burnt-offering "). There was also provision made 
for washing the burnt-offering. But for the slaying 
of the burnt-offering and the sacrifice four other 
tables were placed outside, in front of the gate 
(40. 40 ' 43 ). Thus the whole work of preparing the 
sacrifices was excluded from the inner court, and a 
difference was made with the various kinds of sacri- 
fice according to their degrees of holiness. No 
lavers are now found in the inner court. All puri- 
fications must be done without. Only the altar is 
here. It is 18 cubits broad at the base, and 12 
cubits at the top. It stands 12 cubits high, in- 
cluding the base, and the horns rising over the top, 
wh. received the blood of the sacrifices. There are 
two breaks with ledges in the height, which means 
that the top, the most holy part, is guarded to the 
utmost against defilement. The altar was ap- 
proached by a staircase on the side towards the gate 
where the sacrifices were prepared. Somewhere 
near the gates were two cells, one for the priests who 
served at the altar, and one for the priests who 
served in the Temple. Two large buildings, 100 
cubits long, in three storeys, rising with offsets (Heb. 
attiq = 'attiq) at each storey, were erected on either 
side of the Temple, and two other buildings of 50 
cubits in length, between them and the outer court. 
In these latter probably the priests put on and off 
the holy garments, while in the former, connected 
with wh. were kitchens where the food was prepared, 
they ate the most holy things, i.e. their portions of 
the offerings. 

In arrangement the Temple house was not dif- 
ferent from that of Solomon. It consisted of 
Porch, Palace, Holy of Holies, and the appendix 
in three storeys of thirty cells each. The whole 
length, with porch and appendix, was 100 cubits ; 
the breadth 50. But the house was isolated by a 
base 6 cubits high, and by an enclosure 20 cubits 
wide on all sides except in front of the porch. The 
only piece of furniture was a wooden table or altar 
in the " palace." Palms and cherubs adorned the 
wooden lining of the walls. Gold and precious 
metals were intentionally excluded from the whole 
Sanctuary. A building 100 cubits by 80, behind 
the enclosure of the Temple, protected it on that 
side. What special purpose this building served is 
unknown. The supposition that the privies of the 
Sanctuary were here, so close to the Temple, is not 
in harmony with Ezekiel's way of thinking. He 



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would rather seek to make impossible everything 
in the nature of a nuisance behind the Temple ; 
and for this reason the building may have had no 
entrance. Ezekiel is very exact in his description 
of the Sanctuary, although the present text is very 
often sadly corrupt. It is all the more remarkable 
that he never gives the height of the buildings. 
His interest did not lie in a direction whence no 
defilement was to be expected. 

(3) The Post-exilic Temple. — Ezekiel's Temple 
was never built. In B.C. 537, under Cyrus, the 
altar of the Temple was restored (Ez. 3. lf -). In 
B.C. 536 the rebuilding of the Temple began, but 
was soon interrupted (Ez. 3- 8 ). The Sanctuary was 
in fact restored under Darius from b.c. 520-516 
(Hg. i. 15 ; Ez. 5., 6. 15 ). An edict of Cyrus (Ez. 
6. 3f -) gives the height of the house of God at Jrs. as 
60 cubits, the breadth being the same, with three 
rows of great stones, and one row of timber (cp. I K. 
6. 36 , 7. 12 ). According to Jos. these were the dimen- 
sions of the Temple building proper, without the 
upper room. The first post-exilic building may 
actually have been of this size. The veil referred to 
in 2 Ch. 3. 14 (cp. 1 M. 4. 51 ) may have divided the 
Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. Ezekiel's 
plans were never carried out, but the institution of 
the Court of the Women, and the exclusion of the 
Gentiles from both inner courts, were steps in the 
direction indicated by him. 

For a short time the Temple was transformed 
into a heathen sanctuary. No idol was erected, but 
a new altar was placed on the old one in December 
B.C. 168, and on the 25th of Kislew in that year the 
first sacrifice was offered to the Lord of Heaven 
(1 M. 1. 54 - 59 ; cp. Dn. II. 31 , 12. 11 : shiqqutz, mesho- 
mem=ba l al sbamayzm), who was identified with 
Israel's God. In b.c 165 the heathen altar was 
destroyed, the old altar replaced by a new one, and 
on the 25th of Kislew the Temple was restored to 
its legitimate service (1 M. 4 42 " 53 ; 2 M. io, 3 ' 5 ). 
The High Priest Alcimos, in b.c. 160, had the inten- 
tion at least to open the inner courts to foreigners, 
and began to pull down the walls, a work wh. was 
arrested by his sudden death (1 M. o,. 54f -). In ac- 
cordance, probably, with Sadducean wishes, Alex- 
ander Jannaeus (b.c 103-76) drew a wooden railing 
round the Temple building and the altar, to exclude 
the people from this part. The railing is mentioned 
by Josephus as still existing ; but its removal, pro- 
bably during the Jewish insurrection, is presup- 
posed in the scroll of the fasts (see Dalman, Ara- 
maische Dialektproben, pp. 2, 33). 

(4) The Temple of Herod.— The last and most 
brilliant period of the Temple was inaugurated by 
Herod I. He began the work of restoration pro- 
bably in the year B.C. 20 (Ant. XV. xi. I ; but cp. 
BJ. I. xxi..i). The courts were finished in eight 
years, and the Temple building in i|- years, about 



b.c. 11. But Herod's work was continued after his 
death. About a.d. 28 (Jn. 2. 20 ) forty-six years' 
building are spoken of. The restoration was not 
completed until the time of the governor Albinos, 
a.d. 62-64 (Ant. XX. ix. 7). All parts of the Sanc- 
tuary were renewed, with the sole exception of the 
eastern substruction, which was believed to be the 
work of Solomon (Ant. XX. ix. 7 ; cp. XV. xi. 3 ; 
BJ. V. v. I ; Ac. 3. 11 , 5. 12 ; Jn. io. 23 ). The res- 
toration meant an adaptation of the Sanctuary 
to Hellenistic (not Greek) taste. The eagle, the 
symbol of the God of Heaven, was placed on the 
front of the Temple building (Ant. XVII. vi. 2 ; 
BJ. I. xxxiii. 2) ; and there seems to have been an 
inscription announcing the date of the restoration 
(£7. I. xxi. 8). 

The Temple of Herod is described by Josephus in 
BJ. V. 5 ; Ant. XV. xi. 3-7 ; and by the Mishna in 
tract Middoth. The description of Josephus has in 
view Roman readers, and inclines to exaggeration, 
in order to make the Temple appear magnificent in 
their eyes. The Mishna is liable to reflect rather 
the Pharasaic ideal of a Temple than historical 
reality. According to Josephus the Sanctuary was 
originally a square of one stadium, to the length of 
which Herod added half a stadium. The present 
Haram area corresponds to this in shape ; but it 
measures I J by 2-J stadia, not I by 1 J. The Mishna 
gives 500 cubits square, wh. measurement corre- 
sponds with that of Ezekiel. If the cubit be taken 
as = 55 centimetres, this would make 275 metres, 
while the shortest breadth of the Haram area is 
283 metres. The excavations of Warren have 
made it certain that the present substructions of the 
Haram represent the time of Herod ; only the north 
sidehas been changed by the demolition of the castle 
Antonia (see Jerusalem), which occupied the north- 
western corner of the present area. The west side 
of this area is 486 metres in length, the east side 
474; in breadth the north side is 317 metres, and 
the south.283. Cp. Dalman, "DerZweiteTempel," 
in Palastina jahrbuch, 1909. 

The " outer," or " lower sanctuary " (Jos.), or 
" the Mount of the House " (Mishna), the circum- 
ference of which corresponds to that of the present 
area, was surrounded by cloisters with two rows of 
columns. On the south was the " royal cloister," a 
closed hall, with four rows of Corinthian columns. 
Four gates led into this court from the west : one 
from the Lower City (known now as Barclay's Gate); 
one from the Upper City with a bridge (at Wilson's 
Arch), probably the gate of Kipponos (Coponius), in 
the Mishna ; two from the suburb (one of them 
Warren's Gate). Two gates called the gates of 
Hulda (Mishna) were in the south (the present 
double and triple gate) ; one, the gate of Taddi 
(Mishna), in the north. According to Josephus 
there were no gates in the east, where the Mishna 



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places one, perhaps only of a private character, pos- 
sibly on the site of the present Golden Gate. Re- 
mains of arches for bridges or stairs may be traced 
both east and west of the site of the Royal Cloister. 
They may have afforded facilities for transport to 
the interior of building materials. Stairs, mentioned 
in Ac. 2i. 35,40 , led to the main entrance of the 
Castle Antonia. 

The "interior sanctuary," or "Holy Place" (Jos.), 
was first surrounded by a low balustrade of 3 cubits 
(Jos.), or ten handbreadths (Mishna), in which Greek 
and Latin inscriptions prohibited all aliens on pain 
of death from going further in. On the east, north, 
and south there were fourteen steps leading up to a 
platform 10 cubits in breadth. Finally it was sur- 
rounded by a wall 25 cubits high on the inside (Jos.). 
The interior was divided into a lower part towards 
the east, the Court of the Women, and a higher part 
towards the west, the " innermost court " (Jos.), or 

MHOENAAAAOfENHEEnO 
FEYEIOAlEriTOZ T0YOE 



nEPIBOAOYOlAANAH 

00HEAYTQIAITIOEEZ 



0EIN0ANATON 

Greek Inscription on Stone in Balustrade: 
Herod's Temple 

Translation : " No stranger is to enter within the balustrade 
round the Temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will 
be responsible to himself for his death, which will ensue." 

" the enclosure " proper (Mishna), containing the 
Temple building and the altar. The Mishna makes 
the Court of the Women 135 cubits square, and the 
" enclosure "135 cubits in breadth by 187 in length. 
These measurements, however, refer only to the free 
space of the courts, and do not take into account the 
surrounding buildings. By adding 30 cubits, given 
by Jos. as the length of the gates, on three sides, we 
get for the innermost court 195 cubits by 217, for 
the Court of the Women 195 cubits by 165, and a 
total length of 382 cubits. This agrees with the 
nature of the ground towards east and west. It 
thus appears that the higher platform in the present 
Haram in the south and west corresponds to the 
innermost court of Herod's Temple ; while it is 
considerably larger towards the north and the east. 
The eastern boundary of the Court of the Women 
may thus have been only 50 metres distant from the 
east wall of the present Haram. 

The Court of the Women was surrounded by a 
cloister with one row of columns. In each corner 
there was a small court, 40 cubits square ; that 
to the NE, for the wood, that to the SE. for the 



Nazirites, that to the SW. for the oil and wine, and 
that on the NW. for the lepers. Some believed 
that the ark of the covenant was hidden in the Court 
of the Wood (Schek. vi. 1, 2), but in the course of 
digging here only bones were found (Tos. Eduj. 
iii. 3). From the north, east, and south this court 
was entered by one gate, with a door 15 cubits by 30 
(Jos.), or 10 cubits by 20 (Mishna). The east gate, 
called by Jos. the Corinthian gate, by the Mishna 
(wh. does not mention the north and south gates) 
the lower (east) gate, according to Jos. was distin- 
guished by doors of Corinthian brass ; while the 
Mishna gives this distinction to a fourth, the upper 
(east) gate, or gate of Nicanor, between the Court of 
the Women and the innermost court, which had an 
entrance 40 cubits by 50 (Jos.), and two small side 
gates (Mishna). All the doors, with the exception 
of the Corinthian gate, were overlaid with gold. 
Fifteen semicircular steps led from the Court of the 
Women to the entrance of the innermost court 
named above. In two cells at the side of these 
steps the Levitical musicians kept their instruments. 
In the innermost court only a strip from north to 
south, 1 1 cubits broad (Mishna), was free to Israelite 
men — or a strip going round the altar and the Temple 
building (Jos.). A railing one cubit high (Jos.), or 
perhaps later on (see above), a line marked in the 
pavement (Mishna), or a step (Mishna), fenced off 
the priests' part of the court. Three gates gave 
entrance to this court from the north and from the 
south. The southern gates, from west to east, were 
the gate of the fire, of the offering, and of the water ; 
and the northern, the gate of the spark, of the offer- 
ing, and of the warming-house (Mishna ; where, 
however, there is also an enumeration of eight gates 
on the north and south, and two in the west). To 
the east of this court the Mishna places the cells of 
the bakers of the High Priests' pancakes (cf. Lv. 
6. 20ff -), and of Pinehas, the keeper of the priests' 
garments ; on the north side, the cell of the salt for 
salting the sacrifices, of Parva, for salting the hides 
(over it was a bath for the High Priest, used on the 
Day of Atonement), and the cell of the washers for 
washing the intestines, with stairs to the bath (the 
reading in certain texts places these three cells on 
the south ; but they belong of necessity to the north, 
where the sacrifices were slain). Here was also the 
warming-house of the priests, where a fire was 
always burning, special cells for the lambs and for 
preparing the showbread, and the entrance to a sub- 
terranean bath and privy. On this side was probably 
also the cell in which veils were kept. On the south 
side were the cell of the wood, supposed to be the 
residence of the High Priest before the Day of 
Atonement ; the cell of the basin, with the principal 
cistern of the Sanctuary ; and the cell of the hewn 
stones, the meeting-place of the Sanhedrin, and at 
the same time the Synagogue of the priests. The 



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first bath of the High Priest on the Day of Atone- 
ment was here, over the Water Gate : probably here, 
also, was the upper room of Abtinas, the incense- 
maker. The exact position of the cerl where the 
four or five kinds of tickets for the offerings were 
issued, of the thirteen boxes for offerings (Schek. 
vi. 5 ; Mk. 12. 41 ; Lk. 21. 1 ), the cell of alms (Tarn. 
v. 6), and of the cell of the implements for repairing 
the house (Tarn. hi. 4 ; v. 6), cannot now be ascer- 
tained. The holiness of the cells and their roofs in 
the surroundings of the innermost court was deter- 
mined on a principle given in Maas. sh. hi. 8. 
Within the area of the Sanctuary there were five 
degrees of holiness. (1) The outer court, from 
which were excluded persons with an issue, men- 
struous women, and mothers after child-birth. 
(2) The " rampart " (Heb. khet) within the balus- 
trade, whence aliens, and persons unclean from 
contact with a corpse, were barred. (3) The Court 
of the Women, which was forbidden to unclean 
persons, who had not fulfilled the time of their un- 
cleanness (cp. Lv. 15. 51 ), although they had taken 
their bath of purification. (4) The Court of the 
Israelites, where no one was admitted who had 
finished his purification but had not yet offered the 
sacrifice due in his case. (5) The Court of the 
Priests, which laymen entered only to perform their 
sacrifices (Kel. i. 8). According to Pharisaic tradi- 
tion, Jerusalem corresponded legally to the camp 
of Israel in the wilderness, the outer court and the 
Court of the Women to the camp of the Levites, 
and only the innermost court to the Court of the 
Tabernacle (Tos. Kal. Bab. k. i. 9, 12 ; Bab. Zeb. 
1 1 6b). These distinctions, however, were known 
to be largely innovations of the scribes (Bab. Pes. 
92a ; Bab, Zeb. 32b ; cp. Jrs. Erub. 22c). The 
exclusion of women from the innermost court was a 
Sadducean regulation, not accepted by rabbinical 
law. The same is true regarding the penalty of 
death threatened against the alien intruder into the 
Sanctuary (see above; cp. Ac. 21. 28 ). 

In front of the Temple building was the altar, 32 
cubits in breadth at the base, and 30 at the top, rising 
with two breaks to a height of 10 cubits, including 
the horns (Mishna), or 50 cubits broad, and 15 high 
(Jos.). On the north and west sides of the base was 
a gutter for the blood (Midi. iii. 2 ; Tos. Zeb. vi. 
11). From the south the ascent, 16 cubits in 
breadth and 30 cubits in length, led up to the 
altar. A niche on the west side of this ascent (Midd. 
iii. 3), or an aperture between it and the altar 
(Bab. Pes. 34a), was used as a receptacle for birds 
found unfit to be presented as sin-offerings. An 
opening in the ground west of the ascent gave 
access to a subterranean channel which carried 
off the blood. Near it stood two tables ; one of 
marble for .the parts of the sacrifice, and one of 
silver for the utensils required at the altar (Sbek. 

9.. 



vi. 4). Here also was the great laver with twelve 
spouts (Jom. iii. 10 ; Tos. Jom. ii. 2 ; Bab. Jom. 
25b). Every night it was plunged into a cistern, in 
order to preserve its Levitical purity (Jom. iii. 10 ; 
Tarn. iii. 8 ; Bab. Jom. 37a ; Bab. Zeb. 20a). To 
the north of the altar four rows of rings, six in each, 
were fixed in the ground ; and to these the victims 
were bound. On eight tables of marble their in- 
testines were washed. Eight small columns with 
iron hooks, three on each side, arranged one above 
the other, were used in skinning the animals. 

The Temple building was approached by a stair of 
twelve steps. An opening, 20 by 40 cubits (Mishna), 
or 25 by 70 cubits (Jos.), admitted to the porch. 
This was 22 cubits deep, and 100 cubits in breadth 
and in height. A stone lintel to fit a door of this 
size was out of the question. A series of four beams 
built into the wall over the doorway served to 
relieve the wooden lintel (Mishna). Just inside 
were placed a table of silver and one of gold, on 
which the showbread was provisionally laid. The 
body of the porch formed a hall, 50 cubits in length, 
20 in breadth, and 90 in height (Jos.). The nor- 
thern and southern ends of the porch were used 
as stores for sacred knives (Mishna). An opening, 
10 by 20 cubits (Mishna), or 16 by 55 cubits (Jos.), 
led into the " palace," or Holy Place. This open- 
ing was closed by double doors, or by one door 
which folded in two (Mishna). There was also a 
wonderful veil which concealed the interior when 
the door was open (cp. Jom. v. 2 ; Tos. Sbek. iv. 
13-15 ; Bab. Keth. 106a). A golden vine and 
crowns of gold adorned the wall over the entrance. 
According to Jos., this entire wall, with the door, 
was gilded, as well as the front of the porch. Per- 
haps, however, only the door was overlaid with gold 
(Mishna). The Holy Place measured 20 by 40 
cubits, and the Holy of Holies 20 by 20 ; the height 
of both being 40 cubits (Mishna), or 60 cubits (Jos.). 
Over both an upper room was built, 40 cubits in 
height. To make up the 100 cubits in height the 
Mishna reckons the base 6 cubits, the lower storey 
40 cubits, the roof 5 cubits, the upper storey 40 
cubits, the flat roof 5 cubits, the balustrade 3 cubits, 
and the scare-crows (consisting of golden spears, 
Jos.) 1 cubit. There stood in the Holy Place a 
candlestick (with stone staircase, Mishna), a table 
for the showbread, and an altar for the burning of 
incense, all of gold. The interior walls of the entire 
house were gilded (Mishna, <:/>. Mw. 23. 16 ' 17 ). There , 
were windows only in the front wall (Midd. iii. 8). 
The Holy Place was separated from the Holy of 
Holies, not by a wall with a door, but by a veil 
(Jos.), or two veils (Mishna). This, or that men- 
tioned above, may be the veil referred to in Mw. 
27. 51 ; Mk. 15. 38 ; Lk. 23. 45 ). In the Holy of Holies 
only a flat stone three finger-breadths in height was 
to be seen (Jom. v. 2). The building was surrounded 



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on three sides by an annexe of three storeys, reaching associations of his audience as much as his own 
a height of 40 cubits, plus II cubits for base and memories, and therefore had in his mind as much the 
roof (Mishna), or 60 cubits (Jos.). The two lower Temple of Diana in Ephesus as that of Jehovah in 
storeys contained 13, the upper storey 12 cells, all Jerusalem. To understand the references of Chris- 
connected by doors, while access from one storey to tian apostles it may be desirable to know. something 
another was obtained by means of apertures in roof of those heathen structures with wh. they came in 
and ceiling (Mishna). Two doors in the Temple contact. Yet as the human mind grows by what it 
porch led to the first, cells on either side. Another sees, and the human imagination is educated by the 
small door on the west is mentioned by Josephus. achievements of the past, the Temple of Jerusalem 
Jewish tradition speaks of small symbolical doors on itself must have owed something to the more ancient 
the north and south of the porch, and on the rear heathen temples that were around, as well as to the 
of the annexe (Bab. Zeb. 55b), or on the projection Tabernacle that Moses had made in the wilderness, 
of the porch to the west (Tos. Zeb. vii. 1). It may For that reason also we ought to devote a little time 
have been by one of these doors, which Jewish to the structure and arrangements of these fanes of 
traditionalism demanded to make the court in these heathendom. Some of the events in Old Testa- 
directions a fit place for slaying the sacred victims, ment history are connected with such temples, and 
and for eating the most holy things, that the can be understood only through knowledge of them. 
Temple was set on fire (BJ. VI. iv. 5). According If we wd. study the Temple truly we must do so in 
to the Mishna, the annexe was surrounded by an its evolution. 

ascent leading to the roof. Here a door furnished Whatever origin we assume for the idea of God 

access to the upper room over the Temple, the roof and of worship, we must hold that the simpler pre- 

of which was reached with the assistance of pulleys, ceded the more complex. The idea of God implied 

The ascent (1 1 cubits) and the annexe together were the need of propitiating Him ; that is to say, it im- 

19 cubits broad. The total breadth of the buildings plied its contrast, the idea of sin, and the recogni- 

was therefore 70 cubits. Josephus states the breadth tion by man of himself as a sinner. His ordinary 

at 60 cubits ; but he does not mention the ascent, affairs were so low and mean, and so polluted, that 

and probably allows 12 cubits on each side for the he must separate everything connected with his 

annexe. The Temple building thus retained its old approach to Deity fm. his usual avocations. If in 

Oriental style. It was raised, however, to an impos- any way Deity had been manifest in a particular 

ing height, over-topping all its surroundings. A place ; if a man had or imagined he had a com- 

plan to restore 20 cubits to the height in accordance munication fm. Deity there ; if lightning, the 

with the supposed original design (Ant. XV. xi. 3 ; arrows of the Almighty, struck the ground ; that 

cf. 2 Ch. 3*), although materials were collected spot at once became sacred, a place set apart fm. 

for the purpose, was never executed (BJ. V. i. 5). the common earth around. The next stage was to 

When Titus took the Sanctuary on the 17th of mark this off with some object ; either a stone was 
Tammuz a.d. 70, the daily sacrifice was suspended, set upright, or a tree was planted. The latter be- 
On the 9th or 10th (Jos.) of Ab, this same year, the came at length the sacred grove. In the former 
Temple was burned. There is no record of any case the stone had offerings of oil or of the blood of 
attempt to restore the Temple during the insurrec- victims poured upon it. The form was then modi- 
tion of a.d. 132-135. The work was actually begun fied to greater suitability for this purpose, the altar 
in a.d. 363, at the command of the emperor Julian, being thus evolved ; and, further, it was guarded by 
but was interrupted by his sudden death. Through a fence built round it. There was a sacred teme- 
a strange leading of Providence the necessary pre- nos, or domain, thus marked off. Still further, to 
paration for this work did much to remove the last dignify this place and indicate its sacred char- 
visible remains of the Temple building (see Couret, acter more clearly, the altar was covered over ; this 
La Palestine sous les Em-pereurs Grecs, p. 69), and so formed a dwelling in wh. the Deity was supposed to 
to the fulfilment of Christ's prediction : " There' reside. The simple memorial stone was now carved 
shall not be left here one stone upon another " into some likeness of the being worshipped ; not 
(Mw. 24. 2 ). G. H. Dalman. infrequently the human form was combined with 

TEMPLES, HEATHEN. Although perhaps, the head or limbs of some of the lower animals, im- 

when Jerusalem fell, the Holy Temple there was, as plying by symbol that the Deity was endowed with 

Meri vale contends, the most spacious sacred edifice in the attributes so indicated ; thus the wings of the 

the world, and the most splendid, yet still there were eagle indicated swiftness, practical ubiquity ; and 

others that extorted the admiration of the beholder the paws of the lion, or the body of the bull, signi- 

and impressed themselves upon his thoughts. The fied strength. With greater artistic knowledge the 

apostle Paul, Jew as he was, when he wrote to the arbitrary symbols were displaced ; the human form 

Ephesians of believers " growing unto an holy and the expression of the human face became natural 

temple in the Lord," probably considered the symbols. This image of Deity, this idol, was rele- 

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gated to an inner shrine, where he sat in dignity and 
darkness, separated fm. his votaries, visited only at 
intervals by one of his priests. The priest, the 
consecrated person, necessarily followed the conse- 
crated place ; then there came consecrated actions, 
ritual ; and consecrated language and tones, wh. 
became poetry and music. 

There were round Palestine, near enough to in- 
fluence it at the time of Solomon, three different 
forms of temple. In the flat plains of Babylonia the 
sacred place was marked off fm. the flat land around 
by being raised on stage after stage of brickwork, 
so as to form a suggestion of a mountain. In that 
way the special shrine in wh. was the abode of the 
god was at once remote fm. the worshipper, yet 
glorified by being made conspicuous. In the monu- 
ments of Babylon and Nineveh we have several 
delineations of the ziggurat or staged temple. First 
a great platform of solid brick was reared ; on this 
was raised, sometimes in the centre of the founda- 
tion platform, sometimes nearer to one end, another 
smaller platform, also solid ; on this a third ; on it 
a fourth, and so on possibly to a seventh, and on 
the top of this was the shrine proper. Access from 
the one storey to the other was by stairs, outside 
generally, though sometimes, if we may trust the 
restorations of M. Chipiez, let into the mound of 
brick. The outer wall of each platform was covered 
with decorations, wh. increased in splendour of 
decoration as one ascended ; sometimes the casing 
was of encaustic bricks, on wh. were portrayed men 
and animals in resplendent colours. In Herodotus 
(i. 181-183) we have a description of the Temple of 
Bel in Babylon, fm. wh. we may extract the follow- 
ing : " The sacred precinct of Zeus Belus was 
square, of two furlongs each way. In the centre 
of this sacred enclosure was a tower built solid, a 
furlong in length and breadth : upon this tower 
another tower was raised, and another again upon 
this, until there were eight towers. The ascent to 
these is made by an outside stairway round about all 
the towers. In the middle of this ascent is a resting- 
place with benches for reclining, on wh. those going 
up may rest. In the topmost tower is a great 
shrine ; and in the shrine a large couch is placed, 
beautifully upholstered, and a golden table placed 
beside it. There is no statue of any kind set up 
there. The Chaldaeans, the priests of the god, de- 
clare that the god himself comes down to the shrine 
and reclines upon the couch." (Rawlinson thinks 
Herodotus has mixed up the temple at Birs Nim- 
roud, which he takes to be Borsippa, with that at 
Babylon. For section see Rawlinson, Herodotus, 
ii. 483.) The temple at Mugheir (Ur of the 
Chaldees), of wh. many bricks are to be found in 
Europe, and wh. was in its splendour in the youth of 
Abraham, before he left the city of his nativity, was 
probably of a similar but simpler structure. (For 



the different forms of Babylonian and Assyrian 
temples see Perrot and Chipiez, Hist, of Art in 
Chaldcea and Assyria, i., plates ii., iii., iv., figs. 169- 
190.) In Nineveh the palace of the monarch very 
frequently contained a temple (Restoration of the 
Palace of Sargon — Perot and Chipiez, op. cit., ii., 
plate v.). Perhaps the element of a built platform 
may have suggested the extension of the area by 
under-building for Solomon's Temple. Though 
the influence of Babylonia in general matters had 
been very great in Palestine, as evidenced by the 
Tell Amarna tablets, in the period just before the 
entrance of the Israelites into it, and although the 
race had originally come fm. Babylonia, yet the 
mountainous character of the country was so dif- 
ferent fm. the flat plain of Lower Mesopotamia that 
Babylonian architecture cd. be but little followed 
in Palestine. 

As Solomon cd. get few lessons fm. the temple- 
builders of the east and north, fm. Babylon and 
Assyria, the possibility at once presents itself that 
he may have learned from the Egyptians to the 
south and west. The fact that he had married a 
daughter of the reigning Pharaoh renders this more 
probable. In Egypt there was nothing resembling 
the Babylonian ziggurat. There are mountains in 
Egypt wh., though not high as compared with 
mountains elsewhere, wd. dwarf any human struc- 
ture into insignificance. Hence, starting fm. the 
tent, the Egyptians made the pillar an important 
part of their structures. In Babylonia, while there 
was abundant opportunity of making bricks, stones 
could be obtained with difficulty. In Egp., on the 
other hand, there were convenient quarries fm. wh. 
porphyry monoliths cd. be brought for obelisks, or 
granite lintels to span the space between great 
columns. The tent and tent-poles of primitive 
times were followed by the wooden hut, and that 
by the building of stone. The architecture of the 
lintel has always many characteristics of carpentry ; 
indeed their domestic architecture seems largely to 
have been of wood all through their history. In the 
Temple of the Sphinx, with its accurately squared, 
monolithic columns, we seem to see proof of this. 
The temple we have mentioned has certainly many 
very enigmatic features : the immensely thick walls, 
the narrowness of the passage by wh. the pillared 
halls were approached, the darkness wh. must have 
enveloped the worshipper unless artificial light were 
resorted to, if there was any roof, all make it difficult 
to comprehend the structure or its purpose. The 
more magnificent Temples of Karnak and Luxor 
are probably more immediately to be considered, as 
even the latest of the great temples was old when 
Solomon built the Temple at Jerusalem. The 
evolution of any of the greater temples was a pro- 
cess similar to that fm. wh. our great cathedrals re- 
sulted. Successive bishops added towers, aisles, or 



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transepts to the original structure, or modified and type, such as are found of the Egyptian. The 
replaced earlier portions by features more in accord- Egyptian civilisation, art, and religion offered more 
ance with the taste of the period. In like manner resistance to Hellenism, even when supported by 
the Pharaohs added courts and porticoes to more the military power of Rome. Although the Greek 
ancient shrines. Everything of this kind tended to language was largely spoken, Greek city life appears 
seclude more and more the immediate abode of the to have taken little hold of Egypt ; Alexandria 
Deity. We may take the great Temple at Karnak seems to have been the 6nly city in Egypt in wh. the 
as a specimen of an Egyptian temple. In the days Hellenic model was followed with any closeness, 
of what is called the Middle Dynasty a temple was The Ptolemies declared themselves " sons of Ra," 
erected to Amen. During the rule of the Hyksos and built shrines to Amen in wh. the pylons and 
kings this shrine fell into ruins. By the XVIII. pillars of the old architecture ruled. In Syria it 
-Dynasty that replaced them a portico was added, was very different ; cities after the Greek model 
flanked by two great pylons — masses of masonry in abounded ; old temples were replaced by new, old 
the form of gigantic trapezoids — the sloping sides of deities received attributes wh. assimilated them to 
wh. were covered with sculptures and hieroglyphs ; the denizens of Olympus. Any one who rides 
within that another smaller portico flanked by fm. Tyre to Sidon will find everywhere drums of 
smaller pylons, and within that a third yet smaller ; columns and fragments of decorative detail, but 
colonnades filled up the interspaces. One of the these are all Roman. Even in Baalbek all that is 
later monarchs of this dynasty erected two yet more left of the ancient structures are the massive stones 
gigantic pylons in front of the portico of Thoth- forming the stylobate of the great columns wh. re- 
mes I. In front of this again the XIX. Dynasty main fm. the Temple of the Sun. There are the 
formed a large court, crowded it with huge and remains of small shrines, there are descriptions, and 
splendid pillars, and in front placed two other figures on coins ; that is all we have to guide us as 
pylons that dwarfed all those within ; and in front to the architecture of Tyre and Sidon. The small 
of this long avenues of sphinxes. Such was the shrines probably give us some idea of what the inner 
great Temple of Luxor as it was left by the dynasty holy place of the larger temples continued to be. 
which, according to most archaeologists, saw the These indicate that the form of the " cromlech " 
Exodus. This form of temple was very frequently dominated the minds of the Phoenician architects, 
adopted all over Egypt, down to the times of the [Cp. the Ma'abed (temple) at Amrith (Perrot and 
Ptolemies. Few features in the Egyptian temple Chipiez, Art in Phoenicia, i., figs. 185-187), and 
directly influenced the Temple of Solomon. The 'Ain-el-Hayat (idem, fig. 188).] Instead of being 
principal element was the use of the portico to add in rough stones like their prototypes, the stones are 
dignity to the inner oracle. The differences, how- carefully squared, and the front is dignified with 
ever are greater than the resemblances ; there is ornament. It wd. seem that all over Pal. the same 
nothing corresponding to the huge pylons wh. are form of temple prevailed. From coins and models 
so marked a feature of Egyptian temples ; some- that have come down to us the arrangement seems 
thing, perhaps, of their aesthetic effect was attained to have been a small central shrine with a large 
by the pillars Jachin and Boaz at the door of the courtyard surrounded by a colonnade. The shrine 
Holy Place ; only these were distinctly pillars, not in the Temple of Dagon must have been small for 
pylons. his image to fall on the threshold and be broken 

The remaining source of artistic influence is (1 S. 5. 4 ). Even if the shrine in question were twice 
Phoenicia. There is a strong probability that the as large in every dimension as that at Amrith, the 
aesthetic ideas of the Jews were affected by Phoe- statue wd. not need to be more than heroic size, or 
nician influences, especially in the days of Solomon, to be raised on more than a moderately elevated 
The Tyrians were the near neighbours of Israel. pedestal,for its fall to bring it to the threshold of the 
Their city afforded a market for the Hebrews of inner shrine. The Temple of Venus in Cyprus, as 
Palestine, where they cd. dispose of their own seen on the coin figured in Lewin (St. Paul, i. 224), 
products and purchase those of other countries, and as restored by Munter and Hetsch (idem, i. 222), 
Further, they spoke the same language. In such shows the arrangement suggested. The " Temple " 
circumstances intercourse cd. not fail to be exten- of Golgos, the plan of wh. is figured by di Cesnola, 
sive, and its effect very marked in every direction, represents a totally different structure ; it had been 
Hiram the king was closely consulted by Solomon, a rectangular building, the roof of wh. was supported 
and from Tyre came Hiram, the artificer in brass, by fifteen pillars, presumed to have been of wood ; 
Probably, therefore, Phoenician models were before the walls are thought to have been of sun-dried 
the minds of the builders and architects of the bricks. M. Chipiez brings forward strong reasons 
Temple in Jerusalem. There is, however, great for maintaining that it was not a temple, but only 
difficulty in verifying this. There remain no ex- an annexe to one, in wh. possibly votive offerings 
tensive ruins of Phoenician temples of the primitive were kept. Neglecting this aberrant specimen, the 

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shrine seems to have been a cubical structure. 
Round this was a large court, as we have said above ; 
in di Cesnola's Cyprus (p. 212) there is a plan of the 
Temple at Paphos, wh. exhibits such a disposition of 
parts as that of wh. we have spoken. The Temple 
in Gaza, in wh. Samson wrought such havoc on the 
Philistines, must have had a similar arrangement ; 
on the roof of the colonnade and under its shade 
were the spectators gathered ; to pull down the 
central pillars wd. precipitate to the ground all who 
were on the roof, and precipitate the roof and them 
on those beneath ; panic wd. set in, and the car- 
nage narrated in Scripture mt. easily result. The 
Temple of Baal, in wh. Jehu massacred the Baal- 
worshippers, must have had something of the same 
arrangement of parts : a huge court with chambers 
round it, in wh. were kept the priestly robes ; a 
central shrine, in wh. was the image of Baal. Pro- 
bably there were places in wh. wooden statues as 
votive offerings were kept. It is possible that the 
matztzeboth, the burning of wh. formed a feature in 
the desecration of the Temple of Baal, may have 
been the tall posts or pillars, wh. seem fm. coins and 
other delineations to have been common features of 
Phoenician temples ; they may well have been of 
wood, like the huge masts that illustrate the square of 
St. Mark's. These appear to have been the proto- 
types of Jachinand Boaz in the Temple of Solomon. 
Their presence forms the principal resemblance 
between Phoenician temples and that in Jrs. There 
certainly was the great courtyard, but there does 
not seem to have been anything equivalent to 
the hekal (Holy Place) as distinct fm. the debvr 
(Most Holy). Further, the Solomonic bldg. was 
predominantly wood and metal ; the " Oracle " 
especially was plated with gold inside. Boards of 
cedar everywhere encased the walls : on these was 
the mass of the carving that formed the ornamen- 
tation. In material the two pillars, being wholly 
brass, or rather bronze, differed fm. the wooden 
matztzeboth of the Phoenician temples ; no one 
cd. have burned Jachin and Boaz. Although the 
Phoenician temple more resembles that of Solomon 
tha,n either the Assyrian or Egyptian, yet still differ- 
ences predominate. The model of the Tabernacle, 
wh., some critics declare, never existed, appears 
really to have had most to do with the Temple of 
Solomon. 

Little as we know of the real form and structure 
of the Temple of Solomon, still less do we know of 
that of Zerubbabel. It is to be presumed that the 
returning captives wd. endeavour to rebuild the 
Temple as nearly in its original form as their means 
made possible. It is conceivable that not a few 
features wd. be added to compensate, in some 
measure, for the want of the splendour of the gold 
and brass of the " former house." These wd. be 
drawn fm. the ideas represented in the architecture 



of Persia. In digging foundations in Sidon there 
were found marble fragments of the capitals of huge 
columns of the Persepolitan type. If the Sidonians 
departed fm. their traditional forms to adopt those 
of the dominant Persians, the Jews may well have 
done the same. Ezekiel's Temple mt. to a certain 
extent be a guide ; but it showed merely his idea of 
the first Temple as he wished it reconstructed. The 
dimensions given by Cyrus of the Temple wh. he 
permits the Jews to build do not coincide either 
with those of the Solomonic Temple or of those of 
Ezekiel's Temple. The terms were probably given 
according to the dimensions of some known building 
in his neighbourhood. This makes the presence of 
Persian elements the more probable. 

The Herodian Temple would of necessity be 
modelled on the classic temples of Greece and Rome, 
especially the latter, so far as the religious ideas of 
Herod's subjects wd. permit. A Greek temple was 
a building rectangular in shape, rather more than 
twice as long as it was broad, surrounded by a 
colonnade. The columns that composed the colon- 
nade were, with the Greeks, usually Doric, or Ionic. 
The Romans preferred the more gorgeous Corin- 
thian column to the severer Doric. In the account 
Josephus gives of Herod's Temple he mentions 
pillars ; these wd. almost certainly be Corinthian, 
and not fluted, as are the columns of Jerash. The 
greatest temple at that time was probably that of 
Diana of the Ephesians. Its columns were of the 
Ionic order, and were gorgeously enriched with 
bas-reliefs not merely in the base but also in the 
pedestal ; and, what was more singular, in the first 
drum of the column. Dominating as it did the 
thoughts of those to whom he was writing, it is 
hardly possible that S. Paul had not in his mind the 
Temple of Diana when he wrote to the Ephesian 
believers of the whole Church " growing together 
to an holy temple in the Lord " — a text we have 
already referred to ; the notice of the corner-stone 
may refer to the difficulties experienced in laying 
the foundations of this vast structure on the 
marshy ground on the banks of the Cayster. The 
temples of Athens, of Corinth, and above all of 
Rome, cd. not fail to influence the apostles, though 
we cannot put our finger on evidences of this influ- 
ence. The grandeur of these temples wd. neces- 
sarilyhave seductive power overthose who possessed, 
as so many of the Greeks did, an artistic nature, and 
thus tend to deafen their ears to the message of the 
apostles. 

TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE (Heb. 'dse- 
reth had-debarim, " the decade of the words " (Ex. 
34_. 28 )). There are two recensions of this catalogue 
of laws, one in Ex. 20. 1 - 17 , E., the other in Dt. 5. 1 " 22 . 
While these two are essentially the same, yet there 
are many, if minor, variants ; the most important of 
these is the reason assigned for the Fourth Com- 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ten 



mandment. In Exodus it is God's rest after the 
completion of the work of creation ; in Deutero- 
nomy it is God's deliverance of the children of Israel 
fm. the bondage of Egypt. Proceeding merely by 
analysis of the variations, it wd. be difficult to decide 
wh. of the two recensions is the earlier. The inser- 
tion in the Deuteronomic version of the words, 
" nor thine ox nor thine ass," into the Fourth Com- 
mandment is pleonastic, and so suggestive of an 
afterthought. The earlier insertion, " as the Lord 
thy God hath commanded thee," seems to imply an 
'earlier promulgation of the Sabbatic law. On the 
other hand, the use of "remember" in regard to the 
Sabbath in the Exodus account, instead of " keep " 
as in Deuteronomy, wd. imply the previous publica- 
tion of the latter. But another question was raised 
by Goethe and adopted by Wellhausen : Is there in 
Exodus 34., wh. is J., an earlier decalogue than 
that in chap. 20., wh. is attributed to E. ? This 
Decalogue is as follows : "(1) Thou shalt worship no 
other God. (2) Thou shalt make thee no molten 
gods. (3) The Feast of Unleavened Bread shalt 
thou keep. (4) All that openeth the matrix is 
Mine. (5) Thou shalt observe the Feast of Weeks. 

(6) Thou shalt observe the Feast of Ingathering. 

(7) Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice with 
leaven. (8) Neither shall the sacrifice of the Feast 
of the Passover be left unto the morning. (9) The 
first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring 
unto the house of the Lord thy God. (10) Thou 
shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." The 
truth is that these " ten " are really a selection out 
of fourteen ; no principle is laid down why that 
selection should be made, and not any other of the 
scores of possible alternatives. The purely ritual 
character of the precepts, the conspicuous want of 
logic in the form and of morality in the matter of 
them, make it incomprehensible how these com- 
mandments shd. be marked off as specially sacred. 
To any one without a theory it wd. be obvious that 
the " ten words " of 34. 28 refer to " these words " 
of 20. 1 . A still more amazing thing is the belief 
some critics have hinted, and others asserted, that 
the Mosaic code has been borrowed fm. that of 
Hammurabi. Although so much more ancient 
than that of Moses, the code of Hammurabi seems 
much more modern in the complexity of the civil 
and commercial relations. Above all, there is no 
attempt to arrange the precepts under ten heads, 
embracing the essentials of social and religious 
morality without wh. society wd. be impossible. 
As to the arrangement of the precepts : the Roman 
Catholic, and, following them, the Lutheran Church, 
combine into one what are the First and Second 
Commandments to the Reformed, the Anglican, 
and the Presbyterian Churches ; to make the 
number " ten " they split the Tenth into two. 
This command against the making of idols has been 



taken to prove that the Decalogue did not originate 
with Moses, as the Northern Tribes continued to 
have idols down to the end of the State. - The 
Roman Catholic Church has statues and pictures 
wh. it uses in worship ; yet images are forbidden by 
what, if not a second and a separate precept, is at 
least an inspired explanation and amplification of 
the first. The separation of the precept against 
coveting the " neighbour's wife " fm. those for- 
bidding the coveting of his property, while sup- 
ported by the code as given in Deuteronomy, is in 
antagonism to the arrangement in Exodus. An- 
other question of arrangement is the position of the 
precepts on the two tables. If we take the Deca- 
logue as it stands, with its expansions, it is very 
difficult to make a satisfactory division. If the 
common division is taken, that of " Divine " and 
" Human," the first four belonging to the former 
class, and the last six to the latter, then three- 
quarters of the words in the whole Decalogue are in 
the first. If we take what is an old Jewish division, 
and place the first three alone on the first table, 
then two-fifths of the words are on the first table, 
and three-fifths on the second. If, however, the 
expansions are removed, the Decalogue can be 
divided into two groups of five commandments ; in 
each, then, there is a nearer approach to equality. 
The first wd. refer to Reverence, and the second 
to Honesty. The first four commandments are 
directed to mark off Israel as the nation to whom the 
Divine Revelation was entrusted. The unity, spiri- 
tuality, and the awful dignity of God, and the duty 
of worshipping Him, are implied in the four com- 
mandments wh. end with that on the sanctity of 
the Sabbath. Man can only realise his own rever- 
ence and worship by the consecration of something. 
But the consecration of an object becomes idolatry ; 
the consecration of a place tends to limit the ideas of 
God ; the consecration of a space of time to the 
service of God harmonises with man's need for 
consecrating something, and with the spirituality 
of God. With regard to the human portion of the 
Decalogue : unless there is obedience to authority, 
society cannot be organised into a state ; unless 
human life is safe, society in no form is possible ; 
unless the sanctity of the family and of marriage is 
preserved, the continuance of society is ultimately 
impossible ; unless property is maintained, vio- 
lence and anarchy will prevail, and society be 
dissolved ; the administration of justice wd. be im- 
possible unless evidence cd. be believed. All these 
statutes cd. be evaded by chicane if men have the 
mind to ; but they are forbidden to have the mind 
to, in the command, "Thou shalt not covet." The 
profundity and comprehensiveness of the Decalogue 
can scarcely be exaggerated. When we compare its 
morality with that of the Egyptian Book of the 
Dead, or of the Code of Hammurabi, it seems im- 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



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possible to avoid the conclusion that it is the pro- 
duct, not of human genius, but of Divine Revelation. 
TENT. Tent life is said to have been instituted 
by Jabal, son of Lamech (Gn. 4. 20 ). He is called 
" the fr. of such as dwell in tents." This was the 
form of life followed by Abraham and the patriarchs. 
In the wilderness Israel dwelt in tents, and traces of 
this ancient custom persisted in the language of the 
people for long : e.g. to go to one's tent was to go 
home (2 S. 20. 1 ' 22 , &c.) ; cp. " To your tents, O 
Israel " (1 K. 12. 16 ). In OT. 'oh el is the usual word 
for tent ; mishkan, " Tabernacle " (lit. " habita- 
tion "), is once (SS. I. 8 ) trd. "tent." Sukkab, 
" booth," is also once (2 S. u. 11 AV.) trd. " tent." 
The rabbis held that a " booth " — made of wattled 
leaves and branches — became a " tent " if a piece 
of cloth were spread over it. Qubbdh (Nu. 25. 8 
AV.) corresponds to the Arb. qubbah, a tent of a 
more spacious kind. It also denotes " vault " or 




Arab Tent, East of Jordan 

" dome " : hence, by way of the Spanish, we have 
" alcove." 

The Ark of the Covenant was long sheltered in 
a tent (see Tabernacle). In warfare it was cus- 
tomary to carry tents for the protection of the 
soldiers (2 K. 7- 7 , &c). The tents of Assyrian 
soldiers, as figured in the sculptures, are bell-shaped, 
and not unlike those of the Turkish soldiers at the 
present time. It is prob. that the tribes of Isr., 
devoted especially to pastoral pursuits, spent at 
least part of the year in tents, like the Arabs in the 
borderland between " the desert and the town " 
to-day. A tent was erected for a newly-married 
couple, a practice still followed among the Arabs. 
The name huppdh still attaches to the canopy under 
wh. Jewish pairs are wedded. 

The mod. Arab " house of hair " doubtless re- 
tains the main characteristics of the ancient tent. 
It is of black haircloth, spun and woven for the 
most part by the women, whose business also it is to 
pitch and strike the tents, and pack them for re- 
moval. The tent is supported on poles, 6 to 7 ft. 
in height, commonly nine in number, arranged in 
three rows of three, the middle row being slightly 
the highest. The poles are held in position by 

8 



cords fastened to pins driven into the ground (cp. 
the tent-peg with wh. Jael killed Sisera). The cloth 
when slightly wet becomes practically waterproof. 
A curtain of the same material is generally stretched 
across the tent within, separating the women's 
apartment from that wh. is more public. The 
women's part is never entered by strangers, and 
anything of value is as a rule kept there. 

The furniture is as simple as the dwelling. 
Sometimes cushions and thin mattresses are found, 
but often only rough straw matting is spread on 
the floor. The thin loaves baked in the desert are 
wrapped up in a sheet of leather, wh. is spread out at 
meal-times. Tin lamps now take the place of the 
ancient clay vessels. A plate of metal for baking, 
a few cooking pans, a hand-mill, mortar and pestle, 
coffee-pot and cups, and bags made of goat-skins for 
grain, water, milk, &c, are usually present. In a 
skin swung on a tripod the milk is shaken to make 
butter. Saddles and saddle-bags are also kept in 
the tent. 

If the tents are few they are generally pitched in 
a circle. A large encampment is arranged like the 
streets of a village. The sheikh's tent, larger than 
the rest, stands where strangers are most likely to 
approach the camp. 

In the figurative lang. of Scrip, the heavens 
are the blue canopy of God's great tent (Is. 40. 22 ). 
The shepherd's tent is the symbol of man's tran- 
sient life : here to-day, gone to-morrow (Is. 38. 12 ). 
The tent-cord is a figure of the thread of life (Jb. 
4. 21 ). Strong cords and firm pegs suggest security 
(Is. 33. 20 ). Enlargement of the tent, making cords 
longer and pegs stronger, is a picture of prosperous 
growth. 

St. Paul, Aquila and Priscilla followed the 
trade of tentmakers (Ac. i8. 2f -). 

TERAH, s. of Nahor and fr. of Abraham, Nahor, 
and Haran (Gn. n. 24ff -, &c). A native of Ur of 
the Chaldees, he moved with his family to Haran, 
his son Haran having died before this migration. 
Apparently after his father's death in Haran Abram 
set out on his wanderings (l2. lff -). In Jo. 24. 2 he 
is described as an idolater, having " served other 
gods," " beyond the river," i.e. the Euphrates. 
Whether he continued to serve these gods after his 
migration is unknown. 

TERAPHIM. This word occurs in AV. six 
times thus transliterated, once in Ho. 3. 4 , the rest 
in Jg. 17. and 18. ; elsewhere when the word occurs 
in Heb., seven times out of nine it is tr. " images " 
(Gn. 31.19.34,35. ! S> I9 .i3,i8. 2 K> 23 .24. Yk. 

21. 21 ) ; the other cases are 1 S. 15. 23 "idolatry," and 
Zc. io. 2 "idols"; RV. uniformly " teraphim." 
The LXX have no uniform rendering ; in Gn. it is 
eidola, in Jg. and in 1 S. 15. 23 it is transliterated 
theraphin. In 1 S. K)P L there is the singular ren- 
dering kenotapkia, a tr. wh. has given rise to the 

20 



Ter 



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Ter 



idea that the Hellenistic Jews regarded the gods of 
the heathen as men who had died, and therefore 
that their images were like monuments over an 
empty tomb. In Ek. 21. 21 the tr. is glupoi, 
" graven (images) " ; the rendering in Ho. 3.* 
dela, suggests the interpretation that T. were the 
Urim of the High Priest's breastplate ; apophtheg- 
menoi, the tr. in Zc. io. 2 , suggests that they were 
images used for incantations. Psh. usually trs. 
tzelma, " image " ; but in Ho. 3- 4 hesama, " in- 
cense," a rendering wh. suggests another reading, as 
'also does dela in the LXX. These T. were images 
occupying the place of the Lares 
and Penates among the Romans ; 
they were sometimes relatively 
small, so that they cd. be hid in 
the " camel's furniture " (probably 
the palanquin put on a camel for 
women to travel in) ; sometimes 
relatively large, able to be mistaken 
for a man, as when Michal deceived 
her father's messengers. They were 
worshipped ; for Laban calls them 
"my gods" ('elohay, Gn. 31. 30 ), 
yet they seem to be different fm. 
" molten" or " graven " images (Jg. 
18. 17 ) ; this mt. suggest that they 
were like fetishes — not images, but 
objects that drew attention by their 
oddness. The frequency of the 
mention of Ephod along with T. 
confirms the idea suggested by LXX rendering of 
Zc. io. 2 , that they were used for divination. 

Little information can be obtained fm. the etymology of 
the word ; it seems not improbable that the rabbins have 
altered it to suit some shameful etymology. Fm. the fact that 
the Heb. " sibilant " is not infrequently represented in Aram, 
by the corresponding "dental," it may not be impossible 
that the initial \& of Seraphim has for a purpose of con- 
tempt been changed into T\. The seraphim are associated 
with the "cherubim" in their function of attendance on 
Deity, and these again are associated with the composite 
forms, winged bulls and winged lions, winged figures with 
eagle heads, &c. , of Nineveh and Babylon, wh. seem to be 
" genii" guarding the house. May not the T. have been 
like those ? 

Although when Jacob buried " the strange gods " 
under the oaks at Shechem (Gn. 35*, E.), that im- 
plied the abandonment of the worship of T., yet such 
objects appear to be regarded in the narrative of 
Michal's device as if they were part of the regular 
furniture of a house — it is " the teraphim " that 
Michal takes (1 S. 19. 13 ). The Targumic account 
of how Laban had formed his T. is more curious 
than instructive. " They had slain a man, a first- 
born, and cut off his head: they salted it with 
salt and balsams, and wrote incantations on a plate 
of gold and put it under the tongue, and set it up 
in the wall and it spake with them " (Tg. PJ., Gn. 
3 1. 19 , Etheridge's trans.). 

TEREBINTH (RV.). This tree, where it grows 




Teraphim 



in favourable conditions, forms a striking feature in 
many Palestinian landscapes. It attains at times a 
height of over 30 ft., and when its wide-spreading 
branches are covered with foliage it affords grateful 
shelter from the heat. Often beside solitary trees 
are found sacred places, tombs of saints, &c. Here, 
doubtless, we have an illustration of the persistence 
of ancient ideas. In olden times we have the 
" terebinth of the seer " {i.e. of Moreh, Gn. 
12. 6 ), the " terebinth of the soothsayers " (i.e. of 
Meonenim, Jg. 9. 37 ), &c. It was evidently much 
associated with the heathen worship of the old 
Canaanites (Gn. 35.* ; Jo. 24. 26 ; Is. I. 29 , &c, where 
for " oak," AV., we must read " terebinth "). 
Pure turpentine may be obtained through inci- 
sions made in the bark, in the form of a resinous 
exudation. 

In RV. it stands for Teil Tree (Is. 6. 13 ), and for 
Elm (Ho. 4. 13 ). See Oak. 

TERESH, one of the officers of Ahasuerus who 
conspired to assassinate the king, whose plot was 
discovered by Mordecai (Est. 2. 21 ), called " Tharra " 
in Ad. Est. 12. 1 . 

TERTIUS, the amanuensis of Paul when he 
wrote the Epistle to the Romans ; in the middle of 
Paul's salutations he interpolates a salutation fm. 
himself (Rm. 16. 22 ). He appears to have been a 
Roman resident in Corinth, who expects to be known 
by those to whom the epistle is addressed. Some 
have identified T. with Silas, as shalish means " a 
third " in Heb. as T. does in Latin. Nothing 
further is known of him. 

TERTULLUS, the Roman rhetor, or advocate, 
employed by the Jewish High Priest and the mem- 
bers of the Sanhedrin to be their spokesman before 
the court of Felix (Ac. 24. 1 ). The name is a diminutive 
of Tertius, like Lucullus fm. Lucius, and, like it, used 
as an agnomen. Cases before the courts of Roman 
governors were usually conducted in Latin, so it wd. 
be the custom for those who had causes before the 
provincial courts to employ pleaders who were ac- 
quainted with the language as well as the laws of 
Rome. As a consequence of this, many pleaders at- 
tended the proconsuls and propraetors to their juris- 
dictions in hope of employment as causidici. We 
cannot infer that Tertullus was a Jew because he 
uses in his speech the first personal pronoun, saying, 
" Whom we wd. have judged acedg. to our law," 
since advocates then, as now, were prone in speaking 
to identify themselves with their clients. T. must, 
however, have been in Jrs., either as resident or on a 
visit, as he came down to Caesarea with Ananias. 
Probably, therefore, he was the son of a Jewish 
freedman, who had become a pleader and had pos- 
sibly come to Jrs. to worship. His speech, wh. is 
condensed by Luke, is skilfully calculated to flatter 
Felix, laying stress on the few praiseworthy events 
in his rule, and the clearance of the country fm. 
10 



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The 



robbers and fanatics. He does not particularise, 
but implies that all these were too well known 
to require more than a hint in passing. Possibly 
also the pompously cadence style was suited to the 
taste of the procurator. The pleading is specious, 
making it appear as if they wd. not have troubled 
the procurator had it not been for the interference 
of Claudius Lysias. 

TESTAMENT. See Covenant. 

TESTIMONY (Heb. 'edotb, 'eduth). In the pi. 
this word stands in the OT., especially in Ps. 119., 
for the Divine law ; possibly the reference in this 
name is to the evidences God had given of His favour 
for Isr., and the occasions when He had brought 
these up before His people (cp. Dt. 8., 9.). T. is fre- 
quently joined with " commandments " (2 K. 23. 3 ), 
as if the same, yet under a different aspect. It is 
used emphatically for the two tables of the law (Ex. 
3 1. 18 ), and for the Ark as containing them (Ex. 25. 16 ). 
In the coronation of Jehoash it is said that Jehoiada 
" put on him the crown and the T." (2 K. II. 12 ; 
2 Ch. 23. 11 ). Wellhausen thinks that a letter has 
dropped out, and that it shd. be read " bracelets " ; 
against this is the fact that the reading is the same 
in both Kings and Chronicles ; in K. LXX has 
marturion, and in Ch. marturia ; the Tg. Jn. has 
sahadutha, " testimony." All the difficulties that 
Wellhausen sees in the MT. must have been as 
patent to the ancient scribe who wrote the MS. fm. 
wh. the chronicler made his extract, and the copyist 
fm. whose MS. the LXX was trd. Royal bracelets 
were well enough known. There was no reason 
either of propriety or story to lead him to drop the 
letter in question, and so make what was clear diffi- 
cult to understand. It seems much simpler to 
supply before the words " the T.," vayitten, fm. 
the first clause, in its ordinary sense of " gave," as is 
done in EV. A conjectural change of reading wh. 
makes the sense easier, ought never to be adopted if 
it is opposed to the unanimous evidence of the W., 
unless a motive, obvious and undoubted, can be 
assigned for the falsification of the original docu- 
ment. 

TETRARCH. The Romans, when they divided 
among several claimants a kingdom wh. had been 
ruled over by a subject ally, borrowed this term fm. 
the Greek. It had also quite another meaning 
among the Greeks fm. that given to it by the 
Romans ; with the Spartans it meant the com- 
mander of four lochoi, or " companies." In the 
Roman meaning it had been used of the division of 
Thessaly into four parts, by Philip of Macedon. 
A classic case was that of Galatia, wh. was formed 
into no less than twelve tetrarchies ; each of the 
three Galatian tribes being divided into four. At 
the death of Herod the Great his dominions were 
divided ; Archelaus, with the title Ethnarch, had 
Judaea and Samaria ; Herod Antipas received 

8* 



Galilee with Peraea ; and Herod Philip, Ituraea and 
Trachonitis. Although the T. was inferior in rank 
to a king, it wd. seem that he was addressed as king 
by courtesy ; e.g. in Mw. 14. 1 . Herod Antipas is 
called T., yet in v. 9 he is called "king"; and when 
he makes his promise to Salome he calls his dominion 
a " kingdom." His great ambition, and also that 
of his wife Herodias, was to change the courtesy 
royalty into actual kingship. 

THADDiEUS, one of the twelve apostles, named 
by Matthew (io. 3 ) and Mark (3. 18 ). In the lists 
given by Luke his place is taken by Judas son of 
James (Lk. 6. 16 ; Ac. 1 . 13 ). In Mw. the true reading 
appears to be " Thaddaeus," " Lebbseus, whose sur- 
name was," being a gloss. If the scribe connected 
" Thaddaeus " with the Aram, tad (*Jfl), " mam- 
ma," taking thought for the dignity of an apostle 
he may have suggested the name connected with 
the Heb. leb, " heart," perhaps as connoting similar 
qualities. If he is identical with Judas son of James, 
it was not unnatural that he shd. be distinguished 
from the other Judas by some epithet. That there 
was a second Judas among the Twelve is clear from 
Jn. 14. 22 : " Judas . . . not Iscariot." Dalman 
(Die Worte Jesu, p. 40) suggests that " Lebbaeus " 
may be derived from the Nabataean ^KX 5 , and that 
" Thaddaeus " may be equivalent to " Theudas " — 
not thinking it necessary to find any common signi- 
ficance in the two names. W. C. Allen (EB. s.v.) 
thinks it more prob. that " by corruption in Greek 
or Aramaic " Thaddaeus represents an original 
mO)Tl» or &n(l)rV (i.e. Judas). Of James the 
father of Judas nothing further is known. 

In fulfilment of a promise said to have been made 
by Jesus Christ before His death to Abgar, king of 
Edessa, Eusebius (HE. i. 1 3) reports that Thaddaeus 
was sent by the apostle Thomas to Edessa, to preach 
the Gospel to the people. There he is described as 
one of the seventy disciples of Christ. In a later 
Syriac legend the name Addai replaces that of 
Thaddaeus. Nothing is certain as to the life of 
Thaddaeus ; but there are many traditions. Ac- 
cording to one, he died a peaceful death at Berytus 
in Phoenicia. By another he is said to have preached 
in Edessa ; to have suffered crucifixion ; and to 
have been buried in " Ostracine," in Egypt (Const. 
A-post. ed. Lagarde, p. 283). 

THANK-OFFERING, a rendering of Heb. 
shelem in AVm. instead of " peace-offering " in Ek. 
43- 27 , 45- 15, 17 ; Am. 5. 22 . It is also the tr. of Fleb. 
toddh in 2 Ch. 29. 31 , 33. 16 , instead of the more usual 
rendering, " thanksgiving." See Sacrifice. 

THEATRE. Fm. the position the drama occu- 
pied in the civil and religious life of Greece the T. 
was the most characteristic feature of a Gr. city ; 
built entirely of stone and open to the sky, the T. 
has survived in many cases the all but total disap- 
pearance even of the temples of the city whose 



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The 



meeting-place it was. This is strikingly the case in 
regard to the T. of Ephesus, the only T. mentioned 
in Scripture (Ac. 19. 29 ' 31 ). The marble seats of the 
T. still remain, while the Temple of Diana has only 
been revealed by excavation. For a description of 
the structure and arrangements of the ancient T. 
see Rich, Comp. to Lat. Diet, and Gr. Lex., and 
Smith's Diet, of Antiq. The practice of punishing 
criminals in the T. occasions the use of theatron in 

1 Cor. 4- 9 , trd. " spectacle " ; also a similar use of the 
verb theatrixein in He. io. 33 ; Christians regarded as 

•criminals were made a theatrical spectacle. 

THEBES. See No-Ammon. 

THEBEZ, a strong city in the territory of 
Ephraim opposed to Abimelech's pretensions, and 
therefore besieged and taken by him. In attempt- 
ing then to storm the citadel in which the inhabi- 
tants had taken refuge, he was killed by an upper 
millstone which a woman threw down on his head 
(Jg- 9- 50ff -; 2 S. II. 21 ). OEJ. places it 13 Rm. 
miles from Neapolis (Nablus), on the way to Scytho- 
polis (Beisan). We may confidently identify it with 
Tubas, c. 10 miles fm. Ndblus, a considerable village 
in the midst of a fruitful district, rich in olives and 
corn. The water-supply is mainly from cisterns cut 
in the rock. The Samaritans believe that the tomb 
of Neby Toba, in the vill., is the burying place of 
Asher the patriarch. 

THEFT. See Crimes and Penalties. 

THEOPHILUS, to whom the third Gospel and 
the Acts of the Apostles are addressed, is distin- 
guished as kratistos, " most excellent," a title like 
our own " Excellency," applying to certain high 
officials, e.g. to Felix and Festus (Ac. 23. 26 , 24. 3 , 
26. 25 ). The probability is, therefore, that he was 
a Gentile citizen of Rome, and a member of the 
equestrian order. The name " Beloved of God," 
or " Lover of God," points him out as a Christian. 
It has been taken to be simply a common designation 
of a Christian ; so that the writings would be ad- 
dressed in effect to the Christian reader. The title 
" most excellent," however, renders this improbable. 

THESSALONIANS, THE EPISTLES TO 
THE. These epistles were probably written at 
Corinth, at the time when Silvanus and Timothy 
were there with Paul. We read (Ac. 18. 5 ) that 
" When Silas and Timothy came down from Mace- 
donia, Paul was constrained by the Word." In 

2 Cor. i. 19 we read of Silvanus and Timothy as 
fellow-workers with Paul. In both epistles to 
the Thessalonians the names Paul, Silvanus, and 
Timothy are conjoined in the opening salutation. 
The probability is that these epistles were written 
when these three were working together at Corinth, 
some time in the years 51-53. In Ac. 17. we find 
Luke's account of the visit of Paul to Thessalonica, 
and of his work there. As his custom was, he 
visited the synagogue, and for three Sabbaths 



reasoned with them from the Scriptures. We read 
of the impression made on the devout Greeks and 
on the honourable women. But the impression 
made on the Jews was different. They were moved 
with jealousy, they gathered a crowd, and set the 
city in an uproar. They brought against Paul and 
his company the very accusation which was most 
likely to be listened to by the politarchs : " Thev 
all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying tn. 
there is another king, one Jesus." It was the kind 
of accusation which was to be most frequently 
brought against the Christians in the years to come. 
For Majestas was precisely the accusation which the 
Roman Government most readily listened to, and 
which stirred them to immediate action. 

When we read the Epistles to the Thessalonians, 
we realise how meagre is the account" in Acts of 
Paul's work in Thessalonica. Paul's work must 
have lasted longer than the " three Sabbath days " 
there described. For from the epistles we find that 
his converts were Gentiles (1 Th. I. 9 " 10 , 2. 14 ). It 
is best, however, to gather from the epistles them- 
selves what was the nature of Paul's work among 
them, and the character of his teaching. In the 
synagogue he had reasoned with the Jews from the 
Scriptures. From the epistles we gather that his 
reasoning was not from the Scriptures, but from 
the primal elementary persuasions of the human 
heart, and from the convictions of the human con- 
science. As, at a later time, he reasoned of right- 
eousness, and temperance, and judgment to come, 
until Felix was terrified, so among the Thessalonian 
Gentiles he reasoned of judgment, and the coming 
wrath, until they were afraid and eagerly listened 
to the message of deliverance. The burden of his 
message was Jesus, " which delivereth us from the 
wrath to come " (i. 10 ). On this theme Paul seems 
to have dwelt in all his work among them. " The 
coming wrath," the deliverance therefrom, the 
suddenness of the coming of the day of the Lord, 
and its unexpectedness, were the main topics of the 
preaching of Paul. The impression made on the 
Thessalonians was very great. For in both epistles 
the apostle dwells on these topics, explains how they 
had misunderstood them, and in many ways strives" 
to teach them the truth as he conceives it. 

Paul's work among them had been cut short, and 
he had to be sent away. He had left them before 
he had grounded them completely in the faith. 
He was anxious to revisit them : " I would fain 
have come unto you, I Paul, once and again, and 
Satan hindered us " (1 Th. 2. 1S ). Being hindered 
himself, he sent Timothy to help them. When 
Timothy had rejoined him, Paul eagerly listened to 
his report, and in reply sent them this epistle. He 
is rejoiced to know how they had so far kept the 
faith. He rejoiced that through them the word of 
God had sounded forth through all their neighbour- 



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hood. How they had received the apostle, how 
they had turned from idols to the service of the 
living God, were known through Macedonia and 
Achaia, but there were elements in the report of 
Timothy which were not pleasant or favourable. 
For one thing, Timothy had reported that insinua- 
tions had been made against the character and the 
motives of the apostle himself. Whether the source 
of these insinuations was Jewish or Gentile is not 
said, but it was hinted that Paul was like those 
wandering Sophists who began to teach without hire 
in the hope that, when an impression was made upon 
their hearers, fees would be forthcoming. With 
some warmth Paul repudiates the insinuation. He 
reminds them of his treatment at Philippi, of the 
state in which he was when he arrived at Thessa- 
lonica, of b 7 he had laboured with his hands to 
support himself, of how he was among them as a 
nurse cherishing her children. He thus defended 
himself, for the truth of his message was closely 
bound up with the sincerity of the messenger. 
They had received his message as the word of God, 
and they had proven their sincerity in the stress of 
persecution. 

They had indeed suffered at the hands of their 
own countrymen the same treatment which Jewish 
Christians had suffered at the hands of the Jews. 
Then follows the most severe indictment which 
Paul ever wrote against the Jews. His mind was 
full of resentment against the virulent opposition of 
his countrymen to the cause of Jesus, and against 
his own treatment at their hands, and he writes : 
" Who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, 
and drave out us, and please not God, and are con- 
trary to all men : forbidding us to speak to the 
Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their 
sins alway : but the wrath is come upon them to 
the uttermost" (2. 15 " 16 ). Had we space, something 
might be said on this passage. It has been contrasted 
with the attitude of Paul in Romans, and stress has 
been laid on the phrase, "Wrath is come upon them 
to the uttermost." As regards the first point, ac- 
count must be taken of the treatment which Paul 
had received at the hands of the Jews, and of the 
vehemence of his feeling in remembrance of that 
treatment. The second point has been used by 
Baur and many others in order to prove that the 
epistle must be dated after the destruction of 
Jerusalem. But even the destruction of Jerusalem, 
or any one event in history, is insufficient to justify 
the phrase, "Wrath is come upon them to the utter- 
most." Judicial blindness is the highest outcome 
of wrath ; inability to recognise truth, or to accept 
it, is the most severe form of punishment, and this 
was the fate of the Jews. 

Turning back to his personal relationship to them, 
he reminds them that he had not forgotten them. 
He had not deserted them. He had striven to re- 

8 



turn to them, but was hindered. He had sent his 
companions to their help, and he had remained 
alone in an unfriendly city. He was left behind in 
Athens alone. He sent Timothy, and with great 
feeling he tells of his gladness when Timothy 
brought good tidings of their faith and love. After 
thanksgiving and a prayer that they may be un- 
blamable in holiness, he turns to other matters of 
practical importance. He raises the standard of 
conduct far above that to which they had been ac- 
customed : " For this is the will of God, even your 
sanctification." They are, in following out their 
faith, to sever themselves from many practices 
which they had regarded as morally indifferent, 
and they are to study to be quiet, to mind their own 
business, and to walk honestly, although they did 
expect the speedy coming of their Lord. Paul had 
spoken to them, while he was yet with them, of the 
coming of the Lord. Jesus was the Deliverer from 
the coming wrath. His coming was to be sudden 
and unexpected. But this teaching had given rise 
to many questions, and some of these questions were 
likely put to Timothy, and he was the bearer of 
them to the apostle. From the reply of Paul we 
may gather what questions had perplexed the 
Thessalonian Christians. What about those who 
had died ? And what about those who were alive 
at the coming of the Lord ? Would those who were 
asleep be shut out from the glory by which His 
coming would be attended ? These questions were 
answered by the apostle. Not till the dead in 
Christ had arisen would the living be caught up 
along with them to meet the Lord in the air. The 
main thing was that " we shall ever be with the 
Lord." 

Nor should they be anxious concerning the times 
and the seasons, for the day of the Lord cometh as a 
thief in the night. But that fact need give no con- 
cern to the Christian, for they were already in the 
day, and the night was past. They had no concern 
with the things of the night : " For God appointed 
us not to wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation 
through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, 
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live 
together with Him." With a reference to some 
internal difficulties that had arisen in the young 
community, he gives instructions by the observance 
of which they might be preserved without blame at 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

After the first epistle had been sent to Thes- 
salonica, the bearer of it, or some other friend of 
Paul and the Thessalonian Church, had returned to 
Corinth, and had told the apostle of the state of 
matters there. The news was in some respects en- 
couraging, and in other respects not encouraging. 
The Church was growing in faith and love, and 
Paul writes : " We ourselves glory in you in the 
churches of God for your patience and faith in all 

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your persecutions, and in the afflictions which ye 
endure " (2 Th. i. 4 ). But the reading of the first 
epistle had not allayed the excitement caused by 
their expectation of the coming of the Lord. That 
excitement had been deepened by influences de- 
scribed by the apostle as "by spirit, or by word, or 
by epistle as from us," the aim of hich was to 
establish that " the day of the Lord is now present." 
He recalls the fact that while he was yet with them 
he had told them that the coming of the day would 
be heralded in by certain definite signs, and these 
signs he now recapitulates. The chief among them 
was the coming of the man of lawlessness, who for 
the present was held in check, but who would be 
fully manifested ere the coming of the end. This 
striking apocalyptic passage is the theme of a wide 
literature, and has had many interpretations. Into 
these we cannot enter within our limits. Nor is it 



Paul's arrival at Macedonia and the writing of these 
epistles. But what a tale of progress these epistles 
reveal within that brief period. Not to recapitu- 
late, yet it ought to be noted that Paul describes the 
progress as so great that it has gone forth through 
Macedonia and Achaia, and also " in every place." 
The internal progress was also remarkable. These 
Christians were thinking about their faith, were 
asking questions, and were striving to reason out 
the matter. Nor is this unconnected with the 
burden of the message which Paul delivered. It 
was salvation from the coming wrath. The Lord 
Jesus Christ was He who delivereth from the wrath 
to come. It is a terrible truth. Does the Church 
of to-day sufficiently realise and preach it ? 

James Iverach. 
THESSALONICA, a Macedonian city which 
still bears its ancient name, only without the 




Thessalonica from the Sea 



necessary. For the main thing is, not the precise 
interpretation of the passage, but the fact that it 
served the purpose of teaching the Thessalonians 
that, while the day of the Lord would be sudden 
and unexpected, yet it was not imminent. They 
must not neglect their work, nor sit idle in the ex- 
pectation that the day would soon come : rather 
with quietness they are to work, to eat their own 
bread, and not to be weary in well-doing. 

In some respects these epistles are among the 
most remarkable of those written by the apostle. 
They are rich in personal interest ; they reveal 
clearly Paul's relations with his people, his interest 
in them, and his missionary and pastoral methods. 
They reveal also the frequent intercourse he had 
with the churches he had founded. A close study 
of them makes manifest how rapid was the spread 
of Christianity in Europe, as the outcome of the 
apostle's work. If we may date the epistles during 
Paul's work at Corinth, as is most likely, we get a 
graphic picture of the spread of the Gospel in Mace- 
donia. Not more than two years elapsed between 

8 



" Thes " — Saloniki. It stood at the NE. corner of 
the Thermaic Gulf, and was connected with the 
East and the West by the great overland route, the 
Via Egnatia. In ancient times the site was occu- 
pied by a city called Therme, prob. on account of 
the hot springs found in the neighbourhood. Here 
Xerxes halted on his march to Greece (Herod, vii. 
121, &c). T. appears to have been rebuilt c. 
B.C. 315, by Cassander, and named by him in com- 
pliment to his wife, a step-sister of Alexander the 
Great. It prospered greatly under Roman rule, 
becoming capital of the province of Macedonia 
(constituted b.c. 146). Taking advantage of its 
natural position, docks were built wh. afforded 
facilities for merchant shipping. The great trade 
road ran through the city, which thus became "an 
important and flourishing centre of commerce. 
Cicero here found asylum for seven months, b.c 58. 
It favoured the cause of Antony and Octavian, and 
to this prob. owed the grant of freedom made in 
b.c. 42. The right of self-government thus con- 
veyed is attested by the reference to " the people " 



The 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Thi 



(toi/ Srjfiov) in Ac. 17. 5 . St. Luke was also aware of (AV.). They probably were sicarii, rebels against 

the title, politarcb, borne by the magistrates (Ac. the authority of Rome, who supported themselves 

I7. 6 « 8 , EV. " rulers of the city "). by robbing their political opponents ; not unlikely 

There was a strong colony of Jews in the city, part of the dispersed band of Barabbas. Since they 

whom St. Paul sought to persuade of the truth of were hoping for " the kingdom of heaven," the 

the Gospel. Far from being persuaded, they stirred kingdom of the Messiah, they wd. naturally be 

up a popular tumult against him and Silas. The curious concerning Jesus ; hence the penitent T. 



influence of the politarchs quieted the crowd, and 
the apostles at once departed, security having been 
given by their friends on their account. Of the 
Church founded here something may be learned 
from the Epistles to the Thessalonians, written 
later by St. Paul. 



cd. appeal as to a thing well known that Jesus had 
" done nothing amiss." Christ's life had prepared 
the way for the conversion wh. His death effected. 
In the Apocryphal " Narrative of Joseph " the peni- 
tent T. is called Demas and his companion Gestas ; 
in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy they are Titus 



The houses of the mod. city, built on the slope of and Dumachus respectively. 
the mountain as it curves round the head of the bay, THIGH. The thigh is first mentioned in con- 
almost suggest the tiers of a gigantic theatre. The nection with an oath (Gn. 24.?). Placing the hand 
place is an important military centre ; and it is under the thigh evidently gave an added solemnity 
interesting to note that it was the army of Saloniki to the vow. This may be understood when we re- 
wh. restored order only the other day in Constan- member that a man's descendants are thought to 



tinople. 




Coin of Thessalonica 
THEUDAS, the leader of a Jewish insurrection 
mentioned by Gamaliel (Ac. 5- 36 ), which ended in 
miserable failure, himself being slain. His rising 
was followed by that of Judas of Galilee (v. 37), 
which was similarly stamped out, Judas also perish- 
ing. Of such enterprises under leaders with these 
names at that time we have no other record. 
Gamaliel's speech was certainly delivered before 
a.d. 37. About a.d. 45 or 46 Josephus {Ant. XX. 
v. 1) tells of one Theudas who, under the procura- 
torship of Fadus, misled a great multitude, per- 
suading them that by prophetic power he could 
divide the waters of Jordan. Fadus fell upon him 
suddenly, and extinguished the movement in blood. 
In the next paragraph Jos. tells of the death of the 
sons of Judas of Galilee, who had caused the people 
to revolt in the time of Quirinius. If the insurrec- 
tion of this Theudas is intended, clearly the writer 
of the Acts is guilty of an anachronism. 

But these were stormy and unsettled days, when 
risings on varying scales against the Roman power 
were common. It need not surprise us if in this 
verse we have the only notice preserved of one of 
them. That Theudas in Josephus is a Christian 
interpolation, as has been suggested, is improbable. 

THIEVES, THE TWO. In all the accounts of 
our Lord's crucifixion it is mentioned that two 
others were crucified with Him ; these in Mw. and 
Mk. are called lestai, " robbers " (RV.) or " thieves " 



come from his thigh (Gn. 46. 26 , &c, Heb.). The 
act may thus be regarded as an appeal to posterity 
to avenge any failure in fulfilment of the oath. 

The shrinking of the sinew in Jacob's thigh, at the 
touch of his mysterious antagonist, is given as the 
reason why the Jews abstain from eating the sinew 
of the hip (Gn. 32. 25 - 32 ). The sword was girt upon 
the thigh (Ex. 32. 27 RV. ; Jg. 3. 16 ). In the latter 
case a left-handed man girds the sword on his right 
thigh. In the jealousy trial by bitter water the 
woman's guilt was proclaimed by the falling away of 
her thigh (Nu. 5. 21 , &c). To smite upon the thigh 
is a sign of confusion, shame, and distress (Jr. 31. 19 ; 
Ek. 2 1. 12 ). The thigh is one of the choice pieces of 
a carcase (Ek. 24. 4 ). The phrase " hip and thigh " 
is lit. " leg upon thigh," denoting the confusion 
of severed limbs (Jg. 15. 8 ). 

In Rv. 19. 16 , " On His garment and on His thigh 
a name written," prob. means that the name was 
seen on the garment where it folded over the thigh. 

THIMNATHAH, RV. TIMNAH, which see 
(Jo. i 9 .43). 

THISTLES, THORNS, &c. Of Pal. it must be 
said that it brings forth thorny plants in great abun- 
dance and in almost bewildering variety. They are 
hardy, surviving privations from drought which are 
fatal to other vegetation, and during weary months 
they furnish partial food for camels, goats, &c. The 
ease and relish with which these animals devour 
heads and twigs, armed with the most cruel points, 
is nothing short of astounding. They serve as fuel, 
for wh. purpose they are cut, gathered into bundles, 
and carried home, chiefly by the women. Dry 
thorn bushes, held in position by heavy stones, 
often enclose plots of garden ground. A frequent 
hedge in Pal. is the prickly pear, a great shelter for 
venomous creatures. The horseman sometimes 
finds it difficult to see over the tall thistles that grow 
by the highway side. These spread rapidly over 



8« 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tho 



fallow land, and have to be burned to make way for 
tillage. Of certain kinds the seed is sometimes 
beaten out, and used as food for animals. The 
conditions ar* reflected in the language of Scrip. 
The names used are numerous ; but for the most 
part it is impossible to say which plant is intended 
by each. No uniform tr. has been attempted in EV. 
Dardar is trd. " thistles " in EV. (Gn. 3. 18 ; Ho. 
io. 8 ), and in both cases is associated with gotz, 
" thorns," or " thorn bushes." The same word in 
Arabic stands for " elm," dardar ; but in connec- 
tion with shaukeh — shauket ed-dardar — it indicates 
generically the thorny Centaureas, or knapweeds. 
It answers to the Gr. tribolos (Mw. 7. 16 ; He. 6. 8 ; 
in the second passage tribolos is rendered " brier "). 
Prob. the Centaurea calcitrapa, or Verutum, both 
common in Pal., may be intended. Hoab is trd. 
" thistle " (2 K. 14. 9 , &c), " bramble " (Is. 34. 13 
AV.), "thorn" (2 Ch. 33. 11 , &c), "hook" (Jb. 
41. 2 RV.). It was a plant that might be trodden 
down in passing by " a beast of the field " ; there- 
fore prob. some kind of thistle, poss. Notobasis 
Syriaca. AVm. in Is. 17. 13 gives " thistle down " 
for gilgal, instead of AV. " rolling thing." In Ps. 
83. 13 AV. trs. the same word " wheel." In both 
cases RV. trs. " the whirling dust." Thomson 
(LB. ed. 1 88 1, i. 212) suggests that the " vegetable 
globes " of the 'akkub, Echinops or globe-thistle, are 
meant. 

' ' It throws out numerous branches of equal size and 
length in all directions, forming a sort of sphere or globe, a 
foot or more in diameter. When ripe and dry in autumn, 
these branches become rigid and light as a feather, the 
parent stem breaks off at the ground, and the wind carries 
these vegetable globes whithersoever it pleaseth. At the 
proper season thousands of them come scudding over the 
plain, rolling, leaping, bounding, to the dismay of both 
the horse and his rider." 

'Atad is a personal name in Gn. 5O. 10f - It is trd. 
" bramble " in ]g. 9 . 14f - (AVm. " thistle," RVm. 
" thorn "), and once " thorn " (Ps. 58. 9 ). It prob. 
denotes the Rhamnus Palestina, a small thorny 
shrub, much used for fuel, and quite general in Pal. 
Barqariim, trd. " briers " in Jg. 8. 7, 16 , prob. cor- 
responds to the plant called barqan in Egyptian 
Arabic, the Centaurea scoparia, a composite plant 
with thorny heads, common in Pal., but the mean- 
ing is uncertain. Hedeq, " thorn " (Pr. 15. 19 , " an 
hedge of thorns ") ; " brier " (Mi. 7.*). Hadaq in 
Arabic is " an enclosed garden." Some thorny 
plant is intended, suitable for a hedge. Na'atzutz 
(Is. 7. 19 , 55. 13 ) is connected with the new Heb. verb 
na'atz, " to prick," " to thrust in," &c, and prob. 
denotes prickly plants in general. Sirim are used as 
fuel (Ec. 7. 6 ) ; they are a sign of desolation, growing 
among ruins (Is. 34. 13 ) ; they form a barrier (Ho. 2. 6 ). 
In Na. i. 10 the text is corrupt. The form slroth 
appears in Am. 4- 2 , denoting " hooks." No special 
identification is possible. Slllon (Ek. 28. 24 , " brier "), 
salloriim (Ek. 2. 6 , " thorns "), from an unknown 



root, prob. denoting " thorn," or " pricking point." 
Sdrdblm (Ek. 2. 6 , " briers," AVm. " rebels "), prob. 
participle of the Aram, loan-word sdrab, " to con- 
tradict," " to tell lies." The text is evidently 
corrupt. The following word shd. prob. be solvm 
instead of salloriim. Then the phrase would read, 
" though they gainsay and contemn thee." Sirpad 
(Is. 55. 13 , " brier ") is prob. connected with saraph 
= saraph, " to burn," and may be a species of 
nettle. It is a desert plant, contrasted with myrtle. 
Tzinriim (Jb. 5. 5 ; Pr. 22. 5 , " thorns "), tzenlnlm 
(Nu. 33. 55 ; Jo. 23. 13 , " thorns "), may be taken as 
indicating thorns generally. Qotz is the word most 
frequently used for " thorns," but it also is not 
specific (Gn. 3. 18 ,&c). Oimmosh (Is. 34. 13 ; Ho. 9.°, 
" nettles "), qimmashon (Pr. 24. 31 , " thorns "), prob. 
a general name for thistles and nettles. Sikkim 
(Nu. 33- 55 , " pricks "), from sakak, " to pierce " 
(sing, sek — Arabic sbauk, "thorn"). Sbayith (Is. 
5. 6 , &c, " thorn," always associated with shamlr, 
" brier "). Its derivation is unknown ; but it 
evidently denotes thorny bushes. Shamir, its con- 
stant companion, is equally general in meaning. 

In NT. the Gr. akanthai is the usual word for 
thorns (Mw. 7. 16 , &c). It is used for the thorns 
of wh. the soldiers made the crown (Mw. 2jP). 
Batos is the Bramble (Lk. 6. 44 ). Skolaps is used 
only of the apostle's " thorn," or " stake " in the 
flesh (2 Cor. 12. 7 ). 

Tribolos, as we have seen, answers to dardar. 

THOMAS. This name appears in all the lists of 
the Twelve Apostles. John (n. 16 ) adds the note 
that he was " called Didymus " — i.e. " Twin." 
" Thomas " is simply a Greek transliteration of 
the Heb. te'om (Gn. 25. 24 , &c), of wh. Didymus 
is a Greek translation. If the fourth Gospel were 
written for Christians who were Greek-speaking, 
" Didymus " would have a meaning for them, but 
" Thomas " would be unintelligible. It is hardly 
possible that " Twin " should be the personal name 
of the apostle. More likely it was given to dis- 
tinguish him from another, or others, who bore the 
same name, and thus came to be ordinarily used. 
His own name may have been Judas, always a 
popular name among Jews. He is called " Judas 
Thomas " in the apocryphal book, Acta Thomce. 
This name is also preserved by Eusebius in the story 
wh. says that he sent Thadd^us to Edessa (HE. 

i. 13)- 

The information regarding Thomas preserved to 
us is meagre, and confined to the fourth Gospel. 
It presents a perfectly self-consistent picture. He 
was a man inclined to dark views, prone to hopeless- 
ness, with strong elements of love and courage in 
him. We need not suppose any unwillingness on • 
the part of the others to share the Master's perils, 
although they would have Him keep out of danger's 
way. But it is Thomas, who, foreseeing certain 



836 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Thr 



disaster, prefers death with Christ to life 
without Him (Jn. 1 1. 7 - 16 ). Yet, mysteriously 
unmanned in the Garden, Thomas, like the 
rest, "forsook Him and fled" (Mk. I4. 5 °). 
At the table he almost seems to resent 
Christ's assumption that they knew where He was 
going, as if their love and sorrow were not being 
treated quite seriously (Jn. 14. 5 ). Thomas' re- 
fusal to credit the news of the resurrection 
was only the disbelief of a broken heart, and a 
withered hope. It was " too good news to be 
true." Yet how ready he was to acknowledge his 
error, and how sublime his confession, " My Lord 
and my God." He was one of the company who 
with Peter went fishing in the Sea of Galilee (Jn. 
2 1. 2 ), where they met the risen Lord ; and the 
last glimpse we get of him in Scrip, is in the upper 
room at Jerusalem (Ac. I. 13 ). 

There are many legends regarding his subsequent 
career wh. need not be dealt with here. The Chris- 
tians of St. Thomas at Malabar attribute the con- 
version of their ancestors to the missionary labour 
of Thomas the apostle in India. He is spoken of as 
a carpenter. He is also said to have preached in 
Parthia, and to have been buried in Edessa. 

THRESHING. See Agriculture. 

THRESHOLD. (1) 9 Jsuppim(Ne. 12. 25 ). Here 
we must read with RV. " storehouses of the gates." 
So also RV. renders the word in I Ch. 2o\ 15 * 17 . 
(2) Sapb. This is the usual word for T. (Jg. 19. 27 ; 
1 K. 14. 17 ; Ek. 40. 6 , &c). (3) Miphtan, from a 
root iriD, the exact meaning of wh. is uncertain, 
prob. with some reference to protection or asylum. 
It is used only of the threshold of a sanctuary (1 S. 
5. 4f - ; Ek. q. 3 , &c). A certain sacredness attached 



entail evil fortune. The word occurs 
frequently in Heb. where it is not 
threshold" in EV. Trumbull 
{Threshold Covenant) maintains 
that we shd. read " threshold " 
instead of " bason " in Ex. 12. 22 , 
i.e. the hyssop was to be dipped 
in the blood " at the threshold." 
The Heb. name of the Passover, 
pesah (from 




Throne: Egyptian 




Arm-chair or Throne (Khorsabad) 

to the T. as the seat of particular deities. The 
Moslems still regard it as the haunt of evil spirits. 
In mod. Pal. a bride is carried over the threshold of 
her new home, lest she should tread upon it and so 



toleap" 
or "to dance"), 
may have been 
given to the 
feast because, 
after the sacri- 
ficial rites had 
been performed 
there, the Is- 
raelites "leaped 
over" the thres- 
holds of their 
houses. Dagon, 
the Phil, god, 
in presence of 
the Ark, fell 
down : his head 
and hands, 
broken off, lay on the threshold of his sanctuary. 
The Phil, reverently stepped over the threshold 
consecrated by contact with these sacred mem- 
bers (1 S. 5- 4f ")- The custom of leaping over the 
threshold is referred to in Zp. I. 9 . In ruined 
Nineveh desolation (perhaps with LXX we shd. 
read " ravens ") is to sit on the thresholds. Those 
" that kept the door " (2 K. 12. 9 , &c.) were 
lit. those " that guarded the threshold." Owing 
to the sacredness of the spot this would be an 
honourable duty. The post is one for wh. the 
exiled Psalmist longs (Ps. 84. 11 ). In Is. 6 4 we must 
read with RV. " the foundations of the thresholds 
were moved." Also with RV. in Am. 9. 1 , where 
the temple at Bethel is referred to, we must read 
" smite the chapiters [or capitals] that the threshold 
may shake," i.e. the capitals of the columns that sup- 
ported the roof. 

THRONE, the official seat of a king (Gn. 41 40 ; 
1 K. 22. 10 ). It trs. the Heb. kisse\ wh. is used also 
of the seat of the High Priest (1 S. I. 9 ). It is used 
as equivalent to kingship, as 1 K. I. 13f ' Alike fm. 
the description of Solomon's T. and fm. the repre- 
sentations on Egyptian and Asyr. monuments we 
gather that thrones were made gorgeous with gold 
and sculpture. God as King is represented as 
sitting on a T. (1 K. 22. 19 ). In Col. I. 16 thrones 
appear to represent some grade in the heavenly 
hierarchy. A similar representation is found in 
Rv. 20. 4 . 



8it 



Thu 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Thy 



THUMB (Heb. bohen yad, "thumb," bohen regel, 
" great toe "). Thumbs are never mentioned in 
Scrip, save along with great toes (Ex. 29. 20 ; Jg. 
I. 6 , &c). In the directions for "hallowing" those 
who were to minister in the priest's office, we find 
that the tip of the right ear and the right thumb 
and great toe of Aaron and his sons were to be 
touched with the blood of the slain ram (Lv. 8. 23 , 
&c). This may have signified that all within these 
extremities was consecrated. In the ritual for the 
cleansing of the leper, the same parts of him who 
was to be cleansed were touched with the blood 
of the guilt-offering, and with oil (Lv. 14. 14 ' 17 ). 
Adonibezek's thumbs and great toes were cut off. 
The barbarity did not occasion him any surprise, 
nor does it appear to have roused his resentment. 
He had practised it himself on an extensive scale 
(Jg. i. 6t ). This mutilation was probably held to 
disqualify a man for the royal office, as it certainly 
unfitted him for military duty. 

THUMMIM. See Urim. 

THUNDER. The effect of thunder among 
lofty mountains and deep valleys such as those of 
Pal. is always awe-inspiring. Thunder-storms with 
heavy rain are not infrequent in winter ; but from 
the end of March till October, during the cloudless 
months, they are seldom witnessed. Thunder in 
the time of the wheat harvest was a portent (1 S. 
I2. 17f- ). The Heb. word for T. is ra'am, but very 
frequently it is spoken of as " the voice of the Lord." 
Thus in 1 S. 7. 10 " the Lord thundered with a great 
voice " (Heb. qoV). It was a speech that might be 
understood (Jn. I2. 28f - ; cp. Mw. 3. 17 , &c). The 
thunder was regarded as being subject to the con- 
trol and direction of God (Jb. 28. 26 , &c). He used 
it, accompanied with hail, to terrify and punish the 
Egyptians (Ex. o,. 23 , &c), and in overwhelming the 
Philistines (1 S. 7. 10 ). The people were awed by 
the thunders of Sinai (Ex. 19. 16 , &c.) Thunders 
and lightnings are the symbols of God's resistless 
might (Ps. 18. 13 , &c.) and terrific vengeance (Is. 
30. 30 ). The impression made on the poetic soul 
by a thunderstorm in Pal. is marvellously portrayed 
in the 29th Psalm. 

THYATIRA. In the district of Northern Lydia, 
in the mouth of the long vale which connects the 
valley of the Caicos on the N. with that of the 
Hermes on the S., lay the city of Thyatira, on the 
left bank of a stream wh. flows into the Lycus. This 
vale has always furnished easy means of communica- 
tion between the two valleys. One of the great 
trade routes of Asia Minor traversed it in ancient 
times, as the railway does to-day. It was the 
main avenue of intercourse between Pergamum in 
the days of its greatness, and all the regions to 
the SE. 

From its position in the middle of the vale T. 
could never be a place of great military strength, 



but it was of high strategic importance. It was 
built by Seleucus I. (Nicator), king of Syria, at a 
date not exactly determined, shortly after b.c 300. 
The site was previously occupied by a temple, round 
wh. a few inhabitants had gathered. It marked the 
boundary of Seleucus' territory in this direction, 
the Caicos valley being evidently in the hands of 
Lysimachus, to whom Western Asia Minor then 
belonged. When the kingdom of Pergamum was 
founded (b.c. 282), the possession of T. became an 
object of rivalry between it and Syria, a strong 
garrison here being able to guard the road in the 
interests of the dominant power. It was the seat 
of a " Macedonian colony " (Strabo, 625), consist- 
ing mainly, no doubt, of the soldiers of Alexander 
the Great and their children. The name signifies 
" village (tetra) of Thya." A fanciful derivation 
was suggested from Thugateira, a name thought to 
be given because here Seleucus heard of the birth of 
his daughter (thugater). 

As might be expected from its position on the 
great trade route, T. was a considerable centre of 
trade and commerce. The manufacture of woollen 
cloth, and especially of dyed fabrics, was a staple 
industry. In this connection Lydia is mentioned 
(Ac. 16. 14 ). She prob. represented in Philippi a 
Thyatiran trade guild or company. The " purple " 
there spoken of was almost certainly the turkey-red 
dye, extracted from the madder root, wh. is plentiful 
in that region. The inscriptions also refer to guilds 
of " linen-workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, 
leather-workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave- 
dealers and bronze-smiths. The dealers in gar- 
ments and the slave-dealers would have a good 
market in a road-centre." 

It may be taken as certain that there was a settle- 
ment of Jews in the city. Their value in promoting 
the prosperity of trade was generally recognised. 
Lydia, who is described as " God-fearing," pro- 
bably came under the influence of the synagogue 
here. No clear account of the Thyatiran religion 
is yet possible. The hero-god Tyrimnos, as repre- 
sented on the coins, with his strange mingling of 
names, evidently embodied characteristics of both 
Greek and Anatolian deities. He often appears as 
" a standing figure, wearing only a cloak (chlamys) 
fastened with a brooch round his neck, carrying a 
battle-axe over one shoulder, and holding forth in 
his right hand a laurel-branch, wh. symbolises his 
purifying power." Games were celebrated in T., 
modelled upon the Pythian games of Greece. In 
the worship connected with them the emperor 
Elagabalus was associated with Tyrimnos. A coin 
represents the emperor clasping hands with the god. 
The popular religion of Asia, and that of Rome, 
were thus drawn into closer relations. 

The letter to the Church at T. (Rv. I. 11 , &c.) is 
the most difficult of interpretation. Allusions wh. 

*8 



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Tib 



were quite intelligible to the Thyatirans are to us 
obscure because of our ignorance of facts and con- 
ditions referred to. Some have thought that " the 
woman Jezebel " who is so sternly denounced may 




Thyine Wood 

have been the sibyl of some shrine, where elements 
of Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian worship were com- 
bined. Others think that some unworthy develop- 
ment of Christianity in the Church, heretical and 
impure, is referred to, such as might be typified by 
the woman who sought of old to lead Israel into evil 
ways. Sir Wm. Ramsay argues for the view that 
the woman was a prophetess of broad and liberal 
sympathies, whose teaching the apostle saw was 
likely to lead to disastrous issues. 

At the time when the Seven Letters were written 
T. was still a comparatively small city. The op- 
portunities afforded by the Pax Romana were im- 
proved, and for a time the city prospered greatly. 
Soon, however, it is lost sight of, and we know noth- 
ing of its subsequent history, although this must 
have been exciting and varied in a high degree. In 
the tides of war that have so often swept over the 
country its role must have been for the most part 
that of sufferer. The irony of its fate is illustrated 
by the fact that, commanding the approach to a 
rich country, it could never successfully resist a 
powerful attack ; yet the conqueror, in order to 
make good his possession, must of necessity at once 
rear its fortifications afresh. The mod. town, 
Ak-Hissar, on the old site, has a population of 
c. 20,000. 

Lit. : Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches, 
3i6ff. ; artt. HDB. and EB. s.v. 

THYINE- WOOD, an article of merchandise in 
the Apocalyptic Babylon (Rv. 18. 12 ), is the Oviaol 
the Greeks, the Lat. citrus. The Gr. name sug- 



gests aromatic qualities. The Qvia was found in 
the Atlas region (Pliny, XIII. xv. 29). It is prob. 
identical with the Thuia articulata, a tree resem- 
bling the cypress, and growing to a height of 24 or 
25 ft. The brown, hard, durable, and fragrant 
wood of this tree was greatly prized for finer 
cabinet work. 

TIBERIAS. The city of Tiberias lay on the W. 
shore of the Sea of Galilee, about midway between 
N. and S. ; and nearly opposite the fortress of 
Gamala. At this point the mountains recede from 
the beach, leaving a plain of irregular crescent 
shape, about two miles long. Here, c. a.d. 26, 
Herod Antipas founded a new city, and in compli- 
ment to the emperor Tiberius, his benefactor, called 
it Tiberias. It covered the southern part of the 
plain, as is shown by the existing ruins, and so came 
near to the site of the ancient Hammath, repre- 
sented by el-Hammeh, the hot baths, about two 
miles S. of the mod. town. Prob. it was the tombs 
in the burying-ground of Hammath that had to be 
removed in preparing part of the foundations (Ant. 
XVIII. ii. 3). Herod's palace, " the golden house," 
was built on the crest of a rocky hill, c. 500 ft. high, 
to the W. A strong wall enclosing the city and the 
palace ran along the western slope and down to the 
shore. This may still be traced along most of its 
course. There are also traces of a sea-wall with 
formidable towers. Whether or not it covered any 
part of the site of ancient Rakkath or Chinnereth, 
with both of wh. it is identified in the Talmud 
(Neubauer, Geog. d. Tim. 208), must remain an open 
question. The Jews (Nu. 19. 16 ) were naturally 
averse to entering a city any part of wh. covered an 
old cemetery. In order to find a population for his 
new city Antipas had to be content with a mixed 
multitude, mainly of the poorer people, foreigners, 
and others who were " not quite freemen." And 




Tiberias: Part of Old Fortification to Sea 

these he attracted to dwell there by furnishing them 
with good houses and land. It may be regarded as 
practically a Greek city at first, with a stadium, a 
palace which had in it " figures of living creatures," 



339 



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and a senate (BJ. II. xxi. 6 ; Fit. 12, &c). There 
was also a commodious proseuche, or Jewish place of 
prayer, within the city (Fit. 54). From the pre- 
vailingly Greek character of the city it is not sur- 
prising that it appears so little in the Gospel story 
(Jn. 6. 23 ). It was, however, of sufficient impor- 
tance to give its name to the sea (Jn. 6. 1 , 21. 1 ), even 
as it does to-day. Standing on the white strand, 
washed by the blue waters of the lake, with its walls 
and towers, its colonnades, public buildings and 
open spaces, with marble statues, dominated from 
the western hill by the splendid palace of the 
tetrarch, it must have formed a picture of singular 
beauty. 



After the destruction of Jerusalem (a.d. 70) it 
became a favourite resort of Jews. The Sanhedrin, 
wh. had been moved first to Sepphoris, was trans- 
ferred in the second cent, to Tiberias. Here, some 
time before a.d. 220, under the supervision of 
the famous Rabbi Jehudah ha-Nasi, " Judah the 
prince," or, as he is also called, haq-Qodesh, " the 
Holy," the civil and ritual laws, decrees, customs, 
&c, held to be of binding obligation, handed down 
by tradition, but not having Scriptural authority, 
were codified and written down, under the title of 
Mishna. Here also later was compiled the Jeru- 
salem Talmud (Terushalmi as distinguished from 
that compiled in Babylon — Babli). The city thus 





T. became the capital of Galilee, a position 
hitherto held by Sepphoris. It continued to be the 
seat of government under Agrippa I. and under the 
Roman procurators. Its Jewish inhabitants dis- 
tinguished themselves by their strenuous opposition 
to the desire of Gaius to have his statue erected in 
the Temple (Ant. XVIII. viii. 36.)- It surrendered 
to Vespasian on his advance agst. it with three 
legions. T. was gifted by Nero to Agrippa II., 
who again moved the government to Sepphoris. 
The part it played during the Jewish rebellion 
(a.d. 66) shows that the population had become 
prevailingly Jewish. Their objection to residence 
there having been got over, it was destined, from 
being contemned, to become one of their holy 
cities. On the death of Agrippa II. (a.d. 100) it 
passed under the direct control of Rome. 



became a great centre of Jewish learning. The 
tomb of Maimonides is still shown to the NW. of 
the present town, and that of Aqlba on the slope of 
the mountain further west. 

T. was the seat of a bishop under Constantine. 
It was taken by the Arabs in 637. Captured by 
Tancred, who erected a church in the city, it was 
lost by the Crusaders after the battle of Hatfin 
(a.d. 1 187). By treaty with the Sultan of Damas- 
cus it passed into Christian hands again in a.d. 1240. 
In 1 247 it was taken by the Sultan of Egypt, and has 
ever since remained under Moslem power. 

The mod. town, Tabariyeh, stands at the NE. 
corner of the plain, some of the front walls actually 
rising out of the water. The enclosing walls are 
those of Tancred. They were repaired by Sheikh 
Daher el-'Omar in 1738. Sad havoc was made of 



840 



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them by the earthquake of 1837, a catastrophe 
wh. wrought terrible destruction in the city. The 
ruined castle, wh. must have been a position of con- 
siderable strength, stands on rising ground to the 
NW., and just under it, overlooking the sea, are the 




Tomb of Maimonides, Tiberias 

premises of the United Free Church of Scotland's 
Mission, comprising well-equipped hospital, schools, 
&c. Towers at intervals along the walls, and also 
along the sea front, strengthened the defences. 
The inhabitants number between 4000 and 5000, 
and are mainly Jews. The fishing industry is pur- 
sued by Moslems and Christians, who now own 
a fleet of over twenty boats. The Jews are the 
chief merchants ; but many of them are devoted to 
the practices of piety, reading, and prayer, and are 
supported by contributions sent by their fellow- 
religionists in other lands. Tiberias is the only 
innabited place of consequence round the lake, and 
is therefore the market town for a wide district. It 
has for many years had a governor (qaim-maqdrri) 
under the Pasha of Acre. The lake furnishes the 
main water-supply, but there are cisterns for rain- 
water under many of the houses, and the water 
from a spring on the slope to the west is greatly 
appreciated. Many descriptions of the town are 
entirely misleading. In matters of cleanliness and 
sanitation it is quite Oriental ; and no worse than 
many places wh. have less to excuse their condi- 
tions. In summer it is very hot, the temperature 
in sirocco reaching 114 Fah. in the shade. But 
during the greater part of the year it is fairly 
healthy. The worst season is at the beginning of 
the rains, when the impurities gathered on the 
ground during the dry months are washed into the 
lake, and the people are not sufficiently careful as to 
the water they use. 

84 



The extensive ruins that strew the plain be- 
tween the mod. city and the hot baths would 
probably well repay excavation. The Arab name 
for the ruins of Herod's castle — Qasr bint el-Melek, 
"palace of the king's daughter" — suggests a possible 
connection with the daughter of Herodias (Mw. 
14. 6 , &c). 

TIBERIUS, the step-son, son-in-law, and suc- 
cessor of Augustus as Roman emperor. Reckoning 
fm. the death of Augustus, T. reigned fm. a.d. 14 to 
37 ; but if his rule is to be regarded as counting fm. 
the date when his step-father associated him in 
empire, his reign will be two years longer. He was 
an able general but of a cynical disposition. He 
assumed as prime favourite Sejanus, who had saved 
his life, but he proved unworthy of confidence, and 
the emperor became more and more suspicious of 
mankind ; hence the sting in the retort of the Jews 
to Pilate, " If thou let this man go, thou art not 
Caesar's friend " (Jn. 19. 12 ). T. has had the mis- 
fortune to have his character drawn by Tacitus, who 
hated him, and by Suetonius, who cared only for 
scandal ; a careful study of these writers enables one 
to read between the lines, and find a man soured 
by circumstance, who yet really desired to do his 
duty. 

TIBHATH, a city of Hadarezer, from wh. 
" David took very much brass " (1 Ch. 18. 8 ). The 
name is given as " Betah " in 2 S. 8. 8 , where we 
ought prob. to read with the Syr. " Tebah," wh. 
occurs in Gn. 22. 24 as the name of a son of Nahor. 
The site is unknown ; but must possibly be sought 
to the east of the Anti-Lebanon range. 




Mosque of Tiberias 

TIBNI, s. of Ginath, who opposed Omri's claim 
to the throne of Isr., half of the people following 
him (1 K. i6. 21f -). On Tibni's death Omri was left 
in possession. The LXX speaks of a brother of 
Tibni, called Joram, who died with him. 

TIDAL, " king of nations," one of the allies of 
t 2 d 2 



Tig 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Til 



Chedorlaomer in his campaign against Sodom 
(Gn. i4. lf- )- He has been identified with Tud- 
ghula, king of Gutium, mentioned in a cuneiform 
tablet found by Dr. Pinches as contemporary with 
Eri-aku (Arioch), king of Larsa (Ellasar), and Ham- 




It is a question with whom T. has dealings in this ex- 
pedition, whether the Azrijahu of Jaudi is Azariah (Uzziah), 
k. of Judah, or a king of Ja'adi ; in the Panammu inscrip- 
tion in Sinjirli there is no name given to the king dispos- 
sessed by T. in favour of Panammu ; it is unscientific to 
invent a king to suit. The military activity of Azariah was 
indeed extensive ; but it was probably as an ally of T. that 
he warred against the Philistines, &c. Some previous re- 
lation between the kdm. of Judah and Asyr. is implied in 
Ahaz's appeal to T. (2 K. 16. 7 ). 

The revolution in the Northern Kdm. of Isr. wh. 
set Pekah on the throne of Samaria appears to have 
coincided with a confederacy being formed against 
Asyr. ; the refusal of Ahaz to join it was the occa- 
sion of the determined assault made on the kdm. of 
Judah by Pekah and Rezin wh. led to the appeal to 
T. by Ahaz already referred to. 
In this campaign T. besieged 
Damascus, and, apparently mask- 
ing it, he proceeded to the conquest 
of Gilead and Galilee, deporting 
the inhabitants. At Damascus he 
held a court, at wh. a number of 
his subject allies were present, and 
among them Ahaz of Judah, to 
celebrate the capture of the city 
and the death of Rezin. T. may tiglath-Pileser i. 
have visited Jerusalem about this (From rock tablet 

tt , • 1 -j near Korkhar.) 

time. He certainly carried on 
campaigns in Phiiistia and Phoenicia, and so a 
visit to his ally wd. be quite in course. Hanun 
of Gaza, who had attended the " durbar " at 
Damascus, seems to have been dissatisfied in some 
way, and, becoming suspect by T., he fled into 
Egypt. After this T. had to march into Baby- 
lonia to repress the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans and 
arrange matters with deputy-kings he had set up 
in Babylon. In 728 he received the crown fm. 
the hands of Bel, and thus was consecrated king of 
Babylon, a ceremony wh. he does not seem to have 
performed before. About this time Merodach- 
Baladan appears as sending an embassy to T. In 




Tiberius with Toga 

murabi (Amraphel). Chedorlaomer has been iden- 
tified with Kudur-Lagamar, mentioned as a con- 
temporary of these previously named. Dr. Cheyne 
thinks it hazardous because it involves making g 

correspond with V in ~VQV$ (-la'omer), as if that 
correspondence were not made by LXX in this 
passage when it calls him XoSoAAoyo/xop. 

TIGLATH-PILESER (in Asyr. Tugulti-pal- 
Esarra), the third monarch of that name in Assyria. December of the following year the great conqueror 
As there is no mention of his father, it is probable passed away. He was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV., 



that he was a prominent general under Assurnirari 
and usurped the throne, possibly putting his prede- 
cessor to death. As king of Babylon he is called 
Pul, wh. may have been his own name ; T. was a 
name he assumed on ascending the throne in April 
B.C. 745, as it had already been borne by two 



who possibly was his son. 

TIKVAH. (1) Father of Shallum the husband 
of Huldah (2 K. 22. 14 ), called " Tikvath " in 2 Ch. 
34. 22 AV. (2) Father of Jahaziah (Ez. io. 15 ), called 
" Theocanus " in 1 Es. 9. 14 . 

TILE, TILES. (1) The " tile " of Ek. 4. 1 is a 



famous kings in the past. He was a man of great brick, i.e. a soft piece of clay on wh. the diagram is 

military and administrative ability ; he kept the impressed with a stylus or other pointed instru- 

sensitive Babylonians at peace by reigning over ment. The brick is then put into the oven and 

them as their own king, and to them using his own baked hard. Thus the plan becomes permanent, 

name of Pul. His first campaign was to deliver (2) The " tiles " (RV.) or " tiling " (AV.) of Lk. 

them fm. the Aramaean tribes that were pressing 5. 19 are the equivalent of " roof " in Mk. 2. 4 . It 

in upon Babylonia, and then he was saluted k. of seems prob. that St. Luke adapted the expression 

Sumer and Akkad. He definitely turned his arms to the understanding of readers familiar with tiled 

to the W. Menahem became one of his tributaries, roofs, but not with the methods of roofing practised 

as also Rezin, k. of Damascus, in Pal. 

842 



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TILGATH-PILNESER. S^Tiglath-Pileser. 

TILON, a Judahite, son of Shimon (i Ch. 4.2°). 

TIM^EUS, father of the blind man, Bar-Timaeus, 
healed by Jesus (Mk. io. 46 ). 

TIMBREL. See Music. 

TIME. Questions regarding the Calendar are 
discussed under Year ; more limited periods are 
considered under Day, Hour, and Month re- 
spectively. There are, however, two words, one 
Aramaic, Hddan, and the other Heb., mo'ed, and 
their Greek equivalent, kairos. The first of these 
naturally is restricted to Daniel, and is used in 
different senses in different chapters. In 2. 8 it 
appears to mean an indeterminate " space of time " ; 
this, however, is rendered doubtful since the word 
" time " is in the emphatic state, that is, it has the 
definite article ; the verb, too, means " to purchase." 
The word may thus mean " the time when there 
was a favourable conjunction " in the astrological 
sense. Nebuchadnezzar accused the astrologers of 
meaning to buy " the favourable conjunction " for 
themselves at his expense. This is certainly the 
meaning of the word in the following v. : " till the 
time be changed " can only mean " till the favour- 
able conjunction shall have passed away." The 
natural meaning of the word in v. 21 is the same ; 
God is the source of the apparent movement of the 
sun through the constellations of the Zodiac, and 
therefore of the succession of the seasons : " He 
changeth the times and the seasons." As, however, 
this is followed by " removeth kings and setteth up 
kings," it is clear that the astrological aspect bulks 
most largely in the mind of the writer. With 
regard to the madness of Nebuchadnezzar, three 
times is it declared that his madness shall last until 
" seven times shall pass " ; this clearly indicates a 
space of time without defining it, probably " a 
month " (see Daniel, Pulpit Commentary, pp. 146- 
149). The prophetic portion of Daniel gives this 
term another aspect (Dn. 7- 25 ): "until a time, times, 
and a dividing of times " ; evidently this also means 
a space, not necessarily, though probably, a year. 
The Heb. phrase occurs in 12. 7 , and the same 
remarks apply. In Revelation (12. 14 ) we have the 
same phrase in Greek with evidently the same force. 
Students of Apocalyptic on the futurist conception, 
or as they call themselves " Students of Prophecy," 
assume that a day in these prophetic numbers 
stands for a year, a theory certainly in accordance 
with the " weeks of years " so dominant in Jewish 
Apocalyptic, yet wh. cannot, we shd. think, be ac- 
cepted absolutely. It is true that in not a few cases 
the results of the application have satisfied those 
that made use of it ; but to expect to find an 
almanac-like accuracy in it seems to us to miscon- 
ceive totally the nature and purpose of prophecy. 

TIMNA. (1) A concubine of Eliphaz the son 
of Esau, mother of Amalek (Gn. 36. 12 ). (2) Dr. 



of Seir and sister of Lotan (Gn. 36. 22 ). (3) A 
phylarch of Edom (Gn. 36. 40 ; 1 Ch. I. 51 AV. 
wrongly " Timnah "). 

TIMNAH. (1) A city on the border of Judah 
(Jo. 15. 10 ), reckoned to Dan (Jo. 19. 43 , " Thim- 
nathah "). It lay between Ekron and Beth- 
shemesh, and is prob. identical with the mod. 
Tibneh, wh. stands- to the S. of Wady es-Sardr, c. 18 
miles W. of Jerusalem, two miles south-west from 
Beth-shemesh. In the days of Samson it was in 
the hands of the Phil. (Jg. 14. 1 ). Here Samson 
found and married his Philistine wife. The " vine- 
yards " and olive groves that still cover the slopes N. 
of Tibneh, doubtless mark the neighbourhood where 
he met and slew the lion (vv. 5f.). It was probably 
taken during the victorious campaign of Uzziah 
(2 Ch. 26. 6fl -), but in the time of Ahaz the Phil, 
captured it again (28. 18 ). Sennacherib, after the 
defeat of the Egyptians at Elteke, occupied the 
town, wh. appears as Tamnd in the inscrips. (2) The 
town to wh. Judah " went up unto his sheep- 
shearers " (Gn. 38. 12ff -). It may be represented by 
the ruin Tibna, about eight miles to the W. of 
Bethlehem. It is possible, however, that this may 
be identical with (1). (3) Timnah appears in AV. 
of Gn. 36. 40 for Timna, one of the " dukes " of 
Edom (cp. 1 Ch. i. 51 ). 

TIMNATH-HERES, TIMNATH - SERAH. 
These two names indicate the one place, " Heres " 
in Jg. 2. 9 simply reversing the letters in " Serah " 
(Jo. 19. 50 , 24. 30 ). It was a city in Mount Ephraim 
assigned to Joshua, described as lying to the N. of 
the Mountain of Gaash. This mountain cannot 
now be identified. In Timnath-Serah Joshua was 
buried. It is called Tbamna by Josephus, and poss. 
answers to Thamnatha of 1 M. 9. 50 . This latter, 
however, is assigned to Judaea. It was reduced to 
slavery by Cassius (Ant. XIV. xi. 2). Later it be- 
came head of a Jewish toparchy (BJ. III. iii. 5 ; 
IV. viii. 1). In each case it is named with Lydda 
and Emmaus. OEJ. places it at Tibneh, c. 14 miles 
NE. of Ludd, and seven miles NW. of Gophna 
(Ji/neh), with wh. it is also named. In Jerome's 
time the tomb of Joshua was pointed out there. 
This may be identical with a large tomb, on the 
S. of the Roman road fm. Jerusalem to Caesarea, 
wh. contains fourteen loculi, and a small chamber 
behind with one loculus. There are no fewer than 
200 small niches for lamps round the exterior of the 
tomb, showing in what high honour it is held. 

According to the Samaritans Joshua was buried 
in Kefr Hdris, c. 10 miles S. of Nablus, in which we 
may have a survival of only the second element in 
the name. Of two sanctuaries found here one is 
sacred to Neby Kifl, " prophet of the portion," a 
title that might apply to Joshua. 

TIMON, one of the seven chosen by the disciples 
at the request of the apostles, and appointed to 



843 



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Tim 



supervise the business of the daily distribution (Ac. 
6. 5 ). Nothing further is heard of him in Scrip. 
For legends regarding him see Acta Sanctorum, 
April 19. 

TIMOTHEUS, a variant form of Timothy, 
which see. 

TIMOTHY, the young friend and fellow- 
labourer of St. Paul. He was a native of Lystra, 
his mother Eunice being a Jewess, and his father 
a Greek. Of the latter nothing more is known ; 
possibly he was dead before St. Paul and Timothy 
met. Under the influence of his mother and his 
grandmother Lois he was trained in the Scriptures 
from his earliest years (2 Tm. I. 5 , 3. 15 ), but, owing 
to his Greek paternity, he was not circumcised. 
There is no definite statement as to the time and 
agent of his conversion. It seems, however, a fair 
interpretation of 1 Cor. 4. 14 " 17 that St. Paul claims 
him as the fruit of his own ministry. He may 
therefore have been won when the apostle first 
visited his native city. If this be so, he may have 
witnessed the deeds of power, the humility, and the 
sufferings of St. Paul (Ac. l4. 6fE, )> wh. could not fail 
to make a deep impression (2 Tm. 3. 10f ')- When 
St. Paul again visited Lystra time enough had 
elapsed to prove his fidelity. He was a disciple well 
reported of by the brethren. He so gained the 
apostle's affection and confidence as to be chosen by 
him as travelling companion and helper. For this 
work he seems also to have been pointed out by 
prophecy (1 Tm. I. 18 ), and he was ordained by 
laying on of hands by the elders (1 Tm. 4. 14 ), St. 
Paul being associated with them (2 Tm. I. 6 ). At 
some point in this solemn service Timothy made his 
confession of faith (1 Tm. 6. 12 ). As the son of a 
Greek father Timothy did not come under the obli- 
gation to be circumcised, but by circumcising him 
St. Paul removed what might have been an obstacle 
to success in work among the Jews. The apostle 
had no cause to regret his choice (Php. 2. 22 ). 
Timothy went with St. Paul across to Europe in 
obedience to the vision seen at Troas, and is next 
named when the apostles reach Beroea (Ac. 17. 14 ), 
whence he follows St. Paul to Athens. From 
Athens he was sent to establish and comfort the 
Thessalonians who were suffering persecution (1 Th. 
3. lff -). He brought a favourable report to the 
apostle at Corinth. Here he took his share in 
preaching (2 Cor. I. 19 ), and prob. acted as amanu- 
ensis in writing the letters to the Thessalonians. 
He is next mentioned at Ephesus (Ac. 19. 22 ), whence 
he was sent to Corinth (1 Cor. 4. 17 ), and in the letter 
written soon after St. Paul shows some anxiety as 
to his reception (1 Cor. i6. 10f -). Timothy and his 
companion going by way of Macedonia (Ac. ig. 21f '), 
if this letter were sent by ship it would reach Corinth 
before them. He had joined the apostle in Mace- 
donia, where the second letter to the Corinthians 



was written (2 Cor. I. 1 ), and was a fellow-worker 
with him in Corinth, when the letter to the Romans 
was penned (Rm. 16. 21 ). He accompanied St. Paul 
when he set out on his last journey to Jerusalem 
(Ac. 20. 4f -). He is found with St. Paul in Rome 
during his imprisonment (Php. I. 1 ; Col. I. 1 ; 
Phm. 1 ). After St. Paul was set free he and Timothy 
were together in Ephesus, and there Timothy re- 
mained as the apostle's representative, armed with 
full authority to preserve order and discipline in the 
Church (1 Tm. I. 3 , &c). During St. Paul's second 
imprisonment he sent for Timothy (2 Tm. 4. 9, 21 ). 
This probably led to Timothy's own arrest, as we 
read at a later time of his being set at liberty (He. 
13. 23 ). Nothing further is directly said of him in 
Scrip. Some think he may have been the angel of 
the Church in Ephesus to whom the message in 
Rv. 2. lff - is addressed. Eusebius says that he was 
martyred in Ephesus in a popular riot (HE. iii. 46). 

TIMOTHY, EPISTLES TO. The Epistles 
to Timothy and that to Titus are known as the 
Pastoral Epistles (Lat. pastor = shepherd). They 
are so called because they consist largely of elabo- 
rate instructions for the appointment of officers and 
the pastoral care of the Christian churches. These 
epistles form a distinct group among the New Testa- 
ment epistles, and show many points of contact with 
one another and with the Pauline epistles, from the 
latter of which, however, there are numerous de- 
partures both in diction and subject-matter. They 
are private letters of an official stamp, standing 
half-way between the Pauline epistles to communi- 
ties (e.g. Romans, Galatians) and the personal note 
to Philemon. 1 Tm. and Tt. resemble each other 
more closely in structure and similarity of ideas (e.g., 
cp. 1 Tm. i. 1 - 2 with Tt. i. 1 " 4 ; 1 Tm. 3. 1 - 7 with 
Tt. I. 6 " 9 ; 1 Tm. 5. 1 - 2 with Tt. 2. 2 " 6 , &c.) ; they are 
more pastoral, the official element is more pro- 
nounced and the personal less, and on the whole 
they fall behind 2 Tm. in earnestness and grandeur. 
2 Tm. is the most personal of the three ; it is the 
grandest and the most Paul-like. 

These epistles, because of their near kinship to one 
another, their striking parallels with, as well as their 
many points of departure from, the acknowledged 
Pauline letters, their philological and historical 
difficulties, have given rise to much discussion, in 
which the most disputed question is the 

Authorship. — Are the Pastorals written by Paul 
himself or by some one else, steeped in his style, 
impersonating him ? For Pauline authorship we 
have the following considerations : (a) They are 
professedly written by Paul and bear his name. 
(b) They are thoroughly Pauline in form and struc- 
ture, address and greeting, the body of the letter, 
many personal notes, salutation and benediction. 
The parallelisms with the Pauline epistles, especially 
Romans, and 1 and 2 Corinthians, are many and 



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Tim 



often close (e.g. I Tm. I. 5 with Rm. 13. 10 ; 1 Tm. 
i. 8 with Rm. 7. 16 ; 1 Tm. 4* with 1 Cor. io. 30 ; 
2 Tm. 2. 11 - 12 with Rm. 6. 8 ; Tt. I. 15 with Rm. 14. 20 ; 
see lists in art. in HBD.). Those who deny Pauline 
authorship say that these parallelisms are the work 
of a forger who had a comprehensive knowledge of the 
Pauline style, (c) The Pastorals are addressed to those 
whom we know only from the Pauline epistles and the 
story of Paul in Acts, and who were intimately associ- 
ated with Paul in the work of founding and organ- 
ising churches, and the work of organisation in the 
Pastorals is on the same lines as that touched on in 
the epistles of Paul ; cp. Php. I. 1 ; I Th. 5. 12 ; Rm. 
16. 1 ; 1 Cor. I2f. ; Ac. 20. 1 - 28 . (d) The spirit and 
much of the theology are Pauline, as the function of 
law, the doctrine of grace, salvation for all men, 
necessity of faith, dying with Christ to live a new 
life. It is true we find in the Pastorals other 
aspects of truth emphasised, e.g. insistence on good 
works, but the same holds true of particular Pauline 
epistles, as the person of Christ in Col. (e) We 
have early and sufficient attestation, as early as we 
should expect for private letters. In the Mura- 
torian Fragment (c. a.d. 170) all three are given to 
Paul (ad Titum unam, et ad Timotheum duas), and 
in the Peshitta (Syriac version) of the second cen- 
tury. Noteworthy is the fact that we have the 
belief of the important centres of early Christianity, 
Tertullian representing North Africa, Clement of 
Alexandria Egypt, and Irenaeus the East with Gaul 
and Rome, all quoting the Pastorals as Pauline. 
(/) By no means the least important evidence are 
the many personal notes and seeming improbabilities 
where it would be difficult for a forger to be suc- 
cessful. Indeed these trivialities seem to defy ex- 
planation on any but authentic Pauline authorship. 
In 2 Tm. I. 3 we have a Pauline note. He there 
thanks God " night and day " on behalf of Timothy, 
as he does in his epistles (except Gal.), and follows it 
in verse 8 with an exhortation not to be ashamed of 
the Gospel. Is it likely that a forger would have 
hit upon both these characteristics ? (Salmon). 
There is a seeming contradiction between 4. 11 and 
4. 21 , but the writer means that only Luke remains of 
his travelling companions. It would be highly im- 
probable that a forger should send Titus to Dal- 
matia instead of Crete (2 Tm. 4. 10 ). Neither would 
he speak so friendly of Mark (4. 11 ), and most unlikely 
would one represent a man, the time of whose de- 
parture is come, sending for a cloak, books, and 
parchments from Troas. It is true these all occur 
in 2 Tm., but if 2 Tm. is Pauline, all three are, for 
it is practically agreed that the Pastorals must stand 
or fall together. 

Agst. Pauline authorship are urged : (a) That the 
external evidence is unsatisfactory, being too late 
and the references too uncertain ; but this may be 
due to the fact that the Pastorals are more private 

c 



and personal, and therefore not likely to be either 
so universally or so early known. But the external 
evidence is on the whole quite as good as that for 
several of the other canonical books, (b) The impro- 
bability of Paul writing in such a way to Timothy 
and Titus. How could Paul use such formal greet- 
ings to those who were his fellow- workers, and whom 
he had seen quite recently and hoped to see again in 
the near future, while he drops this formality to 
Philemon ? Why should he give an almost scho- 
lastic account of his ecclesiastical economy to those 
who for years must have been familiar with his 
views on these as on other matters ? Had he for- 
go tten to give instructions, if such were necessary, 
when he left them at their posts ? But Paul, near- 
ing the end of life and burdened with toil and cares, 
may have heard in the interval of the dangers that 
were threatening, and, with an old man's anxiety, 
wished to leave a written record for Church govern- 
ment, not only for the present but for the future. 
And Paul wrote other acknowledged epistles when 
he hoped soon to see the addressees (1 Cor. 4. 19 ; 
1 Th. 2. 18 , 3. 10 ). Must he tell Timothy that he 
had left him in Ephesus, and Titus that he had left 
him in Crete ? But this need be no more than the 
aged apostle reminding them of their responsibility. 
And to the spiritual overseer of Ephesus he says, 
" Let no man despise thy youth " (1 Tm. 4. 12 ), and 
again, " Flee youthful lusts " (2 Tm. 2. 22 ), though 
he had long entrusted him with difficult missions. 
Timothy had apparently failed on one mission (to 
Corinth), much to Paul's disappointment, so Paul 
may not have had so much confidence in Timothy 
as he felt affection toward him. And Timothy, 
though not a young man, was young for the impor- 
tant office he held, (c) The impossibility of finding 
time and place for these epistles in the recorded life 
of Paul (see under separate epistles). All attempts 
to make the date of the Pastorals tally with the facts 
of Acts and the Pauline epistles have failed. We 
must, therefore, have recourse to the unrecorded 
remainder of the apostle's life. Those who deny 
Pauline authorship say we have no evidence for an 
acquittal and further activity of Paul after the " two 
whole years " (Ac. 28. 30 ). If this were true, neither 
have we any to the contrary. So that the hypo- 
thesis of a second imprisonment is on as good footing 
as its rival, or better, for we have more reason to ac- 
cept the former. (1) The Pastorals. If they were 
written by Paul, he speaks for himself ; if un- 
Pauline, they at least represent the conviction of a 
writer thoroughly familiar with Pauline affairs, and 
imply the same belief on the part of the churches to 
which they were addressed (for the name Timothy 
is then the only fiction of the clever pseudo-Paul). 
(2) The sanguine hopes entertained by Paul for his 
own release (Php. I. 25 - 26 , 2. 24 ; Phm. 22 ). (3) Cle- 
ment of Rome (who may possibly have been Paul's 



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Tim 



disciple and fellow- worker), writing to Corinth from 
Rome, and in the first century, says (i. 5 ) that Paul 
had preached in the East and in the West, and that 
he had journeyed before his martyrdom to the ex- 
tremity of the West (to rkppxL ttjs Svcrem). (4) The 
Muratorian Fragment speaks of a journey of Paul 
to Spain {sed et profectionem Pauli ab urbe ad 
Spantam profiscentis). (5) The persistence of this 
belief in later writers. Chrysostom, Jerome, and 
others understand 2 Tm. 4. 16 as implying acquittal, 
.and Eusebius {HE. ii. 22) says " report holds " that 
Paul went a second time to Rome ; cp. Paul's in- 
tention in Rm. 15. 28 . (6) Acts is by no means a 
complete narrative of Paul's life : the author passed 
over some events of importance, e.g. about Corinth, 
as we learn from 2 Cor. Luke left his Gospel incom- 
plete, to be supplemented by Acts, and perhaps 
he had similar intentions of supplementing Acts. 

(7) Before a.d. 64 — and Paul was released early in 
a.d. 63 — there was no special reason for severity 
against the Christians, and they were not till after 
that date regarded as distinct from the Jews. 

(8) More difficulties are explained and less new ones 
are raised by the hypothesis of a release and second 
imprisonment, id) The heresies referred to in the 
Pastorals. The addressees were familiar with the 
tenets of the false teachers, so the writer had not 
reason to elaborate. Hence we find ourselves in the 
difficulty of lack of sufficient detail, and our know- 
ledge of the teaching of that day is too scanty. Are 
the false teachers Judaistic or Gnostic, or Judaeo- 
Gnostic ? Do they represent one system or several ? 
Is the same system combated in each of the Pas- 
torals ? It was probably some kind of Gnosti- 
cism with emphasis on " knowledge," the " endless 
genealogies " being the succession of aeons ; matter 
is evil, hence abstinence is the law. But there was 
an undoubted mixture of Judaism — " a Jewish form 
of Gnosticism " (Plummer). The main tendency is 
" that of a rabbinic speculative Judaism, playing 
with historical legends and casuistry, and coloured 
with an asceticism borrowed from some heathen 
source, perhaps through Essenism " (Lockini7i?Z).). 
The problem for Pauline authorship is to account 
for such perversions of Christianity in the decades 
following the establishment of the Church. But 
heresies were rapidly appearing {cp. Col.), and 
with an inquisitive Hellenism, an interpenetrating 
Orientalism, and a ubiquitous Judaism, we may 
understand all the perversion even in Paul's last 
days, {e) That the Pastorals represent a later and 
more highly organised ecclesiasticism of the second 
century, e.g., struggle between bishops and heretics, 
prominence of Gnosticism, contrast of clergy and 
laity, putting widows in charge of the bishops, 
opposition to second marriages of widows and 
ecclesiastical officials. Here we must remember, 
however, that we have traces of the same officers in 



the recorded Pauline period ; that the Pastorals are 
manuals of Church discipline, in which we expect 
more differentiation of offices and more clearly de- 
fined qualifications ; that the Pastorals are late, and 
so Paul, if the author, had time to watch the opera- 
tion of his theories in the churches of his institution ; 
that even in the Pastorals we are still remote from 
the monarchical episcopate of the Ignatian epistles ; 
and due allowance for the development from the 
republican or democratic forms may bring the date 
of the Pastorals to the time allowed by the second 
imprisonment. (/) Another, and, to the writer's 
mind, a greater difficulty, is the philological gulf 
between the Pastorals and the Pauline, both in 
individual words and expressions, both positively 
and negatively. Many of the most characteristic 
Pauline words and expressions are absent or scantily 
represented; others are replaced by rival words, 
e.g. the word for master as opposed to servant is 
Seo-Trorrjs in the Pastorals, Kvpios in Paul ; Christ's 
second coming is €7ri<£avaa, not Trapovcria {cp. 
2 Th. 2. 8 ), Bid/3oXos for Suravas. Very suspicious 
is the large group of a7ra£ Xeyofieva (words occur- 
ring only once) in each of the Pastorals, seventy- 
two in 1 Tm., twenty-six in Tt., and forty-four 
in 2 Tm., and the apparently stereotyped phrases 
(7riOT0S 6 Xoyos, vyiaivovcra SiSacrKaXia, 6 (ruTrjp 
Oebs, KaOapa crvvet8rjcrt < s or KapSla, eirtyvwcns 
dXi^Oe ta<s, 6 vvv alcbv, evo"€/3eta, cr(jo<f)p<x)v f and many 
others). We find also a love for strange compounds, 
as €Tepo8c8acrKaXelv. This evidence might be con- 
tinued to any length. The diction speaks still 
louder against Pauline authorship. In spite of the 
numerous parallelisms and verbal echoes there is 
little in the style to recall Paul. The Pauline 
rush and enthusiasm are absent ; there is nothing 
of that rugged grandeur. The thought does not, 
as in Paul, repeatedly defy expression, neither do 
we meet these tangential thoughts which make it 
so difficult to follow the mind of the apostle. The 
sentences are built in the easiest schoolboy fashion ; 
everything is on a lower level, more commonplace 
and normal. The Pauline figures of speech are rare 
(apart, perhaps, from similes and metaphors) ; ana- 
coluthon is practically absent, and that in private 
letters, where we should expect it to abound. Of 
course there are varieties both of vocabulary and 
style in the Pauline epistles, but no epistle or group 
of epistles shows such a departure as the Pastorals. 
No doubt a large number of the aira£ Xeyofieva can 
be explained by the treatment of new topics, and 
it is not only conceivable, but probable, that Paul 
modified his style considerably in his later years; 
but whether he could modify it in five years of 
toil, increasing infirmities, and desertion by friends 
succeeding the first imprisonment, to the extent 
required by the Pastorals, is difficult to say, and 
not probable. The amanuensis employed (and we 



Tim 



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Tim 



must suppose the same amanuensis for all three 
epistles) may have had a more pronounced indi- 
viduality than his predecessors, or Paul may have 
allowed him a freer hand, or even entrusted to him 
the thoughts to clothe in what philological dress he 
pleased. 

Integrity. — Allowing for the discursiveness and 
freedom of a private letter, there is not the slightest 
ground to regard any of the Pastorals as a mosaic 
composed of genuine Pauline fragments with the 
interpolation of pieces of later work by a redactor, 
and no confidence can be placed in the attempts 
made to dismantle these letters. In fact all such 
attempts are evidence for probable Pauline author- 
ship for the entire letters ; for if those parts that 
can be submitted to test are proved Pauline, the 
presumption is the other parts are also. They are 
either in toto Pauline or in toto pseudo-Pauline. All 
MSS. agree as to the integrity. 

Date. — There is little to guide us about the date of 
the Pastorals. But it is evident from the vocabulary, 
style, similarity of topics, and method of treatment, 
they were written within a very short space of one 
another, so if we could decide the date of one we 
should have the date of all. If we accept Pauline 
authorship we must suppose the latest date con- 
sistent with the limit of Paul's life. Paul came to 
Rome in the spring of a.d. 6i, was acquitted in 
the spring of a.d. 63, and no doubt immediately 
hastened eastward to visit his churches, and perhaps 
new churches, spent perhaps a couple of years in the 
East, then went to Spain, returned eastward, was 
arrested (perhaps at Nicopolis) and carried to Rome. 
Tradition is persistent that Paul was martyred under 
Nero. Now Nero's death happened in the summer 
of a.d. 68, and Paul's probably the spring or early 
summer of 68. 1 Tm. was written as late as 67 in 
Macedonia, and Titus later in the same year; 2 Tm. 
shortly before his execution in 68 (the date given by 
Conybeare and Howson). 

Much later dates are given by those who reject 
the authenticity of the Pastorals. They rely upon 
the state of Church organisation reflected, the defi- 
nite separation of the clergy from the laity, the 
ripeness of heresies, as evidence of a necessary late 
date. " The struggle for existence between sound 
doctrine, apostolic tradition, and subjectivism be- 
came the chief task of the Church for the first time 
in the second century " (Julicher, who prefers the 
first quarter of the second century). But forgery, 
to have been so successful, must have taken place 
before the Pauline canon was securely closed, and 
before the date at which we find authentic traces 
of the existence of the Pastorals. Early in the first 
century would suit these requirements. 

Teaching, (a) Doctrinal. — The Pastorals are 
strongly doctrinal, and insist repeatedly on healthy 
doctrine. But the Christian life must show no 



incongruity between creed and practice (Tt. 2. 7 ,3. 8 ), 
it must be adorned with good works (1 Tm. 2. 10 , 
5. 10 , 6. 18 ; 2 Tm. 2. 21 ; Tt. 2.\ 2. 14 , 3.8) ; for the 
Christian must be an example to the outside world. 
Christianity must be translated into ethical and 
spiritual terms. Christian duties are not only 
Godward and subjective, but extend to our fellow- 
men in whatever circumstances Providence has 
placed us (1 Tm. 6. 1 ; Tt. 2. 9 , 3. 1 ). Of course the 
Christian must exercise sobriety and self-restraint 
in all things ; true asceticism is moderation with 
judgment (1 Tm. 5. 22f -). Godliness is the only true 
gain (1 Tm. 4. 8 , 6. 5 ), especially when accompanied 
by contentment (1 Tm. 6. 6 ). The Christian is to 
war a good warfare (1 Tm. I. 18 , 6. 12 ; 2 Tm. 2. 4 ), 
and must expect suffering (2 Tm. I. 8 , 2. 3 , 3. 12 , 
4. 5 ), and his swan song will be a song of victory 
(2 Tm. 4. 8 ). 

God our Saviour's purpose is the salvation of all 
men (1 Tm. 2. 4 , 4. 10 ; Tt. 2. 11 ), not by works, but 
according to His mercy through the laver of re- 
generation and the renewing of the Spirit, but unto 
good works (Tt. 3. 4 " 7 ). 

Other points are the unity of God (1 Tm. 2. 5 ), 
His majesty (1 Tm. I. 17 , 6. 15 ), the resurrection of 
Christ (2 Tm. 2. 8 ), His atonement (1 Tm. 2. 6 ; 
Tt. 2. 14 ),His incarnation (1 Tm.3. 16 ),the indwelling 
of the Spirit (2 Tm. I. 14 ), inspiration of Scripture 
(2 Tm. 3. 16 ), danger of riches (1 Tm. 6. 9 - 17 ), God 
is also our Saviour (1 Tm. 2. 3 ; Tt. I. 3 , 2. 10 , 3. 4 ), 
Christian home life to be duly regulated (1 Tm. 3. 4 ), 
every gift of God is good (1 Tm. 4- 3 " 5 ; Tt. I. 15 ), no 
multiplicity of media between God and man, only 
one Mediator and He a man (1 Tm. 2. 5 ), Christ's 
second appearing (1 Tm. 6. 14 ; 2 Tm. 4- 8 ), prayers 
for the dead (2 Tm. i. 18 ). 

(b) On Church Organisation. — See articles on 
Church, Minister, Bishop, Elder, Deacon. 

Lit. : The modern critical study of the Pastorals 
began in the early years of the nineteenth century 
with Schleiermacher, who denied Pauline author- 
ship to 1 Tm. 

Against Pauline authorship may be mentioned 
Baur, Die Sogenannten Pastor albriefe ; H. J. Holtz- 
mann's Einleitung 3 (1892); Die Pastor albriefe 
(1880), with a splendid account of the literature 
of the controversy up to that date ; von Soden in 
Hand-Commentar ; Harnack, Chronologie, i. 48of. 
For English readers : Julicher, Introduction, Eng. 
tr. ; MofTatt, Historical NT. ; M'Giffert, Apostolic 
Age ; Introductions by S. Davidson and B. W. 
Bacon ; art. by Moffatt in EB. 

On the conservative side : Weiss, Paul. Brief e ; 
Riggenboch in Kurz. Comm. For English readers : 
Zahn, Introduction, Eng. tr. ; Salmon, Introduc- 
tion ; Purves, Apostolic Age ; Plummer, Pastorals 
in Exp. Bib. ; J. H. Bernard in Camb. Gk. Test. ; 
art. by Lock in Hastings' BD. ; Conybeare and 



847 



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Tim 



Howson, Life and Epistles of Paul ; see also general 
literature under Paul. 

First Epistle to Timothy. — Historical Position. 
The writer is at liberty ; he had seen Timothy at 
Ephesus (or perhaps when passing near Ephesus, 
as in Ac. 20. 17 ), where he had left Timothy in 
charge, as he himself was going into Macedonia 
(i. 3 ) ; Paul hoped to return soon (3. 14 ), but delay 
was contingent (3. 15 ). 

These data cannot be fitted into the record of 
Acts and the Pauline epistles. They cannot be 
placed after the riot in Ephesus, after which Paul 
went into Macedonia (Ac. 20. 1 ) ; for Timothy had 
been sent forward into Macedonia (19. 22 ), and joined 
in the greetings from Macedonia to the Corinthians 
(2 Cor. I. 1 ), whence he returned in Paul's company 
(Ac. 20. 4 ) : besides, the havoc depicted in 1 Tm. is 
something that has been in progress for some time, 
whereas in Paul's speech at Miletus to the Ephesian 
elders such perils are of the future (Ac. 20. 29 ' 30 ). 
Neither could the epistle be written during the free 
confinement at Caesarea, as we have no trace in the 
epistle of any restraint. There remains the hypo- 
thetical journey into Macedonia during the " three 
years " residence at Ephesus, but, besides being 
merely hypothetical, this visit must have been very 
brief to find no mention in the narrative of Acts, 
and could not have given time for such a state 
of affairs as we find in 1 Tm. We must place 
it in the period between the first and second 
imprisonment. 

Analysis. 

i. 1-2. Address and greeting. 
3-5. Timothy's commission. 

6-1 1. False teaching, not tending toward spirituality, 
misunderstanding law and its relation to the 
Gospel. 
12-17. Expression of gratitude and praise to Christ Jesus 
for mercy shown to Paul in spite of his sin- 
fulness. 
18-20. Charge continued ; Timothy to be true to the 
prophecies relating to him ; warning from the 
example of two faithless brethren. 

ii. Regulations for public worship — 

1-7. Public prayers for all men, for kings and those in 
authority, because God wishes all to be saved 
and because Christ died for all. 
8. Men should lead the prayers. 
9-15. Position of women in public worship. 

iii. 1-13. Qualifications of church officers — 

1-7. Bishops, of unreproachable private char- 
acter and administrative abilities. 
8-13. Deacons. 

10. Women (or wives of deacons). 
14-15. Teach these things. Paul's hope to return quickly, 
and desire to leave written instructions in case 
of delay. 
16. Hymn on the mystery cf godliness. 

iv. 1-7. Tasks of the Church against various forms of 
error; necessity of holding to the good doctrine, 
and exercising oneself unto godliness, for — 
8-10. Godliness is profitable according to the faithful 

saying. 
11-16. In spite of his youth to be an ensample and 
neglect not his gifts. 



v. 1-22. How to treat different classes of Church mem- 
bership — 

1. Old and young men. 

2. Old and young women. 
3-16. Widows. 

17-22. Elders. 
23-^25. Personal note — in keeping yourself pure use 
judgment and moderation for the sake of 
health. 

vi. 1-2. Duties of servants. 

3-10. Against false teachers, ignorant, vain, and whose 
questions cause strife, who think godliness gain 
and know not true contentment ; dangers of 
wealth. 
11-14. Solemn appeal to the man of God to follow 
righteousness, fight the good fight, and be faith- 
ful till the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ — 
15-16. Which is certain ; Doxology. 
17-19. Advice to the rich. 
20-210. Parting appeal to keep the committed trust. 
21/;. Salutation. 

Second Epistle to Timothy. — Paul is a prisoner 
(i. 8 ) at Rome (i. 17 ) for the cause of Christ, and 
writes to Timothy, probably still at Ephesus {cf. 
I. 18 and 4. 19 ). He had been travelling recently in 
Asia, where his Asiatic friends deserted him (i. 15 ), 
had been at Troas (4. 13 ) and Miletus, and probably 
in Corinth (4. 20 ). Of his companions Luke alone 
remains with him (4. 11 ), though he is in contact with 
the Roman Christians (4. 21 ). Timothy was some- 
where from which he might with haste reach Paul 
before winter (4. 21 ). Paul was confidently expect- 
ing death (4- 6f- ), and had already made his " first 
defence " (4. 16 ). 

These data will not tally with the beginning of 
the " two whole years " of imprisonment in Ac. 28., 
for in that case the epistle was written before Col. 
and Php. and Phm., which is impossible both on 
philological grounds and because of the confident 
tone of Php. and Phm. contrasted with the gloomy 
outlook .of 2 Tm. And also what then would his 
" first defence " mean ? (which is rightly taken by 
the ancient interpreters and by Zahn of his first im- 
prisonment). The only other conceivable time is 
toward the end of the " two whole years," but this 
is precluded by the way in which the apostle speaks 
of his travels as if quite recent. Surely Timothy 
would have heard long before of Trophimus' ill- 
ness, and surely Paul would have tried sooner to 
recover the cloak left at Troas. Again we must 
have recourse to the second imprisonment. 

Analysis. 

i. 1-2. Address and greeting. 

3-5. Thanksgiving and prayer for Timothy. 
6-14. To stir up his gift, to be constant, and not 
be ashamed of the Gospel, following Paul's 
example. 
15-18. Personal notes. 

ii. 1-13. Charge to Timothy to commit the truth to faithful 
men, and suffer hardship like a good soldier, 
like an athlete contending in the games, like a 
toiling husbandman, remembering Jesus Christ 
risen from the dead and the encouragement of 
the "faithful saying." 



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Tir 



ii. 14-21. To charge the people to avoid empty strife about 
words ; to be a good workman himself, shunning 
profane babblings which issue in ungodliness, 
of which Hymenaeus and Philetus are sad ex- 
amples ; to remember the seal of God's founda- 
tion, and that to be a vessel unto honour a man 
must purge himself and perform good works. 
22-26. Flee the passions of youth, and be truly the Lord's 
servant, so as to help the fallen to recover them- 
selves, 
iii. 1-9. The unholy men of the last days. 

10-17. Having seen Paul's suffering, and realising that 
the godly must suffer and evil-doers grow worse, 
he must abide by the things he has learned, 
having the advantage of being well trained from 
youth in the inspired Scriptures, 
iv. 1-5. Solemn charge to be diligent in preaching in view 
of the evil days that are coming and — 
6-8. Paul's nearness to the end of his earthly career. 
9-18. Personal communications : to come soon, as the 
writer is friendless but for Luke, to bring Mark, 
and not forget the cloak. God stood by him in 
his " first defence," and thus he has confidence 
that the Lord will deliver him from every evil 
work and save him unto His heavenly kingdom. 
19-21. Salutations. 
22. Blessing. 

S. Angus. 

TIN (Heb. bedll, " that wh. is separated," i.e. 
fm. precious metals) is mentioned among the metals 
that mt. be purified by passing through fire (Nu. 
3 1. 22 ). Therefce. in Is. I. 25 is to tin used as an alloy. 
It is one of the " drosses " named in Ek. 22. 18 ' 20 . 
It was part of the Tyrian merchandise brought from 
Tarshish (27. 12 ). The " plummet " (Zc. 4. 10 ) is lit. 
" stone of tin." The use of tin as an alloy has been 
known from very early times. The Cornish mines 
may have been among the sources of supply for the 
ancient world. Sr. 47. 18 shows that it was plentiful 
in Pal. 

TIPHSAH (" ford "). (1) T is named as on the 
northern border of the territory ruled by Solomon 
(1 K. 4~ 24 ), Gaza marking its southern limit. It is 
usually identified with Thapsacus on the Euphrates. 
It lay on one of the great trade roads between east 
and west, which here crossed the river by the ford. 
It was the crossing-place of Cyrus the younger 
(Xen. Anab. I. iv. 11) and of Darius, whom Alex- 
ander followed by means of bridges (Arrian, iii. 7). 
From the time of Seleucus I. it was called Amphi- 
polis. It is prob. represented by mod. Qal'at 
Dibse, where the river bends eastward, eight miles 
below Meskene. Here there is a ford used by the 
caravans. (2) A town, apparently near Tirzah, 
smitten by Menahem (2 K. 15. 16 ). Following 
LXX (Lucian), many think that the original name 
here was Tappuak. Conder suggests identification 
with Kirbet Tafsah, six miles SW. of Nablus. 

TIRAS indicates a people descended from 
Japheth (Gn. io. 2 ; I Ch. I. 5 ), After Josephus 
(Ant. I. vi. 1), they were for long identified with the 
Thracians. We should prob. understand by them 
the Turusha who appear on the Egyptian monu- 
ments, a piratical people who rendered Grecian 
waters unsafe, and even made their way into Egypt. 



Jensen would identify it with Tarsus ; W. Max 
Muller with Tarshish. 

TIRATHITES, a family of scribes residing at 
Jabez (1 Ch. 2. 55 ). 

TIRHAKAH, a king of Ethiopia (Cush) who came 
against Sennacherib when the Rabshakeh returned 
to his master after he had borne his insulting 
message to Hezekiah in Jerusalem (2 K. 19. 9 ). The 
last king of the 25 th Dynasty (Ethiopian) is called 
Taharqa, but he does not seem to have ascended the 
throne till b.c. 691 ; whereas the date of Senna- 
cherib's first expedition was B.C. 701. Three sug- 
gestions have been made ; one that T. has been 
written instead of Shabataka ; or that before be- 
coming king of Egypt he was generalissimo of 
Egypt, and that then he made his advance against 
Sennacherib ; a third suggestion is that there were 
several expeditions made by Sennacherib, and these 
are condensed in the Biblical account. T. was a 
great builder, especially in Thebes. In 669 he was 
expelled fm. Lower Egypt by Esarhaddon,but on his 
death returned into Lower Egypt. Asshurbanipal 
marched against him and expelled him fm. Egypt 
wholly, appointing governors over the whole 
country. A conspiracy of these governors, in- 
viting him, led T. to invade Egypt again, only to be 
finally driven into Ethiopia. 

TIRHANAH, son of Caleb by Maachah (1 Ch. 
2. 48 ). 

TIRIA, a Judahite, son of Jehaleleel (1 Ch. 4. 16 ). 

TIRSHATHA, the official title of Nehemiah as 
governor of Pal. ; modified fm. the old Persian 
tarsata, a term wh. may be rendered " his excel- 
lency." It occurs five times, once in Ezra in a 
passage wh. is repeated in Nehemiah, other three 
times in Nehemiah. Nehemiah is eight times called 
" governor " by the more usual designation of 
pehah. In LXX Tirshatha is treated as if it were 
a proper name Atkersastka, and Artasastka, with 
MS. variations. In the Apcr. (1 Es. 5. 40 ) it is 
Atbarias, a name wh. is joined by " and " to 
" Neemias," as if separate individuals. 

TIRZAH. (1) A Canaanite royal city taken by 
Joshua (12. 24 ). It became the seat of government 
of the Northern monarchy, and the residence of its 
kings (1 K. 14. 17 , &c). Here dwelt Jeroboam L, 
Baasha, Elah, and Zimri. The last named was 
swiftly overthrown by Omri, and perished here in 
the flames of the burning palace. Although the 
seat of government was changed to Samaria, Tirzah 
continued to be a position of importance, and was 
the centre of Menahem's rising (2 K. 15. 14 ). It 
would appear to have been a place of great beauty 
(SS. 6. 4 ). It cannot be certainly identd. Talluza, 
c. 4 miles N. of Nablus ; Teyasir, c. 1 1 miles NW. of 
Nablus, on the road to Beisdn, an ancient site, in the 
midst of a fruitful district ; and et-flreb, a ruin c. 
4 miles S. of Nablus, have been suggested. Bro- 



849 



Tis 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tit 



cardus (a.d. 1332) speaks of a place called Thersa, 
three hours east of Samaria. This points to the 
district of i Ain el-Fdr'a, near which, to the N. and 
SW., are hills with considerable ruins. (2) One of 
Zelophehad's daughters (Nu. 26. 33 , &c). 

TISHBITE, the designation by wh. Elijah is 
commonly referred to (1 K. 17. 1 , &c), from the 
name of his native place Tishbeh (LXX " Thes- 
bon ") in Gilead. 

TITHE. The practice of offering to their gods a 
tenth of the produce of the land, of their flocks, of 
spoil taken in war, and of their other property, pre- 
vailed among many peoples of antiquity. The idea 
in these old customs probably corresponded to that 
in the offerings made by primitive peoples still. 
Gifts to the deity to whom the land belongs incline 
him favourably to the givers, and ensure to them 
fruitful seasons and success in their enterprises. 
When good had been received, naturally such offer- 
ings would be made as an expression of gratitude. 
There is, however, nothing to show why the propor- 
tion of a tenth should have been chosen. There is 
nothing exceptional, therefore, in the action of 
Abraham offering a tithe of the spoils of war to 
Melchizedek (Gn. 14. 20 ), nor in Jacob's vow to 
devote to God a tenth of all that he should receive 
from Him (28. 22 ). 

In Israel the tribe of Levi was set apart for re- 
ligious service, and in lieu of any portion in the land 
all the tithes were assigned to them (Nu. l8. 21ff- , 
&c). Corn, wine, oil and the firstlings of the 
flocks are specified for tithing (Dt. 12. 17 , 14. 23 , &c). 
These the Levites received as representing Jehovah, 
the Owner of the land, who of His royal bounty had 
given it to Israel. The portion of the priests was a 
tenth of the tithe given to the Levites (Nu. i8. 26ff -). 
If one did not wish to part with the portion due 
under this system to the Levites,- he might redeem 
it at the price set upon it, plus one-fifth (Lv. 
27. 30ff -). Withholding of the tithes was regarded as 
robbery of God, while their faithful delivery was 
a condition of blessing (Ml. 3. 8, 10 ). Amos (4-. 4t ") 
scornfully calls the people to their idolatrous wor- 
ship, and caricatures their zeal, as offering tithes 
beyond all requirement. The practice of tithing is 
referred to in the NT. (Mw. 23. 23 ; Lk. 18. 12 , &c), 
and appears to have been continued till the de- 
struction of the Temple (He. y. 8 ). 

Abraham gave the tenth of all to Melchizedek, 
not as king, but as priest of the Most High God 
(Gn. 14. 20 ). But from I S. 8. 15> 17 we may infer 
that in some cases the tithe was levied by the king. 

TITLE. (1) Heb. tzxyun (2 K. 23. 17 ). Else- 
where the word is trd. " waymark " (Jr. 31. 21 ), and 
" sign " (Ek. 39. 15 ). In 2 K. 23. 17 we should read 
with RV. " monument." (2) When criminals 
were executed the Romans were accustomed to 
write on a board the name of the doomed man, and 

8< 



the offence for wh. he was to suffer. This was dis- 
played on the way to the place of execution, and in 
the case of crucifixion might be attached to the cross 
over the victim's head (Mw. 27. 37 ). This title or 
" superscription," in the case of Jesus, Pilate had 
written in three languages — Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin ; i.e. in the tongue spoken by the Jews, in the 
lingua franca of the time, and in the official language 
of the empire. The title is given with slight varia- 
tions by all the four evangelists. The variations 
may perhaps be accounted for by the form taken in 
the different languages. It may have been some- 
thing like the following : — 

0YT02 E2TIN IH20Y2 O BA2IAEY2 
TfiN I0YAAK2N 

REX JUDAEORUM 

Whatever Pilate's intention was (and he had no 
special reason for considering their feelings), the 
description of Jesus without qualification was re- 
garded by His enemies as insulting. Approaching 
him to remonstrate, they received peremptory dis- 
missal (Jn. 19. 21 ). 

TITTLE, the tr. in EV. of the Gr. keraia, 
primarily " a little horn " (Mw. 5. 18 ; Lk. 16. 17 ). 
In the first of these passages it is associated with 
Jot, iwra, supposed to refer to the small protuber- 
ances by wh. certain Heb. letters were distinguished 
fm. each other as 1 and D . Others have supposed 
the reference to have been to the taggin, orna- 
mental additions made to the letters. It may have 
been a reference to the Gr. accents, as the square 
character does not seem to have been in use in our 
Lord's lifetime. 

TITUS, a friend and companion of St. Paul, not 
named in the Acts of the Apostles ; all we know of 
him is learned from the letters of the apostle. He 
was of pure Greek birth. According to certain 
legends he was born in Crete, or Corinth, and was 
living in Iconium when St. Paul first visited that 
city. It may be that there, hearing the Gospel 
from the apostle, he was converted (Ti. I. 4 ). He is 
first mentioned as going up to Jerusalem with St. 
Paul, from Antioch. This was fourteen years after 
St. Paul's first visit to the holy city as a Christian 
(Lightfoot on Gal. 2.). The burning question to be 
discussed there was the relation of Gentile converts 
to the Mosaic law. St. Paul maintained their free- 
dom from certain of its obligations, including sub- 
mission to the characteristic rite of circumcision. 
An attempt was made to compel the circumcision 
of Titus, but this the apostle successfully resisted, 
and so vindicated the liberty of non- Jewish Chris- 
tians (Ac. I5. 28f "). Probably from that time Titus 
continued to be a fellow-worker with the apostle, 
altho' he is next mentioned by name in the second 



Tit 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tob 



letter to the Corinthians. A year before the 
writing of the second letter he had been sent to 
Corinth, possibly one of those charged with carrying 
the first, and there he began making arrangements 
for the collection of contributions, to be sent for the 
relief of the needy brethren in Judaea (2 Cor. 8. 10 ). 
Steps in this direction had before been taken by St. 
Paul himself (1 Cor. l6. lf -). So far matters seem to 
have gone successfully. Soon after his return, how- 
ever, news came from Corinth wh. caused St. Paul 
much anxiety, and he again despatched Titus 
thither to exercise discipline and to restore peace 
and harmony. The letter mentioned in 2 Cor. 
2. 3ff- , y. 8S - was probably then entrusted to him. 
St. Paul went to Troas hoping to meet him on his 
return (2 Cor. 2. 12f -). Brooking ill the delay, he 
passed over to Macedonia. He found his messenger 
and was comforted with the good news of his mis- 
sion. Bearing St. Paul's letter, known as 2 Corin- 
thians, T. again visited Corinth, to carry through 
the work connected with " the collection." 

After his first imprisonment the apostle appears 
to have visited Crete, evangelising, and to have left 
there his companion Titus (Ti. I. 5 ), armed with 
authority to take all measures necessary for the 
welfare of the Church. Zenas and Apollos may have 
been the bearers of this letter (3. 13 ). Titus is ex- 
horted, on seeing Artemas or Tychicus, to meet the 
apostle at Nicopolis (3. 12 ). What came of this plan 
we know not. Titus was, however, with the apostle 
in Rome after his second arrest, and thence he went 
on to Dalmatia (2 Tm. 4. 10 ). 

Nothing certain is known of his after life. He is 
said to have lived to be an old man, unmarried, as 
bishop of Crete (Eusebius, HE. III. iv. 6 ; Const. 
J post. vii. 46). 

TITUS, EPISTLE TO. Historical Position. 
— Paul was evidently free, could plan his itinerary as 
he pleased (3. 12 ), and had with him a band of followers 
(3. 15 ). He and Titus had been together in Crete, 
where he left Titus to organise the churches (i. 5 ) ; 
that island had been to a considerable degree 
evangelised (" every city," I. 5 ) ; the writer in- 
tended to winter in Nicopolis (3. 12 ; probably in 
Epirus, which was the most important of the cities 
bearing that name) ; Apollos was known to the 
writer (3. 13 ). 

To find place satisfactorily for these data before 
Paul's first voyage to Rome is impossible. Only 
once did he touch at Crete before reaching Rome 
(Ac. 27."), and on that occasion he was a prisoner 
and could not avail himself of the " much time " 
(Ac. 27. 9 ) to do any work of evangelisation, and also 
where was Titus ? And it is probable that Luke 
would have made some reference to the Christian 
Church there if such existed. It has been sug- 
gested that the visit to Crete was made during the 
three years at Ephesus (Ac. 20. 31 ), which is quite 

8< 



inconsistent with the language of Acts. Neither is 
there room for the evangelisation of Crete during 
the second missionary journey (Ac. i5- 41f -), for he 
did not know Apollos till after that time (Ac. 18. 24 ), 
nor in the journey from Corinth to Antioch via 
Ephesus (Ac. i8. 18 " 22 ), for Paul was then apparently 
in haste, refusing the request of the Ephesians to 
tarry longer ; still less on the way from Antioch to 
Ephesus (Ac. iS. 22 -!^. 1 ), for he passed through 
" the upper country." 

On any theory of authorship we must place Titus 
after the close of Acts and the period of the other 
Pauline epistles. 

Analysis. 

i. 1-4. Address. 

5-9. Titus' commission to appoint elders in every city ; 
qualifications of these officers. 
10-12. Necessity of approved overseers because of the 

unruliness cf the Cretan character. 
13-16. Oppose those who give heed to Jewish fables and 
commandments of men and teach that matter 
is evil, whose professicn and works are at 
variance, 
ii. 1-10. Teach all how they ought to behave : elder men 
(2), elder women (3), young women (4, 5), young 
men (6), so that they may adorn the dcctrine of 
God our Saviour— 
11-14. Because of the grace cf Gcd and the sacrifice of 
Christ to purify unto Himself a people zealous of 
good works. 
15. Titus' authority, 
iii. 1-2. The behaviour of Christians toward authority and 
toward one another, founded on — 
3-8. The kindness and mercy of God, His love toward 
us and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. 
Necessity of maintaining good works. 
9. Negative instructions to Titus. 
10-11. How to treat a heretic. 
12-13. Personal communications. 

14. Parting advice to Cretan followers. 

15. Salutation and blessing. 

See Timothy, Epistles to. S. Angus. 

TIZITE, the designation of Joha, one of David's 
mighty men (1 Ch. II. 45 ). 

TOAH, a Kohathite Levite (1 Ch. 6. 34 ), called 
" Nahath " in 1 Ch. 6. 26 ; " Tohu " in 1 S. I. 1 . 

TOB. Jephthah fled from his brothers to the 
land of Tob (Jg. n. 3 ), and thence the elders of Isr. 
fetched him in the hour of their need (v. 5). It 
must be sought somewhere in the neighbourhood of 
Gilead and Ammon. Twelve thousand men of 
Tob (2 S. io. 6, 8 RV.) joined the Ammonite allies 
against David. It may be identical with Tubias 
(1 M. 5. 13 ). The Talmud (Neubauer, Geog. d. 
Tim. 239) identifies it with Hippos, mod. Susiyeh, 
E. of the Sea of Galilee, a little to the SW. of Flq. 
The name, " The Good Land," corresponds exactly 
in meaning with that of et-faiyibeb, c. 10 miles S. 
of Gadara, with wh. some would identify it. 

TOB-ADONIJAH, one of the Levites sent by 
Jehoshaphat to teach the people (2 Ch. 17. 8 ). 

TOBIAH. (1) The reputed ancestor of a 
family who returned with Ezra, but whose genealogy 
had been lost during the Exile (Ez. 2. 60 ; Ne. 7 62 ). 



Tob 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tom 



(2) An Ammonite who co-operated with the 
enemies of Nehemiah in hindering the work of re- 
storation which he had undertaken (Ne. 2. 10 , &c). 

(3) and (4) See Tobijah. 

TOBIJAH. (1) One of the Levites who, in 
obedience to the command of Jehoshaphat, carried 
" the book of the law of the Lord " with them, and 
" went throughout all the cities of Judah, and 
taught among the people " (2 Ch. ij. 8t ). (2) A 
member of the deputation who brought gifts of the 
precious metals from Babylon to Jerusalem, out of 
wh. Zechariah was sent to select what was needful 
to make a crown, wh. should be " for a memorial 
in the Temple of the Lord," to the generous givers 
(Zc. 6. 9fl -)- 

TOCHEN, an unidentd. town in Simeon, named 
with Etam and 'Airi Rimmon (1 Ch. 4-. 32 ). It is 
omitted in the corresponding list in Jo. 19. 7 . In 
LXX its place is taken by " Thokka." We may 
therefore conclude that the name has slipped out of 
the MT. by mistake. 

TOGARMAH, son of Gomer the son of Japheth, 
and therefore br. of Ashkenaz and Riphath (Gn. 
io. 3 ; 1 Ch. I. 6 ). "They of the house of T. 
traded " in the fairs of Tyre, " in horses and horse- 
men and mules." It cannot be definitely fixed 
what the geographical situation of T. was ; but the 
most common idea is Western Armenia. 

TOI, king of Hamath, who rejoiced at the down- 
fall of his enemy Hadadezer, and sent his son to 
bless David, who by his victory had freed him from 
anxiety (2 S. 8. 9t ). In 1 Ch. i8. 9f - the name ap- 
pears as Tou. 

TOLA. (1) A son of Issachar (Gn. 46. 13 ), re- 
puted ancestor of the clan of Tolaites (Nu. 26. 23 , 
&c). (2) Son of Puah, of the tribe of Issachar, who 
arose to judge Israel after Abimelech. His home 
was in Shamir, a town in Mt. Ephraim, not identi- 
fied. He judged Isr. twenty-three years. He was 
buried in Shamir. 

TOLAD. See El-Tolad. 

TOMB. Of the customs with regard to disposal 
of the dead, prevalent in Pal. in pre-Israelite times, 
interesting evidence is given by Mr. Macalister in 
his reports of the excavations at Gezer (PEFQ. 
1 902-1 909). At one time cremation was practised, 
and the thick layer of burnt ash found in a large 
burial cave shows that it lasted long. This cave was 
afterwards used for inhumation. The dead were 
laid upon " a layer of stones, or within cists, or in 
pits, in the floor of the caverns." The bodies were 
placed in no special position. Sometimes they are 
squatting — doubtless the attitude habitually as- 
sumed when at rest in life. 

From the days of Abraham until now the 
Israelites have buried their dead. The care and 
reverence with which the body was handled, and the 
arrangements made for sepulture, were due to cer- 

85 



tain ideas' prevalent among the Hebrews, not unlike 
those held by other ancient peoples. A close con- 
nection was thought to exist between the soul and 
the body even after death. That the body should 
be buried was the one condition essential to the 
spirit's rest in Sheol. There was no thought of the 
spirit's return to occupy the body in another life, 
and so, although spices were used in wrapping it for 
burial, it was not embalmed as in Egypt. Neither 
was it thought necessary to add grandeur and 
beauty to the tomb, if only it were strong and safe ; 
although in Is. 22. 16 some adornment may be sug- 
gested. Where anything in the way of ornament is 
found, it may generally be attributed to Hellenistic 
or Roman influence. 

Further, the Hebrews preserved the sense of the 
family unity after death. This was fostered by 




So-called Tomb of Zechariah 

finding rest for the bodies of the household within 
the one burying-place. Evidently the hope of 
meeting the beloved dead in the world beyond 
(2 S. 12. 23 ) in some way depended on the association 
of their dust in ancestral tombs ; and so the phrase 
" he slept with his fathers," had for them a peculiar 
and pleasing significance. 

We can thus understand the horror of the 
Israelite at the thought of being left unburied, and 
at any fate such as drowning at sea or devouring by 
wild beasts, which involved the decay or destruction 
of the unburied body. Even the executed criminal 
and slaughtered foeman were to be buried (Dt. 
21. 23 ; Jo. io. 26f -, &c); see Ec. 6. 3 ; Is. 14. 20 ; Jr. 
22. 19 . The calamity next in importance was to be 
excluded from the sepulchre of his fathers (Gn. 



49 



29f. 



, &c). This lends special meaning to 
David's action in laying the bones of Saul and his 
sons in the family sepulchre (2 S. 2i. 12ff -) The 



Tom 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tom 



burial-ground was inalienable property, and it was 
strictly guarded against the burial of strangers 
there. Inscriptions invoke curses on any who dis- 
turb the sleepers within ; and in some cases upon 




PEF. Drawing 

Rock-hewn Tomb, Tibneh 

any who intrude the corpse of one not belonging 
to the family. The tombs were therefore made 
secure not only against possible plunderers, but 
against defilement of all kinds. The sarcophagus, 
so familiar among their neighbours on the Phoe- 
nician seaboard, seems to have been little used by 
the Hebrews. 

Burning is indeed spoken of, but only as a punish- 
ment for infamous conduct (Gn. 38. 24 ; Lv. 20. 14 , 
&c), or as a method for disposing of the bodies of 
men slain in battle (1 S. 3i. 12f- ) ; and then the bones, 
or ashes, must receive burial. The stones heaped 
upon the body of a criminal served to protect it 
against wild beasts, and also formed a monument of 
warning to others. 

In the climate of Pal. swift burial is necessary. 
One dying, therefore, away from home, or on a 
journey, was forthwith laid to rest in a solitary grave 
(Gn. 35- 8, 19 ). This would prob. resemble " the 
graves of the common people " (2 K. 23. 6 ). These 
appear to have been pits cut in the earth or in the 
rock, each for the reception of a single body, with a 
covering of stones, or of one single heavy stone. 
The family graves were side by side. When special 
emphasis came to be laid on impurity contracted by 
contact with a tomb, these stones were whitewashed 
(Mw. 23. 27 ), lest one might stumble upon them at 
unawares. 

With men of rank and larger means it was the 
pious custom to prepare their burial-places while 
yet alive (Mw. 27. 60 ). The most common were 
hewn in the solid rock. Sometimes the caves which 
abound in Pal. were utilised and adapted to the pur- 
pose. Often a shaft was driven horizontally into 
the face of the rock, and a chamber excavated in the 
soft limestone. In many cases kokim, recesses 6 ft. 
to 7 ft. deep and 18 in. to 2 ft. in height and 
breadth, were cut in the walls of the chamber at 
right angles to the surface. Into these the bodies 
were slipped, with the feet towards the opening. 

8 



A later form had ledges on several sides, about 18 in. 
above the floor, on which the bodies were laid. 
Sometimes these were arched over. There are also 
tombs in wh. the ledges or " loculi " are present 
with the kokim, evidently a transition form. 
Joseph's tomb must have been furnished with 
loculi, since the body could be seen by one looking in 
(Jn. 20. 5 ). There are also cases in which a hollow 
has been cut in the ledge for the reception of the 
corpse. Rarely the kokim and loculi were of suffi- 
cient width to permit of two bodies being laid side 
by side. Frequently the first chamber communi- 
cated with others by means of low rock-cut passages, 
thus forming a complex of tombs. Instances are 
seen in the so-called " Tombs of the Kings " and 
" Tombs of the Prophets " near Jerusalem. The 
mouth of the entrance passage was closed by a great 
stone. This might swing in a socket as in the larger 
openings to burial caves, or it might be raised and 
lowered by means of a lever placed in a hole in its 
surface. Commonly it was shaped like a stout 
circular millstone, and moved in a groove cut before 
the opening. 

In 1902 an important discovery of tombs was 
made at Mareshah (see PEF., Painted Tombs in the 
Necropolis of Marissa). The oldest of these, shown 
in the illustration on page 429, dates from the second 
half of the third century b.c Their elaborate or- 
namentation, paintings, and inscriptions are of great 
value as illustrating the history of that period. 

Examples of tombs of masonry may be seen at 
Qedes (Kadesh Naphtali), Tell Hum, &c. These 
belong to a later date. The practice of raising 
monuments over tombs does not appear before the 
time of the Greeks. Simon the Maccabee marked 




PEF. Drawing 

Rock-cut Tomb near Amwas, showing Mode of 
closing Entrance 

in this way the burial-place of his father, his mother, 
and brothers (1 M. I3. 27ff -). 

Many of the holy places in Pal. to-day are asso- 
ciated with the tombs of saints or heroes. These 
" maqams " are regarded by the common people 
with a reverence far beyond that accorded to the 



Ton 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ton 



mosque. The shrine is carefully guarded against 
defilement and profanation. Anything deposited 
near the tomb is regarded as under the saint's pro- 
tection. The perfect security thus obtained often 
brings together there a strange collection of articles. 
Nothing within the enclosure must be injured, on 
pain of enduring the saint's wrath. The present 
writer knows of one case where the death penalty 
was inflicted for the cutting down of a tree wh. had 
grown to obstruct the way to the shrine. The Jews 
also hold in great reverence the tombs of their 
famous rabbis : synagogues wh. became places of 
pilgrimage being built over them, like that of Rabbi 




s> ; 




■ 


\\ 




PEF. Drawing 



Plan of Jewish Tomb 



Meir at Tiberias, and of Rabbi Shimyon ben 
Yochai at Meiron. 

TONGUES, THE CONFUSION OF. The 
narrative of Gn. n. 1 * 9 explains the diversity of 
language, the dispersion of mankind over the face of 
the earth, and the origin of the name of the city of 
Babylon. But the account is beset with difficulties. 
The name Babylon is derived by the sacred writer 
from the Hebrew balal, to confuse. But com- 
petent Babylonian scholars are unanimous in holding 
that the native Babylonian name, Babilu, signifies 
the " Gate of God." * Then as to the dispersion of 
men over the world, the narrative of Gn. II. 1 " 9 does 
not accord well with the narrative of Gn. 10., wh. 
represents the dispersion of men and their division 

* The Biblical derivation may, however, be a play on the 
word, rather than a derivation proper. 

8 



into different nationalities as the result of a natural 
process of migration, not as a punishment for mis- 
directed ambition. No place seems left for the 
events related in Gn. II. 1 " 9 . Neither does the narra- 
tive of Gn. II. 1 " 9 fit in well with the narrative of the 
Flood. The whole tenor of the narrative of Gn. 
n. 1 " 9 implies the presence on the earth of a very 
considerable population, a population much larger 
than the family of Noah or those who could have 
descended from them in the interval of time be- 
tween the Flood and the dispersion. Indeed the 
narrative of Gn. II. 1 " 9 seems entirely independent of 
the narratives of the Flood and of Gn. 10. But 
a yet greater difficulty arises out of the conflict be- 
tween Gn. II. 1 " 9 and the results of archaeology and 
anthropology. The Biblical date of the Flood is 
B.C. 2501, or, according to the Septuagint, b.c 3066, 
i.e. if we accept the Biblical Chronology as it stands. 
But there exist inscriptions dating apparently from 
much earlier than the earliest of these dates, written 
in three distinct languages — Sumerian, Babylonian, 
and Egyptian. Thus it would seem that diversity of 
language had arisen very much sooner thanGn. II. 1 " 9 
would lead us to suppose. Yet again, Gn. 1 1 , 1 " 9 fails 
to account for the existing diversity of races and their 
wide distribution over the surface of the earth. If 
the various race-types to be found in the world at 
present have been derived from one parent stock, as 
the Bible and science agree in teaching that they 
have been, a much vaster period of time is needed 
for their development and distribution than seems 
to be allowed for by Gn. II. 1 " 9 . Existing race-types 
show no tendency to vary even under changed con- 
ditions. And the types depicted on the monuments 
of Egypt have not changed in the 4000 years wh. 
separate their age and ours. From wh. the inference 
has been drawn that the characteristic features of the 
various races of mankind have been impressed upon 
them before the dawn of history, in the early youth 
of mankind, when the human frame must have been 
more plastic than in these later ages, when the traits 
wh. separate one race from another have apparently 
been fixed once for all. All this points to the great 
antiquity of the human race. And this is confirmed 
by evidence derived from various sources, more par- 
ticularly from the numerous relics of human work- 
manship wh. have been found in different parts of 
Europe and America, showing that man in a rude 
and primitive stage of development ranged thro' the 
forests and river- valleys of these continents in com- 
pany with mammals now extinct, during the glacial 
age. With this also agree the wide distribution of 
the human race over the surface of the earth and 
the radical differences which separate the various 
families of language from each other. The evi- 
dence at our command goes to show that diversity of 
race originated at a much earlier date than Gn. 
II. 1 " 9 wd. lead us to suppose, and that this diversity 



Ton 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ton 



of race is the cause and not the result of diversity of 
language. 

How, then, are we to regard the narrative of 
Gn. n. 1 " 9 ? 

(i) It may be a reminiscence of some incident in 
the history of man in Western Asia. No Baby- 
lonian parallel to it has as yet been found. But it 
has been connected conjecturally with the remains 
of two buildings in Babylonia. One is the cele- 
brated tower of Birs-Nimriid at Borsippa, wh. stands 
at a little distance south-west from Babylon, on 
the west bank of the Euphrates, the ruins of which 
form a mound of enormous size. The other is the 
great Temple of Merodach within Babylon itself, 
wh. Nebuchadnezzar mentions that he found in a 
dilapidated condition and restored to great splen- 
dour and magnificence. This latter was erected in 
pre-historic times ; its earliest name was Accadian, 
Bit-Saggatu, " the house of the lofty summit " ; it 
was frequently restored by Babylonian kings, and 
was the principal shrine in Babylon. Possibly it 
was some incident connected with one of these 
buildings that is referred to in Gn. 1 1 . 1_9 , presum- 
ably some act of daring, impious ambition. 

(2) But however we may regard the narrative, it is, 
like all the early narratives of Genesis, suggestive of 
religious truth. It seems to imply that the accu- 
mulation of human beings in congested centres of 
population is not according to God's plan, nor is it 
for man's good. Man was intended by God to 
spread over the surface of the earth and to subdue it. 
It also strikes a note distinctly hostile to the exist- 
ence of great brutal world-powers, of wh. Babylon 
has ever been the type. It teaches the sinfulness of 
man exalting himself against God and seeking his 
own glory rather than God's glory. It also teaches 
that rebellion against God leads to discord amongst 
men. And it suggests that diversity of race and 
language finds a place and serves a purpose in God's 
providential government of men. God's punish- 
ment of man's sin becomes a means of good. 

Lit. : Driver, Com. on Genesis (Westminster Com., 
Methuen), and his article in HDB. s.v. ; Dods, 
Genesis (Handbooks for Bible Classes, T. & T. 
Clark) ; Ryle, Early Narratives of Genesis (Mac- 
millan & Co.) ; Gordon, The Early Traditions of 
Genesis (T. & T. Clark) ; Sayce, The Races of the 
Old Testament (Religious Tract Society). 

John W. Slater. 

TONGUES, GIFT OF. Our knowledge of this 
phenomenon of the apostolic age is derived from 
two NT. passages, 1 Cor. 12. -14. and Ac. 2. 1 ' 18 . 
There are references to it also in Mk. 16. 17 ; Ac. 
io. 46 , 19. 6 , but with no information as to its nature. 
We have to distinguish at the outset between the 
facts described and the religious interpretation and 
valuation put upon them. The first question is as 
to the facts. 

8$ 



Since St. Paul's account is the more circum- 
stantial, the earlier, that of an eye-witness, and of 
one who himself possessed and exercised the gift, 
it is from it we must start. It is clear that the 
phenomenon he describes was of an ecstatic char- 
acter. The speaker was in a state of religious rap- 
ture or ecstasy. His spirit prayed, or sang, or 
blessed, but his understanding was unfruitful, i.e. 
in abeyance (1 Cor. i4-. 14f- )- He was under the in- 
fluence of a compelling power, and his utterances 
were involuntary (i2. 2,3 , 14. 32 ). The impression 
produced on an outsider was that he was mad (14. 2,3 ). 
This submersion of thought and will, and subjec- 
tion to an overmastering impulse, are well-known 
features of the ecstatic state. More difficult to 
make out is the precise character of the words or 
sounds to which the speaker with tongues gave 
utterance. Were we to start from the account in 
Acts we might suppose that they were those of some 
foreign language unknown to the speaker under 
normal conditions. But St. Paul's account abso- 
lutely precludes such an idea. He who speaks in a 
tongue does not speak to man — so not to a foreigner 
— but to God (14. 2 ). His words are not those of a 
foreign language, but " mysteries " ; and they are 
unintelligible to others, and, until they are inter- 
preted, useless for edification (i4. 2ff *). Still further, 
the fact that in 14. 10 the apostle compares glossolalia 
with speech in a foreign tongue is a decisive proof 
that he could not have regarded the two as identical. 
But if the ecstatic utterances were not of the nature 
of speech in a foreign language, what were they ? 
Their outstanding feature, to which the apostle 
again and again returns, was their unintelligibleness. 
This does not altogether preclude the idea of dis- 
jointed ejaculations like "Jesus is Lord," " Maran- 
atha," "Abba," " Hallelujah," and 12. 3 seems to 
point to such. But probably in most cases the words 
uttered were wholly incoherent. The apostle com- 
pares them to the sounds of a pipe or harp played 
without time or tune (14. 7 ). What meaning they 
possessed was derived from the emotion of praise or 
prayer or blessing, of which they were the inarticu- 
late expression. To divine this meaning and 
communicate it to others was the office of the 
interpreter of tongues. The apostle alludes to divers 
kinds of tongues. They may have been distin- 
guished by the manner of utterance, whether sung 
or spoken, or, again, by the character of the emotion 
expressed — adoration, benediction, confession, &c. 

The account in Ac. 2 differs from that in I Cor. 
12.-14. in at least one important particular. While 
in the second account there is no question of speech 
in a foreign language, in the first this seems to be 
clearly implied. The foreign Jews in Jerusalem 
hear the wonderful works of God, each in his native 
tongue, from Galilaean speakers who presumably 
were ignorant of any tongue but their own (2. 7ff ). 

5 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Top 



Must we then conclude that the pneumatic gift (14. 4 ). It is inferior also to the gift of knowledge or 
described in Acts is different in kind from that teaching, which is not ecstatic at all. St. Paul de- 
described by St. Paul ? Such a conclusion is by no clares that he would rather speak five words with his 
means inevitable. The phenomenon of Pentecost understanding, that he might instruct others, than 
was repeated in the house of Cornelius — its identity ten thousand words in a tongue. It is, however, 
is expressly asserted by St. Peter (Ac. II. 15 ) — and when he proceeds to speak of love that he touches 
there is a strong presumption that that familiar to the culminating point of his conception of spiritual 
St. Paul, since it bore the same name, was also of the gifts and of the Spirit's working. To this gift of 
same character. Moreover, in both accounts the ordinary life he assigns a place far above that of the 
phenomenon is clearly ecstatic. The disciples at gifts that were esteemed mainly on account of their 
Pentecost did not set themselves to address a con- marvellous character. Love is the supreme mani- 
gregation of foreigners, but burst, when the Spirit festation of the Holy Spirit's activity, and, destitute 
fell upon them, into involuntary utterance. Only of love, the speaker with tongues is nothing better 
after this did a crowd collect to witness the marvel than sounding brass. In this ethicising of the 
and to listen (Ac. 2. 4ff -). And in both cases the im- doctrine of the Spirit we find one of St. Paul's 
pression produced on the unsympathetic listener greatest services to the Christian faith. 



was the same (Ac. 2. 13 ). The real difference be- 
tween the two accounts is that in Acts the inter- 
preter is omitted as unnecessary. The hearers are 
themselves able to interpret. They have the 
faculty of instinctively apprehending the language 



Lit. : Weizsacker, Apostolic Age ; Gunkel, Die 
Wirkungen des heiligen Geistes ; Joh. Weiss, Die 
Schriften des NTs., 1 Cor. 12.-14. ; A. Wright, Some 
NT. Problems. W. Morgan, 

TOYAZQUeh.fitddh), a precious stone, the second 
of intense religious emotion — a language which is, in the first row of the jewels on the High Priest's 
indeed, in some sense universal. breastplate (Ex. 28. 17 , 39. 10 ) ; it is mentioned with 

The second question to be considered is that of othergems as the covering of the prince of Tyre (Ek. 



the religious interpretation which the NT. puts 
upon the gift of tongues and the value it attaches to 
it. For the popular religious thought of St. Paul's 
time the mere fact of ecstasy was itself evidence that 
the subject of it was under the sway of a super- 



28. 13 ). It was regarded as very precious (Jb. 28. 19 ). 
" The T. of Ethiopia shall not equalit" (Wisdom). It 
is presumably our T. See Stones, Precious Stones. 
TOPHEL. This name occurs in a passage of 
admitted difficulty (Dt. I. 1 ). The intention ap- 



human power. And St. Paul starts from this. As parently is, by mentioning certain places, to define 
the heathen ecstatic was the instrument of a demon, more closely the position of the camp of Israel, 
so the Christian was the instrument of the Holy . Proposed identifications all refer to places too dis- 
Spirit (1 Cor. I2. 2, 3 ). But at once the apostle tant to serve this purpose. Many have thought 
carries the interpretation into a far higher region, that Tophel may be represented by et-Tafeleh, a 
The question had been put to him how the ecstatic large vill. ^.15 miles SE. of the Dead Sea, on the 
phenomena of the Christian Church were to be road between Kerak and Petra. Besides the con- 
distinguished from those of heathenism, or of de- sideration mentioned above, the change of the light 
moniac possession, with which, externally, they had t to the heavy t is a difficulty, 
much in common. He finds the difference, not in TOPHET, TOPHETH, " place of burning," 
the fact that the one class was more of a marvel than accdg. to LXX was originally the name of a high 
the othe , but in their moral character and outcome, place in the valley of Hinnom, where the Jerusa- 
If the ecstatic called Jesus Lord, he was under the lemites made their children " pass through the 



influence of the Spirit of God ; if he called Him 
accursed, he was under a demon's influence (12. 3 ). 
The proof of the Spirit's working was not ecstasy 



fire " to Molech (2 Ch. 28. 3 , 33.6 ; Jr. 32. 35 ). Fm. 
Is. 30. 33 it may be inferred that the " place of burn- 
ing " was a pit rather than an altar. The place was 



in itself, but the man's attitude to Jesus. The defiled by Josiah (2 K. 23. 10 ). Jeremiah (j. 32 , 19. 6 ) 

apostle's ethical standpoint appears even more says " the days come " when the valley shall be 

clearly when he proceeds to estimate the relative called " the valley of the slain " (EV. " slaughter "), 

value of the various gifts in which the Spirit's pre- because, no place else being available, the slain of 

sence and working were recognised. No other Jrs. shall be buried there. The meaning is that 

criterion of value is allowed than that of their use victims of another kind will atone for the atrocious 

for the edification of the Church. Judged by this offerings to Molech. Clearly, therefore, it was a 

criterion, the gift of tongues is relegated to a subor- place in the bottom of the valley : and if it was to 

dinate place, and the exercising of it is severely become a burial-place for a multitude of corpses, 

restricted (i4. 27L ). It is much inferior to prophecy, the prophet cannot intend the narrow space in the 

itself an ecstatic gift ; for while the prophet, speak- mod. Wddy er-Rabdbi, but rather the wide part 

ing words that can be understood, edifies others, the where it opens into the Kidron. See Hinnom, 

speaker in an unknown tongue edifies only himself Kidron. G. H. Dalman. 

8c6 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tow 



TORCH. See Lamp. 

TORTOISE, an animal declared to be unclean 
(Lv. 1 1 , 29 ). The Heb. name tzab resembles so closely 
the Arb. dubb, " a lizard of large size," that one is 
inclined to identify the animals ; yet it seems 
strange that the still commoner tortoise shd. not 
be forbidden. The LXX and the Psh. render 
" lizard." 

TORTURE had two objects — either to make 
punishment more cruel or to force a confession, 
either of a crime or of associates ; or (and this was 
not infrequent in Turkey within the past half cen- 



means " assayer," or " trier " (RVm.), from the 
same verb, bakan, " to scrutinise," or " prove." 
(2) Migddl is the usual word for " tower," whether 
it be part of the fortification of a city (2 Ch. 14. 7 , 
&c), a tower for observation in the country, or for 
the guarding of the roads, the vineyards, or the 
flocks (2 K. 9. 17 ; 2CI1.27. 4 ; Is. 5. 2 ,&c). (3) Mig- 
ddl is trd. as the name of a fortified city in Ex. 



14. 2 ; Nu.33. 7 ; Jr. 44. 
rendered in Ek. 29 



10 



, 46. 14 . It shd. also be so 
30. 6 (RV.). (4) Mdtzor, 



siege," " entrenchment," is only once rendered 
tower " (Hb. 2. 1 , RVm. " fortress "). Here it 




Assyrians flaying their Prisoners alive, and carrying away Heads of the Slain 



tury) to tell where treasure was hidden. The first 
of these appears to have been common among the 
Assyrians, as the flaying alive of prisoners who 
had rendered themselves specially obnoxious. The 
Romans used T. in both ways ; crucifixion, pre- 
ceded as it was by scourging, had as a punishment 
the element of vindictiveness. Scourging was used 
by them as a n'eans of extracting truth, especially 
fm. slaves. Claudius Lysias was about to apply 
this to the Apostle Paul (Ac. 22. 24 ) when the latter 
appealed to his citizenship. 

TOU. See Toi. 

TOWER represents several words in Heb. 
(1) Bahan, " watch-tower " (Is. 32. 14 RV.) ; bdhon 
(pi. bakunim) is prob. a " siege tower " (Is. 23. 13 ), 
wh. might be used for surveying the defences as well 
as for purposes of attack. In Jr. 6. 27 the word poss. 



may be derived from 1X3, " to observe," and 
should be trd. " watch-tower." (5) 'Ophel (2 K. 
5. 24 ) is lit. "hill." (6) Pinnah, lit. "corner." 
In fortified towers the corners were strengthened 
with battlements (2 Ch. 26. 15 RV. ; cp. Ne. 3. 24 , 
&c. ; Zp. i. 16 , 3. 6 ). (7) Misgab, "high fort," or 
" stronghold " (Is. 25. 12 ), is trd. " tower " in many 
figurative phrases (Is. 33. 16 ; 2 S. 22. 3 ; Ps. \6. St 12 , 
&c). In Jr. 48. 1 "Misgab" is probably = " Kir 
Moab." In NT. irvpyos stands for the watch- 
tower in the vineyard (Mw. 21. 33 , &c.) and for the 
fortress (Lk. 14. 28 ). 

Besides the towers which strengthened the ex- 
terior defences of a city, at the corners, at the gates, 
or at certain intervals on the walls, such as those 
built by Solomon and Herod {see Jerusalem), there 
was often a tower or citadel, to which in extremity 



857 



Tow 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tra 



of peril the citizens were wont to retire. The quelled the disturbance may have been due to his 

" towers " in the vineyards were probably simple own personal influence. 

structures like those to be seen to-day, of dry stones TRACHONITIS. The name occurs only in 

and boughs. Of the towers guarding the highways, Lk. 3. 1 , as applied to part of the tetrarchy of Philip. 




Assyrians torturing their Captives 



or sources of water, in which soldiers were quartered, 
comparatively mod. examples may be seen at Khan 
et-Tujjar, to the NE. of Tabor, and at the so-called 
Pools of Solomon S. of Bethlehem. Strength as 
well as gracefulness is implied in comparing the neck 
of the beloved with a " tower of ivory " (SS. 7. 4 ). 
One or other of the strong forts, occupying almost 
inaccessible heights in his mountainous country, 
would nearly always be within sight of the Israelite. 
This lends peculiar significance to the phrase " my 
high tower " as applied to God (Ps. 18. 2 , &c.) ; and 
" the name of the Lord is a strong tower." If one 
in danger calls on the name of a powerful man, it is 
enough in most cases still in the East to stay the 
aggressor's hand. The protector's power is the 
measure of the security. 

TOWN CLERK. This official is mentioned in 
NT. only in connection with the tumult in Ephesus 
(Ac. 19. 35 ). The position of grammateus in Graeco- 
Asiatic cities at that time was one of honour and 
responsibility, and was usually held by one who had 
gained repute by the discharge of important duties 
in the public service. The people were accustomed 
to meet in assembly (ekklesia) at stated times for the 
transaction of business. Decrees approved by the 
senate were submitted to them for approval or 
rejection. They had no power to modify. The 
form in which those decrees were laid before the 
assembly was determined by the grammateus, who 
frequently presided, and himself proposed the ap- 
proval of the decrees. Meetings at other times 
could be held only with the sanction of the pro- 
vincial governor. An irregular gathering like that 
in the theatre at Ephesus was apt to excite the anger 
of the Romans, who were keenly suspicious of all 
movements stirring up popular excitement. Some 
responsibility for the orderly behaviour of the 
people must have lain upon the town clerk, as he 
seems to have thought that the proceedings in- 
volved danger to himself. The ease with which he 



It denotes the country associated with the Trachon. 
Trachon is the Greek word for " a rugged, stony 
tract." They called by this name two definitely 
marked volcanic areas to the S. and E. of Damascus. 
That lying to the NE. of the mountain of Bashan 
(mod. Jebel ed-Druze) is much the larger {es-Safa 1 ), 
but lying as it does well into the desert zone, it is 
uninhabitable by man, and therefore plays no part 
in history. That to the NW. of the mountain — 
el-Leja\ " the refuge " — must always have been in- 
habited, and it gave its name to the surrounding 
district. The two Trachons referred to by Strabo 
(xvi. 2, 20) are of similar origin. They consist of a 
vast outflow of lava which, rushing over the plain, 
has broken up and cooled in all manner of fantastic 
shapes. The general level is about 30 ft. abcve the 
surrounding plain, into the greenery of which the 
dark, rocky edges often sink almost precipitously. 
That el-Leja? is to be identified with the Trachon 
with which we have to do is proved by an inscription 
found in Musmiyeh, at the point where the Roman 
road from the N. entered el-Leja! (Waddington, 
2524). El-Leja? is almost a triangle with apex to 
the N., with sides c. 25 and base c. 20 miles in 
length. The present writer describes the district 
as he saw it on riding through it : " Wherever we 
looked, before or behind, lay wide fields of volcanic 
rock, black and repulsive . . . with here and there 
a deep circular depression, through wh., in the dim 
past, red destruction had belched forth, now care- 
fully walled round the lip to prevent wandering 
sheep or goats from falling in by night. The general 
impression conveyed was as if the dark waters of a 
great sea, lashed to fury by a storm, had been sud- 
denly petrified. ... At times we passed over vast 
sheets of lava, which, in cooling, had cracked in 
nearly regular lines, and wh., broken through in parts, 
appeared to rest on a stratum of different charac- 
ter, like pieces of cyclopean pavement. Curious 
rounded rocks were occasionally seen, like gigantic 



858 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tra 



black soap-bubbles, blown up by the subterranean 
steam and gases of the active volcanic age, often 
with the side broken out, as if burst by escaping 
vapour ; the mass, having cooled too far to collapse, 
remained an enduring monument of the force that 
formed it. Scanty vegetation peeped from the 
fissures in the rocks, or preserved a precarious exis- 
tence in the thin soil, sometimes seen in a hollow 
between opposing slopes. . . . When the traveller 
has fairly penetrated the rough barriers that sur- 
round el-Leja\ he finds not a little pleasant land 
within — fertile soil which, if only freed a little more 
from overlying stones, might support a moderate 
population. In ancient times it was partly cleared, 
and the work of these old-world agriculturists re- 
mains in gigantic banks of stones carefully built 
along the edges of the patches they cultivated " 
{Arab and Druze at Home, pp. 3off.). Near the 
centre there are breadths of fairly cultivated land. 
Until recently considerable tracts were covered by a 
forest of terebinth ; but this has practically gone 
for timber and charcoal. A native described the 
district to the NE. as nothing but wa i r (rugged and 
stony ; cp. Heb. ya'ar), over which, in summer, not 
even a bird would fly. Ruined sites are numerous ; 
many houses, constructed entirely of stone, seem 
almost as perfect as the day they were built. Water- 
supply appears to have been secured by means of 
cisterns, in the making of which the spacious caves 
which abound in el-Lejcf would be largely utilised. 
The Trachon does not seem to be referred to in the 
OT. unless it is included in the harerim, " parched 
places " of Jr. 17. 6 . The Heb. word corresponds to 
the Arabic el-Harrah, applied to such stony tracts 
in Arabia. Some have thought to identify it with 
Argob : this, however, is impossible {see Argob). 
Yet it is not easy to understand how a district of 
such importance, so easy of defence, so well de- 
scribed by its Arabic name, " the refuge," should 
have been overlooked. 

The robber Arabs of el-Leja\ who, in alliance with 
the bandit chief, Zenodorus, terrorised the country, 
were brought into subjection by Herod the Great, 
who, however, was able to preserve tranquillity only 
by means of an army of 3000 Idumseans whom he 
kept in the district {Ant. XV. x. iff. ; XVI. ix. if.), 
giving command to a Babylonian Jew, Zamaris by 
name {Ant. XVII. ii. iff.). When Herod died 
(b.c. 4) Trachonitis was part of the territory wh., by 
his will, fell to his son Philip {Ant. XVII. viii. 1 ; 
xi. 4, &c). While Philip lived, good order seems 
to have been preserved. Dying in a.d. 34, after a 
reign of thirty-seven years, he left no heir. Tiberius 
therefore added his tetrarchy to the province of 
Syria {Ant. XVIII. iv. 6). It was given by Caligula 
to Agrippa I. in a.d. 37. At his death in a.d. 44 
his son was still a minor ; the district was therefore 
administered by Roman officers under the governor 



of Syria, until in a.d. 53 it passed into the hands of 
Agrippa II., who reigned until he died, a.d. 100. 
The Romans then again took control. In 106, 
under Trajan, Cornelius Palma constituted the new 
province of Arabia, making Bozrah the capital, and 
a period of great prosperity followed, carrying for- 
ward the work of civilisation begun by Agrippa I. 
and his successor. Of this evidence is furnished 
by the Greek inscriptions which are plentiful, the 
remains of buildings, temples, theatres, roads, aque- 
ducts, &c. To this period must be assigned the 
great bulk of the remains found above-ground in 
the region to-day. 

TRADE AND COMMERCE. Even when 
communities were very small, one of the most 
obvious benefits wh. accrued to their members was 
the opportunity of exchange. As communities 
became larger and functions became separated, 
possibilities of exchange multiplied ; barley cd. be 
bartered for ploughs, and oxen for clothes. A 
further stage was reached when communities began 
to enter into commercial relations with each other. 
Neglecting for the moment those that were of the 
nature of castes, certain of the tribes that Occupied 
different geographical situations may have been in 
want of what, if not necessities of existence, yet made 
life more comfortable and healthy. Thus some 
nomads who lived mainly on milk and flesh, with 
an admixture possibly of dates, wd. find life more 
healthful if they mingled the diet of their deserts 
with cereal meal, either of barley or wheat, and wd. 
therefore be glad to exchange their camels or oxen 
for grain and for mills to grind it. Metals wd. soon 
be recognised as necessities ; every one not having 
tools or weapons of metal wd. see himself set at such 
a disadvantage that he wd. endeavour to possess 
himself of them by means of barter. So on the 
other hand those living where metals cd. be 
wrought cd. only share in the fertility of the plains 
by bartering. The earliest records we have reveal 
a complicated system of inter-relations. The laws 
of Hammurabi are largely occupied with questions of 
the exchange of commodities, interest on loans, and 
rent of land. These, however, are mainly domestic, 
but in the Tell Amarna tablets we have foreign 
commerce taken for granted as of long standing, 
having regular routes along wh. goods were con- 
veyed. Between the time of Hammurabi and that 
of the Amarna letters occurred the history of 
Joseph. The sale of Joseph into Egypt implies 
trade routes and recognised traders upon them. 
The caravan of his brethren to buy corn confirms 
this, for we are not to consider the bene Tisra'el 
singular in the discovery that there was corn in 
Egypt. The trade in this case was a government 
affair. Our object in the present instance is, how- 
ever, to consider the nature and extent of the com- 
mercial intercourse of Israel with Gentile nations 



8co 



Tra 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tra 



during the continuance of the Jewish State. Ad- 
dicted to commerce as the Jewish race are now, the 
fact that merchants were called " Canaanites " is 
evidence that, compared with other races in Pal., 
they were not commercial. In the next place we 
must remember that in no portion, save perhaps in 
the case of the territory of Asher, did Israel abut on 
the sea in the formative period of their history. 
Roughly speaking, S. of Carmel the Philistines pos- 
sessed the sea coast, and north of it the Phoenicians. 
Palestine, besides, is very destitute of natural har- 
bours ; there are no inlets where the sea runs up 
into the land as it does in Greece ; no islands form 
breakwaters, no great river falling into the sea 
affords a harbour in its estuary. Thus cut off fm. 
direct sea traffic, they had either to convey their 
merchandise by caravan, or, using the maritime 
peoples as their intermediaries, ship through them. 
Under David the Philistines became tributary to 
Israel, but of their cities only Joppa had even in- 
different accommodation for sea-going vessels. It 
is in the reign of Solomon that Israel first appears 
as a trading nation. Yet in his case the conveyance 
of horses and chariots fm. Egypt was a commercial 
enterprise undertaken by the king himself, not a 
general movement of the people. He appears to 
have held possession of Joppa, as there he received 
the cedar trees sent by Hiram. In default of har- 
bours in his own immediate territory Solomon 
endeavoured to utilise the extensive Gulf of 'Aqaba 
by taking fm. his tributary, Edom, the city of 
Elath, wh. approximately represents the modern 
'Aqaba. Fm. his ally Hiram were sent " shipmen 
that had knowledge of the sea," to educate the 
servants of Solomon in seamanship. We are not to 
suppose that Solomon merely exported to Ophir the 
scant surplusage of the oil and barley produced in 
Pal. He imported for export the wheat of the 
Hauran, the fabrics of Damascus, and the merchan- 
dise of Tyre ; only in this way can we explain the 
rich results of these voyages (i K. c;. 28 ; 2 Ch. 8. 18 ). 
420 talents of gold wd. be c. ^2,500,000 ; this pro- 
bably represents the profit not only of what was 
sold fm. the products of Syria in Ophir, but also of 
the products of Ophir sold in Syria. Merchandise 
beyond the sea was not a thing for private enter- 
prise in those days ; it was for " the kings of the 
Hittites and for the kings of Syria " that Solomon 
imported horses and chariots fm. Egypt. With his 
possession of Philistia and Edom Solomon held all 
the caravan routes between Egypt and Syria. All 
the while there was no class of merchants or of 
tradespeople in Israel ; the people did not take any 
interest in traffic ; consequently with the passing 
away of the merchant prince merchandise ceased. 
Probably, even though there had been no revolt of 
the Northern Tribes, Rehoboam wd. have been 
unable to have continued the enterprises of his 



father ; but the revolt did occur, and was followed 
by the invasion by Shishak. After this the monarchs 
of Israel cease to be traders. Jehoshaphat and 
Ahaziah had something of Solomon's plan in mind, 
but the storm that destroyed the ships at Ezion- 
Geber, and the death of Ahaziah, put a stop to this 
plan (2 Ch. 20. 36 ' 37 ). Meantime there was a cer- 
tain amount of individual business carried on ; the 
streets (hutzoth) wh. Ahab was to set up in Damas- 
cus seem to have really been bazaars in wh. the 
Israelites mt. have their shops. In the description 
of the trade of Tyre, Judah and Israel are declared 
to have traded in her market " wheat of Minnith 
and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm " (Ek. 
27- 17 ). 

It ought to be noted that " Minnith " and " Pannag " are 
probably not the names of places but of commodities ; LXX 
" myrrh and cassia," Psh. " rice and scents." " Dan " in v. 
19 is possibly a district in Arabia. 

The post-exilic notices of trade in Nehemiah 
exhibit the Jews as purchasing, not exporting. At 
the same time, from the history of later Judaism, it 
is certain that with this crisis in their national devel- 
opment the Jews began to be the traders they have 
become. They were removed fm. their ancestral 
fields by the deportation to Babylon ; on their re- 
turn it wd. be impossible to secure their former 
possessions fm. those who had assumed property in 
them. Hence they were necessarily forced into 
traffic. The Macedonian and Roman empires 
enabled the Jews to spread and carry on trade fm. 
the heart of Persia to the Pillars of Hercules. Their 
occupations seem generally to have been humble. 

Modes of conveyance form an important question 
in regard to commerce. Under the Romans the 
splendid roads they made for military purposes 
served the occasions of traffic, and by their stern 
extinction of piracy the Mediterranean became safe 
for trading vessels, and regular trade routes were 
established. In earlier days the roads were, as to a 
great extent they are still in Pal., paths beaten flat 
by the feet of the camels. These caravan routes 
became fixed by custom, so that, although the rains 
of winter mt. obliterate the road, the general track 
wd. be kept when the dry season enabled traffic to 
be resumed. There were three main tracks : one 
following the coast ; another to the E. of Jordan, 
wh. may be traced by the great cities that sprang 
up in its course — Amman, Jerash, Muzerlb ; the 
third proceeded more irregularly up the centre of 
the country. For commercial purposes wheeled 
vehicles were little used ; all merchandise was con- 
veyed on the backs of asses, mules, and camels ; the 
horse was only used for war and pageants. Sec 
Palestine, Roads. 

TRADITION. The " tradition of the elders " 
(Mw. 15. 2 , &c), which in later days was held in 
supreme reverence by pious Jews, consisted of addi- 



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tions to and explanation of the written law, wh. 
were believed to have been communicated orally to 
Moses. He in turn passed them on to the elders. 
Then from generation to generation they were 
handed down ; growing, naturally, in bulk and 
complexity, as with changing conditions new inter- 
preters had to discover and teach fresh applications. 
The requirements and prohibitions came to be 
perfectly bewildering in their number and char- 
acter. In this way was formed the mass of tradition 
with which the Scribes had to deal. Such impor- 
tance was attached to it that if in any point it came 
into opposition to the written law, at least the 
spirit of it, the latter had to give way : i.e. it was 
made "of none effect" (Mw. 15. 6 , &c). The 
importance attached to the mere washing of the 
hands well illustrates the emphasis laid on quite 
trifling things, emptying the obligation of moral 
content, and making observance a burden. The 
" tradition " was committed to writing in the 
beginning of the third Christian cent., under the 
superintendence of Rabbi Yehudah haq-Qodesh, in 
Tiberias. This, known as the Mishna (the " second 
law "), with the commentaries upon it (Gemara), 
constitutes the Talmud. 

The growth of tradition in bulk, complexity, 
and authority was not a peculiarity of the Jewish 
system. It finds ample illustration in the related 
faith of Islam. Beyond the revelation contained in 
the Qor'an, Moslems believe that the prophet re- 
ceived an " unread revelation," in accordance with 
which he gave authoritative decisions on religious 
questions, moral, ceremonial, or doctrinal. Tradi- 
tion is concerned with what the prophet said and 
did, and is regarded as the uninspired record of an 
inspired life. It includes also what was done in 
his presence without rebuke ; and the authoritative 
sayings and doings of the companions of the prophet, 
who might be supposed best to understand his mind. 
In process of time many cases arose for wh. the 
Qor'an made no provision. These were settled by 
appeal to tradition, wh. thus came to take a position 
in some respects practically superior to that of the 
Qor'an itself. 

We need not do more than allude to the position 
held by tradition in the Roman Catholic and Greek 
Churches. Nor can we say that traditional inter- 
pretations of truth are without influence among 
ourselves. The element of value in tradition is 
recognised by St. Paul, when he applies the term to 
the truth of the Gospel as communicated to others 
by the first believers (2 Th. 2. 15 , 3. 6 ). 

TRANCE (Gr. ekstasis) occurs three times in Ac, 
always of visions ; twice of Peter's at Joppa (io. 10 , 
II. 5 ), and once of Paul's in the Temple at Jerusa- 
lem (26. 17 ). The Gr. word occurs elsewhere, and is 
rendered " astonishment," " amazed," expressing 
the feelings with which the spectators beheld the 



miracles of Christ, or heard tidings of the resurrec- 
tion. In the LXX it is used of deep sleep, as of 
Adam (Gn. 2. 21 ), of the panic that fell on the camp 
of the Philistines when Jonathan and his armour- 
bearer assailed them (1 S. 14. 15 ), the amazement that 
was to fall upon the " princes of the sea " when they 
shd. hear the news of the fall of Tyre (Ek. 26. 16 ). 
In Dn. io. 7 there is a distinction made between the 
ekstasis wh. fell upon Daniel's attendants and the 
" vision " (optasia) vouchsafed to himself. The in- 
fluence of Deity is implied, generally either giving a 
vision or prompting to action ; there is no loss of 
intelligence implied. 

TRANSFIGURATION, THE. Of this tran- 
scendent event in the life of Jesus there is an ac- 
count, with slight variations, in each of the first 
three Gospels, and it is alluded to in the second 
Epistle of Peter (Mw. 17. 1 - 8 ; Mk. c.. 2 " 8 ; Lk. 
c;. 28 " 36 ; 2 P. I. 16 " 18 ). The name comes to us 
through the Latin tr. (transfiguratus est) of the 
Greek metamorfhothe. In the narratives of the 
evangelists the following details are peculiar to each, 
viz., Mw. 17. 6 ' 7 : the disciples hearing the voice 
fell on their faces in fear ; Jesus coming, touches 
them, bidding them arise and fear not ; Mk. cj. 3 , 
" so as no fuller on earth can whiten them." St. 
Luke tells the story in his own language, with cer- 
tain additions. Jesus did not go to the mountain to 
be transfigured, but to pray. While He was praying 
the fashion of His countenance was altered (lit. 
" became other "). He must have deliberately 
rejected the word metamor-phothe, owing, no doubt, 
to its association with the changes in form supposed 
to be effected by the gods of the heathen. He tells 
us also the subject of conversation with Moses and 
Elias (v. 31), and that the disciples were drowsy 
(v. 32). 

The tradition wh. places the Transfiguration on 
the Mt. of Olives need not be considered. Jesus 
and His disciples were in the north ; and in any 
case there was no fit locality on Olivet. For many 
centuries it was thought that Mount Tabor might 
claim the distinction. But two considerations 
seem decisive to the contrary. Jesus was on His 
way to Jerusalem, (a) While it was possible in the 
time indicated to go from Csesarea Philippi to 
Mount Tabor, and then to return to Capernaum 
(Mw. and Mk., " six days " ; Lk. about " eight 
days " — more than ample time), there is no evident 
reason why He should have done this, (b) It ap- 
pears certain that the summit of Tabor was at that 
time occupied by a town, which during the Jewish 
war was fortified by Josephus (BJ. IV. i. 8, &c). 
During a stay of some weeks on the mountain the 
present writer satisfied himself that the remoteness 
and quietude required for such a transaction could 
not be found on Mt. Tabor. 

Many recent writers favour some spot on Mount 



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Hermon or one of the spurs of that mountain. 
There is nothing, however, that points certainly to 
Mt. Hermon. Caesarea Philippi was then mainly a 
heathen city, and the centre of a non- Jewish popu- 
lation (Schurer, HJP. II. i. I33f.)- Both the city 
and the mountain were beyond the border of 
Galilee. " The sacredness of Hermon in the eyes of 
the surrounding tribes " could hardly have " fitted 
it for the purpose " (Stanley, SP. 399), since its as- 
sociations were all with heathen worship. What- 
ever help the identification received from " the 
transient comparison of the celestial splendour 
with the snow, where alone it cd. be seen in Pal." 
(ib. 400), must be given up, as a>s xiuv forms no part 
of the original text (Mk. 9. 3 ). There are, however, 
few heights in Palestine from which Hermon is 
not visible : and looking from Jebel Jermuk on a 
clear night, the snow on Hermon seems close at 
hand. 

Jesus " went up into the mountain to pray " (Lk. 




Safed and Jebel Jermuk 
9- 28 ), prob. at night, as He seems to have come down 
" the next day " (v. 37). With this purpose in view 
it is hard to see why the ascent of Hermon should 
have been undertaken, involving a journey to the 
neighbourhood of Hasbeiyah, whence the mountain 
is most accessible. Even then the ascent is long and 
toilsome. The association of Hermon with idolatry 
might be a reason for avoiding it. If these diffi- 
culties were got over, it is yet obvious that in this 
district, on descending, He wd. not have met a 
crowd of Jews. The presence of " the scribes 
questioning with them " clearly indicates a Jewish 
multitude (Mk. 9. 14 ). 

Among the mountains of Upper Galilee Jebel 
Jermuk is specially conspicuous, its shapely form 
rising full 4000 ft. above the sea. It is the highest 
mountain in Palestine proper, and is fitly described 
as v\pr]X6v. In that district it is the mountain, par 
excellence (Lk. 9- 28 ). It stands to the W., over 
against the Safed uplands, separated from them by 
a spacious valley, in the bottom of wh. runs the 
tremendous gorge, Wady Leimun. It is by far the 
most striking feature in all the Galilean landscape. 

86 



It rises from the midst of a district wh. then sup- 
ported a large population of Jews, with such im- 
portant Jewish centres as Kefr Bir'im, Gischala, 
Meiron, &c, around its base. Remote and lonely as 
it is, the summit was just such a place as Jesus mt. 
have chosen for prayer. It was comparatively easy 
to reach, and might be comfortably climbed in the 
evening. Then, on His descent next day, the crowd 
might swiftly assemble from the country and the 
villages near by. 

From Mw. 17. 22 it is almost a necessary inference 
that the healing of the demoniac boy took place in 
Galilee. Mark's statement that they went forth 
from thence and passed through Galilee, does not 
conflict with this. From Jermuk to Capernaum He 
was passing through Galilean territory. 

How long our Lord stayed near Caesarea Philippi 
after the conversation recorded in Mw. 16. we do 
not know. From Banias to Gischala, e.g., one 
might walk on foot without fatigue in a couple 
of days. If a little time were spent in the Jewish 
villages passed on the way, the six days, or Luke's 
" about eight days," are easily accounted for. It 
is significant that St. Luke, while recording the 
conversation, the Transfiguration, and the miracle, 
makes no allusion to Caesarea Philippi (cf. art. by 
the present writer in Expository Times, vol. xviii. 

P- 333*0- 

As to the nature of the transaction, it is described 
by Jesus as a " vision " (Mw. 17. 9 ). The fact that 
it was seen by three men, whose independent testi- 
mony is evidently reflected in the extant narrative, 
at once takes it out of the region of unreality. How 
they were able to recognise the visitors from the 
spirit world we do not know ; but doubtless this 
was part of the Divine revelation granted to them. 
The reality of the event was accepted in the early 
Church (2 P. i. 16fL ). On any other theory it is 
difficult to see why Jesus should be represented as 
enjoining silence upon His disciples. 

The full significance of the Transfiguration d'oes 
not fall to be discussed here. Possibly we may see 
in it the opening of the door by which Jesus might 
have resumed His place in the heavenlies. It was 
now abundantly clear that to accomplish the task 
for which He had come, in the way before Him, He 
must pass through suffering and shameful death. 
If He now regretted His choice, there was even yet 
this way of escape, leaving men to their fate. If 
this were so, then, in full view of all it meant, His 
final decision was taken, and we can understand why 
His " decease," about to be accomplished, was the 
subject of converse ; and the experience on the 
mount may well have been designed to strengthen 
Him for His awful duty. From the vision and the 
voice, also, the disciples received impressions of the 
true nature of their Master, and of the kingdom He 
had come to establish, for the proper development 



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of wh. time and reflection were required. This 
may in part explain why they were forbidden to 
speak of it. The glimpse of their Master's essential 
glory, associated as it was with the thought of His 
death, no doubt prepared them in due time to re- 
ceive and accept the astounding news of His resur- 
rection. 




Hy^na caught in Trap 

TRAP. Three Heb. words are so rendered. 
(i) Moqesh (Jo. 23. 13 ; Ps. 6c;. 22 ), a cord with a 
running noose, set for birds and ground game : 
see Snare. (2) Malkodeth, lit. " a catching instru- 
ment." It is used only figuratively (Jb. 18. 10 ). 
(3) Masbhitb, lit. " ruin " or destruction (Jr. 5. 26 ), 
applied to the " trap " as a means of bringing 
destruction upon the victim. The Greek Or/pa 
(Rm. II. 9 ) is lit. " a hunting of wild beasts." The 
words here quoted are not found in either MT. 
or LXX. Perhaps we should render "let them 
be for a hunting." 

The illustrations show ancient methods of trap- 
ping wild animals. 

TREASURE, TREASURY. The Heb. word 
'otzdr denotes either the treasure, or the place where 
the treasure is kept. It is used of vessels made of 
the precious metals, gold, silver, &c. (Jo. 6. 19> 24 ; 
Is. 2. 7 , &c). " Treasures of darkness " (Is. 45« 3 ) are 
such as have been hoarded or concealed. It is ap- 




Lion let out of Trap 



plied to wealth, i.e. ample material resources (Pr. 
15. 16 , &c). It describes the material David had 
prepared for the building of the Temple (1 Ch. 
29.8, &c). In 2 Ch, ii.ii it is the « nore „ (Ey) of 



victual and oil and wine. It stands for the place 
where the precious things are kept (1 K. 7. 51 , &c.) ; 
for granary or store (Jl. 1 .«, &c), and for a magazine 
of arms (Jr. 50. 25 [fig.]). With beth, also, it stands 
for " treasure-house " (Ne. io. 38 ), and for " store- 
house " or " magazine " (Ml. 3.1°). It occurs also, 
figuratively, for God's " store-houses " of rain, 
snow, hail, wind, and sea (Dt. 28.1 2 ; Jb. 38. 22 ; Jr. 
10.1 3 , 51.1 6 ; p s _ 33>7> 135.7).; see Oxford Heb. -Eng. 
Lex. s.v. The other Heb. words do not call for 
special notice. But we may observe that Pharaoh's 
" treasure cities," 'are miskenoth (Ex. i. n ), are cities 
where provisions are stored. In NT. thesauros has 
also the double meaning ; e.g. in Mw. 2. 11 it stands 
for the precious gifts brought by the Wise Men ; 
while in Mw. 12. 35 , 13. 52 we should read " treasury," 
not " treasure." In Ac. 8. 27 gaza, a word of 
Persian origin, is used for the " treasure " of Can- 
dace. The treasury (Mk. I2. 4i , &c.) prob. means 
the outer court of the Temple, having thirteen 
openings shaped like trumpets, for the reception of 
Temple offerings and gifts for the poor (Gould, St. 
Mark, in loc). The korbands (Mw. 2J. & ) was the 
sacred treasure chest, the receptacle for the Corban, 
into wh. no foreign coins, and nothing with any 
taint, might be cast (Dt. 23.1 8 ). The thirty pieces 
of silver returned by Judas would be held to come 
under this prohibition. 

TREASURER. The term (pi.) occurs in Ne. 
13.1 3 for Heb. 'otzdroth, from 'atzar, " to lay up " ; 
in Ez. i. 8 , 7. 21 for gizbar, a Persian loan-word ; in 
Dn. 3. 2, 3 for gidabraiyd\ prob. a scribal error by 
dittography from the following dethabraiya' ; in 
Is. 22. 15 for sdkan, " servitor," " steward," from 
sdkan, " to be of use, or service." In NT. " trea- 
surer " appears only in RV. (Rm. 16. 23 ), replacing 
AV. " Chamberlain." 

TREE. The particular trees mentioned in the 
Bible are dealt with in articles under their separate 
names. The ancient woods and forests of Pal. have 
largely disappeared. Such trees as are found to-day 
are for the most part cultivated for the sake of the 
fruit they bear. Large, solitary trees, however, still 
form striking features in most of the landscapes. 
This must always have been true in Palestine ; and 
now, as in ancient times, such trees, especially the 
oak and the terebinth, are often associated with a 
shrine, the reputed tomb of some saint. They are 
held sacred as his property, and regarded with 
reverence. They may even be endowed with super- 
natural powers, so that help, healing, and guidance 
may be obtained from them. Even apart from such 
connection with a shrine, trees may have derived 
peculiar qualities from the resting of a saint under 
their shadows. It is impossible to deny that such 
trees are the objects of worship. " Incense is burned 
to them, and they receive sacrifices and offerings ; 
they are loaded with food, gifts, and (on special 



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occasions) with lamps. They give oracles, and the 
sick sleep beneath their shade, confident that a 
supernatural messenger will prescribe for their 
ailments. They are decked with rags, wh. thus 
acquire wonderful properties ; and the worshipper 
who leaves a shred, as a pledge of attachment, or, 
it may be, to transfer a malady, will take away a 
rag wh. may serve as a charm " (Cook, Religion of 
Ancient Palestine, 25). It is certain that in these 
modern, popular beliefs and practices we have sur- 
vivals from ancient times (see Curtiss, Primitive 
Semitic Religion To-day, passim, esp. pp. cpfT.). The 
" fall " is represented as taking place under a tree 
(Gn. 3. 6 ). Abraham came to the terebinth of 
Moreh ("teacher," or "seer") (Gn. 12. 6 ). Poss. 
under this very tree Jacob " hid " the strange gods, 
&c. (35- 4 ) ; and under the oak near Bethel he buried 
Rachel (v. 8). Deborah sat under a palm (Jg. 4- 5 ). 




Sacred Tree (Nimrud) 

Under a terebinth in Ophra sat the angel of the 
Lord (6. 11 ). The green trees and thick terebinths 
were closely associated with the idolatrous worship 
into which Israel was so often seduced (Ek. 6. 13 ; 
cp. Is. I. 29 ). The ' 'asherah, associated with worship 
in the high places (1 K. 14. 23 , &c), was prob. a 
tree-like post. Figures of the sacred tree are found 
on the monuments. It is interesting to note that in 
the apocalyptic vision the symbol of healing for the 
nations is found in the leaves of the tree of life 
(Rv. 22. 2 ). 

" Tree " is used for the stake on which the body 
of an executed criminal might be raised for exposure 
(Dt. 2l. 22£ > ; Jo. 8. 29 ). This exposure was deep in- 
dignity. " Tree " is also used frequently for the 
cross on which Jesus suffered (Ac. 5. 30 ; Gal. 3. 13 , 
&c). 

TRESPASS-OFFERING. See Sacrifice. 

TRIAL. Originally among the Hebrews, as 
among all nomads, the right of punishment and 
therefore of trial resided in the chief ; Judah 
claimed this right in regard to Tamar (Gn. 38. 24 ). 
When wrong was done to one outside the clan then 
revenge was the remedy ; if one of the clan had been 
killed, then the avenger of blood must pursue the 



manslayer. The institution of the Cities of Refuge 
was a means of forcing men to lay aside blood 
vengeance and seek the righting of wrongs fm. a 
properly constituted tribunal. The tribunal con- 
templated in this institution appears to be the whole 
congregation, presumably of the City of Refuge, who 
shd. decide whether any given " man-slayer " had 
accidentally or with intention slain his fellow. In 
1 K. 21. we have an account of a trial in wh., since 
there was glaring injustice as to fact, we may pre- 
sume there wd. be the most scrupulous attention to 
legal form. First a crime is alleged against Naboth ; 
as if in penitence for the sin of one of its members, a 
fast is proclaimed to the whole community ; as the 
impeached person, Naboth is set on high ; then 
the suborned witnesses come forward and declare 
what they allege they have heard. This process 
was carried out before the whole congregation of 
Naboth's city, and he was condemned by the shout 
of the multitude, much as, nearly a millennium 
later, a Holier was. The elders seem to have pre- 
sided on such occasions. It is difficult to see what 
the function of the " judges " was in such a process, 
and yet they seem to have acted along with the 
"elders" (Ez. io. 14 ). When we come to NT. 
times the two trials of our Lord, before the San- 
hedrin and before Pilate, are the first and most im- 
portant. As shown by Dr. Taylor Innes (Trial of 
Jesus Christ, pp. 14-59), the rules laid down in the 
Talmud were flagrantly transgressed ; it is possible 
that he accepts too implicitly the Talmudic state- 
ments ; his own quotations show the Talmudic 
disregard for fact. In regard to the Roman trial we 
are on safer ground. The Jewish trial of our Lord 
was before the Sanhedrin as a cause celebre ; after 
the arrest there ought to have been a delay, as there 
was in the apostles' case (Ac. 5. 18 ). Although the 
injustice of suborning witnesses is obvious, yet the 
fact that when the witnesses do not agree they give 
up testimony and proceed to adjuration, proves a 
certain attention to the forms of judicial procedure. 
It proves that the evidence of one witness alone was 
not regarded as sufficient. The witnesses were kept 
apart, so that it was made impossible for the second 
witness to copy the first. The trials of the earlier 
apostles and of Paul appear to have less of the formal 
about them. The Roman trial of our Lord and 
those of Paul belong rather to Roman jurisprudence 
than to Biblical science. It may be noted that not 
one of these was, strictly speaking, a regular trial ; 
no witnesses were called either for the prosecu- 
tion or defence ; hence a discussion of the Roman 
methods of criminal procedure, while of interest, is 
not of importance in regard to Biblical study. 

TRIBE in OT. translates two Heb. words. 
(1) Matteh (lit. " staff " or " rod," the badge of a 
leader) may have meant originally a company led 
by a chief with a " staff " (Oxford Heb. Lex. s.v.). 



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(2) Shebet (lit. c: rod," " staff," " sceptre," a " club " 
used by shepherds in mustering their sheep : a 
" truncheon " or " sceptre ") is used as a synonym 
for matteh, but also for a portion or sub-division of a 
tribe ; e.g. " the tribe of the families of the Koha- 
thites from among the Levites " (Nu. 4. 18 ). 

" Tribe " is the name given to each division of 
the people of Israel which claimed descent from one 
of the sons of Jacob, and was known by the name of 
its reputed ancestor. On this theory each tribe was 
composed of the descendants of a single patriarch, 
and, after the conquest of Palestine, had assigned to 
it a portion of the land for its own possession. In 
recent years many scholars have favoured the view 
that the story of the patriarchs and their immediate 
descendants is not really concerned with individuals, 
but presents, in the form of personal narratives, the 
history of the tribes. It is taken as certain that 
before the Conquest there was no complete tribal 
organisation. While certain tribes were fairly de- 
fined, the people as a whole consisted of a congeries 
of kindred clans. The twofold process of separation 
and concentration went forward as groups of families 
were moved by community of interest. The con- 
solidation of the tribe was secured, and the sense of 
unity promoted, by the practice of common re- 
ligious rites, and sharing the sacrificial meal, which 
was supposed to create identity of blood (see Kin, 
Kinship). In this way arose the tribes of Gad, 
Asher, Dan, and Naphtali, who are represented 
as sons of Jacob's concubines. Ephraim and 
Manasseh arise through partition of the tribe of 
Joseph : their kinship did not prevent risk of con- 
flict at times (Ju 8. 1 ). 

There is little in Scrip, to guide us as to the inter- 
nal constitution of the tribe after the Conquest, how 
order was preserved and justice administered. Pro- 
bably the system resembled (that which obtains 
among the Arabian tribes to-day. The direction of 
affairs would be mainly in the hands of the " elders " 
of each township or division of the community, their 
authority and influence being not statutory but per- 
sonal. They were open to be roused and led to war 
by any man of striking ability. The bonds that 
united them before the days of the kings seem to 
have been slender ; and perhaps traces may be seen 
of the rivalry between the northern and the southern 
tribes, destined to culminate in the great schism. 

We need not doubt the historical character of the 
patriarchal narratives, and the account there given 
of the origin of the tribes. But it may be taken as 
certain that the strength of each tribe was aug- 
mented by the introduction of foreign slaves, wives, 
&c, and, after the settlement in Canaan, by absorp- 
tion of the native elements of population within 
their various territories. 

For the history of individual tribes see separate 
articles. 



TRIBUTE. By tribute we commonly mean a 
fixed amount paid by one nation to another as the 
price of peace or protection. In EV., however, it 
translates several words of very different meanings. 
(1) Belo (Aram., prob. loan-word fm. Asyr. or Old 
Iranian), prop. " payment in kind " (Ez. 4. 13 « 20 , 7. 24 , 
RV. " custom "). The word minddh (Asyr. loan- 
word), wh. precedes belo in this verse, AV. trs. 
" custom," RV. " tribute." It is prob. a form of 
midddh, wh. appears in Ez. 6. 8 ; Ne. 5*. (2) 
Mekes, " computation," a tax to be paid according 
to a fixed proportion (Nu. 3i. 28 « 37 « 38 « 41 ). (3) Mas, 
a collective name, denoting a body of forced 
labourers, and then the forced labour itself, task- 
work, and serfdom. The body of forced workers, 
raised by levy for the public service, is referred to in 
2 S. 20. 24 under David, and it was used on a far 
larger scale by Solomon (1 K. 4. 6 , 5. 13 , 9. 15 ' 21 , &c). 




A Subject People paying Tribute 

The word appears in the pi. misslm, in Ex. I. 11 , 
where the overseers of the slave-gangs are mentioned. 
Mas stands for the forced labour to wh. conquered 
and subject peoples were put (Gn. 49. 15 ; Dt. 20. 11 ; 
Jo. 16. 10 , &c). The tribute laid by Ahasuerus upon 
the isles of the sea was prob. enforced payment. 
(4) Missath (Aram, often in Tg. and Syriac V.), 
" sufficiency." In Dt. 16. 10 , where alone it occurs 
in MT., it signifies that the freewill offering is to be 
equal to the giver's ability, according as the Lord 
has prospered him. (5) Massd\ a load, or burden, 
that which is carried, as e.g. silver for tribute (2 Ch. 
17. 11 ). (6) 'Onesb, " a fine," the " indemnity " 
imposed on Judah by Pharaoh-necho (2 K. 23. 33 ). 
It is the " penalty " or " fine " borne by the man of 
great wrath (Pr. 19. 19 ). 

In the NT. : (1) The didrachmon (Mw. 17. 24 ) is 
the half-shekel (RV.) which every male Israelite was 
under obligation to pay into the Temple treasury, 
to meet the expense of the public sacrifices. The 
tetradrachmon (v. 27) was therefore = a shekel, and 
so sufficient for both Peter and his Master. (2) The 



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kensos was first the register of property wh. fur- 
nished the basis for calculating the taxes, then it 
came to mean the tax levied upon persons or pro- 
perty (Mw. 17. 25 ; Mk. 12. 14 , &c). (3) Pharos 
was a tax upon the land, payable in kind. Both 
kensos and phoros were taxes collected on behalf of 
the imperial government. The tribute money 
was a Roman coin. The imperial taxes could be 
legally paid only in imperial coin. 

TRINITY. This is a purely theological term, 
and is not found in the Bible. The Christian Church 
asserts its belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, one God, and the name " Trinity " is ap- 
plied to the peculiarly Christian idea of the God- 
head, in which, within the unity of the Godhead, 
three distinct " persons " are distinguished. Chris- 
tians from the earliest times worshipped and prayed 
to Jesus Christ as God, they prayed to the God 
whom. Jesus revealed as Father, and to the Holy 
Spirit whom Jesus promised to send to carry on His 
work. At the same time they held fast to the 
belief in the unity of God. Thus the doctrine of 
the Trinity was developed to give expression on the 
one hand to the unity of God, and on the other, to 
guard the doctrines of the Divinity of Christ and 
the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit. The 
doctrine is stated in the formula : " The Father is 
God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And 
yet they are not three Gods but one God. The 
Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty 
co-eternal. And in this Trinity none is afore or 
after other, none is greater than another, but the 
whole three Persons are co-eternal together and 
co-equal." 

This doctrine is based on the Incarnation of Jesus 
Christ, and His claim to be the Son of God, whom 
He revealed as Father. He is distinct from God the 
Father, and can say " Thou " to Him, while He 
speaks of the Holy Ghost as " He," and ascribes to 
Him a distinct personality and work. In all the 
books of the NT. Divine names are applied to all 
three, and prayers are offered to all equally, while 
the unity of God is as strongly asserted (1 Cor. 8. 4 ; 
Js. 2. 19 ). The aspects of this doctrine which have 
been attacked are : (1) the Divinity of Christ (cp. 
art. Christ, Person of) ; and (2) the distinct Per- 
sonality of the Holy Spirit (cp. art. Spirit). We 
must remember that the word " person " in this 
connection is not used in the sense of separate, 
independent existence, as that would involve 
Tritheism, but is intended to denote distinctions in 
the Godhead which are no mere temporal manifes- 
tations or modes of Divine activity, but eternally 
abiding differences within the Divine Unity. The 
further treatment of this specifically Christian con- 
ception belongs to Dogmatic Theology and History 
of Dogma. 



Lit. : Works on Dogmatic Theology by Hodge? 
Oostezee, Martensen, Dorner, Haering, Kaftan? 
&c. ; Harnack, History of Dogma ; Illingworth, 
Personality, 13 c. : Doctrine of the Trinity ; Cun- 
ningham, Historical Theology, &c, &c. 

W. F. Boyd. 

TRIUMPH. In 2 Cor. 2. 14 ; Col. 2. 15 there is 
allusion to the custom of voting a Roman general 
a " triumph " on his return from victorious war. 
He then rode in a triumphal procession through the 
city. The glory of the triumph was greatly en- 
hanced if he were able to make a show openly in his 
train of famous foemen, whom he had vanquished 
and led captive. 

TROAS, a city of Mysia, situated over against the 
island of Tenedos, on the coast of Asia Minor. Here 
St. Paul saw the vision of the man of Macedonia, 
and hence he set out to carry the Gospel across the 
sea to Europe (Ac. I6. 8 * 11 ). Here he waited ex- 
pecting to meet Titus (2 Cor. 2. 12 « 13 ). Here he 
joined those who had gone on before him from 
Philippi (Ac. 20. 5f -), and before he left the incident 
connected with Eutychus occurred. Prob. on 
another visit, of wh. we have no record, he left the 
cloak, books, and parchments in the house of Crispus, 
wh. he desired Timothy to fetch him (2 Tm. 4. 13 ). 

The full name of the city was Alexandria Troas, 
i.e. Trojan Alexandria. It was thus distinguished 
from other cities bearing the same name. Some- 
times, however, it was called by the name Alex- 
andria alone, e.g. by Strabo and Polybius ; and 
again by Troas alone (Pliny, HN. v. 33). It was 
founded as Antigonia Troas by Antigonus, who 
peopled it with drafts from the population of neigh- 
bouring cities. Lysimachus enlarged and adorned 
it in b.c. 300, under the name of Alexandria Troas. 
After the fall of Antiochus the Great it passed to the 
Romans. The favour shown by the latter to the 
city was due in some measure to their belief that 
from the Troad their race took its origin. Augustus 
made Troas a Roman colony. It is said that both 
Julius Caesar and Constantine thought of making it 
the capital of the Roman empire. In connection 
with the latter it is interesting to note that the mod. 
name of the place is Eski-Stamboul, " Old Stam- 
boul." Under the Romans the city enjoyed a 
period of great prosperity. Augustus, Hadrian, and 
Herodes Atticus all made substantial contributions 
to its beauty and splendour. To the last-named was 
due the aqueduct, the remains of which for long 
were an imposing feature in the plain. The posi- 
tion of Troas at the eastern end of the great sea- 
passage between Asia and Europe lent it unique 
importance, and here trade routes from north and 
south, as well as from the interior, had their focus. 
The extent of the ruins shows how great a part the 
city must have played in these days. The wall 
enclosed a space of more than a square mile. The 



«££ 



Tro 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tru 



ancient harbour may also be traced, the basin 
measuring 400 x 200 ft. 

TROGYLLIUM. To the NW. of Caria, on the 
coast of Asia Minor, Mount Mycale terminates 
towards the sea in the spur known as Trogyllium, 
the mod. Cape Santa Maria. It overlaps the 
eastern projection of the island of Samos, from wh. 
it is separated by a strait, now called Little Boghaz, 
about a mile in breadth. The ship in wh. St. Paul 
sailed, returning from his third missionary journey, 
having passed Chios, made for the eastern promon- 
tory of Samos, sailed through this strait, perhaps 
touching at the island, and remained overnight at 
Trogyllium (Ac. 20. 15 ). In the chief MSS. («, A, 
B, C), the phrase, " tarried at T." does not appear. 
TR., however, probably preserves the correct read- 
ing. It was impossible to make the voyage from 
Chios to Miletus in a single day. The night must 
have been spent in this neighbourhood. There is 
an anchorage a little way E. of the extreme point of 
the spur, which is still known as St. Paul's Port. 

TROOP. The Heb. word gedud signifies prim- 
arily a company of marauders, men banded together 
for purposes of plunder. EV. frequently renders 
band. Irresponsible, subject to no regular disci- 
pline or control, making sudden incursions where 
opportunity offered, and swiftly dissolving if danger 
threatened them, such bands became a cause of 
frequent mischief and constant insecurity to peace- 
ful dwellers within reach of their haunts (1 S. 30. 8 , 
&c. ; 2 Ch. 22. 1 ; Ho. 6. 9 , &c). The word is used 
also for the raid or foray itself made by regular 
troops (2 S. 3- 22 RV.). In later use it applied to a 
detachment of the army (1 Ch. 7*). In 2 Ch. 
25. 9f - it is the " army " of mercenaries hired by 
Amaziah from Israel. 

TROPHIMUS, a companion of St. Paul, a 
native of Ephesus, who accompanied him fm. Mace- 
donia to Jerusalem. He with some others preceded 
Paul to Troas (Ac. 20. 4 ). In Jerusalem he was seen 
by certain Jews of Asia with Paul, and thus was the 
occasion of the riot wh. so nearly cost the apostle his 
life (Ac. 2 1. 29 ). The only other notice of him we 
have is in 2 Tm. 4. 20 , " T. have I left in Miletus 
sick " ; this must have occurred in the interval 
between Paul's first and second imprisonment. It 
was suggested by Dean Stanley that T. was the 
" brother whose praise is in the Gospel throughout 
all the churches " (2 Cor. 8. 18 ). 

TRUMPET, FEAST OF TRUMPETS. Trum- 
pet represents mainly two Heb. words, hatzotzerah 
and shophar ; the Gr. is salpinx. The former of 
these was a priestly instrument ; the formation of it 
is commanded by God, and its use prescribed (Nu. 
io. 2 ' 10 ). A pair of them were to be made ; they 
were to be of one piece of silver ; their form is well 
known fm. the figure on the Arch of Titus, and fm. 
the coins of Barcochba — thin, straight, with bell- 




Trumpeter: Egyptian 



shaped mouth, slightly under a cubit in length (Jos. 
Ant. III. xii.): the Egyptian military T. was of this 
shape. The greater part of the passage referred to 
defines the use to be made of these while Isr. was 
still encamped ; if the priest 
blew (taqa') with only one 
trumpet, the heads of the 
people were to assemble at 
the door of the Tabernacle ; 
if, however, both were blown, 
then the whole assembly were 
summoned. When the T. 
" sounded an alarm " (te- 
ru'ah), then the east camp, 
that of Judah, was to strike 
tent and move, then the 
Tabernacle was to be taken 
down ; next the camp of 
Reuben, that to the S., 
moved, and then that of Ephraim, and last, that 
of Dan. The precise difference between a simple 
blast of the T. and " sounding an alarm," cannot be 
fixed with any accuracy, but it wd. seem that the 
latter was louder and more prolonged. In the pre- 
exilic Scriptures the only use of hatzotzeroth is in 
2 K. II., in regard to the coronation of Joash, and 
in Ho. 5. 8 . It occurs in the undated Ps. 98. The 
chronicler introduces trumpets into his description 
of the bringing up of the Ark to the city of David, 
and of the victories of Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, 
the coronation of Joash, and the Passover of Heze- 
kiah. In Ezra and Nehemiah these trumpets are 
mentioned in connection with the dedication of the 
second Temple. Later the trumpet was sounded 
at new moons and Sabbaths, and was very marked 
at the drawing of water at the Feast of Tabernacles. 
The shofar was a much more primitive instrument, 
usually made of ram's horn ; the mouthpiece being 
formed by piercing and scraping the small end. 
Some said the ram must be a first-born. Although 
the ram's horn is generally very convolute, the shofar 
has usually only one curvature. The sound of the 
shofar is harsh, and it can scarcely be regarded as a 
musical instrument. The earliest mention of it is 




Ram's Horn Trumpet 

From Wood's " Bible Animals." By permission of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

the comparison of the sound wh. accompanied the 
giving of the law on Mount Sinai (Ex. IQ. 16 ). In 
the institution of Jubilee it was the shofar that was 
to be blown (Lv. 25. 9 ). When Joshua marched 



8^*7 



Try 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tyr 



round Jericho it was trumpets such as were used in 
proclaiming Jubilee — that is, of ram's horn — that 
were used by the priests to blow before the ark of 
the Lord (Jo. 6. 4f- ). When Ehud called the people 
to rise against Moab it was the shofar he sounded 
(Jg. 3. 27 ) ; and when Gideon, with his three hun- 
dred, surrounded the camp of the Midianites, it was 
shofaroth they had in their hands (Jg. 7. 16 ). In the 
times of the kings it was the trumpet that called the 
hosts together to battle (1 S. 13. 3 ), or summoned 
them to desist fm. pursuit (2 S. 2. 28 ). It was used 
for the proclamation of kings as Absalom (2 S. 15. 10 ), 
of Solomon (1 K. I. 39 ). Although according to 
later custom it was the hatzotzerah that was blown 
at " new moon," yet in Ps. 81. 3 <4) it is the s bo far 
that is to be used. In the prophets it is looked upon 
as one of the accompaniments of war, except in 
Jl. 2. 15 , when it summons the people to a fast. In 
the synagogues of modern Judaism it is used to pro- 
claim the New Year, and also on certain other occa- 
sions. New Year is the Feast of Trumpets ; it 
is celebrated on the first of Tishri (c. October). 
See New Year. 

TRYPHvENA and TRYPHOSA. The names of 
two female workers saluted by St. Paul in Rm. 16. 12 . 
They are declared to be " labouring in the Lord." 
Both names are found among imperial monuments 
of the first century. They probably were deacon- 
esses, and not impossibly personally sisters. In the 
Acts of Paul and Thekla a Tryphaena is introduced, 
who is called queen, and declared to be a kinswoman 
of Caesar. There was a Queen Tryphsena who was 
cousin of Claudius. 

TUBAL (Gn. io. 2 ), the fifth son of Japheth. 
There are two races, Mushkaa and Tubalaa, asso- 
ciated in the Asyr. inscriptions, as Meshech and T. 
are inGn. and Ek. 32. 26 , 38. 2 , 39. 1 : these are sup- 
posed to be intended. T. seems to have occupied 2. 
territory nearly coinciding with the modern Georgia. 
Along with Javan, with whom T. is associated in Is. 
66. 19 , and Meshech, so generally his companion, T. 
brings " slaves and vessels of brass " into the Tyrian 
market (Ek. 27. 13 ). 

TUBAL-CAIN, the son of Lamech the Cainite 
by Zillah (Gn. 4. 22 ), " the instructor of every arti- 
ficer of brass and iron." The text here appears to 
be corrupt, as the literal rendering wd. be " the 
sharpener of every artificer." The LXX omit kol, 
" all," and the Psh. omits lotesh, " whetter." The 
RV. trs. " the forger of every cutting instrument of 
brass or iron " ; the tr. of harash is somewhat 
violent. 

TURPENTINE TREE. See Terebinth. 

TURTLE, TURTLE DOVE (Heb. tor), a bird 
allied to the pigeon, three species of wh. are found in 
Pal. While the European species winter in SW. 
Asia, the Egyptian visits Pal. in summer, and some 
are indigenous to the Jordan valley with its tropical 



climate. One species builds in palms. The note 
of the T. heard among the trees is a sign of the 
arrival of spring, wh. is not far fm. coinciding with 
the latter part of our winter (SS. 2. 12 ) ; the migra- 
tory habit of the T. is noted (Jr. 8. 7 ). Fm. its 
commonness the T. was a sacrifice open to the 
poorest - even in the wilderness, wherever there 
were palms the T. wd. be plentiful. 

TYCHICUS, a companion of St. Paul, associated 
with Trophimus as, like him, a native of Roman 
Asia (Ac. 20. 4 ). He was with the apostle during a 
portion of his first imprisonment in Rome, and as his 
messenger bore epistles and tidings to the believers 
in Asia (Eph. 6. 21 ; Col. 4. 7 ). He or Artemas was to 
be sent to relieve Titus in Crete, in order that the 
latter mt. join St. Paul at Nicopolis (Tt. 3. 12 ). 
Fm. 2 Tm. 4. 12 we learn that Paul sent T. a second 
time to Ephesus, possibly to relieve Timothy. 

TYRANNUS. An Ephesian rhetor in whose 
lecture-hall Paul taught whenhe left the synagogue. 
As manuscript authority is overwhelmingly agst. 
the insertion of the indefinite pron. " one," the 
question rises, " Why is it assumed that T. needed 
only to be named for the state of things to be under- 
stood by the readers of Acts ? " If T. had been a 
convert to Christianity and put his lecture-hall at 
Paul's service, the matter seems simple enough ; all 
prominent members of the small but intensely vital 
Christian community wd. know each other at least 
by name. The codex Bezae has an interesting addi- 
tion wh. has a mark of genuineness, " from the fifth 
to the tenth hour," i.e. after school hours. 

TYRE (Tvpos, Heb. -ft, Tzor 9 Asyr. Zuru, 
" rock "), called " the fortress-city " (Jo. 19. 29 ; 




Coin of Tyre 

cp. 2 S. 24. 7 ), famous for its ships and trade, was 
built on the Phoenician coast, about midway be- 
tween Acre and Sidon, on what were originally two 
rocky islands, 22 stadia round, at a little distance 
from the shore. It had two harbours, the northern 
900 ft. long and 700 ft. broad, and the southern, or 
Egyptian, formed by means of a breakwater ; a 
canal, running thro' the city, connected them. On 
the shore was another city, as well as the necropolis 
and a supply of water (now Ras el-' A in). In later 
times the city on the mainland was known as Palae- 
tyrus, " Old Tyre," but it is pretty certain that it 



«68 



Tyr 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tyr 



was really Hosah (Jo. 1 9. 29 ) or Usu. In the time of 
Moses, an Egyptian traveller describes Tyre as an 
island to wh. water was brought in boats. 

According to Herodotus (ii. 44), the temple of 
Baal-Melkarth, its supreme god, was built 2300 
years before his visit, and in it were two pillars, one 
of gold, the other of emerald {cf. 1 K. 7. 21 ). Among 
the Tel el-Amarna tablets are letters from its 
Egyptian governor Abimelech, complaining of hos- 
tilities carried on against him by the governor of 
Sidon, whose capture of Usu had deprived him of 
water and wood. Tyre was one of the Phoenician 
cities taken by Seti I., the father of Ramses II., and 
we hear of a letter sent to its king in the third year 
of Meneptah, the successor of Ramses. A new 
dynasty seems to have commenced with Abibal and 
his son Hiram L, the contemporary of David and 
Solomon. As the Greek histories of Tyre begin 



against Hezekiah (b.c. 701). Tyre, however, now 
submitted to Assyria, and the revolt of its king, 
Baal, against Esar-haddon was promptly suppressed. 
It was again besieged, for thirteen years, by Nebu- 
chadnezzar (Ek. 26. 7 - 14 , 2Q. 18 - 2 <>). It must have 
eventually surrendered, since a Babylonian contract- 
tablet is dated at Tyre in the fortieth year of that 
king, and there were Tyrian hostages at the Baby- 
lonian court. For a short time the city was 
governed by sufetes or " judges." Under the 
Persians it furnished the government with a large 
fleet, and Alexander the Great accordingly made 
every effort to destroy the town. Palaetyrus was 
razed to the ground, and its materials used in con- 
structing an embankment 60 yds. wide and \ mile 
long, wh. united the mainland with the island-city. 
After a siege of seven months the city was taken by 
storm ; 10,000 of its inhabitants were massacred 




View of Tyre 



with their reigns, it is probable that the Phoenician 
alphabet was now first substituted for the earlier 
cuneiform script. Hiram joined the larger island to 
the smaller one on the S W., and conducted water to 
it from the mainland. He also fortified the whole 
area and restored the temples. He sent carpenters 
and masons for the construction of David's palace 
at Jerusalem (2 S. 5. 11 ), and furnished his ally, 
Solomon, with cedar and fir for the Temple, as well 
as with a master-craftsman (1 K. 5. 1 " 11 , 7- 13, 14 ; 
2 Ch. 2. 3 " 16 ). In return Solomon gave Hiram a 
yearly tribute of wheat and oil, together with 
twenty cities in the Galilean region of Cabul (1 K. 
9. 11 ). Hiram's seventh successor was Eth-baal, the 
priest of Ashtoreth, and father of Jezebel, who 
reigned thirty-two years. The third successor of 
Eth-baal was Pygmalion, in whose seventh year his 
sister Elissa or Dido fled to Africa and founded 
Carthage. Under Elulaeus Tyre was besieged for five 
years by the Assyrian king ShalmaneserlV. (b.c 727- 
2), but without result, tho' the supply of water from 
the mainland was cut off. Like Eth-baal (1 K. 16. 31 ), 
Elulaeus was king also of Sidon, whence he fled to 
Cyprus on the occasion of Sennacherib's campaign 



and 40,000 sold as slaves. Alexander's mole, how- 
ever, remained, and the island thus became a penin- 
sula. Under the Romans its trade declined. Its 
territory was visited by Christ (Mk. J. M ), and St 
Paul spent seven days there (Ac. 2i. 3 « 4 ). It subse- 
quently became the seat of a bishopric, and St. 
Jerome calls it the first and greatest city of Phoe- 
nicia. It was taken by the Crusaders under Bald- 
win II. in 1 124, and in 1 190 Frederick Barbarossa 
was buried in its cathedral. But in 1191 it sur- 
rendered to the Mohammedans. It is now a small 
place, with a Latin monastery and a population of 
about 3000. 

Its trade extended to all parts of the known world 
(Ek. 27.). The staple of its early commerce was the 
purple dye obtained from the murex, to wh. was 
afterwards added the tin of Spain and Britain. A 
brisk trade was also carried on in slaves (Jl. 3. 4 * 6 ), as 
well as in timber. The metal-workers and woven 
fabrics of Tyre were celebrated (2 Ch. 2. 7, 14 ), and 
the remains of its glass factories are still visible. In 
the Tel el-Amarna tablets (b.c 1400) Tyre is 
already described as a " great city." 

A. H. Sayce, 



860 



Uca 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Uph 



u 



UCAL AND ITHIEL appear in EV. as the 
names of men to whom Agur addressed the proverbs 
in Pr. 30. The phrase is one as to the interpreta- 
tion of wh. there have been wide differences of 
opinion among scholars. These depend on the 
pointing of the Heb. text. With slight changes 
RVm. reads, "I have wearied myself, O God, I have 
wearied myself, O God, and am consumed." 

UEL, a son of Bani who had married a foreign 
wife (Ez. io. 34 ), called " Juel " in 1 Es. c.. 34 . 

UKNAZ stands in AVm. for " and Kenaz " in 
the text (1 Ch. 4. 15 ). The MT. is prob. imperfect, 
something having fallen out before " and Kenaz." 
The intention was evidently to name the sons of 
Elah; but only Kenaz is mentioned. LXX andVlg. 
omit " and." 

ULAI, a river in Elam known to classical geo- 
graphers as Eulceus ; it flowed past Shushan (Susa, 
Dn. 8. 2> 16 ). In a battle near here in wh. he was 
victorious Asshur-bani-pal declares the U. was 
choked with dead bodies. The courses of the rivers 
in this quarter have greatly changed ; if we trust an 
ancient tablet the U. emptied its waters direct into 
the Persian Gulf. 

ULAM. (1) A descendant of Gilead, father of 
Bedan (1 Ch. 7. 17 ). (2) The first-born son of 
Eshek, a Benjamite whose sons and sons' sons num- 
bered a hundred and fifty, and were famous as 
archers (1 Ch. 8. 39f -). The Benjamites seem to 
have given special attention to archery (2 Ch. 14. 8 ). 

ULLA, head of an Asherite family (1 Ch. 
7 . 39 ). 

UMMAH, an unidentd. city in Asher, named 
with Aphek and Rehob (Jo. 19. 30 ). A proposed 
emendation of the text would read 'Acho, identify- 
ing it with the mod. Acre. This, however, is very 
doubtful. 

UNCLEAN, UNCLEANNESS. See Purifica- 
tion. 

UNCTION, lit. " anointing." As ointment was 
poured upon the head, so the Holy Spirit was con- 
ceived as poured out upon believers. This is the 
" anointing " referred to in 1 Jn. 2. 27 . The effect of 
this anointing is fig. called " unction " (v. 20). 

UNDERGIRDERS, called Helps (Ac. 27. 17 ). 
Owing to the imperfect construction of ancient 
ships there was danger, in stress of weather, that the 
planks might spring, causing leakage. To obviate 
this cables and chains were carried, and when neces- 
sity arose these were passed round the body of the 
vessel and drawn tight. This in English is called 
" frapping." 

UNDERSETTER. This is EV. tr. of Heb. 
kdtheph, lit. " shoulder," in the description of the 



la vers in Solomon's Temple (1 K. 7. 30 , &c). They 
furnished supports for certain parts of the bases. 
It is impossible more exactly to define them. 

UNICORN (Heb. r'em), an animal of the ox 
tribe, as it is associated with " bullocks " as suitable 
for sacrifice (Is. 34~ 7 ). Its strength is noted (Nu. 
2 3. 22 , 24. 8 ) ; its horns are prominent (Dt. 33. 17 ; 
Ps. 22. 21 , 92. 10 ). The first of these passages proves 
that it has two horns, for the AVm. rendering 
" unicorn " is more accurate than the text. It is 
fierce and untamable (Jb. 3c). 9 ' 10 ), but at the same 
time agile (Ps. 2c;. 6 ). The rendering of the AV. is 
due to the LXX tr. monokeros, wh. Jerome followed. 
The wild ox was a frequent object of chase among^ 
the Asyr., as may be seen in the monuments. 

UNKNOWN GOD, THE. An altar seen by St. 
Paul when passing through Athens was inscribed 
" to the unknown God." This suggested the in- 
troduction to his speech (Ac. 17. 23 ). From the 
phrase, " Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, 
him declare I unto you," it might be a legitimate 
inference that the deity here referred to was 
Jehovah, the God of the Jews. In that case an 
Athenian citizen who had been preserved from 
some danger in Judaea, may, on his return, have 
erected the altar in thanksgiving, being in ignorance 
of, or having forgotten, the name of the God of that 
land. There is, however, ample evidence in Greek 
Lit. of the existence of altars with similar if not 
quite identical inscriptions. It illustrates the " re- 
ligiousness " of the Athenians, and their care that no 
deity who could claim a sacrifice should be over- 
looked, that on the occasion of a plague some black 
and white sheep were turned out on the Areopagus, 
and wherever one lay down it was sacrificed " to the 
god concerned," i.e. to the deity of the particular 
place, whether he were known or not. 

UNLEAVENED BREAD. See Passover, Feast 

OF. 

UNNI. (1) One of those appointed "with 
psalteries " in the Temple service (1 Ch. 15. 18 ' 20 ). 
(2) A Levite who returned with Zerubbabel (Ne. 
12. 9 , RV. "Unno"). 

UNNO. See Unni (2). 

UPHARSIN. The closing and emphatic word 
in the inscription wh. appeared on the wall opposite 
the lights on the occasion of Belshazzar's feast (Dn. 
5. 25 ). It is given in the plural, with the conjun- 
tion \ in v. 25, but in the interpretation (v. 27) 
we find it in the singular without the conjunction. 
The worl as it stands means " fragments " or 
" fractions." The difficulty of interpreting the 
three words lay in the fact that the natural meaning 
of the words as they stood consonantally was simply 



Uph 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ur 



a statement of weights — mene, " a pound " ; tekel, 
" an ounce " ; and upharsin, " and fractions." It 
has been suggested that the inscription had been 
written there before,and simply indicated where the 
standard weights were kept, but that, the light falling 
on it, the inscription flashed out on the king, and he 
read it as an omen. The record, alike in the Chigi 
version and in the Massoretic text, speaks of a hand 
coming forth. There have been various interpre- 
tations of the difficulty of " reading " the inscrip- 
tion. A rabbinic explanation given by Fuller 
(Speaker's Com.) is that the words were written 
perpendicularly, and the Babylonian astrologers 
attempted to read them horizontally but cd. not 
find any meaning in the words^so constructed. This 
seems an unlikely supposition. Another suggestion 
is that the inscription wd. be in cuneiform, and as 
the signs had so many possible meanings attachable 
to them, the astrologers were unable to fix the 
meaning to be given to them in this case. This also 
is unlikely : so far as this indefiniteness of the cunei- 
form symbols is true, it applies to modern scholars, 
but wd. not apply to those who had been taught to 
read cuneiform in infancy. The difficulty was 
that, as shown above, consonantally the words were 
simple enough, but were utterly unmeaning in the 
circumstances — there was no plausible explanation 
possible of this mysterious hand appearing and 
merely chronicling the names of weights. Daniel, 
divinely directed, took the words as verbs, and 
in each word read a deeper meaning than met the 
eye. He rendered mene " numbered " : when the 
days of life of person or nation are numbered they 
are nearing an end. Tekel, " weighed," has in it a 
play on the verb qeldl, " to be light," and peres may 
mean " Persian " as well as " divided " or " broken." 
It is to be observed that in the LXX (Chigi), Thd., 
and Vlg. the first word is not repeated. The fact 
that the prophecy that the kingdom shd. be given 
to the Persians is regarded as fulfilled when Darius 
" the Mede " received the kingdom, effectually 
disposes of the idea that the writer of " Daniel " 
thought the kingdoms of the Medes and Persians 
were different. 

UPHAZ (Jr. io. 9 ; Dn. io. 5 ), apparently a place 
fm. wh. gold appears to have been brought ; Dr. 
Pinches has suggested (HDB.) that U. was originally 
Ophir, wh. consonantally differs only in the final 
letter fm. Uphaz. The tendency is, however, to 
change the less known into the well known, not the 
reverse. Were it not for the initial X it mt. be re- 
garded as Hophal part, of the pazaz, " to purify " ; 
a form wh. occurs in I K. io. 18 . This solution wd. 
not apply to Dn. io. 5 unless the words have been 
improperly divided ; there seems to be some uncer- 
tainty as to the reading here. 

UR, father of one of David's mighty men (i Ch. 
II. 35 ). - 



UR OF THE CHALDEES (D^'f? 1iK), the 

birthplace of Abraham (Gn. n. 28 ), so called to dis- 
tinguish it from an Ur or " City " elsewhere, is the 
Uru — " the City " par excellence — of the cuneiform 
texts, now El-Muqayyar (Mugkeir), " the Bitumin- 
ous," on the west bank of the Euphrates in southern 
Babylonia. In the age of its foundation the river 
fell into the Persian Gulf a little south of the town, 
but in consequence of the deposition of silt the 
coast is now about ioo miles distant. The river- 
bed also has retreated about 5 miles to the east. 
Owing to its situation on the Arabian side of the 
river there was a large West-Semitic community in 
the town, including more especially " Amorite " 
merchants from Canaan. In Sumerian times it was 
known as " the City of the Moon-god," to whom its 




Mugheir Temple: Ur of the Chaldees 

great temple was dedicated. The name given to it 
by the Semites may have been due to the fact that it 
was the only representative of the Babylonian city 
on the Arabian side of the Euphrates. It is pro- 
bably the Babylonian Ovpirj mentioned by Eupole- 
mus (Euseb., Prcep. Ev. IX. 17), wh. he says was also 
called Camarine, since qamar is " moon " in Arabic. 
The mounds wh. mark its site are 2700 metres in 
circumference, the remains of the temple lying to 
the north-west, and the whole place is surrounded 
by graves. No scientific excavations, however, 
have as yet been conducted there. " Ships of Ur " 
are referred to in Sumerian times, and trade was 
carried on with southern and central Arabia through 
the Wadi Rummein. A few centuries before the 
birth of Abraham Babylonia had been ruled for 117 
years by a dynasty of five kings who had their capital 
at Ur. The first of them had been a great builder. 
They revived the claims of Babylonia over Syria and 
Palestine, and a fragmentary cadastral survey exists 
wh. was compiled for one of them by Urimelech, 
the governor of " the land of the Amorites." The 
last of the dynasty fell in battle against the Elamites. 
Ur suffered in the Elamite and civil wars wh. pre- 
ceded the recovery of Babylonian independence 



871 



Urb 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Uri 



under Khammu-rabi, and the massacre of its inhabi- 
tants in the 14th year of his father's reign may have 
led to the migration of its West-Semitic settlers 
(cp. Gn. 11. 31 ). Henceforward Ur lost its import- 
ance except as one of the old centres of Babylonian 
religion. 

Lit.: Taylor in Jrl. R.A.S., 1855, ix. pp. 260 sqq.; 
Loftus, Chaldcea and Susiana, Nisbet, 1857, PP* 
127-35 ; Hommel, Die semitischen Volker, Leipzig, 
1883, pp. 204-11. A. H. Sayce. 

URBANE, RV. URBANUS, a Christian in Rome 
saluted by the apostle Paul as a " fellow-worker " 
(Rm. 16. 9 ). When and where he laboured along 
with St. Paul we do not know. The name, wh. is 
Latin (Urbanus), was often borne by slaves. Tradi- 
tion makes him bishop of Tarsus, consecrated to that 
office by St. Peter. 

URI. (1) Father of the skilful artificer Bezaleel 
(Ex. 3 1 . 2 , &c). (2) Father of Geber,one of Solomon's 
officers in Gilead(i K. 4. 19 ). (3) One of the gate- 
keepers who had married a foreign wife (Ez. io. 24 ). 

URIAH, URI J AH. ( 1) A man of Hittite origin, 
one of David's " mighty men " (2 S. 2 3. 39 ; 1 Ch. 
1 1 . 41 ), and husband of B athsheb a. His name (" my 
light is J".," or " J", is a fire ") seems to show that he 
was a convert to the faith of Israel. It is evident 
that he was possessed of true soldierly qualities. 
Summoned to Jerusalem by his royal master, he 
refused to enjoy comforts wh. could not be shared 
by his comrades in the field. This attitude, admir- 
able as it was (and none would have been more ready 
than David in his right mind to appreciate it), 
frustrated the king's purpose and cost him his life. 
There was nothing calling for remark in putting 
Uriah in the forefront of the battle at Rabbah ; 
it was his natural place. The excellences of the 
simple-hearted soldier throw out in bolder relief the 
infamy of David and his perfidious wife. David's 
crime has been often repeated; his repentance 
was peculiar to himself. (2) A High Priest in 
the reign of Ahaz, who actively assisted that king 
in the introduction of foreign innovations. He 
made the altar after the pattern of that seen by 
Ahaz in Damascus, and by his instructions put it in 
the position formerly occupied by the brazen altar. 
This latter was moved to the north, and retained 
there, apparently for purposes of divination (2 K. 
l6. 10ff -). He is possibly identical with Uriah, who 
acted as a witness for Isaiah (8. 2 ). His name is given 
as Urijah in 2 K. 16. EV. He does not appear in 
the list of High Priests in I Ch. 6. 4 ' 15 ; but his name 
is found in the list of Josephus {Ant. X. viii. 6). 
(3) A prophet in the time of Jeremiah (Jr. 26. 20 ), 
son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-Jearim. His utter- 
ances agreed with those of the great prophet, and so 
roused the anger of Jehoiakim that he had to flee for 
his life to Egypt. Thence, however, he was brought 
by Elnathan, and by the king's orders he was slain, 

87 



his dead body being cast " into the graves of the 
common people " (AV. Urijah). (4) Father of 
Merimoth, and son of Hakkoz (AV. Koz) (Ez. 8. 33 ; 
Ne. 3 4 « 21 ). His son Merimoth had charge of the 
sacred vessels of silver and gold brought back from 
Babylon, and took part in building the wall of 
Jerusalem (Urrjah, Ne. 3 S 21 ). (5) One of the 
prominent men who stood by Ezra at the reading of 
the law (Ne. 8. 4 , AV. Urijah). 

URIEL ("fire of God"). (1) A Kohathite 
named in the genealogy in 1 Ch. 6. 24 . (2) Chief of 
the Kohathite Levites in the time of David who 
with his brethren took part in moving the Ark from 
the house of Obed-edom (1 Ch. 15. 11 ). 

URIM AND THUMMIM. What is meant by 
these terms it is impossible to say with certainty. 
The words themselves are enigmatical ; " lights " 
and " perfections " are terms wh. do not convey 
much that is intelligible. Indeed they have the 
appearance of being foreign words, Egyptian or 
Assyrian, modified to make them significant in Heb. 
When we look at the passages we may note several 
things wh. are so far illuminative, if only nega- 
tively so. Moses is told to put them in the breast- 
plate of judgment ; it is significant that he is not 
commanded to make the U. and T. ; they were 
extant before. They are two separate articles ; 
they have always the definite article before them, 
except in the Ezra-Nehemiah passage, and 'eth, the 
sign of the accusative, also precedes each. Further, 
they are to be " put in ('£/) the breastplate (hoshen) 
of judgment." It was therefore no illumination 
either of the stones of the breastplate or the 
" ouches " on his shoulders that constituted the U. 
and T. They must have been relatively small, 
or they cd. not have been put in the folds of the 
hoshen — a pouch of nine inches square, jewelled 
without. As to what they were like the versions give 
us no assistance. Although -photes and teleia, the 
exact translations of the Heb., lay to hand, the LXX. 
except in the Ezra-Nehemiah passage, renders de- 
losis (" manifestation ") and aletheia (" truth "). 
The Psh. tr. nahira and shalom, a literal rendering of 
the words ; the Tg. of Onkelos simply transliter- 
ates, Tg. PJ. adds a periphrastic explanation of each 
term. Josephus implies that U. and T. were illu- 
minative manifestations fm. the " ouches " on the 
shoulders of the High Priest. Philo tells us that the 
breastplate meant human organs of speech, and the 
reference is to considerate, well-ordered speech. 
Rashi speaks of the shem-hammphorash and its 
illuminative power. All this, however, throws no 
light either on the form of the U. and T. or on the 
way in wh. they were used. It is an evidence of the 
early ignorance of the nature of the U. and T. that 
the Samaritan Pentateuch inserts in Ex. 28. 30 , "And 
thou shalt make the U. and the T.," and in 39. 21 , 
" And he made the U. and the T. as the Lord com- 



Uri 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Uza 



manded Moses." It was less likely that MT. shd. objects were lost about the beginning of the Baby- 
omit such a statement twice over than that the Sam. Ionian Captivity, it does not seem extraordinary that 
shd. insert it. That they were used in some way very little definite shd. be known about their form, 
to learn the Divine will is certain fm. Nu. 27. 21 and or the method of inquiring by them. 
1 S. 28. 6 . It is more difficult to discover how this USURY (Heb. ndsbak, " to lend on interest," 
was done. There is a passage in 1 S. I4. 37f ', concern- neshek, " interest " ; there are also marbith and tar- 
ing the casting of the lot between Saul and Jonathan, bith, tr. " increase " [Lv. 2 5. 36 « 37 ], Gr. tokos). To 
in wh. there seems to be some confusion ; " Give the Heb., lending on interest to a brother Heb. was 
perfections " is unintelligible. The reading of the a crime (Ex. 22. 25 ; Dt. 23. 19 ) ; one of the charac- 
LXX at first seems little better : " Lord God of teristics of the " man who shd. ascend into the hill 
Israel, give clear (delous) if the iniquity be in me of God " is that he does not lend " on usury " (Ps. 



or in Jonathan my son, but if the iniquity be in the 1 5- 5 ). While lending on interest to their brethren 
people give holiness (hosiotes)." However, when one is thus forbidden to the Israelite, it is not forbidden 
remembers that delous is fm. the same root as delosis, to lend on these terms to foreign nations (Dt. 1 5. 6 ). 
then it may mean Urim, and the contrasted term The code of Hammurabi reveals the high rate 
will be equivalent to aletheia (Thummim) ; the ac- charged in those days in Babylon. There is no de- 
count will then mean that, if U. was given, Jonathan nunciation of U. in the NT. ; so far fm. that, it is 
and his father were guilty, if T., then the people, implied to be right and proper (Mw. 2 5. 27 ; Lk. 
This we ought to say is in the Lucianic recension ; 1 9- 23 ). See Debt. 

the Vatican version is in confusion. From this it UTHAI. (1) Son of Ammihud, a Judahite 
wd. appear that the answer of U. and T. was given dwelling in Jerusalem after the Exile (1 Ch. o,. 4 ). (2) 
by means of the lot. Fm. the connection of the A son of Bigvai, who returned with Ezra (Ez. 8. 14 ). 
hoshen with the Ephod it seems probable that the UZ. (1) In three cases in the RV. a personal 
frequent inquiries made by Ephod were really by name (Gn. io. 23 , 22. 21 [Huz AV.], 36. 28 ) ; fm. the 
U. andT., i.e. by sacred lot (1 S. 23. 9 " 12 ) ; it is to be fact that Aram occurs in connection with the two 
noted that the answers cd. all be represented by former, and in the last in the slight disguise of 
"Yes" or " No," a mode of reply that itself suggests Aran, a plausible case may be made out for regard- 
the lot. Were there a plate of metal with the words ing them as the same. (2) The land to wh. Job be- 
U. and T. on opposite sides, this wd. be a simple longed (Jb. I. 1 ). It is difficult to fix the precise 
solution ; but it seems clear that there were two geographical position of U., but it is clearly E. of 
objects. They mt. be cast into a helmet, as were Pal., for Job is said to be " the greatest of all the 
the lots at the Trojan War, and shaken till one leaped men of the East." The names of the countries fm. 
out (//. vii. ij6i.). We have already suggested that which the three friends are said to spring confirms 
U. and T. are foreign words modified into signi- this ; Eliphaz comes fm. Teman, wh. so far as can 
ficance in Heb. The Egyptian deities Har (Horus), be identified is to the SE. of Pal. ; Shuah, fm. wh. 
and Turn have names suggestively resembling U. Bildad comes, is to the NE. ; no definite opinion 
and T. ; only one feels that the roots of primitive appears to have been reached as to the geographical 
Heb. custom are to be sought on the banks of the situation of the native place of Zophar, but it seems 
Euphrates rather than of the Nile. Prof. Muss- to have been E. ; Buz the br. of Huz, fm. whom 
Arnolt has suggested an analogy with the tables of Elihu came, was the son of Nahor, whose grandson 
destiny wh. Marduk bore in his bosom, and the Laban dwelt among " the sons of the East " (Gn. 
names he wd. derive fm. the Asyr. urtu, " a de- 29. 1 ). Arabic tradition wd. place it in the Hauran, 
cision," and tamitu, " an oracle." The late Dean while Delitzsch wd. locate it near Palmyra ; that, 
Plumptre had a theory that the objects, the U. and however, seems too far N. for Chaldaean raiders to 
T., were contemplated by the priest so fixedly that infest. There is a place Utztza, fm. wh. Sal- 
he fell into a hypnotic trance, and in that state gave maneser received tribute, but it was NW. of 
oracular responses. Though it is ingenious, the Aleppo, and more unsuitable, therefore, than 
proof seems fairly strong that it was by lot in some Palmyra. 

way that the Divine will was interpreted. There is UZAI, father of Palal, one of those who assisted 
no indication that the U. and T. were ever consulted 
after the death of David ; silence, however, is by no 
means a conclusive argument, the more so as Jose- 
phus speaks as if they had only disappeared about a 

couple of centuries before his own time. Against disorder in the text, but the rendering now gene- 
this statement is to be put the Ezra-Nehemiah rally favoured is " Vedan and Javan of Uzal fur- 
passage, wh. implies that at the return fm. Babylon nished their wares " (Ek. 27. 19 ; see Davidson, ad 
at all events there was no priest having the Urim loc). The tr. " from Uzal " is relegated by RV. to 



in repairing the wall of Jerusalem (Ne. 3- 25 ). 

UZAL, the sixth son of Joktan (Gn. io. 27 ; I Ch. 
I. 21 ). The name also appears in Ezekiel as that of a 
city in Arabia. The passage is difficult owing to 



and Thummim (Ez. 2. 63 ; Ne. j. &5 ). 



If these the margin. 
873 



This city may with some confidence 



2 e 2 



Uzz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Uzz 



be identified with San' a, the chief city of el-Yemen, 
the ancient name of which, Azvzal, corresponds ex- 
actly to the Heb. The mod. name San 1 a prob. 
comes from Abyssinia,.in the language of wh. country 
it means " fortress." It was known as Azal or Izal 
to the Jewish inhabitants in the pre-Mohammadan 
time, who perhaps had revived the ancient name. 
The Arabs believed it to be the oldest city in the 
world, perhaps deriving the name from azal, 
" eternity." " Bright iron " was one of the com- 
modities in wh. she trafficked. Iron is still found in 
various parts of Arabia ; and the steel weapons 
manufactured in San'a are held in high repute. 
She also formed a depot for goods imported from 
India. 

The mod. city stands in a wide vale among the 
uplands, 7250 feet above the level of the sea. It is 
dominated from the east by Jebel Nujum, a spur of 
which is crowned by a strong fortress. At this 
great height the city enjoys light air and a charming 
climate. Through the centre of the town runs a 
river bed, wh. for several months of the year carries 
down a plentiful supply of water. This is largely 
used for irrigation. The soil is very fertile, and the 
gardens and orchards are such in beauty and fruit- 
fulness that Arabian writers frequently compare the 
city to Damascus. Great wells and cisterns furnish 
water during the rest of the year. The famous 
fortress Beit Ghumdan, and the temple dedicated to 
Zahrah, the Arabian Venus, on the site now occu- 
pied by the mod. citadel, were the architectural 
pride of Arabia until, by the orders of Othman, they 
were destroyed. With the temple disappeared the 
last vestiges of idolatry in el- Yemen. A Christian 
church was built by Abraha el-Ashram, viceroy of 
el- Yemen under king Aryat of Abyssinia, for the 
building of wh. the Roman emperor sent contribu- 
tions in marble and workmen. This structure also 
perished by order of Othman. 

There are many khans or caravanserais in the 
city for the accommodation of travellers and their 
animals. Tribespeople from every part of the in- 
terior are to be seen around the gates of these khans 
— " bringers of salt from Mareb, the mod. Saba 
or Sheba ; of coffee from the northern districts ; of 
indigo and grain and spices from wherever the soil 
is suitable to their growth. Caravans from the 
Hadramaut and Yaffa discharge their goods here 
too, and reload their camels with the produce of the 
largest city of Southern Arabia " (Harris, A Journey 
through Yemen, 312). 

UZZA, UZZAH. (1) One of the sons of 
Abinadab in whose house the Ark had rested for a 
time. U. and his br. Ahio drove the cart on wh. 
the Ark was placed with the object of removing it to 
Jrs. (2 S. 6. m ; 1 Ch. 1 3. 7 , &c). At the threshing 
floor of Nacon the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah, 
anxious for the safety of the Ark, put out his hand to 



steady it. He at once fell dead. This was under- 
stood as a token of Divine anger at his sacrilegious 
touch. It displeased David, who called the place 
Perez-Uzzah, " breach of Uzzah," and abandoned 
for a time the project of taking the Ark to his capi- 
tal. (2) Manasseh and his son Amon are said to 
have been buried in the garden of Uzza (2 K. 
2 1. 18,26 ). This seems to indicate that the garden 
was attached to the palace. It had prob. been ac- 
quired at some time for the royal demesne from the 
patrimony of one Uzza. But nothing further is. 
known of him. Others are mentioned of this name: 
in 1 Ch. 6. 29 , 8. 7 ; Ez. 2. 49 , &c. 

UZZEN-SHERAH, RV. UZZEN-SHEERAH,, 
" the weighed portion of Sheerah," according tx> 
MT. (1 Ch. 7. 24 ) is the name of a city said to have: 
been built by Sheerah, the daughter of Ephraim. 
The building of the two Beth-horons is also attri- 
buted to her ; but while they are well known, no 
satisfactory identification of Uzzen-Sheerah has yet 
been suggested. The text may have been inter- 
fered with. The LXX reads instead of the place- 
name, kcu vtol ' 0£av -^erjpd. 

UZZI. (1) A descendant of Aaron in the line of 
Phinehas (1 Ch. 6. 5 , &c). (2) Father of Izrahiah, 
of the tribe of Issachar (1 Ch. J. 2 , &c). A Benja- 
mite (1 Ch. J. 7 , g. 8 ). (4) An overseer of the 
Levites (Ne. n. 22 ). (5) A priest of the family of 
Jedaiah(Ne. 12. 19 ' 42 ). 

UZZIA, the Ashterathite, one of David's mightv 
men(i Ch. II. 44 ). 

UZZIAH = AZARIAH, king of Judah, son of 
Amaziah (2 K. 1 5. 1 , &c). The shorter form of the 
name may be a contraction of the longer. The two> 
are kindred in meaning : Uzziah = " My strength is 
Jehovah," Azariah = " Jehovah hath helped." Or 
again the name Uzziah may have been adopted at 
his coronation. When his father was assassinated at 
Lachish U. was only sixteen years of age, but he was 
made king by acclamation (2 K. I4. 17fl -), and his 
reign extended to the long period of fifty- two years. 
The book of Kings records little of his life, and the 
one warlike enterprise mentioned there is the re- 
storation and fortification of the seaport on the Red 
Sea, Elath (2 K. 14. 22 ). For most of our informa- 
tion we depend on the Chronicler. " He did that 
wh. was right in the eyes of the Lord," and pros- 
perity waited on his efforts. He waged successful 
war against the Phil., breaking down the fortifica- 
tions of many of their cities. He defeated the 
Arabians and the Mehunim, and the Ammonites 
were made tributary. He strengthened the de- 
fences, of Jrs. The towers wh. he built in the wil- 
derness were doubtless to guard the cisterns made 
for the watering of the flocks. Being a lover of 
husbandry, agriculture and vinedressing flourished 
under his patronage. He had a strong, well- 
equipped standing army, and the engines he had in 



Uzz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Van 



Jrs. for discharging missiles were the admiration of 
the age (2 Ch. 26. 1 * 15 ). We are also told that for 
presuming in his pride of heart to usurp the sacred 
function of the priest he was smitten with leprosy, 
and had thenceforth to dwell apart. For the dis- 
charge of such duties as involved contact with the 
people, his son Jotham was associated with him as 
regent (vv. i6 ff -). This fact has to be remembered 
in connection with the somewhat confusing chrono- 
logy of the period of the kings. 

The reign of U. was signalised by a great earth- 
quake, wh. seems to have made a deep impression on 
the mind of the people (Am. I. 1 ; Zc. 14. 5 ). Per- 
haps echoes of it may be heard in Is. 2. 19fE (cp. Ant. 
IX. x. 4). 

By many scholars it was once thought that U. 
may be the Azriya'u of Ya'udi mentioned in the in- 
scription of Tiglath-pileser III. (b.c. 738). This 
identification is now, however, generally rejected, 
the reference prob. being to some North Syrian 
prince. 



U. was buried " in the field of burial wh. belonged 
to the kings." This evidently means that his 
polluted body was kept apart from the ashes in the 
royal tombs, " for they said, He is a leper " (2 Ch. 
26P). 

UZZIEL, " God is my strength." Six men of 
this name are mentioned in OT. The more im- 
portant were : (1) Fourth son of Kohath (Ex. 6. 18 , 
&c), reputed ancestor of the Uzzielites (Nu. 3. 27 , 
&c). When David brought up the Ark to Jeru- 
salem the house of U. comprised 112 adults, under 
their chief Amminadab (1 Ch. 15. 10 ). (2) A 
Simeonite who took part in the raid upon the Ama- 
lekites in Mt. Seir, securing a permanent dwelling 
there (1 Ch. 4. 42f> ) in the days of Hezekiah. (3) One 
of the goldsmiths who took part in repairing the 
wall of Jrs. under Nehemiah (3- 8 ). If he were a 
priest, as his name seems to indicate, it wd. be his 
duty to make and repair the sacred vessels of the 
precious metal for use in the sanctuary. See also 
I Ch. 7. 7 , 25. 4 ; 2 Ch. 29. 14 . 



VAGABOND (Heb. nud, " wandering ") is used 
of Cain, as a fugitive without definite aim (Gn. 
4. 12 ' 14 ). In NT. it is used also in its literal sense of 
certain Jews, as tr. of the Greek periarcbomai, " to 
go round about." In Ps. 109. 10 it stands for nua\ 
" to tremble," " totter," " stagger." Here it sug- 
gests, perhaps, the tottering step of the beggar. 

VAHEB (RV. and AVm.), the name of a place 
evidently on the border of Amorite territory east of 
the Jordan (Nu. 21. 14 ) ; not identd. 

VAIL. See Veil. 

VAJEZATHA, one of the ten sons of Haman, 
slain by the Jews in Shushan (Est. cj. 9 ). 

VALE, VALLEY. Five Heb. words are so trd. 
in EV., " vale " standing only for 'emeq and sbepbe- 
lab. (1) 'i?m^ is prop. " a deepening," or "depth." 
It is " a highlander's word for a valley as he looks 
down into it, and is applied to wide avenues running 
up into a mountainous country, like the vale of 
Elah, the vale of Hebron, and the vale of Aijalon " 
(HGHL. 1 , 384). The word is applied to an opening 
in the uplands wider than the gai\ but not so broad 
as the biq'dh. As illustrations of its use we have the 
valley of Achor (Jo. 7- 24 ), the valley of Aijalon (io. 12 ), 
the valley of Jezreel (Jo. 17. 16 , &c), where the vale 
sloping to the Jordan valley between Little Hermon 
and Gilboa is referred to. (2) Ga? is " a ravine," 
or " glen," narrower than the 'emeq. Such a ravine 
might run in the bottom of the i emeq, as for ex- 
ample that in the vale of Elah (1 S. I7. 2f -). By this 
name the valley of the son of Hinnom is known, the 
ravine that runs to the S. of Jerusalem (Jo. 1 5. 8 , &c). 



So also, in Ps. 23 4 , the " valley of the shadows " is 
the " ravine." (3) Biq'dh signifies a broad valley. 
It is prop, a plain wh. is enclosed by rising ground. 
It applies to the plain of the Jordan to the N. of the 
Dead Sea (Dt. 34- 3 ), to the wide reaches of Esdra- 
elon (2 Ch. 35- 22 , &c), and to the spacious hollow 
between the Lebanon and Antilebanon ranges (Jo. 
II. 17 ). In this last case the ancient name still 
lingers in the mod. el-Biqd'. The diminutive el- 
Buqei'a is applied to a vill. in a " little Biqi?" high 
in the mountains to the N. of er-Rdmeh in Upper 
Galilee. (4) Nabal is = Arb. Wddy, a vale with a 
stream or torrent bed in the bottom. It may also 
apply to the stream itself (see Brook). (5) She- 
pbelab, " lowland," applies to the stretch of lower 
hill country between the central range and the 
maritime plain. See Shephelah. 

VANIAH, a son of Bani, who had married a 
foreign wife (Ez. io. 36 ). 

VANITY. This word is never used in Scrip, 
in our mod. sense of foolish pride. (1) 'Aven, 
"trouble," "sorrow," "wickedness." In Jb. 
15. 35 ; Ps. io. 7 , RV. renders "iniquity"; in Pr. 
22. 8 , "calamity"; in Is. 58. 9 , "wickedly." It 
stands for idolatry (Ho. 12. 2 &c), trouble of 
iniquity (Jb. 22. 15 ), &c. (2) Hebel, " breath," 
" vapour." This is the word most commonly ren- 
dered " vanity." In Is. 57. 13 , " A breath shall carry 
them all (idols) away," and Pr. 2 1 . 6 , " The getting of 
treasures by a lying tongue is a vapour," it is used 
literally. For the rest it denotes what is evanescent 
and worthless, e.g. idols (Jr. IO. 15 , &c.) ; heathen 



87s 



Vas 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Vei 



statutes or ordinances (v. 2) ; life (Jb. 7. 16 , &c.) ; 
the fruitlessness of human endeavour (Ec. I. 2 , &c.) ; 
false gods (Dt. 32. 21 , &c.) ; see Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v. 

(3) Rtq, " emptiness " (Ps. 4.2 ; Hb. 2. 13 ). Used of 
labour from wh. no profit results (Is. 49 4 , &c.). 

(4) Shdv\ " nothingness," almost synonymous with 
rtq. It is used of profitless toils (Ps. 127. 2 ). " For 
what vanity " (Ps. 8c;. 47 RV.), i.e. " what nothing- 
ness hast thou created all the children of men." It 
is used of lying, i.e. unreal speech (Pr. 30. 8 , &c), of 
false, i.e. empty prophecy (Ek. 12. 34 , &c), of vain, 
i.e. worthless persons (Ps. 26. 4 , &c). (5) Tobu, 
" formlessness," " unreality." It is applied to the 
confusion of the primaeval world (Gn. I. 2 ) ; of a 
ruined city (Is. 24. 10 , " city of confusion "), of idols, 
as " things of naught " (40. 17 , &c), of moral un- 
reality (59 4 ), &c. In NT. kenos, " empty," denotes 
lack of truth (Eph. 5. 6 ), of insight (Js. 2. 20 ), of ad- 
vantage (1 Cor. 15. 10 , &c.) ; eike indicates what is 
purposeless, heedless, or at random (Rm. 13. 4 ; 
1 Cor. 15. 2 , &c.) ; mataios, what is devoid of force, 
truth, real outcome (1 Cor. 3. 20 ; Tt. 3.° ; Js. I. 26 ; 
I P. 1 . 18 ). Matiot'es is a frequent LXX rendering of 
hebel {see (2) above). It occurs three times in NT. 
It is applied to the condition in wh. the creation is 
in consequence of sin (Rm. 8. 20 ), to the uselessness 
of heathen intellectual speculations (Eph. 4. 17 ), to 
the high-sounding but profitless speech of certain 
boastful, false teachers (2 P. 2. 18 ). 

Vanity in Scrip, thus denotes what is evanescent, 
unreal, empty, unprofitable, and worthless. Our 
sense of empty pride is expressed by the word 
kenodoxia, "vainglory" (Php. 2. 3 ; cp. Gal. 5. 26 ). 

VASHNI, the first-born son of Samuel (1 Ch. 
6. 28 ), according to MT. In 1 S. 8. 2 the name of 
Samuel's first-born is Joel {cp. 1 Ch. 6. 33 ). The 
Peshitta reads " his first-born Joel, and the name of 
his second son Abiah." It would appear that the 
name " Joel " has fallen out of the text in 1 Ch. 6. 28 , 
and then vasherii, "and the second," has been read 
as a proper name. So RV. understands it, and reads 
" the first-born Joel, and the second Abiah." 

VASHTI, "best" (Persian), the queen of 
Ahasuerus who refused to display herself to the king 
and his companions in their carouse, and was in 
consequence sent away. It is impossible to identify 
V. with any queen known to history. The Persians, 
according to Plutarch {Con jug. Precept, c. 16) and 
Herodotus (v. 18), were accustomed to have their 
legitimate wives seated with them at their banquets 
(Josephus \Ant. XI. vi. 1] denies this), and when 
excess began the wives were sent away, and concu- 
bines and dancing girls were called in. V. may 
have been an inferior wife who refused the role of 
the latter. 

VEDAN, RV., where AV. reads " Dan also " (Ek. 
27. 19 ). AV. is certainly mistaken. It is the name of 
a city or people who traded with Tyre, apparently 




Ornamented 
Black Veil 



in Arabia. If the former, it may be identified with 
the town of Wadddn, to the SW. of Medina. But 
owing to the state of the text no certain decision is 
possible. 

VEIL, VAIL. The RV. spelling is uniformly 
" veil." The veil which covers the whole or part of 
the face is a common article of female attire in the 
East. The hanm ("woman-kind ") 
of the Moslems in the cities regu- 
larly veil the face ; but it is wrong 
to say that " no respectable woman 
in an Eastern village or city goes 
out without the veil " (Da vies, 
HDB. s.v.). Dr. Davies refers in 
his next paragraph to the wife and 
daughters of the chief of Zobas, 
between Nablus and the Jordan, 
who wore no veils, whose respecta- 
bility he does not impugn. The 
village and Bedawy women are sel- 
dom veiled ; the like is true of the Christian and 
Jewish women in the towns ; and certainly a mission- 
ary lady veiled wd. be a rara avis in Pal. {ibid). (1) 
Mitpahath (Ru. 3. 15 )is a " covering," RV. "mantle." 
(2) Masveh is used only of the covering wh. Moses put 
over his face when he came down from the Mount 
(Ex. 34. 33fl ')- (3) Tza'iph, lit. a " double or folded 
thing." This is the wrapper, or shawl, with wh. 
Rebecca covered herself on meeting with Isaac (Gn. 
24. 65 ). With this also Tamar wrapped herself (Gn. 
38. 14 ). Her object was to conceal her identity 
from her father-in-law. There is nothing to show 
that any evil significance attached to this particular 
" veil." (4) Redid (SS. 5. 1 ; Is. 3. 23 ) is a wide 
wrapper, prob. going over the other garments. In 
the NT. kalumma is the covering worn by Moses 
over his face (2 Cor. 3. 30ff- ). 

No curtain or veil is mentioned in the account of 
the construction of Solomon's Temple save in 2 Ch. 
3. 14 , where it is described as made of blue and purple 
and crimson and fine linen, with cherubim embroi- 
dered on it. In similar terms is described the veil wh. 
hung upon four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, 
cutting off the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place 
in the Tabernacle '(Ex. 26. 31fl -, &c). The Heb. 
word is pdroketh, lit. " what habitually shuts off." 
Mdsdh is the term trd. " hanging " (AV.) or 
" screen " (RV.), denoting three curtains or veils, 
connected with the Tabernacle : {a) that which 
hung at the entrance to the court (Ex. 27. 16 , &c.) ; 
{b) that which closed the doorway of the tent of 
meeting (Ex. 26. 36 , &c. ; and {c) the veil between 
the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, within the 
tent (Ex. 35. 12 , &c). This word is also used for the 
covering spread over the well in the court of the 
house of Bahurim (2 S. 17. 19 ). 

Although information is lacking as to details, it is 
probable that such veils were found in the Temple 



876 



Ven 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Vin 



of Zerubbabel. Evidence for one veil in the Temple 
of Herod is supplied by the narratives that record 
its rending at the time of the crucifixion (Mw. 27. 51 , 
&c.), and by references in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews (6. 19 , o,. 3 , io. 20 ). The veil there men- 
tioned is that concealing the Holy of Holies. The 
mention of it as " the second veil " is also evidence 
as to the first, which hung at the entrance to the 
Holy Place. This is confirmed by Josephus, who 
describes here what he himself knew familiarly. 
The first was "a Babylonian curtain," 55 cubits 
high and 16 cubits in breadth, " embroidered with 
blue and fine linen, and scarlet and purple, and of a 
contexture that was truly wonderful." A mystical 
significance attached to the colours and figures 
wrought npon it (BJ. V. v. 4). The second veil he 
mentions, but does not describe (ib. 5). &?*? Taber- 
nacle, Temple. 

VENISON (Heb. tzayid, " something taken in 
hunting "). The word might almost be trd. 
" game " ; but the idea of " sport " in our sense 
was not then familiar to the Hebrew mind. Their 
ancestors had lived largely by the produce of their 
bow and spear. The old feeling of its stern neces- 
sity had hardly worn off, and men did not hunt for 
amusement. Esau went to the chase only in the 
interests of the table (Gn. 25.2 s , 2j. 5 ' &c). 

VERMILION (Heb. shashar), used for adorn- 
ment of houses (Jr. 22. 14 ), for portraying figures 
(Ek. 23. 14 ). Gr. miltos. See Colour. 

VESTRY (Heb. meltahah), a word of uncertain 
meaning, gen. taken to denote the place where the 
worshippers of Baal were provided with holy vest- 
ments. Cheyne (EB. s.v.) suggests that we shd. 
read by a slight emendation of the text, " him that 
was over the hall." 

VIAL in 1 S. io. 1 is EV. tr. of pak, " a flask " for 
oil ; in 2 K. 9. 13 AV. renders " box," RV. " vial." 
The "vial" of Rv. 5. 8 , &c, Gr. phiale, was a 
shallow, saucer-like " bowl " (so RV.) used in pour- 
ing libations of wine, &c, upon heathen altars. 

VILLAGE. When the people of Israel changed 
their manner of life from the nomadic to thesettled, 
they carried over many of their old words and ap- 
plied them to new things. " Tent," e.g., continued 
to be the word for a man's dwelling. In this way 
prob. hazvzvoth, wh. like the Arb. hiwa 9 may have 
signified a group of tents, came to mean the collec- 
tion of dwellings forming a village (Nu. 32. 41 , &c.) ; 
see Havoth-Jair. Solitary houses were never 
reckoned safe in Pal. ; consequently the scattered 
homesteads and cottages that dot our landscape 
were never seen there. For society and mutual 
protection men drew close together, and the villages 
thus formed were grouped around a common centre, 
a fortified city, and ranked as its " daughters." In 
the NT.- the distinction between the city (polls) and 
the village (kome) was one of constitution rather 

8-7 



than size, altho' the city was probably always forti- 
fied. The komopoleis of Mk. i. 38 , lit. "village- 
cities," were not smaller than the cities, but occu- 
pied an inferior position as regarded constitution. 
Josephus (BJ. III. hi. 2), speaking of the villages of 
Galilee, says that the smallest contained 15,000 in- 
habitants. It is impossible to accept his figures ; 
but evidently he had very large " villages " in view. 

The villagers till the soil, the land round the vill. 
often being common property. Imperial taxes are 
paid and the rest of the year's crops is divided. 
Sometimes the villagers work the land for other 
owners, and receive a percentage of the yield. 

The position of the villages has been determined 
by two considerations, the nearness of water supply, 
and ease of defence. They often stand on sites 
marked by ruins of ancient buildings, with stones 
fm. wh. they have been built. Many of the villages, 
however, are composed of poor mud-huts, usually 
of but one apartment, in wh. the animals find shelter 
at night, as well as the family. There is an air of 
temporariness over all their wretched life, so that 




Typical Palestinian Village 

for centuries the land has worn the aspect of a house 
in the hands of caretakers, who expect at any 
moment the owner's return. Yet there are ele- 
ments of nobler things in this strange people, e.g. 
in their regard for the comfort and security of the 
guest. The village " guest-house " is usually near 
that of the sheikh who acts as " host." But each 
villager holds himself responsible for his share 
towards the proper entertainment of " the guest of 
God." The religious practices of the peasants, 
nominally Mohammadans, connected with their 
maqams, the little white-domed sanctuaries, which 
are always at hand, point to the survival of certain 
elements of the worship of the ancient Canaanites. 
This field yet awaits thorough investigation. See 
Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, passim. 

VINE, VINEYARD. Noah is said to have 
planted a vineyard (Gn. 9. 20 ). Prob. in view of the 
evil wrought by unwise use of its produce, old 
traditions have attributed this planting to Satan. 
The vine was early cultivated in Egypt, where it was 
said Osiris taught men how to manage it. In the 
days of Joseph the pressing of grapes into the cup of 
the king was one of the duties of Pharaoh's chief 



Vin 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Vin 



butler (Gn. 40. 9ff> ). A ground of complaint in the 
wilderness was that it was " no place of . . . 
vines " (Nu. 20. 5 ). The hail destroyed the vines of 
Egypt (Ps. 78. 47 ). Vine-culture was undoubtedly 
followed from very early times in Palestine. While 
still in the hands of the Canaanites it was famous for 
its vines (Dt. 8. 8 ). Grapes from the vale of Eshcol 
formed the chief of the fruits brought back by the 
spies (Nu. I3. 23f- ). The vine nourished then also in 
the land of Edom (Nu. 20. 17 , &c). Israel took pos- 
session of the vineyards as they found them in Pales- 
tine (Jo. 24. 13 ). The regulations referring to vine- 
culture in Lv. and Dt. show its importance. And 
this is fully attested by the traces of ancient vine- 
yards in many districts where there is no sign of 
vines to-day. It was an industry provided for 
during the Captivity, when the poor of the land were 
left to act as vine-dressers (2 K. 25. 12 , &c). For its 
satisfactory cultivation, however, peaceful and se- 
cure times were needful, so that for a man to sit 




PEF. Photo 



The Return of the Spies 



under his vine (Mi. 4*) was a symbol 01 safe con- 
tentment. 

Both the soil and the climate of Pal. are well 
suited for vine-culture. On the terraced slopes of 
the sunny hill-sides, through long unclouded 
months, the vines bring their precious clusters to per- 
fection, the heavy night-dews furnishing sufficient 
moisture. The terraces require careful attention 
lest the winter rains destroy them. The ground is 
worked over with a hoe, and all alien roots removed. 
The space occupied by the vineyard is usually sur- 
rounded by a dry-stone dyke, or fence of thorns, 
while a " tower," or shelter for the watchman, is 
always present, whence the vines may be guarded 
against pillage or injury by robbers or animals. 
The vines are planted in rows, about 8 or 10 ft. 
apart. They are trained in a sloping position. 
Pruning is done in December and January. April 
and May see the blossoms, and in the month of 
September the vintage is general. The industry, 
wh. seems to have flourished for at least 200 years 
after Christ, languished under Moslem dominion. 
In recent years the influence of German and Jewish 



colonies has done much to restore it in certain dis- 
tricts, and vast numbers of the choicest vines have 
been introduced. While the bulk of the grapes are 
used in the making of wine, &c, many are dried as 
raisins, while great quantities are disposed of, fresh, 
in the markets. The grapes of es-Salt, on the east of 
the Jordan, are especially prized for raisins. It ap- 
pears certain also that in ancient times, as to-day, the 
custom prevailed of boiling the grape-juice into a 
thick, sweet syrup, known as dibs, " grape honey." 
This is possibly at times intended by the Heb. 
deb ash, wh. EV. always render " honey." For 
wine-press, &c, see Wine and Strong Drink. 

The Nazirite was forbidden to touch any product 
of the vine (Nu. 6. 4 , &c). The vine has long been 
to the nomads the symbol of the settled life, wh. 
tends -always to encroach upon their free domain. 
As such they have regarded it with antipathy ; and 
this may to some extent explain their aversion to the 
produce of the vine to-day, and also the attitude of 
the Rechabites in the olden time. 

Jesus takes the vine-stock as a figure of Himself. 
He is the great life-giver and sustainer of those wh. 
trust Him. The condition of fruit-bearing is that 
the branches abide in Him, that the relation be- 
tween them remain fresh and vital (Jn. I5. lff< )- 
This allegorical use of the vine was all the more easy 
and natural because " in the OT., and partially in 
Jewish thought, the vine was the symbol of Israel, 
not in their national but in their church capacity " 
(Edersheim, LTJ. ii. 520). 

VINE OF SODOM. See Sodom. 

VINEGAR (Heb. hometz, Gr. oxos). V. " of 
wine," and V. " of strong drink," were both pro- 
hibited to the Nazirite (Nu. 6. 3 ). The former is 
the light wine of the country gone sour, i.e. it has 
passed through the process of fermentation in which 
the alcohol it contains has been converted into 
acetic acid : the latter is formed by the fermenta- 
tion of saccharine fluids. V. was used with food in 
ancient times, the bread being dipped in it and then 
eaten (Ru. 2. 14 ). It was certainly used as a beverage 
by the humbler people, but the Psalmist (Ps. 69. 21 ) 
seems to complain that nothing better was given to 
slake his thirst. It was a safe and refreshing drink 
(diluted with water, of course), of wh., under the 
name of posca, the Roman soldiers were very fond. 
They had a jar full of it at the cross (Jn. 19. 29 ), 
fm. wh. the executioners might drink. In ancient 
medicine it was highly valued for its cooling pro- 
perties. MoVed by Jesus' cry of distress, and not 
understanding it, one dipped a sponge in the 
vinegar wh. stood by the cross, and putting it on a 
reed, reached it up to the lips of the Sufferer. This 
He gratefully accepted. It is noteworthy that, 
having rejected the wine mingled with myrrh, wh. 
wd. have acted as a narcotic, He drank the vinegar, 
wh. would have a refreshing effect (Mw. 27. 48 , &c.) . 

Q 



Vio 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Vow 



Undiluted V. sets the teeth " on edge " (Pr. io. 20 ). 
V. dropped on nitre (crude sodic carbonate) causes 
effervescence (Pr. 25. 20 ). 

VIOL (Heb. neb el ; this word, except in Is. 5. 12 , 
14. 11 , 22. 24 AVm. ; Am. 5. 23 , 6. 5 , is rendered in AV. 
Psaltery : in Is. 22. 24 text is " flagons "). See 
Music. 

VIPER. See Serpent. 

VIRGIN. The usual Heb. word is bethulah, wh. 
in certain places denotes virgo intacta (Gn. 24. 16 ; 
Dt. 22. 23 , &c). The importance attached to vir- 
ginity in a bride led to strict regulations for the pro- 
tection of virgins (Dt. 22. 13ff - ; w. 23fl\, &c). The 
exact significance of the word, when used figura- 
tively of a people, is not easy to determine. It 
occurs with the word " daughter," e.g. " the virgin 
daughter of Zion " (Is. 37. 22 , &c), " virgin dr. of 
Zidon " (Is. 23. 12 ), &c. It may possibly mean that 
the people remain unconquered, never having 
yielded to the foe. But in Jr. 31. 4 virgin is applied 
to Israel with the yoke of bondage on her neck. In 
Jl. i. 8 it is applied to a woman who laments in sack- 
cloth " the husband of her youth." 

The word 'almah in Gn. 24. 43 denotes " virgin." 
In SS. I. 1 , 6. 8 , the meaning is uncertain. It may 
prob. be understood as a young woman who has 
reached the stage of puberty ; who may be married 
or unmarried. In Is. 7. 14 the LXX translates it 
parthenos, wh. means strictly " virgin," and St. 
Matthew, quoting from the LXX, regards this 
verse as a definite prophecy of the virgin birth of 
Christ. It is strange that this word should have 
been used in Heb. when the more familiar bethulah 
would more clearly have conveyed the meaning. 

In NT. parthenos bears its usual meaning of virgo 
intacta, but in RV. 14 4 it is applied to men, where 
possibly it implies that they have preserved them- 
selves from impurity, not that they were celibates. 
Perhaps to this verse may be in part traced the 
emphasis subsequently laid upon the excellence 
of virginity, as a condition of religious life. For 
Virgin Birth see Jesus Christ. 

VISION (Heb. hazon, and other derivatives of 
haxah ; and mar' ah), the state of mind in wh. a 
prophet was when he received a Divine communica- 
tion. In the case of some of the literary prophets 
the seer describes what he saw : thus Ezekiel gives a 
picture of what appeared to him at the river Chebar 
(Ek. i. 4 ' 28 ) ; so also Daniel. On the other hand, 
Isaiah assumes the picture and gives, as it were, a 
lyric accompaniment to it. Balaam's account of 
the phenomena is worthy of special attention ; he 
describes himself as he " which saw the vision of God 
falling into a trance but having his eyes open," i.e. 
retaining his consciousness. The prophet, seized 
upon by the Divine Spirit, his own spiritual nature 
filled with the message of God, saw pictures that 
were flashed forth fm. his imagination to give body 

8 



to " the burden " that was oppressing him. V. was 
not a mere literary device consciously adopted ; it 
was part of the phenomena of prophecy. 

VOLUME (Heb. megilldh, Gr. kephalis) is lit. 
" roll " (so RV. : Ps. 40. 7 ; He. 10. 7 ). The prepared 
skin or parchment on which the work was written 
was rolled round a piece of wood and unrolled for 
reading. See illustration to Samaritan Pentateuch. 

VOPHSI, father of Nahbi, who represented 
Naphtali among the spies (Nu. 13. 14 ). 

VOW. From very ancient times the Hebrews 
shared the widespread custom among primitive 
peoples of making vows to the deity on special occa- 
sions. In moments of grave peril, or of pressing 
need, men naturally appeal to their god for protec- 
tion or help. In like manner, embarking on an 
enterprise of more than usual anxiety, they seek for 
assurance of divine assistance. To convince the 
deity concerned of the grateful spirit that is in them, 
to win his favour and incline him to grant their re- 
quests, they promise to dedicate to him what they 
believe will be pleasing in his eyes, if their desires 
are fulfilled. Or again, in a spirit of loyalty and de- 
votion, to prove their zeal and sincerity in their re- 
ligious service, men promise to deprive themselves of 
certain things which make for comfort and enjoy- 
ment, and even dedicate themselves personally to 
the deity. The former transaction is in the nature 
of a bargain. The oldest instance in Scrip, is that 
of Jacob, who vowed to make the pillar he had set 
up the house of God, and to give to Him a tenth of 
all he should possess, on the distinct condition, how- 
ever, that God should be with him and help him, 
give him bread and raiment, and bring him again to 
his father's house in peace (Gn. 28. 20ff -). Jephthah's 
vow was of the same order (Jg. n. 30 ).* Hannah 
also vowed that if the Lord gave her a son he should 
be consecrated to the Divine service — a Nazirite 
from the womb (1 S. I. 11 ), and we find the vow re- 
membered with the yearly sacrifice (v. 20). On the 
pretext of paying such a vow, made in his exile at 
Geshur, Absalom was allowed to go to Hebron, and 
so secured the opportunity to raise there the stan- 
dard of revolt (2 S. I5. 7f ")- The vow of self-denial 
may be illustrated by the resolve of Israel not to 
profit by the spoil of Arad, if God gave it into their 
hands, but to devote it absolutely to Him, i.e. to 
destroy it (Nu. 21. 2 ). Saul sought to prove his de- 
votion by abstaining himself, and causing all his 
army to abstain, from food until the evening of the 

* A curious Jewish explanation of the phrase "was 
buried in the cities of Gilead " (Jg. 12. 7 Heb.) is that it 
was Jephthah's duty to have obtained relief from the ob- 
ligation of his rash vow, from an official in Israel, who had 
authority to absolve men from vows wh. were displeasing 
to God. Jephthah preferred to execute his wicked vow : 
for this he was smitten with a terrible disease. In the 
course of visiting the fortresses of Gilead, the members of 
his body dropped off one by one, and were buried where 
they fell. 
70 



Vul 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Vul 



day on which he sought vengeance on the Phil. 
(i S. 14. 24 ) ; cp. also David's vow (Ps. I32. lfl -). 

There was in Israel no necessity for one to make a 
vow (Dt. 23. 22 ) ; but from the obligation to fulfil 
the vow, once it was made, there was no escape (Nu. 
30. 2 ; Dt. 23. 21 ). A vow taken by a maid living in 
her father's house might be disallowed by him and 
thus become void. The like was true regarding the 
vow of a woman living with her husband. But if 
the father or husband kept silence the vow was valid. 
A widow, or divorced woman, acted on her own 
responsibility. The phrase " bind the soul " may 
mean that death was the penalty of a broken vow 
(Nu. 30. passim). Any attempt to escape the full 
responsibility, by substituting " a blemished thing " 
in the sacrifice, was cursed (Ml. I. 14 ). Anything 
vowed, however, except animals, might be redeemed 
on certain terms (Lv. 27.). Nothing could be 
vowed wh. already belonged of right to God, e.g. 
firstlings. 

In the days of Jesus the vow was used as a means 
of escape from some of the most sacred filial duties. 
Children must support their parents in the helpless- 
ness and need of old age. But if they declared the 
intention to devote their possessions to God — calling 
it Corban — while still at their own disposal for per- 
sonal purposes, they could no longer be used for 
the help of their parents (Nu. 15. 5 , &c). Un- 
natural greed found a pretext in piety. St. Paul 
conformed to Jewish practice in relation to vows 
(Ac. 18. 18 , 2i. 23fl -). As to cutting the hair on the 
fulfilment of a vow, see Hair, Nazirite. 

To this day vows are common among the Jews 
and the Arabs in the East. Vows taken in hours of 
distress often involve long pilgrimage and much 
privation in their fulfilment. But in this matter 
there is a very sensitive conscience. The present 
writer has known men who suffered much personal 
inconvenience and loss rather than run the risks 
attached to failure. 

VULGATE. The word is a contraction for 
Vulgata Editio, and means practically the current 
Latin version of Holy Scripture, though St. Jerome 
and later writers apply that name to the Greek ver- 
sion known as the Septuagint, which was the current 
version in the early days of the Church. It might 
have been expected that the earliest Latin transla- 
tion of the Bible should have been made at Rome, 
and for the use of Roman Christians. As a matter 
of fact this was not so. The early Christian Church 
at Rome was essentially Greek. Greek was the 
ordinary language of the community ; the names 
of the Roman bishops were Greek ; the earliest 
Roman liturgy was Greek ; and such remains as we 
have of the early Roman Christian literature are 
Greek. And in the churches of Gaul Greek held 
a correspondingly predominant place. There is a 
general agreement among scholars that the earliest 

88 



Latin version of the Bible was made for the use of 
the Roman settlements in North Africa, which 
seem to have been Latin-speaking from the first. 
This translation may probably be dated about the 
middle of the second century, though it is some- 
times traced back to apostolic times. Though the 
work of private hands, and not produced by any 
public authority, it would seem from the language 
of Tertullian to have acquired a measure of public 
recognition before the end of the second century. 
This version is known to scholars as the old Latin 
{Fetus Latind). In Italy it was held to be marked 
by provincial roughness of expression ; and the 
acquaintance of the leading bishops with Greek 
naturally led to comparisons between the original 
language of the NT. and the African version. The 
result of these influences was the Latin version 
known as the Itala, which appeared in the fourth 
century, and seems to have been made with some 
degree of authority. It secured the commendation 
of Augustine on the ground of its close accuracy and 
perspicuity. It has been held that similar national 
recensions were made for other countries. 

Jerome's Version. — Apart from variations which 
in course of time are bound to creep into manu- 
scripts transmitted from age to age, a statement of 
Augustine (De Doctr. Christ, ii. 16) encourages the 
view that there was no recognised authority for 
securing the transmission of a correct text of 
Scripture. Any one who came into possession of a 
Greek manuscript of any part of Scripture, and who 
thought that he had any command of the two 
languages, held himself entitled to undertake a 
Latin version ; the result towards the end of the 
fourth century being that the bishop of Rome 
(Damasus) felt that an authoritative recension was 
necessary. The imminent severance of the Church 
into East and West at this juncture rendered the 
necessity all the greater. Providentially the services 
of a great scholar were at hand to meet the require- 
ments of the western division of Christendom. 
Jerome — his full name was Eusebius Hieronymus — 
was a native of Stridon, in Pannonia. He was born 
about the year 346 (sometimes given as 329, which, 
however, is contradicted by his letters), and lived to 
420. He lived the life of a student and scholar ; he 
was by education master of the Latin and Greek 
tongues, while of Hebrew he made a special study, 
that he might know at first hand the language from 
which he must render the OT. into Latin. He came 
to Rome in 381 and stayed there till 385. At the 
request of the bishop (Pope Damasus) he devoted 
himself to the revision of certain portions of the 
Bible, and as a matter of fact the new version of the 
Psalms, which he made from the Septuagint, was 
used in the Roman Church till the Pontificate of 
Pius V. By strenuous preliminary labours on the 
Itala, and by commentaries on various books of the 



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Bible, he prepared himself for the production of the 
Vulgate or Latin version of the Bible, which was 
destined to be for centuries the authoritative ver- 
sion of Scripture current in Western Christendom. 
His labours were steadily continued notwithstand- 
ing the suspicions and enmity of the clergy and 
people, whom his vigorous and at times contemp- 
tuous language certainly did nothing to conciliate. 
There is ground for holding that the deliberate 
purpose of preparing a Latin version of the whole 
Bible was formed when Jerome settled in the 
monastery at Bethlehem in the year 386. The 
work was accomplished and issued in successive 
portions, and, though variously interrupted, it was 
completed and issued as a whole about the year 404 ; 
and the title of Vulgate, hitherto applied to the 
version previously in use, came in time to belong to 
the edition which was mainly the work of Jerome. 
Certain parts of the work are admitted by Jerome 
himself to have been hastily performed, and they 
obviously bear the marks of haste. But, as Westcott 
says, " Such defects are trifling when compared 
with what he successfully accomplished. The work 
remained for eight centuries the bulwark of Western 
Christianity ; and as a monument of ancient lin- 
guistic power, the translation of the OT. stands 
unrivalled and unique." 

Carolingian Version. — The version of Jerome 
was permitted to work its way gradually into ac- 
ceptance by the Church without any exercise of 
authority being made in its favour. But in course 
of time its text deteriorated under the same influ- 
ences as corrupted the text before Jerome, namely, 
the liability to the introduction of error into copies 
written by the hand, and the disposition of indi- 
viduals who had some knowledge of Greek to 
introduce changes from the Septuagint. However 
caused, the variations in the text of Scripture drew 
the attention of Charlemagne, and about the year 
802 Alcuin was entrusted with the duty of revising 
the text for the use of the public service of the 
Church. Opinions differ as to the extent and scope 
of Alcuin's work. According to some, he made a 
fresh translation from the Hebrew and the Greek ; 
according to others, to these resources he added a 
collation of the best attainable MSS. of the Vulgate ; 
while others, like Porson, think that he employed 
MSS. alone. In any case, he preserved the con- 
tinuity of the Vulgate by prefixing the prologues 
or prefaces of Jerome to the books. The British 
Museum contains a copy of Alcuin's or Charle- 
magne's Bible. The revision is allowed to have 
contributed much towards preserving a good 
Vulgate text, though it could not, of course, any 
more than its predecessors, secure its permanent 
purity. Inevitable corruption gradually took place. 
A fresh revision was undertaken by Lanfranc, 
Archbishop of Canterbury (1089), and in the 

88 



following century Cardinal Nicolaus (1150), finding 
the copies very corrupt {paene quot codices tot exem- 
plaria reperirem), undertook to revise the text. 
The Correctoria or Epanorthotce, which were issued 
by learned and religious associations, and contained 
revised Biblical texts with critical remarks in the 
margin, did not contribute to the purity of the text, 
though they were not without value. They were 
constructed on no sound critical canons, but merely 
gave the readings adopted by preference from some 
favourite Father. From these causes it has been 
inferred that " the old MSS. had far more varia- 
tions than are to be seen in any critical edition of the 
Vulgate afterwards printed ; and that the text has 
passed through so many circumstances as make it a 
hopeless task to bring it back to what it was at first. 
It cannot but be corrupt now, whatever be the 
labour expended in restoring it." The invention of 
printing at once revealed the confusion existing in 
the MS. texts. 

Printed Versions. — The first book that issued 
from the press was the Bible. It was without date, 
but is usually assigned to the year 1455 (Mainz: 
Gutenberg and Fust). The first that had a date 
was published at Mainz in 1462 ; numerous editions 
followed, issuing from Rome, Niirnberg, Piacenza, 
Paris, Naples, Venice, &c. The first attempt to form 
a really critical text was made by Cardinal Ximenes 
(1502-15 1 7) in the Complutensian Polyglott, a work 
of great labour based upon a comparison of various 
MSS., and occasionally upon the Hebrew and Greek 
originals. It was far surpassed, however, by the 
edition of the Paris printer, Robert Estienne or 
Stephens (1528), improved in successive editions to 
the eighth in 1557. Various translations — Catholic 
and Protestant — followed, constructed in varying 
degrees of dependence upon Vulgate MSS. and the 
original tongues. A full account of these will be 
found in the article " Lateinische Bibeluberset- 
zungen " in Herzog's Ency clopadie . In the year 
1546 the Council of Trent pronounced the Vulgate 
version authentic, and decreed that " hereafter 
sacred Scripture, but especially this ancient and 
Vulgate edition itself, shall be printed as accurately 
as possible." By the term authentic the Council 
probably meant that the Vulgate should be used as 
the authorised or standard version of the Catholic 
Church, to which appeal should be made in all dis- 
putations or expositions. This decree, however, 
did not prevent the issue of new editions with vary- 
ing texts, and at length a text specially prepared 
under papal authority was found necessary. 

The Sixtine and Clementine Editions. — The 
work was seriously undertaken by Sixtus V. (1585— 
90), who brought together a number of scholars 
to labour at it without intermission. In cases of 
difficulty the Pope himself decided the reading that 
should be adopted in the text, and with his own 



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hand corrected errors of the press. The result was 
issued in 1590 as the true, legitimate^ and authentic 
text for all future time, and the greater excom- 
munication was threatened against all who in any 
way presumed to alter it. Notwithstanding this, it 
was ill received by the scholars and theologians, 
whose labours on the text had been disregarded by 
Sixtus in the readings which he imperiously and 
arbitrarily introduced. As Sixtus died in the same 
year in which his work was published, the attempt 
was made to suppress it entirely and to issue a new 
edition in its stead. The three following popes 
were short-lived : one of them (Gregory XIV.) 
authorised two of his cardinals to make a new re- 
vision of the Vulgate by comparing the Sixtine 
edition with the original texts. He died before the 
work was finished, but its completion was under- 
taken by Clement VIII., who entrusted the work 
to three cardinals, and under their care it was pub- 
lished in 1592. This new edition was also declared 
authentic, and the same threat of excommunication 
was issued against alteration as in the case of the 
Sixtine text. Roman Catholic theologians have 
always had a difficulty in reconciling the actions of 
these two popes ; and to save the credit of the Six- 
tine edition the expedient of Bellarmine, who wrote 
the preface to the Clementine edition, has generally 
been adopted of throwing the blame on the printer. 
On this theory the Clementine edition was merely 
a reprint of the Sixtine with the printer's error 
corrected ; but Protestant critics have little diffi- 
culty in proving the untenability of this position 
(Davidson, Biblical Criticism, p. 279). Fresh edi- 
tions of the Clementine version were issued in 1593 
and 1598, the last with a correctorium of itself and of 
the 1592 and 1593 editions ; but the differences 
between the three are so considerable in number 
and importance that they cannot well be regarded 
as merely typographical errors. The Clementine 



editions contain the official text of the Latin Bible 
of the Roman Catholic Church, and the publication 
of various readings with this edition of the Vulgate 
was and is expressly prohibited. Of the three 
editions, that of 1593 is allowed to be the best. All 
editions of the Vulgate that have appeared since the 
Clementine are of merely private authority. Even 
the meritorious work of Vercellone (Rome, 1861), 
which was the first attempt to establish Jerome's 
text on the basis of all available material and on 
sound critical canons, although issued from Rome 
and under all the customary guarantees of authority, 
is only a private and not an official text. The 
attempt of Lethielleux in the Paris edition of 1891 
to republish Vercellone's text as official in France, 
is altogether discountenanced in the appendix to the 
latest edition of the Clementine text by P. Michael 
Hetzenaver (Innsbruck, 1906), an elaborate work 
representing the toil of fifteen years. This text is 
based upon a collation of the three Clementine 
editions and the Correctorium. Beyond the cor- 
rection of obvious typographical errors, everything 
admitted into this text must have Clementine 
authority. The Vulgate text agrees generally with 
the Massoretic Hebrew. It has had immense 
power in forming the doctrinal terminology of 
Western Christianity. J. Hutchison. 

VULTURE (Heb. 'ayyab, Jb. 28. 7 ; elsewhere 
trd. " kite " ; da' ah, Lv. n. 14 ; dayyah, Dt. 14. 13 ; 
Is. 34. 15 , so AV. : RV. reserves V. for rdham, Lv. 
II. 18 , AV. " gier eagle "). There are several kinds 
of V. in Pal., and it is difficult to determine the 
special kind meant by each term. It is to be 
noted that there is no reference to the principal 
function of the V., i.e. acting as scavenger, 
in the Bible notices ; that work is assigned to 
the eagle (actos) in the NT. (Mw. 24. 28 ; Lk. 
17. 37 ). They are often depicted on the Asyr. 
marbles. 



W 



WAFER represents two Heb. words. (1) Tzeph- 
ihith (only once, Ex. 16. 31 ), from tzaphah, " to make 
wide " or " broad." (2) Rdqtq, from raqaq, " to be 
thin." This is the usual term (Ex. 29.2, &c). Both 
words obviously are descriptive of the same thing — 
the thin cake of unleavened bread wh. figures in 
many of the ritual directions. 

WAGES are first mentioned in connection with 
Jacob's service to Laban, and there they are paid in 
kind (Gn. 29. 15 , &c). To one in Jacob's position 
money would have been of little use. Wages were 
promised to Moses' mother by Pharaoh's daughter 
(Ex. 2. 9 ). Micah engaged the Levite to perform 
the functions of " a father and a priest " in his house 
at a stipend of " ten pieces of silver by the year and 



a suit of apparel," together with his food (Jg. 17. 10 ). 
Nebuchadnezzar failed to take Tyre, and so his 
army is said to have had no " wages " for the weary 
toil of the siege. Egypt, however, is to fall to him, 
and its spoil shall be " wages " for his army (Ek. 
29. 18f -). Of the rate of wages paid there is no in- 
dication in the OT., but in the NT. a denarius (see 
Money) is taken apparently as an ordinary day's 
wage for a labourer (Mw. 20. 2 ). The denarius wd. be 
worth about 7^-d. of our money. Tobit hired the 
angel Gabriel as a companion in travel to his son, at 
the rate of " a drachm a day, and things necessary," 
with the promise of something more if they should 
return in safety. This last is clearly the bakhshish 
which the soul of the Oriental loves. Nothing is 



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said of the amount given to the hired man who 
looked after the flocks (Jn. io. 12 ). 

In olden days the work on the land would be done 
for the most part by the peasant farmer and his 
family. Not many would be able to afford the 
luxury of slaves. But when hired help was called in 
the payment of wages was strictly regulated. They 
must be paid in the evening of each day (Lv. 19. 13 ; 
Dt. 24. 15 ; cp. Mw. 20. 8 ). It is probable that the 
master supplied the labourers with food. Jb. 24. 10f - 
seems to reproach the employer who stinted the 
workers' provisions. The hired servant cost twice 
as much as the slave, i.e. food and clothes besides 
his wages (Dt. 15. 18 ). To withhold the hire of the 
toiler was regarded with special reprobation (Jr. 
22. 13 ; Ml. 3. 5 ; Js. 5. 4 ). In Rm. 6. 23 " wages " 
stands for death, as the reward gained by the prac- 
tice of sin. It was customary to give one who was 
engaged for a specified time to do special work, a 
part of the wage agreed upon at the beginning. 
This was the arrhabon, " earnest " (2 Cor. I. 22 , &c), 
the Arb. ra'bon, or " pledge " ; the remainder being 
paid on completion of the work. 

The Code of Hammurabi shows that in ancient 
Babylonia the wages paid to artisans and different 
classes of workmen were strictly defined. Thus the 
harvester gets eight gur of corn per year, the ox- 
driver six, and the herdsman eight. The labourer 
hired for work in the fields receives six she of silver 
per day during the first five months of the year, 
and five she per day for the rest of the year. The 
brick-maker, the tailor, the stone-cutter, the car- 
penter, the builder, &c, have all their hire pre- 
scribed. So also with the ox, the ass, and the calf, 
for threshing ; the cart, boat, or ship (see Code of 
Hammurabi, HDB. extra vol. p. 6o6f.). 
' WAGGON. See Cart. 

WAILING. See Mourning. 

WAITERS FOR THE REDEMPTION. Of 
the aged Simeon who met Mary and Joseph when 
they brought the child Jesus into the Temple, it is 
said he was " waiting for (RV. " looking for," Gr. 
prosdechomenos) the consolation of Israel " (Lk. 2. 25 ). 
Anna, who also recognised Christ, " spake of Him to 
all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem " 
(2. 38 ). Again at the end of our Lord's earthly 
career, when Joseph of Arimathea begs the body of 
Jesus, we are told of him that he was one that 
" waited for (RV. " looked for ") the kingdom of 
God" (Mk. 15. 43 ; Lk. 23. 51 ). As all the Jews, 
with the possible exception of the sceptical Sad- 
ducees, were " looking for " the coming of the 
Messiah, unless the words have a more restricted 
meaning, Anna's talk concerning Jesus wd. be ad- 
dressed to every inhabitant of Jrs. There appears 
to have been a sect wh. assumed a name in wh. 
" waiting "- was an essential element. Josephus 
refers to no such sect, nor does Philo. On the other 



hand, although our Lord met with every class of 
person — Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Herodians, 
publicans, scribes, &c. — He never meets with the 
Essenes, a sect of whom both Philo and Josephus 
make a great deal. This is the more extraordinary, 
as Josephus says that " many dwell in every city " 
(BJ. II. viii. 4) ; and Philo says that there were 
myriads of them, and that they inhabited many 
cities and large and populous villages (quoted fm. 
Philo's Apology by Eus. Prep. Evang. viii. 11). If 
" Essenes," however, were of the nature of a nick- 
name, as " Quakers " for the Society of Friends, 
then our Lord mt. encounter them under another 
name ; as the sect of W. for the R. is otherwise un- 
mentioned, we may identify them with the Essenes. 
It is slightly confirmatory of this view that Epi- 
phanius associates the Essenes with a sect which he 
names Gortheni, a name wh. may be derived fm. 
agrey, " to expect " (Aph. fm. gar a). The etymo- 
logy of Essene is extremely difficult, but the most 
probable seems that of Baur and Gfrorer, wh. de- 
rives it fm. asa, " to heal " (cp. asya, " a physi- 
cian "), as this suits the practice Jos. attributes to 
them of healing by incantations and their know- 
ledge of the healing powers of herbs. The accounts 
given of them are somewhat difficult to harmonise. 
The detailed descriptions we find in Jos. and Philo 
relate only to a community of coenobites who re- 
sided at En-Gedi, near the Dead Sea, about four 
thousand in all. We can only summarise the 
elaborate accounts wh. these authors, especially the 
former, give of them. Those living at En-Gedi 
carried on simple husbandry under the superinten- 
dence of " overseers " (epimeletai), working fm. 
sunrise to an hour fm. midday. Then, having 
bathed and put on white linen garments, they 
assemble together in a refectory and partake of a 
simple meal ; each has a single small loaf put before 
him, and a dish with one kind of food. The priest 
then offers a prayer, before wh. it is unlawful to 
taste the food : after the meal he again prays. 
Having doffed their white garments, they return to 
their labour, at wh. they continue till sunset, when 
they sup as they had dined. As to their general 
characteristics, Josephus says that they have more 
mutual affection than any of the other sects, that 
they have all things in common, they avoid swear- 
ing, and are ready to help all that stand in need of 
succour. These features shd. be noted for the re- 
semblance they bear to the teaching of Christ and 
the practices of the early Church. There are cer- 
tain other features wh. have more a ceremonial 
aspect ; the extreme strictness with wh. they sancti- 
fied the Sabbath, the avoidance of oil for anointing 
themselves, and the dressing in white. Philo says 
in addition, " No one of the Essenes ever marries a 
wife " ; on the other hand Josephus says, " They do 
not absolutely repudiate marriage," though " they 



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despise " it. Members are received into the com- 
munity by a ceremony wh. suggests baptism ; " he 
partakes of the purest water for cleansing." They 
avoided everything connected with war, they did 
not go to the Temple, and did not approve of 
bloody sacrifices. One thing that strikes the student 
is that these features harmonise neither with each 
other nor with notices we have of individual 
Essenes. The earliest incident Josephus narrates 
contradicts the statement that they shunned the 
Temple. Judas the Essene was teaching in the 
court of the Temple when Antigonus, son of John 
Hyrcanus, br. of Aristobulus the High Priest, passed 
through ; when he saw him he exclaimed that he 
was proved a false prophet, for he had foretold that 
Antigonus was to die that day in Strato's Tower 
(Caesarea), and here he was 600 stadia fm. there. 
While he was lamenting his mistake the tidings was 
brought that the youth had been assassinated in a 
subterranean passage, beneath a tower in the wall 
of Jrs., wh. had that name. They are said to have 
nothing to do with war, yet one of the commanders 
of the Jews at the opening of their war against the 
Romans was John the Essene. These differences 
are most easily explained by considering that there 
were several kinds of Essenes, as there are several 
kinds of Methodists among ourselves, differing in 
tenets and practices. There were some Essenes 
who were practically monks in the community on 
the shores of the Dead Sea ; there were those who 
travelled about the country, who had little com- 
munities and houses of call in every city ; there were 
those who had no aversion to the Temple, as well as 
those who had ; there were those who eschewed 
marriage, and those who did not. 

The Relation of the Essenes to the Apoca- 
lyptic Books. — Hilgenfeld (Messias Judaorum) 
conjectures that they are the authors of the majority 
of the Jewish Apocalyptic books. A great deal can 
be said for that view. Josephus mentions that they 
preserve books " that belong to their sect, and the 
names of the angels." All these Apocalypses as- 
sume the names of ancient prophets and patriarchs, 
and claim to be on a par with Scripture. Further, 
their angelology, especially that of the largest of 
them, the book or books of Enoch, is very com- 
plex, and many names are given to seraphim and 
cherubim and ophanim, besides the seven who 
stand before God — who sometimes are four. One 
point of difference is that while in the Apocalyptic 
books the Messiah and His kingdom bulk largely, 
in the accounts we have of the doctrines of the 
Essenes there is no mention of this. We have to 
remember the two sources of our information, 
Josephus and Philo. Both had reasons wh. led to 
the avoidance of all notice of the Messianic hopes of 
his people, yet both had so commended the Essenes 
that they wd. have had to declare an adhesion to 

as 



these hopes if they mentioned them at all. To 
Gentiles — the audience addressed by both — these 
hopes wd. seem absurd and chimerical ; there mt. 
even be elements of danger fm. the Roman autho- 
rities to any Jew who mt. be supposed to be inciting 
the people to renew the contest so recently ended. 
Hence the silence of Josephus and Philo has no 
evidential value. 

The Relation of the Essenes to Christ and 
Christianity. — If our identification of the W. for 
the R. with the Essenes is correct, then it wd. seem 
probable that both Joseph and Mary belonged to 
this brotherhood, through some of its freer forms ; 
it is clear, at all events, that the brotherhood took 
them up. The action of Joseph of Arimathea is 
made more easily explicable on this supposition. 
There are numerous points in our Lord's ethical 
teaching wh. confirm this view ; the despising of 
riches, the mutual love and helpfulness enjoined, 
the admission into the brotherhood by baptism. 
There are indirect suggestions of a connection ; as 
when the apostles are sent forth two and two, in 
every town they are to seek " who in it is worthy " : 
if this meant belonging to the Essene brotherhood, 
the search wd. be simple, the more especially as they 
had regular houses of entertainment. Like the 
apostles when the Lord sent them out, they carried 
nothing with them ; singularly enough, he mentions 
that they carry weapons for fear of robbers ; and 
Peter had a sword. The most striking indication, 
however, is the fact referred to above, that our Lord 
is never recorded as having met an Essene ; were 
He, in however outward a sense, a member of 
the society, His encounters with Essenes wd. be 
a meeting with brethren ; it may be that the 
" brethren " who, with His mother, wished to speak 
with Him, and who declared Him to be beside Him- 
self, were the efimeletai of the Essenes. In this 
we wd. not be held as derogating fm. the supreme 
originality of Jesus. Real originality does not con- 
sist in throwing a thought athwart the line of 
human development, utterly unrelated to anything 
that has preceded. Such a thought cd. only be 
apprehended with difficulty by those to whom 
it was addressed. Originality consists rather in 
summing up all that has gone before and ad- 
vancing the line of progress. Our Lord cut away 
fm. Essenism all its sanctimoniousness, as He threw 
off the posing of the Pharisees. Combining in Him- 
self all that was best in Judaism, He fulfilled, and so 
superseded it, as the setting seed supersedes the 
flower.* The subsequent history of the Essenes 

* We must always remember that Jesus was more than a 
teacher. His originality did net consist so much in the 
doctrines He taught as in the vital force His substitutionary 
death contributed to those that believe in Him and realise 
these doctrines in their lives. Other teachers before and since 
have taught morality ; He alone gave an adequate impulse 
to live out the precepts, and living power to do so- 



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confirms this view. With the fall of Jerusalem they 
disappeared in the Christian Church. Bishop 
Lightfoot traces Essenism in the heresy that in- 
fected the Church at Colosse ; that infection came 
fm. Judaisers ; therefore the Judaising members of 
the Church were Essenes. The character Hege- 
sippus gives of James, the Lord's brother, and the 
respect in wh. he was held by the people, all suggest 
that he belonged to the wider Essene brotherhood. 
Much of the Gnosticism of slightly subsequent times 
was due to Essenian elements. The sect of the 
Nazarenes, if not also the Ebionites, were the 
Essenes as baptized unto Christ. In another aspect 
the white robes of the blessed in Paradise may be a 
reflection fm. the garments of pure white linen in 
wh. the Essenes sat down to their evening meal 
when their work was done and they entered into 
rest. 

WALLET. See Bag. 

WALLS. There are three purposes wh. are re- 
garded as served by walls in Scrip., and in the OT. 
these are denoted by different words, (a) A fence 
(Heb. gdder, geder, gederdh). In Pal. at present 
walls are generally used for fences, and are built fm. 
the loose stones, fragments of limestone rock that 
have mingled with the soil ; they are not very high, 
and broad in proportion to their height. No mor- 
tar is used, and the stones fitted into each other are 
held in position by their weight. Probably these 
walls have always been in use to protect gardens and 
fields fm. the intrusion of cattle and beasts of the 
field, (b) The W. of a house, temple, or palace 
(Heb. qir). Houses are now built of squared stone, 
and the foundation dug as described in the art. on 
House. An older form of building was constructed 
of sun-dried brick, seen to this day in Damascus and 
in the plains of Mesopotamia. The idea of burning 
the clay seems soon to have occurred to the in- 
habitants of Babylonia ; still the walls of private 
dwellings seem to have been constructed of sun- 
dried brick. In Nineveh even the palaces were 
built of such bricks, and the thick walls so resulting 
were faced with gypsum slabs adorned with historic 
bas-reliefs and inscriptions. Although stone was 
plentiful in Egypt, and easily accessible, most 
private buildings were erected of this crude brick 
mixed with straw. We may presume that carved 
stone was little used in Pal., at least before the days 
of David, a presumption wh. is confirmed by Solo- 
mon's employment of Hiram's hewers along with 
his own subjects in the building of the Temple 
(i K. 5. 18 ). In Gezer the walls of houses were built 
of unhewn stone faced with mud ; the stones are 
such as are found in any field at the present time ; 
the mud supplied the place of mortar. Probably 
stone wd. be employed for the foundation. In 
Egypt the walls were much more solidly constructed 
even fm. trie earliest times ; the stones that form 



the Temple of the Sphinx are so accurate that in 
many places the joints are scarcely perceptible. 
The stones used in Egypt were frequently large, and 
were fastened together with tenons of wood. The 
Phoenicians also used stones of great size, as may be 
seen at Baalbek ; sometimes, while accurately fitting 
the joints, they left the outside rough, merely chan- 
nelling the stones at the joints in order to make 
sure of accuracy ; the effect was thus much like 
Roman rustication ; no cement was used. The 
foundation stones of the Temple at Jerusalem are 
huge square blocks channelled at the joints as above 
referred to, thus resembling the Phoenician method 
of construction. The tower in Gezer within the 
bastion of Bacchides, as shown in Macalister's Bible 
Side Lights, fig. 37, exhibits this also. (V) Walls of 
a city (Heb. homdh). Though in purpose this re- 
sembled the " fence "(geder), the solidity of structure 
required brings it more into line with the W. of a 
temple or palace. The wall at Gezer is formed of 
large, untrimmed stones cemented with earth ; it is 
perpendicular to a height at present of fm. 12 to 
14 ft., a height wh. can represent little more than 
the foundation of the finished structure ; its thick- 
ness is 14 ft. At intervals along the course of the 
W. were towers ; especially was the gate so streng- 
thened. The Solomonic W., with its closely fitting 
stones, was yet stronger than the W. of the earlier 
Canaanites. With the sculptures of Nineveh and 
the wall-paintings of Egypt we have a pretty good 
idea of what a city W. must have been in OT. 
times. Fm. the frequency with wh. Assyrian 
soldiers are depicted removing stones fm. the foun- 
dations of the W. of besieged cities with the point of 
their spears (Layard, Mon. of Nineveh, plate 66), or 
with implements fitted for the purpose {id. plate 
19), and fm. the small size of stones represented as 
being removed, it wd. seem that the structure of 
city W. in the days of Sennacherib was in general 
like that of the Amorite wall of Gezer. There are 
several other words for W. in OT., as hel, " a bul- 
wark " (Ps. 122. 7 ) ; batzdr, " a fortification " (Nu. 
13. 28 ); shut, "a wall" in general (cp. Gn. 49J. 22 
with Ps. 18. 29 ). 

WAR. In ancient times a state of W. was pre- 
sumed unless a treaty existed, hence we do not find 
among the Jews any regular form of " declaration 
of war " as there was among the Romans. The 
nearest approach to a declaration of war is the 
message of Amaziah to Joash of Israel (2 K. 14. 8 ). 
The first step before entering on any warlike ex- 
pedition was, among the Israelites, as indeed among 
all ancient nations, to consult the Deity. They 
approached JHWH by sacrifice and learned His will 
fm. His priest (Jg. 20. 26 " 28 ). Later, prophets were 
inquired at (1 K. 22. 5f -). When war had been 
decided on, and it was determined to invade the 
territory of the foe, Divine direction was again en- 



885 



War 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Was 



treated as to how they were to go up against them 
(2 S. 5- 23 ). Under the word Army the constitution 
of the military force of Israel is considered. Saul 
began with a small standing army, then increased 
it ; under David it appears to have become yet 
more numerous. A levy en masse does not seem to 
have been resorted to in cases where W. had to be 
carried on beyond the boundaries of Israel. Thus 
when David made a campaign against Hadadezer of 
Zobah, he cd. not have all those able to bear arms 
with him ; there wd. only be a chosen number. 
Even in wars against nearer foes, Moab and Ammon, 
it was only the " choice men of Israel," and " all the 
host of the mighty men," that went. Although it 
is said that when it was told David that Hadarezer 
had assembled all the Syrians against him, " he 
gathered all Israel together," the choice of those of 
age to carry arms is all that is meant. We know 
nothing of the way this conscription was carried out. 
The campaign began in spring, in March, when 
operations were less likely to be interrupted by 
floods of rain, and when the grain of the country 
invaded was either yet in the field or in the thresh- 
ing floor ready for being garnered ; there was grass 
also for the horses. The Biblical narrative is inte- 
rested in war in a purely subordinate way, so we 
learn nothing of how they marched when making 
an expedition in an enemy's country ; or how they 
kept up their communications. Encampments are 
yet more important than modes of marching or of 
securing communications ; of these we know some- 
thing fm. the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, 
and it is probable the Hebrews followed methods 
not unlike those of their more military neighbours, 
and had a rampart of a sort round their camp. In 
confirmation of this it may be noted that in 1 S. 



z6. 1 



(ma'galak, 1 S. 17. 20 ), trd. " trench," 



really means a " rampart of waggons," a system of 
defence adopted in S. Africa against the Kafirs. 
They do not seem to have formed, like the Romans, 
a rampart of earth, or one formed of shields like 
the Egyptians. The division of the night into 
" watches " is a proof that they placed sentinels. 
In the dry climate of the nearer East there is no 
need of tents, and we see that Saul was lying on the 
earth with his spear stuck in the ground at his head. 
When the purpose of the campaign was not a mere 
plundering raid, the objective was the capital of the 
country; the possession of it was frequently decided 
by a battle in its neighbourhood. Although the 
Egyptians had their Army arranged in brigades and 
battalions wh. charged together as we see fm. the 
monuments ; although fm. the different uniforms 
portrayed something similar must have existed 
among the Assyrians, a battle with the Israelites was 
a much more irregular affair ; champions played a 
prominent part in the conflict, as in the Homeric 
battles. Since there were " captains of thousands, 



of hundreds, and of fifties," there appears to have 
been some approach to military organisation. It 
shd. be observed that " thousand " (^eleph) probably 
in this connection meant " family." These wd. 
charge together, the champions taking the lead, 
much as did the Highland clans with the armed 
dhuine-w as sails in front. Battles seem to have been 
most frequently decided by panic seizing one party 
or the other. To induce this, ambuscades were 
resorted to (Jo. 8. 3 ' 11 ), and surprises (Jg. y. 15n -). 
David's tactics against the Philistines seem to com- 
bine both (2 S. 5 . 23f -). If the battle under the walls, 
as it might be, of the capital resulted in a decisive 
victory, frequently the victors pressed in and seized 
the city. If this was not accomplished, the tedious 
operations of a Siege had to be resorted to. The 
method most usual was a strict blockade ; to make 
this effective the army went into encampment and 
surrounded the city with lines of circumvallation. 
Mining and escalade were attempted, as we see 
fm. the paintings of Egypt and the sculptures of 
Assyria, to expedite the slow effects of hunger and 
hopelessness. The Jews do not seem to have used 
battering rams, although the Assyrians had them, 
until Uzziah made " engines invented by cunning 
men." If the city were captured, then followed 
sack and slaughter such as we find depicted on the 
slabs of Kuyunjik and Khorsabad. Sometimes a 
ransom was paid ; in such a case the city sometimes 
received a garrison, but more frequently gave 
hostages and promised tribute. In the march of 
the army wholesale devastation appears to have been 
the rule. With the Greeks, and still more with the 
Romans, W. became more scientific ; road^ were 
made to facilitate the march of troops, and fottified 
camps held the conquered peoples in subjection. 
From their enemies the Jews learned new methods 
of war. The contest for religious freedom against 
Antiochus under the leadership of the Maccabaeans, 
and that against the Romans rather more than a 
couple of centuries later, wd. be carried on in a very 
different way fm. the conflicts with the Philistines. 
WASHING. Apart from the washing necessary 
for Purification in cases of ceremonial uncleanness, 
great importance was attached to the washing of 
the hands and feet. For the former there was an 
obvious reason. In eating from a common dish the 
hands are thrust into the food to convey portions to 
the eater's mouth. For his own comfort, as well as 
for that of his companions, his hands must be clean. 
The custom from time immemorial has been to pour 
water over the hands for cleansing before eating. 
This in the time of Jesus had been exalted to the 
rank of a solemn religious duty. " The Pharisees, 
and all the Jews, except they wash their hands 
diligently (lit. ' with the fist '), eat not, holding the 
tradition of the elders " (Mk. J. z ). In the same 
category were " the washing of cups, and pots, and 



886 



Wat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wat 



brasen vessels, and of tables " (v. 4). These were a limited area in all. The rain would pour down 
among the rules to wh. Jesus attached no impor- with futile gush round the tawny flanks of the 
tance, for the neglect of which He and His disciples mountains, were it not caught and stored by 
incurred the hostility of the Pharisees. human industry against the needs of the months of 

The priests were required to wash their feet before drought. Great cisterns and reservoirs were there- 
going near to minister at the altar (Ex. 30. 19 ' 21 ). fore constructed for its reception. This was made 
In no other case is it prescribed, and the Pharisees easier by the limestone formation of the mountains, 
do not seem to have thought it of any religious im- with its many caves and hollows. From these 
portance. But the washing of the guest's feet, treasuries of refreshment streamlets were conveyed 
especially if he had walked far on the dusty high- to garden and orchard as occasion required. There 
way, was an act of gracious and kindly hospitality are many springs throughout the country ; but 
seldom omitted. The sand, working under the these too are dependent upon the rainfall, and 
sandal-straps in the heat, fretted the feet, and the often run dry before the summer is over. The 
application of cold water was peculiarly delightful coming of the rain is therefore expected with great 
and refreshing. To withhold this attention was an eagerness by the people. If it be delayed be- 
obvious mark of disrespect. Abraham provided yond the end of October anxieties deepen ; and if 
water for his guests to wash their feet (Gn. 18. 4 ), so December be still dry, synagogues and mosques are 
also did Lot (19. 2 ). In Joseph's house his brethren full of distressed worshippers crying out for rain, 
were similarly treated (43- 24 ). It was part of the old Plentiful rains in October and November are taken 
man's hospitality in Gibeah (Jg. 19. 21 ). The duty 
was usually entrusted to a menial, and it was re- 
garded as a special honour to the guest if performed 
by the host (1 S. 25. 41 ; Lk. 7. 38ff -). That it was 
a menial duty lends special significance to the act 
of Jesus (Jn. 13. 10 ), where the distinction is drawn 
between the washing of the feet or hands from 
travel-stains or soiling of work, wh. may be often 
repeated, and the washing of the whole body, wh. is 
done but once a day. 

Pilate washed his hands as a sign of his claim that 
no guilt attached to him for Jesus' death (Mw. 

2 7 24 ). 




WATCHES. The Jews divided the night into 
three divisions, called 'ashmuroth, " watches," fm. 
shdmar, " to guard." See Year. 



J* : 



i\ 



HSS 



Great Wheel raising Water for Irrigation 

as the heralds of an abundant harvest. When the 

WATCHERS. In Daniel (4. 13 ), Nebuchadnezzar, first shower falls a thrill of joy seems to run through 

in telling his dream to Daniel, calls the messenger of all nature, as if every living thing drank and were 

judgment sent to command that the spreading tree glad. The deep wells dug in the maritime plain, 

be hewn down, " a watcher " (7r) and a holy one." many of them of crusading origin, are the successors 

In the books of Enoch the watchers usually mean the of those which in old times made life possible here 

fallen angels, especially in the first book (e.g. I. 5 , (Gn. 26. 15fl ', &c). Where abundant and perennial 

io. 9, 15 , I2. 2,4 ) ; in the second and older book the supplies of water are available, field, garden, and 

watchers are the archangels {e.g. 39. 12, 13 , 40. 2 ). See orchard smile in perpetual beauty and fruitfulness. 

Angels. Cities wh. were not built near a river or sea, were 

WATER is one of the first necessities of life. In supplied by means of Conduits, or aqueducts, bring- 

its absence not only do men and animals perish of ing water from a distance, and also by Cisterns, or 

thirst, but all trees and plants of the earth wither reservoirs, wh. caught the rain from the roofs. It 

and die. Wherever it is scarce it is held in peculiar was a matter of importance to conceal the sources 

value, guarded and used with especial care. from an invading army, and enemies in a country 

In Palestine the average annual rainfall is about were often sorely put to it in this way (2 K. 3. 19 ' 25 ; 

30 inches. This, however, is confined to the 2 Ch. 32. 3f -). 

months from October to April. During the rest From the first, water was the natural means to 
of the year the skies are cloudless. Unlike Egypt allay thirst, and for this purpose it almost seems to 
and Babylon, with their splendid rivers, Palestine be held as common property. The man who, pos- 
was dependent upon " water from heaven." The sessing water, refuses drink to the thirsty, is regarded 
Jordan, and such other streams as might almost be as a churl (Gn. 24. 17f -, &c). Often by the way- 
called rivers, are so low that their waters are avail- side, especially near the little white-domed sane- 
able for irrigation only in the valleys they traverse — tuaries, a jar of water is set, and kept replenished by 

887 



Wat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wat 



certain pious souls, for the refreshment of wayfarers. 
Even the Metawileh, the most bigoted and exclu- 
sive of Eastern sects, will furnish an alien with drink, 
although they must destroy the vessel from which 




Water Carrier 



he drinks, for fear of ceremonial defilement. The 
same rights, however, cannot be claimed for flocks 
and herds, because of the amount of the precious 
liquid they consume. For them it is often neces- 
sary to buy water. The order in which the flocks 
may drink is fixed by unwritten but valid law, and 
any attempt to override it is apt to breed conflict 
(Gn. 29 2ff -, &c). Wells or cisterns are found now 
in the open country, now in the mountains, and 
again in retired spots of the wilderness, he mouth 
being carefully covered so as to escape the notice of 
strangers. The movement caused by plunging the 
buckets down with a cord, to draw water, helps to 
keep the well fresh. These stores of water belong 
to the local family, or to the tribe within whose 
" circuit " they lie, and with them a bargain must 
be made for its use. The water for use in the tents 
is drawn and carried exclusively by the women (Gn. 
24. 11 ; Jn. 4. 7 , &c). When a journey has to be 
made across the desert, water is drawn and tied up 
in Bottles of skin. These are strapped on camels : 



the water oozes slightly through the " bottles," and 
the consequent evaporation keeps the contents 
very cool. The water-seller is a familiar figure in 
the streets of Oriental cities. 

There are many allusions to irrigation in Scrip. 
(Dt. 11. 10 ; Ps. I. 3 ; Ek. 17. 7 , &c). In Egypt and 
Babylonia this practice was universal, the water 
being led from the great rivers in canals, whence 
in little runlets it was conducted to garden 
and orchard, and even distributed over wide 
reaches of land. In Palestine the field-crops had 
usually sufficient moisture from the rain, but fruit 
and vegetables required artificial supplies. These 
were derived from great tanks in which the rain 
water had been stored, or into which the water had 
been raised by mechanical means front the deep 
wells. When the water ran along channels made in 
the soil the flow was guided and controlled by the 
foot, as it is to this day (Dt. II. 10 ). When, at 
evening, the sluices are lifted and the water makes 
music through all the shady avenues of the orange 
groves, while white-robed figures dart among the 
greenery, directing the course of the vitalising 
streams, the scene is both picturesque and beautiful. 

Naturally the " living," i.e. the " flowing " water 
of the spring or stream is more highly valued than 
that of the cistern. Exhaustless, life-giving, and 
refreshing, it is a fit symbol of the Divine grace (Jr. 
2. 13 ; Jn. 4. 10 , &c). But it is also light and easily 
moved, and so it becomes the symbol of weakness 
and instability (Gn. 49.* ; Ek. 21. 7 , &c). At times 
the rains fall so heavily that all the streams suddenly 
overflow their banks. Tents unwarily placed in the 
Jordan valley, together with their occupants, time 
and again have been swept away by the raging flood 
of the swiftly swollen river. Such floods stand for 
the perils which cannot be foreseen (Ps. 32. 6 ; Is. 
28. 17 ). Their swift subsidence suggests the tran- 
siency of human life (Jb. II, 16 ; Ps. 58. 7 ). 




■*£3M&- 



So-called 



Fountain of Cana ' 



WATER OF JEALOUSY. See Bitter Water. 

WATER-POTS are mentioned only in Jn. 2. 6f -, 
4. 28 . The Greek word is the same (hudria), but in 
the latter case the jar in wh. the water was carried 
from well or spring is intended. It is usually of 
ordinary earthenware, and when full is poised upon 



888 



Wat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wea 



the head or shoulder. The water-pots at Cana were 
much larger, and were filled by means of the smaller 
jars. These large water-pots are also earthenware, 
and are often sunk into the earth, in the court, or 
within the doorway, to keep them cool ; and from 
them water is drawn as required for domestic 



See Merom, Waters 



purposes. 
WATERS OF MEROM. 

OF. 

WATERS OF STRIFE. See Meribah. 

WATERSPOUTS occurs only in Ps. 42.', 
" Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy water- 
spouts." RV. renders " cataracts." The word 
tzinnor in late Heb. means " spout," " pipe," or 
" conduit." Its early use is difficult to determine. 
It is trd. " Gutter " in 2 S. 5. 8 (RV. " water- 
course "). Duhm (ad loc.) suggests that the refer- 
ence may be to the tumultuous waterfalls in a stream 
swollen by melting snow. Oxf. Heb. Lex. takes 
" the sound of Thy (water) spouts " as figurative of 
the sluices of heaven opened. 

WAVE OFFERING (Heb. tenuphdh), a sacrifice 
that before being burnt on the altar was waved 
before the Lord. The offering of these formed part 
of the ceremony of consecration in the case of Aaron 
and his sons (Ex. 2CJ. 22 ' 27 ). See Sacrifice. 

WAY. This is EV. tr. of many Heb. and Greek 
words, and in most cases a literal road is intended. 
The usual Heb. word is derek, from darak, " to 
tread." The NT. word most used is the common 
Greek hodos, " a road." " Way " is, however, used 
in several secondary senses : e.g. of a journey (Gn. 
30. 36 , &c.) ; of direction (2 Ch. 6. 34 - 38 , &c.) ; of 
manner, or usage (Am. 4. 10 , &c„) ; of the course of 
life (2 Ch. 1 3- 22 , &c.) ; of moral action and character 
(Gn. 6. 12 , &c.) — sometimes in a good sense (1 S. 
12. 23 , &c.) ; frequently in a bad sense (Jg. 2. 19 , &c). 
God's purpose of grace is a " way," " the way of the 
Lord " (Is. 40. 3 ; cp. Ml. 3. 1 ). This phrase recurs 
in the NT. in relation to Him who had come to 
fulfil that purpose (Mw. 3- 3 ; Mk. I. 3 , &c). This is 
the way by wh. men reach peace (Lk. I. 79 ), truth 
(2 P. 2. 2 ), and final salvation (Ac. 16. 17 ). Since by 
Him alone the wandering children of men may find 
their way back to the great Father, Jesus Himself is 
" the Way " (Jn. 14. 6 ). 

One Scriptural use of the term is specially impor- 
tant. It denotes the combination of ideas and 
practices associated with a particular faith. Thus 
Amos speaks of " the way of Beersheba " (Am. 8. 14 
RV.), referring to the idolatrous worship there. 
So in the NT. the word takes a technical character, 
and " the way " becomes a phrase denoting Chris- 
tianity : e.g. " this way " (Ac. cj. 2 ), " that way " 
(Ac. 19. 9 ), " the way which they call heresy " (Ac. 
24. 14 , &c). So also the Qor'an describes Islam as 
"the way " (et-TarTq), or " the path " (es-Sabll) : or, 
by way of distinction from all other faiths, it is called 



" the straight path." The like usage prevails in 
connection with many religions. See Roads. 

WAYMARK. This is EV. tr. of Heb. tzlyon, 
only in Jr. 31. 21 , where something like a milestone is 
evidently intended. The waymarks are associated 
with " guide-posts " (RV.) pointing the direction 
over the desert. In 2 K. 23. 1 it clearly denotes a 
monument (RV.). In Ek. 39. 15 it is a sign-post. 

WEALTH (Heb. hon, bayil, "might"; tob, 
" good " ; koah, " strength " ; nekdslm, " things 
stored " ; 'osher, " riches " ; rekush, " substance "). 
The Mosaic law discouraged the accumulation of 
W. in the hands of individuals ; Israel was to be an 
agricultural people, owning the fields they tilled. 
These fields cd. not be alienated, except temporarily ; 
large estates cd. not be acquired. Like the later 
agrarian laws of Rome, those of Israel were evaded. 
Among those who on the E. of Jordan still main- 
tained the nomadic habit, wealth meant large herds 
of camels and oxen, and numerous flocks of sheep 
and goats. On the west, where the country was 
more settled, wealth meant grain stored in pits. In 
the time ; of the kings there was the " adding of field 
to field " (Is. 5. 8 ). Slaves do not seem to have been 
numerous enough to be a generally recognised 
element of wealth. Altho' usury was forbidden, 
many lent at interest, as proved by the commenda- 
tion of those who had not done so. Gold and 
jewels, also probably carpets and garments, formed 
stores of wealth. The appropriation of the land by 
foreigners during the Exile rendered post-exilic 
application of the law impossible ; estates became 
larger and W. accumulated. In Herodian times 
the rich became very rich and the poor very poor. 
W. was almost necessarily the product of wrong ; 
the publicans, the priests, and the members and 
dependents of the Herodian family were most 
flagrant sinners. It is this that gives point to our 
Lord's denunciations of W. and its possessors. 

WEAPONS. Primitive weapons were neces- 
sarily clubs for hand-to-hand conflict, and stones for 
throwing at a distant enemy. By the time Israel 
had become a nation the primitive stage had long 
been passed. For hand-to-hand struggle the club 
— " maul," AV. (Heb. mapltz) — though used, was 
greatly superseded by the Sword (Heb. hereb). The 
sword of the Egyptians wh. appears on the monu- 
ments and wall paintings, from its form must have 
been mainly used for cutting; a dagger is also depicted, 
of such length that it may be called a sword. With 
the Assyrians the sword is always a subsidiary 
weapon ; it is short, and suitable for either cut or 
thrust. With the Israelites the sword was mainly 
for thrusting (Jg. 9- 54 ; 1 S. 31. 4 ) ; however, the use 
of the term " edge (peh, " mouth ') of the sword " 
implies the blade. The battle-axe combined the 
sharp edge of the sword with the weight of the club. 
This weapon was used both by Egyptians and 



889 



Wea 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wee 



Assyrians, btlt we have no reference to it in Scrip- 
ture. For conflict with a foe at some distance were 
slings (qela 1 ), darts or javelins (shelah, shebet), bow 
(qesheth), and arrows (hetz) : the bows were some- 
times made of bronze (steel) . All these are found in 
the monuments of Egypt and Assyria. A battle 
was opened by the discharge of these missiles before 
the hand-to-hand struggle began. Another weapon 
there was, universal in ancient warfare, the spear 
(hanlth, kldon) ; it may be said to combine weapons 
for near and distant conflict. It prevented the foe- 
■man fm. coming so near as to make his personal 
strength an element in 
the struggle ; moreover 
the Homeric warriors 
hurled their spears at 
their opponents. The 
Assyrians used them 
simply for thrusting, as 
may be seen in the 
various battle scenes 
depicted in the monu- 
ments. While the 
Egyptians seem to have 
used spears in the same 
way, several of the 
foreign races are ex- 
hibited as carrying two 
spears, almost a certain 
sign that they were 
intended for missiles. 
They never realised the 
power of the "hedge of spears " ; this was left to 
be evolved by the Greeks. In a sense the Chariot 
was a W., especially when scythe-blades were at- 
tached to the axles of the wheels. For defensive 
weapons see Armour, also Shield, &c. For more 
powerful and complex weapons used in the siege 
and defence of cities see Battering-ram, Engine, 
&c. 

WEASEL (Heb. holed), mentioned as an unclean 
animal in Lv. n. 29 along with the Mouse and the 
Tortoise. The EV. have followed in this render- 
ing the LXX, Vlg., and Psh. Etymology wd. sug- 
gest " mole," or " rat," fm. the fact that this is the 
meaning of khuld in Arb. Both animals are fairly 
common in Pal. ; the evidence of the versions is, 
however, preponderant. 

WEAVING (Heb. 'drag). Although the art of 
weaving is not reflected in Scripture to anything like 
the extent to which agriculture, or even carpentry 
and smith-work are, it was practised in Palestine as 
widely as any of these. It was known in Egyptian 
times long prior to Israelitish history. The pro- 
ducts of the loom in Palestine never acquired such a 
reputation as those of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Persia. 
While the spinning was all done by the women at 
home, and also the greater part of the weaving (Pr. 




Dagger and Sheath 



31., 2 K. 23. 7 ), men were also employed in weaving, 
probably at the finer qualities of textiles, as tapes- 
tries (Ex. 35. 35 ), &c. By the time of Christ the 
finest fabrics were imported. There was a guild of 
weavers whose occupation in later days was asso- 
ciated with those of the pastry-cook, the hair- 
dresser, and the perfumer, in the contempt of the 
rabbis. This was due partly to the fact that it, 
along with the others, was regarded as an unworthy 
concession to foreign luxurious habits, and partly to 
the fact that as an occupation it brought men so 
much into contact with women, which the rabbis 
regarded as undesirable. Flax was worked up into 
different qualities of linen, which is mentioned as 
having been largely used in the coverings of the 
Tabernacle and the dress of the priests, that of the 
High Priest being woven in one piece as Christ's 
was (Jos. Ant. III. vii. 4). Woollen fabrics were 
also woven, being worn chiefly by the wealthy (Mw. 
6. 19 , II. 8 ; Js. 5. 2 ). Goats' hair, when woven, was 
used chiefly as outer garments by the peasants, and 
as tent-coverings (Ac. 18. 3 ). It was also made into 
sackcloth. Camels' hair was also woven (Mw. 3* ; 
Mk. i. 6 ). The interweaving of wool and linen was 
forbidden by the Mosaic law (Lev. 19. 19 ; Dt. 22. 11 ). 
The loom was, as it still is, very simple in construc- 
tion. " Two upright posts are fixed in the ground, 
which hold the roller to which the threads of the 
warp are fastened, and upon which the cloth is 
wound as it is woven. The threads of the warp are 
carried upward towards the ceiling at the other end 
of the room, and pass over rollers and are gathered 
in hanks and weighted to keep them taut. The 
different sets are kept apart by reeds. The weaver 
sits at the cloth-roller and works the shuttle while 
the healds are worked by treadles " (HDB. s.v). 
Different parts of the loom mentioned in Scripture 
are the beam or cloth-roller (1 S. 17. 7 ; 2 S. 21. 19 ; 
1 Ch. II. 23 , 20. 5 ), the pin for beating the woof 
together to form a firm texture (Jg. 16. 14 ), the 
shuttle (Jb. 7. 6 ), which by its entrance, rapid flight 
through the threads of the warp, and exit, suggests 
the shortness of life, while the sharp cutting of the 
threads suggests the sharpness and finality of death 
(Is. 38. 12 ). RV. renders " embroider " (Ex. 28. 39 ) 
by " weave in chequer-work," and " wrap up " 
(Mi. y. 3 ) by " weave together." 

George P. Wallace. 

WEDDING. See Marriage. 

WEDGE (Heb. lashon, lit. " tongue ") is the EV. 
term applied to the piece of gold coveted by Achan 
(Jo. 7. 21, 24 ). See illustration to article Achan. 

WEEDS. The Heb. suph is so rendered only in 
Jh. 2. 5 , where clearly it denotes the seaweed that 
clings round a drowning man. Elsewhere it refers 
to reeds or rushes (Ex. 2. 3, 5 , &c), or to the arms of 
the Red Sea, lit. " Sea of reeds " (Ex. io. 19 ; 1 K. 



&c). 



890 



Wee 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wei 



WEEK, a period usually of seven days ; some- 
times of as many years (Gn. 29. 27 ). See Year. 

WEEKS, FEAST OF. See Pentecost. 

WEEPING. See Mourning. 

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, (i) Weights. 
— The Hebrews never seem to have had one system 
of weights, which they adopted to the exclusion of 
others. Babylonian, Syrian, and Phoenician systems 
were all used by them. It has thus been necessary 
for scholars (i) to determine the present equivalents 
of the weights of these different nations; (2) to settle 
if possible which of the systems is referred to in any 
passage of the Old Testament where weights are men- 
tioned. In the former department of study much 
has been done, both in the careful study of the Old 
Testament itself, of Josephus, and of the Mishnah, 
and in the discovery and publishing of large num- 
bers of Babylonian and Assyrian tablets, from which 
it has become possible with some degree of certainty 




Egyptian Weighing Rings of Metal, with Weights in 
form of Animals 

to determine the value of the weights in use. A 
few actual stone weights have been found in Baby- 



tively. The heavy shekel was thus 252^ grains and 
the light 1 26 J. It was probably this scale that 
passed by Babylonian conquests and influence to 
many countries in the west, where it was adopted 
with various modifications. It is evidently the 
scale referred to in 2 K. 18. 14 , where the weight of 
gold agrees with that given in the Assyrian account 
of the same event (see Schrader, COT., on this 
passage). On the other hand the system generally 
used in Syria and Palestine seems to have been the 
result of a blending of the sexagesimal of Babylonia 
with the decimal used in Egypt. From Egyptian 
tribute lists of c. b.c. 1500, and from certain stone 
weights (see below) found in Palestine, it seems that 
the heavy shekel of this scale (used in Palestine from 
c. B.C. 1600-600) weighed 320 grains, the light 160, 
and that 50 of these went to the maneh, and 60 
manehs to the talent. The maneh of 16,000 grains 
was thus the same as the Babylonian government 
mana. 

The enterprise of Phoenician traders led to the 
introduction into Palestine at a very early date of 
yet another system of weights, that of the Phoeni- 
cians. This seems to have remained in use after the 
others had been given up. In it the heavy shekel 
weighed 224^- grains, the light 1 1 1\ grains. The 
full scale was — 

50 shekels = 1 maneh. 
60 manehs = 1 talent. 

This is the system used in the P. writings of the 
Pentateuch (Ex. 38. 24ff -, 30. 23f -, 38. 29 , &c). The 
shekel of the sanctuary (Lv. 2J. 25 ) was of this 
system (see Money). 

Besides the three weights mentioned above, two 
others occur in the Old Testament, viz. (1) the gerah 



(Ex. 30. 13 ; Lv. 27. 25 ; Nu. 3. 47 , 1! 



Ek. 45. 12 ), 



ounces. 

The instruments used in weighing were (1) the 
balance (Am. 8. 5 ; Lv. 19. 36 , &c.) ; (2) the weights 
(sometimes carried in a wallet, Dt. 25. 13 ), which 



were of stone, the Hebrew word for " stone 
constantly used for a " weight " (2 S. 14. 



1 being 
; Dt. 



only in the P. writings and Ezekiel, is defined as a 
twentieth of a shekel ; and (2) the beka (Gn. 24. 22 ; 

Ionia and in Palestine itself, and though they are Ex. 38. 26 ), a half-shekel. In the New Testament 

naturally worn by time, are of use by comparison the litra or " pound" (Jn. 12. 3 , 19. 39 ) weighed 12 
with the information derived from written records. 

The chief characteristic of the Babylonian system 
is that it is sexagesimal, i.e. founded on the number 
60 (like our division of the hour into 60 minutes, 
each of 60 seconds). The unit was the mana 
(Heb. maneh). It was composed of 60 shekels, 

while 60 manas made a talent. There was a double 25. 13 , &c). 

standard, the mana, &c, in the heavy standard being in Palestine are described in PEFQ., 

twice the weight of the corresponding denomina- 1894, and 1899. 

tion in the light standard. In addition to these (2) Lineal Measures. — The Hebrews, like many 

there was apparently a government standard, in which other peoples, measured comparatively small objects 

the weights, both heavy and light, were increased by by comparing their length with parts of the body, 

a twentieth. especially with the hand and fore-arm. The 

From weights of an early period (b.c 3000-2500) following occur in the Old Testament : the finger 

now extant the heavy mana is estimated to have or digit (Jr. 52. 31 ), the palm or hand breadth (1 K. 

been equivalent to 15,160 grains (about 2 -J- lbs ), the J. 2Q ; Ex. 40. 5 , &c), the span (1 S. 17. 4 ), the cubit, 

light mana to 7580 grains, while the government i.e. the length of the arm from the elbow to the tips 

manas were about 16,000 and 8000 grains respec- of the fingers. Longer measurements were ex- 

891 



Four of these stone weights discovered 
1890, 1893, 



Wei 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wei 



pressed by a " step " (i S. 20. 3 ) or a " pace " (2 S. 
6. 13 ), still longer by such terms as a " bowshot " 
(Gn. 21. 16 ) or " a stone's cast " (Lk. 22. 41 ). 

All these were approximate measurements only 
originally, and might vary in actual length. It was 
necessary to take one of them as a unit, give it a 
fixed measurement, and bring the others in rela- 
tion to it. The unit of the Hebrews seems to have 
been the cubit. Two cubits, however, were known 
in the time of Ezekiel : the ordinary one and that 
used by Ezekiel in his measurements for the Temple. 
The latter was one hand-breadth longer than the 
former, and as Ezekiel is trying to restore the pro- 
portions of Solomon's Temple, it is likely that his 
special cubit was a restoration of the one in actual 
use earlier in Palestine, the shorter one, in common 
use in Ezekiel's time, being a later introduction. 
This latter consisted of two spans ; each span was of 
three palms (or hand-breadths), while each palm was 
naturally of four digits. Another measurement in 
Ezekielwas the reed, consisting of six cubits. Various 
estimates have been made by modern writers of the 
exact length of a cubit. Some have put it as low as 
16 inches, some as high as 25.2 inches. Professor 
A. R. S. Kennedy (HDB. iv. c.o6rL) has carefully 
compared the evidence of the Siloam inscription, of 
Tosephus, and of the Mishnah with that derived from 
Egyptian monuments, and has shown it to be most 
probable that the cubit of the Hebrews was of 
Egyptian origin and measured 17! inches, but in 
New Testament times had been made equal to the 
Greek cubit of 17^ inches. 

The Hebrew table was thus : — 

1 digit =c. f in. 

4 digits = i psdm—c. 3 in. 
3 palms = 1 span=^. 9 in. 

2 spans = i cubit (ordinary in Ezekiel's time) = <r. 18 in. 

2 spans + 1 palm = 1 cubit (special cubit of Ezekiel) = c. 21 in. 
6cubits=i reed (ordinary) = £. 9 ft. ; (special) = <;. 10 ft. 6 in. 

Two instruments of measuring are mentioned in 
the Old Testament : the reed (Ek. 40. 3 ) and the line 
or thread (Jr. 31. 39 ; Zc. 2. 1 ). 

The measures in the New Testament are the 
cubit (see above), the furlong (or stadion), of 600 
Greek feet or 194 English yards, and the mile of 
5000 Roman feet or 161 8 English yards. The 
fathom in Ac. 27« 28 measured about 6 feet. 

(3) Surface Measures. — The Hebrews had two 
ways of expressing the measurement of land-areas, 
neither of them exactly fixed. The word translated 
" acre " in Is. 5. 10 is really " yoke," and indicates as 
much land as could be ploughed by a yoke of oxen 
in one day. The Romans, who adopted this same 
method of measuring land, fixed the amount by law 
at c. 3016 sq. yards. We have no indication in the 
OT. that the Hebrews fixed the amount of the 
" acre " exactly, but as the Egyptian unit was a 
square of 100 royal cubits on each side, it is probable 
that the Hebrew acre was about the same, i.e. about 

89 



half an English acre. The other method of land 
measurement was according to the amount of seed 
required to sow it (c-p. Lv. 27. 16 , and so probably 
1 K. 18. 32 ). 

In some cases area is denoted by the words " four 
square," the length of two sides being given (Ex. 
27., 28. 16 , &c). 

(4) Measures of Capacity. — These are either of 
dry measure or liquid measure. 

The scale for dry measure according to the OT. 
is : — 

6kabs=i seah ( = the " measure" of Mw. 13. 33 , &c). 
3 seahs = i ephah. 
10 ephahs = i homer (later called a kor). 

The tenth part of an ephah was called an " omer " 
or a " tenth." 

The scale for liquid measure is : — 

12 logs = 1 hin. 
6 hins=i bath. 

According to Ek. 45 . u the ephah and the bath 
were identical. Josephus identifies the log with the 
Greek-Roman sextarius, i.e. .99 pints, so that the 
ephah or bath contained 71.28 pints (nearly 9 
gallons), or about 1 bushel. From this the equiva- 
lents of the other measures can easily be deduced. 
But comparison with the Babylonian, Egyptian, 
and Phoenician measures makes it probable that in 
earlier times these measures were not so large, but 
that the ephah or bath then contained only 65 pints. 

The only new measures of capacity that occur in 
the NT. are the chcenix = 2 pints (Rv. 6. 6 ), used of 
wheat, and the firkin = 72 pints (Jn. 2. 6 ), used of 
liquids. The " pot " in Mk. jS 8 is a pint measure, 
the " bushel " in Mw. 5. 15 , &c, is a household vessel 
holding a seah. G. W. Thatcher. 

WELL. The most usual Heb. word is be'er, lit. 
" cistern " or " pit." Such were the wells at 
Beer-lahai-roi (Gn. 16. 14 ), and those digged by 
Isaac (Gn. 21. 30 , &c). They might, however, con- 
tain " living water " from a spring in the bottom 
(26. 19 ). Bor, from the same root, also signifies 
" cistern " or " pit." The well at Bethlehem is so 
called (2 S. 23. 15 , &c), and the wells digged in the 
vineyards (Ne. 9- 25 ). Be y er is used of the slime- 
pits in the vale of Siddim (Gn. 14. 10 ) ; and fig. 
of the grave (Ps. 55- 23 ), and of the strange woman 
(Pr. 23. 27 ). The words mtfyan and 'ayin denote 
lit. " spring " or " fountain " (Jo. 28. 15 , &c. ; Gn. 
24. 13 , &c). In the NT. the Gr. pege, " fountain " 
(Jn. 4. 14 ; 2 P. 2. 17 ), is also applied to the well of 
Jacob (Jn. 4. 6 ), elsewhere called fhrear, " pit " 
(vv. 1 if.). It may be that, as some have affirmed, 
there was a spring in the bottom of the well. See 
Jacob's Well. 

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of 
the wells to the pastoral peoples of Palestine and 
Arabia. In most of the valley bottoms water may 
be reached by patient digging ; and in the maritime 



Wen 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Whe 



plain especially, supplies are abundant at no great 
depth. Not many wells have been dug during 
recent centuries, but the work of the ancients was 
excellent, and their successors enjoy its fruits to-day. 
The wells at Beersheba furnish illustrations, and 
Doughty {Arabia Deserta, passim) shows that the 
same is true throughout Arabia. It was one of the 
attractions of Palestine to the Israelites, that wells 
were already dug which should pass into their 
possession (Dt. 6. 11 ). 

The well mouth may be cut in the rock, or it may 
be a flat stone, with a hole of 1 2 in. to 1 5 in. diameter 
piercing it. Through this the nomads lower the 
bucket, or daluzv, attached to a cord, and draw up 
the water. The opening at the mouth is often 
deeply scored with the friction of these cords 
through the long years. The water in a well which 
fills by percolation is often exhausted at a watering 
of the camels or flocks ; but in the course of a few 
hours supplies are again available. The mouth is 
covered by a great stone, often difficult to move 
(Gn. 2cj. 2ff -). When the well collects only the sur- 
face water it may be soon exhausted. Then it may 
be used for a variety of purposes. Into such a 
" pit " Joseph was let down (Gn. 37- 22 ). One was 
used for concealment (2 S. I7. 18ff -), and in such a 
" pit " Jeremiah was imprisoned. 

As for the law of the well, " Property in water is 
older and more important than property in land. 
In nomadic Arabia there is no property strictly so 
called in desert pastures, but certain families or 
tribes hold the watering-places, without which the 
right of pasture is useless. Or, again, if a man digs 
a well he has a preferential right to water his camels 
at it before other camels are admitted ; and he has 
an absolute right to prevent others from using the 
water for agricultural purposes unless they buy it 
from him. This is Moslem law ; but it is broadly 
in accordance with old Arabian custom, and indeed 
with general Semitic custom, as appears from many 
passages of the OT. (Gn. 2l. 25ff -, 26™ ; Jg. I. 15 ; 
joint ownership in a well, Gn. 2c;. 8 ; Ex. 2. 16 ) " 
(Robertson Smith, RS 2 , I04f.). For ideas of sacred- 
ness attaching to water, and to particular spots 
where water is found, see RS 2 , by index. 

WEN. The Heb. word occurs only once, in the 
fern. sing, yabbeleth (Lv. 22. 22 ), and denotes " a 
running sore or ulcer." 

WENCH occurs only in AV. for Heb. shiphhah 
in 2 S. 17. 17 (RV. " maid-servant "). " Maid," 
" maid-servant," and " hand-maid " are the usual 
renderings. It is applied to a maidservant who is 
her master's concubine (Gn. 16. 2 , &c). 

WHALE (Heb. tan, tannin). Each of the Heb. 
words so tr. is generally rendered " dragon " or 
" serpent " : only in one case in regard to the first 
word and twice in regard to the second the tr. is W. 
In the case of the creature that swallowed Jonah it 



is called a " great fish," wh. is tr. in LXX ketos ; so 
in Mw. 12. 40 . The sperm W. wd. be quite capable 
of swallowing a man whole ; these have sometimes 
found their way into the Mediterranean. The 
shark is more frequently found, sometimes as large 
as 30 feet long. See Jonah. 

WHEAT was cultivated from very early times in 
Egypt and Babylonia. To the rich plains of Meso- 
potamia its origin has by some been assigned. It 
was also grown in Pal. in ancient times (Dt. 8. 8 ). In 
Gn. 30. 14 the wheat harvest marks a season of the 
year. Wheat was doubtless the " corn " wh. the 
sons of Jacob went down to Egp. to buy. In the 
NT. the Gr. sitos is always trd. " wheat." The 
term has a more general significance, and might be 
rendered " corn," as covering more than the one 
cereal. But wheat was the most common, so we 
may take it as practically correct. 

Several varieties of wheat (bearded) are still grown 
in Palestine. The Hauran is the principal wheat- 
bearing district. The plain is of marvellous fertility, 
and yields abundantly. Throughout the country, 
however, more barley than wheat is grown. Barley 
is sown first, sometimes as early as November, if 
the rains have been satisfactory ; and the wheat 
immediately afterwards. The wheat harvest is 
general about the end of May, and the yield of a 
hundredfold is not unknown to-day. The flour of 
wheat is used mainly for bread, only the very poor 
using barley. Wheat is also boiled, keeping the 
grain whole, and dried, to make what is called 
burghul. This again is often mixed with pieces of 
meat and pounded in a mortar (Pr. 27 22 ) to make 
the dish known as kibbeh. " The finest of the 
wheat " (Ps. 8i. 16 , 147. 14 ; EVm. " fat of wheat "), 
and " the fat kidneys of the wheat " (Dt. 32. 14 ), 
refer to the choice flour of the wheat. 

WHEEL. (1) Heb. 'obnayim (Jr. 18. 3 ), lit. 
" turnings," is the potter's wheel (see Potter). 
(2) Heb. 'ophan is used of chariot wheels (Ex. 14. 25 , 
&c.) — see Chariot ; of the wheels of the threshing 




Egyptian Cart with Four Wheels 

waggon (Is. 28. 27 ) ; of the wheels in Ezekiel's vision 
(Ek. I. 15 , &c); of the brazen wheels which supported 
the bases of the lavers in Solomon's Temple (1 K. 
7. 30 , &c). Of these last it is said, " The work of the 
wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel ; their 
axletrees, and their felloes, and their spokes, and 
their naves, were all molten " (1 K. yP RV.). 



893 



Whi 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wid 







Egyptian Whips 



The wheel may have been cast in a single piece ; but 
the parts may have been cast separately and fitted 
together in the workshop. (3) Galgal, '' wheel," or 
" whirlwind," used of the wheel of a war-chariot 
(Is. 5. 28 , &c.) ; of the wheel at a well's mouth, over 
which the cord is passed to lower and raise the 
bucket (Ec. 12. 6 ) ; also of the wheels in Ezekiel's 
vision (Ek. io. 2 , &c). The figure of the wheels may 
have been suggested to the prophet by certain 
striking phenomena 
which, after sunset, are 
sometimes witnessed from 
the plains of Mesopo- 
tamia, in the western 
sky. 

WHIP. See Scourge, 
Scorpion. 

WHIRLWIND in EV. 
stands for two Heb. 
words. (1) Su-phah (from supb, " to come to an 
end ") is lit. " a wind that makes an end," i.e. a 
destructive wind, sweeping everything before it 
(Pr. i. 27 ; Ho. 8. 7 , &c). Sometimes (Jb. 21. 18 , 
&c.) it is rendered " storm." (2) Sa'ar, or se'drdh 
(from sd l ar f " to rage, or move tempestuously "), is 
a tempest or storm-wind that agitates and throws 
into confusion everything in its path. While 
neither word, therefore, of necessity means " whirl- 
wind," it is clear from the context in several passages 
that this is intended (Is. 5. 28 ; 2 K. 2. 1 , &c). 
Moving round its axis with great velocity, it draws 
up dust, straw, and other light and movable things, 
forming the appearance of a gigantic column. As 
it gyrates, it hurries over the landscape, leaving a 
track of desolation behind it. It sucks up the water 
it encounters, raising it to a great height, and then 
the bursting of the column forms the water-spout. 
The great figure of the whirlwind is regarded with 
dread, not only because of the destruction it works, 
but also because of the superstitious ideas that are 
associated with it. The dark whirling terror is 
supposed to be the abode of evil spirits. It is 
worthy of note that from the whirlwind Job heard 
the voice of God (Jb. 38. 1 , &c). It was a whirl- 
wind that caught Elijah away from earth (2 K. 
2. 1, n ). It is used as a figure for any resistless de- 
stroying agency (Is. 40. 24 ; Jr. 23. 19 , &c). 

WHITE. See Colour. W. is the symbol of joy 
(Ec. 9. 8 ), the symbol of purity (Is. I. 18 ) ; so too in 
RV. e.g. 3 A 

WHITE OF AN EGG. The word trd. " white " 
(Jb. 6. 6 ) is lit. " juice," or " slime." It is used in 
1 S. 21. 13 for " spittle." " Slime of the yolk " could 
only mean " white of egg," but some scholars think 
the insipid juice of a plant, possibly the common 
purslam, may be intended. 

WIDOW. The support of the widow naturally 
devolved upon her family ; the main responsibility 



being upon the first-born, who received a double 
share of his father's property, no doubt with this in 
view. She was entitled to a portion of the tithe of 
the third year (Dt. 14. 29 , 26. 12 ). For her also con- 
sideration was to be shown in the matter of the 
gleaning (Dt. 24. 19fL ). She also participated in the 
sacrificial meals (Dt. 16. 11 ' 14 , &c). In later times 
we find that she received a share of spoil taken in 
war (2 M. 8. 28 » 30 ). God Himself is the special 
guardian and judge of the widow (Dt. io. 18 ; Ps. 
68.^, 146. 9 , &c). She was therefore to be treated 
with kindness and respect (Ex. 22. 22 , &c). Oppres- 
sion or violence done to a widow covers a man with 
opprobrium. and exposes him to a curse (Dt. 27. 19 ; 
Jb. 22. 9 ; Mw. 23. 14 , &c). A blessing is promised 
to those who treat her kindly (Jr. J. & , &c). Her 
garments might not be taken in pledge (Dt. 

2+."). 

If a widow were left childless, her husband's 
brother, or his next kinsman, was under obligation 
to marry her. Beyond this, she was free to marry 
whom she would. Only the High Priest might not 
marry a widow (Lv. 21. 14 ) ; a provision applied by 
Ezekiel to the common priests (44- 22 ). 

Widows first appear in the NT. in connection 
with the daily distribution of relief ; and the com- 
plaints of the Hellenist widows that those of the 
Hebrews got more than their share, led to the ap- 
pointment of special officers to attend to this ser- 
vice (Ac. 6. lff -). The maintenance of the widows 
seems to have been regarded as part of the regular 
responsibility of the early Church. That it was 
sometimes burdensome we may well believe. Per- 
haps we may infer from the directions on the sub- 
ject given by St. Paul in 1 Tm. 5. that it had 
been found necessary to keep a carefully prepared 
list of the most deserving cases, whom the Church 
would recognise as entitled to support at its hands. 
No one was to be " enrolled as a widow " (v. 9 RV.) 
unless she were sixty years of age, had been the wife 
of one man, and had led a useful and charitable life. 
These were " widows indeed " (v. 3), who had no 
near relatives to whom they might look for main- 
tenance. Although this rule was adopted, no doubt 
individual cases of special need among younger 
widows might be attended to. The reason for 
refusing younger widows is their reputation for 
instability. He would have them to marry again 
(v. 14 RV.). All who could support their widowed 
relatives were in honour bound to do so, that the 
Church might be able to attend to those who were 
widows indeed (v. 16). 

It has been thought by some that this enrolment 
does not point to a list of pensioners, but rather to a 
roll of such widows as had so won the respect and 
confidence of the Church that they might be called 
on to take some definite share in its work. But it 
would be precarious to identify this with the order 



894 



Wif 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wil 



of " widows " of whom so much is heard in im- 
mediately succeeding days. 

WIFE. See Family, Marriage. 

WILDERNESS OF THE WANDERINGS. 
See Exodus. 

WILDERNESS, DESERT, (i) The Heb. word 
midbar, which these terms commonly represent, is 
practically equivalent to the Arabic barrlyeh, which 
applies to all that lies beyond the settled and culti- 
vated land ; the wide spaces where the nomads 
rove, and the beasts of the wilds take their freedom. 
Spring covers the desert with a garment of green, and 
the flocks wander far in enjoyment of fresh pastures. 
With the advance of summer it becomes very bare 
and brown, and only the wisdom of the shepherd 
can guide his charges to the green patches, where 
hidden waters preserve the sweet grass, or the peren- 
nial spring breaks the monotony. Desert shrubs 
and occasional trees are found, beyond the confines 
of the sand ; and prickly plants in great numbers, 
which furnish food especially for the camel. Of the 
" wild beasts " we hear in Mk. I. 13 (cp. Is. 13. 21 , &c). 
Mention is also made of the owl (Ps. 102. 6 ), the 
ostrich (L. /j.. 3 ), and the pelican (Ps. 102. 6 ), of the 
wild ass (Jr. 2. 24 , 25. 24 ), the fox (Ek. 13. 4 ), and the 
dragon (Ml. I. 3 , RV. " jackal "). 

The great wilderness S. of Palestine is often men- 
tioned in connection with the wanderings of Israel. 
The various divisions are known by local names : 
e.g. the Wilderness of Sin, the W. of Shur, the W. of 
Kadesh, &c. It is called to this day Bddiyet et-Tlh, 
" Waste of the Wandering." The wilderness of 
Damascus (i K. 19. 15 ) is the Syrian desert on the 
edge of which that city stands. Its rolling sandy 
breadths, lying between Palestine and the Euphrates, 
are referred to in Is. 40 . 3 ; Ek. 20. 35 ; 1 Ch. 5.° ; 
and different parts of the same desert as it stretches 
southward along the eastern boundary of Palestine 
in Nu. 21. 11 ' 13 ' 23 ; Jg. II. 22 . The wilderness of 
Judah (Jo. 15. 61 ; Jg. I. 16 , &c.) comprised the whole 
of the Judaean uplands sloping towards the Dead 
Sea. The name covered districts of varied char- 
acter. There were pasture lands, in which the 
interests of the flockmasters made necessary towers 
for protection, and cisterns for the watering of the 
cattle (2 Ch. 26. 10 ). David's brother accused him 
of leaving uncared-for the "few sheep in the wilder- 
ness " (1 S. 17. 28 ). Nabal pastured with his flocks 
the neighbourhood of Carmel {ib. 25.). Amos was 
a shepherd in the uplands near Tekoa (Am. I. 1 ). 
There are grim and savage tracts, with great caves, 
which furnish a refuge for the fugitive, and secure 
retreat for lawlessness (1 S. 24., 26. ; 1 M. 2. 28f -, 
&c). Towns are mentioned within its boundaries, 
where water made their existence possible (Jo. 15. 61 , 
&c). Then there are the tracts of utterlv bare and 
desolate rock and mountain slope. The different 
parts of the wilderness are called by the names of 



the towns which they adjoined — theW. of Beersheba 
(Gn. 21. 14 ) ; the W. of En-Gedi (1 S. 24. 1 ) ; the W. 
of Maon (1 S. 2 3 . 24f -) ; the W. of Ziph (1 S. 23. 14 , 
&c). This also applies to its extension northward, 
where we have the W. of Beth-aven (Jo. 18. 12 ), the 
W. of Gibeon (2 S. 2. 24 ), &c. 

Besides the usual word midbdr, we may note 
(2) horbdh, which indicates a dry, uninhabitable 
land. It is also used for ruins, and the desolation 
which they mark (Ek. 5. 14 , " desolation," RV. ; cp. 
Arab, khardb, " ruin," " devastation "). (3) c Ara- 
bdh, " a desert plain, or steppe." It is applied 
to the whole bottom of the Jordan valley from 
Chinneroth to the Dead Sea (Dt. I. 7 , &c), now 
el-Ghor, " the depression." But the name Wddy 
el- l Arabah still applies to the great depression 
between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of 'Aqaba. The 
plural 'ardboth is applied to particular level stretches 
within the area : e.g. 'arebotb (AV. " plains ") of 
Moab (Nu. 22. 1 ), and of Jericho (Jo. 5. 10 ) — see 



Arabah. (4) Teshlmon, " waste, 



wildt 



denotes savage, forbidding tracts, waterless and 
tenantless but for wild beasts, the " howling wilder- 
ness " (Dt. 32. 10 ). It is applied to the dreary" 
region NE. of the Dead Sea (Nu. 21. 20 , &c), in wh. 
is Beth-Jeshimoth (Nu. 33- 49 ) ; to the wilderness of 
the wanderings (Dt. 32. 10 , &c.) ; to the district 
frequented by David as a fugitive from Saul (1 S. 
23. 19 , &c), prob. the tracts close to the Dea Sea 
along its W. shore ; and to the desert between the 
Euphrates and Pal. (Is. 43. 19 , &c). (5) Tziyyah, 
lit. " dryness " or " drought," is at times repre- 
sented in AV. by " wilderness " (Jb. 30. 3 , RV. " dry 
ground "), " dry ground " (Ps. 107. 35 , &c). Its 
literal equivalent, " drought," stands in EV. (Jb. 
24. 19 , &c). 

WILD OLIVE. See Olive. 

WILD OX. See Unicorn. 

WILLOW TREE. The Heb. word tzaphtzdphdb 
occurs only once, in Ek. 17. 5 , a highly poetical and 
imaginative passage. It is the Heb. equivalent of 
the Arabic safsdf, a generic term covering the 
various species of willow found in Palestine. The 
Arabic gharab is the equivalent of the Heb. i ardbdh y 
which may mean " poplar," but also " willow," 
especially " the weeping willow," Salix Baby- 
lonica, which is found largely near the sea coast. 
Some think the Heb. word denotes the white poplar, 
Populus Euphratica. Both poplar and willow abound 
along the water-courses in the East, with which in 
Scrip, the i ardbdh is associated. " Willows of the 
brook" — i.e. of the valley with a water-course in 
it — were used to make the booths at the Feast of 
Tabernacles (Lv. 23. 40 ). They form a shade for 
the hippopotamus (Jb. 40. 22 ). The harps of the 
mourners in Babylon were hung on willow trees by 
the rivers (Ps. 137. 2 ). See also Is. 15. 7 , 44A 

Tristram has suggested that instead of " willows " 



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poss. we should read " oleanders." The oleander 
is certainly very plentiful along the water-courses 
and round the Sea of Galilee, and very beautiful is 
the flush of bright colour it spreads in its season. 
But the suggestion is improbable. In many dis- 
tricts to-day the natives plant the willow. It 
grows swiftly, and requires little attention. It is 
used extensively for making baskets and other 
wattled work. 

WILLOWS, THE BROOK OF THE (Heb. 
nahal ha-arablm), is evidently a wady in Moab (Is. 
15. 7 ). Wetzstein would identify it with Wady 
el-Ahsa, which forms the boundary of the terri- 
tory of Moab — the lower reaches of the valley, be- 
cause of the frequency of the Populus Euphratica. 
De Lunyes points to Wady ed-Dera'a, at the mouth 
of Wady Kerak. It is to be noted that another 
traveller (Irby) found here a local name, Wady es- 
Safsdf, " Wady of the willows." See Buhl, GAP. 
124. 

WIMPLE is AV. tr. of mitpahath in Is. 3. 22 
(plural mitpahoth, RV. " shawls "). In Ru. 3. 15 , 
AV. trs. "vail," RV. "mantle." The word is 
from the root taphah, " to spread out," " to 
abound." " Cloak " (Oxf. Heb. Lex.) is perhaps 
the best translation. 

WIND. The Hebrews knew nothing of our 
exact definition of directions. Anywhere on the 
southern horizon between, roughly, SE. and SW. 
was for them south ; and similarly with the others. 
The winds, therefore, are spoken of only as blowing 
from the cardinal points of the compass. The 
actual direction in each case, where it is possible, 
must be fixed by other considerations. The winds 
from the south are usually warm and pleasant, but 
the north winds, blowing from the snows of 
Lebanon and Hermon, are cold. From the great 
sea in the west the winds come laden with moisture. 
Those from the eastern deserts are dry and often 
laden with sand. During the rainy season west and 
south-west winds prevail. The south-west is popu- 
larly known as Bab esh-Shitta, " the gateway of the 
rain." When the rains are over the northerly 
winds set in, and during the months of summer they 
help to moderate the fierceness of the heat. In 
September, and until the rains begin, easterly winds 
are common. The sharqiyeb, or east wind, dry and 
hot as it is, makes every living thing shrink. The 
very furniture twists and cracks in its burning 
breath, and human beings are stricken with utter 
weariness. Earlier in the year the east wind is a 
dreaded visitant : with its withering power a few 
hours suffice to blight the beauty, and with it many 
hopes, of a country side. 

In the evening often a breeze springs up from the 
Sea of Galilee, to refresh the surrounding region. 
Through all the summer the dawn brings a soft 
breath from the western sea, fanning all the seaward 



face of the Central Range. At sunset the cooling 
air moves down the slopes ; and the higher strata 
from the sea drift towards the 'uplands, bearing 
wealth of precious moisture on their broad bosoms. 
Hence come the dews that lie so thick in the Pales- 
tinian morning, refreshing all things that live. 

Storm-winds often burst with great sudd nness 
and fury over the Sea of Galilee. The sailors of 
to-day encounter the very trials with which the 
disciples of our Lord were familiar (Mk. 4. 37 , &c). 
The " tempestuous wind which is called Euraquilo " 
(Ac. 27. 14 ), which beat down from the island of 
Crete and caught the ship in which St. Paul was 
sailing, is the well-known " Levanter," as the sailors 
in the Eastern Mediterranean call it, which blows 
from the ENE. 

WINDOW is the EV. tr. of several Heb. words. 
(1) 'Arubbah, " a lattice " or " sluice." This word 
is used for the opening through which smoke escapes 
(Ho. 13. 3 , EV. " chimney ") ; for the openings of a 
dovecote (Is. 60. 8 ) ; and metaphorically of eyes 
(Ec. 12. 3 ), perhaps as latticed by the eyelashes. In 
other places it is used of the sluices in heaven, 
through which, when opened by God, the rains 
rush down, to devastate (Gn. 7. 11 , &c.) or to fertilise 
(2 K. 7. 2 , &c). In this latter sense it is used fig. of 
blessing (Ml. 3- lc ). (2) Halon. This is the word 
commonly employed for the window of a house. 
The Eastern window is usually just an aperture in 
the wall, unglazed, but closed with a lattice. The 
windows generally open on the court round which 
the house is built, but one or two may command a 
view of the street. As they are invariably latticed 
it is possible for one to see without being seen (Jg. 
5. 28 ; 2 S. 6. 16 , &c). Frequently, houses which are 
built on the city wall have projecting windows, 
whence the surrounding country may be observed. 
Such windows formed means of escape for men who 
were hard pressed, as, for example, the spies at 
Jericho (Jo. 2. 15 ), and St. Paul at Damascus (2 Cor. 
II. 33 ) ; possibly also for David (1 S. 19. 12 ). People 
sat in the window for coolness, but with the lattice 
open this was dangerous (Ac. 20. 9 ). 

In the village houses to-day there is frequently no 
window. When the family are all housed, with 
cattle in the lower part of the dwelling, and an oil 
lamp in a niche emitting its peculiar odour, the at- 
mosphere is often terrible. Under conditions like 
these the present writer once asked a peasant woman 
in the plain of Sharon why they had no " window " 
in the house. In amazement she replied, " Put a 
window in the wall to help the robbers ! " With 
their slender means of subsistence they live in per- 
petual dread of marauders, who, without any assist- 
ance, too easily dig through their mud-built walls. 

(3) Tzobar (Gn. 6. 16 ), prob. rather " roof " or 
" back " than " window." (4) Shemashoth (Is. 
54. 12 ), read with RV. "pinnacles." (5) Sheqeph 



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(i K. 7. 5 ) is the framework, or casing of the doors. 
(6) I K. 7. 4 RV. trs. " prospects," possibly " win- 
dows of narrowing frames " (Oxf. Heb. Lex.). The 
Greek word used in the passage quoted above from 
Acts is thuris, the diminutive form of thura, a door ; 
it generally means " window." In classical Gr. it 
is sometimes used for the cells of a honey-comb. 

WINE AND STRONG DRINK. In this 
phrase, which occurs frequently in OT., wine signi- 
fies the liquor made from the fruit of the vine, and 
strong drink all other alcoholic beverages. The 
Heb. terms are respectively yayin and shekdr. Shekdr 
resembles the Babylonian shikaru, a name origi- 
nally signifying date-wine, the expressed juice of 
the date which had passed through fermentation. 
From this it came to be applied to all other drinks 
possessing the same intoxicating qualities. Tayin, 
denoting the fermented juice of the grape, is a word 
of Indo-Germanic origin, which came to the He- 
brews through the Greek oinos, represented in Latin 
by vinum. The Heb. hemer (Dt. 32. 14 ; Is. 2J. 2 ) 
and the cognate Aram, hamar, like the Arabic 
khamr, " wine," denote a drink which has been pro- 
duced by fermentation ; from the root hamar, " to 
ferment," or " foam up." Mimsdk, from mdsak, 
" to mix," is wine mingled with other elements, 
e.g. water, or spices (Pr. 23. 30 ) ; used in libations to 
Meni (Is. 65 . u ). Sobe\ from sdba\ " to imbibe," 
or " drink largely," denotes that which is drunk, 
liquor (Is. I. 22 ; cp. Ho. 4. 18 ; Na. I. 10 ). 'Asis, 
from l dsas, " to press," or " tread down," is the 
expressed juice. It is applied to the juice of the 
pomegranate (SS. 8. 2 ), and elsewhere is trd. " sweet " 
or " new wine " (Is. 4Q. 26 ; Jl. I. 5 , &c). Shemdrim 
(only in pi.), from a root signifying to be tawny, or 
dark, is properly " the lees," or "dregs" of the wine- 
press (Ps. 75. 8 , &c.) ; but is applied to wine which 
has been allowed to stand on the lees for the acqui- 
sition of body (Is. 25. 6 , &c). Tirosh, " must," or 
" new wine." This is properly the juice of the 
grape just as it has been pressed out, or while in the 
process of fermentation. It is spoken of as found in 
the grape clusters (Is. 65. 8 ). It occurs frequently 
with corn and oil, as one of the most valuable pro- 
ducts of the land (Gn. 27.28; Dt. 7. 13 ; Jr. 31. 12 , 
&c). Of this tithes were paid (Dt. 12. 17 , &c.) and 
first fruits (Dt. 18. 4 , &c). Efforts have often been 
made to show that tirosh was unfermented, non- 
alcoholic, juice of the grape ; but it is impossible 
to defend this position. We have only to refer to 
the effects ascribed to the use of tirosh in Jg. 9. 13 , 
" which cheereth God and man " ; and in Ho. 4. 11 , 
where it is said to take away the understanding ; 
and we see that its non-intoxicating character can- 
not be established. Possibly, however, we may 
take it as signifying the lighter beverage made by 
checking the process of fermentation before it was 
quite completed (Driver, Joel and Amos, y<)t). 



In the New Testament the terms are : (a) gleu- 
kos, " new wine " (Ac. 2. 13 ), wh. probably corre- 
sponds to Heb. tirosh ; and (b) oinos, which is the 
usual Greek word for the fermented juice of the 
grape (Mw. 9. 17 , &c). Here again the qualities 
attributed to gleukos forbid us to understand it as 
non-intoxicating. There is nothing in the language 
either of the Old or of the New Testament to show 
that anything unfermented was called wine. The 
grape-juice squeezed into Pharaoh's cup by his 
butler (Gn. 40. 11 ) probably corresponded to the 
beverage mentioned in a text found at Edfu ; the 
juice of grapes was squeezed into water, and drunk 
by the king (Driver, Genesis in he). This could be 
done only in the season of ripe grapes, and could not 
be done in Palestine many months after the vintage 
was past (Lk. 22. 18 ). The Jews in Palestine are 
among the most conservative of men in all things 
affecting the practice of religion. The wine they 
use at the Passover feast is fermented ; and they 
have no knowledge of anything else ever having 
been employed. The rabbis did not think highly 
of the man who drank the unfermented juice of the 
grape. " He who learns from the young, to what is 
he like ? to one that eats unripe grapes, and drinks 
wine from his vat," i.e. from the receptacle that 
receives the juice as it is pressed from the grapes 
(Pirqe Aboth, iv. 28). 

In soil and climate Palestine was excellently 
suited for the cultivation of the vine (see Vine, 
Vineyard) ; and from very ancient times the in- 
habitants understood the art of making wine. 
Popular belief on this subject is doubtless reflected 
in the attribution of this knowledge to Noah (Gn. 
9. 21 ), if indeed he was not regarded as the first 
to discover it. Among the settled peoples, in all 
historic time, wine has been a common beverage. 
The Heb. word for " feast " — mishteh, from shdtdh, 
" to drink " — shows what an important element it 
was in the social meal. Its use on festive occasions 
was illustrated at the marriage at Cana of Galilee 
(Jn. 2. 10 ). But the drinking of wine was also a 
feature of the common meal (Gn. 27. 25 ; Lk. 7- 33 ). 
It was held in high esteem as a means to relieve 
heaviness of heart, to cheer the faint, and was re- 
garded as a necessary element in a full, prosperous, 
and happy life (Pr. 31. 6 ; Ps. 104. 15 ). The Nazirite 
was debarred from the use of wine during the 
currency of his vow (see Nazirite, Vini), and th x 
priests, while free to partake at other times, were 
prohibited from touching wine before going to ser- 
vice in the sanctuary (Lv. io. 9 ). The opposition of 
the Rechabites to wine was probably due to the 
nomadic view of the vine as the symbol of the 
settled life (see Jonadab). The Nabataeans also 
abstained from wine on political grounds. Moham- 
mad's prohibition of wine was quite in accord with 
Arabian sentiment. The prohibitions show that 



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very early men became alive to the dangers asso- 
ciated with the use of wine, and its abuse is con- 
demned in the most thoroughgoing fashion both in 
the OT. and in the New (Pr. 20. 1 ; Is. 5. 11 ' 22 , 28. 7 ; 




Large Foot-press (Egyptian) 
The Amphorae and the Deity protecting the Store-room 

Ho. 4-. 11 ; Eph. 5. 18 ; 1 Cor. 5. 11 , &c). The praise 
of wine was therefore not indiscriminate. Its value 
is fully recognised, but with equal frankness the 
perils of abuse are stated. 

It is worthy of note that in the institution of the 
Passover there is no direction as to the use of wine. 
This may have been taken for granted, as a part of 
every feast. In any case, in our Lord's time it had 
become, and since then has remained, an essential 
feature of that celebration ; whence it has been 
taken over and consecrated to Christian use, in the 
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

The astringent properties of wine made it 
valuable for other purposes. We find it used, in 
combination with oil, in the dressing of wounds 
(Lk. io. 34 ). 

Although Palestine was such a rich vine-growing 
country, a great trade seems to have been carried on 
in the import of wine from the Levant. In recent 
excavations great piles of the handles of amphorae, 
the Greek wine jars, have been found ; especially 
numerous are those from Rhodes. It may be that 
the more wealthy appreciated foreign wines. But 
Syrian wines were also held in high esteem. The 
wine of Lebanon, and that of Helbon, appear to 
have been specially prized (Ho. 14. 7 ; Ek. 27. 18 ). 
To this day the wine made in the Lebanon, especially 
that of Shtora, is in great repute in Palestine. 

In early times probably the light wines of Pales- 
tine were drunk without dilution. Later we find 
that water was added (2 M. 15. 39 ), both water and 
wine being regarded as hurtful if drunk alone. The 
rabbis fixed the proportion of water for ordinary 
wines at two parts water and one wine ; but for the 
wine of Sharon, which appears to have been par- 
ticularly strong, three parts water to one of wine. 
But the " mingled " or " mixed wine " of the OT. 
(SS. 8. 2 ; Is. 5. 22 ) was not weakened. Aromatic 
herbs and spices were added, in accordance with 
a custom ancient and widespread, thus lend- 
ing flavour, and increasing strength. The wine 



mingled with myrrh offered to Jesus at the cross 
(Mk. 15. 23 , &c.) was designed to act as a narcotic, 
" numbing pain." 

We have seen that no argument can be founded 
on the terms used for wine in Scripture ; but we 
must remember that the question of total abstinence 
had not yet been raised in any acute form, any more 
than that of slavery. While the shame and sin of 
drunkenness are heartily denounced, each man is 
left free to determine his own conduct in the light of 
conscience. But the reasoning of the apostle Paul 
puts the Christian duty of abstinence upon stronger 
grounds than those of mere language (Rm. I4. 13ff - ; 
I Cor. 8. 8ff -), and in the circumstances of our time 
the appeal of his argument wakens an ever fuller 
response from the enlightened Christian conscience. 

The wine-presses found in many parts of Tal. 
to-day, in places whence the vines have long since 
vanished, are evidence of the widespread industry 
of ancient times. One cut in the rock of a moun- 
tain slope, on the side of the track between the Sea 
of Galilee and Safed, is very familiar to the present 
writer. Nothing grows around among the rocky 
irregularities but thorns and thistles, and the 
stunted shrubs of the mountain, where once the 
vines must have made the summer beautiful. A 
large, rectangular trough is cut to a depth of about 
15 inches in a flat surface of rock, with a slight slope 
to the east, where an aperture through a ridge of 
rock, left standing, communicates with a much 
deeper trough cut at a somewhat lower level. The 
upper is the wine-press proper (Heb. gath), the 
lower is the wine-fat (Heb. yeqeb). While this is 
true, the distinction is not always strictly preserved 
in the Hebrew, and in our EV. no attempt is made 
to observe it. Into the larger and higher trough 
the grapes were gathered, and there trodden with 
the feet. In the larger presses there might be a 
good many treaders. The juice thus expressed 
flowed through the aperture or conduit mentioned 




Ancient Wine-press (Egyptian) 

above into the lower trough. Sometimes there was 
a third trough, lower still, into which the must 
was conducted, after it had settled and clarified in 
the second. When the " treading " was done the 
broken mass in the bottom of the press was gathered 
together, and a slab of stone or wood placed on it. 
This was pressed down by means of a beam of wood, 
one end of which rested in an aperture in the side of 



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the press, while the other was weighted with a large 
stone. 

In cases where the rock in which to cut the press 
was not available, a pit was dug in the ground (Mw. 
21. 33 , &c), carefully built round and cemented. 
This received the juice, which was trodden out in a 
wooden press erected on the adjoining surface. 

It was a joyful occasion among the people, the 
treading often being enlivened by the singing of 
songs, and the rhythmic clapping of hands. If 
possible the must was allowed to stand in the vat for 
about four days, when, it was calculated, the first 
or " tumultuous " stage of fermentation would be 
over. It was then put into large jars, or bottles 
(prepared skins), where the process of fermenta- 
tion was completed. This lasted for three or four 
months, and then the wine was judged fit for use. 
The wine was then strained, being put through a 
linen cloth or strainer prepared for the purpose; 
poured into earthenware jars, which had been lined 
with pitch, and sealed up ; or into skin bottles, and 
stored in cool cellars. The process of after fermen- 
tation caused the skins to stretch. This having been 
done once, the " bottles " might not be used for the 
same purpose again, as, having no further powers of 
distension, they were sure to burst if new wine were 
again put into them (Mw. 9. 17 , &c). 

Wine also appears in the figurative language of 
Scripture. Note especially the wine of God's 
wrath (Rv. 16. 19 , &c.) ; see also Rv. 14. 8 , &c. 

WINK. In Ac. 17. 30 AV. renders " the times of 
this ignorance God winked at," for wh. RV. sub- 
stitutes " overlooked." Allowance was made by 
God for errors which were due to ignorance, and 
not to any evil will. 

WINNOW. See Agriculture. 

WINTER AND SUMMER stand in Scripture 
for the two great divisions of the year. There are 
no distinctive names for what we call spring and 
autumn. The Arabs speak of er-Rabi'a, the time 
of the springing of the fresh grass, and of el-Kbarlf, 
when the vintage falls and all the fruits of the earth 
are gathered in. They are not regarded as distinct 
seasons, but only as stages in the passing of the 
seasons, summer and winter. Saif zva-Shitta include 
the whole year. Winter is the season of the rain- 
storms. The Arabic name shitta means " rain," 
thus corresponding to the Greek cheimon. It covers 
the months from October till April, when the rain 
supply for the year falls. Saif is the rest of the year, 
May till September, the season of heat. In the less 
frequent showers of April, the foliage of the fig 
bursts out, covering the tender fruit, and men know 
that the sunny days are near. In cloudless sun- 
shine the work of the fields and orchards goes for- 
ward, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, the vintage 
and wine-making, until thegathering clouds betoken 
the coming 'again of the rain. The first showers 



soften the earth, baked hard by the heat, and 
ploughing begins. The winter brings cold, often 
piercing on the higher ground, where at times 
Snow may be seen. In the Jordan valley the 
temperature is never very low ; but the system 
becomes accustomed to the greater warmth, and in 
the damp, raw air of the rainy season cold is felt at 
higher temperatures. The rains make sad havoc 
of the " roads " in Palestine, which at the best are 
usually foot-paths beaten by the hoofs of camels 
and the feet of pedestrians. They swiftly go to 
soft mud, and in parts they are even dangerous. 

WISDOM. Nations and ages are to be esti- 
mated very much by what they regard as wisdom — 
what they reckon the most to be valued of mental 
gifts. The Greeks, before the days of Socrates, re- 
garded as highest the power of persuasion — of, if 
needful, making the worse appear the better reason ; 
sophistry was with them W. To the Roman W. 
was the ability to direct military and political affairs 
in a way that wd. best promote the interest of the 
Republic. To-day it wd. almost seem that the 
sharpness wh. can engineer " trusts " and " corners " 
is the W. most esteemed and regarded. To estimate 
the Hebrews of Biblical times we must consider 
what they reckoned W. The pre-eminently wise 
man of Israel was Solomon. The first exhibition he 
gave of the gift of W. was his judgment concerning 
the child. All over the E. down to the present day 
it is one of the supreme tests of W., to be able to 
give a righteous decision in cases of difficulty and 
conflicting evidence. When the Queen of Sheba, 
having heard of the W. of Solomon, desired to 
test him, she " proved him with hard questions." 
These were of the nature of riddles, if we may 
believe later Jewish and Mohammadan accounts. 
How far his knowledge of natural history was 
reckoned W., and how far it and his song-writ- 
ing were regarded as distinctions, illustrating the 
splendour of his reign, it is impossible to say. The 
W. of Joseph and Daniel was manifested in the in- 
terpretation of dreams ; mastery in this province of 
W. is not attributed to Solomon. 

Another means, however, is open to us in investi- 
gating the nature of Heb. W. — the books that have 
come down to us wh. were devoted to the exposi- 
tion of Hokmah (wisdom). Within the Canon we 
have Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes ; in the 
deutero-canonical books of the Apocrypha we have 
Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom (of Solomon). The 
side of W. that expressed itself in visions and the in- 
terpretation of them may be seen in the writings 
that are known as Apocalyptic. In the Canon of 
the OT. there is Daniel ; in the Apocrypha there is 
2 Esdras (wh., however, is not admitted even into 
the Apocryphal Canon by Luther, and by the 
Council of Trent it was placed in an appendix) ; 
in the NT. the book of Revelation is an example 



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of Apocalypse. The connection of this class of 
Literature with W. may be seen in Rv. 13. 18 : 
" Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understand- 
ing count the number of the beast." As the first of 
Hokmah books in the ordinary Heb. Bible, Proverbs 
is that wh. falls to be considered. Those pithy 
sayings, in wh. the wisdom of many is crystallised by 
the wit of one, have always been associated with W. 
To Solomon there are attributed three thousand 
proverbs in 1 K. 4~ 32 . In the book of Proverbs 
there are not the quarter of that number. From 
"the evidence of the LXX the text of Pr. is in a very 
unsatisfactory state ; this result is natural, as this 
book was not regularly read in the synagogue, so the 
ear did not assist the eye to preserve the purity of 
the text. As seen in Pr. Heb. W. is shrewd and 
worldly ; what prudence there is in " He that is 
surety for a stranger shall smart for it ; and he that 
hateth suretiship is sure" (Pr. n. 15 ), and in "A 
prudent man concealeth knowledge ; but the heart 
of the fool proclaimeth foolishness " (12. 23 ) ! There 
is cynical observation of humanity in " The poor is 
hated even of his own neighbour ; but the rich hath 
many friends " (Pr. 14. 20 ) ; and " Every man is 
friend to him that giveth gifts " (19. 6 ). At the 
same time there is a vein of kindness, as " He that 
oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker ; but he 
that honoureth Him hath mercy on the poor " 
(14. 31 ) ; " He that hath a bountiful eye shall 
be blessed." Nevertheless justice is commended. 
" Divers weights and divers measures are an abomi- 
nation to the Lord " (20. 10 ). In the introduction 
there are gleams of higher things : " The fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of W." While Proverbs pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that the sum of all good is 
earthly prosperity, and that every one knows what 
it is, in Ecclesiastes we have a criticism of aims. 
It ends in something very like a counsel of despair 
so far as an intelligent apprehension is concerned. 
" Fear God and keep His commandments, for this 
is the whole duty of man " (Ec. 12. 13 ), really means 
in the connection in wh. it occurs, " Do your duty 
and don't philosophise." With the book of Job we 
enter into a higher region. In it we have the 
perennial question discussed, " Why is there pain in 
the world ? " Assuming that there is moral evil in 
the world, is pain connected with it ? If so, then in 
what way ? is it disciplinary or punitive ? or may it 
be testing ? Naturally the first idea is that pain is 
penalty. In Nature pain follows any such violation 
of physical law as wd. involve injury to the body ; 
it is thus at once punitive and disciplinary. All 
primitive ideas suggest that bodily pain follows, and 
ought to follow, moral dereliction ; on this idea all 
the earlier ideas of the education of children pro- 
ceeded. On this fundamental notion the argu- 
ments of Job's three friends rest ; they assume that 
evil must be in Job in some abnormal degree for such 



an accumulation of ills to have befallen him. If 
there is a moral governor of the universe — and this 
all the disputants assume — it would be legitimate 
not only to deduce guilt fm. pain, but also the 
amount of the guilt fm. the degree of the pain. Job 
triumphantly shows that whether or not pain im- 
plies guilt, the amount of the pain bears no propor- 
tion to the guilt, as many who are notoriously guilty 
of extortion and of all manner of wickedness yet 
" live, become old, yea, are mighty in power : their 
seed is established in their sight, their houses are 
safe fm. fear. . . . They spend their days in wealth, 
and in a moment go down to the grave." The 
conclusion to wh. the friends were to some extent 
leading, and wh. was more consciously affirmed by 
Elihu, is that we cannot understand God's reasons ; 
thus it becomes us to submit ourselves to Divine 
dealings and trust where we cannot know. This 
view is emphasised by God Himself when He speaks 
to Job out of the whirlwind. Another solution 
is suggested in the Prologue ; that other beside 
human beings are interested in God's dealings with 
men, and that Job's sufferings found their reason in 
the angelic sphere. There is a wider view still 
hinted at : that Job's ability to trust where he cd. 
not see, demonstrated the salvability of mankind. 
We can only draw attention to the later W. books 
of Judaism. Ecclesiasticus, the first of these, 
is the work of a scribe of Sadducean tendencies. 
It imitates Proverbs constantly, and to some ex- 
tent Ecclesiastes. The Wisdom of Solomon is 
morally and poetically a higher book than Ecclesi- 
asticus, but it seems to owe somewhat to the influ- 
ence of Greek thought. One thing to be noted is 
the certainty attained as to personal immortality. 

WISE MEN, an expression used, in addition to 
its use in its general sense, specifically of soothsayers, 
diviners, and magicians, in Dn. 2. 12, 13 > 14 > 18, 24> 27 > 48 , 
4. 6 ' 18 , 5. 7 » 8 » 15 ; Mw. 2. 1 ' 7 ' 16 ; and probably in 
Gn. 41. 8 ; Ex. 7. 11 ; Est. i. 13 , 6. 13 ; Is. 19. 11 . 12 ; 
Jr. 50. 35 , 5 1. 57 ; Ek. 27. 8 » 9 ; Ob. 8 . The wise men 
(Mw. 2. 1 ' 7 » 16 ; RVm. Magi, Gr. fidyoi), a number 
of whom visited the infant Saviour, formed a cor- 
poration mentioned chiefly in association with their 
claims to occult knowledge. Other references are 
the story of Simon (Ac. 8. 9 , fiayevoiv), and Bar- 
jesus (Ac. 13. 6 ; (xdyov), and possibly the title, 
Rab-mag (Jr. 3c;. 3 , perhaps "Chief of the Magi"), 
of one of the Chaldean officers. The LXX also 
renders "astrologers" in Dn. I. 20 , 2. 2 ' 10 « 27 , 4.7, 
ij?, 11, 15^ -fay j JL( Zy 0Lm The word comes from an old 
root, mag, meaning great, hence leader, and possibly 
priest, and is connected with the Persian mih ; 
Sanscrit mahat, mahd ; Gr. fieyas ; Lat. magis, 
magnus. 

The origin of the Magi is lost in the unknown 
past. History first connects them with Zoroaster 
(c. B.C. 1000) as a priest-caste to whom he entrusted 



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the execution of his principles. But Zoroaster did 
not create this body ; he reformed a priesthood 
already in existence. In the Vendidad he curses 
the Magians who opposed him in the interest of 
their worship of the Devs. Herodotus (i. 101) 
mentions them as one of six tribes of the Medes, and 
they doubtless formed a distinct hereditary caste, 
such as the tribe of Levi in Israel, the Egyptian 
priest-caste, the Brahmins among the Hindus, and 
the Druids among the Celts. The reformed priest- 
caste became a very powerful order. The only 
approach to God was through them, and their 
special study concerned the nature of God, His 
purposes, law, and the ceremonies with which 
prayer and sacrifice might be presented to Him. 
The peculiarity of this order, which in time became 
their distinctive feature, was their claim to ability 
to reveal the Divine will. They gave oracular pro- 
nouncements about the future to such as inquired 
of them. The nature of their worship led them to 
do this principally from observation of the heavenly 
bodies. Thus they invented an elaborate system 
of astrology. As the result of their careful obser- 
vation they became the founders of the sciences 
of astronomy and chronology. They also studied 
philosophy, natural and metaphysical, and medicine. 
They claimed, too, to predict the future by inter- 
pretation of dreams and various forms of divining. 
By these claims they acquired the greatest influence 
in public and private life. When Cyrus united the 
Medes and Persians he adopted the hereditary 
religion. The Magi thronged the court. Hero- 
dotus and Ctesias mention them as priests under the 
first Persian princes, and Xenophon in the Cyro- 
ficedia tells that Cyrus, on establishing his govern- 
ment, appointed the Magi to chant hymns at the 
rising of the sun and to offer the proper daily sac- 
rifices. This position the Magi retained under 
succeeding Persian monarchs. With the destruc- 
tion of the empire and the decay of all Oriental 
institutions it is not surprising to find a body which 
at the best must have made almost a science of 
deception falling largely into a very degraded con- 
dition. The bonds of association became loosened. 
The priestly character was largely lost, and the Magi 
lived to display that to which they have given their 
name, magic. Members of their body wandered 
far and wide practising on human credulity. Their 
secrets were sold to enterprising foreigners. Thus 
men of the type of Simon Magus (who thought also 
to buy the secret of the power of the Holy Ghost) 
and Elymas became the commonest representatives 
of the Magi, with the result that later classical 
references to them are contemptuous and condem- 
natory (Tacitus, Pliny). But it is very improbable 
that no innercircle of noblerstudents shouldremain, 
to whom their mysteries would be a combination of 
spiritual exaltation and scientific research. Of such 



we may suppose those Magi to have been who, ex- 
pectant of a coming Messiah, found the sign of His 
coming through their study of the heavenly bodies. 
This is the general modern view of them, though 
the majority of the Fathers take an opposite view. 

As to the home or nationality of these men, 
nothing very definite can be said. They came 
" from the East," but no hint is given as to the 
particular part. Most have derived them from 
Arabia (Justin, Tertullian, Epiphanius, Maldonatus, 
Jansen, Grotius, Lightfoot, Edersheim, Wieseler, 
Holtzmann), though Arabia is not strictly to the 
east of Palestine. But others have suggested 
Persia (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, Cal- 
vin, Beza, Calovius), Parthia (Hydius), Babylon 
(Paulus), and even Egypt. On the question 
whether they were Jews or heathen, the opinion 
generally held both by ancients and moderns has 
been that they were heathen. But the reasons 
given in support are not strong. There is nothing 
in the expression goto avaro\Q>v to exclude Jews of 
the Diaspora, while as to the form of their question, 
which is supposed to suggest a heathen origin, it is 
difficult to see what other form it could have taken. 
On the other hand, they were evidently interested 
in the Messianic hope of Israel to a degree which 
is surprising if they were heathen. While heathen 
astrologers would be interested in the Messianic 
significance of the celestial phenomenon, and might 
comprehend and sympathise with the Jewish hope 
so far as to be induced to take the long journey to 
adore the Messiah and present their offerings to 
Him, it is more probable that Jewish exiles, whose 
hearts still turned to the Holy Land, and who were 
identified with its hopes, should act as these men 
did. The cases of Simon Magus and Bar-jesus 
show that Jews sought and received admission to 
the mysteries of the Magi. This door being open, 
it would be strange if expectant Jews, living for 
generations in the very home of these practices, did 
not seek by their means to obtain some sign of the 
Messiah's coming. These practices were forbidden 
to Jews, but there were rabbis who prognosticated 
from the constellations (Edersheim, LTJ. i. 209). 
We feel that, if not Jews, these men must at least 
have been proselytes, of whom there were a con- 
siderable number in these Eastern lands (Schurer). 

Tradition has waxed wanton over this story, and 
known no restraint in its imaginations and inter- 
pretations. We note a few of the more mode- 
rate traditions. While Eastern tradition gives the 
number of the visitors as twelve, three has been 
more widely accepted as the number. This number 
was probably suggested by the threefold gift which 
they presented, and has been interpreted as repre- 
senting the Trinity, the three continents, the three 
races which sprang from Noah, on which account 
one has often been depicted as a black man. The 



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tradition that they were kings is probably due to the 
influence of such passages as Ps. 68. 29 « 31 , 72. 10 ; Is. 
49. 7 , 6o. 3 « 10 ; there is no clear evidence of this tradi- 
tion before the sixth cent. They have been adorned 
with the names Balthazar, Gaspar, and Melchior. 
Tradition says that their bodies were recovered in 
the East in the fourth cent, and removed to Con- 
stantinople ; thence they were carried to Milan on 
the consecration of Eustorgius, and to Cologne on 
the conquest of Milan in 1 162. Their festival came 
to be celebrated on the same day as that of the Pre- 
sentation of Christ in the Temple. 

The uncertainty which attends so many of the 
details of this visit also prevails in the matter of the 
star whose appearing prompted their journey. It 
is impossible to say what the star was. The Magi 
and the evangelist would not think of the stars as 
distant worlds, but as points of light at no great 
distance from the earth. To them fixed stars, 
planets, comets, meteors, and any other light in the 
firmament would be stars. Three views have been 
generally held with regard to this phenomenon. 
(a) This was a miraculous light created by God for 
the glory of His Son, and with the object of making 
Him known to His faithful servants, (b) Some 
evanescent star or comet appeared which these 
star-gazers read as the sign of the Messiah. This 
was Kepler's theory, who in 1604 discovered a new 
and remarkable star associated with a striking con- 
junction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. He calcu- 
lated that a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn 
occurred in Pisces in the year B.C. 7, with a similar 
conjunction of the three planets in the following 
year, and conjectured that the same evanescent star 
might have appeared at the time of the conjunction. 
Chinese records note the appearance of a new star 
in b.c. 4, which Pingre and others claim to have 
identified as a comet, (c) A certain conjunction 
of planets was read as the astrological sign of the 
Messiah. Kepler's conclusion regarding the con- 
junction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces in b.c 7 is 
admitted by astronomers, and the spectacle would 
be a striking one. In connection with this the 
statement of the Jewish commentator, Abrabanel, 
in the fifteenth cent., is interesting, that the con- 
junction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces betokened 
most important events, especially for Israel. Prof. 
Ramsay (Was Christ born at Bethlehem ?), while not 
using Kepler's theory as an argument, finds it an 
interesting coincidence that Kepler's date should 
agree with the date at which he had arrived on 
grounds entirely different. 

There was a certain Jewish expectation connect- 
ing the Messiah with a celestial appearance. The 
Messiah Haggadah on the words, " A star shall come 
out of Jacob " (Nu. 24. 17 ), says, " In the fifth (year) 
. . . the star shall shine forth from the East and 
this is the star of Messiah . . . and at the close of 



the seventh the Messiah is to be expected " (quoted 
by Edersheim, LTJ. i. 211). A similar statement 
occurs in Jellinek's Beth ha Midrash, iii. 8. These 
statements, whether due to a tradition earlier or 
later than the birth of Christ, are of value as con- 
necting the birth of the Messiah with some side- 
real appearance. The adoption of the name Bar- 
Cochba (" the son of a star ") by the famous false 
Messiah, offers further testimony in the same 
direction. G. P. Wallace. 

WITCH, WITCHCRAFT. See Divination. 

WITHERED HAND. See Diseases and Re- 
medies. 

WITHES, AV. WITHS, may be bow-strings of 
green gut (Jg. i6. 7ff -). The word y ether may mean 
a cord, or rope ; it is the bow-string of Ps. n. 2 , &c. 
Withe is properly a flexible twig, especially of the 
willow ; or a band of twisted twigs. 

WITNESS. See Testimony. 

WIZARD. See Divination. 

WOLF (Heb. ze'eb, Gr. lukos), common in Pal., 
especially in the less inhabited districts. The Pal. 
wolf is larger and lighter in the colour than the 
European variety. They do not hunt in such large 
packs as elsewhere, and are not infrequently found 
solitary. Singularly enough, the wolf is only men- 
tioned in Scripture in a metaphorical sense, as Gn. 
49. 27 ; Mw. 7. 15 ; Jn. io. 12 . One of the " princes " 
of Midian was called Zeeb, " wolf." 

WOMAN. I. In OT. times. II. In NT. and 
Christianity. 

I. (1) In ancient Isr., as in the ancient world 
generally, women were regarded as inferior to men. 
The husband was the head of the household, and his 
wife or wives were under his absolute authority, al- 
though in cases of cruelty or oppression the relatives 
of the woman might intervene. However, in earliest 
times in Isr., women seem to have occupied a much 
more honourable place than they enjoyed in later 
times or in surrounding heathen nations. In no 
period was the inferiority so emphasised as in rabbi- 
nical Judaism. We find Sarah, the wife of Abraham, 
holding a position of authority in Abraham's house- 
hold, while in the case of Isaac and Rebecca the 
latter seems to have been the ruling partner. In 
later times we find Zeruiah, the mother of David's 
generals, Joab and Abishai, always mentioned in- 
stead of the father whose name is unknown. In 
the kingdoms of Judah and Isr. the queen (1 K. 
15. 13 ) and the queen-mother (2 K. 8. 18 ) often exer- 
cised great influence. The fact that polygamy was 
sanctioned tended inevitably to lower the status of 
women to little more than that of a slave, who was 
bought from her parents by the husband. At all 
periods divorce was an easy matter for the husband 
but impossible for the wife, and the condition of a 
wife who had lost her husband's affection was ex- 
tremely precarious, if she were not backed by power- 



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ful relations or had borne him children (see Family, 
Marriage, Divorce). 

(2) In the sphere of religion women enjoyed very 
considerable privileges. This is also the case in 
other Semitic religions, where female deities often 
held a very important place, and women acted 
as priestesses. In the cult of Ishtar of Babylon 
married and unmarried women were to be found as 
temple slaves in connection with the immoral rites 
associated with this worship. Whenever idolatry 
prevailed in Israel women were found connected 
with it. Thus the introduction of Baal worship is 
ascribed to Jezebel in Israel and Athaliah in Judah, 
while the prophets frequently allude to the place 
taken by women in idolatrous rites. Thus Jeremiah 
(7. 18 ) refers to their baking cakes for the Queen of 
Heaven, and Ezekiel (8. 14 ) tells how he saw women 
joining in the lament for'Tammuz, the Babylonian 
Nature God, whose birth in spring and death in 
midsummer were occasions of rejoicing and mourn- 
ing respectively. 

In this way it is not surprising that women took 
part in the religion of Jehovah. We find that they 
attended the religious festivals. Women were pre- 
sent at Shiloh (Jg. 2i. 16 * 19 ; 1 S. I. 1 ' 4 , 2. 19 ), and the 
Israelite was ordered to eat the passover with his 
" daughter " and " maidservant " (Dt. I2. 18 ). The 
law required the attendance of men only at the 
yearly festivals (Ex. 23. 17 , 34- 23 ; Dt. 12. 18 ), but it 
did not prevent women from attending, and this 
seems to have been the custom. Women took part 
in prayer (cp. Hannah, I S. I. 19 ), sacrifices (cp. wife of 
Manoah, ]g. 13. 10 ), vows (Nu. 6. 2 ), consulted oracles 
(cp. Gn. 25. 22 ) and were granted theophanies (cp. 
Hagar,Gn. i6. 7fL , 2i. 17fl -; Sarah, i8. 9ff -; Manoah's 

wif e,Jg- i3- 3ff 0- 

(3) Among the religious offices held by women 
we find at the lowest stage (a) the witch. The OT. 
law condemned the practice and inflicted the pen- 
alty of death (Ex. 22. 18 ) ; but in spite of that the 
practice existed, and women who were supposed to 
have intercourse with the spirit-world were resorted 
to (1 S. 28. 17 ). (b) We find women taking part in 
the semi-religious rites of mourning (cp. Jr. 9. 17 ; 
Mk. 5- 38 ), while in the tabernacle and temple ser- 
vices women seem to have performed vajied duties 
as servants at the door (cp. Ex. 38. 8 ; I S. 2. 22 ), as 
singers and dancers on the occasion of victories (Ex. 
15. 20 ; Jg. 11. 34 ; iS. 18. 6 ; Ps.68. 25 ), and after the 
exile as members of the temple choir (Ez. 2. 65 ; Ne. 
7- 67 ). (c) The prophetic function was also dis- 
charged by women, though the word " prophetess " 
is sometimes applied to the wife of a prophet. 
Deborah (Jg. 4- 4 " 5 ) is both a prophetess and a judge. 
Josiah the king consults Huldah the prophetess 
(2 K. 22. 13 " 20 ), but the appearance of a prophetess 
was unusual. 

II. (1) In Christianity and in the early Church 



women enjoyed a freedom and independence in 
marked contrast to the suppression and subjection of 
the sex in other parts of the East. This is due partly 
to the influence and development of Jewish ideas, 
but especially to the attitude of Jesus to women and 
the general trend of Christian teaching. In the 
Jewish Church, in spite of many restrictions, women 
were recognised in the worship of the temple and 
the synagogue. No doubt their inferiority was 
definitely recognised. They were prohibited from 




A Modern Arab Woman 



approaching so near the altar as men, and sat apart in 
the synagogue, though in such places of prayer as 
that to which Lydia resorted (Ac. 16. 13 ) the separa- 
tion of worshippers could not have been so strongly 
emphasised. Christianity being a religion which 
made its appeal to the individual soul, whose value 
it esteemed higher than all else, even than the whole 
world, broke down minor barriers of distinction. 
Thus Jesus Himself appeals equally to women as to 
men. He thought it worth His while to go out of 
His way to meet an outcast Samaritan woman, and 
to the surprise of His disciples talked to her of the 
greatest religious themes (cp. Jn. 4. 7fL ). Many of 
His most intimate friends were women. He loved 
Martha and Mary of Bethany (Jn. II. 5 ). Con- 



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sidering the susceptibility of women to the deeper 
influences of religion, it is not surprising that they 
occupy a prominent place in the NT., and particu- 
larly in the life of Jesus. Women brought their 
children to be blessed of Him (Mw. 19. 13 ; Mk. io. 13 ; 
Lk. 1 8. 15 ) ; women followed Him on His last journey 
to Jerusalem and to the place of crucifixion (Lk. 
2 3- 27, 49 )- They performed the last rites for the 
dead (Lk. 23. 55 ), and were the first at the grave on 
the resurrection morning (Mw. 28. 1 ; Mk. 16. 1 ; 
Lk. 24. 1 ; Jn. 20. 1 ). In the same way in the early 
Church an important part was played by honour- 
able women such as Tabitha of Joppa (Ac. 9- 36 ), 
Lydia of Philippi (Ac. 16. 14 ' 16 ), Priscilla (Ac. 18. 26 ), 
&c. The declaration of Paul (Gal. 3. 28 ), that in 
Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor Greek, bond 
nor free, male nor female, expressed the principle 
which guided the Church in her attitude to distinc- 
tions of the ancient and Jewish world. At the same 
time, Paul himself, while giving due place to the 
dignity of womanhood, held that the wife must be 
in subjection to her husband (Eph. 5. 22 ' 23 ). In all 
the sacred rites of Christianity women enjoyed 
equal privileges with men, sharing in the yd gape and 
all acts of worship. 

(2) Offices held by women. We find no women 
among the apostles, nor any mention of women 
among the seventy sent out by Christ. None of the 
writers of the NT. were women, unless we accept 
Harnack's suggestion that Priscilla was the authoress 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews. There were no 
doubt women among the believers on the day of 
Pentecost who received the gift of tongues and 
probably the power to heal. We find it not un- 
known for women to speak in the church, a practice 
which Paul condemned at Corinth (1 Cor. 14. 34 ). 
The four daughters of Philip " who prophesied " 
(Ac. 2 1. 8, 9 ) were likely female missionaries or evan- 
gelists. Two offices are referred to in the NT. as 
being held by women, that of the deaconess and the 
widow, (a) Phoebe of Cenchrea is called a " ser- 
vant (deaconess) of the church " (Rm. 16. 1 ). Pro- 
bably her work consisted in caring for the sick and 
the poor, while the epithet " patroness " (AV. 
" succourer," Rm. 16. 2 ) suggests a woman of wealth 
and rank who could extend hospitality to her fellow- 
Christians. The women referred to in 1 Tm. 3. 11 
may be deaconesses, but the reference may be to the 
wives of the deacons. We find mention of deacon- 
esses in the post-apostolic age, but we cannot be 
sure that they constituted a recognised " order " 
in NT. times, (b) Widows. The passage 1 Tm. 
5. 3 > 9 ' 10 leads us to conclude that widows not only 
received charity but also held a distinct place and 
performed a definite function in the Church, as was 
the case in the second cent. (cp. Tertullian, Origen, 
&c). It is not at all clear what their work was, 
or whether it differed from that of the deaconess. 



(<:) We may also refer to the appearance in the 
early Church of female ascetics who had taken a 
vow of chastity and sought to keep it, while living 
together with men who had taken a similar vow. 
From the time of the Shepherd of Hennas onwards 
we have frequent reference to this form of asceti- 
cism, in which a man and woman inspired with en- 
thusiasm for the ascetic ideal entered into a so-called 
spiritual marriage. It is not unlikely that these 
female ascetics, spiritual brides (syneisaktoi), had 
already made their appearance in NT. times, and 
the reference in 1 Cor. y. 36 seems best explained as a 
case of spiritual marriage which had turned out a 
failure. Paul advises both, or at least the woman, to 
put an end to the precarious situation by marriage. 

W. F. Boyd. 

WOOL (Heb. tzemer, gez, " fleece ") w r as highly 
valued by the Jews for the manufacture of clothing 
(Pr. 3 1. 13 ; Ho. 2. 9 ). The tribute wh. Mesha k. of 
Moab paid to Jehoram was the W. of 100,000 lambs 
and of the same number of rams (2 K. 3. 4 ). When 
thoroughly bleached its shining whiteness made W. 
a symbol of purity (Is. I. 18 ; Dn. J. 9 ; Rv. I. 14 ) ; 
flakes of snow are compared to W. (Ps. 147 , 16 ) ; the 
" white W." of Damascus was highly prized (Ek. 
27. 18 ). The Israelites were forbidden to wear 
clothing made im. a mixture of linen and W. (Lv. 
19. 19 ; Dt. 22. 11 ) ; the reason appears to have been 
wholly symbolic. Over against the injunction to 
the priests to wear only linen Ezekiel placed a pro- 
hibition of wearing anything woollen as causing 
sweat (Ek. 44. 17, 18 ). The writer of Hebrews 
regards the " scarlet " of Ex. and Lv. as " scarlet 
wool " (He. 9. 19 ), a statement wh. implies the know- 
ledge of the process of dyeing W. on the part of the 
Jews. 

WORD. This term, as employed by the Bible 
writers, is exceedingly varied in its import. It sig- 
nifies (1) a single word ; (2) a number of words, 
composing a sentence or saying ; (3) an emphatic 
saying, e.g. a proverb, a command, a proclamation ; 
(4) language in general ; (5) the creative word of 
God ; (6) a Divine revelation, as in the prophetic 
formula, " the word of the Lord came unto me " ; 
(7) the sum of revelation, as contained in Old Testa- 
ment Scripture ; (8) the Christian Gospel. To 
these usages, all more or less frequent, there must be 
added (9) the peculiar usage in the prologue of the 
fourth Gospel, where Christ Himself is described as 
the Word made flesh. Not only is the term em- 
ployed in this wide variety of meaning, but it carries 
with it a pregnant significance which is wanting to it 
in our own language. A " word " to the Hebrew 
mind was something more than an articulate utter- 
ance conveying some idea. It was invested with a 
kind of reality. It was not merely the sign of a 
thing, but an inseparable part of the thing itself. 

The importance thus attached to spoken or 



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written words is ultimately due to a primitive mode forms His works of healing and controls the ele- 

of thinking, from which the Hebrew mind never ments by His word. He can say, " My words will 

entirely freed itself. Primitive man is unable to not pass away," i.e. they will continue to act until 

distinguish accurately between a symbol and the they have wrought their fulfilment. In the fourth 

fact which it represents. A name is identified with Gospel a peculiar emphasis is laid on the words of 

the person who bears it, so that he himself is sup- Jesus as in some measure representing Himself, 

posed to exert an influence when his name is uttered. To receive His word is not merely to accept His 

A word, likewise, is essentially bound up with the message but to enter into union with Him. His 

thing denoted by it : some portion of the reality is words are " spirit and life " ; they are instinct with 

present in the word. It is significant that in the the higher spirit that dwells in Him, and through 

Hebrew language the same term {dabar) has the them He imparts it to His disciples. A suggestion 

meaning both of " word " and " thing," and this of this kind appears to underlie the description of 

confusion in language helped, no doubt, to perpetu- the Christian message as " the word " {e.g. in the 



ate the confusion in thought. A word, to the Old 
Testament writers, had something of a concrete 
existence. It occupied an intermediate place be- 
tween the bare conception of a thing and its realisa- 
tion in the world of fact. 



parable of the sower). The message is regarded as a 
life-giving power. By means of it a new transform- 
ing influence has entered into the world. 

The Hebrew usage only accounts partially for the 
conception of Christ as the incarnate Word, which 



This peculiar value assigned to words generally is is presented in the prologue to the fourth Gospel, 

attributed, in an emphatic degree, to words spoken Here also there is a reference to Old Testament 

by God. They are regarded as the outgoing of the ideas of the creative and revealing word ; but these 

Divine personality, and as such possess a creative ideas are combined with others, derived from the 

and energising power. Thus in the first chapter of current Greek philosophy. The central doctrine of 

Genesis, the idea is not merely that God called the Stoicism was that of the Logos, or Divine reason, 

world into being by the fiat of His will. His word is which was immanent in all things ; and this doctrine 

conceived, rather, as a dynamic agency. It was a had been accepted, with some modifications, by 

power that went forth from God, and caused the Philo, the Jewish thinker of Alexandria, who lived 

various elements of the material world to shape about the time of Christ. He availed himself of the 

themselves out of chaos. In like manner the word twofold significance of the Greek term " logos " 

of God that comes to the prophets has for its pur- (" word " and " reason ") ; and identified the 

pose not only the revealing of future events, but " reason " of Stoicism with the " word " of the Old 

their accomplishment. The Divine threats and Testament. He thus arrived at the theory that 

promises are of the nature of living forces, which within the being of God there was a second Divine 

will henceforth take their part in human affairs and principle, which was God's agent in the creation 

work towards their own fulfilment. This idea is and government of the world. This doctrine of 

expressly set forth in Is. 55. 10, n . The word of the Philo was necessitated by the belief in the transcend- 

Lord is there compared to the fertilising influences ence of God which had come to prevail in Jewish 

of the natural world. It acts on the movements of thought. As the infinitely holy one, of purer eyes 

history, and causes them to bring about the Divine than to look upon iniquity, God could not Himself 

purposes. be in any direct relation to the world. He must 

The New Testament estimate of words is coloured therefore act through an intermediary; and this 

by the Hebrew conception ; and this is especially middle being was His " Word " or " logos." The 

noticeable in the teaching of }esus. He attaches a author of the fourth Gospel, in his desire to assert 

grave importance to even the idle words that men the Divine origin and nature of Jesus, falls back on 

speak (Mw. 5. 22 , 12. 36 ) ; and declares that the judg- the philosophical conception which was current in 

ment will turn not so much on actions as on words his day. He declares that in Jesus the " Word," 

(Mw. 12. 37 ). These difficult sayings are no doubt that existed from all eternity with God, had become 



to be explained in the light of the Hebrew idea in- 
dicated above. Words are possessed of a certain 
reality. Incalculable forces are let loose in them, 
to work either for good or evil. They contain some 
portion of the spirit of the man who utters them, 



flesh. But while he borrows the term and the con- 
ception, his thought is essentially different from 
that of Philo. To the Alexandrian thinker, the 
" logos " was little more than an abstract principle ; 
to St. John it is a personal existence. Philo regards 
so that the judgment on his words is a judgment on it from the Greek point of view, as the immanent 
himself. This strain of thinking can be discerned, reason of the world ; St. John reverts to the Hebrew 
even more clearly, in the references to our Lord's idea of the " word," as the active will and self- 
own words. They are not words only but instru- revelation of God. Above all, while St. John em- 
ments of power and vehicles of Divine influence, like ploys a philosophical term, his mind is directed from 
the words of God in the Old Testament. He per- the first to the actual revelation in Jesus Christ. 

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He has no interest in the doctrine of Philo except to include those who live in this world-age and the 

in so far as it illustrates and interprets the supreme spirit that animates them, in other words humanity 

significance of the historical Person. In the body of in its state of alienation from God, reference being 

the Gospel it recedes entirely into the background, made to its sons (Lk. 16. 8 , 20. 34 ), its rulers (i Cor. 

Jesus is described no longer as "the Word," but 2. 6, 8 ), its wisdom (i Cor. I. 20 , 2. 6 , 3. 18 ), and its 

under personal attributes as " the Son," or " the fashion (Rm. 12. 2 ). It is evil (Gal. I. 4 ), and under 

Son of God." the dominion of the Evil One (2 Cor. 4.*). From 

Apart from the prologue of the fourth Gospel the world in this sense of the term Christians are 

there is only one explicit reference to Jesus as " the delivered by Jesus (Gal. I. 4 ), they are exhorted not 

Word" in the books of the New Testament (Rv. to be conformed to it (Rm. 1 2. 2 ), and whilst living in 

19. 13 ). But the doctrine suggested by the name it they are to avoid its evil ways (Tt. 2. 12 ). 

can be traced more or less clearly in several writings (4) But of the words rendered world in NT. 

which are probably earlier in date than the Gospel kosmos occurs most frequently, and is of most im- 

(Col. 2. 15t ; He. i. 2 ' 3 ; Eph. I. 3 " 10 ). It may have portance because of the wealth of meaning with 

been introduced into the theology of the Primitive which it is used. It means literally an apt and 

Church by Apollos and other teachers who had been harmonious arrangement or constitution. Hence 

trained in the schools of Alexandria. it comes to denote the ordered surn-total of what 

E. F. Scott. God has created, i.e. the universe. This is its sig- 

WORLD. World is the rendering in AV. of five nificance in Jn. 17. 5 ' 24 ; Ac. 17. 24 ; Rm. I. 20 ; Eph. 



Heb. and four Gr. terms. 
I. Of the Heb. terms — 

(1) 'Erez means the earth, orhis terrarum (Ps. 
22. 27 ; Is. 23. 17 , 62. 11 ; Jr. 25. 26 ). 

(2) Hedel means literally cessation, and occurs 
only in Is. 38. 11 , where the rendering " world " is 
doubtful, some taking it to mean Hades. 



I.* ; He. 4. 3 ; 1 P. I. 20 . In other passages it means 
the abode of humanity, or that order of things of 
which man is the centre (Jn. I. 9 , 6. 14 , 16. 21 ; Rm. 
I. 8 ; 2 Cor. i. 12 ; Eph. 2. 12 ; 1 Tm. I. 15 , 6. 7 ; He. 
io. 5 , &c). Hence it comes to denote also humanity 
inhabiting the world (Mw. 13. 38 , 18. 7 ; Jn. 12. 19 ; 
Rm. 3. 6, 19 ; 1 Cor. 4- 9 ). It also includes in certain 



(3) Heled means duration or term of life, thence passages the earthly goods, pursuits, and interests 



world (Ps. 17. 14 , 49. 1 ). 

(4) l Oldm means an age past, present, or to come, 
hence this world or the world to come (Ps. 73. 12 ; 
Ec 3. 11 ). 

(5) Tebel means the fertile and inhabited earth, 
and occurs only in poetry (1 S. 2. 8 ; Jb. 18. 18 ; Ps. 
9. 8 i Pr. 8. 26 ; Is. 13. 11 ; Jr. io. 12 , &c). 

II. Of the Gr. terms— 



which make up human life in the world (Mw. 



16. 



1 Cor. 3. 22 , 7. 



Js. 2. 5 ; 1 Jn. 3. 17 ). But 



human sin has infected the kosmos and converted it 
into a source of spiritual danger. Its interests and 
pursuits, though legitimate in themselves, tend to 
seduce men from God. Hence has arisen that mean- 
ing of kosmos wh. is the most characteristic use of 
the word in NT. — that, namely, wh. denotes the 

(1) Ge corresponds in meaning to Heb. 9 erez, and present order of things manifested in and by the 
is rendered by world only in Rv. 13. 3 . human race as alienated from God, or in the 

(2) Oikoumene corresponds to Heb. tebel, meaning words of Westcott, "humanity in its present state, 
the inhabited earth (Mw. 24. 14 ; Lk. 4. 5 ; Ac. II. 28 , alienated from its Maker, and so far determining 
17.6. 3i } & c> ) # j n Lt. 2. 1 it means the Roman em- the character of the whole order to which man 
pire, and in He. 2. 5 it seems to designate the new belongs." This meaning is developed especially in 
order of things brought in by Christ. the writings of St. Paul and St. John. The kosmos 

(3) Axon corresponds to Heb. i Oldm i meaning the is transitory (1 Jn. 2. 17 ). The rudiments of the 
present age or the age wh. is to be inaugurated by kosmos are contrasted with the spirituality of the 
the regeneration of all things (Mw. 12. 32 ; ML Gospel (Gal. 4« 3 ; Col. 2. 8, 20 ), and its sorrow is 
io. 30 ; Lk. 18. 30 , 20. 34> 35 ; Eph. I. 21 ; He. 6. 5 ). In opposed to the sorrow of repentance (2 Cor. 7. 10 ). 
1 Cor. 2. 7 ; He. n. 3 , and perhaps also He. 9- 26 , the The standard wh. holds good in the kosmos for esti- 
plural seems to convey the idea of th e universe, o r mating men and things is not God's standard (1 Cor. 
" the sum of the periods of time, including all that I. 27, 28 , 4. 13 ; Js. 2. 5 ), and its wisdom is a fancied 
is manifested in and through them" (Westcott). wisdom wh. does not know God (1 Cor. I. 20,21 , 
It is chiefly as meaning the present world-age or 3. 19 ; Jn. I. 10 ). Neither can it receive the Spirit of 
dispensation that the word is rendered world in AV. Truth (Jn. 14. 17 ). The spirit wh. animates it is 
Mw. I3. 39 « 40 « 49 , 24. 3 , 28. 20 . But there is a de- opposed to the Spirit wh. is of God bestowed on 
velopment in its significance. In some passages it believers (1 Cor. 2. 12 ), and those who possess this 
denotes life in this present age with its complex of spirit of the kosmos are described as "of the kos- 
interests (1 Tm. 6. 17 ; 2 Tm. 4. 10 ), which interests mos" and are contrasted with Christ and His dis- 
may become a source of danger to the Christian ciples (Jn. 8. 23 , 15. 19 , 17. 14 ; 1 Jn. 4.*' 5 ). The state 



(Mw. 13. 22 ; Mk. 4. 19 ). 



In other passages it seems of the kosmos arising from the influence of this spirit 
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is one of dire moral corruption (Eph. 2. 2 ; I Jn. 
2. 15 " 17 ; Js. I. 27 , 4* ; 2 P. i. 4 , 2. 20 ). Indeed St. John 
declares that it is dominated by the Evil One (1 Jn. 
5. 19 ), who is called by Jesus the prince of the kosmos 
(Jn. 12. 31 , 14. 30 , 16. 11 ). Moreover the kosmos hates 
the Saviour and His followers, or at least is indif- 
ferent to both (Jn. 7. 7 , 15. 18 , 17. 14 ; 1 Jn. 3 > 13 , 4 ; 5 ), 
and its hatred tends to take the form of persecution 
(Jn. 16. 33 ). The friendship of the kosmos is enmity 
with God (Js. 4- 4 ). The kosmos is the subject of 
Divine judgment (Jn. 12. 31 ; Rm. 3- 6 ' 19 ; 1 Cor. 
6. 2 ), which judgment is brought about by Jesus 
coming into the world (Jn. 3. 19 , 9. 39 , 12. 31 ). It is 
liable to condemnation (1 Cor. II. 32 ). Neverthe- 
less God loved the kosmos and gave His Son to be its 
Saviour (Jn. 3. 16 " 19 ) ; He was in Christ, reconciling 
the kosmos to Himself (2 Cor. 5. 19 ) ; and the Son 
took on Him its sin (Jn. I. 29 ). Jesus Christ is the 
Saviour of the kosmos (1 Jn. 4. 14 ) ; He is the pro- 
pitiation for its sins (1 Jn. 2. 2 ) ; He has overcome it 
(Jn. 16. 33 ) ; He imparts life to it (Jn. 6. 51 ) ; and He 
is its light (Jn. 8. 12 , 9. 5 ). His disciples have been 
chosen by Jesus out of the kosmos (Jn. 15. 19 ), or ac- 
cording to another way of putting it, they have been 
given to the Son by the Father (Jn. 17. 6 ). On their 
behalf Jesus prays the Father, not that He wd. take 
them out of the kosmos, but that He wd. keep them 
from the Evil One (Jn. 17. 15 ). Jesus sends them 
into the kosmos (Jn. 17. 18 ), in wh. they are to shine 
as lights (Mw. 5. 14 - 16 ; Php. 2. 15 ). They are not to 
love the kosmos (1 Jn. 2. 15 ), but to keep themselves 
unspotted from it (Js. I. 27 ). They are to use the 
kosmos as not abusing it (l Cor. 7. 31 ). They are 
also to overcome the kosmos by faith (1 Jn. 5- 4, 5 ). 
Through the Cross of Christ the kosmos was crucified 
unto St. Paul and he unto the kosmos (Gal. 6. 14 ). 
The Gospel must be preached throughout the 
kosmos (Mw. 13. 38 , 26. 13 ; Mk. 14. 9 , 16. 15 ; 1 Tm. 
3. 16 ). The Paraclete will convince the kosmos of 
sin and righteousness and judgment (Jn. 16. 8 ), and 
through the mission of Jesus and the Paraclete the 
kosmos will come to knowledge and faith (Jn. 14. 31 , 
17. 21 ). As things are at present Christ's kingdom is 
not of the kosmos (Jn. 18. 36 ). But the time will 
come when it can be said, "The kingdom of the 
kosmos is become the kingdom of our Lord and of 
His Christ" (Rv. 11. 15 RV.). 

Lit. : Young's Analytical Concordance to the 
Bible ; Westcott's Commentary on St. John's Gospel, 
additional note at the end of chap. I. ; articles on 
" World " in HDB. and DCG. 

John W. Slater. 

WORM. Sometimes the earth worm, zohclle 
'eretz (Mi. 7. 17 ), but most generally the larva as of 
the clothes moth, sas (Is. 51. 8 ); again it is the 
" maggot " that devours animal remains, especially 
as devouring the corpses of human beings, rimmdh 
(Jb. 24. 20 '; Is. 14. 11 ). There is also told 1 , wh. is also 



rendered " scarlet " (Is. I. 18 ) ; fm. this it is deduced 
that tole'dh means the coccus worm fm. wh. the dye 
is got, but the usage rather points to a maggot of 
some sort (Is. 66. 24 ) ; the W. that killed Jonah's 
gourd is called tole'dh (Jh. 4. 7 ). 

WORMWOOD (Heb. la'andh). This is the EV. 
tr. in Dt. 29. 18 , &c. In Am. 6. 12 AV. trs. " hem- 
lock." Wormwood also stands for the Greek apsin- 
thos (Rv. 8. 11 ), the name of the star which fell upon 
the rivers at the sound of the third angel's trumpet. 
La'andh is probably a generic term covering the 
various species of wormwood — Artemisia nilotica, 
A. Judaic a, A. fruticosa, and A. cinerea, which are 
found in Palestine. It is used metaphorically, as of 
that which bears bitter fruit of sorrow, e.g. idolatry 
(Dt. 29. 18 , &c). Orientals speak of the calamities 
and griefs of life under names of bitter-tasting and 
evil plants. Wormwood also it is to be disap- 
pointed of justice (Am. 5. 7 ). 

WORSHIP (Heb. hishtahdveh, Gr. pros-kunes- 
thai, sebesthai, lat-reu-ein) stands for worth-ship — the 
state, thence the acknowledgment, of worth. Origi- 
nally it indicated respect and honour paid to men 
(Dn. 2. 46 ; Mw. 18. 26 ) as well as reverence towards 
God. In the latter sense it may appear in the 
homage of the individual soul (Ex. 34« 8 ; Ps. 5. 7 ; 
Mw. 4. 9f - ; He. Ii. 21 ), or in the united worship of a 
throng (1 Ch. 29. 20 ; Ne. 8. 6 ). OT. worship was 
always associated with sacrifice (Gn. I2. 7f - ; Ex. 
3. 18 ; I K. 8. 62 ; but cp. Is. I. llfl -, &c). Where 
priests and sacrifices were not available, however, 
and even alongside of them, there arose the syna- 
gogue. Apart from the festivals, it was the services 
of the synagogue, not of the Temple, that formed 
the model for Christian W. See Sacrifice, Syna- 
gogue, Temple. 

(1) The Master-hand of Jesus Christ. — Our Lord 
taught that true W. is a spiritual thing, not confined 
to specially sacred places. It must be in accord 
with the nature of Him who is both God and 
Father, and with our true relation to Him (Jn. 
4. 21 " 24 ). With the notable exception of the Sacra- 
ments He has not left any rubric. By open-air 
preaching and otherwise He has given W. a treat- 
ment divinely fresh. Here, as in other things, He 
did not set up stereotyped organisation, but sup- 
plied principles for the free development of the 
Church as led by His Spirit. Yet He was present at 
the great festivals, and it was His custom to attend 
the synagogue (Lk. 4. 16 ), including the afternoon 
or evening service (Mk. i. 29 « 32 ). He called the 
Temple the house of prayer for all nations (Mk. 
II. 17 ). Thus He acknowledged the obligation and 
benefit of stated W., and He attached a blessing to 
every meeting held in His name (Mw. 18. 20 ). 

(2) Primitive Christian Worship. — We find the 
earliest account in Ac. 2. 42 « 46f - RV. : " They con- 
tinued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and 



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fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the 
prayers." " And day by day, continuing stedfastly 
with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread 
at home, they did take their food with gladness and 
singleness of heart, praising God," &c. The first 
congregations, then, met in house-churches (v. 46 ; 
Rm. 16. 23 ; Col. 4. 15 ), and the Lord's Supper was 
dispensed there. This practice continued until 
about a.d. 200, and prob. much longer, except in the 
larger towns. Growing numbers, however, wd. 
require larger accommodation, and in 202-210 ap- 
pears the earliest trace of buildings being set apart 
exclusively for Christian W. 

At first the Jewish Christians continued to ob- 
serve the Sabbath and attend the Temple W. 
(Ac. 2. 47 , 3. 1 ) as well as Christian meetings. The 
apostles gladly preached in the synagogues until 
they were driven out (Ac. I3. 14 " 16 ' 50 , ic;. 8f -). Be- 
sides, they had to provide for Gentile Christians 
who had no connection with the synagogue. 
Originally there was a daily service (Ac. 2. 47 ), but 
gradually the Lord's Day became the day of inde- 
pendent W., along with Monday and Thursday, 
accdg. to synagogue practice, as additional days 
(prob. afterwards changed to Wed. and Friday). 
Pliny the Younger (Letter to Trajan, about a.d. 112) 
describes the meeting of the Christians before day- 
break, i.e. before they went to their work. Their 
singing was evidently antiphonal. He also speaks of 
another kind of meeting later in the day. 

For they had two kinds of worship-meeting. 
(1) One — correspdg. to the synagogue services — for 
prayer, praise, reading of the OT. and records of the 
life of Jesus (logia), also of apostolic letters (not yet 
called Scripture) ; and for exhortation (see I Cor. 
14.). Its characteristic was the freedom of all the 
members to use the gifts of the Spirit : its drawback 
was confusion. Prob. the recital of some short 
belief or creed found a place (1 Cor. 12. 3 ; also 
I Tm. 3. 16 , unless we call this the fragment of a 
hymn), like the recital of the Shema in the syna- 
gogue. An Amen was uttered by the worshippers 
at the end of the prayers. Catechumens, penitents, 
and heathen were also present. (2) A meeting for 
thanksgiving (eucharistia), which was sometimes 
conjoined with (1), and sometimes followed im- 
mediately upon the Agape or Love-feast. To this 
feast the brethren brought portions, so that rich and 
poor might share alike. The Communion offer- 
tory or collection for the poor is a modern survival 
of this. The Agape, however, was to be no selfish 
hustle, but a fitting introduction to the more 
solemn service of the Holy Supper (1 Cor. n. 20ff - 
RV.). Accdg. to the Didache (Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles) the prayers at this eucharistic 
service were not all in set form. " Let the pro- 
phets give thanks as much as they will." 

There are no annual Christian festivals in the NT., 



but the practice apparently has some apostolic 
sanction, for the early Christians, including the 
apostles, seem to have continued for a long time to 
observe the Passover and Pentecost with special 
reference to the death and resurrection of the 
Lord, and the gift of the Spirit. The observance 
of Christmas came much later. 

After the time of Justin Martyr (about 150 a.d.) 
we get only hints of Christian W. until the fourth 
century, when liturgical usage appears in a much 
more developed form. Development went on 
until W. became organised elaborately, and even 
overlaid and distorted with observances. The 
question must arise, " Did this proceed at all legiti- 
mately accdg. to the teaching of Jesus, NT. ideas, 
and early practice ? " 

(3) Principles of Worship. — W. is an instinct of 
the human heart, and it is a fallacy to sever it from 
all stated form. The NT., indeed, teaches that all 
our life is to be dedicated to God (Rm. 12. 1 ), and 
not merely certain places and seasons. Yet this 
does not take from the value of the thankful and 
deliberate acknowledgment of God, as in grace 
before meat (Mw. 14. 19 ; Ac. 27. 35 ), and in the W. 
of the home (Ps. 118. 15 ; Eph. 5. 19 ; Col. 3. 16 ), as 
well as in public worship. W. is the inner shrine of 
that sanctuary which is co-extensive with life, and 
without it the practical dedication is ready to vanish 
away. By direct precept we are told not to for- 
sake " the assembling of ourselves together " (He. 
io. 25 ). The quick-moving currents of modern life 
must never submerge the shrine, nor lead to that 
hurry which is fatal to W. 

In W., amidst variety of type, certain things shd. 
be observed. It must not be stiff and cold, but give 
living expression to Christian fellowship. Yet it is 
not a musical entertainment, nor a random outlet 
for free-and-easy religious talk. Amongst the notes 
of true W. may be named reverence and adoration 
(Ps. 95. 6 , 99. 9 ; Rv. 4. 10f -), order and beauty (Ps.96. 9 ; 
I Cor. 14. 40 ), joyousness (Ps. 100., 105. 3 , &c), peace 
and communion (Ps. 29. 11 ; Mw. 5. 23f -; Php. \? ; 

1 Jn. I. 3 ), of which last the forms of benediction 
are a continual reminder (Nu. 6. 24 " 26 ; I Cor. I. 3 ; 

2 Cor. 13. 14 ). 

Doxologies, and at least brief responses, are en- 
tirely Scriptural (Ps. 106. 48 ; 1 Cor. 14. 16 ; Rv. 
5. llfl -, 7. 9fL , &c). The latter infuse a popular 
element into W. The united recital of belief or 
creed is also good, but the creed must be living. 
The worshipping of angels is forbidden (Col. 2. 18 ; 
cp. Ps. 103. 20 , 148. 2 ). There is no hint whatever 
directing to the invocation of saints, but frequent 
thanksgiving for their witness to Christ, and their 
felicity now, animates the Church (He. 12. 23 , 13. ? ). 

Without doubt the W. of the Church is being 
greatly enriched from the hymns and prayers of the 
Christian centuries, and a limited liturgical element 



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is prob. quite in accordance with the origin and the 
primitive usages of parts of Christian W. Yet it 
must be recognised to the full that the best results 
are likely to be secured by giving scope also for the 
free development and expression of the Church's life 
by the lips of Spirit- taught men in every age (i Cor. 
I2. 1 " 12 , I4. 1 - 26 ' 39 ; 2 Cor. 3. 17 ; Gal. 5. 1 ). Nor 
can we fail to observe also that in and above 
all, Christians must " worship by the Spirit of 
God " (Php. 3. 3 RV.). Fittingly does Keble pray 
for the Church — 

'• Unlock her heart." 

W. is to be " unto edifying," but is not a mere 
nursery for pious culture and comfort. It is a 
Divine agency for the diffusion of saving truth and 
the bringing of men to Jesus Christ (1 Cor. I. 21 ). 
So preaching as a part of W. — the preaching of the 
Evangel — must have a leading place. 

" Catholic " W., in the true sense of that word, 
should include (a) a full and cordial expression of 
brotherly fellowship with other worshippers there 
present, and with all the faithful, to whatever 
communion they belong (1 Cor. I. 2f - ; Rm. 8. 14 ). 
(b) A recognition of the sacerdotal or priestly char, 
of W. The sacrifices are offered by the priesthood 
of worshipping believers (1 P. 2. 5 ; Rv. I. 6 RV.), 
while ministers, accdg. to the NT., are not mediat- 
ing priests, but presbyters or episcopoi " for the 
edifying of the body of Christ,'' solemnly ordained 
to office by apostolic authority (1 Tm. 4. 14 ; 2 Tm. 
I. 6 ). These sacrifices are praise and prayer (Ps. 
141. 2 ; Jr. 17. 26 ; He. 13. 15 ), the gift or offertory 
(Php. 4. 18 ; He. 13. 16 ), and specially the humble 
hearts and surrendered wills of the worshippers (Ps. 
51. 17 ; Rm. 12. 1 , 15. 16 ; Php. 2. 17 ). Oneofthebest 
things to-day is to train Christians to a high sense of 
their own priestly calling, to teach them to prepare 
for W., and in a number of cases to give them some 
further part, a reverent part, in it. A devotional 
spirit shd. be suitably fostered in the young, (c) In 
all her W., and with special vividness in the Holy 
Supper, the Church carries on before the eyes of 
men her impressive witness to the infinite saving 
love of her Lord. Here especially she points men 
to Him who as the Lamb slain from the foundation 
of the world, and the Eternal High Priest, presents 
His own perfect sacrifice before the throne, inter- 
cedes for His people, and reigns as King (He. 2.-10. ; 
Rv. 5., 7., 13. 8 ). Thus she tunes her lyre in har- 
mony with the W. of the Church triumphant and 
glorified (He. I2. 22f - ; Rv. 4. 9ff -, 5. 8fl -, J.™-), and 
looks forward to her own share in that glory when 
the Lord shall come (Eph. 5. 25 " 27 ; 1 Cor. n. 26 ). 
See also Church, Lord's Day, Minister, Praise, 
Prayer, Preaching. 

Lit. : HDB. iv., Worship {in NT.) ; Lindsay, 
The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries 
(1902), Lect. I. (V.), II. ; Schaff, History of the 



Christian Churchy first period, II. ix. § 51-7, second 
period, I. chap. v. ; Christian Worship (1897), ten 
lect. delivered in Union Semin., N.Y. ; Banner- 
man, Script. Doctr. of the Church (1887) '•> Duchesne, 
Christian Worship (Eng. tr., 1903), ii. § 1. 

Robert G. Philip. 
WRATH, an emotion caused legitimately by 
wrong or injustice, but also occasioned by hin- 
drance of plans. This emotion is transferred to the 
Almighty by anthropomorphism. The Heb. terms 
used denote the outward signs of this emotion, wh. 
are ascribed to God : thus aph suggests the distended 
nostrils and the hard breathing of a man in a pas- 
sion — this is ascribed to God (Ex. 22. 24 ) ; hemah, 
" heat," and haron y " burning," referring to the 
flushed and reddened countenance that shows and 
accompanies human rage ; 'ebrah, " outpouring," 
the flood of exaggerated and denunciatory language 
in wh. a man expresses his W. ; qetzeph, " splinter- 
ing," that excess of fury that leads persons to break, 
to crush, to splinter whatever comes in their way to 
express their feelings. We cannot speak of Deity 
except in anthropomorphic terms. This is obvious 
when the words used imply bodily organs ; but this 
likening of God to man is as really present in attri- 
buting human feelings, with all their limitations, to 
Deity. Yet at the same time that there shd. be 
some analogy is not only rendered probable, since 
man is made in the image of God, but is necessary 
since God has revealed Himself in such terms. 
With regard to W., human indignation is often 
Divine wrath finding a human instrument. When, 
however, we consider any attribute in the Divine 
Being wh. has a human counterpart, we must free it 
of all limitations ; thus when we speak of Divine 
love we must free it in our thoughts of everything 
of caprice or favouritism. So when we speak of the 
W. of God we must exclude f m. our thoughts every- 
thing that savours of caprice or of passionate aban- 
donment to emotion. We reach, when we do this, 
the idea that W. is the necessary attitude of the 
Divine nature to Sin — the misuse of the God-given 
power of self-determination : we know not what 
Sin really means in its essence and consequence, but 
God knows, hence the awful meaning of the orge 
Theou. We cannot comprehend what it means by 
piling up epithets ; we see it in the sufferings of 
Christ, but cannot realise more than in the faintest 
way the anguish that forced from the Sinless One 
the cry that God had abandoned Him. Yet He 
bore that W. only as representative of man. We 
cannot unveil the state of the lost ; the figures by 
wh. our Lord describes it, and those used by John, 
the apostle of love, make us feel that it is awful. We 
cannot understand the necessity for this, but neces- 
sity there must have been, for the fortuitous has no 
place in Deity. 

WRESTLING. See Games. 



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WRITING is visible speech. It is the art by 
which ideas are communicated, committed to suit- 
able materials in significant symbols, and provided 
with a record for their preservation and publication. 

Writing of Primitive Man. — In its most primitive 
forms writing is found to have been pictorial in 
character. The picture writing of the American 
Indians and the cave drawings of the early Bushmen 
in South Africa are the rude attempts of primitive 
man to convey to his fellows the conception of 
material objects in his own mind. It is from such 
picture writing that the Egyptian hieroglyphic, 
the ancient Babylonian cuneiform, and the Chinese 
ideographic forms have been developed. Between 




Ancient Egyptian Scribe 

this simple pictography and these scripts, not to 
speak of our highly developed alphabetic writing, 
there lies a long evolution, the stages of which it is 
now difficult to trace. The Cretan excavations 
throw considerable light upon this evolution. 
There is seen in the clay archives of the palace of 
Knossos, still undeciphered, evidence of an early 
pictographic stage, then a hieroglyphic or conven- 
tionalised pictographic system growing out of it, 
and, alongside of this, a linear script much more 
advanced, to which phonetic values early became 
attached. In the opinion of Mr. A. J. Evans we 
have here, if not the actual source of the later 
Phoenician letters from which the Greek and Roman 
alphabets have sprung, at least the best illustration 
of the elements out of which they were evolved. 

Antiquity of the Art of Writing. — The high an- 
tiquity of the art of writing has been established 



beyond question by the researches and discoveries 
of the last hundred years. The excavations at 
Nippur (supposed to be the Calneh of Genesis 
io. 10 ) have brought to light cuneiform inscriptions 
belonging to B.C. 3800, which exhibit the art of 
writing highly advanced, with characters already so 
far conventionalised that the original pictorial char- 
acter is entirely lost. Clay tablets more ancient 
still have been found in the same site, which suggest 
that writing was practised in Babylonia as early as 
B.C. 5000 or b.c. 6000. The excavations of Pro- 
fessor Flinders Petrie in the Egyptian royal tombs 
at Abydos disclosed inscriptions belonging to the 
earliest dynasties and even earlier, with hiero- 
glyphic writing in archaic forms pointing to 
B.C. 6000 as their period. It is notable here also 
that alphabetic signs are already in use, showing 
that the hieroglyphic system from which these were 
being evolved was of very ancient date. The dis- 
coveries at Knossos include inscribed clay tablets 
hieroglyphic in character, and they are of special 
interest as being probably the source of the pre- 
Phoenician scripts of Greece and the iEgean world. 
Of all the discoveries of recent years none is more 
significant, so far as the scope of this article is con- 
cerned, than that of the Tel el-Amarna tablets. 
They comprise some hundreds of letters found in 
the mounds of Tel el-Amarna, the ruined site of 
the temporary capital of Egypt at the close of the 
eighteenth dynasty, addressed to Amenophis III. 
and Amenophis IV. of Egypt a whole century 
before the Exodus. They were written in the 
cuneiform character by kings, princes, and gover- 
nors of Babylonia, of Assyria, of Syria, Phoenicia, 
and Palestine, who owed allegiance to the Pharaohs 
reigning on the banks of the Nile. They reveal to 
us the vastness of the Egyptian empire, which at the 
time stretched from the Nile to the Euphrates ; 
they show the widespread prevalence of the cunei- 
form script in the West ; and they give interest- 
ing indications of the pre-Hebraic, the Canaanite 
language of Palestine, from which it seems clear 
that the language of Canaan was essentially iden- 
tical with the Hebrew. Especially do these letters 
establish the fact that writing was already in use, not 
merely for treaties between nations and high con- 
cerns of state, but for business and friendship and 
love, and for all the ordinary purposes of civilised 
life. They show us writing perfectly developed; 
the writers not mere professional scribes, but people 
in varied ranks of life ; and the subjects of the let- 
ters the intrigues and the gossip of courts, and the 
quarrels and divisions of officials among themselves. 
If there were writers there must also have been 
readers, and the wide prevalence of writing points 
to considerable literary culture. With such con- 
ditions obtaining in Palestine and Western Asia, 
with the art of writing, though in character different 



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from the Hebrew, so widely practised, the means 
was already at hand for committing to a written 
record those family histories and national traditions 
which are found in Genesis and the other books of 
the Pentateuch. 

Ancient Hebrew Writing. — The Old Testament 
gives no hint of the time or manner of the introduc- 
tion of writing among the Hebrews. It would be 
interesting to know how long the Babylonian cunei- 
form continued to be the prevalent script in Canaan. 
It was practised in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the 
land, as we see from the Tel el-Amarna corre- 
spondence, and some have maintained that it held 
its ground down to the days of Hezekiah. Materials 
for a decision on the question at present fail us. It 
is interesting to learn that contract tables in the 
Assyrian language and character have been found 
in recent excavations at Gezer. A date has been 
assigned to them about the middle of the seventh 
century B.C., in the reign of Manasseh, but they may 
only point to the Assyrian occupation of Palestine 
and its influence in Manasseh's day. 

The Israelites brought with them when they 
settled in Canaan no script peculiarly their own, but 
adopted the Phoenician alphabet which they found 
already in the land, and which was common to most 
Semitic peoples — to Moabites and Syrians as well 
as Hebrews. The origin of the Phoenician or old 
Semitic alphabet has not been conclusively deter- 
mined. Some scholars would derive it from the 
Egyptian in its hieratic form ; others from the 
Assyrian cuneiform ; others from the still myste- 
rious Hittite characters ; and others maintain its 
Babylonian origin, ascribing the twelve original 
consonants to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. We 
have seen how Cretan excavations have opened up 
other possibilities of its development. 

The earliest appearance of Semitic alphabetic 
writing of any considerable account is on the 
Moabite Stone, discovered at Dibon, 25 miles east 
of the Dead Sea, in 1868, and now among the 
treasures of the Louvre in Paris. The monument 
commemorates the victory of Mesha, king of Moab, 
over Jehoram, king of Israel, and the mention of 
Mesha corroborates the narrative of 2nd Kings (3. 3 )° 
It belongs to about B.C. 850, and the inscription 
consists of thirty-four lines, the form of the letters 
being already cursive. From Palestine proper there 
is the Siloam inscription discovered in the wall of 
the tunnel connecting the Virgin's Fountain with 
the Pool of Siloam, some 19 ft. or 20 ft. from its 
outflow into the Pool. As the construction of the 
tunnel has been ascribed to king Hezekiah (2 K. 
20. 20 ), and as the inscription is believed to refer to 
its completion by his builders, the writing may 
belong to the end of the eighth or the beginning of 
the seventh century B.C. Until the present year 
(1909), these were the only inscriptions of any con- 



siderable length bearing witness to the form of the 
old Hebrew script. Now from the excavations at 
Gezer there comes what is agreed to be a calendar 
inscription, discovered by Mr. R. A. S. Macalister 
in the course of 1908, and written in the same type 
of Hebrew script as the Siloam inscription and that 
of the Moabite Stone. The fortunate discoverer 
places the date in the sixth century b.c, but Prof. 
Lidzbarski, a careful and learned epigraphist, takes 
it to be much, older, and reckons it perhaps the oldest 
Hebrew inscription extant — at all events one of the 
oldest of the Semitic inscriptions. But modifica- 
tions from an early period are found taking place in 
the characters. This is observed in the inscriptions 
obtained in the excavations at Sinjirli, believed to 
date from the eighth century, which exhibit partly 
the archaic type represented by the Moabite Stone 
and partly the Aramaic type of the Semitic alpha- 
bet. The old Hebrew script has been found also in 



■A *ft 



*u 



J^^-7-f 



K^r+^n- 



t -,j% 



11 y z - **\r 






"k ■ %jr-j- 



V 



Siloam Inscription 

pre-exilic times on seals and weights and jar handles 
discovered at Jerusalem, Tell es-Sdfi, Tell Zaka- 
rlya, and other places where excavation has been 
carried on. 

Quite recently a new chapter has been added to 
the story of the Old Hebrew by the discovery in 
1904 of several rolls of Aramaic papyri at Assouan, 
far up the Nile. As they are dated, they are de- 
cisive witnesses. They cover a large part of the 
fifth century B.C., from b.c 471 to b.c 411. The 
documents afford proof that within a century after 
the death of Jeremiah a colony of Jews had found 
their way to Assouan, and had acquired houses 
and other property, and were engaged in trade as 
bankers and money-lenders. The historical and 
religious interest of these papyri is great, and 
scarcely less is their palseographic and literary in- 
terest. By this find, Professor Sayce affirms, new 
words and meanings are added to the Aramaic 
dictionary, and new forms or idioms to Aramaic 
grammar, while the origin of Biblical Chaldee is at 
length explained to us. While the language is 
Aramaic, the written characters are of the Old 
Hebrew type, only assimilated somewhat to the 
ordinary square characters with which we are 
familiar. 

The square character, according to Jewish tradi- 
tion, followed by the early Christian fathers, and by 
many scholars still, is to be attributed to Ezra, who 



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brought the new forms of the letters with him on 
his return with the company of exiles in b.c. 458. 
It is more likely that the transition from the archaic 
script to the square character came gradually. 
Very likely it began among the Jews of Mesopo- 
tamia and Babylon, and then spread over the 
Aramaic-speaking worlds including Egypt. After 
the Maccabaean persecution and the destruction of 
copies of the law by the Syrian oppressors of Israel, 
the manuscripts produced to replace the lost copies 
may have been written in the square or Aramaic 
character. Judas Maccabaeus gathered together 
" all those writings that had been scattered by 
reason of the war that befell, and they are still with 
us," is the testimony of the Maccabaean chronicler 
(2 M. 2. 14 ). The Samaritans, however, adhered to 
the archaic characters, and their Pentateuch is the 
only literary representation of the Old Hebrew 
script which survives. The transition from the 
old script to the square type was complete by 
the Christian era, for the reference to yodh as the 
smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Mw. 5. 18 ) 
would have no significance as applied to the older 
form, which is not by any means diminutive. 

From the time of Ezra, who is described as " a 
ready scribe in the law of Moses " (Ez. 7. 6 ), atten- 
tion to written Scripture undoubtedly increased, 
and the work of the scribes in copying and trans- 
mitting the sacred books became of great impor- 
tance. In the synagogue rolls the writing is in 
unpointed Hebrew— that is, Hebrew without the 
vowel points — to this day. But when Hebrew as 
a living language was passing away, those who were 
in possession of " the tradition " (Heb. Massora), 
called the Massoretes, devised a system of punctua- 
tion by which to represent the proper vowels and 
continue the correct pronunciation. The Hebrew 
text thus supplied with vowel signs is called the 
Massoretie text. Manuscripts containing the He- 
brew text, which were fit for synagogue use only 
when written on the skins of clean animals and in 
the square character, are not to be found earlier than 
the ninth century a.d. Of the New Testament 
there are manuscripts as early as the fourth century ; 
but despite the lack of early copies, so carefully has 
the Hebrew text of the Old Testament been pre- 
served, that the revisers of 1884 thought it most 
prudent to adopt the Massoretie text as the basis of 
their work, and to depart from it, as the Authorised 
Version did, only in exceptional cases. 

Ancient Greek Writing. — It has long been held 
that the Greek and Roman alphabets were derived 
from the Phoenician, and the legend of Cadmus 
claims for Bceotia the glory of having been the birth- 
place of the Greek alphabet. The Cretan excava- 
tions, however, have discovered evidence that forms 
identical with many of the later Greek letters were 
in use for technical purposes in the iEgean world 



centuries before the introduction of the Phoenician 
alphabet. Cadmus and the Phoenician writings, it 
is now suggested, may only be one of the earliest 
Greek traditions of men who used the script of 
Knossos. The letters of the original Greek alpha- 
bet are the same in number as the Phoenician and 
Hebrew, and agree with them in name, arrange- 
ment, and form. As the Semitic languages were 
written from right to left, so it was with the earliest 
Greek. This was followed by the style called bou- 
stro-pbedon, alternately from right to left and from 
left to right, as the ox draws the plough. The 
earliest Greek inscriptions to which a date can be 
assigned, the inscriptions cut on the gigantic figure 
of Rameses II. at Abu Simbel on the Nile by Greek 
mercenaries in the Egyptian army about B.C. 600, 
show writing from left to right, and this method 
by - and - by became universal. Inscriptions on 
monuments were engraved in capital letters, called 
Uncials, a form in which the letters were not joined 
together but set down side by side. This form of 
writing was also employed for books, and from the 
third century before Christ, to which recently re- 
covered papyri go back, we can trace its peculiarities 
in notable examples. Alongside of the uncial char- 
acters, even before the Christian era, the Cursive and 
smaller form, in which the letters were joined, arose. 
This running hand becomes common in manu- 
scripts of the New Testament from the ninth cen- 
tury onwards. 

Materials used to receive Writing. — Stone and 
rock must have been among the earliest writing 
materials. The Moabite Stone and the Rosetta 
Stone are examples of a multitude of such. The 
Rock of Behistun, with its three different types of 
cuneiform, played an important part in the de- 
cipherment of the script by Grotefend and Rawlin- 
son seventy years ago. There are indications of the 
Egyptian origin of the book of Job, and it may be 
one of them when he prays that his words may be 
" graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for 
ever " (Jb. 19. 24 ). From the mounds that cover 
the ancient cities of Babylonia and Assyria it is 
estimated that there have come not less than 
160,000 clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform 
characters. Cylinders, vases, and bricks of the 
same material bearing inscriptions of considerable 
length, or only an explanatory docket, or a royal 
name, survive in abundance. It was possibly clay 
tablets of which Isaiah (8. 1 ) and Jeremiah (17. 1 ) 
were thinking when they wrote ; and the tile on 
which Ezekiel (4. 1 ) was to portray Jerusalem would 
be a brick of clay not yet dry. Wood was largely 
in use in the form of tablets before the introduction 
of papyrus (Is. 30. 8 ; Hb. 2. 2 ). We have an instance 
of wood in the " writing table " — a wooden tablet 
smeared with wax — on which Zacharias (Lk. I. 63 ) 
wrote the name of the infant John the Baptist. Of 



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recent years quite a literature has been gathered 
from ostraca — shells, tiles, potsherds, on which 
accounts and business documents were written in 
the common Greek spoken in the Delta from the 




Inscribed Bricks : Ancient Babylonia 



2nd cent. b.c. onwards. No traces, however, of NT. 
Lit. have been found on them. Linen and leather 
were also in use in Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. 

The two materials which have carried down to 
us the greatest treasures of ancient literature are 
papyrus and parchment. Papyrus was a product 
of Egyptian growth (Is. 18.' 2 RV.), and papyrus 
writing, which in any other soil or climate would 
have been sure to perish, has been preserved in the 
tombs and the sands of Egypt from a very high 
antiquity. The Papyrus Prisse in the National 
Library at Paris was originally written in Egyptian 
hieratic script in the reign of Assa (b.c. 3580-3536), 
and copied on to the papyrus now in existence 
some time in the Twelfth Dynasty (2778-2565). 
The Assouan papyri, to which reference has been 
made, are the oldest representatives of Aramaic or 
Hebrew in this material. The Greek papyri re- 
covered from the sands of Egypt, from Memphis 
and Saqqara, from Akhmim, Oxyrhynchus, and the 
Fayoum, are numerous and precious. They include 
fragments of the Phcedo of Plato (copied, it is be- 
lieved, within a hundred years of the death of the 
author), of the lost Antio-pe of Euripides, and of 
other notable works. Most remarkable of all was 
the recovery of Aristotle's treatise on the Consti- 
tution of Athens, a work which had been lost to 
scholarship for a thousand years. Papyri contain- 
ing Biblical passages are comparatively rare. The 
originals of the New Testament books, and copies 
direct from them, would from frequent use have 
perished early. From Oxyrhynchus there has 
come quite recently a papyrus of the fourth cen- 
tury containing about a third of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews ; and there are fragments of Old Tes- 
tament books, of the Gospels, and of St. Paul's 
epistles, amounting in all to a few hundred verses. 
Even these', however, are of value for the deter- 



mination of the text of the New Testament books. 
" The Sayings of the Lord," the New Sayings, 
and a Fragment of a lost Gospel — an Apocryphal 
writing brought from Oxyrhynchus by Messrs. 
Grenfell and Hunt — are believed to be of the third 
century, and are also of interest and value. Whilst 
thus far the Egyptian papyri have preserved only 
fragments of the Christian Scriptures, they have 
immensely enlarged our acquaintance with the 
common Greek of the times of the Lord and His 
apostles, and with its peculiarities of verbal usage 
and grammar and syntax. They have thus fur- 
nished most helpful illustrations of the language 
of the New Testament writers, and provided addi- 
tional and important aids to the interpretation of 
our sacred books. Papyrus is referred to in 2 Jn. 12 , 
where the Greek word is translated " paper." 

Parchment, being of greater durability and being 
more generally procurable, and being, moreover, 
adopted by preference for Jewish and Christian 
books, obtained ultimately the supremacy for all 
literary pu 1 poses. Down to the beginning of the 
fourth century Bibles were to be found on papyrus 
rolls as well as in parchment codices or books. Even 
then, however, codices were more numerous and 
held to be of greater value. When Constantine 
instructed Eusebius of Cassarea to prepare for him 
fifty Bibles for use in Christian Churches now that 
Christianity was the religion of the empire, it was on 
parchment that they were written, and our two 
great manuscript Greek Bibles, the Sinaitic and the 
Vatican codices, are with good reason believed to 
be two of the fifty. From that time onwards the 
parchment codex became the rule, and held its 
ground till the invention of printing and the use 
of paper superseded it. Parchment was prepared 
from the skins of goats, sheep, calves, asses, ante- 
lopes. The Sinaitic manuscript is written on very 
fine parchment or vellum, believed to be from the 




Modern Egyptian Writing Materials 

skins of antelopes, though this is questioned in view 
of the difficulty of obtaining them in sufficient 
number for such a large book. The difficulty is 
seen when it is remembered that each sheet of two 
leaves would have required a single skin. Parch- 

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ment owes its name and its wide diffusion as a 
writing material before our era to the encourage- 
ment of Eumenes II. of Pergamum (b.c. 197-159), 
who being prevented by the jealousy of the reigning 
Ptolemy from obtaining papyrus for his literary 
enterprises from Egypt, set himself to manufacture 
parchment and called it fergamene. Whilst parch- 
ment under this name dates from the second cen- 
tury before Christ, the use of vellum prepared from 
skins was of much greater antiquity. It was early 
adopted by the Jews. Josephus mentions a splendid 
roll of the law written upon vellum in letters of 
gold, which was sent from Jerusalem to Ptolemy 
Philadelphus about b.c. 285. For the synagogue 
rolls it was strictly enjoined that the skins of clean 
animals and no others were to be prepared. The 
books copied and multiplied by the scribes from the 
time of Ezra downwards must have had much the 
same appearance as the rolls of the law still in use 
in the synagogue. There are references to the roll 




1, Egyptian Scribe writing on Tablet; 2, 3, Cases for 
Writing Materials 

in various Biblical passages : the roll written within 
and without of Ezekiel's prophecy — written on 
both sides, which was customary in documents 
prepared solely for preservation (Ek. 2, 9 ) ; the roll 
of a book written with the words of God against 
Israel by Baruch as Jeremiah's amanuensis, and 
afterwards contemptuously cut in pieces and cast 
into the fire by Jehoiakim the king of Judah (Jr. 
36. 2, 23 ), although here the mention of leaves sug- 
gests papyrus as the material ; the scroll rolled up 
(Rv. 6. 4 ) ; the roll of the book (Hb. 10. 7 ). The 
parchments (2 Tm. 3. 13 ) asked for by St. Paul be- 
sides the books may have been clean, unused sheets. 
Of writing implements there is mention. The 
iron pen, or stylus, was used when the writing was 
on stone (Ex. 32. 16 ), or the rock (Jb. 19. 24 ), or clay. 
But the reed pen (kalamus) is used when parchment 
or papyrus is the substance receiving the writing (Jr. 
36. 2 « 23 ; 2 J. 13 ). The ink used was generally 
black (Jr. 36. 18 ; 2 Cor. 3. 3 ; 2 J. 12 ; 3 J. 1 3 ), but 
in MSS. of the NT. and in some of the versions, 
red, blue, green and yellow inks are found. Ezekiel 
(9. 2 - 3 » 4 ) tells us of the ink-horn, a case for holding 
the reed pens, with an ink-holder attached near 
the mouth of the case, wh. hung from the girdle. 
It has been suggested that " the cloke " urgently 
required by St. Paul (2 Tm. 3. 13 ) was the leather 



case for holding his rolls, but it was more likely a 
wrap to cover him in his rigorous imprisonment. 

Writing in the Old Testament. — From what has 
been said of the prevalence of writing in Canaan and 
in the countries bordering upon it from an antiquity 
much higher than the days of Moses, it can scarcely 
be doubted that writing was practised from the 
earliest days of Israelitish history. There is, indeed, 
no reference to writing at the purchase by Abraham 
of the cave of Machpelah (Gn. 23.), but not far 
from Hebron was Debir, known of old as Kirjath- 
Sepher, Book-Town, or Scribe-Town, where there 
may have been a library. The frequency with 
which the verb to write (kathabh) occurs in the 
Hebrew Scriptures — over two hundred times — 
suggests that the art was widely known and was 
not confined to a professional class. That there 
were official or professional writers we know from 
the frequent mention of such functionaries. The 
" officers " (shoterim) mentioned in Exodus (5. 6 « 10> 
14,15.19^ Numbers (n. 16 ), Deuteronomy (i. 15 , 
29. 10 , &c), Joshua (i. 10 ), and elsewhere, appear to 
have had secretarial as well as other duties. At the 
court of David, and at a later time, there was a 
recorder, or official annalist, as well as a scribe, or 
secretary, to whom were entrusted the drafting and 
keeping of official documents. The practice of the 
art is assumed in what is said of the Tables of the 
Testimony " written on both their sides," " the 
writing of God graven upon the tables," " written 
by the finger of God " (Ex. 31. 18 , 32. 15 ), given to 
Moses and containing the Ten Commandments. 
The knowledge of the art is implied in the blotting 
of the name out of God's book (Ex. 32. 32 * 33 ), and in 
the priest blotting out the curses with the water of 
bitterness (Nu. 5. 23 ), and such like. The book of 
Jashar (Jo. io. 13 ; 2 S. I. 18 ) and the book of the 
Wars of the Lord (Nu. 21. 14 ) were undoubtedly 
early written documents. Joshua (8. 31 ) wrote a 
copy of the law of Moses in the presence of the 
children of Israel. The young man whom Gideon 
caught at Succoth " wrote down for him " (Jg. 
8. 14 ) the officials of Succoth and its elders. Samuel, 
when he had told the people " the manner of the 
kingdom," wrote it in a book (1 S. io. 25 ). We read 
of a letter from David to Joab (2 S. 1 1. 14 ) containing 
the death-warrant of Uriah, and of a letter from the 
king of Syria to the king of Israel (2 K. 5. 5 ), and of 
the letter of the Assyrian conqueror which Hezekiah 
spread before the Lord (2 K. 19. 14 ). By the time 
we reach the earliest of the writing prophets we read 
of a written Torah or Law (Ho. 8. 14 ), and Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are all familiar with writing 
and gifted with the art. Ezra is " the scribe " by 
pre-eminence, and from his day onward reading and 
writing became an essential part of the " education " 
of Jewish youth. For Lit. see Addenda, p. lx. 

Thomas Nicol. 



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XERXES. See Ahasuerus. 



YARN. This word appears twice in AV. (i K. 
io. 28 = 2 Ch. i. 16 ), and in RV. twice (Pr. 7. 16 ; 
Ek. 27. 19 ). We are told that king " Solomon had 
horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn : the 
king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price." 
The word here is miqweh, wh. we should almost cer- 
tainly understand as RV., and read " received them 
in droves, each drove at a price." In Pr. 7. 16 the 
word is 9 etun, of unknown etymology. It can 
hardly be " fine linen " (AV.) ; it probably means 
thread or yarn (RV.). In Ek. 27. 19 the rendering 
" with yarn " cannot be defended. See Uzal ; 
also Spinning and Weaving. 

YEA AND NAY. In old English " yea " and 
" nay " answered questions which were framed in 
the affirmative ; " yes " and " no," those framed in 
the negative. From ancient times in the East the 
simple response has not been deemed sufficient for 
assurance ; it must be strengthened by some form 
of oath. But where a man's simple word is not 
trusted, this impairs the sense of sincerity in com- 
mon speech; and the unhappy fact is that familiarity 
with even the most solemn forms of oath breeds a 
sort of contempt, and they are played with as lightly 
as the terms they were designed to strengthen, so 
that confidence in men's truthfulness tends to dis- 
appear. Of this there is ample evidence in the 
East to-day ; where oaths are upon every lip in 
abundance, but where none will trust his fellow's 
word. This helps us to understand the necessity 
for Christ's exhortation (Mw. 5. 37 ), and that of 
James (5. 12 ). Whatsoever is more than " yea " or 
" nay " " cometh of sin," i.e. is due to the wicked 
looseness as to the obligation of truthfulness, which 
shakes man's confidence, making necessary an appeal 
to a higher power, to vindicate the truth if falsehood 
is spoken. 

YEAR. As all our measurements of time are 
really founded on motions of the earth — supple- 
mented in regard to the month by those of the 
moon — we can begin the study of these measure- 
ments most naturally with the year, the longest of 
motions. Genetically the first measure of time 
recognised wd. necessarily be the " day " — the space 
of time fm. one sunrise or sunset to another. The 
revolution of the earth on its axis gave the first 
period, with its succession of " day " and " night," 
wh. was endlessly repeated. The next repetition 
with wh. men wd. become acquainted wd. be the 



phases of the moon. The splendour of the moon in 
Egypt and SW. Asia cd. not fail to attract any one 
who was abroad at night ; this wd. lead speedily to 
observing its waxing and waning, its disappearance 
in the radiance of the sun, and its reappearance as a 
thread-like crescent. This supplied a second shdndh, 
or " repetition." To those living beyond the 
tropics the succession of summer and winter wd. be 
as observable as day and night ; even within the 
tropics there are other seasons, but not as noticeable. 
This wd. be reinforced by the observation of the 
stars. In Egypt and the hither East the stars are 
much more striking objects than they are in cloudier 
climates, and very early they were grouped in con- 
stellations. The stars that occupied the region of 
the heaven at night through wh. the sun passed 
during the day were regarded as of special signifi- 
cance. The sun's course among the stars as they 
reckoned it, the earth's revolution round the sun as 
we recognise it to be, marked off the year. When 
men passed fm. the nomadic to the agricultural 
stage, the operations of husbandry gave an addi- 
tional meaning to the " Year." 

The Year. — The relation in wh. these various 
units stood to each other one can easily imagine wd. 
soon compel consideration. It is possible that the 
Babylonians, with that fondness for a duodecimal 
system of numeration wh. they handed down to us, 
divided the Zodiac into twelve " houses," irrespec- 
tive of the fact that twelve lunations or lunar 
months nearly coincided with the time occupied by 
the sun's cycle in the heavens. Though borrowing 
so much fm. Babylon, the Jewish Y. was fundamen- 
tally a lunar one ; to the Jews the Y. was an aggre- 
gate of months, the month was not a section of a 
year. In Ex. 12. 2 the Israelites were commanded 
to observe the Passover on the 14th day of the 
month Abib (afterwards Nisan), and it was to be to 
them " the beginning of months, the first month of 
the year." Such a command appears to imply that 
before this the Y. had begun at another date. The 
presumption wd. be that this command was obeyed 
throughout the history of Israel. Though the 
passage (Ex. I2. 1 " 20 ) is credited by certain critics to 
P. and declared to be post-exilic, yet no priestly 
writer wd. be able to presume that the fifty years in 
Babylon had obliterated fm. the memory of the 
scores of survivors how they had been accustomed to 
reckon the months of the year. 



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Professor Marti asserts : ' ' There is absolutely no evidence 
for any such system before the Exile" (EB.). His sole 
evidence for his belief that the year began with Tishri is the 
phrase in Ex. 23. 16 , " the end of the year," referring to the 
"Feast of Ingathering," wh. was otherwise called the 
" Feast of Tabernacles," and a similar phrase in Ex. 34.22. 
The whole passage has reference to the operations of hus- 
bandry. On the other side Solomon " began to build the 
house of the Lord in the second month, the month Zif." 
No one in Pal. wd. begin building in November, whereas 
May wd. be quite natural; further, Zif is the month of 
flowers : no flowers can be gathered in November. Again, 
Jeroboam made a feast on the 15th of the eighth month 
(1 K. i2. S2 ), " a month wh. he had devised of his own heart," 
"like unto the feast that is in Judah " ; the feast was on the 
15th of Tishri, wh. in regard to the feasts was called the 
seventh month : Jeroboam had reckoned fm. April. In 
Jeremiah 36.22 we are told of king Jehoiakim that he " sat 
in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a 
fire on the hearth burning before him." If the ninth month 
were December, we can understand the winter house and 
the brazier, but not if it is the month of June. Comment is 
superfluous. 

As they seem to have known the average length 
of the solar Y., there must have been some method 
of adjusting the year of twelve lunar months to 
it. The Jews have a cycle of nineteen years, in 
the course of wh. they introduce in seven of 
these years an intercalary month, Vea&ar (lit. 
" and Adar "). There are traces of a division 
into seasons : God promises, after the Flood has 
passed away, that " seedtime and harvest, and 
cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and 
night shall not cease " (Gn. 8. 22 ) ; here " cold and 
heat " appear to suggest a twofold division of the Y. 
according to the prevalent lower or higher tempera- 
ture. There remain four seasons that are here 
named consecutively : " seed-time " (zero 1 ) and 
" harvest " (qatzir) mean respectively November 
to the end of January, and fm. then to the end 
of April or the beginning of May. Then follows 
" summer " (qitz) with its numerous varieties of 
soft fruits, June and July ; " winter," or perhaps 
"vintage" (borepb), September and October: it may 
be that the qor zua bom, the " cold and heat," refer 
to the months of February and August, respectively 
the coldest and hottest months of the year in Pal. 

We have further to consider the way in wh. 
separate years were determined. There were no 
" eras " in general use in SW. Asia during the period 
embraced in OT. history, hence years were desig- 
nated by their place in the reign of each successive 
sovereign. This method of dating involved several 
difficulties, when regarded as a general system ; one 
of the most obvious was the difficulty of determining 
how to designate the year of a king's accession. To 
reckon his regnal year as counting fm. the day he 
ascended the throne wd. involve practically a new 
calendar with each reign ; in Israel, however small 
a portion of a year was to run on his accession, that 
whole year was reckoned the first of the given king. 
In this way every year in wh. a change of sovereign 
occurred was counted twice. It was the last year of 



the late king, and the first year of the new. The 
Babylonians remedied this by calling the months 
wh. had to elapse till the first New Year after a 
king's accession " the beginnings of his reign." In 
Maccabaean times the era of the Seleucids was the 
one generally in use. There were attempts made 
to form a purely Jewish era, starting fm. the 
Creation, reckoned by " weeks of years " and by 
" jubilees." There are traces of this in Enoch, 
chap. 92. ; and the whole chronology of the book 
of Jubilees is built up on it. There is, however, no 
evidence of its use beyond the Apocalyptic school. 
There is an interesting if somewhat amusing ex- 
position of the length of the year and the cause of 
the lengthening and shortening of the day in Enoch, 
chap. 79. ; the year is reduced to 364 days, so that 
there mt. be exactly fifty- two weeks in it. As to the 
lengthening and shortening of the day, the writer 
declares " that in midsummer the day is to the 
night as ten is to eight, and that in winter it is the 
converse." 

Month. — To a nomadic people the phases of the 
moon were very important, so it was but natural 
that there shd. be feasts at New Moon and at Full 
Moon. Fm. the week of seven days being in use in 
Babylon as well as among the Jews, it wd. seem that 
the month was reckoned as having twenty-eight 
days, each phase having seven days. The next 
hypothesis, also emanating fm. Babylon, seems to 
have been to make it consist of thirty days ; twelve 
of these months wd. go to the year. It wd. soon 
be found that if twenty-eight days was too short, 
thirty days was too long ; it was found that twenty- 
nine days and a half was a close approximation. It 
was thus arranged that the months shd. be alter- 
nately twenty-nine and thirty days. The lunar 
year thus reached was found to be much too short. 
As the Jewish festivals had a close connection with 
agriculture, a purely lunar year soon was at variance, 
so we have seen they adopted a system of inter- 
calary months. While the months are often 
spoken of numerically as first or second, they had 
also names. There were first names the Israelites 
shared with the Canaanites, of wh. some four have 
been recorded in Scripture — Abib, Zif, Ethanim, 
and Bul : some of these are found on Phoenician 
inscriptions, e.g. Bul in the Eshmunazar inscription 
and Ethanim in that unearthed in Cyprus. With 
the Exile they became acquainted with the Baby- 
lonian names of the months and adopted them. 
Of these seven are mentioned in the Bible : Nisan 
(Ne. 2. 1 ; Est. 3. 7 ), Chisleu (Ne. I. 1 ), Sivan (Est. 
8. 9 ), Elul (Ne. 6. 15 ), Sebat (Zc. I. 7 ), Tebeth (Est. 
2. 16 ), Adar (Ez. 6. 15 ) ; the remaining five, though 
not found in Scripture, occur in the Talmud ; 
Iyyar, Tammuz, Ab, Tishri, Marhesvan. Anciently 
the month began when some one cd. testify that he 
had seen the New Moon, but later, when the various 
16 



Yea 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Yok 



elements of uncertainty were fully appreciated, it ing," " midday," " evening." In the later times 

was fixed by calculation. under Roman rule, the day was divided into twelve 

The following table may be found useful : — hours. This hour, however, was not, like the Roman 





NAMES OF MONTHS 




Names mentioned in 
Pre-exilic Times 


Names after the Exile* 


Macedonian Names 

used in seleucid 

Era 


Approximately 
corresponding 

TO 




Hebrew Assyrian 






Abib (Ex. 13.4) . . 


Nisan Nisannu 


Loos 


April 


Zif(iK.6.i) . . . 


Iyyar Aim 


Gorpiaeus 


May 




Sivan Sivanu 


Hyperberetaeus 


June 




Tammuz Dusu 


Dius 


July 




Ab Abu 


Apellaeus 


August 




Elul Ululu 


Audynaeus 


September 


Ethanim (1 K.8.2) . 


Tishri Tasritu 


Peritius 


October 


Bui (1 K.6.s«) . . . 


Marhesvan Arah-samna 


Dystrus 


November 




Kisleu Kisilivu 


Xanthicus 


December 




Tebet Debitu 


Artemisius 


January 




Sebat Sabatu 


Dassius 


February 




Adar Addaru 


Panemus 


March 




Intercalary month, Veadar ; 


Dioscorinthius is 






Assyrian Mahru sa Ad- 


named in 2 M. 






daru. The Assyrians, 


n.30,33,38. Scal- 






accdg. to G. Smith, some- 


iger and Ideler 






times had a second Nis- 


thought this the 






annu, or a second Ululu, 


intercalary month 






instead of Mahru sa Ad- 


before Xanthi- 






daru. 


cus. Some have 
thought it a mis- 
take for Dystrus. 





* The names not mentioned in the Bible are derived from Talmudic sources. 



Week. — Though at first sight this appears not to 
be founded as are the month and the year, this, as we 
saw above, was only apparent ; it was regarded as 
the quarter of the month. The group of seven days 
was emphasised to the Babylonians by being asso- 
ciated with the seven planets ; to the Jew it was 
sanctified by the seven days of Creation. As we 
have seen, there was an attempt to group the years 
in " weeks " of seven ; seven of these plus one is a 
jubilee of half a century. 

Day. — The revolution of the earth gave, as we 
have already said, the earliest measure of time. 
With the Israelites, as with several other Semitic 
peoples, the day was reckoned fm. evening to 
evening. This mode of reckoning is seen in Gn. 
i. 5, 8 * 13f - ; singularly Nowack sees in this, and the 
fact that the Passover lamb was slain in the 
evening, an evidence that a mode of counting fm. 
morning to morning was also used : it is difficult to 
see wherein the evidence consists. The primary 
division of the twenty-four hours was naturally 
into day and night. While the Babylonians 
divided both day and night into hours, the Hebrew 
divisions were much simpler and vaguer. The 
night was divided into three watches (' ' ashmuroth) ; 
it is impossible to discover by what means they 
found the beginning or end of the middle " watch." 
In NT. times the Roman division of the night into 
four watches, " evening," " midnight," " cock- 



hours, the twenty-fourth of the time of the earth's 
revolution, but the twelfth part of the space be- 
tween sunrise and sunset (cp. Jn. n. 9 , " Are there 
not twelve hours in the day ? ") : the hours thus 
varied in length. 

YELLOW. See Colour. 

YOKE. Of the Heb. terms so trd. mot or motah 
is the bar of the yoke which is laid across the necks 
of the oxen, so called probably from the shaking or 
springing motion to which it was subjected (Na. 




crowing," and " morning," was in use. In the 



same way the day was divided into three, " morn- 



Yoke of Ancient Plough 

1. 2, back and front of yoke ; 3, shoulder pieces ; 4, 4, matting 

to prevent friction of shoulders 

I. 13 ; Is. 58. 6 , &c). '0/ refers especially to the 
attachment, where the necks of the beasts are 
" thrust into " the yoke (Gn. 27. 40 , &c). Txemed, 



pair," was applied to the " span " of oxen, 



917 



Yok 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zab 



coupled together by the yoke, hence called a " yoke " 
of oxen (i S. II. 7 , &c). To this corresponds the 
Greek zeugma (Lk. 14. 19 ). It also corresponds to 
the Arabic fedddn, being applied to the area of land 
which might be ploughed by a yoke of oxen in a 
season (1 S. 14. 14 ). The yoke consists of the bar 
with hollows in its under surface, laid across the 
necks of the animals, a hollow resting upon the neck 
of each, with bows going down each side of the neck, 
in front of the shoulders, by which it is tied in posi- 
tion. The pole of the plough is attached to the 
middle of the cross bar, and the team is ready for 
work. That the yokes should fit easily, so as not to 
fret the necks of the patient animals, was of the 
greatest importance. Jesus had learned this from 
practical experience in the workshop at Nazareth. 
With the well-fitting yoke even a heavy draught had 
no terrors (Mw. H. 29f ). Yoke is often used figu- 
ratively for subjection (1 K. 12. 4 , &c), an "iron 



yoke " being an oppression of an unusually bitter 
and hopeless kind. St. Paul uses it in the sense of 
burdensome requirements unnecessarily imposed 
upon Christians (Ac. 15. 10 ), and also of the bondage 
endured by those who limit the freedom of Christ 
(Gal. 5. 1 ) by legal restrictions. 

YOKEFELLOW (Gr. sunzugos). Some have 
thought that this word, occurring in Php. 4. 3 , 
should be taken as a proper name. It is, however, 
found nowhere else ; and the ordinary meaning, 
" yokefellow," may rather point to a disciple who 
was distinguished as having been a co-worker with 
the apostle in some field of labour. As he is asked 
to use his good offices to secure the reconciliation of 
Euodias and Syntyche, he may possibly have been 
the chief ruler in the church at Philippi. Renan 
suggested that possibly Lydia was meant, she having 
become the wife of St. Paul, but there is nothing to 
support the suggestion. 



ZAANAIM, THE PLAIN OF, RV. ZAANAN- 
NIM, THE OAK OF (Jg. 4. 11 ). RV. is the correct 
rendering. It points to an oak, apparently con- 
spicuous, and probably a sacred tree, where Heber 
the Kenite had pitched his tent. It was near 
Kedesh, and Sisera, fleeing from the battle in the 
plain of Esdraelon, was able to reach it on foot. 
Kedesh was therefore not the famous city of refuge, 
Kedesh Naphtali, on the heights to the W. of the 
Waters of Merom, but probably the town which 
is represented by the mod. Kedes, on the SW. of the 
Sea of Galilee. Possibly the name should be read 
Bezaanannim ; and Conder has suggested that it 
may be found in the mod. Khirbet Bessum, c. three 
miles NE. of Mount Tabor. 

ZAANAN, a town in the Judaean Shephelah, 
mentioned by Micah (i. 11 ), with a punning play 
upon its name. " The inhabitants of Tza'andn, 
went not forth " (ydtze'dh), i.e. stayed in through 
fear of the enemy ; as if the name were derived 
from ydtzd, to go, or come out. It is probably the 
same place as Zen an. 

ZAAVAN, a Horite chief descended from Seir 
(Gn. 36. 27 ; 1 Ch. I. 42 ; AV. "Zavan"), the name- 
father of a tribe which has not been identified. 

ZABAD. This name, and derivatives from it, 
occur thirty-six times in the OT., most frequently 
in the books of Chronicles (twenty- three times). 
They are found also in Nabataean and Palmyrene 
inscriptions. It is a shortened form of Zebadiah, 
Zabdiel, and means " he hath given," or " gift." 
The occurrences are mainly in the later books of the 
OT. (1) Zabad, son of Nathan, son of Ahlai the 
daughter of Sheshan, who had married Jarha, the 
Egyptian slave of her f ather (1 Ch. 2. 36 ). The genea- 
logy as it stands in this chap, is interesting, and may 



be drawn out as an illustration of such documents. 
It begins with 1, Judah, and proceeds : 2, Pharez ; 
3, Hezron ; 4, Jerahmeel ; 5, Onam ; 6, Shammai ; 
7, Nadab ; 8, Appaim ; 9, Ishi ; 10, Sheshan ; 11, 
Ahlai (married Jarha) ; 12, Attai ; 13, Nathan ; 
14, Zabad; 15, Ephlal; 16, Obed ; 17, Jehu; 
18, Azariah ; 19, Helez ; 20, Eleasah ; 21, Sisamai ; 
22, Shallum ; 23, Jekamiah ; 24, Elishama. This 
seems to place Zabad about the time of David, 
fourteen generations from Judah. We are there- 
fore led to identify him with David's hero, Zabad 
the son of Ahlai, i.e. her descendant (1 Ch. II. 41 ), of 
whose exploits, however, nothing is known. As a 
further confirmation, Azariah, son — i.e. descendant 
— of Obed, lived in the time of Athaliah's usurpation 
(2 Ch. 23. 1 ). He was the fourth from Zabad, as 
Jehoram was the sixth from David. 

It is further of interest to observe that he is called 
the son — i.e. descendant — of his ancestress Ahlai, not 
of Jarha. Perhaps this is because she had married a 
foreigner, who might not lightly be introduced into 
a genealogy. Thus David's nephews, Joab, Abishai, 
and Asahel, are always called sons of Zeruiah, who 
also had married a foreigner. There are, however, 
other cases of men who are called " sons " of their 
female progenitor — sons of Keturah (Gn. 25 4 ), sons 
of Adah (Gn. 36. 12 ), sons of Basemath (Gn. 36. 17 ). 
(2) An Ephraimite (1 Ch. 7. 21 ). (3) Son of Shime- 
ath, an Ammonitess, one of the murderers of king 
Joash (2 Ch. 24. 26 ). The name is given as Jozachar, 
which is probably the correct form, in 2 K. 12. 21 . 
He was executed by Amaziah, son of Joash, along 
with his companion in guilt, but their children were 
spared, in obedience to the law of Dt. 24. 16 . (4), 
(5), (6) Israelites who had married foreign wives 
(Ez. io. 27 - 33 « 43 ). 



018 



Zab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zac 



ZABBAI. (i) A member of the family of Bebai, 
who had married a foreign wife in Ezra's time 
(Ez. io. 28 ). In I Es. 9. 29 he is called " Josabad." 
(2) Father of Baruch, who assisted Nehemiah in 
rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem (Ne. 3. 20 ). In 
Heb. the Qere gives " Zaccai," with which in some 
scripts it might easily be confused : *3T for *3T. 
The latter name is found in Ez. 2. 9 ; Ne. 7. 14 . 
From this comes the name Zaccheus. 

ZAB BUD, a son of Bigvai, who returned from 
exile with Ezra (8. 14 ). Here Qere has " Zaccur " 
— "I^T for 1UT. In 1 Es. 8. 40 this name is curi- 
ously transformed into " Istalcurus." 

ZABDI, " my gift," or perhaps " gift to me." 
(1) Ancestor of Achan, son of Zerah, the son of 
Judah (Jo. J. 1 ' 17, ls ). His name is given as 
" Zimri " in 1 Ch. 2. 6 . (2) One of the sons of 
Shimhi, a Benjamite (1 Ch. 8. 19 ). (3) The Shiph- 
mite, i.e. probably a native of Shapham, an other- 
wise unknown place. He was David's officer, having 
charge of the produce of the vineyards for the wine 
cellars (1 Ch. 27. 27 ). (4) A Levite, son of Asaph 
(Ne. 11. 17 ). Possibly we should read " Zichri " as 
in 1 Ch. 9. 15 . The name is also given as Zaccur 
in Ne. 12. 35 . 

ZABDIEL, " my gift is God." (1) Father of 
Jashobeam, the. captain of the first course of David's 
guards (1 Ch. 27« 2 ). (2) Son of Haggedolim (RV.), 
a prominent Hebrew in the time of Nehemiah. 
He had charge of 128 of his brethren, " mighty men 
of valour," after the return from Babylon (Ne. 
11. 14 ). 

ZABUD, son of Nathan (1 K. 4« 5 ) =Zabad (i). 

ZACCHEUS. A "chief publican" or tax- 
collector, whose station was at Jericho. The story 
of his meeting with Jesus is told only by St. Luke 
(19. 1 " 10 ). His profession was lucrative, but being a 
Jew (v. 9), his wealth did not protect him from the 
contempt in which all his class was held (see Publi- 
can). He was no doubt accustomed to the black 
looks and disdain of Israel's religious leaders, and 
hoped for no kindness from them. His interest in 
Jesus was probably aroused by hearing of the call of 
Matthew. It was a strange new thing that a Jewish 
teacher should care, even a little, for a publican. He 
would fain see this Man. He would not care to risk 
himself in a Jewish crowd, where, in any case, being 
short of stature, he might easily fail of his purpose. 
Jesus was passing with the Galilee caravan of pil- 
grims going up to Jerusalem. Knowing the path to 
be followed, Zacchaeus went in advance, and con- 
cealed himself in the foliage of a Sycomore Tree, 
the branches of which probably overhung the road 
at no great height. Here he was seen by Jesus, and 
the ever-memorable interview took place. Zac- 
chaeus wd. not venture to invite Him under his roof, 
but Jesus invited Himself, to the publican's great 
joy ; and actually sat down to eat with him — an act 



of greater significance in the East than among us. 
The Jews noted the fact, with censure. Jesus de- 
fended this action. If Zacchaeus was a sinner, it 
was to seek and to save such that the Son of Man 
came. 

We need not regard the account given of himself 
to Jesus as boastful (v. 8). It was possibly designed 
to show that even a publican could have some regard 
to the requirements of Divine law, and could respond 
to the appeal of humanity. The evidence that 
Jesus expected some good of him woke up all the 
best elements in the man, preparing him to receive 
the greatest gift (v. 9). Nothing further is recorded 
regarding Zacchaeus. 

ZACCUR. (1) Father of Shammua, who repre- 
sented the tribe of Reuben among the spies (Nu. 
13. 4 ). (2) A Simeonite, son of Hammuel, and 
father of Shimei (1 Ch. 4. 26 ). (3) Son of Jaaziah, a 
Merarite Levite (1 Ch. 24. 27 ). (4) A son of Asaph, 
leader of the third division of singers in the Temple 
(1 Ch. 25. 2 , &c). (5) Son of Imri, one of those who 
assisted Nehemiah in rebuilding the wall of Jerusa- 
lem (Ne. 3. 2 ). (6) A Levite who sealed the cove- 
nant with Nehemiah (Ne. io. 12 ). (7) A Levite, 
father of Hanan, one of those who had charge of the 
tithe of the corn and the wine and the oil, who, 
accounted faithful men, were entrusted with dis- 
tribution to their brethren (Ne. 13. 13 ). He may be 
identical with (6). (8) See Zabbud. 

ZACHARIAH, RV. ZECHARIAH. (1) Son of 
Jeroboam II. of Israel, who succeeded his father on 
the throne (2 K. 14. 29 ). He was the fourteenth 
king of Israel, and the last monarch of the house of 
Jehu. That dynasty, therefore, came to an end 
earlier, apparently, than Hosea had expected (Ho. 
I. 4f -; cp. 2 K. io. 11 ). His reign was short and 
evil : it lasted only six months, and was brought 
to an end by the hand of the rebel Shallum, who, 
having headed a conspiracy against him, put him to 
death, and reigned in his stead (2 K. I5. 8ff# ). His 
fall introduced a troubled period in the history of 
the Northern Kingdom, the beginning of the end. 
(2) Father of Abi (2 K. 18. 2 ), or Abiah (2 Ch. 29. 1 ), 
the mother of king Hezekiah. 

ZACHARIAS. (1) The reference of our Lord 
in Mw. 23. 35 ; Lk. 11. 51 is probably to Zechariah, 
son of Jehoiada the priest (2 Ch. 24. 20 ). His 
martyrdom is the last mentioned in the Scriptures 
as they then stood, Chronicles closing the Canon. 
From Abel, the first martyr, to Zacharias, the last, 
all righteous blood unrighteously shed was included. 
He is called by Matthew, " son of Barachaias," it 
may be owing to a scribe confusing him with 
Zechariah, son of Jeberechiah, mentioned in Is. 
8. 2 , or with the prophet Zechariah, son of Bere- 
chiah (Zc. I. 1 ). Josephus, however, mentions the 
murder of a Zecharias, the son of Baruch, in the 
Temple, by the hands of the Zclots (BJ. IV. v. 4). 



919 



Zac 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zal 



This may possibly have misled some later copyist. 
(2) The husband of Elisabeth, and father of John 
the Baptist. He was a priest, belonging to the 
course of Abijah, one of the twenty-four into which 
the priestly families had been divided, to take service 
in order in the Temple (1 Ch. 24. 7ff - ; Lk. I. 5 ). 
This course, the eighth, was performing its week of 
service, and to Zacharias fell the duty of going into 
the Temple to burn incense (Lk. i. 8f -). While 
officiating there, the angel Gabriel appeared to him, 
standing on the right side of the altar of incense, 
and announced that, in answer to the prayers of 
himself and his wife, a son would be born to them, 
whose name shd. be called John. Upon this child 
the conditions of the Nazirite were to be imposed 
from his birth ; and a great career was promised 
him. DisbeHeving the news, wh. seemed to him 
" toogood to be true," Zacharias was stricken dumb 
until the angel's word should be fulfilled ; and so 
on coming out he could communicate with his 
friends only by signs. In his house in the city of 
Judah, in the hill country, Mary, the mother of 
Jesus, spent some three months with Elizabeth, her 
kinswoman, before the Baptist's birth (vv. 39ff.)- 
When the son was born, not until the eighth day, 
when at his circumcision he received his name, his 
father writing it upon a tablet, did Zacharias regain 
his speech (vv. 57ft.). Then in his joy and gratitude, 
" filled with the Holy Ghost," he " prophesied," 
giving utterance to the exalted poetry, the Bene- 
dictus, contained in vv. 68-79. Origen says Z. was 
murdered in the Temple, but the statement is 
without corroboration. 

ZACHER, one of the sons of Jehiel or Jeiel (RV.), 
who was the father, or founder of Gibeon (1 Ch. 
8. 29, 31 ; in q. 37 he is called Zechariah). 

ZADOK. (1) According to the genealogies in 
I Ch. 6. 4ff - 50ff -, 24. 6 , a descendant of Eleazar, the 
son of Aaron, who became the founder of an in- 
fluential priestly family in Jrs. He appears first as 
joining David at Hebron with twenty- two captains 
of his father's house (1 Ch. I2. 28 ). Possibly hitherto 
he may have been attached to the house of Saul. 
But from this time his loyalty to David was un- 
shaken. When David fled at the revolt of Absalom, 
Zadok and the Levites carrying the ark went with 
him, returning to the city only at the royal com- 
mand. There along with Abiathar he was invalu- 
able to the cause of David, arranging for communi- 
cation, as to events transpiring in the capital, with 
the absent monarch. At the conclusion of that re- 
bellion, at the instance of Z. and Abiathar, moved 
by the king (2 S. 19. 11 ), the elders of Judah took 
the lead in inviting David to return. Abiathar 
favoured the claim made by Adonijah to the throne 
(1 K. l. 7f '), but Zadok had the good fortune to keep 
clear of that unfortunate prince, and David, made 
aware of what his eldest surviving son was doing, 



and urged by Nathan and Bathsheba, sent Zadok to 
anoint Solomon, and have him proclaimed king over 
Israel (vv. 321!.). He reaped the reward of his 
fidelity in being made High Priest by Solomon, 
while Abiathar, the lifelong friend and helper of 
David, for his one lapse, which could perhaps hardly 
be called disloyalty, was banished to his farm at 
Anathoth (2. 26 ). Zadok's son Ahimaaz married a 
daughter of Solomon, and received an important ap- 
pointment, in charge of the commissariat depart- 
ment in Naphtali (4. 15 ). Up to this time Zadok's 
position had probably been inferior to that of 
Abiathar, which was natural, owing^to the latter's 
older connection with David. He is not men- 
tioned in the account of the dedication of the 
Temple. Probably he did not live to see it com- 
pleted. From the time of Solomon his family 
takes precedence among the families of the priests. 
To it belonged Azariah, " chief priest " in the days 
of Hezekiah (2 Ch. 3 1. 10 ) ; and from it the High 
Priests were taken till the time of the Maccabees. 
For Ezekiel (40. 46 , 43. 19 , &c), " the priests the 
Levites " are only of " the seed of Zadok." (2) 
Father of Jerusha, the mother of Jotham, king of 
Judah (2 K. 15. 33 ; 2 Ch. 27. 1 ). (3) Son of Baana, 
who repaired a portion of the wall in Nehemiah's 
time (Ne. 3. 4 ) ; probably identical with Z. of IO. 21 , 
one of those who sealed the covenant. If so, he was 
not a priest, but possibly of the tribe of Judah 
(cp. 2 S. 23. 29 ). The name Zadok may have come 
through intermarriage with a priestly family. (4) A 
priest, son of Immer, who repaired a part of the wall 
over against his own house (Ne. 3- 29 ). (5) The 
scribe, probably a priest, and possibly identical with 
the foregoing, whom Nehemiah appointed one of 
the treasurers (Ne. 13. 13 ). (6) In the genealogies 
(1 Ch. 9. 11 ; Ne. II. 11 ) appears a Zadok, son of 
Meraioth, son of Ahitub. In I Ch. 6. 7 Amariah is 
named as the grandfather of Zadok, Ahitub being, 
as elsewhere, his father. The text is doubtful. 

ZAHAM, son of Rehoboam by Abihail, daughter 
of Eliab (2 Ch. II. 19 ). Eliab was David's eldest 
brother. Abihail was therefore probably his grand- 
daughter. 

ZAIR. In 2 K. 8. 21 it is said that " Joram passed 
over to Zair, and all his chariots with him," on his 
way to fight with the Edomites. The parallel 
passage (2 Ch. 21. 9 ) reads, " Jehoram passed over 
with his captains." This is probably a copyist's 
error. The place cannot be identified with cer- 
tainty. Some have thought Zoar may be intended. 
If this lay, as appears probable, to the SE. of the 
Dead Sea, then an army invading Edom might have 
passed that way. 

ZALAPH, father of Hanun (Ne. ^. 30 ). 

ZALMON. (1) One of David's valiant men, 
the Ahohite (2 S. 23. 28 ) ; identical with Ilai (1 
Ch. II. 29 ), which is probably the correct reading. 



920 



Zal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zap 



(2) Mount Zalmon, a height in the neighbourhood 
of Shechem, where Abimelech cut down wood with 
which he burned down the stronghold — prob. the 
citadel — of El-Berith, in which the men of Shechem 
had taken refuge. There may possibly be a re- 
miniscence of the old name mjebel SiLlemiyeh, the 
modern Arabic name of Mount Ebal. The moun- 
tain is again alluded to in Ps. 68 . 14 , AV. Salmon, 
RV. " Zalmon." The passage is exceedingly diffi- 
cult. The mention of Bashan in the following 
verse led Sir Charles Wilson to look for Zalmon in 
that region (HDB. s.v.). Snow is naturally asso- 
ciated in the native mind with Mt. Hermon, where 
it may be seen all the year round. But snow-storms 
in winter are not infrequent in the higher districts, 
and the mountains in Ephraim are often white, 
although the snow seldom lies long. The poet may 
mean that the kings are scattered like snowflakes 
before the wind on Mount Zalmon. Or there 
may be an allusion to the whitening bones of the 
slaughtered host strewing the ground like snow. 

ZALMONAH, a station of the Israelites after 
leaving Mt. Hor on their final march round Edom, 
to begin the conquest of Canaan (Nu. 33. 41f ') : 
unidentified. 

ZALMUNNAH, ZEBAH AND. These were 
the " kings " of Midian, as distinguished from the 
"princes," Oreb and Zeeb (]g. 8. 5 ' 21 ; Ps. 83. 11 ). 
They led the multitudinous hordes of the " chil- 
dren of the East " across the Jordan to the rich 
lands for their flocks and camels, saying, " Let us 
take to ourselves in possession the pastures of God," 
i.e. the excellent pastures. This one can understand 
if they came by the way their successors came for 
many a century, up the vale of Jezreel, to the vast 
fertile breadths of Esdraelon. Often, until com- 
paratively recent years, the dwellers in these dis- 
tricts saw swarms of nomads from beyond Jordan, 
with herds innumerable, to whom no rights of pro- 
perty were sacred, settle for months upon the land, 
leaving it stripped bare. The terms " kings " and 
" princes " indicate probably a higher state of 
organisation than prevails among the nomads to-day; 
they recogmse no higher officer than the sheikh, 
and no higher authority than that of " the elders." 
The victory won by Gideon over the enormous 
hosts led by the two kings of Midian made a deep 
impression on the mind of the people, and is spoken 
of long after as a signal work of God (Is. cj. 4 , 10. 26 ). 
The two kings with part of their troops, in the 
general rout seem to have passed over Jordan at a 
ford higher up than that held by Gideon's men, and 
made their way to Karkor. Little expecting to be 
followed hither, discipline was relaxed, and the 
unready host of 15,000 fell an easy prey to the 
attack of Gideon's company of weary but resolute 
men. The kings were taken captive. Then it 
transpired that there was blood feud between them 



and Gideon, for at Tabor they had slain his brothers, 
noble men apparently, "each one resembling the 
children of a king." But for this their lives might 
have been spared. Blood called for blood. He 
called on Jethro, his first-born, to avenge the 
murders of his kinsmen. But the youth shrank 
from the grim task, and Gideon himself performed 
it. The spoils of the vanquished fell to the victors, 
not, unhappily, to be well used (Jg. 8. 24ff -). 

ZAMZUMMIM, a primitive people expelled by 
the Ammonites (Dt. 2. 20 " 52 ). They are said to be 
giants (Rephaim), and are compared to the Ana- 
kim. When thus a race has disappeared there is a 
tendency, viewing them through the mists of the 
past, to endow them with gigantic stature. They 
may have been of the kindred of those whose re- 
mains have been found in the lower stratum of the 
mound at Gezer. 

ZANOAH. (1) A town in the Judasan Shephe- 
lah, mentioned with Zoreah and Jarmuth (Jo. 15. 34 ). 
OEJ. identifies it with " Zanua " on the road from 
Eleutheropolis to Jerusalem. It may with cer- 
tainty be placed at the mod. Zanu'a, to the SE. 
of Zoreah. It was inhabited after the Exile (Ne. 
II. 30 ), and its people gave assistance in repairing the 
walls of Jerusalem (3. 13 ). (2) A town in the up- 
lands of Judah, mentioned with Ziph, Jokdeam, and 
Kain (Jo. 15. 56 ), probably identical with Zanutd, a 
hill with considerable ruins, about 12 miles S. of 
Hebron. We may take the statement of I Ch. 4. 18 
to mean that Jekuthiel was the founder of this town. 

ZAPHNATH-PAANEAH, the name given to 
Joseph by Pharaoh. There is considerable diffi- 
culty in interpreting this name, as it may have under- 
gone transformation to an indefinite extent. The 
form it assumes in the LXX, Psonthomphanech, 
rather suggests this. Of the many interpretations 
perhaps that of Lieblein {Proceedings of the Society 
of Biblical Archeology, May 1898) is the most plau- 
sible ; that it represents cfnti pa-anh, " who gives 
the nourishment of life " ; at all events it suits the 
function performed by Joseph in regard to Egypt. 

ZAPHON, a city in the territory allotted to Gad, 
east of Jordan (Jo. 13. 27 ). It lay well to the north, 
as the mention of the Sea of Chinnereth shows. At 
the mouth of W acly er-Rujeib, not far from the 
Jordan, stands the isolated hill Tell 'Amate. It 
marks the site of the ancient fortress Amathus, wh. 
lay, according to Josephus, on the Jordan — according 
to Eusebius, 21 Roman miles from Pella. It was 
captured by Alexander Jannaeus, and later it was 
made by Gabinius capital of one of the five great 
administrative districts. According to the Talmud, 
Onnatha was identical with Tzaphon (Jo. 13. 27 ). 
But this town occurs in Josephus as Asophon, wh. 
tells against the identification (Buhl, GAP. 259). 
In Jg. 12. 1 , instead of " northward," Tzaphonah 
should be trd. " to Zaphon." 



921 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zeb 



ZARAH, son of Judah by Tamar (Gn. 38. 20 , 
46. 12 ), ancestor of Achan (Jo. J. 2 \ &c, " Zerah "). 

ZAREAH, ZOREATHITES = ZORAH, 
ZORATHITES. 

ZARED = ZERED. 

ZAREPHATH was the city belonging to Zidon, 
where Elijah resided with the widow during the 
latter days of the great famine (1 K. I7. 9f> ). It is 
mentioned as a Canaanite or Phoenician town by 
Obadiah (v. 20) ; and it appears in the NT. in the 
Greek form, Sarepta (Lk. 4. 26 , RV. " Zarephath "), 
where it is described as " in the land of Sidon." 
Josephus (Ant. VIII. xiii. 2) places it between Tyre 
and Sidon. Jerome (Onomasticon, s.v. Sarefta) says 
it was situated on the public road, i.e. the road 
along the shore. All point with sufficient clearness 
to Surafend, a village which lies on the promontory, 
about 13 miles N. of Tyre, wh. divides the plain of 
Tyre from that of Sidon. The remains of what 
must have been a considerable town are scattered 
along the shore to the south. The town was at first 
Sidonian, but fell to Tyre after the invasion of 
Shalmaneser IV., B.C. 722. It was taken by Sen- 
nacherib, b.c. 701. The spot identified by the 
Crusaders with the site of the widow's house, and on 
which they erected a chapel, is probably that near 
the shore where the mod. Wely stands, consecrated 
to el-Khudr, the " Evergreen," who is at once 
Elijah and St. George. 

ZARETAN, ZARTANAH, ZARTHAN. This 
place is mentioned in connection with the arresting 
of the waters of Jordan, which rose high " at Adam, 
the city that is beside Zaretan " (Jo. 3. 16 , RV. 
" Zarethan "). The commissariat district of Baana, 
under Solomon, included " all Bethshean, which is 
beside Zartanah " (1 K. 4. 12 , RV. " Zarethan "). 
The castings of " burnished brass," for the Temple 
of Solomon, were made " in the clay ground be- 
tween Succoth and Zarthan " (1 K. 7. 46 , RV. 
" Zarethan "). The same place is intended by 
Zererath (Jg. 7. 22 , RV. " Zererab "), in the direc- 
tion of which the Midianites fled ; by Zereda (1 K. 
II. 26 , RV. "Zeredah"). the birthplace of Jero- 
boam I. ; and Zeredathah (2 Ch. 4. 17 , RV. " Zere- 
dah " = I K. 7- 46 )- Everything points to a position 
on the west side of Jordan, not far from the ford at 
ed-Ddmiek, just below the confluence of the Jabbok 
and the Jordan. In the matter of position Qarn 
Sartabeb might suit. The change in the name, 
however, is linguistically impossible. 

ZARETH-SHAHAR, RV. ZERETH-SHAHAR, 
a city in the territory allotted to Reuben, " in the 
mount of the valley," mentioned with Kiriathaim 
and Sibmah (Jo. 13. 19 ). No trace of this site has 
yet been found. 

ZATTHU, ZATTU. The sons of Zattu were a 
family who returned with Zerubbabel (Ez. 2. 8 ; 
Ne. 7. 13 ). Some men among them married foreign 



wives (Ez. io. 27 ). The "chief" of this family 
signed the covenant along with Nehemiah (Ne. 
io. 14 ). 

ZAZA, a Jerahmeelite, son of Jonathan (1 Ch. 
2. 33 ). 

ZEBADIAH. (1) A Benjamite, of the sons of 
Beriah (1 Ch. 8. 15 ). (2) A Benjamite, of the sons 
of Elpaal (1 Ch. 8. 17 ). (3)' One of the men who 
joined David during his stay at Ziklag (1 Ch. 12. 7 ), 
son of Jeroham of Gedor. (4) A Korahite door- 
keeper in the Tabernacle, of the family of Asaph, son 
of Meshelemiah (1 Ch. 26. 2 ). (5) One of David's 
captains, son of Asahel the br. of Joab (1 Ch. 27. 7 ). 
(6) One of the Levites who went through the cities of 
Judah, teaching the law in the time of Jehoshaphat 
(2 Ch. 17. 8 ). (7) An officer of Jehoshaphat, " ruler 
of the tribe of Judah," son of Ishmael (2 Ch. 19. 11 ). 
The Levites and the priests were entrusted with the 
settlement of disputes among their brethren in the 
cities of Judah. Zebadiah divided with Amariah, 
the chief priest, the oversight of this work, Amariah 
taking special note of " all matters of the Lord," 
i.e. religious questions ; and Zebadiah attending to 
the " matters of the king," i.e. civil questions. 
(8) Son of Michael, of the family of Shephatiah, 
who, along with eighty of his clan, returned with 
Ezra, in the second caravan (Ez. 8. 8 ; in 1 Es. 8. 34 
he is called " Zaraias "). (9) One of the sons of 
Immer, a priest who had married a foreign wife 
(Ez. io. 20 ). 

ZEB AH. See Zalmunnah. 

ZEBAIM. In Ez. 2. 57 RV., Z. stands as the 
residence of Pochereth. RV. takes it as part of the 
name, Pochereth-hazzebaim. 

ZEBEDEE, a Galilean fisherman, husband of 
Salome, and father of James and John, the apostles 
(Mw. 4. 21 , 27« 56 , &c). The company of which he 
was a member were able to employ " hired servants " 
(Mk. i. 20 ). His son John was acquainted with the 
High Priest in Jerusalem (Jn. 18. 15 ), and his wife 
was among the women who ministered to Jesus out 
of their substance (Mw. 27. 55f - ; Lk. 8. 3 ). The in- 
ference is that he must have been in good circum- 
stances. This of course would not prevent him 
from engaging in manual toil ; as in those days every 
Jew, no matter how rich, was expected to have a 
trade, and to work. He is often referred to in the 
Gospel narrative, James and John being called " the 
sons of Zebedee," to distinguish them from others 
bearing the same names. Only once do we get a 
glimpse of the man himself. Then he is busy, with 
his sons and his servants, mending their nets (Mw. 
4. 21 ; Mk. I. 19f -). He does not seem to have been a 
follower of Jesus, but he raises no objection to his 
sons accepting the Master's invitation. He was 
probably too old a man to enter on that way of life. 
And in any case the business of the fishing company 
required some responsible person in charge. This 



922 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zeb 



may account for the fact that he does not again 
appear in the history. 

ZEBOIM, ZEBOIIM, a city mentioned as on 
the border of the Canaanites, along with Sodom, 
Gomorrah, and Admah (Gn. io. 19 ). It was one of 
the five cities of the plain which rebelled against 
Chedorlaomer, the name of its king being Shemeber 
(Gn. 14. 2, 8 ). It shared in the destruction which 
overwhelmed Sodom and Gomorrah (Dt. 2c;. 23 ). 
It is referred to again in Ho. n. 8 . It was situated 
in the Vale of Siddim ; but no identification of the 
site is as yet possible. 

ZEBOIM, VALLEY OF (ge hatztzebo'lm, 
" ravine of the hyenas "), is mentioned in describing 
the direction followed by a company of " spoilers " 
who set out from the camp of the Philistines at 
Michmash (1 S. 13. 18 ). It is one of the deep gorges 
which break down eastward to the Jordan valley. 
Quite possibly we have here the ancient name of 
Wddy el-Qelt. The hyena is found in the district, 
and has given its name to Wddy abu Daba', which 
falls into Wddy el-Qelt from the S., and also to 
Shakhkh ed-Daba\ on the north bank of that wady. 
It is prob. referred to in Ne. II. 34 . 

ZEBUDAH, RV. ZEBIDAH, daughter of 
Pedaiah of Rumah, and mother of Jehoiakim, king 
of Judah (2 K. 23. 36 ). 

ZEBUL, the officer whom Abimelech left in 
charge of Shechem, against whom " the men of 
Hamor," the native Canaanites, rebelled, under the 
leadership of Gaal. Stung by the contemptuous 
language of Gaal, and apparently without a suffi- 
cient force to hold the city, he fell back on strata- 
gem, secretly sending for Abimelech, who, with his 
troops, arrived by night. The conversation re- 
ported between Gaal and Zebul, when the former 
perceived the enemy, sets the latter in a clear, indi- 
vidual light. Gaal leading his men out against 
Abimelech, Zebul shut the gates, cutting off their 
retreat, and making the subsequent capture of the 
city comparatively easy (Jg. 9. 26ff -). 

ZEBULUN, the tenth son born to Jacob, the 
sixth by Leah (Gn. 30. 20 , &c). The name is of un- 
certain meaning. Two explanations are suggested 
in Gn. 30. 20 . It may be derived from zdbal, " to 
exalt," or " to honour " (c/>. Asyr. zabdlu, " to 
carry," or " to exalt "). " Now will my husband 
honour me " gives a satisfactory sense. This mean- 
ing is illustrated in the phrase beth zebul (1 K. 8. 13 = 
2 Ch. 6. 2 ), where " lofty house " expresses the idea 
of a dwelling of God ; so also in Is. 63. 15 , zebul 
qodsheka, " the high abode of Thy holiness." 

Zebulun is the reputed ancestor of the tribe of 
Israel bearing his name. Nothing is known of his 
personal life. An old tradition makes him the first 
of the five brethren presented to Pharaoh by Joseph 
(Tg. PJ. on Gn. 47- 2 ). Three sons were born to 
him before the migration to Egypt (Gn. 46. 14 ) : 



Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. From these men de- 
scended the three main divisions of the tribe. 

The place of Z. in the wilderness was in the camp 
of Judah, along with Issachar, to the E. of the 
Tabernacle. They formed the van of the cavalcade 
on the march (Nu. 2. 7f -). For the strength of the 
tribe see Numbers. The chief or " prince " was 
Eliab, son of Helon (Nu. I. 9 , &c). 

Zebulun was represented among the spies by 
Gaddiel, son of Sodi (Nu. 13. 10 ), and among those 
who divided the land by Elzaphan, son of Parnach 
(Nu. 34 . 2 5). 

Zebulun was fortunate in the territory that fell to 
the tribe. While the boundaries cannot be traced 
exactly, they sufficiently indicate the general tract 
of country that belonged to Z. (Jo. icj. 105 -). It in- 
cludes all the variety of mountain and plain, rough 
hill country, shady wood, and fruitful valley. It 
lay to the N. of Issachar, with the lot of Asher on the 
W. and NW., and that of Naphtali on the E. and 
NE. The march seems to have run from Tabor 
northward to Kefr Andn (Hannathon), then west- 
ward to the border of Asher, possibly by the vale of 
Abilin ; from this point it ran southward to the 
Kishon, opposite Tell Kaimun (Jokneam). The S. 
boundary may have run along the N. edge of the 
plain of Esdraelon to Deburieh (Dabareth), which 
belonged to Issachar (Jo. 21. 28 ) ; but the attempt 
to follow this boundary is hopeless. One thing is 
clear, viz., the lines indicated leave Zebulun no 
access to the sea. Such access seems to be implied 
in the blessing of Jacob, a document not later than 
the early days of the monarchy. "Zebulun, towards 
the strand of the sea he settles, he himself towards 
the strand of the ships, and his rear to or towards 
Zidon " (Gn. 49. 13 , Dillmann). This is also the 
view of Josephus (Ant. V. i. 22 ; BJ. III. hi. 1). 
Possibly at some time it may have been true. But 
Delitzsch would translate, " Zebulun, near to the 
coast of the sea shall he dwell, yea he, near to the 
coast of the ships, and his side leans on Zidon." 
Zidonians is a term in Scripture covering all 
Phoenicians. These were not expelled from Acre, 
and the land held by them wd. naturally be called 
Zidonian. The phrase may not mean more than 
that the boundary approached Zidonian territory. 
Certainly Zebulun never came near the city of 
Zidon. On Delitzsch's interpretation it was not 
necessary for Zebulun to be actually in touch with 
the sea ; but only that he should be in a position to 
profit by maritime trade. This he certainly was, 
and the great artery of trade and traffic of all kinds, 
the via maris (Is. 9. 1 ), ran through his valleys to the 
sea. He was thus in contact with the trade of the 
world, and able to " suck the treasures of the sea " 

(Dt. 33- 19 )- 

The name is preserved of only one " judge " 
sprung from Zebulun, Elon (Jg. t2. Ui 12 ). His 



9 2 3 



Zee 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zee 



authority lasted for ten years. The men of Zebulun 
seem always to have been forward to do their duty 
in war, in defence of their country. It produced 
leaders — " those who carry the muster-master's 
staff " (Jg. 5. 14 ). They are commended for their 
zeal and prowess in the battle against Sisera (Jg. 
5. 14, 18 ). They responded to Gideon's summons 
against Midian (Jg. 6. 35 ). Fifty thousand single- 
hearted men of Zebulun joined David at Hebron 
carrying acceptable gifts (1 Ch. 12. 33, 40 ). In the 
time of Hezekiah his messengers who called the 
■people to the Passover in Jerusalem met with scorn 
and mockery in Zebulun. " Nevertheless divers 
... of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to 
Jerusalem " (2 Ch. 3o. 10L ). Some of them, not 
cleansed " according to the purification of the 
sanctuary," yet ate the Passover, Hezekiah praying 
that they might be pardoned (vv. l8ff.). Z. was 
included in the district overrun by Tiglath-pileser 
(2 K. 15. 29 ; Is. 9. 1 ). In later days the men of 
Zebulun retained their martial ardour and skill. 
The peasant farmers from the uplands formed the 
backbone of the Jewish army in the war of inde- 
pendence. Sepphoris (mod. Safurieb) became the 
headquarters of the Roman administration. It was 
the seat of the Jewish Sanhedrin for a time, before 
its settlement in Tiberias (Ant. XVIII. ii. 1 ; BJ. 
III. ii. 4 ; Jost. Judenthum, ii. i6ff.). 

Nazareth, the home of the childhood and 
young manhood of Jesus, lay in a hollow among its 
hills. 

Zebulunites are members of the tribe (Nu. 
26. 27 ; Jg. I2. llf -). 

ZECHARIAH. (1) One of the chief of the 
Reubenites, when their genealogies were reckoned 
(1 Ch. 5. 7 ). (2) A Korahite Levite, son of Meshe- 
lemiah, a gate-keeper in the tabernacle in David's 
time (1 Ch. 9. 21 , 26. 2 - 14 ). (3) A Benjamite of the 
family of Jeiel the founder of Gibeon, brother of 
Kish and Ner, and uncle of Saul (1 Ch. c;. 37 ) : 
called " Zecher " (8. 31 ). (4) A Levite musician in 
the Tabernacle, of the second order, who was also a 
door-keeper (1 Ch. 15. 18 , &c). (5) A priest in 
David's time, one of those who blew " with the 
trumpets before the ark of God ' (1 Ch. 15. 24 ). 

(6) A Kohathite Levite, son of Isshiah (1 Ch 24. 25 ). 

(7) A Merarite Levite, son of Hosah, a gate-keeper 
in the Tabernacle (1 Ch. 26. 11 ). (8) The father of 
Iddo, who was chief of the half tribe of Manasseh 
E. of the Jordan (1 Ch. 27. 21 ). (9) One of the 
" princes " sent out by Jehoshaphat to teach in the 
cities of Judah (2 Ch. 17. 7 ). (10) A Levite, father 
of Jehaziel, who encouraged Jehoshaphat and his 
army against Moab (2 Ch. 20. 14 ). (11) Son of king 
Jehoshaphat, who received as gifts from his father 
silver and gold and precious things, and fenced 
cities in Judah. He was not permitted long to 
enjoy them, as Jehoram, on his accession to the 



throne, put Z. and his other brothers to death (2 Ch. 
2 1. 2 ). (12) Son of Jehoiada the priest, cousin of 
Joash, king of Judah (2 Ch. 24. 20 ). When the influ- 
ence of Jehoiada was removed, Joash seems to have 
been easily turned aside by the princely sycophants 
around him, and fell into idolatrous ways. Z., who 
probably succeeded his father in the priestly office, 
denounced the sin, and prophesied God's vengeance 
upon the transgressors. In his anger the king 
ordered him to be stoned to death in the court of 
the royal residence. He died exclaiming, " The 
Lord look upon it, and require it," an appeal soon 
and terribly answered (vv. 24!). In the NT. he is 
called Zacharias (Mw. 23. 35 ; Lk. n. 51 ). (13) A 
prophet with whom king Uzziah was wont to take 
counsel, who is described as having " understanding 
in the vision of God " (2 Ch. 26. 5 ). (14) One of 
the Levites of the sons of Asaph who assisted 
Hezekiah in the cleansing of the Temple (2 Ch. 
29. 13 ). He may be identical with Z. son of Jebere- 
chiah (Is. 8. 2 ), one of the two " faithful witnesses " 
chosen to attest the prophetic tablet. (15) A 
Kohathite Levite, one of those having oversight of 
the work of repair in the Temple in Josiah's time 
(2 Ch. 34. 12 ). (16) A " ruler of the house of God " 
in the days of Josiah (2 Ch. 35- 8 ). (17) The pro- 
phet — see following article. (18) A son of Parosh, 
who returned from Babylon with Ezra (Ez. 8. 3 ). 
(19) Son of Bebai, who also returned with Ezra 
(8. 11 ). (20) One of those sent by Ezra from the 
river to Iddo " at the place Casiphia," to bring 
ministers for the service of the Temple (Ez. 8. 16 ). 

(21) One who had married a foreign wife (Ez. io. 26 ). 

(22) A prince who stood by Ezra at the reading of 
the law (Ne. 8. 4 ). (23) A descendant of Pharez 
son of Judah, whose family dwelt in Jerusalem (Ne. 
ii. 4 ). (24) The son of the Shilonite (AV. " Shi- 
loni "), whose descendants settled in Jrs. (Ne. n. s ). 
(25) The son of Pashhur, whose descendant, Adaiah, 
was a priest in Jerusalem under Nehemiah (Ne. 
II. 12 ). (26) A priest in the days of Joiakim son of 
Jeshua (Ne. 12. 16 ). (27) A priest, son of Jonathan, 
of the family of Asaph, who assisted at the dedica- 
tion of the walls of Jerusalem (Ne. 12. 35 ). (28) One 
of the trumpeters on that occasion (Ne. 12. 41 ). 
See also Zachariah. (29) See (14). 

ZECHARIAH, eleventh of the Minor Prophets, 
was a contemporary of Haggai, whom he supported 
in urging the people to rebuild the Temple. He is 
described in the title as s. of Berechiah, s. of Iddo, 
and again in Ez. 5. 1 , 6. 14 as s. of Iddo. It is sup- 
posed that his fr. died young, and that Z. was 
brought up by Iddo, his grandfr. Nothing further 
is known of him, except the dates of his prophecies. 

The book which goes by his name is clearly 
divided into two parts of very dissimilar char. The 
first part, consisting of chaps. 1.-8., is admitted by 
all to be the work of Z., and to belong to b.c. 520 



924 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zee 



and 518, the second and fourth yrs. of Darius 
Hystaspes. Z. has a larger outlook than Haggai, 
and while insisting on the duty of rebldg. the 
Temple and of obeying the ordinances of worship, 
he speaks with an even greater emphasis of the 
necessity of moral obedience as of supreme impor- 
tance in the service of ]" '. Hist., wh. tells of the 
evils wh. came upon their frs. for neglecting the 
teaching of the earlier prophets, is used as a warning 
to repent (i. 1 " 6 ). Next follows a series of eight 
visions, given to encourage the people and to reveal 
the purpose of ]". In the vision of the horses, the 
messengers of J", report that the whole world is at 
peace. The angel of the Lord intercedes for Jrs., 
and the prophet is told to proclaim that the Lord 
will be gracious to Jrs., and His Temple will be 
built in the city (i. 7 " 17 ). The second vision is of 
four horns, wh. are about to be shattered even as 
the nations opposed to Isr. will be destroyed (1 . 18 " 21 ). 
The next vision teaches that Jrs. will have no need 
of walls, because of the multitude of its inhabitants ; 
the Lord will be its defence, and it will be the centre 
of worship for many nations (2.). The fourth 
vision is of Joshua, the High Priest, the represen- 
tative of the people, accused before ]". by Satan. 
J", rebukes the adversary and pronounces pardon. 
New garments are put upon Joshua, and the old 
prophecy of the Branch is repeated (3. ; cp. Jr. 23. 5 ). 
The fifth vision is given as an encouragement to 
Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, not to lose 
heart in the day of small things, for his strength is in 
J", of Hosts. In figurative language the restoration 
of Isr. is declared, the obstacles in Zerubbabel's 
path will be removed, and his hands shall finish what 
he has begun (4.). The next two visions deal with 
the purifying of the corruptions of the land. A 
flying roll is seen going forth to destroy the sinners 
(5. 1 ' 4 ), and a woman, personifying wickedness, is 
carried off to Bab. to be set there in her own place 
(5- 5 * 11 )' The eighth vision is of four chariots going 
forth to execute the judgment of J", upon various 
nations, the chariot with black horses being specially 
noted as going to the north country, Bab. (6. 1 * 8 ). 
The prophet next tells how he received the com- 
mand to crown Joshua, the High Priest, and to 
give him once more the promise of the Messiah 
(6. 9 " 15 ). 

After a silence of two yrs. Zechariah again speaks, 
in answer to the question, whether the fast in 
memory of the fall of Jrs. should still be kept. His 
answer is that J'Vs requirements are ethical, as the 
story of the past shd. have taught them ; and he 
points to the time when the nation shall be alto- 
gether happy and prosperous in obeying the will of 
J". ; and other nations shall eagerly seek to worship 
the God of the Jews (7., 8.). 

The whole of the second part of the bk. (9.-14.) is 
placed by most critics after the Exile, and consider- 



ably later than the date of Z. It is poss. that these 
six chaps, come fm. the same unknown hand, having 
been written at difft. times, and in view of very 
difft. circumstances. Some consider this the most 
prob. view, while other critics see evidence of four 
difft. hands. But the data are insufficient for any 
cert, conclusion in the matter. Some of the latest 
writers on the subject still maintain the pre-exilic 
char, of this whole second part — chaps. 9.-11. be- 
longing to the time of Amos and Hosea, before the 
fall of Samaria in b.c 722, chaps. 12.-14. being 
dated immediately before the fall of Jrs. in b.c 586. 
All admit that chaps. 9.-1 1 . have many signs of pre- 
exilic origin, but the difficulty of setting the whole 
passage, as it stands, in the framework of that time 
is very great. Therefore it is usual to consider these 
chaps, post-exilic, some even relegating them to the 
middle of the fourth century b.c. It is cert., at 
least, that before that date the Greeks cd. not be re- 
ferred to in the manner of 9. 13 . The critics are 
unanimous in thinking that the second part of the 
bk. of Z. is not from the hand of Z., but their 
unanimity goes no further. 

The prophecy in chaps. 9.-11. begins with the 
announcement of judgment upon surrounding 
nations, J", encamping round Jrs. to protect it. 
The Messiah will come and establish a reign of peace. 
The captives in exile are invited to return ; J", will 
give them the victory over their enemies, and the 
nation will be established by Him in prosperity and 
gladness. They are exhorted to turn to the Lord 
for help and not to idols and diviners. J", will give 
them worthy rulers, the exiles will return, and Egp. 
and Asyr. will be defeated. This dream is broken 
in upon by the actuality of war. " There is a voice 
of the howling of the shepherds (rulers), for their 
glory is spoiled." The prophet is commanded to 
tend the shepherdless flock, but they refuse his 
authority and he casts them off. For wages, they 
give him in scorn the price of a slave, and he declares 
that the brotherhood of Judah and Isr., wh. he had 
hoped for, is for ever doomed. 

Chaps. 12.-14. consist of two visions of a siege of 
Jrs. Many nations, Judah among them, are fight- 
ing agst. Jrs. Judah, perceiving that ]". is on the 
side of the city, turns on the allies, Jrs. is delivered, 
and the Lord pours upon the city a spt. of grace and 
supplication. The people repent of their sin, and 
idolatry and false prophecy are put away. The 
second vision is of a renewed assault upon Jrs., but 
this time the city falls, and half of the people are 
taken captive. But now again the Lord fights agst. 
the nations, and, working wonders, brings in the 
new age of Messiah. The whole land is made a 
plain, and only Jrs. stands high above all. The con- 
quered nations come every yr. to worship the God 
of Jrs. If they disobey they will be visited with a 
curse. Jrs. is to be the centre of worship for all the 



9 2 5 



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Zed 



world, and everything in Jrs. and in Judah shall be 
holy unto the Lord. John Davidson. 

ZED AD, a place the name of which occurs in Nu. 
34. 8 , in the definition of the boundaries of the land 
promised to Israel ; and again in Ek. 47. 15 , in his 
sketch of the ideal boundaries. Wetzstein and 
others have favoured identification with Sadad, on 
the road between Riblah and Qaryatein. This, 
however, appears to be too far to the north and east. 
It is possible that the true reading is not tziddd, but 
tzerdd, in which case the place may be identified 
"with Khirbet Serddd, to the W. of Nahr el-Hasbdny, 
in Merj A l yun. 

ZEDEKIAH, the last king of Judah and Jeru- 
salem. He was the youngest son of Josiah, by his 
wife Hamutal, and so full brother of Jehoahaz (2 K. 
24. 18 ; cp. 23. 31 ). His name originally was Matta- 
miah. When his nephew Jehoiachin was carried 
away to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar set Mattaniah 
on the throne with the name of Zedekiah. He was 
set as the vassal of the Babylonian king, to rule over 
the humbler people who had been left in the land. 
During his troubled reign of eleven years Judah was 
only a pawn in the great game for empire between 
Egypt and Babylonia. Coming to the throne in 
these circumstances, at the age of twenty-one, he 
manifested no energy or decision of character, and 
speedily fell completely under the influence of the 
princes of his court. He says himself, addressing 
them, " The king is not he who can do anything 
against you " (Jr. 38. 5 ). Encouraged, it may be, by 
the natural strength of Jerusalem, and by the faith 
that Jehovah would protect His Temple, he listened 
favourably to the prophets who posed as patriots, 
over against Jeremiah, who fully understood the 
situation and saw its necessary development. Z. 
thought it might be possible to break the yoke of 
Babylon. Among the exiles also there was a party, 
led by false prophets, inspired by the same hope. 
Z. was thus induced to take the steps which proved 
fatal to himself and brought final disaster upon his 
people. For a time he sought to maintain the 
appearance of loyalty to Babylon ; but his capital 
was the centre of intrigue against the suzerain 
power. Once, in the fourth year of his reign, am- 
bassadors were present from Tyre, Sidon, Edom, 
and Moab, endeavouring to arrange a common 
rising. Of this project Nebuchadnezzar seems to 
have got intelligence, and Z. was called to Bab., 
where he succeeded in allaying for the time the 
suspicion regarding his intentions, which had been 
aroused (Jr. 5 1. 59 ). Jeremiah's steady opposition to 
all proposals in the direction indicated made a cer- 
tain impression upon Z., but brought upon him 
the hearty ill-will of the princes, who sought by all 
means to reduce him to silence. Once or twice Z. 
intervened to mitigate the severity of the treatment 
to which he was subjected (37. 21 , 38. 10 ). In spite of 



the most vehement protestations of Jeremiah, an 
alliance was at last entered into with Egypt (2 K. 
24. 20 ; Ek. 17." &c). This brought Nebuchad- 
nezzar forthwith into Judaea, to besiege Jerusalem. 
His headquarters were established at Riblah, and 
measures were taken for securing the subjection of 
the whole country. The approach of the Baby- 
lonian army filled both king and people with alarm. 
Some hoped that, as of old, God might intervene 
with signal deliverance (Jr. 21. 2 ). In this hope, the 
covenant with the Lord was renewed, and slaves 
were set free ; this last possibly with a view to their 
more cordial co-operation in the defence of the city 
(Jr. 34.). The advance of an Egyptian army under 
Pharaoh-hophra drew off the Chaldaeans for a time ; 
and it seemed to the overjoyed people of Jerusalem 
as if the hopes of the wildest dreamer had been 
realised. They revoked the liberty granted to their 
slaves, and seemed to think all danger past. They 
were doomed to swift and bitter disappointment. 
The Egyptians were dispersed, and the siege re- 
sumed in earnest. The defenders, to do them 
justice, were no cowards. But their courage only 
prolonged the agonies inseparable from a state of 
siege. For a year and a half they kept the enemy at 
bay, fighting with the utmost heroism. Jeremiah 
with no less heroism performed his appointed task, 
which must have been all the harder because it 
seemed so unpatriotic. His exhortations to submit, 
and his predictions of coming disaster, brought upon 
him heavy punishment. Z. seems to have credited 
the prophet's message, but lacked the manhood to 
follow his counsel. Superior force told in the end. 
A breach was made in the wall. Z. with a few 
followers attempted to escape. Their movements 
were discovered. They were pursued and captured 
in the Jordan valley. Clearly Z. hoped to find 
asylum in the desert wastes beyond Jordan. He 
was carried to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. His 
sons were slain before him, their dying agonies being 
the last sight he was to behold on earth. His eyes 
were immediately thrust out, and he was carried 
in fetters to Babylon, where, in captivity, he was 
destined to end his days. Josephus shows how in 
this two apparently contradictory prophecies were 
fulfilled : " Thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the 
king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee 
mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon " 
(Jr. 34. 3 ) ; and " I will bring him to Babylon, to 
the land of the Chaldaeans, yet he shall not see it, 
though he shall die there" (Ek. 12. 13 ; Ant. X.viii.2). 
Zedekiah appears to have been a man personally 
amiable, but without individual initiative or resolu- 
tion, easily influenced by those around him. Had 
he fallen into the hands of wise counsellors, instead 
of the headstrong, short-sighted zealots of his court, 
the existence of Judah's throne might have been 
indefinitely prolonged. He was, in the words of 



926 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zep 



Ezekiel, " no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule " 
(Ek. 19. 14 ). His secret consultations with Jeremiah, 
and his interference more than once in his interest, 
betray a conviction that Jeremiah was right. Upon 
that stern censor his personal qualities seem to have 
made a favourable impression. The prophet intro- 
duces no harshness in his words regarding Z. ; he is 
to die in peace, and is to be buried as a king (34- 4 ). 
Perhaps personal contact might have modified the 
fierce judgment of Ezekiel, who calls him the 
" deadly wounded wicked one " (Ek. 2 1. 25 ). 

ZEEB. See Oreb. 

ZELAH (Heb. Tzelcf), a city in the territory of 
Benjamin named with Taralah and Eleph, the latter 
of which may be the mod. Liftd, W. of Jerusalem. 
It contained the ancestral burying-place of the 
family of Saul (2 S. 21. 14 , RV. correctly "Zela"). 
Unidentified. 

ZELEK. One of David's mighty men, an Am- 
monite (2 S. 23. 37 ; 1 Ch. II. 39 ). 

ZELOPHEHAD, son of Hepher, of the tribe of 
Manasseh. He died during the desert wanderings, 
leaving only daughters behind him (Nu. 26. 33 , &c). 
The appeal of his five daughters to Moses and 
Eleazar, the princes and the congregation, met with 
instant success, a portion being assured to them in 
their father's name, so that his memory should not 
perish. It also resulted in the issue of regulations 
affecting cases of the same kind in future (Nu. 27 . lfl- ). 
Their inheritance was to be preserved to the tribe 
by marriage within it. This condition was fulfilled 
by these young women (Nu. 36.). 

ZELZAH, a place mentioned in Samuel's direc- 
tions to Saul (1 S. io. 2 ), where he was to meet two 
men " by Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Ben- 
jamin at Zelzah " (Heb. betzeslzah). The LXX 
evidently points to a different text, wh. is rendered 
" leaping mightily," or " in great haste " (Ewald). 
Many think that the mention of Rachel's tomb 
sufficiently defined the spot, making unnecessary 
the further definition " at Zelzah," arid therefore 
conclude that Zelzah cannot be the name of a place. 
In that case there was also no need for the mention 
of the boundary of Benjamin. No place has been 
discovered with a name resembling Zelzah. But 
the position of Rachel's sepulchre is also unknown. 

A comparatively easy change from n¥?¥2 to V?W, 
" from Zela," i.e. the ancestral burying-place of 
Saul's family, is suggested by H. P. Smith (Samuel, 
p. 69). 

ZEMARAIM, a city in the territory of Benja- 
min, mentioned before Bethel, apparently coming 
from the east. It is generally identified with es- 
Samra, a ruined site over four miles N. of Jericho. 
Mount Zemaraim, on which Abijah stood to 
address the army of Israel under Jeroboam, is said 
definitely to.be in " Mount Ephraim " (2 Ch. 13. 4 ). 
If there is any connection between the two, as 



seems likely enough, then Zemaraim must be sought 
somewhere in the uplands, west of es-Samra, which 
lies in the bottom of the Ghor. 

ZEMARITE, the name of a Canaanite commu- 
nity mentioned in Gn. io. 18 =i Ch. I. 16 , between 
the Arvadite and the Hamathite. This furnishes 
an indication of its position. It probably corre- 
sponds to the Sumur which appears several times in 
the Tel el-Amarna tablets, along with Arvad. The 
city from which the community was named may be 
represented by the mod. Sumra, between Tripoli 
and Rudd, on the north Phoenician seaboard, a little 
way to the north of Nahr el-Keb'ir. 

ZEMIRA, a Benjamite, son of Becher (1 Ch. 7. 8 ). 

ZENAN = ZAANAN. 

ZENAS (contraction fm. Zenodorus), a lawyer 
whom with all diligence (spoudaios) Titus is re- 
quested to further on his journey to Paul (Tt. 3. 13 ) ; 
he is accompanied by Apollos. The title, nomikos, 
" lawyer," may either mean that he had been a 
Jewish scribe who had become a convert, or that 
he was a Roman juris peritus. The former sup- 
position is the more probable fm. the usage of 
Scripture. His heathen name, wh. means the " gift 
of Zeus " (Jupiter), may have been a translation 
of " Jonathan," wh. means " gift of Jehovah " ; 
his association indicates that he was probably an 
Alexandrian. 

ZEPHANIAH. (1) A Kohathite Levite, an 
ancestor of the prophet Samuel (1 Ch. 6. 36 ). (2) Son 
of Maaseiah the priest (Jr. 21. 1 ). He succeeded 
Jehoiada as priest in Jerusalem, and was appealed 
to by Shemaiah the Nehelamite to punish Jeremiah. 
The letter from Babylon containing this appeal he 
read to Jeremiah, who there and then pronounced 
doom upon the Nehelamite (Jr. 29. 24ff -). He is 
called " second priest " as subordinate to Seraiah 
(2 K. 25. 18 ). He was taken to Riblah by Nebuzar- 
adan, the captain of the guard, who destroyed and 
burned Jerusalem, and there he was put to death by 
Nebuchadnezzar. (3) Father of Josiah (Zc. 6. 10, 14 ). 
(4) The prophet. See next article. 

ZEPHANIAH, ninth of the Minor Prophets, has 
left a short but most valuable prophecy. Nothing 
is known of him except what is contained in the title 
of his bk. There his ancestry is gi^en to the fourth 
generation, and as it is usual to name only the fr. of 
a prophet, it is conjectured that the Hezekiah men- 
tioned in the title was the k. of that name, and that 
Z. was of the royal house. This will give special 
point to his condemnation of the foreign manners of 
the princes and their followers, and to his denuncia- 
tion of sin in high places. It is evident that he lived 
in Jrs., for he speaks of the city as " this place," and 
he is familiar with its localities and various inhabi- 
tants. Z. prophesied in the reign of Josiah, k. of 
Judah, b.c. 639-608, and it is almost cert, that he 
flourished before the discovery of the Bk. of the Law 



927 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zer 



in 621, for many of the evils wh. he attacked were 
removed then by the action of Josiah. 

The prophecy has two main divisions : (1) A 
threatening of judgment (i. 2 ~3. 8 ), and (2) a promise 
of salvation (3. 9 " 20 ). The bk. opens with the an- 
nouncement of a universal judgment, wh. will fall 
most heavily upon the irreligious and false wor- 
shippers. The Lord will search Jrs. with lanterns, 
that none shall escape (i. 2 ' 13 ). The Day of the 
Lord is a day of wrath fm. wh. there is no escape, 
therefore the meek are warned to seek J", now. It 
may be they will be hid in the day of His anger 
(i. 14 -2. 3 ). Judgment is to be passed upon five 
nations wh. are named, and the prophet again turns 
to Jrs.,wh. is utterly corrupt, and, along with all the 
nations, will be devoured with the fire of His j ealousy 
(2. 4 ~3. 8 ). The second part of the bk., 3. 9 " 20 , con- 
sists of a promise of salvation. It is made to all 
nations, wh. are to be taught to worship ]". (3. 9, 10 ). 
In a beautiful passage a picture is presented of a re- 
newed Isr., when pride and oppression are put away, 
and men trust only in the Lord (3. 11 " 13 ). The 
people are invited to sing and rejoice in the 
Lord, who will remain for ever in the midst of 
them. 

" The value of the bk. of Z. is not to be estimated 
by its size. In two respects it is of great impor- 
tance : first, for the revelation wh. it gives of the 
religious and social condition of Jrs. in the yrs. pre- 
ceding the Exile ; and secondly, on act. of the pro- 
foundly earnest moral tone by wh. it is pervaded. 
Perhaps not less remarkable is the prophet's com- 
prehensive view of hist. The hist, of the nations is 
but another name for the operations of J", among 
them ; and the goal wh. all these operations pursue 
is not the redemption of Isr. merely but of man- 
kind " (A. B. Davidson). John Davidson. 

ZEPHATH. See Hormah. 

ZEPHATH, VALLEY OF, the place where the 
great battle was fought between Asa, king of Judah, 
and Zerah the Ethiopian (2 Ch. I4. 9ff -). It is said 
to be " at Mareshah." Some would place, it at Tell 
es-Sdfi, but that seems too far away. The LXX 
reads " in the ravine to the north of Mareshah." 
If this is the correct reading, as seems probable, 
Wddy el-Afranj may be intended. 

ZEPHI (1 Ch. i. 36 ), ZEPHO (Gn. 36. 11 ' 15 ), 
grandson of Esau and one of the " dukes " or 
phylarchs of the Edomites. 

ZEPHON = ZAPHON. 

ZER, a fortified city in the territory of Naphtali. 
In the list of Joshua (19. 35 ) it follows Ziddim, wh. 
may perhaps be identd. with Hat tin. Zer must 
therefore be sought somewhere to the W. of the Sea 
of Galilee. No name resembling Tzer has yet been 
discovered. 

ZERAH. (1) A grandson of Esau (Gn. 36. 13 ). 
(2) The younger of the twin sons of Judah by Tamar 



his daughter-in-law ; the ancestor of Achan ; his 
descendants are called Zarhites (Zerahites, RV.) in 
Nu. 26. 20 . (3) The son of Simeon and the pro- 
genitor of another family of Zarhites (Nu. 26. 13 ). 
Two Levites bore this name (1 Ch. 6. 21, 41 ). (4) A 
Cushite or Ethiopian monarch who invaded Judah 
with an immense army of a million men ; he was 
encountered and defeated by Asa (2 Ch. l4- 9f ')- 
He has been identified with Osorkon II., who 
claims to have subdued the Ru-tennu : it is difficult 
to understand why he shd. be called a Cushite. 
The suggestion that it may have been a sovereign 
of South Arabia who made a raid seems not im- 
probable. It is needless to say the numbers are 
exaggerated. 

ZERAHIAH. (1) A priest, the son of Uzzi, of 
whom Ezra the scribe was a descendant (1 Ch. 6. 6 ' 51 ; 
Ez. 7. 4 ). In I Es. 8. 2 he is called " Zaraias," and in 
2 Es. I. 2 , " Arna." (2) Father of Eliehoenai, of the 
family of Pahath-Moab (Ez. 8. 4 ). In 1 Es. 8. 31 
he is called " Zaraias." 

ZERED,THE BROOK, is taken to mark the limit 
of the desert wanderings (Nu. 21. 12 ; Dt. 2. 13f ). 
Robinson proposed to ident. it with Wddy el-Jksd, 
as forming the S. boundary of the land of Moab. 
It opens towards the SE. corner of the Dead Sea. 
But Nu. 2 1. 11 seems to show that Israel had entered 
the wilderness to the east of Moab before crossing the 
Zered. It must therefore be sought further to the 
north. It is now generally agreed that one of the 
tributaries of Wddy Kerdk is intended. 

ZEREDA, ZEREDATHAH, ZERERATH. See 
Zaretan. 

ZERESH, wife of Haman the Agagite (Est. 5. 10 ). 
It was she who advised the erection of the lofty 
gallows for the contumacious Mordecai (v. 14). 
When she learned that her husband's enemy was a 
Jew she was assured of Haman's doom (6. 13 ). 

ZERETH-SHAHAR = ZARETH-SHAHAR. 

ZERI, son of Jeduthun (1 Ch. 25. 3 ), called Izri 
in v. n. 

ZEROR, a Benjamite, great-grandfather of Saul 
(1 S. 9. 1 ). 

ZERUAH, the mother of Jeroboam son of Nebat 
(1 K. II. 26 ). In the LXX addition to chap. 12., 
between verses 24 and 25, she is called " Sarira," 
and is described as gune pome. 

ZERUBBABEL. This name is usually derived 
from two Hebrew words meaning " born or be- 
gotten in Babylon." More probably, however, 
the name is of Babylonian origin, and means " seed" 
or " offspring of Babylon." The person Zerub- 
babel is described as the son of Shealtiel or Sala- 
thiel (Ez. 3. 2 " 8 ; Hg. I. 1 ; Mw. I. 12 , &c), and thus 
the grandson of Jehoiakim, the exiled king of Judah 
{cp. 1 Ch. 3. 17 ). One passage in the Hebrew text, 
1 Ch. 3. 19 , calls him " the son of Pedaiah " (br. of 
Shealtiel), but as the LXX reads Salathiel, the read- 



028 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zib 



ing Pedaiah is likely a scribal error. Zerubbabel 
played an important part at the return of the exiles 
from Babylon. In Ez. 3. 8 he is said to have laid the 
foundation of the house of the Lord, along with 
Jeshua the High Priest, in the second year after the 
return, i.e. B.C. 537. He refused the assistance of 
the " people of the land " (Ez. 4. 3 ), who retaliated 
by securing letters from the Persian court to put a 
stop to the work. Seventeen years later the Temple 
was proceeded with by Zerubbabel and Jeshua, en- 
couraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah 
(cp. Ez. 5.1. 2 ; Hg. i. 12 , 2. 4 ; Zc. 4> 10 ). In Ez. 
5. 16 , however, the laying of the foundation is as- 
cribed to Sheshbazzar, who as well as Zerubbabel is 
described as " governor of Judah." Were, then, 
Zerubbabel and Sheshbazzar identical ? Instances 
of men bearing two different names occur not infre- 
quently (e.g. 2 K. 23. 34 , 24. 17 ; Dn. I. 7 , &c). But 
this does not seem to be a case in point, nor is it 
demanded by a comparison of Ez. 3. 8 and 5. 16 . 
Both men may have returned from Bab. together, 
and while Sheshbazzar was the ruling official, Zerub- 
babel may have been the moving spirit in building 
the Temple. Ez. 3- 8 gives the Chronicler's own 
account of the work, while Ez. 5. purports to be an 
official report, and would naturally mention the 
official head of the community as responsible for 
what happened under his rule. The fact that both 
names are of foreign origin makes it unlikely that 
both were borne by the same individual (cp. Dn. 1 . 7 ), 
while as a rule the Chronicler is careful to note any 
such identification — e.g. Daniel whose name was 
Belteshazzar. In all probability Sheshbazzar was 
identical with Shenazzar of 1 Ch. 3. 18 , a son of 
Jehoiachim, and would thus be the uncle of Zerub- 
babel, by whom he was succeeded as governor of 
Judah as early as the reign of Darius Hystaspis, 
B.C. 520 (cp. Hg. I. 1, u , 2. 3 ). It is likely the younger 
man, Zerubbabel, took the leading part in the work 
of restoration, and as a result his uncle's memory 
fell into the background. 

The history of Zerubbabel after the founding of 
the Temple is unknown. A Jewish tradition states 
that he returned to Babylon. In recent years 
various theories have been propounded regarding 
him. The view has been put forward that after the 
founding of the Temple he was raised to be king of 
Judah as head of the Messianic kingdom, and there- 
after put to death by the Persians. 

Professor Kosters, admitting Zerubbabel's share 
in building the Temple, supposes the whole work 
was done not by returned exiles, but by the Jews 
left in the land, and Zerubbabel need never have 
been in Bab. at all. However, his name, if nothing 
else, excludes such an idea. The view that Zerub- 
babel represented the suffering servant of Is. 53. is 
also mere conjecture. W. F. Boyd. 

ZERUIAH is known to history as the mother of 



three famous warriors, two of whom played a lead- 
ing part in the wars of David, the third falling a 
victim to his own zeal, at the hands of Abner : 
Abishai, Joab, and Asahel. Who their father was 
none can tell ; Josephus (Ant. VII. i. 3) calls him 
" Souri." They are always called " sons of Zer- 
uiah." It may be that Z. had married a foreigner, 
whose name might not appear in the genealogy of 
the Israelites. Or her name, as that of a near kins- 
woman to the reigning king, may have seemed to 
befit the dignity of these great captains. Z. and 
Abigail are called " sisters of the sons of Jesse " in 
I Ch. 2. 16 . It has been inferred from this that they 
were not the daughters of Jesse ; and the inference 
is thought to be confirmed by 2 S. 17. 25 , where 
Abigail is called the daughter of Nahash. Stanley 
suggested that this Nahash may have been the 
Ammonite king of that name, and formerly husband 
of Jesse's wife. But " Nahash " in this passage is 
prob. an error for " Jesse " ; so that we may 
reasonably suppose Z. to have been full sister of 
David. 

ZETHAM, a Gershonite Levite, son of Laadan 
(1 Ch. 23.8). 

ZETHAN, a Benjamite, son of Bilthan (1 Ch. 
7.1°). 

ZETHAR, a eunuch in the court of Ahasuerus, 
one of those sent to bring Vashti into the royal 
presence (Est. I. 10 ). 

ZEUS, RVm., in Ac. I4. 12f - See Jupiter. 

ZIA. Head of one of the Gadite families (1 Ch. 

5- 13 )- 

ZIBA is introduced to David as having been the 
servant of Saul, and likely to have information about 
the family of his master. Possibly he had secured 
his freedom at the death of Saul. At all events he 
had a considerable household, " fifteen sons and 
twenty servants." It is possible that he had been 
making use of Saul's property for his own interest. 
Acting on information given by Ziba, David restored 
to Mephibosheth his father's property, including 
Ziba, who was to be his servant, and, with his sons, 
to till the land for Mephibosheth (2 S. 9.). Z. ap- 
peared to succour the king with timely gifts, when 
he fled from Absalom. He then accused his master 
of treason and treachery. His story was believed, 
and Mephibosheth's property made over to him. 
This doubtless was what he aimed at (2 S. i6. lff -). 
Mephibosheth seems to have convinced the king on 
his return that Ziba had falsely accused him. It 
was not easy, however, for David to go back upon 
his hasty judgment, but Ziba had to be content 
with half of what he had so unworthily gained (2 S. 
i9. 24ff ). 

ZIBEON, a Horite chief, grandfather of Aholi- 
bamah, the wife of Esau (Gn. 36. 2 , &c), brother of 
Seir (Gn. 36. 20 , &c.) and father of Anah, who, it is 
said, " found the hot springs [AV. mules] in the 

n 2 G 



Zib 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zin 



wilderness " while he was tending the asses of his 
father (Gn. 36. 24 ). 

ZIBIA, a Benjamite, son of Shaharaim, by his 
wife Hodesh, apparently born in the land of Moab 
(I Ch. 8. 9 ). 

ZIBIAH, a native of Beersheba, mother of Joash, 
king of Judah (2 K. 12. 1 ; 2 Ch. 24. 1 ). 

ZICHRI. (1) A Kohathite Levite, son of Izhar 
(Ex. 6. 21 ). In AV. ed. 161 1, it is given correctly ; 
but some mod. edd. mis-spell "Zithri." (2) A Ben- 
jamite of the family of Shimhi (1 Ch. 8. 19 ). (3) A 
"Benjamite of the family of Shashak (1 Ch. 8. 23 ). 
(4) A Benjamite of the family of Jeroham (1 Ch. 
8. 27 ). (5) A Levite, son of Asaph (1 Ch. 9. 15 ), also 
called Zabdi, and Zaccur. (6) A descendant of 
Eliezer, son of Moses (1 Ch. 26. 25 ). (7) The chief 
of the Reubenites in the reign of David, who 
was succeeded by his son Eliezer (1 Ch. 27. 16 ). 
(8) Father of Amasiah, who , commanded 200,000 
" mighty men of valour " in Jehoshaphat's army 
(2 Ch. 17. 16 ). (9) Father of Elishaphat, who con- 
spired with Jehoiada for the downfall of Athaliah 
(2 Ch. 23. 1 ). (10) A heroic soldier in the army of 
Pekah, the son of Remaliah, who, in battle with 
Judah, " slew Maaseiah the king's son, and Azri- 
kam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah that was 
next to the king " (2 Ch. 28. 7 ). (11) A Benjamite, 
father of Joel (Ne. II. 9 ). (12) A priest belonging 
to the family of Abijah (Ne. 12. 17 ). 

ZIDDIM, a fortified city in the territory of 
Naphtali, identified in Tim. Jerushalmi with 
Hattin, a vill. fully five miles NW. of Tiberias, at 
the NE. base of what is called the Mount of 
Beatitudes, Qurun Hattin (Jo. 19. 35 ). 

ZIDON. See Sidon. 

ZIKLAG, a town in the territory allotted to 
Judah (Jo. 15. 31 ), mentioned among the " uttermost 
cities . . . toward the border of Edom in the 
south,'' along with Hormah, Madmannah, &c. It 
is included in the part of Judah assigned to Simeon 
(19. 5 ). It had fallen into the hands of the Philis- 
tines, and the outlawed David received it as a resi- 
dence from Achish, king of Gath (1 S. 27. 6 ). It was 
raided by the Amalekites during his absence before 
the battle of Gilboa (30. lfl -). On his return he 
pursued and defeated them, recovering all the spoil 
and the captives. Here he received tidings of Saul's 
death, and slew the Amalekite who claimed to have 
given that king his death-blow (2 S. I. 15 , 4. 10 ). 
Z. was then left for Hebron. Lists of those who 
joined David before the removal are given in I Ch. 
12. The town appears as occupied by the children 
of Judah after the Exile (Ne. 1 1 , 28 ). Identifications 
have been suggested with places as widely apart as 
'asluj, 16 miles south of Beersheba, and Zuheiliqa, 
about 11 miles east by south of Gaza, and 19 miles 
SW. of Beit Jibrin. The latter seems on the whole 
best to meet the requirements of the text. 



ZILLAH and ADAH, wives of Lamech. The 
former was the mother of Tubal-cain and Naamah, 
the latter of Jabal and Jubal (Gn. 4. 19fl ). The 
names seem to be contrasted in meaning : Adah = 
" morning," or " brightness " ; Zillah = " shadow." 

ZILPAH, a Syrian maid given to Leah by her 
father Laban (Gn. 29. 24 ), and given by Leah to 
Jacob as a concubine. She was the mother of Gad 
and Asher (Gn. 30. 9ff -, &c). 

ZILTHAI, RV. ZILLETHAI. (1) Son of 
Shimhi, a Benjamite (1 Ch. 8. 20 ). (2) One of the 
Manassite captains who joined David at Ziklag 
(1 Ch. 12. 20 ). 

ZIMMAH. A Gershonite Levite family (1 Ch. 
6. 20 - 42 ; 2 Ch. 29. 12 ). 

ZIMRAN, the eldest son of Keturah by Abraham 
(Gn. 25. 2 ; 1 Ch. I. 32 ). Grotius suggests identifica- 
tion with the Zamareni, a tribe in the interior of 
Arabia (Pliny, NH. vi. 32), and Knobel with Zab- 
ram, to the W. of Mecca, on the Red Sea (Ptolemy, 
VI. vii. 5). This, however, is far from the region 
occupied by the Keturite tribes. The name may 
be derived from zemer, an animal allowed for food 
(Dt. 14. 5 ), probably some kind of mountain sheep or 
goat, wh. may have been the clan totem. 

ZIMRI. (1) Son of Salu, a prince of the tribe of 
Simeon, who, with the Midianite princess Cozbi, 
was slain by Phinehas (Nu. 25. 14 ), in punishment of a 
peculiarly flagrant offence. (2) A son of Zerah, of 
the tribe of Judah (1 Ch. 2. 6 , " Zabdi " in Jo. 7 4 ). 
(3) Son of Jehoadah, a descendant of Saul (1 Ch. 
8. 36 , 9. 42 ). (4) A people, probably North Arabian, 
whom Jeremiah threatens with destruction along 
with those of Elam and the Medes (Jr. 25. 25 ). 
No certain identification is possible. (5) See next 
article. 

ZIMRI, the fifth monarch of the Northern King- 
dom. His reign lasted for seven days (1 K. i6. 9fl -). 
He had command of half the chariots in Israel's 
army. Conspiring against Elah, son of Baasha, he 
slew him in the house of Arza, the royal steward at 
Tirzah, where he found him indulging in a drunken 
revel. He exterminated the family of the mur- 
dered king. The army, then besieging Gibbethon 
in Philistia, on the news reaching them, elected 
Omri king, and he speedily avenged Elah's assas- 
sination. Unable to defend Tirzah against him, 
Zimri retired to the citadel, and, setting fire to it, 
perished in the flames. His case was quoted by 
Jezebel to Jehu : " Had Zimri peace, who slew his 
master ? " (2 K. 9. 31 ). 

ZIN, a place named on the south boundary of 
Judah (Nu. 34. 3 ; Jo. 15. 3 ), where it is mentioned 
between the Ascent of Akrabbim and Kadesh- 
barnea. It is to be sought, therefore, in the high- 
lands occupied by the 'Azdzimeh Arabs. So far it 
is unknown. (2) The Wilderness of Zin. This 
is the division of the great waste which took its 



93° 



Zin 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zoa 



name from the above place. In Nu. 33- 36 it is 
identified with Kadesh, wh. in other passages (Dt. 
32. 51 ; Nu. 20. 1 , 27. 14 ) is said to be in the Wilderness 
of Zin. It lay in the extreme south of Judah, on 
the boundary of Edom (Jo. 15. 1 ). It formed the 
southern limit of the land explored by the spies 
(Nu. 13. 21 ). It apparently must be identd. with 
the uplands of the 'Jzdzimeh Arabs, to. the N. or 
NW. of the Wilderness of Paran. The Wilder- 
ness of Zin witnessed the lapse on the part of Moses, 
wh. led to his exclusion from the promised land 
(Nu. 2y. 14 = Dt. 32. 51 ). 

ZINA. See Zizah. 

ZION. See Jerusalem. 

ZIOR, a town in the mountain of Judah (Jo. 
15. 54 ), named with Hebron. OEJ. places it (s.v. 
Sior) between JElia. (Jerusalem) and Eleutheropolis 
{Beit Jibfin). It is prob. identical with Sa'ir, a 
village c. five miles N. of Hebron. 

ZIPH. (1) A man of Judah, son of Jehallelel 
(1 Ch. 4. 16 ). (2) A city in the south of Judah, 
named between Ithnan and Telem (Jo. 15. 24 ). The 
site has not been recovered. (3) A city in the up- 
lands of Judah, the name of which occurs between 
Carmel and Juttah (Jo. 15. 55 ). Some of the ad- 
ventures of David during his experience of the 
wastes are associated with the wilderness called by 
this place (1 S. 23. 14 , &c). It was one of the cities 
fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. II. 8 ). It corresponds 
to the modern Tell ez-Zipk, c. four miles SE. of 
Hebron. The inhabitants are called Ziphites (1 S. 
23. 19 , 26. 1 ; Ps. 54., title). 

ZIPHAH, a man of Judah, son of Jehalleleel 
(1 Ch. 4 .i«). 

ZIPHION, a son of Gad (Gn. 46. 16 ), called 
Zephon in Nu. 26. 15 . 

ZIPHRON, a place on the northern frontier of 
Canaan, as drawn in Nu. 34. (v. 9). Socin (Baede- 
ker's Palastina und Syrien, 2 p. 397) suggests identi- 
fication with 7,a i ferdneh, on the way between Horns 
and Hama. Possibly, however, it is the same place 
as Sibraim of Ek. 47. 16 . 

ZIPPOR, father of Balak, king of Moab (Nu. 
22. 2 , &c). The name signifies " twitterer," and 
perhaps here means " sparrow," referring, it may 
be, to the totem of his tribe. 

ZIPPORAH, wife of Moses, daughter of Jethro 
priest of Midian (Ex. 2. 21 ), and mother of Gershom 
(2. 22 ) and Eliezer (18. 4 ). She seems to have had no 
sympathy with her husband in his zeal for the God 
of Israel. It was probably her aversion to the rite 
of circumcision that, yielded to by Moses, occa- 
sioned the scene in the khan on the way fm. Midian 
to Egypt (Ex. 4« 26 ) ; after this she seems to have 
returned to her father. Her mother may have been 
an Ethiopian ; that wd. form excuse enough in the 
heat of a family quarrel for Miriam to call her an 
Ethiopian. ' 



ZIZ. By the " ascent of Ziz " the army of the 
allies, the " children of Ammon and Moab and 
Mount Seir," advanced against Jerusalem, for the 
overthrow of Jehoshaphat (2 Ch. 20. 16 ). They 
assembled at Hazazon-tamar, which is identified 
with En-gedi (v. 2). The ascent of Ziz, therefore, 
led up from En-gedi towards Tekoa (v. 20). Pro- 
bably there is a survival of the old name in that of 
Wddy Hasdsah, along which ran the Roman road 
from En-gedi, through the wilderness of Tekoa, by 
way of Jebel Fureidis, to Bethlehem. 

ZIZA. A chief of the tribe of Simeon, son of 
Shiphi, one of those who, in the days of Hezekiah, 
raided the Hamite shepherds of Gedor (1 Ch. 4- 37 ). 
(2) Son of Rehoboam ; his mother was Maacah, 
grand- daughter of Absalom (2 Ch. II. 20 ). 

ZIZAH. A Gershonite Levite, son of Shimei 
(1 Ch. 23. 11 ). It is written Zinah in v. 10, prob. a 
clerical error. 

ZOAN, a city of Egypt on the most easterly 
mouth of the Nile. It was regarded as one of the 
most ancient of Egyptian cities, hence it is reckoned 
an evidence of special emphasis in regard to the an- 
tiquity of Hebron that it was built " seven years 
before Z. of Egypt" (Nu. 13. 22 ). This note wd. 
seem to imply that some race of immigrants on 
their way to Egypt built Hebron. Zoan was the 
first city of real importance that one entering Egypt 
fm. the E. came in contact with, and hence to the 
Jews it became in a way the representative of all 
Egypt. Isaiah, in denouncing the judgments of 
God upon Egypt, singles out the princes of Z. as 
become " fools " (Is. 19. 11, 13 ), and places them on 
a level with the princes of Noph (Memphis). The 
plagues inflicted on Egypt are in Ps. 78. 12 ' 43 re- 
garded as done in Z., and in the parallelism it is put 
as equivalent to Egypt. In Ezekiel the burning of 
Z. is mentioned as one of its crowning disasters 
(Ek. 30. 14 ). The LXX call Z. Tanis, an identifica- 
tion wh. seems generally admitted to be correct. 
The modern name is San ; it is on the side of Lake 
Menzaleh, a large stretch of shallow water which 
is close to the northern end of the Suez Canal. 
Mariette and Petrie made explorations there, and 
found remains that dated back to the Sixth Dyn- 
asty, about b.c. 3200. Brugsch thinks that when 
Ramses II. made Z. one of his capitals he changed 
its name to Pi-Ramessu, and that this is the 
Raamses of Ex. 1 , n ; but Egyptologists have not 
agreed, as a rule, to this identification. 

ZOAR is mentioned as one of the cities in the 
" round " of Jordan which attracted Lot (Gn.13. 10 ). 
It appears in the account of Chedorlaomer's cam- 
paign, where we are told that its ancient name 
was Bela (Gn. 14. 2 ). It escaped destruction when 
Sodom and Gomorrah were overwhelmed, and 
there Lot found a temporary shelter (Gn. I9. 20ff -). 
It is here indicated that Z. was spared because of its 



93i 



Zoa 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zob 



insignificance — " Is it not a little one ? " (v. 20) ; 
and on this account it was called Tzo'arJ.e. " little." 
It occurs again in the description of the view granted 
to Moses (Dt. 34- 3 ). In Is. 15. 5 it is spoken of as a 
city of Moab : so also in Jr. 48. 34 . The name occurs 
nowhere else in Scripture. The last two references 
show that it was on the southern boundary of Moab. 
Clearly it was not situated in the Vale of Siddim, 
with the other cities of the plain, or nothing could 
have saved it from destruction : nor yet was it on 
.the mountain, or Lot would not have been in such 
haste to leave it. All this points to a position in 
the SE. of the Dead Sea, on a level somewhat higher 
than that of the Vale of Siddim. A site in or near 
Ghor es-Sdfiyeh would meet all the requirements. 
This is a richly wooded and fertile stretch of country 
along the E. edge of the mud flat of es-Sebkha, about 
six miles long, and from one to three miles broad. 
The name, " Hollow of the smooth (cliff)," is taken 
from the smooth sandstone range that frowns over 
it. Wddy d-Ahsd, " Wady of the sand wells," 
furnishes it with water. Here the nomads pitch 
their tents, and only a small gathering of reed huts, 
surrounded by a stockade of the same material, re- 
presents the more settled life. The choice of this 
district is confirmed by what is known from extra- 
Biblical sources of the site of Zoar. Josephus (Ant. 
I. xi. 4 ; BJ. IV. viii. 4) knows it by the name of 
Zoara, and says the Dead Sea extends to it, a dis- 
tance of 580 furlongs, plainly between Jericho and 
Zoara. OEJ. corroborates, stating also that it was 
famous for balsam and date palms. Muqaddasi, 
the Arab geographer (a.d. 985), says it lay on the 
trade route from Aila (Elath), by el-Ghamr (near 
Petra) and Hebron, to Jerusalem. It was two days' 
journey from Jerusalem, and four from Aila, and 
was situated in a district adjoining the Dead Sea, 
very hot and unhealthy, but yielding indigo, dates, 
and bananas in abundance. King Baldwin I. of 
Jerusalem, on his march against Petra, passed 
Hebron, the salt mountain by the Dead Sea, i.e. 
Jebel Usdum, and Zoar, before ascending the 
Arabian mountains. The path in each case must 
have been round the S. end of the Dead Sea. No 
road is possible along the eastern shore. 

The site need not have been actually within Ghor 
es-Sdfiyeh. It may have been a little higher for the 
sake of health and comfort. There are consider- 
able ruins in Wddy el-Ahsd, not far to the SE. 
Khirbet Labrush doubtless represents el-Burj, and 
may be the ruin of the Roman castle, wh. according 
to OEJ. furnished quarters for a Roman garrison. 

We may glance briefly at two arguments used 
against the identification suggested above : — 

(1) Lot saw " all the plain of Jordan ... as 
thou goest unto Zoar " from his look-out in the 
mountain near Bethel (Gn. 19. 10 ). From that 
position the S. end of the Dead Sea is not visible. 



One would hardly speak of a plain in this position 
as the plain of Jordan. 

It is to be noted that Lot could not have seen 
even the whole of the plain to the north of the 
Dead Sea. Further, the word kikkdr denotes, not 
" plain," but " circle," or round ; and would natu- 
rally apply to the whole of the lower part of the 
great depression, of which Zoar marked the south- 
eastern limit. 

(2) Gn. I4. 7ff - brings Chedorlaomer from the 
south to Hazazon-tamar (En-gedi), before the allied 
kings of the cities of the plain set the battle in array 
against him in the vale of Siddim. This implies 
that the vale of Siddim, with the five cities, were in 
the north. 

The road from i Ain Jidy to either end of the sea 
is difficult ; but it would be much easier to take a 
body of men to the south than to the north. Pos- 
sibly also Hazazon-tamar should be sought, not at 
' Ain Jidy, but at Tamar, of wh. Ezekiel speaks, on 
the trade route between Elath and Hebron. 

ZOBAH appears first as the enemy of Israel in 
the days of Saul, who is said to have fought against 
and vexed it (1 S. 14. 47 ). Next we hear of David 
defeating the king of Zobah unto or at Hamath, 
taking from him 1000 chariots, 700 horsemen, and 
20,000 footmen, and reserving horses for 100 
chariots. The Syrians of Damascus came to 
succour Hadadezer king of Zobah, and were utterly 
routed. Great and rich spoil fell to David, and 
To 1 or Tou, king of Hamath, relieved of a trouble- 
some foe by the fall of the king of Zobah, sent 
blessings and gifts to David (2 S. 8. 3fl - ; 1 Ch. i8. 3fl -). 
The Syrians of Zobah next appear, with those of 
Beth-Rehob and Maacah, as allies of Ammon. The 
division of David's army under Joab utterly dis- 
comfited the Syrians. Hadadezer then made a 
great rally, gathering the Syrians from far and near, 
and under Shobach, the captain of his host, they met 
David, commanding his army in person, at Helam. 
The Syrians were defeated with terrible slaughter, 
Shobach being among the slain (2 S. io. 6fl - ; I Ch. 
I9. 6ff- ). From Hadadezer, weakened by this defeat, 
fled Rezon, who organised a raid upon Damascus, 
with such success that he became king of Damascus, 
and proved a bitter enemy to Israel for many years 
(1 K. n. 23ff -). At a later time Solomon is said to 
have gone to Hamath-zobah and to have prevailed 
against it (2 Ch. 8. 3 ). 

Such are the meagre details of history regarding 
Zobah as they stand in the records. That it was a 
power to be reckoned with is evident ; but materials 
are lacking for any satisfactory account of their 
organisation and power, and even of the territory 
they occupied. Their strife with Hamath, and 
their assembly at Helam, point to possessions N. of 
Damascus and Hamath. The cuneiform inscrip- 
tions mention a Subiti or Subutu in this direction. 



Zoh 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Zuz 



On the other hand they seem to have held territory 
between Beth Rehob and Maacah. These lay to 
the SW. of Damascus ; and the inscriptions speak 
of a Subiti also in this quarter. It is impossible 
with our present information to come to any sure 
conclusion. 

ZOHAR. (i) Father of Ephron the Hittite, 
from whom Abraham bought the cave of Mach- 
pelah (Gn. 23. 8 , 25. 9 ). (2) Son of Simeon (Gn. 
46. 10 ; Ex. 6. 15 ), called Zerah in 1 Ch. 4. 24 . (3) A 
family of the sons of Judah (1 Ch. 4J RVm. — AV. 
"Jezoar," RV. "Izhar"). 

ZOHELETH, " crawling thing," perhaps " ser- 
pent." Accdg. to 1 K. i. 9 , the stone of Z. was 
beside En-rogel. To furnish an opportunity for his 
proclamation as king, Adonijah made here a feast 
for his adherents. Prob., therefore, Z. was the sacri- 
ficial stone of a high place. The serpent may have 
been the symbol of a divinity (cp. Nu. 21. 8 ; 2 K. 
18. 4 ), perhaps belonging to the spring, wh. also may 
have been called the " dragon's spring " (Ne. 2. 13 ). 
The high place Tophet cd. not have been far away. 
As En-rogel is not the mod. i Ain umm ed-Daraj {see 
Gihon), Z. has nothing to do with the steep incline 
now called sahwele, " sliding place," on the path to 
this spring fm. the rock-terrace of the vill. Silzvdn. 
The stone was near En-rogel, and therefore hardly 
in the king's garden, as Jos. says {Ant. VII. xiv. 4), 
but rather on the mod. threshing floor of Silwan., 
between the gardens and En-rogel. 

G. H. Dalman. 

ZOPHAI. A Kohathite Levite, son of Elkanah, 
an ancestor of Samuel (1 Ch. 6. 26 ; " Zuph," I S. 
1} ; " Ziph," 1 Ch. 6. 35 ). 

ZOPHAR, one of the three friends of Job, called 
" the Naamathite," and described by the LXX as 
" king of the Minseans " (Jb. 2. 11 , &c), probably 
chief of his tribe. 

ZOPHIM, THE FIELD OF, one of the spots to 
which Balak took Balaam to see Israel, with a view 
to having them cursed (Nu. 23. 14 ). It is probable 
that Zophim is not a proper name. The phrase 
may be translated literally " field of watchers." 
As a " place of outlook " it would naturally be on 
some height commanding an extensive prospect. 
Such places were familiar in days when men had 
to depend on observation to protect them against 
surprise. For Ramathaim-Zophim see Ramah. 

ZORABABEL (Mw. i. 12 - 13 ; Lk. 3 . 27 ) = ZERUB- 
BABEL. 



ZORAH, a town in the Shephelah, at first given 
to Judah (Jo. 15. 33 ), then named as in the territory 
of Dan (Jo. 19. 41 ). Samson's birth and burial are 
both placed between Zorah and Eshtaol in Mahaneh 
Dan (Jg. 13. 25 , 16. 31 ). It appears to have been 
colonised from Kirjath-jearim (1 Ch. 2. 53 , 4. 2 ). It 
was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch. u. 10 ) and re- 
occupied after the Exile (Ne. II. 29 ). It is repre- 
sented by the mod. Sur'ah, N. of Wddy es-Sardr, 
c. 15 miles W. of Jerusalem. The inhabitants 
are called Zorathites (1 Ch. 4. 2 ; 1 Ch. 2. 53 , 
AV. " Zareathites," RV. " Zorathites " ; 2. 54 for 
" Zorites " read " Zorathites"). 

ZUPH, a Kohathite Levite, ancestor of Samuel 
(1 S. i. 1 ; 1 Ch. 6. 35 ). S^Suphai. 

ZUPH, THE LAND OF, a district reached by 
Saul and his servant when out searching for his 
father's asses, after passing through the lands of 
Shalishah and Shaalim (1 S. g. 5 ). No trace of such 
a name has been found, and there is nothing to 
guide us to an identification. It may have taken its 
name from the descendants of Zuph, if they settled 
there. 

ZUR. (1) A prince of Midian slain by the 
Isarelites, at the time when Balaam was put to death 
(Nu. 31. 8 ). He was father of Cozbi (Nu. 25. 15 ). 
(2) Son of Jehiel, the founder of Gibeon (1 Ch. 
8. 30 , 9. 36 ). 

ZURIEL, a Merarite Levite, son of Abihail, 
chief of the clan at the time of the Exodus (Nu. 

3- 35 ). 

ZURISHADDAI, father of Shelumiel, chief of 
the tribe of Simeon at the Exodus (Nu. I. 6 , 2. 12 , 
&c). 

ZUZIM, a prehistoric people conquered by 
Chedorlaomer (Gn. 14. 5 ). Fm. the resemblance 
of Z. to Zamzummim, and fm. the mention of 
Emim and Rephaim in the same connection (Dt. 
2. 10, 12, 20 « 21 ), it is natural to suggest that the two 
are identical. Dr. Sayce has argued that the differ- 
ence is due to a scribe writing w for m in copying 
fm. the cuneiform, as m and w resemble each other 
in Babylonian. They are said to have dwelt in Ham, 
a place that has not been identified. Dr. Driver 
{HDB.) suggests a connection with a place Ziza 
near Heshbon, but this seems unlikely. It is to 
be observed that the LXX, the Psh., the Tg. of 
Onkelos, and the Sam. Tg. all render " the strong 
people among them," as if they had read E£? E*W, 
uzim bdbem, instead of zuzim behdm. 



933 




Khu-Aten adoring the Sun 




SLAUGHTER OF THE SEVEN MARTYR CHILDREN AND 
THEIR MOTHER 



APOCRYPHA OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 

The books that go by the name of Apocrypha This is not restricted to Christian books, for 
in our English and Protestant German Bibles, Clemens Alexanolrinus credits Prodicus with the 
when they occur at all, stand in a compartment possession of the Biblous Apokruphous, " apocryphal 
by themselves, frequently with a separate title-page, books," of Zoroaster. The Gnostics and other 
Readers are therefore apt to fancy that the books so heretics so frequently appealed to esoteric books, 
segregated were collected much in the same way which it was pretended had been hidden (Lihri 
as the books of the NT., by the authoritative Apocrypha), that the term soon came to mean what 
decisions of councils. Few Protestants, except was unsound. Part of the answer of the orthodox 
those who are in a manner experts, realise that, to these heretics was that these secret esoteric books 
as originally collected in the LXX, they were were forgeries : so the term came to mean false in 
mingled with the books of the Canon accepted claim and contents ; Irenasus {adv. Hcer. i. 20) 
by the Jews. The LXX arranged the books into makes " apocryphal " equivalent to nothos, " spu- 
the classes Historical, Poetical, Prophetical, in rious " ; so too Tertullian, when he wishes to decry 
that order, and practically this is the order fol- the authority of the " Pastor " of Hermas, declares 
lowed in the Vulgate and the Douay. The books it to be one of the writings apocrypha et falsa. 
that we call Apocrypha occur in the class to wh. When the Canon had become fixed, and there was 
they logically belong, and approximately in the little danger of spurious books finding their way to 
chronological position in the class which fits their general acknowledgment, a new application was 
assumed date ; except the books of the Maccabees, given to the term, and a new explanation to suit this 
which are generally, though not always, placed new use advanced. It was applied to the books now 
at the end. Tobit and Judith stand between known by that name, so Jerome says of Judith that 
Nehemiah and Esther ; the Wisdom of Solo- the Jews regarded it as apocryphal. Augustine 
mon and Ecclesiasticus follow the books of uses the term much in its modern sense, as appli- 
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes ; and Baruch follows cable to any book not in the Jewish Canon, but he 
Jeremiah. The Additions to Esther and the explains it to mean, not that the books had been 
stories of Bel and the Dragon, and of Susanna hidden or were intended to be hidden, but that 
and the Elders, and the Song of the Three Holy their origin was unknown ; this implied that they 
Children, all are arranged in the books to which were " pseudepigrapha," a reproach that is not 
they are attributed. The English Reformers, while deserved by at least Ecclesiasticus. During the 
separating those books fm. those acknowledged to Middle Ages there was considerable diversity of 
be authoritative, yet retained them in a deutero- meaning attached to the term, but meantime the 
canonical position, and in the early prayer-books a books wh. constitute our Apocrypha were generally 
very much larger proportion of the Apocrypha was acknowledged as received by the Church. Even in 
ordained to be read than is at present. In one the earlier period, when there was more scholarship, 
respect the Council of Trent went further than and by divines who held that the only binding 
the Reformers, as they relegated the Prayer of Canon was that of Palestine, the books themselves 
Manasses and 3rd and 4th Esdras to the end of were quoted freely as if Scripture in the highest 
Revelation, as of very doubtful acceptation. sense of the term, and defended against assault ; 

The history of the term " Apocrypha " is in- thus Origen maintained the authenticity of Susanna 
teresting. To begin with, those books were called and the Elders. 

Apocryphi which contained doctrines that were The Extent of this Canon of Apocryphal 
hidden fm. the commonalty. An example of this Books. — Roughly speaking, it meant the books wh. 
is to be seen in 2 Es. 14. 44 " 48 , in wh. Esdras is com- were in the Canon of Alexandria, but not in that of 
manded to write ninety-four books, to deliver Palestine. We have said it means this " roughly," 
twenty-four to all, but to retain seventy for the because certain books appear only in some codices : 
wise. Heretical sects were always resting their e.g., the Psalter of Solomon is found only in the 
peculiar doctrines on secret books that had been Codex Alexandrinus ; on the other hand, 2nd (|th) 
written by this or that ancient saint or prophet. Esdras is not found in the Alexandrian Canon at all. 

937 ? <? ? 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Josephus has announced the principle on wh. he and 
the Jews of his age understood the Palestinian 
Canon to have been framed. Those books alone 
were reckoned canonical and authoritative whose 
claim to prophetic authorship was admitted, and 
wh. were understood to be dated not later than the 
end of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Not- 
withstanding that the weight of critical opinion is 
adverse to the correctness of this view, yet the fact 
that it explains in the simplest and most natural way 
at once the inclusions and the exclusions of the 
Jewish Canon, the books received and those refused, 
we are inclined to admit its accuracy. Josephus 
was a learned Jew who had received his theological 
education within a century and a half fm. the date at 
wh., according to critical theories, the Canon was 
closed, he himself belonging to a race that specially 
reverenced tradition, and living in a country that 
had not within the period in question — i.e. from the 
death of Simon the Maccabee to the outbreak of the 
Jewish war — suffered any such revolution as mt. 
break the continuity of that tradition. In forming 
his opinion he had many advantages over even the 
most learned man of to-day, who is removed by 
more than twenty centuries fm. the transaction. 
Important sources of information, open to him, are 
no longer accessible. So far as can be ascertained, 
the principles on wh. the Alexandrian Canon was 
determined were very different. It wd. seem as if 
it were a received opinion that every religious work 
wh., having been written in Hebrew or Aramaic, 
was translated into Greek, ought to be admitted 
into the Canon. At the same time, in the prologue 
to his translation of his grandfather's work, Eccle- 
siasticus, the younger Ben Sira recognises the Canon 
of Palestine, and its division of the sacred books into 
the Law, the Prophets, and the other books (the 
Kethubim). It is said we have no certainty that 
the third class was closed ; but no more have we any 
certainty that the " Law," in the three instances in 
wh. it is mentioned, meant the five books of Moses, 
or that the " Prophets " indicated any of the books 
we know by these designations. We must bear in 
mind that to a large extent the books wh. constitute 
the Septuagint were translated separately, and as 
translations published separately. The Pentateuch 
appears to have been first translated, though 
Margoliouth {Lines of Defence) indicates the proba- 
bility that the Song of Solomon had before this been 
rendered into Greek, then the various books wh. 
made up the Canon of Jerusalem. These each wd. 
be written on a papyrus roll, and in turn placed in 
the scrinium that formed the library of the different 
synagogues in Alexandria or elsewhere in Egypt. 
When other moral and religious treatises of 
Palestinian origin were translated, they too were 
added to the libraries in the synagogues. The 
scrinia of the synagogues passed over to the churches, 

Q 



and when the habit arose of uniting all the sacred 
books in one large vellum codex, all the contents of 
these receptacles were published indiscriminately. 
Hence some codices contained more and some fewer 
of these deutero-canonical books. In regard to the 
books of the NT. there was a fringe of apocryphal 
writings ; the presence of wh., in some of the more 
important codices, as Clement I. and II. in the 
Codex Alexandrinus, the Epistle of Barnabas and of 
Hermas in the Sinaiticus, is thus explicable. The 
books are very different in character and value. 
First Esdras, the book which stands first in our 
English Apocrypha, is made up of the two conclud- 
ing chapters of 2 Ch. with portions of the canonical 
books of Ezra and Nehemiah ; the midrash on the 
greatness of truth is interpolated. In some codices 
where it occurs it is headed " I. Esdras," and the 
canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah are united 
to form " II. Esdras " ; in pre-Tridentine editions 
of the Vulgate it is " III. Esdras." In those 
editions our 2 Esdras is called " IIII. Esdras " ; it 
is really an apocalyptic book, and will be considered 
elsewhere along with other Apocalypses ; it is not 
found in Gr., but has been trd. fm. a Latin version. 
The book of Tobit, or, as it is called in the Vlg., 
Tobias, purports to be the history of a pious 
Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali (who had been 
carried captive fm. Saphed by Salmanassar, king of 
the Assyrians, Vlg.) ; our version is made fm. the 
Greek, but Jerome says he made his — the Vlg. — fm. 
a Chaldee MS. Neubauer, about thirty years ago, 
published a Chaldee version of this story extracted 
fm. the Midrash Rabba Rabbatha, wh. in several 
points agrees more closely with the Vulgate than 
with the Greek. It probably had a Hebrew 
original. The book of Judith tells how a Jewish 
widow used her beauty to ensnare to his destruction 
Holofernes, the Assyrian general, who was besieging 
Bethulia, and so delivered the city. The havoc 
it makes of history and geography evidences the 
vagaries of Jewish imagination when it wd. imitate 
history.* 

The next portion of the Apocrypha, the Rest 
of Esther, narrates visions of Mordecai, and gives 
an ornate version of some things stated in the 
canonical book. It may be noted that Ahasuerus 

* Dr. Driver and Dr. G. A. Smith declare the geography 
of Judith immaculate [Authority a?id Archceology, p. 148 ; 
HGHL. p. 108), yet, not to speak of such wild travesties 
of geographical fact as making Holofernes march from 
Nineveh to the W. of Cilicia, a distance of 600 miles, in three 
days, and, having crossed the mountains of Asia Minor, to 
emerge in Algiers, the High Priest Joachim charges the 
inhabitants of Bethulia to guard the passes toward Judaea 
against Holofernes (Jth. 4. 6 ), but Bethulia is represented as 
on the edge of the plain of Esdraelon, while the flank of the 
invaders' army was at Geba (Jth. 3. 10 ), directly between any 
possible position of Bethulia and Jrs. This wd. be true 
even if Bethulia be identified with Sanur. It is true this 
immaculate geographer places the camp of Holofernes — 
wh. he also says is between Scythopolis (Beisan) and Geba 
(Jeba) — in the plain of Esdraelon. 

<8 



APOCRYPHA 



becomes Artaxerxes. These are the historical books 
of the Apocrypha. The Wisdom books follow, 
corresponding to the Hagiographa of the Canon. 
The first of these is the Wisdom of Solomon ; 
such is the English title of the book, but the writer 
himself makes no such claim. There are passages of 
great beauty and eloquence in this work. Traces of 
Greek thought have been found in it, but some have 
regarded it as early, but a paraphrase rather than a 
tr. The longest and to some extent the most valu- 
able of the apocryphal books is Ecclesiasticus, as 
it is called in the Vlg. and the English ; Ben Sira, 
as it is called in the Talmud. It is an imitation of 
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The prophetic books 
are represented by Baruch, to which is appended 
the Epistle of Jeremiah. This seems to have been 
written in Judaea during the supremacy of the 
Lagids. Then follow the Additions to Daniel. Of 
these only the Song of the Three Holy Children 
appears to have been written in Hebrew. The 
Prayer of Manasses, wh. in pre-Tridentine Vulgates 
was appended to 2 Ch., is now relegated to the end 
of the NT. with ist and 2nd Esdras. The two books 
of the Maccabees follow, of very different historical 
value ; a third and fourth book are sometimes ad- 
mitted, but not generally. 

The Value of the Apocrypha.— None of the 
writers makes any claim to inspiration. Indeed 
by implication the translator of Ecclesiasticus dis- 
claims this for his grandfather in his prologue, when 
he informs his readers that it was his acquaintance 
with the Law, the Prophets, and the " other books 
of the Fathers " that led him to write what he 
did. That, with the exception of 1st Maccabees, 
the narratives are historically worthless, does not 
necessarily exclude the possibility of inspiration, as 
the writers mt. have been inspired to compose pro- 
longed parables for the edification of the people 
of God. The " morals " of Tobit and Judith are 
merely those of the time when they were written, 
not the eternal morality of God as we find it in the 
Prophets and the Psalms. If we regard Jonah as a 
midrasb, we find that it teaches that God is merciful 
to all men, and further that there is that in all men 
wh. makes them worthy, despite all their defects, 
that God shd. be merciful to them. Compare this 
with " Judith," in wh. a woman is represented as 
trading with her beauty that she may become a 
murderess. Jael, a barbarian in a wild, barbarous 
age, slew Sisera by treachery, but she did not allure 
him by playing on his lowest passions to get him in 
her power, as Judith did with Holofernes. Tobit 
may be better ; but almsgiving, burying the dead 
that wd. otherwise be devoured, attending the 
feasts at Jrs., are not the loftiest features of a holy 
life. Ecclesiasticus is purely prudent worldlincss, 
without hope for a Messiah for the nation, or a 
future life for the individual. Wisdom is certainly 



loftier, and may be looked upon as a preparation for 
Christ and Christianity. Baruch is an imitation of 
Daniel. The Additions to Daniel and Esther have 
little value morally. Something may be said for 
2nd Maccabees, with all its rhetoric ; the heroism 
under suffering narrated there not improbably 
helped to nerve the Christian martyrs of a later day. 
As history, ist Maccabees is of the highest value. 
In these circumstances the opinion of the Reformers 
that these books shd. not be used for the proof of 
any doctrine was a wise one. They have a value 
of their own wh. is only now being appreciated. 
Formerly it was regarded as enough when a work 
was proved to be apocryphal to show it was un- 
worthy of any further study ; it was not evidence 
concerning the time at wh. it professed to be 
written, therefore it was looked upon as utterly 
valueless. 

While the books of the Apocrypha are to this 
extent certainly of no value, yet in other ways their 
value is very great. Contemporaries are impressed 
by a man's individuality ; those separated fm. him 
by a long space of time recognise much more his 
likeness to his contemporaries. Individuality counts 
for much, but environment for much more. As 
every man is thus to a great extent the product of 
his age and surroundings, his literary productions 
will reflect the character of that age and kin. This 
is the value of the Apocrypha. If we look into ist 
Esdras and neglect what is merely another version 
of the canonical Ezra and Nehemiah, there remains 
the unhistorical episode of the three friends and 
Darius. It is clear that the original apologue con- 
tained only wine, the king, and women ; the whole 
thing is on a low cynical plane ; but an Elihu comes 
in and, recognising the low view of what really had 
influence, declares that mightier than all else is 
Truth. When this is analysed in the light of the 
wording of the answer we find that, in the thought 
of the speaker, behind Truth is Righteousness as the 
reason of its strength, and behind this again is God 
Himself, who is a God of Truth and Righteousness. 
At the time when the Greek Esdras was compiled 
there was a belief in the Divine Providence of God 
and its essential righteousness. There is further 
the belief that such a doctrine wd. be understood 
and accepted by Darius. 2nd Esdras is considered 
among the apocalyptic books. When the reader 
comes to the book of Tobit he enters a private 
region, an account of a private individual's history ; 
a kind of composition of wh. the only example in the 
canonical Scripture is the story of Ruth. The 
lessons to be read fm. it are the views prevalent 
among the Jews as to the efficacy of prayer and 
almsgiving. The angelology of the book is worthy 
of note ; Raphael declares himself one of the seven 
holy angels of God ; in the canonical Scriptures 
only two angels are mentioned, Michael and 



O^Q 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gabriel. We see the steps taken towards the more 
elaborate angelology of the book of Enoch. In 
Judith, a book that with all its geographical absur- 
dities was quoted by Clement of Rome, the power 
of prayer comes into the region of the magical. 
Special value is attached to ascetic observances ; 
Judith is held up to admiration because she lived 
in a tent on the roof of her house, wearing sack- 
cloth, and fasting except on the feast days. This 
view of things, if it did not prompt, wd. tend to 
promote the great respect shown to solitaries and 
'Stylites in later days. The Additions to Esther 
show traces of the effect produced by the oppres- 
sions endured at the hands of the Syrian monarchs, 
in making Aman (Haman) a Macedonian. The 
belief in the Divine method of revelation by dreams, 
in which the truth was made known in symbol, is 
also prominent. The Wisdom of Solomon, full of 
interest for its beauty, is also interesting for the 
revelation it gives of the thoughts prevalent among 
the Jews of from 50 to 100 b.c. The writer at- 
tempted to bridge the gulf that separated Hellenic 
from Greek thinking ; this attempt was carried 
further . by Philo. The praise of Wisdom, wh. 
occupies so large a space in this book, prepares the 
way for the " Logos " of Philo, as it again does for 
the " Word " of the fourth Gospel. Its theology is 
a preparation for that of Christianity : this is true 
also of its anthropology. The account it gives of 
man's original condition fits that of Christianity : 
" God created man to be immortal and made him to 
be an image of His own Eternity (' proper Being,' 
RV.) : nevertheless through envy of the devil came 
death into the world " (Ws. 2. 23 > 24 ). This is the 
same account of the origin of moral evil as that wh. 
lies at the back of the parable of the " Tares and the 
Wheat." Another point to be observed is the clear, 
unhesitating assertion of personal immortality : 
" The righteous shall live for evermore and their 
reward also is with the Lord " (Ws. 5. 15 ). The 
verses that immediately follow this appear to be the 
prototype of the Pauline passage, " Put on the whole 
armour of God " (Eph. 6. 11 " 17 ). The figure of the 
potter with his power over the clay, used by St. 
Paul to make clear God's free choice, is used also by 
the writer of Wisdom, though in another connec- 
tion. This book is in many respects the most im- 
portant of those in the Apocrypha, as exhibiting 
most clearly the preparation for Christ that was 
going on in Judaism in the century immediately 
preceding the Advent. The value of the "Wisdom 
of Ben Sira," to give Ecclesiasticus its more ancient 
name, is of a different kind ; while Wisdom 
looks forward, Ecclesiasticus looks back. It has 
been nurtured in Pal., and is full of reminiscences 
of Proverbs, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes ; we see the 
attitude of mind wh. formed and consecrated the 
Canon of OT. Scripture. The mind of Siracides 



was prevented by his date fm. being Sadducean, but 
it has in it all the elements of what afterwards 
characterised that sect — shrewd worldliness without 
much spiritual outlook. He is not prepared to deny 
the existence of angel or spirit, but they, are in the 
background of his thoughts. This very descent 
towards the spiritual bankruptcy wh. overtook Israel 
at the time our Lord was on the earth was pre- 
parative ; the empty formalism of the Pharisees, 
the worldliness of the priests, the hypocrisy of the 
teachers of the law, all prepared the longing heart 
to receive the fulness that was in Christ. At the 
same time, if we may take Ben Sira as a sample, the 
people had still a profound trust in God which 
enabled them to maintain high hopes of Messianic 
times and Messianic glories. Something of this 
may be seen in the closing chapter of Ecclesiasticus, 
wh. assumes the form of a psalm, and this despite 
the Pharisaic self-complacency that characterises it. 
As we have indicated above, while Wisdom and 
Ecclesiasticus represent the Hokmah Literature, the 
book of Baruch is an imitation of the prophetic. 
The characteristic of this book wh. most impresses 
the reader is its dependence on the older Scriptures, 
especially in the " prayer " wh. occupies the first 
part, Daniel being chiefly drawn upon. The note 
of this first portion of the book is penitence mingled 
with hope of deliverance. The second portion, the 
praise of Wisdom, is full of hope of Messianic times, 
when Israel shall be restored to glory and privilege. 
The presence of these hopes reveals a spiritual 
soil fitted for the upspringing of the " kingdom 
of heaven." The Epistle of Jeremy, usually 
reckoned as chap. 6. of Baruch, is a denunciation of 
idolatry, an evidence of how far removed the Jews 
were fm. the position of their fathers, who were so 
prone to the worship of idols. The Additions 
to Daniel have different values. The Prayer of 
Azarias appears to be the authentic work of some 
later Azariah who wrote during the time of distress 
under Epiphanes, who recognises the sin of his 
people in their punishment. It is to be noted as 
an evidence of date that, though confessing sin, 
Azariah says nothing of the idolatry which had 
been so markedly the crying sin of Israel in the 
times before the Captivity. The Benedicite is a 
somewhat verbose imitation of the more liturgic 
portion of the Psalms ; thus, e.g., the fact that the 
" spirits and souls of the righteous " are called upon 
to bless the Lord (Ps. 103. 1 ). The Story of Susanna 
is an evidence of the hypocrisy of those who claimed 
a religious authority. The other two, Bel and 
the Dragon, are directed in mockery against idol 
atry. The Prayer of Manasses has little value 
in any way ; it is merely an exercise prompted 
by 2 Ch. 33. 12f- ' 19 : it certainly exhibits a sense of 
the majesty and holiness of God wh. reveals the 
principle that kept the Jews true to God in their 



Q40 



APOCRYPHA 




Tobit and the Angel 



post-exilic history. 1st Maccabees is plain, un- 
obtrusive history, and reveals the courage of the 
Israelites in the most trying circumstances, but at 
the same time, as mt. be expected, there is little 
expression of religious thought or feeling. The 
victories of Judas certainly preserved Judaism fm. 
sinking beneath the attacks of heathenism. They 
enabled the nation to look the world in the face 
with a sense of self-maintained independence. The 
fruit of this was seen in the contest against the 
Romans in a.d. 69-70. All through the Roman 
empire the Jews were proudly maintaining their 
isolation fm. the rest of the subject nationalities, 
and their brotherhood among themselves. This 



gave the apostles of the new faith a standing point 
in every city whither they went. 2nd Macca- 
bees, though of very little value historically, is full 
of evidences of Jewish religious thought and feeling. 
Fm. the Apocrypha we are enabled to apprehend the 
preparation God was making for the coming of His 
Son into the world, and for the setting up of a 
spiritual kingdom in the world. If we wd. under- 
stand the influences at work when Christianity was 
introduced into the thought of humanity we must 
study the deutero-canonical writings, the Apo- 
crypha. The Psalter of Solomon, wh. has been 
reckoned to the Apocrypha by Swete, we shall con- 
sider under Apocalyptic. 



941 



Aal 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



JEdi 



AALAR. See Add an. 

ABADIAS, son of Jehiel, who returned from 
Babylon with Ezra (i Es. 8. 35 ), called " Obadiah " 
in Ez. 8. 9 . 

ABDIAS, the name given to the prophet 
Obadiah in 2 Es. i. 39 . 

ABISEI, RV. ABISSEI, son of Phinehas (2 Es. 
■i. 2 ), called " Abisue " in 1 Es. 8. 2 , and " Abishua " 
in 1 Ch. 6. 4 . 

ABISUE, AV. ABISUM = ABISEI. 

ABSALOM. (1) Father of Mattathias (i M. 
II. 70 ), who fought with Jonathan against the 
Syrians at Hazor. Another son of A. was Jonathan, 
whom Simon sent to secure Joppa (1 M. 13. 11 ; 
Ant. XIII. vi. 4). (2) One of the ambassadors sent 
to Lysias, the governor of Ccele-Syria, when, after 
the battle of Bethsura, he was in a conciliatory 
mood (2 M. II. 17 ). He may poss. be ident. with (1). 

ABUBUS, the father of Ptolemy, who was son- 
in-law of Simon the Maccabee, and captain of the 
plain of Jericho (1 M. i6. n » 15 ). 

ACATAN, RV. AKATAN (1 Es. 8. 38 ), head 
of a family who returned from Babylon, called 
"Hakkatan" in Ez. 8. 12 . 

ACCABA, AV. AGABA (1 Es. 5. 30 ), head of a 
family of " Temple servants " who returned with 
Zerubbabel, called " Hagab " in Ez. 2. 46 , and 
" Hagaba " in Ne. 7. 48 . 

ACCARON, RV. EKRON (1 M. io. 89 ). It was 
given by Alexander Balas, along with " the borders 
thereof," to Jonathan Maccabseus. 

ACCOS, grandfather of Eupolemus, one of the 
ambassadors sent to Rome by Judas Maccabseus 
(1 M. 8. 17 ). The name represents the Heb. 
" Hakkoz." 

ACCOZ, RV. AKKOS, head of a family of 
priests who returned with Zerubbabel, whose 
genealogy had been lost (1 Es. 5. 38 ) ; called 
" Hakkoz " in Ez. 2. 61 . 

ACHAR. Achan (AV.) is so called in 2 Es. J. Z8 
(RV.). 

ACHIACHARUS, an officer of Sarchadonus— 
i.e. Esarhaddon — his " cup-bearer, signet-keeper, 
steward, and overseer of accounts " (To. i. 21t ). He 
was the son of Tobit's brother Anael, and cared for 
his uncle in Nineveh while he was blind (2. 10 , &c). 

ACHIAS, son of Phinees, ancestor of Ezra (2 Es. 
I. 2 ), not named in 1 Es. and Ezra. 

ACHIOR, " captain of all the sons of Ammon," 
who sought to dissuade Holofernes from attacking 
the Israelites (Jth. 5. 5ff- ), and who in consequence 
was bound by order of Holofernes and handed over 
to the Israelites at Bethulia (6. 10 , &c). Later he 
became a proselyte (14. 10 ). 



ACHIPHA, AV. ACIPHA, head of a family of 
" Temple servants " who returned with Zerubbabel 
(1 Es. 5. 31 ), called " Hakupha " in Ez. 2. 51 . 

ACHITOB, the High Priest Ahitub (i Es. 8. 2 5 
2 Es. i. 1 ). 

ACITHO, an ancestor of Judith (Jth. 8. 1 ). 

ACRA (1 M. i. 33 , &c, AV. " stronghold," RV. 
" citadel "). See Jerusalem in Canonical Section. 

ACUA, RV. ACUD, head of a family of " Temple 
servants " who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es, 
5. 30 ), called " Akkub " in Ez. 2. 45 . 

ACUB, head of a family of " Temple servants ^ 
(1 Es. 5. 31 ), called " Bakbuk " in Ez. 2. 51 . 

ADASA, the place where Judas Maccabseus en- 
camped before the battle in which Nicanor fell 
(1 M. 7. 40, 45 ). Nicanor's camp was at Beth-horon, 
from wh. Adasa was 30 stadia distant (Jos. Ant. XIL 
x. 5). OEJ. places it near Gophna, i.e. Jifneh, 
We may, therefore, ident. it with Khirbet l Adaseh, 
c. eight miles S. of Jifneh, above Wady ed-Diimm, 
" the vale of blood." The name of this valley 
may enshrine some memory of the great victory 
won by Judas. 

ADDAN, an unidentd. town in Babylonia called 
Aalar (RV. Allar) in 1 Es. 5. 36 , Addan in Ez. 2. 59 3 
Addon in Ne. 7. 61 . 

ADDI. " The sons of Addi " were among those 
who had married strange wives, and who put them 
away with their children (1 Es. 9. 31 ). 

ADDO, the father of Zacharias = Iddo (1 Es. 6. 1 ). 

ADDUS. (1) Head of a family of " servants of 
Solomon " (1 Es. 5. 34 ). (2) Head of a family of 
priests who had lost their genealogy (1 Es. 5. 38 , RV„ 
" Jaddus "). 

ADIDA, a town in the Shephelah, fortified 
by Simon Maccabseus (1 M. 12. 38 , 13. 13 ) during 
his struggle with Trypho. Here Aretas defeated 
Alexander (Ant. XIII. xv. 2), and Vespasian placed 
an outpost at the siege of Jerusalem (BJ. IV. ix. i). 
OEJ. (s.v. Aditha) places it east of Diospolis (Lydda). 
It may be identd. with the mod. Hadltheh, c. 3J 
miles NE. of Ludd. 

ADIN, head of a family of whom 454 returned 
with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 14 ; Ez. 2. 15 ) and 251 under 
Ezra (1 Es. 8. 32 ; Ez. 8. 6 , the number in Ezra is 51). 

ADINUS, RV. IADINUS, one of those who 
made the people understand when Ezra read the 
law, a Levite (1 Es. 9. 48 ) corresponding to " Jamin " 
in Ne. 8. 7 . 

ADORA. See Adoraim. 

ADUEL, a Naphtalite, great-grandfather of 
Tobit (To. i. 1 ). 

iEDIAS (1 Es. 9- 27 ), one who had married a 
strange wife (Ez. io. 26 , " Elijah " RV.). 



042 



JEso 



APOCRYPHA 



And 



tESORA, a town in Samaria, apparently near to 
Salem (Salim), poss. ident. with 'Asireh, to the NE. 
of Nablus (Jth. 4. 4 , AV. " Esora "j. 

AGABA, RV. ACCABA, which see. 

AGGABA, AV. GRABA, head of a family of 
" servants of the Temple " (i Es. 5. 29 ), called 
" Hagabah " in Ez. 2. 45 ; " Hagaba " in Ne. 7. 48 . 

AGG.EUS, AV. AGGEUS, the prophet Haggai 
(i Es. 6. 1 7. 3 ; 2 Es. i. 40 ). 

AGIA,' AV. HAGIA, head of a family of the 
sons of the servants of Solomon (i Es. 5- 34 ), called 
" Hattil " in Ez. 2. 57 ; Ne. 7. 59 . 

AHASUERUS, AV. ASSUERUS, a " king of 
Media," named with " Nebuchadnezzar " as over- 
throwing Nineveh (To. 14. 15 ). 

AHITOB. See Achitob. 

AIRUS, RV. JAIRUS, head of a family of 
" Temple servants " {1 Es. 5. 31 ), called " Reaiah " in 
Ez. 2. 47 . 

AKATAN. S^Acatan. 

AKKOS. See Accoz. 

AKRABATTINE, AV. wrongly, ARABAT- 
TINE, the district in Idumaea where Judas Mac- 
cabaeus fought the Edomites (1 M. 5. 3 ; Ant. XII. 
viii. 1). It can hardly be ident. with Ekrebel 
of Jth. 7. 18 . It is not identified. 

ALCIMUS (Gr. "A\kl[ios," valiant," formed fm. 
the Heb. E*i?*?£, " God sets up "), son or sister's 
son of Jose ben-Joeser. He was a descendant of 
Aaron, but not of the family of the High Priest. A 
man of strong Hellenistic sympathies, he commended 
himself to the Greek masters of Pal. (1 M. J. 5 > 14 ; 
2 M. 14. 3 ; Ant. XII. x. 3). Apparently on the 
death of Menelaus he was nominated to the High- 
priesthood by Antiochus Eupator ; but this was not 
accepted by the Jews. Alcimus, therefore, went to 
Antioch, where men of like sympathies resorted to 
him. On the accession of Demetrius Soter, Alcimus 
secured his support. Bacchides was dispatched 
with an army to establish him in Jerusalem, where 
the influence of Judas Maccabaeus was powerful. 
No resistance was offered, and but for the treacher- 
ous severity practised in putting sixty men of the 
nationalist party to death, the effort might have suc- 
ceeded. This turned the thoughts of men to Judas. 
A force left by Bacchides in Jerusalem protected 
Alcimus there ; but Judas steadily strengthened his 
hold in the country. Feeling no longer safe, Alci- 
mus again repaired to Antioch. Nicanor, sent by 
Demetrius in Alcimus' interest with an army, came 
to an amicable understanding with Judas, contrary 
to the desire of Alcimus, who appealed once more 
to Demetrius. Acting under peremptory orders, 
Nicanor attempted to take Judas, but failed, and 
himself fell in the battle of Adasa, when his army 
was almost annihilated. Bacchides was then sent 
with a strong force, and in battle with him at 
Eleasa Judas was defeated and slain. The victorious 



general gave Alcimus the support required, and he 
exercised the office of High Priest until his death. 
It is said that he wished to remove " the wall of the 
inner court of the sanctuary," and " the works of the 
prophets." It is impossible to say which wall is in- 
tended. It may have been the barrier beyond wh. 
the Gentiles might not pass, wh. tradition described 
as " the work of the prophets " Haggai and Zecha- 
riah. The demolition, however, had only begun, 
when Alcimus was stricken down with paralysis. 

ALEMA, a strong city of Gilead (1 M. 5. 26 ). 
This may be ident. with Kefr el-Md\ a large village 
on the summit of the western slopes of Nahr er- 
Ruqqdd, c . 1 3 miles W. of el-Merkez. The natives 
pronounce the name Kefr Elma (Schumacher, 
Across the Jordan, p. 83, note). 

ALEXANDER BALAS. See Seleucid Kings. 

ALLAR. See Addan. 

ALLOM, RV. ALLON, head of a family of the 
sons of the servants of Solomon (1 Es. 5- 34 ). 

ALNATHAN, RV. ELNATHAN, one of those 
sent to secure men who might " execute the priests' 
office in the house of the Lord " (1 Es. 8. M ). 

ALTANEUS, RV. MALTANEUS, one of the 
sons of Asom (1 Es. 9- 33 ), called Mattenai in Ez. io. 33 . 

AM AN, mentioned as an illustration of ingrati- 
tude for his mishandling of Achiacharus, " who had 
brought him up " (To. 14. 10 ). 

AMARIAS, father of Ahitub, an ancestor of 
Ezra (1 Es. 8. 2 ), called " Amariah " in Ez. 7A 

AMATHEIS, one of the sons of Bebai (1 Es. c.. 29 ), 
called " Athlai " in Ez. io. 28 . 

AMATHIS, RV. HAMATH, which see (1 M. 
12. 25 ). 

AMMIDIOI, AV. AMMIDOI, possibly men of 
Humtah (Jo. 15. 54 ) who came from Bab. with 
Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 20 ). 

ANAEL, brother of Tobit, and father of Achia- 
charus (To. i. 21 ). 

ANAN, head of a family of " Temple servants " 
(1 Es. 5. 30 ), called " Hanan " in Ez. 2. 46 . 

ANANIAS. (1) Head of a family, some of whom 
returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 16 , RV. ANNIS). 
(2) Son of Emmer (1 Es. 9. 21 ), called " Hanani " in 
Ez. io. 20 . (3) Son of Bebai (1 Es. 9. 29 ), called 
" Hananiah " in Ez. io. 28 . (4) One who stood by 
Ezra, on his right hand, when he read the law (1 Es. 
9. 43 ), called " Anaiah " in Ne. 8. 4 . (5) A Levite 
who explained the law (1 Es. 9- 48 ), called " Hanan" 
in Ne. 8. 7 . (6) " Ananias the great," a kinsman 
of Tobit, whose son Azarias was impersonated by 
the angel Raphael (To. 5. 12 ). (7) An ancestor of 
Judith (Jth. 8. 1 ). 

ANANIEL, grandfather of Tobit (To. I. 1 ). 

ANDRONICUS. (1) The deputy left by Antio- 
chus Epiphanes in Antioch when he hurried off to 
allay the disturbance in Tarsus and Mallos (2 M. 
4. 31 ). He was bribed by Menelaus to make away 



943 



Ann 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Arb 



with Onias, who was then resident in Antioch. 
Made aware of the plot, the latter fled for sanctuary 
to Daphne. Andronicus deceived him with demon- 
strations of good will, and, having enticed him forth, 
treacherously slew him. For this infamous conduct 
he paid with his life on the return of Antiochus 
(2 M. I4. 32ff- ). (2) The governor left by Antiochus 
in Garizim to " vex " the Jews (2 M. 5. 23 ). 

ANNAAS, RV. SANAAS, head of a family who 
returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 23 ), called Senaah 
in Ez. 2. 35 ; Ne. 7. 38 . 

ANNAS, head of a family who returned with 
Ezra (1 Es. c;. 32 ), called " Harim " in Ez. io. 31 . 

ANNIS. See Ananias (i). 

ANNUUS (1 Es. 8. 48 ), a name not found in other 
lists. It may have arisen through error from ifiK, 
" with him," in Ez. 8. 19 — the scribe reading IJtf. 

ANOS, a son of Bani, who had married a foreign 
wife (1 Es. 9. 34 ), called " Vaniah " in Ez. io. 36 . 

ANTILIBANUS, the range running along the 
eastern side of Ccele-Syria (Jth. I. 7 ). See Lebanon 
in Canonical Section. 

ANTIOCHIA (1 M. 4. 35 , &c.) is Antioch, which 
see in Canonical Section. 

ANTIOCHIANS, citizens of Antioch. Jason 
asked, among other favours, from Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, the right to enrol the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem as " Antiochians," i.e. that they might have 
the privileges of citizens of Antioch. The request 
was granted, and a party known by that name was 
formed in Jerusalem ; but what the privileges were 
we do not know (2 M. 4.). 

ANTIOCHIS, a concubine of Antiochus Epi- 
phanes (2 M. 4. 30 ). 

ANTIOCHUS. One of Jonathan's ambassadors 
to the Romans was Numenius, son of Antiochus 
(1 M. 12. 16 , 14. 22 ). 

ANTIOCHUS. See Seleucid Kings. 

ANTIPATER, son of Jason, one of Jonathan's 
ambassadors to the Romans and Lacedaemonians 
(1 M. 12. 16 , 14. 22 ). 

ANUS, a Levite who explained the law (1 Es. 
9. 48 ), called " Bani " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

APAME, daughter of Bartacus, concubine of 
Darius (1 Es. 4. 29 ). 

APAMEA, through which Holofernes marched 
(Jth. 3. 10 ), may be identical with the Roman district 
of Northern Syria, Apamene, which took its name 
from the city Apameia, called from the Persian wife 
of Seleucus Nicator, about six miles east of the 
Orontes, the mod. Qal'at el-Mudiq. 

APH^REMA, AV. APHEREMA, a district of 
Samaria added to Judaea by Demetrius Soter (1 M. 
II. 34 ; Ant. XIII. iv. 9). See Ephraim in Canonical 
Section. 

APHERRA, head of a family of the sons of Solo- 
mon's servants (1 Es. 5. 34 ), not named in the other 
lists. 



APOLLONIUS, a very common name among the 
Syro-Macedonians. Prideaux (Connection, under 
the year b.c 148) distinguishes five of the name 
connected with Maccabaean history. (1) Son of 
Thraseas, governor of Ccele-Syria (i.e. Palestine) 
and Phoenicia under Seleucus Philopator when 
Heliodorus came to Jerusalem to rob the Temple 
(2 M. 3. 5 ) : he supported Simon, governor of the 
Temple, against Onias the High Priest (2 M. 4. 4 ). 
He was chief minister to Seleucus ; but on the 
accession of that king's brother, Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, he left Syria and retired to Miletus. (2) Son 
of (1), who resided at Rome with Demetrius, son of 
Seleucus Philopator, who was then a hostage there. 
When Demetrius recovered the crown of Syria, A. 
was made governor of Ccele-Syria and Phoenicia, 
the same government as his father held under 
Seleucus Philopator. This is probably the A. of 
I M. io. 69 : continued in his office by Alexander, 
he revolted to support Demetrius, son of his old 
master. (3) Son of Menestheus, a favourite and 
chief minister of Antiochus Epiphanes (2 M. 4. 21 ). 
This is probably the A. of 1 M. I. 29 ; 2M. 5. 24 , who 
is said to be over the tribute and to have built the 
fortress on Mount Acra which for long held the 
Jews in check. (4) A governor of Samaria who in 
the time of Antiochus Epiphanes was killed in 
battle by Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 3. 10 ). (5) Son 
of Gennaeus, a local governor under Antiochus 
Epiphanes, noted as a special enemy of the Jews 
(2M.12. 2 ). 

APOLLOPHANES, one killed by the soldiers 
of Judas Maccabaeus after the capture of Gazara 
(2 M. io. 37 ). 

APPHUS, surname of Jonathan Maccabaeus 
(1 M. 2. 5 ), perhaps meaning " dissembler " (Heb. 
hap hush). 

ARABATTINE. See Akrabattine. 

ARADUS (1 M. I5. 23 ) = Arvad, which see. 

ARATHES, AV. ARIARTHES, which see. 

ARBATTIS, RV. ARBATTA, a district from 
which Simon Maccabaeus removed the Jewish in- 
habitants for safety to Jerusalem. He had fought 
successfully against " the heathen " in Galilee, 
chasing them to the gates of Ptolemais ; but judged 
that the Jewish population were not able to defend 
themselves without assistance from the south (1 M. 
5. 21ff -). The phrase, " those that were in Galilee 
and in Arbattis," suggests two districts. Galilee is 
well known, and, as it is first mentioned, the second 
probably lay on his way home. The most likely 
identification is with the toparchy of Akrabattis, 
which lay to the SE. of Shechem (Jos. BJ. III. iii. 
4f.). Other suggestions are the plain of el-Bateiha, 
through which the Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee 
(Ewald, Hist, of Isr., v. 341), and " the Arabah or 
Araboth (nmy) of Jordan " (EB. s.v.). 

ARBELA. " When Demetrius heard that Nica- 



944 



Arb 



APOCRYPHA 



Ars 



nor and his host were slain in battle, he sent Bac- 
chides and Alcimus into the land of Judaea the second 
time, and with them the chief strength of his host : 
who went forth by the way that leadeth to Galgala, 
and pitched their tents before Masaloth, which is in 
Arbela, and after they had won it they slew much 
people " (i M. 9- lff ')- " Demetrius sent . . . 
Bacchides again with an army into Judaea, who 
marched out of Antioch and came into Judaea, and 
pitched his camp at Arbela, a city of Galilee : and 
having besieged and taken those that were there in 
caves (for many people fled into such places), he 
removed, and made all the haste he could to 
Jerusalem " (Jos. Ant. XII. xi. i). 

These extracts furnish all the information there is 
regarding the position of Arbela. The writer of 
I Maccabees makes the march by way of Galgala 
(Gilgal), while Josephus takes it through Galilee. 
The former places the camp at " Masaloth in 
Arbela " ; the latter " at Arbela, a city of Galilee." 
Josephus also refers to the caves whence the refugees 
were brought out and slain. 

Some would place Arbela at the mod. Irbid 
or Irbil — a pronunciation still heard among the 
natives — on the southern edge of the gorge, Wddy 
el-Hamam, to the west of el-Mejdel. This lies on a 
route which the army may quite well have followed. 
The caves in the precipitous side of the gorge leave 
no doubt that this is the place intended by Josephus. 
No trace of a Masaloth, however, has been found in 
the vicinity. Robinson ingeniously suggests (BRP. 
ii. 398, note) that this name may represent the Heb. 
mesillotb, " steps, stories, terraces," and refer to the 
stronghold in the face of the cliffs. 

Others, following 1 Maccabees, would identify 
" Galgala " (Gilgal) with the mod. Jiljilia, c. 5 
miles N. of Btr ez-Zait, and Masaloth with the mod. 
Meselieb, c. 3 miles SE. of Dothan. There is, how- 
ever, no trace of Arbela in this neighbourhood. 
The writer seems to use it as the name of a district. 
OEJ. notes a village of this name in the great plain 
nine miles from Legio {Lejjun) ; but the site is 
entirely lost. The name may have applied to the 
whole district. 

Other suggestions have been made ; but the 
choice lies practically between these two. I Mac- 
cabees is certainly the older authority, but Josephus 
must have been familiar with the history ; and con- 
sidering his intimate knowledge of Galilee and the 
adjoining districts, his evidence deserves special 
consideration. No certain decision is possible. 

ARBONAI, a river mentioned in Jth. 2. 24 , where 
it is said that Holofernes " went over the Euphrates 
. . . and destroyed all the high cities that were 
upon the river Arbonai." Some have thought the 
Chaboras is intended : others, that the name has 
arisen from misunderstanding of the original, which 
may have been " the cities which were "inJH *QJJ2 



beyond the river," -qj; being taken for a proper 
name and being supplied with a Greek ending 
(EB. s.v.). The reading in BA. is Abrona. 

ARDATH, RV. ARDAT, a field named in 2 Es. 
9. 26 as the scene of a vision of Esdras. Possibly 
Arad may be intended. 

ARES, head of a family that returned with 
Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 10 ), called " Arah " in Ez. 2. 5 . 
_ AREUS, RV. ARIUS. The king of Sparta re- 
ferred to in I M. 12. 7 ' 20 is Areus I., who reigned 
b.c. 309-265. He is represented as corresponding 
with his contemporary, Onias the High Priest, 
successor of Jaddua. To this correspondence Jona- 
than Maccabaeus referred in his communication 
sent by ambassadors to the Lacedaemonians c. 
b.c 144. The name " Oniares " (v. 19 AV.) has 
arisen from confusion of the names of Onias and 
Arius ('Ovm 3 Apdoi). 

ARIARTHES, RV. ARATHES, one of the kings 
to whom " Lucius, consul of the Romans," wrote, 
requiring favourable treatment of the Jews (1 M. 
15. 22 ). The monarch intended is Ariarthes VI., 
Philopator, king of Cappadocia (b.c 163-130). 
Educated in Rome, he imbibed Roman ideas, and 
was entirely subservient to the wishes of Rome. 
He suffered defeat at the hands of Demetrius Soter, 
whose sister he had refused to marry, and took 
refuge in Rome. His kingdom was restored to him 
by the Romans. 

ARNA, an ancestor of Ezra (2 Es.i. 2 ), correspond- 
ing to Zarias (1 Es. 8. 2 ) and to Zerahiah (Ez. 7- 4 ). 

AROM, head of a family, some of whom returned 
with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 16 ). Poss. we shd. read 
" Asom," which might represent " Hashum " in 
Ez. 2. 19 . 

ARPHAXAD, a king who reigned over the 
Medes in Ecbatana, a city which he is described as 
making enormously strong (Jth. I. 1 " 4 ). He was, 
however, overcome and slain by " Nabuchadonosor, 
king of the Assyrians," who utterly destroyed 
Ecbatana (vv. I3ff.). No king of this name is 
known to history ; and it is impossible to identify 
the monarch referred to. 

ARSACES. The monarch referred to in 1 M. 
I4. 2f - was the sixth " king of the Persians," i.e. of 
the Parthians, who had borne that name. He was 
also known as Mithridates I. When Demetrius 
Nikator entered his territory Arsaces sent an army 
which defeated him, and carried him captive. 
While the Parthian king kept Demetrius a close 
prisoner, he treated him with kindness, and gave 
him his daughter Rhodogune as a wife. There 
Demetrius died {Ant. XIII. v. 11). Although not 
subject to Rome, a letter was sent by the Roman 
consul to Arsaces (1 M. 15. 22 ; cp. Ant. XIV. 
viii. 5). 

ARSARETH, RV. ARZARETH. This pro- 
bably corresponds to the Heb. ITjnK V!$> " the 



945 



Ars 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ass 



other land " (cp. Dt. 2(). 28 ). Into this land " the 
ten tribes " (2 Es. 13. 40 ) were carried away. It is 
" a year and a half " beyond the river Euphrates 
(w. 44f.)- Josephus also speaks of " the ten tribes " 
being " beyond the Euphrates till now, an im- 
mense multitude, and not to be estimated by 
numbers " (Ant. XI. v. 2). 

ARSIPHURETH, AV. AZEPHURITH, head 
of a family, some of whom returned with Zerubbabel 
(1 Es. 5. 16 ). The name in the corresponding lists is 
" Jorah " in Ez. 2. 18 , and " Hariph " in Ne. y. 2i . 
• ARZARITH. See Arsareth. 

ASADIAS, son of Chilcias, an ancestor of Baruch 
(Ba. I. 1 ). The name seems to be the Greek form of 
the Heb. " Hasadiah " (cp. 1 Ch. 3. 20 ). 

ASAEL, RV. ASIEL, an ancestor of Tobit (To. 
I. 1 ). The name may be a corruption from Jahzeel 
(Gn. 46. 24 ), a son of Naphtali, to wh. tribe Asael 
belonged. 

AS AN A, head of a family of " Temple servants " 
who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 31 ), called 
" Asnah " in Ez. 2. 50 . 

ASARA. See Azara. 

ASARAMEL, AV. SARAMEL. As the transla- 
tion stands it is the place where the assembly of the 
Jews was held at which Simon Maccabaeus received 
the High-priesthood. There is no other trace of a 
place so called. Many conjectures have been made 
as to what the word may mean : e.g. hatzar 'am 'el, 
" court of the people of God " ; sba'ar 'am 'el, 
" gate of the people of God " : some have thought 
it might be a title of Simon himself, sar 'am 'el, 
" prince of the people of God." But nothing can 
be said with certainty. 

ASBAZARETH (AV. 161 1), AZBASARETH, 
RV. ASBASARETH, RVm. ASBACAPHATH, 
the name of an Assyrian king (1 Es. 5- 69 ), possibly 
corrupted from " Esarhaddon " (cp. Ez. 4- 2 ). 

ASCALON (1 M. io. 86 , &c). See Ashkelon. 

ASEAS, one of the sons of Annas who had mar- 
ried a foreign wife (1 Es. c;. 32 ; Ez. io. 31 , " Ishijah "). 

ASEBEBIA, RV. ASEBEBIAS, a Levite who 
returned with Ezra (1 Es. 8. 47 ), called " Sherebiah " 
in Ez. 8. 18 . 

ASEBIA, RV. ASEBIAS, one of the Levites who 
came up with Ezra (1 Es. 8. 48 ), called " Hashabiah " 
in Ez. 8. 19 . 

ASER, RV. ASHER, a city in Galilee, probably 
identical with Hazor 1 (To. I. 2 ). 

ASERER, RV. SERAR, head of a family of 
Temple servants who went up from Babylon with 
Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 32 ), called " Sisera " in Ez. 2. 53 . 

ASIBIAS, one of the sons of Parosh, who had 
married a foreign wife (1 Es. 9- 26 ), corresponding to 
" Malchijah " in Ez. io. 25 . 

ASIEL. (1) One of Ezra's swift scribes (2 Es. 
14. 24 ). (2) See Asael. 

ASIPHA, head of a family of Temple servants 



who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5- 29 ), called 
" Hasupha " in Ez. 2. 43 ; Ne. 7. 46 . 

ASMODiEUS, an evil spirit first mentioned 
in the book of Tobit (3. 8 ). He is represented as 
loving Sara, only daughter of Raguel of Ecbatana, 
and as having caused the death on the bridal night 
of seven husbands who had married her in suc- 
cession. The young Tobias deprived him of his 
power by acting on the advice of the angel Raphael 
(6. 15 ). He burnt on " the ashes of perfume " the 
heart and liver of a fish which he caught in the 
Tigris. The smell drove the spirit into the remote 
parts of Upper Egypt, where the angel bound him 
(To. 8. 3 ). Milton refers to the incident in Paradise 
Lost, iv. 1 68-171. The name used to be connected 
with the Hebrew verb shdmad, " destroy " ; but it 
is now generally associated with Zoroastrianism, by 
which later Jewish angelology and demonology were 
greatly influenced. The name is now taken as the 
equivalent of the Persian "vEshma-Deva," the spirit 
of concupiscence, who at times arose to the rank 
of the prince of demons. 

ASOM, one whose sons had married foreign 
wives (1 Es. 9. 33 ), called " Hashum " in Ez. io. 33 . 

ASPALATHUS, a fragrant material named with 
other spices used in the compounding of unguents 
(Sr. 24. 15 ). It cannot now be identified. 

ASPHAR, THE POOL, in the wilderness of 
Tekoa, where Jonathan and Simon Maccabaeus 
pitched their tents, when they fled from Bacchides 
(1 M. 9. 33 ; Ant. XIII. i. 2), may possibly be 
identical with Blr Selhub, a large reservoir c. six 
miles WSW. of 'Ain Jidy (Robinson, BRP. ii. 202). 
If this be correct, the name has disappeared from 
the pool, but it lingers in that of the neighbouring 
hills, Safra. Ez-za'feraneh, a cistern, with ruins 
around it, to the south of Tekoa, is favoured by 
several scholars (see Buhl, GAP. p. 158). 

ASPHARASUS, an associate of Zerubbabel in 
leading the return from Babylon (1 Es. 5. 8 ), called 
" Mispar " in Ez. 2. 2 ; " Mispereth " in Ne. 7. 1 . 

ASSABIAS, RV. SABIAS, one of the " captains 
over thousands " who gifted lambs and calves to 
the Levites at Josiah's passover (1 Es. I. 9 ), called 
" Hashabiah " in 2 Ch. 35A 

ASSALIMOTH, RV. SALIMOTH, one of the 
chiefs who went up with Ezra from Babylon (1 Es. 
8. 36 ), called " Shelomith " in Ez. 8. 10 . 

ASSANIAS, RV. ASSAMIAS, one of the twelve 
priests to whom the treasure and the sacred vessels 
of the Temple were entrusted on the return from 
Babylon (1 Es. 8. 54 ), called " Hashabia " in Ez. 8. 24 . 

ASSAPHIOTH, AV. AZAPHION, head of a 
family among the sons of Solomon's servants 
who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 33 ), called 
" Hassophereth " in Ez. 2. 55 , AV. " Sophereth " ; 
and " Sophereth " in Ne. y. 57 . 

ASSIDEANS, RV. HASIDEANS, RVm. " that 



946 



Ass 



APOCRYPHA 



Ava 



is Chasidim." The Heb. word kasidim, " pious Hierapolis. At Ascalon she was represented as half 

ones," of which this is a Greek transliteration, is fre- woman, half fish. At both places sacred fish were 

quently applied to godly Israelites (AV. " saints "). kept. This indicates some close original connec- 

It was appropriated by a party in the time of the tion between the " omnipotent and all-producing 

Greek ascendency, who held aloof from the priestly goddess," and the " sacred life-giving waters " {see 

party who were inclined to Hellenism. They were RS. 2 172ft). 

religious purists, clinging tenaciously to the ancient ATER. See Atar. 



law. They cared nothing for politics save when 
their religious freedom was endangered. From 
their ranks came the martyrs during the persecution 
of Antiochus IV. They had no sympathy with the 



ATEREZIAS (1 Es. 5. 15 ), properly ATER OF 
EZEKIAS (RV.). 

ATERGATIS. See Atargatis. 

ATETA, AV. TETA ; head of a family of gate- 



Maccabaean national aspirations. They co-operated keepers (1 Es. 5- 28 ), called " Hatita " in Ez. 2. 42 



Ne. 7 



45 



ith Judas only to secure liberty to follow their own 

religious practices, and deserted him when this was ATHARIAS, RV. ATTHARIAS (1 Es. 5. 40 ), a 

attained. To their defection may be attributed corruption of Tirshatha, whic\ see. 

his downfall. They accepted Alcimus as High ATHENOBIUS, a friend of Antiochus VII., 

Priest, although he was nominated by the Greek Sidetes, sent as special messenger to Simon Macca- 

king, because he was " a priest of the seed of baeus, to demand restoration of certain cities he had 

Aaron" (1 M. J. 12t ; cp. 1 M. 2. 42 ; 2 M. 14. 6 — taken, or payment of 1000 talents of silver. Simon's 

which entirely misrepresents the relation of the reply was an offer of 100 talents in respect of Joppa 

Assideans to Judas). For their relation to the and Gazara. This only sent the Syrian envoy off 



Pharisees and Essenes see Pharisees and Waiters 
for the Redemption. 
ASSUERUS, RV. AHASUERUS, which see 



in a rage, and his report enraged the king (1 M. 



is 2m -). 

ATHLAI (1 Es. 9. 29 RVm.) = A M ATHEis. 
(To. 14. 15 ). ATIPHA, head of a family of Temple servants 

ASSUR (2 Es. 2. 8 ; Jth. 2. 14 ) = Assyria, which (1 Es. 5. 32 ), called " Hatipha " in Ez. 2. 54 . 
see in Canonical Section. ATTALUS. This name was borne by three 

ASTAD, AV. SADAS, one whose descendants kings of Pergamus. Either Attalus II., Philadel- 
returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 13 ), called "Az- phus, b.c. 159-138, or Attalus III., Philometor, 
7. 17 . In 1 Es. 8. 38 his name b.c. 138-133, the nephew of his predecessor, is re- 
ferred to in I M. 15. 22 , as having a letter addressed 
to him by the Roman consul, Lucius, in favour of 



gad " in Ez. 2. 12 ; Ne 
is given as " Astath." 

preceding article. 



ASTATH. 



ASTYAGES is named as the predecessor of the Jews. These were independent kings, but close 
Cyrus on the Persian throne (Bel. v. 1). See Cyrus, allies of the Romans, to whom Attalus III. be- 

ASUR, AV. ASSUR, head of a family of Temple queathed his kingdom. Josephus quotes a decree 
servants who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 31 ), 
called " Harhur " in Ez. 2. 51 ; Ne. 7. 53 . 

ATAR, AV. JATAL, head of a family of door- 



keepers who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. S- 28 ), tion of Tirshatha. 



in the interests of the Jews issued from Pergamus in 
the time of Hyrcanus {Ant. XIV. x. 22). 
ATTHARATES (1 Es. 9 .« = Ne. 8. 9 ), a corrup- 



45 



ATTHARIAS (1 Es. 5. 40 RV.). See Atharias. 
ATTUS, AV. LETTUS, one of the chiefs who 
, 29 ), called "Hattush" in 



called " Ater " in Ez. 2. 42 ; Ne. 7. 

ATARGATIS, RV. wrongly ATERGATIS. 

This goddess is mentioned only in 2 M. 12. 26 in accompanied Ezra (1 Es. 

connection with her temple at Carnion (Ashteroth Ez. 8. 2 . 

Karnaim). Judas Maccabaeus took and destroyed AUGIA, daughter of Berzelus (or Barzillai), the 

the town. The inhabitants took refuge in the wife of Addus the priest, whose descendants could 

temple of Atargatis : but that did not protect not prove their genealogy after the return from 

them : they were slain to the number of five Babylon, and were accordingly ejected from office 

and twenty thousand; and the temple itself was (1 Es. 5- 38 ). The name does not appear in the lists 

burned {Ant. XII. viii. 4). of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

Some have identified Atargatis with Astarte, the AURANUS, RV. HAURAN, a man " far gone in 

Ashteroth to whom the city owed its name. This, years, and no less in madness," who led the attack 

however, has been shown to be incorrect. At on Lysimachus, goaded by the sacrileges he had 

Ascalon, x\targatis (Derketo) had a temple distinct committed (2 M. 4. 40 ). 

from that of Astarte. The first element of the AUTEAS, one of the Levites who taught the 

name, ''atar, is = Heb. i Ashter ; but the second people the law (1 Es. 9- 48 ), called " Hodiah " in 

element represents the name of the Palmyrene deity Ne. 8. 7 . 

( Athi. She is therefore Astarte with the attributes AVARAN, the surname of Eleazar, brother of 

of 'Athi. There was also a temple of Atargatis at Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 2. 5 ). The name possibly 

947 



Aza 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bac 



signifies " pale." In I M. 6. 43 AV. reads " Sava- 
ran," RV. correctly " Avaran." 

AZAEL, Jonathan the son of Azael, along with 
Ezekias, who undertook the management of the 
matter concerning the foreign wives (i Es. 9. 14 ), 
called " Asahel " in Ez. io. 15 . 

AZAELUS, one of the men who put away his 
foreign wife after the return from Bab. (1 Es. c;. 34 ). 

AZAPHION, RV. ASSAPHIOTH, which see. 

AZARA, RV. ASARA, head of a family of 
Nethinim (1 Es. 5. 31 ). The name does not appear 
in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

AZARAIAS, AV. SARAIAS, a progenitor of 
Ezra (1 Es. 8. 1 ), called " Seraiah " in Ez. 7. 1 . 

AZARIAS. (1) One of the " principal men as- 
sociated with Ezra (1 Es. 9. 21 ), called " Uzziah " in 
Ez. io. 21 . (2) One of those who stood up by Ezra 
at the reading of the law (1 Es. c;. 43 ). This name 
does not appear in Ne. 8. 4 . (3) One of those who 
read the law to the multitude, " making them 
withal to understand it " (1 Es. cj. 48 ), called " Aza- 
riah" in Ne. 8. 7 . (4) Ancestor of Ezra (2 Es. 
i. 1 , RV. "Azaraias"). (5) The name by which 
Raphael the angel was known when acting as the 
companion of Tobias (To. 5. 12 , 6. 6 , J. 8 , g. 2 ). 
(6) One of the captains under the command of 
Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 5. 18 , &c). (7) One of 
the three children, companions of Daniel, called 
" Azariah " in Dn. I. 6 , &c. His Babylonian name 
was Abed-nego (Dn. I. 7 ). 



AZARU, AV. AZURAN, head of a family that 
returned with Zerubbabel, 432 in number (1 Es. 
5. 15 , RVm. "Azuru," poss. = "Azzur" in Ne. 
io. 17 ). 

AZBAZARETH. See Asbazareth. 

AZEPHURITH. See Arsiphureth. 

AZETAS, ancestor of a family which went up 
from Babylon with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 16 ), not 
named in Ezra or Nehemiah. 

AZIA, RV. OZIAS, father of a family of Temple 
servants who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 31 ), 
called " Uzza " in Ez. 2. 49 . 

AZIEI, an ancestor of Ezra (2 Es. I. 2 ), called 
" Ezias " in 1 Es. 8. 2 (AV.), " Ozias " (RV.), and 
" Azariah " in Ez. 7*. 

AZOTUS. (1) In the battle in which he was 
slain, Judas Maccabaeus discomfited the right wing 
of the army of Bacchides, and pursued them as far 
as Mount Azotus. The left wing then followed 
Judas, so that he was surrounded ; and there, after 
a heroic struggle, he fell (1 M. 9. 15 ). Some suggest 
identification with the hill where stands the mod. 
village Bir ez-Zait (Ewald, PEFM. ii. 294), or with 
the hill on wh. Ashdod stood (Conder, HDB. s.v.). 
Another suggestion is that the name is due to a mis- 
translation of the Heb. 'ashdoth hd-har, meaning 
the slopes where the hill country of Judah descends 
into the Shephelah (EB. s.v.). (2) See Ashdod in 
Canonical Section. 

AZURAN. See Azaru. 



B 



BAALSAMUS, AV. BALASAMUS, one of those 
who stood at Ezra's right hand at the reading of the 
law (1 Es. 9. 43 ), called " Maaseiah " in Ne. 8. 4 . 

BAANA, one of those who returned from Babylon 
with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 8 ), called " Baanah " in 
Ne. io. 27 . 

BAANI, AV. MAANI, head of a family many of 
whom had married foreign wives (1 Es. 9- 34 ), called 
" Bani " in Ez. io. 34 . 

BAANIAS, RV. BANNEAS, one of the sons of 
Phorus (1 Es. 9. 26 ), called " Benaiah " in Ez. io. 25 . 

BABI, head of a family that returned from Bab. 
with Ezra (1 Es. 8. 37 ), called " Bebai " in Ez. 8. 11 . 

BACCHIDES, a friend of Antiochus Epiphanes 
and governor of Mesopotamia (1 M. 7. 8 ; Jos. 
Ant. XII. x. 2), was sent into Judaea by Demetrius 
Soter, along with Alcimus, whom he had made High 
Priest, to take vengeance upon the Jews and to kill 
Judas Maccabaeus. By means of treachery (1 M. 
7. 10 " 20 ) he was partially successful, confirming Alci- 
mus in his office and leaving him to keep the people 
in obedience while he returned to Demetrius at 
Antioch. But on the expulsion of Alcimus (1 M. 
7. 25 ), and the defeat and death of Nicanor at the 



battle of Adasa (b.c. 161), B. was sent on a second 
expedition into Judaea. His large army was met by 
a handful of patriots under Judas. In the battle of 
Eleasa that followed (b.c 161) Judas fell, fighting 
courageously, near Mount Azotus. The Syrian 
faction was established in power, and by aid of B. 
(Jos. Ant. XIII. i.) brought upon the Jews greater 
calamity than they had experienced since the 
return from Babylon. Jonathan, the brother of 
Judas, was chosen leader of the patriots, and when 
attacked by B. swam with his companions across the 
Jordan and withdrew into the wilderness. B. did 
not pursue him, but returned to Jerusalem, where 
he fortified the citadel : he also fortified and gar- 
risoned several cities in Judaea. Meanwhile Alci- 
mus died, " with great torment," being overtaken 
in an act of sacrilege, and B. returned to Antioch 
(b.c 160) with Judaea settled in peace, which it en- 
joyed for two years. B. returned to Judaea at the 
instance of the Syrian faction, who held out the 
hope of secretly overpowering Jonathan and his 
brother Simon while living quietly in the country ; 
but angry at the failure of the attempt, and en- 
tangled in difficulties, B. made honourable terms 



948 



Bac 



APOCRYPHA 



Bar 



with Jonathan B.C. 158, restored his prisoners, and 
retired to Antioch never to return to Judaea again 
(I M. 7.-9. ; Jos. Ant. XII. x., xi. ; XIII. i. 1-6). 

BACCHURUS, one of " the holy singers " who 
had married a foreign wife (1 Es. 9- 24 ). This name 
does not appear in the list of Ezra (io. 24 ), where only 
one singer is named, and three porters, the last of 
whom is " Uri." It is possible that " Bacchurus " 
may be a corruption of this name. 

BACCHUS. See Dionysus. 

BACENOR. This name occurs only in 2 M. 
12. 35 , where Dositheus, a horseman, is described as 
belonging to Bacenor's company. Bacenor was 
therefore probably captain of a company of cavalry 
in the army of Judas Maccabasus, with which he 
opposed Gorgias the governor of Idumaea. 

BiEAN, AV. BEAN, which see. 

BAGO, head of a family who returned from 
Babylon with Ezra (1 Es. 8. 40 ), called " Bagoi " in 
I Es. 5. 14 and " Bigvai " in Ez. 8. 14 . 

BAGOAS, a eunuch in the household of 
Holofernes (Jth. 12. 11 ). According to Pliny (HN. 
XIII. iv. 9), the name is the Persian term for 
" eunuch." 

BAGOI, ancestor of a family, 2066 of whom re- 
turned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 14 ), called " Bago " 
in 1 Es. 8. 40 ; " Bigvai " in Ez. 2> 14 ; Ne. 7. 19 . 

BAITERUS, AV. METERUS, one whose de- 
scendants to the number of 3005 returned from 
Babylon with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 17 ). The name 
does not appear in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah. 
It is suggested that it may be a place-name of a 
common form, with Beth as the first element 
(HDB. s.v.). 

BALAMO, RV. BALAMON (Jth. 8. 3 ), probably 
ident. with Belmen, which see. 

BALASAMUS. See Baalsamas. 

Bx4LNUUS, a man of the sons of Addi who put 
away his strange wife (1 Es. 9. 31 ), called Binnui in 
Ez. io. 30 . 

BALTHASAR, RV. BALTASAR (Ba. i. llf ) = 
Belshazzar. 

BAN, head of a family whose genealogy had been 
lost during the Captivity (1 Es. 5- 37 ). The text is 
corrupt. The corresponding name in Ez. 2. 60 ; 
Ne. 7. 62 , is " Tobiah." 

BANAIAS, a man of the sons of Nooma (1 Es. 
9. 35 ), called " Benaiah " in Ez. io. 43 . 

BANI, head of a family that returned with 
Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 12 ), called " Binnui " in Ne. 7. 15 . 
See Binnui, Mani. 

BANID, RV. BANIAS, head of a family which 
went up from Babylon with Ezra (1 Es. 8. 36 ). In 
Ez. 8. 10 the name should be restored in the form 
of " Bani," wh. has probably fallen out of MT. 
from its resemblance to the preceding word bene, 
"sons.". 

BANNAIA, RV. SABANNEUS, a man of the 



sons of Asom who put away his foreign wife (1 Es. 
9. 33 ), RVm. " Zabad," so also Ez. io. 33 . 

BANNAS, AV. BANUAS, head of a family of 
Levites (1 Es. 5. 26 ) who came up from Babylon with 
Zerubbabel. Bannas and Suidas in this list are 
represented by " the children of Hodaviah " — i.e. 
" Bene Hodaviah "—in Ez. 2. 40 ; and by " Shebania, 
Hodiah " in Ne. io. 10 . 

BANNEAS. See BAANIAS. 

BANNUS, a man of the sons of Baani, who put 
away his foreign wife (1 Es. 9- 34 ). He represents 
either " Bani " or " Binnui " in Ez. io. 38 . 

BANUAS. See BANNAS. 

BARCHUS, AV. CHARCUS, head of a family of 
Temple servants (1 Es. 5. 32 ), called " Barkos " in 
Ez. 2. 53 ; Ne. 7. 55 . 

BARODIS, head of a family of the sons of the 
servants of Solomon (1 Es. 5. 34 ). The name is not 
found in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

BARTACUS, father of Apame, the concubine of 
Darius (1 Es. 4~ 29 ). " The illustrious " was probably 
a title attached to his official rank. Josephus {Ant. 
XL iii. 5) calls him " Rabases Themasius." It is 
suggested that rov Oefiaaiov of Josephus, which 
takes the place of rov Oavfiao-rov of 1 Es., may repre- 
sent the old Persian mathishta (simply " colonel," 
EB. s.v) ; so instead of " the illustrious " we should 
possibly read " colonel." 

BARUCH, THE BOOK OF, appears in Wig. and 
old English Bibles after Lamentations. In LXX. 
it follows Jeremiah. The sixth chapter, however, 
stands apart under the title " The Epistle of Jere- 
miah," and comes after Lamentations. It is said to 
have been written in Babylon by Baruch, the son of 
Neriah, " in the fifth year, and in the seventh day of 
the month, what time the Chaldeans took Jerusa- 
lem, and burnt it with fire " (Ba. i. lf -). The book 
was read before Jehoiachin, the captive king of 
Judah, the nobles, and the rest of the exiles. It 
moved them to mourn and fast. They made a col- 
lection and sent the proceeds to Jerusalem, asking 
the priests to make sacrifices on behalf of Nebuchad- 
nezzar and his son Belshazzar, in the hope that 
Israel might find favour in their sight. They also 
sent the book, to be read on " the feasts and solemn 
days " (chap. I. 1 ' 14 ). The bock contains confession 
of sin and prayers for pardon and deliverance 
(i. 15 -3. 8 ), and concludes with a long address to the 
Jews who are scattered among the Gentiles (3. 9 -5- 9 ). . 
Chapter 6., the Epistle of Jeremiah, " is a series of 
denunciations of idols and their worshippers, each 
concluding with the words, ' They are no gods ; 
therefore fear them not.' This epistle is con- 
ceived to be sent to Babylon, the rest of the book of 
Baruch being a letter from Babylon. It is partly 
based upon Jeremiah IO. 1 ' 15 , where the prophet 
exhorts the house of Israel not to be dismayed at the 
signs of heaven or to learn the vain customs of the 



949 



Bas 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Bet 



heathen " (Churton, Apocryphal Scrips., Intro, to 
Baruch). 

Scholars are not agreed as to whether the original 
was written in Hebrew or Greek. It was evidently 
written at different times, and no historical value 
attaches to it. 

BASALOTH, head of a family of Temple ser- 
vants (i Es. 5. 31 ), called " Bazluth " in Ez. 2. 52 and 
" Bazlith " in Ne. 7. 54 . 

BASCAMA, a town in Gilead where Trypho 
slew Jonathan Maccabaeus (1 M. 13. 23 ; Ant. XIII. 
vi." 6). The bones of Jonathan were afterwards dis- 
interred and buried in Modin, his native town, by 
his brother Simon. Furrer has suggested identifica- 
tion with Tell Bdzuk, on Wddy Jormdyeh, c. nine 
miles E. of the point where the Jordan enters the 
Sea of Galilee. 

BASSA, RV. BASSAI, head of a family that re- 
turned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 16 ), called " Bezai " 
in Ez. 2. 17 ; Ne. 7. 23 . 

BASTAI, RV. BASTHAI, head of a family that 
returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 31 ), called " Besai" 
in Ez. 2. 49 ; Ne. 7.™ 

BATH-ZACHARIAS. See Beth-zacharias. 

BEAN, RV. BJEAN. Judas Maccabeus "re- 
membered the wickedness of the children of Bean, 
who were unto the people a snare and a stumbling- 
block, lying in wait for them in the ways," therefore 
" he destroyed them utterly, and burned with fire 
the towers of the place, with all that were within " 
(1 M. 5. 4f - ; cp. 2 M. io. 17ff -). Perhaps we should 
read " Meon " for " Beon," in which case the place 
may be represented by Ma'dn. See Maon. 

BEBAI. (1) Head of a family which returned 
with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 13 ) ; several of them 
married foreign wives (c;. 29 ). (2) A place men- 
tioned in Jth. 15. 4 , otherwise unknown. 

BEELSARUS, one who accompanied Zerubbabel 
in the return (1 Es. 5. 8 ), called " Bilshan " in Ez. 
2. 2 ; Ne. 7. 7 . 

BEELTETHMUS, one of the officers of the 
Persian king Artaxerxes in Palestine, who joined in 
the representations made to the king against the 
Jews, and secured an order to hinder them in the 
building of the Temple (1 Es. 2. 16 ). The name 
stands for be'el te'em, which, as Prof. Sayce has 
shown, is explained by the Asyr. inscriptions, and 
means " Lord of official intelligence," or " Post- 
master." 

BEEROTH. See Beroth. 

BEL AND THE DRAGON. See Daniel, 
Additions to. 

BELEMUS, an officer of king Artaxerxes (1 E. 
2. 16 ), associated with Beeltethmus, which see. The 
name corresponds to " Bishlam " in Ez. /j.. 7 . 

BELMEN, RV. BELMAIM, a place named in 
the record of preparations made to guard the 
country against the invasion of Holofernes (Jth. 



4. 4 ). It was not far from Dothan (j. 2 ). It is pro- 
bably identical with Blr Bil ( dmeh (Ibleam), about 
half a mile S. of Jenin, a position of importance to 
the defenders. It is called " Balamo " (8. 3 ). 

BEREA, RV. BERCEA. (1) The place where 
Bacchides encamped before the battle in which 
Judas Maccabaeus fell (1 M. cj. 4 ). Josephus calls it 
Bethzetho. It may possibly be mod. Blr ez-Zait, 
1^- miles NW. of Jifneh. El-Blreh is also a possible 
identification. (2) The place where Menelaus was 
put to death, by precipitation into ashes from a 
lofty tower, when Antiochus Eupator was marching 
against Judaea (2 M. 13. 4 ). It is identified with 
mod. Halab (Aleppo). 

BEROTH, RV. BEEROTH. The inhabitants 
of Beroth are named among those who returned 
from Babylon (1 Es. 5. 19 ) along with those of 
Chephirah and Kirjath-jearim. It is identical 
with el-Blreh, a considerable village on the road to 
Nablus, about ten miles N. of Jerusalem. It is the 
first halting-place of caravans going north from 
Jerusalem, and has plentiful supplies of water — 
hence its name = " wells." According to an old 
tradition, it was here that Jesus was missed by 
Joseph and Mary, on the evening of the first day 
out from Jerusalem (Lk. 2. 43ff -). 

BERZELUS, AV. ZORZELLEUS, father of 
Augia, who married Jaddus, whose descendants had 
lost their genealogy during the exile (1 Es. 5. 38f- ). 

BETANE, one of the places to which Nebuchad- 
nezzar sent his messengers (Jth. I. 9 ). It evidently 
lay to the S. of Jerusalem, and is possibly identical 
with Beit 'Ainun, three miles N. of Hebron. 

BETHASMOTH, AV. BETHSAMOS, which 
see. 

BETHBASI, a place in the wilderness to which 
Jonathan and Simon Maccabaeus retired when 
threatened by Bacchides (1 M. 9- 62 ). They built 
up the fortifications that had fallen into decay, 
and withstood a siege successfully. Josephus (Ant. 
XIII. i. 5) has Bethalaga, possibly intending Beth- 
hogla, not far from Jericho. More naturally we 
should seek a position in the wastes to the south- 
east of Jerusalem. Perhaps there is a reminiscence 
of this name in Wddy Bassds, to the SE. of Tekoa. 

BETH-HORON. In the Canonical Section we 
have seen that the two Beth-horons are to be 
identified with Beit 9 0r et-Tahtah and Beit 9 Ur 
el-Foqah. By way of Beth-horon, Seron, the Syrian 
general, attempted to advance on Jerusalem. He 
was met by Judas Maccabaeus, and his army was 
driven headlong down the valley in utter rout (1 M. 
3. 13ff - ; Ant. XII. vii. 1). Here also, not long after, 
Nicanor, retiring from Jerusalem, was attacked by 
Judas : his army was scattered and himself was slain 
(1 M. 7. 39ff - ; Ant. XII. x. 5). Beth-horon was 
fortified by Bacchides (1 M. 9. 50 ; Ant. XIII. i. 3). 
It is mentioned in connection with the preparations 
en 



Bet 



APOCRYPHA 



Bet 



made to oppose Holofernes (Jth. 4. 4 ). Here a 
Roman army under Cestius Gallus suffered crushing 
defeat, a.d. 66 (BJ. II. xix. 8f.). 

BETHLOMON, the inhabitants or which re- 
turned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (i Es. 5. 17 ), is 
the town of Bethlehem (mod. Beit Lahm), so called 
in Ez. 2. 21 . 

BETHSAMOS, RV. BETHASMOTH (1 Es. 
5. 18 ) is called " Beth-azmaveth " in Ne. J. 28 ; a town 
in Benjamin, probably represented by the mod. 
Hizmeh, in the uplands SE. of Gibeah. 



Judas encountered and defeated Lysias (1 M. 4. 29ff - ; 
2 M. II. 5 ). He then fortified it anew and set a 
garrison there (v. 61). It was taken by the army of 
Antiochus (6. 7 - 26 - 31 - 49 - 50 ). It was fortified by 
Bacchides (1 M. 9- 52 ). It was taken again by Simon 
(n. 65f -, 14. 7 ). The mod. village boasts some 
remains of antiquity: notably a ruined tower, 
dating prob. fm. the twelfth cent. 

BETHULIA. Information regarding this town 
is confined to the book of Judith. Buhl (GAP. 
201 note) thus summarises : " According to the 




Bercea: Modern Aleppo 



BETHSAN, RV. BETHSHAN = BETH- 
SHEAN. This city is mentioned in the account of 
the return of Judas from his campaign in Gilead 
(1 M. 5« 52 ). Here Jonathan eluded the snares of 
Trypho, only to fall into the trap set for him in 
Ptolemais (1 M. I2. 40ff -). It is first called Scytho- 
polis in 2 M. 12. 29 . By this name, which enshrined 
some memory of the Scythian invasion (see 
Scythians), it was known as a member of the 
Decapolis ; but it soon gave place to the ancient 
name, which persists in the form of Beisdn. 

BETH-SURA, RV. BETHSURON = BETH- 
ZUR. This ancient stronghold, represented by the 
mod. Beit Sur, \\ miles N. of Hebron, was a place 
of great strategic importance, commanding the 
approach "to Jerusalem from that direction. Here 

95 



book of Judith (4. 6 , 6. 10ff -, 7. lff -, 8. 3 , io. 10 , 12. 7 , 
15. 3 ' 6 , i6. 21ff -), Bethulia was situated in the neigh- 
bourhood of Jenln, on a rock, beside a valley, com- 
manding the passes to the south. At the foot of 
the rock was a spring." He inclines to identify it 
with Sdnur, a strong position on a rock overlooking 
Merj el-Ghariq, about seven miles S. of Jenin. 
Conder favours the claim of Mithiliyeh, to the N. 
of Merj el-Ghariq. For an interesting argument 
to prove Bethulia = Jerusalem see EB. s.v. 

It must be observed, however, that the writer of 
Judith regards the two as distinct. Joacin, the 
High Priest in Jerusalem, is said to have written to 
the inhabitants of Bethulia " charging them to keep 
the passages of the hill country " against Holo- 
fernes (Jth. 4. 6ff -)- 



Bet 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Cal 



BETH-ZACHARIAS, the scene of the battle 
described in I M. 6. 32f -, in which Judas Maccabaeus 
was defeated by Antiochus Eupator, and his brother 
Eleazar perished. Josephus (XII. ix. 4) describes 
it as 70 stadia from Bethsur. It is identical with 
Beit Zakaria, fully 4 miles SW. of Bethlehem, " on 
an isolated promontory or hill, jutting out between 
two deep valleys and connected with the high 
ground south by a low neck between the heads of 
the valleys, the neck forming the only access to what 
must have been an almost impregnable position " 
BRP. iii. 283!). 

BETOLIUS, RV. BETOLION, a place,fifty-two 
inhabitants of wh. returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 
5. 21 ) = " Bethel" inEz. 2. 28 . 

BETOMESTHAM, RV. BETOMESTHAIM 
(Jth. 4 . 6 ), BETOMASTHEM, RV. BETOMAS- 
THAIM (Jth. 15. 4 ), a place " over against Jezreel, 
in face of the plain that is near Dothan." The 
district within which it must have lain is thus some- 
what closely defined : but no satisfactory identifica- 
tion has been suggested. 

BEZETH, the place where Bacchides encamped 
on withdrawing from Jerusalem, where he put 
deserters to death and cast them into a pit (1 M. 
7. 19 ). It may be identical with the quarter known as 
" Bezetha " {see Jerusalem, p. 312). 

BIATAS, RV. PHALIAS, one of the Levites 
who taught the people the law (1 Es. 9 48 ), called 
" Pelaiah " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

BOCCAS, an ancestor of Ezra (1 Es. 8. 2 ), called 
" Bukki " in Ez. 7.* ; " Borith " in 2 Es. I. 2 . 

BORITH. See preceding article. 

BOSOR, a city in Gilead taken by Judas Macca- 
baeus (1 M. 5. 26, 36 ), which may be identical with 
Bust el-Harir% on the SW. border of el-Lejd\ 

BOSORA, a strong city in Gilead captured by 
Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 5. 26, 28 ). It is the famous 
city known as Bostra to the Romans, in the SE. of 



the Hauran, the mod. Bosra eski-Sham. For illus- 
tration see Bozrah in Canonical Section, p. 71. 

BRAN. In the picture drawn of what the cap- 
tives will see in Babylon in the letter of Jeremy 
(Ba. 6.), the women are described as burning " bran 
for incense," in their unchaste idolatrous worship 
(Ba. 6. 43 ). 

BRIDGE. Only in 2 M. 12. 13 (AV.) is mention 
made of a bridge, which Judas Maccabaeus built in 
order to attack the strong city of Caspis. There 
were no bridges in early Palestine. Most of the 
streams dry up after the rainy season ; and bridges 
built over them, unless of very strong construction, 
are apt to be swept away in the spates of winter. 
At most times they are easily fordable at well-known 
points. Josephus says of the Jordan when the 
Israelites passed over it under Joshua, " there never 
had been bridges laid over it hitherto " {Ant. V. 
i. 3) ; implying that bridges were not unknown to 
him. The Romans were the great road- and bridge- 
builders, making use of the arch for this purpose. 
Specimens of their work may still be seen : e.g. the 
bridge across the Jordan south of el-Huleh, Jisr 
benat Ta'qub, " the bridge of Jacob's daughters." 
It is serviceable still after two millenniums, having 
outlived all later structures save the most recent. 

Josephus speaks of a " bridge " {gefhura) which 
connected the Temple with the upper city {BJ. VI. 
vi. 2) ; probably it was an arched viaduct. 

BUCKLE. Alexander Balas gave a golden 
buckle to Jonathan Maccabaeus as a mark of dis- 
tinguished favour — " as the use is to give to such as 
are the kindred of the king " (1 M. io. 89 ). The 
buckle was used as a brooch to fasten the outer 
garment on the shoulder or over the breast. 

BUGEAN is used' as descriptive of Haman (Est. 
Ad. 12. 6 RV.). It may have the meaning of " brag- 
gart." In all other cases he is called " Haman the 
Agagite." 



CADDIS, RV. GADDIS, surname of Joannan 
(John), eldest son of Mattathias, the father of the 
Maccabees (1 M. 2. 2 ). See Gaddis. 

CADES, RV. KEDESH (1 M. u. 63 - 73 ). See 
Kedesh in Canonical Section. 

CADES-BARNE (Jth. 5. 14 ), RV. KADESH- 
BARNEA, which see in Canonical Section. 

CADMIEL,RV. KADMIEL, father of a family 
of Levites (1 Es. 5. 26 ). 

CALAMOLALUS, head of a family that 
returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 22 ). In the 
corresponding lists in Ez. 2. 33 ; Ne. J. 37 for 
" Calamolalus " stand " Lod, Hadid." The name 
is corrupt. 

CALITAS, one of the Levites who read the law 



to the multitude, making them understand it. His 
second name was Colius (1 Es. q. 23 - 48 ), called 
" Kelaiah (the same is Kelita) " in Ez. io. 23 ; 
" Kelita " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

CALLISTHENES, the name of the officer who 
had charge of setting fire to the great gates of the 
Temple at the time of the desecration under 
Antiochus Epiphanes (b.c. 168). He was present as 
an officer of Nicanor at the battle of Emmaus 
(b.c 165), and at the feast which the Jews held for 
their victory, they forced him into a village hut and 
there burned him alive — " a reward meet for his 
wickedness " (2 M. 8. 33 ). 

CALPHI, RV. CHALPHI, father of Judas, who, 
along with Mattathias, stood by Jonathan at the 



952 



Can 



APOCRYPHA 



Cat 



battle of Gennesar, and routed the host of Deme- 
trius' princes (i M. II. 70 ). 

CANOPY. This was probably the mosquito 
curtain over the bed in which Holofernes lay (Jth. 
io. 21 ), konopeion, which protected the sleeper from 
the konops, " gnat." The description of it shows 
the luxury in which the enemy of Israel indulged. 
It was " woven with purple and gold, and emeralds 
and precious stones." When Judith had slain Holo- 
fernes she took down the canopy and carried it away 
as a trophy (13. 9 ). She displayed it, along with the 
head of Holofernes, to the elders and people of 
Bethulia (v. 15) ; and finally dedicated it as " a gift 
unto the Lord " (16. 19 ). 

CAPHARSALAMA. When Nicanor, who was 
in Jerusalem, had tried in vain to lead Judas Macca- 
baeus into an ambush, by proposals for a peaceful 
conference, he marched out against him and was de- 
feated at Capharsalama, the fugitives returning to 
the city (1 M. 7. 31 ). It is spoken of in crusading times 
as a castle of the Knights Hospitallers. The Arab 
geographer Muqaddasi places it " in the district of 
Caesarea, on the high road from Ramleh northward." 
Several sites in the region indicated might suit, the 
likeliest, perhaps, being Khirbet Deir Selldm, about 
12^- miles to the W. of Jerusalem. 

CAPHENATHA,RV.CHAPHENATHA. Simon 
strengthened the fortifications of Jerusalem, and it 
is said, " he repaired that which was called Caphe- 
natha " — apparently some part of the defences 
which cannot now be identified. It has been sup- 
posed to be on the Mount of Olives ; but this finds 
no support in the narrative (1 M. 12. 37 ). 

CAPHIRA. The inhabitants of Caphira re- 
turned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 19 ). It is called 
" Chephirah " in Ez. 2. 25 : a town on the border of 
Benjamin, represented by the mod. Kefir eh, to the 
SW. of Gibeon. 

CARABASION (1 Es. c;. 34 ), one who put away 
his foreign wife. There is nothing in the other 
lists corresponding to this name, which is evidently 
corrupt. In Ez. io. 36 its place seems to be taken by 
" Meremoth." 

CARCHAMIS, RV. CARCHEMISH, alluded 
to in 1 Es. I. 25 , is the famous city on the Euphrates, 
the mod. Jerablus. See Carchemish in Canonical 
Section. 

CARIA. Lucius, the consul of the Romans, is said 
to have sent to Caria a copy of his circular letter in 
favour of the Jews (1 M. 15. 23 ). Caria lay on the 
SW. coast of Asia Minor. At this time (b.c. 139— 
138) it was governed by a confederacy of four 
cities, their centre of meeting being the temple of 
Zeus Chrysaoreus at Stratonicea. In b.c. 129 it 
was incorporated in the Roman province of Asia. 
Halicarnassus, Cnidus, Myndus. and Miletus were 
Carian cities, while Patmos, Cos, and Rhodes lay 
off the coast. 



CARMANIANS, RV. CARMONIANS. In the 

"vision horrible " of 2 Es. I5. 28ff -, " the Carmanians, 
raging in wrath, shall go forth as the wild boars of 
the wood . . . and shall waste a portion of the 
land of the Assyrians with their teeth." A people 
fierce and cruel is intended. The description 
answers the inhabitants of Kirmdn, N. of the 
Persian Gulf, and W. of Gedrosia. Strabo (xv. 
p. 727) represents them as a warlike race, who 
worshipped Ares alone of all the gods ; and he gives 
an account of certain horrible practices that pre- 
vailed among them. A youth was free to marry 
only when he had slain an enemy and presented his 
head to the king. Their customs and language 
were Persian and Median, while they followed the 
Persian order in battle. They are referred to by 
Nearchus, Arrian, and other ancient writers. In 
v. 30 ff - Sapor I. may be intended (a.d. 242-273). 
He founded the Sassanid dynasty. He defeated 
the Roman general Valerian, and proceeding to the 
NW. he traversed Syria and laid Antioch in ruins. 
By Odenatus and Zenobia of Palmyra, " the 
dragons of Arabia " (v. 29), he was driven back 
beyond the Euphrates. 

CARME, RV. CHARME, head of a family of 
priests (1 Es. 5. 25 ) called " Harim " in Ez.2 , 39 . 

CARNAIM, a strong city in Gilead captured by 
Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 5. 26 ' 43f -). Here was a 
temple of Atargatis, in which the refugees from 
the captured city were put to death (2 M. 12. 21 ' 26 ). 
It corresponds to Ashteroth Karnaim in Canonical 
Section, wh. see. In 2 M. it is called " Carnion." 

CARNION. See preceding article. 

CASLEU, AV. CHISLEV. See Year in Canoni- 
cal Section. 

CASPHON, RV. CASPHOR, a city taken by 
Judas Maccabaeus on his expedition east of the 
Jordan (1 M. 5- 36 ). It doubtless corresponds with 
" Caspis " (2 M. 12. 13 ). This city was strongly 
fortified and near a large lake, conditions that are 
fulfilled by mod. el-Muzerib, the station from which 
the Hajj, the great Moslem pilgrimage, finally sets 
out on its desert march. The identification, how- 
ever, is uncertain. The ancient name of the city is 
unknown (see Schumacher, Across the Jordan,i$j&.). 

CASPHOR. See preceding article. 

CASPIS, RV. CASPIN. See Casphon. 

CAT. This animal is not named in the Canonical 
Scriptures, and appears only in Ba. 6. 22 , in the 
epistle of Jeremy. Showing how contemptible the 
gods of Babylon are, the prophet points out that 
they cannot defend themselves from injury or 
insult. The bats, swallows, and birds alight with 
impunity upon their bodies and heads ; " and in like 
manner the cats also." The context suggests that 
these were domesticated cats, not, as Cheyne thinks, 
wild cats (EB. s.v). The cat was early domesti- 
cated in Egypt, and is often figured on the monu- 



953 



Cat 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Che 



merits, e.g. as accompanying the fowler (Wilkinson, 
A.E. i. 2361".). Herodotus entertains his readers 
with " travellers' tales " regarding the cat in 
Egypt (ii. 66f.). Although the cat is not mentioned 
in Scripture there can be no doubt that the Hebrews 
were familiar with the animal itself. The wild 
cat, Felis maniculata, the supposed original of the 
domestic cat, is found in Africa, Arabia, Syria, and 
Palestine. It is especially plentiful east of the 
Jordan. The Arabs call it Qutt el-Khala. Its 
body is 2 ft. long, with a tail of 1 1 inches. 

Bochart (Hieroz. 862) proposes to render by 
"wild cat" the Heb. D*»? in Ps. 74. 14 ; Is. 13. 21 , 
34. 14 ; Jr. 50. 39 , instead of EV., " wild beasts of 
the desert." 

CATHUA, head of a family of Temple servants 
who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 30 ), possibly 
= "Giddel"inEz. 2. 47 . 

CEDRON, RV. KIDRON, a city fortified and 
occupied by Cendebaeus by orders of Antiochus 
Sidetes, whence he made incursions on the Jews to 
their great hurt (1 M. 15. 39 " 41 ). Here he was 
attacked and routed by a force under the sons of 
Simon the Maccabee, who burned the place (i6. 4ff -). 
From the narrative we gather that it was not far 
from Jamnia (Yebnd), and x\zotus (Ashdod). It is 
probably represented by the mod. village Katrab, 
c. three miles SW. of 'Aker (Ekron). 

CEILAN. The sons of Ceilan and Azetas were 
among the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel 
(1 Es. 5. 15 ). These names do not appear in the lists 
of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

CELOSYRIA (1 Es. 2. 17 ), RV. CCELE-SYRIA, 
which see. 

CENDEBEUS, RV. CENDEB^US, a general of 
Antiochus VII., who was left as " captain of the sea- 
coast " of Palestine (1 M. I5. 38ff -) on the defeat of 
Tryphon by Antiochus (b.c 138). He fortified 
Kedron as commanded by the king, and made it a 
centre for the harassing of the Jews. Simon Mac- 
cabaeus, by reason of age, was unable to resist C, 
but his two sons, Judas and John, defeated him — a 
general of Antiochus — with great loss at Modin 
(1 M. 16. 1 " 10 ), though they had been very serviceable 
to Antiochus in his war against Tryphon. 

CERAS, RV. KERAS, head of a family of Temple 
servants (1 Es. 5. 29 ), called " Keros " in Ez. 2 . M ; 
Ne. y. 47 . 

CETAB, RV. KETAB, ancestor of a family of 
Nethinim (1 Es. 5. 30 ), not named in the lists of Ezra 
and Nehemiah. 

CHABRIS, son of Gothoniel, one of the " elders 
of the city," rulers of Bethulia (Jth. 6. 15 , &c). 

CHADIAS, THEY OF, RV. CHADIASAI. 
These, along with the Ammidioi, returned from 
Bab. with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 20 ). Chadias may 
possibly be identical with " Kedesh '' of Jo. 15. 23 . 
The name is not in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah. 



CHOREAS, AV. CHEREAS, brother of the 
Ammonite leader, Timotheus. He had command 
of the fortress of Gazara, the " Jazar " of I M. 5. 6 * 8 . 
Hither Timotheus fled from Judas Maccabaeus. 
The latter pursued him, and after a vigorous siege 
took the city. In the slaughter which ensued both 
Timotheus and his brother Chaereas were slain. 

CHALPHI (1 M. ii. 70 ), AV. CALPHI, wh. see. 

CHANAAN, CHANAANITE (Jth. 5*™, &c), 
RV. CANAAN, CANAANITE. The AV. re- 
presents the Greek ^avaav, the form in which the 
name appears in the Apocrypha and in the NT. 
(Ac. 7. 11 , 13. 19 ). 

CHANNUNEUS, RV. CHANUNEUS, a Levite 
in the list of 1 Es. 8. 48 , corresponding, perhaps, to 
" Merari " in Ez. 8. 19 . 

CHAPELS, RV. SHRINES (1 M. i. 47 ; 2 M. 
IO. 2 II. 3 ), are places for idol worship. 

CHAPHENATHA, AV. CAPENATHA, which 
see. 

CHARAATHALAN, AV. CHARAATHALAR 
(1 Es. 5- 36 ), is described as leading certain families 
who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel. 
The phrase " Charaathalan leading them and 
Allar " has arisen from running together the place- 
names " Cherub, Addan, Immer," with some con- 
fusion of the letters (cp. Ez. 2. 59 ; Ne. 7. 61 ). 

CHARACA, RV. CHARAX, a place east of 
Jordan, said to be 750 stadia from Caspis, in wh. 
there were Jews called Tubieni, that is, from Tob. 
Caspis may possibly be identified with el-Mezerlb ; 
but there is nothing to show in what direction 
Characa lay. The distance also seems very great 
(92 miles) for the army to traverse in the operations 
described (2 M. 12. 17 ). Kerak (Kir-moab) was 
known as xapaKfxw/Ba and yiufiovyapa^. It lies 
about 100 miles south of el-Mezerlb. It is within 
the limits of possibility that Kerak may represent 
the city intended; but there are no data for a 
certain decision. 

CHARCUS (1 Es. 5. 32 ), RV. BARCHUS, which 
see. 

CHAREA, head of a family of Temple servants 
(1 Es. 5. 32 ) called " Harsha " in Ez. 2. 52 ; Ne. j. 5 \ 

CHARME (1 Es. 5. 25 ), AV. CARME, which see. 

CHARMIS, one of the three " elders of the city," 
rulers of Bethulia (Jth. 6. 15 , &c). 

CHASEBA, head of a family of Temple servants, 
mentioned only in 1 Es. 5. 31 . 

CHELCIAS, RV. HELKIAS. (1) Father of 
Susannah (Su. vv. 2, 29, 63). Tradition makes him 
brother of Jeremiah, and identifies him with the 
priest who found the book of the law in the Temple 
(2 K. 22. 8 ). (2) Ancestor of Baruch (Ba. I. 1 ). 
(3) Father of Joakim the High Priest (Ba. I. 7 ). 

CHELLIANS. In Jth. 2. 23 Holofernes is said 
to have spoiled the Ishmaelites " which were over 
against the wilderness to the south of the land of 



954 



Che 



APOCRYPHA 



Ccel 



the Chellians," which probably means the land 
belonging to the inhabitants of Chellus. 

CHELLUS, one of the places beyond — i.e. west 
of — the Jordan, to which Nebuchadnezzar sent his 
summons (Jth. i. 9 ). It is mentioned with Betane 
and Kadesh, and may be taken as lying to the SW. 
of Jerusalem. It may have represented the ancient 
Halutzah (Tg. Jrs., Gn. 16. 14 ), which, under the 
name of Elusa, was known to the Greek and Roman 
geographers (Reland, Pal. 717). It lay near the 
source of Wady es-Sdni. The adjoining country 
would then be " the land of the Chellians," to the 
south of which dwelt the children of Ishmael (Jth. 
2. 23 ). The reading " Chaldaeans " in the latter 
passage is probably an attempt to solve a difficulty 
by amending the text. 

CHELOD. In Jth. I. 6 it is said that "many 
nations of the sons of Chelod assembled themselves 
to the battle," apparently allies of Nebuchadnezzar, 
responding to his summons. Porter (HDB. s.v.) 
translates, " there came together many nations 
unto the array (or ranks) of the sons of Cheleul." 
It might mean " to battle with (against) the sons of 
Cheleul." The Syr. reads " to fight against the 
Chaldaeans." No probable suggestion has been 
made as to the meaning of Chelod. It is possible 
that " sons of Chelod " denotes the whole assem- 
blage of Nebuchadnezzar's allies. 

CHEREAS. See Choreas. 

CHETTIIM, RV. CHITTIM = OT. KITTIM 
(Gn. io. 4 ). See Cyprus in Canonical Section. The 
island of Cyprus was so called from the settlement of 
Kition, mod. Larnaca, in the SE. (Jos. Ant. I. vi.^l). 
But the name came to have a much wider and 
somewhat vague significance. Thus Alexander the 
Great is said to have come " out of the land of 
Chittim " (1 M. I. 1 ), where obviously Macedonia is 
intended : and Perseus is described as " king of 
Chittim " (1 M. 8. 5 , AV. " Citims "). 

CHOBA (Jth. 4. 4 ), CHOBAI (Jth. 15. 4 ' 5 ). A 
place named with Jericho, iEsora, and the valley of 
Salem. Reland (Palestina, 721) suggested Coabis, 
which is mentioned in the Peutinger Tables as being 
12 Roman miles from Scythopolis. This may be 
the modern el-Mekhubby, near which is the cave 
'Ardq el-Khubby, about 11 miles from Beisan 
(Scythopolis) and 3 miles from Tubas. This 
appears, at least, to be the district in which Choba 
must be sought. 

CHOLA, AV. COLA, which see. 

CHORBE, AV. CORBE, which see. 

CHOSAMEUS seems to have arisen from a 
copyist's error (1 Es. c;. 32 ). It appears to take the 
place of three names given in Ez. io. 31 . 

CHUSI, a place named in Jth. 7. 18 as nearEkrebel, 
on the brook Mochmur. It is probably identical 
with the mod. Quzah, a village 5^ miles south of 
Nablus, and 5 miles west of i Aqrabeh (Ekrebel). 



CIRAMA. RV. KIRAMA. The people of 
Cirama returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel 
(1 Es. 5. 20 ) ; it is called " Ramah " in Ez. 2. 26 . 

CISAI, RV. KISEUS, grandfather of Mordecai 
(Est. Ad. 11. 2 ). 

CITHERN, RV. HARP (1 M. 4. 54 ), one of the 
instruments used at the re-dedication of the Temple 
and altar. See Music in Canonical Section. 

CITIMS. See Chettiim. 

CLEOPATRA, daughter of Ptolemy VI., Philo- 
metor, and of queen Cleopatra, was given in 
marriage by her father to Alexander Balas, king of 
Syria (1 M. io. 58 ; Jos. Ant. XIII. iv. 1). When 
Demetrius with a band of Cretan mercenaries 
attacked Alexander, Ptolemy led an army into Syria 
in support of Alexander, his son-in-law ; but at 
Ptolemais he learned that a conspiracy was laid 
against his life by Alexander through the agency of 
his friend Ammonius, and as Alexander refused to 
punish Ammonius, Ptolemy dissolved his relation- 
ship to him and made a league with Demetrius 
Nicator, taking his daughter from Alexander and 
giving her to Demetrius, who by Ptolemy's aid was 
received at Antioch as king of Syria. Alexander 
was killed in battle against the joint forces of 
Ptolemy and Demetrius. Demetrius was after- 
wards taken prisoner by Arsaces VI. (Mithridates I.), 
whose dominions he had invaded, and who treated 
him honourably, giving him his daughter Rhodo- 
gune in marriage. Cleopatra married the brother 
of Demetrius, Antiochus VII., Sidetes, who in the 
absence of Demetrius had gained possession of the 
Syrian throne (b.c 137). She was probably privy 
to the murder of Demetrius on his return to Syria, 
b.c 125 (Appian, Syr. 68), though Josephus (Ant. 
XIII. ix. 3) gives a different account of the fate of 
Demetrius. She afterwards murdered Seleucus, 
her son by Nicator, who on his father's death 
assumed the government without her consent. She 
succeeded in securing the throne for her second son 
by Nicator, Antiochus VIII. Grypus, whom she re- 
called from Athens where he was studying ; but as 
he was unwilling to concede to her the measure of 
power she claimed in the government, she at- 
tempted to poison him on his return from exercise 
(b.c 120). On learning her intention he begged her 
to drink first, and on her refusal produced his 
witness and then repeated his request as the best 
means of clearing herself. On this she drank and 
died (Justin xxxix. 2). She had another son by 
Antiochus VII., Sidetes — Antiochus Cyzicenus, 
named from the place of his education. He was 
killed in battle in b.c 95. 

CCELE-SYRIA, "hollow Syria." The two 
great mountain ranges running north and south, 
known respectively as the Lebanon and the Anti- 
lebanon, form a gigantic double rampart between 
the desert and the eastern shore of the Mediter- 



955 



Col 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Dan 



ranean Sea. The hollow between the ranges was 
known to the Greeks as Ccele- Syria ; and to this 
great valley the name properly belongs. In Jo. 
II. 17 it is called Biq'ath ha-Lebanon, " The valley of 
the Lebanon." The natives call the part S. of 
Baalbek el-Buqa', " the valley " par excellence. The 
hollow is nearly a hundred miles in length, and 
forms the continuation, northward, of the Jordan 
valley. The level rises towards the middle, the 
watershed being in the neighbourhood of Baalbek. 
The river Orontes drains the northern portion. 
The Litany flows to the southern limit of the valley, 
then turns westward through a great cleft in the 
mountain to the sea. 

Strabo applies the name to the valley, but also 
extends it to cover the territory of Damascus 
(xvi. 2). It came to signify the region lying to the 
east and south of Mount Lebanon, and Ccele-Syria 
and Phoenicia meant all the Seleucid dominions 
south of the river Eleutherus (1 Es. 2. 17 , &c). In 
Josephus the term usually denotes the country east 
of the Jordan, to which he adds Scythopolis 
(Beisan), which although on the west of the river 
was politically united to the Decapolis {Ant. XIII. 
xiii. 2, &c). But in XIV. iv. 5 he says that " Ccele- 
Syria as far as the river Euphrates and Egypt," was 
committed by Pompey to the care of Scaurus. This 
sufficiently illustrates the elasticity of the term in 
later times. 

COLA, RV. CHOLA, a place mentioned with 
Chobai {see Choba) in Jth. 15. 4 , and should probably 
be sought in the same district. Kcfun, in the 
Jordan valley, has been suggested. It lies on the 
way from el-Mekhubby to Beisan. 

COLIUS (1 Es. o,. 23 ), the same as Calitas, wh. see. 



CORBE, RV. CHORBE, head of a family which 
returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es. 5. 12 ). He cor- 
responds to " Zaccai " in Ez. 2. 9 ; Ne. 7. 14 . 

CORE (Sr.45.i8), RV. KORAH, wh. see in 
Canonical Section. 

COS, one of the places to which a copy of the 
letter in favour of the Jews was sent by Consul 
Lucius (1 Ne. 15. 23 ). See Cos in Canonical 
Section. 




Tetradrachm (? Phoenician Talent) of Cos 

COUTHA, RV. CUTHA (1 Es. 5 . 32 ), head of a 
family of Temple servants ; not mentioned in the 
lists of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

CRATES. When Sostratus, the governor of 
Jerusalem, was called to Antioch by Antiochus 
Epiphanes, in consequence of a dispute with 
Menelaus, he left Crates, a former governor of 
Cyprus, to act as deputy in his absence (2 M. 4~ 29 ). 

CUTHA. See Coutha. 

CYAMON (Jth. 7. 3 ), the western point to wh. 
the army of Holofernes stretched from Bethulia, 
described as " over against Esdraelon." It is pro- 
bably identical with Tell Qaimun, a mound about 
seven miles NW. of el-Lejjun, with remains of 
ancient buildings, prob. = Jokneam, wh. see in 
Canonical Section. 



D 



DABRIA, one of the scribes swift with the 
pen, who wrote down the visions of Esdras (2 
Es. 14. 24 ). 

DACOBI, RV. DAKUBI, head of a family of 
gatekeepers (1 Es. 5. 28 ) called " Akkub " in Ez. 2. 42 ; 
Ne. 7. 45 ). 

DADDEUS, RV. LODDEUS, " the captain who 
was in the place of the treasury," to whom Ezra 
sent for " such men as might execute the priests' 
office " (1 Es. 8. 46 ), called " Iddo " in Ez. 8. 17 . 

DAISAN (1 Es. 5. 31 ), head of a family of Temple 
servants ; called " Rezin " in Ez. 2. 48 ; Ne. 7. 50 . 
The form " Daisan " has arisen through a scribe 
mistaking 1 for 1. 

DALAN, AV. LAD AN, head of a family who 
had lost their genealogy (1 Es. 5. 37 ) = " Delaiah," 
Ez. 2. 60 . 

DANIEL, THE ADDITIONS TO. The non- 
canonical additions to the book of Daniel are three 



in number, viz., the Songof the Three Holy Children, 
the Story of Susanna and the Elders, and the Story 
of Bel and the Dragon. In order, however, to under- 
stand fully the purpose of these books, as well as to 
appreciate their special " atmosphere," we must 
remember that seventy years of strict captivity in 
far-distant Babylon had materially changed both 
the character and the outlook of a large percentage 
of the Hebrew exiles. To many of them Babylon 
was home. They had known no other. Born in 
Babylonia, many of them had actually grown old 
there, and looked upon it as their only fatherland. 
Long separation from Palestine had, in many in- 
stances, weakened the " home-hunger " of patriotic 
associations. They had formed new ties, new 
friends, new ideals : they were animated by new 
aims and purposes. Only those, on the other hand, 
who were zealous for the law (as Dr. Sayce says), 
and saw in the destruction of Jerusalem the punish- 



956 



Dan 



APOCRYPHA 



Dan 



merit of its neglect, could preserve themselves from 
mixing with the surrounding population and sub- 
mitting to the influence of its customs and beliefs. 
That the larger section of the Jewish exiles had 
become naturalised in Babylon is proved by the 
frequency with which their names occur in the 
Babylonian contracts, &c, that have been pre- 
served. Accordingly it was only those who had 
kept themselves distinct and apart, alike in race and 
religion, that had any desire to return to Palestine. 
As Sayce well puts it : " The companions of Zerub- 
babel were the ' remnant ' who believed in the 
divine mission of Israel, and looked on the law of 
Moses as their rule of life." Their struggle with 
Babylonian heathenism and its seductions intensified 
their love for the exoteric characteristics of the law. 
Only by scrupulous observance of its ceremonial 
requirements could they hope to remain a " peculiar 
people," separate from the larger world and the 
less rigid rule of life, beside which it was their lot 
to live. 

These characteristics are reflected in the Apoc- 
ryphal literature which has come down to us, and 
nowhere more vividly than in the Additions to 
Daniel. 

(i) The Song of the Three Holy Children, 
better known to many, perhaps, as the Benedi- 
cite, under which designation it has been a familiar 
item in the services of the Christian Church from 
the fourth century. It is also styled the Prayer 
of Azarias. The song professes to be the psalm 
which was sung by the three captives, Shadrach, 
Meshach, and Abednego, when they were cast into 
the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down in 
worship to " the golden image which Nebuchad- 
nezzar the king set up on the plain of Dura, in the 
province of Babylon." Just such a " Song " is it 
as would be appropriate to such an occasion, when 
the power of the Mighty God of Israel triumphed 
over the spite and machinations of men. Its char- 
acter as a psalm was recognised by the Codex 
Alexandrinus, inasmuch as it inserts a large section 
of it at the conclusion of the Psalter. Consisting as 
it does of sixty-eight verses in the Septuagint, it is 
inserted after the 23rd verse of the 3rd chapter of 
Daniel, and divides itself naturally into three parts : 
(a) the Prayer of Azarias (vv. 1-22) from the midst 
of the fire ; (b) a continuation of the story in Dn. 
3. 23 , wh. describes how the servants of Nebuchad- 
nezzar increased the intensity of the heat in the 
fiery furnace by means of " rosin, tow, pitch, and 
small wood, so that the flame streamed forth above 
the furnace forty and nine cubits," and how the 
angel of the Lord came down and made the midst 
of the furnace as if it had been a moist, whistling 
wind; (c) the thanksgiving Song of the Three Holy 
Children. Critics are still divided as to whether 
it was originally written in Hebrew or Greek, but 



there seems a consensus of opinion that traces of 
more than one hand are visible in it. 

(2) The History of Susanna.— This is placed in 
the Septuagint before chap. 1. of the book of 
Daniel, while in the Vulgate it stands as chap. 13. 
Some writers think the story may have been 
suggested by Jr. 20. 13 . The whole trend of the 
narrative is designed to bring out the keen insight 
and Solomon-like wisdom of Daniel. Susanna, a 
woman of surpassing beauty, was the wife of 
Joachim, a wealthy Jew of Babylon. She was no 
less distinguished by her piety than by her beauty. 
Two " elders of the people," their evil purpose 
being frustrated by her fidelity, conspired to destroy 
her, bringing a false charge against her. The sworn 
word of the elders being accepted, Susanna was 
about to be put to death, when Daniel ordered the 
two elders to be parted from one another and 
examined them separately, when they made such 
glaringly contradictory statements that they were 
adjudged worthy to suffer the fate they sought to 
inflict on Susanna. 

It has been supposed that the motive of the 
story is the encouragement of an agitation which 
was then being promoted by the Pharisaic party 
in favour of legal reform. Mr. C. J. Ball has 
suggested that the story was a novelette of the 
Haggadah type, based on a miscarriage of justice 
which occurred about B.C. 100, when one of the 
leaders of the Pharisee party — Simon, son of the 
president of the Council — was accused, tried, and 
convicted on evidence which was afterwards proved 
to be a gross perjury. This incident led the 
Pharisee party, as opposed to the Sadducees, to 
advocate first, such legal reforms as the more 
searching examination of witnesses, and second, 
the infliction of very severe penalties on those 
convicted of perjury. Mr. Ball sees in the Story 
of Susanna a tractate issued by the Pharisees to 
support their views. 

Mr. Ball's views are ingenious, but there are grave 
difficulties in the way of their acceptance. In the 
first place they assume that " Susanna " was written 
in Palestine, and therefore that it was composed in 
Hebrew, whereas the play upon the Greek names 
of the trees in which Daniel indulges proves that 
Greek, not Hebrew, was the original language. 
There is no evidence that " Susanna " was known 
in Palestine until after the Christian era. Josephus 
has no reference to the story. 

In the next place, the idea that " Susanna " could 
have been written against the Sadducees proceeds 
from total forgetfulness of the relations between that 
party and the Pharisees. The Sadducees were the 
priestly party, while the strength of the Pharisaic 
party was among the Elders of the Sanhedrin. A 
Pharisaic tractate against the Sadducees would never 
have represented " two elders " as the guilty parties 



957 



Dan 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Del 



in such a shameful story as that of " Susanna." this manifestation of the power of the Lord he is 

Rather two priests would have been pilloried as the able to defeat the machinations of his enemies, 

criminals. and to vindicate his contention. 

Further, the whole story of the condemnation of These stories are mere examples of legendary 

Simon rests on Talmudic evidence, wh. is notoriously folklore pressed into the service of religion by the 

of little value. There is, in fact, no need to seek any rabbis, in order to pour contempt upon idolatry, 

historical setting for the tale. The whole Haggadah These Additions to Daniel date from the first 



is in line with numerous Eastern tales, Talmudic 
and Arabic, wh. illustrate and glorify the skill of the 
judge in eliciting truth. 



century b.c Oliphant Smeaton. 

DAPHNE, a suburb of Antioch in Syria, with a 
celebrated grove and sanctuary of Apollo, estab- 



(3) Bel and the Dragon. — Originally placed in lished, as was likewise the city itself, by Seleucus 
■the Septuagint at the conclusion of the book of Nicator. It was situated on the left bank of the 
Daniel, it was prefaced by the words, " From the Orontes, about five miles distant SW. from the city, 
prophecy of Habakkuk, the son of Joshua, of the tribe and to its great natural beauty was added every 
of Levi." This preface has misled not a few writers, kind of attractive embellishment by the Seleucid 
The portion in question is only w. 33-39, be- kings, and especially by Antiochus Epiphanes. The 
longing to the no longer extant pseudepigraphic place possessed the privileges of an asylum. In this 
book of Habakkuk, and these verses have been arbi- connection it is mentioned in 2 M. ^. 33 - 38 (the 
trarily thrust into another narrative with which historicity of wh. is doubtful). In the reign of 
they have nothing in common. The story itself is Antiochus Epiphanes (b.c 171) Onias, the patriotic 
a variant version (according to Prof. Sayce) of the High Priest, rebuked Menelaus, who by corruption 
canonical account of Daniel's deliverance from the had gained the High Priest's office, and in connec- 
den of lions, but in addition to this there are really tion therewith had committed gross sacrilege at 
two other stories, the Story of Bel, and the Story Jerusalem. To escape the wrath of Menelaus, 
of the Dragon, absolutely independent of each Onias withdrew to the sanctuary at Daphne, from 
other save that they both attach themselves to the which he was treacherously tempted, and, to the 
magic name of Daniel. The Story of Bel is great indignation not only of the Jews but of many 
concerned with the worship of the image of that also of other nations, and even of king Antiochus 
tutelary deity of the city of Babylon. Daniel himself, murdered. It was the regular place of 
refused to bow down in worship of the image, in recreation for the Antiochenes, and in later times it 
conformity with the edict of the king, because he gained an unenviable reputation for immorality, 
worshipped the living God who created the heaven " Daphnici mores " became proverbial, and Juvenal 
and the earth and all mankind. The king then describes the place as one of the main sources of 
asked Daniel if he did not believe that Bel also was corruption of imperial Rome : " in Tiberim de- 
a living god, citing in proof thereof the amount of fluxit Orontes." On this account it became the 
food and wine he daily consumed. Daniel demands special object of attack in the days of Julian when 
that a test be arranged for. Food is placed in the Christianity was triumphant, and from that time 



temple before the great image, and the doors of the 
sacred place are all sealed with the royal signet. 
Daniel, however, obtains permission to strew the 
floor of the temple with ashes. In the night the 
priests enter through a secret door in the image 
and consume the viands, then in the morning they 
triumphantly point to the fact that the food is gone. 
Daniel, however, directs the king's attention to the 
footprints in the ashes, and the priests, seeing that 
their deceit is discovered, confess the fraud. So 
much for the Story of Bel. 

The Story of the Dragon recounts the fact that in 
Babylon there was a huge reptile of the serpent 
type which was worshipped as divine. Daniel 
refused to worship the brute, and on being called 
in question offers to slay it. This he does, but the 
populace, furious first at the disgrace and downfall 



dates its decline. 

DATHEMA, the stronghold in which the Jews 
took refuge from " the Gentiles that were in 
Gilead " (1 M. 5. 9 ) : it is simply " the stronghold " 
in v. 29. Judas Maccabaeus, summoned to succour 
his brethren, defeated the enemy with great 
slaughter. It was within a night's march of 
Bosora (v. 29), but no satisfactory identification 
has yet been suggested. 

DEBORA, RV. DEBORAH, Tobit's grand- 
mother (To. i. 8 ). 

DELUS, RV. DELOS, mentioned in 1 M. 
15. 23 as one of a number of places to which Nume- 
nius bore a letter from the Roman Senate inti- 
mating the renewal of " old friendship and 
alliance " with the Jews, " our friends and con- 
federates." The letter was the response to an 



of the image, and now over the death of the embassy sent (b.c 141) from Simon the High Priest 
dragon, demand that Daniel be thrown to the and the people of the Jews. Delos was the smallest 
lions. This is done, but the mouths of the lions of the Cyclades group of islands in the iEgean Sea. 
are closed and they can do him no harm. By As the reputed birthplace of Apollo it was one of 

Q*8 



Dem 



APOCRYPHA 



Dis 



the chief seats of the worship of that god and of his 
sister Artemis, and in classical times was held as a 
peculiarly sacred spot. Nothing dead could be 
buried on the island, and every dead body was con- 
veyed across to the neighbouring island of Rhenaea 
for burial. The city had no walls, but was pro- 
tected by its extraordinary sanctity, which, how- 
ever, did not prevent the plundering of its temple 
and its vast treasures by Menophanes, a general 
of Mithridates. Its sanctity and its geographical 
position on the highway from Italy and Greece to 
Asia rendered it a great commercial centre, and its 
importance in this respect increased after the fall 
of Corinth in B.C. 146. According to Strabo, as 
many as 10,000 slaves were said to have been sold in 
a single day. Its commerce may be supposed to 
have attracted a settlement of Jews, some of whom 
would seem from the message of the Senate to have 
been of an undesirable description (1 M. 15. 21 ). 
Although the centre not only of the encircling 
Cyclades but of the ancient religious world, it has 
nothing whatever to do with the life of to-day 
except that the harbour between it and Rhenaea has 
been made a quarantine station. Any tolerably fertile 
patches of the island are to-day let to a few shepherds. 

DEMETRIUS. See Seleucid Kings. 

DEMOPHON, commander of a district in Pales- 
tine under Antiochus V., Eupator, who, with others, 
continued to molest the Jews after the peace agreed 
upon between Judas Maccabaeus and Lysias (2 M. 
12. 2 ). 

DESSAU, RV. LESSAU (2 M. 14. 16 ), mentioned 
by this name only here, as a place where battle 
was joined between Nicanor and the Jews. It is 
possible that Adasa is intended. 

DIONYSIA, the feast of Dionysus or Bacchus. 
In early times the festival had a character of serenity 
and cheerfulness. According to Plutarch, " the 
celebration in honour of Dionysus was quite a 
simple but cheerful affair : in procession was 
carried a vase filled with wine and decorated with 
vine-branches ; then came a goat, and then one who 
carried a basket with figs." Later on this sim- 
plicity disappeared, and the worship became asso- 
ciated with all the splendour of the Attic drama. 
In another direction it assumed a wilder and more 
excited character, the worshippers giving them- 
selves up to intoxication and licentious enthusiasm, 
and marching in procession to the turbulent noise 
of flutes, clarions, and cymbals. A leading part in 
this worship, which was in part carried on by night, 
was taken by women who, under the name of 
Bacchanals, Thyiads, and Maenads, crowned with 
ivy and carrying the thyrsus, represented the atten- 
dants of the god. It was worship of this sort, in- 
troduced into Rome probably from the Greek cities 
of South Italy and in some measure from the East, 
that excited the wrath of the Roman Senate, and 



was the occasion of the decree (b.c. 186) forbidding 
the observance of such worship in Rome or even in 
Italy. The practices, however, had attractions for 
certain sections of Roman society, and were 
secretly retained even down to imperial times. 
Such was the worship that was forced upon the 
Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes in b.c 168, when the 
Jews " were compelled to go in procession to 
Bacchus, carrying ivy " (2 M. 6. 7 ). Nicanor, six 
years later, threatened the priests when officiating 
in the Temple that, unless they delivered up Judas 
Maccabaeus, he would convert the building into a 
temple of Dionysus (2 M. 14. 33 ). 

DIONYSUS, also called Bacchus, was the god of 
wine and of the culture of the vine : in Homer he is 
represented as the giver of joy to mortals, and as 
releasing them from care and sorrow : he also gives 
health and strength to the body, so that he is a 
saviour at once in a spiritual and a bodily sense. 
By his gifts men are led to cultivate cheerful asso- 
ciations and the peaceful enjoyment of life. He is 
also a friend of the Muses and a protector of the 
arts. The drama and the dithyramb in Greece 
were indebted to his worship for their existence and 
advancement, and as a nature-deity he represented 
growth and fertility. As early as Homer the 
orgiastic character of his worship was recognised. 
There is probably no mythological character about 
whose origin, activities, and influences more varied 
opinions were entertained. Many traditions of 
different times and countries, referring to analogous 
divinities, seem to have been transferred to 
Dionysus. The extensive travels of the god, 
especially those in the East, are well known, though 
they do not seem to have left any special trace in 
Palestine. His worship, as practised in Greek 
society in the days of the Maccabees (see Dionysia), 
sanctioning as it did the indulgence of the worst 
passions and excess, must have been peculiarly 
offensive to pious Jews ; and it was this worship 
rather than that of any god with more ethical char- 
acteristics that was deliberately thrust upon the 
Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, and threatened by 
Nicanor. The famous golden vine that had a place 
in the porch of the Temple had probably something 
to do with the ancient belief (Plut. Qucsst. Conviv., 
iv. 6) that Dionysus was worshipped by the Jews, an 
opinion noticed by Tacitus (Hist. v. 5) who, how- 
ever, gives the Jews no credit for encouraging the 
festivities and joyous features associated with the 
worship of the god. 

DIOSCORINTHIUS (2 M. n. 21 ). See Year 
in Canonical Section. 

DISCUS, one of the games of the Greeks intro- 
duced in Jerusalem by Jason, the High Priest under 
Antiochus Epiphanes. It attracted even the 
priests from their most solemn duties, so that they 
" had no more any zeal for the service of the altar '* 



959 



Dor 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ecc 



(2 M. 4. 14 ). The game played at the palaestra by the 
Hellenising Jews excited the hot indignation of the 
pious. The discus was a circular plate of stone or 
metal. To throw it with 
accuracy was a test of 
strength and dexterity. 

DOCUS, RV. DOK, a 
" little stronghold " built 
by Ptolemy, son of Abu- 
bus, into which he brought 
his father-in-law, Simon 
Maccabaeus, and his two 
sons, and there treacher- 
ously slew them (1 M. 
i6. 15f -). Josephus {Ant. 
XIII. viii. 1 ; BJ. I. ii. 
3) calls it " Dagon," and 
places it above Jericho. 
The name is still found in 
Q Ain Duk, a copious source 
of excellent water, c . four 
miles NW. of Jericho. 
There are ruins hard by, 
which may, however, be those of the Templars' 
castle wh. was still standing in the latter part of 
the thirteenth century (BRP. i. 571!)- 

DORA, RV. DOR, appears in the Apocrypha 
only in 1 M. 15. 11 , &c. Tryphon the usurper was 
here fruitlessly besieged by Antiochus VII., Sidetes. 
Later it was held by Zoilus against Jannaeus, but 
was taken by Ptolemy Lathyrus (Ant. XIII. xii. 
2, 4), and passed to the Hasmonaeans. It was taken 
by Pompey. who made it a free city, under the juris- 
diction of the governor of Syria (Ant. XIV. iv. 4 ; 
BJ. I. vii. 7). It was rebuilt by Gabinius (Ant. 




Discus 



XIV. v. 3), and possessed a synagogue (Ant. XIX. 
vi. 3). In Jerome's time it was already deserted 
(OEJ. s.v. Dor ton Napbatb). It is represented by 
the mod. Tanturab, c. eight miles N. of Caesarea, on 
the sea-coast. Without a harbour of any value, no 
sea commerce of importance was possible. But the 
existence in great abundance in its neighbourhood 
of the purple-yielding murex lent it prosperity for a 
time. The ancient remains lie to the N. of the 
mod. village, but are not of much note. See Dor 
in Canonical Section. 

DORYMENES, father of Ptolemy Macron (1 M. 
3. 38 ; 2 M. 4. 45 ). See Macron. 

DOSITHEUS. (1) A captain under Judas 
Maccabaeus who, along with Sosipater, captured 
Timotheus after the engagement at Carnion, and 
who, for the sake of the parents and brethren of 
some of them, who were in the power of Timotheus' 
friends, was persuaded to let him go (2 M. I2. 19 « 24 ). 
(2) A heroic soldier in the army of Judas Maccabaeus 
who in battle laid hold on Gorgias, the opposing 
general, and would certainly have taken him alive, 
had not a Thracian horseman intervened and dis- 
abled his shoulder (2 M. 12. 35 ). (3) A Jew, son of 
Drimylus, who rescued Ptolemy Philopator from 
the murderous design of Theodotus, conveying 
Ptolemy secretly away, and putting " an obscure 
person " in his place, " whom it befell to receive the 
punishment intended for the other " (3 M. i. 3f -). 
Dositheus afterwards apostatised. 

DOTiEA, a form of the name Dothan (Jth. 3. 9 , 
AV. wrongly " Judaea "). 

DOTHAN, see art. in Canonical Section. It is 
frequently mentioned in the book of Judith in con- 
nection with the invasion of Holofernes. 



E 



EANES, RV. MANES, one of the sons of Emmer 
who agreed to put away his foreign wife (1 Es. 9. 21 , 
RVm. " Harim " ; cp. Ez. io. 21 ). 

ECANUS, one of the scribes, swift with the pen, 
who wrote down the visions of Esdras (2 Es. 14. 24 ). 

ECBATANA (Old Persian Hagbmatana), the 
Greek form of the name of the capital of Media 
(I Es. 6. 23 ; To. 3. 7 , 6. 5 , 7. 1 , 14. 14 ; Jth. I. lf - 14 ; 
2 M. 9- 3 ). It appears in Ez. 6. 2 as Achmetha, the 
city where the archives of the reign of Cyrus were 
preserved. It is called " a very strong city," and a 
description of its fortifications is given in Jth. i. lff \ 
Herodotus gives an account of the building of 
Ecbatana by Deioces (i. 98). It was surrounded by 
seven walls with battlements of different colours, 
the outmost white, the next within black, then 
scarlet, blue, and orange. The two inmost had 
battlements of silver and gold respectively. Hero- 
dotus regards this as the capital of Cyrus (i. 155). 



Rawlinson makes out a fair case for two cities of this 
name, one corresponding to the mod. Hamadan ; 
the other a ruin on the " conical hill of Takhti- 
Soleiman.' 1 '' This second site he would identify with 
the Ecbatana of Herodotus. It was called Gaza or 
Gazaca by the Greeks and Romans (Strabo, xi. ; 
Arrian, Anab. iv. 2), a name supposed to be derived 
from the Persian Choz, " treasure," as the treasure- 
city of the empire. The account in Jth. I. 1 " 4 of the 
building seems to be a reminiscence partly of 
Herodotus, and partly of the building of Vara by 
Yima in the Zendavesta. The northern Ecbatana 
(Hamadan) is probably referred to in Tobit, as the 
home of Raguel, the father of Sara the wife of 
Tobias. Here Tobit died. 

ECCLESIASTICUS (lit. " Church-book "), the 
title given by the Latin Church to an Apocryphal 
(deutero-canonical) work, of which the Greek name 
is " Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach " or (more 



960 



Ecc 



APOCRYPHA 



Ecc 



briefly) " Wisdom of Sirach " ; whereas the original 
name is said to have been the Hebrew M'sbdlim, 
" Proverbs," though the rabbis know of it only 
under the name " Book of Ben-Sira." Of the 
original, which was in late Hebrew, only a few 
verses are preserved by the Jewish oral tradition, and 
these are in a mutilated condition ; but the Greek 
translation was made (if its prologue may be trusted) 
by a descendant of the author, and perhaps from an 
autograph copy ; this is the only case in Biblical 
Literature in which the family tradition of a book 
has been preserved. Besides the Greek there is a 
Syriac version (included in the Peshitta) made from 
the original, but from an imperfect and evidently 
corrupt or partly illegible copy of it ; all other 
versions are made from one or other of these two, 
though the Old Latin shows signs of having been 
made from a Greek copy corrected from the 
Hebrew. The work was never regarded as canonical 
by the Jews, though the rabbis once or twice cite 
verses from it as from the Hagiographa (K'thubTm) ; 
these citations are due to defective memory. 

Authorship. — The date of the author can be 
approximately fixed from the statement of the 
translator, who tells us that he himself came to 
Egypt in the 38th year of Euergetes, i.e. b.c 132, 
and was there educated ; and that the work which 
he translates is that of his grandfather. The work 
itself is shown by the prayer in chap. 36. to be pre- 
Maccabaean ; and if it be reasonable to infer from 
chap. 50. that the author was a contemporary of 
Simon the Just, and the High-priesthood of this 
personage be rightly placed by Josephus about 
b.c. 300, it would follow that the work was com- 
posed at latest about the middle of the third cen- 
tury b.c, while the word " grandfather," used of 
the author by the translator, must be interpreted as 
a remoter ancestor. The context, however, where- 
in Josephus mentions " Simon the Just," is un- 
historical, and although there is some obscurity 
about the wording of the translator's prologue, it 
seems unsafe to control it from Josephus, and a date 
near b.c. 200 is ordinarily accepted for the work. 
The name of the author is given in the epilogue as 
" Jesus, son of Sirach " in the Greek, some MSS. 
adding " son of Eleazar," while in the Syriac he is 
described as " Jesus, son of Simon, called Astra (the 
Prisoner)." The Greek form of the patronymic 
probably represents a Hebrew Strdh, though the 
form which the Jewish tradition retains, Sira (end- 
ing with ale-ph), is not excluded by it ; various con- 
jectures have been made about the origin of this 
name, all more or less fanciful. The author further 
states that he was of Jerusalem, and gives a brief 
autobiography in chap. 51., whence, however, we 
learn little that is definite. He speaks somewhat 
vaguely of persecutions that he had undergone and 
from which he had miraculously escaped, and from 

96 



34. 11 ' 12 we learn that he had travelled far and wide, 
and often been in danger of death. From 43. 24 we 
might infer that he had not himself crossed the sea, 
yet perhaps this is only a quotation of Ps. 107. 29 . 
He further records his keen pursuit of wisdom in 
early youth, and this, together with his travels, 
seems to have formed the preparation for the pro- 
fession of " scribe " which he describes with some 
enthusiasm in chap. 39. ; such preparation involved 
travel to foreign countries (39.*), attendance at 
court (ibid.) y and introduction to men of note (cf. 
9. 15 ) as well as an exhaustive study of antiquity. 
His account of this study (39- 1, 2 * 3 ) is so phrased 
as to suggest that it included more than Hebrew 
Literature (unless the mass of it in his time was far 
greater than we should otherwise imagine) ; yet as 
he does not mention any foreign language among 
these preparatory studies, and in his list of famous 
men and authors does not go outside the OT., per- 
haps these words should not be pressed. The pro- 
fession, as he conceives it, is one of learned leisure, 
which therefore we may suppose that he enjoyed. 
In the Jewish tradition he is thought of as a rabbi 
and commentator on the OT. 

Contents. — The book of Ben-Sira is an imitation 
of the Biblical books Psalms, Proverbs, and Eccle- 
siastes, and so contains hymns, prayers, rules of 
conduct, and speculations on a variety of topics. It 
would seem to consist of two books, each introduced 
by a hymn to Wisdom, the first book ending with 
chap. 23. There is another hymn to Wisdom occu- 
pying chaps. I4. 20 -I5. 8 . In that which introduces 
the second book Wisdom is made to panegyrise 
herself. To this second book there are three 
appendices : (a) chaps. 42., 43., description of the 
beauties of nature, in the style of Ps. 104. ; (b) chaps. 
44.-50., a sketch of Bible history, brought down to 
the post-Biblical Simon the Just, somewhat in the 
style of Ps. 78. ; (c) chap. 51., a hymn of thanks- 
giving for personal protection. A prayer for Israel 
occupies chap. 36. The precepts are often ad- 
dressed to " my son " or " children," suggesting 
that they were intended in the first place for the 
author's family. They enter into minute details of 
conduct and manners (e.g. behaviour at table, 31., 
32.), as well as morals and dictates of prudence. 
The profession which he admires most is, as has been 
seen, that of scribe ; he defends the medical pro- 
fession also, on the ground that Moses employed a 
drug to cure the bitter waters ; apparently the 
physician's prayer (or charm) is in the author's 
opinion more potent than his physic. The priest 
(representing a caste rather than a profession) is to 
be tolerated and given his dues on the ground of the 
commandment. He does not conceal his contempt 
for various forms of manual labour, especially agri- 
culture, though he acknowledges that they are 
required for the continuance of the State ; and he 

I 2 H 



Ecc 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Ecc 



declares all tradesmen to be rogues. To the mili- 
tary profession he appears not to allude ; the 
" scribe " appears to conduct affairs of State. 

Though recognising the virtues of the housewife, 
and an admirer of female beauty, he has a violent 
attack on women, holding that a good woman is 
inferior to a bad man. He is a lover of wine, 
without which he thinks life would be valueless, 
and describes at length with appreciation musical 
entertainments at which wine flowed freely — an in- 
stitution which was favoured by the Greeks, and 
afterwards by the Arabs. His sentiments in general 
agree with those of Ecclesiastes, whose pessimism, 
indeed, he does not share. Life should be enjoyed, 
because there will be no enjoyment afterwards. 
Mourning for the dead should be moderate, or it 
will harm the mourner, while it cannot benefit the 
deceased, since there is no return — " Do not deceive 
yourself," &c. In other precepts he reflects the 
common-sense of his time, and the same as after- 
wards found expression in many popular works, 
e.g. those of Horace. Yet at times his strain is 
loftier. He repeats the prophetic precepts which 
declare sacrifice without good conduct worthless, 
and anticipates several of the Evangelical maxims, 
e.g. that forgiveness of offences should precede 
prayer, and that in prayer there should be no vain 
repetitions. And though he declares that " man is 
not immortal," he hopes to be raised to life at the 
coming of Elijah. 

Relation to the Canonical Books. — In the 
hymn to Wisdom, which forms chap. 24., that word 
is said to signify (v. 23.) " the book of the Covenant 
of the Most High God, the law which Moses com- 
manded us," whence his own book was drawn, like a 
canal from a riyer. To the author's study of the 
Old Testament attention is also called by the trans- 
lator. " The book of the law " means the Canon, 
in accordance with the usage of the rabbis and the 
NT. And in the main his aphorisms are based on 
the OT., with which he appears to have been satu- 
rated, though a certain amount of the matter seems 
to be original, and some aphorisms are identical with 
those ascribed to Greek sages (including Homer, 
Solon, and iEsop), and may conceivably come (per- 
haps indirectly) from a Greek source. His " book 
of the Covenant " seems to have included every- 
thing in the Hebrew Bible (in its present order) as 
far as Ecclesiastes, and also Nehemiah ; he borrows 
from all parts of the Psalter {e.g. i7. 2T = Ps. 6. 6 , 22. 27 
= Ps. 141. 3 ), names the prophets in their present 
order, and freely uses Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesi- 
astes. From his list of Hebrew heroes he omits the 
names of Daniel, Ezra, and Esther, and he appears 
to be unacquainted with the Chronicles. The 
omission of the two first names has been used as 
evidence against their historical character, and the 
existence of the works called by them in Ben-Sira's 

96 



time ; neither case is, however, perfectly clear ; for 
the phrase (33- 8 ) " he changed times and seasons " 
appears to be borrowed from Daniel 2. 21 , and in the 
notice of Ezekiel attention is called to the verse in 
which the prophet mentions Job (49. 9 Syr.) who, in 
our texts of Ezek., is coupled with Noah and Daniel. 
The .phrase in lj. 27h appears only to occur in Ezra 
io. 11 , but this need not imply quotation. The 
mention of Nehemiah without Ezra would be ex- 
plicable on the supposition that Ben-Sira possessed 
the memoirs of the former free from the accretions 
which now accompany them. 

Metre. — The quotations from the OT. are all 
Procrustean in character, i.e. artificially lengthened 
or shortened. Thus, Ec. 2. 14 , " nothing can be put 
to it, nor anything taken from it " appears (i8, 6a ) as 
" there is not to diminish nor to add " ; the ety- 
mology of Abraham (Gn. 17. 5 ), " a father of many 
nations," appears as (44. 19 ) " a great father of many 
nations " ; but the promise (Gn. 22. 18 ) that " all the 
nations of the earth should be blessed in his seed " is 
reduced (44- 21b ) to " that nations should be blessed 
in his seed." This phenomenon indicates that the 
author must be composing in syllabic metre, since a 
single syllable (in the etymology of " Abraham " 
the syllable rah, " great ") is of consequence to him ; 
and this is otherwise probable, since the nearly con- 
temporary Poenulus of Plautus shows that the 
kindred Punic dialect admitted versification in 
Greek style. Wherever restoration of Ben-Sira's 
verses is rendered possible either by comparison of 
the versions or from the OT., they are found to 
follow the scheme 



which is that of a metre called in Greek Bacchic, and 
in Arabic mutakarib. The following verses are 
specimens : — 

19. !3, 14 ; hochah re'ii sh£mma 16 'asah 
wfiim'asah shemma Id yosif 
hochah re 'a sh£mma lo 'amar 
wSim amar sh^mma lo yishneh. 

42. 14 : tob ra' ish mimmetebeth isshah 
wefshhah mebishah leherpah. 

Wherever the verses do not fall into this scheme 
they are either interpolated, or the restoration is 
infelicitous. 

Language and Style. — The fragments of the 
original preserved in the Jewish oral tradition repre- 
sent the rabbinical terminology well developed, 
and methodical restoration of the verses from the 
two primary versions shows that many late Hebrew 
words and idioms were employed. This may at 
times have been for metrical reasons (e.g. 8. 10 , where 
the " coals of the wicked " is shown by the Syriac 
rendering, " the completely wicked," to stand for 
gumre hdrdshd'), but in most cases it is probable that 



Ece 



APOCRYPHA 



Edn 



the author, when not actually quoting the OT., 
employed the learned language of his time. Plays 
on words seem to have been common (e.g. 37. 2 
between oheb and oyeb, " friend " and " fiend " ; 
43. 30 , " Labour not, for ye shall not attain," Heb. 
tige'u and tagg?u) ; and certain collections of 
aphorisms suggest acrostic arrangement, but this is 
uncertain. It has repeatedly been suggested that 
chap. 51. (like the last chapter of Proverbs) was an 
alphabetical ode, but the evidence for this is weak. 
History of the Text. — The author's vehement 
assertion of the unique claim of the Davidids to the 
Jewish throne may have rendered his work un- 
popular in Maccabaean and Herodian times ; though 
the Jewish tradition makes a rabbi cite it before a 
Maccabaean prince. This accounts for Josephus's 
silence about it. The original existed as late as the 
fourth century a.d., if we may believe the statement 
of Jerome, who professes to have seen it ; but it had 
perished long before the Jewish oral tradition was 
compiled : for such verses as it preserves are muti- 
lated, put together out of different parts of the 
work, and (as may be seen by comparing the forms 
which they assume in different collections of tradi- 
tion) steadily depraved by confusion with texts of 
the OT. Moreover, verses of Ben-Sira are ascribed 
to other rabbis, and sayings of other teachers 
assigned to him. A specimen of these quotations is 
the following : " Take no thought for the morrow, 
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth ; 
possibly he may not see the morrow, and be found 
troubling himself about a world which is not his." 
This passage, ascribed to Ben-Sira, consists of (a) a 
saying of Jesus Christ ; (b) a passage of Proverbs ; 
and (c) a reader's attempt to reconcile them. But 
this confusion between the sayings of Jesus Christ 
and Jesus Sirach probably was one of the reasons for 
the destruction of the book, which indeed the 
Talmud records (using the word ganaz), though it is 
unaware of any serious reason for the proceeding, 
since the oral tradition does not preserve Ben-Sira's 
own name. Since the Jews at some time destroyed 
everything in the way of Hebrew Literature which 
was not canonical, it would in any case have had a 
poor chance of surviving. Wherever later rabbis 
show any acquaintance with the author, except such 
as can be derived from the oral tradition, they evi- 
dently have it from Christians ; so in Josippon 
(ninth century) the patronymic is given as Shirach 
(evidently from the Greek), and in a historical work 
of the eleventh century the name of the book is 
given as Maqhll, an ingenious rendering of Ecclesi- 
asticus, supposed to be derived from Ecclesiastes (in 
Heb. Qoheleth). Ordinarily, however, the rabbis 
know nothing about Ben-Sira except the passages 
cited in the oral tradition, as appears from the reply 
to questions asked of Hay Gaon (of the tenth- 
eleventh century) and others. In a comparative 



list of Jewish and Christian Scriptures made in 
Baghdad about a.d. 970, the book figures in the 
Christian, but not in the Jewish list. Its possession 
by the Christians has naturally attracted the atten- 
tion of the Jews wherever the two communities have 
associated on friendly terms ; and several attempts 
have been made to restore the original. Towards 
the end of the eighteenth century such an attempt 
was made by Ben-Zeb (Wolfsohn), who employed 
as his basis the Syriac version, which from his ac- 
quaintance with Jewish Aramaic he could partly 
understand, supplementing it from a German ver- 
sion of the Greek. Much the same process seems to 
have been employed by a re-translator in the tenth 
or eleventh century, large fragments of whose work 
were discovered some ten years ago in a geriizah, or 
rubbish-heap belonging to an Egyptian synagogue. 
Besides the Syriac version the re-translator em- 
ployed another derived from the Greek, apparently 
in Persian; for (43. 2 ) "the sun by its appearance 
preaching at its rise " (based on Ps. 19. 2 , &c.) is re- 
presented by the untrue and unpoetical " the sun in 
its affliction giving forth heat " ; and in Persian the 
words for " speech " and " heat " are indistinguish- 
able in writing (SKHN) ; the MS., moreover, has 
some Persian glosses. Other examples of mistransla- 
tion from Persian can easily be found, and in many 
cases the re-translator has duplicated the same verse 
from his two sources, where the Greek and Syriac 
certainly stood for the same original ; and in doing 
so he ordinarily mistranslates one or both. The 
MS. being paper, and not earlier than the tenth 
century, the work which it contains could only be 
accepted as the original if it furnished a text ex- 
plaining the bulk of the differences between the 
Greek and Syriac, and superior to both ; and this 
condition it by no means fulfils. This work is 
indeed cited as Ben-Sira by one authority, a treatise 
ostensibly by the Gaon Sa'adyah of the ninth cen- 
tury, who in his other works knows only of the 
Talmudic quotations. This treatise is, however, 
clearly a lampoon on the school of Sa'adyah, and by 
coupling the book with a notorious forgery, and 
making the wild statement that Ben-Sira furnished 
his work with points and accents, invented about 
a century before Sa'adyah's time, it testifies against 
the genuineness of this document, and not for it. 
D. S. Margoliouth. 

EDDIAS, RV. IEDDIAS, one who agreed to put 
away his foreign wife (1 Es. g. 26 ), called " Jeziah " 
in Ez. io. 25 ; RV. " Izziah." 

EDDINUS (1 Es. i. 15 ), AV. JEDUTHUN, 
which see. 

EDES, RV. EDOS, one who agreed to put away 
his foreign wife (1 Es. 9- 35 ), called " Iddo " in Ez. 
io. 43 ; AV. " Jadau." 

EDNA, wife of Raguel, and mother of Sara who 
became the bride of Tobias (To. J. 2 , Sec). 



9 6 3 



Edo 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Eli 



EDOS. See Edes. 

EKREBEL, a place mentioned only in Jth. 7. 18 . 
It appears to have lain to the SE. of Dothan. It is 
prob. identical with Acrabbein, named by OEJ. as 
the capital of the district of Acrabattine. It is 
represented by the mod. 'Akrabeh, to the E. of 
Nablus. 

ELA, father of some who put away their foreign 
wives (1 Es. 9. 27 ), called " Elam " in Ez. io. 26 . 

ELASA (1 M. c.. 5 ), AV. ELEASA, wh. see. 

ELCIA, RV. ELKIAH, an ancestor of Judith 
(Jth. 8.i). 

ELEASA, RV. ELASA, the place where Judas 
Maccabaeus encamped before the battle in which he 
was defeated and slain (1 M. o,. 5 ). It is possibly 
identical with Khirbet Il'asd, between Upper and 
Lower Beth-horon. 

ELEAZAR. (1) One of the "principal and 
learned men " sent by Ezra to secure " such men as 
might execute the priests' office " (1 Es. 8. 43 ), called 
"Eliezer" in Ez. 8. 16 . (2) The fourth son of 
Mattathias, and brother of Judas Maccabaeus : he 
was surnamed Avaran (i M. 2. 5 ). He read aloud 
" the holy book " before battle with Nicanor, and 
his own name, " the help of God," was taken as 
watchword (2 M. 8. 23 ). In the battle with Antio- 
chus Eupator at Beth-zacharias, b.c 163, he 
perished in an act of heroic self-devotion (1 M. 
6. 43fl -). (3) " One of the principal scribes, an aged 
man," who, in the persecution under Antiochus 
Epiphanes refused to escape torture and death by 
a subterfuge suggested by the king's officers who 
respected him. His heroic constancy secured him 
enduring fame (2 M. 6. 18ff- ). The name of this re- 
nowned scribe seems to have been borrowed by the 
writer of 3 Maccabees for his hero-priest (3 M. 6.). 
(4) Father of Jason, one of the ambassadors sent by 
Judas Maccabaeus to Rome (1 M. 8. 17 ). (5) Sirach 
Eleazar, father of Jesus (Sr. 50. 27 , RV.). 

ELEAZURUS, RV. ELIASIBUS, one of the 
holy singers who had married a foreign wife (1 Es. 
9. 24 ), called " Eliashib " in Ez. io. 2 ?. 

ELEPHANT. This animal is not named in the 
Canonical Scriptures. " Behemoth " in Jb. 40. 15 , 
where RVm. suggests " elephant," is obviously the 
hippopotamus. The Jews knew of its existence, 
however, as they were familiar with Ivory (see 
Canonical Section), for the production of which it is 
mainly valued. They also knew that the ivory was 
the tusks, not the horns of the animal (1 K. io. 22 ; 
2 Ch. 9. 21 ; Heb. sbenhabbim, AVm. " elephants' 
teeth "). The Indian elephant is not so large as the 
African, and was probably earlier domesticated. 
The male only has tusks. The African elephant is 
stronger and fiercer ; both male and female have 
tusks. The ancient Egyptians and Assyrians 
hunted the elephant for the sake of its tusks and its 
hide. On the black obelisk of Shalmaneser (see page 



301, side 3, panel 3 from top), an elephant of the 
Indian species is figured as part of the tribute of 
Egypt. In the army of Darius at Arbela (b.c. 331) 
there were fifteen elephants. This is the first 
mention of them in war. They were largely used 
by the Seleucid kings of Syria (1 M. 3. 34 , 6. 30 , 8. 6 , 
&c). In the army of Antiochus Epiphanes, which 
defeated the Jews at Beth-zacharias, there were 
thirty-two elephants trained for war. The beasts 
were roused by the sight of " the blood of grapes and 
mulberries." Each carried a tower of wood, " strong 
and covered," " girt fast upon him with cunning 
contrivances." Upon each there were thirty-two 
soldiers, besides " his Indian," i.e. his driver. This 
last proves that they were Indian elephants. 
Eleazar, the brother of Judas, singled out one, sup- 
posing that the king sat upon it, and, cutting a path 
to the animal, slew it from below with his sword. 
The elephant falling, crushed him to death (1 M. 
6. 28ff -). 

ELEUTHERUS, the river which formed the 
boundary between Syria and Phoenicia (Strabo, 
xvi.). Thus far Jonathan accompanied Ptolemy, 
king of Egypt (1 M. n. 7 ). The "princes" of 
Demetrius, defeated by Jonathan at Amathis, fled 
across the Eleutherus (1 M. 12. 30 ). It is now 
known as Nahr el-Keblr. It flows in the vale which 
severs Northern Lebanon from the range which 
runs to Mount Amanus, and enters the sea 15 miles 
to the north of Tripoli. 

ELIAB, an ancestor of Judith (Jth. 8. 1 ). 

ELIADAS, one of the sons of Zamoth, who had 
married a strange wife (1 Es. 9- 28 ), called " Elioenai " 
in Ez. io. 27 . 

ELIADUN, RV. ILIADUN (1 Es. 5. 58 ), pos- 
sibly =" Henadad " in Ez. 3A 

ELIALI (1 Es. 9. 34 ), possibly = " Binnui " in Ez. 
io. 38 . 

ELIAONIAS (1 Es. 8. 31 ), a descendant of Pahath 
Moab, called " Elihoenai " in Ez. 8. 4 . 

ELIASIB, a priest (1 Es. 9. 1 ), the " Eliashib " of 
Ez. io. 6 . 

ELIASIBUS (1 Es. 9. 24 ), AV. ELEAZURUS, 
wh. see. 

ELIASIMUS (1 Es. 9. 28 ), AV. ELISIMUS, 
wh. see. 

ELIASIS, one of those who had married foreign 
wives (1 Es. 9- 34 ), corresponding to " Jaasu " in 
Ez. io. 37 . 

ELIONAS. (1) (1 Es. c.. 22 ), and (2) (1 Es. 9 . 32 ), 
men who had married foreign wives, corresponding 
respectively to " Elioenai " (Ez. io. 22 ) and " Eliezer " 
(Ez. io. 31 ). 

ELIPHALAT (1 Es. 9. 33 ), called " Eliphelet " in 
Ez. io. 33 . 

ELIPHALET (1 Es. 8. 39 ), called " Eliphelet " in 
Ez. 8. 13 . 

ELISEUS, RV. ELISHA, the prophet (Sr. 48. 12 ). 



964 



Eli 



APOCRYPHA 



Emm 



ELISIMUS, RV. ELIASIMUS, one who had 
married a foreign wife (i Es. 9- 28 ). 

ELKIAH, AV. ELCIA, wh. see. 

ELNATHAN. See Alnathan. 

ELUL (i M. 14. 27 ). See Year in Canonical 
Section. 

ELYMAEANS, the inhabitants of Elam (Jth. i. 6 ). 

ELYMAIS, a wealthy city of Persia containing a 
very rich temple, " wherein were coverings of gold, 
and breastplates, and shields," left there by 
Alexander the Great. Antiochus Epiphanes tried 
to take the city but failed (1 M. 6. 1 " 4 ). The name is 
also applied to the country called in OT. Elam 



pendent kings ; thus, Chedorlaomer was king of 
Elam ; and in Jth. I. 6 Arioch is mentioned as king 
of the Elymaeans in the war between Nebuchad- 
nezzar, king of Nineveh, and Arphaxad, king of the 
Medes. From Ac. 2. 9 the inhabitants would seem 
to have retained their own peculiar language till 
NT. times. 

EMMAUS. The Syrians under Gorgias en- 
camped " near unto Emmaus in the plain country " 
(1 M. 3. 40 ). Here they were crushingly defeated by 
the Jews under Judas Maccabseus (4. 3 ' 25 ). Subse- 
quently the town was fortified by Bacchides, who 
placed a garrison in it " to vex Israel " (9. 50f -). It 




(a place-name derived from the name of a 
man), whence came the Elamites (Ac. 2. 9 ) and the 
Elymaeans (Jth. I. 6 ). The district occupied a part 
of the province of Susiana, but Strabo and other 
ancient geographers describe the place with great 
indistinctness, a circumstance which is perhaps in 
some measure due to the character of the people, 
who seem to have been a wild mountain tribe 
possessing different tracts of country at different 
periods of their history. Its position was probably 
south of Assyria and east of Persia proper. Accord- 
ing to Strabo (xv. 3, 10) the inhabitants were 
skilful archers, a description which accords with the 
notice of them by Isaiah and Jeremiah : the former 
(22. 6 ) says that " Elam bare the quiver," while the 
latter (49- 35 ) speaks of " the bow of Elam." In 
very early time the country was governed by inde- 



was the chief town of a toparchy under the Romans 
(BJ. III. iii. 5 ; Pliny, NH. v. 14). It played an 
important part in the history of that time {Ant. 
XIV. xi. 2; BJ. I. xi. 2; II. v. 1, xx. 4; IV. 
viii. 1 ; V. i. 6, &c). It suffered severely from an 
earthquake in a.d. 131. It was rebuilt c. a.d. 221, 
and thenceforward was called Nicopolis ; a name 
the origin of which is unknown. Some have 
thought that it commemorated the capture of 
Jerusalem. We hear of a spring near by possessed 
of miraculous powers (Sozomen, v. 20), said to 
have been closed by order of the emperor Julian 
(Theophanes, Chron. 41). Willibald, however, 
mentions it in the eighth century, and, still later, 
William of Tyre. 

It is represented by the mod. ' ' Amwas, a small 
village at the foot of the mountains, 15 miles W. 



Q6q 



Emm 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Esd 



of Jerusalem, &c, 22 miles SW. of Jaffa. See also applied to the valley of Jezreel (Jth. 3. 9 , J. 3 ), the 

Hammath in Canonical Section. great plain stretching from Tabor, Little Hermon, 

EMMER, head of a family, some of whom had and Gilboa to Mt. Carmel. See Jezreel, Vale of, 

married foreign wives (1 Es. 9. 21 ), called " Immer " in Canonical Section. 



in Ez. io. 20 . 

EMMERUTH, AV. MERUTH, wh. see 
ENASIBUS (1 Es. c.. 34 ) 
Eliashib " in Ez. io. 36 . 



ESDRAS, THE FIRST BOOK OF.— Name 

and Order. — In Latin Bibles four books bear the 

corresponding to name of Esdras (or Ezra). I Es., which heads the 

list of the English Apocrypha, has been variously 



ENEMESSAR. This is the form in which the placed ; thus in the Septuagint Version it follows 

name Shalmaneser appears in the book of Tobit 2 Chronicles (in Codex B, immediately), while in 

(i. 1 , &c). By him Israel was carried into captivity Codex A it comes (with the title 6 iepevs) ninth 

to Nineveh (2 K. 17. 3 " 6 , I8. 9 " 11 ). Tobit, of the in order thereafter, in both instances being suc- 

tribe of Naphtali, is represented as being among the ceeded by Ezra and Nehemiah, which (in A) has the 

captives. As a reward for his integrity he is made title of " the 2nd bk. of Esdras the priest," Codex 

purveyor to the king (i. 13 ). The writer errs in L, however, reversing this succession. In the Old 

calling Sennacherib the son of Enemessar (v. 15). Latin Version from the LXX, 1 Es. {Esdrce liber 

According to the inscriptions Sennacherib was the primus de tem-pli restitutione) was also followed by 

son of Sargon. Dr. Pinches thinks that " the form the canonical Ezra, while in the Vulgate of St. 

Enemessar for Shalmaneser is a corruption, being Jerome's time 2 Chronicles was followed first (as in 

apparently put for Senemessar (sh changed to s and Codex L) by the canonical Ezra, now divided into 

then to the light breathing, as in Arkeanos its two parts, which thus became I Esdras (Ezra), 

[ ApKeavos] for Sargon), / being dropped, and the 2 Esdras (Nehemiah), then by 3 Esdras (the present 

m and n transposed." There is nothing unusual in work, originally I Es., probably referred to by St. 

this. Shalmaneser itself is a mutilated form of the Jerome as " the Shepherd "), and 4 Esdras (the 

Asyr. Shalman-asharid. apocalyptic or Latin Ezra), to both of which last he 

ENENIUS, RV. ENENEUS, one of the twelve contemptuously alludes as apocryphorum tertii et 

associated with Zerubbabel in leading the return quarti somnia. Since the Roman edition in 1590 

(1 Es. 5. 8 ), corresponding to" Nahamani "inNe. J. 7 , of Pope SixtusV., Esdras 3 and 4 have been relegated 

EN-GADDI, RV. " on the sea shore " (Sr. 24. 14 ) to an apocryphal appendix at the end of the Vulgate 

= En-gedi. New Testament. 1 Es. (or Esdras 3) has conse- 

ENNATAN, AV. by a misprint EUNATAN, quently been lately styled the apocryphal Ezra, 

one of the men sent by Ezra to fetch Levites which is ambiguous, as Esdras 4 is so also. Another 

who might serve in the Temple (1 Es. 8. 44 ), called designation, " the Greek Ezra," distinguishes it 

" Elnathan " in Ez. 8. 16 . from the Latin Ezra (so called from having survived 

EPHRON, a city which evidently lay between in the Latin only) and also from the Hebrew Ezra, 

Carnion and Scythopolis. Judas Maccabaeus came but not from the LXX version of the last. The 

this way with his army and the Jews from the land best name in English is " the 1st book of Esdras," 

of Gilead after the capture of Carnion. It is corresponding to its original title, "'EaSpas a ; 

described as " great, in the way as they should go, it being remembered that its Vulgate equivalent is 

exceeding strong : they could not turn aside from it Liber tertius Esdrcs. 

on the right hand or on the left, but must needs Original Language. — It was written originally 

pass through the midst of it " (1 M. 5- 46 ). The in Greek, either as an independent recasting of 

inhabitants refused to let them pass, so the Jews the LXX version of the canonical Ezra (Keil, 

took and destroyed the city, putting the men to the Bissell, Schurer, &c), or as a free translation from 

sword. The conditions indicated might be met by the Hebrew original (Michaelis, Trendelenburg, 

Qasr Wddy el-Ghafr, a watch-tower which effectu- Pohlmann, Herzfeld, Fritzsche, &c), or as a Greek 

ally commands the road from the Hauran at the version earlier than the LXX of "Eo-8/oas/3'(Ewald), 

point W. of Irbid, where it crosses the deep Wddy or even as the original LXX translation, the present 

el-Ghafr. Canonical Version being the work of Theodotion 

EPIPHANES, ANTIOCHUS. See Seleucid (Howarth). 

Kings. Versions. — Besides the Old Latin Version, which 

EPIPHI (3 M. 6. 38 ), the eleventh month of the Jerome left untouched, there was a later revision of 

Egyptian year. the then current Vulgate, and Lagarde discovered a 

ESAIAS (2 Es. 2. 18 ), AV. ESAY = Isaiah the portion of still another Latin translation. It exists 

prophet. in a Syriac rendering (not the Peshitta, which em- 

ESAU, head of a family of Temple servants (1 Es. braces only the canonical books), in Ethiopic, and 

5. 29 ), called " Ziha " in Ez. 2. 43 ; Ne. 7. 46 . Armenian. 

ESDRAELON, the Greek form of the name Contents. — With the exception of 3- 1 -5. 6 (which 

066 



Esd 



APOCRYPHA 



Esd 



represents an independent haggada or legend) the 
contents of this book are the same, though not 
presented in the same order, as I Ch. 35. -Ez. 10. 
and Ne. 7. 13 -8. 12 , as will appear from the following 
table : — 

t Esdras i.=2 Ch. 35, 36. 1 - 21 .— Josiah's Passover; de- 
feat and death at Megiddo ; sketch of 
succeeding reigns to the destruction of 
Jerusalem. 
2. 1 - 15 =Ez. i. 1 - 11 . — Cyrus' edict. Sacred vessels 
entrusted to Sanabassar, who returns with 
them to Jerusalem. 
2- i6.30 = Ez. 4. 7-24._ Samaritans interrupt the 
building of the Temple (wall) in the reign of 
Artaxerxes ; the work abandoned till reign 
of Darius. 

.> 3- x -S- 3 =(?)- — Jewish youth, victorious in the 

pages' contest before Darius, gets leave for 
Jews to return. 

tt 5.4-6 = (7), — Caravan departs under Joshua and 
Joachim, son of Zerubbabel, and others. 

it 5.7-*5=Ez. 2. — Lists of those who returned with 

Zerubbabel. 

„ 6. 1 -7. 9 =Ez. s.MS. 18 . — Sisinnes applies to Darius, 

who permits building of the Temple. Work 
completed by Zerubbabel in Darius' sixth 
year. 
5.46-73 = Ez. 3. -4. 5 .— Altar set up, Feast of 
Tabernacles celebrated, Temple foundations 
laid, co-operation of enemies rejected, the 
work interrupted till the reign of Darius. 
7 .io-i5=Ez. 6.1 9 - 22 .— Building of the Temple com- 
pleted. 

,, 8. 1 -g. 36 ='Ez. 7-10. — Return of the Jews under 

Ezra in the reign of Artaxerxes. Abuse 

of mixed marriages redressed, offenders 

named. 

9.37-55= N e . 7# 73_8.i3. = Ezra's reading of the law. 

Acceptance. — Josephus in his Antiquities (XL i. 
i-v. 5) copied I Esdras, not the LXX of "EcrS/xxs j3\ 
but with alterations and additions ; substituting 
Cambyses for Artaxerxes to obviate the anachronism 
of 2. 15 ' 25 , introducing an edict of Cyrus to Sisinnes 
and Sarabasanes (after 2. 11 ) which is contained 
later (in chap. 6.), making Darius propose the 
reward and set the theses (in 3.), inserting (after 7. 15 ) 
an extraneous account of the Samaritan intrigues, 
and going on (after o,. 55 , which ends in the middle 
of a sentence) to mention the Feast of Tabernacles, 
the settlement of the restored exiles, and the death 
of Ezra. The Church Fathers, with the exception 
of St. Jerome, frequently quote from I Esdras with 
respect, especially the Xoytov in 4. 41 , iieyaXrj rj 
dkrjdeta kol virepuTyyei, Magna est Veritas et pr&- 
valet (not pr&valebit as commonly cited), which was 
taken as a prophecy of the conquest of Christ 
(Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xviii. 36). 

Exclusion. — Its rejection by St. Jerome influ- 
enced the subsequent verdict of tkc CkwvJi, wlil^h 
was finally endorsed at Trent in 1546, and followed 
by all the Protestant communions till now, when 
modern Bibh^l scholarship inclines to a more 
favourable reception for the following reasons : 
(1) Its position in the oldest MSS. indicates an 
ancient parity, at least, with the canonical "E(r- 
opa? /3'. - (2) Josephus' use speaks for its claim to 



canonicity. (3) The reception accorded by the 
Greek (Clement. Alex., Strom, i. 392 ; Origen, Horn. 
ix. in Jos., § 10, &c. ; Euseb., Comm. Ps. j6, § 19 ; 
A than., Or. contr.Arian, ii. 20) and Latin (Tertullian, 
De Civ. Milit. 9 ; Cyprian, Ep. 74, 9 ; Aug., De 
Civ. Dei, xviii. 36) Fathers seems to imply that they 
valued it as highly as the Hebrew Ezra {see for Pa- 
tristic citations Pohlmann, Tub. Tb. Quartalscbrift, 
1859, pp. 257-275). (4) It is now acknowledged to 
possess a remarkable literary character and impor- 
tance for historical criticism and exegesis. 

Origin and Relationship. — The discussion of 
the question as to the relation which "EcrSpas a 
bears to "Ecrfyxxs /3' appears to point in the direction 
at least of the priority of the former {see HDB. 
759m and EB. 1489m for a statement of the 
various theories adduced). 

Object. — The subscription of the Old Latin 
Version of this book indicates sufficiently the main 
purpose of its compilation : Explicit Esdrce liber 
primus de templi restitutione. It was, in fact, to set 
forth the history of the Temple from the latest date 
of celebration therein of the traditional cult to the 
rebuilding of the sacred edifice and the restoration 
therein of the prescribed worship, this restoration 
taking place successively under Josiah, Zerubbabel, 
and Ezra. The personal note is supplied in the 
original paragraph (3- 1 -5. 6 ), which is evidently in- 
serted to remind Greek-speaking Jews of the favours 
anciently bestowed upon their co-religionists by 
foreign potentates, notwithstanding their repre- 
senting the alien world-power, and so, perhaps, also 
(indirectly) to encourage the ritual observance of 
their national code by "showing its compatibility 
with the sympathy and support of such a Gentile 
potentate as Ptolemy Philometor (b.c, 1 81-146), 
who is alluded to in the contemporary apocalypse of 
the Sibylline Books (iii. 293-4), and who was peti- 
tioned by Onias, when fleeing from Antiochus 
Epiphanes, to permit the building of a temple for 
Alexandrian Jews at Heliopolis (Lupton in The 
Speaker's Comm). 

Time. — Between the limits of the compilation of 
Ezra and Nehemiah (about b.c. 300) and the time of 
Josephus (a.d. 100), the date of the present work 
probably lies about midway (see Herzfeld, Gesch. 
d. v. Is. 1863, ii. 73 ; and Lupton, Speaker's Comm. 
i. 11-14). 

Place. — A number of allusions in the course of 
the book seem to indicate an Egyptian rather than 
a. Pak.Biij.iiciii uiigin, nv-nvvi LLo<.an^iin£r come topo- 
graphical details of the Temple more exactly given 
than in the canonical parallel passages. 

Style. — Unlike the laboriously close rendering of 
the Hebrew original i^'Ecropas /3', the Greek of this 
book is fluent and idiomatic, but is not a loose para- 
phrase ; for many Hebraisms are elegantly turned. 
Its literary excellence, which probably attracted 



967 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Esd 



Josephus, has been compared with that of the LXX 
Version of Daniel (Gwynn, Diet. Chr. Biog.), and 
has suggested a common authorship to Thackeray 
(HDB. U). 

Value. — From a historical point of view this 
work is practically worthless, the narrative in the 
second, third, and fifth chapters being inverted, 
Artaxerxes and Cyrus being mentioned first and 
last instead of coming last and first respectively, 
the transposed passage (2. 16 " 30 ) being inserted to 
account for Zerubbabel's petition to Darius and 
lead up to the haggada of the Persian court-pages, 
after which events in Cyrus' reign are introduced 
as having happened in that of his successor. But, 
as a faithful reflection of the Jewish spirit of 
patriotism and devotion in Maccabaean times, it is 
highly important and instructively suggestive. 

For the literary critic of the Massoretic text, its 
evidence is of great weight, as it often mirrors a truer 
original than that vouched for in the LXX of Ezra 
(see HDB. s.v., and specially, for Bible readers, the 
masterly introduction in Duff's edition of Esdras). 

Text. — The present work is found in two of the 
three oldest MSS. of the LXX, having been lost 
(with the bulk of the OT. earlier than Ezra 9.) 
fm. the Sinaitic (tf). In the Alexandrine (A) and 
Vatican (B) the contents are differently arranged as 
noted above (Name and Order), and of these the 
text of the former is superior (see Fritzsche, Libri 
Apocr. V. T. 1 871). It is not contained in the 
Codex Amiatinus. 

Literature. — The First and Second Books of 
Esdras, edited by A. Duff, D.D., 1903 (in " The 
Temple Bible ") ; The Apocrypha, Revised Ver- 
sion, 1895 ; W. R. Churton, The Uncanonical and 
Apocryphal Scriptures, 1884 ; O. F. Fritzsche and 
C. L. W. Grimm, Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Hand- 
buch zu den Apokryphen, Leipzig, 1851) ; O. F. 
Fritzsche, Libri Apo cry phi Veteris Testamenti Grceci 
(Leipzig, 1 871) ; Pohlmann, XJber das Ansehen des 
Apokryphischen dritten Buches Esras (in Tubingen 
Theologische Quartalschrift, 1859, 2 57 _2 75 •> Bissell 
(in Lange's Commentary on the Old Testament, 
1880) ; Lupton (in the Speaker's Commentary, 
Apocrypha, i. 1888) ; Sir H. H. Howarth (in the 
Academy, 1893 : The Character and Importance of 
I Esdras, vol. xliii. pp. 13, 60, 106, 174, 326, 524) ; 
Schurer, History of the Jewish People, II. iii. 177- 
181 ; Ewald, History of Israel, v. 126-128 ; Jose- 
phus, Antiquities, xi. 1-5. 

I\ IltNDiiKSUJN AllKilN. 

ESDRAS, THE SECOND BOOK OF, as it is 

named in the English version of the Apocrypha, be- 
longs to the Apocalyptic Literature of the Hebrews. 
Titles. — The question of titles has two aspects : 
(i) Verbal, (a) The most ancient verbal title seems 
to be"E£/oas 6 7rpo<fir]T7Js. It is possible, though by 
no means certain, that this title is cited in Clem. 



Alex. (Strom, iii. 16) and in Ambrose of Milan (De 
bono Mortis, ch. xii.). (b) "Ecrfyoa airoKaXvipis — 
which is very appropriate, as far as the contents of 
the book are concerned. (2) Numerical, added to 
the verbal title. The generally accepted heading is 
" The Fourth Book of Ezra," which is found in the 
most ancient Latin MS., Codex Sangermanensis. 
The numerical title is important, because the book 
is thus brought into line with the other books as- 
signed to Ezra. They have been numbered thus in 
Cod. S. : 1 Ezra = Ezra and Nehemiah, along with 
3 Apocryphal Esdr. 3., 4., 5. 1 " 3 ; 2 Ezra = 4 Esdr. 
1., 2.; 3 Ezra = 3 Esdr. 1., 2. 1 " 15 ; 4 Ezra = 4 Esdr. 
3.-14. ; 5 Ezra = 4 Esdr. 15., 16. 

Original Language and Versions. — The original 
language was undoubtedly Greek. The theory of 
a Hebrew original has been ruled out of court. The 
original Greek text has been lost, but we are fortu- 
nate in possessing five different versions, namely, 
the Latin, of which numerous codices exist, the 
most important being Codex Sangermanensis and 
Codex Ambianensis — both MSS. date from the 
ninth century — the Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, and 
Armenian versions. 

Structure and Contents. — Chaps. 3. -14 con- 
stitute the original part of the book. 1. and 2., 15. 
and 16. are later additions. They are separated 
from the main body of the work, and in the best 
MSS. bear a different title. They are found in the 
Latin, but not in the Oriental versions. I. and 2. 
have been added by a Christian hand. This is 
almost certain on account of the anti-Jewish 
tone of the chapters, and the thought and language, 
which in many parts are thoroughly Christian, and 
manifest a striking resemblance to passages of NT., 

e p j 30, 35, 37, 38 2 . 5 > 13 » 20 » 21, 27 » 32 « 34 > 35 « 40 « 41 » 42-47^ 

Probably I. and 2. are a good deal later than the 
book proper, and were written by a Christian living 
in Egypt about the beginning of the third cen- 
tury A.D. 

Chaps. 15. and 1 6. seem to be later than 1. and 2. 
They were perhaps added about the end of the third 
century a.d. Indeed attempts have been made to 
find references to events of Egyptian history in cer- 
tain verses of 15., such as the plague of Alexandria 
(about a.d. 260) in vv. 10-12, &c. The author was 
in all probability a Jew, though there are one or 
two evidences of Christian influence, e.g. 15. 35 and 
16. 18 ' 28, 53 . Perhaps the most remarkable feature 
of the book relates to vv. 35 and 36 of chap. 7. It is 
clear Thai ihcic i c a gap between the verses. The 
hiatus has been filled up in the Oriental versions, 
but exists in the Latin version. There is a strong 
presumption that the passage exisicd in the original 
Greek ; and it has been discovered that it must also 
have stood in Cod. S., the most ancient version, but 
that the leaf on which it had been written was cut 
out, perhaps for doctrinal reasons. All doubts as to 



968 



Esd 



APOCRYPHA 



Est 



the authenticity of the missing passage have been 
allayed by a remarkable discovery of R. L. Bensly, 
in 1875, who found the lost verses in the Codex 
Ambianensis (now in the Bibliotheque Communale 
at Amiens). The verses are entirely eschatological. 

Space permits only a very brief summary of the 
contents of the book. 3.-14., the main body of the 
composition, consists of a series of seven visions. 
They are communicated to Ezra, and interpreted 
by Uriel, the archangel. The first three visions 
(3-~9- 25 ) revolve round the same theme — " Why 
have pain and sorrow come into the world ? " The 
inquiry is prompted by Israel's affliction and 
Babylon's (Rome's) prosperity. The answer is : 
(1) God's ways are unknowable. (2) Present afflic- 
tion is explained in the light of the future life. 
(3) Affliction is the gate through which one passes 
into the state of bliss beyond. The fourth vision 
(9. 26 -io. 58 ) is that of a woman bewailing the death 
of her son. The woman, who in the vision sud- 
denly disappears and is replaced by a city builded, 
is interpreted as Sion weeping for the loss of her son, 
that is, the destruction of Jerusalem. The fifth 
vision (11.-12.) describes the eagle that arose from 
the sea. This vision is most important in con- 
sidering the date of the book. The sixth vision 
(13.) is remarkable from its treatment of the 
Messianic idea. It is the vision of the man who 
came up out of the midst of the sea and flew with 
the clouds of heaven. This is the Saviour of the 
world, who rebukes the nations for their wickedness 
and gathers unto Him in Sion the peaceable mul- 
titude, interpreted as the ten lost tribes. The 
seventh vision (14.) sets forth the legend of the 
restoration of the Holy Scriptures. They had been 
burnt, and Ezra is here represented as restoring 
them. Under Divine inspiration he dictates for 
forty days to five swiftly writing scribes. 

The Oriental versions mention at the close the 
translation of Ezra. 

Date, Authorship, and Design. — With refer- 
ence to the date of the book, opinions have varied 
between a time before the Christian era and a date 
after the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. Petty 
details have been cited by some, e.g. 6. 9 and 14. 11 ' 12 . 
But the really determining factor is the vision of 
the eagle. It is now generally agreed that Rome 
under the empire is alluded to. That the eagle is 
Rome is clear, but it is difficult to determine who 
are indicated by the twelve wings, three heads, and 
eight lesser wings. Probably they must repre- 
sent twenty-three Roman emperors or rulers. The 
most cogent theory is that these rulers range from 
Julius Caesar to Domitian (who reigned from a.d. 
81-96). It is possible to be more specific. The 
author recalls a catastrophe of the Jews : he com- 
pares it with the Babylonian exile : Jerusalem lies 
waste. That probably refers to a.d. 70. The time 



is now roughly thirty years afterwards. The author 
is aware of the death of Titus (n. 35 ) and expects 
that of Domitian (l2. 2 * 28 ). We shall not be far 
wrong in placing the date about a.d. 90. 

There are several resemblances between the book 
and writings of NT. which might point to a Chris- 
tian author, cp. Mw. 7. 13 ' 14 and 4 Esdr. J. Q > 9 ; Mw. 
22. 14 and 4 Esdr. 8. 3 . See also points of contact with 
the Pauline epistles and book of Revelation. The 
spirit of the book, however, is clearly Jewish. The 
author, while his outlook is comprehensive, is torn 
with grief at the fate of Jerusalem and its people, 
while his allusions to the ten lost tribes,to Behemoth 
and Leviathan, and other Hebrew points, show the 
Jewish cast of mind. As in the case of many of the 
apocryphal writings, the name of Ezra is used to 
denote the author, because that fact would lend 
additional weight to the book ; and besides, the 
real author thought the name appropriate, because 
Ezra's experience in the Babylonian Exile coincided 
with his own in relation to the national calamity of 
a.d. 70. 

The design of the book is to comfort the Jews 
in their national affliction. The present life is only 
the gateway leading to the future. Hence the 
apocalyptic and eschatological nature of the com- 
position. 

It is interesting to observe how both Jewish and 
Christian writers of the early Christian era seemed 
to follow a common tradition in regard to escha- 
tology. The Messianic teaching of the book is 
important. See especially y. 28 > 29 , I2. 31ff -, I3. 5ff - 

Lit. : Bensly and James, Cambridge Texts and 
Studies, vol. iii. 2 ; Bensly, Missing Fragment of 
\th Ezra, 1875; Hilgenfeld, Messias Judceorum ; 
Apocrypha revised, 1894; Kautzsch, Apokryphen 
und Pseudepigraphen ; Lange's OT. Commentary, 
Bissell ; Drummond, Jewish Messiah. 

Norman R. Mitchell. 

ESDRIS (2 M. 12. 36 RV.). The text is doubt- 
ful : probably we shd. read with AV. " Gorgias." 

ESEBON (Jth. s. 15 ) = Heshbon : so RV. 

ESEBRIAS, RV. ESEBERIAS (1 Es. 8. 54 ), called 
'•Sherebiah"inEz. 8. 18 . 

ESORA (Jth. 4. 4 ), RV. ^SORA, which see. 

ESRIL, RV. EZRIL, one who had married a 
foreign wife (1 Es. 9- 34 ), called " Azareel " in Ez. 
10.*. 

ESTHER, ADDITIONS TO. The canonical 
book of Esther, as it stands in our English Bibles, 
is largely concerned with the struggle to the death 
between the house of Haman the Agagite and 
that of Mordecai the Benjamite, also with the 
disgrace of queen Vashti and the promotion of 
Esther (the cousin of Mordecai and his adopted 
daughter) to be queen in her stead. Haman, 
in the course of his feud with Mordecai, aimed 
a mortal blow at the whole Jewish race, which 



969 



2 U 2 



Est 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Est 



was cleverly countered by Esther, who, risking 
her own life and regal dignity by venturing un- 
invited into the presence of Ahasuerus (Xerxes), 
submitted her petition to the monarch for a formal 
interview, at which Haman would also be present, 
when she would solicit for her race the right of 
defending themselves. 

These facts must be carefully kept in remem- 
brance when considering the Additions to Esther, 
inasmuch as the Additions do not take the form 
of addenda that may be appended to the con- 
elusion of the canonical chapters. Our English 
apocryphal books are all printed in this way, with 
the statement prefixed : " The rest of the chapters 
of the book of Esther which are found neither in 
the Hebrew nor in the Chaldee." The Additions 
take the form, therefore, of " interpolations," or in 
other words they supply to the Hebrew original 
certain supplements which have been incorporated 
in the Greek version. After supplying a Preface 
and an Epilogue, they then expand the Hebrew 
narrative at three specific places, to wit (i) chap. 
3. 13 ; (2) chap. 14. 17 ; and (3) chap. 8. 12 . When 
those interpolations were made it is difficult to say, 
some writers contending that they may have been 
introduced by the translator himself, when the book 
was rendered into Greek, others that they bear in- 
ternal evidence of being the interpolations of a 
later date, the author of them being in all likelihood 
an Egyptian Jew familiar with the Septuagint 
Greek. To the conclusion of the Greek version a 
note is appended, to which a moderate degree of 
authority may be attached, stating that the com- 
plete book of Esther, which it styles the Epistle 
of Purim, after being rendered into Greek at Jeru- 
salem by Lysimachus, son of Ptolemy, was conveyed 
to Egypt in the year b.c. 114, by Dositheus and his 
son. The writer of the note (says Prof. Stevenson 
in the Temple Apocrypha) conveys the impression 
that the whole epistle was translated from a Hebrew 
original. Internal evidence, however, agrees with 
the negative conclusion, which naturally follows 
from the absence of the chapters in the Hebrew 
Bible. The Epistle of Purim implies the complete 
book of Esther, which is regarded as a letter of 
Mordecai's (Est. 9. 20 ' 26 - 29 ). 

To consider the Additions in detail. The 
Preface (ii. 2 -I2. 16 ) is in two parts. The incidents 
of the future are predicted in a prophetic dream 
of Mordecai's, the interpretation of which is, with 
an artistic skill worthy of a sensational novelist of 
to-day, reserved for the Epilogue. In this way the 
interest is maintained throughout. Then comes a 
Prelude, in which the introduction of Mordecai to 
the palace is explained, with the cause of the feud 
which existed between the latter and Haman. The 
cause of both incidents was the discovery of a con- 
spiracy to destroy the king. " Mordecai's dream," 



says Prof. Stevenson, " is not simply a fantastic 
reflection of his history. It appears rather to 
have been adapted without complete success to its 
present purpose. Underlying it may be traced a 
form of the .widespread nature-myth, which de- 
scribes the daily contest of light and darkness {cp. 
9. 11 ), and the yearly struggle of summer and winter." 
Its application here may be a suggestion or recogni- 
tion of identity between Mordecai and Marduk, the 
Babylonian sun-god. If so, the fact is of some im- 
portance in discussions regarding the origin of the 
Hebrew book of Esther. The dream is said to have 
taken place in Nisan ; but that was the month when 
Haman cast lots for the destruction of the Jews 
(Est. 3.'). 

The first Addition or interpolation (chap. I3- 1 " 7 ) 
is introduced after 3. 13 , and is the copy of the edict 
which was issued against the Jews. One note- 
worthy fact in the edict is that not once does it 
name the people who are to be destroyed. The 
responsibility of doing this was left, probably 
at his own request, to Haman, who supplied the 
omission possibly in supplementary instructions. 
The edict is remarkable for the vagueness of the 
charges brought against the Jews, of being " a 
certain malicious people that had laws contrary 
to all nations, and continually despised the com- 
mandments of kings, so as the uniting of our 
kingdoms honourably intended by us cannot go 
forward." 

The second Addition or interpolation (chap. 13. 8 - 
14. 19 ) comes in after chap. 4. 17 , and is devoted to 
recording the prayers offered by Esther and Mor- 
decai, immediately prior to that interview between 
the former and the king, when Esther virtually 
broke one of the most stringent laws in the kingdom, 
that no woman must appear in the presence- 
chamber of the monarch uninvited. The Addi- 
tion relates how she entered into the royal pre- 
sence, how she was received, and the effect the 
royal majesty had upon her. The fact must also be 
noted here that chap. 15. is substituted for 5. 1 " 3 , 
whereby the simple statement of the Hebrew text 
is omitted. 

The third Addition or interpolation (chap. 16.) is 
placed after chap. 8. 12 , and contains the copy of the 
king's letter in which he undoes the mischief of his 
edict as far as is permissible in a land where the law, 
once passed, was immutable. After stigmatising 
Haman as the enemy of the king and of the Jewish 
nation, it gives a reason for his action, in styling 
him a Macedonian who aimed at the destruction of 
the Persian empire. The letter then proceeds to 
affirm a new bond of sympathetic union between 
the king and the Jews, when it styles them " the 
children of the Most High and Most Mighty Living 
God, who hath ordered the kingdom both unto us 
and to our progenitors." 



970 



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APOCRYPHA 



Fro 



The Epilogue consists of an explanation of the 
dream of the Preface, and a note regarding the 
Greek translation of the book. 

What then is the purpose or motif pervading 
these Additions ? The aim was twofold : (i) To 
expand or amplify the existing narrative by the in- 
sertion of new matter, for the original text was ex- 
ceedingly brief ; and (2) to impart a more definitely 
religious tone to the book. For (as Prof. Andrews 
remarks) in the canonical book of Esther the name 
of God never occurs, and the religious interest is very 
slight. In all the Additions, on the other hand, the 
religious element present is very marked, the writer 
seemingly being anxious to impress on the minds of 
his readers the conviction that the worship of God 
is the main aim and end in life. 

In these Additions the English forms of the 
proper names differ from those in the original 
Hebrew. They have evidently been influenced by 
the forms employed in the Greek version. Thus 
Mardocheus stands for Mordecai, Aman for Haman, 
Artaxerxes takes the place of Ahasuerus, Cisai of 
Kish, Semei of Shemei, and the like. 

Oliphant Smeaton. 

ESYELUS, AV. SYELUS, one of the governors 
of the Temple in the time of Josiah (1 Es. I. 8 ), called 
" Jehiel " in 2 Ch. 35.8. 

ETHANUS (2 Es. 14. 24 ), AV. ECANUS, wh. see. 

ETHMA, RV. NOOMA (1 Es. 9 . 35 ), corresponds 
to " Nebo " in Ez. io. 43 . 

EUERGETES (Prol. to Sr.). See Ptolemies. 

EUMENES II. succeeded his father, Attalus I., 
on the throne of Pergamus, b.c 197. Friendship 
with the Romans was a tradition in his house. He 
assisted them in the war with Antiochus the Great 
(see Seleucid Kings), and received as a reward of 
his fidelity and valour large grants of territory (1 M. 
8. 8 ). The passage is certainly corrupt. India and 
Media did not belong to the Seleucids, and were 
never in the power of Rome to give. Possibly 
Mysia and Ionia may have been intended. " Livy 



(37- 55 ) and Strabo (xiii. z|.. 2 [624]) agree that the 
territory ceded to Eumenes extended only to the 
Taurus, and the latter especially notes that previous 
to this accession there had not been under the power 
of Pergamos ' many places wh. reached to the sea 
at the Elaitic and the Adramytene Gulfs ' " (EB. 
s.v.). Later the Romans suspected Eumenes of 
treasonable intrigues with Perseus, and he fell into 
disfavour. He died in b.c. 159. 

EUNATAN, a misprint in 1 Es. 8.^ (AV.) for 
Ennatan. 

EUPATOR (1 M. 6. 17 ; 2 M. 2. 2 °, &c). See 
Ptolemies. 

EUPOLEMOS, one of the two deputies sent by 
Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 8. 17 ) to Rome, c. b.c. 161, 
to ask the Romans to assist the Jews against De- 
metrius. The circumstances that led to the em- 
bassy that succeeded in making the first league — 
offensive and defensive — between the Jews and the 
Romans, the reception of the embassy by the 
Roman Senate, and the decree of mutual assistance, 
are fully recorded in 1 M. 8. The same account 
substantially is given in Josephus {Ant. XII. x. 6). 
I M. 8. 15 seems to be the only ancient authority for 
the statement that the Roman Senate at the date of 
the embassy numbered 320.* 

EZECHIAS, RV. EZEKIAS (1 Es. 9. 14 ), called 
" Jahaziah " in Ez. io. 15 . 

EZECIAS. (1) RV. EZEKIAS (1 Es. 9 . 43 ), 
called " Hilkiah " in Ne. 8. 4 . (2) RV. HEZEKIAH 
(Sr. 48. 17 ), king of Judah (cp. 2 M. 15. 22 ). 

EZERIAS, RV. ZECHRIAS (1 Es. 8.!) = 
" Azariah " in Ez. 7. 1 . 

EZIAS, RV. OZIAS (1 Es. 8. 2 ) = " Azariah " in 
Ez. 7. 3 . 

EZORA (1 Es. 9. 34 ), AV. OZORA, which see. 

EZRIL (1 Es. 9. 34 ), AV. ESRIL, which see. 

* Eupolemus, the historian of the Jews, quotations from 
whose work survive in certain writings of the Fathers, lived 
at this time. His history was probably written c. B.C. 157. 
Possibly, therefore, he maybe identical with E. of 1 M. 8. 17 . 



FAUCHION, RV. SCIMITAR (Jth. 13. 6 , 16. 9 ), 
the short sword with wh. Judith is said to have cut 
off the head of Holofernes. 

FLINT. The word occurs in Apollonius' de- 
scription of the plain in wh. the Jews under Jona- 
than would not be able to resist his attack, " where 
there is neither stone nor flint " (1 M. io. 73 ). We 
should probably read " pebbles," i.e. ammunition 



for the slingers, without which they would fall an 
easy prey to the cavalry. 

FROCK. The frock, or overall, of homolinon, 
i.e. rough, undressed flax, marks the humblest of 
the people as over against royalty which wears purple 
(Sr. 40. 4 ). This single garment is largely worn by 
the countrymen in Palestine still. 



97] 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Gor 



G 



GABAEL. (i) An ancestor of Tobit (To. i. 1 ). 
(2) A poor Jew of the city of Rages, in Media, to 
whom Tobit lent ten talents of silver (To. I. 14 ). In 
the time of Tobit's distress the money was restored 
to him through his son Tobias, who was conducted 
to Gabael at Rages by the angel Raphael (To. I. 14 , 
4. 1 ' 20 , 5. 6 , 9., io. 2 ). In the same book mention is 
made of Gabrias, who is described in I. 14 as the 
brother, and in 4. 20 as the son, of Gabael. 

GABBE (1 Es. 5. 20 ), AV. GABDES, called 
" Gaba " in Ez. 2. 26 . 

GABRIAS, the brother of Gabael, with whom 
Tobit had left in trust ten talents of silver (To. I. 14 ). 
In 4. 20 Gabael is called " son of Gabrias " : the 
reading, however, is doubtful. The W. also are 
confused. 

GADDIS, surname of John, brother of Judas 
Maccabeus (1 M. 2. 2 , AV. CADDIS). Possibly 
it represents the Heb. gaddi, " my fortune " 
(Nu. 13. 11 ). 

GALAAD (1 M. 5. 9 - 55 ; Jth. I. 8 ), the Greek 
form of the name Gilead. 

GALILEE. See article in Canonical Section. 

GAMAEL, chief of the family of Ithamar, who 
went up from Babylon with Ezra (1 Es. 8. 29 ), called 
" Daniel " in Ez. 8. 2 . 

GAR, RV. GAS, head of a family of the servants 
of Solomon (1 Es. 5. 34 ), not represented in the lists 
of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

GARIZIM (2 M. 5. 23 ), RV. GERIZIM, which see 
in Canonical Section. 

GAS. See Gar. 

GAZARA, a stronghold in Judaea which played a 
considerable part in the wars of the Maccabees. It 
is first mentioned in connection with the flight of 
Gorgias and his army, Judas Maccabaeus pursuing 
them as far as Gazara (1 M. 4. 15 ). It was one of the 
cities fortified by Bacchides (g. 52 ; Ant. XIII. i. 3). 
After a short siege it surrendered to Simon Macca- 
baeus, who turned out the inhabitants, cleansed the 
city of idolatry, and built for himself a residence 
there (1 M. 1 3. 43ff -). His son John, " a valiant man," 
he made " leader of all his forces," with a dwelling 
in Gazara (v. 53). The writer of 2 Maccabees gives 
the credit of the capture of Gazara to Judas, after 
a siege of twenty-four days (io. 32fL ). 

The city is represented by the mod. Tell Jezer, 
c. four miles west by north of 'Amwas. It is iden- 
tical with Gezer, which see. Remains of the palace 
built by Simon Maccabaeus were found by Mr, 
Macalister in the course of excavation (PEFQ. 
1905, p. 26). 

GAZERA, head of a family of Temple servants 
(1 Es. 5. 31 ), corresponding to " Gazzam " in Ez. 2. 48 . 

97 



GEDDUR, head of a family of Temple servants 
(1 Es. 5. 30 ), possibly corresponding to " Giddel " or 
" Gahar " in Ez. 2. 47 . 

GENNEUS, AV. GENNEUS, which see. 

GENNESAR, RV. GENNESARETH = Sea of 
Galilee (1 M. II. 67 ). 

GENNEUS, RV. GENNEUS, the father of 
Apollonius, one of the Syrian generals commanding 
a district in Pal. under Antiochus Eupator (2 M. 
I2. 2 ). Luther takes the word as an adjective (well- 
born), and translates " des edlen Apollonius." 

GEON, RV. GIHON, one of the four rivers of 
Paradise named in a figurative encomium of wisdom 
(Sr. 24. 27 ). Probably the Nile is intended. 

GEPHYRUN (2 M. 12. 13 RV.). It is said that 
Judas " fell upon a certain city Gephyrun." AV. 
renders " He went also about to make a bridge." 
This may be correct. RVm. says, " The relation 
between the names Gephyrun and Caspin is unknown, 
and perhaps the Greek text is corrupt." Compare 
Gephrun, the name of a city in Gilead mentioned by 
Polybius, V. lxx. 12), and Casphor (1 M. 5. 26 - 36 ). 
Josephus calls the city Ephron, which see {Ant. 
XII. viii. 5). 

GERGESITES, RV. GIRGASHITES (Jth. 
5. 16 ), a pre-Israelite people in Palestine, of whom 
nothing definite is known. 

GERON. Instead of EV. "an old man of 
Athens " in 2 M. 6. 1 , perhaps we should render with 
RVm. " Geron, an Athenian," said to have been 
sent by Antiochus " to compel the Jews to depart 
from the laws of their fathers," and " to pollute the 
sanctuary in Jerusalem, and to call it by the name of 
Jupiter Olympius." 

GERRENIANS, AV. GERRHENIANS, marks 
apparently the southern frontier of the territory 
ruled by Antiochus Eupator. He is said to have 
made " Hegemonides governor from Ptolemais even 
unto the Gerrhenians " (2 M. 13. 24 ). The town of 
Gerrha, between Pelusium and Rhinocolura, could 
hardly be meant, as it was then in the hands of 
Egypt. One MS. reads here Gerarenon ; this wd. 
give the limits as Ptolemais and Gerar. The Syr. 
reads Gezer, which points to the stronghold of 
that name. No certain decision is possible. 

GERSON (1 Es. 8. 29 ), called " Gershom " in 
Ez. 8. 2 . 

GESEM, RV. GOSHEN, one of the districts to 
which the messengers of Nebuchadnezzar were sent 
(Jth. 1. 9 ). 

GIHON. See Geon. 

GIRGASHITES. See Gergesites. 

GORGIAS, a general in the service of Antiochus 
Epiphanes (1 M. 3- 3S ). During the absence of 



Gor 



APOCRYPHA 



Heg 



Antiochus in Persia, Lysias, the deputy of An- 
tiochus, appointed him along with Ptolemy, son of 
Dorymenes, and Nicanor, to lead an expedition of 
40,000 footmen and 7000 horsemen into Judasa 
c. b.c. 166. G., with 5000 foot and 1000 of the 
best horse, was defeated with great loss at Emmaus 
by Judas Maccabaaus, who had only 3000 men with 
" neither armour nor swords to their minds " (1 M. 
4. 1-25 ). Later on (b.c. 164) G. gained a victory 
over the forces of Joseph and Azarias, who, wishing 
to share the glory of Judas and Jonathan, in direct 
disobedience to the orders of Judas attacked G., 
who held the garrison of Jamnia (1 M. 5. 56ff - ; 
Jos. Ant. XII. viii. 6). In 2 M. the doings of 
G. are narrated with some confusion. In 12. 32 
" governor of Idumea " is probably a wrong read- 
ing for Jamnia, which is the reading in Josephus, 
loc. cit. 

GORTYNA, an ancient city of Crete situated 
near the south coast, and about equally distant from 
the east and west ends of the island. It is men- 
tioned in Homer : under the Romans it seems to 
have been the capital of the island, though in earlier 
times it was a smaller and less important town than 
Cnossos. The two towns when united were able to 
control the island, but in later times they were often 



engaged in hostilities. The town (1 M. 15. 23 ) was 
one of the places to which formal intimation was 
made in B.C. 161 of the renewal of the league 
between the Romans and the Jews. The league 
was renewed by the Senate in response to the 
request of the embassy sent to Rome by Simon, 
the High Priest, and the Jews. Jews in consider- 
able numbers were settled in Crete, as in the other 
islands of the iEgean, between the time of Alex- 
ander the Great and the beginning of the Christian 
era. Gortyna was probably their chief place of 
residence in the island. 

GOTHOLIAS, the father of Josias, who returned 
from Babylon with Ezra (1 Es. 8. 33 ). This is the 
Greek form of 'Athaliah, the gamma taking the place 
of the l ain — the usual transliteration. It appears 
from comparison with 2 K. II. 1 , &c, that Athaliah 
was a name borne by both men and women. 

GOTHONIEL (*'.*. 'Othoniel), father of Chabris, 
who was one of the three rulers of the city of 
Bethulia (Jth. 6. 15 ). 

GRABA, RV. AGGABA (1 Es. 5.28), called 
" Hagabah " in Ez. 2. 45 . 

GRECIANS (1 M. 6. 2 RV. " Greeks " ; 8. 9 RV. 
" they of Greece " ; 2 M. 4.^, &c, RV. " Greeks "), 
the non- Jewish subjects of the Greek kings. 



HABBACUC, RV. HABAKKUK, the prophet, 
introduced as the agent in the miraculous provision 
of food for Daniel in the lions' den (Bel. 33., &c). 

HAGIA, RV. AGIA, which see. 

HALICARNASSUS, a city of Caria in the SW. 
of Asia Minor. It was the birthplace of Herodotus, 
and of Dionysius, the Greek archaeologist and 
historian, who lived in the first century b.c. Its 
famous mausoleum was built by queen Artemisia in 
honour of her husband, Mausolus, and was reckoned 
one of the seven wonders of the world. It was de- 
stroyed in the year 1522 by the Knights of Rhodes, 
who used the material to build the castle of 
Budrum, the modern name of H. Numerous de- 
signs have been prepared by architects and others 
for the restoration of the mausoleum, from that of 
Sir Christopher Wren to the present day. The only 
Biblical interest of the place is associated with its 
mention in 1 M. 15. 23 as one of the places to which 
formal intimation was sent of the renewal of the old 
" friendship and league " between the Romans and 
the Jews. This league was originally made at the 
instance of Judas Maccabaeus, who sent to Rome an 
embassy to beg assistance against the king of Syria. 
The renewal of the league was granted to the am- 
bassadors of " Simon, the High Priest, brother of 
Judas, and of the people of the Jews." In Josephus 



(Ant. XIV. x. 23) is mentioned a decree of the 
people of H. to the effect that " as many men and 
women of the Jews as are willing so to do may cele- 
brate their sabbaths and perform their holy offices, 
according to the Jewish laws ; and may make their 
proseuchae at the sea-side, according to the customs 
of their forefathers." 

HASID^ANS (1 M. 2. 42 , &c), AV. ASSIDEANS 
which see. 

HASMON^EAN, the name applied to the family 
of the Maccabees with which Josephus the historian 
claimed relationship (Ant. XVI. vii. 1, " Asamo- 
nean "). He evidently derives it from Asamoneus, 
whom he makes great-grandfather of Mattathias 
(Ant. XII. vi. 1). The family is named in the 
Talmud (Middoth, i. 6) bene Hashemond'e. The 
name does not appear in 1 M. 2. 1 , but Wellhausen 
(Pharisaer, &c, 94) makes the not improbable sug- 
gestion that toO 2v/jiewv in that place may be a 
misrendering of the Heb. ben Hashmdn. Dalman's 
idea that the original title of 1 Maccabees may have 
been ^3EK>n TVl 1DD, " Book of the house of the 
Hasmonaeans," is possibly correct. 

HEGEMONIDES, the Syrian officer placed in 
command of the region stretching from Ptolemais 
to the Gerrenians (2 M. 13. 24 RV.). AV. renders 
" made him (Judas Maccabaeus) principal governor 



Q73 



Hel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Hoi 



from Ptolemais," &c, but for this use of the word 
there is no support. 

HELCHIAH, RV. HELKIAS (i Es. 8. 1 ), cor- 
responding to " Hilkiah " in Ez. 7. 1 . 

HELCHIAS, RV. HELKIAS (2 Es. i. 1 ), an 
ancestor of Ezra ; same as preceding. 

HELIAS (2 Es. ;. 39 ), RV. ELIJAH, the prophet. 

HELIODORUS, minister of the Syrian king 
Seleucus IV., Philopator (b.c 187-175), who, being 
sorely in need of money to pay the tribute due 
to the Romans, and being informed by Apol- 
lbnius, governor of Ccele- Syria {i.e. Palestine) and 
Phoenicia, of the wealth stored in the Temple at 
Jerusalem, commissioned H. (2 M. 3.) to plunder 
the Temple and to bring the money to him. From 
verses 12 and 15 it would seem that some of the 
money was deposited in the Temple as in a bank 
for safe keeping, and was only to this extent under 
the control of the High Priest, notwithstanding 
whose protest H. was proceeding to carry out his 
commission when, by the interference of " the Lord 
of spirits and the Prince of all power," a great ap- 
parition appeared, which caused him to fall down 
" compassed with great darkness " and speechless. 
By the intercession of Onias, the High Priest, he 
was restored to life and strength, and bore witness 
to the sanctity and majesty of the Temple. The 
narrative in 2 M. 3. is not known from any other 
source, though the so-called 4 M. refers to the 
attempt to plunder the Temple, assigning the deed 
to Apollonius. The courtier H. mentioned by 
Appian (Syr. 45) as having poisoned the king in 
order himself to mount the throne is identified with 
H. of 2 M. 3. 

HELKIAS. (1) One of the governors of the 
Temple in the time of Josiah (1 Es. I. 8 ), the 
" Hilkiah " of 2 Ch. 35.8 (cp. Ez. 7. 1 ), and the 
"Chelcias" of Ba. I. 7 ; RV. " Helkias." (2) 
The father of Susannah (Su. vv. 2, 29, AV. 
" Chelcias "). 

HERCULES, the name given by the Greeks to 
the Tyrian deity whose national name was Melcart, 
identified with Baal of OT. history, and in whose 
honour games were held every fifth year at Tyre 
(2 M. 4. 18 ). This deity was identified with Her- 
cules on the same principle as that on which Caesar 
indicated the Gallic, and Tacitus the German, gods, 
namely, by similarity of functions and attributes. 
According to Josephus {Ant. VIII. v. 3), Hiram, 
king of Tyre, in the days of Solomon, built the 
temple of Hercules and also that of Astarte. In the 
time of Antiochus Epiphanes (b.c 175-164), Jason, 
who by underhand methods (2 M. 4. 7 " 14 ) had sup- 
planted his brother Onias in the office of High 
Priest, was quite willing to introduce Greek 
fashions and pagan manners into Jerusalem, and 
generally to fall in with the designs of Antiochus to 
unify his widely spread dominions on the basis of a 



common Hellenic culture and local self-government. 
From Jerusalem he sent special deputies of the Jews 
— whom, to humour Antiochus, he called Anti- 
ochians — to Tyre to take part in the games in honour 
of Hercules as the national god, a practice that was 
regularly followed by the cities that had been 
founded as colonies from Tyre. 

HIEREEL (1 Es. 9.21). In Ez. io. 21 the name is 
" Jehiel." 

HIEREMOTH. (1) 1 Es. 9 . 27 , corresponding 
to "Jeremoth" in Ez. io. 26 . (2) 1 Es. 9. 30 , 
corresponding to " Jeremoth " in Ez. io. 29 (AV. 
" Ramoth "). 

HIERIELUS, RV. JEZRIELUS (1 Es. 9 . 27 ), 
corresponding to " Jehiel " in Ez. io. 26 . 

HIERMAS (1 Es. 9. 26 ), corresponding to 
" Ramiah " in Ez. io. 25 . 

HIERONYMUS, one of the Syrian governors of 
a district in Palestine, under Antiochus Eupator. 
When, having come to an understanding with Judas 
Maccabaeus, Lysias withdrew from the country, 
Hieronymus, along with others, continued to 
molest the Jews, " and would not suffer them to 
be at quiet, and live in peace " (2 M. 12. 2 ). 

HIRCANUS,RV. HYRCANUS, a son of Tobias, 
a man in very high place, who had a deposit in the 
Temple treasury, which, along with the rest of 
the treasure there, Heliodorus wished to confis- 
cate, but was prevented by a vision (2 M. 3. llfL ). 
It is possible that he may be identical with the 
Hyrcanus of whom Josephus has much to tell. This 
latter was son of Joseph, a farmer of taxes for 
Ptolemy, and grandson of Tobias. It is not un- 
common for a man to be called the " son " of his 
grandfather (Jos. Ant. XII. iv. 6ff.). Disagreeing 
with his brethren, Hyrcanus fixed his residence 
beyond the Jordan, and collected the taxes in that 
district for the Egyptian government. He built a 
stronghold and palace, with an elaborate system of 
caves, for security against attack by his brethren, 
the splendour of which is attested by the remains at 
'Araq el-Emir, c. 1 2 miles W. of i Amman, on the W. 
bank of Wady es-Sir. After the death of Ptolemy 
V., fearing the hostile power of Antiochus Eupator, 
Hyrcanus committed suicide. His palace was left 
to go to ruin, and no attempt was ever made to 
restore it. 

HOLOFERNES, chief captain of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, king of Nineveh, was commissioned to wage 
war on the west country, and to receive from the 
inhabitants earth and water, the usual tokens of 
complete submission. In the book of Judith, 
which is our only source of information regarding 
H., the expedition seems to have been undertaken 
to compel men everywhere to worship Nebuchad- 
nezzar. In its course H. reaches Judaea and be- 
sieges Bethulia, a name which means " the virgin of 
Jehovah," and seems to favour the view of those 



Hor 



APOCRYPHA 



Ivy 



who allegorise the book of Judith and attach a 
symbolic meaning to the names. In their diffi- 
culties the Jews secure the approaches to the city 
and betake themselves to fasting and prayer ; while 
H., though instructed in the history of the Jews 
and what their God had done for them, despises 
God, resolves to continue the siege, and is actually 
promised submission by the governors in five days. 
Meanwhile Judith, a beautiful, rich, pious, and 
patriotic widow, undertakes to deliver the city, but 
declines (8. 34 ) to disclose her methods to the 
governors. Her actions are described in the eighth 
and following chapters of the book. She cuts off 
the head of H., and the Assyrians are routed and 
slain. There are grave objections to the historical 
character of the book in which these events are 
narrated ; but even on the supposition that the 
book of Judith was a composition of religious fiction 
of the days of the struggle for Jewish independence, 
the description of the fate of a great persecutor of 
the Jews cannot fail to have been of service in 
inspiring with courage the champions of national 



and religious freedom. The H. of Shakespeare and 
Rabelais has nothing but the name in common with 
H. of the book of Judith. 

HORSE-LITTER, RV. LITTER, a palanquin 
in wh. an invalid might travel (2 M. c;. 8 ). 

HYDASPES, a river mentioned in Jth. i. 6 along 
with the Euphrates and the Tigris as descriptive 
of the region from which was drawn a portion of 
the forces levied by Nebuchadnezzar for his great 
war against Arphaxad, king of the Medes. The 
Hydaspes of the ancient geographers is identified 
with the Jhelum, one of the principal rivers of the 
Punjab, which Horace described by the epithet 
" fabulosus," referring doubtless to the many 
travellers' tales and poetical fictions recorded of it ; 
but as this has been considered too remote to supply 
a contingent to Nebuchadnezzar's force, it has been 
proposed in Jth. I. 6 to substitute Choaspes, a river 
in Susiana, as Grotius suggested Ionia for India and 
Mysia for Media in 1 M. 8. 8 . 

HYRCANUS. (1) John {see Maccabees). (2) 
See Hircanus. 



IADINUS. S^ADINUS. 

IDUEL (1 Es. SP), called " Ariel " in Ez. 8. 16 , 
through confusion of 1 and 1. 

IDUMJEA, IDUM^ANS. See Edom in 
Canonical Section. 

IEDDIAS. See Eddias. 

ILIADUN. See Eliadun. 

IMALCUE, AV. SIMALCUE, an Arabian prince 
in whose care Alexander Balas left his young son 
Antiochus (1 M. II. 39 ). Tryphon with difficulty 
persuaded him to part with the child (v. 40), whom 
as Antiochus VI. he had crowned king of Syria 
(w. 54ff.). Josephus {Ant. XIII. v. 1) gives the 
name as Malchus. Diodorus calls him Jamblichus 
(Muller, Fragm. Hist. Gr. ii., xvii., note 21). The 
same writer, however, says that Antiochus was in 
charge of Diodes, prince of Abae, in Arabia {op. cit. 
note 20). 

IONIA is practically an ethnological rather than 
a geographical term : it indicates the district of the 
Greek settlements on the extreme west coast of 
Asia Minor, lying between the vEolic settlements on 
the north and the Dorian settlements on the south. 
Phocaea was its most northern and Miletus its most 
southern point. From N. to S. it extended in a 
straight line about 100 miles, though Ptolemy, 
the geographer, would confine it to the narrower 
limits of the territory between the Hermus and 
the Maeander, thus excluding both Phocaea and 
Miletus. It extended not more than a few miles 
inland, and contained these twelve cities : Phocaea, 
Erythrae, Clazomenae, Teos, Lebedos, Colophon, 



Ephesus, Priene, Myus, Miletus, (the islands) 
Chios, and Samos. About B.C. 700 Smyrna became 
a part of Ionia. Each of these was a Greek city- 
state. Collectively they formed a sort of con- 
federacy which had regular meetings, perhaps for 
games and for religious rather than political pur- 
poses. The cities were prosperous, and took a lead- 
ing part in the intellectual life of Greece. Ionia 
for India and Mysia for Media in 1 M. 8. 8 are 
generally accepted as good emendations of the 
traditional text. 

IRI, RV. URIAS, wh. see. 

ISDAEL, RVm. GIDDEL (1 Es. 5. 33 ), called 
" Giddel " in Ez. 2. 56 . 

ISMAEL. (1) RV. ISHMAEL (Jth. 2. 23 ), the 
son of Abraham by Hagar. (2) (1 Es. 9- 22 ), cor- 
responding to " Ishmael " in Ez. io. 22 . 

ISMAERUS, AV. OMAERUS (1 Es. c>. 34 ), cor- 
responding to " Amram " in Ez. io. 34 . 

ISTALCURUS. This name in 1 Es. 8. 40 cor- 
responds to " Zabbud " (EVm. " Zaccur ") in 
Ez. 8. 14 . It may be a corruption of Zaccur. 

IVY is mentioned only in 2 M. 6. 7 . The wor- 
shippers of Bacchus (Dionysus) were accustomed to 
wear wreaths of ivy in honour of this deity, to whom 
the plant was sacred. Part of the oppression of 
Antiochus Epiphanes was to compel the Jews, 
when the feast of Bacchus came, " to go in proces- 
sion in honour of Bacchus, wearing wreaths of ivy." 
It was of ivy or of pine that the " corruptible 
crown " was made, for which the competitors strove 
in the famous Isthmian games (1 Cor. 9- 25 ). 



975 



Jac 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jer 



JACUBUS (i Es. 9. 48 ), corresponding to " Ak- 
kub " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

JADDUS. See Addus. 

JAIRUS. (i) The father of Mordecai (Est. Ad. 
ii. 2 ), caUed " Jair " in Est. 2. 5 . (2) AV. AIRUS, 
wh. see. 

JAMBRI. In 1 M. 9. 36 - 41 "the children of 
Jambri " are said to have come from the town of 
Medaba and to have made an attack upon John, the 
brother of Jonathan, who succeeded Judas Macca- 
bseus as leader of the Jews. John was killed, but 
was avenged by his brother Jonathan, as narrated in 
the passage cited. The Jambri are not mentioned 
elsewhere. In Josephus (Ant. XIII. i. 2) they are 
called the " sons of Amaraeus." The true reading 
is probably Amri (Omri), a form found in 1 K. 16. 22 . 
Some have suggested " sons of the Amorites " as 
the original reading, and make it refer to some family 
of Amorites who in early times had occupied the 
town Medaba. 

JAMNIA (1 M. 4. 15 , &c), identical with the 
ancient Jab n eel, wh. see in Canonical Section. 

JAMNITES (2 M. 12. 9 ), the inhabitants of 
Jamnia. 

JARIB, RV. JOARIB, ancestor of Mattathias 
(1 M. 14. 29 ). 

JARIMOTH (1 Es. c,. 28 ), called " Jeremoth " in 
Ez. 10. 27 . 

JASAEL, RV. JASAELUS (1 Es. 9. 30 ), called 
" Sheal " in Ez. io. 29 . 

JASON. This Greek name was used by Hellen- 
ising Jews as the equivalent of Joshua or Jesus, as the 
Greek Simon was taken as the equivalent of the Heb. 
Simeon. (1) The son of Eleazer (cp. Sr. 50. 27 ), one 
of the envoys sent by Judas Maccabseus to Rome to 
arrange an agreement with the Romans, b.c 161 
(1 M. 8. 17 ; Ant. XII. x. 6). He is probably to be 
identified with (2), the father of Antipater, who 
acted as an ambassador of Jonathan to Rome, 
b.c. 144 (1 M. 12. 16 , 14. 22 ; Ant. XIII. v. 8). 
(3) Jason of Cyrene wrote " in five books " a 
history of " the things concerning Judas Macca- 
baeus and his brethren, and the purification of the 
great Temple, and further the wars against Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes and Eupator his son," &c. This 
work the writer of 2 Maccabees assayed " to abridge 
in one work " (2 M. 2. 19fL ). Nothing further is 
known about this historian. (4) Second son of 
Simon II. and brother of Onias III. He was a lead- 
ing spirit among the Hellenising Jews : originally 
called Jesus, he adopted the Greek name Jason 
{Ant. XII. v. 1). A large bribe purchased the 
favour of Antiochus Epiphanes, and he was made 
High Priest instead of his brother, b.c 175 (2 M. 



4. 7 - 17 ; 4 M. 4. 15 - 20 ). He bent all his energies to 
introduce Greek manners and customs, and met 
with great success, overthrowing " the lawful 
modes of life " and bringing in " new customs for- 
bidden by the law." Below the Acropolis in Jeru- 
salem he erected a gymnasium and ephebeion, the 
exercises in which proved so attractive that for them 
even the priests neglected their sacred duties. 
Being ashamed of it, they sought to hide the dis- 
tinguishing mark of their Jewish nationality (1 M. 
I. 15 ). He sent a deputation to the Tyrian games in 
honour of Hercules. These men, however, decided 
that the contribution they carried, which was de- 
signed for the sacrifice of Hercules, should be 
devoted to the " equipment of the galleys " (2 M. 
4. 18ff -). He held his position for three years ; and 
then Menelaus, his messenger to Antiochus, by 
means of a bribe secured his own appointment as 
High Priest. Jason, being deposed, and in danger, 
fled to the Ammonites. He made one abortive 
attempt to drive out his rival, encouraged by a 
rumour that Antiochus was dead (2 M. 5. 5fl> ). It is 
in a tone of exultation that the writer recounts the 
subsequent distresses of this " vile Jason," fleeing to 
the Ammonites again, then to Aretas the Arabian, 
then to Egypt : finally he went to the Lacedae- 
monians, " as thinking to find shelter there because 
they were near of kin," and there " he met with a 
miserable end." 

JASUBUS (1 Es. 9. 30 ), called " Jashub " in Ez. 
io. 29 . 

JATAL, AV. ATAR, wh. see. 

JATHAN (To. 5. 13 ), AV. JONATHAS, wh. see. 

JECHONIAS. (1) The Greek form of .the name 
of Jeconiah the king (Est. Ad. II. 4 ; Ba. i. 3 « 9 ). 
(2) (1 Es. 8. 92 ), called " Shecaniah " in Ez. io. 2 . 

JECONIAS. (1) One of the "captains over 
thousands " who made great gifts of sheep and 
calves at the Passover of Josiah (1 Es. I. 9 ), called 
" Conaniah " in 2 Ch. 35. 9 . (2) This name appears 
in 1 Es. 1. 34 RVm. for " Joachaz " in the text. 

JEDEUS (1 Es. 9. 30 ), called " Adaiah " in Ez. 
io. 29 . 

JEELI (1 Es. 5. 33 ), called " Jaalah " in Ez. 2. 56 ; 
" Jaala " in Ne. y. 58 . 

JEELUS (1 Es. 8. 92 ), called « Jehiel " in Ez. io. 2 . 

JEMNAAN, a city named between Ocina (Acho) 
and Azotus (Ashdod), on the coast of Palestine, as 
having surrendered to Holofernes (Jth. 2. 28 , 3. lff "). 
No doubt Jamnia is intended. 

JERECHUS, RV. JERECHU (1 Es. 5. 22 ), called 
" Jericho " in Ez. 2. 34 ; Ne. 7. 36 . 

JEREMIAS. (1) A son of Bani who had married 
a foreign wife (1 Es. 9. 34 ), corresponding to " Jere- 



976 



Jer 



APOCRYPHA 



Joz 



mai " in Ez. io. 33 . (2) The prophet Jeremiah (Sr. 
49- 6 , &c, RV. Jeremiah). 

JEREMIEL, AV. URIEL, the archangel who 
answered the questions of the righteous souls 
(2 Es. 4. 36 ). 

JEREMY (1 Es. I. 28 , &c), a form of the name of 
Jeremiah the prophet. 

JESIAS (1 Es. 8. 33 ), AV. JOSIAS, wh. see. 

JESSUE, RV. JESUS (1 Es. 5. 26 ), called " Jeshua " 
in Ez. 2. 40 . 

JESU, RV. JESUS (1 Es. 8. 63 ), called " Jeshua " 
in Ez. 8. 33 . 

JESUS, the Greek form of the Heb. name Joshua, 
itself a contraction from Jehoshua. (1) Joshua the 
son of Nun (1 M. I. 55 , &c, RV. "Joshua"). 
(2) Jeshua the High Priest (1 Es. 5. 5 , &c.) ; see 
Jeshua in Canonical Section. (3) Jeshua the 
Levite (1 Es. 5. 26 , RV. &c. ; cp. Ez. 2. 40 ). (4) The 
son of Sirach ; see Ecclesiasticus. 

JEZELUS. (1) (1 Es. 8. 32 ), called " Jehaziel " in 
Ez. 8. 5 . (2) (1 Es. 8. 35 ), called " Jehiel " in Ez. 8. 9 . 

JEZRIELUS, AV. HIERIELUS, wh. see. 

JOACHAZ (1 Es. 1. 34 ), JEHOAHAZ, son of 
Josiah. 

JOACHIM, RV. JOAKIM. (1) (Ba. I. 3 ), Jehoi- 
akim, king of Judah. (2) A High Priest, son of 
Chelcias (Ba. I. 7 ). 

JOACIM, RV. JOAKIM, wh. see. 

JOAKIM. (1) King of Judaea and Jerusalem 
(shortened from Jehoiakim, 1 Es. I. 37-39 ). (2) Son 
of (1) : (1 Es. I. 43 ). (3) A priest wrongly called 
son of Zerubbabel in I Es. 5. 5 : he was really son of 
Jeshua (Ne. I2. 10 » 26 ), where he is mentioned in the 
same connection as in 1 Esdras, i.e. in the list of 
Levites and priests who returned to Jerusalem with 
Zerubbabel. (4) The High Priest who was in 
Jerusalem in the days of Judith (Jth. 4.°' 14 ), and 
who, along with " the ancients of the children of 
Israel," welcomed Judith back to the city after the 
death of Holofernes. The absence of this name 
from the official list of High Priests in 1 Ch. 6. (Jos. 
Ant. X. viii. 6), and the impossibility of identifying 
it with any one in the list or with any historical 
person, tend towards establishing the fictional char- 
acter of the book of Judith. The name means " the 
Lord hath set up," and is probably symbolical, like 
other names mentioned in the book. (5) The 
husband of Susanna (Su. i. lff -), probably here also a 
symbolical name. 

JOADANUS (1 Es. c..^). The name correspond- 
ing to this in Ez. io. 18 is " Gedaliah." 

JOANAN (1 Es. 9. 1 ), RV. JONAS, called 
" Johanan " (RV. " Jehohanan ") in Ez. io. 6 . 

JOANNAN, RV. JOHN, surnamed " Caddis," 
the eldest brother of Judas Maccabasus (1 M. 2. 2 ). 
See Maccabees. 

JOANNES, AV. JOHANNES, wh. see. 

JOARIB, RV. JARIB, wh. see. 



JOAZABDUS, RV. JOZABDUS (1 Es. 9 . 48 ), 
called " Josabad " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

JODA (1 Es. s. 58 ), called " Judah " in Ez. 3. 9 ; 
" Hodaviah " in Ez. 2. 40 ; " Hodevah " in Ne. 7 « ; 
and " Sudias " in 1 Es. 5. 26 . 

JOHANNES, RV. JOANNES. (1) Chief of the 
sons of Astath ; son of Acatan (1 Es. 8. 38 ), called 
" Johanan " in Ez. 8. 12 . (2) A son of Bebai (1 Es. 
c;. 29 ), called " Jehohanan " in Ez. io. 28 . 

JOHN. (1) The father of Mattathias, grand- 
father of Judas Maccabasus and his brothers (1 M. 
2. 1 ). (2) John, surnamed Caddis, the eldest son of 
Mattathias (1 M. 2. 2 , &c.) ; see Maccabees. (3) The 
father of Eupolemus, an envoy sent to Rome by 
Judas (1 M. 8. 17 ; 2 M. 4. 11 ; Ant. XII. x. 6). 
(4) John Hyrcanus, son of Simon the Maccabee 
(1 M. 13. 53 , 16. 1 ) ; see Maccabees. (5) One of the 
two envoys sent to treat with Lysias (2 M. n. 17 ). 

JONAS. (1) (1 Es. c;. 23 ), corresponding to " Elie- 
zer " in Ez. io. 23 . (2) The prophet Jonah (2 Es. 
I. 39 ; To. if 4 ' 8 ). (3) (1 Es.o^XAV. Joanan, wh. see. 

JONATHAN. (1) See Maccabees. (2) Father 
of Obeth (1 Es. 8. 32 = Ez. 8. 6 ). (3) The son of Azael, 
concerned with Ezra in the matter of putting down 
marriage with foreign women (1 Es. 9. 14 = Ez. io. 15 ). 
(4) Son of Absalom (1 M. 13. 11 ), possibly brother of 
Mattathias (n. 70 ), sent by Simon the Maccabee to 
seize Joppa. (5) A priest who led in the prayer 
after the recovery of the sacred fire (2 M. I. 23 ). 

JONATHAS, the Latin form of the Heb. Jona- 
than. Jonathan was brother of Ananias, and son of 
" that great Samaias " (To. 5. 13 ). 

JORAM, one of the " captains of thousands " 
(1 Es. I. 9 ), corresponding to " Jozabad " in 2 Ch. 

35- 9 - 

JORIBAS, RV. JORIBUS. (1) (1 Es. S. 44 ), called 
" Jarib " in Ez. 8. 16 . 

JORIBUS (1 Es. 9. 19 ), called" Jarib "inEz. io. 18 . 

JOSABAD, RV. JOSABDUS. (1) (1 Es. 8. 63 ), 
called " Jozabad " in Ez. 8. 33 . (2) A son of 
Bebai (1 Es. 9. 29 ), called " Zabbai " in Ez. io. 28 . 

JOSAPHIAS (1 Es. 8. 36 ), called " Josiphiah " in 
Ez. 8. 10 . 

JOSEDEC, RV. JOSEDEK, the father of Jesus 
(1 Es. 5. 5 , RV. "Jeshua"), called " Josedech " in 
Hg. i. 1 . 

JOSEPH. (1) Son of Zacharias, who, with 
Azarias, was defeated by Gorgias (1 M. 5. 56ff -). 

(2) A mistake for "John" (2 M. 8. 22 , io. 19 ). 

(3) An ancestor of Judith (Jth. 8. 1 ). He appears 
as Judith's great-grandfather. 

JOSEPHUS (1 Es. 9. 34 ), corresponding to 
" Joseph " in Ez. io. 42 . 

JOSIAS. (1) (1 Es. i. 1 , &c), Josiah, king of 
Judah. (2) RV. JESIAS (1 Es. 8. 33 ), corresponding 
to " Jeshaiah," the son of Athaliah (Ez. 8. 7 ). 

JOZABAD (1 Es. 9. 23 ), RV. JOZABDUS- 
" Jozabad " in Ez. io. 22 . 



977 



Joz 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Jud 



JOZABDUS. (i) See Jozabad. (2) (1 Es. q. 29 ), 
see Josabad. (3) See Joazabdus. 

JUDAS. (1) A Levite (1 Es. g. 23 ). (2) Macca- 
baeus, the third son of Mattathias (1 M. 2. 4 ) ; see 
Maccabees. (3) One of the two officers of Jonathan, 
" Judas the son of Calphi," who supported him 
when others fled, in battle with the Syrians at 
Hazor (1 M. n. 70 ; Ant. XIII. v. 7). (4) A man 
of distinction in Jerusalem associated with the 
Senate in sending a letter to Aristobulus (2 M. I. 10 ). 
Some think Judas Maccabaeus is intended. Others 
would identify him with a prophet of the Essenes 
(Ant. XIII. xi. 2 ; BJ. I. iii. 5). (5) A son of 
Simon the Maccabee (1 M. 16. 2 ). He with his 
brother John Hyrcanus fought against Cendebaeus, 
when he was wounded (1 M. i6. lff - ; Ant. XIII. 
vii. 3). He was murdered by his brother-in-law, 
Ptolemy, at Dok (1 M. l6. llfl - ; cf. Ant. XIII. 
viii. 1 ; BJ. I. ii. 3L). 

JUDITH, THE BOOK OF. Among the apo- 
cryphal writings in Hebrew literature there is none 
more interesting than Judith, or the narrative of 
the deliverance of Palestine by the agency of a 
great Judaean heroine. To regard the work, how- 
ever, as other than only romantic fiction, or even to 
rank it as a historical novel of a type cognate to those 
of Walter Scott or Alexandre Dumas, in which the 
main incidents are based on actual occurrences, 
would be to misunderstand entirely alike the aim 
and the character of the book. Belonging as it 
•does to the class of Hebrew writings that are 
technically known as the " Haggadah," or in other 
words, " romantic story," its incidents are laid, as 
regards time, during the invasion of Syria and 
Palestine by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria, or 
as the text puts it, " in the twelfth year of the reign 
of Nabuchodonosor, who reigned in Nineveh, the 
great city " ; and as regards place, before the pre- 
sumably imaginary, or at least the otherwise unknown 
fortress of Bethulia, situate in the hill-country over 
against Esdraelon, where, as the story says, there 
was a passage into Judaea thro' a defile so narrow, 
that two men could bar the progress of an army. 

Nebuchadnezzar, having overthrown Arphaxad, 
the Median king of Ecbatana, had his youthful 
imagination fired by promptings to conquer those 
wealthy and warlike nations lying between Persia 
and Egypt who had refused to make common cause 
with him against Ecbatana, or, as the text says, 
" that he should avenge himself on all the earth." 
He assembled a great army, over which he placed his 
chief captain, Holofernes, and ordered him " to 
destroy all flesh that did not obey the command- 
ment of his mouth." After Western Asia has been 
overrun the conquering hordes reach Judaea. The 
High Priest Joachim, in Jerusalem, writing to the 
elders of the city of Bethulia, besought them to bar 
the passage of the Assyrian general. This they de- 



termine to do, and Holofernes, when he comes to 
Bethulia, finds the pass so strongly guarded that he 
cannot break through. Accordingly he in turn 
besieges the town, investing it so straitly that no 
provisions can reach it and even its water supply 
is cut off. Great distress begins to prevail in 
Bethulia. The people clamour for surrender, and 
are so insistent that at last the " elders " or 
"ancients" of the place agree that, if relief does not 
come in five days, they will hand over the fort with 
the pass and the town to Holofernes. 

Meantime Judith, a young widow of surpassing 
beauty and great piety, resolves to attempt the 
release of her country from the impending oppres- 
sion. Attended only by her maid, she goes to the 
camp of the young Assyrian general, pretending 
that she had secrets to reveal to him which would 
betray not only Bethulia but Jerusalem into his 
hands. 

Holofernes received her, and after she had re- 
vealed her plans, which pleased him greatly, he in- 
sisted upon her remaining with him in the camp, 
for he had fallen deeply in love with her. With 
pretended reluctance she consented, on condition 
that she was allowed to leave the camp each night 
in order to pray to God and to perform her cere- 
monial washings. Holofernes became more ena- 
moured of her every hour, and at last ordered a 
sumptuous banquet to be prepared, at which only 
he and she were to be present. At this he drank a 
great deal of wine, finally falling into a drunken 
sleep. This was Judith's opportunity. With his 
own sword she cut off the head of Holofernes, and 
then as usual proceeded to go outside the camp, 
presumably, as before, for prayer and ablutions. 
The sentinels, having received their instructions 
to permit her to pass, offered no objection. This 
time, however, she passed out towards the be- 
leaguered city, carrying with her the head of the 
slaughtered Assyrian general. A few minutes later 
she was safe within the gates of the town, showing 
her ghastly trophy and assuring the " elders " they 
were free. Her words were confirmed. Next 
morning, as soon as daylight revealed the terrible 
spectacle that was visible in the general's tent, the 
camp broke up in confusion, and the army retreated 
precipitately to Nineveh. Judith, by her slaughter 
of Holofernes, had saved her country. 

Such is the outline of the story, the aim of which 
was evidently to encourage and stimulate the Jewish 
nation in its struggle against oppression and alien 
influences, by the record of past successes and de- 
liverances. The actual history of the Hebrew 
nation in the past, however, was not of a kind calcu- 
lated to assist the writer by supplying him with a 
fund of fact upon which he could draw. If we 
except the narrative of David's conquests and 
triumph, and the overthrow of Sennacherib, the 



978 



Jud 



APOCRYPHA 



Lac 



history of Israel was rather one of defeat and servi- 
tude, culminating, as Prof. Sayce says, " in the fall 
of the Davidic monarchy and the destruction of the 
Temple by Nebuchadnezzar." A new history, 
therefore, had to be supplied, a history sublimated 
by imagination and idealised by Haggadah, in which 
the tyrants and the conquerors of history and of 
tradition exchanged natures and characters like the 
changing colours of a kaleidoscope. Character was 
altered as need demanded, distinctions of time and 
place were obliterated in the atmosphere of the 
Haggadah, past and present being virtually merged 
in one. 

As to the date of composition, Professor Sayce 
assigns it to the Maccabaean age (b.c. 160-140), but 
wisely refrains from being too specific. For Tobit 
and Judith alike, however, internal evidence points 
to a date about the middle of the great Maccabaean 
epoch. Professor H. T. Andrews and other 
scholars incline to a later date — one subsequent to 
the Roman invasion of b.c. 63. 

The outstanding characteristics of the book are 
a warm patriotism, which strives to utilise every 
means available to impress on Jewish men and 
women the necessity for scrupulous observance of 
all the requirements of the ceremonial law (8. 1 " 9 ). 
Stress, therefore, is laid by Judith on her ablutions 



being a part of her worship (12. 7 - 9 ) ; her religion, 
moreover, is stated to consist in large degree in the 
unbroken regularity of her fastings (8. 6 ), also in the 
scrupulous care she showed in avoiding all unclean 
meats (io. 5 , 12. 2 ), while she remarks to Holofernes 
that the city will be taken because its inhabitants 
will be forced by famine to offend God by eating 
unclean food (1 1 . 11-19 ). Great respect, in addition, 
is paid to the recently restored Temple service, and 
horror is expressed at the prospect of renewed pro- 
fanation of the vessels in the House of God by the 



touch of heathen barbarians (4. 3 , 5. 



!.•)• 



Jerome states that Judith was originally written in 
Aramaic, but Sayce (Temple Apocrypha) considers it 
more likely that the original language was Hebrew, 
the Aramaic and Greek versions being translations. 
Judith does not appear to have been known to 
Josephus, but, on the other hand, it was regarded as 
part of the OT. Canon, and was therefore accepted 
as canonical by the early Christian Church, along 
with those other books of the Apocrypha which 
found a place in the Septuagint. From the latter 
they naturally found their way into the Latin 
versions. Oliphant Smeaton. 

JUEL. (1) (1 Es. 9. 34 ), called " Uel " in 
Ez. io. 34 . (2) 1 Es. 9. 35 , called "Joel" in 
Ez. io. 43 . 



K 

KARIATHIARIUS, AV. KIRIATHIARIUS KIRIATHIARIUS, RV. KARIATHIARIUS, 



(1 Es. 5. 



RVm. " Kiriath-arim or Kiriath- wh. see. 



jearim ") = " Kirjath-jearim " in Ne. 7« 2 
KERAS, AV. CERAS, wh. see. 
KETAB, AV. CETAB, wh. see. 
KIDRON, AV. CEDRON, wh. see. 
KILAN, AV. CEILAN, wh. see. 



KISEUS, AV. CISAI, wh. see. 

KON2E, AV. " the villages " (Jth. 4« 4 ). Konae 
represents the Greek K(ovd, wh., if correct, may be 
identical with Cyamon. Some MSS. have Ko/xas, 
from wh. comes AV. " the villages." 



LABANA (1 Es. 5. 29 ), called " Lebanah " in 
Ez. 2. 45 . 

LACCUNUS, AV. LACUNUS, wh. see. 
LACEDEMONIANS. In 1 M. 12., 14., 15., 

and in 2 M. 5. 9 , mention is made of certain cor- 
respondence and alliance between the Jews and the 
Lacedaemonians on the ground among others of 
common descent from Abraham (1 M. 12. 5 - 23 ). 
What the kinship with Abraham, first claimed by 
Areus, king of the Lacedaemonians, may mean it is 
impossible to say. The claim may be the result of 
some ethnological error, and may have been as- 
sumed from the similarity of the names Pelasgi and 
Peleg, son of Eber (Gn. io. 25 , II. 16 ). The league of 
friendship is stated (1 M. 12. 20 ) to have been 
originally formed between Areus, king of the 



Lacedaemonians, and Onias, the High Priest of the 
Jews, to each of whom, however, it is difficult to 
assign precise and at the same time mutually con- 
sistent dates. It was renewed {c. b.c 144) by 
Jonathan (1 M. 12. 5 ' 18 ), and again by Simon (1 M. 
14. 16 - 23 ), after the death of Jonathan. As against 
Syrian Hellenism the patriotic Jews wished to show 
that they had the support of distinguished Greeks, 
but as against the material force of Syria it is 
possible that the Jews attached an exaggerated im- 
portance to a Spartan alliance. They judged from 
the distinguished position of Sparta in earlier Greek 
history, while in the days of the Maccabees the 
strength of Sparta was practically negligeable. The 
mention of the name in 1 M. 15. 23 indicates the 
existence of a Jewish settlement in Sparta, and there 



979 



Lac 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Lys 



seems to be no reason at all to doubt the facts of the 
alliance and of the correspondence, though there is 
a difficulty in reconciling all the particulars. The 
correspondence is given at considerably greater 
length in Josephus {Ant. XII. iv. io, XIII. v. 8, 
XIV. xii. 22) than in the books of the Maccabees. 

LACUNUS, RV. LACCUNUS, one who had 
married a foreign wife (1 Es. 9. 31 ). The name, wh. 
does not appear in Ez. io. 30 , may have arisen from 
taking the final / of Chelal with the following 
Benaiah, and mistaking the 2 in Benaiah for D. 
. LAD AN, RV. DALAN, head of a family whose 
genealogy was lost (1 Es. 5. 37 ), called " Delaiah " in 
Ez. 2. 60 ; Ne. 7. 62 . 

LADDER OF TYRE. Antiochus VI., son of 
Alexander Balas, made Simon the brother of 
Jonathan " captain from the Ladder of Tyre unto 
the borders of Egypt" (1 M. n. 59 ; Ant. XIII. 
v. 4). Josephus, speaking of the mountains that 
encompass the plain of Ptolemais (Acre), says " that 
on the north is the highest of them all, and is called 
by the people of the country, ' the Ladder of the 
Tyrians,' which is at a distance of a hundred 
furlongs " (BJ. II. x. 2). The name clearly did not 
apply to any one of the three promontories, Rds el- 
Musheirifeh, Rds en-Naqurah, and Rds el-Abyad, by 
which the mountain on the north breaks down upon 
the shore, none of which answers the description of 
Josephus as regards height. He must have intended 
the mountain itself, with this succession of head- 
lands which had to be scaled by one approaching 
Tyre from the south. These rocky spurs drop from 
a considerable height precipitously into the sea. 
In ancient times a path was cut in the face of the 
cliffs, steps being hewn at different points to facili- 
tate the ascent. This path is serviceable still, and 
is largely used despite its somewhat dangerous char- 
acter in parts. It must always have been easy of 
defence. The mountain formed a natural division 
between the Phoenician plain and that to the south. 

LAMPSACUS, RVm. (1 M. 15. 23 ), EV. SAMP- 
SAMES, wh. see. 

LASTHENES. The titles of honour bestowed 
on this officer of Demetrius II., Nicator, show that 
he held high position. He is called " cousin " 
(1 M. II. 31 ) and "father" (v. 32) of the king. 
These do not imply any blood relationship, but 
indicate distinguished rank. A native of Crete, he 
raised a band of mercenaries, and rendered effective 
service to Demetrius in wresting the throne of 
Syria from Alexander Balas (1 M. io. 67 ; Ant. XIII. 
iv. 3). Demetrius probably gave Lasthenes the 
governorship of Ccele-Syria. To him the king 
sent the letter granting to Jonathan remission of 
taxes (1 M. n. 30ff - ; Ant. XIII. iv. 9). Some have 
thought that Lasthenes may have been the favourite 
whose counsels exercised such baleful influence 
upon Demetrius (Diod, Exc. xxxii. p. 592). 



LESSAU. See Dessau. 

LETTUS. See Attus. 

LEVIS (1 Es. 9. 14 ) is properly " the Levite " ; cp. 
Ez. io. 15 , " Shabbethai the Levite " for " Levis 
and Sabbateus." 

LIBANUS (1 Es. 4 .48, 5> 55 . j tk I>7? &c ^ the 
Greek form of Lebanon. 

LODDEUS, AV. SADDEUS, wh. see. 

LOTHASUBUS, one of those who stood by 
Ezra at the reading of the law (1 Es. 9- 44 ), called 
" Hashum " in Ne. 8. 4 . 

LOZON (1 Es. 5. 33 ), head of a family of Solo- 
mon's servants, called " Darkon " in Ez. 2. 56 ; Ne. 
7. 58 . 

' LUCIUS, a Roman consul who is said (1 M. 15. 16 ) 
to have written to Ptolemy Euergetes the letter 
which assured Simon, the High Priest, of the pro- 
tection of Rome. The most probable identifica- 
tion of the name has been with Calpurnius Piso, 
who was one of the consuls in B.C. 139. The 
Romans, while securing the establishment of their 
power in Asia, naturally made use of the kings of 
Egypt and also of the Jews to counterbalance the 
power of Syria : hence the readiness of the Romans 
to enter into an alliance with both. In mentioning 
only the pramomen of the Roman consul the writer 
of I M. shows his want of knowledge of Roman 
practice, as he does of Spartan practice in the intro- 
duction to his narrative of the Spartan alliance and 
correspondence with the Jews (1 M. 12. 20 , 14. 20 ). 

LUTE, AV. HARP (1 M. 4 . 54 ). See Music in 
Canonical Section. 

LYCIA, one of the states to which letters favour- 
able to the Jews were sent by the Consul Lucius 
(1 M. 15. 23 ). See Lycia in Canonical Section. 

LYDIA is mentioned as one of the countries 
taken from Antiochus and given to Eumenes by the 
Romans (1 M. 8. 8 ). See Lydia in Canonical 
Section. 

LYSIAS, " a noble man and one of the blood 
royal " of Syria (1 M. 3. 32 ). On the departure of 
Antiochus Epiphanes into Persia (c. b.c 166) to 
collect in person the revenue which was not coming 
in satisfactorily, L. was entrusted with the guardian- 
ship of his son Antiochus Eupator, and with the 
government of the country as far as Egypt and 
Lower Asia, with special instructions (Jos. Ant. 
XII. vii. 2) " to conquer Judea, take its inhabitants 
for slaves, utterly destroy Jerusalem, and abolish 
the whole nation." With this object L. sent a 
large force under Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, 
Nicanor, and Gorgias against Judas Maccabaeus, 
who defeated two divisions of it under Nicanor and 
Gorgias, near Emmaus, and in the following year 
(b.c 165) L. himself at Bethsura (1 M. 4.). An- 
tiochus died while on his Persian expedition 
(b.c 164), and L., who acted as regent during the 
minority of the young prince, collected another 



980 



Lys 



APOCRYPHA 



Mac 



large army at Antioch, re-captured Bethsura, and 
was besieging Jerusalem when he learned of the ap- 
proach of Philip, to whom Antiochus, on his death- 
bed (i M. 6. 15 ), had given the guardianship of his 
son. He defeated Philip and was supported at 
Rome ; but in the following year he fell with his 
ward Antiochus into the hands of Demetrius L, by 
whom both were put to death (i M. J. 1 ' 23 ). 

LYSIMACHUS, brother of Menelaus, who had 
supplanted his brother (according to Josephus) 
Jason, who had previously supplanted his brother 



Onias in the office of High Priest. The accounts in 
Jos. {Ant. XII. v. i) and 2 M. 4. 29 differ. According 
to Josephus, Simon had three sons, no mention 
being made of L. among them. In 2 M. 4. 29 L. is 
the brother of Menelaus, who was the brother of 
Simon. When Menelaus was summoned to Antioch 
to answer a charge of malversation, he left his 
brother L. in his stead in the priesthood. L. 
robbed the Temple and thus provoked an insurrec- 
tion, in which he met his death at the hands of the 
mob beside the treasury (2 M. 4- 42 ). See Menelaus. 



M 

MAANI. (1) RV. BAANI, wh. see. (2) See 166, after about a year of this guerilla warfare, 
Meani. Mattathias died, leaving to Judas Maccabaeus the 

MAASEAS, AV. MAASIAS, grandfather of responsibility of leadership against the foe. 



Baruch (Ba. I. 1 ), called " Maaseiah " in Jr. 32. 12 



59 



5i 

MAASMAS, AV. MASMAN (1 Es. SP), cor 
responding to " Shemaiah " in Ez. 8. 16 . 

9« 34 ), corre 



MABDAI, RV. MAMDAI (1 Es 

sponding to " Benaiah " in Ez. io. 35 . 

MACALON (1 Es. 5. 21 ), called " Michmas 

Ez. 2. 27 ==MlCHMASH. 

MACCABEES, the family of Mattathias. 

(1) Judas Maccabaeus (Gr. makkabaios, " the 
hammerer," probably from Heb. maqqdbdh, " ham- 
mer "), the great hero of post-exilic Judaism, grew 
up in an age when the soil of Judaea was red with the 
blood of martyrs. Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria 
(b.c 175-164) was attempting to enforce Hellenism 
throughout his empire ; and while many Jews re- 
sponded to the fascinations of Greek thought and 
custom, the faithful to the law, or Hastdim, united 
in a loyal opposition to pagan influence which, 
passive as it was, drew down the Syrian king's 
severest vengeance. Thousands " were tortured, 
not accepting deliverance," or fled to the wilder- 
ness, there to be hunted out and defencelessly slain. 
Their spiritual strength was dauntless ; but their 
resistance was passive only, and the swift scythe of 



Early Battles of Judas. — At first Judas only con- 
tinued his father's tactics ; but his rare military 
genius brought the penalty of its success ; large 
forces moved against him. It was not long before 
e- he had contended victoriously with the Syrian 
general, Apollonius, and defeated Seron, a prince of 
in the army of Syria, in the pass of Beth-horon. 

The charge of avenging these unexpected 
triumphs was given to three experienced generals, 




Copper Coin of Judas Maccabeus 
The inscription reads: 

*nn* -judah 

?JI{nDn the illustrious priest 

H^nPI and friend of 

[D'HrnTl the Jews." 

Ptolemy, Nicanor, and Gorgias. With about three 
thousand ill-armed men, Judas prepared by prayer 
and fasting to encounter the imperial armies. 
Gorgias, meaning to surprise Judas by night, sought 



temporal power mowed them down. Would there him among the hills ; Judas, meanwhile, warned of 

the plan, descended to the plain, and under cover of 
darkness struck panic into the slumbering main body 
of the Syrian host. In the morning Gorgias, look- 
ing down wearied from the hills, saw the great camp 
on fire, and the Jews prepared to do him battle. 
His troops retreated in consternation, leaving 



never be a time when " the people that knew their 
God " should be strong and do ? 

It was an action of Mattathias Asmonseus, an 
aged priest, the father of Judas and his four brethren, 
which gave the first answer to this question. Called 
to offer the first heathen sacrifice at his native town 



of Modin (whither he had fled from Jerusalem), he enormous spoils to the victors. 



not only refused, but slew the king's commissioner 
and a renegade Jew who approached with an offer- 
ing ; then, raising the standard of revolt, he and his 
sons and numerous followers betook themselves to 
the mountains, whence their daring night-raids and 
skirmishes, overthrowing pagan altars, and punish- 
ing apostates, spread terror far and near. In b.c 



The year following, Judas again achieved a vic- 
tory at Beth-zur, which decided Lysias, the king's 
kinsman, who this time had led battle against him, 
to return to Antioch, there to recruit his forces on 
a still greater scale. 

Judas used this time of respite to cleanse the dese- 
crated Temple, and restore its worship. On 25th 



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December b.c. 165, exactly three years after its 
pollution by dedication to Zeus (Dn. II. 31 ), the altar 
was re-consecrated, and the " Feast of the Dedica- 
tion " then observed became a statutory observance 
in Israel (see Jn. io. 22 ). 

During this time Judas and his brethren assumed 
the offensive against their enemies, the surrounding 
heathen tribes, rescuing oppressed Jews in Gilead 
and Galilee, and slaughtering all who opposed them. 
It was a moment when, after long patience, justice 
and judgment seemed within grasp of the strong 
arm; and in b.c 164 unexpected tidings of the 
death of Antiochus Epiphanes quickened still 
further Maccabsean ambition. Judas made a bold 
attempt to capture the citadel of Akra (see Jeru- 
salem), to ensure free access to the Temple wor- 
shippers. But this action alarmed the Jewish 
Hellenising faction so much that they besought help 
from Antioch ; and in response to this appeal, 
Lysias, taking with him the young king Antiochus V., 
advanced with a huge force, containing thirty-two 
elephants, against Beth-zur. Raising the siege of 
the citadel, Judas encountered the royal armies at 
Beth-zacharias, and there sustained his first defeat, 
and a great sorrow in the death of his youngest 
brother, Eleazar. But just at this critical juncture 
there was a new turn of affairs. Compelled to 
hasten back to Antioch, to overcome Demetrius, a 
rival there, Lysias quickly made terms with the Jews, 
granting them religious freedom, though still held 
in political subjection. On a sudden, the goal for 
which alone the pious had been struggling was 
attained. 

The Later Battles of Judas. — Another figure now 
comes upon the scene — Alcimus, a descendant of 
Aaron's line, but Hellenistic in sympathy, who ap- 
pears to have held the office of High Priest, but to 
have been removed from it for his pagan leanings, 
and who desired to be re-installed. To the new 
Syrian ruler, Demetrius, who was true heir to the 
throne (both Lysias and Antiochus V. having been 
vanquished by him and put to death), Alcimus ap- 
pealed for assistance against Judas, and an army was 
sent into Judsea to instal the ex-High Priest in his 
office. At this point there emerges a fact of deep 
significance in the Maccabaean movement. To the 
party now known as the Maccabees the idea of the 
supreme Jewish authority being in league with 
Syria was abhorrent. But the Hasldlm, if left in 
peace to walk in their own laws, had no quarrel with 
Syrian supremacy as such ; and the descent and 
office of Alcimus covered a multitude of sins. Thus 
it was that, in his struggle for the fair dream of a free 
Jewish State, Judas had not the whole-hearted 
sympathy of the pious, and between them and the 
Maccabees a gulf gradually widened — a gulf which, 
later, excluded the name of Judas from the Mishna, 
and which during his remaining lifetime was 



bridged only by one solitary achievement — an 
achievement so brilliant as to overcome suspicion in 
a burst of joy and national pride. This was the 
victory gained at Adasa (13th March, b.c. 161) over 
Nicanor, a Syrian general who had blasphemously 
threatened to destroy the Temple if Judas were not 
delivered into his hands. The heathen army was 
routed, their leader slain ; and this signal triumph 
of the " conquering hero " was long afterwards re- 
membered as " Nicanor's Day." The story of 
Nicanor's downfall closes the glowing narrative of 
2 Maccabees. 

It was at this juncture that Judas, fearing the 
ultimate failure of Judaea to escape the Syrian yoke, 
attempted to conclude a treaty with the Romans, 
that their aid might be invoked when required. 
What exactly prompted the step, which cannot have 
found favour with the pious, is unknown ; probably 
the picture report painted not merely of Roman 
prowess but of the Roman Senate suggested to a 
mind athirst for equity and freedom a pleasing con- 
trast to Syrian autocracy. But the treaty, if con- 
cluded, remained inoperative. Not two months 
after Nicanor's overthrow fresh Syrian troops poured 
into Judasa, and Judas, with a sadly diminished band 
of followers, met them at Elasa (a place which has 
never been identified). Only 800 men stood by 
him, and even they were fain to retreat, seeing the 
overwhelming odds. But said Judas, " God forbid 
that I should do this thing and flee away from them : 
if our time be come, let us die manfully for our 
brethren, and let us not stain our honour. . . . 
Whereupon there was a sore battle, insomuch as 
many were slain on both parts. Judas also was 
killed, and the remnant fled " (1 M. 9. 9 - 18 ). 

Thus perished the noblest warrior of Judaism. 

A man born to command, with all the elan of true 

military genius (1 M. 3. 23 ) ; a patriot, full of simple 

faith in God (2 M. 8. 16 " 23 ), with bolder ambition 

and a farther outlook than the Judaism of his day 

(1 M. 8. 1 " 17 ) ; lion-hearted, passionately in earnest 

(1 M. 3- 59 ), he lives as one of the world's grandest 

types of that immortal spirit which is never absent 

from the making of great history. 

" O Freedom ! Thou art not as poets dream. 
... A bearded man, 
Arm'd to the teeth, art thou : one mailed hand 
Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword : thy brow, 
Glorious in beauty tho' it be, is scarr'd 
With tokens of old wars." 

(2) Jonathan, surnamed "Apphus" (Gr.Acfxpovs, 
Syr. Happus — (?) " cunning "), brother of Judas 
Maccabeus, one of the five sons of Mattathias 
who inaugurated the Jewish revolt against Syrio- 
Hellenic tyranny, was the Maccabee on whom 
leadership devolved after the death of Judas in 
b.c 151. His career was marked by diplomacy 
more than by greatness ; its watchword rather skil- 
ful opportunism than " the help of God." 



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For a year following the death of Judas, Jonathan 
met only with misfortune : his brother John was 
treacherously slain ; he was compelled to flee from 
the Syrian general Bacchides into the wilderness, 
and even there could barely maintain his own. But 
in b.c. 1 60 Alcimus the High Priest, the tool of the 
Syrian Government, died, and no successor in office 
was appointed. Two years of comparative peace 
followed, during which Jonathan's supporters grew 
so steadily in power and numbers that at length 
their enemies became alarmed, and implored help 
once more from Bacchides. Jonathan, however, 
was forewarned, and fortified himself so strongly at 
Beth-basi in the wilderness that Bacchides besieged 
the place in vain. Completely discomfited, and 
thoroughly weary of Judaea and its factions, the 




Copper Coin of Jonathan 
The inscription reads : 

M|"p "Jonathan 

HDn}n the hi S h P riest 

3rvV13 and friend of the Jews. 

Syrian general turned in irritation to revenge him- 
self upon the very party who had pled for his assist- 
ance. The diplomatic Jonathan had no sooner 
heard of this change in the situation than he sent 
♦ ambassadors to Bacchides, " to the end that he 
should make peace with him, and deliver them the 
prisoners." Bacchides acceded to his demands, and 
then " went his way into his own land." The 
Maccabaean party was now in the ascendant. 
Jonathan " destroyed the ungodly men out of 
Israel " ; and during six years he lived in peace at 
Michmash and there governed the people, reviving 
the ancient traditions of the judges. 

So strong was Jonathan's authority that when in 
b.c. 152 Alexander, a pretended son of Antiochus V., 
put forth a claim to the Syrian throne, both he and 
king Demetrius made earnest efforts to secure 
Maccabaean support. Jonathan had no scruple 
about swearing amity with whichever of the two 
seemed likely to help him most in the furtherance of 
his own political schemes. Demetrius empowered 
him to raise an army. But Alexander went further, 
and bribed him with the vacant High-priesthood, 
which he immediately accepted, for he had coveted 
it long. He was of priestly descent (see 1 M. 2. 1 ), 
and there was nothing strange to Jewish ideas in 
the combination of military leadership and priestly 
office ; though the Haiidim looked askance at the 
conferring of such an honour on one not in the direct 
line of the High Priest. But neither Jonathan nor 
the nation had any cause to regret the alliance with 



Alexander, who was victorious over Demetrius, and 
continued to shower tokens of goodwill upon Judaea 
until his overthrow in 146. Events still favoured 
Jonathan, thanks to his daring and address, when 
Demetrius II. became king, and Judaea was con- 
firmed in the enjoyment of her rights and privileges. 

But one point yet remained, which Jonathan 
thirsted to win ; and that was the removal of 
the Syrian garrison from the Akra at Jerusalem. 
Demetrius agreed to the demand, but failed to keep 
his promise. Jonathan accordingly went over to 
the side of Tryphon, a Syrian officer, who was 
ostensibly trying to set the son of Alexander on the 
throne, and in reality cherishing designs upon it 
himself. Jonathan and his brother Simon swept 
the country, making conquest after conquest over 
Demetrius on behalf of Tryphon ; and thus " in the 
name of the Syrians clearing the Syrians out of 
Palestine." The crafty Tryphon scented danger, 
and invited Jonathan to visit him at Ptolemais, 
promising him the present of the city in reward for 
his services. The Maccabaean leader rashly obeyed 
the invitation, taking with him only a thousand men. 
These were at once put to the sword, and he him- 
self made a prisoner. Simon, the elder brother of 
Judas and Jonathan, now became captain of the 
Jewish forces. Tryphon, after waiting and schem- 
ing for a favourable opportunity to attack Jeru- 
salem, and being baffled by Simon's watchfulness, at 
length grew weary of the struggle. He abandoned 
his attempts, but before quitting Judaea (b.c. 143) 
he revenged himself by murdering his captive. 

The unfortunate Jonathan had played with edged 
tools too long ; a great soldier and an astute states- 
man, he yet perished miserably in an obscure village 
somewhere on the east of the Jordan. His body 
was recovered by Simon, now alone remaining of 
the five Maccabaean brothers, who interred it with 
that of Judas at Modin, erecting over the burying- 
place a magnificent monument, visible from afar. 

(3) Simon, surnamed " Thassi " (probably " the 
zealous "), the last surviving brother of Judas Mac- 
cabeus. Upon the capture and subsequent death 
of Jonathan, the successor of Judas in the Macca- 
baean leadership, Simon was elected to fill the vacant 
place ; and under his administration the nation 
began to reap the golden harvest of all that Judas 
and Jonathan had sown. He renewed the friend- 
ship with Demetrius, acknowledging, though as a 
mere matter of form, the sovereignty of Syria, and 
received in return the grant of complete immunity 
from taxes in the future. Thus, in fact, if not in 
name, was " the yoke of the heathen taken away 
from Israel" (1 M. 13. 31 * 41 ). In the same year 
(b.c 142) Simon crowned his achievements in cap- 
turing outposts and reducing fortresses by expelling 
the Syrian garrison from the Akra, the last strong- 
hold of pagan power in Palestine. The mere name 



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of king was all that was now awanting to Simon's 
prerogatives ; for he had succeeded his brother as 
leader and High Priest ; and these offices were de- 
clared hereditary in his family until " a faithful 
prophet " should otherwise direct (i M. 14. 41 ). 
Thus the Hasmonsean dynasty was founded. 

Mattathias had spoken with true insight when on 
his deathbed (1 M. 2. 65 ) he recommended the four 
brethren to take Simon as their counsellor. Though 
far below Judas in genius and heroism, he was 
nevertheless a greater man than Jonathan, and 
pre-eminently adapted for the administration of a 
peaceful country. Under his wise sway trade and 
agriculture flourished. The account of his reign 
given in 1 M. 14. 4 " 15 shows a charming Oriental 
picture of peace and plenty, scarcely paralleled in 
the history of Judaism. 

But in Simon's later days the peace of Judaea was 
again threatened by the Syrians ; the new king, 
Antiochus VII., having demanded the surrender of 
Joppa, Gazara, and the Akra. Simon refused, and 
offered an equivalent in money. This was rejected, 
and once more Syrian armies invaded Judaea (c. b.c. 
138). Simon, too old to go against them himself, 
charged his sons John and Judas with the manage- 
ment of the campaign. True to their valorous 
family traditions, they completely routed the 
Syrians under Cendebaeus, near the now historic 
town of Modin, and Antiochus troubled Judaea no 
more in Simon's lifetime. 

Beloved by his nation, feared by its enemies, there 
seemed every prospect that Simon would end his 
days in peace. But he had a nearer enemy than 
Antiochus in Ptolemy, his ambitious son-in-law. 
In b.c. 135, Simon, the last of the Maccabees, " the 
statesman, the Solomon of his house," met an in- 
glorious death, murdered at the end of a banquet, 
through the treachery of Ptolemy. Two of his sons, 
Judas and Mattathias, perished with him. 

(4) John Hyrcanus, son of Simon, the founder 
of the Hasmonean dynasty, assumed the govern- 




Co:?er Coin of John Hyrcanus 

The inscription reads: 

pnin> "John 

jn{rOn the high priest 

TT'nrn^ and friend 

DH1H of the Jews " 

ment of Judea in b.c 135, upon the flight of 
Ptolemy, his brother-in-law, and had a prosperous 
reign of thirty years. Before the storm of perse- 
cution woke the mighty torrent of Maccabaean 
heroism, Jewish life had been creeping in the 



shallows. The years of struggle worked a revolu- 
tion, and it was on a full stream of national and 
spiritual vitality, compassing first religious freedom, 
then civil authority and independence, that the 
family of Mattathias Hasmonaeus swept to power. 
On the crest of this wave, still unspent, John rode 
brilliantly, surpassing even his uncle Jonathan in 
worldliness of policy. He extended his territory in 
all directions ; and was the first Jewish prince to 
have his name engraved upon a national coinage. 
But in spite of outward prosperity, his reign was 
marked by internal discord. Even in the time of 
Judas a breach had begun between the pious, or 
Hafdim, who stood aloof from politics, and the 
Maccabaean party, who aimed at nothing less than a 
free Jewish State. The breach widened with the 
Maccabaean rise to secular power ; and the Hasl- 
dim, the party of the law, now took definite ground 
against the worldly, aristocratic, High - priestly 
party ; thus first declaring that antagonism between 
Pharisee and Sadducee, so marked in the time of 
our Lord. 

(5) John, surnamed Caddis, or Gaddis (RV.) 
(probably " my fortune "), was the eldest of the five 
Maccabaean brothers (Jos. Ant. XII. i.). He met 
his death shortly after the death of his brother 
Judas in b.c. 161, being murdered by a robber tribe, 
the sons of Jambri, near Medaba, on the E. of 
Jordan, when convoying personal property of the 
Maccabees from the dangerous wilderness of Judaea 
to the friendly country of the Nabataeans. This 
crime was afterwards avenged upon the tribe of 
Jambri by Jonathan and Simon (1 M. 9. 35 " 42 ). 

Allusions to John are few, though he appears to 
have shared gallantly in the exploits of his more 
famous brethren. In 2 M. 8. 22 and (probably) io. 19 , 
he is by mistake called Joseph. 

(6) Eleazar, surnamed Avaran, the youngest of 
the five Maccabaean brothers, had his full share of 
the family heroism, but was cut off in the early 
stages of the struggle with Syria. At the fierce 
battle at Beth-Zacharias {c. b.c. 163), where for 
the first time the Jews had to encounter elephants 
trained in war, Eleazar fought his way to the 
elephant which he believed bore the young king, 
and stabbed it from beneath. He brought down 
the animal, but was himself crushed to death by its 
fall (1 M. 6. 43 " 46 ). 

Lit. : The books of 1 and 2 Maccabees, and Jos. 
Ant. XII. v. 1 onwards. Some Psalms, notably 44., 
74., 79., and 83., are probably Maccabaean. Rev. W. 
Fairweather, D.D., The Background of the Gospels: 
Dr. Fairweather appends a list of the best literature 
with reference to this period of Jewish history. See 
also articles in the larger Bible Dictionaries. 

J. M. M. Cunningham. 

The Maccabaean (Hasmonaean) dynasty was 
continued in Aristobulus I., the eldest of the five 



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Mac APOCRYPHA Mac 

sons of John Hyrcanus. The latter desired that six years civil war raged, in which no fewer than 
his widow should exercise civil authority, his son 30,000 Jews are said to have perished. Invited by 
Aristobulus receiving the High-priesthood. That the Pharisaic party, Demetrius III. came against 
prince, however, impatient in his ambition, threw Jannaeus and defeated him in the neighbourhood 
his mother and three of his brothers into prison, of Shechem. Then fear of Syrian dominance led 
and seized at once the mitre and the diadem. His many of the Jews to go over to the side of Alexander, 
mother perished of starvation. His brother Anti- Demetrius retired, and the rebellion was stamped 
gonus, next himself in age, and his only full brother, out. Jannaeus brought many captives to Jerusalem, 
he associated with himself in the government. He and there, " as he was feasting with his concubines 
was seized by sickness, which, judging by the symp- in the sight of all the city, he ordered about eight 
toms, seems to have been cancer of the stomach, hundred of them to be crucified ; and while they 
Popularity won by Antigonus in a successful cam- were living, he ordered the throats of their chil- 
paign excited the jealousy of Aristobulus, who had dren and wives to be cut before their eyes." For 
him assassinated ; a crime which preyed upon the this act of barbarous cruelty the Jews called him 
king's mind, and shortly afterwards he died in great " the Thracian " {Ant. XIII. xiv. if.). Aretas the 
horror and remorse. " He was called," says Jose- Arabian invaded Judaea and defeated Alexander at 
phus, " a lover of the Greeks, and had conferred Adida ; but came to terms with the vanquished 
many benefits on his own country, and made and retired {Ant. XIII. xv. 2). In three years of 
war against Ituraea, and added a great part of it warfare Jannaeus captured many cities both east 
to Judaea, and compelled the inhabitants, if they and west of Jordan. They were years in which he 
would continue in that country, to be circumcised, suffered much from fever, aggravated by constant 
and to live according to Jewish laws. He was inebriety ; and he died while investing Ragaba, a 
naturally a man of candour and of great modesty " fortress beyond Jordan, leaving his wife heiress to his 
{Ant. XIII. xi. 3). throne, and charging her to make peace with his old 

Onthedeathof Aristobulus, his widow, Alexandra enemies the Pharisees. 
(Salome), liberated his half-brothers, the eldest of Alexandra followed the advice of her dying hus- 
whom, Alexander Jannaeus, married her, in ac- band, and for nine years carried on the government 
cordance with the Levirate law, and succeeded his with prudence and success. The counsels of the 

Pharisees were dominant, but their rivals the Sad- 

ducees appear to have been treated on the whole 

C^'yjTf, |j|\'tyjp with consideration and justice. Her second son, 

Aristobulus, an ambitious and unscrupulous man, 

ill content with a subordinate position " in the 

flower of his age," laid his plans to seize the crown, 

Copper Coin of Alexander Jannaeus anc \ Alexandra, by an opportune death, narrowly 

brother as king and High Priest. In the case of the escaped the humiliation of being dethroned by 

High Priest many of the Pharisaic party held the her son. 

Levirate law to be in abeyance, as it contradicted The elder son of Alexandra, John Hyrcanus, 
the law by which a High Priest was forbidden to the High Priest, was her legitimate successor, but 
marry a widow, or a woman who had been divorced the bold and enterprising Aristobulus, by far the 
(Lv. 2 1. 14 ). His first act was to slay the brother abler man, had the sympathies of the army, and at 
next to him, whom he suspected of aiming at the once marched against his brother. The force of 
crown. He offended the Sadducees by some ritual Hyrcanus consisted mainly of mercenaries. They 
change, and throughout his whole reign he was came to action near Jericho, when Hyrcanus was 
at strife with the Pharisees. A man of tireless easily defeated. The result was accelerated by the 
military activity, his success was far from com- desertion en masse of the Sadducees to Aristobulus. 
mensurate with his ambition. He sought to add By an agreement then come to between the brothers 
to his dominion by the conquest of the cities Aristobulus received the throne, and Hyrcanus took 
on the coast, and in Galilee. Ptolemy Lathyrus, the rank of a private person and retired to enjoy the 
coming to their assistance, heavily defeated Jannaeus estate which he had acquired. There was, however, 
on the Upper Jordan. Ptolemy's pretensions, en- a division of feeling among the people, intensified 
couraged by this victory, roused the jealousy and by the fact that the elder brother favoured the 
suspicion of his mother, Cleopatra of Egypt, who, Pharisees, while Aristobulus was a partisan of tb>? 
marching against him, speedily broke his power, and Sadducees. A friend of Hyrcanus, Antipater, 
made alliance with the Jewish king. Delivered father of Herod the Great, an Idumaean, persuaded 
from this peril, Alexander met with some success, him that Aristobulus intended his death. With the 
capturing Amathus and Gaza. Then the bitter help of Aretas the Nabataean, Aristobulus was de- 
antagonism- of the Pharisees broke out, and for feated, and besieged in Jerusalem. As the siege was 

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prolonged the Romans were called in to arbitrate. 
The two brothers pleaded their cause before 
Pompey in Damascus. The Jewish people also 
sent representatives, who asked that the monarchy 
as such should be ended, and the rule of the High 
Priest restored. Aristobulus sought to prepare the 
way by the gift to Pompey of a golden vine, valued 
at five hundred talents. He had, however, no 
legitimate claim, and by his arrogant behaviour he 
alienated the favour of Pompey. The astute Anti- 
pater secured for his friend what Aristobulus had 
lost. In hot anger the younger brother hurried 
off and threw himself into the Alexandrium, a 
Maccabsean fortress, whence, pressed by Pompey, 
he retired to Jerusalem. There he was besieged 
and captured, and subsequently graced the triumph 
of Pompey in Rome. Hyrcanus now became High 
Priest again, but without political authority. Later 
he was made ethnarch by Julius Caesar. 

John Hyrcanus II. was a prince destitute of 
ambition, possessing none of the qualities that go to 
make a successful ruler. The real power was in the 
hands of Antipater, who was his major-domo. For 
the subsequent history of the Hasmonaeans see 
Herodian Family in Canonical Section. 

MACCABEES, BOOKS OF. The title of 
sundry Apocryphal works transmitted through the 
MSS. of the Greek Bible. Only the first and 
fourth books of Maccabees are contained in the 
Codex Sinaiticus (K), which dates from the fourth 
century ; but the Codex Alexandrinus (A), which 
is of the fifth century, contains four books of Mac- 
cabees. While none of these books have a place in 
the Codex Vaticanus (B), all are included in most 
editions of the Septuagint, and are also found in a 
Syriac translation. 

I Maccabees. — " The first book of Macca- 
bees," says Jerome, " I found in Hebrew," and 
Origen gives its Semitic title as Sarbeth Sabanaiel, 
which still, however, awaits a satisfactory expla- 
nation.* The external evidence for a Hebrew 
original is confirmed by the distinctly Hebraistic 
character of the Greek text. 

The book furnishes a detailed account of the 
events of the forty years between the accession 
of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes as king of Syria. and 
the death of Simon the Maccabee (b.c. 175-135). 
After a brief historical introduction (i. 1 " 9 ) the 
writer describes the attempt of Epiphanes to force 
Hellenism upon Judaea (i. 10 * 64 ), and the consequent 
revolt led by Mattathias, an aged priest dwelling at 
Modin (2.). The narrative records the subsequent 
course of events under the leadership of his sons, 
Judas Maccabaeus, the heroic and brilliant soldier 
(3. 1 -9. 22 ), Jonathan, the astute diplomatist (9- 23 - 

* Dal man's conjecture that the book may have been 
known to Origen only in an Aramaic translation, and that 
the two strange words represent the Aramaic for " Book of 
the Hasmonsean House," seems as plausible as any. 



12. 53 ), and Simon, the wise and peaceful adminis- 
trator (13. 1 — 16. 18 ), and concludes with an account 
of the murder of Simon by Ptolemy, his son-in-law, 
and of the escape of his son, John Hyrcanus, who 
succeeded him in the High-priesthood (16. 19 " 23 ). 

Although the author's name is unknown, he was 
obviously a devout Palestinian Jew, and wrote in 
the simple style of Old Testament prose narrative. 
It has been usual to regard the work as a unity, but 
the brevity with which Simon's reign is handled 
has led some scholars to hold that the concluding 
chapters (14.-16.) are a later addition unknown to 
Josephus. The view taken on this point affects to 
some extent the question of date. If the book 
originally ended at 14. 15 , its composition may have 
fallen within the reign of John Hyrcanus (b.c. 135— 
105) ; but if it contained from the first the subse- 
quent chapters as well, the reference in 16. 23 to " the 
chronicles of his High-priesthood " suggests that 
Hyrcanus was already dead, and that the date of 
writing must have been subsequent to B.C. 105. 
On the other hand, in view of the favourable esti- 
mate of the Romans in chap. 8., it is safe to conclude 
that it was written before Pompey's conquest of 
Jerusalem in b.c 63. While these form respec- 
tively the superior and inferior limits within which 
no nearer determination can be reached, the pro- 
bability is that the book is the product of the first 
or second decade of the last pre-Christian century. 

Nothing definite is known as to the sources from 
which our author derived his material ; but in view 
of the minutely detailed and chronologically accu- 
rate character of the history, it is scarcely likely that 
he drew exclusively upon his own recollections and 
those of eye-witnesses. Written sources of some 
sort — private letters, public records, or official docu- 
ments — he probably had at his disposal. It is, how- 
ever, uncertain whether these are either referred to 
in 9. 22 (" And the rest of the acts of Judas, and his 
wars, and the valiant deeds which he did, and his 
greatness, they are not written ; for they were ex- 
ceeding many ") or preserved in the snatches of 
verse here and there, and especially in the section 
devoted to the leadership of Judas, incorporated 
with the narrative. In the one case the writer's 
meaning may simply be that he found it imprac- 
ticable to relate all the circumstances known to 
him; in the other the lyrical passion may have been 
evoked by the exceptionally thrilling nature of the 
events recorded. 

Scholars are agreed as to the sterling value of 
I Maccabees as a historical record. Geographically 
and chronologically it possesses high merit. Though 
not altogether free from error, its general trust- 
worthiness is beyond dispute. If in describing a 
Jewish victory the writer patriotically exaggerates 
the number of the slain, this was a literary vice of 
his age ; and if some of his statements regarding the 



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Romans (8. 1 ' 16 ) and Spartans (i2. 6f -) are at variance 
with fact, this is to be attributed not to wilful 
deception, but simply to defective erudition. 

The book is pervaded by a deeply religious spirit. 
As heroic defenders of " the law and the ordi- 
nances " (2. 21 ) the Maccabees call forth the writer's 
warmest admiration. On the other hand the pro- 
fanation of the Temple by Epiphanes (i. 21 ), and 
Nicanor's insolent threat to burn it (7- 35 ), are 
viewed as shocking impieties, and as tokens of the 
Divine displeasure (i. 64 ). Not less remarkable than 
the author's religious feeling is his self-restraint 
in giving expression to it. The victories of the 
Maccabees are not represented as due to any special 
interposition of God, but are ascribed to their own 
military skill. From the prayers put into the mouth 
of Judas we miss the penitential note still so promi- 
nent in Daniel (9. 3 ' 20 ). It is noteworthy also that 
1 Maccabees is silent regarding the hope of immor- 
tality, except in the form of renown ; the rewards 
to which Mattathias points his sons are essentially 
for this life (2. 51 * 60 ). There is even studious avoid- 
ance of the use of the Divine Name, which does not 
occur in the Greek text. Instead of " Lord " or 
" God," we have frequently the term " heaven," or 
simply a pronoun ; and prayer is addressed not to a 
present Jehovah, but to the distant heaven (3. 50 , 
4. 10 , &(?.). The depressing consciousness that pro- 
phecy had ceased (9- 27 ), and the wistful looking for 
" a faithful prophet " who shall speak authorita- 
tively upon moot points of religious procedure and 
civil administration (4- 46 , 14. 41 ), are the natural 
accompaniments of the growing tendency of the age 
to abandon the conception of Jehovah as dwelling 
among His people by the Shechinah in favour of 
a more transcendental view of God as the God of 
heaven. 

In the early Christian Church 1 Maccabees did 
not rank as an Old Testament Scripture, but, along 
with a second book of the same name, it was pro- 
nounced canonical by the Council of Trent (1546), 
embraced in the Vulgate, and placed among the 
Apocrypha of the English Bible. Although thus 
outside the canon of the Protestant churches, it has 
always been prized as one of the most valuable of 
the " deutero-canonical " writings. In the judg- 
ment of Luther, " it closely resembles the rest of 
the books of Holy Scripture, and would not be un- 
worthy to be enumerated with them." 

2 Maccabees. — The two letters prefixed to this 
book (1.-2. 18 ) are almost certainly forged docu- 
ments attached to it by a later hand, with the object 
of inducing the Egyptian Jews to observe the Feast 
of Dedication. They are followed by the writer's 
own preface (2. 19 - 30 ). With the exception of the 
brief conclusion (15. 37 * 39 ), the remainder of the book 
consists of an epitome of a larger work by one Jason, 
a Jew of Cyrene. It deals with the same history as 



its predecessor, 1 Maccabees, except that it begins at 
a point one year earlier (b.c. 176) and stops short at 
the death of Nicanor (b.c. 161), thus covering a 
period of only fifteen years. For the first of these 
years — i.e. for the events narrated in chaps. 3. 1 -4. 6 , 
regarding the attempted robbery of the Temple 
treasury by Heliodorus and the intrigues of Simon 
the Benjamite against the worthy priest Onias III. 
— it is our principal authority. 

2 Maccabees was originally written in Greek — as 
was manifest to Jerome "from its very style " — from 
a pronouncedly Pharisaic standpoint, and was pos- 
sibly directed against the Hasmonaean dynasty. No 
sympathy is shown towards the priestly class, whose 
faults are severely censured (4. 13 ). Both in trust- 
worthiness and in style it is inferior to 1 Maccabees, 
the authority of which is to be preferred where, as 
not unfrequently happens, the accounts are con- 
flicting. Besides being highly coloured, the narra- 
tive does not observe strict chronological sequence. 
Instead of the sober annalistic style of the earlier 
historian, we have a work marked by hyperbole, 
inflated rhetoric, and homiletic reflection. Bitter 
invective is heaped upon the national enemies, and 
strong predilection is shown for the marvellous. 
The language used in the preface and conclusion sug- 
gests that these extravagances are mostly chargeable 
to the epitomiser himself, although the fulness and 
inaccuracy of detail, which are a feature of the book, 
also suggest that Jason's information was derived 
from the recollections of eye-witnesses orally com- 
municated. In spite of its obvious defects, how- 
ever, it forms a useful supplement to 1 Maccabees. 

Of the author of the original work of which 
2 Maccabees is an abridgment nothing is known 
but the name. Although described as " of Cyrene," 
he shows greater familiarity with Syria than with 
either Egypt or Palestine. Of the epitomiser not 
even the name is known. 

The writer's interests are religious rather than 
historical. His main object is not to relate the 
facts in their historical sequence, but to make use 
of them in order to inculcate religious lessons. In 
1 Maccabees there is a keen sense of the part to be 
played by the Jews themselves, of the necessity of 
employing their own skill and valour ; here they 
are made to rely rather upon the Divine interven- 
tion. In the first book the writer refrains from the 
use of the Divine Name ; here it is of frequent 
occurrence. Fantastic apparitions of angelic and 
supernatural beings, gorgeously arrayed and mostly 
upon horseback, are frequently introduced. In 
general the views reflected in the book are those 
of the Pharisees. The ungodly will be punished 
mercilessly, and in exact correspondence to their 
sins (4. 38,42 , 5- 9f -, 9. 5 " 18 ). The chastisements of 
erring Jews are of short duration, and intended to 
recall them to duty. If the faithful suffer martyr- 



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dom, it is in order to serve as an example to others, 
and they shall be compensated by being raised up 
" unto an eternal renewal of life." This combina- 
tion of the doctrine of a resurrection with that of 
immortality represents a more advanced eschatology 
than is to be met with in any other pre-Christian 
document. 

It is probable that 2 Maccabees is already re- 
ferred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews (cp. He. 
II. 35 with 2 M. 6. 19 ' 28 ). On account of its martyr- 
ology it was a favourite work with Patristic writers. 
.The Protestant churches have, however, followed 
Origen in excluding it from the canon of Holy Scrip- 
ture. Luther pronounces against it as strongly as 
he does in favour of the first book, holding that it 
" Judaises too much, and contains much heathen 
naughtiness." The Roman Church, on the other 
hand, has given effect to Augustine's favourable 
view by declaring it canonical. It finds support in 
this book for its teaching with reference to prayers 
for the dead and purgatory (i 2. 43ff -). An allusion to 
Jeremiah as " he who prayeth much for the people 
and the holy city " (15. 14 ), it likewise appeals to, as 
confirming its views respecting the intercession of 
the saints. 

3 Maccabees. — Beyond the fact that it deals 
with a persecution of Jews who were loyal to their 
ancestral faith, this book has no title to be called 
Maccabsean. The story which forms the subject of 
it has no connection with the Hasmonaeans, being 
concerned with a supposed episode in the reign of 
Ptolemy IV. Philopator (b.c. 221-204). Neither 
can it be regarded as history, although it may pos- 
sibly contain some substratum of fact. The essen- 
tial points of the legend on which it is based are 
given in simpler form by Josephus {c. Jpion, ii. 5) in 
connection with another Egyptian king, Ptolemy 
VII. Physcon (b.c 146-117). 

As related in 3 Maccabees, the tale is, briefly, as 
follows. After the battle of Raphia, the victorious 
Ptolemy IV. Philopator was smitten of God for pro- 
faning the Temple at Jerusalem. On his recovery 
he subjected the Jews of Alexandria to civic and 
religious oppression. Five hundred intoxicated 
elephants were about to be turned loose upon them, 
but in answer to their prayers two angels from 
heaven appeared, to the consternation of the king's 
troops, who were then crushed by the infuriated 
animals. Completely changing his tactics, Ptolemy 
now ordered the release of the Jews, feasted them 
for seven days, reinstated them in their possessions, 
issued letters in their favour to all provincial gover- 
nors, and sent them to their homes rejoicing. 

While the date of the book is uncertain, it is clear 
from the writer's acquaintance with the Greek addi- 
tions to Daniel that it cannot have been written 
earlier than the first century B.C. On the other 
hand its favourable reception by the Syrian Church 



proves that it cannot have originated later than the 
first century a.d. In the Western Church it was 
either unknown or unappreciated. 

4 Maccabees. — The title of this book conveys no 
proper idea of its contents. It is not a history of 
the Maccabaean movement, but a philosophical dis- 
course in which certain incidents from 2 Maccabees 
are drawn upon to illustrate and support the writer's 
thesis, namely, " that pious reason is absolute mas- 
ter of the passions." By pious reason he virtually 
means religious principle, and his contention is that 
by the aid of this men can control such passions or 
affections as are inimical to virtue. Its power, how- 
ever, is subject to one limitation : it cannot prevail 
against its own affections, it cannot destroy forget- 
fulness and ignorance. Even within the sphere of 
its control it does not avail to eradicate desire, but 
only to curb it. " Any one of you may not be able 
to uproot a vicious propensity, but reason is able to 
assist him, so that he shall not be bowed down by 
this propensity " (3. 5 ). With some philosophical 
acumen the writer describes and classifies the affec- 
tions, viewing them particularly in their opposition 
to the four cardinal virtues, while by examples ad- 
duced from Hebrew history he illustrates the lord- 
ship of pious reason over all the affections save such 
as are really defects inherent in itself. With this 
the philosophical tractate seems to reach a fitting 
conclusion (1.-3. 18 ). 

There follows, however, a lengthy supplementary 
section (3. 19 — 18. 2 ) in which, after alluding to the 
oppression of the Jews by the Syrian kings Seleucus 
and Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, the writer more than 
redeems the promise made in ch. I. 7 " 9 : "I might 
prove to you from many other considerations that 
pious reason is the sole master of the passions ; but 
I shall prove it most effectually from the fortitude 
of Eleazar, and of the seven brethren and their 
mother ; for all these proved by their contempt of 
torture and death that reason has command over 
the passions." Chaps. 5.-7. tell the story of the 
martyrdom of Eleazar with sundry edifying com- 
ments thereon ; chaps. 8.-14. 10 are similarly devoted 
to the case of the seven brethren ; and chaps. 14. 11 - 
16. 25 to that of their mother. In chaps. 17.-18. 2 the 
author sums up his impressions regarding these 
" champions of Divine legislation," and, taking his 
imagery from the Grecian games, declares that " in 
truth the struggle which was made by them was 
Divine." What follows (chap. 18. 3 " 23 ) was probably 
added by a later hand. 

In its literary form the book is a kind of homily. 
But, although the writer employs the direct mode of 
address, ,it does not necessarily follow that it was 
ever actually delivered to an audience, still less that 
it is to be regarded as a real sample of a synagogue 
sermon. Apart from the fact that it is not based on 
any text from Scripture, it is tolerably evident that 



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APOCRYPHA 



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t was intended for publication, and that we have 
lere a book or tractate in the form of a discourse. 

4 Maccabees is an interesting product of Hellen- 
stic Judaism, characterised by systematic arrange- 
nent of its material, and the frequent use of philo- 
ophical terms. It reflects the influence of Stoicism 
—the writer's main thesis, as well as the postulate of 
he four cardinal virtues, being borrowed from that 
chool of Greek philosophy. At the same time he 
ollows a line of his own in his classification of the 
>assions, and never allows his philosophy to interfere 
vith his loyalty to Judaism. Hence the religious 
tandpoint of the book is not that of Stoicism influ- 
:nced by Judaism, but that of Judaism influenced by 
stoicism. The writer is essentially a pious Jew ; 
lis Stoicism is only acquired. Throughout the 
:mphasis is laid not upon reason as such, but upon 
nous reason. It is to this, regulating itself accord- 
ng to the Mosaic law, that human passions yield. 
Vhat the writer is chiefly concerned to urge upon 
lis countrymen is the necessity of steadfast adher- 
:nce to Judaism in spite of persecution ; nor does he 
Lesitate to claim, through the lips of one of " the 
even brethren," that " the children of the Hebrews 
.lone are invincible in virtue's cause " (9. 18 ). 

Ever since the days of Eusebius and Jerome it has 
>een usual to ascribe the authorship of 4 Maccabees 
Josephus, but there is nothing in the style or 
nought of the book to justify this hypothesis. It 
s, moreover, largely based upon 2 Maccabees, which 
vas unknown to Josephus, and contains historical 
naccuracies incompatible with the view that it was 
vritten by that author. 

The materials are not to hand for definitely fixing 
he date of the book. The one certainty here is 
hat it was written later than 2 Maccabees. It has 
)een variously conjectured that it was composed 
Liter the downfall of the Hasmonaeans, in the period 
)etween Pompey and Vespasian, and in the first 
:entury after Christ. Probably we shall not err 
eriously in ascribing it to the Herodian age. The 
lame of the writer is unknown, but everything 
joints to his having been a Hellenistic Jew of 
Mexandria or Asia Minor. 

Lit. : Useful translations will be found in Cotton's 
The Five Books of Maccabees in English (Oxford, 
[832), and in all of Bagster's editions of the Apoc- 
ypha. The first and second books are included 
n the Revised Version of the Apocrypha, to which 
itudents owe much. Short an4 easily accessible 
[ntroductions are supplied in the following recent 
publications : The First Book of Maccabees, in the 
Cambridge Bible for Schools ; The First and Second 
Books of the Maccabees, in the Temple Bible ; The 
apocryphal Books (Century Bible Handbook series) ; 
The Age of the Maccabees (Bible Student's Library) ; 
Between the Testaments (Guild Text-books). More 
idvanced students are referred to the section on 



Jewish Literature in Schurer's History of the Jewish 
People in the Time of Jesus Christ (vol. iii. of Clark's 
translation). W. Fairweather. 

MACH^ERUS. Although not named in the 
Apocrypha, Machserus played a considerable part in 
the later Jewish history. Pliny describes it as the 
strongest Jewish castle after Jerusalem (HN. V. 
xvi. 72). It was fortified by Jannaeus, destroyed by 
Gabinius, and refortified by Herod the Great, who 
enlarged and strengthened it, building also a city, 
with a splendid palace (BJ. VII. vi. 2). At Herod's 
death it passed to Antipas, and here, it is said, John 
the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. But see 
John the Baptist, and Herodian Family, Antipas, 
p. 261. At a later time the citadel was held by a 
Roman garrison. Fearing a siege, the soldiers were 
persuaded by the Jewish inhabitants to leave the 
place (BJ. II. xviii. 6). Bassus, the Roman general, 
recovered it by a stratagem c. a.d. 72 (BJ. VII. 
vi. 4). It is identified with the mod. Mkaur, on a 
height E. of the Dead Sea, with extensive ruins. 

MACHMAS (1 M. 9 . 73 ), RV. MICHMASH, wh. 
see in Canonical Section. 

MACRON, the surname of Ptolemy, son of 
Dorymenes (1 M. 3. 38 ; 2 M. 4. 45 ), governor of 
Cyprus under Ptolemy Philometor (2 M. io. 12 ). 
Later he was governor of Coele- Syria and Phoenicia 
(8. 8 ). He had been made governor of Cyprus by 
Ptolemy Philometor, but had deserted the island 
and attached himself to the cause of Antiochus 
Epiphanes (2 M. io. 13 ). To him, along with 
Nicanor and Gorgias, was entrusted the army sent 
against Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 3. 38 ). Heavily 
bribed by Menelaus at Tyre, he secured the king's 
favour for that infamous person (2 M. 4. 45fl '). He 
was made governor of Ccele-Syria and Phoenicia 
(2 M. 8. 8 ). Continued in office under Antiochus 
Eupator, he sought to do justice to the Jews. In 
consequence an accusation was made against him to 
the king, and finding that he could not retain his 
position with honour, he escaped from an intoler- 
able situation by taking poison (2 M. io. 12f '). 

MADIABUN, head of a family of Levites who 
superintended the repair of the Temple (1 Es. 5. 58 ) ; 
not named in Ez. 3A 

MADIAN (Jth. 2. 26 ), RV. MIDTAN, wh. see in. 
Canonical Section. 

MAELUS (1 Es. c.. 26 ), corresponding to " Mija- 
min " in Ez. io. 25 . 

MAGED (1 M. 5. 36 ), RV. MAKED, wh. see. 

MAGIDDO (1 Es. i. 29 ), RV. MEGIDDO, wh. 
see in Canonical Section. 

MAIANEAS, RV. MAIANNAS (1 Es. c.. 48 ), 
corresponding to " Maaseiah " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

MAKED, a city in Gilead, the site of which is 
not yet identified. It is described as " strong and 
great" (1 M. 5. 26 - 36 ). 

MALACHY (2 Es. I. 40 ), the prophet Malachi. 



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TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Mat 



MALTANNEUS (i Es. 9. 33 ), AV. ALTANEUS, 

wh. see. 

MAMAIAS, RV. SAMAIAS (i Es. 8 44 ), cor- 
responding to " Shemaiah " in Ez. 8. 16 . 

MAMDAI (i Es. 9. 34 ), AV. MABDAI, wh. see. 

MAMNITANAIMUS, RV. MAMNITANE- 
MUS (i Es. 9. 34 ). This is a corruption from the 
names occurring in the parallel passage, Ez. io. 37 . 

MAMUCHUS (i Es. 9. 30 ), corresponding to 
" Malluch " in Ez. io. 29 . 

MANASSEAS (1 Es. 9. 31 ) = " Manasseh " in 
Ez. io. 30 . 

MANASSES. (1) One of the sons of Asom who 
had married a foreign wife (1 Es. 9. 33 ) = " Man- 
asseh " in Ez. io. 33 . (2) King of Judah (Manasseh), 
reputed author of the Apocryphal Prayer of 
Manasses. (3) One named in connection with 
Achiacharus in To. 14. 10 . (4) The husband of 
Judith, a rich merchant in Bethulia, who died of 
sunstroke (Jth. 8. 2f -). 

MANASSES, THE PRAYER OF. See Apoc- 
rypha, introductory article. 

MANES, AV. EANES, wh. see. 

MANI (1 Es. 9. 30 ), corresponding to " Bani " in 
Ez. io. 29 (cp. 1 Es. 5. 12 ). 

MANIUS, AV. MANLIUS, wh. see. 

MANLIUS. A letter purporting to be sent by 
" Quintus Memmius and Titus Manlius, ambas- 
sadors of the Romans," is preserved in 2 M. n. 35fl - 
It confirms the concessions made to the Jews by 
Lysias : " Whatsoever Lysias the king's cousin hath 
granted, therewith we also are well pleased," &c. 
It has no better claim to authenticity than the 
other three letters recorded in this chapter. 
Romans would not have dated their letter according 
to the Seleucid era. And we know that relations 
between the Romans and the Jews were not begun 
until b.c. 162 (1 M. 8. lff -), two years after the date 
of the letter. There is no record of either Quintus 
Memmius or Titus Manlius having been a legatus 
in Asia at this time. What substratum of fact there 
may be in these letters it is impossible now to 
determine. 

MARDOCHEAS. (1) This is the form in wh. 
the name of Esther's uncle Mordecai is found 
in the Apocryphal Additions to Esther (Est. Ad. 
io. 4 , &c). The first day of the Feast of Purim is 
called " Mardocheus' day " (2 M. 15. 36 ; RV. " day 
of Mordecai "). (2) One of the " guides " of the 
people who returned with Zerubbabel and Joshua 
(1 Es. 5- 8 ) = " Mordecai" in Ez. 2. 2 ; Ne. y. 7 . 

MARIMOTH, an ancestor of Ezra (2 Es. I. 2 ), 
called " Meremoth " in 1 Es. 8. 2 (RV. " Meme- 
roth "), and " Meraioth " in Ez. 7*. 

MARISA (2 M. I2. 35 ) = Mares hah, wh. see in 
Canonical Section. 

MARMOTH (1 Es. 8. 62 ), called " Meremoth " 
in Ez. 8. 33 . 



MASALOTH, RV. MESALOTH (1 M. 9 . 2 ). 
The place where Bacchides encamped in or near 
Arbela, wh. see. 

MASIAS, RVm. " Misaias " (1 Es. 5. 34 ), head of a 
family of the servants of Solomon, not named in 
Ezra. 

MASMAN (1 Es. 8. 43 ). See Maasmas. 

MASSIAS (1 Es. 9. 22 ), called " Maaseiah " in 
Ez. io. 22 . 

MASTICH, RV. MASTICK, mentioned only 
once (Su. 54 ). The Pistacia lentiscus is a shrub at- 
taining a few feet in height, which grows in great 
quantities on the slopes around the Mediterranean. 
Gum mastick is obtained by making slits in the bark, 




Mastich 

through which it exudes in the form of tears. 
These harden in pale yellow lumps. In the East it 
is greatly prized as a masticatory for preserving the 
teeth and gums : it also gives a pleasant perfume to 
the breath. But the gum is chewed in Palestine 
by very many just because they like it. Mastick is 
an ingredient in certain perfumes. Sometimes a 
little is added to the bread before it is baked in the 
oven. 

MATHANIAS, RV. MATTHANIAS, a descen- 
dant of Pahath Moab (1 Es. 9. 31 ), called " Matta- 
niah " in Ez. io. 30 . 

MATHELAS, AV. MATTHELAS (1 Es. 9. 19 ), 
corresponding to " Maaseiah " in Ez. io. 18 . 

MATTATHIAS. (1) One of those who stood 
by Ezra at the reading of the law (1 Es. 9. 43 ), 
called " Mattithiah " in Ne. 8. 4 . (2) AV. MAT- 
THIAS, one who had married a foreign wife (1 Es. 
9. 33 ), corresponding to " Mattathah " in Ez. io. 33 
(RV. " Mattattah "). (3) The father of Judas 
Maccabeus and his brothers (1 M. 2. 1 , &c.) ; see 
Maccabees. (4) Son of Absalom ; one of the 
two captains who stood by Jonathan the Maccabee 
in the battle at Hazor (1 M. n. 70 ), and helped him 



QQO 



Mat 



APOCRYPHA 



Mod 



o turn what threatened to be a rout into a victory. 
5) The son of Simon the Maccabee, murdered by 
5 tolemy, the son of Abubus, along with his father 
md brother, in the little fortress of Dok (1 M. 
E 5 u-i6^ # (6) One of the envoys of Nicanor sent to 
-reat with Judas Maccabaeus (2 M. 14. 19 ). 

MATTHANIAS. (1) 1 Es. c>. 27 , called " Mat- 
:aniah " in Ez. io. 26 . (2) See Mathanias. 

MATTHELAS. See Mathelas. 

MATTHIAS. See Mattathias (2). 

MAZITIAS (1 Es. c>. 35 ), corresponding to " Mat- 
tithiah " in Ez. io. 43 . 

MEANI, RV. MAANI (1 Es. 5. 31 ), corresponding 
to " Meunim " in Ez. 2. 50 ; Ne. 7- 52 . 

MEDABA (1 M. 9. 36 ), a form of the name of 
Medeba. 

MEDEBA. See art. in Canonical Section. 

MEEDA, RV. MEEDDA (1 Es. 5. 32 ), called 
; < Mehida " in Ez. 2. 52 . 

MELCHIAS. (1) One who had married a 
foreign wife (1 Es. c.. 26 ), called " Malchiah " in Ez. 
io. 25 (RV. " Malchijah "). (2) 1 Es. c;. 32 = " Mal- 
chiah " in Ez. io. 31 (RV. " Malchijah ")• (3) 1 Es. 
^=" Malchiah " in Ne. 8. 4 (RV. " Malchijah "). 

MELCHIEL, father of Charmis, one of the 
governors of Bethulia (Jth. 6. 15 ). 

MEMEROTH, AV. MEREMOTH, wh. see. 

MEMMIUS. See Manlius. 

MENELAUS, a High Priest who secured the 
office {c. b.c. 172) by bribery from Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, having supplanted his brother Jason, who 
had also obtained the office by bribery and by the 
supplanting of his brother Onias (2 M. 4_. 23 " 25 ). 
According to Josephus {Ant. XII. v. 1) he was a 
younger brother of Onias and Jason. His name was 
originally Onias, and the name Menelaus was pro- 
bably assumed in the Hellenising days of Antiochus 
Epiphanes and in the priesthood of Onias, in whose 
time the assumption of Greek names by the Jews 
was fashionable. The following details regarding 
M. are based on 2 M., which must be acknowledged 
to be of very doubtful historicity, and in some 
points it contradicts the narrative of Josephus. 
M., unable to implement his engagement to pay 
to the king a higher tribute than his predecessor, 
was summoned to Antioch. He tried to raise 
additional money by stealing and selling in Tyre 
and other cities some of the golden vessels of the 
Temple. For this he was rebuked by Onias, who 
in fear for his life fled for safety to the sanctuary 
of Apollo in Daphne : from this 'he was tempted 
and murdered at the instance of M., a crime, 
however, for which the actual perpetrator, and 
not the instigator, suffered the king's wrath (2 M. 
4- 38 ). For the malversation of his brother, Lysi- 
machus, whom he had left as his deputy in the 
High-priesthood during his absence at Antioch, he 
was accused and convicted before the king at Tyre ; 



but by the mediation of Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, 
whom he had bribed highly, he was discharged from 
the accusation and retained . his office of High 
Priest, " increasing in malice and being a great 
traitor to the citizens " (2 M. 4. 50 ). He defended 
himself successfully against an armed attempt of 
Jason to recover the High-priesthood (2 M. 5. 5 - 10 ). 
He acted as guide to Antiochus in his ruthless 
desecration of the Temple (v. 1 5), and he is de- 
scribed as " worse than all the rest " of the governors 
(v. 23) who were left in the country on the depar- 
ture of Antiochus. " This wicked wretch " came 
to a violent and (as the writer of 2 M. considers) 
a most just end at the hands of Antiochus IV., 
Eupator, c. b.c 1 63 (2 M. 13. 3 - 9 ). 

MENESTHEUS, the father of Apollonius (2 
M. 4. 21 ). 

MERAN, RV. MERRAN (Ba. 3. 23 ), seems to be 
a mistake for Midian ; " Meran " being read for 
" Medan," 1 for X 

MEREMOTH, RV. MEMEROTH, an ancestor 
of Ezra (1 Es. 8. 2 ), corresponding to " Meraioth " in 
Ez. 7- 3 ; called also " Marimoth " in 2 Es. I. 2 . 
MERRAN. See Meran. 
MERUTH, RV. EMMERUTH (1 Es. 5. 24 ), 
corresponding to " Immer " in Ez. 2. 37 . 
MESALOTH. See Masaloth. 
METERUS. See Baiterus. 
MICAH (Jth. 6. 15 ), AV. MICHA, wh. see. 
MICHA. A Simeonite, father of Ozias, one of 
the governors of Bethulia (Jth. 6. 15 ). 

MICHAEL, father of Zaraias (1 Es. 8. 34 ), who. 
returned with Ezra ; called " Zebadiah " in Ez. 8. 8 . 
MICHEAS (2 Es. I. 39 ), the prophet Micah. 
MISAEL. (1) 1 Es. 9. 44 , corresponding to 
" Mishael " in Ne. 8. 4 . (2) The name in ST. 66 
of Mishael, called in Babylon " Meshach " (Dn. i. 6 ). 
MITHRADATES. (1) The treasurer of Cyrus, 
king of Persia, to whom the sacred vessels of the 
Temple were given that he might hand them over 
to Sanabassar, the governor of Judaea (1 Es. 2. llf -), 
called in Ez. I. 8 " Mithredath " {c-p. Ant. XI. i. 3). 
(2) An officer of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, stationed 
in Samaria, who, with others, represented to the 
king the danger of allowing the Jews to " build that 
rebellious and wicked city " Jerusalem, and secured 
an edict putting a stop to the work for a time 
(1 Es. 2. 16ff -, AV. " Mithridates "), called " Mith- 
redath " in Ez. 4- 7 . 

MOCHMUR, the brook, or rather wady 
(xetfJiappos), beside which stood Chusi, not far 
from Ekrebel. It may be identical with Wady 
Makfurlyeh, to the N. of which lies 'Aqrabeb 
(Ekrebel), to the E. of NMus. 

MODIN, a city of Judah, the home of Matta- 
thias, and the birthplace of his heroic sons (1 M. 
2 17, 70^ Here took place the encounter between 
Mattathias and the representatives of Antiochus 



991 



Mod 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Nan 



Epiphanes, who was determined to compel the 
Jews to idolatrous sacrifice. Goaded to despera- 
tion, he slew a compliant Jew who was about to offer 
sacrifice, and made conflict inevitable by killing the 
king's commissioner himself. It was the signal for 
revolt on the part of his oppressed people, and forth- 
with began the struggle for freedom in which his 
gallant sons covered themselves with glory (i M. 
2 i, 16, 23 . Ant xil. vi. if. ; BJ. I. i. 3). Matta- 
thias, his sons, and their mother were all buried here 
(1 M. 2.™ 9. 19 , I3. 25fl -; Ant. XII. xi. 2; XIII. 
vi. 6). Judas encamped near by, before his attack 
on the army of Antiochus Eupator (2 M. 13. 14 ) ; 
and from Modin Simon's sons went against Cende- 
bseus (1 M. 16. 4 ). 

Simon, the last survivor of the brothers, erected 
here a splendid tomb and monument of white 
polished stone, with monolithic pillars and elaborate 
carvings, while on the summit were seven pyramids, 
one for father, for mother, and for each of the five 
brethren {Ant. XIII. vi. 6). 

Modin is represented by mod. el-Medyeh, a 
village about 15 miles west of Bethel, 16 miles 
north-west of Jerusalem, 6\ miles from Lydda, 
and about 16 miles from the coast. El-Medyeh 
itself is not visible from the sea, but er-Ras, a height 
to the south, commands a view of the plain and the 
sea. Here possibly the great monument may have 
been built. This monument, or mausoleum, was 
known in the fourth cent. (Williams, Holy City, 
i. 96), but all trace of it has been lost. There are 



considerable ancient remains, and one large tomb ? 
which, however, is of Christian origin. 

MOETH (1 Es. 8. 63 ), corresponding to " Noa- 
diah"inEz. 8. 33 . 

MOLI, RV. MOOLI (1 Es. 8. 47 ), corresponding 
to " Mahli " in Ez. 8. 18 . 

MOMDIS (1 Es. g. u ), corresponding to " Maa- 
dai " in Ez. io. 34 . 

MOOLI. See Moli. 

MOOSIAS (1 Es. 9. 31 ), corresponding to " Maa- 
seiah " in Ez. io. 30 . 

MOSOLLAM. See Mosollamus (2). 

MOSOLLAMON. See Mosollamus (i). 

MOSOLLAMUS. (1) AV. MOSOLLAMON 
(1 Es. 8.^) = " Meshullam " in Ez. 8. 16 . (2) AV. 
MOSOLLAM (1 Es. 9. 14 ) = "Meshullam" in 
Ez. io. 15 . 

MYNDUS, a city on the coast of Caria, at the 
western end of the peninsula on the southern shore 
of which Halicarnassus stands. Such importance as 
it possessed in ancient times was probably due to the 
proximity of silver mines, which were worked both in 
ancient and in mediaeval times. These mines have 
given the name to the mod. site, Gumushli. They 
also probably account for the presence of a Jewish 
colony there. Myndus is mentioned as one of the 
cities to which letters were sent by the Romans 
c. B.C. 139, in favour of the Jews (1 M. 15. 23 ). Thus, 
although overshadowed in importance by Halicar- 
nassus, it must then have been a free, self-governing 
city. 



N 



NAATHUS, a son of Addi (1 Es. 9. 31 ). There is 
no corresponding name in Ez. io. 30 . It may have 
arisen from transposition of the letters in Adna 
(Ez. io. 3 <>). 

NABARIAS (1 Es. g. M ), perhaps corresponding 
to " Hashbadanah " in Ne. 8. 4 . 

NABATHiEANS, an Arab tribe that lived in the 
wilderness three days' journey east from the Jor- 
dan : it favoured Judas Maccabaeus and his brother 
Jonathan in the expedition against the Edomites, 
in which the Jewish leaders were trying to rescue 
and to collect into Judaea Jews who were scattered 
through certain strongholds in the land of Gilead 
(1 M. 5. 24 " 54 ). The N. again appear (1 M. 9. 35 " 42 ) 
as friends of Jonathan when his brother, John, was 
sent on to arrange about the safe keeping of the 
carriage {i.e. baggage), but was attacked and killed 
by " the children of Jambri," who suffered reprisals 
at the hands of Jonathan and his brother, Simon. 
The word is connected with Nebaioth. See Arabia 
in Canonical Section. 

NABATHITES = Nabathjeans, wh. see. 

NABUCHADONOSOR, the Greek from of the 



name of the great king in EV. 1 Es. i. 40ff - ; Est. 
Ad. 11. 4 ; Ba. i. 9ff - But in Tobit and Judith RV. 
adopts Nebuchadnezzar. 

NADABATH, AV. NADABATHA, a place east 
of Jordan whence the children of Jambri, " making 
a great marriage," were bringing the bride with a 
great train, " a daughter of one of the great nobles 
of Canaan," when they were attacked by Jonathan 
and Simon Maccabaeus, who in vengeance for the 
death of John, their brother, slew very many, the 
remnant fleeing to the mountains. Some have 
suggested Nebo ; others Nabathaea. Clermont- 
Ganneau thinks we may read paj3o£d, and identify 
it with Rabbath Ammon, where the " great noble " 
might appropriately have his residence. But no 
certain identification is yet possible. 

NAIDUS (1 Es. 9. 31 ), possibly corresponding to 
" Benaiah " in Ez. io. 30 . 

NAN^EA, AV. NANEA, the Greek form of the 
name of a goddess who was worshipped in Elymais. 
Alexander the Great made rich gifts to her temple. 
Here it is said in 2 M. i. 13ff - that Antiochus Epi- 
phanes was slain " by the deceit of Nanea's priests," 



992 



Nap 



APOCRYPHA 



Nic 



he having entered for the purpose of plunder, but 
ostensibly to marry the goddess, and to receive 
her dowry. This, however, is contradicted by the 
account given in I M. 6. lfc -, and by the very cir- 
cumstantial record of the king's illness and death in 
2 M. 9. m Nana was one of the primeval deities of 
Babylon. She was originally distinct from Ishtar 
(Delitzsch, Paradise, 222), but came to be regarded 
as a form of Ishtar. We find, therefore, that Jose- 
phus identifies her with Artemis {Ant. XII. ix. 1), 
and Appian with Aphrodite {Syr. 66). She re- 
presented the productive powers of nature, and 
this determined the character of her worship {see 
EB. s.v.). 

NAPHISI (1 Es. 5. 31 ), called " Nephisim " 
in Ez. 2. 50 ; " Nephishesim " in Ne. 7. 52 , RV. 
" Nephushesim." 

NAPHTHAR, RV. NEPHTHAR. The legend 
recorded in 2 M. i. 19ff * says that at the time of the 
Captivity the sacred fire was hid. The descendants 
of the priests who hid it were sent by Nehemiah to 
fetch it, but they found only thick water. Nehe- 
miah directed the wood and the sacrifices to be 
sprinkled with it. When the sun shone out it 
ignited, and the fire consumed the sacrifices. The 
Persian king caused a wall to be built round the well 
where it was found, making the place holy. Nehe- 
miah " called this thing Nephthar, which is by 
interpretation ' cleansing ' ; but most men call it 
Nephthai (AV. " Nephi "). The legend probably 
rests on some real occurrence. There is no indica- 
tion whence the naphtha or petroleum was brought. 
This highly inflammable oil is found in the district 
of the Dead Sea. It also abounds in the Euphrates 
valley. There is no source of supply in Jerusalem 
or the neighbourhood. Bir Eyub, in the upper end 
of Wady en-Ndr, " Valley of Fire," has been asso- 
ciated with the name of Nehemiah, and has also 
been called the " Well of Fire " {BRP. i. 33if. note). 
The name was probably suggested by that of the 
valley. 

NASBAS, the nephew of Tobit who, with Achia- 
charus, came to the wedding of Tobias (To. II. 18 ). 
We ought probably to take him, however, as the 
nephew of Achiacharus. This is almost made cer- 
tain by the Story of Ahiqar and his Nephew. Nasbas 
is probably also to be identified with Aman in To. 
14. 10 {see the Story of Ahikar with introduction by 
J. R. Harris, pp. xxix., xlv.). 

NASI, AV. NASITH (1 Es. 5. 32 ), called " Ne- 
ziah " in Ez. 2. 54 . 

NASOR, RV. HAZOR, the scene of the battle 
between Jonathan Maccabaeus and the army of 
Demetrius (1 M. II. 67 ). It may be confidently 
identified with Hazor, as near to Cades {i.e. Kedesh- 
Naphtali). Probably through the error of a scribe 
the n of the preceding word fedion became at- 
tached to Asor, as the name would appear in Greek. 



NATHAN, one of those sent by Ezra to secure 
Levites for the Temple service (1 Es. 8. 44 ). 

NATHANAEL. (1) 1 Es. I. 9 = " Nethaneel " in 
2 Ch. 35. 9 . (2) 1 Es. 9. 22 = " Nethaneel " in Ez. 
io. 22 . (3) A Simeonite, son of Samuel, and an- 
cestor of Judith (Jth. 8. 1 ). 

NATHANIAS (1 Es. c.. 34 ) = " Nathan " in Ez. 



10 



39 



NAVE (Sr. 46. 1 ), the name invariably given to the 
father of Joshua in LXX ; " son of Nave " = Nun. 

NECODAN, RV. NEKODAN (1 Es. 5. 3 0- 
" Nekoda " in Ez. 2. 60 . 

NEEMIAS (Sr. 49. 13 ), RV. NEHEMIAH, wh. 
see in Canonical Section. 

NEHEMIAS. (1) One of the leaders of the 
people who returned with Zerobabel, Jesus, &c. 
(1 Es. 5. 8 ). (2) 1 Es. 5. 40 , the Tirshatha, son of 
Hachaliah. See Nehemiah. 

NEKODAN. See Necodan. 

NEPHI, AV. NEPHTHAI. See Naphthar. 

NEPHIS, RV. NIPHIS (1 Es. 5. 21 ) = " Magbish " 
in Ez. 2. 30 , 

NEPHTHAI. See Naphthar. 

NEPHTHALI, the form of the name " Naph- 
tali " in To. I. 2 , &c. 

NEPHTHAR. See Naphthar. 

NERIAS, the father of Baruch and Seraiah (Ba. 
I. 1 ), the Greek form of " Neriah." 

NETOPHAH, RV. NETOPHAS (1 Es. 5. 18 ) = 
" Netophah " in Ez. 2. 22 ; Ne. 7. 26 . 

NICANOR, son of Patroclus (2 M. 8. 9 ), was a 
general of Antiochus Epiphanes, and was appointed 
by Lysias, regent during the absence of Antiochus, 
as one of three generals to advance into Judaea " to 
root out the whole generation of the Jews." His 
army was defeated by Judas Maccabaeus at Em- 
maus, b.c. 166 (1 M. 4. ; 2 M. 8. 7ff -). After the 
death of Lysias and his ward, Antiochus Eupator, N. 
was appointed governor of Judaea by Demetrius 
(2 M. 14. 12 ). He had, or pretended, great affec- 
tion for Judas (w. 24, 25), and the two men met at 
Jerusalem and agreed upon terms of peace. These 
were disturbed by Alcimus, who saw in the union of 
N. and Judas the ruin of his own hopes, and pro- 
cured a peremptory order that Judas should be sent 
as a prisoner to Antioch. The manner of N. now 
changed. He entered the Temple, and during the 
solemn sacrifices he demanded of the priests the 
surrender of Judas, threatening, if he were not 
surrendered, to lay the Temple level with the 
ground, to break down the altar, and to erect on 
the spot a notable temple to Dionysus. On the 
escape of Judas an indecisive skirmish took place at 
Capharsalama. The decisive struggle took place at 
Beth-horon or Adasa (b.c 161). In the first onset 
of the battle N. fell, according to a late version, by 
the hand of Judas himself. The second book of the 
Maccabees ends with the record of the great victory, 



993 



2 1 



Nip 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Osa 



after which the Hebrews had the city in their own 
power. In honour of the victory the 13 th day of 
Adar, the day before Mordecai's day, was ordered 
to be kept for ever as a festival. The account here 
given seems best to reconcile the somewhat dis- 
crepant narratives of 1 and 2 Maccabees. 

NIPHIS. See Nephis. 

NISAN. See Year in Canonical Section. 

NOE (To. 4. 12 ), RV. NOAH. 

NOEBA (1 Es. 5. 31 ), corresponding to " Nekoda " 
in Ez. 2. 48 . 

NOOMA, AV. ETHMA, wh. see. 

NUMENIUS, son of Antiochus, one of the two 



envoys sent to Rome and Sparta by Jonathan the 
Maccabee and the senate, to confirm friendly rela- 
tions between these peoples and the Jews (1 M. 
iz. 13 -). The mission seems to have been entirely 
successful. At a later time (b.c. 141) he was sent on 
a second mission by Simon, taking with him as a gift 
a golden shield weighing a thousand minas, " in 
order to confirm the confederacy " with the Romans 
(1 M. 14. 24 ). Again the result was all that was 
desired, and about B.C. 139 the embassy "came 
from Rome having letters to the kings and countries " 
which were under Roman influence, favourable to 
the Jews (i5. 15ff -). 



OABDIUS, omitted in AV. (1 Es. c.. 27 ), a son of 

Ela who had married a foreign wife, called " Abdi " 
in Ez. io. 26 . ' 

OBDIA (1 Es. 5. 38 ), corresponding to " Habaiah " 
in Ez. 2. 61 ; " Hobaiah " in Ne. 7. 63 . 

OBETH, the son of Jonathan (1 Es. 8. 32 ), cor- 
responding to " Ebed " in Ez. 8. 6 . 

OCHIEL, RV. OCHIELUS (1 Es. I. 9 ), cor- 
responding to " Jeiel " in 2 Ch. 35. 9 . 

OCIDELUS (1 Es. 9. 22 ), one who had married a 
foreign wife. The name seems to be a corruption of 
" Jozabad," wh. corresponds to it in Ez. io. 22 . 

OCINA. Among the places on which " the fear 
and dread of him fell " at the approach of Holo- 
fernes, along the sea coast, are mentioned Sidon, 
Tyre, Sur, Ocina, and Jemnaan (Jth. 2. 28 ). They 
are evidently named in the order in which they 
stand, beginning at the north. Sidon and Tyre are 
well known. The identification of Sur is not so 
certain (see Sur). But moving southward the city of 
Acre (Ptolemais) seems best to correspond to Ocina. 
It was known as " Aeon " in the Middle Ages. 

ODOLLAM (2 M. 12. 38 ), RV. ADULLAM, 
wh. see. 

ODOMERA, AV. ODONARKES, wh. see. 

ODONARKES, RV. ODOMERA, an Arab 
chief slain by Jonathan in the course of a raid from 
Beth-basi, where he and his brother Simon had 
taken refuge from Bacchides (1 M. 9- 66 ). It is im- 
possible to account for the form of the name found 
in AV. It is entirely without MS. support. 

OLAMUS, one who had taken a foreign wife 
(1 Es. 9. 30 ), corresponding to " Meshullam " in Ez. 
io. 29 . 

OLYMPIUS, an epithet of Zeus, the Greek god, 
from Mount Olympus in Thessaly, the fabled home 
of the gods (2 M. 6. 2 ). 

OMAERUS (1 Es. 9 . 34 ), RV. ISMAERUS, wh. 
see. 

OMIARES. S^AREUS. 

ONIAS, a High Priest of the Jews, was son of 



Simon II., and succeeded to his office in b.c 198. 
The Jews in his time were subject to Syria, whose 
king, Seleucus IV., Philopator, greatly in want of 
money to pay the tribute due to Rome, had been 
informed by Simon, governor of the Temple, of the 
great riches contained in the sacred treasury, and had 
commissioned Heliodorus to seize them by force. 
The attempt, according to the tradition (2 M. 3.), 
was thwarted by the intercession of O., who was 
slandered to the king by Simon, as having caused 
the failure of his officer. On the death of Seleucus 
(b.c 175) O. was supplanted in his office by his 
brother Jason, who paid court to Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, the successor of Seleucus, by offering a 
larger tribute from the Jews. In turn Jason was 
supplanted by a younger brother, Menelaus (see 
Menelaus), who offered a still larger bribe for the 
office, and who procured the murder of O. (b.c 171) 
on account of a rebuke which he had given him for 
sacrilege (2 M. 32.-38.). Jews and Gentiles alike 
were shocked at the sacrilegious murder, which 
moved to tears even Antiochus Epiphanes " because 
of the sober and modest behaviour of him that was 
dead " (2 M. 4. 37 ). It was during the High-priest- 
hood of O. that took place the correspondence 
between the Lacedaemonians and the Jews. See 
Lacedemonians. 

ONUS (1 Es. 5. 22 ), a form of the name Ono. 

OREB (2 Es. 2. 33 ), RV. HOREB, wh. see. 

ORTHOSIA, AV. ORTHOSIAS (1 M. 15. 37 ). 
Pliny (HN. v. 17) places this city north of Tripoli, 
to the south of the river Eleutherus (Nahr el- 
Keblr). According to the Peutinger Tables, it was 
12 Roman miles north of Tripoli, and 30 south of 
Antaradus on the coast of Phoenicia. The site is 
not certainly identified. Porter locates it on the 
south bank of Nahr el- B arid. Hither Tryphon 
escaped when besieged in Dora by Antiochus 
Sidetes. 

OSAIAS (1 Es. 8. 48 ), corresponding to " Jesh- 
aiah " in Ez. 8. 19 . 



994 



Ose 



APOCRYPHA 



Pha 



OSEA (2 Es. 13. 40 ), Hoshea, the last monarch of 
the northern kingdom. 

OSEAS (2 Es. i. 39 ), Hosea the prophet. 

OTHONIAS (1 Es. a. 28 ), corresponding to 
" Mattaniah " in Ez. io. 27 , of which name it is a 
corruption. 



OZIAS. (1) AV. AZIA, wh. see. (2) AV. 
EZIAS, wh. see. (3) Son of Micha, one of the 
governors of Bethulia (Jth. 6. 15 , &c). 

OZIEL, an ancestor. of Judith (Jth. 8. 1 ). 

OZORA, RV. EZORA (1 Es. 9 . 34 ), corresponding 
to " Machnadebai " in Ez. io. 40 . 



PACHON (3 M. 6. 38 ), the name of an Egyptian 
month, corresponding to April. 

PATHEUS (1 Es. 9. 23 ), corresponding to Petha- 
hiah the Levite in Ez. io. 23 . 

PATROCLUS, the father of Nicanor the Syrian 
general, the great antagonist of Judas Maccabaeus 
(2 M. 8. 9 ). 

PEDIAS, AV. PELIAS (1 Es. oj 4 ), corresponding 
to " Bedeiah " in Ez. io. 35 . 

PELIAS. See preceding article. 

PERIZZITES (Jth. 5. 16 ), AV. PHEREZITES, 
wh. see. 

PERSEPOLIS, the capital of Persia proper, was 
taken by Alexander the Great and given up to 
plunder. The royal palaces were also burned. In 
2 M. 9. lff * is recorded an attempt by Antiochus 
Epiphanes to rob the temple here. The temples, 
being constructed of stone, may have escaped the 
conflagration in which the city, mostly of wood, was 
consumed. The inhabitants defended themselves 
and their temple against Antiochus, who departed 
" with dishonour." The ruins of Persepolis, in- 
cluding those of a palace built by Darius Hystaspis, 
and of another built by Xerxes, are seen at Chehl 
Minar, " the Forty Pillajrs," near Istakher. They 
stood on a platform which had been hewn out of the 
rock. The city probably lay in the plain below. 



I t 




Persepolis 

PERSEUS. In 1 M. 8. 5 the defeat of Per- 
seus, king of Chittim, by the Romans is mentioned. 
The reference is to the battle of Pydna, when L. 
yEmilius Paullus overwhelmed his army. Perseus 
surrendered to the Roman general, and graced his 
triumph. ' Through the influence of his conqueror 



Perseus was allowed to spend the rest of his days 
in retirement at Alba. He was reputed son of 
Philip V. of Macedonia : with his fall the inde- 
pendence of Macedonia ended. 




Tetradrachm of Perseus, King of Macedonia 

PHAATH-MOAB (1 Es. 5. 11 ) = " Pahath-Moab" 
in Ez. 2. 6 , &c. 

PHACARETH (1 Es. 5. 34 ) = " Pochereth-Hazze- 
baim " in Ez. 2. 57 . 

PfLEZELD^EUS (1 Es. 5. 38 , RVm. ; " Zorzel- 
leus " in text). 

PHAISUR (1 Es. c.. 22 ) = " Pashur " in Ez. io. 22 . 

PHALDAIUS, RV. PHALDEUS (1 Es. c-. 44 ), 
corresponding to " Pedaiah " in Ne. 8. 4 . 

PHALEAS (1 Es. 5. 29 ), corresponding to " Pa- 
don " in Ez. 2. 44 . 

PHALIAS (1 Es. c.. 48 ), AV. BIATAS, wh. see. 

PHALTIEL, AV. SALATHIEL, wh. see (2 Es. 
5. 16 ; RVm. " Psaltiel "). 

PHARACIM, RV. PHARAKIM. The "sons 
of Pharacim " were a family of Temple servants 
(1 Es. 5. 31 ). The/ are not mentioned in Ezra and 
Nehemiah. 

PHARATHON, AV. PHARATHONI, one of 
the " strong cities in Judaea " fortified by the 
Syrian general Bacchides (1 M. 9. 50 ). It is named 
with Timnath and Tephon. LXX reads " Tim- 
nath-pharathon," taking this as the name of one 
place ; and is followed by some authorities. It 
may be represented now either by Fer'on, c. 1 5 miles 
west of Nablus, or by Fir'ata, c. six miles to the 
south-west of Nablus. Prof. G. A. Smith suggests 
some fortress commanding Wady Far'' ah (HGHL. 1 

355). 

PHAREZ (1 Es. 5. 9 ), RV. PHOROS, wh. see. 

PHARIDA, RV. PHARIRA (1 Es. 5. 33 ), cor- 
responding to " Peruda " in Ez. 2. 55 . 

PHASELIS is mentioned only in 1 M. 15. 23 as one 



995 



Pha 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pto 



of the cities to which letters were sent from Rome in 
favour of the Jews. It stood on the Lycian coast 
near the border of Pamphylia. It was built on a 
rock between 50 and 100 ft. high, joined to the 
mainland by a low isthmus. The mountains of 
Solyma behind it reach a height of over 8000 ft. 
Between them and the sea runs the narrow pass of 
Mount Klimax, where Alexander almost perished 
with his army through overflowing waves driven up 
by the wind. On either side of the promontory 
excellent harbours were formed. These in later 
times were largely used by pirates. The situation 
gave it many advantages for commerce ; and in the 
sixth cent, b.c it had a share in the Hellenium at 
Naucratis in Egypt, where representatives of the 
various trading communities of the Greeks regu- 
lated commercial questions and decided in matters 
of dispute. Jews naturally found their way to such 
a trading centre, and in b.c. 139 there appears to 
have been a considerable colony. Its association 
with pirates led to the loss of its independence. In 
the Byzantine time it was the seat of a bishop. It is 
now represented by Tekir-ova. Of ancient remains 
there are the ruins of a temple, a theatre, and a 
stadium, while the lines of the masonry of the old 
harbour can be traced under water. 

PHASIRON. The sons of Phasiron are men- 
tioned as an Arabian tribe overcome by Jonathan 
(1 M. 9- 66 ). Nothing farther is known of them. 

PHASSARON, RV. PHASSURUS (1 Es. 5. 25 ), 
corresponding to " Passhur " in Ez. 2. 38 . 

PHERESITES, RV. PHEREZITES (1 Es. 8. 69 ), 
the Perizzites. 

PHEREZITES, AV. PHERESITES (1 Es. 8. 69 ), 
EV. 2 Es. I. 21 and AV. Jth. 5. 16 = Perizzite. 

PHILARCHES, RV. "the phylarch " (2 M. 
8. 32 ). AV. takes this as a proper name. RV. is 
probably correct in taking it as the title of the 
officer in command of Timotheus' cavalry, " a most 
unholy man, who had done the Jews much hurt." 

PHILIP. (1) The king of Macedonia, Philip II., 
father of Alexander the Great (1 M. I. 1 , 6. 2 ). 



defend themselves being burned together in a cave 
where they had taken refuge (2 M. 6. 11 ). Alarmed 
at the increasing power of Judas Maccabaeus, he 
urged action against him, and in consequence 
Nicanor and Gorgias were despatched with a great 
army " to destroy the whole race of Judaea " (2 M. 
8. 8fl *). He is probably identical with (4) the 
foster-brother of Antiochus Epiphanes. When he 
felt his end approaching, Antiochus " set him over 
all his kingdom, and gave him his diadem, and his 
robe, and his signet-ring, to the end he should bring 
Antiochus his son and nourish him up that he might 
be king " (1 M. 6. 14f# ). Lysias, then warring in 
Judaea, obtained possession of the young king, made 
terms with Judas, and marched against Antioch, 
which he stormed, and put Philip to death (1 M. 
6. 17 ; Ant. XII. ix. 7). In 2 M. 9. 29 it is said that 
Philip, having conveyed home the body of Anti- 
ochus, fearing the son, " betook himself to Ptolemy 
Philometor in Egypt." The two accounts are 
irreconcilable. 

PHINEES. (1) The son of Eleazar the son of 
Aaron, Phinehas (i Es. 5. 5 , 8. 2 - 29 ; 2 Es. i. 2 ; 
Sr. 45. 23 ; 1 M. 2. 26 ). (2) RV. PHINOE (1 Es. 
5. 31 ), corresponding to " Paseah " in Ez. 2. 49 . 
(3) A priest in the time of Ezra, father of Eleazar 
(1 Es. 8. 63 ). (4) Phinehas, the son of Heli (Eli) and 
father of Achias, in the genealogy of Ezra (2 Es. I. 2 ). 
There is evidently an error here, as Ezra was de- 
scended from Eleazar, while Eli belonged to the line 
of Ithamar. 

PHINOE. See Phinees (2). 

PHISON, the Greek form of the name Pison 
(Sr. 24. 25 ). 

PHOROS (1 Es. 5. 9 , 9. 2 $), AV. PHAREZ (8. 30 ) = 
" Parosh " in Ez. 2. 3 , 8. 3 , io. 25 . 

PHRURAI, AV. PHURIM (Est. Ad. u. 1 ) = 

PURIM. 

PHURIM. See preceding art. 
PHYLARCH. See Philarches. 
PIRA (1 Es. 5. 19 ), corresponding to " Chephirah " 
in Ez. 2. 25 . 

POSIDONIUS, one of the envoys sent by Nica- 
nor to Judas Maccabaeus, " to give and to receive 
pledges of friendship " (2 M. 14. 19 ). 

PSALTIEL. See Phaltiel in Canonical Sec- 
tion. 

PTOLEMAIS was the name given to the ancient 
stronghold and seaport of Accho, probably by 
Ptolemy II., Philadelphus. As regards a harbour 
it was the town most favourably situated on the 
Palestine coast. It was for a long time a flourishing 
centre of commerce, and it plays an important part 
Phrygian left by Antiochus Epiphanes as governor in the history of the period. dealt with in the books 
of Jerusalem, described as " more barbarous than of the Maccabees and Josephus. It joined with 
him that set him there " (2 M. 5. 22 ). He treated Tyre and Sidon and all Galilee against the Jews 
the Jews with great barbarity, certain who, out of (1 M. 5. 15 ), and with theirs its forces suffered defeat 
respect for the Sabbath, would not on that day at the hands of Simon (v. 2 if. ; Ant. XII. viii. I, 

996 




DlDRACHM OF PHILIP V. OF MACEDON 

(2) The king mentioned with his reputed son 
Perseus, Philip V. of Macedon (1 M. 8. 5 ). (3) A 



Pto 



APOCRYPHA 



Pto 



2, 6). Alexander Balas took it from Demetrius 
(i M. io. 1 ), and the latter assigned it and the 
land pertaining to it to the jews, as a source of 
revenue for the Temple (v. 39). Here, after the 
fall of Demetrius, Alexander married Cleopatra, the 
daughter of Ptolemy (vv. 57f.)- On the invitation 
of Alexander, Jonathan met the two kings here, was 
honourably entertained, and received from them 
many valuable gifts (vv. 59$. ; Ant. XIII. iv. 1, 
6, 9). In Ptolemais Jonathan was treacherously 
taken by Trypho (1 M. I2. 45ff - ; Ant. XIII. vi. 2 ; 
BJ. I. ii. 1). Besieged in succession by Alexander 



and the Southern or Egyptian. Ptolemy was the 
name of the Macedonian line of kings that succeeded 
to the Egyptian portion of Alexander's empire. 
They were also called Lagidae, from Ptolemy Lagus, 
the founder of the dynasty. 

Ptolemy I. (Soter, " Saviour," perhaps from his 
successful defence of the Rhodians in B.C. 306), the 
son of Lagus and Arsinoe, the mistress of Philip, was 
born about b.c. 367. After assuming the satrapy of 
Egypt, he was engaged in numerous campaigns, first 
against Perdiccas, and afterwards against Antigonus 
of Syria. As formerly, Judaea was the great bone of 




Ptolemais 



Jannaeus and Ptolemy Lathyrus (Ant. XIII. xii. 4), 
it was taken by Cleopatra, the mother of the latter 
(ib. xiii. 2). It was taken and at once relinquished 
by Tigranes the Armenian (ib. xvi. 4 ; BJ. I. v. 3). 
Ptolemais opened its gates to Pacorus the Parthian 
(Ant. XIV. xiii. 3 ; BJ. I. xiii. 1) ; finally it fell 
to Rome, and was made a colony with the title 
Colonia Claudii Ccesaris Ptolemais. Ptolemais was 
a natural base for successive Roman generals oper- 
ating against the Jews. Later it was the seat of a 
bishop. 

PTOLEMY (Ptolemaios, " warlike "). Out of 
the chaos that resulted on the death of Alexander 
the Great in b.c. 323 there arose four kingdoms 
(Dn. 8. 8 ) : the Western or Greek kingdom proper, 
the Northern or Armenian, the Eastern or Syrian, 



contention between East and West. On the whole 
the Jews were kindly treated by Ptolemy, and the 
Jewish colony in Alexandria rapidly increased in 
numbers. It was not until b.c. 305 that Ptolemy 
assumed the title of king. Judaea was formally 
annexed by him in b.c. 301. During this reign the 
famous museum at Alexandria and the equally 
famous library were founded. Soter was a great 
patron of art and literature, encouraging learned 
Greeks, like Euclid, to make Alexandria their home. 
He was himself a man of kindliness, courtesy, and 
good sense. In b.c 285 he abdicated in favour of 
his Son, and he died in b.c. 283. He is referred to 



in Dn. 11. 



the king of the south." 



Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus, " brother-loving "), 
the second son of Soter, succeeded in b.c. 285. 



997 



Pto 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Pto 



Unembarrassed by foreign wars, he devoted himself 
to various internal administrative and agricultural 
reforms. He also fostered trade and built the great 




OCTODRACHM OF PTOLEMY II 

" Pharos." Like his predecessor, he brought many 
eminent poets and artists to Alexandria. During 
his reign Manetho wrote his Greek history of Egypt, 
and the Greek version of the OT. (Septuagint) was 
begun. Allusion is made to this king in Dn. n. 6 . 
He died in B.C. 247. 

Ptolemy III. (Euergetes, " benefactor "), suc- 
ceeded his father in b.c 247. The stele of Cano- 
pus was set up in the ninth year of his reign. An 
ambitious prince, he carried his conquests far into 
the east and south. While his own tastes were 
mainly scientific, the general literary brilliance of 




OCTODRACHM (EGYPTIAN TALENT) OF PTOLEMY III 

the Alexandrian school was still maintained. Dn. 
1 1. 7 ' 9 refers to the origin of his title, viz. the restora- 
tion of the Egyptian idols carried off by Cambyses 
nearly three centuries before. He died in b.c 222. 
Ptolemy IV. (Philopator, " father - loving "), 
succeeded his father in b.c 222. He was forced 
into a war to recover Palestine, and defeated An- 
tiochus the Great at Raphia in b.c 217. The 
dynasty began to decline with this dissolute prince. 
At Jerusalem on one occasion he incensed the Jews 
by attempting to enter the Holy of Holies. After- 
wards he persecuted them. In his reign the first 




Tetradrachm of Ptolemy IV 

great revolution broke out, and Egyptian influence 
generally began to wane. Reference is made to him 
in Dn. n. 10 " 12 . He died in b.c 205. 



Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes, " illustrious ") suc- 
ceeded his father at the age of five. Antiochus 
then renewed his attack, this time successfully. 
The Egyptians under Scopas were badly beaten, 
and Palestine, with Ccele-Syria, passed finally from 
Egyptian into Syrian control. Antiochus next 
betrothed his daughter Cleopatra to Ptolemy, and 
gave him as her dowry the taxes of the conquered 
provinces. The Romans now began to interfere in 
the affairs of Egypt. Ptolemy was poisoned in B.C. 
181. The Rosetta stone was set up in the eighth 
year of this reign. 

Ptolemy VI. (Eupator, " of noble father "), the 




Tetradrachm of Ptolemy V 

son of the above, reigned only a few months, 
b.c 181. 

Ptolemy VII. (Philometor, " mother-loving "), 
son of Ptolemy V., succeeded in b.c 1 81. For the 
first seven years the kingdom was under the regency 
of his mother Cleopatra. In b.c 171 Antiochus 
captured the young king, but his brother, Euer- 
getes II., Ptolemy IX., was raised to the throne by 
the Alexandrians. The two brothers reigned con- 
jointly from b.c 170 to 165. Then Philometor 
reigned as sole monarch from 165 till his death in 
b.c 146. He was a good ruler, mild and benevo- 
lent ; and is mentioned by name in 1 M. I. 18 . Dn. 




Tetradrachm of Ptolemy VI 

11. 25 - 30 refers to his war with Antiochus. From 
this point Roman ascendency in Egypt became 
more marked, while the personal character of the 
Ptolemies rapidly degenerated. 

Ptolemy VIII. (Philopator Neos), the young son 
of Philometor, reigned a few months, and was then 
murdered by Physcon, b.c 146. 

Ptolemy IX., Euergetes II. (Physcon, "fat- 
paunch "), brother of Ptolemy VII., began his long 
reign in b.c 146. A strong and ambitious ruler, he 
extended his sway into Nubia far beyond that of 
his predecessors. His enemies have painted him 
as a monster of cruelty and vice, calling him by the 



qq8 



Pto 



APOCRYPHA 



Rap 



nicknames Physcon and Kakergetes. He is the 
Euergetes referred to in the Prologue to Sirach. He 
died in b.c. 117. 

Ptolemy X., Soter II., Philometor II. (Lathyrus), 
son of Physcon, reigned jointly with his mother, 
Cleopatra, until his banishment in b.c. 107, when 
his younger brother, Ptolemy XI., Alexander I., 
was made co-regent with his mother. Ptolemy XL 
was himself banished in b.c 89, and slain in b.c. 87. 
Ptolemy X. was then recalled, and died in b.c 81. 
Ptolemy X. was a kind and humane ruler, like 
his uncle Philometor. During this period of rest- 
lessness, the Romans greatly strengthened their 
position in Egypt. 

Ptolemy XII., Alexander II., son of Ptolemy XL, 
was slain, after a reign of nineteen days, in b.c 81. 
With him the legitimate succession of the Lagidae 
became extinct. 

Ptolemy XIII. (Auletes, "flute-player"), a 
natural son of Lathyrus, reigned from b.c 81 to 52. 
His second daughter was the famous Cleopatra, 
born in b.c 68. He was " the most idle and worth- 
less of the Ptolemies." Driven from his kingdom 



by his oppressed subjects, he bribed the Romans to 
restore him. 

Ptolemy XIV., son of the above, according to 
his father's will was to marry Cleopatra, his sister, 
and reign jointly with her, b.c 52. But he banished 
Cleopatra, who was brought back by Caesar, b.c 48. 
Ptolemy XIV. was drowned, when his younger 
brother, Ptolemy XV., was made co-regent with 
Cleopatra by Caesar, b.c 47. Cleopatra caused 
him to be put to death, b.c 45, and she assumed 
her son by Caesar, Caesarion, as co-regent under 
the title of Ptolemy XVI. After the murder 
of Caesarion, and the suicide of Cleopatra, Egypt 
became a Roman province in b.c 30. 

J. M'GlLCHRIST. 

PYRAMID. Pyramids appear only in connec- 
tion with the mausoleum erected by Simon Mac- 
cabaeus for his family at Modin (1 M. 13. 28 ; Ant. 
XIII. vi. 6). These pyramids were built on the 
top of the structure {see Modin). There is nothing 
to show whether or not they varied in size. The 
idea of the sepulchral pyramid may have been 
borrowed from Egypt. 



Q 

QUINTUS MEMMIUS. 



Memmius. 



R 

RABSACES (Sr. 48. 18 ), RV. RABSHAKEH, wh. The ruins cover an area of 4500 x 3500 yards. 

see in Canonical Section. The walls are of enormous thickness. They were 

RAGAU. See following art. flanked by towers of great strength, and connected 

RAGES is mentioned frequently in the book of with a lofty citadel at the north-eastern angle. 

Tobit, and twice (i. 5 « 15 ) in that of Judith. Here RAGUEL, a pious Jew in the city of Ecbatana, 

Tobit had deposited ten talents of silver, for the the husband of Edna, and father of Sarah, who be- 

recovery of which his son Tobias set out, accom- came the wife of Tobias the son of Tobit. He 

panied by the angel Raphael ; and by the help of the belonged to the kindred of Tobit (To. 3. 7> 17 , 6. 12 , 



latter the treasure was secured (To. I. 14 , 4. 1 , &c). 

In Judith the name appears in the form of Ragau. 

The city of Rages occupied a position of great 



&c). The name appears in En. 20. 4 as that of an 
archangel. 
RAMATHEM, RV. RAMATHAIM (1 M. n. 34 ), 



strategic importance in North-eastern Media. The the seat of a "government" transferred from 

site is identified with Rhey, a. ruin of imposing char- Samaria to Judaea by Demetrius Nicator. *It is 

acter and extent, about five miles south-east of probably identical with Ramathaim, which see in 

Teheran. It commanded the Caspian Gates, the Canonical Section. 

one pass over the mountain communicating be- RAMESSE (Jth. I. 9 ), RV. RAMESES, which see 

tween Bactria, India, and Afghanistan, and Media • in Canonical Section. 

and Mesopotamia. According to an ancient tradi- RAPHAEL, " God heals," describes himself as 

tion, it was the birthplace of Zoroaster. Frawar- " one of the seven holy angels, which present the 

tish, the Median rebel, when defeated by Darius prayers of the saints, and go in before the glory of 

Hystaspes, fled to Rages. Here he was captured the Holy One" (To. 12. 15 ; cp. Rv. 8. 7 ). In the 

and carried to Ecbatana for execution {Behistun book of Tobit he assumes the form and name of 

Inscription, in which it is called Raga). It was Azarias (" J" ' . is a help "), a kinsman of Tobit, and 

visited by Alexander in his pursuit of Darius Codo- is appointed the guide and companion of Tobias in 

mannas. Seleucus I. rebuilt it under the name of his journey. Azarias relieves Sarah of the distress 

Europus. For a time under the Parthians it was caused by Asmodaeus, secures for Tobias the treasure 

called Arsacia. deposited in Rages, conducts Tobias and his wife 

999 



Rap 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sad 



safely home, and heals Tobit of his blindness. 
Thereafter he reveals his true character, shows how 
he brought the prayer of Tobit and of Sarah before 
the Holy One, and how he was with Tobit in the 
pious deeds that had exposed him to peril. 

The functions assigned to Raphael in Jewish 
tradition are in harmony with his name. He is a 
healer. His place is behind the throne with the 
standard of Ephraim, and he is to heal the breach in 
Israel caused by the schism of Jeroboam, a member 
of that tribe. Note the healing of Sarah and of 
Tobit. In the book of Enoch he is called the angel 
of the spirits of men ; and by removing the fallen 
angels who had married women he is to heal the 
earth which they had polluted. He was one of 
Abraham's angelic visitors, his business being to give 
Sarah strength to conceive seed. After the Flood 
the descendants of Noah became the victims of a 
variety of ailments. Raphael is said to have in- 
structed Noah as to the curative properties of 
plants and roots, these instructions being written in 
a Book of Noah (Ronsch, Buch der Jubilaen, 385!.). 

RAPHAIM, an ancestor of Judith (Jth. 8. 1 ). 

RAPHON, a city east of the Jordan, " beyond 
the brook " or zvddy, and apparently not far from 
Carnaim. Timotheus, with a mixed host, en- 
camped against it, but was utterly routed by Judas 
Maccabeus (1 M. 5. 37fl - ; Ant. XII. viii. 4). It is 
probably identical with Raphana mentioned by 
Pliny (HN. V. xviii. 74) ; but the site is still in 
doubt. 

RASSES. The children of Rasses are named 
with the children of Ishmael as having been spoiled 
by Holofernes in the course of his march against 
Judaea (Jth. 2. 23 ). Vlg. reads Tharsis (Tarsus), which 
some think may be the original. Others have sug- 
gested Rhosos, a mountain range and town on the 
Gulf of Issus. Others, again, think Rosh (Ek. 38. 2 , 



&c.) may be intended. There is really nothing to 
lead to any certain decision. 

RATHUMUS, " the story writer," or recorder 
(1 Es. 2. 16 , &c), corresponds to " Rehum the 
chancellor " in Ez» 4« 8 , &c. 

RAZIS, an elder of Jerusalem, " a lover of his 
countrymen, and a man of very good report, and 
one called Father of the Jews for his good will 
toward them . . . who had jeoparded body and 
life with all earnestness for the religion of the Jews " 
(2 M. I4. 37fl> ). Nicanor, hearing of this man, de- 
signing to strike a heavy blow at the Jews, sent 
a company to take him. Rather than fall into 
Nicanor's hands, he committed suicide. The re- 
volting details of his action are chronicled with 
obvious admiration by the writer of 2 Maccabees. 
A noteworthy point is his clear confidence that 
" the Lord of the life and the spirit " was able to 
restore him. . 

REELIAS, AV. REELIUS (1 Es. 5. 8 ), appa- 
rently a scribal error duplicating the name of 
" Reelaiah " {see Reesaiah), instead of Bigvai, which 
occupies this place in Ez. 2. 2 ; Ne. J. 1 . 

REESAIAS, RV. RESAIAS (Ez. 5. 8 ), corre- 
sponding to " Reelaiah " in Ez. 2. 2 . 

RESAIAS. See preceding art. 

RHODOCHUS, a soldier in the ranks of Judas 
Maccabasus who betrayed " the secrets," no doubt 
the plans, of Judas to Antiochus Eupator. His 
guilt becoming known, " he was sought out and 
taken and shut up in prison " (2 M. 13. 21 ). 

RHODUS (1 M. 15. 23 ), RV. RHODES, wh. see 
in Canonical Section. 

ROIMUS (1 Es. 5. 8 ), corresponding to " Rehum " 
in Ez. 2. 2 . 

ROSIN, RV. NAPHTHA (ST. 23 ), part of the 
fuel thrown in to heat the furnace into which the 
three Hebrew youths were put. 



S 



SABANNEUS (i Es. g. 33 ), AV. BANNAIA, wh. 

see. 

SABANNUS, AV. SABBAN (1 Es. 8. 63 ), cor- 
responding to " Binnui " in Ez. 8. 33 . 

SAB AT. (1) RV. SAPHAT (1 Es. 5. 34 ), head of 
a family of Solomon's servants. There is no name 
to correspond with this in Ezra and Nehemiah. 
(2) The month Sebat (1 M. 16. 14 ). 

SABATEAS, RV. SABATEUS (1 Es. c>. 48 ), cor- 
responding to " Shabbethai " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

SABATHUS, AV. SABATUS (1 Es. c,. 28 ), cor- 
responding to " Zabad " in Ez. io. 27 . 

SABBAN, RV. SABANNUS, wh. see. 

SABBATEUS, AV. SABBATHEUS (1 Es. 9. 14 ), 
corresponding to " Shabbethai " in Ez. io. 15 . 

SABBATHEUS. See preceding art. 



SABBEUS (1 Es. c.. 32 ), corresponding to " She- 
maiah " in Ez. io. 31 . 

SABI. (1) 1 Es. 5. 28 , AV. SAMI, corresponding 
to " Shobai " in Ez. 2. 42 . (2) 1 Es. 5. 34 , RV. 
SABIE. In the corresponding lists of Ezra (2. 57 ) 
and Nehemiah (7- 59 ) we read " the children of 
Pochereth-hazzebaim," AV. " Pochereth of Ze- 
baim." 

SABIAS (1 Es. i. 9 ), AV. ASSABIAS, wh. see. 

SADAMIAS, AV. SALEMAS (2 Es. i. 1 ), cor- 
responding to " Shallum " in 1 Ch. 6. 12 . 

SADAS, RV. ASTAD, wh. see. 

SADDEUS, RV. LODDEUS (1 Es. 8. 45 ), in 1 Es. 
8. 46 AV. called DADDEUS, wh. see. 

SADDUC, RV. SADDUK (1 Es. 8. 2 ), Zadok the 
High Priest ; ancestor of Ezra (Ez. J. 2 ). 



Sal 



APOCRYPHA 



Sel 



SALAMIEL, AV. SAMAEL (Jth. 8. 1 ), caUed 
"Shelumiel" in -Nu. i. 6 , &c. 

SALASADAI (Jth. 8. 1 ), one of the ancestors of 
Judith. 

SALEM, AV. SALUM (i Es. 8. 1 ), an ancestor of 
Ezra, corresponding to " Shallum " in Ez. J? ; 
called Salemas in 2 Es. I. 1 (AV. Sadamias). 

SALEMAS (2 Es. i. 1 ), AV. SADAMIAS, wh. 
see. See also preceding art. 

SALIMOTH, AV. ASSALIMOTH, wh. see. 

SALLAMUS, AV. SALLUMUS (1 Es. c.. 25 ), 
corresponding to " Shallum " in Ez. io. 24 . 

SALMANASAR (2 Es. 13. 40 ) = Shalmaneser, 
wh. see. 

SALOAS, AV. TALSAS (1 Es. c>. 22 ), correspond- 
ing to " Elasah " in Ez. io. 22 . 

SALOM. (1) Ba. i. 7 = Shallum, father of Hil- 
kiah. (2) 1 M. 2. 26 , RV. SALU, father of Zimri 
(Nu. 25. 14 ). 

SALU. See preceding art. 

SALUM. (1) 1 Es. 5. 28 , head of a family of 
gate-keepers, corresponding to " Shallum " in Ez. 
2. 42 . (2) AV. SALEM, wh. see. 

SAMAEL, RV. SALAMIEL, wh. see. 

SAMAIAS. (1) 1 Es. i. 9 , a Levite in the 
days of Josiah, corresponding to " Shemaiah " in 
2 Ch. 35. 9 . (2) 1 Es. 8. 39 , a son of Adonikam, cor- 
responding to " Shemaiah " in Ez. 8. 13 . (3) To. 
5. 13 , RV. SHEMAIAH, the father of Ananias and 
Jathan. 

SAMATUS (1 Es. 9. 34 ), a son of Esora, possibly 
corresponding to " Shallum " in Ez. io. 42 . 

SAMEIUS, RV. SAMEUS (1 Es. 9. 21 ), corre- 
sponding to " Shemaiah " in Ez. io. 21 . 

SAMELLIUS, AV. SEMELLIUS (1 Es. 2. 16 , 
&c), corresponding to " Shimshai the scribe " in 
Ez. 4. 8 . 

SAMEUS. See Sameius. 

SAMI, RV. SABI, wh. see. 

SAMIS, RV. SAMEIS (1 Es. c.. 34 ), corresponding 
to " Shimei " in Ez. io. 38 . 

SAMMUS (1 Es. 9. 43 ), corresponding to " She- 
ma " in Ne. 8. 4 . 

SAMPSAMES, mentioned in the list of peoples 
to whom letters from Rome were sent, favourable 
to the Jews (1 M. 15. 23 ). No probable identifica- 
tion has been suggested. 

SANAAS, AV. ANNAAS, wh. see. 

SANABASSAR (1 Es. 2. 12 - 15 ), corresponding to 
" Sheshbazzar " in Ez. I. 8 - 11 . 

SANABASSARUS (1 Es. 6. 18 - 20 ), corresponding 
to " Sheshbazzar " in Ez. 5. 14 ' 16 . 

SANASIB, the head of a priestly family (1 Es. 
5. 24 ), not named in Ezra and Nehemiah. 

SAPHAT. (1) AV. SABAT, head of a family 
of Solomon's servants who returned with Zerub- 
babel (1 Es. 5 > 34 ). (2) 1 Es. 5. 9 , corresponding to 
" Shepha-tiah " in Ez. 2 4 . 



SAPHATIAS (1 Es. 8. 34 ), corresponding to 
" Shephatiah " in Ez. 8. 8 , called Saphat in 1 Es. 

SAPHETH, RV. SAPHUTHI (1 Es. 5. 33 ), cor- 
responding to " Shephatiah " in Ez. 2. 57 . 

SAPHUTHI. See preceding art. 

SARABIAS (1 Es. 9. 48 ), corresponding to 
" Sherebiah " in Ne. 8. 7 . 

SARAIAS. (1) 1 Es. 5. 5 , Seraiah, the High 
Priest in the time of Zedekiah (1 Ch. 6. 14 ). (2) 
Seraiah, the father of Ezra (1 Es. 8. 1 ; cp. Ez. 7. 1 ). 

SARAMEL (1 M. 14. 28 ), RV. ASARAMEL, 
wh. see. 

SARCHEDONUS (To. I. 21 ), a form of the name 
of Esar-haddon. Properly it should, be " Sacher- 
donus." 

SARDEUS, RV. ZARDEUS (1 Es. 9 . 28 ), cor- 
responding to " Aziza " in Ez. io. 27 . 

SAREA, one of the swift scribes of Esdras (2 Es. 

SAROTHIE, head of a family of Solomon's ser- 
vants (1 Es. 5- 34 ), not named in Ezra and Nehemiah. 

SATHRABUZANES (1 Es. 6. 3 ), AVm. " She- 
thar-boznai," cp. Ez. 5. 3 , &c. 

SAVARAN (1 M. 6. 43 ), RV. AVARAN, which 
see. 

SAVIAS (1 Es. 8. 2 ), an ancestor of Ezra, cor- 
responding to " Uzzi " in Ez. 7*. 

SCYTHIANS. The references in 3 M. y.\ 
" With a cruelty more barbarous than the customs 
of the Scythians," and 2 M. 4. 47 , " Those hapless 
men ... if they had pleaded even before Scythians 
would have been discharged uncondemned," show 
the fashion in which that people were regarded. 
They served, indeed, as the popular embodiment of 
what was rude and barbarous. See Scythians in 
Canonical Section. 

SCYTHOPOLIS (Jth. 3. 10 ; 2 M. 12. 29 ) was the 
name given to Beth-shean in Greek times. The 
origin of the name is obscure. It may possibly be 
traced to the invasion by the Scythians who, George 
Syncellus says, " overran Palestine, and took pos- 
session of Beisan, which from them is called 
Scythopolis." Herodotus records an invasion of 
Palestine by the Scythians, c. b.c 600 (i. 104-6), 
which may be identical with this. See Beth-shean 
in Canonical Section. 

SECHENIAS. (1) 1 Es. 8. 29 , called " Shecha- 
niah " in Ez. 8. 3 . (2) 1 Es. 8. 32 , called " Shecha- 
niah " in Ez. 8. 5 . 

SEDECIAS. See next art. 

SEDEKIAS. (1) AV. ZEDECHIAS (1 Es. i. 46 ), 
King Zedekiah of Judah. (2) AV. SEDECIAS 
(Ba. I. 1 ), the father of Maaseas, an ancestor of 
Baruch. (3) AV. SEDECIAS (Ba. i. 8 ), son of 
Josiah, king of Judah. 

SELEMIA, one of the swift scribes of Esdras 
(2 Es. 14. 24 ). 



1001 



2 1 2 



Sel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sel 



SELEMIAS (i Es. c>. 34 ), called " Shelemiah " in 
Ez. io. 39 . 

SELEUCID KINGS, THE. The Seleucidse, or 
descendants of Seleucus, were kings of Syria from 
312 to 65 b.c. The dynasty (including the alien 
usurpers, Alexander Balas, Diodotus Tryphon, 
Alexander Zebina (or Zabinas), and Tigranes) com- 
prised the following twenty-six monarchs : — 



Their Succession. 



I 23 



-26. 



Seleucus I., Nicator, "The Conqueror" 

Antiochus I., Soter, " The Saviour" 

Antiochus II., Theos, "The God" ("king 
of the north," Dan. 11. 6 ) 

Seleucus II., Callinicus, "The Glori- 
ously Triumphant " 

Seleucus III., Ceraunus, " The Thunder- 
bolt " 

Antiochus III., The Great 

Seleucus IV., Philopator, " Fond of his 
Father" 

Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, "The Illus- 
trious" — Epimanes, " The Madman" . 

Antiochus V., Eupator, "The Son of a 
Good Sire" 

Demetrius I., Soter, " The Saviour" 

Alexander Balas 

Demetrius II., Nicator, "The Con- 
queror" ..... 146-138, 

Antiochus VI., Theos, " The God" 

Diodotus, Tryphon, " The Voluptuous " 

Antiochus VII., Sidetes . 

Alexander Zebina (Zabinas) 

Antiochus VIII., Grypus, "The Hook- 
nosed," son of Sidetes, conqueror of 
Zebina 

Seleucus V., Nicator, " The Conqueror " 

Antiochus IX., Cyzicenus, " Of Cyzicus," 
half brother of Grypus .... 

Seleucus VI., Epiphanes, "The Illus- 
trious" ....... 

Antiochus X., Eusebes, " The Pious" . 

Antiochus XL, Epiphanes II., "The 
Illustrious," younger brother of Seleucus 

Demetrius III., Eucaerus, "The Happy," 
third brother of Seleucus 

Tigranes, The Great . . . . 

Antiochus XII., Dionysius, "The De- 
votee of Bacchus" . . . . . 

Antiochus XIII., Asiaticus, "The 
Asiatic" 



Reigned 

B.C. 

312-280 
280-261 

261-246 

246-226 

226-223 
223-187 

187-175 

i75-i 6 4 

164-162 
162-150 
150-146 

128-125 
144-142 
142-137 
137-128 
127-122 



125-96 
125-123 

1 1 1-95 

96-94 
95-83 

94-83 

94-83 
83-69 

69-65 

69-65 



Their History. — Seleucus I., the son of Antio- 
chus, one of Philip of Macedonia's lieutenants, was 
born about B.C. 350, and followed his father's 
vocation in the service of Philip's more famous son, 
who did not live long enough to weld into one 
united and well-compacted empire the vast con- 
geries of foreign countries and alien peoples which 
he had conquered, and which at his early death 
in b.c. 323 was divided among his generals. For 
having assisted to secure the fall of Perdiccas, when 
a second partition of Alexander's dominions was 
made, Seleucus obtained the important satrapy of 
Babylon. He added thereafter to his suzerainty 
the province of Susiana by Antigonus' assistance, 
but, having quarrelled with him, had to nee to 
Egypt in b.c. 316, whence, after Ptolemy's victory 
at Gaza over Antigonus' son Demetrius, he returned 



in b.c. 312 in triumph to Babylon. Susiana re- 
covered and Media conquered, Seleucus' rule now 
extended to the Oxus and the Indus, though little 
is known of his campaign against the Hindu king 
Chandragupta of Pataliputra. In b.c. 306 he as- 
sumed the title of king, and in 302 joined the 
coalition against Antigonus. Next year, having 
helped by his cavalry and elephants to win the battle 
of Ipsus, he became the most powerful of Alexander's 
successors, and obtained the largest share in the 
conquered provinces, the whole of Syria and most 
of Asia Minor falling to him. xAiter defeating 
Demetrius, whose daughter he had previously 
married, and Lysimachus, his rule now extended 
westwards to the .ZEgean. He was assassinated at 
the instigation of Ptolemy Ceraunus in b.c 280. 
According to Pausanius, his moral character was 
superior to that of any of his Macedonian rivals, 
and his name unsullied by any of their atrocities, 
while of his genius as general and statesman we have 
ample proof. He continued the Hellenising policy 
of Alexander, founding colonies of his countrymen 
throughout his vast dominions, and building such 
cities as Apamea on the Orontes (named after his 
wife Apame, daughter of the Persian prince Arta- 
bazus), Laodicea (Col. 4. 15,16 ; Rv. 3. 14 ), Edessa, 
Bercea (Ac. 17. 10 ' 13 ), Seleucia on the Tigris, and 
Antioch in Syria, the last two of which soon took 
rank among the most powerful and wealthy cities 
of the ancient world. 

Antiochus I., the son of Seleucus and Apame, 
and named (Greek fashion) after his grandfather, 
was born a year before Alexander died. He suc- 
ceeded to his father's vast dominions, but, on his 
marriage to Phile, abandoned Macedonia to Anti- 
gonus Gonatus. He derived his title of " Saviour " 
from a victory gained by his elephant corps over the 
Gauls, who had invaded Asia Minor, leaving the 
evidence of their presence in the name Galatia ; 
but he was ultimately defeated and killed by these 
northern invaders. 

Antiochus II. was the feeble and incompetent 
son of the last-named king, and was forced by 
Ptolemy ("the king of the south," Dn. n. 6 ) to 
marry his daughter Berenice. On Ptolemy's death 
he recalled Laodice, his first wife, but she avenged 
her insult by causing her son Seleucus to murder his 
father, as well as Berenice and her son. The pro- 
vinces of Parthia and Bactria were lost during this 
reign. 

Seleucus II. was expelled from his kingdom by 
Ptolemy Euergetes, to avenge his murder of Bere- 
nice, but recovered his throne on Ptolemy with- 
drawing his forces, and, in spite of a crushing de- 
feat, kept the Egyptians out of Syria and the greater 
part of Asia Minor ; but was utterly routed by 
Arsaces I. of Parthia on his attempting to recover 
Parthia and Bactria ; nor could he prevent Attalus, 



1002 



Sel 



APOCRYPHA 



Sel 



king of Pergamus, wresting from his control several 
provinces on the north-west of his kingdom. 

Seleucus III. was his son, who was succeeded 
after three years' reign by Antiochus III., " The 




Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Antiochus III 

Great," who in resisting Egyptian invasion, though 
beaten at Gaza, defeated Scopas and secured pos- 
session of Palestine and Caele-Syria ; and, in return 
for assistance then rendered to him by the Jews, 
bestowed special privileges on them. Through fear 
of Rome he made peace with Egypt, and betrothed 
his daughter Cleopatra to the youthful Ptolemy; 
but the Romans, after defeating Philip, assumed the 
guardianship of Ptolemy, and demanded the sur- 
render by Antiochus of the Thracian Chersonese, 




Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Antiochus IV., Epiphanes 



along with those places once held by their ward. 
Antiochus was defeated at Thermopylae by Acilius 
Glabrio in b.c 191, and forced back into Asia, where 
he was defeated by Scipio and forced to accept hard 
terms. He was killed in b.c. 187 in a riot at Ely- 
mais, due to his plundering the temple there to 
help pay the Roman tribute (cp. Dn. n. 18 * 20 ). 

Seleucus IV., the son of Antiochus III., desisted 
from his attempt to recover the northern provinces 
taken by Attalus, the ally of the Romans. 




Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Demetrius I 

Antiochus IV. recovered Palestine and Coele- 
Syria, which his father had surrendered, but 
withdrew, at Rome's bidding, from Egypt. His 
" Hellenising " policy was resisted by the Jews, who 



became the victims of unspeakable atrocities through 
his determined attempt to extirpate their religion, 
which was, however, foiled by the spirited resistance 
of the Maccabees {which see). He died raving mad 
— a fate attributed to his sacrilege and cruelty by his 
subjects, who, in consequence, travestied his title 
from Epiphanes to Epimanes. 

Of the succeeding monarchs, Demetrius I. lost 
Judaea and was defeated and slain by the usurper, 
Alexander Balas, who was in turn overthrown by 
Demetrius II. The latter was taken prisoner by 
the Parthians (who thus became masters of Baby- 
lonia, the centre of the Seleucid dominion), and let 
Syria fall into the hands of Diodotus, who first 




Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Demetrius II 

placed a puppet king, Antiochus VI., the son of 
Balas, on the throne, and then took his place, to be 
in turn deposed, however, by Antiochus VII., who 
thus restored the royal line of the Seleucidae ; but 
from the close of Demetrius Nicator's second reign, 
when Ptolemy Physcon had set up the impostor, 
Alexander Zebina, the throne was occupied by 
two, or even three royal partners, except once, when 
Tigranes, king of Armenia, ousted, at the earnest 
solicitation of their Syrian subjects, the detested 
rival occupants. It is thus no wonder that Pompey 




Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Antiochus VI 
in B.C. 65 converted the now diminished and 
divided empire of the Seleucidae into a Roman 
provincia. 

Their Relations with Palestine. — From its 
geographical position, midway between Egypt and 
Armenia, Palestine became " the stage across which 
the ' kings of the south,' the Alexandrian Ptolemies, 
and the ' kings of the north,' the Seleucidae from 
Antioch, passed to and fro with their court 
intrigues and incessant armies, their Indian ele- 
phants, their Grecian cavalry, their Oriental pomp. 
It was, for the larger part of the century and a half 



1003 



Sel 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Sid 



that succeeded Alexander's death, a province of the 
Graeco-Egyptian kingdom" (Stanley, Jewish Church, 
iii. 243). 

The remembrance of these Syro-Egyptian cam- 
paigns is preserved in the book of Daniel (n. 6 ' 11 ). 
Though the Jews as a rule remained neutral in the 
struggle for the possession of their land, calmly 
awaiting their fate at the hands of northern or 
southern invader as the case might be, they pre- 
ferred the latter till Ptolemy Philopator cruelly 
persecuted them (or was reputed to have done so ; 
cp. 3 M.), when those of the Jews who favoured 
the Seleucidae gained strength, and secured for 
Antiochus III. the assistance of their nation. Not- 
withstanding Antiochus' promise of Palestine as 
part of Cleopatra's dowry, it still remained a part 
of the Syrian kingdom, when his son, Seleucus IV., 
" caused an exactor (Heliodorus, 2 M. 3- 7 " 40 ) to pass 
through the glory of the kingdom," i.e. Judaea (Dn. 
II. 20 ) ; but as the execrated Antiochus IV. benefited 
by Heliodorus' assassination, he naturally came to 
be regarded as the real murderer (Dn. J. 1 * 8 » 24 ). 

Their Era. — The Seleucid era, sometimes called 
the era of the Greeks or Syro-Macedonians, and also, 
incorrectly, the era of Alexander, dates from the first 
year of the 117th Olympiad, a.u.c. 442 = April 1st, 
B.C. 312. It is one of the best known and most used 
systems of chronology in Western Asia. It is found 
employed in the first book of Maccabees 6. 16 (" the 
149th year" [Sel. Era] = B.c. 312-164), 7. 15 ("the 
151st year" [Sel. Era] = B.c. 312-162), and io. 1 
("the 160th year" [Sel. Era] = B.C. 312-153) ; in 
Greek coins and inscriptions, in the works of the 
Church Fathers, in acts of Church councils, &c. 
The Jews adopted it after their submission to the 
kings of Syria, and called it Tarik Dilkarnaim or 
" Era of Contracts," because its use was obligatory 
in drawing up legal documents. It is still in use 
among the Christians of the Lebanon as well as 
Mussulman authors, who prefer it to that of the 
Hegira. But the peoples who made use of the 
Seleucid era did not date it from the same month or 
day. Thus the Greeks of Syria made it begin with 
the month of September and the other Syrians with 
the month of October — usages still followed, the first 
by the Catholics of the Lebanon, the second by the 
Nestorians and Jacobites. The Jews made it begin 
with the autumnal equinox. Various towns even 
had their own way of beginning the era ; e.g. in 
Seleucia New Year's Day was the 1st of July, at 
Ephesus it was the 24th of September, at Tyre the 
15th, and at Gaza the 27th of October, &c. With 
some Arabs the Seleucid New Year's Day is the 
1st of September, with others the 1st of October. 
P. Henderson Aitken. 

SELEUCUS. See Seleucid Kings. 

SEMEI (1 Es. a 33 ), called "Shimei" in Ez. 
10. 33 . 



SEMEIS, AV. SEMIS (1 Es. c.. 23 ), corresponding 
to " Shimei the Levite " in Ez. io. 23 . 

SEMELLIUS (1 Es. 2. 16 , &c), corresponding to 
" Shimshai the scribe " in Ez. 4A 

SERAR, AV. ASERER, which see. 

SEREBIAS (1 Es. 8. 54 AVm.), called " Shere- 
biah " in Ez. 8. 18 . 

SERON, a general of Antiochus Epiphanes. He 
commanded the Syrian army which was defeated by 
Judas Maccabaeus at Beth-horon, b.c. 166 (1 M. 
3. 13 " 24 ). Josephus says that he was governor of 
Ccele-Syria, and that he was slain in this battle 
(Ant. XII. vii. 1). 

SESIS (1 Es. 9. 34 ), corresponding to " Shashai " 
in Ez. io. 40 . 

SESTHEL (1 Es. 9. 31 ), corresponding to " Beza- 
leel " in Ez. io. 30 . 

SHEPHELA, RV. " plain country " (1 M. 12. 38 ) 
= Shephelah, which see. 

SICYON. This town is mentioned in the list of 
places to which letters favourable to the Jews were 
sent from Rome (1 M. 15. 23 ). Sicyon lay on the 
shore of the Gulf of Corinth, about 18 miles to the 
NW. of Corinth. Originally called Aigiale, the 
name Sicyon may have been given by Phoenician 
traders. Possessing a good harbour, it became a 
place of considerable commercial importance. The 
city stood on the plain, with an Acropolis on the 
cliffs behind. After its capture by Demetrius 
Poliorcetes, b.c 303, the buildings on the plain were 
destroyed, and a new city built round the Acropolis 
on the heights. The position was one of great 
strength, and easy of defence. Sicyon favoured the 
Romans, and after the destruction of Corinth was 
entrusted with the management of the Isthmian 
Games. This, however, was restored to Corinth 
when she was refounded by Julius Caesar. The 
inhabitants of Sicyon were famed for their skill and 
industry, and for the excellence of their manu- 
factures (Strabo, 382). Naturally it attracted the 
attention of the Jews of the Dispersion, and at an 
early time a colony was found in the city. In their 
interests the letter referred to was sent. 

SIDE, a city to which a letter favourable to the 
Jews was sent by Lucius, the consul of the Romans 
(1 M. 15. 23 ). It stood on a low peninsula on the 
coast of Pamphylia, between the rivers Eurymedon 
on the west and Melas on the east. Open to the 
sea, with its splendid harbours, and piers for loading 
and discharge of cargo, it was strongly fortified on 
the landward side. Its interests were mainly mari- 
time. Originally a Phoenician settlement, it was 
colonised from Cyme. It continued, however, in 
close relations with the parent people ; and the 
ships of Side with those of Aradus formed the left 
wing of the fleet of Antiochus the Great. After the 
time of Alexander the Great it was much frequented 
by pirates. After the defeat of Antiochus, under 



Sim 



APOCRYPHA 



Sye 



the Romans Side played an important part, as is 
proved by her coins, which still exist in great num- 
bers. There was a strong Jewish element in the 
community. 

The place, known as Eski Adalia, is now deserted. 
The harbours are silted up. The ruins are extensive 
and imposing, especially those of the theatre, which 
was in great part cut out of the solid rock. 

From Side Antiochus VII. took his name Sidetes, 
having been brought up in the city. 

SIMALCUE. See Imalcue. 

SIMEON, grandfather of Mattathias (i M. 2. 1 ). 

SIMON, (i) i Es. cj. 32 , Simon Chosameus, cor- 
responding to " Shimeon " in Ez. io. 31 . (2) Son 
of Mattathias and brother of Judas, surnamed 
Thassi (1 M. 2. 3 ) ; see Maccabees. (3) A man of 
the tribe of Benjamin who, in revenge against 
Onias, betrayed to Heliodorus a knowledge of the 
Temple treasures ; see Heliodorus. (4) and (5) 
There are two men of the same name, the one the 
grandfather of the other ; both " son of Onias." 
Josephus, fm. whom comes the mass of such trust- 
worthy information as we have about the centuries 
wh. preceded our era, declares the first to be S. " the 
Just." A glowing description of this S. is given in 
Sr. 50. 1 " 21 ; many things are told of him, especially 
of his method of acting on the Day of Atonement ; 
reference is also made to the way he strengthened 
the buildings of the Temple and the city wall, wh. 
latter wd. stand in need of it after the capture 
of Jrs. by Ptolemy. In the Talmudic treatise, 
Toma, we have a yet more wonderful account of 
the miracles that accompanied the High-priesthood 
of Simon the Just. Seven wonders showed them- 
selves then : (1) A blessing rested on the first- 
fruits ; (2) on the sacrificial loaves ; (3) on the 
shewbread, so that though a priest might receive a 
portion no larger than an olive, without eating the 
whole he was satisfied ; (4) the lot for God, as 
against Azazel, always fell to the right side ; (5) the 
red thread round the neck of the ram of the Day 
of Atonement always became white ; (6) the light 
in the Temple never failed ; (7) the altar fire re- 
quired but little wood to keep it burning. Accord- 
ing to Josephus, Simon II. was a totally incon- 
spicuous person who took the part of the worthless 
sons of Tobias ; he was not conspicuous for piety, 
at any rate. Dr. Cheyne (Job and Solomon, 180) 
declares that " the weight of argument " is " in 
favour of the second of the name (Simon)," and he 
further claims that the second is called in the 
Talmud Simeon the Righteous, and that he " was 
certainly the more important of the two " ; his sole 
evidence for this is Derenbourg (H. de la Pal. i. 44, 
&c). What Derenbourg says is that he, Derenbourg, 



thinks the description suits the circumstances of the 
second better than the first. Yet Josephus, from 
whom we learn those circumstances, says it is 
Simon I. who is Simon hatz-Tzaddiq. We prefer 
the evidence of Josephus to that of Derenbourg. 
See Graetz (Gesch. der Israelii, ii. 235 n.), where the 
question is discussed at length. Simon I. was High 
Priest fm. b.c 300 to 270. The Talmud ascribes to 
him the meeting with Alexander related by Jose- 
phus of his grandfather Jaddua. The second S. 
was High Priest fm. c. 220 to 200. 

SINA, MOUNT, the Greek form of Mount 
Sinai in Jth. 5. 14 (AV.). 

SIRACH. See Ecclesiasticus. 

SISINNES, governor of Ccele-Syria and Phoe- 
nicia, who interfered with the rebuilding of the 
Temple, and wrote a letter to the king. Search in 
the archives showed that authority for rebuilding 
had been granted by Cyrus, and orders were given to 
Sisinnes and his companions to place no obstacles 
in the way of its completion. They were also en- 
joined to give assistance as required, and to make 
certain contributions from the revenues of Ccele- 
Syria and Phoenicia for the sacrifices in the Temple 
(I Es. 6. 3ff -). 

SODOMITISH SEA (2 Es. 5. 7 ), the Dead Sea, 
so called, doubtless, from its ancient proximity to 
Sodom. 

SOMEIS, AV. SAMIS, wh. see. 

SONG OF THE THREE CHILDREN. See 
Daniel, Additions to. 

SOPHONIAS (2 Es. i. 40 ), the prophet Zepha- 

NIAH. 

SOSIPATER, a captain under Judas Maccabseus 
who, along with Dositheus, attacked and defeated 
Timotheus, taking him prisoner. Timotheus, how- 
ever, persuaded them to set him free, in the in- 
terests of Jewish captives held by his people (2 M. 



12. 



■). 



SOSTRATUS, governor of the citadel in Jeru- 
salem, whose duty it was to collect the revenues for 
Antiochus Epiphanes. He failed to extract from 
Menelaus the money which that schemer had pro- 
mised as the price of his elevation to the High- 
priesthood (2 M. 4. 27ff -). 

SUBA, RV. SUBAS, head of a family of Solo- 
mon's servants (1 Es. 5. 34 ), not named in Ezra and 
Nehemiah. 

SUBAI (1 Es. 5. 30 ), corresponding to " Shalmai " 
in Ez. 2. 46 . 

SUDIAS (1 Es. 5. 26 ), corresponding to " Hoda- 
viah " in Ez. 2. 40 ; " Hodevah " in Ne. yP. 

SUSANNA. See Daniel, Additions to. 

SYELUS (1 Es. i. 8 ), corresponding to " Jehiel " 
in 2 Ch. 35A 



1005 



Tab 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Tob 



TABAOTH, head of a family of Temple servants 
(I Es. 5. 2S ) = " Tabbaoth " in Ez. 2. 43 ; Ne. 7. 46 . 

TABELLIUS (i Es. 2. 16 ), corresponding to 
" Tabeel " in Ez. 4 . 7 . 

TALSAS, RV. SALOAS, wh. see. 

TANIS (Jth. i. 10 ) = Zoan, wh. see in Canonical 
Section. 

- TAPHON, RV. TEPHON, one of the strong 
cities of Judaea, fortified by Bacchides (1 M. 9. 50 ). 
Josephus calls it " Tochoa " {Ant. XIII. i. 3). The 
name is probably a corruption of " Tappuah " 
(Beth-Tappuah) or of Netophah. 

TEPHON. See preceding art. 

TETA. See Ateta. 

THARRA (Est. Ad. 12. 1 ), corresponding to 
" Teresh " in Est. 2. 21 , &c. 

THASSI, surname of Simon Maccabaeus, pos- 
sibly meaning " the zealous " (1 M. 2. 3 ). See 
IVIaccabees . 

THECOE, RV. TEKOAH (1 M. 9 . 33 ). See 
Tekoah in Canonical Section. 

THELERSAS (1 Es. 5. 36 ), a town in Babylonia 
corresponding to " Tel-harsha " in Ez. 2. 59 . 

THEMAN (Ba. 3. 22 ), RV. TEMAN, wh. see in 
Canonical Section. 

THEOCANUS, RV. THOCANUS (1 Es. 9. 14 ), 
corresponding to " Tikvah " in Ez. io. 15 . 

THEODOTUS. (1) One of the three envoys 
sent by Nicanor to arrange terms of peace with 
Judas Maccabaeus (2 M. 14. 19 ). (2) One who 
planned to assassinate king Ptolemy Philometor, and 
went by night to the tent of Ptolemy to accomplish 
his purpose. Ptolemy, however, had been taken 
away by Dositheus, and in his place had been put 
" an obscure person," who received " the punish- 
ment intended for the other " (3 M. i. 3t ). 

THERAS, the river at which Ezra's caravan was 
gathered together before the march to Jerusalem 
(1 Es. 8. 41 ). In Ez. 8. 21 - 31 it is called Ahava. This 
may possibly be identified with the mod. Hit on 
the river Euphrates. 

THERMELETH, a town in Babylonia (1 Es. 
5. 36 ) corresponding to " Tel-melah " in Ez. 2. 59 . 

THISBE, the native place of Tobit, whence he 
was carried into captivity. It is placed " on thi 
right hand (south) of Kedesh Naphtali in Galilee 
above Asher " (To. I. 2 ). The place has not been 
identified. We need not, however, expect strict 
geographical accuracy in this romance any more 
than in the book of Judith. Some would identify 
this with the birthplace of the prophet Elijah. 
Dr. Cheyne thinks " there is strong reason to believe 
that the stories of Daniel (in part), Esther, Judith, 
and Tobit, have been systematically altered as 



regards their historical and geographical names," 
and that, in this passage, " the original reading 
was probably not ' Galilee ' but ' Gilead,' i.e. the 
southern Gilead in the Negeb. ' Naphtali ' is a 
southern district so called, and ' Asher ' represents 
the southern Asshur or Ashhur " (EB. s.v.). 

THOCANUS. See Theocanus. 

THOMEI, AV. THOMOI (1 Es. 5. 32 ), corre- 
sponding to Temah in Ez. 2. 53 ; Ne. y. 55 . 

THRACIA is mentioned only incidentally in 
2 M. 12. 35 . In an engagement between Judas 
Maccabaeus and Gorgias, the governor of Idumaea 
under Antiochus Epiphanes, Dositheus, a Jewish 
soldier of great strength, got hold of Gorgias him- 
self, and " was minded to take the accursed man 
alive," when a Thracian horseman bore down upon 
him, disabled his shoulder, and rescued the governor. 
Thracia at that period practically comprised what 
are now Bulgaria and Roumelia, and was occupied 
by different tribes. The death of Lysimachus, 
b.c. 281, marked the end of all hope of Thracian in- 
dependence. But ample opportunity was furnished 
for employment of her warlike sons, in the perpetual 
strifes of these days. They seem to have been 
ready to give their services to whoever was able to 
pay for them. They were famous horsemen, and 
they seem chiefly to have supplied cavalry to the 
armies in which they served. 

THRAS^US, AV. THRASEAS, the father of 
Apollonius (2 M. 3. 5 ). 

TIGRIS, the river, is mentioned in To. 6. 1 ; 
Jth. I. 6 ; and Sr. 24. 25 . It is identical with the 
river Hiddekel, wh. see in Canonical Section. 

TIMOTHEUS, the leader of the Ammonites, 
and one of the most persistent antagonists of Judas 
Maccabaeus. The name is Greek ; but there is 
nothing to show whether he was an adventurer of 
that nation who had won the confidence of the 
tribe, or simply a tribesman who had adopted a 
Greek name. He is not credited with a single suc- 
cess against the arms of Judas, but he repeatedly 
suffered heavy defeat (1 M. 5. 6 > n - 34fl -). He was 
captured by two of Judas' captains after a battle 
east of Jordan, but representing the peril that 
threatened certain Jewish prisoners at the hands 
of his people, should evil befall him, he persuaded 
them to let him go. In 2 M. 8. 30ff -, c>. 3 , io. 24 ' 32 » 37 , 
j 2 2, 10, I8-21, 24^ ^g } s ma( £ e to play a part in the 
warfare west of the Jordan, being put to death after 
the capture of Gazara by Judas' men, who found 
him hidden in a cistern. 

TITUS MANLIUS. See Manlius. 

TOBIAS, the son of Tobit, who plays a leading 
part in the romance (see Tobit, Book of). 



1006 



Tob 



APOCRYPHA 



Tob 



TOBIE (i M. 5. 13 ), RV. TUBIAS. This ap- 
pears to have been the residence of a considerable 
number of Jews. It may be identical with " Tob " 
in ]g. II. 3 ' 5 . 

TOBIEL, the father of Tobit (To. I. 1 ). 

TOBIT, the father of Tobias. See Tobit, 
Book of. 

TOBIT, THE BOOK OF, is one of those books 
commonly called " the Apocrypha," which, though 
not finding a place in the Hebrew Canon, yet 
formed part of the OT. Canon of the Alexandrian 
Jews, and was therefore included in the Septuagint. 
A Haggadic romance, based on an old tradition, and 
embodying in historical form a series of moral and 
religious lessons, it gives us an " idyllic picture " of 
Jewish domestic life during the Captivity. 

Contents. — The story is charmingly told. Its 
popularity is evidenced by the number and variety 
of the versions that have come down to us. The 
book professes to be the history of " a pious man 
whose name was Tobit, the son of Tobiel, of the 
tribe of Naphtali," who is carried away to Assyria, 
where, in the land of his captivity, like Joseph and 
Daniel, he continues to fear God and rises to high 
honour. After a time, however, he falls into dis- 
favour by secretly burying those who had been put 
to death by the king of Assyria. He has now to fly 
for his life, but is afterwards restored to favour. 
Again he falls into trouble through burying a corpse 
that had been cast out on the street. This time, 
being unclean, he has to sleep in the courtyard, and 
is blinded by sparrows' dung which has dropped on 
his uncovered face. Reduced once more to poverty, 
he is one day, like Job, reproached by his wife : 
" Where are thy good deeds and thine alms ? " 
Whereupon he prays that he may die. The same 
day, in Ecbatana of Media, Sara the daughter of 
Raguel is taunted by her maids with having caused 
the death of her seven husbands on their bridal 
night, whereas it was the demon Asmodeus who 
had slain them. She, too, prays for death. Then 
the angel Raphael is sent to help them both — to heal 
Tobit of his blindness, and to give Sara to her kins- 
man Tobias, the son of Tobit, in marriage. The 
denouement is brought about by the despatch of 
Tobias, with Raphael, in the guise of a servant, for 
his companion, to Rages, to recover a sum of money 
lent to Gabael. In the end Tobias not only re- 
covers his father's money, but by taking the liver 
with the heart and its gall out of a fish that had 
attacked him as he bathed in the Tigris, he possesses 
himself of two potent drugs. By fumigation with 
the heart and liver he delivers Sara from the attacks 
of Asmodeus, and she becomes his wife, while the 
angel Raphael recovers the money. On returning 
home, Tobias restores his father's sight by anoint- 
ing his eyes with the gall of the fish. Thereupon 
Raphael reveals his identity and disappears. The 



book concludes with a beautiful song of thanksgiving 
by Tobit, and with the advice to his son to quit the 
doomed city of Nineveh for Media. 

Its Origin and Purpose. — As to the origin and 
purpose of the book, Neubauer rejects the view of 
the Midrash (which Ewald had adopted without 
knowing the Midrash), that it was intended as an 
admonition to observe the payment of the tithes 
and to give alms. Another view, which Neubauer 
also rejects, is that it was an exhortation to observe 
the sacrifices and other laws mentioned in Leviticus. 
" Such admonitions," Neubauer holds, " would be 
nothing new, and there would be no occasion to 
compose a popular history to enforce them."' 
Neubauer, following Graetz and Kohut, seems to 
believe that the frequent and strange allusion to a 
secret burial of dead men gives a clue to the object 
of the book. The question of the burial of the dead 
is certainly prominent in the story of Tobit, but not 
more prominent than that of almsgiving and the 
payment of tithes. There is indeed a great deal of 
good moral teaching in the book, and its object 
would seem to be to inculcate various moral and 
religious duties, such as the payment of the tithes T 
the exercise of charity, a pious care for the dead, 
the sacredness of marriage, and, above all, the lesson 
that it is always well with them that fear God. It 
is interesting to note that the golden rule occurs in 
chap. 4. 15 in its negative form, " What is hateful to 
thee, do not thou to others." 

It has been remarked how Persian influence is dis- 
tinctly traceable throughout the book. The Per- 
sian custom of leaving the dead to be devoured by 
birds and beasts of prey was particularly abhorrent 
to the Jews, and may partly account for the frequent 
insistence on orthodox burial. The place-names, 
too, are largely Persian, and the demon Asmodeus 
is the iEshma-daeva of the Persian Avesta. The 
angelology of the book may have come direct from 
Babylonia. 

Its Date. — Some authorities, in spite of obvious 
historical and geographical blunders (e.g. chap. I. 2 ), 
believe that it is what it professes to be, viz. a com- 
position of the seventh cent. b.c. Ewald places it 
about b.c 350. Hitzig puts it in the reign of Tra- 
jan. Because of the prominence given in the book 
to the question of the burial of the dead, Graetz 
(followed by Neubauer) refers it to the age of 
Hadrian, shortly after the fall of Bether, so valiantly 
defended by Bar Cochba, while Kohut supposes that 
it was written in Persian in the time of Ardeshir I. 
(a.d. 250). The conjectures of Graetz and Kohut 
are based on the fact that on these two occasions the 
Jews were forbidden to bury their dead. It is a 
fatal objection, however, to any date later than the 
middle of the second century a.d., that Tobit is 
quoted twice (chaps. 4. 10 , 12. 9 ) by Polycarp. The 
probability is, indeed, that it is a much earlier work, 



1007 



Tol 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Uri 



and belongs to the Maccabaean age. Antiochus 
Epiphanes, too, at this time, is said to have " cast out 
many unburied " (2 M. 5. 10 ), and this might in itself 
account for the frequent references to this subject. 
The book may well have been the composition of an 
age when it was desirable to remind men that God 
hears and answers prayer, and that righteousness 
always in the long run meets with its just reward. 
Its tone and spirit also agree with those of such 
other books as Sirach, which are known to have been 
written about the same time. 
■ Original Language. — Judging from its pure 
Semitic idiom, the original language must have 
been either Hebrew or Chaldee. Jerome says it was 
written in Chaldee. Most modern critics, however, 
like Bickell and Neubauer, conclude on linguistic 
grounds that it was written originally in Hebrew, 
the language in which, as is now generally agreed, 
the majority of the Apocryphal books were com- 
posed. J. M'GlLCHRIST. 

TOLBANES (1 Es. c,. 25 ), corresponding to 
" Telem " in Ez. io. 24 . 

TOPARCHIES (1 M. u. 28 , RVm.), AV. 
GOVERNMENTS, RV. PROVINCES. The re- 
ference is to subordinate administrative districts, 
three of which were detached from Samaria and 
joined to Judaea. 

TRIPOLIS (" Triple city "). Into the haven of 
Tripolis Demetrius Soter sailed " with a mighty 
host and fleet," by means of which he got posses- 
sions of the country, wresting the throne from 
Antiochus V., his cousin, " having made away with 
Antiochus and Lysias his guardian " (2 M. I4. m ; 
cp. Ant. XII. x. 1). To Tripolis came Antiochus 
Cyzicenus when Hyrcanus proved too strong for 
him {Ant. XIII. x. 2). Founded by the Phoeni- 
cians, it was divided by walls into three quarters, 
occupied respectively by Aradians, Sidonians, and 
Tyrians. Here sat the federal council of these 
states. Under the Seleucids it was adorned with 
public buildings. Herod the Great built here a 
gymnasium (B J. I. xxi. 11). It passed under the 
control of " tyrants," and suffered much from 
pirates. These last were suppressed by Pompey. 
The modern town of Tarabulus stands about two 
miles inland, on rising ground beside Nabr Qadisha. 
From the ancient site on the sea-shore all traces of 



its former splendour have vanished. There now is 
the triina, or harbour of the town. The plain along 
the coast is remarkable for its fertility, and is occu- 
pied chiefly by fruitful orchards. Modern Tara- 
bulus is a prosperous town, doing considerable trade 
by sea. 

TRYPHON. On the death of Alexander Balas, 
Tryphon, " who aforetime had been of Alexander's 
part," observing the unpopularity of Demetrius II., 
plotted to secure the throne for himself. Securing 
the person of Antiochus, the young son of Balas, he 
put forward his claims to the crown (1 M. n. 39f -). 
With the assistance of the disaffected soldiers of 
Demetrius he was able to defeat his rival, and gained 




Coin of Tryphon 

possession of Antioch. Demetrius showed little 
gratitude for exceptional service rendered him by 
Jonathan. The latter was therefore easily at- 
tracted to the cause of the young Antiochus. As 
Tryphon's plans matured the Jewish leader became 
inconvenient. Having treacherously captured him 
in Ptolemais after a futile attempt at Scythopolis, he 
put him to death (1 M. I2. 39ff -, 13. 23 ). Soon after 
he threw off the mask, slew Antiochus, and " put on 
himself the diadem of Asia " (1 M. 13. 32 ). Simon 
Maccabaeus then entered into alliance with De- 
metrius. The latter was taken prisoner by Arsaces, 
but his brother, Antiochus Sidedes, prosecuted the 
campaign against Tryphon, whom he besieged in 
Dor. Escaping thence, Tryphon fled to Orthosia 
(1 M. 15. 10 - 14 ' 37ff -) and then to Apamea, where he 
was besieged and put to death, after a reign of three 
years (Ant. XIII. vii. if.). 

TUBIAS. S^Tobie. 

TUBIENI (2 M. 12. 17 ), the inhabitants of Tob. 
See Tobie. 

TURPENTINE TREE (Sr. 24.16), RV. TERE- 
BINTH, wh. see in Canonical Section. 

TYRE, LADDER OF. See Ladder of Tyre. 

TYRUS (2 Es. i. 11 , &c), a form of the name 
Tyre. 



u 



URIAS. (1) AV. IRI (1 Es. 8. 62 ), " Uriah " in 
Ez. 8. 33 . He may be the same as (2) I Es. c;. 43 , 
called " Uriah " in Ne. 8. 4 . 

URIEL, the angel sent to Esdras to show him the 
folly of thinking he could " comprehend the way of 
the Most High " (2 Es. 4. 1 ). He tried the capacity 



of Esdras by requiring him to weigh a weight of 
fire, to measure a measure of wind, or to call back 
the day that is past. In v. 36 RV. has the form 
" Jeremiel," calling him " the archangel." Similar 
missions are reported in 5. 20 and io. 28 . In the 
Prayer of Joseph he figures as Jacob's antagonist in 



1008 



Uta 



APOCRYPHA 



Wis 



the night-long wrestling. He plays a great part in UTA, head of a family of Temple servants (i Es. 

the book of Enoch. He is set over " the world and 5. 30 ), no.t named in Ezra and Nehemiah. 

Tartarus," and is the companion of Enoch, explain- UTHI (1 Es. 8. 40 ), called " Uthai " in Ez. 

ing to him he sights seen in the regions of woe. 8. 14 . 



w 



WASP (Ws. 12. 8 ), RV. HORNET, wh. see in 
Canonical Section. 

WISDOM OF SOLOMON, a deutero-canonical 
book, forming part cf the Greek OT., whence it has 
been translated into the other languages employed 
by the Christian Church ; in the Old Syriac version 
it is called " the Great Wisdom." Owing to the use 
which it exhibits of Greek philosophy, and to its 
name being unknown to the Jewish oral tradition, 
its original language is usually supposed to be Greek, 
so that we have the work before us nearly as the 
author left it ; yet this supposition is not free from 
difficulties, of which the most serious is the occur- 
rence in the Jewish oral tradition of what is evi- 
dently the original of a passage mistranslated in 
Wisdom 14. 10 , " For that which is done shall be 
punished with the doer," a meaningless proposition ; 
whereas the Hebrew, " For that which is worshipped 
shall be punished with the worshipper " (a com- 
ment on Ex. 12. 12 ), is clear ; and the error evidently 
arises from the use of the word i abad, which in 
Hebrew means " worship," but in Aramaic " do." 
A few more mistranslations from Hebrew can be 
detected with apparent certainty (i. 12 " emulate " 
for " acquire," 4. 18 " despise " for " melt away," 
c-p. Ps. 112. 10 ), and in many more cases the character 
of the expressions suggests mistranslation, though the 
source of the error is not clear. Some other matter 
is also common to the book and to the oral tradi- 
tion, and presumably has found its way from the 
former into the latter. In large portions of the 
book, moreover, the parallelism peculiar to Hebrew 
rhetoric is clearly imitated, and the idiom marked 
by violent Hebraisms. On the other hand, the 
language is in general too ambitious to accord 
easily with the theory of translation ; and the 
structure of some of the prose paragraphs, with the 
exuberance which they display, accords with it still 
less. Renderings peculiar to the LXX are some- 
times so used as to enter into the argument, though 
in one or two of these cases the suspicion that the 
LXX has been interpolated from Wisdom is, owing 
to the character of the language, not wholly ex- 
cluded. Perhaps no serious error is involved in 
the supposition that parts of the book at any rate 
existed in Hebrew before the Greek text was 
produced. 

Authorship and Date. — Although the writer 
carefully abstains from mentioning names, the auto- 
biography 'in chaps. 7.-9. is evidently intended for 



that of Solomon, after whom the book is called, 
though even in uncritical times doubts were ex- 
pressed as to its authenticity. Since the Jews did 
not become acquainted with Greek philosophy 
before the third century B.C., the book must be 
many centuries later than Solomon's time ; but it 
cannot be located with accuracy. Although there 
are places in the NT. which bear considerable re- 
semblance to its expressions, it cannot have been 
recognised as authoritative in the time of the 
apostles, since it must have furnished Christian 
apologists with some powerful weapons which they 
do not appear to have used. If the use of the LXX 
by the author be demonstrated, he could scarcely be 
earlier than b.c 150; the atmosphere of the book 
seems considerably later, and to belong to the times 
of Philo and Josephus ; indeed the speech put by 
the latter into the mouth of Eleazar, the hero of 
Masada (BJ. VII. viii. 7), is closely allied to it in 
spirit. The name of Philo has sometimes been sug- 
gested for the author of the work : it is clear, how- 
ever, that his doctrine was quite different from that 
of Wisdom. The only occasion on which local 
knowledge is displayed (io. 7 , description of the Dead 
Sea and the " Pillar of Salt ") points to Palestine as 
the author's country ; and the same seems sug- 
gested by 2. 12 , where the " just man " is said to taunt 
the ruling powers with " offences against the law," 
which implies that the ruler was thought of as 
nominally an Israelite. A Hebrew original would 
probably, though not necessarily, point in the same 
direction. Those who maintain a Greek original 
usually suppose the work to have been issued in 
Alexandria. The author certainly displays some 
knowledge of Egyptian religion, but perhaps not 
more than would easily be acquired by any traveller ; 
and that Jews who aspired to become authors saw 
the world, we know on Ben-Sira's evidence. The 
introduction into Palestine by Herod and others of 
Greek games, &c, would account for some of the 
allusions (e.g. \?, to the victor's wreath and pro- 
cession), which might have been made by an author 
who had never gone outside that country. 

Attempts to divide the work between several or 
even many authors have indeed been made, but have 
rarely found favour, as the unity of both thought 
and style is very marked, notwithstanding the fact 
that parts of the book are in some sort of verse, 
whereas others are in prose. If, however, the 
Greek text is based on an earlier Hebrew work, the 



iooc 



Wis 



TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE 



Wis 



Greek editor's treatment of the latter must have 
been so free, and the amount contributed . by him 
so considerable, as to constitute him joint author 
of the work in its Greek form. The literature 
•of translations furnishes examples of the process 
indicated. 

Contents and Sources. — The work falls into 
three divisions: (a) Chaps. I.-6. 12 , in which the 
principal topic is the immortality of the soul ; 
(b) 6. 13 -9. 18 , account of Wisdom, including the 
author's autobiography ; (c) 10. to the end, Midrash, 
or sermons on the first two books of the Pentateuch. 
In all three sections Greek philosophy is combined 
with matter drawn from the OT. ; the most 
obvious borrowings from Hellenic sources are re- 
served for the middle section, perhaps with the view 
of diverting attention from them. 

In (a) the writer identifies the " just man " 
■described in Plato's Republic with the " Servant of 
the Lord " of Isaiah 53., earnestly insists on future 
reward and retribution, and warns the rulers of the 
earth against injustice, which he associates with the 
Epicurean doctrine taught by Ecclesiastes. The 
expressions are drawn somewhat in cento fashion 
from the OT. — the Psalms, Isaiah, and the Proverbs 
being especially laid under contribution. The sub- 
ject of immortality suggests that of reproduction 
(which both with Plato and other philosophers was 
a substitute for it), and high praise is bestowed on 
the childless life (whence some have thought the 
author to have belonged to one of the ascetic sects 
described by Philo and Josephus) ; the crime of 
adultery is vehemently denounced, and in a manner 
which in Solomon's mouth would have savoured 
■of bad taste ; the matter here agrees with that in 
Ecclesiasticus, and is probably derived from some 
common source. It would seem, however, that in 
this passage (3. 12 -4. 6 ) the author is aiming at some 
historical personage, who has not been certainly 
identified. 

In (b) the writer emphasises the fact that he is a 
man (perhaps with reference to a book called The 
Wisdom of God, cited in Lk. u. 49 , the name of 
which is given by one of the Fathers to this), and 
paraphrases the narrative of 1 K. 3- 5 " 13 . Solomon's 
prayer for wisdom occupies chap. 9. (extending in 
form to the end of the work), and is preceded by an 
account of Wisdom from several aspects. In 7. 17 ' 21 
its denotation is said to be " knowledge of things," 
i.e. the sciences, which are classified as follows : 
Physics, astronomy, including the calendar, zoology, 
botany, and medicine (" powers of roots ") ; and 
the obscurer subjects, " beginning, end, and middle 
■of times, changes of turnings and alterations of 
seasons," " forces of winds (or spirits) and thoughts 
of men." The last two probably mean psychology 
and logic ; the first appears to signify history 
{including past, present, and future), and the re- 



maining subject, the doctrine of the suitability of 
different days and seasons to different purposes. It 
is curious that arithmetic and geometry are omitted. 
Wisdom is then described in a long series of ad- 
jectives (7- 22, 23 ) indicating a concept somewhat 
similar to the " fire " of Heraclitus, i.e. a force 
whose existence accounts for life and certain other 
phenomena, but which the writer supposes to con- 
sist of infinitely small particles of matter (like the 
Lucre tian soul). The division of the virtues in 
chap. 8. is derived from Plato. In 8. 20 the author 
comes near adopting the Platonic doctrine of trans- 
migration, and in 9. 15 there is another reference to 
it. The Hellenic matter is, as before, carefully 
combined with centos from the OT. 

In (<:) the author applies the doctrine of " Wis- 
dom " to the elucidation of Bible history, which he 
traces as far as the Exodus. It is the earliest speci- 
men we possess of a Midrash, or homiletic com- 
mentary on the OT., a style of literature which 
afterwards became popular with both Jews and 
Christians. " Wisdom " here plays much the same 
part as " Faith " in Hebrews 1 1. ; a large portion of 
the section is, however, devoted to the condemna- 
tion of paganism, of which the most excusable form, 
according to the author, is worship of the elements 
or the heavenly bodies ; heinous as this is, it is better 
than the worship of idols ; while that, again, is 
exceeded in folly by (Egyptian) zoolatry. Of the 
origin of image-worship the author propounds a 
theory (i4. 15ff -) in the style of Euhemerus, who sup- 
posed all the Hellenic gods to have been men. As 
elsewhere he mingles his philosophy with copious 
citations from the OT., especially Isaiah's denun- 
ciation of image-making being laid under contribu- 
tion. The immoralities which the author associates 
with the worship of idols seem to reflect Asiatic 
rather than European practices. 

The work ends in the middle of a contrast be- 
tween the plagues of Egypt and the miracles with 
which Israel was favoured in the desert. It is un- 
certain whether the author ended here, or whether 
the book is imperfect. 

Purpose. — It has often been held that the 
author's object was to demonstrate to the Greeks 
that the Jews had anticipated pagan philosophy ; 
but the book would be ill suited to such an end, 
since with its numerous unexplained allusions to 
OT. history (to say nothing of its Hebraisms) it 
would have been unintelligible to pagan readers 
without commentary. The omission of all proper 
names must, however, have some definite purpose ; 
and if this was to avoid the introduction into a 
Greek work of barbarous forms, with which, how- 
ever, Jewish readers would be familiar, the author 
must have aspired to be read by Greeks. To these, 
too, the anachronism of making Solomon borrow 
largely from Isaiah would be inoffensive. Probably 



1010 



Wis 



APOCRYPHA 



Zam 



the facts are best accounted for by the supposition 
that the author wrote for Jews, likely to abandon 
their religion for paganism, partly because of the 
hopelessness of resistance to pagan powers, partly 
because of the evident superiority of the produc- 
tions of the Graeco-Roman intellect to those of the 
East. If it were true, as Ecclesiastes asserted, that 
one end awaited both the pious and the impious, 
why should these inducements be resisted ? To 
this, then, the author furnishes a threefold reply : 
(i) That worldly success is illusory, since there is to 
be a final retribution ; (2) that the intellectual dis- 
coveries of the Greeks were already to be found in 
the Wisdom, attributed by the OT. to Solomon, 
and a peculiar possession of Israel ; (3) that history 
proved that Israel had been specially the object of 
God's favour, inasmuch as the calamities inflicted on 
the nation were kindly and disciplinary in character, 
whereas pagan races had been ruthlessly exter- 
minated. In contrast to the enlightenment of 
the Jewish religion the author does his utmost to 
demonstrate the folly, the immorality, and the 
pernicious results of paganism. In ascribing to 
Solomon such products of the Greek intellect as the 
Platonic division of the virtues, or the antagonism 
between the immortal soul and its earthly case 



(9. 15 ), the author acts like many of the posterity of 
his race, who regularly concealed such obligations : 
e.g. though the whole of Hebrew grammar is 
borrowed from Arabic grammarians, it does not 
seem that this considerable loan was ever acknow- 
ledged. 

History of the Text. — Of the history of the 
work among the Jews nothing whatever is known, 
although, as has been seen, some fragments of it have 
found their way into the Oral Tradition, and are to 
be read in the homiletic (Aggddic) commentaries on 
Genesis and Exodus. Of NT. writers the author of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews displays a similarity to 
the book both in thought and language, which can 
scarcely be explained except on the supposition that 
he had the Greek text before him ; there are also 
passages in the Pauline epistles and the Acts which 
have been regarded as snowing traces of its influ- 
ence. It is definitely quoted by Clemens Romanus 
and Irenaeus, and is included in the Canon of 
both the Greek and the Roman Catholic churches. 
Though not recognised by the Anglican community, 
there are references to it in the Book of Common 
Prayer (e.g. Collect for Ash Wednesday, "who hatest 
nothing that Thou hast made " from 9- 24 ). 

D. S. Margoliouth. 



XANTHICUS (2 M. 11 



30, 33, 38> 



Year in Canonical Section. 



z 



ZABAD^ANS, AV. ZABADEANS. The army 
of Demetrius having escaped him, we are told that 
Jonathan " turned aside to the Arabians who are 
called Zabadaeans, and smote them and took their 
spoils " (1 M. 12. 31 ). The locality indicated is to 
the NW. of Damascus. Josephus (Ant. XIII. v. 10) 
calls the Arabs Nabataeans. There is possibly some 
reminiscence of the ancient name in that of mod. 
e'L-Zebeddny. It lies towards the northern end of a 
hollow in the Antilebanon range, which runs north 
and south, down which flow the head waters of the 
Abana. It is about 28 miles from Damascus, on the 
way leading to Baalbek. The plain bears the same 
name ; and a little to the NW. of ez,-Zebeddny lies 
the village Kefr Zebdd. No identification of the 
tribe is now possible. 

ZABADAIAS, RV. ZABADEUS (1 Es. o. 35 ), 
called " Zabad " in Ez. io. 43 . 

ZABDEUS (1 Es. 9. 21 ), corresponding to " Zeba- 
diah of the sons of Immer " in Ez. io. 20 . 

ZABDIEL, the Arabian chief who " took off 
Alexander's [Balas] head, and sent it to Ptolemy " 
<i M. II. 17 - Ant. XIII. iv. 8). 



ZACCH^US, AV. ZACCHEUS, one of the 

officers of Judas Maccabaeus (2 M. io. 19 ). 

ZACHARIAS. (1) 1 Es. i. 8 , corresponding 
to Zechariah, a " ruler of the house of God " in 
the days of Josiah (2 Ch. 35. 8 ). (2) 1 Es. I. 15 ; this 
name is replaced by that of " Heman " in 2 Ch. 
35. 15 . (3) RV. ZARAIAS (1 Es. 5. 8 ), called 
" Seraiah " in Ez. 2. 2 ; " Azariah " in Ne. J.\ 
(4) 1 Es. 6. 1 , 7. 3 , the prophet Zechariah. (5) 
1 Es. 8. 30 = " Zechariah of the sons of Parosh " in 
Ez. 8. 3 . (6) 1 Es. 8. 37 = " Zechariah of the sons of 
Bebai " in Ez. 8. 11 . (7) 1 Es. 8. 44 , corresponding 
to "Zechariah" in Ez. 8. 16 . (8) 1 Es. 9J 27 = 
" Zechariah of the sons of Elam " in Ez. io. 26 . 

(9) 1 Es. 9.44, RV. = " Zechariah " in Ne. 8A 

(10) Father of Joseph, who was one of the leaders 
under Judas Maccabaeus (1 M. 5. 18 « 56 ). 

ZACHARY (2 Es. I. 40 ), the prophet Zecha- 
riah. 

ZAMBIS, RV. ZAMBRI (1 Es. 9 . 34 ), correspond- 
ing to " Amariah " in Ez. io. 42 . 

ZAMBRI. (1) See preceding art. (2) 1 M. 
2 . 26 = " Zimri " the Simeonite in Nu. 25. u . 



Zam TEMPLE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE Zor 

ZAMOTH (I Es. 9 . 28 ), corresponding to not named in Ez. 8. 5 , the corresponding pas- 

" ZARACES, RV^ZARAKES (i Es. I. 38 ), cor- ZATHUI (i Es. 5. 12 ), corresponding to " Zattu" 

'T^A^'ItA^ZACHmi^,^.., "ZECHRIAS, AV. EZERIAS (, Es. 8.*), corre- 
t«\ t hc 82 railed Arna in 2 Es. I. 2 , and sponding to " Azanah " in Ez. 7. 1 . 
"Zerahkh-'i'nEf 7 °. (3) I Es. 8- = "Zera- ZEDECHIAS, RV. SEDEKIAS (i Es. ..«•). 

fi:r£ s r- (4) j Es - 8 - 34> called " Zeba " ^Sba/el v .t: 4 « & o, RV . ZE rub- 

1„' ?„o ' V,, 7 ARACES BABEL, wi. see in Canonical Section. 

ZAR^EUS AV. SaTdEUS, «i. *,. ZORZELLEUS (i Es. 5.-), AV. BERZELUS, 

■ ZATHOE,'RV. ZATHOES (1 Es. 8. 32 ); wh. see. 



CORRIGENDA 

Page 6, Art. Aceldama, 1. 13, for sharmen read sharnen. 

1. 15, for shamii read sbama'. 

1. 16, for chandemar read chaudemar. 

note, for jud. read jiid. 
Page 57J, 1. 25, page 67a, 11. 3 and 39, for HJHL. read HGHL. 
The iUustrations of Mercury, page 453, and Tammuz, page 810, should exchange places. 



ADDENDA 

P l!t 9 : 4 VwT™T 7 Isaac Taylor, a vols.; ?(fe «C^,/W»^«.^ ; 

"Alphabet" in §W Encyclopedia, by Professor n. ; ^«**n^fop and the Clones <^7™™™ 

W.Lidzbarski; "Alphabet" in Encyclopedia twe Pictography, by A. J. Evans, LL J).) ^/ 

Britannica bv P Giles, LL.D. ; "Writing" in Tombs the Earlier Dynastis, by W M. blin- 

m«Z™b«lnaryof he Bible, by F. G. Kenyon ; ders Petrie, D.C.L., 2 vols. ; Aramaic Papyri from 

Grek anl Latin Paleography, by &r V. Maunde Assouan, by Cowley and Sayce; Palestine Explora- 

Thompfon Introduction Vthe Hebrew Bible, by tion Fund Quart rly, January, Apnl, and July 1909 

A. S. Geden, D.D., pp. 1-66 ; Nestle's Introduction (Gezer Hebrew Inscription). 

"It 6 t\t^7^t St. Luke (8.-) places the other side of the sea from Galilee-^ lori, 
the country of the Gadarenes (RV. Gerasenes) on dvrUepa ttjs 1 aAiAaias. 



Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson 6* Co. 
Edinburgh 6^ London 



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>.EY OF HINNOM IN FOREGROUND, OLIVET ON THE RIGHT 








JERUSALEM FROM THE EAST. GETHSEMANE AND THE KIDRON 




VALLEY OF HINNOM IN FOREGROUND, OLIVET ON THE RIGHT 



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CANAAN 

Showing approximately the portions 
allotted to 

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THE 12 TRIBES 

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GtOTuc. Fhu.. 



Ifo: London Geographical In^-n 



J. M.Dent ScCo. Londarv. 



JERUS ALE M 

ANCIENT and MODERN 
Drawn "by G-. H. D al:m an 

( JMhcLem Jerusalem^ — -from, cu -plan, of* the. Palestine, UjrplonajbUnvJFumA '..) 




Fngltslv Feet 



Scale 1-21,000 



JS/yman, Stcudixv 



500 100O 200O 3000 

Walls at the time of S'oTxrmxnv 

Walls at, the tone, of -due, destruxtian, 

by Titus 



O 1 2 3 4 5 

Present, Walls sTwwtng AebLa. Capitoltrva, 

Heights irv Englislv Feet 



■lezrgc, PWxjj & San. l¥ 



J. M. Dent So Co. London. 



Vie London. GvogiaphutJ ln.rntjjXk 



PHYSICAL MAP 

OF 

MODERN PALESTINE 




Geary e ThaUf, So Son X . 



J. ALD&rtJs & Co Landtm. 



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